by Mike Ryan
“Damn Nowak.”
“They tell you what you gotta do when you leave here?” Haley asked. “Rehab or anything?”
“I dunno, man, they said some stuff, but like I said, I wasn’t really paying attention to all that. They talked to my mom about everything, so she knows what’s going on. I’m sure I gotta take some time off to heal up and everything. However long that’ll take.”
“Well, you just make sure you don’t rush back and hurt yourself even more,” Recker said, tapping Tyrell on the leg.
“You want one of us to stay around for a while?” Haley asked. “Just in case they decided to make a return trip?”
“Nah, I ain’t worried about all that. I think I’m good.”
“All right, well, we’re gonna go and get started on what we need to do,” Recker said. “You need anything else before we get out of your hair?”
“No, like I said, I’m good. Just get these dudes before all this becomes a habit.”
“You got it.”
Recker, Haley, and Jones left the room and went down to the cafeteria to have a few words with Tyrell’s mother and brother. They wanted to make sure Tyrell wasn’t making things seem better than they really were. One they were satisfied that everything really was under control there, they left the hospital. As they stood in the parking lot close to their car, they debated their next steps.
“Where to?” Haley asked.
“I figure we got two steps right now,” Recker replied. “One is Vincent. The other is Jerome.”
“Split up? You take Vincent and I’ll take Jerome?”
“Let’s take Jerome together. Just in case he has more shenanigans up his sleeve.”
13
Recker and Haley had been watching Jerome’s place for about an hour. They didn’t know for sure whether he was inside, but judging from the lack of lights on, they assumed not. But they were just going to wait there until he did show up.
“What if this guy’s not coming?” Haley said. “What if he took a powder? I mean, if he knows everything that went down, he’d have to be pretty dumb to stick around, wouldn’t he? He’d have to know somebody would come looking for him.”
“You’re assuming he’s smart, for one. And two, you’re assuming that whoever told him to set this up actually told him what their plans were.”
“Yeah, I guess maybe they wouldn’t have told him everything.”
“It’s not likely,” Recker said. “They used him for what they wanted him for. They’re not gonna tell him everything else. It’s just another loose end they’d have to take care of.”
“Which they just as easily could do.”
“I dunno. I’m thinking not.”
“Why?” Haley asked.
“I guess I’m just trying to think like Nowak would. If you’re trying to assert control over the city, you need guys on the street, like Tyrell and Jerome, who can get and pass off information to you. Taking them out after they’ve helped you doesn’t really seem like a good strategy to me.”
“Yeah, you could be right about that.”
“We’ll wait a few more hours and see.”
They wound up sitting across the street from Jerome’s row home until about ten o’clock. Recker saw someone walking up the street in their direction who looked like they fit Jerome’s description. Since it was dark out, they couldn’t yet see the man’s face, but he was short, thin, and had a distinctive walk, almost kind of a swagger, just as Tyrell described him. Recker and Haley jumped out of their car to approach the man. Recker immediately crossed the street to wait by Jerome’s house, while Haley started walking down the street in the opposite direction, just in case the man decided to run or do an about-face, Haley would be there to corral him.
As Jerome walked toward his house, he saw the outline of Recker’s presence, standing there by the front gate of his neighbor’s home. He continued walking toward it, but the hair on the back of his neck started standing up, getting a bad vibe about the situation. Once he finally got to the corner of the block, just before his house, his nerves got the better of him, and he decided to turn around. He turned and saw Haley coming up behind him, not even a block away. Jerome turned his head back around again, and saw Recker moving from his position, walking toward him.
Jerome knew his fears were real at this point and turned the corner, hoping to avoid whoever was waiting for him. Though he wanted to run, an old leg injury prevented him from really running full speed, so he had to settle for a quick walk. Recker and Haley turned the corner also, but weren’t running full speed either, wanting to see where Jerome was going. After a few minutes, Jerome was already out of breath, and stopped at the back of a nearby supermarket. He turned around, knowing he wasn’t going to outrun these guys, ready to accept whatever fate was coming his way. As the two men approached him, Jerome put his hands out, ready to beg for his life. Recker and Haley cornered him, standing a few feet apart from each other.
“Listen, man, whatever you guys want, you can have it.” Jerome started putting his hands in his pockets to rummage for whatever money he had in there. He was quickly stopped.
“You put your hands in your pockets again and I’m gonna assume you’re reaching for a gun,” Recker said. “And then we won’t have anything left to talk about.”
Jerome took his hands out of his pockets and made sure he kept them in plain sight. “What do you guys want?”
“Information. That’s the game you’re in, isn’t it?”
“I dunno, man, I just do what I gotta do to survive.”
“What about Tyrell? What about his survival?”
“Tyrell? What are you talking about?”
“Tyrell’s in a hospital right now fighting for his life because of what you did to him.”
“What I did to him? What’d I do? I didn’t do nothing. What’s he in the hospital for?”
