Revenge - A Jessie Carr Novel #1

by JL Schneider

  He searched and found his radio and cell phone. Shorty he located both batteries. He was just about to call in when he stopped. What the hell was he going to say? Could he tell what really happened, he was jumped, disarmed, and his weapon used to kill a man. Christ, no cop should ever give up his gun.

  Minutes passed, he made up his mind, he made an officer needs assistance call, shots fired.

  It wasn’t long before the streets surrounding the warehouse were full of cop cars. With an officer involved shooting everyone had to respond. The shooting team from Internal Affairs took his statement and took his weapon as evidence. Another cop, a Captain took his statement again. He was temporally assigned to a desk until his story was checked. Back at his office he was greeted like a hero, he had done what years of investigation couldn’t, he had taken down Perroni.

  Chapter 50

  The drive home was uneventful. We made a couple of overnight stops. Once home we checked the news, apparently a drug dealers death in New Jersey wasn’t news worthy, still too much terrorist news to cover. The next day I checked the internet, a brief mention of an officer involved shooting that left three men dead. I made the call to Rachael I had been longing to make. She and Jasmine was going to catch a flight home ASAP. I missed her desperately and told her so. Finally three days later a story that made national news, a major drug ring had been brought down by a Lieutenant single handed. He had responded to shots fired and confronted Dominic Perroni, a suspected major drug dealer. He had defended himself and killed Perroni. Two other men were dead when he arrived and had killed each other in a drug dispute. Millions in drugs had been seized in addition to a large amount of cash. The Lieutenant had been cleared and the shooting justified. He had used my story. I was hoping he would for his sake and ours. A cop that gives up his weapon isn’t looked on favorably. A week later a brief story about Lieutenant O’Shea the hero of Camden. He had been promoted to Captain and was now the head of the Camden Homicide Division.

  Life took on an aspect of normalcy. Shelby and Jasmine had a place on the Mississippi coast. He purchased an airplane and they passed their days either on the beach or flying. Carl bought seven hundred acres of woods in central Mississippi. He had a small place built and spent his days wandering in the woods. He had lost his desire to hunt with a rifle, and now hunted with a camera.

  Rachael finally decided to marry me. We had Carl, Shelby, and Jasmine take a trip with us to Las Vegas. Carl and Shelby shared best man duties and Jasmine was maid of honor. Rachael looked beautiful in her wedding gown. My thoughts returned to my wife I had lost years ago, and how beautiful she had been. I felt the fool but cried like a baby, with sadness for what was lost, and happiness for what I had found. We partied and gambled for three days. No one wanted the party to end, but we could only take so much of a good thing.

  Days, weeks, months passed. Days were filled with traveling and just enjoying each other’s company. Nights were spent with Rachael, but in my dreams I had other visitors. At times my late wife visited me, she seemed to accept me the way I was, and was happy that I was with Rachael. Rachael had been her friend, but she never mentions the past few years. In my dreams I saw her as she was on the day we were married, smiling and happy. I am also visited by the faces of men, men in combat gear, but none speak to me.

  One night I was sitting by myself trying to make some sense of the past few years. I had done things I would never have imagined. I had moved drugs and killed men, but not much else in my life had changed. I was still in love and somewhat haunted by my past. I got together with Carl and Shelby often, but missed the camaraderie of our times together.

  Chapter 51

  It was April 23rd 2002. Just after 3 AM my cell phone rang. Only four people have that number Carl, Shelby, Jasmine, and Rachael. Rachael was sleeping besides me and Shelby and Jasmine are in the spare bedroom, spending the week with us. I answer and I hear Carl’s voice, “We got a problem. You and Shelby need to get up here now, take Rachael and Jasmine someplace safe. There is a hotel about thirty minutes south of here, check them in there and then come up. Bring some equipment with you.” My mind was spinning, equipment, we always referred to our weapons as equipment. I woke the others and told the women to get dressed and pack a small bag. I couldn’t explain anything, because I didn’t know anything.

  We were on the road for 3:45 AM, heading toward Carl’s place. It is about a four hour drive, we stopped in a small motel in Carthage MS. It is now 7:30 AM. We told the women to stay put till we find out what is going on. I had given Rachael a compact Sig 9mm for home protection. I made sure she had it with her and told her not to open the door for anyone. I know this scared her, but I had no idea why Carl had called.

  We drove down Red Dog Rd. to Carl’s land. The gate across the road was open so we drove in. Carl was standing in his door and waved us forward. We exited the car and walked inside. Carl had a man tied up on the floor. The guy was awake and struggling at his bonds. There was blood on his face and fear in his eyes.

  Carl motioned to the guy on the floor and said “Meet Mr. Halsey, Mr. Halsey tried to kill me this morning and he don’t want to tell me who sent him. I would ask his partner, but he is already dead in his car parked around back, apparently Mr. Halsey here was the shooter and his buddy was the wheel man.”

  I bent over and looked at Halsey and shook my head. I thought we had put this shit behind us, but here it was, in our back yards. Carl continued “This clown here has a New Jersey Driver’s License, what a surprise, I didn’t bother looking for his buddies, too much blood, but I would bet he is of the same mold. These assholes thought opening the gate and driving in wouldn’t attract my attention. Too bad for them I have motion detectors around here.” He looked at Halsey, “You guys are fuckups, I hope you weren’t the best the boss has, because you guys suck.”

