Part 16 (1/2)
”Look, I did everything your boss wanted. If you couldn't catch him, that's not my fault.”
Keeping his face neutral, Quinn said, ”And why wouldn't that be your fault?”
”I...I told you where we were going to be,” he pleaded. ”If you hadn't had cop cars waiting right there, Quinn would have never known anything. It's not my fault. It's your fault you couldn't pull it off. The guy is good, man. He outsmarted you.”
It took every ounce of Quinn's will not to punch Burke senseless. ”What happened after he saw the lights?”
”He turned around and made a run for it,” Burke said, as if it were obvious. ”Ask your people. They know what happened.”
”Where did he run to?”
”To that building he ditched the van behind. Where do you think?”
”And what did you do then?”
”I ran like h.e.l.l.”
”Together?”
”No. He...he told me to leave first.”
”So, he didn't get out of the van?”
”What are you talking about? Of course, he did. I saw him steal one of your...” Burke's voice trailed off. ”You're...you're not with Mr. Blair, are you?”
Quinn tapped Orlando on the shoulder. ”Let's go.”
”Hey, wait a minute,” Burke said as she started the engine. ”Hey, come on. I'm being cooperative.”
Quinn's hand shot forward, his fingers wrapping around Burke's neck. As he squeezed, he said, ”No, we're not with Mr. Blair, either. We're with Quinn.”
Burke began to shake.
__________.
THERE WERE VALLEYS and canyons in the hills behind Malibu that, despite being within a few miles of over a million people, were surprisingly unoccupied. Quinn directed Orlando to one he'd used in the past.
”Here,” he said, after they'd traveled deep into the ravine.
Orlando pulled to a stop and shut off the lights, plunging them into a darkness the nearby city no longer knew. The only illumination was from the star-filled sky and the glow of Los Angeles to the north and east.
Quinn climbed out first. ”Let's go,” he told Burke.
”No way,” Burke said.
Daeng pushed him in the back. ”Do as you're told.”
”You're going to kill me,” Burke protested. ”Like h.e.l.l I'm going to make it easy.”
”We might,” Quinn admitted. ”But again, it's up to you.”
”Oh, no. I'm staying here. If you're going to shoot me, shoot me in the d.a.m.n car.”
Quinn reached in and grabbed the man by the front of his s.h.i.+rt. With Daeng once more shoving from behind, he dragged Burke outside and dropped him on the ground.
”Up,” Quinn said.
Burke rose reluctantly to his feet.
Quinn waited until Orlando and Daeng had joined him before he said, ”We're going to take a little walk.”
Burke looked like he was beginning to accept what he a.s.sumed was the inevitable, and made no further protest.
In a loose line, they hiked up the side of the ravine until they reached the top. They could see lights in the distance from a few homes closer to the beach, and the flat blackness of the Pacific Ocean.
”On your knees,” Quinn said.
”Please. No,” Burke pleaded.
”On. Your. Knees.”
Daeng pushed down on the man's shoulders, and Burke dropped to his knees.
”Please. Please,” he said. He was starting to cry. ”I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry.”
”What happened?” Quinn said. ”From the beginning. And don't leave anything out.”
”Okay. Sure, sure. Um...we picked up the body, and, uh, uh, were taking it to the place where, uh-”
”No. How did you get the job in the first place?”
”M...Mr. Blair arranged it.”
”You knew ahead of time?”
A pause, a nod.
”Tell us.”
”He contacted me a couple weeks ago. Said there was a job he'd get me on, and would triple whatever pay I was usually offered.”
”And for this you had to...?”
”Keep tabs on the cleaner. They wanted him. I just needed to tell them where to be.”
”So you sold him out.”
”I, I mean, I thought that, well, I was given the impression that...he'd done something wrong.” He looked momentarily at each of them then focused back on Quinn. ”Hey, it was going to happen whether I helped or not.”
Slowly, Quinn got the rest of the story out of him. How Nate was supposed to have been captured, about how he spotted the ambush, about the chase, and about how, as far as Burke knew, Nate had gotten away. By Nate's continued absence, though, Quinn and the others knew he hadn't.