Before The Killing Starts (Dixie Killer Blues Book 1) (5 page)

Chapter 10

Ellie rested her head on
the steering wheel and tried to think what to do next.

She'd followed Evan to
Kelly's bar and waited in her car to see what happened. She didn't know what
she'd expected but it seemed like Evan must have stirred things up in there.
She'd watched him back out through the door, ass first, before jamming a pool
cue through the handles. A couple of seconds after that the doors had bulged
outwards, the cue had snapped and two beaners had come rushing out and chased
after him. She'd felt an adrenal spike of fear quickly followed by a sweaty
giddiness as relief flooded her body. Thank God she'd sent Evan in there. To
think she might have just walked in herself, straight into their hands.

Evan had made it to his
car and taken off, making the two guys double back for theirs. She'd lost sight
of them all after that.

Her phone rang. She
fished it out of her bag—it was Evan.

Looks like he must
have got away from them
.

'Where are you?' he
asked without bothering to say hello. He sounded pissed, but that was hardly
surprising—not that she was supposed to know anything about it.

'What's wrong?' she
said, trying hard to get the right balance between concern and surprise.

'I'll tell you when I
see you,' he snapped. 'Where are you?'

She had no idea where he
might be and she didn't want him to know that she'd followed him. In the phone
she could hear a siren in the background wherever he was. Then she heard it
faintly through her window. She wound it down and listened. The two sounds were
perfectly synchronized; they had to be the same, That meant he was still
somewhere nearby. How far did a siren carry? Two blocks? Three? She had no
idea. She turned away from the window, towards the sidewalk, and hunched over
the passenger seat as if she'd dropped something on the floor.

'Ellie?' He made no
effort to conceal his irritation.

'I'm . . . at my hotel.
Why?'

'What's that noise? I
can hear sirens. Are you sure?'

She felt a rush of
panic. 'Of course I'm sure. I've got the window open. Hang on a sec.' She wound
the car window up. 'There, is that better?'

'Okay' He didn't sound
convinced. 'Stay there. I'm coming over. We need to talk.'

'You can't,' she said,
the words bursting out of her mouth a little too quickly. She didn't know if he
was two or three blocks closer or further away than she was? He might get there
first.  'I'm just about to go out.' It sounded so lame in her ears. He was
bound to be suspicious now. But it seemed his annoyance was getting in the way.

'Ellie,' he snapped,
almost shouted, 'this is important . . .'

'What do you need to say
that you can't say over the phone anyway? If it's that important, tell me now.
If not, it can wait.'

She allowed herself a
gotcha
smile. There wasn't a lot he could say to that. On the other end of the line
she heard him take a couple of deep breaths.
Take as many as you like
.

'Evan?'

'Yeah, I'm here.' That
was more like it. There was a satisfying amount of defeat in his voice. 'What
time will you be back?'

She relaxed a little.

'Why don't you come over
around six?' she said in an encouraging tone, like she was offering him the
last slice of pie.

'Okay. See you then.'

The phone went dead. He
really
was
pissed. With any luck he'd have calmed down by the time he
came over—another reason not to meet him straight away. She didn't want to be
on the receiving end of all that testosterone. She dropped the phone back in
her bag and straightened up. She better get back to the hotel just in case he
went there anyway, the suspicious prick. A movement registered in the periphery
of her vision. She turned and looked out the window and her hand flew to her
mouth, an involuntary shriek escaping through her fingers.

Chapter 11

'Talk about a lucky
break,' Juan said to José, shaking his head as he backed the car out of the
narrow side street. There was a screech of tires and a long, indignant blast on
a horn as the car they'd backed out in front of made an emergency stop. He
raised his arm lazily and gave the driver the finger in the rear-view mirror as
he straightened up. Asshole shouldn't have been driving so fast in the first place.

'So what are we going to
do now?' José said.

The car behind jerked
into life, pulled around them and drew up alongside. A large guy with a very
red face waved his fist and shouted abuse at them through the window. Specks of
spittle spattered the glass.

José leaned forward in
his seat and the two of them turned to see what all the fuss was about. Oddly
enough, the guy had a quick change of attitude. Something about the sight of
the two of them staring back at him, their dark eyes predatory and mischievous,
made him remember what a hurry he'd been in. He stopped shouting like somebody
had pulled the plug, snapped his eyes front and did his best to put his foot
through the floor. The car shot forward and disappeared down the road.