Recker and Haley looked at each other, not sure if they bought the innocent routine yet.
“You told him something was going down at a jewelry store a few days ago, didn’t you?” Haley asked.
“Yeah, but that didn’t have nothing to do with him.”
“Who’d it have to do with then?” Recker asked.
“Listen, these dudes came up to me a few weeks ago and asked if I wanted to make a little extra money.”
“Which of course you did.”
“Sure, man, who doesn’t need a little extra bread.”
“And what’d you have to do for it?”
“All I had to do was keep calling everyone I knew for a few weeks, letting them know something was going down at this jewelry store that they told me about. They would tell me when to stop.”
“And when was that?”
“About two days ago.”
“What about Nowak?”
“Who’s that?”
“Tyrell mentioned something about Nowak,” Recker said. “I assume you mentioned it to him.”
“Oh, yeah, but I didn’t know what it meant. When I first talked to them, one of the guys said something about Nowak, but then the other guy slapped him on the arm like he wasn’t supposed to say it or something. I didn’t really know what it was supposed to mean.”
“These guys, you know who they were?” Haley asked.
“Nah, never seen them before. They put a stack of money down on the table. That did most of the talking as far as I was concerned.”
“You must’ve gotten a name,” Recker said. “Somebody to contact or call?”
“Just the one guy, man. His name was uhh...Jackson. Yeah, that was it. Jackson.”
Recker and Haley immediately looked at each other, both of them recognizing the name as one of Nowak’s men. They continued questioning Jerome for a little while longer, but the more they did, the more they realized that he had no idea what was going on. He was just doing what he was told to do and didn’t have a clue what was happening beyond that.
“You said Tyrell’s fighting for his life?” Jerome asked, seeming concerned
for his condition.
“He’s gonna make it,” Recker said.
“Tyrell’s always been good to me. I sure hate to think something happened to him because of me.”
“Well, maybe you can make it up to him somehow.”
“What could I do?”
“I don’t know. That would be up to the two of you to decide. If you want some advice, though, I’d make sure I’d talk to him before he gets out of the hospital.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because he can’t move too well right now,” Recker said. “And if you wait until he gets up and around and moving, and out of the hospital, you may hope that he doesn’t find you. At least now you can explain yourself and be assured he won’t hit you.”
“Yeah, you might be right about that.”
“Either that or leave town in the next couple days.”
After talking for close to twenty minutes, and convinced Jerome knew nothing more than he was telling them, Recker and Haley finally let the man leave. They stood in the same spot as they watched him walk away and out of sight. They then called Jones as they walked back to their car.
“How did your conversation go?” Jones asked. “Is he still alive?”
“Yes, he’s still alive and breathing,” Recker replied. “We didn’t even put a hand on him.”
“Well, that’s encouraging. Did you get everything you needed to get out of him?”
“Yeah, he doesn’t know much. They pretty much just used him as a stooge. Did and said what they wanted him to for a bag of cash.”
“Do we know who?”
“Said a man named Jackson.”
“Nowak’s man,” Jones said, also recognizing the name.
“I think it’s pretty safe to say at this point that we were right on target with everything.”
“Yes, I would think that’s an accurate statement to make at this point. What are you going to do from there?”
“I guess I’m gonna talk to Vincent and let him know we’re in the game,” Recker said.
Once back in the car, and Recker’s conversation with Jones was over, he dialed Vincent’s number. Whenever Recker called, it didn’t take Vincent long to answer. He was always right on top of it.
“Mike? What do I owe the pleasure of this phone call? Especially at this hour of the evening?”
“Figured we should talk about things,” Recker replied.
“Such as?”
“Things I know you don’t like discussing over the phone.”
“That doesn’t really narrow it down too much.”
“I’m fine talking about it over the phone if you want, but it involves a certain adversary of yours that’s been giving you headaches recently, if that helps to explain things any.”
“It does,” Vincent said. “You have information that could be useful?”
“I have an offer that could be useful. And some other information too.”
“Very well. Sounds like something worth chewing on. Nine o’clock tomorrow? Same place as usual?”
“I’ll be there.”
“Excellent. Hope that whatever it is will be beneficial to both of us.”
“So do I,” Recker said.
As soon as Recker put his phone away, Haley wondered how it went. “What’d he say?”
“Meet him at nine o’clock tomorrow morning to discuss it.”
“Sounds good. He’ll go for it.”
“Well there’s nothing for him to object to so I’m sure he will go for it. He’s never been one to turn down a present landing in his lap for free. You know, it’s kind of funny, even though we’ve never really had any major problems with Vincent, and we’ve done good business with him from time to time, every time we do some kind of deal with him, I always feel like I lose a little piece of my soul, you know?”
“Kind of like dealing with the devil, huh?”
“I guess so.”
“Didn’t they ever teach you on the farm that in order to be a successful agent in the field that sometimes you gotta make a deal with the lesser of two evils in order to catch the more dangerous one?” Haley asked, remembering his time at the CIA training facilities.
