Alliance – Chapter 5

I tossed my keys on the entry table as I closed the door behind me.  After Parker’s abrupt exit from the café a few hours ago, it took an emergency appointment with the best therapist in town to get me back to a semi-calm state of being. I say semi-calm because even an hour under the skilled hands of my massage therapist still wasn’t enough to rid me of all my tense muscles.

For some reason, having coffee with a dead man was unsettling…

Had it really only been a year since I attended his funeral? At the time, it was therapeutic to witness the burial of all the men who were a part of my father’s murder.  Now that I knew it was a ruse I wasn’t so sure how I felt.

I could understand Parker wanting vengeance; I was familiar with that concept.  That he wanted to team up with me was what kept throwing me for a loop.  The pieces of this puzzle were most certainly not falling into place and I knew I would have to make sense of all of it before I got in any deeper.  There was still time for me to walk away from this. All of it.

I couldn’t deny wanting to bring down Raptor. In fact, I wanted it so badly I could taste it, but wanting and doing were different animals.  Parker Ramsey worked with Raptor once before – once that I knew of – and it was possible they were working together again.  Maybe Raptor sent him to find out if I was what I claimed to be before he set up a meet with me.  Maybe they were trying to pull me in so they could set me up to take the fall on their next big heist.

Maybe I was paranoid.

After a long, hot shower I decided to call my contact and see what he knew about this.  Chill was one of the few people I’d met since I had submerged myself in the underworld who I felt I could trust.  I wasn’t sure why I felt that way, considering he was a criminal, but my instincts were usually correct. Now was not the time to stop trusting them.

After several rings, Chill answered his cell phone.

“Songbird, it is good to hear from you again.  To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I’ve heard through the grapevine that Raptor is back in town and ready to take down another bank.  If anyone knows anything about that, I figured it would be you, Chill,” I replied, crisp and down to business.

“You figured right, sweet.  I can confirm that he is both back and ready to boogie.”

“Do you know the alias he’s using?”

Chill laughed before answering.  “Very cute, Songbird.  No one knows who Raptor is by day and I can guarantee that anyone who learned is dead and buried by now.  All I know about this cat is that he does the social scene in a big way.”

“How do you mean?”

“This guy is cultured and he probably comes from money.  He does this for the challenge, not the take.  From what all of my sources have told me, he has a good life in this town.”

I thought that over for a moment before I asked, “Can your sources be trusted, Chill?”

“Can anyone I know really be trusted, Songbird?”

“Good point.  Do you have any reason to believe they would feed you bad information on purpose?”

“No.  My sources want to live to see tomorrow.  Passing bad tips to an information broker is the quickest way to get a bullet between the eyes.”

Charming thought.

“Okay, Chill.  If you find out anything else, you have my number.  You’ll get your next payment by the end of the week.”

“You know, Songbird, there are other services I can provide for which you would not be charged,” Chill said seductively.

“Keep it in your pants.  You know that I don’t mix business with pleasure.”

“Oh, Songbird, apparently you still have not looked in a mirror.  You can hardly blame a guy for trying, can you?”

“I suppose not.”  I was about to disconnect the call when a thought occurred to me.  “What do you know about a man named Parker Ramsey?”

Chill was silent for a moment.  “I know that Parker Ramsey helped Raptor pull off his last big heist and he was rewarded with a bullet.  Ramsey is dead and buried, has been for quite some time.  Why do you ask?”

“Because Parker Ramsey approached me in the park this morning about working with him.”

“Well, I know that you do not ever ask for my advice, but I think you should take it this time.  Watch your back, Songbird.  If Parker Ramsey is magically back from the great beyond, there is definitely trouble brewing.  Besides, there simply are not enough fine looking women in this town for one of you to go out and get yourself killed,” Chill replied before hanging up.

I thought about what he said as I ran a brush through my damp hair.  No, he definitely did not have to tell me Parker was trouble.  The fact he was charming, blonde and knew how to fake his death told me that much.  I couldn’t help wondering if Chill was being straight with me this time.  Every other piece of information he’d sold me was spot on, so I didn’t have a reason to doubt him now.

Still, he’d hesitated just a second too long when I asked about Parker Ramsey.

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