“I want to follow this through,” Kim said. “It’s the least I can do.”
“I hope you understand that sitting here while you are taking all this risk is driving me crazy.”
“I can understand,” Kim said. “Why don’t you go home and just come back for me at eleven?”
“Oh, no!” Tracy said. “That would be worse. At least this way I can hear what’s going on.”
“Okay,” Kim said. “It’s your call. But I’d better get back. The lunch break is almost over.
Kim got his legs out of the car before leaning back inside. “Can I ask you to do something sometime this afternoon?” he said.
“Of course,” Tracy said. “As long as I don’t have to leave the car.”
“Would you call Sherring Labs with your cell phone?” Kim asked. “Ask about the results on the meat I dropped off. They should be ready about now.”
“Fine,” Tracy said.
Kim gave her shoulder a squeeze. “Thanks,” he said before climbing out. He closed the door, waved, and walked away.
Derek Leutmann slowed down as he neared Tracy’s house. The numbers on some of the neighboring houses were not very apparent, and he did not want to drive by. As the house came into view he saw the Mercedes parked at the head of the drive. Not wishing to block it, Derek did a U-turn and parked across the street.
Taking out the information sheet given to him by Shanahan, Derek checked the license number of the Mercedes. His suspicions were substantiated. It was the doctor’s car.
After going through the same preparations as he’d done outside of Kim’s house, Derek emerged into the light rain that had begun to fall. He snapped open a small, collapsible umbrella before taking out his briefcase. With the briefcase in one hand and the umbrella in the other, he crossed the street and glanced into the car. He was surprised to see it there, thinking that it should have been with Kim at his office. Of course that suggested Kim was not at his office.
Derek knew a lot more about Kim now than he did earlier. He knew that he was a cardiac surgeon who was extremely well regarded. He knew that he was divorced and was paying considerable alimony and child support. What he didn’t know was why O’Brian and his boss in the cattle business wanted the man dead.
Derek had asked Shanahan that very question and had gotten a vague answer. Derek never wanted to know the details of any of his client’s dealings with a potential mark, but he wanted to know the generalities. It was another way of reducing risk not only during the hit but after. He’d tried to press Shanahan but to no avail. All he was told was that it involved business. The curious thing was that Derek had found no connection between the doctor and cattle or beef, and Derek had found a lot of information in the doctor’s desk.
Most of Derek’s work stemmed from problems involving money in some form or fashion with competition, gambling, divorce, and unpaid loans leading the list. Most of the people were scum whether they were clients or marks, and Derek liked it that way. This case seemed significantly different, and a sense of curiosity was added to Derek’s other strong emotions. What Derek disliked the most was to be underestimated and taken advantage of. He’d not gotten into the business in the usual way via mob association. He’d been a mercenary in Africa back in the days when there had been good guys and bad guys, before any of the national armies had had any training.
Derek climbed the steps to the porch and rang the bell. With Kim’s car in the drive he expected an answer, but there wasn’t any. Derek rang again. He turned and surveyed the neighborhood. It was quite different from Kim’s. From where Derek was standing he had a good view of five houses and a reasonable view of four more. But there was not a lot of activity. The only person he saw was a woman pushing a stroller, and she was heading away from him.
Despite a painstaking search of Kim’s correspondence and records, Derek had failed to come up with any evidence suggesting the doctor had a gambling problem, so Derek reasoned that gambling couldn’t have been the stimulus for Shanahan’s offering him the contract. Divorce was out because the former wife had gotten a good settlement. Besides, she and the doctor were apparently getting along fine. Otherwise she certainly wouldn’t have bailed him out of jail as Shanahan reported. A loan seemed equally unlikely since there had been no indication in Kim’s records that he needed money, and even if he had, why would he borrow from a cattleman? That left competition. But that was the most unlikely of all. Kim didn’t even own any stock in the beef industry except for a few shares in a fast-food hamburger chain. It was indeed a mystery.