Assassin (15 page)

The young parking attendant jogged up behind the older man and seemed to use him as a shield from the previously irate woman. But now that his boss knew who the customer was, the boy was shooed back to work.

"Hey, what are you doing here? I thought you paid these grunts to run the place for you," Case said in a much better mood, as the portly man came up to her and Rain.

"Well, you know how it is. Gotta make surprise inspections or they might think they could get away with somethin'. How you doin', Case?"

"Not bad. Hey, Big Gus, this is Erica Raineri, Rain for short. Rain, this is Gustavo Bigarelli, Big Gus for short."

"And what is Case short for? You've never told me," Gus asked.

"It's a long story," Case replied, in an attempt to steer the conversation to more important matters, like where her truck was, but Gus didn't let it go that easily.

"I have time. Do you have time?" Gus asked Rain and answered for her before she could even register the question. "Of course you have time. We all have time for a story. Tell me the story," Gus said very seriously.

Case looked at Rain, and then back to Gus, and then finally sighed in resignation. It would be a lot faster to just tell him the story. She'd never get him to focus on her missing truck, otherwise.

"All right. I tell you the story and you'll find my truck?"

Gus nodded.

"You tell us the story and I'll find your truck," Gus sealed the deal.

"All right. When I was a kid, about eight or nine, I had this friend, named Casey, and she had a little sister, named Janie. Janie always shortened Casey's name to Case. I guess it was easier or something; she was only three. My mom had named me Cassandra, but she always called me Cassy, even though I hated it. So, when Janie started calling me Case, just like her sister, because Cassy sounded like Casey to her, well, I had no problem with it. Then Casey started calling me Case too, as a joke, and her mom played along, to make Janie laugh."

Case smiled at the memory of a little brown-haired girl laughing herself into hysterics from the game of "Which Case is Case?"

"Is that Case? Oh no, that's Case. Wait, no, that must be Case!" Casey's mom said, as she pointed back and forth between her older daughter and her daughter's best friend.

Janie giggled and screamed, and ran forward to her sister to tag her as the 'real' Case, and then she went back to her mother, before she turned around and ran forward again to tag the other Case as the 'real' one. The two young girls ran around the living room with the little three-year-old chasing after them to tag the right Case.

Case shook her head at the memory. It all seemed kind of stupid now, but Casey and Janie had been one of the few bright spots in her childhood. Case's smile changed to no expression at all as she remembered what had happened next.

"Then Casey got hit by a car and died. Janie accidentally called me Case at the funeral and her mom started crying and apologized for it, but I said it was okay if they kept calling me Case. After that, it kind of stuck. And I never liked Cassandra anyway. It sounds so damn pretentious on me. I think my mom did it just to piss me off. So, that's the story. Now, where's my truck?" Case asked threateningly.

Gus started laughing to break the somber mood and held up his hands against the little woman's mock threat.

"Okay, okay. It's in lot 509. I sent it out for a wash and wax when I heard it was yours. And let me tell you, it really needed it. What have you been doing? Running through every mud puddle you could find? Wait, no, don't tell me. Antonio would have my ears. He'd take my tongue if he knew I even asked," Gus said, and Case could hear the slight question in the older man's tone.

"Like he'd ever find out," Case reassured him.

They started walking towards the elevators to get to the fifth level.

"So, how clean is it?" Case asked.

"Very clean. They even vacuumed and bagged up the trash," Gus replied.

"Thanks, Big Gus."

They stepped onto the elevator and Rain pushed the button for the fifth floor.

"So, where did they put all the trash?" Rain asked nonchalantly.

Gus smiled at Case, who was smiling at Rain in appreciation.

"She your partner now?" Case nodded. "She learns quick," Gus commented, as they stepped out of the elevator and onto the fifth level, before he went on to answer the tall woman's question. "The trash is in a garbage bag in the back of her truck. I would never deprive Case of the honor of taking out her own trash, or she might deprive me of my life," Gus said reasonably.

