DEAD MAN'S JUSTICE - A Place of Evil (Stone & McLeish Thriller Series of Stories Book 2)

by Gregory Stenson

  Stone nodded.

  Finch counted down on his fingers, three, two, one...

  He threw open the door and shouted, ‘Police, stay where you are, put your hands up.’

  A short, balding man froze in total shock; he held his hands up high and dropped the camera on the floor. There was a young girl lying naked on the bed, she looked asleep but they both knew she had been drugged.

  Stone rushed forward and covered her up with the bed sheets and felt her body was warm to the touch and very much alive.

  ‘It’s Laura.’ he said.

  He smoothed out her hair and tucked the sheet around her to keep her warm and kissed her gently on the forehead.

  He fell to his knees, hugged Laura, and cried like a baby.

  Mac was leaning against the lobby wall and thought he heard a vehicle approach outside, he shuffled across to the door and peered through the window and saw another Arab walking towards him. It was Fazeel Aziz who had just returned from dropping off Neesha Patel over in Homecrest in Brooklyn. Mac had exactly five seconds to decide what to do which was not enough time so he acted on instinct. He hid at the side of the door and Fazeel tried the door handle thinking it would be locked, found it wasn’t and pushed open the door. Fazeel wasn’t prepared and was the shortest of the three of Maloof’s guards and despite being armed was no match for Mac. Mac kicked the back of Fazeel’s right knee and he lost balance, he tried to turn to see what had hit him when Mac unleashed his main blow that sent him unconscious to the ground. Mac removed his gun from his shoulder holster and dragged his heavy body through the doors to the basement. Although each step was agony it didn’t take Mac long to find something to tie his hands and feet with. When Fazeel was safely immobilized he returned to the door and waited for the backup to arrive.

  Chapter 65

  ‘Is she okay Stone?’ Finch was standing behind Stone who was sat on the edge of Laura’s bed.

  Stone couldn't speak, he was just so glad that Laura was alive, ‘Can we call for Harper?’ he asked Finch.

  Finch called Tariq and told him the good news, his calculations were spot on, it was the building he had said. He asked him to let Grolnick know and that they needed Dr. Harper out a.s.a.p. to attend to Laura. Tariq asked who the pedophile was, Finch said it was a middle aged Arabian guy and that he couldn't believe he was working alone. He also told him that they’d found Ramirez and Mac in the same building, Maloof was here also somewhere on the top floor, he said.

  Agent Wade had ordered two marksmen to be posted onto the roof of the building opposite Maloof’s warehouse, where the FBI field officer had called in the unknown visitors to HQ. As well as Ramirez and McLeish, Wade had now been informed that Brad Stone, McLeish’s partner, had also entered the building, and a fourth man who had accompanied Stone, had not yet been identified. Wade was becoming agitated; he had to ensure that the Maloof Arms Operation was not compromised in any way. He had strict instructions from above to take whatever action was necessary ‘Neutralize any interference,’ was the phrase used to stress the importance and confidentiality of the operation.

  The officer had photographs of Maloof, his seven guards, Maloof’s female associate and the five Saudi businessmen, who he knew were almost ready to ship out by plane later that evening. Anyone else not on the list of ‘known participants’, was subject to PP1.

  Agent Wade gave the field officer instructions to carry out ‘Protection Protocol One’ as and when necessary.

  Stone regained some composure and turned his attention to the terrified guy sitting in the chair fiddling nervously with a ‘Masbaha’, a set of prayer beads. He walked up close to the guy and picked him up by his shirt, the buttons popped off. He thrust the guy up against the wall.

  ‘Did you touch her? Did you...you...’

  ‘No touch. No touch. Photos.’

  ‘If you touched her in any way I’ll...’

  ‘Photos, photos...’

  ‘I think he’s trying to say he was just taking photos Stone, she should be okay and remember nothing when she recovers,’ Finch was trying to dissolve Stone’s feeling of dread and panic.

  Stone let the guy down slowly and pushed him into a chair. He grabbed up the camera, slid open the battery cover, removed the SD card and smashed the camera on the ground. He stamped on it until it was in several pieces. He turned to the frightened man again.

