Life is for the Living

by S. C. Stokes

  “Yes, detective.”

  “If Stevens draws his weapon, shoot him.”

  Whatever doubts Georgiano had about his orders, he kept them to himself.

  “Secure the scene, Lucello,” Bishop shouted as she ran for the front door. Kasey took off after her.

  They had scarcely left the offices when the shots rang out.

  “Shots fired,” Georgiano’s voice called over the radio.

  “Do you have eyes on the vans?”

  “Negative,” Georgiano called. “I am just reaching the loading bay now.”

  Kasey overtook Bishop, her heart pounding as she reached the door to the warehouse.

  “There’s no one here,” Georgiano called over the radio. “Kovacs is dead. He’s been shot twice.”

  Bishop stopped, and Kasey ran straight into her.

  “Sorry,” Kasey said as she struggled for breath.

  “Don’t worry about it.” Bishop began pacing back and forth in the aisle. “What are you playing at, Stevens?” Her voice was almost a whisper.

  Bishop raised her radio and jammed down on the transmit button so hard, Kasey worried the entire radio might shatter. “Georgiano, put out an all-points bulletin for Stevens. He’s going to have a hell of a lot to answer for.”

  The radio crackled to life. “No need, detective. Bravo Team here. We’ve secured the exit and found Stevens. He’s unconscious.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Kasey looked at Bishop. Her mouth was agape and yet she couldn’t get a word out.

  “Come again, Bravo?” Bishop called.

  “He’s unconscious. We found him slumped behind some boxes. He’s still breathing but we have not been able to rouse him. I suspect he’s been drugged.”

  “Not possible,” Bishop replied. “We saw him inside only a moment ago.”

  “And I saw him out front, less than two minutes ago,” Georgiano chipped in over the radio. “I don’t know what to tell you, Bishop. We secured the exit as instructed and found him out cold. We’ve had him in hand for at least two minutes, maybe longer.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything?” Bishop demanded.

  “You were breaching the offices. It’s the single most dangerous point in any operation. I thought it unwise to distract you while you were storming a room filled with armed hostiles.”

  Kasey bit her lip. If Bravo Team was correct in their timing, the man they had seen inside the warehouse could not have been Stevens.

  How is that possible?

  Kasey thought back to the encounter inside the warehouse. Steven’s had his hands up but had been looking at the ground. Kasey really hadn’t got that great a look at him. He’d been all too eager to leave as Bishop had directed.

  “Bishop. Is there any chance it may not have been Stevens inside? I didn’t get a great look at him. I just saw the uniform and assumed it was him.”

  “It’s possible,” Bishop admitted leaning on the van. “I’d like to think I would have noticed if it were someone else. Doesn’t explain the uniform though.”

  “You’re right. He was definitely wearing an NYPD uniform,” Kasey said pacing back and forth. “Bold as brass though, whoever it was. He was willing to drug an officer and sneak into a warehouse with two heavily armed killers.”

  “You think he’s the one who got the drop on Samson?” Bishop asked.

  “It’s possible. Samson certainly seemed to think he’d been shot by his buddy, but I find that extremely unlikely based on how we found the scene. His friend was shot in the back of the head. Almost certainly before Samson was shot but we’ll need ballistics to confirm it for us. We have to get these bodies and evidence back to the lab.”

  Bishop shook her head. “I can’t believe it. Less than an hour ago we had a talking witness in custody and a lead on the Khan. Now all we have left is three bodies, and a phantom shooter we didn’t even know was involved until he offed the Khan and our only witness.

  “How do we explain this to the chief? We just tell him we let some guy playing dress up get the better of us? I don’t think so. We need answers.”

  “Get me back to the lab and give me a few hours,” Kasey said, anxious to take a closer look at Samson and his companion. The crime scene made no sense at all and she wanted answers. “I’ll work out what happened here.”

  Bishop nodded. “It will have to do, I guess. Alpha Team, Bravo Team, bring us the bodies. We’re heading back to the station.”

  “What about Stevens?” Bravo team asked.

  “If he’s not walking, toss him over your shoulder. We’re not leaving him here.”

  “Roger that.”

  Kasey couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt for Kovacs. They had promised him they would keep him safe. In their haste to take down Samson, they hadn’t counted on any other threats.

  Just like the gala. There is something else going on here.

  She had to get to the bottom of it.

