by Mike Ryan
Haley sat there waiting, and waiting, and waiting some more, getting extremely frustrated at the lack of progress he seemed to be achieving. He sat in his car all day, in full view of the Mendoza house, only leaving for about twenty minutes in order to grab something to eat for lunch. It was now five o’clock. Considering Jones hadn’t heard from him in a while, he called Haley to ask how it was going.
“I take it from your lack of communication that there is nothing to report?”
“You said it,” Haley replied.
“Hmm. Very strange.”
“You’re telling me. I was here all night, been here all day, and I haven’t seen one person come in or out of this house.”
“It could be they know they’re being watched.”
“They still gotta come out sometime, don’t they?”
“Perhaps. Or they’ve got everything they need in order to stay right where they are.”
“Well if that’s the case we’re never gonna find anything unless I go in there.”
“Let’s hold off on that for a while,” Jones said. “What about the back? I assume there’s a back door.”
“Well I’m only one person so I can’t be in two places at once.”
“Let’s also hold off on the sarcasm, shall we?”
“I can try to keep an eye on the back, but that’s gonna be a bit trickier.”
“I figured it would.”
“There’s a small alley between these houses and the ones behind it, enough for a car to drive through, but it’s not meant for idling cars on stakeouts.”
“Yes, I know, most of those alleys are only meant for owners to park their cars.”
“So, the only way I’m getting back there is on foot,” Haley said.
It took a few seconds for Jones to reply, wanting to avoid alleys as much as possible for the foreseeable future. “If you can do it safely. I’d like to not have any of you step foot in another alley anytime soon if we can avoid it. But it’s at your discretion if you feel you can get a view.”
“OK. I’ll give it a shot around back.”
“Just let me know how it goes.”
Haley left his car parked where it was and proceeded to walk down the street and turn the corner, going into the small alleyway that was behind the houses. There were some children playing basketball on the concrete, making Haley stay on the end and not go any further. All he needed to see at the moment was anybody coming and going through the alley. Since there was no space between the houses, there were only two ways in or out back there, and Haley could see the other end of the alley from his position.
He got his phone out and pretended to do stuff on it to try and give himself an inconspicuous appearance. The last thing he needed was somebody seeing a stranger hanging around and calling the cops on him. Not that plunging his face into his phone was much of a cover, but it was all he had at the moment. With his back to a concrete wall, Haley slid down and sat on the ground, still keeping an eye out.
As it turned out, Haley didn’t have any better luck in the alley than he did waiting out front. He sat there for several hours, remaining there glued to the ground well past the time it got dark out. The kids playing basketball went inside a long time ago, leaving Haley back there by himself. Just him and his thoughts. And his thoughts right now were telling him this was a mistake. It just didn’t seem normal.
With the battery on his phone getting low, Haley didn’t want to stay back there too much longer, just in case he needed to call for help for some reason. Assuming that nothing else was going to happen, Haley figured since it was past ten o’clock, that he was going to call it a night. He walked back around to the front, getting in his car. He plugged his phone in to charge, calling Jones at the same time.
“Hey, there’s just nothing happening here,” Haley said, a high level of frustration clearly evident in his voice.
“Still nothing, huh?”
Jones had a slight sound of frustration in his voice as well. Even when he did, he usually tried to hide it, wanting to seem as level-headed as possible. He always felt that when Recker or Haley were frustrated with something, it was his job to calm them down and make sure they continued to think reasonably and clearly. Frustration led to impatience, which led to mistakes, which could lead to injury or death. Jones made sure that didn’t happen, even if he was frustrated himself.
“This is a waste of time,” Haley continued. “I mean, there’s just nothing. What about this girl? She just ditch work and turn invisible with these guys?”
Jones put two fingers over his mouth and his thumb under his chin as he looked at several of his computer screens, examining, and reexamining every piece of information he had at his disposal. Haley was right that it seemed odd that he saw no signs of activity, but everything Jones had was telling him the gang was inside that building.
“I think I gotta get a closer look,” Haley said.
“No,” Jones replied, not willing to chance such a move yet. “We’re not there yet.”
In truth, Jones may have sanctioned that move if the gang they were looking for only had two or three members, but with at least six that they knew of, and possibly more, the odds were simply too great. Especially at the moment, when they didn’t need to rush into a bad situation. They could afford to let it play out.
“Let’s give it another day and see what transpires,” Jones said.
Haley reluctantly agreed and remained in front of the house for another hour or so, wanting to give it a final look before he called it a night. Nothing had changed though. He left for home, ready to get a good night’s sleep. Once he got home, he called Mia to check on Recker’s condition.
“How’s he doing?” Haley asked.
“Good,” Mia answered. “He’ll probably be ready to go back to work in another day or two.”
“Glad to hear it.”
“Wish I was.”
