Knock Out
Page 107

Savich said matter-of-factly, “They took him to a spot where they could see the explosion. There’s no way they’d want to miss that—all three of us history. As for the other apartment tenants, they didn’t care about them. Okay, Cully, you’ve got to think back and concentrate. Did Lissy and Victor give any indication about what they were going to do when they left you? Anything about where they were headed, where they’d been hiding before they came up behind you?”
Cully leaned against the peeling wallpaper in the small living room and closed his eyes. He said finally, “They were talking while Victor duct-taped me, like I wasn’t even there, they were that sure I was going to be blown up, you guys along with me—if they were lucky. Lissy starting chanting, ‘I’m going to be lucky,’ over and over again until Victor told her to shut up.”
Sherlock said, “Let me interrupt a minute, Cully. I’m wondering how they knew Dillon and I would be coming to Winnett.”
Cully looked blank, then he shook his head, sighed. “If they were watching me and Bernie—and they were—they must have been close enough to listen to me talking to you guys on my cell, just figured you’d be coming here.”
Sherlock nodded. “Okay, go on. What else do you remember?”
Cully said, “Before they left me, she leaned down and kissed me—not just a peck, she Frenched me. I nearly fainted. She laughed. Then they waltzed out. As far as I could tell, Victor left all his stuff in the apartment, didn’t take a thing. Maybe he’d already taken what he wanted.
“On their way out I heard Victor’s voice, but I couldn’t make out what he said, but then Lissy said real loud like they were arguing, ‘I’m going to kill that bastard who murdered her, or my mama will never forgive me.’ And you know what? She burst into tears, sobbed her heart out. It was weird. I heard Victor consoling her, soothing words. Then they left, and Lissy yelled out right before they closed the apartment door, ‘Bada-boom!’ Then she was laughing her head off, right after she was crying her eyes out. She’s crazier than a loon, guys. You know what? I think Victor knows it.”
Cully paused, looked like he was trying to make sense of things. “You know, I’m not really sure, but one minute Victor’s bossing her around, and the next it’s like he’s afraid she’ll turn on him. But when she Frenched me, I knew he was mad, really mad.”
Savich said, “But he didn’t do anything. Say anything?”
“No, he turned away, like he wasn’t interested. And then Lissy ran after him, laughing. Who was she talking about killing? It wasn’t you; I mean, she wanted to blow you up in Victor’s apartment.”
Savich said, “She was talking about Buzz Riley, the security guard at the bank in Georgetown they tried to rob. He’s the one who saved my life, killed Lissy’s mother, Jennifer Smiley. Buzz is safe; he took a long-overdue vacation in the Caribbean. Lissy was probably nagging Victor about trying to get down there.”
Sherlock nodded. “Even if they thought of it, no way could they manage it. Victor knows that. They’ve got to plan on waiting until Buzz comes home.”
“For sure killing Buzz is on Lissy’s to-do list. Sherlock’s right, they’ll simply wait for him to come home.” Savich fell silent. He stared at his hands, thinking.
Sherlock, who knew her husband as well as she knew herself, was content to wait. She lightly laid her hand on Cully’s forearm when he would have spoken.
Savich looked up. “I’m thinking Victor and Lissy stayed close enough to see the apartment building blow. They probably watched to see Sherlock and me go in, then they saw all of us running over here a few minutes later to look for Bernie.”
Sherlock said slowly, “But they didn’t try to shoot us when we ran out of the building. We were all in the open, running, sure, but we were open targets.”
Savich said, “We must have come out faster than they expected. Remember, we were running flat out. Maybe they were still dealing with Bernie.
“Bottom line, we’ve got to assume Victor and Lissy are still out there waiting for us to waltz out this front door, then they’ll try to kill us all.”
“Now there’s a happy thought,” Sherlock said. She walked to the front living room window and scanned the surrounding trees. “We’re at the very edge of town, all trees and hills out there. They could be anywhere. You really think they’re watching us, Dillon?”
“Oh, yeah, I would be,” he said, “watching and waiting.”