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“Hit me. ”
“If we took a syringe and drew the oil out of the gelcaps and then injected them into shotgun shells, then maybe used a lighter to seal the punctures…”
“That might just be brilliant,” Ferro said.
“It’ll gum up the guns,” LaMasta said, “but who cares?”
Jonatha joined them and took one of the sacks of garlic bulbs LaMasta carried. “I’ll get to work. ” She and Newton used a mortar and pestle to smash the bulbs into a lumpy paste and then smeared the door frame.
Weinstock fished in the other sack for a big bulb and began peeling off the papery skin. “We should all eat a couple of cloves,” he said, handing them out.
“I hate garlic,” Newton said, “it makes me sick. ”
“Consider your alternatives. ” Weinstock held out the clove, and Newton took it. Nobody liked the taste, but they all had seconds and thirds.
Ferro and LaMastra went to work on the shotgun shells and Crow went over to Val. He touched her face. She didn’t react, and he realized that tenderness was probably the last thing she needed right now, so he cleared his throat and withdrew his hand. “We’ll be ready soon,” he said.
Weinstock joined th
em, “Val, I don’t like the idea of you cutting herself and dripping blood all over, so I’m going to use a syringe and draw off a few cc’s. I think it’ll be safer that way. No telling what kind of infection we might be dealing with here. ”
“Okay,” Val said. She held out her arm and Weinstock wrapped a rubber tourniquet around it, swabbed her with alcohol, slapped her inner arm to get a vein, and drew off a full syringe. He put a Band-Aid over the puncture and gave her some cloves to chew.
Val lifted the bottom corner of the sheet to show Crow what they’d done. Mark’s ankles were tied to the table with several turns of thick surgical gauze. “Wrists, too,” she said. Though her eyes were dry there was a strange deadness to her voice that scared Crow.
“We’re just about ready,” Ferro called.
Val touched Crow’s arm. “Give me just another minute with him, honey, okay?”
“Sure, baby, whatever you need. ” He kissed her cheek and led Weinstock over to where the cops were working. As the detectives finished doctoring the shells Crow loaded them into the shotgun.
Very quietly LaMastra said, “Tell you one thing, Crow, and don’t take no offense. ”
“Yeah?”
“Your lady has more balls than any of us. ”
Crow grinned.
“Seriously,” LaMastra said, “you’re a lucky guy. ”
Crow glanced over to where Val stood looking down at her dead brother. “Yes I am,” Crow said. He slid in the last shell in and handed the weapon to Ferro.
Ferro took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then jacked a round into the chamber. Val looked up at the sound. “Ready,” he said.
Everyone came and stood in a loose circle around the table. LaMastra crossed himself, drew his Sig Sauer 9mm, and racked the slide.
Val looked at Newton, who held two handfuls of the pulped garlic. Mush dripped from between his fingers. He nodded, genuinely unable to speak for the dry stricture of his throat.
“Saul?” she asked.
He raised the syringe. “Ready as I can be. ”
Crow took a position by Val’s side. “I’m here, babe. ” In his left hand he had one of the knobby uncrushed garlic bulbs, and in the other his Beretta 92F. “Let’s go,” he said, “let’s get it done. ”
Faced with the moment of truth, even Val’s nerve wavered, but slightly. She reached out to touch the sheet that had been folded up to cover Mark’s chest and face. She paused, closed her eyes, and murmured something, perhaps a brief prayer, perhaps only her brother’s name, then she took the edge of the sheet between her strong fingers, made a white-knuckled fist, and pulled back the cloth.
If she expected to see a monster, she was wrong. Mark looked dead, and that was frightening enough, but nothing about him was actually fearsome. His familiar features were distorted to a waxy whiteness and a gauntness that was the result of a total loss of blood. He seemed much older, more like her father than ever, and shrunken. Weinstock had wrapped some gauze around his throat to hide the savage wounds, but Val could see the lumpy roughness along the left side just below the chin.