'How about we go after
that asshole,' José said. 'He called you a wetback.'

Juan turned towards him
and wagged his finger as if to say:
liar, liar, pants on fire.

'How d'you know. You
couldn't hear him.'

José grinned. 'I read
his lips.' He mouthed the word a couple of times putting the emphasis on the
'w' and the 'b'. 'You can see it a mile off.'

Juan laughed. 'Yeah, if
you're looking for it. Anyway, we haven't got time—we've got to get back to the
bar.'

José twisted in the seat
and pulled his head back to get a good look at his partner; make sure there
wasn't something he was missing.

'What for? The guy's not
going to go back there—not ever. Not if he's got any sense.'

'Doesn't matter,' Juan
said. He had that smug look on his face that José always wanted to punch; the
one that said
that's why I'm the dog who eats first
. 'He left his card
with the guy behind the bar. If it's not already in the trash, I'm sure he'll
be happy to give it to us.'

José grinned back at
him. 'Don't you just love it when people make it easy for you?'

But Juan wasn't
listening to him any more. They were almost back at the bar and he'd been
looking for somewhere to park when his head had snapped around like somebody
had slapped him.

'What is it?' José said,
trying to follow his eyes.

'It's her!'

'Who?' José said,
craning his neck to try to see what his partner was so excited about.

'It's that bitch Ellie.
I can't believe it. She's sitting right there in her car across from the bar.
Look, there.' He leaned across José and pointed. 'She's hunched over but you
can see it's her. It looks like she's on the phone.'

'So what's
she
doing there?'

'I reckon she must be
the guy's client. She sent him after Dixie and then followed him.'

'Like she doesn't trust
him, you mean? Maybe it's him she's on the phone to.'

'Doesn't matter. Here's
what we're going to do.'

Juan carried on past
Ellie's car and stopped for a second to let José out. Then he made a U-turn and
drove back the way he'd come while José doubled back on the sidewalk. About ten
cars behind her, he made another U-turn and drove slowly forward timing it
perfectly so that he pulled up alongside her, boxing her in between the parked
cars in front and behind her, just as José got to the passenger door.

He pulled gently to a
stop and looked across at her through her driver's window. She was turned away
from him, hunched over and talking on the phone. She finished her call, dropped
the phone in her bag and sat upright. Then she turned and looked straight at
him. She let out a startled shriek as he gave her a massive grin and José
climbed into the passenger seat. 

Chapter 12

Ellie twisted round at
the sound of the passenger door opening, and saw José's greasy face leering at
her. Her bag was sitting on the passenger seat. She made a dive for it, but she
was way too slow. She got a hand on the strap but José wrenched it out of her
grip, dropped into the seat and started rooting through it. A couple of seconds
later he pulled out a Kahr P380. The five-inch long pocket pistol almost
disappeared in his large hand.

'Nice toy,' he said with
a grin. He dropped the gun in his pocket and carried on digging through the
bag. Next out was a can of pepper spray. That went in the pocket too.

Behind her, Juan opened
the driver's door and leaned in and grabbed her by the collar of her jacket.

'Out you get,' he said,
and hauled her out of the car. José leaned across and pulled the door shut
behind her.

 Juan looped his arm
round her neck and they shuffled backwards in the narrow space between the two
cars like some strange dance move. He tightened his thick forearm across her
throat, choking her. The more she struggled, the tighter he clamped it. Her
head snapped from side to side as she tried to see if anyone was watching, but
there was nobody around to help.

She bent her head
forwards and threw it sharply backwards but he moved easily out of the way. He
clamped his other hand over her mouth and nose, holding her head into his body,
squashing her nose against her face, cutting off her air—but not the stale
smell of cigarettes on his fingers.
How is that possible?
The callused
skin of his palm on her flesh made her shudder. His mouth was less than an inch
away from her face; she could feel his mustache like a hairy spider's leg and
smell his lunch on his breath. In her mind she imagined little brown pieces of
refried bean caught in the gaps between his teeth and her stomach gave a salty,
burping lurch. She grabbed the hand over her mouth and tried to work her
fingers under it, clawing with her nails in an attempt to prise it away. He
just squeezed tighter.

