The unknown devil, p.23
The Unknown Devil, page 23
“I’m going to drive you to the people who can,” I said.
“What if I don’t go quietly?” Esposito said.
“Ask your goon how well it went for him,” I said. “Though you might want to wait until he wakes up.”
No reply came. I waited on the stairs. Esposito had a lot to think about. Whatever empire he thought he would build crumbled around him. Defiance wouldn’t help him. If Tony’s men found him, the best he could hope for would be a quick death. If he came out of the bedroom guns blazing, I would shoot him. If he surrendered, he would go to jail, and the county would build a case against him to keep him there for a long time. He didn’t have a good option. I hoped he decided against taking the easy way out in suicide by PI.
“All right,” Esposito said a minute later. “I’ll go quietly.”
“You have a gun?” I said.
“Of course I have a fucking gun.”
“Hold it out the door. Two fingers. Then toss it away.”
I crouched behind the wooden banister as much as I could. Between the posts and being a couple steps down, I didn’t think Esposito would have an easy shot. He would need to find me first. I could see the bedroom door and knew where to fire. I was ready. The door opened. Esposito did what I told him, holding the pistol out with a two-finger grip. He tossed it into the hallway.
“Come out slowly,” I said. “Keep your hands up.”
“I know the drill,” Esposito grumbled. He walked from the room. His eyes had circles under them, and he needed a shave several days ago. I walked to the top of the stairs.
“Turn around,” I said.
Esposito glared at me. “Make me,” he said, in another little act of defiance.
“OK,” I said. I kicked him in the side of the thigh. When his body bent toward me, I used my free hand and shoved him hard into the wall. His head dented the drywall.
“Jesus Christ,” he said.
“You asked for it,” I said. I took a zip tie out of my pocket and bound Esposito’s hands behind his back.
He turned around and looked at me. His eyes showed no fire, and his eyelids looked heavy. This was a defeated man. “You’re really gonna take me in?” he said.
“I’m not a killer,” I said.
Esposito nodded. I led him downstairs. “You need anything for the ride?” I said as we walked into the living room.
“No,” he said.
Once through, I opened the front door. The goon still lay unconscious in the yard. “He ain’t dead, is he?” Esposito said.
“He wasn’t when I came into the house,” I said. I took out my phone and dialed 911 to get an ambulance. While it rang, I led Esposito onto the porch and down the steps. The 911 operator picked up. I asked for an ambulance.
As I did, I heard a loud bang, like a gunshot. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Esposito’s head burst. He toppled over as I dropped to the ground. My heart raced. At the end of the driveway, I saw a car speed away. It looked an awful lot like the car I saw turning into the courthouse.
Someone followed me here.
I glanced at Esposito. The upper right part of his head was missing above his eye. Blood and gray bits covered the walkway and the left side of my windbreaker. Probably my face, too, but I didn’t want to check. I stayed in the grass. The car and shooter were gone. My pulse slowed, and my breathing became more normal. From the grass near me, I heard the 911 operator.
“Sir?” she said as I picked up my phone, “is everything all right?”
My hand shook from adrenaline as I held the phone. “I think I need more than an ambulance,” I said.
Chapter 23
The St. Mary’s County sheriff’s deputies had their share of questions for me. After the coroner’s men took Esposito away, the paramedics checked me out. The cut measured about five inches long but wasn’t deep. A round of wound cleaning and staples later, the medics took Esposito’s goon away in the ambulance. I was left alone with the deputies. I had wiped as much blood and other fun biological matter off myself and my clothes as I could. Now I dealt with their questions, some at the scene and some at the sheriff’s office.
They knew soon I didn’t shoot anyone. Their people determined I had no gunshot residue on my body, my gun hadn’t been fired in a while, and the bullet they dug out of Esposito would never fit into it anyway. I answered their questions as best I could. No, I didn’t know who the shooter was. No, I hadn’t noticed someone following me. Yes, it’s true I may not be the best person at knowing if I’m being followed. Yes, I went there to take Esposito in alive.
One question stumped me, however: why didn’t I call for an ambulance before going into the house? If I had, Detective Rollo pointed out, Esposito may still be alive. I conceded his point. The paramedics, perhaps accompanied by deputies, may well have scared off the shooter. I pointed out the goon was breathing and stable when I went into the house, thus not in need of urgent medical help. I also pointed out the brazenness of the shooter. He may have been undeterred by first responders and would still have enjoyed a significant head start on any pursuit.
