GUNNER (ALTON RHODE MYSTERIES Book 5) by Lawrence de Maria Read Free Book Online Page A

occasions.
    “Tell you what, Skip. You can take your hands out of your pockets. Just keep them where I can see them.”
    “Thanks.”
    “I have to ask you, Skipper. What the fuck was that god-awful play about?”
    “You were at the St. George?”
    “Beautiful theater. One of the prettiest I’ve seen. Yeah, I was there. Sat through the whole thing. Two hours of my life I’ll never get back. What was the playwright trying to say, other than that he has no talent?”
    “I could make something up, Vernon, but your guess is as good as mine. I was shanghaied into going.”
    “I’m glad to hear that, Skip. You never appeared to be the type to put up with that kind of bullshit.” He smiled. “Who shanghaied you? That lady you dropped at the ferry? Nice-looking filly. Don’t think I’d let that one get away.”
    I recalled Maples more clearly now. He was the kid from Kentucky always talking about hunting dogs and horses. I only had him in my outfit for a couple of months in Afghanistan before he got banged up and sent home. I remembered him as a good soldier. Tall, skinny kid, with chiseled features and pale blond hair.  A born killer who could shoot with the best of them, like a lot of kids who come out of the South. Every platoon needs a couple of Vernon Maples. You might not want them to marry your sister, but in a firefight you want them on your side. 
    “You followed me?”
    “Sure did. For two days.”
    “That’s just terrific. I never caught a sniff.”
    He looked embarrassed.
    “Hey, Skip. Don’t sweat it. I do this kind of thing for a living. And it was a real loose tail. Not round the clock or anything. Just popped around occasionally to get your routine. I would have had to be wearing a clown suit for you to notice me. I thought the gal would be a problem, seeing how she’s been staying here with you. I didn’t want to involve her, so I was real happy when you took her to the ferry. Saw her overnight bag. Works out nice. She your main squeeze?”
    “How about we leave her out of this?”
    “Sure. Sure. Sorry. Didn’t mean to pry. Like I said. I didn’t want her involved. Always do my damndest to leave civilians out of the equation.”
    “What’s this about, Vernon?”
    He lit another cigarette.
    “I was on Staten Island recently. Even thought about looking you up then, Skipper. But I was on a job. Turned out a bit more complicated than I expected. That’s why I’m here.”
    He paused.
    “I killed John Panetta.”
     

CHAPTER 6 - BLOOD MONEY
     
    “You don’t have any idea who ordered the hit?”
    Maples had spent the previous five minutes explaining, in clinical detail, how he’d killed Panetta.
    “Doesn’t work that way. I get a name. They get a numbered bank account in an offshore bank. The money clears and somebody dies. Guy who contacts me is just a middleman. Who the hell knows? Maybe he has a middleman.”
    I heard a car drive up the street. A neighbor’s dog barked. A moment later I saw why. A woman walked by the front of my house with another dog on a leash. The mutt stopped and urinated on the tree by my curb. Anyone on the sidewalk could look in the bay window near where we were sitting. But all they would see was two men having a friendly conversation. And, in fact, I didn’t want any interruptions. I was caught up in the story Vernon Maples had just told me.  
    “The cops have hairs and D.N.A. from a black man,” I said.
    “I planted that. A little misdirection.”
    “What happens if they nab the wrong guy?’
    Maples smiled.
    “He’ll have a pretty good defense, unless he’s a zombie. The D.N.A. won’t match. Guy it came from is dead.’
    He saw the look on my face.
    “Hey. I didn’t kill him. I have people who can supply that kind of stuff to me. Comes in handy in my line of work. This batch came from a lifer in prison who had terminal cancer. You’d be surprised how much dead-end D.N.A. is harvested from prisons by the people in my profession. Has a lot of