part out.
One of Thornhill’s men looked over at Connie and smiled. “Sounds good
to me.”
Connie never took his eyes off Reynolds. “I’m sorry, Brooke, I really
am.”
Reynolds’s eyes filled with tears and her voice cracked again when she
spoke. “Tell Anne Newman that. Tell my kids that, you bastard!”
His eyes downcast, Connie moved past them and started to head down the
stairs.
“We’ll do them here, one by one,” the first man said.
He looked at Buchanan. “You first.”
“I take it that was a special request from your boss,” Buchanan said.
“Who? I want a name,” Reynolds demanded.
“What does it matter?” the second man said. “It’s not like you’re
going to be around to testify-”
The instant he said this, the bullet hit him in the back of the head.
The other man whirled, trying to aim his gun, but was too late and took
a blast right in the face. He dropped, dead, next to his partner.
Connie came back up the stairs, a wisp of smoke still trailing from his
pistol’s muzzle. He looked down at the two dead men. “That was for
Ken Newman, you assholes.” He looked up at Reynolds. “I didn’t know
they were going to kill Ken, Brooke. I swear that on a stack of
Bibles. But after it happened, there was nothing I could do but bide
my time and see what happened.”
“And let me chase a wild goose? Watch me get suspended. My career
ruined.”
“There wasn’t much I could do about that. Like I said, my intent was
to get you out of this, get you reinstated. Let you be the hero. Let
Ken take the charge as snitch. He was dead, what did it matter?”
“It would matter to his family, Connie.”
Connie’s features turned angry. “Look, I don’t have to stand here and
explain shit to you or anybody else. I’m not proud of what I did, but
I had my reasons. You don’t have to agree with them, and I’m not
asking you to, but don’t stand there and lecture me about something you
know nothing about, lady. You want’a talk pain and bitterness? I got
about fifteen years of it on you.”
Reynolds blinked and stepped back, eyeing the pistol.
“Okay, Connie, you just saved our lives. That’ll count for a lot.”
“You think so, do you?”
She pulled out her cell phone. “I’m going to call Massey and get a
team down here.”
“Put the phone away, Brooke.”
“Connie-”
“Put the damn phone down. Now!”
Reynolds let the phone drop to the floor. “Connie, it’s over.”
“It’s never over, Brooke, you know that. Stuff that happened years ago
will always come back to bite you in the ass. People find Out Stuff
and look you up and suddenly your life is over.”
“Is that why you’re involved in this? Somebody was blackmailing
you?”
He slowly gazed about. “What the hell does it matter?”
“It matters to me!” said Reynolds.
Connie let out a deep sigh. “When my wife got cancer, our insurance
wouldn’t cover all the specialized treatments. The doctors thought the
treatments might give her a chance, a few more months. I mortgaged the
house to the hilt. I cleaned out our bank accounts. It still wasn’t
enough. What was I supposed to do? Just let her die?” Connie angrily
shook his head. “So some coke and other stuff turned up missing from
the Bureau evidence room. Some people found out about it later. And
suddenly I had a new employer.” He paused and looked down for a
moment. “And the most damnable thing is June died anyway.”
“I can help you, Connie. You can end this right now.” Connie smiled
grimly. “Nobody can help me, Brooke. I made my deal with the
devil.”
“Connie, let them go. It’s over.”
He shook his head. “I came here to do a job. And you know me well
enough to know that I always finish what I start.”
“Then what? How will you talk yourself out of these?” She looked at
the two dead men. “And now you’re going to kill three more people?
That’s crazy. Please.”
“Not as crazy as giving up and spending the rest of my life in prison.