“We... we don’t want to do this. We tried to say no.”
“See, now, I can’t help but realize that’s not an answer.” The kid tensed, and Tristan knew he was preparing himself for a blow. In fact, all the boys tensed. He suddenly got a better read on the situation. Instead of hitting Anthony, he aimed the butt of his gun for the back of one of his brothers’ heads. He measured the blow carefully, so as he brought the butt of the gun down on the brother, it was enough to hurt but was barely a glancing blow. It was enough to make his brother grunt, and Anthony leapt up. Hunter was ready for him, however, and forced him back onto the ground.
“Wait wait wait!” cried Anthony. “I’ll tell you everything. Please, just don’t hurt them anymore.”
Tristan, Hunter, and Gage all exchanged a look. This was not like they’d expected this to go. He broke after one question. Which was good, but also odd. That being said, he wasn’t gonna say no to being told everything. “Start at the beginning.”
“I.... Can I talk to you privately?”
Hunter shook his head, but Tristan was intrigued. He reached down and pulled Anthony up, motioning with his gun where to go. They ended up in an empty room down the hall, and Tristan knocked the door shut. “This had better not be some kind of stupid game,” he warned.
Anthony shook his head fervently. “No, I... I don’t know if you’re going to believe what I’m going to tell you. If you shoot me, I don’t want them to see it.”
Chivalrous. Stupid, but chivalrous. “I don’t have all day.”
“This is my fault. I’ve been bumming cars for about three years now. It’s fine. It’s a life that’s working best for me. But Jimmy, the youngest one, my brother, he’s different. Smarter. He’s supposed to go places. But I guess for some stupid reason he decided to follow in my footsteps. Got picked up by the cops during his first job a few nights back. This cop, though, is really weird about it. Told him he’d wipe the slate clean if we did this one thing.”
“Break in here and kill someone?” accused Tristan.
Anthony’s eyes widened, and he shook his head frantically. “No. God, no. Nothing like that. He told us just to throw a brick through the window. Just a warning or something. Nothing but a brick. Just a fucking brick. It’s an easy one. You know, no choice really there. We did it, and thought it was over. Except this morning at like three o’clock, we got some angry call from the dirty cop telling us that we’re not done yet. That we have more debt to pay. He told us he would book us all on major assault charges if we didn’t come here and scare the shit out of whoever lived here.”
Tristan frowned. “Assault charges? What kind of assault charges?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know if he’s bluffing, or if he was serious. The guy is fucking crazy and I don’t want to take that chance.”
“What’s the name of the detective?”
“Perlman. But you can’t tell him I talked to you. He knows where I live. He knows where we all live. He said after us, he’d come for our mother. The guy doesn’t care, man. I’m telling you, I don’t hurt people. I steal cars. Nice cars rich people have that are fucking insured. I don’t do this stuff. I just want my brother to go to school to have a better life than me.”
Tristan glanced around them. “You can see how none of this is really helping your situation, right?”
“Hey man, I didn’t want this. And I’m being a hundred percent honest with you. I’m sorry. I really am sorry.”
“You’re sorry, but you’d do it again, right?”
“It’s family. Don’t you have a family?” Anthony asked.
Well, that was the wrong fucking question. “No. I don’t have a family. People who do well in this business that you’re so obviously failing at usually don’t have families. We have nothing to lose, and we don’t care about putting a bullet between the eyes of some little petty thief who claims to be innocent.”
Tristan pulled the door open and walked out of the room, not even bothering to threaten the kid any more. Hunter looked at him questioningly as he walked out, and Tristan made a little motion beneath his neck. “I’m calling this off. They’re not going to tell us anything useful.”
Gage and Hunter both relaxed marginally but still were on guard. “You mean they’re useless?” asked Gage.
“I wouldn’t say that.” Tristan took out his phone and glanced through, making sure there were no incriminating messages or contacts. Since pretty much every phone used was a burner phone, it didn’t take long to confirm that it was clear. He then tossed it to Anthony, who caught it. “Okay, kid. Here’s your chance to get out of this in one piece. I want you to call Perlman. Tell him that you came here, you checked the entire place, but it’s clear. There’s a car in the driveway, and all the owner’s stuff is here, but no sign of anyone. You have no idea where she is.”
“That’s it? What if he doesn’t believe me?”
Tristan stared at him, the annoyance obvious. “Look around you, man. She’s not fucking here. You’re not lying. Now make the damn call before I decide there’s really nothing I can do with you.”
The poor kid made the call with trembling hands. Like he thought, Perlman had made the kid memorize the number. Problem was that Perlman was undoubtedly using a burner phone too, so the number wouldn’t be that useful. As it started to ring, Tristan got closer, putting his head awkwardly close until he could hear the ringing on the other end. He didn’t tell Anthony to put it on speakerphone, because he would be able to hear that and get suspicious.
After one ring, Perlman picked up. “Is it done?”
Anthony was quiet for a moment, and Tristan nudged his elbow into the kid’s ribs. “I, ah, yeah. I mean, no. She wasn’t there. We went to the address you gave us and everything. It matched the pictures so we know we’re in the right place. There’s no one here. Like, her car’s here, and it looks like all of her stuff is, but no girl.” Tristan put an approving hand on the kid’s shoulder, and Anthony tensed.
Well, he supposed they weren’t there yet. Perlman, who was ever grateful, cursed on the other end of the phone before he hung up.
“Good job. Now just get the fuck out of here,” said Tristan.
“What about the cops?” asked Hunter.
“Well, they’re already overdue. So the sooner we make ourselves scarce, the better.”
“Hart’s not going to be happy about this,” said Gage.
“Well then, Hart should be here himself.”
“So you didn’t turn the guys over to the cops?” asked Hart the second Tristan walked inside the mansion.
Tristan rolled his eyes and debated which of the two men had ratted him out. Probably not Hunter. He wasn’t one to squeal unless there was something in it for him. Gage, however, was probably pissed about the Melissa comments he’d made. “Kids,” said Tristan simply.