The Outsider (James Bishop 4) (36 page)

‘I like you, Bishop,’ Dario said as he opened the door. ‘You’re okay for a gringo.’

After locking the van, both men made their way through the building to apartment number twenty-two. Dario rapped his knuckles on the door. After a few seconds, the one called Ramon opened it and let them in.

Bishop went first, the other two following close behind. In the living room, he saw Strickland and Clea still sitting cross-legged on the floor, both seemingly in good health. Both looked up at Bishop when he entered. Clea even managed a smile, which was a positive sign. Geraldo was still sitting in the chair, while the other armed goon had taken Dario’s place by the window.

‘You two okay?’ Bishop asked his charges.

‘We are now,’ Strickland said, and Clea nodded in agreement. Strickland added, ‘So you weren’t bullshitting then? There really was a tape?’

‘Oh, there was a tape, all right.’

‘Sit,’ Geraldo said, and Bishop lowered himself to the floor next to Clea. Geraldo then spoke rapidly in Spanish, and Dario stepped forward and handed over the microcassette player. ‘
Bueno
,’ Geraldo said. He darted another quick look at Bishop, then opened the laptop and started on the trackpad again. Meanwhile the guard who’d opened the door took his position behind the three of them. Dario stood a few feet to the right of Bishop.

Bishop turned to Clea and whispered, ‘You okay? They didn’t try anything, I hope.’

Clea got his meaning and shook her head. ‘No, they left me alone, thank God. I think they’re all too scared of Señor Guzman to try anything, which I can understand. He sure scares the hell out of me. They haven’t given us any food or water, but I don’t think I could eat anything anyway.’ She looked at him. ‘It’s good to see you again, Bishop. It really is.’

He smiled and said, ‘That goes both ways.’ He faced front when he heard the computer emitting the same sharp ringing tone as before.

Geraldo repositioned the webcam and when the call was answered, a face appeared on the computer screen. Geraldo spoke some rapid Spanish and then turned the laptop so everybody could see the display.

As expected, it was Guzman again. Bishop saw he was now wearing a powder-blue shirt. He looked as cool as a cucumber, with not a lick of hair out of place. ‘So, Señor Bishop. I hear from Geraldo that you have a tape for me. Will I be pleased when I hear it?’

‘Well, “pleased” isn’t the term I’d use, but I think you’ll find it very interesting.’

He gave a single, stern nod and said, ‘Proceed.’

Geraldo placed the cassette player on the table and pressed Play.

The tape started. Everybody listened intently to the young boy playing at being a TV personality with his sister. Bishop was watching Guzman. His expression never changed at all at the mention of the boy’s name. Then came the knock on the office door, followed by Hartnell and Callaway patiently indulging the boy’s cute interview questions. Other than the occasional blink, Guzman’s face still remained a mask.

Then came the good stuff. With both men unaware of the tape still running in the machine, Callaway went on to reassure Hartnell that he was taking care of all the unspecified loose ends.

And then finally, Hartnell’s voice again: ‘…
All right, but the sooner this is all sealed up, Dom, the better. I don’t need to tell you that if our wetback friend ever discovered we were the ones behind his sister’s death, there’d be war on the streets. You know how emotional they get down there …
’

Bishop watched Guzman slowly clench his jaw muscles as his face grew darker and his eyes grew smaller. The man was clearly trying to contain his rage, and not entirely succeeding. As the tape continued, Guzman gradually gained control over his emotions until his face took on the same mask-like qualities as before. But they’d all seen what was waiting underneath. It even brought a chill to Bishop’s spine, and he wasn’t exactly a pushover in these kinds of situations.

‘
Apagar
,’ Guzman hissed, and Geraldo leaned forward and pressed the Stop button. The room lapsed into complete silence as Guzman pondered on what he’d just heard. Nobody in the room moved. Nobody made a sound. Even Dario had stopped chewing his gum. They all waited for what was coming next.

After a minute, Guzman said, ‘Dario.’

‘
Si, jefe?
’

‘Did Bishop spend time alone with this tape at any point? Did he have any opportunity to doctor the recording?’

Dario frowned. ‘I don’t understand,
jefe
.
Doctor?
’

Guzman gritted his teeth and said, ‘I mean did Bishop have time to mess with the cassette? Is what I have heard genuine, Dario? Yes or no?’