  We needed to find out who had sent these clowns. Apparently either Perroni didn’t know someone else knew about us, or he had lied. I really didn’t think he had lied, he was too afraid. In a way we had gotten lucky, Carl would be the hardest to eliminate. Sneaking up on him was virtually impossible. He seemed to never relax, always aware of his surroundings, as these two had found out. My guess was they had assumed since he was a long way from a neighbor no one would notice gunshots. They didn’t know Carl.

  Chapter 52

  Halsey had to talk, there was just no option. We had to confront this head on. If someone was coming for us, we couldn’t wait, we had to take the offensive. We lifted Halsey put him on a chair and tied him to it. I really didn’t want to do this, but I had no choice. I looked him straight in the eye and said, “My friend, you are in a major fucking jam, your boss has got you into something you can’t get out of. I need to know who sent you before I decide what to do with you.”

  He was going to play the tough guy act. “Fuck you man, you guys are all dead, you just don’t know it yet.”

  I chuckled “From where I stand there is only one asshole tied to a chair and one other dead, so if you don’t want to join your friend I suggest you start talking.”

  Halsey said nothing, just sat and seemed to be letting his situation sink in. I needed to apply a little pressure. “OK you want to play hardball and be the tough guy, fine.” I looked at Carl and said, “Carl, give me your K-Bar.” Carl handed me his K-Bar. I glanced at Halsey out of the corner of my eye and he was getting the point, his eyes had grown big and had the ‘Oh shit’ look on his face.

  He stammered “Look man, I am just the hired help, I don’t know shit. I’m just following orders.” Shelby spoke up, “Whose orders?”

  Halsey was now visibly shaking, “If I tell you he is gonna kill me man.” Carl said “If you don’t tell us, I’m gonna kill you, so take your pick.”

  He was just sitting hoping this was all a dream. I needed to wake him up. "Your boss sent you here to kill Carl, and probably then Shelby and me. Now you ain’t gonna kill anybody, but I am going to tell you what you are going to do. You are going
to tell us who sent you or I am going to turn Carl loose on you, you see, Carl likes to cut things up. When he is finished with you, I promise, you will be begging me to shoot you.”

  For emphasis I took the K-Bar and sliced open his cheek. As blood ran down his face he panicked, trying to get loose from the chair. I sliced his other cheek and he finally couldn’t take anymore.

  “OK, please, don’t kill me. Guzman sent man, it was Guzman.” I looked at the other and shrugged, who the hell was Guzman. I needed him to keep talking “OK, that’s a start, keep talking.”

  “Perroni worked for Guzman man, he knew you guys took out Perroni and was afraid you would come after his organization. When you didn’t he figured you were just buying time and decided to come after you. That’s it man, I swear. I don’t know nothing else man, he gave me all your locations and told me to take out Rome first, then Wilson, then Carr. Man just let me go and I will disappear. I swear, I got nothing against you guys, I was just following orders.”

  I knew he was right; he was just following order, Guzman’s orders. Now I needed more information, where could I find Guzman. “OK, you’re doing good. Now where can I find Guzman and then we are done here. “New York man, Brooklyn, Whale Square, just off 1st Ave. He’s got a warehouse there. Please man just let me go.”

  Crap, now what, I had to know one more thing “How did you find us, tell me what you know about us, what Guzman told you.”

  He was badly shaken and wanted to talk “In my wallet in the back, there is a sheet of paper with your names and addresses on it, he knew the addresses, I don’t know how, but he did.”

  I searched the wallet and found the paper. It had our names plus Rachael and Jasmine’s name on it. “What about these other two names? What did he tell you about them?”

  He was hesitant, but answered anyway. “We were to take them out too, they knew what you knew. I wasn’t gonna kill no women though, but Frenchy was gonna do that, he liked that. But he’s dead now, you killed him, so they are safe.”

  Safe sure from these two, but there would be others. I looked at Shelby and Carl and they both had sad expressions. We all knew what we had to do but none of us really wanted to do it. I looked at Carl and said, “Untie our friend here Carl.” Carl untied Halsey and told him to get up and leave. He wasn’t sure he had heard correctly and hesitated. I opened the door and as he walked outside I grabbed him, pulled him to the side and slit his throat. I could have killed him inside but cleanup would have been too much, outside he bled on the ground where we could dig up the dirt and bury it.

  We all sat around gloomy for a short period of time. None of us wanted this, but this time it was brought to us, so we had to deal with it. We hauled Halsey’s body and put it in the car with Frenchy. Carl had a backhoe he was using to dig a pond, it took about two hours, but we dug a hole big enough for the car to be pushed in and covered with a few feet of dirt. We dug up the blood from Halsey and added that to the hole; then we closed the hole for good.

  With that complete we checked Carl’s house to make sure no trace was left of their visit. We needed to get back to the women and make sure they were safe. On the way back we were silent, everyone with their own thoughts. The women were secure at the hotel, but now what. Guzman knew where to find all of us, home wasn’t safe anymore. We had to shake our gloomy thoughts and make a plan. We loaded everyone in the car and headed for New Orleans.

  I guess we were back in the game.

  TO BE CONTINUED

  Jessie's past return to haunt him in the next edition 'Gunslinger'. Jessie has the option, wait for the trouble to come to him or take it to the threat. Remember it Jessie, he's taking trouble on the road. And when Jessie does something, it's never half way.

  Please remember to review Revenge. Independent author/publishers need to know how you feel.

  I hope you enjoyed reading Revenge as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please Remember to review this and any Ebook you read. We independent authors live by your reviews.

  Jessie Carr returns in Gunslinger as his past comes back to haunt him.