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I ALREADY KNEW EXACTLY what was going on. But I couldn’t believe it. I shouted, “Dammit, Cass!”
She scoffed. “You think I haven’t heard that before?”
“I’m here for you! For you and your sister.”
“Then you should understand,” she said. I could just make out her silhouette through the fan housing. The floor upstairs was still missing.
“How did you get in there?” I asked.
“This apartment stays empty. It’s a lookout post. Maybe you should add that to your game.” She sounded distracted. I heard the rapid tick-tick-ticka-tick of a phone keyboard in veteran hands.
I called up to her, “Come down here. I have it all worked out, but—”
“Do you have the gun?”
“Yeah. It’s here. But—”
“Good.” Tick-tick-ticka-tick.
“We don’t have a lot of time to fool around,” I said. “Come get the gun. You stay here, distract Derrick, and I’ll find Trina.”
“That’s the problem,” Cass said, suddenly very focused. “I already sent you here to do that, and you made everything worse.”
“But I made all these plans—”
“These plans?!” she snapped. “The ones where I trust you again, and even if it works, I go to prison?”
“But... you said...”
“The general plan is good,” she said. “It just needs some... tweaks.”
“Cass—” I tried, but she wasn’t listening.
“Here’s the deal, Dave: I am going to save Trina. I’ll bust her out of the backrooms and get her clear of all of this.”
“But I already set the other plan in motion. Police are coming!”
“Now?” she asked, concerned.
I checked my watch and added twelve minutes for the Village Police response time. “Forty-seven minutes until they should get here, but—”
“Fine,” she said. “You stall Derrick and Hauser ‘til then—”
“I can’t handle those guys, Cass! You’re supposed to deal with them. I can find your sister—”
“I don’t trust you, Dave.”
That shut me up.
She spoke straight into the fan. “I’m going to save Trina. She should never have been caught up in this, but now that she is, you can help me get her out.”
“But the gun! The... banker?”
“Yeah. That’s perfect. You pin that on Derrick and Hauser can’t skate. That’s the best part of your plan. Did you burn it with acetone?”
“We scrubbed it,” I said.
“Perfect, “she said. “You’re perfect, Dave.”
“I need you, Cass! You can’t—”
“I already have. I messaged Derrick three minutes ago to tell him you’re in your apartment, and you’ve got the gun.”
I said, “—!” I’m not proud of it, but that’s what I said. “Cass, come down here!”
“I can’t go back to jail, Dave. And I can’t let them have Trina. Sorry.”
“Sorry? That’s it? You’re sorry?!”
“Honestly, I’m not even sorry.”
My door boomed. It was Derrick pounding on it, and he wasn’t subtle. I jumped out of my skin.
“Shoot him if you have to.” Cass said, and then almost flirtingly, “I owe you, Dave.”
And then my door smashed in.