Blood Red

Pissed didn’t start to cover it. Pardue was wickedly, lividly enraged and wanted to take it out on someone. He just hadn’t figured out who that someone would be. The list of people he wanted to hurt was monumental; his ability to do so was limited. There were the girls, Lord knew a few of them were giving him attitude, and he wanted it taken care of, but he could only go so far before they weren’t marketable. Even what he’d done to Lizzie was pushing it a bit. She’d had to recover for two days before she could get enthusiastic with a client and that had cost him money.

Just right now, money was the root of all his woes. Somebody, somewhere, had raped his bank accounts and done it so well he was at a complete loss. The problem was that even with his money laundered in advance he couldn’t exactly go to the cops and report the problem. He had a bit of a rep and he knew it was Boyd who would get the case. It was always that short little fuck who dealt with him.

He picked up his cell phone and dialed Lenny Simonson. Lenny was the only other person who could have touched his cash without all sorts of red flags going off. Lenny was also the more likely of the two when it came to being stupid. Ryan had enough money of his own and wasn’t likely to get desperate, but it sure was fun putting the fear of God into him. Hell, that had about made his morning; would have made it, if Ryan could have pulled a half a million dollars out of his ass to make up for what was missing.

Ryan couldn’t do that.

Lenny did not answer his phone. He also did not, for whatever insane reason, believe in answering machines. So he was going to have to do this the old-fashioned way and just pay the little bitch a visit.

Lenny was different than Ryan. With Ryan, a threat would be enough to make him work his ass off. Lenny would require a demonstration.

He wondered if Lenny’s little girl had hit puberty yet. “Either way, bitch is gonna scream I don’t get some satisfaction today.”

Part of him hoped Lenny was guilty of something. He wanted to see the look on the asshole’s face when he stuck it to his good buddy’s little girl. Hell, knowing Lenny, he wouldn’t have been surprised if he was doing the girl himself. Lenny liked them young. They had a good relationship for that reason; Tom could provide all the side dishes he wanted just as long as Lenny kept the books neat and orderly.

The books, by the way, were not looking at all good.

Neither was the chance that Lenny would be a happy man for much longer.

He drove, his eyes locked on the road and making sure he did the speed limit.

Outside, the crows were watching, waiting patiently. They had their own agendas and they were not sharing their secrets with anyone.

III

Kelli finished with her classes and tried to keep up the appearance that all was well in her world. She called on Marie, Rita, and Erika to help her with the kids. They all agreed, though she was sure it was mostly just to keep her company. They still thought she was crazy as a loon for staying in the house and helping out with the trick-or-treaters. She didn’t care. The Listers were technically missing, not dead, and she intended to take care of the house as if they were still there.

It was all she had, anyway.

So she penciled in the time for taking care of the Halloween thing and went about her business.

Such as it was. Mostly she was coasting. She was doing that a lot these days.

When classes were finished, she thought about going home and instead decided to hit the library. She was curious now about Jason Soulis, so she decided to look into his background as much as she could.

Google and Yahoo! were her friends. She spent hours looking up the name Soulis and his full name. On Soulis she got a lot of stuff about a Scottish Lord who had been burned to death for witchcraft and for apparently kidnapping and torturing villagers to death. She also found references to dozens of people with the last name, articles on clubs, and people who were just living their lives but apparently did something noteworthy.

On Jason Soulis, she found nothing. Not a damned thing.

How the hell does someone afford a place like that and have no mention in even an occasional newspaper article online? That’s just crazy. She didn’t know enough about computers and searching to get far anyway, but she’d expected to find something.

As she was getting ready to leave, she saw the crows outside. Once again they were everywhere. The lawns were black with them, and they all seemed to be waiting for something. She just had no idea what it might be.

Apparently it was for her. The moment she stepped out of the building they exploded into activity, lifting into the air and taking off in a massive black cloud. Aside from the wind they generated, they were still eerily silent.

The crows. She hadn’t really noticed them until Jason came to town.