by K C Gillis
Vitali gritted his teeth, plainly unhappy with the proposition that this evidence would always be out there. “You really don’t know who you’re fucking with. I’ll leave. But if I ever see that video again, you’re all going to pay the price.”
50
Vitali left the office, joining Tony, who hadn’t moved. No one else of importance was in sight. Not Chisholm. Nor the chief. Robbie pulled out his phone and made a call.
“Yeah,” Nicky said.
“They recorded the meeting. Banfield won’t sell to me. Light up the fireworks and then get to Mike’s office. You need to help Tony deal with whoever recorded the meeting.”
“What about you?”
“I’ve got a date with the reporter. She just doesn’t know it yet. We need to be out of here before any real cops arrive.”
“Got it.”
Robbie hung up and faced Tony. “Someone recorded that meeting. Find their equipment and destroy it. They had to be close to Mike’s office. Deal with anyone who tries to stop you. Nicky will be here in a minute.”
“You want me to do it now? The people you met with are still there.”
“No. Get out of sight. Once the show starts, they’ll come out and you’ll have your chance. Don’t take more than ten minutes, and then get to the car.”
“OK.”
Robbie made one more call.
“What happened?” the chief said as he answered the phone.
“They set me up. Banfield and Jordan Reed. She’s in Mike’s office. If you want any chance of surviving this disaster, bring her to me at my car.”
“I’m on it.”
Robbie exited the main building and saw Chisholm at the bar with a man who must have been Francis Emberly. Robbie wanted to do something more to hurt them, but time wasn’t on his side.
Robbie made his way to the parking lot. He didn’t expect to reach it before the show started.
Nicky had hoped to have a chance to set off the fireworks. While the plan Malone had set up would have worked, there was no way to accelerate it. Not with the fireworks platform manned all day. Robbie wanted the show to start now, so it was up to Nicky. It wasn’t like he was an arsonist. But the people at the marina, including the owner, had no idea what life was like in the real world. In his world. Where you had to fight to survive. Living in some pretend world on a lake wasn’t reality.
Now they’d get a little taste of his world.
Nicky walked to a position on the back lawn of the marina where he had a clear view of the fireworks barge. It hadn’t yet been towed out for the evening’s event, so Nicky was no more than a hundred feet away.
He pulled a flare gun from his small duffel bag. With a handgun, he could hit a target the same distance away as the barge. Putting a flare somewhere onto a large barge would be a piece of cake. The heat of the flare would do the rest.
He aimed carefully and pulled the trigger. The flare followed a shallow arc, tracing through the air directly toward the fireworks barge. It didn’t hit the barge dead center, but it didn’t have to. Seconds after the flare landed, the show began.
Nicky’s only regret was that it wouldn’t take place in the dark.
Mike hugged Jordan after Robbie Vitali left. “Thanks, Jordan. That went a hell of a lot better than I expected.”
“You’re welcome. You did a great job handling Vitali. I thought he was going to explode at one point.”
“That’s what I was afraid of. I really didn’t know what he’d do. I’m glad we’re done with him. Now things can get back to normal.”
“Wait,” Alice said. “What do you mean, ‘normal’? Aren’t you going to talk to Chris about selling the marina?”
“Uh, no, Alice. That was just part of the plan to get Vitali to blow up. I told you all along, I’m not going to sell.”
Alice stood up and headed for the door. “You prick. You could have told me what you were planning.”
“Just like you told me about Chris?”
Alice stopped and turned back to face Mike. “What do you mean by that?”
“Don’t play stupid. I don’t know exactly what you and Chris have going on, but it’s probably enough for me to divorce you.”
“You wouldn’t dare. You don’t know how to be alone.”
“I’m sure I could figure it out.”
Alice slammed the door so hard that a picture fell off the wall.
“Sorry about that, Jordan. I rarely air out dirty laundry like that. But with the week I’ve had, I don’t give a shit.”
“No need to apologize.” Jordan banged on the wall between Mike’s office and the room next to it where Travis and Rachel were. “Come over,” she yelled.
“Do you hear something?” Mike said.
“Like what?”
“It sounds like yelling. Coming from outside.”
Jordan and Mike left his office and were joined in the hall by Travis and Rachel.
“What’s that sound?” Rachel said.
“Panic,” Jordan said.
Mike pushed open the door of the main building and was greeted by explosions. He nearly tripped as his feet stopped moving. “Jesus Christ.”
They ran out onto the grass.
If Jordan hadn’t known better, she’d have thought she’d stepped right into a military battle.
There must have been at least twenty people running up from the docks yelling, “Fire!” It took her a second to process what she was witnessing, but soon she understood. The fireworks barge was engulfed in flames. By itself, the problem would have been minimal. Someone could have cut the barge free to burn and eventually sink. But they had loaded it with fireworks for the evening show. And now they were exploding.
In seconds, what was a single large fire became a melee of explosive projectiles being hurled in every direction. Roman candles, air bombs, Catherine wheels, bottle rockets. You name it, and it was probably on the barge exploding. A few actually performed as if they were set off as part of a show. But the majority either exploded like grenades or flew off in an unpredictable direction.