“Yeah. But that don’t mean we gotta like it.”
14
Recker arrived at the diner a few minutes before nine o’clock, getting there just ahead of time like he usually did. Also, like usual, Vincent was already there waiting. After walking into the dinner, Recker was greeted by Malloy.
“We’re gonna have to stop meeting so often,” Malloy said. “I wouldn’t want word to get around that we were friends or anything.”
Recker grinned. “Yeah. You know, I sure hope you stay on the straight and narrow. I’d hate to have to kill you one day.”
Malloy took the good-natured ribbing in his stride. “Assuming you could.”
Recker got a laugh out of it and tapped him on the shoulder as he walked past him to go down to Vincent’s table. “Stay on the side of the angels, Jimmy. They’ll always have your back.”
Malloy chuckled, then sat down in his usual spot. Vincent had just finished his breakfast as Recker sat down across from him and washed it down with a sip of orange juice.
“Forgive me for not waiting and offering you something,” Vincent said. “But I know you rarely have something, and I was very hungry this morning.”
Recker lifted his hand off the table to suggest it was no big deal. “I already ate this morning anyway.”
Vincent smiled, as he often did when he felt like he had some big announcement to share. “Ah, yes, Mia, right? Nothing beats home cooking, correct?” Recker just tilted his head and shrugged to acknowledge the fact. “I’ll bet she’s a great cook.”
Recker nodded. “I’m pretty fond of it.”
“I’m sure you are. You know, one day, we’ll have to go out to dinner, the four of us, just like regular couples having a night out on the town. Leave our day time troubles behind for an evening.”
Recker looked at him strangely. “Four?”
“Yes, I have been seeing someone lately.”
“Oh? Serious?”
“Ahh, it could be. You never know how these things will turn out, right? But for now, it looks promising.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever even heard you discussing your private life before.”
“Well, we can’t always be all business all the time, right? Plus, I’ve been giving some thought to having some kind of legacy. Something to leave behind when it’s all said and done. You ever have those thoughts?”
“About leaving behind a legacy?” Recker asked. “No, I can’t say that I really have given it much thought.”
“Well, I am a few years older than you I believe. You might eventually have those thoughts at some point as well.”
“Maybe.”
“So, what brings us together here today?”
“Nowak.”
“What about her?” Vincent said.
“A couple days ago you asked for my help in going up against her.”
“And I recall you said at the time that you weren’t interested.”
“I guess I’ve changed my mind.”
“Not that I wouldn’t be happy and grateful for the change of heart, but why?”
“My reasons are my business,” Recker replied.
“Fair enough. It wouldn’t have anything to do with a car being blown up in the northeast the other day that I heard about, would it?”
“Not at all. That wasn’t me.”
Vincent smiled, not positive he was telling the truth or not. “You could understand how I would jump to that conclusion.”
“I do. But I was snug in my bed when that thing happened.”
“So… about this arrangement? What did you have in mind?”
“I’ll help drive her and her gang out of this city. One way or another.”
“And in return for this help? What’s it going to cost me?”
“Nothing other than it’s something to remember for future refe
rence,” Recker answered.
Vincent picked his head up and looked away for a second, the grin on his face revealing he didn’t believe for a second that this was just out of the kindness of Recker’s heart. There was obviously something else going on here, Vincent just didn’t know what it was. But with the help that was being offered, he wasn’t about to question it either. Whatever Recker’s reasons were, they aligned with what was best for Vincent, and that was really all that mattered at the moment.
“So, shall we coordinate efforts?” Vincent asked. “Or do we work independently to accomplish our goal?”
“I think we can just continue what we’re doing, going our own ways, and if the need arises for us to come together, then we do it.”
“I guess the other question I have is time frame. What are your intentions in regard to that?”
“Now,” Recker replied. “I’ve got other things to work on and I don’t intend to let this drag on for weeks or months. My intention is to take her and her group out as soon as possible. Anyone who gets in the way of that… is in my way. How does that align with your time frame?”
“Uhh, well, it might be a little quicker than I was imagining, but I’m agreeable to upping my time frame.”
“Listen, I’ll just come clean, I’ve gotten word from some sources that in addition to targeting you, she also plans to target me.”
“She certainly is planning on going big game hunting, isn’t she?” Vincent said with a smile, getting a little amusement in learning he wasn’t the only one being targeted. “She has set her sights high. What did you do to earn her wrath?”
“I think it just has to do with our previous encounters with her. I think she just wants to take out whoever she feels could be a threat to her down the line. And she wants to do it now, so she doesn’t have to worry about it later.”
“I would agree with that.”
“What can you tell me about where she is right now?” Recker asked. “Where’s she setting up shop these days?”
“That’s the million-dollar question right now, isn’t it? You think if I knew that I would have been asking you for help the other day? She and the rest of her crew would already be pushing up daisies if that were the case.”