by Karen Rose
Kate glared at him, but said nothing.
Deftly the man called Decker fished Kate’s shield from her jacket pocket. ‘Special Agent Kate Coppola,’ he said. Pocketing the ID, he cuffed one of Kate’s wrists, then pulled her arms behind her back and cuffed the other. Kate looked pissed, and Marcus wondered how the blond had gotten the jump on her.
‘Your turn, ma’am,’ Decker said to Scarlett, and she laughed bitterly.
‘Ma’am? You’ve got to be kidding.’
‘We don’t kid, ma’am.’ Decker pulled Scarlett away from Sweeney, spun her to face the older man and proceeded to cuff her the same way he’d done to Kate.
‘Leave Detective Bishop here for now,’ Sweeney said. ‘I need her for when O’Bannion returns, because he will. He’s just made that way. Take the redhead down to the woodchipper.’
Horrified, Marcus could only stare. Woodchipper? He had to fight to control his heart rate. His pulse had just shot into the stratosphere.
‘I will, sir,’ Decker said politely. ‘Oh, I found Sean in the garage when I first arrived. I took the liberty of taking him down to the pit too, so you wouldn’t have to.’
Sweeney looked first annoyed, then relieved. ‘Thank you, Decker. I appreciate that.’
‘Anything else, sir?’
‘No, that’ll be all for now.’
Marcus and Deacon each drew back, pressing into the wall, waiting for the man named Decker to come through the gate with Kate. They could jump him, freeing Kate.
But noise of a struggle met their ears instead. Kate was fighting like a wildcat, trying to free herself. Sweeney stepped away from Scarlett to help Decker subdue Kate.
Seeing their opening, Marcus and Deacon started running, guns drawn, but came to a dead stop when Scarlett, Kate and the big blond Decker all pulled guns on Sweeney. Both Scarlett and Kate had their cuffs dangling from one wrist.
‘Approach slowly,’ Decker said to Marcus and Deacon without looking at them. Decker held Kate’s rifle pointed at Sweeney’s head. ‘No sudden moves, please.’
‘What the hell, Kate?’ Deacon demanded.
Kate jerked her head toward Decker. ‘Pineapple under the sea,’ she said.
‘Oh,’ Deacon said. ‘You could have told me.’
‘I was going to,’ Kate snapped. ‘I’ve been busy.’
‘What?’ Marcus demanded.
‘I don’t know,’ Scarlett said. ‘He put a gun in my hand when he pretended to cuff me. I went with it.’
Decker handed Kate’s rifle back to her and took another pair of handcuffs from his back pocket as Sweeney watched him with clear malice.
‘You had me fooled, Mr Decker.’
‘That was the point,’ Decker said. ‘Sir.’
Abruptly Sweeney twisted and leaped back, rolling toward the pile of weapons he’d taken from Scarlett. Decker stumbled, going down on one knee, shock on his face – and a knife sticking out of his side. Handcuffs dangling from one wrist, Sweeney grabbed two of Scarlett’s guns – one in each hand – and began shooting
Stunned, Scarlett staggered backward, falling on her butt. Marcus heard a roar, then realized it had come from his own chest. He began firing, only vaguely aware that Deacon and Kate had lifted their weapons as well. It was mass pandemonium for a brief moment as bullets flew. And then, as quickly as the moment had begun, it was over. The silence that followed was heavy, the air thick with the smell of spent gunpowder.
Sweeney lay on his own driveway, broken, his body riddled with bullets, his eyes staring sightlessly up at the sky.
Just like Tala.
Finally, Marcus thought as he ran to where Scarlett lay on her stomach, arms stretched out in front of her, her weapon still clutched in a classic two-hand hold. She’d rolled into position, he realized, and had fired her share of the bullets into Sweeney. She looked up at him, gave him a hard nod, and his knees buckled with relief.
He grabbed her up into his arms, not caring what anyone else thought. Buried his face in her neck and shuddered out the breath he’d been holding. ‘Oh God. I thought he’d got you. I thought you were dead.’
‘I’m okay,’ she murmured. ‘His bullet hit the vest. Just knocked the wind out of me.’ She flinched when he hugged her harder. ‘Maybe bruised me up some.’
Immediately he loosened his hold, his body starting to tremble. Now that it was all over, he was shaking like a damn leaf. He let himself hold her gently for another long moment, then lifted his head to take stock of the situation.