But she'd achieved
something at least—with no hands left to open the car door he called for José
to stop picking his nose and get his sorry ass around this side of the car and
get the door open. He hadn't expected her to struggle so violently. Thinking
about it now, he should have pulled up next to her facing the other way—it
would have made much easier to get her from one car to the other.

Ellie had to do
something before José came round. She felt light-headed from the lack of air.
She couldn't budge his hand, so she stopped trying to pull it away and jabbed
her elbow backwards into his ribs. It was like elbowing a brick wall. He didn't
even flinch. She lifted her foot and stamped down onto his instep as hard as
she could.

He let out a surprised
yelp of pain.
That was better
. His hand dropped away from her mouth and
she felt the grip round her neck loosen. She stamped down hard again, driving
her elbow backwards and twisting violently at the same time. He lost hold of
her completely. It was all the chance she was going to get. She lunged forward
down the narrow space between the two cars. On the other side of her car she
was aware of José moving fast, trying to get around the front of the car to cut
her off. Behind her Juan had recovered. He threw out his arm, catching nothing
but a handful of air, and started after her.

She was so close but she
wasn't going to make it. She made it through the gap at the exact same time as
José rounded the front of the car. He didn't even try to grab hold of her, just
kept on going and plowed into her, sending her flying backwards across the hood
of their car. She lay spread-eagled and winded, José sprawled across her,
pinning her down. He looked like he was enjoying every minute of it. She was
sure he was rubbing himself up and down against her. Juan got there a second
later, grabbed hold of her jacket collar again and pulled her out from under
José, who stood up and winked at her, massaging his crotch provocatively.

'I was just starting to
have some fun,' he said.

Juan said something
under his breath which sounded a lot like
pervert
.

She didn't have the
strength to struggle any more. He dragged her backwards, her heels bumping
along the floor as she tried to stay upright. José slipped past them and opened
the back door and Juan bundled her onto the back seat and climbed in after her.
José slammed the door shut after them and went round and got in the driver's
seat.

Ellie rested her head on
the headrest and closed her eyes. She felt sick and giddy and needed to pee.
Her chest was heaving so hard she thought she'd pop the buttons on her blouse.
She was glad José was in the front where he couldn't see. At least Juan's
breathing sounded worse than hers; the painful, wheezing breath of a heavy
smoker.
Just like a pair of lovers after an energetic sex session
, she
thought before she could stop herself.

'You need to get down
the gym a bit more,' she said, once she'd got her breath back. 'Give up the
smokes, too.'

He snorted and it turned
into a coughing fit. 'I should've just given you a slap, more like.'

'You're right. That
sounds like your style.'

If she thought she was
going to get a rise out of him, she was disappointed.

'Whatever.'

'So, where are we
going?'

He twisted in his seat
to look at her and coughed a wet laugh. 'Well,' he said, 'we've got quite a
busy schedule.' He held up his hand and flicked out a yellow-stained index
finger. A shiver sliced through her. She could feel and smell it on her mouth.
She imagined him pushing it between her lips, forcing her teeth apart, pushing
her tongue down her throat until she gagged.
Where the hell did that come
from?
  'First stop, we've got to pick something up from the bar.' He
flicked out a second finger, the middle one. 'Then it's back to your hotel.' He
gave her a small smile and flicked out a third finger. 'Then, as a special
treat, you've got a little chat with Chico.'

In the front José
sniggered.

'Are you going to tell
us where you're staying,' Juan said, 'or do you fancy getting in the trunk
while we drive around all day looking for it?'

She knew there wasn't
any point in not telling them—they'd get it out of her in the end. She might as
well just avoid all the unpleasantness that would entail. On top of that, an
idea had just come into her mind. There was no way she could escape from these
two on her own, but if she could delay things long enough at the hotel, they
might still be there when Evan turned up. Not that she thought Evan would be
able to deal with these guys, but any chance was better than nothing. Trouble was,
it was another two hours until he was due to get there.

Unfortunately for her,
it didn't pan out the way she was hoping. It only took five minutes to pick up
Evan's business card. When they told Dave the bartender what they wanted his
face lit up. He fished it out of the trash where he'd thrown it after giving Dixie the details on the phone with an expression on his face that told them the more
trouble he could cause Evan, the better.