Understanding immediately came to Dario’s face and he nodded enthusiastically. ‘
Si, jefe
. I witnessed Bishop unlocking the briefcase and I was with him all the time after that. The tape was never out of my sight for a second. It’s genuine.’

‘I see.’ Guzman rubbed his cheek. Quietly, he said, ‘This changes many things.
Many
things.’

The room went silent again. Bishop gave it another minute, then said, ‘I held up my end, Señor Guzman.’

Guzman frowned as he peered into his own computer screen. ‘And now you expect me to honour my part of the bargain?’

‘To be honest, after hearing that tape I can’t see how Strickland would be any use to you now anyway.’

Guzman paused, considering. Bishop waited.

The seconds grew longer until it seemed to Bishop time stood still. Finally Guzman said, ‘Geraldo, you and your men return to California. I may have further instructions for you there.’

‘And these three,
jefe
?’

Guzman gave a casual shrug. ‘I do not need Strickland now, and there is no profit in killing them. Leave them.’

Next to him, Bishop heard Clea exhale loudly at the reprieve. He knew how she felt. ‘
Gracias
, Señor Guzman,’ he said.

‘A deal is a deal,’ Guzman said, ‘and I always keep my word.’

‘That’s what I thought. Just one more thing before you go, though.’

‘Oh?’ Guzman said. ‘What is this?’

Bishop pulled the small stack of money from his inner jacket pocket and lobbed it towards Geraldo, who caught it one-handed.

‘Besides the cassette recorder,’ Bishop said, ‘Mechner stashed about eighty grand in that briefcase. That’s five grand of it right there. Dario gave it to me in the parking lot to keep me quiet. The rest he’s keeping for himself. I just thought you should know.’

Dario turned to Bishop, his eyes burning with hatred. ‘This is a
lie
. I never—’

‘
Silencio
,’ Guzman said calmly. ‘Geraldo, find out if this is the truth or not.’

Geraldo stood up, turned to Dario and said, ‘
Manos arriba
.’

The guard standing behind Bishop stepped forward and prodded Dario’s back with the barrel of his gun. Dario slowly raised his hands. His arms were shaking. Geraldo checked the man’s left-hand jacket pocket and pulled out the three stacks of bills it contained. Then he pulled the other dozen or so bundles from the remaining pockets. He turned to Guzman. ‘Looks like about seventy-five thousand,
jefe
.’

‘You disappoint me, Dario,’ Guzman said with a sigh. ‘You really do. Geraldo, make it quick.’

Dario started to speak and stopped when Geraldo made a rapid movement with his right hand. All of a sudden, Bishop saw him holding a small thin knife that hadn’t been there before. In less than a second he flipped the blade until he had it in a reverse grip, then raised his hand and immediately plunged the knife into Dario’s forehead, all the way to the hilt.

Clea gave a loud gasp. Strickland said, ‘
Jesus
.’

Dario’s head had snapped back from the force of the strike. Staring upwards and with his hands still raised, the dying man tottered back a few steps until he connected with the wall behind him. Then his legs gave way and he oozed down the wall like maple syrup. There was almost no blood at all, just a thin red line running from the wound to his chin. Bishop watched the drops land on his shirt. It took a few more seconds for Dario’s eyes to close and shortly afterwards his chest stopped moving altogether.

The room was silent.

Naturally, it was left to Guzman to speak first. ‘Why did you tell me this, Bishop?’

‘I hoped I might bank a small favour from you in return.’

‘You wish a favour.’ Guzman stared at him, his dark eyes resembling black holes. ‘From me.’

‘It wouldn’t be much, just some information. Once we get out of this mess we’re in. But I know that with your unlimited resources, something that might take me months to find out would most likely take you only a few seconds.’

‘Maybe I should just have Geraldo kill you now. That would be even easier, no?’

‘Is that what an honourable man would do, Señor Guzman?’

Guzman paused, frowning to himself. ‘You puzzle me, Señor Bishop, and I am not puzzled by many things anymore. And so I think maybe I will honour your request for that reason alone. Geraldo will give you a number where you can contact him, and he will contact me. Then once I have heard what you want, I will decide if I will help or not.’

