Page 6 of A River Red With Blood
“It worked out this time.”
“Assuming she doesn’t go back to him, in which case he’ll take his misery out on her.Does that count as helping or hindering?”
“I don’t want to think too hard about it.”
“You may have more in common with the Fulcis than you like to admit.”
“I’m not afraid to admit it at all.”
Moxie picked up his coat.
“If the Spero is implicated in the death of Scott Theriault,” he said, “feel free to set the Fulcis loose on the place.”
“I can try, but I should warn you: Tony is evolving as a human being.”
“Says who?”
“Says Tony.”
Moxie pondered.
“What does that mean, in real terms?Does he now use tools?”
“I’m just saying that you might need to spring for a couple of sledgehammers,” I replied.
“I have an account at Maine Hardware,” said Moxie.“Tell them to spare no expense.”
Chapter 6
In Detroit, Teal was staying in one of the chain hotels over by the Riverwalk while Kenney was in an Airbnb in Hamtramck.Kenney liked Airbnbs, especially the crappy, midlevel ones: clean, but not fastidiously so, in buildings that were secure but didn’t have cameras.Before Airbnb came along, one of the players would always stay in a motel, preferably a mom-and-pop operation where you could park your car directly outside your door and didn’t have to enter via a lobby, but those places were thinner on the ground than in the past.It was, Kenney reflected, as though the country was set on taking anything individual or quirky and throwing it under the corporate bus.It was the Starbuckization of America.And okay, Airbnb was a big business and played hell with the residential nature of cities, but it wasn’t like the company was branding the exteriors of buildings.The places on offer still resembled homes, and Kenney, Teal, and the Saint were scrupulous about leaving them in the condition in which they’d found them, and frequently even tidier.A degree of self-interest was obviously involved, but it was also a question of being respectful of the property of others.
They took the woman near Fishkorn.They had to drive around for a while to find her, which was always hazardous, but the police didn’t spend any more time in Fishkorn than they had to.Fishkorn was up there with Belmont, Van Steuben, and Petosky-Otsego as one of the areas better avoided in Detroit, but Kenney had nixed Belmont and P-O because of the gangs, same with Greensbriar and Franklin Park.Teal was sure Fishkorn had gangs too—it had drugs, which traditionally meant gangs—but Kenney was insistent, and Teal went along because Kenney hadn’t yetsteered them wrong.Also, Teal liked Black girls, and Fishkorn was about as Black as a man could get without relocating to Africa.The problem, of course, was that Kenney and Teal were white, and two white guys in a car in Fishkorn screamed “police,” but Kenney had gotten around that by removing the bulbs from the interior lights and adding a tint to the Camry’s windows.The tint was a far-from-perfect job, noticeably at the rear, which was all creases and bubbles, but it would suffice.Shortly before they reached Fishkorn, Teal got in the back of the Camry and lay down flat, so now it was just one guy in a murky car, and as far as any inquisitive residents of Fishkorn were concerned, he was probably trying to buy or sell something, even if that something was trouble.But nobody paid the Camry much attention at all, since folks in Fishkorn were too busy making trouble of their own, avoiding it, or simply being poor.
Kenney had done his homework, as expected, so they bypassed the stretch of West Warren between Greenfield and Wyoming, as that had a bunch of Middle Eastern joints and those people had a way of looking out for their own.They concentrated on the blocks around Fishkorn itself, where they spotted the woman walking west along Joy Road.When she turned down Freeland, she was theirs.Kenney pulled over—not too close or too fast—rolled down his window, and said he was lost, looking for the White Castle.He made no attempt to open the door and went out of his way not to alarm the woman, who was in her late twenties or early thirties; bigger than Teal preferred, though the color was right.By the time Kenney rolled to a stop, Teal had the rear door unlocked, and when the woman turned to point back toward Greenfield and the White Castle, Teal was on her.
