Beyond Blue

by Austin S. Camacho

  Bullshit, Ruby thought.

  “I know Rafael will be much more valuable to us if you are alive,” de La Fuente continued.

  Yeah, if you haven’t already murdered him, Ruby thought.

  “And you may not be a real threat to us,” de La Fuente went on. “Just tell me who you’ve spoken to since you left the house. Once we have that information we can perform some damage control, and you won’t have to die.” de La Fuente offered a warm smile, his gold tooth glinting in the darkness.

  He must really think I’m an idiot, Ruby thought. However, his smile reminded her of one thing she wanted to be sure to do, even if she was to die in the park.

  “Okay, I’ll play,” she said, putting her hands on her hips. “Fact is I didn’t get a chance to call anybody. I got somebody to lend me their phone but before I could get my mom to answer her phone, one of your goons showed up. He killed the old man, by the way.”

  “Yes, and you killed him,” de La Fuente said. “That will call for some punishment.”

  “I thought you just said I could live,” Ruby said. While she talked she eased the stolen handcuffs out of her waistband and locked them closed.

  “Well, yes, but each of my men felt a strong attachment to their friend back there. So, they will each have their way with you.”

  Ruby slipped the fingers of her right hand through the circle of both handcuffs and clenched her fist. As she did so, she took a half step back, turning just enough to hide her right hand from de La Fuente.

  “Have their way?” she asked. “You mean like rape?”

  “Something like that,” de La Fuente said.

  Ruby raised her left hand toward him, pointing as rain dripped from her finger. “I don’t know what you been smoking, ugly, but that ain’t happening. I am cold, I’m tired, I’m hungry and I broke two nails out here. You do not want to fuck with me.”

  de La Fuente threw back his head and laughed, and that was just about the end for Ruby. But just as she was about to make her move she saw an unexpected movement at the corner of her right eye. The biggest hand she had ever seen reached out of the darkness behind one of the gunmen. The hand covered most of the man’s face as it yanked him back into the blackness.

  She knew the others would turn to see what happened to their friend, so she took her shot. With a loud scream she dived forward toward de La Fuente. She put all her anger, all her frustration into one fierce punch. Her right fist, encircled by the handcuffs, crashed into de La Fuente’s mouth with a sickening crunch. He hit the ground and so did Ruby, feeling for her dropped gun, but soon realizing it wasn’t necessary. She saw Gunny pick up one of the terrorists and fling him into another. A guy dressed all in black stepped into the clearing, raised a pistol and shot one of the gunmen three times. The fifth terrorist shook with the impact of two shots from what sounded like a forty-five, fired by an unseen shooter.

  As the sound of gunfire faded, Paul Gorman stepped out into the open. He was wearing a wool coat that must have weighed fifty pounds with the amount of water it must have absorbed in the rain. He reached down to offer Ruby a hand. She accepted his help in standing up.

  “Doesn’t anybody have sense enough to wear rain gear anymore?” Ruby asked.

  “It’s only water, Ms. Sanchez. And may I say that, all things considered, you look like shit. Is this the head rat?”

  “Yeah, that’s him,” Ruby said, watching de La Fuente slowly lurch to his knees. “Did you get the rest? They was multiplying like roaches there for a while.”

  “Hang on a second,” Gorman said, pulling his phone out of his pocket. He hit a speed dial button and stood silent until there was an answer. When it connected he said, “Captain Warner? Was it what I told you? Yes. Terrorists of the Shining Path. Yes, that should be quite the collar for you and your team. What? Oh, okay, Vic it is. And I have your man Lucania here with me. Fine, fine. Oh, do you have the homeowner? Rafael Sandoval. Yes. Hale and hearty and eager to testify about these killers who took over his house. Glad to hear that. Okay, got to mop up here. We’ll iron out the details tomorrow.”

  When Gorman hung up, Ruby nodded her thanks, and then turned to de La Fuente. “Is this guy a catch?”

  “I think so,” Gorman said, walking over to him. de La Fuente stared up at Gorman with a mouthful of blood.

  “Cute,” Gorman said, shaking water out of his hair. “I see Ruby knocked your front teeth out.”

  de La Fuente tried to deliver a menacing grimace without them. “Do you know who I am?”

