The Fury - Jason Pinter [105]
see in movies, that screw on like a lightbulb. Usually
they're homemade, a length of aluminum tubing filled
with steel wool or fiberglass."
"It was you," I said. "You killed Stephen."
Kyle went over to where Scott Callahan was lying
on the ground. He was still holding his knee, but smiled
when he saw his friend approach. Kyle knelt down, put
his hand on his friend's shoulder. Scotty tried to prop
himself up, but he was too weak. I stood there, my body
rigid with anger and dread.
Kyle looked back at me. Then he said, "You gotta do
what you gotta do to survive."
Then he placed the gun under Scott Callahan's chin
and pulled the trigger.
32
"What the fuck!" I shouted. The gun blast was more
of a meek pfft, like compressed air escaping from a
puncture. Gore sprayed out the top of Scott Callahan's
head. His body twitched once, then fell to the ground
and lay still.
My hands wouldn't work. I stared slack-jawed at
Kyle. He was still on the ground, the gun loose in his
hand. He looked at his friend, a sorrow etching across
his face for an instant. Then his eyes turned cold and
his gaze came to me.
"You have no idea," Kyle said, "how surprised I was
to get to Stephen's house and find a gun already there.
I had this one all ready. Instead, all I needed was the
capper." He pointed to the silencer.
"You used my brother's own gun to kill him," I said.
"But he wasn't the last one to use it."
"No, I really should have bought a lotto ticket that
night. When I heard that Stephen's dad got popped for
it? I nearly pissed myself laughing. See, that night I
wore gloves, figured it would slow the cops down, but
I had no idea about your dad's shenanigans. I was there
The Fury
305
to take out Stephen, but I kind of took out the whole
family. As long as they had someone else pinned for the
murder, we were in the clear."
"We?" I said.
"Scotty was supposed to do it. He knew Stephen
better than I did. They were pals, man."
I thought back to our conversation in the deli. Scotty
pretending to barely know my brother. That's how they
got so close to him.
"When your dad got popped, we were in the clear.
We even took the casings just in case. Turns out we
didn't even need to. Now, though, Scotty here's gotta
take the fall. Can't have anyone thinking the killer's still
out there."
"You son of a bitch."
"On a normal day, I'd get pissed at you for talking
about my mom like that, but I'll let it slide. Besides,
when I meant nobody could know, I meant it." Kyle
turned the gun to me. He had me less than five feet
away, dead to rights. There was no tremor in his hand.
By the time I even thought about running, he could pull
the trigger.
"Why?" I said. "Why did he have to die?"
"You said it yourself," Kyle replied. "The man just
had to. When you're the top dog in anything, you're
gonna get bitten."
"But Stephen was so young."
"There's no one guy," Kyle said. "It's like Ronald
McDonald. Every now and then someone new steps up
to the plate. Call it a coup d'etat, call it whatever you
want, but every company needs a regime change. Some
new blood at the top. Now it's my turn."
306
Jason Pinter
Curt Sheffield had told me that five people connected
to 718 Enterprises had been killed recently. Add to that
number my brother and now Scott Callahan. Helen
Gaines told me that Stephen had wanted to leave the
country, that he feared something terrible. Clearly he'd
gotten wind that there were rivals who wanted to take
him out. So, was Stephen systematically wiping out his
competition? Is that why Kyle killed him--just to beat
him to the punch?
If what Kyle said was true, and Stephen and Scotty
had been friends, Stephen trusted them both. That's
how Scotty and Kyle talked their way into my brother's
apartment. They were couriers for him, yet he didn't
fear them. My brother had been betrayed by his own
friends.
When Stephen came to the Gazette that night, he'd
wanted to come clean. He knew the chances of getting
enough money to hide were slim. So my guess was that