No Immunity

Milly, I says. I mean, what’s to lose, right? That loser husband of hers lost everything they had before she lost him. But here she could get a union job and do good, you know?”
    Tchernak cleared his throat. The women behind him paused long enough to look him over. The man, the only one he cared about, reacted not at all.
    Tchernak tapped his shoulder. Guy’s head came up to his armpit. He almost had to bend to reach his shoulder. “Your time’s up.”
    “Hey, who’re you to—”
    “Time’s up.”
    “I’m not done.”
    Tchernak glared down at him. “Go to the back of the line.”
    Tchernak couldn’t make out the guy’s reply as he stalked off because the two women were laughing too loud. He checked his watch and dialed Adcock.
    “Adcock.”
    “Tchernak,” he snapped. Did Nevada Bell charge by the syllable? “Where the hell are you?”
    Tchernak told him.
    “Okay. The phone exchange Grady called is somewhere around Gattozzi.”
    “Gattozzi? Where’s that?”
    Tchernak listened to the directions, then had Adcock spend a lot of syllables repeating them as he wrote them down.
    “You shouldn’t have any trouble, Tchernak. There’s only one way up there. There’s a cafe called the Doll’s House on the highway. You can’t miss it, it’s the only thing there. Meet me there in two hours.”
    “Right. Two hungry kids, good chance Grady stopped there.” Tchernak put down the receiver, checked his watch again, and tapped the sour-faced little guy glowering behind the women. “Fifteen seconds. See?”
    Half the strawberry pie was still on his table. He pushed it away and signaled the waitress. Gattozzi had to be some little town in the middle of nowhere. Why would Grady fly in from Central America and head straight into the back country? If he was up to the kind of double-crossing Adcock was tied in knots about, couldn’t he do that crossing right here in Vegas? Maybe he had a cabin or something up there? Yeah, but you don’t fly in and out of Panama twice in a week and then take a few days for R and R before you screw your boss. The whole thing just didn’t make sense.
    What would Kiernan do? First thing she’d kick up a fuss about how slow the service is. He laughed to himself. “Never know when you’ll need a new enemy,” he’d told her the last time. That hadn’t struck her as funny as it did him. For a woman with a good sense of humor she did have her dead spots.
    Food. She’d stock up like she was going camping. Well, he’d already stoked his fires on a couple burgers and shakes. Still, a dozen Hersheys couldn’t hurt. And some bottled water. Six-pack of Coke. Crackers. You never know.
    He collected his larder, paid the bill, and got in the Jeep. One thing about Las Vegas, you didn’t have to wonder where you were. Billions of kilowatts marked the Strip. And next to the Strip was the freeway.
    There was still the question of how to get to the freeway entrance. He got the car door open and swung into the seat, twisting to get the map. First, where was he now? Here? No, a couple of squares to the right. Two squares beneath Grady’s place.
    Grady’s place? Something about it pulled at him. He couldn’t think why. Maybe he should be keeping notes.
    “Stupid! Jeez, maybe Kiernan’s right!” That’s what Kiernan would do, get the e-mail from BakDat! Grady’s place would be the easier venue for that. With Persis’s backgrounds and the lead to Gattozzi, he’d be onto Grady in a snap.

    The Weasel eased out of the parking lot, stick of beef jerky in hand. If he’d known the giant baby dick was going to lounge over his food like he was dining at the captain’s table, he’d have had time to get something decent himself. He could use a good relaxing meal after the run from the kid’s house. Cops were in front before he could get the car moving. He’d had to slide down to the floorboards and hope the cops weren’t too thorough. Which they weren’t.
    Coming up with a working phone in that neighborhood was just about as hard. He prided himself on always knowing the nearest pay phones, but he’d really crapped out on that one. Had to go a mile and a half before the neighborhood changed and he spotted one outside a fast food grocery.
    And then he didn’t have time to get on Adcock about all the bastard wasn’t telling him. All he could do was get the location where the Jeep was and race over here before the baby dick drove off.
    What was with Adcock? He knew the guy’s