by Mike Ryan
“Why not?”
Recker shrugged. “I don’t know. I just assumed he’d go to his buddies and let them know what happened.”
“Perhaps the other leaders of the group live there.”
“Guess anything’s possible.”
“So, what was your opinion of Mr. Billings?” Jones asked.
“My opinion of Billings is that I think he’s a grade A punk. Classic case of a guy who thinks he’s tough and can do whatever he wants to anybody.”
“I believe that is par for the course for that group. Probably don’t let anyone in who doesn’t think that way.”
“Could be.”
“If Chris is able to plant the tracker on Billings’ car, exactly what is your plan after that?”
“I only got one plan,” Recker answered.
“Which is?”
“To take as many of them out as quickly as possible.”
“Even if we’re successful a few times, it’s quite possible that they might find the tracker.”
“Anything’s possible.”
“Do you plan on taking out Billings first?”
“I’m an equal opportunity trash taker-outer. Don’t really care who’s first or who’s last. As long as the job gets done.”
Using the tracking device that Haley already had on, and was still in his car, Jones was able to bring up the address for the apartment complex in Cheltenham. He started digging through records to see if he could pin down any new tenants in the last couple of weeks. As he was doing that, Haley continued sitting in his car for about ten minutes, just as he said he would. There were probably about twenty cars between his and Billings.
Figuring enough time had elapsed since Billings had went inside, Haley grabbed the tracking device and got out of the car. He slowly walked toward the target car, not wanting to move too quickly in case someone was watching, making it obvious that he was up to something. Haley walked past several cars, and the front of the apartment building, before finally coming to Billings’ car. Haley just stood there for a few moments and turned his head in every direction. He didn’t notice any eyes looking back at him. He then meandered to the rear of the car, then slipped down to conceal himself behind the trunk and bumper. The tracking device was about the size of a memory card, making it fairly easy to put on, with Haley choosing to adhere it to the back of the license plate so it wouldn’t be visible. After making sure it was secure, he had to get out of there quickly. Haley had no sooner stood up when he saw Billings, along with two other men, exit the building.
“Ah, crap,” Haley muttered.
“Hey!” Billings yelled. “What are you doing by my car?!”
Haley had only two options at that point. He could either run, or he could try to play it cool, pretending like he didn’t know what he was talking about. Both options had their risks. At the distance they were, it was unlikely he was going to outrun them and get to his car in time. They’d also probably assume that Haley did something to the car, which would result in them checking it, possibly finding the tracking device, though they still might not have found it. If he stayed and played the innocent card, and they didn’t believe him, he’d still be looking at bad odds with men who were assumed to be pretty dangerous. After briefly thinking of the repercussions of either move, Haley chose to stay put. With him standing still, Billings and his two associates moved towards him.
“This your car?” Haley asked, as the men were now only a few feet away from him.
“Yeah.”
“It’s nice. I just drove in and saw it, came over to check it out.”
“Who are you?” Billings asked.
“Oh, my name’s Dave. Live in the building. Second floor.”
Billings looked back at the building, not sure he bought what the man was selling yet. “It’s just a regular car, man, nothing special to it.”
“Yeah, the color and style just struck me all of a sudden. No offense meant or anything.”
“So, you live here?”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s see your license,” Billings said.
“My what?”
“Your license. I wanna make sure you actually do live here.”
“Wouldn’t do you any good,” Haley said. “Just moved in last week. Haven’t got the address switched over yet.”
“Convenient. Let’s see it anyway.”
“Why?”
“‘Cause I wanna make sure you are who you say you are.”
“Who else would I be?”
“I dunno,” Billings answered. “Could be a number of people. Let’s see it.”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“You take that attitude and I’m gonna assume you got some other purpose for being near my car.”
“I wasn’t trying to steal it man, jeez.”
“That’s not what I thought.”
Haley put his hands up. “All right, man, forget it. Let’s just go our separate ways.”
Billings quickly took a gun out of his belt and pointed it at Haley. “Just hold on there, buddy.”
“Hey, what’s that for? You’re taking things a little far here, don’t you think?”
“What were you doing by my car?”
“Nothing. I was just looking at it.”
Billings held his gun a little firmer, pointing it straight at Haley’s chest. “You better start talking right now or you’re not gonna have another chance in a minute.”
Haley looked at the two men standing next to Billings, neither of whom had their gun out yet, though he assumed they both had one. He realized there was no talking himself out of this one. If he was going to get free of this situation, he was going to have to shoot his way out. He just had to get to his gun first. Not an easy proposition when someone already had their gun pointed at him.
“All right, all right,” Haley said. “You wanna see who I really am?” Billings didn’t respond. He just stared at Haley with a distrustful look in his eye. “I’ll reach into my back pocket and take out my wallet so you can look at my license, OK?”
