FIRST STEP MURDER

by H. R. Whidden

  Faxon didn’t hesitate he unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it over his right shoulder, he knew why she wanted to see and that was a good sign that she knew some of the ex-Marines from Echo Company were bad guys.

  “Ok, you can put your shirt back on, but slowly,” Linda smiled. “I’ll explain that another time. Be right back,” and she was off to change.

  They rode in the rental minivan and went to a local steak house. Faxon made sure that the girls ordered whatever they wanted despite Linda’s objections. He ordered a big porterhouse, rare. It was the house specialty, two inches thick, with a loaded baked potato and a Cesar salad. Linda ordered a small filet and Faxon upgraded it to the largest one they had, the girls laughed. Mindy insisted on sitting next to Faxon in the booth, she ordered the chicken fingers with fries and a large milk shake. Katie ordered a steak and baked potato trying to be like the adults.

  Faxon and Linda talked about hotels in the area. “Mom can’t Faxon stay with us instead of a hotel,” Mindy asked innocently? It was an uncomfortable moment when no one said anything.

  “We don’t have an extra room,” Katie said. “Where’s he going to sleep?”

  “He can stay in my room,” Mindy answered. “I can sleep in mom’s big bed, we shouldn’t make him go to a hotel is all, not after buying our dinner.”

  “Well if it would help you out I’d be glad to pay the same rate as I would at the hotel, and just so everyone knows, I don’t snore, I’ve stayed up and listened and I’ve never heard myself.”

  That made Katie and Linda laugh. Katie explained the joke to Mindy.

  After dinner they walked out to the minivan, Mindy walked beside Faxon and held his hand. He opened the side door and helped her in. He offered his hand to Katie and she rolled her eyes and got in, then he opened the passenger’s door for Linda. Faxon parked beside the small car in the driveway and everyone went in through the garage and into the house. The girls had school tomorrow and Linda put Mindy to bed in her room, she let Katie stay up a little while longer to watch a show on television. Faxon carried in his bag and put it in Mindy’s room and he put two hundred dollars on the kitchen counter as he walked by. Katie went to bed Faxon heard her tell her mother to shut her door and lock it, Linda said goodnight and thanked him for the money. Faxon watched the news then went into Mindy’s room to go to bed. It was a small single bed, it had a pink blanket and Faxon put on a pair of gym shorts and a white t-shirt to sleep in.

  There was no clock in the room but Faxon knew he hadn’t been to sleep a couple hours when he heard the side door in the kitchen being forced open. His natural instinct told him something was wrong, he looked out the doorway down the hall and the other doors were shut and he assumed locked.

  He looked the other way and saw a man walk around the corner with a knife in his hand. He heard the man speaking in an Arabic dialect to another man. Faxon moved a small child’s size wooden table into the center of the room and grabbed his belt. He slipped the end through the buckle making a loop and stood behind the door. The first man walked by looking down the hall, the second man stepped into the room. He also had a knife with a curved blade in his right hand. Faxon grabbed his right wrist and yanked down and twisted his hand back and up, at the same time he looped the belt over his head and pulled as hard as he could with his left hand tightening the belt around the man’s neck. When the man reached up with his left hand to his neck Faxon tripped him and slammed his head down into the table knocking him out.

  Faxon grabbed the small lamp off the bedside table and quickly stepped out into the hall. The other man was stepping back after trying the bedroom door handle and finding it locked, he was just about to kick it in and Faxon took three steps and kicked him between the legs from behind and at the same time hit him in the back of the head and broke the lamp knocking the Arabic man unconscious.

  “Faxon, what’s going on out there,” Linda yelled through the door?

  “Linda, two men have broken into the house, don’t be afraid. I took care of everything but you should stay in your rooms until the police get here.”

  “Are you alright,” Mindy asked?

  “I’m fine girl, you stay in there with your mom, and I’m going to call 911.”

  Katie cracked her door open and saw the man lying on the hallway floor, and Faxon reached over and closed it. “You too,” he said.

