Barclay, Linwood - No Time For Goodbye 02 - No Safe House by Barclay Linwood

Author:Barclay, Linwood [Barclay, Linwood]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Suspense, Thriller
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2014-08-05T05:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-FIVE

VINCE Fleming held back in the bathroom of Eldon Koch’s apartment for a full minute after Terry Archer had left and closed the door. He didn’t want to take a chance that asshole would change his mind and come charging back in.

Maybe he should have shot him, too.

Damn you, Eldon.

Vince told himself it was Eldon who’d forced the play. He’d made it damn clear he wasn’t going along with Vince’s plan. And if Eldon wasn’t going to help cover up what had happened to Stuart, well, it was like they said. If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.

And covering up the circumstances of Stuart’s death, steering the police away from anything to do with Vince and his operation, was a big problem.

If Eldon wouldn’t play his role in a story that would place Stuart all over the country for several weeks, if not months, into the future, then what, exactly, was he planning to do? Go to the police? Work some kind of deal in return for testifying against his boss? He just might have, especially since he seemed to believe Vince was responsible for Stuart’s death.

Where’d he get a crazy idea like that?

Eldon was spouting some pretty insane shit there, right before the end. Suggesting Vince not only killed his son, but was ripping off his clients. Taking their money, scamming them into thinking he’d safeguard it, when in fact he was waiting until he had enough squirreled away, at which point he’d round it all up and take off.

Vince didn’t like it that Eldon had ideas like that in his head. He wondered whether Gordie and Bert had ever thought the same thing.

Vince emerged from the tiny bathroom and walked tentatively to the door. Looked to see whether Terry Archer was still out there, maybe standing on the steps. He saw a car parked across the street, Archer behind the wheel, just sitting there.

What the hell?

He was waiting. Waiting for Stuart or Eldon to come home. Vince touched the warm coffee on the counter.

“Shit,” he said to himself. Archer was probably thinking someone would come back for the coffees. But sooner or later, he’d have to leave.

Vince was stuck here until then.

He went back to the bedroom, looked at Eldon’s body sprawled across the bed, blood soaking into the sheets. “You dumb bastard,” Vince said under his breath. “You think I wanted to do that?”

How were Gordie and Bert going to react? The three of them had worked together a long time. They were friends. Vince believed he could persuade them that he’d done the only thing he could. Eldon lost it, he’d tell them. Was spouting crazy talk. His grief had made him irrational, a liability. No telling what he might say, or who he might say it to. If he’d talked to the cops, it wouldn’t have been just Vince who’d take the fall. Gordie and Bert would go down with him.

They’d see that. They’d understand.

They needed to know Eldon had screwed up.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.