The Price of Blood Read Online Free PDF Page A

magazine from the pocket of his jacket, inserted it and racked the slide. He did not set the safe. With the pistol hanging casually in his hand he proposed in a calm voice, “We all sit here for a few minutes and get acquainted and see if anything unusual happens. We already got notice of one cop in the area. Let’s see if a million Yankee cops come through the door.”
    Across the room Andy methodically worked down the row of weapons, clearing bolts, checking chambers, toggling with the breech of the launchers. A cold metal snap and precision clacked in the tense room.
    Nina leaned forward and looked into the briefcase and plucked out the cassette and studied the label. In the process she spilled a little of the cognac. The amber liquid splashed lightly on her knee and trickled slowly between her thighs.
    “The truth about the alleged Holocaust. Lectures by Rev. Earl Devine,” she read. Broker watched her eyes. The cloudy shiver in them. Little muscles at the corner of her lips twitched. “You gotta be fuckin’ kidding,” she said.
    “Watch it, pottymouth,” said Andy. “Earl’s an ordained minister. Just thought you should know.”
    “You need a bath, Nina,” said Earl. “I can smell you.”
    “Not as good as I can smell you, Elmer .”
    Earl chuckled. “Andy, Jules tells me that Mr. Broker carries a nine-mil Beretta in a hideout over the crack of his ass under that baggy T-shirt. Take a look.”
    Broker put up with a rough hand stiff arming his neck, another frisking his back. “He’s clean, Earl.”
    “Check his socks.” Andy did.
    “Take the battery out of that pager,” said Earl.
    Andy unclipped the device and dumped the battery to the floor. Uh oh , thought Broker. Then Andy tossed the pager to Earl who placed it on the marble slab next to the briefcase. With a casual show of force he raised the butt of the .45 and smashed the plastic device.
    “This isn’t going to work. My guy won’t show unless he beeps a number,” said Broker. “Deal’s off. And you people are outta here. Nina, get upstairs.”
    “I’m enjoying my conversation with Elmer here,” she said. There was murder in her eyes, way more complicated than these good old boys could ever know. It was time to pull the plug. Fuck the money.
    Andy giggled at Nina’s defiance. “Nice for a man to be taken so seriously in his own house.”
    “You just shut up, Broker,” added Earl with a thin smile. “This lady don’t add up and she’s got some explaining to do. The kind of explaining that might take all night,” said Earl with a thin smile.
    Broker shot a poison look at Nina. The anger in his voice was real. “What the hell are you doing here, goddammit!”
    Nina tipped the bottle up, swallowed, and sneered.
    “Gawdamn,” grinned Earl, “do that again, honey, I love the way you swallow.”
    “I just want my fucking money,” muttered Broker. Earl waved him silent with the big Colt.

6
    T HEY WAITED. SWEAT RAN DOWN BROKER’S RIBS and pooled in his shorts. He paced, shadowed by Andy. Jules Tabor stood at the window and watched the street. Earl went upstairs, found Broker’s pistol, came down and scouted the backyard; then he brought a chair from the kitchen and sat facing Nina, knees almost touching, and read through the dossier material that had been in her bag. He glanced up. “What good is this? Most of it’s crossed out.”
    “That’s the Freedom of Information Act for you,” said Nina as she suicidally finished the pint. Then she picked up the video cassette and studied the blurb on the back.
    Earl set the dossiers aside and spoke to Jules. “Go out to the van, check out the street for about five more minutes then pull in back. We’ll load up there. Andy, look around for some rope to tie them up.”
    “Hey—” Broker started to protest. Earl snapped the .45 on him.
    “Sorry, Broker, I came to do business with an arms dealer and I wind up with a redheaded chick with a suitcase full of government documents.