February 2002 conclusion

Basically, I came to the realization that I had no chance in hell of breaking in. Fine, I decided. I would just go in through the front door.

I waited until seven o’clock to make my move. I hoped the tired overnight security would work to my favor. I knew I didn’t have much time; in an hour, a new shift would arrive. I wished again that I could have convinced Iniri to come along, both for moral support and the wide range of assistance a telepath could provide.

I put my wishful thinking to the side. Iniri wasn’t here. I was all alone against an army of goombas.

And something inside me really liked those odds.

I left the apartment building and strolled across the street, right up to the main entrance gate. I opened the front door and casually stepped in to the lobby. A guard rose from his seat across the room at a reception desk. I bounded forward. I pulled my .45s out of their holsters while still in mid-air. I landed behind the desk, right beside the guard. I pressed the barrel of one of my pistols against his temple.

“Let’s not do anything stupid,” I said. “You’ll going to get up and we’ll going to take a stroll to your boss’s office.”

“You’re dead, mother—” I smashed the butt of my gun across his forehead.

“That doesn’t sound very cooperative,” I said. “Lack of cooperation makes my trigger finger real itchy. Do you want me to have an itchy trigger finger?”

“N-no.”

“Good. That’s the right answer. Get up and move.”

The goomba rose from his seat. I could now see the guy had a good six inches on me. I shoved the barrel of the gun in to his back. I planned on keeping him between me and any of his thug friends.

He opened the door and stepped through. I immediately knew that he’d somehow managed to alert the rest of the guards. A dozen men raised a variety of pistols, shotguns, and automatic weapons in my direction. The goomba dropped forward in an attempt to escape the line of fire. I grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked him back up just as his friends opened fire. The guard’s body danced as scores of bullets riddled his body. I raised one of my own weapons and opened fire.

I don’t really recall much of the next tow minutes. I know my bullets took out four men before I dropped the goomba’s corpse. After that, I only remember the voices blazing warnings in the back of my head as I bounced around the room, my guns ever blazing.

When it was all over, I stood in the middle of the carnage. I struggled to catch my breath. The room looked like a charnel house. I steeled myself. I reminded myself I did only what I needed to do to survive.

I walked across the room and kicked the door down. A chubby, aging Italian man sat behind his desk, a pistol in his hand. I recognized his cocky grin. His nephew had the same grin.

I aimed my own .45s at Michael Santangelo’s head as I stepped in to the room. The screams of warning shot out in the back of my head. I whipped both my arms straight out, forming a cross with my body. I opened fire on Santangelo’s final two bodyguards.

I dropped to the floor as their bodies fell. I felt the bullets fired by Santangelo whistle past my head.

I kicked up and forward from my crouch. My feet came down on the front of Santangelo’s desk. The impact shoved it back and in to the crime boss. I rose up to standing position and pressed the barrel of one .45 in to Santangelo’s skull.

“You—”

“Shut up,” I said. “I’m going to ask the questions and you’re going to answer them. Get it?”

He nodded.

“Good. Why do you want Renet Ng dead?”

“That’s what this is about?” He laughed a humorless laugh. “You’re this concerned about that fucking whore?”

I pressed the barrel in to his forehead. “Just answer the damn question. If it’s about the money, why kill her?”

Santangelo snickered. “I don’t give a shit about the money. I knew Frank was taking it from the day I hired him. I let it slide. Hell, I expected it. He never got too greedy and he was a damn good accountant.”

“Then why—”

“It wasn’t me,” he said. “It was my nephew Vinnie. He’s wanted a piece of that ass since he first met her. But she wouldn’t give it up to him for anything. Not really that surprising when you think about it. Vin’s a little messed up in the head when it comes to women. Even when her sugar daddy went down with the towers—God rest his soul—she went to work at that dive instead of taking up with Vin.

“It ate the boy up inside. Worse than any other woman ever did. He wanted her eliminated, and I didn’t want my dear departed brother—God rest his soul—to look down and see his son acting this crazy. So I agreed to get rid of her.”

Shit. I’d fucked up. Bad.

“So why’d Vin send me here?”

“Don’t really know,” Santangelo said. “But I would guess that Vin was on his way to your apartment right now, Mr. Patton. That is where you’re hiding the ladies, isn’t it?”

”Give me your cark keys,” I said. He reached in to his pocket and pulled them out.

“It’s the maroon Caddy, not that it will do you much good.”

I’d heard enough. I drew back the gun and cold-cocked Santangelo across the skull.

I hustled down to the car park and prayed that I wasn’t too late.

*****

I forced my way through the growing traffic snarl. I cursed myself for a damn fool the entire way back home. The drive wasn’t a long one, but Vin would already be at my apartment doing God knows what.

I squealed to a stop in front of my building and charged through the doors. I bounded up the stairs, taking four at a time and covered the eleven stories in just under a minute.

I came up the last few steps to find my apartment door caved in. I saw the blood on the carpet. I pulled my .45s from their holsters and dove through the door. Voices screamed out inside my head as I recognized the mad eyes of Vin Santangelo.

Vin turned towards me, rising from his dirty work. Eriko lie on the floor at his feet. Her body was covered in blood from the jagged cut across her throat. Blood still dripped from the knife in Vin’s hand.

