‘Be smart,’ Christine Winsin said, when Kelson shouted. ‘With our kind of money we can get in anywhere. Building superintendents, landlords, everyone is happy to help when we show our generosity.’
Kelson grabbed for the guns he’d left beside his bed. They were gone. ‘Be smart, be smart,’ he said. ‘Everyone wants me to be smart. What if I want to be stupid?’ Still he groped for his guns – until Payday swatted his hand from under the bed.
‘Get up,’ David Winsin said.
Kelson held his bedsheet. ‘No.’
‘Are you a child? Get up.’
‘What do you want with me?’
Christine Winsin said, ‘When Neto LeCoeur played hide-and-seek with our money, we lost five million dollars – five million, eighty-three thousand, eight hundred and seventy-seven, to be exact. We want it back.’
‘Give me a moment, I’ll check my wallet,’ Kelson said.
‘You’re too easy,’ she said. ‘The only surprise is you didn’t get shot in the head long before you did. Or were you sharper before your accident?’
‘I hate when people call it an accident,’ Kelson said.
‘Get up,’ Bob Winsin said.
‘How’s it work with you?’ Kelson said. ‘Do you all live together in a big castle – with a tower for each of you?’ He gripped the sheet. ‘You know, it’s strange for you to lurk in a guy’s apartment in the middle of the night.’
Christine Winsin said, ‘We would much rather be home in our beds. But certain times call for wakefulness.’
‘Five million bucks of wide awake?’ Kelson said. He looked at her feet. She wore plain brown shoes.
‘Enough to keep us pacing at midnight,’ she said.
He sat up in bed, still holding his sheet around him. ‘What do you want?’
‘Take us to see Marty LeCoeur,’ David Winsin said. ‘Convince him to use the information from the files to get our money.’
‘How do you know Marty has the—’ Then he realized. ‘Squirt ratted?’
‘Excuse me?’ Christine Winsin said.
‘Stanley Javinsky told you?’
‘We had a brief conversation with him,’ Christine Winsin said. ‘If you must know, Harold and Sylvia Crane outbid us for him.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘The information Mr Javinsky could sell – about where to find Marty LeCoeur and the account information he has – is even more valuable to the Cranes than it is to us. That doesn’t mean we want what’s ours any less. It just means the Cranes have more to lose in this instance.’
‘Squirt sold out Marty?’ Kelson got up from bed and started to put on a shirt.
‘At a very attractive price.’
Kelson pulled on his pants. ‘Give me my guns.’
Bob Winsin said, ‘Are you really this stupid?’
‘I’m not going anywhere without them.’
Bob Winsin said, ‘We have Sue Ellen.’
Kelson took a single step and slugged him in the face. The man fell hard on the carpet.
Christine Winsin said, ‘Bob’s lying.’ Then, to her other brother, ‘Give him his guns. He’ll use them wisely.’
David Winsin pulled the KelTec and Springfield from his satchel and gave them to Kelson.
Kelson pointed the guns at him and his sister. ‘Get the hell out.’ He nodded at the man on the carpet. ‘And drag him with you.’
‘Or not so wisely,’ Christine Winsin said – then to David again, ‘give him his ammunition.’
‘Really?’ Kelson said. He released the magazine from the Springfield. Empty. ‘Shit.’ He checked the KelTec magazine. The same.
‘This all works better if we trust each other,’ Christine Winsin said.
‘You break into my apartment in the middle of the night. You threaten me. You threaten my daughter. And you ask me to trust you?’
David Winsin said, ‘We used a key.’
‘That’s still breaking in,’ Kelson said.
‘I’m sorry Bob threatened your daughter,’ Christine Winsin said.
‘Give me the ammunition,’ Kelson said.
David Winsin scooped the bullets from the bottom of the satchel and poured them into Kelson’s hand. Kelson sat on his bed, sorting the bullets for the KelTec from the ones for the Springfield, reloading the magazines, and sliding the magazines into the guns. Christine and David Winsin watched. Bob Winsin stirred on the carpet, sat up, and looked bewildered, a red welt rising on his left cheek, his left eye swelling shut.
When Kelson finished with the guns, he aimed them at Christine and David Winsin again. David Winsin shook his head as if Kelson would never learn.
Kelson said, ‘Where did you see Squirt?’
Christine Winsin pressed her lips together. ‘We arranged a meeting with the Cranes at Sylvia’s house. They’ve put Chip Voudreaux in a room and have Stanley Javinsky guarding him. As I said, it was a short conversation.’
‘The Cranes have Voudreaux?’
David Winsin still shook his head, disappointed in Kelson.
‘Stop that,’ Kelson told him.
‘We thought you knew,’ Christine Winsin said.
Kelson lowered the Springfield, though he held the KelTec steady. ‘They figured out he was trying to steal the money?’
‘The two of them were trying, yes,’ she said. ‘But now he wants to go to the police.’
Bob Winsin pushed himself to his knees, then stood up, wobbly.
‘The two of them?’ Kelson said.
Christine Winsin’s eyes showed mild surprise. ‘Chip Voudreaux and Genevieve Bower, yes.’
Kelson almost dropped his guns. ‘She was in it with him?’
‘Jesus help us,’ David Winsin said.
His sister stepped back. ‘Stop waving your guns around, Mr Kelson.’
Kelson went to the dining table where he’d left his shoulder holster hours earlier. He strapped it on over his shirt. ‘The other numbers,’ he said.
‘I’m sorry?’ Christine Winsin said.
‘When Marty looked at the files on the thumb drive, he saw a string of numbers he couldn’t identify. It was her. Genevieve Bower. She and Voudreaux must’ve figured they had the money coming to them after what Harold Crane did to them.’
‘I have no idea,’ Christine Winsin said.
‘It’s why she wouldn’t go to the police even after the Cranes’ men beat her up – or even after they broke into her motel room and then kidnapped her from my apartment. It’s why she tried to stage JollyOllie as a suicide when she found him dead in his apartment. It was all or nothing.’
‘It’s time to go,’ Christine Winsin said. ‘We’ve let the Cranes know our relationship with them is over. If they go wherever Stanley Javinsky tells them to before we get there, we won’t see our money again.’
Her brothers moved toward the door.
But Kelson froze. ‘My phone.’
‘Nonsense,’ Christine Winsin said.
Kelson aimed both of his guns at David Winsin and gestured at his satchel. ‘I won’t take you there without warning them we’re coming.’
‘Wouldn’t that make them leave before we get there?’ David Winsin asked.
‘It might. They get to decide.’
David Winsin reached into his satchel again. But he pulled out a large black pistol and aimed it at Kelson.
‘Trust works both ways,’ Christine Winsin said. ‘When we reach Marty LeCoeur’s place, you can call him. Not a moment sooner.’
Kelson lowered his guns. ‘You’re tough,’ he said.
‘Yes,’ she said, and she turned toward the door. ‘No one tougher.’