Urban Justice

by John Etzil

  Catherine’s skin was warm to the touch, which was a good sign. Frankie felt a sense of relief when she detected a strong and steady pulse. She studied Catherine’s face. Even with her eyes closed and no makeup on, Frankie could see the remnants of past beauty. And sadness. What causes people to go down this path?

  She poured some water from a plastic jug into a cup for when Catherine woke up, and waited. Over two hours went by before Catherine started to stir. She turned onto her side and opened her eyes. She seemed to have trouble focusing on Frankie.

  “Hi, Catherine. I’m Frankie.”

  “Jack told me about you. Where’s Debbie?”

  “They went on a little road trip. I’ll take you back to Eminence when you’re discharged. Should be soon. Doc says you’re doing well.”

  “I feel like shit.”

  “Yeah, that’s to be expected. Want some water?” Frankie held out a cup.

  “God, yeah, but I’d really love a beer.” She took the water and drank it all in one long swig.

  “Ha, not until we get you back to Eminence. But you have to promise not to tell Jack. He’s a real stickler for following the rules.”

  Catherine scoffed. “I don’t think so. Since I’ve met him, he’s broken all of them.”

  “He must really care for you. He only breaks the rules for important people in his life.”

  “How well do you know him?”

  “Well. Very well. And for a long time. He’s a good man.”

  “He seems like a psycho killer to me.”

  “He’s not a psycho.”

  The doctor knocked on the door frame with his knuckles and tried to be funny. “Anybody home?” He stepped into the room, a big smile on his chubby face as he looked at Frankie. He nodded at her. She smiled her best fake smile, the one that she usually reserved for luring targets into her web.

  “I have the results of your blood work. Everything came out well enough for you to be discharged, but it’s important that you take all of your meds on schedule.”

  He looked at Frankie and smiled again. “Can you make sure that she does that?”

  Frankie’s fake smile parted her lips, and she nodded. “Yes, Doc, I’ll make sure.” Now can we get the hell out of here?

  “Good.” He turned to Catherine. “I’ll need to see you in a few days. Call the office in the morning and make an appointment.” He turned to Frankie. “Will you be bringing her in?”

  “Yes, Doc, I’ll bring her in.”

  “Good.” He stuck out his hand, and Frankie took it. “It was a pleasure meeting you.”

  She smiled. “You too, Doc. Thanks for all your help with this.”

  “No problem. I owe Jack big-time.”

  Forty minutes later, Frankie helped Catherine into her M3, and thirty minutes after that, she punched in the code to Jack’s garage.

  Frankie knew about Saber and Buddy and didn’t want to take any chances, so she asked Catherine to enter the house first. They were both excited to see her, Saber with his stoic demeanor and a little tail-wagging. Buddy was going rambunctious apeshit, running circles around them and holding his toy out for them to try and take away from him. After a couple of minutes of no takers, he disappeared and ran roughshod through the rest of the house.

  Saber stayed right next to Catherine.

  40

  Vargas slowed the big SUV as they got off the New York State Thruway and paid cash for the toll. “Which way, LoJack?”

  “Right on 9W, left on Pine, left on Route 41.”

  “Whoa. Right on what?”

  “Right on 9W.”

  “Got it.”

  Larry gave him turn-by-turn directions unit they arrived at the entrance to the big property. “You better wake your friend up. We’ll be there soon.”

  Vargas elbowed JA. “Wake up, Sleeping Beauty. Freakin’ showtime.”

  JA stirred and rubbed his eyes, then took out his pistol and made sure it had a live round in the chamber. “We just killing everyone, right?”

  Vargas frowned. “Yeah, I ain’t bringing that silly bitch all the way to New Jersey. We’ll just tell Cosmo that we had no choice.”

  “He’s gonna be pissed.”

  “He’ll be fine. Ain’t like he cared about her or anything.” He looked in the rearview mirror. “Hey, Larry, you got our back on this, right?”

  “Yeah, sure, fellas.”

  Vargas frowned at the old man’s unconvincing comment. “Don’t fuck with us, Larry.”