  Faxon went to his bag and used zip ties to secure the two unconscious men then dialed 911 on the home phone.

  “911, what’s your emergency,” asked the operator.

  “Two men broke into my friends home and their unconscious in the house could you please send someone quick.”

  “The police are on the way sir. How is it their unconscious?”

  “Well I rammed one of their heads into a table, and hit the other one with a lamp, I’m afraid I broke the lamp. Then I used zip ties to secure their hands and feet, but they’re still unconscious.”

  “Who are you? Are you an officer,” asked the operator.

  “I’m a licensed private detective from Boston. I was just visiting a friend, these men broke in, they had knives, they were going to kill my friend and her two daughters.”

  In only a few minutes Faxon could hear the police pull up out front and two officers came in with their guns drawn. One of them held him against the wall in the kitchen while the other one checked the two men. They were still unconscious.

  “I didn’t touch the knives you’ll find theirs are the only prints on them. My ID is in my wallet with my PI license and if you ask the lady she’ll tell you I’m their guest.”

  Two more officers came in and soon the girls and Linda were in the living room explaining what had happened. The officers let Faxon go and Mindy ran to him and he scooped her up.

  “Are you alright,” the little girl asked?

  “I’m fine, now back to your mom while I talk to the officers.”

  When the EMS technicians showed up they revived the two unconscious Arabic men and they were put in the back of one of the squad cars. They never spoke and finally a detective showed up and after he talked with the officers first on the scene Faxon was able to talk to him.

  “You’re going to find out neither of these men can speak English detective. There were no identification on them but I’m sure their Saudi nationals.”

  “And how is it you know these things, Mr. Bennett isn’t it?” He looked at his notes from the arriving officers.

  “It is, I’m a private detective from Boston, and I got involved in this case with a young woman whose parents were killed. There’s been several murders in Boston all believed to be ordered by the same unknown man. He’s suspected to be behind a billion dollar theft ring, smuggling arms to radical Islamic solders, money laundering, and the deaths of several other influential Boston business men that wouldn’t cooperate with him. Not to mention several ex-Marines that worked for him. You only need to contact Detective John Walker with the Boston police department to verify my story.”

  “And these Saudi men what’s their roll in this, and why is it you think they would want Ms. Walker and her daughters killed, Mr. Bennett?”

  “The man responsible, well she knows his identity, he’s used all the influence he has with his ex-Marine criminal associates and has resorted to using men loyal to his Saudi partners.”

  “Does she know who the man is,” asked the detective?

  “I’m not sure,” Faxon said.

  “First thing in the morning I’ll call Detective Walker and confirm your story. I’ll book these two on breaking and entering, assault, and attempted murder, and whatever else I can think up. But if they can’t speak English and we need an interpreter and if they’re not US citizens it’s likely the state department is going to get involved. Hell I don’t know what will happen. Good job making sure we didn’t respond to a real tragedy.”

  Faxon walked back into the house and all the officers left. One was parked outside the rest of the night. Linda and the girls had gotten most of th
e story from the responding officer’s report about how both men had curved knives and how Faxon had taken care of both of them. Mindy asked a lot of questions even one about what had happened to her lamp. Katie was quiet and wiped away tears and thanked him again and again, she looked at him in a different way than before. Linda waited until the girls weren’t around she stood close and whispered.

  “What the hell Faxon, what’s going on?”

  “You know what’s going on Linda, but I don’t want to talk about it until we’re alone and the girls won’t disturb us. I don’t see any reason to traumatize them any more than they already are.”

  “Well I’m not sending them to school today. Katie has a friend down the block I’m friends with her mother I’ll walk over and see if the girls can stay there for a little while. Everyone on the block probably wants to know what happened.”

  Linda told the girls she wanted them out of the way until she could get the house cleaned up and they weren’t going to school today. She walked down the block to Katie’s friend’s house Sadie and her single parent mother, Ann. It took a few minutes to explain the break in and then it was back to the house. Faxon stood in the kitchen he had made a pot of coffee in the drip maker and poured them both a cup.

