48
It was Friday night and in Miami Number One was watching the six o’clock news. The national news guy was summarizing the exploits of the vigilante group by starting in Seattle down to Los Angeles and didn’t stop until Phoenix with the murder of the senator found in her bed with a knife in her throat. In addition, a number of kills were not of the group, he thought. Copy cats and people were cheering each and every kill. Maybe it was time to go to ground, he thought. Brian Refuta was safely tucked away in Belize and the others were on hold. God he hated to call a meeting as that might expose the group to unnecessary risk. He looked down on the floor next to his chair and saw his bag which contained another group of former law breakers and hesitated to send out mail to keep this going. What to do, he thought as he drifted off for a nap on a warm day with February just around the corner.
The nap didn’t last long as his wife of too many years woke him up to a phone call. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as his wife handed him the portable. He identified himself and listened while a known voice on the other end talked in riddles if anyone was listening and then he hung up. He sat back and thought about what the message was and what it meant. It appeared a Seattle homicide detective had put two and two together and in the first meeting between the detective and the caller resulted in the call for advice. Now Number One thought what this might mean to the whole organization that a cop had some inkling as to what was going on. Was the mission important enough to take him out? Or maybe to take him in would be a better idea. One didn’t like either idea and decided a walk would be in order to clear his mind and deal with a situation before it boiled over.
Two hours later he called Seattle and told the captain to fill the detective in on everything and then ask him what he was going to do with the information.
While Number One was making the call, Eddie Barnes who after almost a month put it all together without anyone knowing what he discovered. When he felt in his old bones he knew most of the players in the game, he went to the captain and dumped it in his lap one morning. The captain listened and smiled when he told Eddie to come back in the afternoon for a meeting.
After the captain made his call to Florida and then a return call back from Number One, he rang up Eddie and told him to come on up for a meeting. Eddie lumbered up the stairs puffing a bit when he reached the third floor. He could have taken the elevator, but thought the exercise might do him good. His wife was always nagging at him and between his doctor and his wife, he best do something soon or he was going to be a statistic before Valentine's day. He wiped off the sweat before he entered the captains office where his secretary barely glanced up at the frumpy looking man. She rang the captain and then told Eddie to go on in.
Eddie looking the captain in the eye saw him look where to sit. His lieutenant, pretty boy sat looking smug and in the know. Eddie thought, well this is it and if I still have a job after this meeting, so much the better. He sat down and the captain let out some air and said, “Well, you seem to have it put together. One question Eddie, and what are you going to do with the information?”
“Well captain, I would like to hear the story and then I will tell you what I think,” as he shuffled in the old iron chair trying to get his bulk in a comfortable position.
“We are a group of high level law enforcement people who have decided that the courts have not dealt with repeat offenders properly. Simply put we put out contracts on what you have seen and read or watched in the media. We stretch from the west coast to the east coast and in-between. Some of what you read are copy cat and so forth. We only concentrate on the ones who have blatantly skirted the justice coming to them. Now, one more thing, we as the group are prepared to go down and it really makes no mind to us. A trial would make a light sentence so then retirement is not so bad knowing we have taken some off the street and put them where they belong. Right or wrong we are doing what we thought was right. I’ll give it to you it is not the written law we swore to uphold, but then law enforcement people risk their lives and when they see their hard work walk away giving them the finger, well the rest is history and like our role in history, probably worth only a blip in a history book somewhere saying some rogue captains went a little crazy taking the law into their own hands. Ok, Eddie now is your turn to speak.”
Eddie sat there and figured as much. What to do now, he thought. He’d thought about it for days now ever since he put it together. It was clever what they were doing, but if he could figure it out so could others who might now agree with what they were doing. He squirmed and sat up best he could and said, “You have nothing to fear from me. I just wanted to hear it from you what you were doing if anything and now it is not my business. Thanks for being forthright with me and hope the run you are on will last until some changes are made in the system. I’m happy you gave me the time captain and now I must return to work,” and Eddie got up and left grunting as he squeezed through the narrow old door.
The captain looked at Pretty Boy and smiled. “Now that was easier than going to a dentist.” Pretty Boy sprang out of his chair and winked at the captain and went back to work.
About an hour later Eddie came back and asked to see the captain for a minute. The secretary turned her nose up at him and called her boss. She hung up and waved him to the door. Eddie walked through and laid a thick file on the captains desk and left. The captain looked at the dog eared files and flipped it open to see the first case and two hours later after reading the cases of over twenty criminals, he smiled and from his desk drawer brought out his hand held computer.
49
As Toni drove west amid a river of tears running down her face, feeling like never before in her life, she saw her computer blinking for mail. She tried to ignore it but like a magnet it drew her no matter how hard she tried to resist. She found a wide spot to pull over as she was on a blue highway rather than the freeway meandering through one small town after another. The wide spot turned out to be a small store with a two pump gas station attached. She decided to fill it up with gas and maybe find some snacks for the road to nowhere.