Haley could tell by the tone of her voice that she wasn’t very enthusiastic about Recker returning to the job. He didn’t need Mia to expand further, but he knew that she probably would have preferred Recker to leave for good.
“Everything going OK?” Mia asked. “Hope Mike not being there hasn’t put too much stress on you or anything.”
“No, everything’s fine. Just been on some boring stakeout for the past two days. Nothing happening at all.”
“You sound tired.”
“Yeah, I’m gonna get some sleep soon. If you need anything, let me know.”
“I will. Thank you for being a good friend. And for showing up when you did the other night.”
“You guys are like family to me now. No thanks are necessary.”
Haley did get a good amount of sleep. The most he’d gotten in the past week. Before leaving his apartment to get to the office, he called Jones to see what the plans were for today. He cringed a little when Jones told him to just bypass the office and start stakeout duties on the Mendoza house immediately. Haley just knew it was going to be another one of those long and boring days. Nevertheless, Haley did as he was instructed and parked in front of the house, though he figured he’d change things up by parking on the other side of the street, hoping it would change his luck.
Unfortunately, the day would go by the same as the others. Not one sign of activity in or around the house. Haley spent ten hours sitting in the car, keeping his eyes peeled. He was convinced that nothing was going to happen, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that nobody was even inside. He called Jones once again to convey his feelings on the matter.
“David, I’m all for patience and not rushing into things, but this is getting a little ridiculous.”
“I understand your frustrations,” Jones replied.
“Maybe Kirby and the others I can understand keeping a low profile, but the girl isn’t wanted for anything. There’s no need for her to hunker down in there and not come out for anything. If anything, they would use her for a runner.”
Jones himself let out a sigh. “I would tend to a
gree.”
“It’s getting dark now. I’m thinking it’s time for a look-see.”
Jones rubbed his forehead as he thought about the suggestion, still not thrilled with the idea of letting Haley go in closer without backup. Haley tried to entice him as much as he could.
“I promise I won’t engage or anything.”
“Well just how would you go about that?” Jones asked.
“I dunno. I’ll knock on the door and see if anyone answers.”
“You’ll do what now?”
“Obviously, I won’t be empty handed or anything,” Haley replied. “I’ll just walk up there with a pizza and see what happens.”
“You’re gonna go get a pizza… and then what? Pretend you have the wrong address or something?”
“You got it.”
Jones scratched his head and closed his eyes, thinking that was one of the worst ideas he’s heard.
“You’re going to go buy a pizza?”
“No,” Haley answered. “I got one in the back.”
“You have a pizza in the car?”
“Well not a full pizza. Just the box.”
“Why are you travelling around with just a pizza box?”
“Well, it’s kinda like this… last week I ordered a pizza at home.”
“OK?”
“And I got to thinking that maybe it might come in handy someday. Kind of like Mike does with his police badge. Just something to get things going.”
“You mean you’ve actually been giving this a lot of thought previous to this conversation?”
“Oh yeah,” Haley replied.
“I really don’t even know what to say.”
“I’ve actually been eager to try this out and see how it works.”
“And you don’t think they’ll be alarmed to see you standing outside their door with a pizza?”
“Lots of pizzas are delivered at this time of night. No biggie.”
Jones put his hand on his forehead, resigned to let this play out, even though it was against his better judgment. “God help me for letting you go through with this.”
“Relax, it’ll work. I’m gonna get everything ready. I’ll let you know how it goes.”
Jones sat at his desk and said a prayer, hoping this wouldn’t end in disaster. Haley got out of his car to open the trunk to get the pizza box. He doubled checked his weapon, then put it in his belt, pulling his shirt down over top of it. Pretending like there was an actual hot pizza in there, he carried it like he’d been delivering pizza’s all his life. He went up the concrete steps to the Mendoza row home and opened the screen door. He knocked on the door, listening for any signs of people inside. He still didn’t hear anything though. No low voices trying to be quiet, no scurrying feet trying to see who it was, no nothing. It only served to raise Haley’s suspicions even further.
Haley knocked on the door again, even louder this time. “Hello! Pizza!”
He still didn’t get a reply. Haley’s patience had just about run out now. He took a look around to make sure no neighbors or people walking along the street were staring at him. He put the pizza box on the ground, took out a credit card, and started to work on the lock. Luckily, there wasn’t a deadbolt on the door, not that Haley couldn’t have still gotten it open, it just would have taken a little more time.
As Haley slowly pushed the door open, he removed his gun, not sure if he was walking into a hornet’s nest or not. It was pitch dark, but Haley didn’t want to go for a light yet. He gradually walked through the living room, which led to the dining area and the kitchen. There was no one in sight. Seeing the door for the basement, Haley opened it and flicked on the light. Someone might have known he was coming, but he wasn’t walking down there blind.
