Читать книгу No Alibi - Valerie Hansen - Страница 22

Under the cover of a nearly moonless night, the well-dressed man ordered the driver of his limousine to park behind a bank of metal storage buildings where they couldn’t be seen from the street.

When his local accomplice climbed in to join him as planned, the executive edged closer to the opposite door and tried to mask his disdain. “Are you sure this will work the way I explained? I don’t want any slipups.” Arching an eyebrow, he waited for his rough-hewn, young confederate to answer.

“It’ll work. Ol’ Lester’ll never know what hit him. And he knows better than to open his yap and rat us out.”

“Us?” The silk-suited, older man straightened his tie and smiled malevolently. “There is no us, Denny. You and I have never met, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah. I remember. Just see to it that I get my fair share and we’ll have no problems, Mr. Evans.”

“No names!” The command was unmistakably a threat. He’d meant it to be. Not only did his own future depend upon the success of this plan, he had others to answer to. Others who would be even less forgiving than he was.

“Okay. Don’t go gettin’ all het up. When are you gonna sic the cops on him?”

“Just as soon as you let me know he’s shipped out a couple of batches of booze. We don’t want to shut him down too early. He has to look as guilty as sin.”

“I still don’t get it,” the younger, jeans-clad man said. “Why set him up to make good moonshine and then take him down?”

“You don’t have to understand any more than I choose to tell you.” His eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched. “I’ll take care of the details. You just do your job. And keep me advised.”

“Yes, sir.” Denny gave a halfhearted salute and reached for the door handle. “Another week or two ought to do it. I got him plenty of sugar and yeast. He’s picking up the sacks of corn from the feed mill, like you said he should.”

“All right. Meet me back here in one week, same day, same time, and I’ll decide what happens next.”

“Lester ain’t gonna like it when he’s arrested. How you gonna keep him from figurin’ out I’m the one that turned him in?”

“I said I’d take care of it and I will,” Evans assured him. “Now get going.”

“Yes, sir.”

As the limousine slipped away into the moonless night and headed for the highway, Evans opened his cell phone, pushed Redial and quickly made a connection.

“It’s all set,” he said.

He listened a moment, then replied, “Don’t worry about Denny. He doesn’t have a clue as to what’s really going on and he won’t say a word about the old man being framed, either.”

He chuckled at the query on the other end of the line, then answered, “No, he won’t get wise or change his mind and sell out to the Feds. He won’t have time to. I have a strong feeling poor Denny is going to meet with a tragic accident long before this bootlegging case goes to trial.”