  “I know enough,” Gorman said. “You head up a cell of the Shining Path that planned to spread your terror on American soil to get our attention.”

  “You know of the Shining Path?”

  “Enough to want to spit in your eye,” Gorman said.

  “Then why don’t you have a gun to my head? de La Fuente asked.

  Gorman shrugged. “Well, because this isn’t Peru. I thought you might be willing to come along quietly. Figured maybe you’d give yourself up and give us information about your organization in exchange for your life. I know it’s against your code and all, but this is America after all, and I just thought I’d test the waters, you know?”

  de La Fuente looked around at the man in black and the two big fighters at the edge of the circle, all with their hands in their pockets. Ruby stood behind Gorman, unsure of what was going through de La Fuente’s mind. Was there a chance he’d do the rational thing?

  “You are American police?” de La Fuente asked. “The famous boys in blue?”

  “Didn’t want to risk their lives,” Gorman said. “We go somewhat beyond the blue. But we hold to the same principles.”

  de La Fuente nodded and spit a wad of blood onto the grass. “And that is why you will lose.” His right hand moved like a cobra, snatching Ruby’s discarded pistol from the ground before anyone could move. Ruby was about to throw Gorman to the ground when there was a loud blast and the back of de La Fuente’s head flew off. Surprise contorted his face just before he fell over.

  “Thanks, Gus,” Gorman called into the darkness.

  “Testing the water,” Ruby repeated with a grin.

  “Well,” Gorman said pulling off his coat, “You should never test the depth of the water with both feet.”

  “Cute,” Ruby said, not moving as Gorman wrapped his coat over her. Now his sweater would be soaked as well, but the coat’s lining was surprisingly dry and warm. “Listen boss, I appreciate this, but I need a shower and a burger real bad.”

  “We will take care of that, Ms. Sanchez,” Gorman said, “but you can’t knock off yet. You have a report to make.”

  Epilogue

  Gorman sat behind the reception desk with a beer bottle in his hand. Someone had dragged half a dozen chairs out of the conference room, but no one was seated. Everyone there - Ruby, Gunny, Steele, Stone, and their guest, Linda Perry - was milling around as if it was a party. In fact, considering the ice chest full of beer bottles at the far end of the reception area and the finger food, chips and dip arrayed across the reception desk, that was what pretty much what it was.

  Gorman clinked his bottle with a pen to get everyone’s attention. “All right, settle down troops. Ms. Chiba, what’s the status on the Brooks situation?”

  “Well, G, you’ll be pleased to know that Alex Brooks decided not to kill his conniving wife after all.” That brought a round of laughter. “He is proceeding with the divorce, though. With the evidence I gave him he’s almost guaranteed to get custody of his daughter, and his wife Francine should get nothing but the shaft.”

  “That’s all she deserves, from what you told me,” Ruby said, pulling a chair behind the reception desk to sit beside Gorman.

  “And, Alex’s stock is through the roof at the station house,” Chastity continued. “He’ll get a lot of credit for the major bust he accomplished tonight, and the investigation that, as far as they know, he’s been pursuing on his own time. My thanks to Messrs. Steele and Mason for giving him credit fo
r all their work.” She bowed deep, holding her beer at arms’ length so as not to spill it. Linda looked at Steele and Stone with a newfound respect.

  “Not a problem, Chastity,” Stone said. “He picked up his cues right on time, that one. He’s a good cop. That lawyer Jerome was already singing when we left. He won’t be grilling any more officers in any courtroom. And with what he gave up, a healthy handful of the city’s crooked businessmen will be in court without him.”

  “More important,” Steele added, “is that a lot of good cops will be vindicated.” He tipped his bottle to the ceiling and drained it.

  “Yeah,” Stone said. “And a few bad cops will be having some long, private talks with their superiors. But that’s what happens to bad cops.”

  “Yeah, and sometimes to good cops,” Gunny said from the end of the desk. He was stacking rolled up cold cuts on a plate full of crackers.

  “Oh, yeah,” Ruby said. “And you saved a really good one tonight, buddy.”

