Slim had smiled to himself as he pushed the stretcher around and wondered who that Latin guy had been and why was he helping Reggie? It didn’t make sense to him. Was Reggie married? Could that have been her husband helping her? Nah, he didn’t think so, that guy was dressed like a janitor and waiting for her when Jake shoved her out of the elevator. If he was waiting for her then he knew she was coming. How had that happened? Did she have time to call him? Did someone else call him? Maybe Reggie was getting help from somewhere. And where did they disappear to in that hospital. He’d been right behind them on those steps. Granted, he had trouble getting that door open cause of that stretcher and then he stopped to kill those people and change clothes, but they couldn’t have gotten that far. She had to be hiding in there somewhere. She and that other guy, that helper. Slim was sure of it now that he thought about it. She had help and the help of more than one person. She had people helping her. Maybe a group of people. He’d have to talk to Jake about this when they got the chance to talk. They needed a different kind of plan if Reggie was getting help. This was a big operation if she had help. It would not be a simple matter of grabbing her off the street somewhere. This was like war. Like another gang was after the same prize. Well, if it was war, then they needed a battle plan. He and Jake would need to make one up.
He knew Jake was excited being so close to catching Reggie. And he’d help him find her that was no biggie. He didn’t care about it one way or the other. She was Jake’s deal not his. He wasn’t into the girl thing, he was into the chase. He got a kick out of it when he broke into that supply closet and found an orderly’s outfit to wear. He’d walked right up to that nursing station and chatted with those women like he belonged there. He snuck a peek at the patient’s charts and asked about one of the patients and made up some shit about taking her down for an x-ray. It worked great. They believed him and treated him nice. He thought it was because he’d cut his hair back in West Virginia that made him more respectable. He missed his old ratty pony tail though, it was ‘him’. He vowed to grow it back again as soon as all this was over. Jake would get his girl and do her and then it would be done. No more killing or kidnapping. They could plan one big job and rake in a ton of money and then retire somewhere like the Bahamas. Now, that would be the life. Imagine, lying on a warm beach in the Bahamas. Slim couldn’t wait to get the hell out of this city, this fucking cold, miserable city.
Retreating from the edge of the roof as sirens shrieked through the frigid darkness, they huddled together under an overhang. They were freezing; the unyielding wind sliced through their bulky clothing like it was sheer silk. But Jake thought it was worth it. He had a handle on this whole thing. They were on this roof and could see everything going on around them. They could hear the choppers approaching the hospital and hid under the overhangs when they flew over. He knew the cops wouldn’t find them up here. They’d been up here looking for them twice already, but the killers had evaded them. There were lots of hiding places on a big roof like this one. And their footprints just looked like the wind had blown marks in the snow. Jake wanted to shoot them, but he knew that doing that would bring the whole damn police force on top of them so he held back. He was showing restraint, he thought. Being mature and clever, that was a good sign, he thought. He was proud of himself for letting that last girl go. It didn’t matter that she’d seen their faces; the cops knew who they were now. They knew their faces, had their names, their fingerprints and their damn DNA, for Christ’s sake. So it hadn’t been necessary to kill her. He’d had a little fun with her and roughed her up some, but didn’t kill her. Threw her out in the snow like a used Kleenex. Not his fault if she froze to death. He gave her a chance. Now, that was interesting to him, he gave her a chance. He never understood why he killed some of them and not others. He felt differently toward some of his girls, that’s how he thought of them, ‘his girls,’ but he didn’t know why. He couldn’t really describe it.
