“I’m sorry to just leave a message like this, but I guess you heard what happened, and I just don’t think I’ll be in for a few days.” She said into the phone. “He didn’t have any family, so I’ve got to make all the arrangements. Thanks…Bye.”
She hit the end button and bit her lip. “This is a nightmare,” Was all she said out loud. She took a deep breath. She hating piling lies on top of lies, but at this point she had to buy time to save herself.
Looking around her apartment one last time, she threw the duffel bag over her shoulder. She opened her over sized purse and swept the contents of the table in, saving one envelope.
She shook it. “Please, please let this be the right place.” She prayed silently and then stuffed it into her purse with the others.
The police had already been there once. She was shocked to tears but Blue had already warned her. She begged him not to do anything stupid, but he’d gotten himself killed anyway. He was stupid enough not to know he was being used by them and her. How could she be all that surprised he’d gotten himself killed? Too bad, she really, really liked him.
It might take them awhile to make the connection, but they didn’t know for sure that she knew anything. Unfortunately, she knew all they had to do was connect one dot and she’d be next on their list. The second ‘visit’ from the cops would be her last.
Ella turned off the lights in the apartment and peered out the window to the street below. There was only one place she could go. Hopefully she could get there and stay alive long enough to do the work she was hired to do.
They’d all stumbled into this mess blindly, both sides. She was just supposed to be on the sidelines. It got out of hand. Now there were too many directions she could go with what she knew.
One direction could make her a hero. One direction could make her rich. One direction could make her another one of the corpses that seemed to be piling up. Right now, the direction she wanted to go in would avoid that last one.
She quietly slipped out of her apartment and down the hallway. Looking both ways, she tried to look like she was just strolling along just in case some one was watching. She heard the plunk go down the mail shoot.
“One piece down.” She said in her head.
Hopefully, that would go to the right place and be found in enough time for her to get out of this mess. All she had to do is get all the puzzle pieces in one place. She just had to stay alive until she got them all, until then she would look like one of the bad guys.
She wasn’t, but no one knew that. Okay, so she wasn’t an innocent bystander but sometimes it takes a few crunches to get to the gooey chocolate center. Ella was pretty sure she’d gotten to the center, and she was pretty sure that no one else knew what it was.
It was a simple complicated scam. They thought they were going to take the money and run, leaving a couple of idiots behind with dirty fingers. She’d gotten out of the business, but she’d been trained too well. She had kept quiet and watched from the sidelines and this was one of those cases that took someone from the sidelines to put the puzzle together.
Damn but she was the cat, and it looked like curiosity was going to kill her after all. She should have made the phone call earlier. That’s all she would have had to do, but no she wanted to have it all but wrapped up first. Damn her ego and pride.
The cab pulled up. She stepped out of the shadows in the street and slipped in. Handing the cabbie a fifty and a sheet of paper. “There’s another fifty if you take me to that address and say you took me somewhere else, if you have to say anything at all.”
The man smiled. “For a hundred bucks, lady, you’re a drunk dude who stiffed me.” He turned the meter off and pulled away from the curb.
Ella smiled and sat back in the seat, scrunching down to make it hard to see her from the windows. She ran down what she had to get accomplished in her head as they drove. She knew it wasn’t safe for her to be out in the open. She had no desire to end up like Bambi, Max and Blue.
Bambi and Max were clueless. Bambi had no idea she could identify Bruno. Max was just dumb enough to be seen talking to Ian. Poor Blue, he probably would have been around awhile longer, but he was a dumb pretty boy, heavy on the dumb part.
Well, he was dumb enough to fall for her and smart enough to tell her everything. He wasn’t supposed to do that, and they didn’t know he had. Ella wasn’t even sure Blue was smart enough to know she had figured out what was up. She was too good at what she did.
She was also smart enough to know that Bruno and partner weren’t about to leave a loose end. Ella knew that if nothing else, she was a loose end like Bambi, especially now that Blue had gotten himself killed. Maybe the smart thing for her do to was stay put, but she failed Sitting Duck 101.
The cab pulled up to the bus station. Ella slipped out and walked right in. It was practically empty. She told the sleepy surfer dude behind the counter she wanted a ticket for the next bus out of town. She plopped her cash down and slipped the ticket in her pocket.
Immediately walking back out the door, she strolled toward a dark corner. She pulled out her cell phone and checked to make sure there was a signal. She hit a few buttons and paced. She got voice mail.
“It’s Isabella. I’m in deep, buddy, too deep. This is big, bigger than what we thought. If you don’t hear from me in two days, come looking. I can’t say anything else, just get here. Hopefully, even if I’m dead I’ve managed to get most of the pieces piled in the right place. Just get here and help Ian figure it out.”
After powering off the phone, she sat her duffel bag on the ground and pulled out a mirror and scissors. Within minutes her dark hair was short and punky, almost back to it’s natural color. Scissors and mirror went back in her purse, the cut hairs and the bus ticket went in a paper bag she set on fire and dropped to the ground.
While she watched it burn, she stripped off the top layer of clothes and buried them in the trashcan. She stood back until the bag was pretty much ashes, smoking three cigarettes at once to mask the odor. Spreading the remains with her feet she leaned over to see if anyone was around.
She saw the bus go by and looked at her watch. Yup, that was her bus. She waited for it to load and pull away. When it left for whatever city the dude said it was headed for, Ella stepped out of the alley wearing black jeans and a matching tee instead of the khakis and blue blouse she’d arrived wearing.
Ella ran a hand through her now spiky auburn hair, instead of her identifiable black tresses and headed for the one place Blue had stumbled on that even Bruno didn’t know about. As long as she wasn’t caught, she knew she’d be safe right under everyone’s noses.
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