Cover Of Night

"Four, to start." He didn’t think two pills would make a dent in this headache.

"Aspirin’s a blood thinner."

"I’ll take the risk. I need something."

Billy got a bottle of water and opened it, then shook four pills into his palm and gave them to Teague, who cautiously swallowed them one at a time, trying to move his head as little as possible.

Then Billy set to work with the diaper wipes, cleaning the blood away so he could see the damage.

As he carefully wiped around the big cut at the top of Teague’s forehead, he murmured, "This is the most dumb-ass stunt I’ve ever seen. Tell me again why we’re doing this."

"Money.’"

"Yeah, but it’s not enough to risk getting our asses thrown in the pen for life. Blowing the bridge, holding the whole town hostage – this can go to hell so many different ways it ain’t funny. Without even thinking hard, I can come up with four or five better ways of getting what those boys want, less risk all the way around." Billy kept his voice low, so low it wouldn’t carry beyond the confines of the tent.

They were getting paid very well. Teague intended to take something off the top, but the others didn’t need to know about that. Honor among thieves was a myth, and he wasn’t about to start perpetuating it. As far as the other guys knew, they were getting a cool one hundred thousand, to be divided four ways, twenty-five for each of them for a few days’ work, with Toxtel picking up all the expenses for this massive charade.

"The risk to us is minimal," he said. "We don’t let ourselves be seen, and none of those people over there have any idea we’re involved."

"Those two yahoos from Chicago know we’re involved."

"You’re assuming they’ll be alive to tell."

A quick grin crossed Billy’s face, then just as quickly faded. "They’re not alive, they can’t pay us."

"It’s choreographed. We’ll get paid when the woman over there makes arrangements to give them what they want. Toxtel wanted to wait until he actually had whatever it is to make payment, but I nixed that. He has what he wants, he’d put a bullet in all of us without blinking an eye, to keep from paying. So we get paid first."

"He trusts us to stay around after we get paid?"

"I doubt it, but he doesn’t have a choice."

"When you gonna do it?"

When did he intend to kill Toxtel and Goss? Teague thought about it. "After they get what they want. If they’re willing to pay so much money to get their hands on whatever it is, we might be interested in it, too. See, a time will be set for the handover, because we’ll have to get everything packed up and cover our tracks so we can get the hell out of Dodge as soon as it’s done. It’ll take a while for those people to work their way across the stream and get help, and in the meantime, we’re busy vanishing. Once Toxtel has what he wants, they’ll pull back, too, and we’ll be waiting for them. Pop them, leave their bodies. They’re the only two known to be involved. We’re clear."

"So who killed them, then, if" they’re the only two?"

"Most logical assumption is they had a third partner who double-crossed them. It’ll work. Trust me."

Billy was silent then as he examined Teague’s wound. "This needs stitches," he finally said, "but it’s stopped bleeding. Come morning, you want to take a trip to the clinic in town? It’s not a bullet wound, so it won’t be reported."

"I might do that. I’ll decide then." Some antibiotics might come in handy, plus the doc could give him some real painkillers. People took falls in these mountains all the time; nothing unusual there.

Billy dabbed some antibiotic ointment on the cut, taped a pad over it. "I hope we haven’t bit off more than we can chew. People died over there, Teague; when the lid blows off and the cops get in here, they’ll pull in every state investigator on the job, plus some Federal ones if they need to. This will be big news, and there’ll be some big dogs on our asses."

"They may figure out more people were involved, but I’ve been careful not to be seen with those two guys, and nothing is written down, no phone records to worry about. If they’re dead, they can’t involve us. We’re getting paid in cash. Unless we screw up and let ourselves be identified, we’re home free."

Billy thought it over, then nodded. "I can see that. But – damn! Who thought of this shit to begin with?"

"Toxtel. He and Goss went in thinking they were the toughest guys around, and found out they weren’t. Toxtel has a real hard-on for some guy over there who pulled a shotgun on him. Don’t guess he’s ever been on the losing end before, because he’s got a big ego and he can’t see around it."

Billy grunted. They’d both seen it before, and nine times out of ten the situation turned into a clusterfuck. If Teague hadn’t seen a way he and his boys could dance their way out, he wouldn’t have touched this with a barge pole.

"How long you think this will take?"

"I’m figuring four or five days, at least," Teague said. Toxtel might think the locals would quickly fold and throw Cate Nightingale to the wolves, but Teague knew better. These people were stubborn, and they would close ranks around her. At some point, though, the price of continued resistance would become too high – and then Ms. Nightingale herself would give in and give these boys whatever it was of theirs that she was hiding.

The only possibility of a fast outcome that he saw was that she might cave first thing, but in his experience, people who tried to screw someone else in the first plate weren’t real big on civic duty, or whatever you wanted to call it. No, if she was trying to score on something crooked, she wouldn’t give up right away. She would lie, she’d deny, she’d stall, until she thought she’d gone as long as possible without her neighbors turning on her – then she’d start making excuses, trying to explain and make herself look as good as possible, and ultimately she’d cave.