You Get Full Credit For Being Alive

Chapter Seventeen

We took Janich's car, which he'd left along the road at the end of the cul-de-sac. I drove for ten minutes before I got tired of Janich's muffled curses and cut the zip tie off his head. He spit out the ski mask and coughed for about a minute before looking at me with murder in his eyes. "What, you're gonna drive me some place quiet and off me now?"

"I'm not going to do a damn thing to you, unless you try to make a grab for the wheel of the car," I said conversationally. I'd seen his hands twitching. "In which case, yes, I will shoot you, ditch your car somewhere remote and set the entire thing on fire. I haven't decided if I'd keep you alive for that part or not yet, so don't tempt me, Detective. What you said earlier about not antagonizing the guy with the gun was very wise."

Janich frowned. "If you're not gonna kill me, then what are we doing here?" He paused, then added, "Listen, we can make this work. You take Shawn and go, it'll be like this never happened. All square, I won't come after you."

"No, you'll just tell your gangbanging friends about us and then let them do the dirty work." I was looking for Janich's tell and there it was, that slight hesitation in his breath. "I know they want Shawn dead, and I know they're holding you responsible for finding him. I know they're not going to be happy about you screwing it up, either."

"Yeah?" Janich sighed and leaned back against the car seat, all his bluster deflating like a balloon. "What else do you know, Mr. J?"

"Lots of things." I checked my mirrors before switching lanes; the last thing I needed right now was to be pulled over for a traffic violation. "Like the location of Kent Station, for instance."

Janich froze. "Kent Station? Why, you putting me on a train? It's a little early for that."

"It's never too early for what I've got in mind."

"You're insane."

"Nope." I smiled at him. "I just want to give you the chance to be a hero, that's all."

The rest of the ride was silent, at least until we pulled up just outside the parking garage at Kent Station. "They hang out on the lower level at night, don't they?" I asked as I put the headlights on bright. The eastern sky was just starting to get a little bit of color now. "The Red Scorpions."

"You want to send me in against those guys?" Janich laughed hoarsely. "Bad idea. They won't kill me, not until they torture your name outta me. You and Shawn still won't be safe."

"There's not going to be time for conversation," I said, reaching into the back seat for my special bag. It was reassuringly heavy. "Because I'm going to level the playing field a bit."

I could see movement inside the garage. A man appeared at the entrance to it; I could only see his silhouette, but I was pretty sure he wasn't an early morning traveler. Janich saw him too, and stiffened.

"You're going in with me?" he asked, not at all reassured.

"Not exactly." I pulled my weapon out of the bag. Janich took one look at it and groaned. "I'm just going to clear a path."

"You fucking son of a bitch, they'll kill me!"

"And you should be trying to kill them right back," I said encouragingly. "This is what happens when you do business with a bunch of murderers, Detective. When things go wrong, they can only come up with one answer.

"You're dead any way you look at it," I said bluntly, leaning in. "Either they kill you, I kill you, or if by some miracle you survive this morning, you get arrested by your own people and you end up in prison, which will certainly kill you before long. You're a dead man, Detective. You just have to pick how you want to go out. Killing a bunch of drug-dealing gangsters, or however I decide to do you. And I'm still leaning toward slowly."