He thought those FBI people would have a field day trying to figure him out. If he ever went to prison, he thought, big deal shrinks would come knocking at his door asking for interviews, trying to figure him out. The famous Jake Gennett, world famous serial killer! The best in the world! Smart and ruthless! That’s me, he thought. Jake was excited. He had an escape plan, but he wasn’t ready to tell his gang about it yet. Let them sweat it for a while. Odd word he thought, sweat... up here in Siberia. How do those Russian people deal with weather like this all the time? ‘They’re crazy,’ he thought, ‘no wonder they drink so much vodka! They have to get warm somehow, they have to block out their freaking freezing lives. Couldn’t pay me to live over there,’ he thought. ‘Nope it’s not for me. I like it warm and cozy. Give me a little cabin in the woods, anytime. A little fire in the fireplace... A little beer in the fridge… a little girl tied up on the floor. Yep that’s my kind of life! And soon,’ he thought, ‘I’ll have her all to myself. I’ll grab her and drag her off somewhere nice and isolated and do what I want.’ He could see it all now. He loved thinking about it, planning it. He remembered how it felt in that elevator. How terrified she was. The look on her face as she recognized him… pure terror! It was great! It had been a stroke of genius to get himself all dressed up that way. He had seen a little sign in the lobby inviting guests to their little Christmas play. Strange, he thought, not like good old Rudolph or Jesus in the straw somewhere. Odd, they’d do The Wizard of Oz as a Christmas play, but who cares, it sounded like a stupid idea to him, but it was a perfect costume idea. He loved it. It was the high point of his life. Dress up like the Wizard and scare the shit out of little Reggie.
‘Hum,’ Jake thought, ‘She thought she could get away from me. What a fool. No way is she going to get away and forget about me. The bitch cut me and she is going to pay for that. She’ll pay with her life. She would have died too if that guy, what was he a spic, hadn’t butted in. That was really weird. One minute I had my arm around her neck and my gun in her back the next minute she’s running down the steps with this beaner. What was he doing standing there anyway? It was almost like he was waiting for them. Like he knew she was in that elevator. How could that be? Nah, that’s crazy! Who was that dude - her boyfriend? Nah, she wouldn’t have no janitor for a boyfriend, her being a doctor and all. Was he her guard? If he was, why was he dressed like a janitor? And why was he waiting for her down in the garage and not up on her doctor floor? It didn’t make sense.’
As the wind blew through his insulated jacket, he ran through the sequence of events. When she got on the elevator she didn’t have her cell phone out. She didn’t call anyone. How could she have known what floor he would stop at? That didn’t make sense. Were they tracking him? No, if so, they’d have caught him by now. No one knew where he parked, so they weren’t waiting there to get him. That guy was there to rescue her! So how exactly had that worked? They must have been tracking her! Tracking her? Tracking little Reggie Lee? Now why would someone be doing that? Had she hired some people to protect her from him? Now that was a shocker! That never happened before. He’d never come up against organized protection before. Maybe it was the Mafia. Teddy had been mixed up with the Mafia, maybe this was because of what happened with Teddy. Nah, he thought about that for a while and decided that didn’t make sense. Maybe the hospital was protecting her. He’d been in the news a lot and they could have figured out that he was coming here for her so they got some guys to take care of her. That must be it, he decided. Some guys were hired by the hospital to keep their important little doctor safe. Well that wasn’t going to happen. No rent-a-cop was going to stop Jake Gennett, the world’s greatest killer.
It was 1AM when Jake gave the signal. It was time to go. They rose on wobbly legs, formed a frozen Conga-line and pushed through the wind to the trap door leading to the top level of the garage. Slim went first and gave the all clear signal. One at a time they ran hunched over to the first vehicle. There they hid and waited. They repeated the maneuver going from car to car until they reached the
next level. “Look for a black Ford truck,” Jake whispered. The other two looked at him questioningly.
“Why, Jake?” Custer asked, “We have to swipe a Ford?”
“No, idiot,” Jake snipped, “that’s our ride out of here.”
Joseph Fisher was right on time and ready. Sitting high in his “Windy City Towing” truck, he waited for his brother’s friends to get in. Blankets and jackets were piled on the back seat and an old ski jacket with a hood in the front. Jake and Slim jumped in the back while Custer donned the coat pulled the hood over his face and slouched down in the seat. Joseph worked for a towing company and had been in and out of the hospital garage all day jump starting vehicles that refused to start in the cold. Each time he arrived he stopped at the front gate, showed the cops on duty his ‘Windy City Towing’ ID and his work orders and was waved in. On exiting, he was asked to stop his truck and step out while the interior underwent a search by police officers. Now as Joseph was leaving the garage with his stowaways he stopped on the floor above the exit and told the killers to get out. They were to run down the garage steps and hide behind the dumpsters behind the hospital. Joe was to pick them up in 10 minutes.