'Who's this guy Evan
Buckley?' Juan said, turning the card over in his fingers.

Ellie gave a small
shrug. 'No idea.'

'Really?' He raised an
eyebrow. 'It's just that he was in the bar asking after Dixie, and then here
you are, sitting outside the exact same bar.'

'We thought maybe you
sent him in there,' José said from the front seat. 'We don't believe in
coincidences.'

Ellie shook her head.
'Sorry. Never heard of him.'

The pair of them nodded
like they would have been disappointed if she'd said anything else.

'Hey, José,' Juan said
with a grin, 'I just had an idea. You wanna bet I can't find this guy's name in
her phone?'

José grinned back and
shook his head. 'No way, man—it'd be like throwing money away.'

The two of them laughed
and Ellie could have kicked herself for being so stupid. They wouldn't have to
look very hard—Evan's number would be at the top of the call list. She placed
the side of her head on the window and closed her eyes, the glass cool against
her skin.

'Don't worry,' Juan
said, putting his hand on her knee and giving it a friendly squeeze, 'lying
about him is the least of your problems.' He lifted his hand and put it back on
her thigh as if they were on a date, on their way back to his or her place in
the back of a cab.

Ellie shuddered and kept
her eyes shut and they drove the rest of the way to her hotel in silence. There
was nobody on reception when they got there. Juan caught her looking hopefully
and smiled as he pushed her up the stairs. That's what you get for staying in a
dump. It didn't take more than ten minutes to turn the room over. It wasn't a
large room and there weren't many hiding places. They looked in the closet and
pulled out the dresser drawers, but she knew that they hadn't expected to find
anything in the room—who would be so stupid, after all—but they had to do it
anyway, because Chico would ask.

'We didn't really expect
to find anything,' Juan said with a shrug.

'But we had to do it
anyway,' José said. 'In case Chico asks.' He took a step towards her and pushed
her backwards onto the bed, then sat down beside her. The ancient springs, worn
out from too much abuse sagged under his weight, and they ended up pushed
toward each other, arms and legs touching. She could feel the heat coming off
him through his sleeve and forced herself to sit still, tried to ignore him,
knowing any attempt to move away would only encourage him.

'So, what shall we do
now?' he said, winking at her. What was it with men and winking? It was as if
they thought they were doing you a favor:
hey, little lady, this is your
lucky day
. What it actually did was make her skin crawl. She swallowed
nervously and looked away so she didn't have to watch him staring at her boobs,
his tongue hanging out. Who knows what he'd do if he caught sight of the
contempt in here eyes. He bounced up and down a couple of times, the springs creaking
obscenely. 'We could try these springs out. Feels like they've seem a bit of
use.' His voice was thicker now; she could feel his growing excitement. He
lifted his hand and started to stroke her hair, as if a little tenderness to
begin with made it all okay when he raped her.

'Come on, there's no
time for that,' Juan said, breaking the tension, although it sounded to her as
if it wouldn’t take much to persuade him to find five minutes or so.

She didn't need to be
told twice, even if he wasn't talking to her. She pushed herself off the bed
giving José the perfect target. He gave her a hard slap on the ass, the sound
of it loud in the small room.

'Ow, that hurt,' he
said, shaking his hand, but he was laughing at the same time.

'I felt that,' Juan said
and grabbed her by the arm. He pulled her roughly towards him, shook her and
pushed his face into hers. 'I ought to slap you around a bit,' he told her,
'make you tell us where the cash is, but I can't even be bothered.'

'Even though she
deserves it,' José added from behind her. She didn't need to look at him to
know he'd have given it a go. Just to pass the time, if nothing else.
Sick
little pervert.

'Even though you deserve
it,' Juan agreed, nodding.

She looked back and
forth between the two of them, but had the sense to not say anything. There's a
time and a place for a smart mouth and this wasn't either.

'It's not a problem,
though,' Juan said and took hold of her cheek between his thumb and forefinger.
'Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to see Chico you go,' he sang, not caring that the
meter was all wrong and it just didn't sound right.
Stupid beaner.

José jumped up off the
bed and sniggered. 'Hey, Juan, you wanna bet she tells Chico where it is,' he
said.

Juan laughed. 'No way,
man—it'd be like throwing money away.'