TAY WAS PRETTY sure there weren’t any guests at this little wingding other than the three of them: August, Ferrero, and himself. Well, to be fair, he wasn’t really a guest. He was more of a party crasher.
He ran the sounds he had heard back and forth through his mind several more times, searching for a less ominous explanation. He couldn’t think of one.
Vincent Ferrero had shot John August. Any other possibility was too remote to consider. And from the ensuing silence and the absence of any return fire, it seemed likely that August was dead.
If Ferrero discovered he was here, this was going to end badly for him, too. Here he sat on the concrete floor of a storeroom, his hands cuffed around a pipe. If Ferrero came through that steel door, what was he going to do? Either fighting or fleeing was out of the question. Ferrero would be free to put a bullet in his head if he wanted to, and Tay had no doubt he did.
Tay pushed himself away from the door and tried to make himself as small as possible, but it was a foolish reaction to his circumstances and he knew it. There was nowhere to hide. If Ferrero came through the door, he was dead. It was just that simple.
He strained his ears for approaching footsteps, and waited.
***
As the minutes passed without Ferrero crashing into the room, Tay began to breathe more easily. At one point he thought he had heard something that sounded like footsteps, but he couldn’t tell for sure if they were coming toward him or moving away. He guessed if the sound had really been footsteps at all, they must have been moving away.
So what had he heard?
Ferrero shooting August and then leaving the shophouse? No, he was pretty sure he would have heard an exterior door closing if Ferrero had left, so he must still be somewhere inside. Most likely upstairs. Maybe he had to sanitize the place before he took off. After all, if he had been having meetings here that involved whatever it was Paraguas Ltd was doing, there might be paperwork or notes lying around that Ferrero wouldn’t want to leave behind. Tay shifted his body upright and strained his ears. But he heard nothing at all.
***
When he started feeling more secure, Tay began thinking about how he could free himself. His first thought was to get to his phone somehow and call Kang. Kang probably had a handcuff key on him. Who knew whether that key would work on the cuffs August had used on him, but that was still a good place to start.
Tay’s phone was in his left front trouser pocket. He twisted his body against the wall and tried to pull one hand far enough away from the pipe around which he was cuffed to reach into his pocket, but he quickly realized it was going to be a lot harder to do than he thought. Tentatively, he shifted position, first in one direction and then in another, but a way to contort his body enough to get either cuffed hand into his pocket eluded him. Finally he gave up even trying and decided try again from a standing position. He grabbed the pipe and began to pull himself upright.
Tay was startled when the weight of his body caused the base of the pipe to pop loose from its coupling at the bottom of the wall. The noise was no more than the pop of a champagne cork, but in the silence of the little storeroom it sounded to Tay like an explosion.
Tay froze, his eyes flying to the tiny crack where the steel door stood ajar. He breathed as quietly as he could and listened.
Nothing.
Moving slowly and quietly, Tay squatted and slipped the cuffs over the end of the pipe where it had broken loose from the wall. Then he stood up and turned toward the door that would take him out to the carport. All he had to do was get the hell out of here. After that, he could call Kang and Kang would bring in some support, and they could grab Ferrero.
Still…Tay hesitated.
It would take a while to do all that. At least fifteen or twenty minutes. Maybe longer.
What if Ferrero was gone by then? What if August was dying in there and getting him to a hospital right now would save his life? How much time did he really have?
Tay couldn’t just turn his back and walk out that door, but what was he going to do? His hands were still cuffed in front of him and he had no weapon. Then he saw on the floor the Maglite August had taken away from him when he jerked him in through the carport door. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing.
He scooped it up and hefted in his hands as well as the cuffs would let him, then he stepped toward the steel door. Leaning forward he put his ear to the crack where it stood open, but he heard nothing and Tay could see no light beyond the door.
He put his shoulder against the door and cocked the Maglite back ready to swing it as well as he could. He pushed gently and the door swung open without a sound.
***
Straight ahead was a short hallway. At the end of the hallway Tay could see the main entry door to the left and opposite it a staircase leading to the upper levels. Now that Tay was inside, he could also hear soft rustling noises from somewhere up the stairs. He had been right. There was someone up there and he had no doubt it was Ferrero.
The dim light seeping down the staircase was just strong enough for Tay to see the body sprawled at the foot of the steps.
He crept forward as quietly as he could and risked a quick look up the staircase. The rustling sounds were louder now, but he saw nothing in the gray dimness.
He squatted and examined the body at his feet. He knew it was August even before he saw his face. There was a lot of blood, and Tay thought he could see two entry wounds in August’s chest. Neither was pumping blood but a thin trickle was oozing from each hole. Tay supposed that was a good sign, if you could ever say there were any good signs connected with taking two shots in the chest.
Tay placed a hand against August’s neck and was relieved to feel a pulse. It was faint and irregular, but it was there. August was still alive. At least he was for now. But he had to get to a hospital, and quickly.
***
All at once the rustling noise from upstairs became much louder and Tay froze. He listened as footsteps came toward the staircase, then they stopped and moved away again.
He had to have a weapon or there really wasn’t anything he could do. A real weapon, not just a heavy flashlight.
Being careful not to let the chain connecting his handcuffs rattle against the floor, Tay felt around for the gun August had when Tay watched him disappear through the steel door. He couldn’t find it. Tay decided Ferrero must have picked the gun up after he shot August.
But just in case the gun had somehow ended up pinned beneath August’s body, Tay lifted August a little, first one side and then the other. He saw nothing, but one of August’s legs made a curious clunking sound as it rolled against the floor so he ran his hands over the area where it had hit. One hand brushed August’s shin and he knew immediately what he had found.
A back-up gun in an ankle holster.
Tay raised August’s cuff and pulled the little gun from its holster. It was a Glock 26, the Baby Glock, barely six inches long and only about a pound and a half in weight. But it was still effective enough at short range if you were a decent shot which, Tay reminded himself, would be an extremely generous characterization of his own limited skills. And he wasn’t sure what having his hands cuffed together would do for those skills. Somehow he doubted it would improve them.
Tay slid away from the bottom of the staircase and dropped the clip. He was relieved to see the glint of brass-jacketed 9mm rounds and pushed down on the top one just to be certain. Full. He had ten shots. Returning the clip to the gun as quietly as possible, Tay chambered a round.
Should he go back outside and call Kang? Then guard the front of the shophouse while Kang guarded the back and wait for help to arrive?
Yes, of course he should. It was obvious that was exactly what he should do.
But that wasn’t what he was going to do.
When you decide to do something big, something bold, it’s better not to think about it too much. Examining how scary whatever you are about to do actually is doesn’t help.
So you just do it.
With his cuffed hands thrust in front of him, the Maglite in one and the Glock in the other, Tay began to climb the stairs.