THE SURPRISE punch knocked Red Doyle out of his chair and set off a noisy chain reaction in the nearly empty lounge. Red’s cocktail tipped over and flooded the tabletop; his chair flipped over in the opposite direction and bashed into a chair at another table.
Cooper didn’t care. He kicked all of the furniture out of the way so that Red couldn’t hide from the ass-beating he was about to receive.
“The hell’s the matter with you!” Red cried out, half worried and half furious.
“You sent a killer after us,” Cooper snarled.
“I didn’t send anybody after you!”
That earned Red a literal kick in the backside, which flipped the man over onto his belly. Cooper planted a knee in Red’s spine and twisted his right arm behind his back.
“Agh!” Red screamed. “You lost your damn mind?”
“I want you to think about spending the rest of this year without the use of your arms,” Cooper said. “And that’s just the beginning unless you start telling me the truth.”
“I’m not saying another word to you, asshole. I’m going to let the police do all of the talking. You forget—this is my town.”
Cooper was so focused on deciding which of Red Doyle’s joints he was going to dislocate first that he didn’t notice Veena crouch down in front of the bookie and place the barrel of her petite handgun against his bony forehead. She lowered her sunglasses.
“I was just forced to kill someone,” Veena said calmly. “This is something I’m going to have to carry with me forever. But let me tell you this: I have zero problem doing it again.”
Cooper could feel the fight leave Red’s body. Whatever he saw in Veena’s eyes, he believed it.
“I’m telling you the truth,” Red said softly. “Whatever just happened to you, I had nothing to do with it. I was trying to warn you. You two have big fat targets painted on your backs.”
“Why?” Veena asked. “Because someone shot a football player in downtown Philadelphia and we’re trying to find out who pulled the trigger?”
“No. Because you’re poking around at one little corner of a very dangerous situation.”
“Detail it for us.”
“Take that gun off my head.”
Veena took the gun off his head, and Red exhaled before continuing.
“The Sables bet huge on the NFC game yesterday.”
“Illegal, but not surprising.”
“No, you don’t understand. They bet against the Birds.”
“What?”
“You’re finally getting it, aren’t you? This has the makings of the biggest gambling disaster in ages, and the Mob wants no part of it. They want to shut this down completely and bury anyone who knows about it. What happened to Archie is sad, but they don’t want any loose ends.”
“So they did send the Quiet One after him.”
“No! I’m telling you, that would be the opposite of what they’d do. It only brings more attention to this whole thing. I mean, look at you two. You wouldn’t be sticking a gun in my face if Archie were still alive.”
“There’s more, isn’t there?”
“If I tell you more, we’re all dead.”