  “No, no, it’s all good. I’m not going to see anything anyway. You guys just take care of business and let’s get the hell out of here. There should be a driveway on the right side in about two hundred feet. Pull in there, far enough up so no one can see the taillights from the road. Then you two should walk the rest of the way. There’s a house about a half mile up the road. She’s in that house.”

  Vargas slowed down and made a right turn into what looked like an overgrown trail. He crawled about forty feet and saw a chain stretched across the driveway. He stopped and got out, undid the chain and hopped back in. He pulled up another hundred feet, stopped the SUV, and killed the engine.

  They sat there in silence for a minute before Vargas broke the tranquility. “Okay, JA, it’s time to go. We’ll take our time going up the road. Once I get a good look at the house, I’ll decide how we go in.”

  JA nodded. “Got it. Hey, if she’s there by herself, can we have a little fun with her before we do her?”

  Vargas laughed, “You mean do her before you do her?”

  “Yeah, I ain’t never banged the bitch.”

  Larry spoke up from the backseat. “Come on, guys, this isn’t a party. Just get the job done, and let’s go home.”

  Vargas looked at Larry. “Relax, man, we got it.” He smacked JA on the arm. “Come on, bro, let’s do this.”

  They got out of the SUV and walked up the driveway.

  41

  Debbie and I took turns watching the dimmed display of the laptop and using the night vision binoculars to keep a watch out over the overgrown driveway. I knew these guys weren’t that smart, and with Catherine’s implanted GPS device sitting in the house on the kitchen table, I was sure they’d sneak up through the driveway, see a few lanterns lit, and approach the house.

  As soon as I saw them and confirmed them as enemy combatants, I would shoot them. My brand-new Remington 700 was scoped in and ready to go. I could very easily have given Debbie the sniping task, but I hadn’t had my fill of killing these evildoers, so I was chomping at the bit.

  I left the door to the shed ajar so that Debbie could look out with her night vision binoculars. She sat on the floor, Indian-style, and never took her eyes off of the driveway.

  I slid open the only window and kneeled in front of it, my rifle with night vision scope and flash suppressor leaning against the wall, chambered and ready to fire.

  We sat inside the shed in silence most of the night, the boredom and fatigue of long hours enveloping me. I found myself yawning and dozing off on a regular basis, awakened by my falling head hitting my chest, or more often, a cramp in my legs. I’d stand and stretch every once on awhile, but the truth was that I was getting too old for the long hours involved in this kind of stakeout. I silently vowed that from now on, I would never wait for anyone to come to me. I would figure out a way to find them and kill them on my terms.

  I love math, so to entertain myself, I started adding up how many hours I’d been without real sleep and converting that to minutes. I was so fatigued that I had a hard time with the simple calculation, something that a grammar school kid could figure out in ten seconds. That wasn’t good. Fatigue slows the reflexes, and I couldn’t afford to be slow on the draw. I toyed with the idea of taking a power nap, but before I could mention it to Debbie, one of the green sensor lights on the laptop turned yellow.

  My adrenaline spiked and every nerve was alive. No more need for a nap. I sat on edge, my eyes glued to the laptop screen, but nothing changed. Could just be a
false alarm.

  A second light turned yellow. We might have something. The first one turned red, and I knew we had them, or a deer. I rose up on my knees, fully awake from the excitement that a fresh kill shot brought me, and nudged Debbie with my foot.

  “I think they’re here. The infrared beam next to the driveway just went off. Let me know what you see.”

  “Roger.”

  I panned the area with my night vision scope but came up empty.

  “Tallyho,” Debbie whispered. “Two targets. Confirmed armed. Two pistols. One o’clock and closing in on the house.”

  I scoped over to my one o’clock position and found them. They were crouched over and making their way through the overgrown driveway, their attention riveted on the house. I steadied my aim, waited for the right moment, and squeezed the trigger between heartbeats. The big rifle fired a lead slug at over two thousand feet per second and nailed the first guy dead center. He flew backwards, dead before he hit the ground. The bullet must have hit the second guy too, because he screamed like a bitch and went down hard. A twofer!