  ‘Who’s behind this? Is it Maloof?’ said Stone loudly in his frustration, as if the man would understand better.

  ‘No Maloof,’ he said in a thick Middle Eastern accent, ‘Woman.’ The guy’s English was not good

  Stone look puzzled and looked at Finch, ‘Woman?’ he mouthed.

  ‘Yes. Woman.’

  ‘Where? Here?’

  ‘Yes. Upstair. She preety. Like theece...’ the man pointed to his skin with his finger, he was trying to show Stone that her skin color was the same as his. He stood up and paced around and realized what he was trying to say to him.

  ‘He means she’s not white, that she’s dark, not black exactly but...’ Stone didn’t finish, a thought so crazy and monumentally terrifying hit him and shot through his body. ‘Oh my God, it can't be...’ He rocked visibly on his feet.

  Finch was lost, he had no idea what stone was thinking or saying.

  Stone saw the man’s cell phone lying on the counter, he picked it up and thrust it towards him, ‘Call woman, now,’ he said.

  Somehow he understood and scrolled through the phone, he called a number. It answered.

  ‘What is it?’ the woman said.

  ‘Come. Pleeze. Now.’

  Ramirez was watching and waiting by the door to Maloof’s office. He saw the woman get off the desk and answer her cell phone. He couldn't hear what she was saying, and she had turned her back. She appeared to be angry at something the caller had said. The next moment she was heading for the door. He had to hide quickly. He threw himself to the floor and hid behind the secretary’s desk. The woman stormed out of the room and out towards the staircase.

  Stone took out his cell phone and called Tariq. It had only been a second or two but Stone was so anxious to find something out, ‘Come on Tariq,’ he said out loud, he was in a hurry. ‘Tariq?’ He’d answered. ‘This is important Tariq, it’s Stone. Call down to the mortuary and ask the M.E. to check something for me, it will sound crazy but just do it. Ask him to check Rachel Parker’s body, tell him to turn it over and look for a birthmark at the base of her back. It’s almost heart-shaped.’

  ‘The woman who shot Shadow you mean?’

  ‘Yeah Tariq, hurry.’

  Finch waited patiently. He kept an eye on the Arab and trusted Stone to know what he was doing. The Arab sat quietly playing with his prayer beads.

  Stone kept his cell phone to his ears and went over to see how Laura was doing. He could hear Tariq talking to someone on another line. The wait was almost too much for him to bear, if the woman was somewhere in the building it wouldn't take her long to reach the room, he thought.

  The woman made her way downstairs to the first floor, she had no idea that there was a Detective hiding behind the secretary’s desk and had been watching Maloof’s office for several minutes, or that another man, Mac, was down stairs in the lobby waiting for Police back up and medics. She pushed open the doors and walked down the corridor towards the end room.

  Stone could hear footsteps approaching the room, he asked Finch to hide for a moment at the side near the counter. Stone resisted the temptation to look out of the window in the door in case the woman saw him, and stood behind it, waiting for her to come into the room. Stone was still waiting for Tariq on the other line; he heard him say, ‘Okay, Okay, thanks.’

  The woman opened the door and walked into the room.

  Tariq replaced the receiver and picked up the other phone to Stone, ‘Stone? Stone?’ Stone didn’t reply, he didn’t need to, he saw who the woman was.

  Tariq said, ‘...the woman in the morgue? The M.E. examined her body and there is no b
irthmark on her back.’

  The woman saw the Arab sitting in the chair, still fingering the Masbaha with a terrified look on his face; he saw her and then flicked his eyes involuntarily to the side to look at Stone behind the door. She sensed something was wrong. She turned around to see what or who he was looking at. She saw that it was Brad Stone standing by the door.

  The woman was Rachel Parker.

  ‘You’re dead,’ said Stone. Two days ago Stone saw what he thought was Rachel Parker’s body in the morgue. He thought the woman who had tricked her way into his life and caused terror and evil to him and all around him, had finally left him in peace.

  ‘Do I look dead?’ said Rachel.

