THIRTY-ONE
They drove out of the city, acquired another car and headed back in. They dumped the vehicle and then got in a cab. It took them closer to her place, but they didn’t take it all the way there. Leaving a direct trail could be dangerous.
While Tulsi was locked up at Merchant’s, no one had any reason to check her old place. With her on the street, free, Baines might think to check her apartment. Being close by, he’d guess she might just be stupid enough to go there. Which, given where they were, it turned out she was.
After finding Merchant and Coombs dead, Baines wouldn’t take long to figure out that Wreck and Styx were gone too. Then he’d know they’d been played.
Baines wasn’t the type of guy to let anything go. Beyond the fact that he delighted in murder, as he’d proved with