Billings nodded. “Just do it slowly.”
“All right, just don’t get an itchy trigger finger or anything.”
“You a cop or something?”
“No.”
Haley slowly reached his arm around his back, putting his hand inside his back pocket to remove his wallet. He took his wallet out and gently brought it back around to the front of him and held it out. Billings grabbed hold of it, taking his eyes off his target for a second. As Billings brought it closer to him, Haley reached his arm around his back again, this time getting his fingers on the handle of his gun. Just as Billings had opened his wallet, Haley swiftly withdrew his gun and brought it to the front of him. Billings had lazily let his gun drop a few inches when he took the wallet, leaving him in a bad spot as the fight started. He dropped the wallet as he brought his gun back up, though Haley fired first, drilling a hole in Billings’ chest, dropping him to the ground instantly. As the gun flew out of his hands, Haley’s sights then turned to the two assistants. They each started reaching for their guns, but Haley was too quick for them considering his gun was already out. Haley took out the man to his left, then immediately did the same to the man on the right, neither giving him much opposition.
Haley stood there for a second, looking at the three men, disappointed with himself for letting it get to that situation. “Damn.”
He wasn’t sure the tracking device would be of much use now, but decided to let it stay, just in case the car passed down to another member of the group. Knowing he had to go soon with the police likely on the way, Haley reached down and grabbed his wallet, then jogged back to his car. Once back in his car, he quickly turned the engine on and got out of the parking lot, driving only across the street to a different apartment complex, and taking up one of the parking spots so he could keep an eye on what was happening with the chaos that he just left. As he sat there waiting, he called the office to let them know what was going on. Jones p
ut the call on speaker.
“Chris, has the tracker been planted?” Jones asked.
“Uhh, yeah, yeah, it’s on. But there’s been a complication.”
“Oh. What’s wrong?”
“Billings and two other guys came out just as I was putting the device on.”
“Oh no. You said you put it on though?”
“Yeah. After I did, they came out, saw me near the car, came up to me and started asking questions.”
“Since we’re having this conversation, I assume you were able to talk your way out of it,” Recker said.
“Not quite. Billings pulled a gun on me, wanted to know what I was doing there, started asking stuff. He knew something was up.”
Recker and Jones looked at each other, knowing their plan failed. “So, what happened?” Jones asked.
“Since he had a gun on me, I had to come up shooting.”
Jones’ shoulders slumped, already knowing there were most likely fatalities involved. “And?”
“All three men went down.”
Jones sighed, frustrated that their plan seemingly failed, though he was glad Haley made it out OK. “Are you hurt or anything?”
“No, I’m good. Just… ticked off I couldn’t get the job done.”
“You got the job done,” Recker said. “They just happened to come out at the wrong time. It happens. We knew something like that was a possibility. Nothing you could do about it.”
“Yeah, I guess. I just feel like maybe I could’ve played it differently.”
“You did what had to be done,” Jones said.
Jones knew that Haley was not a man who liked to shoot first and ask questions later. Unlike Recker, it was usually not Haley’s first strategy. If Haley was involved in a shooting, Jones knew it had to be done and there was likely no other way out.
“I kept the tracker on the car though,” Haley said. “Figured even if Billings is dead, maybe the car will pass down to one of the other members.”
“That’s good thinking,” Recker said. “Could happen.”
“Guess it’s the only shot we got now, huh?”
“Where you at right now?”
“Across the street,” Haley replied. “Just waiting to see what shakes down from this.”
“The most important thing is that you’re OK, and they’re not,” Jones said. “We’ll figure out the next plan of attack from here.”
“They all dead?” Recker asked.
“I’m not sure,” Haley answered. “I didn’t really get enough time to check. I split pretty quickly. Didn’t want to be seen.”
“We’ll monitor it,” Jones said.
“I’ll say this, though, if they’re not, they’re pretty lucky. I hit each of them at close range.”
“Why don’t you get back here, and we can figure out where we’re going next.”
“I’ll wait a few more minutes and see what’s going on here. See if these guys go to the hospital or the morgue.”
“OK. As soon as that happens, get back here.”
“Will do.”
After they hung up, Recker and Jones just looked at each other for a moment, neither saying a word. Finally, after a minute, Jones broke the silence.
“So that’s that.”
“Sure is,” Recker said.
“If they’re not dead, we’re going to have a new problem.”
“What’s that?”
“They can identify him.”
“I doubt they’ll be doing much talking to the police.”
“Even if they don’t, they’ll know his face now,” Jones said.
“I think we got bigger problems than that.”
“Which would be?”
“This was our one chance to act in the shadows with them. If that car doesn’t stay in Scorpions hands, we’ll never got another shot at it. They’ll know it was me, or that Haley was working in conjunction with me. We’ll never get another meeting to try something like this again. Next time they’ll shoot first.”
