Read Online Aftermath by Michael Kerr - Free Book Online Page B

the residue of fried food.  Batwing doors led through to the front of the building, which was set up for eating, separate from the bar out back.
    Sal walked up to the counter and gave the bartender a half smile.  It wasn’t returned.
    “Yeah,” Chip Monroe said as he wiped the top of the bar with a gray, frayed dish towel.  “Help you?”
    “A cold beer would hit the spot,” Sal said.
    “I’ve got Bud, Coors, Mountain State’s Almost Heaven, and―”
    “Let me try the Almost Heaven,” Sal said, not wanting to listen to the nasal voice of the pockmark-faced owner reel off a lengthy list.
    “Information is extra for a city boy,” Chip said as he flipped the cap off the bottle and placed it in front of Sal with a glass that looked as if it hadn’t been washed in a month.
    “Who said I wanted information?”  Sal said before picking up the bottle of pale ale and taking a sip.
    “We don’t get many suits in here for some reason,” Chip answered.  “When we do, it’s usually to ask directions or use the restroom.  And sometimes it’s someone like you, packing heat under his jacket and looking like he needs to know where someone is.”
    Sal was surprised.  He’d thought that the loose cut of his jacket totally concealed the fact that he was carrying.
    “I’m lookin’ for a guy six inches taller than you.  He could be with two women; one in her late forties, and one about twenty.  He’s drivin’ a dark-blue Discovery.”
    “Haven’t seen anyone like that,” Chip said.
    “I have,” an old farmer-type with a saddle nose and wearing a shapeless cowboy hat said from where he was sitting with two cronies at a table in the corner of the room.
    Sal waited.
    ‘Farmer’ rubbed the pointing finger and thumb of his right hand together.  Sal took his billfold out from the buttoned-down back pocket of his pants.  Tossed a five onto the bar for his beer and walked over to the table.
    “What can you tell me?” he asked.
    “I took a leak.  The window back there in the john is open, and from where I was standing I saw a truck pull out.  Behind it was a dark-looking Discovery.  There weren’t any women in it, though, just a guy.  He drove out the other way.”
    Sal felt a mild surge of adrenaline light him up like the hit from a quality joint.
    “So if he was stayin’ in the area and didn’t want any attention, where do you think he’d hole up?”  Sal asked.
    “There are four or five places off the highway in that direction before you hit town,” Farmer said.  “Cabins mostly, an RV park and the Mountaintop Motel.”
    Sal peeled off a twenty dollar bill and dropped it on the tabletop.  Took another mouthful of the Almost Heaven and belched.
    OK, he was going to have to work for it , he thought as he drove out of the lot and headed up the mountain road.  They’d feel safe now.  Would imagine that anyone tracking them was following the truck to wherever it was headed.  They would be hiding out nearby, comfy-cozy, working out what to do next.  Maybe they’d stay put for a few days.
    It was too late to do anything.  Sal pulled in at the Mountaintop Motel.  He was certain that they wouldn’t be there, but checked the vehicles in the lot before parking and going to the office to book a room for the night.
    He fired up the coffeemaker and had a shower.  Drank a cup of the strong java and went to bed.  He planned on being up at dawn, and finding his marks and killing them before noon.  With any luck he would be back in Charleston in time to change his clothes and enjoy an evening out at Romano’s club on Bullitt Street.  They served up first-class Italian cuisine, and Sal always ate free, due to Dino Romano being a cousin who he’d done work for in the past.
     

CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    Logan was all set to go at first light.  Rita and Sharon were sitting at the kitchen table as he drank a cup of coffee and made ready to leave.
    “Keep the gun,” Logan said to Rita.  “Remember, if