Yeah, she was right.
That would help them nail down the mob man if they could get Carl’s son to spill it.
“How did we miss him?” he asked.
“I excluded him. He told me he was gay, and honestly, he looks a little virgin-y to me.”
He looked over.
“I can’t even go there. If I do, I’ll piss myself laughing. He looks like a geek. They are all the same.”
She disagreed there.
“Not all of them.”
He lifted a brow but said nothing. Still, he had nothing conclusive as to her fooling around with her ME.
Yet.
“What’s next?”
“We catch a rat red-handed.”
“We have to be very careful,” he began, “how do you want to do this?”
“I’m going to be in her room. You guys are going to be my backup. When he tries to break in…”
He didn’t like this at all.
It was baiting a trap with a human being. That was always dangerous.
“He’s due to drop a body. It’s been two days. He is going to move on her tonight. He’s looking at his watch, he’s antsy, but he looks excited.”
He knew she was right.
“Can you do this and be safe?”
“He’s some pimply college boy. I have this.”
They watched him take a pizza and head out to deliver. Behind him, the girl inside was taking off her apron, and getting ready to leave for the end of her shift.
“We need her.”
Gabe watched her come out.
When she headed their way, Elizabeth hopped out with her badge out.
“We need to talk to you.”
She looked scared.
“It was only some weed.”
Why did people always go there first? Her badge said FBI not ATF.
Kids in college towns were paranoid as hell.
“We are investigating the ‘Boston Strangler’ copycat. You’re next. We need to get you secured.”
She looked scared.
“You are that agent I saw on the news.”
Yeah, unfortunately.
“Get in. I’ll tell you all about it at your place. What’s your name?”
“Emily Hooper.”
“Emily, we just need tonight, and you’ll be safe.”
She got in, and she was scared.
“What do I have to do?”
Oh, that was easy.
Well, for her. This woman was going to have to prove her tenacity as they used her as bait.
“Play along and let me do the rest of the work.”
What choice did she have?
If she didn’t, she was dead.
* * * E l i z a b e t h L a R u e * * *
Emily’s Home
10:30 PM
He climbed into the tree outside her home, and he stared at the woman behind the window. His last delivery of the night took up too much time, and she was already showered, and he hated that he’d missed that part.
He loved watching Emily.
She was pretty, but a total bitch.
He’d asked her out, and she laughed at him. She actually told him that redheaded men creeped her out.
Well, she’d really be creeped out tonight. In fact, he was going to make her bleed for insulting him.
There would be rape.
There would be pain.
And he would make her cry when she saw that knife. In fact, he was going to hold it to her throat and make her blow him.
Yeah, he was getting braver, and this was going to show Emily that he was tough.
Strong.
Badass like his dad.
One day, he was going to be just like him, but his father had that stupid rule about going to college. He wanted him to be more like Michael O’Banion than him, and that was fine.
He’d play the game.
Why not?
One day, he’d be working with his pops, and they’d have one hell of a career of crime together, but until then, he was keeping his nose clean.
Well, as clean as he had to.
His dad was big into the ladies and taking what he wanted. He wanted to be just like him.
As he watched from the window, she hurriedly smoothed lotion on her arms and primped in the mirror.
“I do like a nice smelling bitch before I cut her,” he muttered, continuing to watch.
Now he’d wait until she was in bed.
Then his sexy fun would begin.
Inside the room, Elizabeth stayed beneath the bed, out of sight. She was wearing Kevlar and sweating her ass off, but it was worth it.
“You’re doing good, Emily. When I give you the word, I need you to get out of bed, crawl into the bathroom and lock the door. My friend, Alex, will be the one who comes and gets you. The most important thing is to stay quiet.”
“Is he really going to show up here?”
Elizabeth touched the comm in her ear. The wire ran down her neck to her vest and the battery pack.
“Yeah, my team is watching him. He’s in the tree in your yard. He got there about twenty minutes ago. He’s going to give you some time to fall asleep.”
“You won’t let him get me, right?” she asked.
“I swear.”
That was all she needed to hear.
“I’m going to get in bed and when he pulls the covers back, I’m going to kick his ass.”
She listened over the com.
“Turn off the light and climb into bed, Emily. We need to catch this sicko.”
The woman did as she said, and had to put her faith in the cops.
She didn’t want to die.
When she was in bed, she kept whispering to Elizabeth so she didn’t feel so alone and scared.
“Did he really kill all those women?”
“Yes, and I’m going to make him pay. His father’s in the Irish mob.”
“I know his dad Carl. He comes in all the time. He’s always bragging how awesome his son is, but he has always creeped me out.”
Well, that proved this woman had excellent gut instinct.
