Page 23 of The 9th Man

Rifle? That came out of nowhere.

“What kind of rifle?” she asked.

Good question.

“An old one. Did he keep an old rifle?”

“He did have a hiding place. I know exactly where it is.”

“Show me.”

He wondered where she was headed, but stayed out of sight and allowed things to play out.Turn on the vacuum cleaner, Malone would say.Suck in more than ever goes out.

She stepped to the bed and shoved it to one side. It stammered across the hardwood. She knelt down and removed a knife from her pant pocket. She opened the blade and jabbed the tip into the floor where it stuck, allowing her to use it as a handle to lift out two planks. The guy with the gun stood to one side, weapon aimed, watching. She reached into the exposed cavity and removed a metal box about eighteen inches long and six inches wide, which she laid on the floor. Apparently the police had yet to fully search and find that hiding spot. She was probably banking that it would attract the guy’s attention.

And it did.

“Move away from it,” the man said.

She hesitated, standing.

“I said move away.”

A click broke the silence.

The hammer of the guy’s gun snapping into place.

Jillian slowly stood.

“Over there,” he ordered.

And she approached the outer wall. The guy grabbed a pillow from the bed. The gun he held had no sound suppressor attached, so this fellow was apparently concerned about noise. He swung around, his back to Luke, and now stood between him and Jillian.

“No rifle?” the guy asked.

“Unless it’s in miniature. That’s the only hiding place I know.”

“Too bad for you.”

“How about a couple of answers before you shoot me?” she said, unfazed. “Who sent those men last night to kill my grandfather?”

“No idea, lady. That was somebody else.”

“Okay, who sent you?”

He chuckled. “People interested in your grandfather.”

“Did my email draw you, and them, here?”

“I don’t know anything about that. But that box there will bring me ten thousand euros. An old rifle? That would have been more.”

“What’s so special about an old rifle?”

“I have no idea. People like me are not told the details.”

“Just the what, who, and how much you’ll earn?”

“Something like that. Are we done with the questions?”