  Gunny chewed and swallowed a three layer stack of crackers, meat and cheese, then said, “This guy Lorenzo Lucania. He’s really a good man and a great cop, but he was undercover for so long he was on the verge of forgetting who he really was. That would have been really bad, because he’d have made a real good gangster. But we got him turned around and Gorman handed his boss such a good bust, stopping an international terrorist plot, that his boss was willing to overlook Lucania disobeying orders and brought him in from the cold.”

  “Yep, but not before that big old Eye-talian brought his boys out to save my pretty little ass,” Ruby said.

  Gunny leaned against the counter on the other side of Gorman from Ruby and lowered his voice. “Hey, boss, should we be discussing this kind of detail about cases in front of Steele’s date?”

  “Date?” Linda’s head spun around like tracking radar and homed in on Gunny’s face. “Don’t you go trying to pair me up with this lunatic. I mean, he’s a good guy and all, but…”

  “Damn, is the girl part bat?” Ruby said. “You in some shit now, Gunny.”

  Ignoring Gunny’s blush, Gorman stood up and went to pick up his coat. Then he turned toward Linda, who, her protest aside, was standing beside Steele.

  “Actually, Gunny, I don’t think it will be an issue,” he said. “She’s here because I wanted to see how she fit in with the group anyway. And I’d say she can hold her own even in this rough crowd.”

  “Well she’s sure got the heart,” Stone said. “And the brains, unlike my partner.”

  “Hey, screw you.” Steele said.

  “Snappy comeback,” Gorman said. “But the point is, I was thinking that Gunny needs some help running this office, since he apparently wants to do some field work. So I figured I’d offer Linda the job.”

  Startled, Linda stared up into Gorman’s eyes. “You mean that? Wow. I’m flattered. I wouldn’t mind working with these guys. In fact, now that I know something about what you all do, well, I’m honored.”

  “Yeah, well you might not be honored when you see the pay,” Ruby said. “But I guarantee you’ll never get bored working for this old fool.”

  Gorman gave Ruby a look, and then eased toward the door. “Well I’ll leave you kids to get better acquainted with our newest addition.”

  “Where you headed, G?” Chastity asked, standing.

  “Well, I know the next thing is Steele or Ruby is going to start playing that damned dance music I hate. But more importantly, I have a very impatient wife to get back to before she forgets what she needs a husband for.”

  Paul Gorman stepped into the dim hallway but instead of walking to the elevator he moved down the hall past one suite of offices and reached for the doorknob at the next one. The door swung in and he stepped into a darkened office, closing the door as soon as he was through.

  Across the room a single lamp burned on a large desk. The man at the desk had swarthy skin and deep-set eyes. Gorman tossed his coat on a chair in front of the desk, but chose to stand.

  “You heard?”

  “Yes,” the man said. “Thank you for leaving our special intercom open.”

  “I thought it more effective than just reporting to you, Mr. Hassan. Do you understand what my people have been up to the last few days?”

  “Yes, and I am impressed,” Hassan said, lighting a cigarette. Gorman identified it as Turkish by its scent. “But I’m not sure I understand about the Sanchez girl.”

  “Ruby was undercover too, like the cop Lucania,” Gorman said. “She thought she was tracking a drug smuggler, but in fact ended up dealing with a terrorist cell planning a biological warfare attack here in the U.S. Somehow, she got lucky and escaped them. Also put a couple of them out of business.”

  “She is quite the girl.”

  “They all are, Mr. Hassan,” Gorman said. “So how long do you intend to fund this project? You’ve certainly long since repaid any debt you imagine you have to the police.”

  “I can never repay that debt,” Hassan said with unexpected energy. “I can never do enough for those who saved my son’s life. And besides, look at the wonderful side effects you have achieved by just helping policemen in trouble. A crooked lawyer swept off the street. A terrorist threat crushed.”

  Gorman looked down, his lips curling in a half-smile. “You approve of all the cases we’ve chosen? Even the ones without world changing impact?”

  “Anything that helps a policeman is a good thing,” Hassan said, dragging a lungful of smoke into his body and letting it flow out. “I am sometimes surprised, but never disappointed. Like this case with the young one. Alex Brooks, is it?”

