Conviction

by Dwayne Gill

  “Not by himself,” said Bishop. “But none of the regulars were with him. I’d never seen them before.”

  “Okay. Thanks, Roger,” said Hart.

  “Is everything okay, old buddy?” asked Bishop.

  “Couldn’t be better,” said Hart. “I’ll talk to you soon.”

  Hart immediately dialed Todd’s number, but it went straight to voicemail. He gripped the phone hard and was tempted to throw it.

  “It’s Foster, isn’t it?” said Barkley.

  Hart paused before nodding. “Barkley, this is getting serious. I don’t want you involved any further.”

  Barkley stood up. “Oh, no sir. I’m not going anywhere. Besides, I have nothing to lose in this. I’m only a trainee.”

  “Ellen, I don’t fear you losing your job,” said Hart. “I’m talking about your life being in danger.”

  The realization either didn’t hit home, or she was already aware, because her expression never changed. “There’s no going back. I won’t turn and hide from this. I’m doing this for Kristy and Helen.”

  Hart nodded. “Ellen, I think there’s a lot more going on here. If Foster’s involved, it makes me fear who else may be. We can’t trust anyone right now.”

  “I trust Cane,” she said.

  “Crazily enough, so do I,” said Hart.

  “So now what?” asked Barkley.

  Hart sighed. “Time to kiss Bowman’s ass.”

  ◆◆◆

  Tuesday, 9/12/2028, 12:45 a.m.

  Perkins, Florida

  Lynks and Calvin were sitting in the living room, wondering where Cane was. They’d only arrived twenty minutes ago but knew he should’ve beaten them there.

  “He might be visiting Kristy,” said Lynks before remembering that Calvin didn’t know who she was. Calvin looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “Long story,” said Lynks. “I don’t have the energy to get into it.”

  Calvin nodded and smiled. “Nice place you guys have. Better than the dump I live in.”

  Lynks smiled. Then his phone rang. “It’s Bowman,” he said. He answered, only to hear the severe distress in Bowman’s voice.

  “Lynks, something bad’s happened. I’m on my way, but it’ll take me a few hours to get there. Helen’s been killed, and they took Kristy.”

  Lynks’s world shifted as he sat; he swore the walls closed in on him. It can’t be. He couldn’t speak. His throat felt like it was closed up and he was light-headed. He didn’t know if his concussion was adding to this effect, but he’d never felt sorrow so strongly.

  Calvin looked at him curiously, then walked over to him and asked him a question, but he couldn’t hear it. He waved him away.

  “Cane?” Lynks muttered to Bowman.

  “Cane’s okay, physically,” said Bowman. “He wasn’t there when it happened. But I don’t know where he is or what he’s doing. Maybe try to call him, Lynks. He may answer you.”

  “Who? Who did this?” Lynks felt stupid for asking; he already knew. Calvin seemed to get a vague idea of what was going on, and he sat beside Lynks and waited, looking very concerned.

  “The marked men, Lynks,” said Bowman. “Cane already killed one. You know he’s gonna turn this country upside down trying to find her.” Lynks knew. Cane was a very calculated man, organized, thorough, careful even. But very few people knew how much those two women meant to him, and Lynks was one of them. These men would pay a hefty price for crossing Cane in this way. They had no idea what was coming for them.

  “This will sound weird, but the FBI agents, Hart and Barkley, are coming to help,” said Bowman. Lynks could barely take it in, his head still spinning. “They met Cane tonight. They’re the ones that found Helen. It’s a long story, so we’ll sort it out later, but I wanted you to know because they’ll be there any moment.”

  Lynks was skeptical. “Bowman, are you sure that’s a good idea?”

  “Cane told them to call me. He wanted them to help. And think about it. Cane will be preoccupied. This Daniel thing goes down in about thirty hours. We have a lot of work to do, and it looks like we’ll be doing it without Cane. We need all the help we can get.”

  How could they pull this off without Cane? Lynks thought.

  “I’ll see you as soon as possible,” said Bowman. “And Lynks, I know they meant something to you too. I’m so sorry. We’re gonna nail these guys.”

