The Snitch by Bob Leuci

Author:Bob Leuci
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781504032353
Publisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road

Chapter 26

Sometime around three o’clock in the morning, he couldn’t remember when, Nick let himself into his apartment. He checked his answering machine and found three messages on it, one from Renata; one from the cop, Schmidt, the uniform from Los Campos; and one from Andre.

“It was ninety degrees today, but I ran anyway. I saw a pelican,” Renata said. “They are wild, amazing creatures.”

Nick went into the bathroom and washed his face. Smelled traces of her, her shampoo and perfume. He was pleased to be alone and figured that was a sign of something serious, that he’d be annoyed if Renata had told him she had plans to come home soon. He could just see her coming through the door, carrying a pizza or a bag of Chinese and a couple of videos. It would be a pain in the ass if that happened. It was stupid, really, when you thought about it, it was dumb to live with someone you didn’t love. Loneliness was what did it. But he wasn’t lonely, he was his own best company, always had been. Maybe Renata would find a job in Florida, at a private school, work with little blond kids, kids she could deal with. Nick went back into the bedroom, sat on the edge of the bed and took off his shoes. He leaned over and played back Schmidt’s message.

“The DOA Punto, the screwball, he figured that this guy Cienfuego was humping his old lady. Cienfuego’s the one Punto threatened. Listen, I don’t know if this means anything, but the people out here, the people on my post, they say your guy Cienfuego is a real numbnuts. A country guy, you know what I mean? No criminal, nothing like that. But what the hell do they know? See you around.”

Nick wondered what the people in Diego’s neighborhood meant when they said numbnuts. But for some reason he wasn’t surprised.

He hit the machine again. “Nick, listen,” Andre’s voice said, “call me when you get a chance.” A long pause. “Lay your head down in peace, friend. You killed someone who needed killing, it was out of your control. You did what you had to do. I know you, know how you think. You had absolutely no choice. And listen, the feds got statements from both Matos and Medina. They laid the killings on Cienfuego, said they’d testify if need be. Goddamn cold son of a bitch, this Cienfuego. If you need me, need to talk, call me.”

Fucked, Diego, Nick thought. You’re history.

Nick didn’t think about the shooting until later, in bed. Thinking, you get hit with double-0 buck and your fedora doesn’t come off. Picture that. The bum killed two cops, he wasn’t about to have nightmares over a hump like that.

Right before he fell through the surface of sleep, Nick tried to imagine what it would be like to live like Sonny and Eddie Moran, and couldn’t. He began to think about Renata, found it disturbing, stopped. Lying there, his

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