Charlie had insisted they meet or he’d start spilling everything he knew. Tough talk for a man with all of the blood on his hands.
After taking the last few steps with his dress shoes clicking against the pavement, Tony stopped. This close to the water the fish smell hit hard, but Tony didn’t plan to be there long.
Have his say, issue his threat and go.
Charlie leaned against the driver’s side door of his dark truck as he glanced around, looking at everything but Tony. The dismissal made Tony regret ever making a deal with this guy.
Tony didn’t wait for small talk. After a quick look around to test for privacy, he jumped in. “We agreed not to contact each other right now.”
Charlie dropped his cigarette on the ground and stomped it out with the heel of his hiking boot. “Yeah, well, a lot of our plans got mixed up.”
“Which is why it’s even more important you lie low and keep quiet.” If he refused to do that, Tony would have to make a new plan, one that included taking Charlie out.
The man was older but still fit. One of those guys who could fall anywhere in a twenty-year age range and grizzled from all of his time outdoors.
The choice of Charlie made sense at the beginning. The man needed money and Tony needed a particular expertise. One of the tech guys mentioned his uncle in terms of providing an extra hand for moving storage data. Talked about the man being discreet and taking odd jobs. How he was a loner and very private.
Apparently the nephew should have added ruthless extortionist to the list. Charlie had information and thought holding it over Tony’s head was the answer.
Never mind Tony was smart enough to cover his tracks and divert the trail away from him. He even added in a bribery message from Charlie to suggest the old man made it all up for a big payday and Tony was nothing more than a victim.
He definitely covered his bases. Even now, he had a signal blocker and a gun with him for protection to keep Charlie from getting the jump on him. In a battle of his word versus the loner’s, Tony would win. He made sure of that. No one would blame him for killing a crazy stalker if attacked.
Charlie crossed his arms and legs as he leaned back against the door. “You’ve been ignoring me.”
“I’m letting the heat die down.” That was only half a lie. The other had to do with moving the money out and burying a paper trail.
“Interesting comment in light of Perry’s death.”
“You didn’t have to touch him.” Tony shook his head. “Fire, what were you thinking?”
“It was a clever solution.”
“It was sloppy and makes the Mark story we’re trying to sell—”
“We’re?”
“—harder to swallow.”
Charlie just stared for a few seconds before saying anything. “Perry came along when I was moving Mark’s body.”
The man failed to do anything right. Charlie was told to stage a fall. They’d gone over the plan several times. No trouble. Moving bodies where anyone could stumble by was not in the instructions.
Tony tried to hold on to his patience and keep the advantage. “Why were you touching it?”
“You wanted an accident. I was trying to stage one.” Charlie shrugged. “I looked up and saw Perry and had no choice but to hit him.”
“Then you make it look like a joint accident. Like they went after each other or something. You don’t leave the guy alive.” Tony clamped his mouth shut as soon as the words were out. He was a businessman. A legitimate one. He didn’t engage in this nonsense.
He’d pushed the guilt out. Mark and Perry were decent workers and deserved better. But the idea that his plans had gone this far off course was the one thing Tony couldn’t take. Find the wife, get the job, make the money. Easy.
Baxter had seemed like the right place to make his mark. Until it wasn’t and he had to reform it in the image he wanted. He had never expected the collateral damage, and that it kept growing to include Hope and Charlie just made Tony want out faster.
“That woman you picked caused that problem,” Charlie pointed out. “She went looking for Mark. Practically jumped out of bed and went on the hunt the next morning. I had to think quick, and that meant hiding the bodies.”
It all came down to Hope Algier. Tony thought putting his executives in a novice’s hands would mean a smooth-running plan with an easy scapegoat. She wasn’t watching and someone got hurt. It had happened to her before, so people would believe history repeated itself. She would be busy finding her way and getting used to the job while Charlie went to work.
The exact opposite had happened.
But that didn’t explain everything. “Even so, you left Perry alive.”