“It’ll keep her from getting the proof she needs.”
“She won’t give up. I know her.”
“Then maybe you should do something…permanent.”
Gary’s voice was a harsh whisper. “What kind of man do you think I am?”
“One who’ll spend the rest of his life in prison if he doesn’t act quickly.”
Several tense seconds passed. “I hate that woman,” he complained. “She’s been the bane of my existence from the beginning.”
“Then have the balls to take care of it! Get rid of her.”
“Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you? I’d be doing you a huge favor. You hate her even more than I do.”
“At least I’m man enough do what needs to be done.”
“You think you could put a bullet in her head?”
For months, Leonard had dreamed of little else. “Without a second’s hesitation. Is that what you want? Because it’ll cost you a pretty penny, since I’d have to do Rod at the same time.”
“You’re so cavalier,” he said bitterly. “Did you kill Stuart? Did you shoot him in the head the way you’re talking about shooting Sophia?”
Leonard’s hand tightened on his cell phone. “No, I didn’t. Why do you have to bring that up?”
“Because I believe you did kill him. And he was your friend.”
“I’m telling you I didn’t. But this isn’t about friends. This is about business.”
There was another silence, one that told Leonard Gary was in turmoil.
“We don’t have all day,” he reminded him.
“We’re talking about my stepdaughter. That’s a lot to consider.”
“It’s you or her. Consider that.”
“Are you sure you can do it without getting caught? If my wife ever found out that I—”
“Relax. I’m going to be the chief of police, remember? It’s not as if I won’t be able to cover up whatever I want.”
“But if you turn that feed store into a crime scene, the police will cart everything away and go through it with a fine-tooth comb. I can’t risk that.”
“What’s there?”
“Everything! I’m running a business. That means there’s paperwork.”
“Fine. I can call you when I’m done, give you a chance to collect what you need. I’ve got to do it there. We may not have another opportunity.”
“You expect me to go down there and…what…step over two bodies to get to my files?”
“Do you have a better idea?”
He sighed heavily. “Can’t you just…take them out in the desert and shoot them?”
“There are two of them, and one happens to be an ex-SEAL. I think surprise is my best option. Don’t you?”
Gary didn’t react to the heavy dose of sarcasm. “I don’t want a bloody mess.”
“A bloody mess is better than a life sentence. Maybe the next time you have to worry about blood, it’ll be your own. Those yard fights can get pretty brutal, from what I hear.”
Still, he wouldn’t commit.
“Come on, man. Make a decision. She’s linked you to the safe house. That makes her a threat to the whole operation.”
When Gary finally spoke, his voice sounded strangled, but there was no mistaking the sudden resolve in his words. “Fine. Do it,” he said, and disconnected.
Rod felt more pressure than ever to solve the UDA murders. He’d come here to help, had big plans for making a difference and for finally proving, to himself if no one else, that he was better than anyone here had given him credit for being. Instead, he’d gone straight for the one thing he should’ve left alone. And now, thanks to his involvement, Sophia was in more trouble than she’d been in before his arrival.
So much for improving the situation…
He had to fix the damage he’d done so he could leave without regrets. At this point, that was the only way to clear his conscience. He just hoped that whatever they were about to find in Gary O’Conner’s feed store would make a difference.
“You got it?” He was hunched beside Sophia at the back door. They’d driven his Hummer but parked it down the street, at the Firelight, so it wouldn’t be sitting in the lot.
“Yeah.” The key seemed to fit smoothly. A second later, the door swung wide, but a beep warned that they had about sixty seconds to turn off the alarm system.
“Did you know he had security?” Rod asked.
“No. Why would anyone worry about someone breaking into this place? It’s not as if he leaves any money here overnight. I can’t imagine it would be easy to fence a tractor.”
Rod switched on one of the two flashlights they’d brought with them and pointed it in various directions. “People will steal anything. Just tell me you have the code to shut the damn thing off before we get busted.” The feed store looked completely innocuous, exactly as he would’ve expected. But that intermittent beeping was a problem. He might be able to protect Sophia against a physical threat, but not criminal prosecution.
“I don’t have the code! I didn’t realize we’d run into this.”
“Maybe I can stop it.”
“How?”
“Help me find the pad for the key code.”
The beams of both flashlights bounced as they jogged to the front.
“I’ve dealt with a few systems,” he said. “If this one’s typical, it’ll be somewhere logical—and handy.”
“But what good is the key pad if we don’t know the code?”
The beeping ground on his nerves. “The guts of the system will most likely be close by.”
“Here.” Holding up her flashlight, she motioned to a shelf below the sales counter.
Rod cut the wires seconds after the alarm began to make a racket. Then they stood in the sudden silence, listening to see if there’d be any response from outside.
When nothing happened, Sophia sagged in relief. “You think you killed it before it could signal the monitoring company?”
“I doubt it. I just stopped the bell so it wouldn’t attract any attention from the street. But—” he examined the complexity of the system “—this looks new and expensive, far more expensive than you’d expect to find in Bordertown.”
The phone rang.
“That’s the alarm company.” Grabbing her hand, he started guiding her to the back door. “Let’s get out of here.”