Page 73 of Kill For Me Kill For You
‘There was a stack of books like that on the nightstand. You think this cat is up to no good?’ asked Farrow.
‘I don’t know. Maybe he just gets off on that stuff?’
‘Maybe,’ said Farrow.
‘There’s nothing up here. Want to take another look out back? Or are we done?’
Farrow sighed, looked at the books again and took one off the shelf. It was supposedly written by an anonymous former member of the British secret service. The index to the book went through the various stages of identity theft, how to avoid it and how to do it.
‘Maybe he’s a crook? If he doesn’t wake up soon, we should get someone out here to take a look at his computer,’ said Farrow.
‘There’s no way a woman lives here. Maybe the guy has a girlfriend, but they don’t live together. I agree we don’t have a domestic. I don’t know what it is. Could be he’s a bad guy and this is a hit?’
‘I don’t know. Doesn’t feel like a professional job. Hitmen don’t kill victims with their own axe.’
Farrow shut the book, put it back on the shelf, said, ‘Let’s take one more look downstairs then get out of here. Kitchen first. Then the back yard.’
37
Amanda
She listened with tears in her eyes, as Farrow and his partner made their way downstairs and into the kitchen.
The breath leaving her body felt like a premature release. She inched forward, dragging her body with her arms and pushing with one leg.
She still had to get out before they noticed the back door had been broken again. She turned the key in the lock of the metal box until the lid popped gently open. Then she pushed it in front of her, clear of the bed and crawled out. Opened the lid.
Inside were five fat rolls of cash, each of them the same thickness as a soda can. She gasped when she saw that much money. She took one of the rolls, without thinking, and put it in the pocket of her coat. Then two more rolls. That left two behind. She didn’t think this guy would need it. He had a big house, and he must’ve been rich to pay for it. He wouldn’t miss this. She would need cash, because now that she’d come up empty-handed from her little midnight excursion she had nothing else to do but run. Leave her apartment, leave the city behind and just take off. Plus, who has rolls of cash in a lockbox? Maybe Quinn was a crook like Farrow had said?
Someone who might one day need this cash to go on the run himself, or maybe it was just a little something Quinn was hiding from his tax return? Either way, she needed it now.
They would catch her eventually. She knew they would. Farrow was a smart guy, even if he didn’t have time to shine his shoes.
Her knee screamed as she stood. She’d need a couple of steps to loosen it up.
Tiptoeing, she made her way to the top of the stairs.
These stairs creaked. At least one of them did. She’d heard it, when Farrow and Hernandez were coming up. Her heart was beating so hard and so fast she could feel it pounding in her ears.
It wouldn’t take them long to search the kitchen. If they even bothered. They might go straight to the back yard. They’d see the broken pane. They’d know she had been, or was still in the house.
Which stair had creaked? She stared at them now, breathlessly.
No way to tell from looking at them. She couldn’t remember. And she had no time to waste. Amanda threw her right leg over the banister and took hold of it in her gloved hands. Slowly, quietly, she slid down. As she got halfway, she caught a glimpse of Farrow, in his big black overcoat, going towards the back door. She got off the rail, tiptoed to the front door and took hold of the lock.
Started to turn it.
38
Farrow
Hernandez stood at the back door, staring at it. It took Farrow a moment to realize what she was looking at, then he saw the door was open an inch.
‘Did Statler and Waldorf leave this door open?’ he asked.
Hernandez beckoned for him to come closer, shaking her head.
One of the windowpanes, just above the lock, was missing. Although, not altogether missing. It was still largely intact, broken, yes, but held together with black duct tape and hanging down from the pane on another piece of tape.