  The ride back to the station was a quiet one. No one quite knew what to say about the raid. Stevens remained unconscious and was dropped off at the hospital.

  Still not completely sure what had happened in the warehouse, Bishop left two of Bravo Team to watch Stevens. He would have a lot to answer for when he woke up.

  The Tactical Team unloaded the vans. The three thieves, including Kovacs, had all been placed in white body bags.

  Kasey pointed to the body bags. “Can you give us a hand to get these three down to the morgue. We need to see what evidence we can get off them.”

  Bishop hefted the duffel bag full of cash out of the van. “Lucello, get this to evidence, would you? We’ll need to see if we can trace any of it.” She handed the bag to Lucello, but a roll of cash slipped out of the bag. Scooping it up Bishop set it back in the duffel.

  “Come to think of it maybe we’ll zip that up first.” She bent down and zipped up the bag. “Thanks, Lucello. Great work today.”

  “Sorry it didn’t end as you’d hoped, Bishop. At least it’s the bad guys in the bags and not us.”

  Bishop nodded. “Yeah, let’s hope the chief agrees with your assessment. We’ll head up to visit him first. Better we find him than we wait for him to come looking for us.”

  “Us?” Kasey asked. “I thought I’d head down to the morgue and help Vida. He’s backed up and could use a hand, I’m sure.”

  “He’ll still be there when we’re done, Kasey. We acted on Kovacs intel. Time to face the music.”

  Kasey sighed. “Fine. Let’s get this over with.”

  Together they rode the elevator to the fourth floor.

  Katherine, the chief’s personal assistant, greeted them as they stepped out of the lift. “Hi Bishop, Kasey. What can I help you with?”

  “We’re here to see the chief. Is he in?”

  “He is.” Katherine looked up from her keyboard. “Is he expecting you?”

  “No,” Bishop said, “but we have an important update on the gala shootings. He’ll want to hear it before he next does battle with the press.”

  “Very well.” Katherine picked up the phone and pressed the intercom. “Chief, Bishop and Kasey are here to see you.” She nodded and set down the receiver. “You can head in. The chief will see you now.”

  Bishop pushed open the glass panel door and stepped into the chief’s office. Kasey followed her in and shut the door behind her.

  Chief West was difficult to read. He was famous for his down-the-line approach to dealing with crime. He was as straight as they come and expected the same from his officers. The reputation of the fighting Ninth had been hard won and the chief fought daily to ensure it remained untarnished.

  Unexpectedly, the chief’s mouth widened into a smile. “I see you got them. Nice work, detective. You too, Kasey.”

  “Chief?” Bishop replied, raising an eyebrow as she took her seat.

  Kasey slid into the chair closest to the door.

  “I understand you took a tactical team after the remnants of last night’s robbers. I saw your
teams unloading from my window. Three body bags, it Certainly looked like you got your men, though from that look on your face, I’m starting to worry that I might be mistaken.”

  “Well,” Bishop began, “we interrogated the suspect in our custody, a lowlife by the name of Kovacs. Turned out he had been recruited onto a crew to fill out numbers. The gala was an ambitious target and the thieves wanted a few extra men to fill out their ranks. It took us some time, but we cracked him. He gave us the Khan’s identity and the location of their rendezvous point.”

  “Well done. Anyone we know?” West asked.

  “Wendell Samson,” Bishop replied.

  West’s eyes went wide. “Samson? Are you sure?”

  “Positive. He’s in a bag in the morgue as we speak.”

  “That’s fantastic!” West slapped his desk for emphasis. “Well, that explains the hit on the gala. Samson has balls the size of Boston.”

  “Not that it helped him. He’s dead,” Bishop said wringing her hands.

  “We took down Samson and all our boys came home? No casualties?”

  “Not on our side, chief. We have one in the hospital incapacitated. I’ll get to that in a minute,” Bishop replied.

  “You took down Wendell Samson without a single casualty? How is it that you aren’t ecstatic, Bishop? He’s the most wanted man on the West Coast, and we didn’t even know he was in town.”

  Bishop leaned back in her chair. “No one did Chief. It appears he came cross country for the gala hit. We just got lucky.”

  “Why the long face detective? Sometimes you just have to take your win and move on.”

  “Because it wasn’t us that got him,” Kasey piped in.

  Chief West turned to her. “What?”

