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It was barely one when Otto arrived and sat down at the table. Jimmy was having a couple of sandwiches and a beer.
‘Hello, Otto. Been busy?’
‘The usual, this and that.’
‘You’re early, I’ve only had one sandwich.’
‘Last night you seemed ready to go so I didn’t want to keep you hanging about.’
‘You’ve got it?’
‘Not on me, Jimmy, not even in here can I pull out a gun and hand it over. It’s in the glove compartment of the car. When you’ve finished your beer, we’ll go and get it.’
‘Ammunition?’
‘Just what’s in the clip. You said one shot, remember, no second. But I made them soft-nosed. Hit him and you’ll blow some of him off wherever the bullet goes. That should hold him long enough for you get another shot, even if you only get him in the arm.’ Jimmy finished his coffee. ‘And you? You have something for me?’
Jimmy put his hand into his inside jacket pocket and pulled out an unsealed envelope. He handed it over to Otto who took it and put it into his inside pocket.
‘You don’t want to look?’
Otto shook his head.
‘I trust you, it’ll all be there, you wouldn’t welch on a friend. Besides, I know where you live.’
And he laughed, but Jimmy knew from the laugh he wasn’t kidding.
‘How did you know I’d have it? I don’t even know where the nearest bank is.’
‘You paid the first time by banker’s draft and you didn’t know when you’d need the second payment. If you needed it in a hurry or on a day the banks would be closed you wouldn’t risk not being able to get it. I guessed you’d have it where you could get it at short notice.’
‘Or maybe you had someone look at the apartment while I was here. If I left here before your man was finished they’d have got a call. I think looking was a better way of making sure you’d got your money than guessing. Somehow I don’t think you base much of your business on guesses. I think you prefer to know for sure.’
Otto gave a loud laugh and slapped the table hard with an open hand.
‘By God, Jimmy, you’re a smart one, I’m glad we’re on the same side. I see you could be a handful if you needed to be. Was yours a guess or did you know?’
‘I knew, I had the drawer set up. When I went back after lunch I saw it had been gone over. The envelope wasn’t hard to find, I left it where anyone would look.’
‘I hope you understand. I had to know, it’s a lot of money. I liked you from the first but one has to be careful. You came from Udo but maybe these days Udo isn’t as sharp as he was. I had to check.’
‘Of course you did, I expected you to. You don’t know me and like you say, it’s a lot of money. Don’t worry about it, it’s nothing. Anyway you’ve got it now so we can forget about it. How much will the gun cost?’
Otto waved a hand. ‘Nothing, it’s a gift, from one friend to another.’
‘I said I’d pay. I don’t mind paying.’
‘No, I couldn’t let you pay. Guns are cheap, they almost give them away.’
‘So it’s a cheap gift then?’
It took Otto a fraction of a second to react but when he did the frown that had appeared dissolved in laughter.
‘A joke, yes? A British joke. A cheap gift for a cheap friend, is that it? No, no, you are not a cheap friend, you are a very valuable friend.’
And he laughed again.
Jimmy decided that Otto’s laughing could be bloody wearing. He overdid it. He wouldn’t be sorry to sort the Bronski thing out and be on his way. He’d had enough of Lübeck and Otto. He was ready to go to the station or the cemetery, whichever way it turned out.
He got up and so did Otto. They left the bar and crossed the pavement to the Mercedes. Jimmy got into the passenger seat and opened the glove compartment. There was an automatic there. He took it out as Otto got into the driver’s seat.
‘You like it?’
‘Should I?’
It was heavy and Jimmy was holding it in his right hand with his arm across his stomach. The muzzle was pointing towards Otto.
‘It’s a good gun, like I told you. But don’t point it at me like that, it might go off.’
And Jimmy pulled the trigger, then pulled it again. All that happened was that it gave two clicks.
Otto wasn’t laughing now. Jimmy held up the gun and examined it.
‘It doesn’t seem much of a gun to me, it just makes a clicking sound.’ He turned to Otto. ‘If it was any good as a gun shouldn’t you have a couple of bullets in you?’ Otto said something. It was in German but Jimmy guessed he was swearing.
