Next stop, the scene of a murder that I planned to make look like a missing persons case.
CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
CASPER
“Off center by at least an inch.” Bellatrix crouched down, sticking a gloved finger into the hole in the chick’s forehead and wiggling it back and forth.
Then she lifted her hand to swipe at the flies buzzing around her face. Sometimes they took days to appear, but not when there was a 7.62mm-sized crack in the window. Had to replace the glass before someone started to wonder why that crack was there.
“Maybe two,” she added. “Any wilder a shot and you could have charged her for the haircut.”
“Bullshit.” I leaned in and eyed the bullet wound before I realized what she was doing. “You’re fucking with me.”
Bellatrix chewed on her bottom lip, trying to hold back her grin as she hiked a thumb in the body’s direction. “What she do?”
“Blackmailed her politician boyfriend.”
“Too bad the wife didn’t hire us first.” Bellatrix clicked her tongue, and I shrugged a shoulder.
“She didn’t know. That’s where the blackmail came into play, remember?”
“Maybe I should make an anonymous call and tell her. Turn this thing into a two for one.”
I dropped the plastic tarp down on the carpet—there was no saving it or the shirt I’d gotten bloody when I’d leaned over to check her pulse after the initial shot—and began rolling the woman up inside. Donnie would be here with the van within the hour, and I didn’t need him looking at me funny when he saw I’d brought along a plus-one.
I also didn’t want him getting any ideas about that plus-one’s pussy. He’d gotten his urges under control over the years, thanks to Tanya and the other sex toys he had lying around. The fact he’d locked Bellatrix up in that cell and didn’t fuck her before giving me the key was proof of that. But we both knew silicon was nothing compared to the real thing.
“Bossman calls that double-dipping,” I grunted as the body flopped onto its back. She’d been a slight thing when she was alive but now she was dead weight. And no matter how light someone was, dead someones were heavy.
“Dr. Lambert too high and mighty to bend the rules?” Bellatrix asked. She was doing more watching than helping. But can’t say I wouldn’t be doing the same thing if this had been her kill.
Then there was the fact she couldn’t be sure if I was trying to pin it on her. Call up a cop friend and tell him I spotted some chick moving a body. I might have done it too. It wasn’t a bad idea, if I were more into sharing credit.
“The opposite actually.” Another loud grunt and the girl was ready for her plastic coating. “Those kinds of jobs are his favorite.” I pushed to my feet and dusted off my gloved hands out of habit. I forgot I was wearing them.
“Interesting.”
“What about Dommy Mommy?” I questioned. Bellatrix didn’t even pretend like she didn’t know who I was talking about.
“Yeah, Vee wouldn’t go for it.”
“Moral compass?”
“Man hater,” Bellatrix replied, dropping back on the sofa. Her bootie-covered sneakers kicked up on the coffee table in front of it and her hair tied up in a surgical cap. Franks would call her an idiot for risking the fiber transfer, but I planned on vacuuming anyway.
Besides, the cops never put as much effort into missing persons. There were too many of them to follow up on in this city. They got a little more froggy when it came to murder. Every fucker with a badge was itching to make the news by solving a murder. That was one of the main reasons we didn’t give 'em any to investigate. Just “accidents” and missing persons.
“Pretty much the same thing.” When I was finished rolling the girl up in the carpet, I plopped down beside Bellatrix and tossed a piece of pink bubble gum into my mouth—straight from the container so I didn’t have to open another pair of gloves.
I offered one to Bellatrix, and she shook her head. Probably because of the sugar. I was starting to realize it wasn’t as much of a trust thing as it was a dietary restriction. Her snacks were always sugar free or something close to it.
“Okay,” I hummed. “Say a lesbian couple comes in, each claiming the other was cheating… They pay upfront. Vee taking the job or not?”
Bellatrix narrowed her eyes and sucked on her cheeks before seeming to come to a conclusion. “She’d definitely consider it.”
“Well, that’s something at least. I’d still call it having a moral compass, though.”
“What about Adrian?” she threw back at me. “Anything he won’t do?”
