She said, "You know that gun must be destroyed."
"Maybe I got rid of it already."
"Not good enough. I want to see it destroyed. If you don't have that gun, buster, you just blew ten thousand dollars. I don't know what you think you're pulling, but you better consider whether it's worth ten thousand."
She was serious. He frowned. Okay. He reached in his pocket and came out with the gun pointed directly at her head.
"Idiot." She reached across with both hands and grabbed the gun, pointed the muzzle away and pulled it from his hand. She flipped open the cylinder. "Chambers are empty, where are the casings, Barner? I gave you the gun with five bullets and told you to leave the spent casings in the cylinder."
"Forgot that part, thought I was supposed to throw them away."
"You know those little casings can carry fingerprints? Did you think of that? I wiped each cartridge before I loaded the gun. Where are they? Are you sure they won't be found?"
"Look lady, I took them out, no way to trace them. Don't worry, I didn't set them down on the floor of his apartment." Stupid woman.
"How many did you fire?"
"Couple."
"Police said he was killed with one shot."
"Maybe it was only one."
"How could you not know? Not advanced mathematics. You started with five. How many did you use on Al and how many were left?"
Talking to him like he's some child. He'll get even with the bitch. "Well, guess I was nervous, you know confused. Don't remember."
"What did he do when you pointed the gun at him?"
"Don't want to talk about details, okay? He's dead ain't he?" She wanted the senator dead. So he's dead. Why doesn't she just shut up? "What, you writing a book?"
"You're right, it's done. We each got what we wanted." She pushed her chair back and stood. She put the gun in the pocket of her short terrycloth robe. "Okay, Sonny, celebration time. What'll you have?"
"My money."
"No problem, my friend. Now we're square."
He watched her get up and walk across the porch to the kitchen. She opened a cabinet and took out a bottle of Chivas, pinched two small glasses in her fingers and brought them back to the table. He looked at the bottle and up at her. Without a word, she walked back into the kitchen, opened the freezer and removed a Ziploc bag. Carried it back and set it in front of him.
"Ten thousand in that bag." She poured two drinks. "Drink up, Sonny. It's your big payday."