Dead Money Run

by J. Frank James

  After a time, Hilary reached over and patted my hand.

  “You think we need to get a lawyer?”

  “Me, yes. You, no,” I said.

  “Why do you say that?”

  I had never told Crusher or Hilary of my conversation with Reynolds that night in Atlanta at the Hyatt Regency. I knew they would never be at risk from that point on. What I didn’t know is how things were going to work out for me.

  “Because you and Crusher didn’t do anything wrong. All you did was dress up in work clothes and take a boat ride to a casino. People do that every day around here. Crusher might get hit with malicious mischief for the damage to the casino, but that’s probably not going to happpen. ”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Go to jail. I’ve been there before.”

  “God Lou, I will be lost without you.”

  “I have to laugh. When I left prison, the warden said I would be back. At the time, I thought he was nuts. Looks like he was right.”

  After a while the phone in the office rang and O’Hara answered it. He was having a one way conversation and every now and then he would look over at me and say ‘yes’.

  “Do you want me to have someone take them?” said O’Hara. When he sat the word ‘them’, Hilary’s body twitched slightly.

  “Yes sir. Okay. Will do.”

  After hanging up the phone, O’Hara turned and said, “Agent Reynolds said for me to tell you, Miss Kelly and, is it really Crusher?”

  “Really is,” said Crusher.

  “Well, anyway, you two are free to go. If you need a lift to anywhere Agent Reynolds said that we are to assist you.”

  “No,” said Crusher. “We have a boat and a car we need to pick up.”

  Turning toward Hilary, Crusher said, “Hilary, why don’t you plan on coming back with me to Jasper and stay with Bunny and me for a while.”

  Hilary just sat there looking at the floor nodding her head.

  When I heard Crusher’s offer, I jumped on it. I didn’t want Hilary to be that far away until things got sorted out.

  “Honey, take the car and go with Crusher.”

  Hilary looked at me with a surprised look on her face.

  “Lou, you called me Honey. Did you mean that?”

  I hadn’t realized that I did, but it was what it was.

  “Yes, who else have I got?”

  Hilary started crying and fell onto my shoulder. I wrapped my arm around her and patted her. I was getting good at that.

  “Okay folks. Time to go,” said O’Hara. “Mister Malloy I’m to take you to the helipad where Agent Reynolds is waiting to take you back to Atlanta with him.”

  “Oh, Lou. What do you want me to do? I could get…”

  “Nothing,” I cut in. “Do nothing until you hear from me.”

  “Lou, I can’t …”

  “Hilary, remember what I told you. Time for plan ‘B’.”

  Chapter 78

  I wanted to wait until Hilary and Crusher left. I thought about trying to make a run for it, but where would I run to? I had to have some faith that Reynolds was going to honor his word to me. Then I heard a voice call my name as Agent O’Hara directed me out of the casino and to the waiting helicopter.

  “Hey Malloy.”

  Turning around I saw Miles standing just outside the building. In the next instant, I heard a pistol shot and O’Hara slumped against the wall of the building. He had been shot in the left shoulder, but was still alive. I bent down and rolled him behind the corner of the building and out of range of the shooter.

  “O’Hara, this is Malloy. Can you hear me?”

  O’Hara just nodded his head.

  I heard Miles voice again.

  “I’m here to even things up, Malloy.”

  “O’Hara, I need your weapon,” I said.

  Agent O’Hara pulled his coat back and I saw his forty-five still in its holster. Removing his weapon, I said, “O’Hara, try not to move. I’m going to go after the shooter.”

  O’Hara again nodded his head.

  I started to inch my way toward the location of Miles, but I needed him to keep talking.

  “I thought you were here to arrest me, Miles?”

  “Arrest my ass, Malloy. You’re a dead man.”

  “Miles, if that’s your real name, you need to make it your best shot. That’s all you’re going to get. One shot.”

  Miles was close, but I couldn’t get a bead on him.

  “Think you’re pretty smart, don’t you, Malloy.”

  “Smarter than you, Miles.”

  That brought a bullet that hit the wall just over my head.

  “Next time I won’t miss, Malloy.”

  “What’s your gig in this Miles? What do you care if I walk away?”

  “You remember those two GBI agents you killed in South Carolina? One of them was my brother. My last name is not Miles.”

  “Why does that not surprise me,” I said, more to myself than Miles.

  “Name is Maddox.”

  When I heard the name I remembered my sister’s diary. She had met with a john named Maddox before she died.

  “Doesn’t matter who your brother was, Maddox. He was trying to cut himself into the deal.”

  “Aren’t we all?”

  It was starting to make sense to me. Maddox was working on the counterfeit angle and my sister had to be working both sides of the fence, which, if it was as Sonny Cap had said, would not surprise me.

  “So tell me Maddox, what were you working with my sister that she had to be killed?”

  “She was double-crossing us.”

  “How was she doing that? You were both part of the same agency.”

  “She was working to get the technology on the counterfeit operation for the government. When we found out about it, Stanton fed her to Sonny.”

