Sin City Assassin (The Bill Dix Detective Series Book 3)

by Swinney, C. L.

  Dix, however, was not done with the man. He noticed the subject picked up speed and ducked into a busy parking lot once he was far enough away from the officers. None of Dix’s people were over in the lot. At the same time, three vehicles backed up and began pulling out. No one had eyes on the subject, and in the blink of an eye, he was gone. Dix began to curse himself and tried to rush over to the lot to see the license plates of all three vehicles pulling away. He tried to commit them to memory. Then his cell phone began to ring.

  Dix retrieved his cell phone and saw it was Frazier calling him.

  “Hey buddy, where you at?” Dix asked Frazier.

  “I was headed your way, but I got a call that Marie was out of surgery so I stopped in at the hospital real quick. It seems she may be able to speak in about an hour.”

  Dix nodded. “Okay, we think we may have spotted the guy somehow tied to her, but we just lost him right outside the hospital.” Dix felt a sting when he made the statement. He was not accustomed to failing and shook his head when he caught himself chewing his nails.

  “No shit? Damn, did you get a plate or physical description?” Frazier wondered how the great Bill Dix would lose a subject so quickly. Then he recalled how the first few minutes of surveillance were the most crucial and they were most likely to lose their target.

  “Well, I’m not happy about it. But, I think we snapped a few photos of him and two of your uniformed guys ran him through dispatch before we were set up to watch him. It’s a start.”

  “Yeah, but it would have been nice to see where he went,” replied Frazier.

  Dix nodded and snorted. “I know. Three cars left at once and we were all on foot. No way we could get into our cars and stay with him. Hey, grab something to write with, I have a license plate for the car he left in.”

  Frazier nodded and was impressed. “Dang, that’s awesome. I guess the old man still has something left in the tank.”

  Dix provided the license plate to Frazier and told him he’d meet him back at the hospital. He texted his team and told them to re-group at the hospital after they were able to get a bite to eat.

  “All right, I’m gonna check on my wife and Steve and I’ll meet you in a little bit. With the info from the brief surveillance, and a little verbal judo with Marie, we may finally get somewhere in this case.” Dix felt rejuvenated. His old bones ached, but he was determined to put this investigation to rest. As he dialed his wife’s cell phone he contemplated telling her that he couldn’t step away from being a cop, not now anyway. As she answered he realized he didn’t have the heart to tell her over the phone and decided something this big would be better said in person.

  Chapter 34:

  Pierre watched the pen register and noticed the cell phone he’d assigned the label, ‘Target #1,’ the one he and the team believed was being used by Marie’s boss, was leaving the area near the hospital and headed out of town. He wondered where it would end up, and what that would mean to the case.

  He clicked over to the second phone, the one belonging to the suspected supplier, and noticed it too was heading out of Las Vegas. The pen register showed both phones were communicating with each other via text. Pierre thought maybe the two users of the phones were planning to meet. Scenarios and assumptions rattled his mind. He wanted to provide Dix with a lead if the investigation stalled again. Based on what he was seeing, the two phones were important to the case and he watched their activity intently to see if he could learn more before calling Dix.

  Fifteen minutes later, Pierre noticed the phones began hitting off the same cell tower. The devices were basically in the middle of nowhere off Interstate 15. Within seconds of being in the same area, he received GPS coordinates indicating the phones were a few meters from each other. As he analyzed the data, the phone being used by the suspected supplier began making phone calls and sending text messages like crazy to phone numbers Pierre did not recognize. This activity continued for several minutes.

  About thirty minutes later, Pierre noticed the suspected supplier’s phone stopped communicating with the cell tower, but the phone suspected of being used by the shot caller stayed on. Oh geez, I hope the phone was just powered off, the battery ran out, or the account was suspended due to lack of payment, he thought. He did not want to consider the other option, one in which he assumed the user of the supplier phone could be dead and the person using ‘Target #1’ might have killed him. Regardless of what happened, the situation was bad. He dialed Dix and frantically waited for him to pick up.