  Even Debbie was impressed. “Wow, good shot. I think you got both of them.”

  I was busy mentally patting myself on the back when she interrupted. “Strike that, second target’s on the move.”

  “What?”

  “Get in the game, Patrick. He’s on the run. Shoot him before he reaches cover behind the tree line!”

  I brought my rifle up, but by the time I found him and fired, he was gone.

  “Did I get him?”

  “No, I don’t think so. Time for a manhunt. Let’s go.” She whipped open the door and took off after him. I scoped out the tree line, hoping to locate his position, but came up empty. I heard a shot ring out, and Debbie stooped in her tracks and fell to the ground.

  My heart froze when I saw her go down. Was she hit? Did she go down to avoid further fire? I didn’t hear her scream or groan, which was a good sign.

  Unless she got shot right through the heart…

  Oh. Shit.

  42

  Leo sat down in Agent Cefalu’s office and sighed. “What now, sir?”

  “I don’t know what the hell is going on out there, Leo, but we got more bad news. You’re not going to believe this, but all the recent killings were done with lead bullets. Every single one that evidence gathering recovered, and there were a lot of them, was deformed lead. No more use to ballistics then a musket ball from the Revolutionary War.”

  “You think the gangs have discovered how hard it is to trace a lead bullet and now they’re all using them? If that’s the case, we’re going to have a hard time gaining convictions with ballistics to back us up.”

  “I know, but why now?”

  “Of course, we might be giving the gangs too much credit. It could be the work of one person, or a small team.”

  “You’re thinking of Lamburt again, aren’t you?”

  “You have to admit, sir, it’s a possibility. Have you noticed that all of the deceased are men?”

  “Yes, I have. But we can’t get caught up just focusing on him. How’d you make out in Newburgh?”

  “The building landlord was no help. He didn’t know the two dead men. Or at least that’s what he claimed. The method of securing the basement door was ingenious, though. Paracord connected to the inside of the doorknob, looped over a massive pipe in the basement ceiling, and run up the hinged side of the door and knotted. Way too much thinking and effort involved for it to be gang-related.”

  “What about Mariana Gondoza?”

  “Ah, yes, the lady who claimed to have seen the killer. She was stoned when I got there, offered to sleep with me for ten dollars, and when I declined, she moved on to Blake. I don’t know about that guy. If I hadn’t been there, he might have taken her up on her offer.”

  “She offer you anything worthwhile?”

  “Not really. She gave a rough description.” Leo pulled out his iPhone, tapped on the Evernote app, and read the description. “Tall short-haired white guy. Big muscles. Nice bulge in his pants.” He shrugged his shoulders at Cefalu. “Her words, not mine.”

  “That’s it?”

  “Yeah. I thought about returning with a photo of Lamburt, but she’s an addict and I view her statements as completely unreliable.”

  “Did you find any other witnesses?”

  “Negative, sir. Typical high-crime neighborhood with residents unwilling to talk to the FBI or the local police. Nobody saw anything about anything.”

  “I figured that. Okay, keep moving forward with what you have. Dismissed.”

  “Will do, sir.”

  43

  In a panic I dropped my rifle and ran to Debbie’s side. I dove on the ground next to her and grabbed her arm. “Debbie, you okay? Debbie?”

  Gunshots rang out, and I hugged her tight, pulling her in close to me to shield her.

  “Shut up, Patrick, I’m fine,” she whispered. “He’s behind the third tree from the second big rock. Get the scope on him.”

  Crap. “Uhh, I, uh, left it in the shed.”

  She turned and looked at me, and I swear in the pitch black of the night, I saw fire in her eyes. “What?”

  “I thought you were hit.”

  “So you dropped your weapon?”

  “I, uhmm…”

  “Great, he’s got us pinned down now. Unless he’s a bigger Patrick than you, we’re both dead.”

  “Give me your binoculars, I’ll take care of him.” Debbie handed them to me. I panned the area and found him partially hidden behind the tree. “I’ll go get him, you stay here.”

