‘You bastards.’
‘But he won’t make you pick a number. He’s got other plans for you.’
Total silence from the bathroom.
‘He’s insane,’ Marilyn whispered.
Tony shrugged. ‘A little, maybe. But I like him. He’s had a lot of pain in his life. I think that’s why he’s so interested in it.’
Marilyn stared at him in horror. Then the buzzer sounded at the oak door out to the elevator lobby. Very loud in the awful silence. Tony and the thickset man with the shotgun spun around and stared in that direction.
‘Check it out,’ Tony said.
He went into his jacket and came out with his gun. He held it steady on Chester and Marilyn. His partner with the shotgun jacked himself up out of the low sofa and stepped around the table to the door. He closed it behind him and the office went quiet again. Tony stood up and walked to the bathroom door. Knocked on it with the butt of his gun and opened it a fraction and ducked his head inside.
‘Visitors,’ he whispered.
Marilyn glanced left and right. Tony was twenty feet from her, and he was the nearest. She jumped to her feet and snatched a deep breath. Hurdled the coffee table and scrambled around the opposite sofa and made it all the way to the office door. She
wrenched it open. The thickset man in the dark suit was on the far side of the reception area, talking to a short man framed in the doorway out to the elevator lobby.
‘Help us!’ she screamed to him.
The man stared over at her. He was dressed in dark blue pants and a blue shirt, with a short jacket open over it, the same blue as the pants. Some kind of uniform. There was a small design on the jacket, left side of the chest. He was carrying a brown grocery sack cradled in his arms.
‘Help us!’ she screamed again.
Two things happened. The thickset man in the dark suit darted forward and bundled the visitor all the way inside and slammed the door after him. And Tony grabbed Marilyn from behind with a strong arm around her waist. He dragged her backward into the office. She arched forward against the pressure of his arms. She was bending herself double and fighting.
‘God’s sake, help us!’
Tony lifted her off her feet. His arm was bunching under her breasts. The short dress was riding up over her thighs. She was kicking and struggling. The short man in the blue uniform was staring. Her shoes came off. Then the short man was smiling. He walked forward into the office after her, stepping carefully over her abandoned shoes, carrying his grocery sack.
‘Hey, I’d like to get me a piece of that,’ he said.
‘Forget it,’ Tony gasped from behind her. ‘This one’s off limits, time being.’
‘Pity,’ the new guy said. ‘Not every day you see a thing like that.’
Tony struggled with her all the way back to the sofa. Dumped her down next to Chester. The new guy
shrugged wistfully and emptied the grocery sack on the desk. Bricks of cash money thumped out on the wood. The bathroom door opened and Hobie stepped into the room. His jacket was off and his shirt sleeves were rolled up to the elbow. On the left was a forearm. It was knotted with muscle and thick with dark hair. On the right was a heavy leather cup, dark brown,” worn and shiny, with straps riveted to it running away up into the shirt sleeve. The bottom of the cup was narrowed to a neck, with the bright steel hook coming down out of it, running straight for six or eight inches and then curving around to the point.
‘Count the money, Tony,’ Hobie said.
Marilyn jerked upright. Turned to face the new guy.
‘He’s got two cops in there,’ she said urgently. ‘He’s going to kill them.’
The guy shrugged at her.
‘Suits me,’ he said. ‘Kill them all, is what I say.’
She stared at him blankly. Tony moved behind the desk and sorted through the bricks of money. He stacked them neatly and counted out loud, moving them from one end of the desk to the other.