Page 76 of Wicked Shadows
“Smooth as glass.”
“Good. Take a load off.” Headbanger gestured to the open chair. “Just watching a little TV, waiting for Bone to get back.”
“Want a beer?”
“Sure. I’ll take one.”
When Bone arrived, he forced their guest into the clubhouse and locked the door behind them. “Look who I found,” Bone announced when they entered the club’s media room.
Spider looked up and saw his uncle, who was beaten and battered and wore a terrified expression, compliments of the gun held to his back. “What the fuck? Uncle Barry? What’s going on?” Spider stood and met Bone’s hard stare with one of his own. “What the fuck have you done to my uncle?”
“He did what I told him to do,” Headbanger replied from behind him. “We need to talk.”
They led Spider and Barry into the interrogation room. All color drained from Spider’s face as realization of what was to come set in. Bone shoved them both into the waiting chairs and strapped them down.
“I have a few questions you’re going to answer. Some I already know the answers to, some I don’t. So I dare you to lie to me.” Headbanger reared his fist back and smashed it into Spider’s face amid his protests to wait, to explain what was wrong. But he didn’t stop. Spider’s pleas didn’t register through his rage.
“Stop!” Barry bellowed. His tone, a mixture of terror and alarm, caught Headbanger’s attention.
“Did you think I forgot about you?”
“You haven’t even asked anything yet. You haven’t told us what’s wrong.”
“You’re absolutely right,” he replied, leaning down to stare directly into Barry’s eyes. “Where the fuck is my money?”
“What money? What are you talking about?”
He grabbed Spider’s mangled face and turned it toward Barry. “Tell him, Spider. Tell your uncle why he’s about to die with you.”
“Boss, wait. It’s not what you think.”
“Let’s go over the facts. Renegade is the treasurer and you’re the secretary. At first, I did question Renegade’s loyalty, so I had an outside contact comb through everything from my companies all the way to my offshore account. You did a good job of covering your tracks and making me suspect someone else. But you also did a good job of keeping club records.
“Money started disappearing from my account immediately before Renegade became the treasurer, so it couldn’t have been him. The timing was close, but no dice. You’ve mastered signing my signature. The outside auditor noticed the change in it over time to more closely match my real signature.
“So you set up a new account in my name and transferred money from my actual account a little at a time. When the amounts started adding up, you covered up my account balance by showing me the fake account instead. Renegade wouldn’t have had any reason to suspect a second account, thanks to your club records.”
One of Spider’s eyes had already swollen shut, but his one good eye was open wide and filled with fear. “No, boss. I was just trying to protect you and your money. It’s still in your name. It’s yours. This is how money is laundered, small amounts transferred to different accounts over time.”
“You know what, Spider? I could almost believe that—if you hadn’t booked a one-way flight to the Bahamas leaving one week from today. You almost made it, didn’t you? You almost pulled off a great heist. But not quite. I trust no one implicitly, I double-check everything. Surely you know that about me if you know nothing else.”
“No, boss. You’ve got it all wrong.”
“You know I hate a liar. The more I have to spend time proving I know this beyond a shadow of a doubt, the worse it’ll be for you.”
He motioned to Bone, and they pushed Spider over onto his side. Bone grabbed Spider’s wallet from his back pocket and stepped back, his disgusted glare firmly set on his victim. Bone dug through the wallet, removing Spider’s license along with the fake identification he’d had made.
Spider’s whole body sagged in defeat as his prez read the name on the fake license. “Bobby Blalock. Is that your name, Spider?”
He shook his head from side to side.
“Whose name is it?”
“Yours.”
“Spider, what have you done?” Barry asked, surprise and dread equally infused in his whisper.
“I’m sorry, boss. I was just trying to protect you.”
