Page 63 of Hard to Kill
“Now that you’re here,” I say, “I might as well mention that your old partner, Dave Wolk, and his girlfriend tried to kill my partner tonight.”
“Doesn’t surprise me. He always was a dumb-ass. Why do you think Dave the Dude was the only one of us who ever got caught?”
He’s so sure of himself. A smug bastard like his father.
“Let me ask you something, junior,” I say, unable to help myself. “Do you think I’m going to let you get away with this?”
His voice is suddenly so loud it’s like my window just shattered.
“Don’t call me that!”
“Sorry.”
His voice grows softer. “Trust me on something, Jane. You don’t want to make me mad.”
There’s a glass of water I always keep by my bed. But no way to get to it. And he’s still the one with the gun.
“Why are you here?”
“You need to quit this case.”
“Because?” I say, dragging the word out.
“Because you can’t let him get away with murder twice, that’s why. He hurt more people after he killed the Carsons. And if you get him off again, he’s never going to stop.” I hear him take a deep breath and slowly let it out. “He needs to pay.”
I try to see the outline ofmyGlock inhishand but can’t.
“You really believe he’s a killer?”
The voice is soft again.
“Maybe it runs in the family,” he says. “Maybe something for you to consider.”
Before I can answer, he continues. “But maybe you’re just one more person looking the other way on this freak because the money just keeps flowing in?”
He reaches over and puts his hand on my cheek and I recoil.
“Unless he’s not the only freak in the family,” he says. “Something else to consider.”
I think about all the things that have happened to me and to Jimmy and all around us since I first agreed to take on his father as a client.
How did I get here?
“Don’t touch me,” I say.
“Or what?”
He silently moves to the foot of the bed, a tall shadow now facing me directly, towering over me.
I can hear Rip’s low growl again from the other side of my bedroom door. Some watchdog he turned out to be.
“There’s no way you could have known he killed the Carsons when you took his case,” Eric Jacobson continues. “But now you have no excuse.”
“How can you be so sure about all this?”
“Because if he can kill his own father, he can do anything.”
His voice barely above a whisper now in the dark room.