Dockingboys

Chapter Thirteen

"Holy crap!" Mack said when Xavier told them the news the next morning. He'd found out that the boys of the West Docks were mourning for one of their friends, a kid named Rake.

Pitts was trying to make sense of this. "Well, I'll be..."

Xavier was on the edge of anger. "We weren't supposed to kill him! We were supposed to kill Jaxon, goddammit! And now look what we've done! Jaxon will come after us with-"

He was cut off by the sound of a radio crackling on in the cabin room. The three men all turned towards the sound and saw almost the entire ship's crewmen were gathered around a small radio that was cranked up to the top volume. The three criminals moved closer to the radio and scooted forward. They'd arrived in the midst of a sentence.

"...and yesterday, at around six PM, rich criminal mastermind Jaxon Moorings died from multiple gunshot wounds in the arm, leg, and chest. His sixteen-year-old maid Kelly Parsons also died from a deadly headshot," a newscaster was saying. "Multiple onlooking pedestrians remembered seeing a tall man in a dark blue suit with a fedora enter the building and leave with a small but powerful submachine gun. Then, according to West Docks supervisor Eli Wong, a young dockingboy by the name of Rake Moorings supposedly fell off the top of a crane in the shipyard and died. Lots of people died yesterday. What do you think, Bob?"

The voice shifted from an upbeat, ongoing voice to a deeper, but professional- sounding voice. "Well, honestly, if you think about it, both of the people who died yesterday definitely had a relationship, because both of them have the same surname," Bob said. "Most likely father and son. The only thing that would make sense is that there was a serial killer on the loose that really despised the Moorings family. If you wanted my opinion, I'd say young Rake here didn't just fall off of the crane. No, I'd say that he was pushed-"

Suddenly, Pitts reached out and quieted the radio. All of the crewmen turned to him and looked at him with questioning glares. Pitts gestured at the dockingboys who were already on the ship. "Look at 'em. Do ya think hearing that their little friend died from being pushed off a crane would make them happier? Huh?"

The crewmen nodded understandingly, but anyone could tell that their expressions had turned grim, because there was now sufficient evidence of a killer lurking in the city. Mack walked back over to the container and sat down next to it, running his hands through his hair.

"No way," he said.

Pitts nodded. "How the hell is Jaxon dead? I mean, the day before, we were just planning his death, and then, bam, the next day, he's dead? Something's not right, I tell you."

"What if he's after the container? You said yourself that the thing had a lotta money in it."

"If so, then we're in deep water now," Xavier said.

Pitts arched his eyebrows. "Why? Now that Jaxon's dead, nothing can go wrong. In fact, we can literally just leave right now, with the container. Screw 'em friends of Jaxon at the South Docks. They'll go home empty-handed.

Xavier shook his head. "No, that's not a problem. The problem is if Mack's right, and this guy really is going for the container, then we're screwed. I mean, he killed Jaxon, damn it! If he can kill Jaxon, then what chance do we have?"

Mack touched the bulge in his jacket pocket. "So we prepare ourselves for him. Or her."

Pitts chuckled. "Yeah, that's right. Simple and easy."

Xavier shook his head. "It's not that simple," he muttered.

"Hey guys, I've got to make a quick meeting. It might help us," Mack said.