Walking into the little store the bells above the door jingled and she turned and looked up amazed that there were still places that had the old signal someone came in. It was dark inside and smelled of old moth balls and burnt candles along with a faint order of tobacco. Wandering to the counter no one was around or so she thought. She rang the counter bell and a young lab came trundling out banging his tail against the sides of the counter and other boxes stacked everywhere. Finally an old grey haired Indian lady made her way from the back of the store with her cane knocking the dog out of the way before he tripped her. The sparking grey eyed lady smiled level with Toni and looking at her Toni felt like a dentist looking into a cave as not a tooth in her head was visible.
Toni over her shock said, “I would like some gas and some snacks.”
The weather red skin and with a laugh of sorts granny said, “You have to pump it and snacks are wherever you can find them. It’s too damn cold out here and when you are finished, as this is cash only, leave it on the counter and I’ll say my thanks now and hope you have a good trip,” and she turned beating the dog with her cane making for the back of the store where she probably had her digs.
Toni ran to the pumps and began filling her tank. While it was filling she ran back to the store and cruised each aisle looking for snacks. She was sure most were outdated, but found some fresh chips and a six pack of coke. In a cooler she found some packages of smoked salmon and cheese. She stacked her goods on the counter and ran back in the cold windy plains as snow was spitting now. She noticed how much the gas was and then back into the store with the bells jingly like crazy. Toni could only find a price on the salmon and she had to do some math guessing how much her total was. Toni thought, ah the hell with it and laid two hundred dollar bills under the bell and found a sack behind the counter and left saying good bye to nobody it would seem.
Checking her mail she saw instructions for a
double hit on two bad guys back up in the Seattle area. The instruction was for Robin of LA to make the hits just south of Seattle in the capitol area near Olympia Washington. There were two more that needed eliminating. Joy and Pect would take care of those two it said. Toni had opened the salmon and licked her fingers as she tasted the soft moist smoked salmon. She chewed while she sent out the particulars to the hit teams and shut down her computer. Next she opened up the cheese and a coke and hungry took over her frail body. She just sat there and enjoyed the food and wondered where the hell she was. Washing her hands on some wipes she had next to her, she drove on west as the blowing snow swirled up behind her motor home. Time to get back into the real world, she thought. Maybe someday Peter and I will cross paths again, but no more e-mails to endanger his position she vowed. However he must have personal computer at home with his personal e-mail she thought, as she settled into the grove for an afternoon run west.
* * *
After Peter fed the ducks and was on his way home to have dinner with Sandy, it hit him like a teacher with a book over the head of a sleeping student. A convention is where they met. But who are they and what convention of what rank. Too many questions, but it was a start. He took a taxi back to his house as he’d left his car at home when he and Toni left on vacation. What Peter didn’t know was that he was being followed by his own organization. Also what he didn’t know was that the FBI hacked into his personal computer at home.
A quick shower and as it was turning grey and dark outside he flipped on the lights and turned on his computer. An e-mail from his mother saying how much they enjoyed his stay and hope all was well and countless e –mails from Sandy and that was it. Peter started his search tying into the main frame at work when it hit him that they were probably monitoring him right now. He signed off and sat back waiting for an idea to come upon him. How in the hell am I going to do search if I can’t use my computer, he thought. Just then the door bell rang and he knew it was Sandy. Was he ready for this, he wondered. Well let’s see what happens as he walked to the door to let her in.
Sandy looked and smelled ravishing as she brushed a kiss on his cheek swirling into the apartment like the old Diana Shore show of years gone by he’d seen with his mother. She tossed her heavy coat on the chair and gave him a big ole hug and buried her tongue in his mouth. She tasted like toothpaste and he wondered if she brushed her teeth in the elevator. He tried his best to reciprocate, but she probably knew it was half hearted.
She said, “Peter it is good you’re back early as I would have died without seeing you for the weeks of vacation you had planned.”
“I was called back on business as this vigilante thing is getting out of hand. I have tons of work to do and starting tomorrow I must burn the candle at both ends.” Sandy looked at him and wondered why he would tell her with that look on his face. She always knew he was busy at work, so why now blurting it out when they had dinner planned at a nice restaurant she had made reservations for. What work had to do with anything, she wondered again.
She tossed her hair back and asked for a glass of wine if he had any. He told her he had one on ice and was lucky he had one in the refer for just such occasions. After pouring a glass of red wine, he sat beside her lost in thought and mumbled a few answers back at her mostly rhetorical questions trying to stay in the conversation.
Sandy dragged him off the sofa and out the door to a taxi. Their dinner was anything but romantic and so was the food: bland and tasteless. He yearned for Toni and his plan now was to find a way to salvage his career and maybe salvage a beginning relationship with Toni.
