Six Crime Stories (5 page)

*****

Corinna
put up a fuss on the cab ride through the Quarter
,
but I played it like she was drunk off her ass
,
and the driver seemed to buy it. Starbulk caught the worst of her wrath but managed to keep the stripper restrained without making it look too obvious...at least to a Pakistani cabbie who wasn
'
t watching too closely and didn
'
t want any trouble.

By the time we got her inside my second-floor shitpit on Dumaine Street
,
Corinna
seemed all played out. She entered docilely and sat on the recliner like I told her
,
and I started asking questions as soon as her sweet ass hit the cushion.

"
I hear you
'
ve been hangin
'
'
round with the spittin
'
image of Johnny Murder
,
"
I said
,
plunking myself down on the sofa across from her.
"
So what
'
s his deal
,
Corinna
?
"

"
I don
'
t know what you
'
re talkin
'
about
,
"
she said
,
crossing one long
,
sexy leg over the other.
"
You must be mistakin
'
me for someone else.
"

"
The shape-shifter
,
"
said Starbulk
,
towering behind me.
"
We
'
re talking about the bloodthirsty shape-shifting creature posing as Johnny Murder.
"

Corinna
looked at Starbulk like he was crazy.
"
Why don
'
t you go get Ms. Crimsone a glass of water?
"
I said
,
turning to glare up at him.
"
She looks thirsty.
"

Starbulk hesitated
,
then headed for the kitchenette.
"
Be careful with her
,
"
he said.
"
She could very well be a sorceress or demoness. Don
'
t let her touch you.
"

"
No chance of that
,
"
Corinna
said wryly
,
sneering at me.

"
And here we spent all those special times together
,
"
I said.
"
Maybe this
'
ll jog your memory.
"
Tugging a wadded-up dollar bill from my shorts pocket
,
I flattened it out and waved it at her.
"
Now you feelin
'
more affectionate? God knows
,
I stuffed enough of these in your G-string up at the strip club.
"

"
One dollar? Ain
'
t you got nothin
'
bigger?
"
She dropped her eyes to my crotch then and laughed.
"
Oh
,
I guess not.
"

I smiled.
"
No wonder you
'
re not impressed
,
"
I said.
"
You only like dead guys
,
apparently. So how exactly did you an
'
Johnny hook up? You makin
'
the rounds down at Lafayette Cemetery?
"

Corinna
leaned over
,
smiling wickedly at me.
"
The only dead guys I know are you an
'
your boyfriend
,
"
she said.
"
Here
'
s a newsflash
,
fatass: my sugar daddy knows where you live
,
an
'
I guarantee he
'
s comin
'
to get me.
"

"
Maybe we
'
ll have us a foursome
,
"
I said
,
staring into her eyes...and then her cleavage. I leaned forward for a closer look...not at her breasts
,
as huge as they were
,
but at what was squirrelled away between them.

"
What you got there?
"
I said
,
pointing at what looked like some folded-up paper pushed down in her cleavage.

"
Nothin
'
,
"
she said
,
leaning back quickly.

"
Now you know that ain
'
t true
,
"
I said
,
getting up off the couch.
"
Come on
,
hand it over.
"

"
You lay one fat finger on me
,
an
'
I
'
ll gouge out your balls
,
"
said
Corinna
.

"
Okay then
,
"
I said. Starbulk had reentered the room with a glass of water
,
and I motioned him over.
"
Hey
,
Quinto. Let
'
s have a look at whatever she
'
s got stashed between her boobs.
"

"
Will do
,
"
said Starbulk
,
putting the glass down and stepping toward us.

Corinna
clamped her hands over her chest and jumped out of the rocker...but Starbulk came up with the item in two fast moves
,
tickling her sides so she dropped her arms and then zipping two fingers in and out of her bodice.