  “Yeah,” Gorman said, running a hand through his hair. “We couldn’t let him go down. I mean, we’d have helped him no matter what since he’s a cop, but as it happens, he’s one of the special ones.”

  Gorman heard Hassan wheeze and stifle a cough. “You track them all, don’t you?”

  “Yes sir,” Gorman said, nodding. “I keep a special watch over every cop like Alex Brooks, who was there that day. He might not have crumbled like he did if he wasn’t dealing with the post-traumatic stress of being so near ground zero on September 11. He lost some good friends that day, one of whom went down saving your boy’s life. So he’s not just a patrolman to me. He’s the reason there is a Beyond Blue.”

  “And the reason there will always be,” Hassan said.

  Author’s Bio

  Austin S. Camacho is the author of the Hannibal Jones Mystery Series and the Stark and O’Brien adventure series. His short stories have been featured in four anthologies from Wolfmont Press, including Dying in a Winter Wonderland – an Independent Mystery Booksellers Association Top Ten Bestseller for 2008 - and he is featured in the Edgar nominated African American Mystery Writers: A Historical and Thematic Study by Frankie Y. Bailey.

  He is also a communications specialist for the Department of Defense. America’s military people know him because for more than a decade his radio and television news reports were transmitted to them daily on the American Forces Network.

  Camacho was born in New York City but grew up in Saratoga Springs, New York. He majored in psychology at Union College in Schenectady, New York. After three years, he enlisted in the Army as a weapons repairman but soon moved on to being a broadcast journalist.

  During his years as a soldier, Camacho lived in Missouri, California, Maryland, Georgia and Belgium. He also spent a couple of intense weeks in Israel during Desert Storm, covering the action with the Patriot missile crews and capturing scud showers on video tape. In his spare time, he began writing adventure and mystery stories set in some of the exotic places he’d visited.

  After leaving the Army he continued to write military news for the Defense Department as a civilian. Today he handles media relations for DoD and writes articles for military newspapers and magazines. Camacho is a past president of the Maryland Writers Association, past Vice President of the Virginia Writers Club, and is an active member of Mystery Writers of America, Inte
rnational Thriller Writers and Sisters in Crime.

  The Camacho family has settled in Upper Marlboro, MD with Princess the Wonder Cat and their dog, The Mighty Mocha.

  Also by Austin S. Camacho - The Hannibal Jones Mysteries

  The Troubleshooter

  A Washington attorney buys an apartment building in the heart of the city, but then finds it occupied by drug dealers. No one seems willing or able to take on this challenge until the lawyer meets Hannibal Jones. He calls himself a troubleshooter, but he finds more trouble than he expected facing a local crime boss and his mob-connected father.

  Blood and Bone

  An eighteen-year-old boy lies dying of leukemia. Kyle’s only hope is a bone marrow transplant, but no one in his family can supply it. His last chance lies in finding his father, who disappeared before Kyle was born. His family turns to a troubleshooter named Hannibal Jones. His search for the missing man leads Hannibal down a twisting path of deception, conspiracy, greed and murder.

  Collateral Damage

  Bea Collins is certain her fiancé wouldn’t just leave without telling her. Troubleshooter Hannibal Jones is skeptical until the missing fiancée turns up dazed, confused and holding a knife over a dead body. To find the real killer Hannibal travels to Germany, Vegas and through Dean’s past, which includes the murder of Dean’s father.

  Damaged Goods

  The death of Anita Cooper’s father crushed her dreams. Then a hard man named Rod Mantooth stole her innocence and her father’s legacy. Hope was lost until she encountered Hannibal Jones. Hannibal follows a trail of corrupted human debris leading to Rod Mantooth and a final showdown in the icy waters of the Atlantic.

  Russian Roulette

  Hannibal Jones is forced to take a case for a Russian assassin. He must investigate Gana, who has stolen Viktoriya, the woman his new client loves. Evidence connects Gana to the apparent suicide of Viktoriya’s father. Then more deaths follow, closing in on Viktoriya. To save the Russian beauty, Hannibal must unravel a complex tangle of clues and survive a dramatic shootout side-by-side with his murderous client.