  I had to get around to the other side of a small alcove. As I moved, I heard a shot and Maddox dropped out onto the grass and didn’t move.

  “You can drop the gun now Lou. I don’t want to have to kill you too.”

  It was Max Reynolds and few of his men. He was smiling. As he walked toward me, I dropped O’Hara’s service piece.

  “Just curious Lou, what is plan ‘B’?”

  Epilogue

  It was three months before I was able to get back to Hilary. During that period of time I had been tried, convicted and sent to prison for life, or so the world was to think. I had no past and no present. In fact, I was no longer Lou Malloy for the time being, but was told that was only temporary until such time as I was able to complete an assignment, which no one had bothered to tell me what it was, exactly. I simply was told to standby and that someone would be in touch. Reynolds kept telling me that no action was better than a reaction. I told him it sounded like a disease.

  Sergeant O’Hara recovered from his shoulder injury and we got to be good friends. His first name was Dixon and he was from Alabama. He told me that he was always in touch with Reynolds and to call him if I needed anything.

  I had decided to keep my own thoughts on my conversation with Maddox before he was killed. A killing that was both deserved far as I was concerned, but convenient for the government. If Susan was double-crossing Maddox and Stanton, that also meant she was double-crossing the government.

  The government told me to keep the name John Addams, active. I was now a wealthy playboy from Newport who recently purchased a piece of property known as Turtle Point. Actually, a corporation known as the GNT Corporation based in Nassau, Bahamas purchased it and I was listed as the company’s sole stockholder.

  For the time being, I disappeared as planned and I still didn’t have a clue as to what was going to happen.

  No one seemed interested in the $15 million or the money from the second heist and I didn’t bring it up. While I still had the other money hidden in the old foundation area of the Golden Slipper to deal with and I wasn’t quite sure how I could get to it now that I was persona non-gratis. Like a dog with
a bone, I wasn’t going to let it go. I just had to have a plan.

  After a few months of this charade, I was allowed to go back to live at Turtle Point. There, things settled down for me and Hilary, Crusher too. Bunny sold her house in Jasper. Crusher and she moved into the house that was used as an officer’s club when Turtle Point was an airbase. Bunny had her garden and Crusher now thought of himself as a ranger in residence and patrolled the perimeter with Brutus when he felt the need arose.

  The doctor who had performed the autopsy on my sister matched up Sonny’s DNA with my sister’s identifiers. I felt a sense of loss, but it was too late to do anything about it. Hilary found a cemetery on the Turtle Point property and wanted to place a headstone in it for Susan and we did that. Everyone seemed to feel better about that, especially me. Even though her body was not there, I felt her spirit was and that would have to do.

  The Outfit took a big hit on losing the insurance gig and Nick Cappoleto paid the ultimate price. He was found shot in the head at his home sitting at his desk. The police said it was a home invasion, but interestingly enough, nothing had been taken from the place and there was a stack of hundred dollar bills found next to his head as it lay on the desk he was so proud of.

  The cop from Jacksonville Beach, Sal Ramiro, tried to make a lot of noise about need to arrest me for interfering with an officer of the law, kidnapping, carrying a weapon as a convicted felon and anything else he could think of, but there was nothing he could do. As far as world of law enforcement was concerned, I was in jail for life and that ended his campaign.

  After we left Atlanta for St. Mary’s, we never heard from the Outfit. While Miles was dead, I didn’t think I had heard the last of Joe Stanton or the Hightowers. They didn’t look to be the type of thieves that faded away. They were after something and they were convinced I had it. Reynolds said I had to stay alert and stay hidden.

  As for the real Max Reynolds, it seemed my sister had been working two ends against the middle. Reynolds called her his double agent. While she was passing information to the Reynolds, she was passing phony information to the fake one. This is what got her killed. Reynolds suspected that they tried to torture her to get the whereabouts of some very highly advanced counterfeiting plates that were digital in nature and intended for the use of manipulating EURO BOT’S. This was to be the first wave of cyber terrorist’s targets outside of the United States Banking System. Reynolds wanted me to get involved in locating these plates, but I told him I needed some time. Besides, I had a good idea where they were anyway.

  Hilary and I talked about getting married, but I wasn’t sure I wanted her to take on the responsibility of some of my actions. Besides I was not sure how things were going to turn out with the government and what was expected of me. I didn’t think they were being nice out of the kindness of their heart. No government agency operated like that. If I tried to get off the reservation, so to speak, I was sure I would live to regret it.

  We named the two alligators guarding the money in the pit, Elvis and Lucy. They became like pets and waited at the end of every day for Crusher feed them parts of feral hogs, fish guts or whatever he had at the time.

  I started to fix up the old plantation house and Hilary and I lived in the first room I completed. It took my mind off a lot of the bad things I had done in my life and things I could never make right. Hilary said that it was the future we had to worry about, and the past was nothing we could change. I told her I was willing to accept that, but the question was how long that would last. Sometimes with me, it was not long enough.

