Nickel City Crossfire by Gary Ross (popular romance novels .txt) 📗

was gonna clock out either. Sorry.” More silence. “But the real pain in the ass here is this guy Rimes. All up in our shit and not even a real badge.”

“Right. If anything has stretched this out, it’s him. He’s always a beat behind us but unwilling to just step off. We underestimated how persistent he would be.”

Keisha smiled at me and mouthed Thank you.

“All the years it took us to build this up, and he almost tanks it in a week? He got off the if necessary list a long time ago. That motherfucker has got to die. He’s mine.”

“Chill, Dante. You gonna get your shot.” This was a new voice. “So you really think she’ll come here tonight?” Higher, reedier, a bit too cheerful. “She that stupid?”

I looked at Keisha. She nodded again. QC.

“No, I’m not sure, QC.” Loni sounded exasperated. “If I was, I wouldn’ta had you watching her house all day and Dante watching mine. I woulda just had you come here. If you’d brought more people, I wouldn’ta had a pinch hitter burning a tank of gas shuttling back and forth between Rimes’s office and his apartment building.”

Then there came a giggle, high and almost a cackle as if Macbeth’s witches were laughing through waxed paper. “I’m just sayin’, maybe she’s smart enough to get out of town with her folks. So they’re in Cleveland?”

“Sister Simpkins called one of her friends, who told me after church this morning when I mentioned how surprised I was they weren’t there. I said it like I was hoping they had good news about Keisha. But they’re not important right now.”

I looked at Keisha. Looking horrified, she shook her head and mouthed Sorry.

“Always amazes me how much you know,” Dante said. “It’s like a sixth sense.”

“All people love to talk, Dante. Church ladies and cab drivers. Hospital aides and janitors. Counter clerks and food servers. Everybody wants to confess or impress. That’s why nobody can keep a secret. I learned a long time ago to just listen and piece things together. I’m still surprised I could keep the news about Tito a secret.”

“Yeah, how’d you pull that off?” QC asked.

“Two people in the congregation know. I bought us a little time by convincing them the police told us not to say anything until the investigation is complete. Talking about it could get all of us charged with obstruction of justice. Then I called the police on a burner and said I was Tito’s Aunt Susie. I’d be back from California Monday night to identify him.”

“You’re sure good old Felton doesn’t know?” Dante asked.

“Good old Felton doesn’t even know I have a brother,” Loni said. “When I last saw him, about an hour ago, he didn’t know about Tito either. He was gonna make a couple of hospital stops and then come straight here.” She paused. “Okay, here’s how we’re gonna do this. QC, I want you by the side door, there. Just hold the door for folks and smile. Anybody asks you’re just visiting from out of town and saw we were having a service. Dante, I want you between the parking lot door and the right side door near the altar, across from where I’ll be, at the piano. You’ve seen Felton on TV. See him here, same story. You’re just visiting and thought you’d drop in. Ask how to get to the men’s room.”

“Who got the front door?” QC asked.

“You, until my pinch hitter gets here. Then it’s his.”

“Who is it?”

“No one you know and no one who knows you,” Loni said. “Compartmentalization, remember? Okay, if either of you see Keisha or Rimes, move on them, even if they come in with the crowd. Silencers or not, do not shoot inside this church, in front of all these people. Just get them outside with the threat of shooting. If Rimes shows, make sure you get his gun. Get them around back where nobody can see. Then you can drop them. Put them behind that row of blue garbage totes until things are over and we can clean up.”

“Your pinch hitter up to all that?” Dante asked.

“No. He’ll call QC from the side door if either one shows. All that is up to you two.”

There was a knock.

Footsteps crossed the narthex and went down the stairs. The door squeaked open.

“About time.”

Two sets of footsteps returned to the narthex.

“Sorry I’m late,” Harlow Graves said. “Had to drop Ros and the kids at a movie.”

Keisha’s eyes widened and she mouthed Harlow Graves? I nodded.

Loni made introductions without explaining her relationship to any of the men, except to say that Graves was a church VIP who would greet worshippers at the front door. Then she summarized the plan for Graves and told them in a few minutes they would take their places while she went to the piano. She would begin playing ten minutes before the service started. The choir would come up the side stairs to the narthex and walk in step with the music down the center aisle, followed by several deaconesses who would greet those in attendance, and finally her husband.

Fifteen minutes later the music began.

49

Peeking over the solid front of the loft, I saw Loni at the piano and watched the last of the choir take their seats, followed by a boy maybe fourteen who sat at the drums. Deaconesses moved from pew to pew, shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries with worshippers. There was a jubilance to the exchanges filling the air—rapid talk, chuckles, outright laughter. I could see smiles, hands on shoulders, heads bobbing up and down, women kissing cheeks and giving hugs. But gradually the conversations trailed off to an expectant silence. Dr. Markham had not yet come in. I ducked down as heads began to swivel in search of him.

A moment later I heard an almost collective sigh of relief. Footsteps hurried down the center aisle. A finger tapped a microphone, and the speaker above us in the loft thumped.

“Brothers and sisters, after