There wasn’t much to the basement as it wasn’t finished. It was basically just one big storage area, but there were only a few boxes. Haley went back upstairs and turned on the kitchen light, just so he could see a little better. He wasn’t really concerned with anyone else at that point. He went up the stairs, not seeing or hearing a sign of life within the house. It was almost eerie.
Haley cleared three bedrooms and a bathroom, none of which had any bodies in it, either living or dead. He went back down to the living room and checked the window to make sure nobody was coming. It was a ghost town in there. He then called Jones to let him know he was alive and well along with the fact that he was inside the residence.
“Just wanted to let you know that I’m not dead.”
“Always a reassuring thing,” Jones said.
“Yeah, anyway, I’m inside the house.”
“And?”
“And there’s no one here.”
“What? Are you sure?”
“Uhh, yeah, pretty sure. I just cleared every room, top to bottom. There’s nothing here.”
As they talked, Haley turned on a couple more lights and started looking around. He still wasn’t sure if someone was living there or not, so he tried to move quickly.
“How bizarre,” Jones said.
“That ain’t the half of it,” Haley replied, going into the kitchen area after coming up empty in the living room. “I’m not finding anything so far that anybody is even living here.”
Haley opened up the refrigerator, the freezer, as well as a couple of cabinets. Unless someone was there and living on dust and tap water, it just wasn’t happening. Everything was empty.
“Uhh, David, there is nothing in this kitchen. The fridge is empty, not even a moldy old piece of cheese.”
Jones looked at his computer screens, wondering how he could have gotten everything so wrong. The two men were silent for a minute as Haley went upstairs to check the rooms. There was nothing of value anywhere, except one thing that caught Haley’s eye on a table near a bed. It was a phone.
“I got something,” Haley said, picking the phone up.
“What is it?”
“A phone.” Haley started scrolling through it, but there were no names or contacts in it. He checked the call history and it was blank.
“Anything?”
“No. It’s clean.”
A concerned look came over Jones’ face, worried about what it all meant. Everything that led him to that house was sound, every piece of information was correct. Nobody being there was worrisome. A phone being left behind even more so. Then it came to him. He stared at the screen that had Bradshaw’s phone number on it.
“Chris, do me a favor and call me from that phone that you just found.”
“What?” Haley asked, thinking it a strange request.
“Just call me from that phone. If what happens is what I think will happen, I may have some answers on this mystery.”
“OK.”
Haley did as his boss asked and called Jones from the abandoned phone. Once Jones’ phone started to ring, he immediately looked at the screen in front of him, seeing a red dot blinking. It was the same phone that he was tracking Bradshaw with.
“It’s her phone,” Jones said.
“What sense does that make? I mean, why leave the phone here?” Haley let out a very audible sigh. “I just don’t get it. If this is her phone, why isn’t she here? Or anyone else for that matter. Where’d they go?”
“I believe the answer to that is they weren’t there to begin with.”
“Say what?”
“If I have to make an educated guess right now, I’d say this is all a setup.”
“What? Why? Who?”
“First things first, you need to get out of there as quickly as possible,” Jones said, his voice crackling as he was afraid of what might be lurking nearby.
Hearing the urgency in his voice, Haley hurried down the steps and toward the front door. Just before he got there though, Bradshaw’s phone rang, indicating a text message. Haley got a bad feeling about this and was almost hesitant to check, fearing what it might say. Even feeling the bad vibes, Haley let Jones know something came through, and then read it.
“Silencer!” the message
read. “Took you long enough to get here. I’ve been waiting.”
“Who are you?” Haley replied.
“Not important. What is important is that I now know how you get information. Consider that avenue closed.”
“What are you talking about?”
Haley waited a couple of minutes but there was no reply. He then got back on the phone with Jones to see what the next move was.
“I’ll just come back to the office,” Haley said.
As Haley walked out the front door, Jones started thinking about the messages just sent to Haley.
“Chris, don’t go outside!” Jones warned.”
“I’m already outside.”
“Go back in. Hurry!”
“What? Why?”
“Just do it.”
Haley turned around just as a shot rang out. Haley moved just in the nick of time, though he still got hit. Luckily, it was a glancing blow off his arm in what basically amounted to a scratch. Haley got inside and locked the door, scurrying over to a window and looking out to see where the shot came from.
“What the hell is going on here?”
“This was all a setup,” Jones answered. “This was planned.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Don’t worry about that now. Right now, just worry about getting out of there.”
“I’ll duck out the back way.”
“Be careful. I have a feeling your night may not be done.”
9
Haley flew down the steps to the basement, rushing toward the back door. He wasn’t sure what was going on or who was after him, but those were questions for another time. Right now, he just had to worry about escaping in one piece. He figured if someone was waiting for him out front, there was a good chance someone was waiting in back too. He had to be cautious, but there wasn’t a lot of places to hide in the alleyway. That was both good and bad. Bad that he couldn’t really take cover behind anything, but good that the other guy couldn’t either.