Repo Madness: A Novel by Cameron W. Bruce

Author:Cameron, W. Bruce [Cameron, W. Bruce]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Humour, Crime, Adult, Contemporary, Suspense
ISBN: 9781466855915
Goodreads: 28820939
Publisher: Forge Books
Published: 2016-08-23T07:00:00+00:00

19

It Isn’t Her

“Blanchard is asking you to commit murder,” Alan informed me tensely and altogether unnecessarily.

“Go away permanently,” I repeated.

“Don’t have to spell it out more than that, do I?” Blanchard asked silkily.

“No, you don’t.”

“You interested?”

“Of course not,” Alan said.

“Yeah,” I replied. I had an idea. “If the money’s right, hell yeah.”

Alan made the sort of noise you’d hear if you backed your car over a chicken, but I kept my face professional killer cool.

“Oh, it’s a lot of money. I’ll tell you where and when. Can’t be any screw-ups on this,” Blanchard lectured me. “You do exactly what I say.”

I decided an assassin would care more about money than step-by-step instructions. “How much?” I growled.

“Ten percent when I give you the go-ahead. Rest when you finish the job,” he responded tersely.

Now we were both talking like television thugs. “Sounds good.” I nodded. My mind had already left the conversation, though—I was thinking of how to turn this to my advantage.

“Ten percent of what?” Alan asked testily. “You just agreed to a price that means nothing.”

“Except you didn’t say ten percent of what,” I pointed out smoothly.

“Fifty grand.”

The whole thing was ridiculous—I wasn’t going to kill anybody—but I couldn’t help but reflect for a moment on how fifty thousand dollars would improve my life. Blanchard’s face was sly: He could see me thinking about it. “That’s five grand up front,” he informed me, apparently believing I couldn’t do the math.

“Five grand now, the rest after.” I nodded again.

“No. Not now. See, this is why you have to do exactly what I tell you. I have to set it up so it doesn’t look like I had anything to do with it. You don’t make a move until I say. No money until then.”

I’ve read a lot of books with contract hit men in them and never heard of an arrangement like this. He was supposed to give me the money when I agreed to the job, wasn’t he? I decided not to argue, though. “I’m in,” I declared.

We didn’t shake hands when I stood up to leave. “This is our last meeting,” he informed me. “Now on, you bring in a repo, you deal with my credit manager, Maureen. Ask for her.”

Since he already knew about my repo job, I gave him my professional business card from the Black Bear, one of a dozen Becky had printed for me on her computer. That meant I only had eleven left.

* * *

“Of course I’m not going to kill Alice Blanchard,” I informed Alan as I closed the door to the repo truck.

“I can’t imagine what you’re thinking.”

“I’m thinking that my best friend, Jimmy, has fallen for a woman who is leaving her crook husband and that, if I play this right, William Blanchard won’t be in a position to give them any more problems.”

“What does that even mean, ‘play this right’? Play it how?”

“I haven’t figured that one out yet. Maybe I’ll get Alice to join me on the roof.”

“Very funny.”

Alan fell asleep soon after that, while my tires hummed on the drive to Gaylord.

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