"Nah, I wouldn't kill you. I'd probably just take a few things in payment. Like your legs, your eyes, maybe some teeth."

Rain looked at Case to try and gauge whether the small woman was kidding or not. From what Case had told her, the young blonde had never done any kind of work like that, but the look on Gus's face showed he probably wasn't aware of that fact.

"Hey, Case, you know me. I would never mess with anything work-related. It's just, Antonio said you'd been working really hard lately and he thought it would be a nice idea to clean out your truck and have it all neat and polished for you when you came back to pick it up, that's all."

Case almost stopped walking, but she kept her pace steady as they made their way down the rows of cars to the black Ford Expedition.

"He said that?" Case asked.

"Yeah."

"That was nice of him. Hey, listen. Why don't you go back to work? I've got some errands to run with Rain here, so I'll see ya later. Okay?"

"Yeah, sure. You take it easy."

"Yeah, you too."

Case watched Gus disappear around the last cars in the row to head back to the elevators and then she turned to Rain.

"What's wrong?" Rain asked before Case could say anything.

"I don't know, but Antonio never does anything to be nice."

Case pulled out her keys and unlocked the doors. Then she threw her shoulder bag into the back of the truck, next to the black-green garbage bag, and motioned for Rain to toss in her own small bags.

"Come on. There's a few places we need to go," Case told Rain.

And then I need to figure out what the hell Antonio's pulling.

CHAPTER 15

THE SUN WAS just setting when Case pulled into the hotel parking lot. It only took one trip for them to bring in their bags and the equipment they'd picked up from three separate places for Rain's upcoming performance.

Case tossed her bags at the foot of the bed and set the new bags on the bed. There was one sniper rifle, an SSG 3000, complete with dual-leg barrel rest and a box of bullets; two night-vision goggle sets; two sets of jeans, shirts, socks, shoes, and undergarments, all shrink-wrapped; two brand new Smith & Wesson 9mm handguns, in case things went to hell and they had to do clean up; and another two boxes of ammo for the smaller guns.

Case pulled out two sets of white surgical gloves from her bag's side pocket and handed one pair over to Rain. They both pulled the powdered latex coverings on and then Case unzipped the gray rifle bag and pulled out the SSG 3000. It was a beautiful weapon, made to look pretty and deadly all at the same time, and the black matt finish kept the gun from causing the holder to become a target as well.

"All right, have you ever used a rifle?"

"Yeah, a couple times, but not in the last few years," Rain replied.

"It'll come back to you. Here, feel the weight," Case said, as she handed over the weapon.

Case opened up the barrel rest on the gun, while Rain held it, and then she motioned toward the carpet.

"Lay down and let the weight fall on the rest. It'll help with aiming."

Rain lowered herself down to the floor of the hotel room and used the legs of the rest to steady her aim. She practiced maneuvering the shaft of the gun using the rest as a fulcrum on which to pivot her line of sight. She looked through the telescoping lens attached to the top of the gun, even though she couldn't focus on anything at such close proximity. It did, however, let her feel the position she would need to maintain in order to use the weapon at ground level.

"Loosen up. You look like you think the gun's going to get away from you," Case joked.

Rain visibly relaxed her shoulder and arm muscles and let them fall into a more natural position.

"All right, let's try it up on the bed," Case said and helped Rain up into a kneeling position in front of the bed.

Rain placed the two legs of the barrel rest onto the edge of the bed and resituated herself to the upright position. She faced the windows of the room and played with the focus on the lens.

"Hey, could you open the curtains a bit?" Rain requested.

"Sure, just a sec," Case replied and pulled the cord to part the curtains by about three inches. "Is that good?"

She didn't want anyone from the outside getting a glimpse of the sniper rifle, if they happened to look their way.

"Yeah, that's fine. Could you get the lights, too?" Rain asked, as she sighted through the scope.

Case grinned.

"Yeah. Anything else, Master?"

Case walked over to the light switch and flipped it to the off position.

