Lost(29)

“Who knows? He got scared, I got scared. It just didn’t work out.”

I said, “At least my way, you end up with an interesting story.”

I enjoyed making Marie laugh.

I said, “The worst of it is that I see the son of a bitch around town all the time. And he’s married to my ex-fiancée. If the fact that he’s still alive doesn’t show how much restraint I have, nothing will.”

She smiled, patted my hand, and said, “Poor baby.”

She meant it, and I felt better. Not a bad evening.





CHAPTER 39





HANNA WATCHED AS Albert jogged across the street to her. Generally, in their business, she handled all the details about shipments and money, and her brother acted as an enforcer. But lately, she was concerned she’d given him too long a leash, and she had been accompanying him on some of his jobs to ensure that he didn’t go overboard.

Now he trotted back to her position and said, “They’re sitting up in that rooftop bar, Canvas, having a beer. Their car is a few blocks the other way. They’ll come out the front and probably take the alley back to the car. We could wait and catch them then.”

Hanna said, “And you still don’t know who the man is?”

“No. I don’t care how big he is—a bullet in the face should keep him pretty quiet.”

Soon, just as Albert had predicted, the Dutch detective and her big male friend came out of the hotel and started walking toward her car, stopping periodically to look at things on the walls.

Hanna and Albert fell in behind their two targets, and Hanna wondered what they were looking at. It took her a few minutes to realize they were reading some of the historical plaques on the buildings. The man had to be some kind of tourist.

A few blocks from the car, Albert turned to Hanna excitedly and said, “This is perfect. There’s no one around. It’s dark. They’ve slowed down. This is so easy, it’s embarrassing.”

Hanna said, “Can you do it from a distance? Even with just a handgun?”

“We can stay right here behind this Mini Cooper, and I’ll hit both of them. If it doesn’t do the trick, I can walk down there and finish them. But this should be no problem at all.”

He knelt down next to the British car. There was a blank space where the Cooper emblem should have been. He pulled the Makarov semiautomatic pistol from the back of his waistband and steadied it on the edge of the car.

Hanna crouched behind him and saw that his barrel was pointing at the Dutch detective. Good. Marie Meijer was the main target. Hanna didn’t really care if they got the big man or not. He wouldn’t be able to identify them anyway.

She could hear Albert steady his breathing and sight down his extended arm.

This was one less problem Hanna would have to worry about.





CHAPTER 40





IN FRONT OF a small brick building, I studied a little bronze plaque that informed me the structure had been built in 1790.

I mumbled, “Holy shit. The oldest house in my neighborhood was built in 1963.”

Marie said, “Perhaps you can come back when you have more time. I could show you a lot more than just the criminal aspects of Amsterdam—there’s art and history here as well. The Rijksmuseum and the van Gogh museum are fabulous.”

I let out a laugh. “Art and history? Are you crazy? I’m from Florida. I want to see sports and pretty girls.”

A smile slid across Marie’s face. She reached up and gently touched my black eye. “We have soccer, and there’s a rugby club on Saturdays that would love to have someone like you. As for pretty girls, that’s a matter of your perspective.”

I said, “I’m impressed with Amsterdam so far. Who knows, you and I might make some key arrests, and then we can visit every museum in the city.”

She paused for a moment, then said, “I hope we can sort out the information I’m getting now about another load of people bound for the United States. We think the traffickers will try Miami again. That’s where their contacts are.”

“Now you’ve got some pretty good contacts in Miami as well. We’ll do whatever we can to stop these criminals.” I was serious. Aside from the fact that she’d shown me a good time here in Amsterdam, Marie was a hell of a cop, and she was working a really big case. A case that could shut down a human-trafficking operation. She had intel and a witness who was feeding her tips; that’s how we’d saved the kids in Miami, and that’s how we’d stop the traffickers. There was no way anyone could pull me off it now.

I heard the gunshot. Then two more. Instinctively, Marie and I both crouched behind a concrete planter for cover.

Amsterdam was starting to feel more like home.





CHAPTER 41





HANNA WATCHED HER brother line up the shot. Yes, this was business, but it was also clearly personal, and killing Marie felt necessary. The detective was too interested in Hanna’s operation. The Funky-Eyed Bitch had made it personal first.

Hanna was crouched low behind the Mini Cooper, watching the spot where the detective had taken cover, when a movement near her left shoulder caught her attention.

Albert looked ready to shoot when Hanna whispered, “Wait.”

Albert whispered back, “What’s wrong?”