Inside Out wm-1

by John Ramsey Miller

  “You didn't think Deputy Massey wouldn't arrest you, did you? Because if he was here, he would have to.”

  “I came to see him because people are trying to kill me. That's why I'm here, dressed like this. They killed the two marshals and two others-not three.” Her mind fought to make a count of the fatalities. Two deputies and two civilians.

  “One of the victims was a female bystander killed by an errant shotgun blast. Since she would be alive if you hadn't been shooting it out with the deputies at the time, it's a legitimate charge.”

  “I know now that the deputy marshals were there to protect me, but I didn't know they were marshals until the second deputy said so.” She was dangerously close to tears. “The first deputy was already dead by then.”

  “So you shot that first deputy thinking he was after you?”

  “I didn't shoot anybody. The two killers shot everybody that was shot-except a deputy shot one of the women, who was not a bystander.”

  “A female killer?”

  “There were two killers. They shot Max and Wire Dog. Max was the hotel manager. Wire Dog-his nickname, I don't know his real name-was a kid who drove a cab. Max did call him Skipper or Skippy-one of them was an older woman who was killed by the marshal with the shotgun-she was shooting at him-he did it on purpose-the other-”

  Trammel shook his head skeptically.

  “-woman-the younger one who killed the first deputy, killed the second deputy after that-the older of the women shot Max and Wire Dog while we were running to get behind the counter so I don't know-”

  “Whoa!” Trammel snapped. “Damn it! Slow down. I feel like I'm riding a bronco. Women killers, cabs, dogs, and who can tell what.”

  Sean stared at the frowning chief deputy. She knew she was rattling on like a madwoman.

  “Let's do this. Take a deep breath and relax. You just answer my questions, and if I need clarification, I'll let you know.”

  “Okay.” Sean had to fight to clear her mind of confusion over the alarming turn of events.

  “There were two killers in that hotel who were trying to kill you? And one was a woman. Is that what you're saying?”

  “Both of them were women.”

  “And the deputies came in when?”

  “One deputy came in, and one of the women shot him.”

  She replayed the scene in her mind. “I was headed for the door with Wire Dog, leaving town. He had my bag. A deputy, whom I didn't know was a deputy at that point, started in through the door and I thought he was trying to kill me.”

  “Why?”

  “He drew his gun. Then the younger woman, who was coming toward us, shot him. Wait, the first deputy must have seen her gun and that's why he drew his. I thought he intended to shoot me, but when I looked around, I saw her gun was out and then she shot him. I shot at her after I was behind the counter, but I missed. The older woman shot at Wire Dog and me while we were running. She hit Max and Wire Dog. I fired once at the older one without aiming and missed her.”

  “You missed her with this. 38?”

  She nodded. “Then the second deputy came in and got behind a column and fired a shotgun at the older woman and killed her. I emptied the. 38 when I ran to the door and got behind the other column. I picked up the dead deputy's pistol, which was lying on the floor. She killed the second deputy when he came around the column. I ran out and I shot the first deputy's gun at her when she came outside. Then I escaped in the cab, where I left the empty automatic.”

  “What did the younger woman look like?”

  “Dark skin and long hair in a ponytail. I saw them earlier in the afternoon in the lobby and I assumed they were guests at the hotel.”

  “And this dog boy and Max were the only civilians killed?”

  “Wire Dog.”

  “So these professional female killers killed four people but missed you, their primary target, completely?”

  “Not completely. The younger one hit me.”

  “Hit you where?”

  “In my computer. I had it in my backpack. She was shooting at me while I was running out and the bullet hit my laptop. There's a hole in it.”

  “Weren't there any witnesses?”

  “The elevator operator might have seen some of it. I know he went up when the shooting started, but he must have seen the woman shoot the first deputy and maybe the older woman shooting at us.”

  “Don't you think the elevator operator would have cleared it up with the cops, if he saw it?”

  She remembered the operator and her hopes sank. “He's pretty old and the lobby is big and gloomy. I don't know what he actually saw.”

