“I appreciate the vote of confidence, but you’ve got no jurisdiction here. Half the cops and all the crooks in Chicago are looking for me now. If you hang around with me, you’re only gonna get yourself in trouble.”
“Give me a little credit. I’ve been talking to the State Police’s Organized Crime Task Force, and even to the FBI. They’d be moving on this right now, if you come up with some proof or anything to back up your story.”
“Oh, I have plenty of that, and I’ll be turning it over to them as soon as I can go through it and figure out who I can trust and who I can’t.”
“You trust me don’t you?”
Bob studied him for a moment. “I think so, Ernie, despite the fact you’re Chicago PD; but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to go through those files first,” he answered as he turned his head and looked back at the front door of the school. Finally, he saw Linda come out the front door and head his way, running. “But how the hell did you find me here, anyway?”
“You? What did your men call you? The ‘Ghost?’ I didn’t even try; I tracked her,” he said as he pointed through the window at Linda. “A young mother with a six-year-old working for a bunch of scum balls isn’t all that hard to figure out.”
“Yeah, well, let’s hope you’re the only one,” he added as Linda opened the passenger side car door and got halfway into the front seat when she saw Ernie sitting in the back and froze. Her eyes went wide and Bob saw her begin to tremble. “He’s okay, Linda, come on. Where’s Ellie?”
“Tony Scalese has her,” Linda managed to say as she handed Tony Scalese’s crumpled business card to Burke, turned, and fell into the front seat, crying. “That son-of-a-bitch… that son-of-a-bitch,” she kept mumbling, over-and-over. “How could I be this stupid?”
Bob handed it back to Travers. “Don’t worry,” he told her as he put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “I’ll get her back.”
“He won’t hurt her, Linda. He’s not crazy,” Travers added.
“I told you not to antagonize him!” she said as she shoved Burke’s hand away. “I told you! Now look what happened.”
“Do you want me to put out an APB on him?” Travers asked.
Bob sat back in the seat and looked out the window for a moment. “No, not yet. Besides, he probably has more cops on his side than you do. No, let’s see what he wants,” he said as he started the car and drove away, making a U-turn and heading back toward the Interstate.
“Where are we going!” Linda demanded to know.
“To call Scalese. It’s me he wants, not you or Ellie.”
“No! He wants those damned files!” she snapped. “God, I should’ve left that stuff up in the ceiling and stayed the hell out of this. I’m so stupid,” she moaned. “He has Ellie; give them to him!”
“Those files are our only leverage, Linda. Without them…”
“Bob’s right,” Travers told her. “Once he has those papers, he’ll kill you two and Ellie ― hell, he’ll probably kill me too ― and you know it.”
Linda turned away, sobbing. “I should’ve never gotten involved in this.”
“I’ll get her back, Linda. I promise,” Bob told her, and then turned toward Travers, his eyes locking on the big Chicago cop. “They aren’t going to kill anybody, Ernie. I’m going to kill them first — Scalese, Greenway, DiGrigoria, all of them.”
Travers stared at him for a moment. “You really are crazy aren’t you?”
“No, I’m the sanest man you ever met. Give me your cell phone for a minute,” he asked as he held out his hand. Travers shook his head, but he pulled out his old Motorola flip phone and handed it over. Burke opened the top and began punching a series of numbers into the touch pad from memory. After the eighth ring, the other phone went to voice mail and they could all hear the loud recorded message, “Ace Storm Door and Window, Ace speakin’. I’m out. Leave a message.”
“Storm doors? You’ve got to be kidding me,” Linda told him, not at all amused.
“That’s a little Army humor. Don’t worry. The only thing Ace knows about doors or windows is a hundred different ways to break them.” When he heard the beep, he said into the phone, “This is the Ghost. Give me a call at this number. I could use a little help.”
“One of your Army pals?” Travers asked.
“A lot more than that,” Bob Burke answered with a thin smile.
Five minutes later, the cell phone rang. “Sorry I took so long, Major, but I was giving a class and I didn’t recognize the number. What’s up? Things getting a bit crusty in the private sector?”
