The Burning Day by Timothy C. Phillips

life, a good life somewhere with Mary. I got a good bit of money put away. We could do it, if we could just get out of here.”
    “So what’s the hitch? Go. You’re free. It’s a big world.”
    Francis nodded slowly. “Yeah, but it’s not that simple. For one thing, I need Don Ganato’s blessing before I can walk away, and with the way things are right now, he says he needs me to stick around . . . and then there’s the other thing.”
    “The other thing?”
    “This guy Morton and his pal. They’ve got something on Mary. They told her, unless she helps them juice this Wiggins guy, they are gonna turn over what they got on her to the cops.”
    “Then she’s clear, Francis. I talked to Wiggins. Mary used to be married to him. They’re divorced.”
    “Right. But apparently he’s still got it pretty bad for her. Morton called her, told her she should pretend to go back to him. He wanted her to act like she missed him, and then tell him the real reason that she went away wasn’t because of his affair, but because of this cloud she’s got hanging over her head, so he’d pay Morton to make it all go away. They wanted to squeeze the guy for some big bucks.”
    “And Mary said no?”
    “She did, but she’s scared to death of Morton. He kept pressuring her with what he’s holding over her. She told him she was going out of town for a couple of days and she’d go see Wiggins when she got back. So she checked into the hotel where you snooped around in her room, and we set up our meeting out at the airport, where I wrongly supposed no one would be.”
    “Except you knew I’d be there, since you were apparently having me followed. Otherwise you wouldn’t have known about my snooping.”
    Francis smiled sheepishly. “Ah . . . true. I was having a guy follow Morton, but after he came to see you, you sort of became Morton’s agent. So I told the guy to follow you instead.”
    I nodded. That was logical enough. “Two things, though, Francis.”
    “Okay.”
    “First of all, what’s Morton’s partner’s name?” At the mention of the name, a look of raw hatred flashed through Francis’ eyes. There was a reason he hadn’t spoken the name up to now—it was clear he hated even thinking about the person.
    “His name is Zellars. Morton was the brains behind it all, or used to be. Now Zellars is a free agent.”
    “Let me guess. This Morton is Mary’s ex-boyfriend?”
    Francis closed his eyes and frowned and nodded. “A long time ago, when she was no more than a kid, they were together. He controlled her. He used her to shake down some millionaire back in the day. Something bad happened. It’s another thing that they’re using against her.”
    “Was this millionaire named Carlton Silvers?”
    “Longville, you’re too smart for your own good.”
    “Carlton Silvers didn’t just get ‘shaken down,’ as you put it—he’s dead. Very possibly murdered.”
    “I know. Mary told me something went wrong with the drop-off. You see, Zellars and Morton were blackmailing this guy Silvers, with the same stuff they’re using against Mary now. He was going to drop off half a million dollars in exchange for these things, and they got into a scuffle somehow. Silvers got rattled and took off in his car with the money. Morton and Zellars chased him down, and he had a bad crash. They took the money from the wreckage and blew town, leaving Mary with nothing.”
    “Mary got a lot of money from Silver’s life insurance, and more from his estate.”
    “But now she’s got nothing. These two won’t leave her alone, Longville. They got her framed up for this, like she plotted it all out. They blackmailed her out of everything she got from the Silvers estate. And now they’re back and they want more. Personally, I’d like to tie these guys to chairs and teach them a few lessons, but Mary says no to that. She wants me to wash my hands of all the bad stuff, wants us both to walk away clean.”
    It suddenly dawned on me