Chance Reddick Box Set 1

by David Archer

  Chance narrowed his eyes. “And what might that be?”

  “You see, Chance—you don’t mind if I call you Chance, do you? I still have a lot of friends, and some of them have done me favors in the past, favors that I rewarded them for very handsomely. Some of them are still loyal enough to keep doing me favors, and I learned something last night that makes me think maybe Darrell Johnson isn’t dead, after all. Am I right about that?”

  “I wouldn’t know about that,” Chance said, “but considering that his wife is sitting in jail for his murder, I would find that a little hard to believe.”

  “Well, it seems that a certain FBI agent seems to think he’s still alive. Since I happen to know she’s been talking to you, I figure the only person who could give her that kind of information would be yourself. Here’s the deal, Chance: you tell me where to find him and I disappear out of your life forever. Your friends, your family, I never bother them. This is a one time offer, Chance, so take it or leave it.”

  “I’ll have to leave it,” Chance said. “Your imagination is a whole lot better than mine, I guess. As far as I know, somebody, and I figure it was one of your people, put a bullet in his head.”

  “Oh, we probably would have, if we’d gotten the chance. Unfortunately, we didn’t. That’s another reason I think he’s still alive, because I don’t think there’s anybody else who had a reason to want him dead.”

  Chance glanced at Pete, who gave him a look he interpreted as a warning to be careful.

  “Once again,” Chance said, “I think you must be smoking something pretty good. This is so far out there, even for you, that I'm having trouble believing this conversation is taking place.”

  Garrett clucked his tongue. “Well, I just figured I’d give you a chance. If you’re not smart enough to take it, then that’s on you. By the way, are your kids enjoying Disneyland?”

  Chance’s face went blank. “Garrett,” he said calmly, “going anywhere near my family will guarantee that you die. Do you understand me?”

  “And you thought you were smarter than me. I got somebody to check on your wife’s credit cards, and found out they are in Anaheim. Disneyland was just a guess, but you gave it away, didn’t you?”

  The line went dead and Chance looked at Pete. A moment later, he hit the buttons on his phone to call Gabriella and she answered on the third ring.

  “Hey, honey,” she said. “I sure wish you were here.”

  “So do I,” Chance said. “Gabriella, you need to leave there now. Go back to your hotel as quickly as you can, check out and get out of the Anaheim area. Hit a couple of ATMs and get some cash, and don’t use your cards anymore after that. Garrett has tracked you to Anaheim. He just implied that you might be in danger.”

  “Oh, my God,” she said. “Okay, okay, we’ll go now. The boys will be disappointed, but they’ll get over it. I will call you when I know where we’re going…”

  “Not on that phone,” Chance said. “Buy a throwaway phone with cash and call me with the new number. Take the battery out of your phone now, just to make sure nobody can track where it’s at.”

  She hesitated for only a second, then said, “Okay, honey. I’ll call you in just a little while.”

  The phone went dead and Chance leaned back in his chair and put his hands over his eyes. “Pete,” he said. “I need to find this bastard. I need to put him down, now.”

  Chapter 23

  “If he’s talking about Anaheim,” Pete said, “he’s probably already in California. We had a witness in Barstow that we couldn’t locate yesterday. He’s probably going after that one right now.”

  “Then give me the address,” Chance said, “and call your friend at the airport. I need a flight to Barstow, right away.”

  Josie printed out the information about the witness, Charles Dennison, while Pete called his friend Rex Amherst. Amherst ran a small flying service out of the airport, and they had used him once before. He was available, and agreed to fly Chance to Barstow as soon as he could arrive.

  Chance was out the door immediately and the Charger almost flew itself as he headed for the airport. Amherst was waiting when he got there and they were in the air less then ten minutes later.

  The flight took just over forty minutes, but the airport at Barstow was very small. There was no car rental counter available, and Chance was forced to call a taxi cab. He fumed as he waited for it to arrive, but then offered the driver a hundred dollar tip if he could manage to avoid stoplights.

  The taxi driver was delighted and managed to earn the tip. Chance asked him to wait when they got to the house, then ran up and rang the doorbell. It was opened by an older man.

  “Charles Dennison?” Chance asked, and the man nodded.

  “That’s me,” he said. “Can I ask what you need?”

  Chance showed his ID. “I'm a private investigator, currently working with federal authorities. Have you been notified about a problem with witness protection?”

  The old man’s eyes went wide. “What kind of problem? I haven’t been told anything.”

  Chance shook his head. “Bureaucratic idiots,” he mumbled. “Sir, I need you to come with me, right now. There’s been a problem in the program and your identity has been compromised. If you come with me, I can take you to an FBI agent to arrange for your protection.”

  Dennison looked nervous and suddenly slammed the door in his face. “I'm not going anywhere,” he yelled. “I don’t who you are, you could be trying to kill me.”

  Chance growled. “Look, man, if you don’t want to go with me, that’s fine. Call the police and tell them you are in danger. Call your handler with the Marshals, maybe they can help. Call them now, and I’ll stay here until help arrives.”

  The old man pulled the curtain aside and looked out at him again. “How do I know you are not the one who told them where to find me?”