In the end, St. Mary’s County talked to Gonzalez and Leon Sharpe. I heard neither was happy to be awoken with questions about me, but both vouched for me. It was nearly two in the morning when I got dropped off at the crime scene and got into the BMW. I felt glad the cops hadn’t asked for its registration. A couple still processed the scene. Yellow tape marked off the area where Esposito fell and covered the front door of the house.
I drove home. With the late hour and my lead foot, I made it in ninety minutes. I formulated my own set of questions about what happened, and I worked most of them out on the drive. Tomorrow, I would try to get answers if my quarry were still in town.
The answers came to me. They were what I expected. After I ate breakfast, a car pulled up in front of my house. I looked out my front window. The car was dark, German, and appeared fast. It looked exactly like the car following me into St. Mary’s County and sped away after Esposito got shot. Gabriella Rizzo stepped out of the passenger’s door and came up my walkway. She gave me a small wave as the car drove away. I opened the door. “Good morning, C.T.” Her smile and the morning sun playing on her skin made her look gorgeous.
“Good morning,” I said, opening the door wider. Gabriella walked in and sat on my couch. I locked up and went back to the window. The car didn’t come back.
“Jonah isn’t returning until I call him,” Gabriella said.
“Jonah?” I said. “Sounds like a nice Italian name.”
Gabriella smiled. “Every now and then, Dad will hire a non-Italian.”
“I presume he’s the man you were telling me about earlier.”
“He is.”
“And now he works for you,” I said.
“He does,” Gabriella said with a nod. “He’d been with Dad over twenty years. I didn’t want him getting away.”
“So now he’s your bodyguard?”
“More or less.” Gabriella shrugged. “I don’t know I’ve needed him for that but it’s nice having him around.”
“And sometimes, you find a way for him to use his particular set of skills,” I said.
“That’s a good way of putting it.”
I walked into the kitchen and grabbed two IPAs from my replenished stock. Gabriella took one with a smile. “Jonah followed me,” I said.
“He said you were pretty easy to tail,” Gabriella said.
“He didn’t follow me of his own volition.”
“No,” she said, “he didn’t. I knew you would find Esposito eventually.”
“And you wanted him dead,” I said.
“He was trying to take over from my father,” Gabriella said. “If he lived, he would regroup and try again.”
I drank some of the beer. This was earlier than I liked to start drinking, but the current conversation offered a good excuse. “Your father didn’t have people trying to find him?” I said.
“Sure,” Gabriella said, “but his men are brutes. They have no subtlety. They may as well ask questions with their fists. If they can’t beat an answer out of someone, they’re not going to learn anything.”
I nodded. Her explanation made sense based on what I had seen of Tony’s men. “And you had Jonah shadow me instead,” I said.
“It seemed like the better move,” Gabriella said. She took a long pull of the beer. “Following my father’s goons wouldn’t have done much.”
“They don’t like being called goons,” I pointed out.
Gabriella smiled. “Then they shouldn’t act so goonish,” she said.
“What if Esposito would have forced me to shoot him?” I said.
“Then Jonah would have come home,” Gabriella said. “I told him he wasn’t to do anything to you.”
If Gabriella took over for her father, I wondered how long Jonah would honor her order.
“Are you OK, C.T.?” she said. “I wasn’t going to let anything happen to you.”
“I’m fine.”
“You understand why I did it?”
I nodded. “You did what you felt you had to do,” I said.
Gabriella smirked. “That’s not much of an endorsement.”
“You are who you are, Gabriella,” I said. “You’re your father’s daughter.”
She nodded. “I am,” she said. “But I’m still your friend, if you’ll let me be.”
Having Gabriella in my corner would be a giant perk. At some point, she would take over her father’s operation, despite his current attitude on the matter. Tony and I had a pretty good relationship based on the fact he had been friends with my parents forever. But Tony and I weren’t friends. He didn’t come to my house, sit on my couch, and drink beers. I didn’t know how often Gabriella would once she was running things, or if she would at all. Still, I would rather have her as a friend than an enemy—or even a frenemy.
“I’d like to be,” I said.
“Good,” Gabriella said with a genuine smile.
We finished our beers. Gabriella called Jonah to pick her up. We shared a long embrace, and she left. Halfway to the car, she looked back over her shoulder and gave a small wave.
