Shadow Of Misgivings, Nora Kane [great novels .txt] 📗

in his belt stepped out of the front door. He gave them both a hard look as he rested his right hand on the pistol.

“Hey, Clive,” Marv said to the man.

“That don’t look like your brother,” Clive said.

“This is Margot, Mal’s woman.”

‘I don’t think Manny had a sit-down scheduled with Mal’s woman.”

“She’s looking for him too. We thought maybe she and Manny could help each other.”

“Help each other do what?”

“Find Mal.”

“Wait here,” Clive said as he went into the house.

A few minutes later he came back out and asked, “Either of you carrying?”

“Not me,” Marv told him.

Margot took the S&W out of her purse and showed it to Clive before dropping it back in.

“Maybe you ought to let me hold that. Just to keep it safe.”

“Alright, if you let me hang onto that hand cannon pointing out your balls. Just to keep it safe.”

Clive looked at Marv who shrugged.

“If I was here to cause trouble, you’d know it already,” Margot told him.

“If you don’t want any trouble, why the pistol? You don’t trust us?”

“No, I don’t.”

Clive went back inside.

“What are you doing?” Marv asked.

“Establishing I don’t take any shit.”

“That won’t help us get in.”

“No it won’t, but it will help us if we do.”

“I don’t know.”

“Plus, it’s not an act. I don’t take any shit.”

Marv smiled. “I always figured Mal like you for your looks, but I might have been wrong. He may have dug your attitude.”

“I’d like to think it was both.”

The door opened and Clive stepped out.

“Keep that purse zipped up and I don’t think we’ll have any problems,” Clive told her.

Margot zipped up her purse.

Clive went inside but left the door open. Margot and Marv followed.

While the outside looked like the place could have been abandoned years ago, much like the clubhouse, the inside looked like something from a model home, with wood floors, modern furniture, and a television that took up most of an entire wall. Manny may not have put his ill-gotten gain into real estate, but he hadn’t skimped on the interior design.

Manny was a mountain of a man who seemed too big for the chair he was sitting in. He had Clive’s clean-shaven head and a jet black goatee long enough the braided end went all the way to his chest. Like all the Devil’s Racers, he wore his vest along with a t-shirt and blue jeans. Even though they were indoors, Manny added a pair of mirrored sunglasses to his ensemble.

In the corner of the room, another vest and blue jeans guy leaned against the wall and kept an eye on everybody. Margot had a feeling he was the one to watch out for. Clive seemed more like the kind of guy they send out to see if anybody’s shooting; him getting shot wouldn’t be that much of a tragedy.

“So,” Manny said as he looked Margot over, “you’re Mal’s bitch.”

“I’m nobody's bitch.”

Manny laughed. “Clive said you had an attitude.”

Margot didn’t reply.

Manny motioned to the chair across from him. “Have a seat.”

Margot sat down.

“I don’t suppose you came here to tell me why your boyfriend didn’t show up for our sit-down?”

“I’m not.”

“Then why are you here?”

“I’m looking for Mal. He’s not the type to flake on a meeting, especially with me.”

“He stood you up too?”

“Yeah.”

Manny stroked his goatee for a second before he said, “I suppose he doesn’t do that often.”

“Never.”

“I can see that, though I bet you could really show me why? Couldn’t you?”

“Could I? Yeah. Am I? No.”

“Don’t be hasty, you might enjoy it.”

“I guess I’ll never know.”

“Your loss. So, Mal stood us both up. I’m not sure that’s enough for us to have in common for a social call.”

“It’s not a social call. I’m worried something happened to him.”

“Well, if it did I didn’t do it.”

“We’d be having a different conversation if I thought you did. I do think whatever happened to him was related to what he was seeing you about. I’d like to know what that was.”

“He didn’t tell you?”

“No.”

“But you think I should?”

“It might help me find him.”

Manny thought about that for a second and then said, “I’m not sure this is your business.”

“I don’t want to get in your business, I just want to find Mal.”

Manny considered this for another moment and then said, “He wanted me to set up a meet with a man I did business with. I really can’t tell you more than that.”

“The man have a name?”

Manny smiled again. “This is the funny part. I couldn’t find him. Word is, he is either missing or dead, or more likely both.”

“So, there never was going to be a meeting?”

“No, there was going to be a meeting. Once my missing man’s people heard I was looking for him, they contacted me. I figured my boy was just a middle man anyway. If Mal could go to the source, I figured he’d be okay with it.”

“You still didn’t give me a name.”

“Yeah, I didn’t and I’m not going to. These aren’t the kind of guys I want to be talking about out of school.”

“Cartel?”

“Why would you go there?”

“They are the kind of guys a person wouldn’t want to be talking about out of school.”

“That’s true, but they ain’t the only ones.”

“You said the guy he was originally supposed to meet disappeared?”

“Yeah, maybe he talked out of school.”

“Did he have a name?”

“I’m sure he did, I never knew it though. We just called him the cowboy.”

When Margot didn’t say anything Manny said, “You look like you’ve heard that one before. Maybe I should be asking you the questions.”

“I