In an odd way, it showed him what he’d been missing. The problem with the church was that it was just so damn boring. Once you got everything in place there was no challenge to it. It was shooting dumb fish in a barrel. The rubes literally queued up to throw their money at you.
He’d gotten complacent. Now that he was back in the heat of the action he was clearly not in game shape. They’d been looking for two days and he’d not been able to find whoever was working with Dionne. They’d gone through the staff, the delegates, everybody. The problem was, a lot of the staff were ex-grifters so any of them could have been turned. They were, by nature, morally flexible. It was why he had hired them. As for the delegates, they were worse. You can’t find the odd one out in a sea of odd. He’d tried, though. He’d even got security to check the crazy cat lady’s urn to confirm it really did contain only ashes. It did.
He was seeing shadows out there. Dionne was everywhere and nowhere at once. He just needed a little more time and he’d be able to get out of here. Clean. That would be a win. Time to start over and have a serious nest egg to work with, too.
He picked up his book. A little James Patterson and some nice ribs – that was what he needed. He opened the novel and started reading.
He got through two whole sentences before he heard, “So, what’s good here?”
Freddie lowered his book to get a good look at the man who was now sitting opposite him. He was short – unnaturally short – and stocky. He was also smiling.
“Who the fuck are you?” said Freddie, looking in Marcus’s direction pointedly. The waiter quickly started to make his way to the table.
“I’m someone you want to talk to.”
“I doubt that.”
“OK,” said the man. “But you’re giving her the win.”
Freddie held his hand up to stop the waiter before he could say anything. “We’re fine, Marcus.”
He hesitated for a moment before turning on his heels and heading back to his original position.
“Talk. Fast.”
“Does speaking to people like this really work for you?”
“You interrupt my dinner and then give me lessons in etiquette?”
The man shrugged. “Good point. She’s got you.”
“Excuse me?”
The man reached forward and took Freddie’s glass of water. “Sorry, do you mind? I just …” He took a long sip before Freddie could object.
“What did you say?” asked Freddie.
The man smacked his lips. “I said, ‘She’s got you.’”
“Who is ‘she’?”
The man laughed. “Oh, come on, now. We both know the answer to that.”
Freddie simply stared at him. Maybe he should get him thrown out after all.
The stranger rolled his eyes. “Dionne.”
“How has she got me?”
“Every which way, my friend. Your crew, your computers. She’s been working on this for a long time.” The man raised his nose and sniffed the air. “Can you smell that? It isn’t barbecue. It’s your ass over the fire, and you don’t even know it.”
“Right,” said Freddie. “And she’s sent you to negotiate my surrender?” He laughed. Hopefully it sounded more convincing to his audience than it did to him.
“Oh,” said the stranger, “I’m here to negotiate, but not on her behalf. I know how much money you’ve got coming in, and let’s just say I’m open to persuasion. Financial persuasion. I’m feeling underappreciated.”
“And, if I were interested, what exactly would I be buying? I don’t know who the hell you are.”
“Exactly,” said the man. “I’m so good at what I do that nobody knows who I am. You put me on the payroll and all your problems disappear. If you make it worth my while.”
“And how do I know you can do what you say?” asked Freddie.
“Because, as soon as the first payment hits my bitcoin account, you’ll get to watch a live stream of your ex getting perp-walked.”
Freddie picked up his glass of wine and swirled it around a little. “OK. Keep talking.”
The man laughed. “I just …”
He froze for a moment and the smile dropped from his face. His eyes fixed on something over Freddie’s shoulder. Freddie turned in his seat, half expecting Dionne or the Ghost of Christmas Past to be there. When he turned back around, the stranger was out of his seat and heading straight for the door.
“Hey, wait a …”
Freddie was up in pursuit. Now that he saw him standing, he realised that the stranger was actually a dwarf. The guy moved fast, though. He was out of the door while Freddie was still halfway across the restaurant.
The maître d’ looked at him, alarmed. “Mr Draper, is everything alright?”
Freddie ignored the question and pushed past him. The little guy had headed in the direction of the gaming floor. He resisted the urge to break into a full sprint, but speed-walked his way there. An eight-strong bachelorette party stumbled into his path, all decked out in pink and wearing personalised T-shirts with nicknames on them.
A tall girl teetering on heels regarded him. “Hey, loverboy!”
The other girls cheered.
“Fuck off.”
Her face went from salacious to a snarl as Freddie shoved her out the way. “What the fuck did you say to me?”
Freddie rushed past, looking left and then right. The tables and the slots were both busy, with plenty of people milling around between them. He could see no trace of the stranger. Whatever had spooked him had spooked him good.
“Damn it!”
Freddie turned to head back to the restaurant, just in time to catch a pink glittery clutch right in the face.
Chapter Thirty-Three
By any stretch of the imagination, Bunny was having a weird day. He was extremely pleased that the mission out in the yard had been successful. He’d managed to get the package from Birdie, and seeing as he hadn’t heard shouting and shooting, the little drone must have got away clean.
It had been too risky to look at the tiny bundle until he’d
