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“I’m serious!” I shouted at her, letting some indignation seep into my voice.
She calmed her laughing a bit. “I know you are, Rico. I’ve seen bad liars before, but you’re the first bad truth-teller I’ve met… it’s almost an effort for you.” She then just laughed some more, and I tried to give her a look of impatience. When she saw it, she laughed even harder. “So about all your interactions with me since we’ve met have been part of an act of pretending to be human… like that expression you just made.” She continued laughing.
“Yes.” I didn’t have to force the impatience anymore. “I’m perhaps the best killer in the known universe.”
She laughed even harder. I felt like stabbing her. “And yet, you’ve come to lowly Detective Thompson for help,” she said between guffaws, “This is just the sort of thing that would happen to me.”
“What makes you think I want your help?!”
“Well, you’re spilling your guts to me and, even though you’re an admitted psychotic killer, you’ve yet to make a very concerted effort to kill me.” She smiled smugly.
I decided it was time to wipe the smile off her face. I started to throw a right hook, but she grabbed my other hand and put it into a wrist lock, the pain keeping from moving my right hand at her. I started to reach for my gun, but she put more pressure on my wrist as she drew her own gun and pressed it against my temple.
Like that, I was deadmeat. She goaded me into making an emotional attack, making me go for hand-to-hand where I’m weaker. “You’re smarter than I thought.”
“But dumber than I thought to get myself in this very compromising position you’ve led me into, Rico.” She pushed her gun harder against my head while continuing to twist my wrist. “Something always seemed wrong with you, but I had no idea when I saw you for who you really are, you’re just a confused little kid.”
“I think you’re underestimating me now,” I growled.
“Actually, most little kids still know right from wrong.” She chuckled. “Hitting a woman is wrong, by the way.”
“Considers the woman.”
She laughed again. I stared at her neck wanting to get my hands around it, but realized I needed to crush those emotions before I made this worse. “I guess you laugh as part of controlling your fear.”
That really set her off. She was in tears, twisting my wrist harder the more she laughed. “Now I’m being psychoanalyzed by the psychopath. You’re probably right, though. Anyway, I’ll help you, Rico; I guess it’s my Christian duty. What’s your plan with me, anyway?”
“I’m going to make a huge confrontation between the Corloni and Randatti and get as many killed as possible. I wanted you to help me set things up in exchange for giving you enough information to keep civilians and police from getting caught in the mix.”
“Sorta sounds like a police matter to me.”
“There will be too many here for you people to handle; you’ll all just get slaughtered. It’s much bigger than you’re little governments now.”
She seemed to consider this seriously for a while. “So, how long have you been a hitman for the Corloni?”
“Uh… since about when I was old enough to hold a gun. It’s what I’m good at.”
“How many people have you killed?”
“Sentients? Uh… thousands, I guess.”
“Thousands,” she repeated, no emotion on her face. “If you’re such a great killer, why do they want you dead?”
“Not sure. The message Dip is holding for me may answer that.”
“And why so many hitman are going to come just to kill Gredler?”
“I want the Randatti to think it’s for Gredler; they’ll be coming for me. Like I said, I’m the best killer in the known universe, and Corloni knows how dangerous I am far better than Randatti.”
Yes, that statement was a bit ironic when a blond woman had me at her mercy, a single finger twitch between me and death.
Diane seemed to be thinking a lot right now. I was going to stop pretending I knew what was going on in her head. “I need to think about this; you keep up whatever your plan was when Gredler gets back to you. First, we’re going to my apartment where you’re going to help me get some stuff. I don’t think it will be safe for me there since you’ve involved me in all this.” She let go of my wrist and put her gun away, her expression stoic. “Why don’t you talk to Dip and get your message.”
She took control of the vehicle while I rubbed my wrist and hailed Dip. “What’s the message?”
“Is Diane still alive?”
“I killed her and dumped her in a ditch as originally planned,” I said irately, “What’s the message?”
“It was sent as an e-mail from a so far untraceable source.”
“And it says…”
“The subject is ‘Why.'”
“And…”
“The content is ‘Antero.'”
It shouldn’t have been a surprise. Still, it hit me hard to know what had caused my little world to collapse. They just had to give me more guidance, and this never would have happened.
“Any idea who sent the message?”
I ignored Dip. Diane was now looking at me, and I think there was concern on her face. “You might as well tell me,” she said.
She’d probably wish she pulled the trigger when she had the chance if I did.
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