away for me to reach him, to kick out or lunge for him. But it seemed like that was my only play here, because of the second guy behind me. There was no way I could turn and run, as goon number two had cut off my exit. My only chance was to charge the first guy and hope that the second guy opened fire on me, missed, and hit his partner. The odds of success were right up there with lightning striking each of them dead simultaneously.
All of these thoughts passed within a second or two. I didn’t have too many more seconds to spare.
“How’s the shoulder?” I asked, to buy some time, at least make him want to say something wise in reply, at which time I could make my move and pray.
“Oh,” he replied, “it’s doing much-what the-”
I started my lunge forward, but his eyes had moved beyond me and then an explosion impacted his right shoulder, followed rapidly by one to his chest that sprayed me with his blood. His gun fell from his hand with the shot to his shoulder. His body collapsed with the chest shot.
Instinctively, I altered my direction from a lunge forward to a dive to the left, hitting the ground hard, pain shooting through my kneecap and confusion reigning in my brain. This didn’t make sense. The second goon shot his partner?
Another shot fired, and then I heard the guy behind me drop, too.
I waited for a count of one or two seconds before I raised my head. Both of them were down. Neither was moving. I got to my feet and realized I had totally fucked my left knee in my dive. I limped over to the first goon, who was dead beyond any doubt. Still, I kicked his weapon far away from him. I dragged myself over to the one who’d been behind me. The bullet had entered his left temple. Presumably, he’d turned to look back toward the street and was shot before he could complete a pivot, much less fire his weapon. His gun had fallen behind him, but I kicked it away, anyway.
I had more questions than ever. But I was unbelievably lucky to be alive, however odd the circumstances. So sore knee and all, I decided not to press my luck any further and got the hell out of there.
55
“Lightner,” I said into my cell phone, once I was back inside my car. “Get over to the law firm. Someone just tried to kill me. Shauna and Bradley and Marie are sitting ducks over there.”
“Jesus, what the hell happened?”
“Can’t talk now. Just get over there. I’ll see you soon.”
I punched out the phone and dialed Tori’s cell phone.
“Hello?”
“Tori, it’s Jason. Where are you?”
“I’m at my condo. I’m working on an Internet search-”
“Listen, you still have that gun you used five years ago?”
She was silent for a moment. “What kind of a question is-”
“You could be in danger,” I said. “Lock your door and don’t let anyone in. They saw you with me yesterday at Summerset Farms. They just tried to kill me, and you could be next. I’ll be there in less than half an hour. Okay?”
“Okay, sure. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said.
“What about everyone else? Shauna and the others?”
“I just talked to them. They’re still at our office. Joel’s going over there.”
“Maybe I should, too.”
That wasn’t a bad idea. Keep us all together. “Can you get to your car safely?”
“I-sure. My condo building’s secure. We have a doorman, and the garage is underground. You’d have to go through the lobby to get to it.”
“That doesn’t fill me with confidence, Tori.”
“It’ll be fine,” she promised. “I’ll leave right now. I’ll go straight to the law firm.”
“I don’t know…”
“I think you’re being paranoid,” she said. “Why would someone want to kill me?”
56
I sat in a chair in the conference room, staring up at the ceiling.
“Well, this is just insane,” said Shauna. “We need to go to the judge. We need to tell him that we’re obviously onto something here, and our lives are at risk. We need a continuance of the trial and protection.”
Bradley and Joel Lightner were sitting here with me. Tori had just arrived and had taken a seat, too. Everyone was tense. This was turning into something nobody had expected.
“You’re forgetting something,” I said. “You’re forgetting I left the scene. There are two dead bodies and I’m nowhere to be found. Hell, I could be a suspect.”
In hindsight, it was probably dumb of me to flee. It was an instinct. Someone had just tried to kill me, and getting as far away as possible, as fast as possible, had seemed like a pretty swell idea at the time.
“It’s only been an hour or so,” said Shauna. “Let’s call the cops now and go in.”
I shook my head. “I could get tied up for days with those guys. I don’t have those days. I have a client who needs me to be focusing on his trial.”
“But think about it, Jason. You tell them what happened, and the judge will have to delay things. Wendy Kotowski would probably agree.”
That might be true. But I couldn’t trust Judge Nash. He was too unpredictable, and I was on his shit list now. And my story was a real crowd-pleaser. Some mobsters tried to kill me because I’d uncovered a plot between the Mob and a wealthy downstate CEO to kill Kathy Rubinkowski, but the ambush was thwarted when someone miraculously saved me. Who, I have no idea. Yeah, that was a real winner. Until I had something more to back it up, I’d sound like a paranoid freak. I sure as hell couldn’t count on help from our judge.
Tori said, “Are you sure they were the same guys who were hassling me at Vic’s that night?”
I’d left things a little strangely with Tori on Thanksgiving night, after we’d slept together. I wasn’t sure how it would work out going forward. But any awkwardness was erased by the turn of events tonight.
I nodded. “No doubt. The one guy said, ‘We meet again.’ And when I asked him how his shoulder was doing, he started to answer. That was just before he got shot.”
Tori shook her head. Nobody had a ready explanation.
“They’ve been watching me all along,” I said. “The Mob. The Capparellis. That was back when all this started. When Lorenzo Fowler came to see me. They must have been wise to it. They were afraid he was going to tell me something. So they wanted to keep an eye on me.” I threw my hands up. “That’s the best I can figure.”
“So, if the Capparellis wanted to kill you,” said Joel, “who came to your rescue tonight?”
I had no idea. “Someone who’s a pretty good shot,” I said. “I know, Joel, I know. You’re thinking it was the infamous Gin Rummy. But Gin Rummy works for the Capparellis. Gin Rummy, if anything, should want me dead. He wouldn’t try to save me.”
Nobody knew what to say. It was getting easier and easier to draw up a list of people who wanted me dead. But not so easy to think of who would want to rescue me.
“Okay, listen up,” I said. I sat up and looked around the table. “Starting right now, each of you has permission to drop off this case.”
“I needed your permission?” Lightner asked.
I ignored him. “Go on vacation or something. I know our witnesses and I know their witnesses. I can handle it. I don’t need anyone’s death on my conscience. No foolin’, guys. This is my problem, not yours.”
The room went quiet. They were probably thinking it over. They should. I was serious. They’d done enough