  For The Record

  1. Al Capone was an actual resident of the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta in 1932.

  2. Cumberland Island is located off the coast of Georgia, but the existence of a casino on the Island is fictitious.

  3. Oscar Mayer and the Weinermobile are registered trademarks of Kraft Foods.

  4. Chrysler is a registered trademark of the Chrysler Corporation. The Ford Mustang is a registered trademark of the Ford Motor Company. The Lincoln Town Car is a registered trademark of the Lincoln Motor Company. All use of any trademarks, brands, and logos herein are for purposes of reference and such marks are the property of the respective automotive companies.

  5. The Timucua Indian Tribe is none existent today. At one time they numbered in the hundreds of thousands and lived along the southern coast of the State of Georgia and have never owned or operated a casino. Any other reference to Indian owned or operated casinos exists only in the imagination of the author.

  6. Nike is a registered trademark of the Nike Corporation.

  7. Greyhound and Greyhound Bus are registered trademarks of Greyhound Lines, Inc.

  8. The name Glock is a registered trademark of Glock, Inc. Walther PPK is a registered trademark of the Walther Arms company. Colt is a registered trademark of Colt Defense LLC.

  9. Hyatt Regency is a registered trademark of the Hyatt Corporation.

  10. As to any products named or referenced in this novel as to trademarks or any other means of product identification, the writer makes no claim of ownership in such marks nor claims any affiliation with the respective companies.

  11 The iPad, iPhone and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Corporation.

  If you enjoyed

  Dead Money Run

  By J. Frank James

  You won’t want to miss the next adventure with Lou Malloy and Hilary Kelly in…

  Only Two Cats

  Coming soon…

  Only Two Cats

  By

  J. Frank James

  Chapter 1

  “Lou, Lou, wake up.”

  “Huh, what’s going on?”

  “You tell me,” said Hilary. “I can see lights out at the old dock”

  Looking at the alarm clock next to the bed, it was flashing four o’clock in the morning.

  “Lou, get up. I can see people moving around on the dock.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Hand me the two-way. I’ll have to call Crusher.” Dragging myself out of bed, I slipped on a pair of jeans and tennis shoes.

  I had been up the night before working on how I could get the money we had stashed away a year ago in the casino on Cumberland Island that as part of a shakedown of a mobbed up group called the Outfit and I was bone tired.

  “You think they are after the money?” Hilary asked.

  I gave the question some thought because every time someone tried to break into Turtle Point, Hilary always asked the same question.

  “What else would they be after? Better to steal from a thief than a bank,” I said. “I’m going to put the night vision goggles on and step outside. While I’m gone, keep the twelve gauge shotgun where you can get to it just in case.”

  Walking to a closet, I grabbed a Glock-17 pistol and two clips of ammo. The Glock was fitted for a silencer and I screwed one on the end of the barrel and stuffed a blackjack in the rear pocket of my jeans.

  “I may go up to the top floor and watch from the front room with the Marlin 30-30 instead,” said Hilary.

  “Suit yourself,” I said. “Just make sure you don’t shoot me or Crusher and keep that shotgun handy.”

  “Don’t bend over while you’re out there. The temptation may be too great to pass up.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” I said and stepped out into the hall.

  The house we lived in had once belonged to a tobacco planter back in the late 1800’s and he had barred no expense when he built it. It had a large descending stairway made out of wood from some live oak and black walnut trees in the area and someone with a night scope could see me descend through the large palladium windows over the front door. Luckily, there was a set of stairways at the end of the hall that led to the kitchen and eating area without going through the main part of the house. Walking down the hallway to the back set of stairs; I put the night goggles on and tried to raise Crusher on the two-way.

  “Crusher, this is Malloy, do you copy?”

  “Yeah Lo
u, I’m standing just outside your back kitchen door watching this bunch walking off the dock.”

  “You get a head count?” I said.

  “There are four of them. One guy is staying with the boat they came in and the other three guys are walking toward one of the maintenance sheds in back of your house.”

  “You have Brutus with you?”

  “He’s standing right here. He woke me up when he heard the motor from their boat. Whatever they’re riding in, it ain’t any Boston Whaler.”

  “Do you think you can bag the guy in the boat?”

  “Why? Where you goin?”

  “I’m going to take the three heading to the shed,” I said.

  “You think the odds are fair? I mean, you against three don’t sound like you want to give them a fighting chance.”

  “I hear you. They are just here looking for the money. I’m going to try and keep one alive. Hilary is sitting up on the third floor in the crow’s nest with a 30-30 and she probably has them sighted by now. You try and keep the one in the boat in one piece.”

  “I can’t promise you that. Brutus’s looking for some action now that he’s up, but I will do what I can.”

  “Give him something to chew on,” I said.

  “Where will you be?”

  “Standing out near that big tree in front of the shed trying to figure out how to stop this shit,” I said. “It’s getting old.”

  “Lou, try doing it without the money,” said Crusher.