“You have no idea, Ace. What’s your Twenty?”
“Bragg.”
“What about the other guys?”
“Vinnie’s here with me. Chester’s over at Benning and Lonzo’s back ‘in country.’ ”
“It’s 16:40 your time. Can you guys get up here to Chicago tonight? Say by 21:30?”
“I’ll call them as soon as I get off. Can’t see why not.”
“Great. Spend whatever you need, it’s on my dime; and bring Nancy and any other toys and tactical gear you can get your hands on. My plan is to set up at 22:00, run the Op around 23:00, and have you fly back out in three hours or so, with as little ground time as possible.”
“Yes, Sir! I’ll book a charter flight over at Windimere. They have a G-5 available over there, and we can stop by Benning to pick up Chester.”
“He’s good with C-4 and getting in things, as I recall. Have him bring five or six ounces from the training supply room and some detonators.”
“This is sounding like fun, Sir! Mind telling me what we’ll be up against?”
“A dozen fat Italians who really pissed me off, maybe a dozen more.”
“Hardly seems like a fair fight.”
“I don’t want it to be. Think street punks with handguns. I doubt any of them have any tactical training. But so you understand, I’m not planning on taking any prisoners.”
“That won’t offend anyone’s ‘tender sensibilities’ down here. By the way, there’s a couple of other guys from the old unit stationed here now. You remember Koz and The Batman? They’d never talk to me again if they miss out on a party like this. Mind if I bring them along?”
“As long as they understand it’s a private contract with me, very wet, and they’ll have no official sanction. None.”
“Fighting for ‘truth, justice, and the American way of life,’ again?” Ace laughed.
“You got it. There’s a private airport up here near Mount Prospect that I’ve flown in and out of a couple of times. It should work for what we need. Call me when you have an ETA.”
“Roger that… and we’ll all be proud to kick some ass with you again, Sir.”
Burke rang off and stared at the phone as his smile slowly faded.
“Nancy?” Linda asked. “They’re bringing a woman with them? I could use the company… not that you aren’t good company, but… well, you know what I mean.”
“No apologies necessary, but this ‘Nancy’ isn’t a woman. She’s an M-110 sniper rifle. It’s like hurricanes, we usually name our most lethal weapons after women.”
“Well, with the way the Army’s been going, I suppose it could have been ‘Bruce.’ ”
When Tony Scalese parked his Lexus in the rear lot of the CHC office building. He walked around the car, opened the passenger side door, and held out his hand to Ellie. The little girl looked at this huge man standing next to her, and then up at the building. She was still unsure, but he smiled down at her and she finally put her small hand in his and got out of the car. She barely came up to his waist and they made a very odd-looking pair as they walked up the sidewalk and into the building.
Funny, Tony Scalese thought as he looked down at her. He kind of liked the little kid and liked walking with her like this. When all this shit was over and his other problems with the DiGrigorias solved, maybe it was time to start a family of his own.
Inside, he saw Patsy Evans sitting at the reception de
sk. She turned at the sound of footsteps and smiled when she saw them walking toward her. “Isn’t that Linda’s daughter, Ellie?” she asked, surprised to see them together.
“Has Dr. Greenway gotten back yet?” Scalese asked her.
“No, I haven’t seen him. Hi, Ellie,” Patsy looked down at the little girl and smiled. “Are you visiting us this afternoon?”
“Her mother’s going to be tied up for quite some time talking to the police about this Burke business, and I’m in a bind. You look like you’re good with kids.”
“Well, I don’t know about that, but I have three younger sisters.”
“That’ll do. Look, I’m taking her up to Greenway’s office. It’s nice and comfortable, with that couch and all.” Scalese saw her expression change the instant he mentioned Greenway, his office, and the couch; and knew he had another problem that he needed to solve, permanently.
“Don’t worry about Greenway. When he comes back, he’ll be going right back out. So will I. What I’d like you to do is to go up there and babysit Ellie for me, maybe ’til midnight, maybe longer.”
