Once In, Never Out

by Dan Mahoney

  “Really?” McKenna asked, then laughed. “Tell me, how much explosives do you have planted in the building?”

  “Enough to blow out a floor and the elevator shaft. Without elevators, that building wouldn’t be much good.”

  “Gee! That would take at least a couple of hundred pounds of C-4, wouldn’t it?”

  “That’s what I figured.”

  “Then explain this to me,” McKenna said. “If you had all that C-4, how come you took your dopey cousin all the way to Hunter Mountain just to get another forty pounds of it? Besides everything else, you’re a liar, Mulrooney.”

  “Do you really want to take a chance on that?”

  “Sure do. Blow it up, big shot.”

  McKenna waited for Mulrooney to answer, but the line was dead. McKenna picked up the FBI radio and turned up the volume. “Squad CO on the air?”

  “I’m here, Brian. He used his phone, was headed east on the Cross Bronx Expressway. Maybe going Upstate or to Connecticut.”

  “Not anymore he’s not.”

  “Did you rile him up good?”

  “Sure did. He’s coming back.”

  Thirty-Nine

  McKenna and Thor were parked in the trees near the vehicular entrance to Central Park at 106th Street. Since Fifth Avenue was closed because of the parade, McKenna had figured that Mulrooney would take Park Drive South as the quickest way to Bethesda Fountain and his kids. Then he would abandon his car and sneak through the woods to the fountain, hoping to see his kids and get a shot at him.

  “How you holding up?” McKenna asked Thor.

  “Hard to believe, but fine. I haven’t been able to sleep, of course, but that hasn’t bothered me. The only thing I can focus on is getting Mulrooney.”

  “And killing him?”

  “I hope not. Too quick. I want him in jail in Iceland so I can torment him every day for the rest of his life.”

  “How would you go about doing that?”

  “Don’t know yet, but I like to think that I’d find ways to keep him miserable. I owe that man a lot of misery.”

  McKenna took Thor’s line of thought as a good sign. It made Thor seem more human, less perfect, and easier to work with. Then Sheeran called with great news and another good sign. “We’ve got them out. Angelita and Janine are fine.”

  “Thank God! How?”

  “Crowley was talking to us on the phone and he just passed out, loss of blood. Angelita and Brenda jumped him at the same time, but Angelita came up with the gun.”

  “Was Brenda in on it?”

  “Maybe, but it doesn’t look that way. In the end, she might’ve been as much of a hostage as Angelita and Janine. Crowley was out of his mind with pain and Brenda kept trying to talk him into surrendering.”

  “Where’s Angelita now?”

  “Sitting here in my car with me and Janine. Where are you?”

  “Park Drive South and 106th Street.”

  “Angelita wants to talk to you.”

  “Put her on.”

  Angelita wasn’t exactly fine. McKenna knew her well enough to tell that she was in a controlled rage. “He hit me, Brian. Knocked out two of my teeth, and everything is loose on top.”

  “Who? Mulrooney or Crowley?”

  “Mulrooney. He also threatened to kill Janine. For a long time I thought he was going to do it. I thought that animal was going to kill our little girl.”

  McKenna felt his own rage mounting and tried to keep it under control. “I know, baby. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of him,” he said soothingly.

  Angelita wasn’t to be calmed. “See that you do. Hurt him bad, make him suffer as much as you can.”

  How has he changed my Angelita to make her talk like that? McKenna wondered, worrying. That sure doesn’t sound like her.

  There was only one thing McKenna could think of to say. “I will, baby. Don’t worry. I’ll see you home soon.” He hung up and was still worrying when another transmission came over the radio.

  “Team Nine to Base. We think we’re a block behind him. Amsterdam Avenue and 118th Street. If it’s Mulrooney, he’s in a black Corvette and moving fast. Wait, it’s got to be him. He just blew a red light without even slowing down. Eastbound on 116th Street.”

  “He’s getting close,” McKenna said to Thor. “If he comes into the park here, we’re gonna see him in a minute.” He put on his seat belt and Thor did the same. Then they heard the sound of sirens in the distance, but getting closer. “You sure you’re up for this?” McKenna asked.