  When Lynks ended the call, the ensuing silence descended on him. Calvin wasn’t saying anything; Lynks dropped his head into his hands and cried. After a few moments he felt a hand touch his shoulder. It was Calvin, doing his best to comfort him.

  “I think it’s time I told you about Helen and Kristy,” Lynks said. Calvin would never understand the gravity of the situation unless he heard it all.

  “When you feel like it, man,” said Calvin. “Just take your time.”

  Lynks did. He took several minutes to gather himself, but he also knew he needed to call Cane. He was terrified. He didn’t know what Cane would sound like and didn’t want to hear his best friend in pain. But he didn’t have a choice. He dialed him and it went straight to voicemail, which wasn’t surprising. He decided to try again later.

  Lynks gave Calvin a brief history of Kristy, Helen, and Cane, and then told him what happened tonight, although he didn’t have many details. Calvin grasped it well enough to realize how catastrophic it was, and he showed genuine emotion about it.

  “I’m sorry, man,” said Calvin. “That sucks. I’d hate to be Cane right now.”

  “I’d hate to be the ones who did this,” said Lynks.

  A few minutes later, they heard a vehicle drive up. “It’s Hart and Barkley,” said Lynks, looking out the window.

  “You sure about them?” asked Calvin.

  “Cane trusted them, so yeah, I’m sure.”

  Hart and Barkley looked worn and exhausted as they approached, heads down, faces drawn. It looked like they came from a funeral.

  “Lynks?” asked Hart, now standing only a few feet from him. “What happened to your head?”

  Lynks had almost forgotten about his bandaged head. “Long story.”

  “This is Ellen Barkley,” Hart said, pointing to his partner. She grinned at Lynks. “Ellen, this is the infamous Lynks.” He looked over Lynks’s shoulder. “Who is that?”

  Calvin stepped into the door threshold. “I’m Calvin. A friend of Daniel’s.”

  “Come inside,” said Lynks.

  “I could use a shower, and so could Ellen,” said Hart. They both had dried blood on their clothes and hands.

  Lynks let them in and they took turns showering. While Hart showered, Barkley sat with Lynks and Calvin. She told Lynks what happened the last couple of days, how she visited Mary Swelling and came to find out about Cane’s connection to Kristy. Lynks perked up when she told him about the cassette player that Swelling had.

  “It was a woman talking on the device?” asked Lynks.

  “Yes,” said Barkley. “She was soft-spoken. She didn’t say who she was, though.”

  “We’ve each gotten one then,” said Lynks. “Calvin’s even been getting messages from her.” Calvin looked up and nodded.

  “It appears she wanted me to find you and Cane,” said Barkley.

  “But why not just send both of us messages to meet?” asked Lynks.

  “I think she had a deeper agenda,” said Calvin. “By having you meet Swelling,” he said to Barkley, “it not only clued you in on Cane’s connection to Kristy, but it also showed you a more compassionate side of Cane. I think she wanted you to meet him, but under the right circumstances.”

  Barkley smiled. “I always appreciated the man that helped Kristy,” she said. “I never in my wildest dreams thought the man would end up being Cane.”

  “I’m seeing a lot of parallels with Daniel,” said Calvin. “Both Cane and Daniel are deceitfully compassionate. You wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at them or by examining their general body of work, but if you dig deeper to find it, it’s th
ere. Unlikely heroes.”

  Calvin was growing on Lynks. After becoming familiar with his sense of humor, he found him very enjoyable to be around. Lynks was even relating to his jokes. But it was more than that; he seemed to be attached to Daniel in much the same way Lynks was to Cane.

  Hart stepped out of the hallway and looked at Barkley. “It’s all yours,” he said.

  Barkley jumped up. “Thank you.” She hurried down the hall, eager to clean up.

  Hart sat down in front of Lynks. “I guess Barkley told you most everything, right?”

  “She did,” said Lynks.

  “I want you to know how sorry I am about Helen and Kristy,” said Hart. “Tonight’s been a bad night.”

  Lynks didn’t know what to say. “What’s gonna happen to Helen’s…” He couldn’t finish it.

  “I called the police when I left,” said Hart. “I had to do something.”

  “You don’t know where Cane went?” asked Lynks.