“That late? Gee, I don’t know if I can do that, Mister Scalese. I’ve got…”
“You’d be doing Linda and me a real big favor, Patsy. I’ll pay you triple time, you can have the rest of the week off, and I’ll throw in a couple extra hundred. How’s that sound?”
“That’s more than generous, but Dr. Greenway’s office?”
“Don’t worry about him. I’ll have three or four of my security guards here all night. I’ll have one of them sit outside his door the whole time. You remember Freddie Fortuno? He’s a nice guy and he’ll look out for you. Okay?” Finally, Patsy smiled and nodded. “Good,” he said as he glanced at his watch. “There’s a big Walmart down the street. Why don’t you run over there and buy some kid stuff — coloring books, maybe a doll, some toys, board games, and some drinks and snacks. Get some books and magazines for yourself, whatever you want. You can even take my car. It’s parked right outside.”
He pulled out his money clip and dropped two one-hundred-dollar bills on her desk. “Here, and you keep the change,” he told her, and then added another one. “Here’s some extra, in case you need to order some pizzas or anything later. I’ll take her up to Greenway’s office until you get back. Call up to Personnel and tell them to send somebody down here to cover the front desk. They don’t do a damn thing up there anyway.”
Ellie looked up at him, and frowned. “My mother says not to use bad words.”
Patsy laughed and Scalese actually felt embarrassed for the first time in a very long time. “Your mother’s right Ellie. My bad.” He looked back at Patsy and said, “Have them forward my calls to Greenway’s office.”
Bob Burke opened Ernie Travers’s cell phone again and dialed another number. Three rings later, a young woman answered, “Consolidated Health Care, how may I help you?” He recognized the voice of Patsy Evans, and put the call on speaker.
“I thought I told you to get out of there and find another job, Patsy?”
“Mr. Burke?” she whispered into the handset. “You know I can’t talk to you.”
“Okay, look, you haven’t seen Tony Scalese and a little girl around there in the last few minutes, have you?”
“I… you’re going to get me in a lot of trouble.”
“It’s a simple question, Patsy. Did you see Tony with a little girl?”
“Yes, yes, a couple of minutes ago. It was Linda’s daughter, Ellie. He asked me if I would babysit this evening. He said Linda was tied up with the police. Is something wrong?”
“No, no, nothing’s wrong, and I’m really glad to hear you will be with Ellie. Stay with her, and don’t let her out of your sight.”
“You’re scaring me again. I’ve only been here two days, and I hate this place already.”
Linda tried to grab the telephone out of Bob’s grasp, but he held her back and covered the mouthpiece. “No,” he told Linda. “If you talk to her, you’ll scare her off. You need her to stay there with Ellie.”
“Oh God,” Linda turned away toward the other corner and began to cry.
“What’s wrong?” Patsy asked.
“Nothing,” Bob answered. “Everything’s fine, you take care of Ellie. And if you would, connect me with Tony Scalese.” She put him on hold and after fifteen long seconds of “elevator music,” he heard the big Italian’s confident voice at the other end of the phone.
“Hey! Is that you, Sport?” the big Italian laughed. “I thought you’d be calling.”
“Picking on little girls now, Tony? Shame on you.”
“Well, you didn’t give me much choice. I want the stuff your girlfriend took from the office. Give it to me, and you can have the kid back.”
“Linda wants to talk to her daughter.”
“What? You don’t think I have her? She’s sitting here on Greenway’s floor decorating one of our Annual Reports with a Magic Marker. But if Linda wants to talk to her, that’s fine. Here, Ellie,” he said as he handed the phone to the little girl. “Say hi, to your mother.”
Bob handed Linda the cell phone and they heard a little girl’s voice through the cell phone’s speaker, “Hi, Mom.”
“Are you okay, honey?” Linda asked between sobs.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m sitting here coloring, like Uncle Tony said. Then Patsy’s coming up and we’re going to play some games,” Ellie said until Scalese took the phone away.
“There, satisfied? She’s a cute kid and like she said, your pal Patsy’s coming up here to take care of her. She’ll be fine, unless you torque me off, Linda,” he told her.
Somehow, Bob managed to pull the cell phone out of Linda’s hand. “Okay, Tony, when and where?”