After dinner he begged off a night of frolicking with Sandy and went home alone. He thought a good night’s sleep was what he needed and in the middle of the night bolted upright in bed with a light that had gone off in his brain. Sherlock was back with him saying, “Watson, the game is afoot……” Peter smiled and laid his head back snuggling his pillow.
The next morning Peter was whistling in the shower and once dressed he was out the door to his office. On the way to work he noticed a car following him a long distance back. He decided to see if it really was following him as he turned down a side street and headed for a fast food place he knew about. The guy who was following him was good and only once did he glimpse the lights as made a series of turns and into the fast food place he went through the drive up window. There were two ways to go to his office from here and both about equal in distance. Pete chose the same way he came as after getting a couple of egg Mac Muffins he drove back the way he came. Peter pulled out a muffin and pretended he was eating it when he passed the car he thought was following him. He looked at the license plate and memorized the number and drove on like a regular commuter. No sign of the car and he almost let it go, but thought he would run it through the computer to see what the license number revealed.
In his office now he checked his messages and did his usual job: checking for weird things on the many reports that were flagged if some attention might be needed. He saw nothing after an hour that gave off a sign the vigilantes were still working. Now it was time for the license plate number and his heart was in his throat as he entered it into the system. Bingo, a government car. Why the hell they followed me, he thought. Now he knew they didn’t believe him and unless he pulled a trick out of his hat, his career was over.
Losing his job was something that just couldn’t happen. What does a fired special agent do who is only in his early thirties? Maybe deputy sheriff’s job in Montana? Not such a bad idea, he thought while he started digging into the police conventions within the last year. He knew the jerk in the computer room would know what he was searching for, but to hell with him, he thought. An hour later he couldn’t believe how many police conventions there were scattered across the country. Most were either in Atlantic City, Vegas or New Orleans. Peter began with Atlantic City for last year and went through the list until it popped up like a jack-in-the-box after its time to show itself.
Back last year in June a captains conventions brought all the major captains to Atlantic City for a convention. Could this be where it started, he thought? Something this big would have to have high ranking people to pull off such an operation. He printed out the list of names of attendees and where they were from. Next he checked out police commissioners and saw they had had a convention in Vegas very early last year. Once more he made a copy and then he went to checking out FBI conventions and homicide detectives who regularly met in gambling cities to relieve their stress. He made print out of these too and spent the rest of the afternoon from top to bottom looking for ties where commissioners, captains were from and the resulting murders.
Using the computer and maps with overlays he put each murder and police captain on the maps. Some matched and some didn’t. Now Peter thought he was chasing a red herring and gave up for some lunch in the cafeteria. He left his desk and took the elevator down to the cafeteria. He needed the time to think and noticed at the half level of the cafeteria with the outside, like a half basement, it was snowing hard. After lunch he wanted to go for a walk and think about what he was doing so he went back to his office for his overcoat. Walking back he saw someone at his desk and one glance from someone he didn’t recognize disappeared like a ghost. Peter hurried to his desk and saw his computer open and papers not so much moved, but definitely moved. He shut down his computer and grabbed his over coat and left.
After lunch he thought he really needed someone to talk about this situation. Right now, he thought, I’m a very lonely guy in a very lonely position. He’d never thought about it but this morning in the office no one joked about any Sherlock innuendos or I thought you were on vacation. Come to think about it he never even got a good morning from anyone. The word was out and he was the leper in the middle of the market on a busy morning. Peter policed his desk, put on his overcoat and left out the back door where the security guard gave him the once over. Don’t feel paranoid, he said and without the proper shoes on had a hard time walking i
n the building up snow on the sidewalk.
Technically he was still on vacation and half decided to push on with the vacation. Peter returned to his office and found all was as it were when he came back for his coat. Peter finished up and by six he left with a brief case full of papers to study at home. By now with being followed to work, someone going through his morning’s work, the computer guy digging out all of his past work, he felt lower than a snakes belly as he entered his apartment. Pete flopped down on his sofa and stared at his computer and phone wished on the one hand an e-mail from Toni and on the other hand the phone to ring from her. He guessed correctly his phone was tapped and he felt totally surrounded much like Custer must have felt not so far from his home in Iowa.
Not knowing clearly why, Peter went to his computer and booked a flight to Miami. There was a late flight, if the snow permitted, at ten pm. He thought, just as well sit in an airport as here, as he went to pack a bag. He never once gave a thought to call Sandy and tell her he was going to walk the beaches of Miami for a few days.
50
Robin Eggar decided to take his pickup with his bike in the back to Olympia, Washington. On the other hand, Joy and Pect took the train and Joy was starting to like this means of travel.
Justifiable Homicide Page 14