No One Left to Tell Read Free Page A

the vehicle, weapons in hand. Those in the crowd who hadn’t fled were pointing vaguely, but close enough to his general direction.
    Move your ass, boy . It wouldn’t take the cops long to drop a surveillance net over this whole area. Crouching low, he made his way to the edge of the rooftop, dropped to the fire escape and took the steps two at a time.
    He’d had only seconds to choose a spot from which to stop Elena. Luckily the small business park he’d chosen had offered a good view and access to an escape route.
    He eased into traffic. Then on his cell, he dialed a number from memory. ‘It’s done.’
    ‘She’s dead?’
    ‘Yeah,’ he muttered. ‘No thanks to that idiot Sandoval. He couldn’t wait for me to finish it. He shot up her van before I could run her off the highway. I would have shot her more discreetly.’
    There was a moment of very displeased silence. ‘Why?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘Maybe you should ask him. Maybe you should ask him why he let her get that close to him to begin with.’ Then I wouldn’t have had to kill her .
    ‘Maybe I won’t bother to ask.’
    Silas shrugged, knowing what would transpire. Denny Sandoval deserved it. Keeping records for Elena to find. Idiot. ‘Make it look like a suicide.’ He kept it a suggestion, knowing a command would not be tolerated. ‘What she found out would have buried him anyway.’
    There was another beat of silence. ‘What did she find out?’
    ‘That he’d been paid off to lie in court, that Muñoz’s alibi was real, after all.’
    ‘It would have been her word against his.’
    ‘Unless she took proof with her. He was scared shitless enough to call me for help.’
    ‘And obviously enough to follow her and fire at her vehicle.’
    ‘He was sloppy. He went for the windows, not for the tires.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘Probably because he wasn’t a good enough shot to hit the tires while he was driving.’ Probably because the moron was drunk. Again. ‘She made it another five hundred feet, then turned into an apartment complex and hit a lamppost. I was just within range. If he’d shot her up a minute earlier, I wouldn’t have been able to hit her.’
    ‘But she is dead.’
    ‘Yes.’ He’d fired on enough people to know a kill shot when he saw one.
    ‘Then thank you. You’ll be compensated the usual way.’
    Which meant a great deal of money deposited to his off-shore account with speed and efficiency. It had taken time to grow accustomed to such polite discussion of such a dirty deed. After all this time, it still made him cringe inside. ‘Thank you.’
    ‘One more question. Who else is implicated in whatever it was he kept?’
    ‘I don’t know. I didn’t pay him off. That would have been you. Did you go as yourself or did you play dress up?’ He wished the words back as soon as they exited his mouth. Keep the sarcasm leashed or you’ll be a ‘suicide’ yourself .
    Another beat of silence. ‘I was disguised.’
    ‘Then you have no worries,’ he said, his voice mild.
    ‘Again, thank you. I’ll be in touch.’
    Yeah, you do that . He wasn’t sorry for the idiot Denny who’d signed his own death warrant by keeping incriminating evidence. And for what? Blackmail would have been suicide and insurance would have been unnecessary, had he kept his big mouth shut.
    He did feel sorry for Elena Muñoz. She should have forgotten about her husband, gone on with her life. She’d still be alive. And I’d have one less mark on my soul .
    Tuesday, April 5, 6.20 A.M .
     
    Three and two and one . With a grunt, Grayson Smith pushed the weight bar back to the rack. Two-ninety-five used to be a hell of a lot easier . Then again, he used to be a lot younger. He was officially on the downslide to forty. Which bothered him a lot more than he’d expected it would.
    He relaxed his shoulders onto the bench, gave his spotter a nod. Without missing a beat, Ben resumed the story he’d been telling before Grayson had started the