Chance Reddick Box Set 1

by David Archer

  Special Agent Roberts was waiting when he arrived, and he was escorted directly into her office. He glanced at the empty desk beside hers and then took the seat in front of her desk. He didn’t miss it when she laid a small recorder out and turned it on.

  “Where’s McCord?” he asked, looking around the room. “I thought he was your shadow or something.”

  “Special Agent McCord was wounded during our encounter at the address you gave me,” Roberts said coldly. “He’s going to be in the hospital for a couple of days, and then he’ll be on recuperation leave for a couple of weeks.” She pointed at the recorder laying on her desk. “This is an interview of Chance Reddick, a private investigator who provided certain information related to criminal activity within the United States Marshals office. Mr. Reddick, would you please state your name for the record?”

  “Sure. Chance Reddick.”

  “Mr. Reddick has appeared voluntarily to give a statement regarding how he acquired the referenced information. Mr. Reddick, would you tell me exactly how you came across the information you provided to me earlier today?”

  “I already told you the basics of it,” he said, “but the rest is going to be even more interesting to you. Darrell Johnson, an employee of the Department of Justice, stumbled across evidence that Garrett and others were involved in selling out protected witnesses. He overheard Garrett agreeing to deliver a list of witnesses and their new identities to someone in exchange for a large sum of money, but then he also overheard Garrett calling someone who seemed to be superior to him to let them know that it was happening. He was trying to figure out what to do about it when he happened upon Garrett at a moment when he was pretty sure nobody could see what he was doing, so he whacked Garrett over the head with something and rifled his pockets. He found the flash drive that our girl gave you, and used it to track down some of the witnesses he needed to try to save. He ended up faking the deaths of five of them, and they are currently stashed in a hastily arranged safe house. He’s there with them, now.”

  “He’s what?” Roberts asked, her eyes wide. “Last I heard, Darrell Johnson was dead.”

  “Yeah, well,” Chance said, “I think faking so many deaths became a habit or something. The body they picked up at his house was actually one he borrowed from the morgue, and even his wife didn’t know that he wasn’t really dead until I told her earlier today. Once you can let him know it’s safe, he’ll come forward, along with the witnesses.”

  Robert stared at him for a moment. “And how did you actually get mixed up in all this? Because his wife hired you?”

  “That, plus the fact that I was able to find the place he was hiding. He thought I was a killer coming to try to take out the witnesses, and I'm probably lucky he didn’t blow me away. Once he found out who I really was, he owned up to needing help. Pete and I agreed to help him, so that none of these people ended up dead for real.”

  “And then today, your sons were kidnapped by Garrett in an attempt to force you to reveal where the witnesses were hidden? Tell me, how did that come about?”

  “I went to see Garrett earlier this morning, to try to get a feel for just how deeply he was involved,” Chance said, “and I guess I gave it away somehow. He figured out that I must have been helping Johnson, and now that he thought Johnson was dead, I guess he figured I was his best shot at finding the witnesses. Somebody dressed as a police officer went to the school and said there was some emergency, and that they were supposed to bring the kids home. Idiots at the school didn’t bother to check, and the next thing we know, there’s a note on our door saying that if I want the kids back alive and safe, I have to give up where the witnesses are hiding. I wasn’t going to do that, of course, so that’s why I called you. I figure if there’s one federal agent I could trust, it would be the one who’s trying to put me away.”

  Roberts leaned back in her chair and stared at him for several seconds, then nodded. “I guess there’s a strange sort of logic in that. I should tell you that Garrett seems to be in the wind. I called for him to be picked up right after all this went down, and he had already disappeared. His bosses are hunting him, and so are we.”

  Chance scowled. “Damn. I was really hoping you’d get him.”

  “Yeah, well, so were we.” She looked up at her office door, which was closed, and then turned off the recorder just before she turned her eyes back to Chance. “There’s nobody in here but you and me,” she said. “At the moment, I have to concede that it looks like what you are doing is saving lives. That doesn’t mean I believe you are Mr. Clean and Innocent, though. Reddick, I have been looking over an awful lot of things that seem to lead back to you, and what I see is somebody who tends to take the law into his own hands.”

  Chance started to speak, but she held up a hand to stop him and went on.

  “Hold on, let me finish. There were a pair of killers back in Kentucky who, according to the local detective, were almost certainly the ones who murdered your sister. He says witnesses put your truck near the scene, and he’s absolutely convinced you are the one who killed them. Someone fitting your description was later seen taking out drug cartel leadership in Louisville, most of them with that trademark nine millimeter between the eyes. I found that same trademark on three men up north who had gotten out of a rape charge on a technicality, and again, a witness saw someone fitting a description of you with them an hour before they died. And then we have Finnigan and Cardwell, not to mention a few of Finnigan’s people. The only thing that connects all of these cases together is that there’s always someone around who looks like you, so it’s going to be pretty difficult for anyone to believe that you aren’t directly responsible for them.”

  “Look, Agent Roberts,” Chance said, but she held up a hand again.

  “Just chill. All I want to know is this: am I going to find Chuck Garrett’s body somewhere, with a neat, round hole where the bridge of his nose used to be?”