  “What kinds of guns did the women killers have?”

  “Silenced ones.”

  “Automatics or revolvers?”

  “Automatics. Why would the FBI assume I was responsible, if there were no witnesses?”

  “You ran, and the FBI believes you and your late husband were a team. Those two dead marshals were specialists. The FBI believes you couldn't have killed them unless you were a professional. I would tend to think you killing those men was highly unlikely unless you were a pro.”

  “I couldn't kill anybody. Well, not unless it was to stay alive, and I certainly wouldn't shoot at people who were trying to help me.”

  “What about the money?” he asked. “Where did you get the fake passport and the five thousand dollars the FBI found with your things?”

  She had known the cops would find her duffel, and that this question could come up. She decided to tell him the truth. “It was my mother's idea. She had me put that money and the passport in a safe place in case I ever needed it.” She didn't tell him where she had left it, not wanting to make trouble for her banker friend. Trammel's eyes were unreadable, but they both knew that normal mothers didn't hide money and falsified passports in far-off cities in case their children had reason to flee for their lives.

  “Why did you run away from the hotel in Arlington?”

  “I was just freaked out after Rook Island. Out of the seven deputies protecting us, they killed all but one. Shapiro said he wouldn't keep watching me, but he lied. I didn't trust that someone inside the Marshals Service wasn't involved. I don't trust anybody except Winter.”

  “If it isn't true about you and your husband being a team, why, now that he's dead, do those people still want to kill you?”

  “I don't have the slightest idea. Maybe they think I know something. I also don't know how those fugitive deputies and those people found me.”

  “I know how those deputies located you,” Trammel said. “Shapiro recorded your voice during a conversation. He got the NSA to add your voice pattern to an audio net covering electronic transmissions. The machines intercepted your voice, traced it. The two deputies went to Richmond and searched until they found you.”

  “What about those women? I doubt they followed my scent from D.C.”

  “That I don't know,” he conceded.

  “You've already decided I'm guilty.”

  He sat back and contemplated her for a moment. “I didn't say I thought you were guilty.”

  Her nose began to itch. “Can you please uncuff me or at least come around here and scratch my nose?” She felt a tear roll down her cheek.

  Trammel shot up, came briskly around the desk, and removed her handcuffs.

  Sean rubbed her nose, snatched a tissue from a box on his desk, and wiped her cheek.

  “If you were guilty, you wouldn't have left your duffel in that lobby. A trained professional would have had her running money and fake passport on her person. I believe your story because it makes the most sense. I don't know how two professional killers missed you, but gunfights are confusing affairs.”

  “What's next?”

  “I'm going to tell Director Shapiro what you've told me. What happens after that is up to him.”

  “Where's Winter?”

  Trammel winced involuntarily. “I wish I knew.” Hank lifted the telephone. “You still have that damag
ed computer?”

  “In my motel room along with my leather jacket.”

  “You think there's a bullet still in it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you sure that one of those women killers fired that round? Could either of the marshals have fired it?”

  “I'm positive the younger woman did, because I remember feeling it get hit. Why?”

  “Might support your story. I'm going to send somebody to your motel. In the meanwhile, you just relax.”

  Relax? Sean almost laughed out loud.

  81

  Charlotte, North Carolina

  While a deputy went to the downtown motel to retrieve Sean's leather jacket and her backpack containing the damaged laptop computer, Trammel e-mailed Director Shapiro. Sean sat on the couch, at first watching him but soon relaxed enough to nod off.

  After the runner returned from the motel, Hank sent Sean's computer to his technician, Eddie Morgan, so he could retrieve the bullet from inside it. Trammel planned to send that along with Sean's Smith amp; Wesson for ballistic comparison purposes.

  Trammel sat on the couch next to Sean. “Tell you what,” he started after she had woken, “you call me Hank and I'll call you Sean. That okay?”

  “It's fine.”

