Everyone acknowledged that the plan was far from foolproof, but it was our best option.
As expected, Maggie was less than enthusiastic about Homeland Security dangling me as bait --- again.
“I’m beginning to think that your half-brother is trying to get rid of you!” she said with disgust. “You’re like a little lamb being staked out for the wolves!”
“Well this wolf tried to kill the president. While I’m not his biggest fan, there’s just some things we don’t do in this country and if I can help put this hate-monger away, then it’s the least that I can do.”
“If you get shot --- or worse,” she said, biting her lip to keep from crying, “I’ll never forgive you or your stupid brother!”
Naturally, when everyone in my building heard that I was going to be on national TV, they were all a-twitter.
Rather than having to tell the story a half-dozen times, I gathered my little group of friends and family together to give them the details.
As far as they knew, the whole production was for publicity purposes. The last thing I wanted was for them to know that I was part of the bait that was to lure a homicidal lunatic out of hiding.
Dad, of course, was the proud father. “Who woulda ever figured that my son would save the president? I didn’t vote for the guy, but it still wouldn’t be right to see him shot.”
“Dad,” I protested, “I didn’t save anybody. I was just the guy that he handed the gun to.”
“Nonsense,” he replied. “As far as I’m concerned, you saved the president.”
“Oh my!” Bernice wailed. “Somebody tried to shoot the president? Is Mr. Kennedy okay?”
Apparently, as far as politics was concerned, poor Bernice was still somewhere in the sixties.
Mary reported that my newfound celebrity has caused some concern around the Three Trails. “Old man Feeney asked me if you was gonna raise the rent now that you was famous. I told him ‘no’, but then I pointed to those bullet holes in the front and told him if he didn’t pay his forty bucks on time, you’d send the guy back over to remind him. You shoulda seen him skedaddle!”
After our little group disbanded, Willie pulled me aside.
“Didn’ wanna say nothin’ while everbody was aroun’, but seems to me dat dere might be a bit mo’ dan you was tellin’ us.”
It’s hard to pull the wool over Willie’s eyes.
I certainly didn’t want to lie to my best friend.
“Actually, there is. We’re hoping this broadcast will piss off this Jaeger guy and bring him out of the woodwork. Please keep it to yourself. No point in worrying anyone.”
“I figured. I won’t say nothin’. You jes be careful.”
‘Careful’ was definitely part of my plan. I just hoped that it would turn out that way.
On the day of the big broadcast, Mark Davenport met with Henry’s family and explained the plan.
“Until this is all over,” he said, “it is of utmost importance that you stay hidden in the safe house. You must not go out for any reason. Do not contact anyone. We will be in touch with our agent here at all times. If you need to get a message to Henry or to me, just tell the agent.”
Marsha saw the disappointment on Billy’s face. “What’s wrong, Billy? You look upset.”
“Awww, nothing. Today is Jack’s birthday and he had invited a bunch of us to a laser tag party. Guess I’ll have to miss it.”
“I’m so sorry, honey. As soon as this is all over, we’ll have a laser tag party of our own just to celebrate.”
That brought a smile to Billy’s face.
Henry hugged his family and climbed into the SUV with Mark Davenport.
He hoped that the next time he saw them, the nightmare would be over.
Brant Jaeger listened intently to the voice in his cell phone.
“Yes, sir. I understand completely. Yes, sir, we have everything we need. We’ll take care of it, I promise.”
After hanging up, he turned to his five companions. “The fools think this little charade will lure us into their trap, but we’ll have a surprise for them. Jocco, you keep your eyes on that screen. The minute you see something, let me know. Now we’ll just turn on the TV and see what this coward has to say.”
Willie and Louie the Lip were sitting in Louie’s old Cadillac outside the Blue Bayou Bar & Grill.
“So if I’m hearin’ you right,” Louie said, “De Feds are hopin’ dat dis Skinhead fellow will be so pissed dat he will follow ‘em from de TV station to de safe house and they’ll be waitin’ for ‘em when dey makes der move, only de family ain’t der. Dey’s moved ‘em somewhere else.”
“Das wot I’m figurin’. Sounds kinda lame to me. Whadda you think?”
“Well,” Louie replied, “I’m thinkin’ dat if dese Skinheads have any smarts at all, dey ain’t gonna bite. You got any idea where de real safe house is?”
“Sho do. Mr. Walt tole me befo’ he took off to de TV station. He said if anything went wrong, at least de man’s family would be safe.”
“So how you feel ‘bout dat?”
“I’d feel a whole lot betta if we had a back-up plan just in case.”
“Got me an idea,” Louie said, putting the old Caddy in gear, “but we gonna need some help.”
I walked in the door to the TV station about forty-five minutes before we were to go on the air.
A bright-eyed little gal named Sherry met me.
“Mr. Williams, follow me. We need to get you into make-up right away.”
“Make-up? What on earth for?”
“All those bright lights. We wouldn’t want you to have a shiny nose, now would we?”
“Of course not.”
Henry and the TV anchorman that would be conducting the interview were already in chairs draped in plastic gowns. A couple of gals that reminded me of Frenchy and Rizzo from the movie, Grease, were busy applying the various creams and powders.