‘Is he coming out now or do we have to wait some more?’
From behind Jimmy a head rose and Charlie Bronski got up and sat on the back seat.
‘Put the gun away, Jimmy. No, not in your pocket, back in the glove compartment. It may be empty but I still think it’s safer in the glove compartment.’
Jimmy put it back. When he sat back he saw Otto was now holding a similar automatic and it was pointed at him.
‘So what happens now? You drive the car from the back seat and Otto covers me, or do we play musical chairs and all change seats?’
‘Put the gun away, Otto, you can see Mr Costello understands how things are. It looks like he understood before he got into the car. Get going.’ Otto put away his gun, started the car and it moved off. ‘You won’t be silly will you, Mr Costello? Otto isn’t the only one with a gun and mine’s not like yours, it has bullets in it.’
Jimmy didn’t answer. He had seen it coming but he hadn’t seen how he could stop it. He was on his own in a place he didn’t know. They were organised and it was their town. So, would it all end in Lübeck? Well, why not? It had to end somewhere. Soon it would all be over. He didn’t mind. It would be painless, just a bullet in the head and then ... then what? Heaven, Hell or just black oblivion? But he’d asked himself that question many times. Long ago he had decided that whatever had waited beyond life for Bernie would be OK for him. If she was in Heaven then it might be a long wait, but Bernie would get him in if anyone could. If anyone ever deserved Heaven it was Bernie. If there was a Heaven. If there still was a Bernie. If there was nothing, fine. If she was nothing now, he would soon be nothing, not even a memory.
The car was moving out of the narrow streets into the traffic of a main road. Charlie spoke from the back seat.
‘I hope you’re not trying to work anything out, there’s nothing you can do.’
‘Then I’ll do nothing, won’t I?’
‘How did you know? What tipped you off?’
‘Otto told me.’ The car swerved as Otto turned and looked at him before quickly getting his eyes back on the road. ‘Careful, Otto, I’m the only one supposed to die today, don’t bugger it all up and kill all three of us.’
Otto didn’t look at him or say anything but Jimmy could see he was truly pissed. It was Charlie who wanted to talk.
‘Otto told you?’
‘As good as, last night. All that crap about papers and moving, about how hanging about wasn’t good for me. Why the big hurry? I’d only just arrived. I could see he wanted some sort of opening so I gave him one to see where he’d go. He went straight for the money. I knew he’d had the apartment checked to make sure the money was there but he still played the innocent. Can you get it, Jimmy? I can’t bet what you owe me on any shoot-out.’ Jimmy looked at Otto who was staring straight ahead. ‘Your acting was good, Otto, but the script was crap.’ He looked back at the road. They’d crossed a bridge, not either of the ones he’d been over before. They were heading out of the city. ‘Why the act unless he was planning something for me? It wasn’t hard to guess what that something was. He’d sold me out. If he’d put a “sold subject to contract” sign round my neck he couldn’t have made it more obvious.’
‘Is that it?’
It didn’t matter but it was something to do. Make Otto look like an arsehole. Why not?
‘His two goons stayed. I didn’t leave the bar until about quarter to eleven. Otto was with me, so they could have gone, but they stayed. That meant I was being watched, not protected. Otto wasn’t taking any chances. There was nothing I could do, so I did nothing. I just went to bed, got up and had breakfast and walked about until lunchtime. Friend Otto turns up, thinks everything’s just as he wants it and goes into his laughing routine. The gun thing gets me into the car. He has it parked so the passenger door is at the curb. I get in and look for the gun, that way I’m not supposed to notice you down behind the seat.’
‘You saw me?’
‘I didn’t look. Why should I look? If Otto was driving there had to be someone behind me. Either you were behind the seat or somewhere very close so you could get in once I was in. It didn’t matter one way or the other.’
‘So you just walked into it? Why not at least try to run?’
‘I wanted to see if I could make Otto wet his pants. I think I nearly did. At least I stopped that bloody laugh – it was getting on my nerves.’
