Peace had acquired out of state Arizona license plates at a motel near where he bought the car. With the address of Batiste’s residence off campus, and Lewiston’s home location, it had only taken Peace one dark night to install his bugs and tracking devices. For over a week, Peace had played out his game, his interest peaking when Lewiston began shadowing Batiste. Batiste’s movements had been more of the usual college routine, rather than anything nefarious. Peace knew now, after carefully hacking into a number of different sources at the college, who financed Dink’s tuition, and expenses. Dink’s Father owned an import business in Los Angeles, called Aztec Imports, with a subsidiary in Mexico City, where he was living now.
Using the worm, long ago installed in the CIA and FBI databases, Peace spent less than one minute inside to feverishly scan for connecting details. When his program alarm went off, Peace cut his connection. His intrusion would be comparable to a single ping on the radar of a submarine, leaving no clue as to the individual information he had accessed. Loose ties, involving drugs and weapons, were catalogued in both sites, in addition to involvement in politics all the way to the Governor’s Office. Peace concluded quickly Batiste would not be one to mess with if he could avoid it, even acknowledging the unknown danger. He had decided his best course would be to monitor Dink for the time being, without any further confrontations.
Detective Lewiston presented another range of problems. Peace had noted, with some humor, Dink had become aware of Lewiston’s Secret Squirrel type surveillance operation, yet Lewiston was oblivious to having been discovered. Either that, Peace reasoned, or he just did not care about Batiste. After a week observing his dual traces, Peace concluded Lewiston was waiting for a wrong move on his part.
Tonight had been the first time Peace had decided to play around a little with the Detective. On the way back to his car, Peace had laughed, listening to Lewiston curse him, and all homeless bums for nearly five minutes straight. Not for the first time, since observing the Detective, did Peace wonder how the man had stayed alive in his occupation for so many years. The subsequent carjacking, and threat to Lewiston’s family had driven all lighthearted thought from Peace’s reverie.
Although the engine of the Corsica masked some of the sound inside, Peace could plainly hear the directions given to Lewiston. Peace agonized briefly over whether to drive immediately to Lewiston’s home, or follow the Detective. The thought of Lewiston’s wife and daughter ending up dead, filled Peace with dread. He knew though, Lewiston was a dead man if Peace did not follow now. The tracking and bugging devices he had planted on Lewiston’s car had a two-mile range, at the maximum. Glancing down at Batiste’s trace on his laptop screen, Peace saw Dink’s BMW had not moved from its previous position.
Lewiston’s car followed Route 5 South, with Peace hanging back in his beat up LTD. After ordering a turnoff to Imperial Beach, the man directed Lewiston down Imperial Beach Boulevard, a right turn onto Seacoast Drive, and a left onto Ebony Avenue. Lewiston tried repeatedly to find out what the men wanted; but received only directions, and silence.
Peace turned off his lights, following more slowly. He could see on his screen they could not get out of his two mile range from where they were headed, except to back track past him. Only three elaborate beach houses, with direct access to the oceanfront, stood widely separated on the short turn out. Peace watched Lewiston’s car lights enter into the long access driveway of the one furthest down the turnout, and then blink out. He heard car doors open and close, and then nothing.
Peace picked up his night vision scope, and searched for any other sign of vehicles or life at the beach houses up from where Lewiston turned in. Satisfied they were vacant, he drove slowly to the first house, and into the access driveway. When he had driven as far as he could go around the beach house, he turned the LTD around so it faced outwards. Smiling coldly at his lack of preparedness, Peace spoke out loud to himself, shaking his head in disgust.
“It’s a game. You could get stopped by the police, and they’d throw away the key if they found you with any kind of a weapon. You don’t need no stinking weapons anyway, big bad deadly Seal like yourself.”
Peace sighed deeply. He had already removed the dome light bulb from the LTD’s roof socket, and pulled on latex gloves from the bag he had stored his laptop. Opening the door with as little noise as possible, Peace took his night vision scope with him, and left his laptop where it lay. He decided on an approach from the beach. After retrieving the tire iron from the trunk of the LTD, making sure he did not open the lid far enough to activate the trunk light, Peace moved silently toward the oceanfront.
