and you can’t exactly line up fifty men with Uzis in that trendy little part of town, can you, mate? Just a few men. Two at the door that leads from the nightclub upstairs, but they can’t hear nor see nothin’ downstairs. Two outside the delivery entrance to usher the players in—they come and go that way—one bloke stays at the door and the other escorts the players in when they arrive. A couple are posted outside the door of the room they play in, and more bodyguards are inside the room itself.”
It’s odd to hear that area, the district of Punavuori, called “trendy.” It used to be considered a dangerous place inhabited by lowlifes. Gentrification. “How can they run a high-security game with a nightclub in full swing?”
“For you, mate, that’s the beauty of it. Ya got one club upstairs, and another one downstairs, as they spin different kinds of music, so each one’s soundproofed. An’ behind the downstairs club is a private room, very posh, and also soundproofed. You could set a bomb off in there and nobody would know. A word to the wise. If ya go there, yer a dead man.”
“Do they always use the same security people?”
“Palo’s boys.”
“And do you know them?”
“Yeh, since he owns thet club we cross paths once in a while, us bein’ in the same trade and all.”
I snap open the lion’s mouth on the handle of my cane, run my fingers along the razor teeth, feel the sting and think. I turn to Sweetness and switch to Finnish. “Do you want to do this? We might get killed.”
He puts his knife back in his pocket. “I don’t think we have any choice. We probably won’t get another chance, and you promised her mom.”
At the moment, I’m so depressed about Kate, her problems and our marriage that I don’t care if I live or die. “
I
promised her. Not you. Aside from creating an international incident that may land us in prison, it has all the hallmarks of a kamikaze mission that only an addled mental defective would consider.”
Sweetness chuckles. “I figured that out on my own. But a promise is a promise, and if you go, I go. I just don’t know how you can do it with your knee as fucked up as it is. And if I said no, I have a feeling you’d try to go by yourself.”
“Yeah, I would.”
“How?”
My pain level has gone down considerably since getting the cortisone shots. “Slowly and carefully. And that’s why I brought the sawed-off room sweeper.”
“Then let’s go.”
I check the time on my cell phone, wish I hadn’t destroyed my watch. It’s a few minutes after midnight.
I switch back to English and say to the whore-mongering brothers, “Put your thinking caps on and figure out how to get in and out alive, because you two are coming with us.”
“Why us?” the Raper says. “We gave ya what ya wanted!”
“Because,” I say, “the two of you are such harmless, pathetic, brainless morons that no one would suspect you of doing anything that requires balls.”
Pissed off and afraid, the Ripper says, “Ya told us you’d leave us be if we told yer what ya wanted.”
“No, I promised you no rat jacket. And you may not pimp the girls in your club, but you make deals with their pimps—don’t tell me you don’t take kickbacks—and in my eyes, that makes you scum.”
“They’ll fuckin’ kill us. We’ll have to leave the fuckin’ country.”
I draw my silenced .45. “It’s me now or them later. You boys are good at plying your trade. I’m sure you’ll start over somewhere else and prosper.”
In fact, I wouldn’t kill them or have Sweetness cut off their fingers, but I’ve done a good job of convincing them otherwise.
“Ya can’t just murder us. You’ve been seen. You’ll end up in the nick same as any other murderer, copper or not.”
I show him the taped-up .357 Magnum. “You pulled this. It was self-defense. We had no choice.”
Fear: the great motivator. He doesn’t hesitate, makes a call. The table is full. He says they’re
It’s odd to hear that area, the district of Punavuori, called “trendy.” It used to be considered a dangerous place inhabited by lowlifes. Gentrification. “How can they run a high-security game with a nightclub in full swing?”
“For you, mate, that’s the beauty of it. Ya got one club upstairs, and another one downstairs, as they spin different kinds of music, so each one’s soundproofed. An’ behind the downstairs club is a private room, very posh, and also soundproofed. You could set a bomb off in there and nobody would know. A word to the wise. If ya go there, yer a dead man.”
“Do they always use the same security people?”
“Palo’s boys.”
“And do you know them?”
“Yeh, since he owns thet club we cross paths once in a while, us bein’ in the same trade and all.”
I snap open the lion’s mouth on the handle of my cane, run my fingers along the razor teeth, feel the sting and think. I turn to Sweetness and switch to Finnish. “Do you want to do this? We might get killed.”
He puts his knife back in his pocket. “I don’t think we have any choice. We probably won’t get another chance, and you promised her mom.”
At the moment, I’m so depressed about Kate, her problems and our marriage that I don’t care if I live or die. “
I
promised her. Not you. Aside from creating an international incident that may land us in prison, it has all the hallmarks of a kamikaze mission that only an addled mental defective would consider.”
Sweetness chuckles. “I figured that out on my own. But a promise is a promise, and if you go, I go. I just don’t know how you can do it with your knee as fucked up as it is. And if I said no, I have a feeling you’d try to go by yourself.”
“Yeah, I would.”
“How?”
My pain level has gone down considerably since getting the cortisone shots. “Slowly and carefully. And that’s why I brought the sawed-off room sweeper.”
“Then let’s go.”
I check the time on my cell phone, wish I hadn’t destroyed my watch. It’s a few minutes after midnight.
I switch back to English and say to the whore-mongering brothers, “Put your thinking caps on and figure out how to get in and out alive, because you two are coming with us.”
“Why us?” the Raper says. “We gave ya what ya wanted!”
“Because,” I say, “the two of you are such harmless, pathetic, brainless morons that no one would suspect you of doing anything that requires balls.”
Pissed off and afraid, the Ripper says, “Ya told us you’d leave us be if we told yer what ya wanted.”
“No, I promised you no rat jacket. And you may not pimp the girls in your club, but you make deals with their pimps—don’t tell me you don’t take kickbacks—and in my eyes, that makes you scum.”
“They’ll fuckin’ kill us. We’ll have to leave the fuckin’ country.”
I draw my silenced .45. “It’s me now or them later. You boys are good at plying your trade. I’m sure you’ll start over somewhere else and prosper.”
In fact, I wouldn’t kill them or have Sweetness cut off their fingers, but I’ve done a good job of convincing them otherwise.
“Ya can’t just murder us. You’ve been seen. You’ll end up in the nick same as any other murderer, copper or not.”
I show him the taped-up .357 Magnum. “You pulled this. It was self-defense. We had no choice.”
Fear: the great motivator. He doesn’t hesitate, makes a call. The table is full. He says they’re
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