  “Wouldn’t miss it,” Thor said grimly.

  “You got a gun with you?”

  “No.”

  “Then take mine.” McKenna gave Thor his pistol and two loaded magazines. “Use it all if you get a chance.”

  “Team Nine to Base. He’s at 108th and Central Park West, headed south and moving fast.”

  Then McKenna and Thor saw him. Mulrooney took the turn into the park at high speed, but the Corvette handled it well. Mulrooney was past them and headed south as McKenna floored the gas pedal and skidded onto the roadway, then barely avoided tragedy. Joe Mendez and Joe Sophia in Team Nine turned into the park at high speed, but they weren’t in a Corvette. Mendez swerved all over the road and McKenna just missed hitting them. The two cars accelerated side by side on the winding road, but they weren’t a match for the Corvette. Mulrooney was way ahead and out of sight.

  I’ve got to get him to arm one of those bombs, McKenna thought as he managed to pull ahead of Mendez and Sophia. He grabbed the PD radio, hoping Mulrooney was still listening. “Mulrooney! It’s me, McKenna. I’m right behind you, you filthy coward. I’m gonna get you for smacking my wife.”

  It worked. As they rounded a curve, they saw Mulrooney ahead, going slow. Then they saw his brake lights go on. “He must’ve stopped to drop one in the road,” Thor yelled.

  Mulrooney had, but the Paddy Poofer broadcasting the detonation signals from Queens found the frequency before the two cars got to the bomb in the road. It went off before Mulrooney pushed his Send button, before McKenna and Thor passed over it. But it was close. The force of the explosion rocked the car and, for a moment, McKenna thought he was going to lose control as he veered from side to side on the two-lane roadway. As he drove through the smoke, he saw the Corvette ahead, widening the distance.

  “That must have got him thinking,” Thor yelled as he took aim and fired three shots out the window at the Corvette. One of the shots broke the back window, but it didn’t slow Mulrooney down.

  “We don’t want him thinking,” McKenna shouted. “We want him angry and arming another bomb.” He picked up the PD radio again. “You missed me, Mulrooney. I’m still coming and I’m gonna ram this car up your ass,” he yelled into it.

  Mulrooney was ahead and out of sight again as McKenna passed the 86th Street entrance to the park. There was another curve ahead, so he hoped that Mulrooney would arm another bomb and drop it while he was out of sight.

  That was Mulrooney’s plan. As McKenna rounded the curve, he saw the Corvette ahead. Mulrooney had stopped and had his door open.

  Thor resumed firing. His shots hit the rear of the Corvette, breaking a tail light and blowing the left rear tire. Mulrooney got out of the car and McKenna experienced the kind of tunnel vision common in shoot-outs. Hurtling down Park Drive South, his world went into slow motion and he could see only two things. One was the hole in the barrel at the business end of the pistol in Mulrooney’s right hand and the other was the small, bright, green light on the bomb he held in his left. The pistol was aimed at McKenna’s head and Mulrooney had armed his bomb.

  McKenna slammed on his brakes and ducked down as Mulrooney fired. The bullet crashed through the windshield and hit his headrest. The car was in a skid and McKenna’s brakes were better than Mendez’s. He and Thor were jarred by the impact when Mendez’s car hit their rear, and they were being pushed toward an explosive end. He knew the bomb was going to blow, but if it wasn’t soon, it was going to kill them all
.

  Thor continued firing as McKenna counted the seconds and had reached three when another two bullets came through the windshield on the passenger’s side. One of them grazed Thor’s ear, but he kept firing.

  McKenna raised his head at the count of four, just in time to see Mulrooney stagger. Thor had hit him and then the Paddy Poofer found him. The bomb still in Mulrooney’s hand went off in a brief flash of white light followed by fire and black smoke. Then the Corvette blew in a larger explosion.

  McKenna’s car was slowed by the force of the blast and hit by pieces of the Corvette, but that was good. He regained control and searched ahead through the smoke for Mulrooney and the Corvette. He couldn’t see them. Mulrooney was no longer there and neither was the Corvette. He managed to finally stop the car, but not soon enough. His left front tire came to rest on a piece of Mulrooney, his mangled right arm.