A third gal with pink hair and a lip stud plopped me into a chair and covered me with plastic.
She opened a jar of goo and put a big glob on her fingers.
“What’s that for?” I asked skeptically.
“This’ll fill in all those pesky old wrinkles,” she replied.
“Hold off on that,” the anchor guy said. “Leave the wrinkles. Part of the charm of this story is that the cop that saved the president is the oldest guy on the force.”
“I didn’t save the president!” I protested for the umpteenth time.
“As far as the public is concerned,” he replied, “yes you did. People love to love their heroes. Let’s don’t spoil it for them.”
“Swell.”
After I was powdered, the three of us were led to the studio. Sherry was right. The lights were definitely bright, and my nose, left unpowdered, would definitely have shined.
“Here’s how it will go,” the anchor said. “I’ll introduce you both and then I’ll ask Henry to tell his story. Take your time and don’t leave anything out. The nation has been chomping at the bit to have a chance to hear directly from the man that agreed to assassinate the president. I may interrupt from time to time to ask one or both of you a question. After you finish, we’ll open the phone lines very briefly to give the public the opportunity to ask you questions.”
We both nodded.
A guy standing beside one of the cameras held up his hand and signaled, five, four, three, two one. We were on the air!
As promised, the anchor introduced us and Henry launched into his remarkable story.
He recounted the trials and tribulations that his family had faced, and at the point where his family was gone and he was sitting alone in his darkened house, there wasn’t a dry eye in the studio.
I’m sure that people all over America were wondering what they would have done if they had been in Henry’s shoes when Jaeger called and offered a quarter of a million dollars.
After he had described how he had met both the Aryan Brotherhood and the Ozark Militia, the anchor asked
him to characterize both groups.
“Actually, the militia guys were pretty nice. They appeared to be hard working country folk that had somehow lost faith that their government was acting in their best interests. Each one of them had grown up with guns and hunting. It was part of their culture. They feared that this administration was determined to take away their guns. We sometimes hear people jokingly say that you can take my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hand. That was very real to them. I believe that they were acting out of fear --- fear that they were going to lose their Second Amendment rights.”
“How does that compare to the Aryan Brotherhood?” the anchor asked.
“To me, it was the difference between fear and hate. They seemed to hate and distrust pretty much anyone that was not a white, Anglo-American Christian. Latino, black, Asian, Jew or Muslim, they were all the same.”
“It was a very large sum of money that was offered to you,” the anchor said. “Do you have any idea who was financing the operation?”
“Not a clue. They never mentioned anyone and I never asked.”
“I have one last question, Henry. You stated that you were prepared to do what you had been paid to do right up to the moment when your son ran up to you. The question that everyone wants to know is if Billy hadn’t come by at that exact moment, would you have pulled the trigger?”
Henry sat deep in thought. He finally looked directly into the camera. “I guess we’ll never really know, will we?”
The anchor turned to me. “You’ve had quite an adventure, Mr. Williams. What can you tell us about your experience?”
“Not much, really,” I replied. “I was just one of several hundred officers that were there for crowd control. I just happened to be the guy closest to Henry.”
“Were you ever in fear for your life?”
“Certainly not from Henry,” I replied. “He handed his gun to me right away and complied with every request. Things did get a little dicey when the sniper started firing at us.”
“What can you tell us about the shootout that occurred a few blocks from the school?”
“It was just one of those circumstances where two cases seemed to intersect. I had white supremacists on one hand and black gangbangers on the other. It was kind of like mixing baking soda and vinegar. I figured that if I got them together, something would pop, and fortunately, it did.”
“One last question for you. You’re sixty-nine years old. Are you ready to hang up your badge and go out in a blaze of glory?”
“Heck no,” I replied. “I’m just getting started!”
“Thank you both,” the anchor said. “Let’s open the phone lines and get some questions from our viewers.”
As expected, most of the callers were idiots asking asinine questions. After a half-dozen or so, the anchor said, “Let’s take one last call.”
I saw the look of horror on Henry’s face, when the electronically enhanced voice that he had described came on the line.
“Henry, you’re a dead man and your family too. None of you will see another sunrise!”
The anchor made the ‘cut’ sign and the director went to commercial.
We had dangled the bait and the fish had bit. Now it was time to set the hook.
CHAPTER 20
In the real safe house on Anderson Street, the Bennett’s, Marsha, Billy and the lone agent that had been left to guard them were huddled around the TV.
As Henry told his heart-wrenching story, tears streamed down Marsha’s face. Her mother was beside her with a comforting arm around her shoulder.
“I might have done the same thing if I was in his shoes,” Jim Bennett muttered. “A hard working, honest man just shouldn’t be put in a position where he has to make such choices. Seems like the country’s going to hell in a hand basket!”
Little Billy really didn’t understand the ramifications of his father’s actions and was totally unaware of the part he had played in the unfolding drama. All he knew was that he wanted his family back together and life to return to normal. He would have much rather been at Jack’s party than holed up in a strange house watching a boring TV show.
Suddenly, he felt the urgent call of nature and slipped away from his mother’s side.