  I belly-crawled in his direction, feeling the skin on my elbows and stomach being scraped raw by the rocky landscape, and cursed my adversary under my breath. He was going to pay for this.

  I stopped every few feet to give my skin a rest and confirm that my target was still hiding behind the tree. Good thing he wasn’t skinny, or I’d have a hard time confirming that he was still cowering in his hiding place. The third time I spotted him, he pushed his hand out from behind the tree and fired a shot in our general direction, without aiming.

  I had to stop myself from laughing out loud. I fought back the urge to make fun of him. He must be an amateur and scared out of his wits. Too bad for him. I continued closing the distance, and when I was in range, I turned on my laser pointer and sent a 9mm slug through his shoulder. He screamed and fell backward.

  I wasn’t sure if he dropped his gun or not, so I approached him with caution. When I could see his face, I gifted him another slug and ended his misery.

  I got up on my knees and looked around with my night vision but didn’t see anyone else. Could there be just two of them? My shoulders sagged in disappointment. All this buildup, all my high hopes, and only two dead bad guys? Well, that freaking sucked. I was about to give up on having any more fun tonight when I heard a car start up. Yes!

  Running with night vision goggles is a tricky affair, and between the uneven terrain and my new rush of adrenaline, I almost fell twice before I reached the car. It was an SUV, and I saw an old man in the driver’s seat. At first I thought I was hallucinating from a lack of sleep. An old man? Really?

  I’m not prejudiced against old people—I hope to be one myself one day—but if there was ever a game for young people, killing was it.

  I walked up to the car and knocked on the window with my pistol. He jumped so high I thought he was going to smash his head on the ceiling and have a heart attack. I pulled open the door and pointed the laser at his chest. “Kill the engine.”

  He did, his teeth chattering in fear. What the hell was this old white dude doing here? With these guys? “You have some explaining to do.” I grabbed his elbow and pulled him out of the SUV. I must have pulled him a little too hard, because before he could get his feet out of the car, he fell over and smashed to the ground with a loud thump. I shook my head at his ineptness and put the gun against his temple. “Name?”

  “Lawrence. Lawrence Kincaid
.”

  I gave him a quick pat-down, and he was clean. “Okay, Mr. Lawrence Kincaid. How many of you are here? Where’s Cosmo?”

  He turned out to be a tougher cookie than he looked, and I couldn’t get anything out of him.

  “Grab your laptop and come with me.”

  I took him up to the house and informed Debbie that all was clear but no sign of Cosmo. She came up to the front porch, looked at Larry, and made a face. “Who the hell is this guy?”

  “I know, right? Anyway, I’m sure he’s got a good story. Let’s bring him inside.”

  I nudged him from behind and led him over to a chair. I cable-tied his hands behind his back, knelt behind him, and put him in a rear naked choke. I held the choke until he passed out, plus another fifteen seconds. I went to my go bag, took out two tabs of ecstasy, and placed them in his mouth.

  He woke up a few seconds later, groggy and shaking his head but none the worse for wear. “What happened?”

  “Sit tight. I’m going to check on your friends.” I looked at Debbie. “If he tries anything, shoot him.”

  She smirked. “Obviously. Duhhh…”

  I went outside and tracked down the first guy. As expected, there was a hole in his chest that you could pass a basketball ball through blindfolded. What a nightmare. I had to rethink my rifle acquisition. The Remington 700 had seemed all romantic when I was reading the specs and reliving Debbie’s escapades with it, but now that I was thinking about the mess I had to clean up, it lost some of its appeal.

  Even with night vision goggles, I couldn’t see such fine detail in the dark, but I was sure that Remington Man’s DNA was scattered all over the place within a fifty-foot radius. I’d have to napalm the place to get rid of it all.

  I’d known the second guy was dead when I saw the impact of my lead slug rock his head to the side, so I didn’t bother confirming his demise. I walked over to my truck and grabbed my disposal bag, which contained rubber gloves, hand sanitizer, paper towels, plastic painters’ drop cloths, garbage bags, and of course the number one tool that no self-respecting killer would leave home without: duct tape.