Deacon was crouched next to Sweeney’s body, cuffing his lifeless wrists together before checking his pulse. Kate had slung her rifle over her back and was tending to Decker, who primarily looked annoyed as he pulled the knife out of his side.
‘I’m okay, Agent Coppola,’ he said with self-disgust. ‘I can’t believe the little fucker stuck me.’ He pushed Kate’s hands away, his cheeks flushed with embarrassment. ‘I’m okay,’ he repeated. ‘I got hurt worse on the school playground.’ The big man slowly came to his feet. ‘There’s a first aid kit in the laundry room,’ he said. ‘I’ll plug this with some gauze.’
Marcus opened the backpack Isenberg had given them and pulled out four rolls of gauze. He threw three of them to Decker, keeping one to wrap the grazing wound Sweeney had put on Scarlett’s right wrist. ‘Is he dead?’ he asked as he wrapped Scarlett’s arm.
Deacon’s odd eyes were filled with warm understanding and cold finality. ‘Really most sincerely dead,’ he said.
Marcus found his lips twitching at the old movie quote from The Wizard of Oz. It was the boost he needed, and he lurched to his feet, helping Scarlett to hers. He walked over to Sweeney’s body, gratified to see that most of their shots had hit the man’s skull. The top part of his head was simply gone. Sweeney’s shirt was peppered with bullet holes, the fabric soaked with blood. But there was one area they’d missed in the frenzied shooting.
Marcus deliberately pointed his gun at Sweeney’s chest and pulled the trigger, shooting the man in his non-existent heart. ‘That was for Cal,’ he said quietly. ‘And Tala. And all the others.’ He shuddered when Scarlett put her arms around him.
‘Sshh. It’s over. It’s done,’ she whispered, rocking him.
It was then he realized he was crying. And so was she.
Cincinnati, Ohio
Wednesday 5 August, 11.55 P.M.
Decker was a stubborn fool, Kate thought as she followed the man into the big shed with its circus-tent ceiling. He’d been stabbed, for God’s sake, but acted like it was no more than a mosquito bite, insisting that the paramedics try to save Sweeney’s son, Sean, instead of treating him. The two paramedics brought up the rear, lugging their gear through the wooded property.
‘They’re in here,’ Decker said as he slid the door of the large shed open. ‘Sean, plus Stephanie Anders and Dave Burton. Burton will also need some attention. Sweeney cut the man’s ear off.’
‘Wonderful,’ Kate muttered.
‘The young woman has only minor abrasions and bruises,’ Decker went on. ‘She gave worse than she got, trust me.’
Kate stopped dead in her tracks when she stepped inside, staring at the industrial-sized chipper, the chute extending over a gaping hole in the ground. The air smelled foul and she had to fight to keep from gagging. She was only moderately successful.
‘Sorry about the smell,’ Decker murmured. ‘I was supposed to dispose of all the bodies this week, but I didn’t. Kept them as evidence. Chip and Marlene Anders and Demetrius are all buried in shallow graves here, under this roof. Hopefully the ME’s office will get all the evidence they need.’
He walked them to the back corner, where he’d erected a hasty partition out of large pieces of plywood. ‘I didn’t want Sweeney seeing them. He didn’t come out here often, but he’d threatened to put Sean through the shredder himself, so I figured he might come back here eventually.’ Decker pulled the partition down.
And froze. ‘Shit,’ he muttered, running to the chair that held th
e remains of Stephanie Anders. The girl’s throat had been slashed, and blood covered the ground around her.
‘That’s a bit more than minor abrasions,’ Kate said quietly.
Decker stood over another chair, this one empty and turned on its side. Next to it was an empty wheelbarrow, also on its side. Slashed ropes were strewn over the ground. ‘Burton is gone,’ he said flatly. ‘So is Sean.’
‘How? I thought you said Sean was almost dead?’
Decker’s lips thinned. ‘He looked it. He might have been. Either way, Burton’s gone.’ He picked up one of the slashed ropes. The edge was jagged. ‘Sean must have had a knife stashed. I didn’t search him. He was handcuffed. Dammit.’ He looked pissed with himself. ‘Either he or Burton cut their ropes. Whichever one of them did it, the pair of them are free.’
Cincinnati, Ohio
Thursday 6 August, 12.10 A.M.
