Low Sided by A.J. Downey (best detective novels of all time txt) 📕

Jesus, being back at the farm and railing Raven again would be better than this. But I couldn’t. How could I make the promise to her to get rid of this shitstain on her soul, and then chicken out at the last minute, just let Fen go in? If things went sideways, there would be no mercy for Fenris from the police. They would put him away for a long time, and that’s only if he survived to be arrested.

The boys in blue were good about making sure attempted cop killers committed suicide, overdosed, or were just suddenly armed and they were justified in filling a man with lead. If there were two of us, then it would work. Fen knew how to do this, he had killed. I had to do this for Raven, for myself, and it would go better if he was watching my back.

“I only have one question,” I asked.

“Sure,” Fen said.

“What if he has a gun?”

“Of course, he has a gun, but he’s a fucking coward, ain’t he?”

“I would say yes just because of the badge,” I replied.

“He rapes a woman, then has her beaten. He’s a coward because nine times out of ten, a single man can take on a woman in a fight. Most women can’t fight for shit. Most men can’t either, but they are at least the same size as the coward with a gun. A cocksucker who needs a bunch of his brothers to boot stomp a woman, he’s a fucking coward. He will be scared. If he goes for the gun, his aim will be shit. He probably won’t go for the gun. I’m betting bullets to goat shit that this cop is more likely to offer to suck your dick than to pull iron on you.”

I grunted a response. I had said one question, so it would be smart to keep it to just one question.

The cop and the blonde drank some wine. They talked.

They made out.

He sat on the couch, and she vanished. I realized that their conversation had turned to her sucking him off. Then they fucked.

Then she was near the back door, fake tits out. He bent her over the couch and went back to pounding her.

“Oh, this is putting me in a mood,” Fen says. “Aspen might have a right nice evening when this is over.” I didn’t respond other than giving him a short laugh. This felt weird. If we had a rifle or something, it would be done and over.

Instead, we kept a vigil over the fence, asses planted on a dumpster, watching this asshole give it to this blonde. They went at it for a while, and at one point, I barked a laugh.

“What?” Fen asked.

“She checked her watch,” I said.

“Either she’s bored, or she’s billing hours.” Fen laughed. “Plastic tits and cheap hair, I’m betting the second.” There were a few words between them, and then she was on her knees and he was giving it his best 90s porn guy pose. Thirty seconds after he was done, she was up and out of the room, leaving him leaning against the back window, obviously winded and sweating.

“Definitely the second,” I said.

“We won’t do anything until she leaves,” Fen said. I nodded in agreement. No reason for whoever she was to get drawn up in Max’s fate.

The next couple of hours seemed to never fucking end. She cleaned herself up. They talked. There was coffee. They talked more.

They might have had an argument.

They made up and talked some more.

She eventually left.

Max fucked around in his house for a bit longer, took a shower.

Dicked around, watched some television.

Then, thank fuck, finally turned out his lights and went to bed.

“How do you have the patience for this?” I asked.

“I slept.” Fen shrugged. “After he finished his business, I closed my eyes. I knew nothing interesting was going to happen.”

“You could have told me,” I said.

“Figure it out, Mace,” he said. “We’ll move when the moon is directly above that tree.” He pointed at the tallest tree in the neighborhood.

I leaned back against the dumpster and thought about getting some sleep myself. I wasn’t sure how to sleep, my nerves were all jangled up, and I didn’t know how this was going to go down. We had one knife, no guns. This guy was a cop, and I would so rather be with Raven right now. Next thing I realized, Fenris was shaking me awake.

“C’mon, Cinderella, it’s go time.” When he stood, he seemed like some sort of ancient Norse god, or a wolf that had come to levy judgment. “You still remember how to pop a sliding glass door?”

“Of course, I do.” I looked toward the house. The work I had done, construction and shit, of course I knew about doors and windows. I never imagined that remodeling would be a useful skill in dealing with a bad cop.

We hopped the fence and stole across the backyard in a low run. Max didn’t have any sort of personal security, no cameras, no flood lights. Fenris looked at the door when we eased up next to it. I could see the look in his eyes, smash the glass and go right through. There were two things though, some of these doors weren’t glass, they were energy saving sandwiches of composite materials, and more often than not…

I slid the door open.

They were left unlocked.

I gestured for quiet, and he nodded. I saw a flash of teeth, and then the flash of the crazy Norse knife he was carrying.

“What’s the plan, Jesus,” I hissed.

“You’re going to jump him, and beat the shit out him,” Fen said. “Then, we’re going to kill him, slow like.”

“Just beat his ass?”

“Yes, beat his ass, then we are going to kill him, because this is what you wanted to do.”

I nodded and clenched my fists. Fen had my back; he had that knife. Fuck, Fen didn’t need my help to do this, he was fucking babysitting me.

It took three doors