He unfolded the envelope she
'
d been concealing and flipped it open.
"
Airline tickets
,
"
he said.
"
One way tickets to Rome.
"

I nodded.
"
It figures
,
"
I said.
"
Corinna
an
'
her sweetheart have a little getaway planned. When
'
s the flight leave?
"

"
Two a.m.
,
"
said Starbulk.
"
Five hours from now.
"

"
I guess we can expect company by then
,
"
I said
,
flashing
Corinna
a giant smile
,
"'
cause Johnny might leave this redhead stripper skank behind
,
but he ain
'
t gettin
'
on that plane without his tickets.
"

Apparently
,
Corinna
didn
'
t appreciate what I
'
d said. As I turned to have a look at the plane tickets
,
I heard her gag...and I whipped back around just in time to see her yank her finger out of her throat.

Next thing I knew
,
she was throwing up all over me.

*****

Needless to say
,
I stripped down and leaped in the shower double-quick
,
reluctantly leaving
Corinna
under Starbulk
'
s supervision. I knew it wasn
'
t the best idea I
'
d ever had
,
what with Starbulk being insane and unpredictable and all
,
but I figured he might manage to stay out of trouble for five minutes.

How wrong I was. I couldn
'
t
'
ve been in the shower for more than two minutes when I heard a loud crash from the living room
,
followed by the sounds of a struggle.

As I shut off the water
,
I heard the crack of a door slamming open against a wall...then running footsteps. Something hit the floor hard
,
followed by more footsteps
,
running off after the first set.

Without hesitation
,
I leaped out of the shower
,
flung open the bathroom door
,
and charged around the corner into the living room. The place was a disaster area; stereo speakers were overturned
,
bookshelves knocked over
,
the TV set smashed on the floor. My sax case had been thrown across the room and lay open in a corner
,
the instrument itself kicked out under an end table.

It looked like there had been a fight
,
all right...but what worried me the most was that everyone was gone and the front door was wide open. That was what really got my adrenaline pumping.

That and the fact that when I checked the kitchen cupboard where I kept my emergency gun
,
there was no gun to be found.

Naked and dripping wet
,
I barreled out the doorway into the hall. Looking to my left
,
I saw nothing.

Then
,
I looked the other way.

And came face to face with the man I
'
d been hunting since Q. Liz
'
s death.

He was climbing in off the fire escape through an open window
,
left foot on the floor and right foot just descending. From a distance
,
he perfectly matched the man in my memory--short and wiry with pasty white skin and oily black hair. He had a nose like a carrot and a triangular chin
,
the point of it looking sharp enough to cut glass.

The guy looked so much like Johnny Murder that for a moment
,
I just stood there and stared. Not once had I believed Johnny
'
d really come back from the dead
,
but now that I got a good look at the guy
,
common sense flew out the window. Intellectually
,
I knew he was an imposter...but in my heart
,
I felt as if I was standing ten feet away from the man who
'
d killed my friends and girlfriend. It seemed as if the person I
'
d hated and feared more than anyone in the world was right there in the flesh
,
the embodiment of failure and loss returned to finish the job and take the only thing I had left to lose--my life.

Then
,
I locked eyes with him
,
and the realization hit me. I
'
d been piecing together the possibilities
,
and as soon as I got a good
,
long look in his eyes
,
the truth snapped into place.

The heaviness slid from my heart. The burning
,
painful past fizzled out like a dying sparkler.

The man
'
s disguise was incredible. Everything was Johnny
'
s
,
head to toe.

Except for the eyes.

And I
'
d seen them before. I
'
d seen them almost every day for the past three months
,
plastered all over the newspapers and TV newscasts. Big and black
,
like two big pupils without any color and hardly any whites. Like two black holes bored into a pitch-black soul.

"
Gino Laplaca
,
"
I said.
"
Well
,
I
'
ll be damned.
"

Johnny/Gino reached behind him and pulled a gun out of the waistband of his filthy bluejeans.
"
Well now
,
"
he said.
"
Ever get the feeling you just got served a bad batch of gumbo?
"

I knew what was coming next
,
and I bolted. I made it around the corner into the stairwell just as Johnny/Gino squeezed off his first shot.

Heart hammering
,
I leaped down the stairs
,
taking two at a time. The second shot blasted into the wall behind me as I charged through the door and out into the street.