With the sound of the surf masking his movements, Peace had no trouble moving quickly and quietly along the beach, pausing continually to train the night scope towards the beach house he had seen Lewiston taken to. There were lights on in the house now, but no movement on the porch at the back of the house. Clutching the two foot long tire iron in his right hand, Peace worked his way towards the back of the beach house. Taking nothing for granted, he moved and scanned slowly and deliberately. If anyone exited the house suddenly, they would be hard pressed to detect his movements before Peace saw them. Breathing deeply of the cool salty tasting breeze, Peace emptied his mind of all thought other than his approach.
Over the soothing whisper of waves washing up on the sand, Peace heard a car’s racing engine. The sound of the vehicle’s tires squealing around the beach house turnout, and the bobbing of headlights careening down the short street, allowed Peace to move more quickly over the remaining area, assured the attention of the men inside would be on the approaching car. From just below the elevated beach house porch, Peace was within thirty yards of Lewiston’s car. As the approaching vehicle skidded into the driveway, its lights jerking up and down as it screeched to a halt behind Lewiston’s Corsica, Peace heard Lewiston’s first scream.
__
Meanwhile, Bluesuit’s men roughly pulled Lewiston from the driver’s seat of the Corsica, and pushed him along to the front entrance of the beach house. Bluesuit followed, scanning the darkness all around for any sign of movement or light. Satisfied his earlier daylight check of the remote location had been correct, Bluesuit followed his men and Lewiston inside. They had turned on the lights upon entering the small living room. In the soft light, Bluisuit’s men handcuffed the Detective, with his hands behind his back, to a wooden backed old chair. Lewiston looked around wildly, hope deserting him with each passing second.
“Well, Detective,” Bluesuit began, walking over to a table where he had earlier laid out some tools, “where do we begin, huh?”
“Look, what do you want to know? You’re making a mistake. I don’t know what you want, but I…”
With blinding speed, Bluesuit snatched a claw hammer off the table and smashed it into the instep of Lewiston’s right foot. Lewiston screamed in agony, writhing on the chair while Bluesuit’s men held it steady. They heard the roar of a car engine, only just before it was shut off. Lewiston’s scream softened to pain filled sobs and gasps for air. Bluesuit nodded at the man on Lewiston’s left, and the man left to check on the source of the noise.
“You see, Detective,” Bluesuit explained softly, crouching a little in front of a shaken Lewiston, “I don’t believe you’ll really tell us the truth unless you know we’re serious. Do you understand how serious we are now?”
Sweat poured from Lewiston’s face as he had closed his eyes and clamped his mouth shut in an attempt to absorb the throbbing pain shooting up his leg. He nodded vigorously in the affirmative.
“Excellent,” Bluesuit said. He looked from Lewiston to the figure approaching from the front entrance.
Derrick Batiste entered the room, smiling at Bluesuit, excitement plain on his face. When the man entered, who had been sent to investigate the noise, Bluesuit waved him back out.
“Stay at the front. Let me know if you see any other lights on the road at all,” Bluesuit ordered in Spanish.
The man nodded an
d retraced his steps back out to the front entryway. As he stepped out onto the cement walkway, Peace swung the tire iron directly into his throat at an upward angle, smashing the man’s windpipe brutally. Grabbing him up off his feet, Peace carried his still convulsing body to the side of the entryway. The man still feebly clutched at his shattered throat, his life ebbing. Peace clamped his right hand over the man’s straining face, sealing his mouth and nose. Soon, the would be guard’s eyes bulged vacantly out at his last vision of life. Dragging his still twitching corpse a few yards further, Peace allowed the body to slide slowly to the sandy ground.