  Stone paused; he had no intention in getting into a war of words with her. Laura was his only concern, he had found her alive and he was determined to keep her that way. He could feel no emotion towards Rachel, if she was behind the abductions and had allowed the girls to be treated so cruelly, he would make sure this time that she got what she deserves.

  ‘So who’s that lying in the morgue down at the precinct?’

  ‘Rebecca. My twin sister.’

  ‘Your twin? There’s two of you? I suppose you put her up to killing Shadow?’

  ‘No. She did that all by herself. I had no idea.’

  ‘Why would she kill him? It was you he was after.’

  ‘Long story.’ Rachel was as bold faced as ever, showing not an ounce of remorse for her actions. Stone’s daughter Laura was lying drugged and comatose in a bed behind her and she was perfectly happy trading insults with Stone.

  ‘Give me the short version.’

  ‘Rebecca knew Shadow long before me; he raped her, used her and spat her out. When Mom died, also because of Shadow, she took it bad, ended up in an institution. I got her out last week to take care of her. She must have found my gun, dressed up as me and ...you know the rest.’

  Stone paced around, he was wasting time, he thought, he asked Finch to find out how long till the medics would arrive. Finch called Tariq.

  ‘So, you’ve hit rock bottom hey Rachel, dragging defenseless young virgins off the street to sell to visiting Arabs. I’m guessing this guy is not the only one, five girls, five Arabs, am I right?’

  Rachel didn’t answer. She looked off to the side, ashamed to look him in the eye.

  ‘You’ll go down for a very long time,’ said Stone, spitting the words out venomously.

  ‘He made me,’ she bit back. ‘Maloof. It wasn’t my idea. If I hadn’t have done what he wanted he’d have killed me.’

  ‘Really. You could have disappeared, like you did last time.’

  Finch said, ‘Girls have been violated, one is dead, strangled. One of those guys is a killer, did you know that?’

  Again, Rachel didn’t answer.

  ‘So it was you in the big black SUV at the hotel. Why Laura? Was that to get at me again?’

  ‘No, no, you have to believe me. It was him, he saw me when I was checking your profile on Wikipedia. He was obsessed with you. He got to know about you and me and wanted you dead.’

  ‘Yeah, I got that message.’

  ‘That’s when I came up with the idea to frame you for Guy’s murder, to keep you alive, please believe me.’

  ‘Thanks. Forget about me. Again, why Laura?’

  ‘He wanted five girls. He told me to click on your daughter’s link on the Wiki page, a picture of her and four other girls in some school club came up. He insisted I chose them, especially Laura.’

  Stone listened but Rachel’s self denial and pathetic attitude, and never accepting responsibility for her actions, sickened him. First it was Shadow, twisting her round his little finger, and now it was this guy Maloof. He looked at Laura and it brought him back to most important thing of all.

  ‘If I find she’s been touched, in any way...?’ Stone was bearing down on Rachel and trying hard to keep his temper, ‘...you won’t have to worry about what Maloof will do to you...’

  ‘I wouldn't hurt her Brad, that’s why I put the camera guy with her.’

  Stone knew better than to fall for her lies, ‘Camera guy, you still kidnapped her, drugged her. Over to you Finch, I’ve nothing more to say.’

  Finch handcuffed Rachel and Stone checked on Laura again to see how she was doing.

  Chapter 66

  Finch got a call from Tariq, he told him that Grolnick and Jack were just around the corner with Dr. Harper just behind with a full medical crew, was right behind them. What Tariq and Grolnick didn’t know was that a TV news helicopter was tracking them relaying their position to a multitude of reporters and camera crews who had followed them since he left the precinct. If he’d tried to keep the operation quiet, he’d failed, pretty soon the whole raid and scene would be beamed live to millions of home across the tri-state area.

  The news about Grolnick broke the tension between Stone and Rachel. Finch tied the Arab’s arms and legs to the chair and checked on Laura for himself.

  ‘Stone, Laura is stable, her pulse is strong, her breathing’s regular. Dr. Harper is arriving any minute, let’s get Rachel downstairs, Grolnick will deal with her, we need to find Ramirez and make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.’

  ‘Okay. Let’s get her downstairs.’