  *******

  Dix had, by his own standards, a pretty good talk with his wife. He updated her on the case and asked her if she could think of anything that would help him get a statement from Marie.

  She laughed at him. “Fat chance. That woman is gonna hate you.”

  It wasn’t exactly what he was looking for from his wife, but the fact she was laughing made him happy. The older he got, the more he realized it didn’t take much for him to be happy. Retirement sounded good again, but he felt he’d be leaving something on the table, unfinished work that would claw at him. The day he woke up and decided he wasn’t having fun at work anymore was the day he’d truly hang up his boots. He told her he loved her and hung up.

  He dialed Petersen.

  Michelle picked up and she sounded concerned. “Bill, there’s been a complication with Steve’s hand. The doctors are saying he’s gonna need another surgery, and they aren’t sure they can save his hand.”

  “Damn, his hand is a real bugger. When are they taking him in for surgery?” Dix asked. The emotional roller coaster of this case and the medical status of Petersen were beginning to take a toll on him.

  “I don’t know, but Steve’s really upset. Do you think you could come see him real quick? He seems to brighten up some when he sees you,” she answered.

  Dix felt like a real ham. He would love to see Steve and give him a pep talk, but he was just about to head over to interview Marie. “Can you keep him pacified for about an hour? I’ve got to interrogate the woman we caught who killed all the officers you’ve heard about and who was coming for him.”

  Michelle shook her head. “I’ll try, but he’s really had it with his hand. He’s talking about retirement.”

  “What? Is he right there? Let me talk to him,” Dix said smugly. He didn’t think he could deal with everything else if Petersen continued to be so emotional. At the same time, he felt guilty that he couldn’t be there for him at that moment.

  Michelle handed the phone to Petersen. In a somber voice he said, “Hey Bill. I guess you heard about my hand.”

  “Yeah. Look, we will…”

  Petersen cut him off. “Bill, look on your phone. Do you see what day it is?”

  “What the hell does that have to do with anything?” Dix felt blood rushing to his head and anger taking over. Here he was smack in the middle of a brutal investigation and trying to keep Petersen alive, and all he wanted was to know what damn day it was.

  “Just look at your phone, I need to know the date to put on my retirement paperwork. Could you do that for me?” Petersen replied, sounding like a kid who’d just had his lunch money taken by the school bully.

  Dix felt like crap. He checked his phone and saw it was April first. “You really don’t need to do this. There’s gotta be some options. But, it’s April first.” He felt terrible and wished he could change places with Petersen.

  “You’re right buddy; I don’t have to do this. Gotcha! It’s April Fools' Day, buddy.” Petersen laughed and Dix could hear Michelle hooting and howling in the background.

  “What? You son-of-a-bitch!” Dix was steaming. He wanted to wrap his massive hands around Petersen’s throat and shake him wildly.

  “Come on buddy, I know this case is crazy and I know you’re about to talk to the lady who wants me dead. I, actually we, need you to be on your toes and ready to pounce so I messed with you a bit. Don’t be angry.”

  Dix laughed at himself. He’d never been duped on April F
ools’ Day before and he was shocked it finally happened… by his previous trainee no less. “This ain’t over, pal. I’m plotting as we speak, and don’t think Michelle is off the hook either. I’m gonna get both of you back.”

  Dix updated Petersen on the case. He told Petersen that if he could think of something he was missing or needed to look at, he needed to let him know. Petersen agreed to discuss the update with Michelle and told him they’d call him if they thought of something useful.

  *******

  Dix met Frazier at the ICU where Marie was being held. After her procedure, she was handcuffed to the hospital bed and her feet were chained together. Two uniformed officers stood by her door while two officers patrolled the lobby and two more patrolled the parking lot. Based on her ability and disregard for human life, Frazier had convinced the administration to exhaust as many resources as possible to keep Marie in custody.

