“I need a shower. I need to change my clothes. I need a nap.”
“Where are you staying?”
“At Bill’s apartment,” I told him.
“You’re kidding.”
“I’ve thought it through, and it’s perfectly safe. It’s already been searched. What are the chances of the bad guys returning? Low, right? It’s probably the safest apartment in South Beach.” I almost had myself convinced.
“Do you have club clothes with you?”
“No.”
“I can probably come up with something.”
Hooker eased the Porsche to a stop
in front of Bill’s building. “I’ll be back at eleven,” he said.
The last thought in my head was of Hooker scrounging a dress for me. He probably had a bunch of them under his bed, rolling around like dust bunnies. It was still in the front of my mind when I woke up. It didn’t stay there for long.
I opened my eyes and stared up at a very scary guy. He was at the side of the bed, snarling down at me. Hard to tell his age. Late twenties to midthirties. He was maybe six foot four, and his muscles were grotesquely overdeveloped, making him look more science fiction creature than human being. He had a thick neck and a Marine buzz cut. A ragged white scar ran from his hairline, through his right eyebrow, down his cheek, and through his mouth, ending in the middle of his chin. Whatever had slashed through his face had taken out his eye, because his right eye was fake. It was a big shiny glass orb, larger than his seeing eye, inexplicably terrifying. His mouth was stitched together in such a way that the upper lip was always held in a snarl.
I stared at him in stupefied horror for a heart-stopping second, and then I started screaming.
He grabbed me by my shirtfront, picked me up off the bed like I was a rag doll, and gave me a shake.
“Stop,” he said. “Shut up or I’ll hit you.” He looked at me dangling at arm’s length. “Maybe I’ll hit you anyway. Just for fun.”
I was so freaked out my mouth felt frozen. “Wha do wha whan?” I asked.
He gave me another shake. “What?”
“What do you want?”
“I know who you are. I know lots of stuff and I want your brother. He has something that belongs to my boss. And my boss wants it back. Since we can’t find your brother, we’re going to take you instead. See if we can’t swap you out. And if your brother won’t deal, that’s okay too, because then I get you.”
“What does Bill have that belongs to your boss? What’s this about?”
“Bill has a woman. And it’s about fear and what it can do for you. And about being smart. My boss is real smart. And someday he’s going to be real powerful. More powerful than he is now.”
“Who’s your boss?”
“You’ll find out soon enough. And you should cooperate or you’ll end up like that night watchman. He didn’t want to tell us nothing, and then he tried to stop us from going into the dockmaster’s office to get the occupancy list. What a dope.”
“So you killed him?”
“You ask too many questions. I’m gonna put you down now, and you’re gonna walk out with me, and you’re not gonna give me any trouble, right?”
“Right,” I said. And then I kicked him as hard as I could in the nuts.
He just stood there without breathing for a couple beats, so I kicked him again.
The second kick was the home run because the big guy’s glass eye almost fell out of his head. He released his grip on my shirt and went to his knees. He grabbed his crotch, threw up, and then went facedown into the mess he’d just made.
I fell back on my ass and scrambled away crab style. I got to my feet and bolted, out of the bedroom, through the living room, down the stairs. I was on the sidewalk, ready to start running and not stop until I reached Baltimore, when Hooker pulled to the curb in the Porsche.
“B-b-big guy,” I said. “B-b-big guy in Bill’s apartment.”