The result was that the fire on the barge soon wasn’t the only fire. Several boats, more than ten by Jordan’s estimation, were already on fire to some degree. The dock closest to the barge was also on fire, putting many more boats at risk.
The marina grounds became dotted with fires, most of them small, but a few required attention. One piece of shrapnel landed on the canopy covering the bar, sending the bar patrons running for cover.
Mike bolted into action, heading toward the docks where some of his staff were pulling out a hose close to the gas pump. Alice ran toward the bar where Kasey was working.
In the rush of people running for cover, Jordan picked out Derek helping people get away from the docks. Whatever had compelled him to get in bed with the Vitalis didn’t negate the fact that he was basically a good guy. But the chief was nowhere in view. Criminal or not, he was still the police chief and should care enough about his neighbors to help.
This is Vitali’s finale.
“What should we do, Jordan?” Rachel asked.
Hearing Rachel snapped Jordan back to reality. “You two should grab your stuff from the building. Laptop, phone, anything else you have there. I’ll help Mike. Be careful. This isn’t an accident.”
“Great,” Travis said. “Just when I thought we were done with shit like this. Let’s go,” he said to Rachel, pulling her along with him.
Travis and Rachel sprinted into the main building. “Something’s not right,” Rachel said.
“What?” said Travis.
“Mike’s office door was open when we left. Now it’s closed.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely. We all went right outside at the sound of the yelling.”
“Well, my phone’s in there, so I’m going to get it.”
Travis opened the door to see a very large man trashing Mike’s office. At first, the man didn’t notice he had company. But within seconds, he either sensed or
saw Travis and turned to face him.
“Who are you?” Travis asked.
“None of your fucking business. Now get the hell out of here before you get hurt.”
Travis wasn’t sure how to deal with the new arrival. Usually, being the tallest guy in a room served as a good deterrent. But the guy trashing the office, though shorter than Travis, must have had at least fifty pounds on him. And not much of it looked to be fat. He seemed quite capable of handling Travis.
“Look, man,” Travis said. “I don’t want any trouble. I just came to get my phone. I left it here by mistake.”
The big man reached into his pocket and pulled out Travis’s phone. “You don’t mean this one, do you?”
“Uh, yeah. How about you give it to me and I’ll forget what I saw?”
“I don’t care what you forget, you’re not getting the phone. Now fuck off.”
Travis turned back to the hallway to tell Rachel to go get help, but she was gone. “Rachel?”
In the instant Travis started looking for Rachel, the big man covered the four strides to him and hit him with a solid right hook. Travis’s head flew to the side, his right knee buckling. His body rotated to absorb the impact of the punch. The buckling of his knee saved him, as the big man’s second swing flew harmlessly over Travis’s head, sending him off-balance.
Travis kept his weight on his right knee and kicked hard at the left knee of his attacker. Not only did the man’s leg give out, but the sudden loss of support sent his big frame tumbling to the floor. Travis stood up, albeit groggily, while his attacker lay on the floor holding his knee. With the big man not yet trying to stand up, Travis got the hell out of Mike’s office. He didn’t need his phone that bad.
In the hallway, he called for Rachel but didn’t get a response. Not seeing her, he went to the room where they had monitored and recorded the meeting. The door to that office was open, and there were two people inside. One looked like Nicky, at least from behind. He stood over Travis’s smashed laptop. Standing rigidly in a corner, her back against the wall, was Rachel. She looked unsure what to do as Nicky was grabbing Travis’s laptop.
Nicky hadn’t seen Travis yet. Rachel made the slightest motion of her eyes to tell Travis to get out. Travis had a brief moment with surprise on his side. He had just learned what could happen when you hesitated. He made sure not to make the same mistake again.
Travis’s sport had been basketball, but he had also been a decent cornerback in high school. He rushed the two yards between him and Nicky, wrapped his arms around the man’s waist, and sent him flying into the far wall headfirst.
Travis popped up quickly and grabbed Rachel’s hand. Nicky was lying motionless on the floor.
“Let’s go,” he said. “Before those guys get up.”
“There was someone other than Nicky?”
“Oh yeah. And twice his size. Come on.”
He and Rachel bolted from the danger of Vitali’s enforcers to the relative safety of an uncontrolled fireworks explosion.
51
Jordan didn’t know what to do first. She knew Travis would look out for Rachel. Mike and his staff definitely needed help until the fire department arrived. But the explosion had to be Vitali’s work. She couldn’t let him sneak away.
Where did you go, Vitali?
Jordan headed toward the parking lot, the one spot she expected Vitali to be. She hoped she wasn’t too late. The chaos created by the fireworks explosions made it difficult to pick out specific people.
Before Jordan reached the parking lot, she felt something hard jammed into her back.
What the hell is that?
“Keep walking,” the chief said. “If you scream, you’re dead.”
“What are you doing? This place could burn down, and you think holding me at gunpoint is your top priority?”
