The blonde rushed along the highway while looking behind her, as if she were being chased. Sammy saw no such pursuit, but playing a hunch, he moved along and caught up to her.
“Hi, are you all right? You seem upset.”
The woman was about to answer when movement to her left took her attention away from him. Sammy looked out the back window and saw a man in a blue suit exiting from the same spot the woman had.
“No,” she whispered.
“Are you afraid of that man? Hop in and I’ll take you away from him.”
The woman hesitated, but when the man ran toward her, she ripped open the car door and practically dived atop the bench seat.
“Go! He’s coming, oh please just drive.”
Sammy did as she suggested, leaving the man behind on the highway.
Fenner was furious.
He had not expected Julie to be offered a ride so quickly. He ran for his car. He had left it in the same parking lot as before, but he estimated that Julie was several miles ahead by the time he merged onto the roadway.
He had an advantage, in that he knew what their vehicle looked like, but they had no idea what he was driving. A second blessing was the traffic on I-10. It was moving slow. If Julie’s rescuer decided to head onto the highway, Fenner would have a good chance of catching sight of them by weaving through gaps in the traffic.
Fenner grew calm by telling himself that the good Samaritan who had picked Julie up on the highway was a minor inconvenience, better yet, Fenner would turn the man into an asset.
He would kill the man with the knife he carried and leave the body in the car. Video from the traffic cameras near the homicide would be scrutinized and evidence of Julie riding with the man would come to light.
With two counts of murder hanging over her head, Julie Ryan would beg Fenner to take her in. All in all, the Samaritan’s arrival could be a good thing, but first, Fenner had to catch up to them.
Sammy took a left off Veterans Memorial Boulevard and turned onto Cleary Avenue in Metairie, Louisiana.
The blonde sitting in his passenger seat said her name was Julie and that the man chasing after her had just framed her for the murder of a friend.
“What’s the friend’s name?” Sammy said.
“Shane Ryder.”
“And you say you were friends?”
“More like friendly,”
Sammy looked her over and could see why Ricky would want to get friendly with her. Apparently, Julie understood what he was thinking, because she shook her head.
“We weren’t lovers and I had no reason to hurt him. I liked Shane.”
Sammy passed a field that had a baseball diamond and pulled into the parking lot of a church. Except for his vehicle, the lot was empty.
After cutting off the engine, he turned in his seat to face Julie.
“This Shane Ryder, was he a big guy with curly brown hair?”
“He was big, and I’m sure he dyed his hair blond. How did you know that?”
“His real name was Ricky Valente. I’ve been looking for Ricky for weeks.”
Julie gave Sammy a wary look.
“Shane told me just last night that he was on the run from someone. I guess that was you.”
Sammy took out his gun. Julie stared at him as if he had just done a magic trick. The weapon had a sound suppressor attached and was made of blued steel, to prevent rust. It looked as deadly as it was.
“Where’s the money, Julie?”
“What money?”
“Ricky stole money from the organization I’m a part of. Did you kill him for it?”
“No!”
Julie’s vehement reply was so charged with anger that Sammy was tempted to believe her, but he had met good liars before.
“Tell me where the money is and I’ll let you go. Get greedy and stupid, try to bluff me and say you know nothing, and I’ll hand you over to the cops for Ricky’s murder.”
Julie opened her mouth, then shut it. After giving her head a little shake, she sat Missy down between her feet and pointed at a spot on her chest where her heart was located.
“Shoot me, you son of a bitch! First that maniac threatens me and now you. Shoot me and put me out of my misery. You’d be doing me a favor.”
Sammy gazed into Julie’s blue eyes for several seconds, then holstered his gun.
“This man who framed you, did he know that Ricky had money hidden away somewhere?”
“I don’t know. I don’t even know who he is. Don’t you understand? This man, he’s like some sort of stalker, only he hides his tracks well. He deliberately ruined my life by framing me for stealing drugs from the hospital I worked at.”
“You’re a doctor?”
“I was an ER nurse, and a damn good one.”
Sammy hung his head.
“Is Ricky’s body in his trailer?”
Julie nodded, as her last view of the man she knew as Shane Ryder came to mind.
“Damn!”
“What?” Julie said.
“I know Ricky. He’d keep that money close, like right inside the trailer. That means the cops have it.”
“Money? The hell with your money. I’m going to go to prison for killing Shane and I have no way to prove my innocence.”
The next words out of Sammy’s mouth surprised him as much as they shocked Julie.
“I’ll help you clear your name.”
“How? And who are you?”
“I’m Sammy.”
“Hello Sammy, my name is Julie Ryan and my life has gone to shit.”
Sammy sighed.
“Welcome to the club.”
22
Make A Withdrawal Without All That Messy Paperwork
Professor Ian Seagate smiled as he watched a small band of bicycle messengers descend on the city block where he was about to rob a bank.
He and his “crew” were dressed as bicycle messengers and wore helmets, mirrored sunglasses, and backpacks. They had trained for weeks and each of them had a route of escape where a change of clothes awaited them.