“How about right here, the CHC building, say 9 o'clock tonight after the hired help has gone.”
“I don’t think so. I’m not going anywhere near that place again.”
“You want the little girl back?”
“You want the files?”
“Look Burke, I ain’t screwing around.”
“Neither am I. If we’re going to do this, it’s going to be a neutral site where everybody gets to walk away. Let’s try the picnic pavilion in the Parker Woods Forest Preserve. It’s east of O’Hare, not far from Indian Hills. You know where that is?”
“A picnic area?” Scalese snorted. “No, but I’ll find it.”
“Good, you guys come in through the North lot and we’ll come in through the South. In the middle of the woods is a big picnic area, with tables and some barbecue grills. We’ll meet there, in the pavilion.”
“The picnic area in Parker Woods?” Scalese stopped and Bob could almost hear him thinking. “Okay, if that’s what you want, smart guy, Parker Woods it is.”
“And let’s make it 11 o’clock. That’ll give us a little more privacy.”
He heard Scalese laugh. “You want ‘privacy?’ You got it,” he said as he hung up.
“11 o’clock? What are you going to do?” Linda turned and asked in near panic.
“I’m going to get your daughter back,” Bob answered her.
“Taking them on like this is stupid,” Travers told him. “You don’t know those guys.”
“Yes I do, but they don’t know me.”
Linda turned to Travers and said, “You can’t let him do this. They’ll kill him.”
“Bob, let me get some help,” the Police Lieutenant said. “I can call in the State Police SWAT team, or even Chicago’s. We can have the whole place locked down.”
“Don’t worry, Ernie. I’ll have all the help I need. And I’ll get her back,” he turned and said to Linda Sylvester. “Trust me, I’ll get her back.”
Tony Scalese sat in Greenway’s third floor office, in Greenway’s desk chair, at Greenway’s desk watching Ellie Sylvester. She was lying on an expensive Oriental carpet in front of Greenway’s leather couch coloring in one of the CHC corporate Annual Reports with a set of magic markers as Lawrence Greenway w
alked in. He looked down at her, up at Scalese, and then back down at the little girl. “Is that Sylvester’s daughter?" he demanded to know. "Are you out of your mind? What do you think you’re doing, bringing her here of all places?”
“What am I doing? Your job. And I thought we agreed you were going out to track down Burke’s wife and see what you can learn about him. What are you doing back here?”
“I did ‘track her down’ as you call it, Anthony. I went to their offices, but she’s gone for the day. She lives up in Winnetka, so I’m going to pay her an impromptu visit in a few minutes. After our earlier escapades in Mount Prospect, I decided I needed a clean shirt. After all, a gentleman should be properly dressed when he calls on a lady, wouldn’t you agree?”
“A gentleman? You? Don’t make me laugh, Doc. You find out what she knows, and I don’t care how you do it.”
“What’s the hurry? Is something going on that you haven’t told me about?”
“I’m meeting Burke tonight at 11:00 p.m. We’re swapping the girl for Purdue’s files.”
“Burke? You’re meeting with him? Then why should I go chasing around…?”
“Because I told you to, Doc. He’s a sneaky son-of-a-bitch and I…”
Ellie looked up at him again and frowned. “My mother said that’s another bad word.”
“I’m sure she did, honey,” Scalese looked down at her with an embarrassed smile again. “You go back to your coloring and Uncle Tony will try not to talk like that anymore. Anyway,” he turned back toward Greenway, “I’m meeting him in one of the Forest Preserve parks, in the picnic area over in Parker Woods.”
“In the woods, at night? You? Surely you jest,” Greenway scoffed at the idea.
“Don’t worry, I won’t be alone. And don’t press your luck, Doc. We really don’t need you anymore. Never did. So do what I told you. Go find Burke’s wife and see what you can find out about him. I hear he was in the Army. Find out what he did and how he thinks,” he said as he glared across at Greenway and watched him wilt under the heat.
Burke's War: Bob Burke Action Thriller 1 (Bob Burke Action Thrillers) Page 29