Delta - 9.2

“So, what are you two talking about?”

Will looked like she was mid thought, but it was Cati who was talking to her.
“Just chatting, darling.  Your lovely lady suggested that we dine together, all of us back together again or at least the ones that stuck around.”

I literally just sent Robe away.
“That does sound like a good idea.  Unfortunately, we don’t have the original Vinconni to join the crew, but Leo should suffice.”

Harry turned her sights to Jud’s office.  She could hear the happenings inside from where she was standing and did quiet eavesdropping on Will and Cati while walking away.  It was still somewhat garbled but from the words Cati finished, she got the gist of what sort of secrets had been displayed to Will.

She had never really wanted to lie but it did always happen that way.

Leo shouted out to her as she made way to his office.
“Would you like a drink, Harry?”
“Don’t you think it’s a bit early for that.”
“It’s after 12, so it counts.”

All three of them turned to the clock on the wall and saw it was in fact shortly after 12:30.

Harry turned her sights to the whiskey bottle resting on Jud’s desk, thinking about all the pain she was in.  The right thing to do would to be go upstairs, hunt down the bottle of medicine and put on tighter braces.  Instead she just took another glass out of Jud’s drawer and reached for the ice bucket in the corner.

As she poured the liquid in the glass, every voice speaking to her was telling her how this was the wrong way to go.  But it did relax her and as she thought about the words of Vito in the hallway, they still weren’t telling her anything.

Leo spoke to her for the first time that wasn’t a death threat.

“So…gem smuggling?That’s fun.”

How?

“Before you get too mad, I did tell him about this case since he is a criminal.”Jud gestured to Leo quickly, “No offense by the way.”

Leo lifted his glass again.
“None taken.  I have heard some parts about the people running it though.  Those uptown bitches who spit on people like me.”
He pointed up to Harry who was still leaning against the door and then to Jud.
“People like us.  I’m sure we all have a bit of money from one thing or another but I’m not talking about money.  I’m talking about family.  We might be mobsters and we might be part of the family, but we’re not the 'family'.  And we’re certainly not from Zinnia.”

Harry soon noticed the color of his skin was too crimson to be that of a Zinnian’s and there were small tears in his slacks where the spines poked out.  She eyed one of the ice cubes in her glass.  It only took a moment to sharpen it into a small blade and fling it at Leo.

There was a quick cracking sound and bits of ice shattered around him.

“Nice trick.  And of course, ma’am, I’m not nearly as strong as you.”
“Not as strong?  You can walk, bitch.”
“Yes.”  He stopped to roll up his pant leg and displayed a leather and steel brace.  “But not without braces.  My father didn’t like me because I was weak in physical strength, and the mental thing was supposedly too feminine.”

Harry thought for a moment about Vinconni and how it was almost too within his character to hate his own child for having the wrong gifts.  Perhaps the Fiacre family had rejected this kid, but her crafting mind moved to a need for another detective.  The voices bounced around in her head.

He just tried to kill you.

He’s helpful.

He’s dangerous.

He’s helpful.

“Leo, where do you work currently?”
“I uh used to work for the Fiacre family but there was a falling out over a bad decision of mind.”

Jud spoke for the first time from the corner beside the liquor cabinet he had scooted off to.
“What kind of bad decision?”

Leo pulled a picture from his wallet of a Zinnia girl.
“I wouldn’t kill someone.  I wouldn’t kill her.  Because I was, well in relations with her.”

Jud picked up the small black and white photo, and then handed it to Harry.

“This looks a lot like the Palacio girl.”

He took it back and slid it into the slot.
“That’s because it is.”

“Well, is she?”
“Dead?  No.  No.  I saved her, but it cost me my position.  We’re set to get married soon enough once I find a job.  But no one in this town will hire me.”

Leo gazed up at them with puppy eyes.  Jud lit a cigarette and exchanged a few glances with Harry.

“Leo, considering you did try to kill me and my girlfriend this morning, I’m offering you a job.”
“Those two don’t seem to mix.”
“Let’s consider your skill at finding me and breaking in without any disturbance, as a sort of job interview.  Besides I do need a new surveillance man after they fished my last one out of the gutter a couple of months back.”

She stepped over beside his chair and leaned down to his ear saying, “That is to say this is a very dangerous job.  And if you ever try to fuck with me in the slightest, rest assured your body will never rise to the surface.  Unlike the Fiacres, I’m never sloppy.”

There was then the slight creak of Jud’s chair tilting back.
“Well, now that the business is done with, perhaps we should seek a snack of some kind.  I doubt the dinner they’re discussing out there is going to be happening anytime soon.”

Harry leaned back against the door and slid down to eavesdrop.  She didn’t hear them discussing food but rather the name Luca Brasi, at which she stood up quickly.

“Jud.Where’s my gun?”
“Your office.Why?”

Harry edged the door open and glared at the holster and belt sitting on her desk.  It was just about 50 feet to run from Jud’s office to her own.

Or you could just walk.

Nah.

The two voices battled for a second as she grabbed the knife from the sheath hanging from her thigh.  She pulled it far enough out that she could still walk across with nothing apparently wrong but could still fling it into the chest of the intruder.  The walk across the room was painful enough without the comments she could hear Cati and Will conveying across the air.

The whiskey had not been a good choice.  But it was far too many steps to make it upstairs.

The last 10 feet were crossed in a run and she grabbed for the belt on the table.  In two movements, she swung the old-fashioned leather holster around her hips, drawing the ivory handle revolver out.  Across the room, the safe clicked back and forth and when the door flew open, she reached for the manipulated rounds.

She heard screams for a second when sliding the ancient bullets into the cylinder.  It would be too convenient for them to be real sounds.  Instead they were just memories of the last time she had a habit to use this gun and these bullets.  Yes, those screams were real once upon a time.  And yes, this gun should probably have been destroyed for the crimes it was used in.

All things considered though…

As she loaded each bullet, she thought about what she might do if there was a threat downstairs.  This morning had been an overall failure.  She tried to save the damsel in distress but instead passed out and fell down a flight of stairs.  Redirecting a bullet wasn’t enough these days.

Harry took her trench coat back off the hook and reached for her fedora as well.  As she walked out of the office, the door closed, and the lights turned off.

It was a short walk to the main door, but it would still mean a walk past every in the office commons.  A walk past Will, the person in the middle of learning all her secrets.

The trip back was painful, as it was expected to be.

“Harry, there’s some guy named Luca Brasi waiting for you downstairs.”
“I know.”
“Is this…is this necessary?”

Harry looked down at the gun hanging from her hip.  She didn’t answer Will.  She knew that Will knew the name was nothing but a code name.  It was a name that meant to run immediately in the other direction and forget that identity ever existed.

“I’m very sorry that my past continues to come and haunt you.”

She heard them shouting behind her as she slipped the earbuds in and walked down the flight of stairs.  Harry walked out onto the street where the shadow form stood in flapping cape.  As her hand slipped down to her side, a few gentle words crossed her mind.

All gunfighters are lonely.  They live in fear.  They die without a dime, a woman or a friend.