Velocity

listened to them recap the night—their dinner, the drive—and then he gestured at Zillis to wrap it up.
    Mandy Pollard had spent the evening with this man, and she was not some half-cracked thrill seeker who knowingly hung out with bad boys.
    Having dinner with Mandy, Steve Zillis could not have been the freak who propped Ralph Cottle’s corpse on Lanny’s living room sofa and nailed Billy’s hand to the hallway floor.
     
     
     

Chapter 65
     
    Slipping the pistol into the holster at his hip, Billy said, “I’m going to leave you handcuffed to the bed.”
    Steve Zillis looked relieved at the holstering of the weapon, but remained wary.
    Billy tore the phone cord out of the wall and out of the phone, knotted it, and put it in his bread bag. “I don’t want you calling anyone until you’ve had plenty of time to cool down and to think about what I’m going to say.”
    “You’re really not gonna kill me?”
    “I’m really not. I’ll leave the handcuff key on a counter in the kitchen.”
    “All right. The kitchen. But how’s that gonna help me?”
    “After I’m gone, you can work the mattress and the box springs off the frame. It’s held together by nuts and bolts, isn’t it?”
    “Yeah. But—”
    “You can work the nuts with your fingers.”
    “Maybe they’re rusted—”
    “You only moved in six months ago. They haven’t rusted in six months. If they’re tight, torque the sections of the frame, try to wrench a little play into the connections. You’ll figure it out.”
    “I can figure that out, sure, but I still can’t figure why the hell you did this. You can’t believe I killed Judith Kesselman, like you said. I know you can’t believe that. What was this?”
    Putting the can of Mace in the bread bag, Billy said, “I’m not going to explain, and you don’t want to know. Believe me, you don’t.”
    “Look at me here,” Zillis whined. “My eyes still sting. I’m sitting in a puddle, for God’s sake. This is humiliating. You hit me with that gun, you cut my scalp, you hurt me, Billy.”
    “It could have been worse,” Billy assured him. “It could have been a whole lot worse.”
    Choosing to interpret those words as a threat, Zillis became placating. “All right. Okay. I hear you. I’m cool.”
    “Depending on how tight the bolts are, you’ll need at least an hour, probably two, to get loose of the bed. The cuff key will be in the kitchen. After you use it, start packing.”
    Zillis blinked. “What?”
    “Call Jackie, tell him you’re quitting.”
    “I don’t want to quit.”
    “Get real, Steve. We aren’t going to see each other every day. Not with what I know about you and not with what you know about me. You’re going to move on.”
    “Where?”
    “I don’t care where. Just not in Napa County.”
    “I like it here. Besides, I can’t afford to move right now.”
    “Go to the tavern Friday night to get your last paycheck,” Billy said. “I’ll leave an envelope for you with Jackie. It’ll contain ten thousand in cash. That’ll get you started somewhere.”
    “I did nothing, but my whole life gets turned upside down? This isn’t fair.”
    “You’re right. It isn’t fair. But it’s the way it is. Your furniture isn’t worth crap. You can junk it. Pack the personal stuff and be out of town by Friday night.”
    “I could call the cops, I could press charges.”
    “Really? You’d want the cops to see the scene of the crime, have them tramping through here, with the bondage pornos, those mannequins in the next room?”
    Although still scared, Zillis found sufficient self-pity to pout. “Who died and made you God?”
    Billy shook his head. “Steve, you’re pathetic. You’ll take the ten thousand, be glad you’re alive, and get out. Plus one more thing—don’t ever call Mandy Pollard again.”
    “Wait a minute. You can’t—”
    “Don’t call her, don’t see her. Not ever.”
    “Billy, she could make all the difference for me.”
    “She’s a nice girl. She’s a decent girl.”
    “That’s what I mean. I know I could clean up my act if she—”
    “A good woman can turn a man around,” Billy said. “But not a man who’s as far down the rathole as you are. If you call her or see her, even just once, I’ll know. And I’ll find you. You believe that?”
    Zillis said nothing.
    “And if you touch her,” Billy said, “so help me God, I’ll kill you, Steve.”
    “This is 50 not right,” Zillis said.
    “Do you believe me? You