Hard Eight

**********************

“WAIT HERE FOR me,” I told the driver. “I won’t be long.”

He cut his eyes to me, and then he looked out at the projects. “Good thing I know your father, or I wouldn’t sit here idling my engine. This isn’t exactly an upscale neighborhood.”

I had my gun in the black nylon webbed holster, strapped to my leg. I left my bag in the cab. I walked to the door and knocked.

Bender’s wife answered.

“I’m looking for Andy,” I told her.

“You’re kidding, right?”

“I’m serious.”

“He’s dead. I thought you would have heard.”

For a moment my mind went blank. My second reaction was disbelief. She was lying. Then I looked beyond her and realized the apartment was clean, and there was no sign of Andy Bender. “I didn’t hear,” I said. “What happened?”

“Remember how he had the flu?”

I nodded.

“Well, it killed him. Turned out he had one of those superbugs. After you left, he got a neighbor to take him to the hospital, but it went into his lungs and that was that. It was an act of God.”

All the hair stood up on my arm. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, right,” she said. And she closed the door.

I walked back to the cab and slunk into the backseat.

“You’re awful white,” the driver said. “Are you okay?”

“Something bizarre just happened, but I’m fine. I’m getting used to bizarre things.”

“Now what?”

“Take me to Vinnie’s.”

**********************

I BURST INTO the bonds office. “You’re not going to believe this,” I said to Lula.

“Andy Bender is dead.”

“Get out. Are you shitting me?”

The door to Vinnie’s inner office whipped open. “Were there witnesses? Cripes, you didn’t shoot him in the back, did you? My insurance company hates that.”

“I didn’t shoot him at all. He died from the flu. I was just at his apartment. His wife told me he was dead. From the flu.”

Lula did the sign of the cross. “I’m glad I learned about this cross thing,” she said. Ranger was at Connie’s desk. He had a file in his hand, and he was smiling. “Did you just get out of a cab?”

“Maybe.”

The smile widened. “You went after an FTA in a cab.”

I rested my hand on my gun and blew out a sigh. “Don’t give me a hard time. I’m not having a great day, and as you know, I’ve got two bullets left. I might end up using them on one of us.”