TWENTY-FOUR

Eddie ran the razor under the faucet, cleaning off the last of the dried blood. Water swirled faint pink into the drain. He’d wiped the blade clean after they’d left Suarez, but blood had caked on the hinge. He didn’t want it to rust.

Terry had the woman’s laptop open on the kitchen table, his face lit by the screen’s glow. Angie stood in the doorway, watching them, chewing on a thumbnail.

“You know what you’re doing with that thing?” Eddie said.

“Enough.”

“What’s in there?” He leaned over, drank from the faucet, then dried the razor carefully on a paper towel, closed it.

“Not much. Almost nothing on the hard drive. The trash has been emptied, and all the histories have been cleared.”

“Whatever that means,” Eddie said. He dropped the razor into the open gym bag at his feet, the shotgun visible. “Can you sell it, get some money?”

“Maybe. Hold on. There’s some folders here with pictures.”

“What pictures?”

“Some little girl.”

Eddie came around behind him, looked over at Angie. She met his eyes for a moment, then turned and left the room.

“Show me,” Eddie said.

Terry hit keys. A picture came up on the screen, a girl in pigtails, maybe eight, nine years old. She had reddish blond hair, was sitting on a carpeted floor in front of a Christmas tree. In the next photo, she sat on the edge of a dock, holding a child’s fishing pole, the line in the water, an intent look on her face.

“Same girl in all the pictures?” Eddie said.

“Yeah.” He clicked through more photos.

“Stop.”

This one was a group portrait, kids sitting on the front steps of a school. The girl from the other photos was in the front row, giving the camera a wide smile. There was a school logo at the bottom of the picture.

“Two Rivers, Texas,” Eddie said. “Never heard of it.”

“Probably a small town.”

“All these pictures, got to be someone important to her. Daughter maybe, or niece. Too young for a sister.”

“Cute little girl.”

“You need to find out where Two Rivers is,” Eddie said. “There can’t be too many of them. We lucked out here.”

“Why?”

“Like I said, that kid means something to her. It’s leverage.”

Terry was silent.

“What?” Eddie said.

“I’m not going after some little girl.”

“Who said we were? We just let her know we found the pictures. She’ll get the idea. And if she bolts, we know at least one place she might turn up.”

Terry hit the power button. The screen faded to black. “I don’t know.”

“We’ve come too far to back off now,” Eddie said. “What’s the problem? You’ve got nothing but paydays ahead of you. We’ve got twenty more coming from Tino, and who knows how much we’ll get off the woman when we find her. Probably more money than you’ve ever seen in your life.”

“I guess.”

“You guess? What is it? That thing with Suarez still got you bothered?”

“I didn’t expect it to go the way it did.”

“Whose fault was that? He could have made it easier on himself. He chose not to. I did what I had to do.”

“I know.”

“Then stop acting like a bitch.”

The phone in his coat pocket began to ring. He took it out, looked at the number. “It’s about fucking time.”

“Who is it?”

“Man with the rest of our money,” Eddie said. He opened the phone. “Yeah.”

“Sorry,” Nicky said, “I just got your message. I got tied up with some shit. What do you need?”

“What do you think?”

“You have any trouble with that thing?”

“Nothing I couldn’t handle. But there’s the question of the balance.”

“I hear you. Hold on.”

Eddie waited, hearing muffled voices in the background. Terry was watching him.

When Nicky came back on, he said, “No problems with that. We got it. I’ll call you tomorrow, tell you where to go.”

“No. Let’s do it tonight.”

“What’s the rush?”

“You’ve got it, right?”

“Yeah, we got it. But tonight’s no good.”

“Why not? The work’s done. What’s the issue?”

Another pause. Nicky came back on and said, “No issue. I think we can make that happen. Give me a half hour, I’ll call you back, tell you where.”

“Do that,” Eddie said and hung up.

He zipped up the gym bag, hefted it, felt the shotgun’s weight.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said. “Go get a decent meal. Then I’ve got a phone call to make.”

Terry shut the laptop.

“Another thing.” Eddie nodded at the hallway. “You want to keep an eye on her.”

“What do you mean?”

“She makes me nervous, way she stands around, watching us. Listening all the time.”

“She’s just worried about me.”

“Maybe so. But she doesn’t like me very much, and she’s seen some shit. You want to be careful around her.”

“You don’t have to worry about Angie.”

“No,” Eddie said, “but maybe you do. Women get that way sometimes. They drop a dime on you, think they’re doing you a favor.”

“Angie won’t.”

“That’s right,” Eddie said. “She won’t.”