Kiss of Noir (30 page)

I almost slapped her. “Something wrong with your hearing?
Where does Payne live?
”

“Is that all you want?” Carol turned red. “I can write it down for you.”

I drove away with a jerk. “No, you’re coming with me.” Following Carol’s directions, we crossed the bridge from Orleans Parish into Jefferson Parish and Gretna, with Carol needling me for info the entire time.

“Listen, we’re not playing whiny questions, so just cool it,” I said, pulling up my shirt to reveal the gun butt. Carol fell silent.

At last, she said, “There it is.”

I parked and put the pistol to Carol’s head. “All I need you to do is go in there with me. Everything is okay, but you need to do as I say.” Carol nodded.

We rang Payne’s bell and she opened the door without a word and without surprise. My blood turned to poison at the sight of her. She closed the door behind us and we all sat in the living room. I held Carol close, the gun barrel poking her kidney. I flung the envelope at Payne’s feet. “There’s what you killed Cleo for.”

“Huh?” Payne sipped from a cocktail.

“Does everyone have a motherfucking hearing problem?” I brought out the gun. “Admit it to my face.”

Payne raised her chin to Carol. “Why is she here?”

“Insurance.” I cocked the pistol.

“Don’t do it!” Carol cried.

“Shut up,” Payne said. “Nora, I didn’t kill Cleo and I already got what I need.” She reached under a couch cushion and withdrew an identical envelope. “So you’re all wrong.”

“Open it. Ellis outsmarted you.”

Payne tore open her envelope and moaned as she rifled through the thick sheaf of blank pages. Payne started to grab the envelope at her feet.

“Do it and you’re dead.” I said.

Carol whispered, “Come on, Nora, use your head.”

“Confess,” I ordered Payne.

“Fuck you.” she replied. Then Payne drained her glass. “Why should I tell you anything?”

“Because I said so. And you know you want to.”

“Payne, did you?” Carol said.

“Fuck both of y’all.” Payne dove for the envelope and I shot a bullet into her couch. Carol screamed and covered her face.

“You think I’m playin’?” I shouted.

Payne met my stare. “No, I don’t think you’re playing. But I’m not either.”

“Then it looks like there are some hard decisions to be made.” I grabbed Carol by the hair, pulled her into my lap, and put the pistol against her temple. “Your move.”

Carol began crying. “Payne, tell her what she wants to know. Please, Nora, don’t do this. Payne, help me! Nora, don’t, please.”

Payne calmly put a cigarette in her mouth, lit it, took a drag, and on her exhale said, “All right, I did it. Satisfied?”

“Oh, yeah,” I replied. “That makes everything better.” I released Carol and shoved her to sitting up again. “Why?”

Payne shrugged. “Ellis was being a hard-nosed, tough-assed bastard and everything was beginning to crumble. I just needed a little more time, a little more scratch…” She shook her head at the near miss of her fortunes. “So I went to get what’s mine and he got in the way.” Payne spread her hands apologetically. “I thought he was Ellis, I swear.”

“That’s sweet.” I snapped. Carol continued to weep softly. “Shut the fuck up!” I bellowed at her. “You kill Johnny too?”

“Nope. He set me up, so he’s taking the fall for all of this. I made sure his house was loaded and
lousy
with evidence so that even a rookie beat cop could find it. Hell will freeze before he sees daylight.” Payne chuckled.

“Okay, thanks.” I stood and held out my hand for the envelope that Payne still held. She shook her head. I raised the gun and hit her across the mouth so hard, I felt a jolt of pain in my shoulder. I saw a white Chiclet tooth go flying. I removed the envelope from Payne’s loose grasp. Then, with an eagle scream, I emptied my gun into the couch cushion next to Payne. God, that felt good! Then I jerked Carol off the couch and jogged to my car. Carol balked at getting in.

“Oh, relax. I’ll give you a ride home.” I was twitching with adrenaline.

Carol got in and I heard Payne’s front door open.

“Shut the door!” I yelled at Carol and then jumped in the driver’s side and took off as I heard Payne start shooting at us. “Stay low!” I swerved crazily, hoping Payne wouldn’t hit a tire. As a police officer, she should have excellent marksmanship, but who knew how drunk and sloppy she would be tonight. We escaped with only auto body damage. I shoved Carol out of the car at her house and sped away without comment.

I drove straight to Ellis’s. I called ahead, waking him up. In a whisper, he agreed to meet me outside in the street.

“There’s your killer.” I handed him the envelope. “And you better do something about it or you’ll be dead before sunrise.” I gave him the gun back. “I killed her couch, so I will ditch this for you if you want me to.”

Ellis shook his head and pocketed the gun in his dressing gown.

I was thirty-six when I left the big city for the Big Easy. They say New Orleans is like a woman—beautiful, deceitful, and deadly. All I know is, I had to leave Los Angeles on the run and the Crescent City beckoned like a broad on her back. To me, Louisiana remained a country all its own. Half water, half land, half light, half shadow, half evil, half good, half beautiful, half frightening. But mostly I remembered the food and laughter.

Clara Nipper is a writer living in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her book
Femme Noir
was released in September 2009 from Bold Strokes Books. She is currently working on a new murder mystery involving a horndog homicide detective, tentatively titled
Murder on the Rocks
. Clara’s hobbies include fanatical gardening, candy-making for her artisan company, Andy’s Candies (www.andyscandies.org), and skating as a jammer assassin under the name Catnip for Tulsa Derby Brigade (www.derbystrong.com). Clara also enjoys wrestling plot lines into reluctant submission and collecting particularly creative rejection letters. Contact Clara at www.claranipper.com.

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