  “I feel like you know more than you’re telling me,” Linda said after taking a sip from her cup.

  “Well we feel the same way then, Linda those men last night they had knives and they were here to kill you and the girls. One day and I wouldn’t have been here and the three of you would be dead. You told me you had someone helping take care of your expenses, I think whoever it is now wants to take care of the three of you in a different way.”

  Linda dropped her cup of coffee and leaned over the sink. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

  “Yes I do know more than I’m telling you, I’m working a case for someone, two people were killed in a car accident, Clayton and Lindsey Lewis, it was a high speed head on crash just outside of Boston, a place called Littleton, and the man driving the other car was your husband ensign Jessie Walker. The man helping you had them killed because they wouldn’t sell a prime piece of property to his company.”

  “Oh shit, oh God you know about that? Was that their names, oh God, he killed them.”

  “He killed them because the same man that was paying you to be quiet asked him to. Probably because he made a deal to take care of you and the girls, this man you’re protecting was probably his commanding officer is my guess. Your husband was addicted to drugs probably from his time in Afghanistan, and an alcoholic, he thought he was making the best deal he could for you and the girls. This guy convinced other ex-Marines that served under him to steal semi-trucks and trailers and the goods shipped to Saudi Arabia through a company called the Marine Group with a Saudi national listed as CEO. Those men were killed by police. They would have sooner died than been arrested.”

  “This man that’s been paying you for your silence paid another of his men under his command, Ensign Race Thorpe sniper, to shoot a man named Parker Doss because he wouldn’t sell a piece of prime downtown property to him. Ensign Thorpe shot himself in the head to keep from being arrested for the murder, or being forced to name the man.”

  “There’s a man in jail right now, Ensign Ronald Beale, entry specialist, this man convinced him to sneak into a condo building and break into an elderly man’s apartment. Mr. Martin Samuels, and then he carried him up to the roof and threw him off. He’s the only one still alive.”

  “There’s been others, men that served under this man, one hit and killed by a car running from the law, another trying to get away fell and was pierced through the chest by a piece of rebar. Lives ruined, families ruined, all because of this man’s greed. He sells illegal arms to radical Islamic men that kill Americans overseas, and now Linda the authorities, police, NSA, FBI, are all looking for him and now he’s trying to kill you and the girls.”

  Faxon put the piece of paper with the three names on the counter. Linda cried, she wiped her face with a dish towel not knowing the horror that this man had done to so many people.

  “I’ve narrowed it down to three men, and he’ll be eventually found and prosecuted, it’s come too far. He won’t stop trying to kill you and the girls and you have to let me help you. I can protect you, keep you safe, you have to know that now. I’ll do more than that, I’ll take care of the girls, I’ll make sure they have good educations and both go to college.”

  Linda put her arms around his neck and Faxon put his hands on her hips. She cried on his shoulder and after a minute she pulled away and kissed him hard on the lips then stepped away. She looked down at the counter and the three names. Faxon held his breath, and finally she pointed to one of the names on the paper. That was it, he had the name, months of work the deaths of a dozen men, Harper, and now he had the name of the man that had come to cause him so much pain.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Faxon had called a moving company and prepaid to have them come and pack everything in the house and have it shipped to a storage facility in Boston. They took the rental minivan and started driving back to Boston. It was only about a five hour drive and they had some time to talk. He told them about his friend Lew Kirin a computer genius, he told them about his friend Detective John Walker, and James Cullen, Boston Herald reporter, and of course everyone at Ned Devine’s from the owners Ronald and Sophie McFarland to William and all the girls that worked there.

