Harry laughed at that. Then he jerked his thumb toward the corpse.
“So now we just, what?” he said. “Toss him over the edge, and that’s it?”
“More or less,” Grade said. “After that, all I need you to do is get the Lexus to a good chop shop. I’ll get rid of the rest of the evidence.”
“I can do that,” Harry offered. “You take the Lexus, and maybe you’ll make that date with Clay.”
Grade hesitated long enough that Harry snorted at him, “You don’t work well with others, do you?”
“That’s what my report cards said,” Grade said.
Although the “date” thing had given him pause too. People dated when they planned to hang around a while. But “no strings sex appointment” didn’t exactly flow in conversation, he supposed.
Grade motioned for Harry to follow him and then walked over to the corpse. Dead bodies didn’t actively bleed, but anyone who’d slapped down a fresh ribeye on a counter could tell you that they did splatter. Resculpting the injuries had left a bit of a mess. Grade avoided the splatter as he walked forward and grabbed the man’s arms while Harry got his feet.
“It already looks bad that my work history went from high profile gigs in LA to scrubbing out dive bar bathrooms after some man got shot taking a piss—”
They hoisted the dead man off the ground.
“I mean, it was the bagman for the Catfish Mafia,” Harry said. The corpse swung between them as they walked to the rails. “Not just some trucker who got shanked for his wallet. Leave out the bit where you lost the body, and that’s not too bad.”
Grade winced atthatreminder. He nodded to Harry to lift, and they swung the dead man up and over the rail.
“I’m pretty sure some Bratva boss in LA is going to think the Catfish Mafia is a hot new food truck. On three. One. Two.”
They let go.
The corpse hit the scree on the other side and lay for a moment. Grade thought he was going to have to get a stick and poke him into the drop. Then gravity did its work and dragged him over the edge.
Grade tucked his hands into his pockets, the latex catching on the fabric, and watched as the body tumbled down the cliff. It bounced off rocks and trees until it finally landed in the interlocked branches of two scrawny oak trees. The body swung there, one arm and leg dangling awkwardly as the trees bent but didn’t break under the weight.
“Shit,” Harry said. “Do we need to climb down and shake it loose?”
“No. Leave it,” Grade said. It wasn’t ideal. He’d hoped the body wouldn’t be found for a few days. However, the longer someone messed around with a scene, the more likely they were to make a mistake. “And that’s why I prefer to work alone. The only thing about my stay in Kentucky that LA criminals will find impressive is if none of my clients get caught. So I don’t want to give anyone else the opportunity to make a mistake I wouldn’t.”
He stepped back and scuffed the sole of his sneaker over the concrete, smearing the blood down to another dark, indistinct stain.
Harry narrowed his eyes at him. “Is that a nice way to say that you think I’m an idiot?”
Grade stopped what he was doing to look at him.
“No,” he said. “That would be a dumb thing to tell a professionally violent man on a lonely road.”
Harry gave him that with a shrug. “Fair enough. So what did you mean?”
“That if they want to get rid of a dead body, they call me,” Grade said. He shrugged, gave the ground one last scuff, and headed back to the van. “And if they want to make one, then they call you.”
“They’d call Clay first,” Harry said.
It felt like a warning. Grade didn’t need one. He knew what he was getting with Clay. He headed back to the van and fished the keys to the Lexus out of the central console.
“It doesn’t matter what happens to the car,” he said. “As long as they don’t drop you in it.”
He tossed the keys. Harry caught them out of the air.
“They won’t,” he said. “If they aren’t scared of Ezra, they are of Fisher and his crew. Can I ask you something?”
That was the sort of question they usually asked just before they wanted to know something about Grade’s life that was none of their business. It was like they thought they could grandfather in their nosiness as long as they started with being polite.