  Both McKenna and Thor got out of the car, looking for other signs of the Corvette and Mulrooney. The Corvette was easier—burning pieces of it were ahead on Park Drive South and in the woods on both sides of the road. As for Mulrooney, he was harder to find. He was hiding all over the landscape.

  Epilogue

  There were fire engines, many ambulances, hundreds of cops, and thousands of people. It seemed to McKenna that everyone who had come to see the parade was now on Park Drive South. The roadway was closed and thousands of people lined the barriers placed two hundred feet from the scene of the explosion. Everyone wanted to see the end of Mulrooney, and some of them were horrified when they stumbled across small bits of him. The cops were hard-pressed keeping them back.

  The press was there in force, snapping pictures and interviewing any detective who felt like talking. At the moment, that didn’t include McKenna. He had brusquely put off the first reporter who had tried to interview him and word got around quick among the press corps. They left him alone, for the moment, and turned their attention to Thor.

  The Icelander was wearing a bandage around his head, but his wound didn’t seem to bother him. For the first couple of questions he was as congenial as ever and the press remained fascinated with him. That ended when a young reporter asked him about Frieda. Thor just stared at the man for a moment, then turned and walked to McKenna. A few brash reporters tried to follow him, but were stopped and pushed back by a couple of alert uniformed cops.

  “I’m no longer fine, Brian. I have to get out of here,” Thor said.

  McKenna could see that Thor was finally losing his composure, and that worried him. “Where do you want to go?” he asked.

  “Back to the hotel for a while, I guess. Then I’ve got to start making arrangements to take Frieda home.”

  “I can’t leave just yet,” McKenna said. “Can’t you stick around a bit longer?”

  “Only if I want to make a fool out of myself. I’m losing my focus.”

  “I understand. Want me to get you a ride?”

  “No thanks. I’d rather walk. See you later.” He patted McKenna on the arm and started walking slowly down Park Drive South. To McKenna, he looked like a lost soul, a man suddenly without purpose.

  Unfortunately for the reporters, Brunette wasn’t ready to talk to them, either. He found McKenna hiding out in the back of an ambulance and looking very dejected.

  “You okay?” Brunette asked, concerned.

  “Kind of drained, but I guess I’m gonna be okay,” McKenna answered. “Yourself?”

  “The same. Never got a chance to thank you for saving my life.”

  “I wish I could’ve done more.”

  “You thinking about Johnny?”

  “And Frieda. Those two are all I’m gonna be thinking about for a long time. I can’t look into Thor’s face without feeling the tears back up, and I’m dreading the thought of facing Patti and trying to explain why her husband’s dead. His family will never see him again so mine can see me every day.”

  “How’s Thor holding up?”

  “I don’t know. If I had to guess, I’d say he’ll be fine in a couple of years. Never the same again, but still better than most,” McKenna said. “To tell you the truth, I’m worried more about Patti.”

  “Don’t. She’s a strong girl and I’m sure she won’t blame you,” Brunette said. “It’ll take a while for her, but life goes on.”

  “I should be there with her at a time like this.”

  “Don’t worry about that right now. You’ll pull yourself together and do all the right things.”

  “Have you spoken to her yet?” McKenna asked.

  “Not yet, but I’m going to Bellevue as soon as I can get out of here. She’s there with Johnny now, but she’s a good trooper. I hear she’s trying to console the wife of that 13th Precinct cop Mulrooney killed.”

  “How’s his partner?”

  “Not good, I hear. They’re still operating on him, but Mulrooney’s filled up operating rooms all over the city.”

  “The East River Drive?”

  “Yeah, that was bad. Four dead and thirteen injured, last I heard.”

  A uniformed sergeant interrupted them. “Excuse me, Commissioner. We have a lady who wants to see Detective McKenna. Says her name is Kathleen Mullen, also says that he’d probably want to talk to her.”

  “Do you?” Brunette asked McKenna.

  “I guess I do.”

  “Bring her over,” Brunette ordered.

