47- Groundskeeper

  47 thought about the contents of his briefcase and asked, “What kinds of poisons do you have?”

  Birdie raised his eyebrows, moved to another seat on the bus, and unlocked a strongbox. He pulled out a vial and said, “Here you go. Clear, odorless, and undetectable in an autopsy. Victim looks like he had a heart attack. Comes in both fast-acting and slow-acting formulas.”

  The hitman recognized the label, nodded, and said he’d take a vial of each.
...

  “By the way,” he said. “We have space for a groundskeeper slash maintenance man.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah. Philip died last night. Heart attack.”

  “Oh, no! I’m so sorry to hear that. I liked Philip.”

  Carson shrugged. “He was old and he’d already had, what, two or three bypasses? We knew he wasn’t long for this world.”

  “He was good at his job.”

  “Until he got ill and could hardly work.”

  Helen thought Carson was being insensitive. “Will there be a memorial service?”

  “I haven’t been able to talk to Charlie about it yet. In the meantime, though, if you have any applicants who could fill the bill, Philip’s job is open, as is his apartment.”
...

  She scanned the application and noticed that for “Skills” he had written: “Good with hands, tools, gardening, fixing things.”

  “Oh,” she said. “Mr. Johnson, I think you might be in luck. It just so happens we have an opening for a groundskeeper and maintenance man. I see here that you do that sort of thing. Is that something that would interest you?”

  The bald-headed man’s dark-blue eyes pierced her, almost as if he could see and study her very soul.

  Then he smiled warmly.

  “Yes. It would.”

- Hitman: Damnation, chapters 13 and 14