  The area around the building was quiet; in the distance there were several police and ambulance vehicles approaching with their red, white and blue flashing lights. Grolnick had given instructions not to use sirens. They were speeding along the main road two miles from the building.

  Behind the warehouse, and not visible from the front there were forklifts and derrick cranes loading a merchant ship with unmarked crates and boxes.

  On the roof of the building across, lying motionless and with an M14 rifle mounted on a tripod resting on the parapet, was an FBI marksman on full alert. He had his instructions from Agent wade, PP1 was in live mode.

  He saw movement on the first floor of Maloof’s warehouse through the corridor windows and called Wade and said he had Stone in his sights. All that Wade said was that he had his orders.

  Finch had read Rachel her Miranda rights and cuffed her hands in front of her and told her to follow Stone out of the door. Stone was standing to the right, directly in front of one of the windows and Finch and Rachel were behind a brick pillar whilst he closed the door.

  ‘Let’s go,’ said Stone, and started to walk down the corridor. Finch turned to guide Rachel’s arm and saw a red dot on Stone’s chest and realized immediately what it was. He shouted out to Stone and pulled his arm to move him out of the way. One step later and Rachel was now where Stone was standing.

  ‘STONE...’ Finch shouted and Stone fell to the side bringing Rachel’s body in line with the window. Finch saw the red dot now show up on her, but it all happened so fast and there was nothing he could do.

  It was too late.

  The marksman’s shot cut clean through the glass leaving a perfect, round hole and made a thudding sound as it scythed into Rachel’s upper chest. She collapsed to the floor instantly and a spray of blood tattooed the window.

  ‘Stay down Stone,’ said Finch. He tried to see where the shot had come from. From the trajectory he decided it was from somewhere high up on the roof of the adjacent building.

  Stone crawled along the floor and cradled Rachel in his arms, there was already a trace of blood in the corner of her mouth. It didn’t look good, he thought, he’d seen this before. The blackened burn hole was inches from her heart.

  Rachel grabbed his arm tightly and stared at the ceiling without blinking, she was trying to speak.

  ‘Brad?’ Rachel’s voice was weak and stuttering, her breathing was erratic.

  ‘Don’t try and talk Rachel, the medics will be here any moment.’

  ‘It was all Maloof’s idea...I would never hurt...’ Rachel ran out of strength and could hardly move her head, she moaned as she turned to look at Stone. ‘I’m so sorry Brad...’

  ‘Okay, it’s all over now. Save your energ
y.’

  ‘I always loved you Brad...’ she was losing consciousness and gripped his arm even tighter, her chest was making jerking movements and her eyes started to close.

  ‘Forgive me Brad... please?’

  Stone knew she would not survive and somehow the last few months came down to this one moment and despite her evil and wicked ways, he always thought things could have been so different had she listened to her father. He pitied her rather than hated her. He decided to absolve her in her last dying moments.

  ‘I forgive you Rachel.’

  As the words left his mouth, her eyes closed for the last time, her chest stopped moving and the faintest of smiles appeared on her beautiful lips.

  She was dead.

  Finch opened his cell phone and called Grolnick. At that very second he could see flashing lights reflected on the corridor walls. Grolnick’s vehicle had just arrived and an ambulance pulled in after him, their wheels sliding through the gravel as they came to a stop.

  Finch sided up to the window ledge and saw an unmarked saloon draw up and Agents Wade and Gray stepped out.

  Grolnick answered Finch’s call.

  ‘Sir?’

  ‘Yeah Finch what’s the situation?’

  ‘Someone tried to shoot Stone. They got a woman we were taking into custody instead, she just died. There’s a marksman on the roof of the next building, I think he’s FBI. Ramirez is somewhere upstairs, I think he’s gone after Maloof and Mac’s in the lobby on the ground floor, he’s okay but he can’t walk. All of Maloof’s men have been neutralized but take precautions anyway. That’s about it Sir.’

  ‘Okay I’ll get the medics up to you straight away to check on Laura. FBI you say, I just saw Wade arrive, leave it to me.’

  ‘Sir? There’s something else, you’ve got even more company, there’s a dozen media vans coming down the road towards us.’