  “Look, just call your handler. Tell them to check out what’s happening in Vegas, they’ll know what to do. Or you can come with me, and I will do everything I can to make sure you stay safe. It’s entirely up to you, but I need you to make a decision now so I know what I'm doing.”

  Dennison looked at him through the window for a moment, then opened the door again. “Should I pack some clothes?”

  “If you want to,” Chance said. “Just do it quick, would you? I will wait right here.” He pointed at the front step, where he was standing.

  The old fellow stared at him for another moment, then nodded his head. He closed the door again and shuffled into the house, and Chance leaned against the door frame to wait. The old fellow was quicker than he expected, and was back only a few minutes later with a bag in his hand.

  “Okay, I'm ready,” he said. He followed Chance to the taxi and got into the back seat with him, and Chance told the driver to take them back to the airport.

  Everything happened at once. The driver put the car into gear and that was when the back window of the car exploded, showering Chance and the old man with glass. Chance ducked and then looked at the old man, but the fellow was far beyond worrying about shattered windows. The bullet that took out the window had also gone through his head.

  The driver screamed and suddenly floored the car, but Chance shouted at him to stop. Amazingly, the driver put his foot on the brake at the command, and Chance rolled out of the car with his Maxim in his hand. He hit the ground and rolled, then got to his feet and started running in the direction he thought the shot had come from.

  A figure jumped from behind a bush and started running. Garrett, despite being almost three decades older than Chance, was in surprisingly good shape. Within seconds, he had disappeared between a couple houses and Chance lost him.

  “Son of a bitch,” he said. He took out his phone and called Roberts immediately, rehearsing in his mind what he was going to say.

  “Special Agent Roberts,” he answered. “Reddick? What is it now?”

  “Agent Roberts, I'm in Barstow, California, and Chuck Garrett has just killed
a witness. I don’t know who the man really was, but I was trying to bring him back to you when Garrett shot him in the back of the taxi cab.”

  “Geez, Reddick,” she yelled. “Oh my God. Have you called the police, yet?”

  “No, I called you first. I’ll call them now, but I wanted to let you know what’s going on. I saw Garrett, but he took off running and I lost him.”

  “Just call the damned police and I will notify the nearest FBI office. Damn, Reddick, did I not tell you not to leave town? And I want to know why didn’t you call me before you went over there?”

  “Because I didn’t think I had time,” Chance said. He hung up on her, then dialed 911.

  The police were already on the way, having been called by people reporting shots fired, and so he called Pete to tell him what had happened. Pete and Josie were already in his car, on the way to Barstow, and Pete told Chance to just wait for him to get there.

  The taxi cab was still sitting in the road where Chance had left it and the driver was out of the car and had already puked his guts out. It was less than two minutes before squad cars arrived and Chance spent the next two hours sitting on the curb and answering questions.

  Pete and Josie arrived about the time the police were getting done with him, and the three of them rode back to Vegas together. They were just getting onto the interstate when Chance’s phone rang once more, the same RESTRICTED on the display.

  “Reddick,” he said. “You son of a bitch, Garrett, I'm going to get you.”

  “Chance,” he heard Garrett say, “I think you're a lot better investigator than I would’ve given you credit for. How in the world did you know I was there?”

  “Because I'm smarter than you,” Chance said. “I keep telling you that, but you never listen. Why did you run away? You and I could’ve settled this.”

  “Yeah? And I could have blown your head off. I had the chance, you know. I just figured Latham was worth more money than you were. John Latham, that’s the guy you were trying to protect. How does it feel to know you failed?”

  “It feels terrible,” Chance said. “But don’t worry about me, I’ll feel fine after I put a bullet through your head. Have you ever heard of Raguel, Garrett? He’s the angel of justice, and I like to help him out now and then.”

  Garrett was silent for a moment, and then said, “You are an arrogant bastard, aren’t you? You think you are so smart? Then you figure out where I'm going next, and maybe I’ll give you the chance to see what you can do.”

  “Why play games? Just tell me where you want to meet, I'm in. You and me, man to man, no backup, no other people around. You got the balls, or are you too big a coward?”

  Garrett was silent for a moment, and then he said, “Chance, I'm no coward. Like I said, you figure out where I'm going next and we will settle this, once and for all.” The phone went dead.

  Chance slammed the phone down on the seat beside him. “Bastard,” he muttered.

  “What is it now?” Pete asked.

  “He says if I can figure out where he’s going next, then he and I will square off and see which one of us comes out of it alive. Any ideas?”

  Chance was sitting in the back seat, but Josie twisted herself around to look at him. “There’s only one other possible witness he could get to from here,” she said. “In Los Angeles, one that I almost missed. It’s a lady named Brenda Jacobs, and she’s supposed to testify next month on a murder case. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time and saw an off duty cop murder his wife and kids. Unfortunately, she was the only witness, so they decided to hide her away until his trial.”

  Chance leaned his head back. “Then we’re going the wrong direction. Turn it around, Pete. We need to get to L.A.”