‘That’s all I ask.’

The man who could order a death as easy as blinking nodded once and said, ‘Geraldo, leave Señor Bishop his gun. And take that body with you and dispose of it properly. I want no traces.’

‘Understood,
jefe
,’ Geraldo said, at which point Guzman immediately brought the video conference to an end. His face disappeared from the screen and Geraldo spoke rapid Spanish to the other two. To Bishop, he said, ‘Stay right where you are until we’ve gone. I’ll leave your piece by the front door.’

Bishop nodded, then watched as one of the other men reached down and extracted the knife from Dario’s forehead. After using Dario’s jacket to wipe the blood off his face, he hefted him up in a fireman’s carry and took him out to the hallway. Meanwhile, Geraldo began packing his laptop and peripherals into the black holdall.

Clea said, ‘Is that it? They’re just going to let us go?’

‘That’s it,’ Bishop said, turning to her. She had a confused look on her face, as though she couldn’t quite grasp what was happening around her. Bishop understood how she felt. For the past few hours she’d been mentally preparing herself for a bullet in the head, and now it seemed that none of it had been necessary. Her life had been handed back to her by a single nod thousands of miles away. That was a hard thing to grasp in one go.

Bishop looked past her at Strickland, who was staring blankly at the ceiling. He’d know that he’d been handed nothing more than a twenty-four-hour reprieve. But that reprieve meant they still had a chance of saving Barney, and that’s what this was all about.

Finally Geraldo hefted the holdall strap over his shoulder and spoke to the remaining guard in Spanish. The guard went out into the hallway. Geraldo stopped before Bishop and handed him a scrap of paper with a handwritten number on it.

‘Two weeks from now,’ he said, ‘this number will be useless. Maybe sooner.’

‘Fair enough,’ Bishop said, taking the piece of paper.

Geraldo walked off and joined the others in the hallway outside. Bishop heard some faint mutterings from out there and the sound of the front door being opened. Then shut.

Bishop got up and went over to the hallway. It was empty of people. He also spotted the Glock lying on the floor mat. ‘It’s okay,’ he said. ‘They’ve gone.’

After retrieving the gun, he went back and helped Clea to her feet. She still seemed shaky and unaware of her surroundings. Strickland was already standing, watching them both.

‘So that’s us out of the frying pan and back into the fire,’ he said. ‘What now?’

‘Now you go get that money you promised us,’ Bishop said.

The moment Strickland exited the living room, Clea removed her glasses and began sobbing quietly. She barely made a sound, but her shoulders shook with pent-up emotion. Bishop took her other hand and held it. He understood delayed shock. He’d seen it countless times before.

‘It’s all right,’ he said in a soothing tone. ‘You’re okay, Clea.’

Between sniffles, she said, ‘I know I am. It’s just … it’s just … ’ She stopped, took a deep breath and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her jumper. Then she put her glasses back on and looked at him. Sniffing, she said, ‘Don’t you get it, Bishop? All those hours we were sitting here while you were gone, I thought I was going to die. I thought we were both going to die. I really did.’

‘And now you’re alive and confused and you don’t know what to think. I understand. It’s common amongst survivors of traumas.’

She looked at his face, then she looked at her hand in his. She gently removed it and said, ‘
Do
you understand, Bishop? Because I don’t think you do. A few minutes ago I sat and watched you sign that man’s death warrant like it was nothing.’

‘You mean Dario? He was a stone-cold killer, like the rest of them. Don’t waste your tears on him.’

‘And what does that make you, Bishop? You’re no different to any of them. Even Guzman recognized a kindred spirit when he agreed to help you later. Riding with you in the car I almost forgot your true nature, but I’ve seen the other side of your face now and it’s not something I’ll ever be able to forget.’

‘I never claimed to be a saint, Clea. I did what I had to do, that’s all. And I’d do it again if I needed to.’

‘Yes, I realize you are who you are. But by the same token, you can’t expect me to carry on with you two after this. I can’t do it anymore. I just can’t.’

‘I understand. I was actually going to suggest you head on back now anyway. You’ve already done enough for us, and you’ve got a daughter back home waiting for you.’

Frowning, she used a hand to wipe away the last remnants of tears. ‘Seriously? You don’t mind?’