They turned onto the Dan Ryan Expressway heading toward the South Side, followed by an old blue Chevy van. It turned onto the ramp after them and stayed two cars behind. Traffic was light given the weather and the hour, but it was dark and the men were absorbed in conversation. They didn’t notice an old van keeping pace with them just a little behind. The driver was tall with broad shoulders and wore a grey hoodie that covered most of his face. It didn’t matter though, cause no one in the car he was following had paid him the slightest attention. Jake was chatty, telling Joe and his gang all about his good buddy Ray Fisher and some of the shit they pulled when they were cellmates. He made it sound like summer camp, laughing and telling tales. Since they were starving, they decided to head toward an all-night bar Joe knew called Uncle Jimmy’s featuring ribs and steak subs. When Ray walked into the bar Jake bolted over to greet him with a big bear hug. The Fisher brothers were good company, everyone was in a partying mood. They were alive, free and sitting in a warm place drinking frosty Buds. Life doesn’t get much better than this, they thought, while the man in the van sat in the shadows and snapped their pictures through the greasy window.
CHAPTER 62
RENDEVOUS
Two dark SUV’s crept through the rutted snow and turned into a long winding driveway that led to the remote Illinois farmhouse. They pulled around to the back and stopped at a stand of pine trees. The lead driver pushed a button three times and a battered old barn door opened automatically. The SUV’s drove into the barn, past some stacks of hay and waited until another door opened leading to an underground garage. A small blue light flashed three times on each dashboard. Two men and one woman got out. Moving in formation, they walked quickly through an archway, looked into the mirror on the wall and passed through a sliding metal door into an elevator. In minutes, they were inside the compound, busy with activity. Elisabeth Reinhardt greeted them warmly at the door. Manny at the computer was talking on his cellphone. “That’s good,” he was saying, “I’ll tell them. We’ll let you know. Shalom.” Gina was bewildered. Apprehensively she looked around the room.
“What is this place?” she asked her therapist, “Who are all these people?” Elisabeth briefly explained Chevra Hatzolah and that she had become their protectee. They were all here to help her. Gina looked around the room into the eyes of her rescuers. She was very grateful and said so in a small, honest voice. They were all strangers to her except for Pablo and Gil. “Even you Gil?” she asked, “You are part of this group?” There was a hint of confusion in her voice, disappointment or a feeling of betrayal. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked him.
Intervening gently, Dr. Reinhardt said “I’ll explain everything to you in a little while. This is all very overwhelming, give yourself some time. We’ll talk about everything soon.” Taking her arm, Dr. Reinhardt guided her around the room saying, “Let me introduce you to everyone, Gina.”
Following introductions, Manny said, “That call was about Edna Goodwin and Rhoda Eades. They’re safe at one of our residences in Kentucky. We need to decide if it’s safe for them to go home.”
“I think it probably is but I’d feel more comfortable if we waited until these guys were caught. We just don’t know what they’ll do when they can’t find Gina or even if they have other people helping them back in that area. These two women are still their best bet of finding Gina so until this is all over they are best kept safe with us. Holding people for ransom, to manipulate you, Gina, is not beyond their capacity. I say leave them where they are until these guys are caught or killed.” The decision was unanimous.
“Can I speak with them,” Gina asked.
“Sure,” Simon said, “I’ve got an untraceable line over here, come on and I’ll set you up in the office.” He took Gina to a small office near the computer tables and left her there chatting with her old mentors.
Resuming the meeting, Elisabeth referred to a list on the table in front of her, “Let’s hear from the ‘big boys’,” she smiled referring to Gil and Pedro.
“The most promising lead is this Ray Fisher character,” said Gil, “He’s a bad dude with first rate connections for all the wrong stuff. He’s not been out very long and he’s already dealing guns and drugs from his Aunt’s home on the South Side. The aunt is named Bernadine Grant. She’s 85 and suffers from macular degeneration among other things, so she’s nearly blind. Joseph Jeffrey (aka JoJo) has lived with her for most of his life. He takes care of her now that she’s not able to see much. Raymond and JoJo have the whole deal going on. They’re doing a little cooking in the back shed, running some numbers, the whole 9 you know, everything but the ladies. They’re not hooked up with other gangs, but we turned up something interesting last night. T-Max was out taking a look at things and what should we find?” he paused for effect… everyone waited making ‘go ahead signals,’ “another watcher. That’s what he found!”
