Chapter 14

“You fucking idiot!” Moto grabbed the gun from his partner. “What do you think you’re doing? She’s our insurance.”

Keizer Dembeck bent and vomited over Moto’s shoes.

“Son of a fucking bitch.” Moto kicked Keizer to the ground. “Dembeck, you moronic fucking faggot. You killed the bitch. Now what are we gonna do?”

Dembeck rolled to his back, wiping his mouth and lay there.

Moto wasn’t done with his partner. Another kick to the gut ended with, “Asshole, how did I ever get hooked up with your worthless hide? Get the fuck up!” He pulled Dembeck to his feet, surveying the area for unwanted observers. “Anybody see you, shitface?”

“I don’t know. I vuz asleep. Den she escape and run.” He lumbered to his feet, swaying, still unsteady as he wiped the mess from his face. “She vuz asleep and hurt. How do I know she could escape through locked door?”

Moto backhanded the fat man, almost knocking him to the ground once again. “You drink too much, you piece of shit. You probably left the door unlocked in your drunken stupor.”

Sobering quickly, Dembeck held his ground. “No! Dah door vuz locked. I do not understand. If Vilmer finds out about dis, he vill kick me out for sure. Vhere vill I go? Vut vill I do?” Wringing his chubby hands, he continued to sway as he lamented. “I have no family but Vilmer. I have novhere to be. I cannot go back to Germany. There are people, bad people, there who vill kill me, for sure.”

“Like me?” Moto leveled the gun at his partner’s head.

“No! No, please. I vill do vatever it takes to get vut vee need. The voman’s body vill never be found, vunce the barge dumps at sea. But vee can still get the codes. Vee don’t have to have the voman in hand, so to speak.” Keizer Dembeck may have been a drunk and a societal leech, but he had a very diabolical mind when threatened. “Vee can still do this, Moto, I tell you, vee can still do dis.” His arms flapped about his rotund body. “Vee don’t need da vooman.”

Moto lowered the gun, glowering at his partner. “No more screw ups, you hear me?” He headed toward the old warehouse they used as their hideout, with Dembeck waddling behind.

“For sure, Moto. For sure.”

Inside the cavernous building, Dembeck fell into his broken chair. “I am not feeling so vell.” He reached for a beer bottle from the cooler on the floor.

“No more drinking.” Moto smacked the bottle from his hand. “None. Nich, nill. I see you take a drink, I end your fucking worthless life. Wilmer will probably thank me. How many years have you been mooching off your brother now?” Moto crossed to the steel door only to find it closed and solidly locked. “Now how the hell…” he turned to see Dembeck slipping a bottle beneath his billowing shirt. “…you locked this door when I went after the girl? Put that beer back, Keizer. I don’t make idle threats.” He punctuated his statement with the barrel of his gun.

“No. I followed you.” He placed the beer back in the cooler and slammed the lid. “One von’t hurt. My head aches, for sure.”

“So explain this, dumb fuck.” Moto pointed to the locked door.

****

“Andrea, wake up. You must wake up now!” The sweet, almost childish voice floated just beyond awareness as Andrea lay in a pile of putrid fishnet atop the pile of garbage and construction debris on the barge. It was all she could do for the moment. Her body was broken and torn. Her brain was pounding against her skull like a sledgehammer as blood oozed down her forehead and into her good eye. She couldn’t even reach up to feel the wound.

The stars twinkled in beautiful patterns above as Andrea closed her eye and drifted away from the pain and the irritating voice. The barge continued to make its way to some unknown destination where it would deposit its rubbish into the depths of the briny.

Along with Andrea’s lifeless body.