  Dix whistled. “Well, it’s fairly unlikely she’ll get away from us this time. The sedatives, bullet wounds, busted ribs, and all the cops around here should slow her down.”

  Frazier nodded. “This broad has killed people and almost got away from us again, even with the bullet wounds and busted ribs. If I had my way, there’d be double the bodies here, and she’d be in one of those Hannibal Lecter devices.”

  Dix stood at the door to Marie’s room and looked through the small glass pane to observe her. He could see that she was awake and appeared to be looking in the direction of the room window. There was no light; however, as the window had been covered with a thick piece of plywood. These guys aren’t playing around, he thought. He considered her to be an animal, the worst of the worst. Still, something inside him didn’t like seeing her strapped down like a rabid beast.

  Dix turned to Frazier. “Did your interrogator show up?”

  “Yup, he’s sitting down there,” he pointed to the waiting room, “And he’s ready to get started.”

  “Good. Do we have a place we can move her to for the interview, or does she have to stay in the room?” Dix was hopeful there was another location to use since hospital rooms freaked him out. The small size, freezing cold temperature, and lack of a window bothered Dix. I know she’s a deadly killer, but it seems inhumane to treat her like an animal.

  Frazier nodded. “We made a make-shift interview room. No two-way mirrors and we have to go old-school with a digital recording device, but it should work,” he looked back at Marie and her handcuffs, then back at Dix, “I can see you aren’t a fan of the handcuffs and shackles, but she’s looking at the death penalty, Bill. I’m not about to lose her again.”

  Dix looked back at Marie. He saw her looking directly at him. They locked eyes and stared at each other. Dix saw fear in her eyes, but it quickly dissolved into anger. He felt her looking through his soul and it hurt. She continued to examine him with her eyes and although he didn’t want to admit it, it bothered him. The hair on the back of his neck stood straight up and something in his heart made him turn away. Dix shook his head. He felt if he was left alone with Marie, she’d only be interested in one thing… killing him.

  As the officers and hospital staff worked on getting her to the makeshift interview room, Dix contemplated acquiescing to Frasier’s interrogator. He had to admit, at least to himself, that Marie scared the shit out of him. Then an image of Petersen lying in a hospital bed rocked him back to reality. A side of Dix no one had seen before, one he’d repressed from his time in combat in Desert Storm, tapped at his psyche. It was an evil side, a persona he’d slipped into when half of his team had been ambushed and killed during the war. Many people died during the incident. Some of them didn’t need to, but Dix and the remaining members of his team were in a state of shock and wild with retribution. The killings were justified based on wartime laws, but the manner in which they were killed haunted Dix. How he felt the moment the reality of what they’d done then was how he suspected Marie was feeling now. He glanced down at his cell phone and saw he had two voicemails from Pierre, but he didn’t have time to listen to them. What have I gotten myself into now, he thought.

  Chapter 35:

  Once Blass figured he was not going to be able to get into the hospital where Marie, his love, was being held hostage, he texted a supplier to meet him at a pre-determined location. He needed several items to commit several murders and to free Marie. He laughed out loud and his heart fluttered just thinking about Marie. He desperately wanted to be with her. They were odd feelings since he could only ever recall loving one other woman his entire life, his mother. He’d considered after freeing Marie they’d flee to Canada, but there was one problem. Bill Dix. Blass had been so busy trying to figure out how to capture Dix that he allowed the only person in the world he loved to get captured, and by Bill Dix no less. He seethed with anger and wanted to rip Dix’s head off with his bare hands. He vowed to capture Dix, film himself torturing him and then kill him slowly. He’d put the whole ordeal on the national news and YouTube so anyone who loved Dix would suffer a hundred times over. Once that was complete, and only after he was successful, would he and Marie retreat to Canada and lay low.