  He picked up his phone again and called Roberts. “Listen up, Roberts,” he said when she answered. “Garrett has challenged me. We think he’s headed for Los Angeles, after another witness there. He’s got about a two hour head start on me, so he’s probably already there. He says if I can figure out where he’s going, then he’ll give me the chance to take him down. How do you want to handle this?”

  Special Agent Sherilyn Roberts was quiet for a moment, and then Chance heard her moving. He heard what sounded like her office door closing, and then she took a deep breath. “If you get the chance to kill him,” she said, “don’t blow it. I'm on the way to Los Angeles, and I’ll call you when I get there.”

  “Just as long as we understand one another,” Chance said. “Don’t try to get in my way this time.”

  “In your way? I plan to have your back.” She cut off the call and the line went dead.

  Pete had already turned the car around and they were headed toward Los Angeles as fast as he thought he could get away with. The speedometer was hovering around the ninety mile per hour mark, and Josie had put their destination into her phone. It was spewing out directions, telling them that they were on track to arrive in just over an hour and forty minutes.

  “If we are right about where he’s going,” Chance said, “she’ll probably be dead by the time we get there.”

  “Maybe not,” Pete said. “It sounds like he’s decided to make this personal. If he goes ahead and kills her, there’s always the possibility you will find out and not show up. I think he wants you to get there, and I think he wants to kill you. What did Roberts say?”

  Chance grinned. “She told me to blow his head off. When I told her to stay out of my way, she said she’s coming to watch my back for me.”

  “Yeah? She could be setting you up. Let you go ahead and kill Garrett, and then arrest you for the murder. If the MO matches what she’s been looking at, she could actually make a case.”

  “Let her try,” Chance said. “Don’t worry, I’ll go for a body shot, this time.”

  Chance forced his anger back; letting his emotions get into this could get him killed, and he knew he needed to keep his head together. He leaned his head back against the seat and tried to relax, let go of the anger and frustration so that he could calm himself.

  He hated to admit it, but there was a thought running around in Chance's mind that kept insisting he was going to die. He was on his way to meet a man who had no compunctions about killing whatsoever, and he was certain that his opponent would be hiding somewhere around the area even before he arrived. He didn't know anything about Los Angeles, and he had a sneaking suspicion that Garrett might have scouted the neighborhood they would be meeting in long before now.

  Either way, it didn't matter. Chance was going to meet him, and he had every intention of killing the man. Garrett was going to die, and Chance didn't care what he had to do to accomplish it. There was no way Chance was going to take the risk that this son of a bitch was ever going to see the light of day again, or ever again threaten him or his family. This wasn't just about delivering justice, not anymore; Garrett had bought himself a death sentence by killing somebody Chance was trying to protect, and Chance was more than ready to be his executioner.

  It was already past lunch time, but Chance didn’t want to stop anywhere. When they finally got off the interstate in Los Angeles, he relented enough for Pete to pull through a fast food drive up window and get them some burgers and drinks, but his tasted more like cardboard than anything nutritious. Still, he forced himself to eat it. He didn’t know what he would be facing, and wanted to be in as good a shape as he could. The last thing he needed was to run out of energy when he came face-to-face with Garrett.

  Josie suddenly got his attention. “Hey, Chance? I might have something for you.” She was holding a tablet computer, and she passed it back to him. “Click the link.”

  Chance clicked the link on the screen, and a set of building drawings suddenly appeared. “What is this?” he asked.

  “Brenda Jacobs’ apartment building. She lives in the northwest corner apartment on the second floor. I decided to look for the blueprints, just in case Garrett is already inside the building when we get there.”

  The building was only two st
ories tall, and this set of drawings showed the second floor. There was a couple of elevators, but Chance noted that there were two fire escapes attached to windows, the kind that were counterweighted ladders that would slide down and lock when someone's weight was put on them. Neither was accessible from the ground, however, and he doubted there would be any way he could reach one of them.

  He kept looking, examining the entire second floor as carefully as he could. There was a utility closet in the hallway, a perfect place for someone to hide in ambush, but he didn’t really think Garrett would try that. Still, he expected Garrett to be hiding somewhere. From everything Chance had seen so far, the man didn’t have the slightest concept of fairness.

  The drive across the city took another twenty minutes and they arrived at just before one thirty. He had Pete park the car a block away and they sat there to watch the front of the apartment building for a few minutes.

  “That’s the place,” Pete said. “How do you want to handle this, partner?”

  “Alone,” Chance said. “You guys stay here, and if things get hairy, I want you to get the hell out of Dodge. I’ll take care of Garrett, one way or another.”

  He got out of the car and started toward the apartment building, looking carefully around. There were dozens of trees in the neighborhood, places where someone like Garrett could hide, and he imagined that he could feel the man watching him even them.

  Surprisingly, though, there was no sign of Garrett by the time he got to the building. The only person around was a woman, who was just sitting in her car and appeared to be playing a game on her phone.

  Chance’s Maxims were still in their holsters, because he didn’t want people freaking out about a man walking down the street with a gun in his hand. He walked up to the building without encountering any resistance, opened the front door and stepped into the foyer, then glanced at the mailboxes just inside the door. Brenda Jacobs was listed in apartment 2A, right where Josie said she lived.