  Chance rolled his eyes. “Agent Roberts, I can assure you that Garrett was alive and well the last time I saw him. I will freely admit that the thought of killing him crossed my mind, and if he ever bothers my family again, there’s a strong possibility I will do my best to accomplish it, but as far as I know right now, he’s still alive. Is that good enough for you?”

  She stared into his eyes for a couple of seconds, then nodded curtly. “I guess it’ll have to be, for now,” she said. “Listen, Reddick, you want to be a private investigator, that’s fine with me. You stumble across another case like this, and I will be glad to hear from you. But you start dropping bodies, and I'm going to be up your ass like a Roto Rooter, you understand me? This world needs law and order, not vigilantes.”

  Chance leaned forward and looked her in the eye. “Then maybe people like you need to be better at their jobs. I don’t know much about vigilantes, but you see way too many stories about people escaping justice. I don’t know if it’s the cops, the feds or the courts, but I'm not going to lose any sleep when a killer meets a timely end, and I don’t really care how it happens. Now, are we done here?”

  “Not just yet,” she said. She sat forward again and opened a laptop computer on her desk. “I'm going to type up your statement, and you need to sign it. It’ll only take a couple of minutes, and then you can leave.”

  She typed quickly, and then the statement she had put together came out of a printer beside her desk. She picked it up and looked it over, then laid it in front of Chance and handed him a pen.

  “Read it over, and if it’s accurate, then I need you to sign it.”

  Chance scanned the document and found that it was all of the information he had given her, but without his personal comments. He signed it quickly and passed it back over to her, dropping the pen on her desk.

  “There you go,” he said. “Am I free to leave now?”

  “You can go,” she said. “Don’t leave town, because I'm probably going to have more questions before this is over. You also have to identify Garrett as the man you saw with
your children. Granted, we know it was him, but there has to be an official identification.” She glanced at his signature on the document, then looked up at him again. “With Garrett missing, you might want to take some precautions for your family.”

  “Already did. They are currently on their way to another state, where they will stay until this is over and Garrett is in custody.”

  Roberts grinned at him. “Or dead.”

  Chapter 21

  Pete and Josie looked up as Chance entered the office, and Pete’s face was obviously relieved. “Thank goodness,” he said. “I was worried she might try to lock you up for interfering in a federal investigation.”

  “What interfering? There was no investigation until we gave her the information about Garrett. They ended up with five dead marshals, but three of them are alive and in custody. Hopefully, one of them will give up Garrett and whoever else is involved.”

  “And Garrett? Did you…”

  Chance shook his head. “No chance, not while there was a real possibility he had snipers watching us. Unfortunately, he’s disappeared. We need to watch our backs, because he might well decide to come after us. I already sent Gabriella, Grandma and the kids out of the area. Nobody followed them to the interstate, so I'm pretty sure they made it out safely.”

  Josie shook her head. “That sucks that he got away. Any idea where he might go?”

  “Not a clue,” Chance said. “Unfortunately, none of us really knows anything about the guy. Even Darrell doesn’t really know him, so I doubt if he could be any help, either.”

  “And I'm sure the cops and feds are checking his house…”

  He was interrupted by the ringing of Chance’s phone. Chance pulled it out and looked at it, but the display only said RESTRICTED. He answered the phone and put it to his ear.

  “Hello?”

  “Pretty slick, there, Reddick,” Garrett’s voice said. “I really didn’t think you had it in you, but I guess you did. Now I’ve got people dead, and my own life is ruined. You think you’ve won, don’t you?”

  “I will think I have won when I see you laying dead on a slab,” Chance said. “How about you and I get together, see which one of us walks away?”

  “Sorry, I don’t have time. Now that you’ve ruined everything for me, I need to get some money together for my new life. What, you didn’t think I would have a backup plan? I knew it was quite possible this was going to blow up in my face, so I’ve had a new identity all set up and ready to go for months, now. And thanks to you, I now know which of the witnesses Johnson was able to get to.”

  “Thanks to me? I didn’t tell you anything, you son of a bitch.”

  “Didn’t you? You said Johnson’s wife hired you because he’d been acting out the last couple of months. All I had to do was check and see which of our witnesses met with untimely ends during that period, and I had my answer. Don’t worry, though; I’ve got a few other clients who want witnesses silenced, and you don’t know where they are. I’ll take care of them personally, and then I can move on and put all of this behind me forever.”

  “Then why are you calling me?” Chance asked.

  “Because I just wanted to let you know that I hate leaving loose ends. I will be seeing you, Reddick. Probably a lot sooner than you could imagine.”

  The line went dead and Chance stared at the phone for a moment before dropping it back into his pocket. “That was Garrett,” he said. “He’s going after more witnesses, trying to put together some money. He says he’s already got a new identity set up, he just wants to make some fast money before he moves into it.”

  “And we have no idea who he’s going after,” Pete said. “Maybe we better call Roberts again.”

  Chance was looking at Josie, who was typing furiously on her computer keyboard. “Josie?” he asked.