Charlie sat back, he didn’t want to talk or listen any more so they drove on in silence. Once out of the Herren Tunnel, Charlie gave directions and they followed the same route he’d made the previous night with Clarke-Phillips until Otto pulled the car off the road onto the car park in front of the crumbling industrial complex. They drove up to the set of double steel doors. The small door set into them was open. Otto stopped the Mercedes by the open door, got out and moved round the car towards the door, watching Jimmy, the automatic back in his hand. Jimmy and Charlie got out. Charlie had his gun out as well. He gestured with it.
‘In you go, Mr Costello, and remember, nothing silly.’
‘My, my, so many guns and so few brains. Am I supposed to be worried that if I try anything you might have to shoot me? It’s hardly a threat, is it?’
Otto moved to just inside the door where he could still cover Jimmy with his gun.
‘Just go inside, keep the jokes for later.’
Jimmy walked into the building. Charlie followed. Once they were all inside, Charlie turned to Otto.
‘Wait in the car.’
‘You don’t need me here?’
Charlie shook his head. ‘No.’
Otto turned towards the door and began to put his gun away. Charlie took one step towards him and shot him once in the back of the head. Jimmy blinked at the noise which the emptiness of the place magnified. Otto pitched forwards into the door and then fell to the floor. Jimmy looked at him. He was very dead.
‘Goodbye, Otto. It wasn’t a pleasure knowing you.’
Jimmy looked away from the body. Charlie’s gun was pointing back at him now.
‘No loose ends. The people I work for don’t like loose ends.’ He gestured with the gun. ‘On your way, there’s somebody waiting for you by that window over there.’
Jimmy looked. She was standing to his right, by one of the windows. It wasn’t bright inside but enough of the glass in the grimy windows was smashed, so it was clear enough to see her. He walked towards her. She wore a smart suit, had longish brown hair. Jimmy had never seen her before in his life. Her arms were by her sides and in one hand, pointing at the floor, was a gun. He walked up and stood in front of her. He wasn’t far away, she couldn’t miss. Neither spoke, there was nothing to say. They both knew what was going to happen. The gun started to come up and the sound of the shot filled the warehouse with noise, echoing and bouncing around the stained concrete walls. Then there was a silence. Jimmy looked at her. She lay crumpled against the wall under the window. Charlie went to her side, made sure she was dead, picked up her gun and then looked at Jimmy. Now he had a gun in each hand. One was pointing at Jimmy, the other he was holding out.
‘Take it.’ Jimmy looked at him in a dazed way but didn’t move. Why wasn’t he dead? And who the hell was she? ‘Take the bloody gun, will you?’ Jimmy moved forward and took the gun by the barrel. Charlie stood up and moved away. ‘Now, moving very slowly, put a bullet in her head.’
Jimmy looked at her. She was dead. ‘What?’
‘Mr Costello, you’re alive. If you want to stay that way don’t ask questions, just do as you’re told. Put a bullet in her head.’ Jimmy bent down, held the muzzle of the gun against her head and pulled the trigger. Once again the place filled with noise and the dead woman pitched violently sideways onto the floor. Charlie pulled out a plastic bag from a pocket, dropped it on the floor and stood back. Jimmy stood up and turned to face him, he still had the gun he had been given. It was pointing straight at Bronski’s stomach, he couldn’t miss, but Bronski didn’t look worried. Jimmy pulled the trigger. There was a click. He wasn’t surprised. It wasn’t his day for guns. ‘That’s right, Mr Costello, I had just three bullets in mine, enough to get the job done. This is hers and it’s fully loaded. Put the gun in the bag and put it back on the floor.’ Jimmy picked up the bag, put the gun in it, put it back on the floor and stood up. ‘Stand back.’
Jimmy took a couple of paces back and Charlie picked up the bag and stuffed it in a side pocket.
‘What now? Is now when you shoot me?’
‘Now you have a choice. You can get in the car with me or you can stay here. If you stay here I’ll make sure the police find this gun.’ He tapped his side pocket. ‘It’s got you all over it and it’s killed two people. Think fast, Mr Costello, this place is derelict but three shots might bring somebody and I don’t want to kill anyone else today.’
There was nothing to think about, so he didn’t think about it. He was alive.
‘OK, let’s go.’
And they walked back to the steel doors, stepped over Otto, and left.