Peace confiscated the man’s weapon, a 9mm Glock, fitted with a silencer. After a brief search, he found an extra clip. Leaving his tire iron next to the body for the time being, Peace moved silently back to the entryway. He listened intently to the voices from the lighted living room beyond the dark kitchen area, slowly closing the front door behind him.
“He looks ready,” Dink laughed.
Bluesuit looked at Batiste coldly. “Your Father is very upset with these complications. He…”
“Never mind my Father,” Dink interrupted, looking over at Bluesuit.
“He ordered you to avoid these incidents at all costs. His patience is at an end.”
“Are you relaying a message or are you interpreting his words for me,” Dink retorted angrily.
“I am merely relating his exact words to you,” Bluesuit answered calmly.
Dink nodded. “It’ll be over soon. We just need to find out who this prick’s working for.”
“And the other man you attacked?”
“He should be dead already,” Dink replied, the thought of his humiliation again sending waves of rage through him. “If not for that bitch with him, I’d have popped his brain right out of his skull. I’ll settle with her later.”
Lewiston opened his eyes, seeing Batiste for the first time. Batiste leaned down, smiling at Lewiston almost as if he were an old friend. Dink placed his foot over Lewiston’s mangled and swelling instep. The gasp of breath from Lewiston made Dink smile even more broadly.
“Ooh, Detective, I’ll bet that foot hurts,” Dink laughed.
“Listen, Batiste,” Lewiston said desperately. “I was after Peacenik. I thought he’d try and attack you, and that I’d nail him for the cop killings too. I…”
Dink laughed. “Yea, right. You were acting as my bodyguard.”
Chapter Seventeen
An Alliance Formed
Dink brought his weight down on Lewiston’s foot, evoking a bloodcurdling scream so loud, the sound drowned out the four popping noises. Dink only realized something very wrong had happened when brain matter from Bluesuit splattered him, and the man holding the chair Lewiston was handcuffed to, pitched backwards with dual holes through his head. Dink turned to see Bluesuit twitching comically on the floor, staring up at him with sightless eyes.
“Hello Dink.”
Batiste froze where he stood. “Peacenik?”
“Back slowly away from Detective Lewiston.”
Dink backed away from the grimacing Lewiston, fear obliterating everything else in his mind. All other vicious little scenes, he had been contemplating with Lewiston, now replaced with only one thought: survival. Peacenik had executed the two men next to him without a word. Dink suddenly turned hopefully towards the front entrance; but only a bearded, filthy bum in a black stocking cap stared back at him. Peace smiled at him, gesturing Dink over to the side of the living room.
“I see that cute little hope in your eyes, Dink. I’m afraid your little friend outside will not be coming to save the day. Sit down on the couch.”
“We… we can make a deal, Nicky,” Batiste whined. “I can… make you rich beyond…”
Peace made clucking sounds with his tongue. “I am going to ask you some questions, Dink, and I need you to answer them.”
“Anything… Nicky… anything, just let me…”
“Who is your man at SDPD?”
Dink hesitated, and Peace could see the cunning start to seep into
Batiste’s features. “Sure, Nicky, we can work with that. I can…”
Peace pulled the trigger and another popping sound from the 9mm propelled a round through Batiste’s right foot. Dink pitched off the couch, his high-pitched scream reverberating through the house. Clutching his foot, Dink rocked in pain as blood poured from his right shoe. Lewiston cringed, closing his eyes to the other man’s tortured face.
“Let’s try this once more, Dink,” Peace said patiently as the screams had dwindled to pathetic cries of anguish. “Who is your man at SDPD?”
“Bri… Brills,” Batiste cried. “He… he’s a…”
“Captain,” Lewiston finished for him through clenched teeth, continuing his own battle against the pain in his injured foot. Peace nodded at Lewiston. “What’s his first name?”
“Steven,” Lewiston replied.
“Yea, that follows,” Peace said. “McCray slipped up when he was talking to Miguel, and started to say the name Steve before he caught himself.”
Peace turned again to the still crying man on the floor. “Who else does your Daddy have on the payroll, Dink?”