  “Sean, Rook Island and Ward Field are on a need-to-know-only deal. I have a good overview on the incidents, but I'm curious about what happened on Rook. I'd like for you to tell me what Winter did there when those men attacked.”

  “He saved my life.”

  “I know that. I'd like to know what you saw-how he did what he did.”

  Sean studied Winter's boss, unsure of what she should say. Trammel reminded her of a proud parent wanting to hear about his child's football game. “I'll tell you, if you're sure it's all right.”

  “The reports won't give it justice and Winter won't blow his own horn. So I want you to tell me everything.”

  Sean had gotten to the part in the radar shack where Winter was taking the UNSUB's suit off when the receptionist interrupted by tapping on the door, then opening it. She entered carrying a FedEx package. “Sir, I think you might want to see this. It's addressed to Winter and the return is a cafeteria on the Norfolk Naval Base. I know you said if we heard anything from Winter to let you know, and while this isn't from him-”

  “A cafeteria at Norfolk?” Trammel queried, reaching out for the package.

  “Reed is the only name in the return box.”

  As the receptionist closed the door behind her, Trammel opened the package and extracted a manila envelope as well as a number-ten envelope with the Navy's seal on it. Trammel unfolded the enclosed letter and displayed a worried expression as he read. “Fletcher Reed?” He stood and carried the package to his desk. “Sorry, Sean, this is important. I gotta check out this fellow.”

  “Fletcher Reed is a lieutenant commander with the shore patrol. He was on Rook Island before the FBI arrived.”

  Hank tore open the larger envelope and flipped through the contents; a stack of eight-and-a-half-by-eleven sheets of paper. From the few Sean could see, each of the pages had pictures and type on them. He swiveled his chair to his computer and typed an e-mail using two fingers. Two minutes later, as he studied the pages from the envelope, a bell alerted him that he had received a response. Seconds after reading the short message, Hank stacked as many of the pages in his fax machine as could fit and sent them.

  Sean watched from the couch. After Hank had finished faxing the pages, he left the room carrying them and returned two minutes later with a duplicate set. He carefully put the originals back into the FedEx envelope and slipped that into a larger envelope, which he sealed. Hank put the photocopies into a manila envelope. That done, he buzzed his secretary. When she came in, he handed her the originals. “Put this in the vault for now. This'll go out to the chief marshal with a couple of things Eddie is working on,” he told her.

  “If the bullets they removed from those bodies in Richmond don't match your gun or the dead deputy's Glock, that's solid reasonable doubt. FBI technicians don't miss much by way of evidence. It's doubtful that you shot your backpack with the same gun that killed those deputies. If you were a professional, and there was nobody chasing you off, you sure as hell wouldn't have left your bag containing your money and a passport behind. There should be evidence from all six of the weapons you mentioned. They can't believe you fired three guns from so many directions.”

  “They can interpret the evidence they don't miss however they like.”

  “You shouldn't worry about that. Director Shapiro has a seat in the big game. He'll do everything he can to help you, but you have to help us by not running off again. I want your word of honor on it.”

  “You have it. There's no place to run to and nobody who can help me.”

  “Okay, so you guys were in the radar shack,” Hank said suddenly. “Winter dropped from the rafters on that sumbitch and snapped his neck.”

  82

  New Orleans, Louisiana

  The slipstream caught the cigarette that Johnny Russo flicked out of the Lincoln. He lit another before he closed the window.

  A mile after leaving the interstate, Spiro turned right at the crossroads. He drove another fifty yards, then steered the Lincoln onto Sam's property. The gatekeeper opened the front gate while a guard gazed out of the window of the small building. Russo watched the gatekeeper pull the lever on the wall. Even though he had seen the guard disarm the device designed to protect Sam from unwelcome guests, he reminded Spiro to slow as he approached the bridge erected over the man-made gully a hundred yards beyond the gate.

