“Just so long as she’s not dead, he don’t care.”The man gasped.“That’s all I know!I swear to God!I’m just a prospect!Just wanted me to confirm she was here and report back!I wasn’t gonna touch the bitch!”
My breath seized and for a long moment I just knew I was in serious trouble.Twenty-five thousand dollars wasn’t exactly chump change.I studied Griffin without daring to blink for fear I’d miss a subtle cue telling me to get the fuck outta Dodge.I saw nothing in his expression change.Just the same flat attention he had before the prospect mentioned the money.
“How many?”Griffin asked.
“How many what?”The guy sounded strained but his tone was still belligerent.
“How many of you came over the wire tonight.”
“Just me.”The words tumbled from the guy as Griffin tilted his head as if studying him.The prospect tried again.“Just me on the fence,” he clarified.“There’s two more in a truck parked off the access road by the second warehouse on the West side.Waiting on my signal.”
“What signal?”
“Text.Just a fuckin’ text.That’s all.Something saying she’s here, come get her.”
“And if you don’t text?”
The kid’s voice dropped.“They leave.Go back.Tell Iron I fucked it up and got myself caught.”
“They’ll come looking for you.”Inferno shook his head, not buying it.Can’t say I did either.
“No, man.Prospects are disposable.We all know it.”He’d spoken like perhaps the notion of being expendable finally hit home and he realized the situation wasn’t going to end well for him.
Griffin nodded once, like that lined up with something he already knew.“Iron got eyes on the front gate?”
“I think so.I don’t know for sure.He don’t tell us where the eyes are, man.Just where to be.”
“Who else is huntin’ her tonight?”
The prospect’s mouth worked.“I don’t, I swear, I don’t know names.He put the bounty out wide.Said anyone in the city could collect, not just Serpents.There’s freelancers.Couple guys outta Memphis I heard about.That’s all I got.That’s all, I swear it on my mother.”
“Your mother know what you do for a livin’, son?”
The prospect gave a strangled sob, an ugly wet sound.“She’s dead.”
“Then I reckon she ain’t gonna mind.”
The prospect had given him a bounty number, two men in a truck, freelancers from Memphis.I had to wonder what would happen next.I think I knew, but I needed to see how Griffin handled this.More than anything, my next move would depend on what happened in the next few seconds.
“Tiny’s already movin’ on the truck.Knight pulled the pole cam two minutes ago.”
“Good.”Griffin glanced up the fence line, then back down.He looked at the prospect for a long, quiet moment.“Anything else you wanna tell me, son?Now would be the time.”
“That’s all I got.”
“You sure.”
“I swear to fuckin’ God, man!”
“All right then.”
Griffin straightened from his crouch and pulled his phone from his back pocket.He sent off another text, this time staring at the screen for a long time before putting it back in his pocket.Griffin pulled a serrated knife from the small of his back.The motion was so plain and without ceremony, that I had a half-second of refusing to understand what I was watching.
The prospect understood.“Wait!Wait!I told you.I told you what I know, man!I told you everything!You said… Hey!Hey!”
Griffin crouched again.He set his free hand on the back of the prospect’s neck.He leaned in close enough to be heard at a whisper.
“You came over my wall for twenty-five grand.”