Whenever she came back, I knew it would be interesting. And interesting wasn’t always a good thing.
Later in the day, I drove Matty’s BMW back to Esposito’s house. I didn’t know where else to take it. I also didn’t know what kind of reception I would get, so I asked Joey to come with me. Billy answered the door when I knocked. He glared at me. “You got some nerve showing up here,” he said.
“I didn’t know someone would shoot your boss,” I said. “He was alive when I brought him out of the house.”
He didn’t have an answer, so he kept glaring. I held out the car keys. “I said I would bring these back when I finished.”
Billy held out his hand. I dropped the keys into it.
“You’d better be telling the truth,” he said.
“I am,” I said. “If you’d like to drive down and talk to the St. Mary’s County Sheriff, I can give you a point of contact.”
He shook his head. “Fuck off,” he said, closing the door in my face.
“These guys don’t get paid for their manners,” Joey said.
Later in the evening with Gloria at my house, I got the call I had been expecting. “Coningsby, what a mess,” my mother said.
“You don’t know the half of it,” I said. I decided not to tell her anything about Gabriella Rizzo. It would open a thread of conversation I had no interest in exploring.
“Your father and I heard you were OK,” she said. “Richard told us.” I heard a little peevishness in her tone.
“I’m sure he gave you all the details,” I said.
“It would be nice to hear them from you sometimes, dear.”
“I’ll try and work on it,” I said.
“Please do,” my mother said.
“I did find the missing brother, at least.”
“Yes, dear,” she said. “The younger brother was very happy to talk about the job you did.”
“I wish I had done it a little better.”
“You got a family back together, Coningsby,” said my mother. “That’s important. It’s worth doing.”
“I know,” I said. “I just wish this hadn’t been such a problematic case.”
“The easy ones would only bore you, dear.”
My mother knew me well. “True,” I said.
“Your father and I have transferred the usual amount to your account,” she said.
“Thanks, Mom.”
“You’re doing good work, Coningsby. I wish it weren’t so dangerous sometimes.”
“Like you said, Mom, the easy ones would bore me.”
“Very well, dear,” she said. “We’re proud of you. Keep it up.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“Just got paid?” Gloria said once I hung up.
“Yep,” I said.
“Where are you taking me?” she said with a smile, then kissed me.
“How about upstairs?”
“You always know what to say to a girl,” said Gloria.
“It’s a gift,” I said.
* * *
END of Novel #2
* * *
Dear reader,
Thanks for coming along on this adventure.
C.T. got to use all his skills, and still not everything worked out.
His next case will challenge him even more. What looks pretty straightforward leads to the worst criminals C.T. has come across yet. And not everything is what it seems at first blush.
Read The Workers of Iniquity today! You can preview chapter 1 following the brief afterword.
* * *
THE END
Afterword
Do you like free books? You can get the prequel novella to the C.T. Ferguson mystery series for free. Hong Kong Dangerous is unavailable for sale and is exclusive to my readers. Visit https://www.subscribepage.com/hkd2020 to get your book!
* * *
If you enjoyed this novel, I hope you’ll leave a review. Even a short writeup makes a difference. Reviews help independent authors get their books discovered by more readers and qualify for promotions. To leave a review, go to the book’s sales page, select a star rating, and enter your comments. If you read this book on a tablet or phone, your reading app will likely prompt you to leave a review at the end.
* * *
The C.T. Ferguson Crime Novels:
The Reluctant Detective
The Unknown Devil
The Workers of Iniquity
Already Guilty
Daughters and Sons
A March from Innocence
Inside Cut
The Next Girl
In the Blood
A Handful of Dust
* * *
The John Tyler Action Thrillers
The Mechanic
White Lines (summer 2021)
* * *
While these are the suggested reading sequences, each novel is a standalone mystery or thriller, and the books can be enjoyed in whatever order you happen upon them.
* * *
Connect with me:
For the many ways of finding and reaching me online, please visit https://tomfowlerwrites.com/contact. I’m always happy to talk to readers.
* * *
This is a work of fiction. Characters and places are either fictitious or used in a fictitious manner.
* * *
“Self-publishing” is something of a misnomer. This book would not have been possible without the contributions of many people.
The great cover design team at 100 Covers.
My editor extraordinaire, Chase Nottingham.
My wonderful advance reader team, the Fell Street Irregulars.
Tom Fowler, The Unknown Devil