  He took his time explaining about how he became friends with Landau Comaneci, Faxon explained he was from Rumania, Mindy asked where that was and the three of them tried to explain. The conversation got more complicated when he explained Landau had three sets of triplets with three different wives. The part they liked the most was when Faxon described his home outside of Boston, and the home in the Hamptons and his hundreds of acres and castle in Romania. It took a little time for him to explain that they may need to stay with him at some point not only for their safety but because he would have to work. That meant looking for the most wanted man on the East coast.

  Their first home was going to be the small apartment above the bar at Ned Devine’s. Faxon had the opportunity to talk to Linda about her testifying in front of a grand jury and eventually in court against the man that had tried to kill her and her daughters. She would first have to be interviewed by Detective Walker and the district attorney, and maybe representatives from the FBI and NSA.

  Faxon parked the car in the alley, and they all carried bags up the back staircase to the second floor entrance. William was in the storeroom and introductions were made.

  “William this is my special friend Mindy,” Faxon said. It made the little girl feel special to be introduced first. “And oh yea, her mom and sister, Linda and Katie,” he said as if they were just along for the ride.

  “Well it’s nice to meet you ladies, so you’ve come to stay with us for a while, I hope you can teach this guy some manners, we thought he’d run away without saying goodbye.”

  Up the steps to the apartment Faxon opened the door.

  “It’s a little small but I hope you’re not here long, I’ll get a couple single beds brought in tomorrow for this other room in here. There’s a grocery store just down the block so make a list of anything you need, maybe we can all go shopping tomorrow. I thought tonight we’d have dinner down in the restaurant.”

  “Where are you going to sleep Faxon,” Mindy asked.

  “Don’t worry about me little one, I thought you could sleep with your mom in the bedroom and Katie could sleep on the couch just for tonight. I won’t be far, I’ll make sure you’re safe don’t worry. Now look around and make yourself comfortable there’s cable with all the channels and Katie you can use my laptop it’s on the table, I’ll be right back and we’ll go have dinner.”

  He walked down the stairs and sat in the storeroom. He dialed Sam Shepard’s phone number.

  “Hello Sam, its Faxon Bennett.”

  “Good to hear from you Faxon, I hope you’
re calling to ask about Harper. I wish you two would patch things up, she’s really unhappy you know.”

  “Soon Sam, you know I love her, but she has to forgive me before we can be together again and I think we’re gonna be close to that happening soon. I can’t say anymore but I’m expecting a break in the case. I called because I need to talk with Rachel and I’d rather Harper not know about it.”

  “I have her cell phone number let me know when you’re ready.”

  “Go ahead.” He remembered the number then entered it into his phone and called her.”

  “Rachel, it’s Faxon, please if you’re around Harper don’t let her know it’s me.”

  “I’m in the pool house with Conner. It’s really good to hear from you, please tell me you’re here to see her. She would love to see you, she wouldn’t turn you away she loves you Faxon.”

  “I love her too Rachel, but she has to forgive me. I can’t explain over the phone but that’s going to happen soon, it’s one of the reasons I had to call you. Can you and Conner come into the city tomorrow morning, it’s important Rachel I need a favor.”

  “Well ya, sure, what time and where do you want us to meet you?”

  “8:00 am if that’s not too early, and I need you to come to Ned Devine’s, I’ll meet you at the front door no one will be there that early, but I’ll let you in. And Rachel I know you’re both license to carry so could you come armed? I don’t expect any trouble but it wouldn’t hurt to be safe, I’ll explain when I see you.”

  “I carry everywhere I go Faxon, Conner too. Harper runs every morning I can leave while she’s gone and not have to explain, I’ll see you in the morning.”

  Faxon went back to the apartment Katie was using his cell phone talking to her friend back home, Mindy was playing a game on the laptop, and Linda was sitting on the couch watching HGTV.

  “Let’s go get something to eat,” Faxon said.

  They went downstairs and sat in a booth in the bar. One after another every waitress came over to meet Linda and the girls. Even some of the girls downstairs came up just to say hello and tease Faxon. He could see by the look on their faces they thought Linda was Harpers replacement, but he couldn’t get into that conversation right then.