As Sara had noticed, the bright orange overlay on their helmets could be removed and reveal the more common white beneath it. They would do that as they left the bank and blend in with all the other bike messengers.
Seagate would rob the bank with Kevin and Roland, while Gabriel would be watching the man they hoped to frame, and Juan Vega made calls to bicycle delivery services around the city. There should be a score of other bicycle messengers in the area when they left the bank.
Any cops arriving on the scene and getting the word that the bank robbers were dressed like messengers would be faced with a difficult task. They would have to try and apprehend over a dozen possible suspects, all of whom would be moving swiftly away from the scene.
“Three more guys just showed up, Professor,” Kevin Kincaid said. He was astride a bike and in the middle between Seagate and the nervous Roland, who fidgeted atop his bike seat as if it were too hot to sit on.
Seagate sent off a text to Gabriel, who was parked outside the motel room of the man they were about to frame. Gabriel texted him back, telling him that the man was still alone in the room, and that he had heard loud snoring when he’d last walked past the man’s door.
Seagate smiled. He was finally going to get his revenge, and how sweet it would be.
“All right guys, just like before, we get in, get the money, and get out.”
Kevin and Roland nodded and they casually biked down to the bank on the corner. The nervous Roland stayed with the bikes and was a lookout for trouble, while Seagate and Kevin went inside.
They had done this four times before while wearing other disguises, such as the Santa Claus suits worn during their last robbery. They were confident, but not only because they had experience, they had also researched their targets well.
The tellers at this branch were behind a simple counter with no bars. No sliding panels would drop from the ceiling and the doors wouldn’t lock to keep them inside. Th
ey would be in the bank for less than a minute, just enough time to be handed cash by a teller.
Unlike most bank robbers, they didn’t care about the money. Their only goal was the act itself. Bank robbery was the whole point. It was a felony and a federal crime that carried stiff penalties. It was an ideal crime to frame their targets with.
The prison sentence was the same for a thousand-dollar bank robbery as it was for a hundred-thousand-dollar bank robbery. The money meant nothing.
Seagate and Kevin saw an angry bike messenger as they got off their bikes. The man had likely learned that the call to get him to the area was a phony one. He wouldn’t be the last.
Once inside the bank, Seagate bypassed the line of customers and strode over to the end of the counter where a female teller was counting a bundle of cash.
After pointing his fake, yet realistic-looking gun at her, Seagate smiled.
“I’ll take that money off your hands, and you don’t have to bother with the paperwork.”
In Louisiana, Julie Ryan told Sammy more about her life and how a madman destroyed it so she would have no choice but to give in to him.
“And you say you don’t even know his name?”
“No, and that makes it creepier, because it means he must have been watching me and thinking about me for a long time. I was in jail for months after he framed me the first time, and when I was released, he just showed up and admitted what he did.”
“You were right when you said he was insane. Only a crazy person would do something like that to you.”
Julie sighed.
“Six months in county Jail was horrible. I don’t even want to imagine what doing years in a prison must be like.”
“We need to find this man and pass him over to the cops. Otherwise, you won’t have a chance of clearing your name.”
Julie made a sour face as she looked around.
“In the past, he’s always found me.”
Sammy took out his gun again and held it loosely.
“Let’s hope he finds us soon.”
Sara was driving back from the lake property when the news came over the radio.
Men dressed like bike messengers had just robbed a bank in lower Manhattan. Sara thought about what Tanner had said concerning the items she’d seen in the rear of the van.
“It sounds like they’re going to dress up like bicycle messengers.”
And that’s what they did, to rob a bank.
“Oh Kevin,” Sara sighed. She understood that Kevin Kincaid was in serious trouble. If caught and convicted, he could serve a decade or more in a federal prison.
Sara thought about the quickest route to take to her new destination. She was headed to Professor Seagate’s house in Tarrytown, having assumed that Kevin and his friends would meet there after the robbery.
She was right about that, but there would be someone else there as well, a thief and a murderer named Luis Zade, who was planning to rob and kill the group.
Sara drove faster, as intuition told her that Kevin Kincaid faced more trouble than the implications of breaking the law could bring down upon him. No, there was danger as well, she simply knew it.
Sara removed the knife she kept in her purse, opened it, and sat it up in a cup holder. As she slowed to take a curve, she reached over and removed a gun from her glove box. She could be dangerous too.
23
Hop In!
Fenner tapped a fist against the top of his dashboard in triumph as he spotted Sammy’s car in the parking lot of a church.
He had slowed when spotting it, but didn’t stop. Instead, he drove on to the next intersection where he made three consecutive right turns to park on the street in front of a small, but well-maintained home.
From where he was, Fenner could see Sammy in profile. The fact that Sammy was young and good-looking didn’t please Fenner. Julie might see in the man a chance at a new protector. Fenner needed her in panic mode if she were to give up all hope and submit to him. A stranger like Sammy might renew her confidence in herself.
There was also the outside chance that the stranger might be so beguiled by her beauty that he would offer to give Julie an alibi for the time of the murder. He could claim that he picked her up from her job at the homeless shelter and was with her ever since.