  As the Lincoln passed between the hills that guarded Sam's privacy from both sight-seers and surveillance teams, Russo saw two of Sam's bodyguards sitting in a golf cart parked beside the driveway. The pair returned Johnny's wave as Spiro drove past. Sam's guard consisted of serious-minded professionals, who in the way of well-trained attack dogs, were expected to respond only to their master's commands. Sam had recently imported seven young Sicilians-all blood relatives of his bodyguards-which put the number of men he had protecting him at fourteen-by far the largest number ever. He had always been satisfied before with a driver and two others who trailed him in a second car. His caution was indicative of the change in Sam since Dylan Devlin prompted his arrest.

  Johnny's mission was tricky because the old man could always sniff out deceit. Sam based life-and-death decisions on a man's facial tic, a shifting eye, or the moisture of a hand he was shaking.

  Spiro parked in front of the house beside Sam's Cadillac. Three of the new guards stared at the newcomers as though they had never seen them before.

  “Damn Zips,” Spiro said distastefully.

  “Wait with the car,” Johnny told him. “Make nice with the boys. It's important you develop a relationship with them, since you're going to be working with them from now on.”

  “How, with sign language? They shouldn't come here if they can't talk English.”

  “Whose fault is it you never learned to speak Italian? Maybe I'll get you some foreign language tapes for Christmas.”

  Inside the house, Johnny found Sam standing at his expensive gas range overcooking sausages in a big cast-iron skillet. Two of his recently imported young guards sat on stools at the counter waiting like patient hounds.

  “Johnny!” Sam said. “You hungry? Grab a plate.”

  “Nah, Sam,” Johnny said. “I passed by my house and ate with the kids a little while ago.” The idea of putting anything Sam cooked into his stomach was only slightly less frightening than having a crackhead holding a cocked pistol to his temple. “I wanted to get a shower and change.”

  “It's nice to keep close with your kids. Where's Spiro?”

  “With the car.” Understanding why Sam had asked, he added, “He ate already, too.”

  Sam reached over and turned the radio up before he spoke to Johnny in a low voice. “They don't understand English,” he said, meaning the young men seated at the counter
. “So, what you got up your sleeve?”

  Be calm, Johnny. “Sean called me.”

  Sam burned Johnny with his gaze. Smoke was seconds from billowing from the black skins of the sizzling meat. He pulled the skillet off the flame. “So when was it she called you?”

  “This morning.” He spoke with a nonchalance he didn't feel. In his mind he pictured morning as actually being late at night. “She wouldn't say where she was, just said she saw you on TV, and that it wasn't her fault about-”

  “Where is she?”

  “She wouldn't tell me. I asked her and said I'd send somebody to get her. I even offered to go myself. She wasn't interested.”

  “You came straight here?” Sam asked.

  “Sure.”

  Sam smiled at him warmly. “After you passed by your house to eat a little bite with the family and wash up?”

  “It was one thing after the other all night, last night. I stank. I had to shower so I wouldn't draw flies,” Johnny said, trying to lighten Sam's mood.

  Sam's now-clouded eyes were impossible to read; the smile had turned into a sneer. “You wanted to shower and eat before you brought me this word I been crazy out of my head to get?”

  Johnny tried to picture Sam as an old man more dead than alive. With Sam standing there, the image wouldn't take shape because Sam looked as invincible as he had when Johnny was a child. That cancer sure had its work cut out for it.

  “You get in touch with Herman yet?” Sam asked, changing the subject.

  “His number is disconnected,” Johnny said, bracing himself for a storm. Herman Hoffman's contact number did indeed have a message saying it was no longer in service. Only the last time Johnny had called it, one of Herman's men had called him back within seconds. The cutout's message had been that despite appearances, everything was under control. Johnny had no choice but to believe him.

  “We need to talk,” Sam said. “Go on downstairs and wait for me. I'll be right there soon's I feed the boys.”

  The guards were eager as Sam speared the sausages and put them on their plates beside the nests of linguini, which looked seriously undercooked. Johnny suspected that as soon as Sam left, the men would dump the inedible feast down the garbage disposal.