Three Fates

imagined, be simple enough to make it look like a break-in attempt, mock up signs of a struggle. With her clothes torn a bit, a few handy bruises, no one would question her, a woman alone, defending her home and her person with one of her dead husband’s guns.
    Remembering how it had felt to pull the trigger, to see Dubrowsky stumble, fall, die, she knew the act would be a great stress reliever.
    But she’d had enough of the police for a while. And, added to that, Jasper might yet come in handy. She couldn’t afford the luxury of cutting him loose quite yet.
    He came, as instructed, to the rear entrance. She gestured him in, then walked directly to the library. Appreciating the value of position, she sat behind the desk. “Close the door,” she said coolly.
    When his back was turned she took the gun she’d placed in the drawer and set it in her lap. Just in case.
    “I’m not pleased with your work, Mr. Jasper.” She held up a finger before he could speak. “Nor am I interested in your excuses. I’ve paid you, and paid you well, for your particular skills and talents. In my opinion, they’ve been sadly lacking.”
    “You haven’t given me a hell of a lot to go on.”
    She sat back. After the long flight it was energizing to feel the fury, the violence pumping out of him. Better, she thought, than drugs. He believed he was stronger, more dangerous. And had no idea he was only one finger twitch away from death.
    “Are you criticizing me, Mr. Jasper?”
    “Look, you don’t think I’m doing the job, fire me.”
    “Oh, I’ve considered that.” She stroked a fingertip over the cold steel of the nine-millimeter in her lap. “I’m a businesswoman, and when an employee does unsatisfactory work, that employee is terminated.”
    “No skin off my nose.”
    She saw his body shift. She knew he carried a gun under his suit jacket. Was he considering using it on her? she wondered. To intimidate, to rob, perhaps to rape? Thinking she’d be helpless against him, and unable to go to the police.
    The idea was absolutely thrilling.
    “However, as a businesswoman I also believe in giving employees certain incentives in the hopes their work will improve. I’m going to offer you an incentive.”
    “Yeah.” He relaxed his gun arm. “Such as?”
    “A twenty-five-thousand-dollar bonus if you find and deliver to me a man named Malachi Sullivan. He’s in the city, possibly in the company of Cleo Toliver. You remember Cleo, don’t you, Mr. Jasper?” She purred it. “She’s managed to slip through your fingers a number of times. If you deliver both of them, I’ll double that bonus. I don’t care what kind of shape they’re in, as long as they’re alive. I want to be very clear on that point. They must be alive. Your former associate didn’t understand that distinction, which is why he was terminated.”
    “Fifty for the man, a hundred if I get them both.”
    She angled her head, then used a finger to nudge a large manila envelope over the desk. “There’s a picture of him in here, and two thousand for expenses. I will not give you more than two thousand,” she said, “until I have some results. There’s an apartment building on West Eighteenth, between Ninth and Tenth. The address is also in the envelope, along with keys. The building is being renovated. Renovations will be put on hold as of today. When you have Mr. Sullivan, and hopefully Miss Toliver, you’re to take them there. Use the basement facilities. Employ whatever means necessary to restrain them, then contact me at the number I’ve already given you. Is that all very clear?”
    “I got it.”
    “You get me the man and the woman, and you’ll get the money you’ve asked for. After that, I don’t want to ever see or hear from you again.”
    He took the envelope. “Figure you want to know. Taps are off the Marsh woman’s phone.”
    Anita pursed her lips. “Doesn’t matter,” she decided. “She doesn’t interest me any longer.”
    “Her old man got real talky when I went in his place and asked about those statues. Sounded like he’d like to get his hands on them.”
    “Yes, I’m sure he would. I assume he told you nothing particularly helpful.”
    “Said something about how he’d heard maybe one was in Greece. Athens. But said it was just a rumor, and there were others.”
    “Athens. Well, that was yesterday.”
    “Tried getting information out of me, acting like he was just shooting the breeze, but he was