If the man were respectable enough, the cops would believe him and Julie’s trailer wouldn’t be searched, granting her time to get rid of the evidence.
Fenner couldn’t have that. No, he would kill the stranger and place Julie in more legal peril. She would see the power Fenner possessed and how futile any hope of rescue was. She would finally submit and become his slave.
Yes, the stranger had to die. Fenner left his car while holding a knife and moved towards Sammy’s open window.
One flash of the sharp blade and the stranger’s throat would be cut. Fenner made a face of disgust when he thought about the gush of blood that would result. He detested any sort of mess.
After entering the parking lot and moving with stealth, Fenner eased his way over to the driver’s side of Sammy’s car.
While Sammy and Julie were preoccupied by their conversation, Fenner inched closer to Sammy’s open window. Once there, he raised the knife, and prepared to strike.
Luis Zade was smiling at the surprised looks on the faces of Juan Vega’s friends.
They had gawked when Juan entered the barn with Zade, and Juan had been trying to explain the situation ever since.
“I had no choice. He figured out that I framed his brother.”
The professor, the one named Seagate, was crimson with anger.
“Why did you tell him everything, Juan? You didn’t have to tell him about us.”
Juan shook his head.
“I did. You weren’t there. He would have kept hurting me if I didn’t tell the truth, he would have hurt me bad.”
“Enough talk,” Zade said. “Where’s the money?”
Everyone looked over at Kevin, the handsome dark-haired kid. He was still wearing a backpack, like a bike messenger would, even though he had changed into his regular clothes, jeans and a sweatshirt.
“How much are you carrying, kid?”
Kevin swallowed once before answering and Zade smiled at his nervousness.
If the boy is scared now, he’ll be shitting himself when the shooting starts.
“We don’t know how much exactly, but it, it looked like a lot this time.” Kevin adjusted a strap on the backpack. “And it’s heavy too.”
“The heavier the better, walk over here and hand it to me.”
Seagate held up a hand.
“Hold on a second. We need that money.”
“Yeah, Juan told me about that. You want to frame some other poor bastard.”
“Poor bastard? That poor bastard as you call him killed my fiancée.”
“On purpose?”
“No, Emily was shot by accident, but he still murdered her.”
“Hey, Seagate, shit happens, and there are other women in the world. But look at you, you took these kids and turned them into frame artists and bank robbers. You’re no saint.”
“That’s not true,” Kevin said. “We’re all in this together, and we’re not kids. We had a plan to get justice and it worked.”
Zade smiled.
“Kid, if it had worked, we wouldn’t be talking. The plan went to shit and now it’s time to pay up for fucking with my brother. Hand over the money.”
“We need that money,” Seagate said. “The bastard that killed Emily… my Emily. He must pay, don’t you understand? He must pay.”
“Mr. Zade,” Juan said, and Zade turned his head to look at him. “What if we gave you most of the money but kept some to help out the professor?”
Seagate relaxed.
“Good thinking, Juan, yes, that would work. We only need a little of the money and the paper bands with the tellers’ initials on them.”
“Fuck that!” Zade told him. “I want all the money, every last dollar.”
“But why?” Seagate whined. “Don’t you see how perfect this is? If we used Juan’s idea, it would be win-win.”
“I have an idea for an even better plan,” Zade said.
Seagate spread his arms wide.
“Fine, I’m open to suggestions.”
Zade reached behind his back and grabbed his gun.
“My plan is simple. I win, you lose.”
Zade brought up the gun, shot Seagate in the chest, then fired a bullet into Juan Vega’s mouth, which had been opened in shock.
As Vega’s body fell to the floor and Seagate lay dying, Zade pointed the gun at Kevin.
“The backpack—Now!”
Missy yapped at Fenner when he was seconds away from slicing open Sammy’s throat. The strident sound startled Fenner enough to make him hesitate, but he recovered and reached inside the car.
Julie screamed, “Don’t!” as Fenner grabbed Sammy’s hair and yanked his head back, in preparation of getting a clean deep slice across Sammy’s throat. With no time to do anything else, Sammy fired three shots over his shoulder, grateful that the gun was silenced, otherwise, he might have deafened his own ear.
Two of the rounds missed, as they went between Fenner and the car, to ricochet off the ground. But Fenner released Sammy as the third shot struck the side of his right knee. Julie’s dog, Missy, jumped out the open passenger window and sped away. Fenner’s actions, along with the sound of the shots, even muffled as they were, had disturbed the sensitive dog.
When Julie opened the car door to chase after Missy, Sammy grabbed for her arm, but was too late to stop her from going after Missy.
Lying on the ground, Fenner saw her retreating feet and shouted her name.
“Julie!”
Sammy stepped out of the car as Fenner was getting up by holding onto the rear door handle. Fenner’s crazed face told Sammy that Julie had told him the truth. The man was mad.
“She’s mine!” Fenner said, while taking a swipe at Sammy with the knife. The movement caused Fenner to grit his teeth from the pain of his wound. He fell back against the car, before sliding to the ground.
Manhattan Hit Man (A Tanner Novel Book 18) Page 13