  Blass parked his car behind an abandoned building, waiting to meet the supplier. He hoped the man would bring everything he’d ordered. A sadistic smile crossed his face as he determined it didn’t really matter what the supplier brought, because when he was done with him, he was going to kill him too. He was going to kill every single person who got in the way, failed, or was too close to him and his operation. He glanced at his Breitling; the supplier had two minutes to meet with him. A second after that and Blass would hunt him down, kill him, and find another person to get what he needed. He adjusted himself in his seat and instantly smelled the perfume Marie wore, as she was last to drive the vehicle. His insatiable urge to kill grew stronger and he slammed the dashboard with his fist. He wanted to crush and destroy Bill Dix, his partner, and all the cops in Las Vegas. Calm down. You’ve got to keep it together. Rescue her, run, and never look back.

  A black Mercedes, one recognized by Blass as belonging to one of his suppliers, slowly rolled around the west end of the building. It circled, then cautiously drove toward Blass. Blass picked the vehicle up in the sights of his AR-15 rifle and smiled as he tapped his finger on the trigger. He scanned the interior of the supplier’s car with the scope and did not see anyone else readily visible. If someone was lying down in the back, he wouldn’t know that until he killed the supplier and cleared the car of threats.

  The supplier was extremely cautious of Blass—he knew what the man was capable of, and he didn’t want to be next on the death list. He parked a few yards away from him although there was plenty of room for him to park closer. Under his right leg the supplier felt for his semi-automatic handgun for assurance. His mouth felt bone dry and he craved a glass of water. He peered into Blass’s vehicle and could not see him. The supplier exited his vehicle and attempted to conceal his firearm in his waistband. At the same moment, Blass exited his vehicle and walked over to the Mercedes.

  As he walked closer, Blass could see the supplier, normally very confident, walked with his head down and wouldn’t look him directly in the eyes. He used this to his advantage.

  “Hey pal, you got the stuff?” Blass asked as he looked into the rear seat area of the car and worked his way to the trunk.

  “Ye-yes,” stuttered the supplier.

  Strange, he’s never stuttered before, thought Blass, I wonder if he told anyone about this meet?

  “Well, can I see it?” Blass worked his way to the trunk and the supplier pressed a button on his keychain opening the trunk lid.

  “It’s all there. I was able to get everything you asked for.” The supplier noticed a bulge in Blass’s hip area, suggesting he too was carrying a concealed weapon. The supplier began smacking his lips and shaking like a dope fiend.

  Blass examined the items while keeping an eye on the supplier. He never trusted anyone, and the fact the supplier wouldn’t look at him directly caused him
concern. He knew the supplier was not intelligent or brazen enough to rip him off, but he’d noticed the man wore a firearm and shook visibly. What are you up to, he thought as he looked at the trembling man. Then he noticed something missing.

  “I see two grenades, I need six. Where the fuck are they?” Blass asked the supplier angrily.

  The man turned white in the face. “I-I t-tried, but the-they are har-hard to come by.” He began stepping away from Blass and looking for a way to run. His heart pounded as his chest felt so tight he could barely breathe.

  Blass knew he would not be able to procure four grenades without the assistance of the supplier and he absolutely needed them. He wanted to kill the guy right there in the parking lot, but he couldn’t just yet.

  “Listen buddy, get on the phone and make them materialize,” said Blass sternly.

  “I’ve al-already tried! You’ve got to be-believe me.” The supplier tried to make his legs run, but he was frozen. Time slowed way down for him and he scanned the area for an escape route.

  “You’ve got thirty minutes to make it happen. If you’re successful, you live. If you’re not, you die,” said Blass. He was pissed off and didn’t have time for this incompetence. He hoped his threat would get the man to act quickly.

  Instead, the supplier just stood there in front of Blass a beaten man. He shook uncontrollably and his eyes glossed over while his mouth hung agape.

  Blass needed the grenades and the guy wasn’t doing shit about it. Blass drew his firearm and shot the man in the leg.

  “Aaaghhh! Stop! Please stop!” the supplier pleaded for his life as he snapped back to reality. He had no idea death was imminent, but he looked at Blass directly now.