Assassins

CHAPTER THREE

Gabriel


The shop around the corner from my apartment sold great Dim Sum, but I never went there.
Jonah Hakul did though. He went there every Friday night with his wife and two kids; a boy and a girl, each around seven. Twins I think.
I could see them well from my hiding place behind a large abandoned bus that was forever blocking the street, stopping any traffic from going through.
He was my mission that night; a small time crime boss that had made Leo angry. He actually looked like a decent sort of fellow.
Some people might have thought it wrong to kill him.
I pulled the trigger without a second thought. He keeled over right into his Won ton soup and his wife screamed.
I fled the scene; I had never even been there.
As far as I was concerned there was no blood on my hands.

Miho Yuutaka and Bernard Wells were a well known society couple. Well known that is, for their excessive gambling habits.
To cut a long story short, one day they lost a hell of a lot of money at a well known casino; money that they had borrowed from Leo.
Bang, bang; end of story.

Leo once had a pretty serious girlfriend. Her name was Daisy.
One weekend Leo went away to attend to some business; while he was away Daisy got it on with Steven. A one night stand, she claimed, because she was so lonely without Leo.
Bye-bye Daisy, bye-bye Steven. Rest in Peace.
Leo kept his girlfriends on an even tighter leash after that. If they so much looked at another man or women the wrong way I was sent to pop a cap in their heads.
They always pleaded with me; “Gabriel, please!” they would cry, mascara tears running down their cheeks.
I soon shut them up.

I had to kill a coma patient once. Leo had done a dirty deed as usual. The business of what it was wasn’t mine to know and so I never asked.
The person in the coma had been a witness to it all, Leo had shot them, aiming to kill.
He thought he had, but the newspapers soon proved him wrong. So I was sent in to clean up the mess. It was imperative that the patient should never recover and reveal details about Leo to the general public.
I went in dressed as a doctor; my white skin unusually clean and my straggly blonde hair brushed and tied back.
“Oh Doctor, you look like an angel!” one of the girls in the waiting room told me. I smiled at her, she was a pretty young thing; she would probably run screaming the other way if she knew who I really was.
I checked the patient register for the name; Mary Sullivan, children’s ward eight. Handing the register back to the plump Indian receptionist I snapped the white plastic gloves over my hands and headed down to the elevator.
Hospitals don’t really have a smell. People think they do but they don’t. There is nothing there to smell unless it’s the scent of impending death.
Pills don’t smell; the nurses and doctors don’t smell. They have to be clean, washing in the morning when they enter the hospital and when they leave. Their white suits dry-cleaned every night by the Latino night staff.
It’s the lack of smell that lingers with you. And the feeling that you hope you don’t end up there, in a white place without feelings or senses.
I wasn’t afraid. I rather suited the hospital actually. I felt powerful, seeing all the people lying on their little beds, drawing in their last rattling breaths. I would never be like that.
When I reached Mary’s room I checked around. No one was there and why would they be? She was in a fucking coma; it wasn’t like she was going to need anything.
She was a tiny thing, maybe about twelve years old; pale and surrounded by tubes and wires. A little smile pulled at the corners of her mouth as she slept. Perhaps she was having a good dream.
Ducking down I yanked the cord out of the life support machine. Then I took my silencer and shot her a couple of times in the head, just to make sure.
“Bye Doctor!” the pretty young waiting room girl called after me as I left.
Stupid girl.

Mickey Rowke tried to go straight but Leo was having none of that.
“Take him out.” He ordered; voice gruff with too many cigars and an abundance of alcohol.
Mickey was a big guy, at least 6ft 3, and wide too. Not fat, but like a boxer build if you know what I mean. All muscle, and lots of it too.
His face was fucked up; dented nose and misshapen cheeks. That’s what years of fistfights will do to you.
But when I turned up outside his apartment; No.8, Kingwell Building, Spaytu square, he didn’t try to fight me. He just looked at me through narrowed eyes, a half eaten hot dog in his big hands, lots of relish.
“You bastard,” he spat. “Don’t you ever want to be something more than Leo’s lapdog?”
I answered him with a bullet hole in the brainpan. Then I ate the rest of his hotdog; too many onions and not enough meat. I’d tasted better.

There ain’t nothing certain in life but death.
That’s what Leo used to say to me. He said it every time we met, every time he handed me my pay check.
He was just reminding me that I too could die; he would stick a bullet in me if he had to.

Narinda Pagmar was beautiful. Skin the colour of chocolate, golden eyes and black hair falling in silken waves down to her waist.
Narinda Pagmar was the beloved wife of James Stevenson; a new police chief arrived from the other side of the country.
I was sent to spy on them for weeks after they arrived in town. They had a large house on the outskirts of the town, surrounded by a tall hedge and a swimming pool in the back garden.
It smelt of spices and incense, enticing to say the least.
Obviously one of them had come from a well off family, because being a police chief would never earn you that much.
Leo was convinced James was going to start a revolution in the police force; a revolution where the police would come to their senses and actually start arresting criminals like us.
I watched them for a long time, I didn’t agree with Leo. I didn’t think James would start anything. All he wanted was a peaceful life with his exotic wife. Narinda was pregnant when Leo told me to kill her.
“It’s a warning to him.” He said, spooning some caviar onto a cracker.
I smothered her in her sleep when James was working a late shift.
The maid walked in as I was leaving so I silenced her.

I was a murderous puppet and Leo was pulling my strings.