  “He’s going after other witnesses, right?” Josie said. “Well, guess what. I will bet I can tell you where they are. Remember I hacked the Marshals database? I copied the entire list, just to be safe.” She was scanning some information on her monitor, and then looked up at Chance and Pete. “There are three witnesses within a hundred miles of here. One of them is right here in Vegas, another is in Kingman, Arizona, and another in Barstow, California. All three of them are scheduled to testify within the next five weeks. I’d lay pretty good odds at least one of them is on his radar.”

  “Names and addresses,” Chance said. “Give me the one in Vegas, first.”

  “It’s a woman,” Josie said. “She’s living under the name Donna Jackson. I'm printing out her picture and address for you now.”

  A sheet of paper came out of the printer and Chance snatched it up. The photographs showed a woman in her late thirties or early forties, with brown hair and eyes. Chance looked at the address and then punched it into his phone.

  “I'm going to go check her out, because she’s the most likely immediate target. Who is she testifying against?”

  “Um, it’s a case out of New York City. She supposed to testify against Harold Reeves, a stockbroker. Insider trading case, but there are mob connections. A couple of other witnesses have already been murdered.”

  “And Reeves would undoubtedly pay well to make sure she can’t testify,” Pete said. “You go there, and I’ll start working on the others. I can have local cops check on the people, even without explaining why. If they give me any static, I can call Roberts in on it.”

  “I'm going,” Chance said. “I’ll call when I know more, and you do the same.”

  He hurried out the door and to his car, looking around to see if he was likely to be followed. There were a lot of cars moving on the street, but it would be hard to tell if one of them was following him as he left. He'd have to wait and see if he had a tail once he got moving.

  A few minutes later, he concluded that there was no one tailing him. Still, Chance would have to be careful. Garrett had made it clear that he felt he had unfinished business with him.

  It was a twenty-five minute drive to where Donna Jackson lived, and Chance found the place with no problem. He parked the Charger right in front of her house, killing the lights as he came down the street, even before he pulled over to the curb. The moon was bright in the sky overhead, so he didn't have the advantage of true darkness, but he wanted as little light as possible, just in case Garrett hadn’t already beat him here.

  He sat in the car for a moment, letting his own eyes adjust to the lack of light, then stepped out carefully, looking around as he did so. The neighborhood was one of the newer subdivisions, with trees and decorative landscaping around the area. There were thousands of places where somebody might hide, and Chance didn't have the slightest idea where he should be looking. He moved slowly toward the house, up the walkway that led to the front door.

  There were no lights on inside, and Chance hoped it wasn’t wired up with an alarm system, something that might trigger lights that would suddenly blind him. There was no doubt in his mind that Garrett would love to make Chance his next victim, but he was hoping to avoid giving the man that kind of satisfaction.

  He didn't have any delusions, though; Chance knew he could well be walking into a death trap, and that Garrett had fed him a clue just to lead him into it. He already had the Maxim in his hand and was doing his best to listen for even the slightest sound that might give away someone coming up behind him.

  He got to the front of the house and his heart sank. It was only a little after eight, just past sundown, but he could see that the front door was standing partly open. In a city like Las Vegas, nobody left their doors open deliberately, and he was sure that someone who was hiding under a false identity would be even more cautious than the average Joe.

  He could see into the living room, though it was pretty dark inside. There didn't seem to be anyone there, but he walked inside carefully, holding the Maxim in front of him as he did so. He kept it there, gripped in both hands, as he moved farther into the house.

  The living room was clear. There were two ways
out of it, one of them leading to the kitchen, and one to a hallway. He checked the kitchen first and carefully made sure to check that the back door was still closed and locked securely with a deadbolt. No one would be coming in that way without making a lot of noise, he knew, so he went back to the hall. There was a bathroom straight ahead, with a couple of doors to the right and one to his left. The one by itself was most likely to be the master bedroom, so he moved silently in that direction.

  The door was open just an inch. He moved up beside the door quickly, then pushed it open a bit further with his foot. A glance inside showed Donna Jackson lying in the bed, wide awake and staring at something he couldn’t see. The look on her face was one of terror, and he suspected she was staring straight at Garrett, who was undoubtedly planning to kill her.

  “Garrett?” he said in a normal tone of voice. “It's over, man. Put down your weapon and come on out of there, nice and slow.”

  A shot broke the silence, and the slug punched through the wall right beside his right shoulder. Chance rolled to his left, putting some distance between him and the door as quickly as he could. He heard the hammer of a revolver being cocked and a moment later, another shot came through the wall beside him, spraying him with splinters and dust from the exploding wallboard. He moved again, staying just as quiet as he possibly could, but he knew that, if things kept up this way, he would be hit sooner or later. The hallway came to a dead end and there was nowhere else for him to go.

  He was mad at himself for getting into such a situation, a place where there was no further cover to hide behind. He had no other place to go, so his only real hope now was that Garrett would come into the hall. He tried to think of a way to entice Garrett, to draw him out, but nothing came to mind.

  Suddenly, it dawned on him that he had let Garrett herd him directly into the place where he wanted him. With bullets coming through the wall, he had moved right into the spot where he would be most vulnerable, and he was sure that Garrett had expected him to do just that.