“Where are you going, Billy?”
“I just need to go to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”
After he had taken care of business, he spied his mother’s purse on the dresser. He knew that her cell phone would be in the little pouch on the side.
The Homeland Security guy had told them not to call anyone, but he didn’t say anything about texts. A text wasn’t really a call.
He found the phone and pushed the button to power it up. His text was short and sweet:
Jack, sorry I can’t come to your laser
tag party.
Have a happy birthday.
Billy
Without powering it off, he slipped it back into his mother’s purse.
“Got it!” Jocco yelled.
Brant Jaeger rushed to his side and gazed at the glowing screen.
“Anderson Street! That’s the break we’ve been waiting for. I’m surprised that Homeland didn’t confiscate all their cell phones. Surely they know that we have GPS tracking.”
“So what now?” Jocco asked.
“We’ll all go to the Anderson house. After we take care of the guard, you and two of the boys will take the wife, the old couple and the kid over to our place on Troost. Me and the other two will wait at the Anderson place. When we don’t show up at the fake safe house, they’ll eventually give up and head back to where they know their family is tucked away safe and sound. We’ll take them by surprise and bring them to Troost for a big family reunion --- their last!”
Willie, Louie the Lip and Darius were sitting in Louie’s old Cadillac a block from the Anderson safe house when two SUV’s rolled up.
Three men jumped out of each vehicle, half going to the front door and the other three circling around back.
Each group had one of the battering rams that the cops use to breech locked doors.
The intruders wasted no time smashing the door and a moment later, they heard a shot.
“Musta got the guard,” Louie said.
A few moments later, they saw three of the men push Martha, Billy and the Bennets into one of the SUV’s.
“Dis ain’t goin’ at all like Mr. Walt tole me,” Willie muttered.
“Looks like half of ’em is takin’ de family off somewhere else,” Louie said, “an’ de other three is gonna wait for the husband an’ Walt to show up. You betta call Mr. Walt.”
Willie dialed Walt’s number on his cell. “No answer went straight to voice mail. If he’s still doin’ dat TV thing, he probably shut it off.”
“You got de number fo’ dat Homeland Security guy?” Louie asked.
“Nope, Mr. Walt never give me dat.”
“You could call 911,” Darius suggested.
“No 911 operator is gonna know nothin’ ‘bout a Homeland Security safe house,” Louie replied. “By de time dey figure out what’d goin’ on, ever thing is gonna be over and folks is gonna be dead. We better follow dat SUV. We can keep trying to call Mr. Walt.”
Louie fired up the Caddy and made a u-turn. They stayed just close enough to keep the tail lights of the SUV in sight. Finally the SUV pulled up in front of a darkened building on Troost.
“I know dat place,” Louie said. “Used to be one o’ dem Payday Loan places. Rip-off joint fo’ sure. Closed up a few months back.”
They watched the three men shove their four prisoners through the front door.
“Try Mr. Walt again,” Louie suggested.
Willie dialed, but no answer.
Louie sat deep in thought for a minute. “Got me an idea,” he said.
He turned around and headed back to a Pizza Hut they had passed a few blocks back.
After the telecast, Mark met us in the lobby.
“From the sound of that last call, I’
d say we got Mr. Jaeger’s attention. Here’s the plan. If Jaeger is watching, we want security to be just tight enough so that he won’t suspect anything, but not enough to scare him off. Walt, you’ll drive Henry in one car and I’ll be right behind you in another vehicle. I’ll have agents in several unmarked cars parked along the route to the safe house to see if we’ve picked up any tails. If they don’t hit us by the time we get there, I’ll drop you off and we’ll just dig in and wait to see what happens. You could just hear the hate in his voice. I can’t believe that he won’t come after Henry.”
As we drove through town, I expected at any moment to see a grenade whistling toward our car. Actually, I was hoping that I wouldn’t see it coming. I figured that way it would all be over before we knew what hit us.
Henry was quiet for the first part of the ride. Finally, he spoke. “Walt, now that you’ve heard my story from beginning to end, I want your opinion. Am I a bad man? Am I evil?”
From what I knew as an armchair psychologist, him just asking that question was a pretty good indication that the man had a conscience and was suffering from a severe case of guilt.
“No, Henry, I don’t think you’re evil,” I replied. “I think that circumstances put you and your family in a horrible situation. I can’t begin to imagine what you were feeling. I think that you made some choices that were certainly questionable, but who’s to say what anyone might have done if they were in your shoes. The bottom line for me is that you didn’t pull that trigger and you’ve done everything in your power to make things right.”
“Thank you for that,” he replied.
I could tell that he still wasn’t convinced.
We pulled into the driveway of the fake safe house without incident. I heaved a sigh of relief as I turned off the engine.
The fake Marsha met us at the door and gave Henry a big hug. If Jaeger was watching, I hoped the performance was convincing.
We hunkered down inside the house, away from doors and windows, waiting for the assault that we hoped would be coming. Mark’s men, concealed throughout the neighborhood, would be ready to pounce once the attack had begun.
[Lady Justice 13] - Lady Justice and the Assassin Page 13