Dink’s cries ceased, and his eyes popped open in horror. “I… I don’t know… Nicky… I swear… no don’t… please…”
Peace had made a move to shoot Batiste’s other foot; but he could tell Dink was telling the truth. “Okay, now, do you actually have any men outside Detective Lewiston’s house?”
Batiste burst into tears, sobbing piteously. “You… you’re going to… kill… me…”
“I’m afraid so, Dink,” Peace admitted. “If you don’t answer me though, I’m going to make your passing a very, very painful experience.”
“We… we can deal… Nicky… oh God… please… please…”
“Remember the bitch you would take care of later, Dink? You ain’t ever going to take care of her or anyone else, ever. You have until I count to three to tell me about any men outside the Detective’s house. “One…”
“Two… two men…” Batiste blurted out.
“In what kind of car?”
“New black… Lincoln,” Batiste continued to sob. “Please… Nicky…”
“Where’s your Father stay in Ensenada?”
Dink stayed silent, all hope gone, and the thought of betraying his Father making him close his eyes. He rolled towards the couch in a fetal position. Peace merely walked over and shot him through Dink’s exposed right knee. Dink passed out after his initial scream. Blood spurted out over Dink’s hands as he clutched at his knee. Peace walked into the dark kitchen, and filled up a glass of water. When he returned to the living room, Lewiston was watching him intently.
“You are one cold blooded son of a bitch, Peacenik,” Lewiston whispered.
“I better be,” Peace replied solemnly.
He threw the water in Dink’s face, causing Batiste to splutter into screaming consciousness. When Dink was relatively silent, while writhing on the floor with his knee gripped tightly to his chest, Peace continued.
“You were about to tell me where your Dad stays in Ensenada.”
“His… his office building, it’s right on the docks,” Dink grunted out in pain. “He has a… a suite at the top… I…”
Peace shot him through the right temple twice. When Batiste unwound, and lay on his back, Peace shot him again through the forehead. Without hesitating, Peace walked over and put a round through the forehead of each other man, leaving himself three rounds in the fourteen round clip. Lewiston jumped slightly in his chair each time Peace fired. When Peace walked over in front of Lewiston, the Detective’s eyes were clamped shut.
“Just get it over with quick,” Lewiston said, his lips barely moving.
“Which guy has the keys to your cuffs?”
Lewiston opened his eyes. “Just kill me, God damn it, and get it over with.”
“What makes you think I’m going to kill you?”
“Because you
’re a cold blooded murdering psycho, and you can’t let me live.”
“Well, I hate to disappoint you, genius,” Peace said, going through the pockets of the man by his chair, and retrieving the handcuff keys, “but we are going to come up with a very plausible story for all of this, and then I’m going to go and kill those two real psychos outside your home.”
Peace unlocked Lewiston’s cuffs. The Detective first rubbed circulation back into his arms before tentatively touching his ankle. He cried out in pain, arching backwards against the back of his chair. Peace went in search of something for Lewiston’s pain, but could only find a bottle of Ibuprofen in the medicine cabinet of the bathroom. After refilling the water glass he had revived Dink with, Peace helped Lewiston swallow three of the pills. Returning to the kitchen, Peace used a towel to make up an ice pack with the two trays of ice he found in the freezer. Peace brought along a steak knife he found in one of the drawers. Lewiston was still sitting on the chair, trying to position himself in any manner to ease his pain. Peace cut the laces of his shoe, careful not to pressure the swelled instep.
“I’ll let you try and get the shoe off,” Peace said, stepping back.
Lewiston nodded, and groaning loudly, he eased the shoe off. Peace handed him the makeshift ice pack, which Lewiston laid gently over his instep. Peace found Bluesuit’s cell-phone, and handed it to a confused Lewiston.
“That was a great job you did tailing us here,” Lewiston told Peace as he checked the phone out. “I never knew you were there.”
“I had a bug on your car.”
“So, in addition to smearing my windshield, and making a fool out of me, you’ve known what I was doing all along?”
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