“You’re safe now, and we’ll make sure you’re good after.”
She was worried.
“I don’t have any family, and what if Carl comes after me? I’m setting his son up.”
She listened to Gabe, who could hear everything they were saying from her mic on her vest.
“My boss, the deputy director, will get you situated. If you testify against his son, you’ll start a new life.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
That seemed to help her relax.
Elizabeth kept her talking until Gabe warned her over her com.
“Emily, he’s heading around the back of your house. Get out of the bed, crawl into the bathroom, and be very quiet. I’ll handle the rest.”
She did as she was told, and as she huddled in the shower, she prayed.
Her life was in their hands.
And so was the possibility of her death.
He was so excited.
On his hands, he had the latex fingertips cut off from a glove and glued onto his fingers, so he would keep his prints off everything, but not look silly in case someone saw him.
His dick was already wrapped in a condom, and he was freshly waxed and ready to go. His groin was super protected, and he knew they’d get nothing after he killed her.
She was his.
Emily would regret the way she talked to him, and she would offer herself up to live. They all did.
Only, she had to die for how she treated him.
How dare she?
He gave her time to slide into bed and fall fast asleep. It was time for him to make his move, and it would be perfect.
As he headed to the back door of her tiny little shack of a shithouse, he found it amusing.
Had she just dated him, she could have seen real luxury. His place was so much plusher, and they could have had awesome sex there.
She could h
ave moved up in the world.
While he may look like some poor, pizza-delivering kid, he was going to be rich like his pops.
One day, he’d own a string of pizza places, and he would have the last laugh.
Little did Emily know that his two jobs weren’t important.
They helped him find the ladies—that’s all. He was using them as a way to…network.
Well, she’d know soon.
Heading onto the small porch, he prayed it didn’t make a sound, and it didn’t.
It was all working out perfectly.
Once he popped the lock with his blade, he’d find her and make her cry.
This was going to be perfect.
This was going to be one more woman to impress his father and make him valuable to Michael O’Banion. He was proving his worth, one slut at a time.
He was building his resume.
Getting his street cred.
In the end, that was all that mattered to him.
Well, and getting off.
Over the com, she could hear Gabe giving her a play by play. Kai was in the house, and he was moving toward her. Noah was by the living room window, and he had eyes on him.
Alex was in the closet in the hallway and was her backup in case this went bad.
It reminded her of their partnership.
The man was likely shitting a brick as she, once more, risked her life.
Elizabeth was in the bed, and she was using Gabe as her eyes. From the car across the street, he was watching with binoculars.
“He’s outside the room,” he warned.
She listened.
“He’s opening the door. I can see it moving.”
Again, she listened but didn’t move.
Elizabeth kept her breath steady. She needed to appear sleeping beneath the sheet. In her hand was her gun, and she was ready.
“He’s about six feet from you at the foot of the bed. He’s rubbing his dick! Jesus! This kid is a freak.”
Yeah, like father like son.
Carl was notoriously attracted to the ladies, and some had gone missing. Only, the FBI couldn’t prove jack shit.
“He’s reaching for the sheet.”
She prayed he wasn’t armed.
When the sheet was pulled back, she sat up with a gun pointed at him.
He gasped and shouted in shock.
“Oh, Kai, you’re under arrest for the murders of all those women. You’re going to jail.”
Elizabeth saw the look on his face and knew what was coming. This little piece of shit was going to fight.
And he did.
He lunged at her with the ‘borrowed’ kitchen knife in his hand.
She was up and off the bed before he could stick her with his blade.
“You’re going to pay, bitch,” he said. “You won’t shoot me!”
He lunged again.
“Shoot him!” Gabe said over the earpiece as he watched in horror.
No, that was too good for Kai.
She was going to school him.
When he went to stick her again, she grabbed his wrist and with her elbow, she got him in the face.
It was the perfect shot.
Elizabeth felt his nose break as he fell backward onto the dresser—stunned.
Well, she wasn’t done.
Alex was there, his gun drawn, just as she kicked him so hard in the balls, the man hit the ground on his knees.
Then she ended that fight with a second punch to the face.
He went down and out.
“And he’s done,” Alex said, picking up the knife to get it away from the man on the floor.
“You go get Emily and get her out of here,” Elizabeth stated. “She’s safe now.”
He high-fived her as he walked past her and to the bathroom.
Gabe and Noah ran in, and they checked out the man on the floor.
Elizabeth was tucking her gun away in the back of her jeans.
“You should have shot him!”
She laughed.
That was something she never expected from Gabe. If she discharged her weapon, he had a shit ton of paperwork. He was Mr. ‘shoot only if you have to’.