  “I don’t,” said Hart. “He was distraught, but I’m sure you expected that.”

  Lynks was surprised that Hart didn’t stress how angry Cane was.

  “It feels strange to be sitting in front of you now, after all these years,” said Lynks.

  “I know,” said Hart. “It felt bizarre to see Cane in person. I didn’t think it would ever happen. And if the lady on the tape hadn’t intervened, I likely never would have.”

  “So why are you here?” asked Lynks. He knew there had to be more to the story if Cane trusted him enough to send him here.

  “It appears I’ve been playing for the wrong team,” said Hart.

  A confused look washed over Lynks’s face, causing Hart to elaborate. He told Lynks about the past few days and what he’d learned. “I don’t trust Foster anymore. I don’t know who to trust.”

  “We know the feeling,” said Lynks.

  “So what’s the plan with Daniel?” asked Hart.

  “We think they’re bringing him to a facility near Oglethorpe, but it could be farther away. I’d assume they want to kill him quietly,” said Calvin.

  “Is there any way you could find out where he’s being taken?” Lynks asked Hart.

  Hart smiled. “What if it didn’t matter where he was being taken?”

  Calvin and Lynks looked at him.

  “I have an idea,” said Hart.

  Broken

  Tuesday, 9/12/2028, 3:00 a.m.

  Lake Jackson—-Tallahassee, Florida

  Cane sat on the bank of Lake Jackson, a place he’d never been before. When he left Helen and Kristy’s house, he drove without a purpose; he had to get away. He was driving the marked man’s car at the moment, choosing to use it instead of walking all the way back to his. Ed, the marked man he killed, was in the trunk. He’d found the man’s driver’s license stashed in the car earlier. He and Hart agreed that leaving the body of another marked man for the police to find wouldn’t help them, so Cane took it with him.

  Cane looked through Ed’s cell phone and saw the same number he’d dialed from the warehouse, which belonged to Amos. He tried calling it earlier but there was no answer. There were other numbers on the phone, but they meant nothing to him without Lynks’s expertise.

  He knew time was not on Kristy’s side; each minute that passed made him more aware of how much danger she was in. He knew Amos was behind it, but he had no leads on his whereabouts and no ideas on how to proceed. Hopelessness was setting in—a foreign feeling to him.

  The combination of Kristy’s abduction and seeing Helen’s lifeless body was weighing hard on Cane. Any past doubt he couldn’t laugh or cry like ordinary people was now moot; he could hardly believe it when he’d felt the hot tear streaming down the side of his face as he knelt over Helen’s lifeless body.

  He realized having emotions had drawbacks. Apparently, loving someone and caring deeply for their well-being could be painful. He was feeling the depth of that pain now; part of him wanted to die but he couldn’t. Kristy needed him, more now than ever. He had to clear his head and get a grasp of the situation, which was why he was sitting on the bank of Lake Jackson.

  There was nothing special about the lake itself. In fact, it wasn’t even that pretty. There was a mossy-looking substance floating near the surface in many places, and the water smelled. It was, however, a quiet place, which was the only thing Cane wanted at the moment.

  He thought about his last phone conversation with Helen. She had told him when he finished getting the bad guys, he should come home. Home. Now she was gone, and Kristy was taken, and he felt like any chance of him ever leading a normal life had vanished, especially if something happened to Kristy. All progress he’d made over the years would be washed away by a tidal wave of renewed bitterness, loneliness, and failure.

  Cane sat there for hours watching the water, hoping to clear his mind and let go of the anger and grief, but it wasn’t working. He resisted the urge to call Amos again, knowing it would only upset him more when there was no answer.

  He never stopped gripping the phone, even after hours of sitting. When it finally rang, it startled him. He felt a surge of hope as he saw Amos’s number displayed. He accepted the call and sat there, silent.

  “I half expected to hear you execute Ed in the background,” said Amos. “This is you, isn’t it Cane? When Ed didn’t call after following Hart and Barkley back to the Campbells’ house, I knew something was up.”

  Cane didn’t say a word. He refused to be baited by this man.

  “Well, I’m glad you put all the bravado behind you this time. As you know, things are different now. Frankly, I’m disappointed in you. I thought we had a lot in common.”