  The sergeant left and returned with her. Kathleen Mullen looked like she had experienced a tough time dealing with her life over the years, and McKenna was sure she had suffered. Yet, she appeared to be radiantly happy at the moment.

  McKenna offered her his hand, but she just brushed past it and hugged him. “Thank you for giving me my life back, Detective McKenna.”

  “I’m glad that at least some good has come out of this,” McKenna said after she released him. “How did you get here so fast?”

  “I work on Madison Avenue, only blocks from here. I ran over as soon as I heard about it on the news. Can I see him?”

  “I guess so, if you want. But I have to warn you, he’s not pretty. He’s still being reassembled.”

  “I don’t care. I just have to make sure for myself that he’s dead before I’ll be able to go on.”

  “What are your plans, if you don’t mind my asking?”

  “Change. Everything’s going to change. I’m going to quit my job, sell my house, and get myself into shape. Along the way, I’m gonna get my kids into shape.”

  “We have your kids, you know,” McKenna said.

  “I know. Have you met the snotty little bastards?”

  “No, and I don’t think I want to.”

  “You will by the time I get them raised. They’re monsters right now and they treat me like dirt, but that’s gonna change, too. They’re gonna learn to respect me, I promise you that.”

  “Good for you,” McKenna said.

  “How will you live if you quit your job?” Brunette asked.

  Kathleen’s smile grew even wider. “The insurance money. We’ll be just fine.”

  “You kept an insurance policy up on him?” McKenna asked, amazed.

  “Wouldn’t you if you were me? I always knew he’d end up like this. Prayed for it, actually. Prayed every day.”

  “Then take a look at him and go start your life, Kathleen,” McKenna said. “At least your prayers have been answered.”

  Kathleen insisted on shaking both McKenna’s and Brunette’s hands before the sergeant escorted her to her grisly wish.

  “Can you believe that?” McKenna asked Brunette.

  “Sure I do. She’s out of the shell Mulrooney put her in and she’s got something to look forward to for the first time in a long time. I’d bet those kids are going to turn out just fine.”

  Then McKenna received another surprise. Sheeran had also found him and was approaching with Janine and Angelita. Janine looked fine, holding Sheeran’s hand and waving to the crowd like a movie star as photographers snapped her picture.

  Angelita l
ooked terrible. Her jaw was swollen, her lips were caked with blood, and McKenna thought she would have difficulty speaking until she told him why she had come. “I have to see that filthy, perverted pig,” she said clearly through clenched teeth before he could even kiss her and hold her as he longed to do.

  “I’m sorry, Brian, but she insisted on coming here,” Sheeran explained.

  “Daddy, I want to see him, too,” Janine said.

  God, what did that man do to my family? McKenna wondered. Everyone wants to see his body just to make sure he’s dead. “Angelita, you shouldn’t do this,” he told her. “He’s not very pretty right now.”

  “Good,” she said, obviously satisfied with that news and managing a painful smile. “He deserved to die if anyone ever did, but this was too fast for him. He should’ve suffered for what he did to Johnny.”

  McKenna had no answer for that.

  “And look what he did to me,” Angelita said, pointing to her jaw.

  “Don’t worry, we’ll get everything fixed for you right away.” He tried to hug her, but she pushed him away.

  “I always knew you’d get him and now you have,” she said. “Show him to me.”

  “I’m not gonna let Janine see this,” McKenna said.

  “Of course not. Just me.”

  If Angelita doesn’t snap out of this soon, she’s going to wind up lying on some psychiatrist’s couch and Janine is certainly gonna need some counseling, McKenna thought. I guess I have to get this over with. “Okay, I’ll show you all the pieces. Wanna start with his arm?”

  “Which arm?”

  “His left.”

  “Okay, let’s start with that. That’s the arm he hit me with.”

  Angelita left Janine with Sheeran and she followed McKenna to the middle of the roadway. Mulrooney’s arm was still there under a blanket. He lifted the blanket and she stared hard at the mangled arm for a minute, wearing an evil smile McKenna had never seen before and hoped never to see again. Then she muttered a curse and kicked the arm before McKenna could stop her. The crowd cheered as the press photographers snapped away.