“When there comes a day where I can’t kick the shit out of some kid whose only exercise is jerking off, then I’m going to retire.”
Gabe picked up his hand and looked at it.
“Glove fingertips. They’re glued on.”
“And that was why he only left smudges,” she said. “Pull down his pants.”
They both looked at her like she was batshit insane that she even suggested it.
“Jesus! I swear you two are girls.”
“Hey, I’m good with dick, but his…no, thank you. Who knows where it’s been,” Noah stated.
She snorted.
“Uh, don’t ask and don’t tell,” Gabe said. “Wait, you always work out on the treadmill beside me.”
Noah grinned.
“Yeah, I know. It’s the best view.”
Gabe went from horrified to freaked out in a matter of seconds.
Awkward.
Elizabeth pulled the man’s sweats down and there was his fully encased dick. He’d bagged it up with a condom, and literally, duct taped it to his skin so not only was it erect and stuck that way, but nothing was getting out by way of ejaculation.
What an idiot.
“Well, I really want to be the one who rips that off,” she stated.
Gabe tossed her handcuffs.
“Agent LaRue, you just caught the copycat ‘Boston Strangler’. What are you going to do next?”
Oh, she already knew.
“Noah, can you help Chris transport a dog to Livy?”
“Yeah, where will you be?” he asked.
She glanced over at Gabe.
“I need a couple days off. I want to go to a funeral. I have some business to attend.”
He got it.
“Want me to stay with you? I can work out of a hotel room if you don’t want to do this alone.”
She gave him a kiss on the cheek as Noah dragged Kai to his feet.
“Actually, Gabe, that’s exactly what I want to do. I want to do it alone.”
He patted her on the back.
“The jet will come back up for you.”
“That’s okay. I can drive home. It’s only seven hours. I need some time.”
Gabe would respect that.
“There’s going to be a news conference,” he said.
“That’s not my thing. You have it, big guy. I’m just the agent. I’ll do the grunt work, and you get the glory.”
She headed out.
“She’s something,” Noah stated.
Yeah, she really was.
He was going to make one hell of a prediction.
“One day, she’s going to be the best.”
And he didn’t doubt it.
At all.
* * * E l i z a b e t h L a R u e * * *
Three Days
Later
She bought a dress, and she went to the funeral, only Elizabeth couldn’t sit in the church.
She couldn't do it.
It wasn’t that she was afraid to, or that she’d burst into flames, but religion was beginning to make her doubt a lot in her life.
God.
Heaven.
Hell.
It was all relative.
So, as they all went into the Cathedral of the Holy Cross for Mass, she stayed outside.
As she waited, she filled out a card and left a message inside.
It was for Max’s son, Max, his namesake.
She placed the picture inside and scribbled the message.
‘Max,
You don’t know me, but I was with your dad when we went through that door. It was the worst day of my life, and yours too. Please know that as we rode to that building, your dad thought about you. This picture was tucked into his helmet. He said you were his good luck charm, and he wanted to make the world a better place for you. You wer
e loved, and the apple of his eye. I’m sorry you lost your dad that day. We all lost a little when he died.
Godspeed.
For your father, fight the good fight.
E. LaRue.’
As she tucked the picture into the envelope, she wanted to give him one last thing. Reaching around to the back of her neck, she undid the clasp on her cross.
She was adding her own good luck charm for the boy. He was going to have a tough life without a dad. She couldn't imagine hers without Charlie.
But first, she needed to make more amends to a woman she missed so very much.
“Mom, you said I’d always know when it was time to find my path in religion. I’m sorry, but today, I have to leave your chosen path. I hope you forgive me. I can’t do my job and believe in God. I see too much, and I can’t believe God cares when the world is this jacked up, but maybe this will help this kid. I think I was holding this for him.”
She dropped the gold cross into the card and sealed the envelope.
When she heard the bells ringing, and the commissioner coming out of the building, she headed his way.
“Elizabeth! You didn’t leave?”
“I stayed for this,” she said, letting him think she’d gone inside.
“We appreciate what you’ve done. I did get a call today.”
“About?”
“Kai was killed in prison this morning. Someone made a shank and got him in the heart.”
She laughed sardonically.
Why was she surprised?
“Yeah, he was a link to O’Banion. We all know who called in that hit.”
Yeah, O’Banion had struck again, leaving no loose ends.
That was NOT going to make Carl very happy when he found out about that.
War was coming. O’Banion would handle his loose ends.
“I need a favor.”
“What? I owe you.”
“When Max’s son turns eighteen, give him this. Don’t tell him where it’s from. Just give it to him.”
“I can do that. We’re starting a fund to put him through college and help take care of him. He’s ours.”
Dawn of Evil_FBI Flashback Page 42