"Yeah, how about a foot massage? Oh, and those little chocolates the really nice hotels put on your pillow."

"Right."

Rain smiled and went back to focusing the rifle's sight. She scanned back and forth as much as she could through the break in the curtains to get a feel for how the gun moved and then sat back on her heels. She turned to look at Case's black outline in the dark room.

"It seems to work okay, but I need to actually fire this thing to figure out how it aims and what kind of kickback it has."

Case flipped the lights back on and walked over to the bed.

"Yeah, I know. In the morning, we're going to a range and you'll be able to practice long-distance shots. The hit takes place tomorrow night."

Case opened her bag and pulled out her laptop. She opened it and waited for it to boot up.

"According to the info Doc sent me, we'll have about eight minutes to make the shot. That's how long the Target spends in his garden after dinner smoking a cigarette. Then he'll go back inside and the only way to get to him is to break into his house, and if we tripped the alarm, the police would be there in less than five minutes."

"Yeah, right," Rain laughed at the idea of police officers showing up that quickly.

"He's got most of the patrols around his house on payroll. Past alarms have had the first officers arriving in as little as two minutes. He's got his address and name flagged as special priority, so that's why we've gotta do this while he's outside."

Case slid her mouse arrow around and clicked to bring up the various files that contained the details Rain needed to look over.

"Why does it have to be right then? Why not get him while he's out somewhere?" Rain asked.

Several aerial shots of the Target's mansion and surrounding grounds popped up on the screen, as well as a detailed report on how and where to attempt the shot. Case turned the laptop towards Rain, as she answered Rain's question.

"You worked for Rossi. How easy would it have been for someone to take him out while he was 'out somewhere' and still live to receive payment?" Case asked the ex-bodyguard.

Rain thought it over.

"Okay, I see your point," Rain conceded.

She began looking over the documents and had to suppress a smile at the similarities she noticed between them and the government reports she'd read most of her adult life.

Case pointed at the screen.

"I think that's where you should attempt the shot from, right there. It's a straight line of sight from there to the garden and there're only a few areas where the guy could get out of your range of vision. We can get there through this little outlet, here. It'll also make a great escape route because it's not even listed in the blueprints. The guards probably don't even know about it, which means it won't be protected."

Case pulled her gloved finger back and scrolled the image down a short ways.

"This is the main road and that's the driveway entrance, right there. We'll be stopping back here to wait for the shift change at three. All the bodyguards, maids, cooks, everyone who isn't a close personal friend of this guy, have to enter the grounds through this maintenance gate. We should be able to get in over here, while the new people are arriving."

"It's going to be broad daylight. What if we're seen by someone?" Rain asked.

"Shoot 'em. We leave no witnesses. No matter what."

Case reached into the bag at the foot of the bed and pulled out a box of silencers.

"These aren't the best around, but they'll work for three shots each. Then you'll have to change to a new one."

"Three shots? That's all?" Rain asked skeptically.

"If you need more than three shots, then the whole place probably knows we're there and using silencers won't be our main concern anymore," Case answered.

"Yeah," Rain replied, and went back to looking over the written report.

The people that had gathered the information, and Rain could tell it had been compiled from more than one source, had been pretty thorough. There were even notes regarding the most usual routes the Target took on his stroll through his garden after dinner, depending on what kind of day he'd had.

Rain looked back and forth between the words and the pictures and her face scrunched up into a puzzled frown.

"Hey, Case? It says here that we should use the main gate and come in with the Target's accountant. He always shows up right before Sunday dinner, so it would be perfect timing. And this part says the best place to take the shot is from this little gazebo up here," Rain said, as she pointed at the spot where the little white building was situated.

"Yeah, well, don't believe everything you read. Whoever wrote that didn't know what they were talking about. There are three guards stationed at the main gate and we'd be lucky to come within fifty feet of the driveway before we were caught."

Case scrolled the window up from where Rain had moved it to and pointed back to the spot she'd mentioned before.