“The way things are going right now, I’m a dead man. I’m running out of options.” The chief pushed Jordan forward.
“It doesn’t have to be like this. Agree to cooperate, and you can get protection. I know they forced you into this situation. There has to be a way out.”
“There’s a way out, all right. But not for both of us.”
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see. But first, I need to get back something you shouldn’t have.”
Jordan knew exactly what he wanted. “No. I’m not giving them to you.”
“That’s OK. I’m going to take them.”
They passed from the marina grounds to the parking lot. The chief pushed her toward the large maintenance building, the one where the forklift was usually stored. “In there,” he said.
The main garage door was open, and the chief pushed Jordan inside. The building was empty, all the staff at the docks trying to prevent the fire from spreading. The chief walked her to an empty space near a wall and turned her around so she faced him. He still had his gun, but he had it lowered. Apparently, Jordan wasn’t much of a threat.
“You have to know you’re not going to get away with any of this. It’s too late,” Jordan said.
“It’s actually past too late. You should have walked away from this place when you had the chance. I warned you, but you didn’t listen.”
“I’m only here because of you. If you hadn’t destroyed the evidence of the fish kill in the first place, I never would have come.”
“It was that idiot MacGregor’s fault. He was never supposed to dump any animals they tested. He panicked when he saw so many fish die and tried to cover it up. I’ll take those chemical samples now.”
“No.”
“Have it your way.” The chief raised his gun with his right hand and moved in close to Jordan. He put his left forearm across her shoulders, pressing her back against the wall, holding her in place. He transferred his gun to his left amd went through Jordan’s pockets until he found what he was looking for.
He removed the ziplock bag and stepped back, releasing Jordan from her trapped position against the wall. He transferred his gun back to his right hand and trained it on her.
Jordan expected the chief to put the ziplock bag in his pocket, but he didn’t. Instead, he opened the bag and took out the two vials.
“What are you doing?” Jordan said.
“I’m doing what that jackass Emberly should have done. They’re only evidence if they exist. I hope to hell they don’t make me sick.”
“No!” Jordan screamed. She watched in shock as the chief opened the vials and dumped their contents on the floor. He then picked up a red plastic gas can from beside a workbench and poured gas on the white powders.
“That should do it,” the chief said. “At least one fucking thing went right today.”
Jordan lowered head. She still had a story about a fish kill and the cause of death. But she couldn’t specifically identify NeuSterone as the cause without the kind of confirmation those samples would have provided. Even if she could have scraped enough off the ground, the gasoline would have made it impossible to identify them.
“Was it really worth all this to protect what Chisholm’s company is doing? You have no idea what else they’re testing, and it’s right in your own backyard. And I mean that literally. It looks like their wastewater is getting into the environment. What if someone gets hurt, or worse, because of what they’re doing?”
“If it’s not them fucking things up, it’ll be someone else. I control what I can. Besides, if I’m somehow able to get through all this shit, Chisholm will owe me.”
“Good thing you can count on politicians to come through. I’m sure he’ll take care of you.”
“Will you shut up already? Damn, you don’t know when to stop.”
The sound of sirens drew the chief’s attention. It was faint but steadily growing in volume. The emergency vehicles couldn’t be more than a few minutes away.
“Time to go.” The chief grabbed Jordan firmly by the arm and forced her forward.
“Where are we going?”
“You’re going w
ith Vitali. That’s the only thing that might save my life.”
“Glad you think so. I put trusting criminals right up there with trusting politicians.”
Based on the direction of the chief’s shoves, Jordan saw he was guiding her toward a black Escalade. Its windows were dark, almost black.
The sirens grew louder. Definitely more than one emergency vehicle was en route.
The parking lot was surprisingly quiet, with a few vehicles starting to pull out. Everyone at the marina must have been watching the disaster or helping deal with it. YouTube was going to have dozens of videos of the fire.
But something seemed off. Someone from Vitali’s vehicle should have been there. But there was no sign of movement, at least as far as she could tell with the limited visibility through the front windshield.
When they were within twenty feet of the Escalade, Jordan was violently thrust forward and almost fell down. Released from the chief’s grip, she turned to see him on the ground with another man on top of him. An assailant Jordan didn’t yet recognize looked to be trying to keep him pinned to the ground.
“Run, Jordan,” Derek yelled.
“And leave you with him?”
“Just go,” Derek said. “I can’t hold him for long.”
Jordan turned, heading for the marina grounds. She hadn’t taken more than three steps when she saw Nicky and the large man that had been with Vitali earlier. They were less than a hundred feet away, and both looked a little worse for wear. The large man had a definite limp, and Nicky’s head was bleeding.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Nicky yelled to Jordan.
She froze. There was nowhere for her to run.
Behind her, she could hear that Derek had lost his battle, his dad telling him to just stop as Derek held his arms in check. The chief, Nicky, and the large man converged on Jordan at the same time.
“I told your boss I’d get her here,” the chief said. “Take her. I don’t want to know what happens next.”