‘Water.’ Diesel shoved a bottle in Scarlett’s hand and one in Marcus’s as they approached him at the front of the property where they’d left their vehicle. The paramedics had arrived and one team had already taken care of Gayle. The other team was with Agent Davenport and Kate. ‘Is Sweeney dead?’
‘Very much so,’ Marcus said. He and Scarlett drained the bottles in very thirsty gulps. ‘Damn, I needed that.’
Diesel was ready with more. ‘Refill your tear wells,’ he told Marcus, giving a pointed look to his eyes, red from crying.
‘Fuck off,’ Marcus said affectionately. He wasn’t ashamed of his tears. It had been cathartic to cry, especially once he’d plugged that final bullet in Sweeney’s heart.
Scarlett shook her head. ‘Where’s Gayle?’
‘The ambulance took her to County,’ Diesel said. ‘They’re monitoring her heart. I wanted to go with her, but she insisted I stay to take care of you two. Who’s Mr Surfer USA?’ he asked, pointing at Decker and Kate, who had just arrived from the back property and were talking to Deacon, their expressions dark and angry.
‘I think he’s the FBI’s undercover agent,’ Marcus said.
‘None of them look too happy at the moment,’ Diesel observed.
‘They don’t, do they?’ Scarlett murmured. ‘They went to fetch Sweeney’s son, who was injured. Since Sweeney’s dead, I think we were hoping Sean could provide details. But from the looks of things, I don’t think he made it.’
Diesel gave the Feds a wary look. ‘No offense, Scarlett, but there’s suddenly too much law enforcement around here.’
Scarlett bit back a smile. ‘None taken. I’ll give your regrets.’
‘I can honestly tell Gayle that I’ve seen you two with my own eyes, alive and kicking. I’m going back to the hospital to check in on her and Stone.’ Backing away from the growing group of federal agents and SWAT team members, he got into his car and drove away.
‘Considering he’s terrified of hospitals, that just said a lot,’ Marcus said mildly, then sobered abruptly when Deacon, Kate and Agent Davenport approached them. ‘What’s happened?’
‘First things first,’ Kate said, pointing at each of them as she introduced them to Davenport.
‘You were the man deep under,’ Marcus said.
‘I was,’ Davenport said. ‘They knew me as Gene Decker. I’d say my cover’s pretty well blown at this point.’
Deacon gave Marcus a look that was half-wince. ‘But if the Bureau returns Davenport to undercover status, this might be the biggest story of your life that you can never write.’
‘But it’s over,’ Marcus said, then stilled, apprehension settling over his shoulders. ‘Why can’t we tell the story? It is over, right?’
Davenport shook his head. ‘Not yet. At least two of the guys got away – Dave Burton, Sweeney’s acting head of security, and Sean Cantrell, who was the IT guy – and Sweeney’s son. These guys trafficked all kinds of things. Drugs, porn, people.’ His mouth twisted. ‘Children.’
‘We’ve started a sweep of the property, but they could have slipped away when we were dealing with Sweeney,’ Kate said with a scowl. ‘We put out a BOLO.’
‘Was Woody McCord one of their customers?’ Marcus asked.
Davenport’s brows raised. ‘Yes. You knew him?’
‘We exposed him,’ Marcus murmured, ‘through the Ledger, but we didn’t go deep enough. Sweeney was afraid we’d keep digging, so he targeted us.’
‘He hated you,’ Davenport said. ‘They all did. But now they’re all dead, in prison or stashed.’ His shoulders sagged wearily. ‘Except for five – the two that got away, Joel Whipple, who did the books, and the new guy in security, whose name is Trevino.’
‘There’s a fifth guy stashed under a bed in one of the upstairs rooms. Name’s Rod Kinsey. He got shot yesterday morning. I gave him some high-power sedatives and he’s been asleep ever since. I doubt he’ll know anything. He’s a low-level flunky.’
‘That’s only four,’ Marcus said.
‘Where are Joel and Trevino?’ Scarlett asked. ‘And how did the first two get away?’
‘We don’t know yet,’ Kate said grimly. ‘Burton and Sean were no longer in the shed when we got there. Someone had cut their bonds and slashed Stephanie Anders’s throat. She’s dead.’
‘Good,’ Marcus bit out. ‘That the Anders woman is dead, I mean. Not that the others are gone.’
Scarlett laid a hand on his arm, a reminder to calm his temper. ‘Let’s take it from the beginning,’ she said. ‘Tell us about Sweeney’s organization. We know about Demetrius and Alice, but that’s it.’