  Cane could hear the satisfaction in Amos’s voice, the twisted excitement.

  “Do you know there’s a legend that follows you? When you were in your prime, there were men too scared to sleep because they thought they were on your naughty list. The legend said you could kill any one man you set your mind to, and there was nothing or no one that could stop you. Powerful men were convinced that even if they surrounded themselves with an army, they couldn’t escape death. You made quite an impression.”

  There was silence on the line for a moment. Cane figured Amos was waiting for a response.

  “If those men back then only knew about your one weakness. Who was it? James Bond? I believe he had a weakness for the ladies.

  “All these years of trying to find you, and I never knew you’d be vulnerable in this way. It’s a tragedy. Cliché, even.

  “You made one mistake. You always covered your tracks until you met this girl. That’s what makes me superior to you. I will kill anyone who gets in my way.”

  Cane could tell this was a big moment for Amos. The only way he could make it bigger was to give in and lose control. He would say his piece, but he wanted Amos to get it all out of his system.

  “I looked into Kristy’s abduction. That was quite an ordeal. I’ll bet she still has nightmares about the Blue Rose Killer. I even know she was tied to a pillar for days. Beaten. Probably raped.”

  Cane’s silence was affecting Amos. He was getting more desperate. “I’ll make sure she gets to relive her nightmare. I can promise you this: I’m much worse than the Blue Rose Killer.”

  Cane had no doubt about that. While the Blue Rose Killer did what he did because he was a psychopath, Amos was sane and calculated. He only wanted to hurt Cane.

  “So, no tough guy charades at all? No promises you’ll find me? That’s too bad.”

  Another moment of silence, but this time Cane broke it.

  “The day I found Kristy, I was on my way to kill a Russian named Rugov. I’m sure you know him. I debated what to do with her, but it didn’t take me long to decide that I wouldn’t execute her. The only other choice I had was the one I made.”

  Cane listened for a moment to see if Amos would want to interject, but there was just silence. “There was a time when you and I were more alike than I’d like to admit. The legends you’ve heard,
the things said about me, I earned those tags.

  “Yes, a girl and her mother changed me. They made me conflicted. I lost who I was. You removed one of those barriers to my old self a few hours ago when you killed Helen.”

  Amos remained quiet now, but Cane could hear him breathing hard. “If you hurt Kristy, or kill her, you’ll remove the one last blockade. I won’t make any more promises to you. You hold all the cards. But I will ask you a question: do you think you’d live long afterward? Do you think I won’t find you?

  “The legends are true. So, while those men relaying those stories couldn’t sleep, it was all just business to me. A job. I was following orders. I didn’t care about any of them. What happens when it becomes personal?”

  Cane hoped that if anything, his rant might buy Kristy more time. The amusement seemed to have left Amos. While Cane didn’t think he’d scared him, he didn’t give him any reaction that fed into his ego.

  “Well, we may just find out what happens with your veiled threats,” said Amos. “But right now, I have the girl you care about, and you’re right. I do hold all the cards. Here’s what’s gonna happen. I know you’ve been talking to Calvin and you know about Daniel. I presume you know why we want him, and I’m sure you’ve been scheming to thwart it somehow. So let me make myself clear: if you interfere with Daniel, not only will I kill this pretty girl, I’ll visit all sorts of horrors on her before I allow her to die.”

  There was a brief pause before Amos said, “Stay out of our way.”

  The phone clicked. The line was dead. Cane had no clue where to go from here.

  ◆◆◆

  9/12/2028, 4:00 a.m.

  Georgia

  Amos now had Kristy situated the way he wanted her; it had been an eventful evening, but now he was headed to a meeting he wasn’t looking forward to. He closed the door to the closet and headed downstairs, where Vinson was waiting for him. Vinson didn’t look amused at all to be there, and Amos knew why.

  “I thought I was clear on the phone, Amos. I asked you to leave the girl alone and let Hart handle it. Then I find out you’ve killed the mother and kidnapped Kristy.” Vinson stood with a curious look; he didn’t look angry but appeared eager for answers. Although Vinson was in charge, the two were still brothers. Loyalty between them always came first.