“I guess our next step is just waiting to see if these three are alive or dead. If they are still alive, we might still be in business.”
“Yeah.”
“If not, we will have to alter our course.”
“If not, then we’ll just have to make sure their buddies join them.”
10
Haley was back at the office, the group trying to keep tabs on the Scorpions who had been shot. He saw two of them taken away in an ambulance, which meant they were still alive, even if it was only briefly. One of them was taken away in a body bag. Jones was the one who was doing most of the checking, as Recker and Haley kept their time focused on trying to locate the rest of the group. They were digging into the apartment records that Billings was found at, that Jones had previously pulled up, going through them to see if there were any other members living there that could be identified.
“How’s things looking on our friends?” Recker casually asked, not really that concerned about them. For some reason, the silence in the room was getting to him. Usually he craved the silence. Now, he wished for anything but. Maybe because he felt like it was making him think too much about alternatives.
“Nothing definite yet,” Jones answered. “They were taken to Washington Hospital. As far as I can see they are still listed as critical.”
“Where?” Recker asked, a touch of concern plainly evident on his face.
“Washington.” Jones wasn’t sure what the problem was. “Is there something wrong with that?”
Recker didn’t answer at first. It was obvious something heavy was on his mind though.
“Michael?” Jones asked, starting to get worried himself that something was wrong.
“Mia’s there.”
“What do you mean, Mia’s there? She doesn’t work at that hospital.”
“They were short-handed this week. They put a call out to other hospitals in the area to see if anyone was interested in helping out a few days.”
“So, she went?”
“Yeah. You know her. Always wants to help people.”
“Well, I’m sure everything will be fine. It’s not like she will be having any interaction with him or anything.”
“I hope not.”
“Besides, from what I can gather, the police are already guarding him,” Jones said.
“What?”
“If Billings survives, he’s being charged with a felony.”
“How’s that work?”
“Apparently when he was found he still had a gun in his hand. He’s a convicted felon. That’s illegal.”
“Wow, they’re really stretching it on that one,” Recker said. “They find a guy there almost dead and they charge him with a crime.”
“Is it a technicality? Perhaps. It’s also using all the tools at your disposal to get a dangerous criminal off the streets. Do you disagree with that?”
“No. You do what you gotta do, no matter what it takes.”
They both went back to working their respective computers, though Jones periodically looked over at his friend, still seeing a worried look on his face.
“Mia will be fine,” Jones said.
“Yeah.”
“It’s not the first time she’s been at a hospital when a dangerous criminal is brought in.”
“I know,” Recker said.
They dropped the subject and went back to work again, though Recker was interrupted from his after about twenty minutes, with his phone ringing. He looked surprised at seeing Vincent’s name, as he usually didn’t call directly unless there was an emergency. If it wasn’t urgent, he usually had Malloy call for him to set something up first. Recker got up as he answered the call, beginning to walk around the room.
“To what do I owe the honor of this call?” Recker said.
“I just wanted to clarify a few things.”
“Like what?”
“The biggest thing is I heard about what happened to Billings. Was that your doing?”
“If you’re asking
whether I pulled the trigger, then no, I did not.”
“Strange that it happened within hours after your meeting,” Vincent said.
“It is what it is.”
“Perhaps it was your partner.”
“Perhaps.”
“You know, it occurred to me after you left, that maybe you set up the meeting so you could follow him.”
“Good thinking,” Recker said.
“Is that what happened?”
Recker cleared his throat, wondering if he should admit it or not. “Listen, whatever happened with Billings, I’m sure whoever it was, it wasn’t their intent to get into a shootout with him. In fact, I would bet that Billings forced their hand and didn’t leave them any other choice. With that being said, the man got what he deserved.”
“I can appreciate that. I just want to make sure that nothing will come back to me.”
“Don’t see how it would, considering the man met with me and I didn’t do it.”
“He’ll be able to identify who shot him at some point though,” Vincent said.
“I guess so, assuming he lives.”
“He will.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“I already got the word. He just came out of surgery a few minutes ago. He’s gonna pull through.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Recker said. “I hear the police are gonna charge him, so he’s irrelevant now.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Why?”
“The police have a few men there guarding him, ready to take him in once he’s well enough to move.”
“Let me guess, a few of them are yours.”
Vincent laughed. “Like I always say, it pays to have friends everywhere.”
“Anyway, I doubt he’s gonna do much cooperating with the police. Might tell his buddies, but he’s not gonna swing any deals or anything.”
“I agree. But I’m hearing Mr. Billings is a little more influential and important to the group than we’ve previously been led to believe.”
“How so?”
“I’ve heard rumblings that The Scorpions will somehow try to get him out of police custody at some point.”
“How they gonna manage that?” Recker asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t have any details. Like I said, it’s just what I’ve heard.”