‘All right,’ Davenport said. ‘Sweeney, Demetrius, Joel and Reuben were the owners of this criminal enterprise. Sweeney and Demetrius started out moving drugs up from Florida back in the eighties. Their legit cover was toys, and still is. They moved a lot of teddy bears stuffed with pills. But then Florida tightened its pill laws. That’s when they expanded into trafficking – adults and children, for labor and sex. Sweeney was the CEO and arranged for the sales, Demetrius managed the supply base. As far as I could tell, they were tricking immigrants into coming into the country on a temporary visa. They targeted highly educated individuals because they could get more money for them. They got lower-level laborers too. And they forced people into the sex trade from all over – other countries and this country too. Like I said, Reuben was Security and Joel managed Accounting.’
‘What was your role?’ Scarlett asked.
‘I was hired in as a bodyguard for Sweeney, but I wasn’t able to get at any of the good information. My handler arranged a little accident – I got shot and couldn’t be a bodyguard any longer. I have a math degree and convinced them I could be an accountant, thinking I could get to the books. But I was only working the legit businesses. I wanted to get back into Security but into tactical, not personal, bodyguard services. I figured with a tactical security job I’d be able to access all kinds of information, but they kept me stuck in Accounting and time was passing and I wasn’t gathering the intel I was supposed to.’
‘So you created a hole and then filled it?’ Kate asked.
‘Basically. Reuben was the security chief and Dave Burton’s boss. Both of them had been cops together in Tennessee. They had some kind of strong history. I wasn’t joining that clique, so I had to bust it up. Jason Jackson worked in the security office of the downtown building. I made friends with Jackson and that gave me the excuse to wander up to Security now and then. I was just waiting for my opportunity to break into the network and find the proof I’d been sent in to discover. I got my chance when Tala’s tracker was cut off her. I drugged Jackson – he was the guy on duty that morning – then took him home and made it look like he was too ill to work. I really wanted the top job vacated, so I lured Reuben, the chief of security, to where Jackson was, then I drugged Reuben too and put them both in a safe place. I contacted my handler, in code, and told him where to find the two of them.’
‘You wanted Reuben’s job?’ Scarlett asked.
‘Not really. I just wanted him out of the way so that I c
ould get better access to the leadership team. Reuben ran a tight ship, kept all his departments separate. I was Sweeney’s bodyguard for a while, but Reuben made sure we bodyguards never got close to the real workings of the business.’
‘Where is this place where you stashed Reuben and Jason Jackson?’ Deacon asked.
‘An apartment near my handler’s house. My handler parked Reuben’s car at the airport hotel, but he was supposed to go from there to the apartment to take those two into custody. Trouble is, my handler and I lost contact. I was getting ready to make an emergency call to the SAC in the field office when you pulled your rifle on me, Agent Coppola. Everything had gone to shit and I didn’t want Sweeney’s leadership team to completely kill themselves off.’
‘I’ve sent personnel to the apartment,’ Kate told them. ‘I haven’t heard back yet.’
‘Did you get access to the data you needed?’ Deacon asked.
‘Some of it.’ Davenport nodded. ‘I copied a lot of it. Some of it’s still up here.’ He tapped his head. ‘Some of it’s in the computer in the office, although I think Sean destroyed all that.’
‘What about Sean?’ Scarlett asked. ‘You say he was Sweeney’s son?’
‘Yes. Sweeney’s son and daughter both worked for him. Alice you know.’
‘Oh yeah,’ Marcus said darkly. ‘I know Alice.’
Scarlett rubbed his back comfortingly even as she directed her questions to Davenport. ‘What was Alice’s role, besides being an evil, conniving bitch?’
Davenport’s lips twitched. ‘Alice was Sweeney’s right hand, his heir apparent. The woman is cold as ice and can think on her feet. Sean is IT. Bookish. Likes to keep to himself. I got the vibe that he didn’t like his father, but I never pushed because he would have denied it. The blood in the garage is Sean’s. He confronted Sweeney about funds that his old man had taken from company coffers, then taunted him that he’d taken the money back for himself. Then he pulled a gun on him. Sweeney wrestled the gun away from him. Sean was a desk jockey and Sweeney still had a lot of physical strength. Sweeney overpowered Sean, tied him up, then cut off fingers and toes until Sean revealed bank account numbers and passwords.’