Iniri lay in a heap beside Eriko’s body, apparently unconscious. Her hands and feet were bound in front of her. Drops of Eriko’s blood had splattered across her face. Just past Iniri’s limp form, Renet struggled against her own ropes. Vin had stripped her naked and tied her spread-eagle to each of the four legs of the bed.

As I took in the scene before me, Vin charged at me. I cursed myself for my moment of distraction. He slammed in to me before I could bring my guns up to fire. I dropped the .45 in my right hand just in time to catch his wrist. His knife stopped only inches from my face.

I pushed him back and tried to bring up the pistol still in my left hand. Vin caught my wrist and shoved the gun up towards the ceiling as I fired. He shoved my arm back and slammed my knuckles in to the door frame.

I lost my grip on the gun and it dropped to the floor.

Vin shoved the blade forward again, but I twisted his arm back and away. I went for the pocket of my trench coat. I pulled the switchblade I had taken from Vin on the previous day from my pocket. Vin ripped his knife hand away from me. He swung the blade down towards my throat.

I let myself fall forward and in to him. I brought the switchblade up as I moved and I felt the wet spray of blood against my shirt as it drove up and in to his heart.

Vin’s knife struck me in the shoulder blade but I didn’t pay attention to it. I focused on Vin as his eyes went wide and he struggled to breathe. He slumped back and slid off the switchblade before crashing to the floor.

I stepped over the body and cut Renet’s hands and legs free. She pulled the gag from her mouth.

“Oh, God. Eriko—”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m so sorry. I should have—”

She hugged me. “You couldn’t have known. I should have sent her away. I—”

“Let’s not blame ourselves. We’d have been fine if it wasn’t for that psycho.”

I looked down at Vin’s body. “Give me twenty minutes, then call the police. Whit Vin dead, the hit will be off of you. It was him all along.”

I gently lifted Iniri’s limp form off the floor. She blinked her eyes open and looked at me. She smiled as she saw my face.”

“Freedom—”

“Hush for now.” I looked back to Renet. “The heat will be on me now. Will you be all right with the police?”

Renet nodded. “Thank you, Freedom. I don’t know what—”

I looked down at Eriko’s body. “Don’t thank me. I’m glad you’ll still alive, but don’t thank me for this. Goodbye, Renet.”

“Goodbye, Freedom.”

I turned and left the apartment. And my life.

*****

Iniri passed back out as I carried her to her car. I debated whether or not to take her to the hospital, but she seemed healthy and I really didn’t want to risk any police reports. I found a real dive of a motel and checked us both in. They didn’t ask for any questions or even for an ID. I paid cash and signed as Mick Foley. The hairy, oily freak on the other side of the counter was either not a wrestling fan or just didn’t care one way or the other.

I helped Iniri from the car and in to a room. Semi-conscious now, she walked the entire way.

I kissed her as we tumbled in to the bed. I kissed her again and again; thankful we were both still alive. I fumbled to pen the buttons of her sweater, but she pushed my hands away.

“I know about the other night,” she said. “You and those girls. You could hide it from me, but they couldn’t.”

“I—”

“Don’t say another word, Freedom. I hoped you’d be different than other guys, but you’re not. I want to hate you for what you did, but I can’t. Despite what you did, despite what happened to Eriko, you did do good today. I got thrown across the room by a deranged killer today. A killer whose shear hatred for the world nearly overwhelmed me. I would have been next if you hadn’t come in.

“But I can’t stay with you, Freedom. You betrayed me with Renet and Eriko. You lost me my dream job. The only reason I was at your apartment today was because they fired me. Before the work day even started.”

“I’m—”

“Don’t say it. I’m leaving New York, Freedom. I think I can find a job in Iowa. I know a girl that can hook me up with a think-tank position at the Maharishi Institute in Fairfield. I’m going tomorrow.”

I nodded. I knew I was receiving exactly what I deserved and I couldn’t talk her out of her decision. “I won’t say I’m sorry,” I said. “But I will wish you good luck.”

She didn’t say anything. I picked up my trench coat and my pistols. I smiled at Iniri, but she just looked away. I turned and left the hotel. I heard her sob as I closed the door.

An icy drizzle fell as the afternoon darkened in to evening. A man in a cheap suit smiled at me as I stepped in to the parking lot. He looked like the Cheshire cat. His too white teeth gleamed even in the fading light.

He walked towards me. I couldn’t pull my eyes away from his grin. He stopped about a yard from me and reached in to his pocket.

He pulled out an envelope and tossed it to the ground in front of me. He never stopped grinning.

“Mr. Patton, consider this package a gift from Mr. Santangelo and his benefactors. You’ll find a thousand dollars inside. With it, Mr. Santangelo gives his word that Ms. Ng’s life is safe. A similar package with the safe deposit key and code for her million dollars is being delivered to her as we speak.

“Furthermore, we give our word that Ms. Granatella and yourself will remain unharmed, but only if you leave the city immediately.” The man seemed to lean forward before vanishing before my eyes. A second later, his mouth leaned in towards my cheek. “If not, we will see that you and everyone you’ve ever known will meet a very unfortunate fate. Do you understand, Mr. Patton?”

“Yes.”

He stepped away from me, still smiling. “Goodbye, Mr. Patton. We should not meet again.” He vanished again.

I shook my head and started down to the subway station, never to return to New York. From that moment on, I walked alone.