“Really?”
“You’ve got to be kidding?”
“Who’s watching them but us?”
Everyone talked at once.
“Here’s what happened,” Pablo jumped in, “T-Max just called this in to me. He’s still on the house. He says the house was dark when he pulled up around midnight. Just one inside light on, a dim one, like maybe the light over the stove was on. No one was moving around or anything. The house is in pretty poor condition with a long, narrow back yard, surrounded by a 5 foot high chain link fence and crowded with 2 car sized sheds. Both of those shed doors are padlocked and there are motion sensor security lights. They have two pit bulls that patrol the place. The dogs were in the house last night. He saw them looking out the windows a couple of times. Anyway, T-Max says around 3AM a car and a truck pull up. Sign on the truck says ‘Windy City Towing.’ Four guys get out of the truck three of them are our killers acting all buddy, buddy with old Raymond. They walk right up on the back porch bold as anything. Didn’t look over their shoulders or look up and down the street. Nothing like that! Just walk on into the house.”
“Then,” Gil continues, “T-Max said everything is quiet for about 5 minutes and up pulls this ratty blue van. It slides into a space about 3 houses down from Ray’s place, turns out his lights and just sits there. He never gets out. So T-Max say he slides down real low and takes a peek with his binocs and guess what…?”
“The other guy’s got his binoculars out too! He’s staring at Ray’s house.” Pablo jumps in, “So he waits about 10 minutes. It’s real dark out there, but he slips on night gear so he’s practically invisible and sneaks up close to the van. He gets the license number and a clean shot of his mug. By this time the guy’s taking photos of the house. His camera keeps flashing, so T-Max can gauge where the guy is and gets some shots of his own. Then he sneaks around the block, gets back in his car, big as life and drives on out of there.”
<
br /> “So,” Stella picks up the conversation, “we have to get the low down on this new guy and what’s he’s doing in all this. He’s in this somehow. Either he’s a cop or he’s on the other side of the law. I’ll get on the phone and see what I can find out.”
“Good, Stella,” Gil says, “I’ll check with my peeps at CPD.”
“Why not just go in there like SWAT and shoot the bastards?” Simon asked.
“That’s a possibility,” Pedro replied, “but we need to make sure we’re not missing anything. We don’t want to walk into something we can’t handle. We need to scope this thing out first. The last thing we need is to let them get away again. The first rule of …” he stopped mid-sentence and looked up.
Gina was standing a few feet away looking at the group. “Don’t stop on my account,” she smiled, “and if I have a vote I say let’s go get them!”
“Atta girl,” Gil exclaimed.
Gina smiled at him, “I can’t continue to live my life in fear and I could not live with myself if he killed another look-a-like. So, I’m in,” she said pulling up a chair, “what’s the plan?”
CHAPTER 63
ALLIANCES
Margie’s Place was a crowded greasy spoon around the corner from the Chicago Office of the FBI. Narrow bands of daylight squeezed around posters taped haphazardly to the plate glass. ‘Chicken Dinner $8.99’… ‘Burgers, Steak and Ribs’… ‘Open 24 hours a day’… The room was crowded and noisy, soft rock barely audible above busy restaurant racket. Dust, grease and stale cigarette smoke hung in the air mingled with fried food and grilled meat.
Gil and T-Max rose in tandem, extending their hands as Chester, Lou, three members of the Multi-State Task Force, two detectives from the Chicago Police Department, two representatives from the Chicago Office of the FBI and a nervous looking spokesman from the Mayor’s office introduced themselves. Their common goal was clear, but jurisdiction was not. An air of energy, urgency and competition permeated the space. Federal law took precedence under usual circumstances. Kidnapping automatically fell under the jurisdiction of the FBI and since this was taking place in Chicago, the Chicago FBI thought they should take the lead. However, Chester Rugger who had established the Multi State Task Force had called in the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit from Quantico. Given time and energy they had already invested in hunting down these killers it seemed like they had earned a place in this investigation.
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