In the past they’d used chloroform, but it wasn’t like in the movies where someone has a pad pressed against their face and seconds later they’re out.Two of the previous women had struggled, one of them like her life depended on it, which it had, and Teal took a bad blow to the cheek that was a bitch to explain to his wife when he returned home.After that, they’d pivoted to a gun or knife, the only difficulty being that some women froze at the sight of a weapon, which meant a delay in gettingthem into the car.But Teal now used a more direct approach, and as the target became aware of him, he hit her hard with a blackjack at the base of the skull, then one more time on the same spot to be sure.Even as she was falling, Teal was using her momentum to steer her into the back of the car, and once she was lying on the floor, he climbed in on top of her and closed the door.Only then did he apply the chloroform, but not before Kenney had rolled down all the windows, since chloroform didn’t make distinctions at close quarters.
“Good to go,” he told Kenney.
Twenty seconds, give or take.They were getting very good at it.But then, they’d had plenty of practice.
Chapter 7
The Airbnb came with a parking space in a basement garage, which was another reason Kenney had selected it.There was also a bellman’s cart, which was an added bonus.From the trunk of the Camry, Kenney removed an open XXXXL wheeled canvas duffel bag, fifty-six inches long and twenty-seven inches high.He placed the bag on the cart, wheeled it to the back door of the Camry, and he and Teal folded the unconscious woman into it before zipping it half-closed—it wouldn’t close any further because of her size—and draping a coat over the gap.By then Teal had taped her mouth and bound her hands and feet with cable ties, but they still needed to move quickly because the last thing they wanted was for the bag to begin making noiseswhile someone was passing them in the hallway.Kenney added a suitcase for appearances’ sake, and he and Teal maneuvered the cart into the elevator.Fortune was smiling on them, if not the woman: the elevator went straight to the top floor, no stops, and they encountered neither persons nor problems as they ran the cart into the apartment and closed the door behind them.
The apartment had two bedrooms, one of which Kenney was using.He had stripped the sheets from the bed in the other room and replaced them with a cheap set from Marshalls.More sheets were laid on the floor; sheets felt more comfortable underfoot than plastic, which was too functional for the first stage, though Kenney had put down plastic in the master bathroom, where they would wash the woman once they were done with her.
Kenney and Teal removed her from the bag and laid her on the bed.She was moaning against the gag, so Teal gave her another blast of chloroform while Kenney returned the bellman’scart to the basement.He didn’t want anyone knocking on their door to find out if they had it, which would spoil the mood.
By the time he returned, Teal was removing her clothes.Because they weren’t yet ready to untie her, Teal used a box cutter, being careful not to wound her.Finally, when she was naked, they bound her arms and legs to the bed.Only when they were satisfied she was secured, and each had double-checked the other’s work, did they strip.There was no awkwardness about it, not any longer.
“Go ahead,” said Kenney.“I went first last time.”
Teal didn’t argue.Only a fool would.
It was after three a.m.when they finished and the woman was dead.Both men were tired, and it was tempting to sleep, even if for a few hours, but there was a process to be followed:If we don’t take care of ourselves, the law will take care of us, as the Saint liked to say.They put on gloves and disposable aprons, tied nets around their hair, and cleaned the body thoroughly before triple-wrapping it in black garbage bags, which they sealed with tape at each stage.They returned the body to the duffel and removed the sheets from the bed and floor, folding each carefully inward so it formed a neat square, before sliding them into more fresh garbage bags.The following day, Kenney would take the sheets to a twenty-four-hour laundromat near Chandler Park, where he’d wash them himself before dumping them.
Only when all this was accomplished did each man shower, being careful to remove any stray hairs from the drain protector afterward.Kenney finished first and went to retrieve the bellman’s cart.They placed the duffel on the cart—a body always felt heavier dead than alive, which Kenney never understood—and rolled it to the basement.As a precaution, Kenney had oiled the wheels earlier, but he needn’t have bothered because the other residents were either also Airbnbers or had grown used to visitors arriving and departing at odd hours.While it was still dark, they drove out of the garage.On a printed map, Kenney had marked the locations of dumpsters, of which there was no shortage in Detroit, and especially not in Hamtramck, whichwas also the location of the Metropolitan Transfer Center for garbage collection and transport.
