Free Dead Cat Bounce by Norman Green Page A

she’sa call me, I gonna make everything okay.”
    â€œYou can tell her the truth, Tommy.”
    Tommy snickered again. “Don’ worry, she gonna like. Okay?”
    â€œOkay. Next topic. You remember the guy I was checking out? Charles David Prior? I’m gonna make a move on him. I got a feeling he’s too fat to pass up.”
    â€œYeah? Whatta we know about thisa guy?”
    â€œSo far, not much. We know he lives in a big house in thewoods in Jersey, got a fence all the way around, got security guards and dogs. But that kid you put me onto is checking into him for me, we’ll see what the kid comes up with.”
    â€œOkay by me.” Tommy brightened. “Hey, wait,” he said. “I got another idea. I know thisa guy, in case we aska him, he gonna find out a few things only a thief would wanna know. You know what I mean? I gonna give him a call.”
    Â 
    Stoney trudged up the stairs and down the hallway, glanced at the door across the hall from his on the way past. He ignored the impulse to knock and went on past. He had barely gotten through his own door when the phone rang. It was the kid from Jersey, the investigator he’d hired. “I’m off your case,” the kid said.
    Stoney held the phone away from him, stared at it in disbelief, then put it back to his face. “Are you nuts? I hired you to do a job, pal.”
    The kid was adamant. “I’m off your case.”
    â€œLook, man, you can’t do this to me, you hear me? You can’t hang me up like this. What happened, somebody get to you? You gotta tell me what happened, you fucking weasel. What’s the goddam problem?”
    â€œThe goddam problem is this.” Stoney gritted his teeth and listened while the kid got himself together. “I don’t know what you’re into, and I don’t want to know, but I’m not getting killed for you. Do you understand me? I am done with your case.”
    Stoney took a breath. “What are you talking about? Somebody threaten you or what?”
    â€œNot verbally, but the message was pretty clear. There’s a man in the morgue this morning, and he’s there because Iwas turning over rocks, looking into your guy, Prior. I don’t know what you think I am, okay, but I told you before, I deal in information, not violence. I’m finished. Matter of fact, I’m gonna be out of town for a couple of weeks.”
    â€œYou are unbelievable. All right, look, you wanna bail on this, I suppose I can’t blame you, but you gotta meet with me and tell me how far you got. If you got some shit stirred up, you owe me that much. You can’t run away and leave me here in the dark.”
    The kid was silent for a few seconds. “All right,” he said finally. “Meet me tomorrow morning, and I’ll give you what I got.”
    â€œFine. Where?”
    â€œI’ll call and tell you in the morning. And come alone.” He hung up.

EIGHT
    T he place had been a service area once, but now it was nothing more than a bus station standing solitary guard in the middle of a massive parking lot. It was favored by commuters, they drove in from all over North Jersey, parked in the lot, and rode the bus into Manhattan. The lot was surrounded by the Jersey Meadowlands, a swampy expanse of pale brown marsh reeds. Stoney sat on the hood of his Lexus, trying to stifle his irritation.
    A two-year-old Toyota Camry in need of a wash circled the parking lot once, then again, the driver seemingly unable to locate a parking spot to his liking. Finally, the car slid up to where Stoney waited, and the passenger side window rolled down. The kid was behind the wheel. “Get in,” he said.
    Stoney slammed the door shut and fought to keep control of his tongue. Careful what you say to this guy, he told himself, careful what you call him, because you need as much cooperation out of him as you can get. “Tell me what happened,” he