BooksBarbecue
Back The Short Drop Save as PDF
Chapters (61)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication
  4. CONTENTS
  5. START READING
  6. PART ONE
  7. CHAPTER ONE
  8. CHAPTER TWO
  9. CHAPTER THREE
  10. CHAPTER FOUR
  11. CHAPTER FIVE
  12. CHAPTER SIX
  13. CHAPTER SEVEN
  14. CHAPTER EIGHT
  15. CHAPTER NINE
  16. CHAPTER TEN
  17. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  18. CHAPTER TWELVE
  19. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  20. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  22. PART TWO
  23. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  24. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  25. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  26. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  36. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  46. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  49. PART THREE
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  54. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  55. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  56. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  57. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  58. CHAPTER FIFTY
  59. EPILOGUE
  60. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  61. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The blows spun Tinsley around, and he felt a knee land heavily between his shoulder blades, the hard snap of cuffs around his wrists, and the cold circle of his own gun pressed to his temple.

“You’re not as tough when someone knows you’re coming.”

“Is anyone?” Tinsley asked.

“Who do you work for?”

Tinsley fell silent.

“You understand you’re dead if I don’t get what I want,” the bitter man said. “Maybe you’ve got some kind of code about covering for your clients. I don’t really give a good goddamn. But you think on what use that reputation will be to a dead man.”

Tinsley blinked through the blood. “What’s a code?”

“Last chance. Who hired you? Benjamin Lombard?”

“Who?”

“Where’s George Abe?”

“Who?”

“All right,” Hendricks said. “Have it your way.”

The bitter man dragged him into the bathroom. Tinsley understood. The tile would be easier to mop up.

“I’m going to ask you some questions. If I don’t like the answers, then you’re going in the bathtub. And it won’t be for bath time. You understand me?”

“The tub will catch the blood when you shoot me.”

“That’s right.”

“Pull the curtain. It will help contain the runoff.”

“What are you?”

“I’m your friend.”

The bitter man snorted. “My friend? You kill all your friends?”

“We weren’t friends then. We had no basis for friendship.”

“Oh, and now we do?”

“Things have changed. You are in the position to let me go. So I would like us to be friends. And in return I will do you a favor. One friend to another.”

“You’re an optimistic son of a bitch, aren’t you?” the bitter man said, hauling Tinsley up to a sitting position. “Does this favor involve telling me who you work for?”

“No, this favor involves giving you the gun and shell casings that prove you killed Kirby Tate.”

The bitter man sat on the toilet with the gun pointed at Tinsley’s chest.

“Where is it?”

“In the trunk of a car. In a few days, if you kill me, the vehicle will be towed. The police will find your gun in my trunk. Your fingerprints. Other incriminating items,” Tinsley said. “Or we can walk out together, as friends, and I can give it to you. And go our separate ways.”

“And the body?”

“I didn’t pack it,” Tinsley said. “But the GPS coordinates where it’s hidden—I have those.”

“And you will leave me and my associates alone?”

“Yes.”

The bitter man stared at him a long time.

“So,” Tinsley said. “Friends?”

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT