Twisted Twenty-Six (Stephanie Plum 26)

Bernie took a suitcase in each hand and staggered a little under the weight. He walked out of the building, Shine followed him, and there were two gunshots.

Grandma and I gave a start at the sound of rounds being fired. Grandma pressed her lips together, and I put my arm around her.

Shine backed through the doorway, dragging Bernie to the side of the room, leaving a fresh blood smear on the concrete floor.

“Fucking amateur,” Shine said, and he walked away from Bernie and over to Salgusta. “Now that we got two of them, do you want to change the plan?”

“No,” Salgusta said. “It’s still a good plan. I can work here. It’s isolated. Nobody’s going to come bother us. And it’s got good acoustics. You torture someone in a room with rugs and curtains, and it mutes the sound of their moaning and screaming. Takes some of the fun out of it.”

“Jesus, Lou,” Shine said, “you’re a sick

bastard.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

“THE COT IS TOO LOW for me to work on,” Salgusta said, “but the table over by the sandbags will be good. Help me move it so it’s under the light. My eyes aren’t what they used to be.”

“Maybe you’ve got cataracts,” Grandma said. “I’ve got a good doctor for that.”

“Yeah, I’ll have to look into it,” Salgusta said.

They moved the table and brought two of the suitcases over. Salgusta opened the cases and stepped back.

“These are all my knives and pliers and restraints,” he said. “We can put the women on the table face up and tie them down with the buckle straps and ankle and wrist cuffs. It’ll work good. We attach one bracelet to a table leg and the other bracelet to a wrist or ankle. I got some big ones for ankles.” He checked Grandma out. “The old one is kind of scrawny. Maybe we use a wrist bracelet on her ankle.”

“I got good ankles,” Grandma said. “They’re one of my best features. They haven’t started to sag yet.”

“My torches must be in one of the other two suitcases,” Salgusta said. “I always like to start with the torches.” He looked over at me. “In the meantime, you should get undressed. I’m going to start with you, and I need you to be naked.” He looked to Grandma. “You too, Granny. You might as well get undressed now too. It’ll save time.”

Grandma gave him the finger.

“Nice,” Salgusta said. “How is that for an old lady to act?”

Shine brought a third suitcase over to the table and opened it. “This looks like the right one,” he said.

Salgusta took a slim silver tool out of the case. “This is the one I always start with. This is a beauty. I do real pretty work with this. It’s my precision butane soldering torch. This is the one that I use for my trademark signature. After I’m done with that one, I go to my Bernzomatic.”

He exchanged the small soldering torch for the Bernzomatic. He attached a yellow cylinder to the torch and held it up for us to see.

“It’s got a quick start-and-stop trigger,” he said.

He pressed the trigger, and a huge blue flame shot out of the torch.

“Yeah,” he said. “This is what I’m talking about. You could do a good burn with this baby.”

I still had my arm around Grandma, and I felt her shudder.

Salgusta set the Bernzomatic on the table and went back to the little silver torch. He inserted a slim silver canister into the tool and pressed a tiny switch. Nothing happened. He removed the canister and shook it next to his ear. He reinserted it and tried again. Nothing.

“Empty,” he said.

“You got a spare, right?” Shine said.

Salgusta pawed through the suitcase. “Doesn’t look like it. I haven’t had any use for this lately. Nobody wants burn jobs anymore.”

“So, bypass the signature and go for the money,” Shine said.

“No. That would be all wrong. I have a system. That would ruin everything. I just have to get a cartridge. Where’s the nearest Home Depot?”