  “There was another shooter on site. We were not aware of him when we arrived. As we unloaded we heard gunshots, so we entered and proceeded to clear the warehouse. When we reached the targets, one was dead and the other, Samson, expired moments later. With us inside the warehouse, the shooter somehow managed to get around us and kill Kovacs, our witness, as well.”

  “One person took down all three suspects, including the one you had in custody?” West asked.

  “Yes, chief, although I am embarrassed to admit it. We are trying to track the shooter now, but so far we have no leads,” Bishop confessed smoothing her pants as she spoke.

  “You think it’s connected to the gala?”

  “Perhaps. We’ve accounted for all the thieves present last night. Of the two that we captured, one died in hospital this morning and Kovacs was shot on the raid. With Samson and his colleague dead, that is everyone,” Bishop replied. “Everyone but our warehouse shooter.

  “Hmm.” Chief West mused. “I wonder who our mystery man is then. Perhaps a relative of one of last night’s victims. They are the one percent. It wouldn’t be unheard of for them to try and take justice into their own hands. That kind of money can buy a lot of muscle.”

  “Perhaps,” Bishop agreed. “Whoever it was, they were good. Moved like a ghost. The fact they left the money there gives credence to that theory.”

  “Money?” West asked.

  “Yeah,” Kasey answered, “we found a duffel bag filled with rolls of cash. We didn’t get to count it, but it could be as much as half a million dollars.”

  “And the shooter left it on site?”

  “Indeed,” Bishop replied. “The bag was open next to Samson. Cash was on display. The shooter can’t have missed it.”

  “That is strange. At this rate it may remain a mystery,” Chief West concluded.

  “Not for long,” Bishop replied. “I intend to get to the bottom of it.”

  “That won’t be necessary, Bishop.”

  Bishop’s jaw dropped.

  “I’m closing the case. Samson and his crew hit the gala and killed twenty-two people in the process. By your own admission, Samson and his crew are now dead. We have no leads on this rogue shooter and we are being crucified in the press. Every day this wears on, the public loses faith in us and our ability to keep them safe.

  “If we close this case today, having taken down Samson’s entire ring, we will not only send a message to those who might try something like this in the future, but we will also reassure the public that the NYPD are here to keep them safe. There is more at stake than taking down a single vigilante gunman that killed a few murderers.”

  Bishop was stunned. “But…”

  “No buts, detective. We’ll be releasing a statement within the hour.”

  “Chief…” Kasey began.

  “I said no buts, Kasey, that includes you as well.”

  “Chief,” Kasey protested, “I was at the gala and there's more to the robbery than there appears."

  "What do you mean?" he replied.

  "I mean that someone took advantage of the robbery to get away with murder!" Kasey answered.

  West looked at Bishop with a raised eyebrow. "What is she talking about?"

  Kasey didn't give Bishop a chance to answer. "What I'm saying is that when the shooting started, I saw one of the staff kill one of the guests. The victim’s name is Cyrus Pillar. He's in the morgue right now.

  “Vida is conducting the autopsy and I suspect that when he is through, what he finds will validate my account."

  Chief West leaned back in his chair. "So, you mean to tell me that in the middle of a mass shooting at one of New York's most prestigious events, somebody took advantage of a tragedy to settle a score?"

  "That's exactly what I'm saying," Kasey replied. "I saw it clear as day. When the shooting started, one of the waiters drew a gun and shot Cyrus. It was not an accident. It was an execution.

  He was standing over Cyrus, and shot him in the chest, twice. I'm telling you the waiter killed Cyrus. We may have solved the robbery gone wrong but there is still a murderer walking the streets."

  “Can anyone else corroborate your account of the events?" West asked.

  Kasey shook her head. "No, the other guests at the gala seem to have been too distracted. They were running for their lives. I know what you’re thinking, chief, but I also know what I saw."

  "But why wait until now to bring it up? Why didn’t you say something last night? We spoke at the gala, Kasey," West said.

  Kasey took a deep breath and tried to calm her fidgeting hands. "I was worried you wouldn’t believe me. With all that I’ve been through, I thought you would think I was crazy or overtired. Then there was the fact it happened in the middle of the tragedy at the gala. I knew there was no way that one murder was going to take precedence over a mass shooting that killed two dozen people. I knew the department wouldn't want to divert any resources away from the manhunt."

  “Well,” West answered, “the manhunt is over, and the case is closed. I will be putting out that statement shortly.”

  "Can we at least pursue the waiter?" Kasey asked.

  "Kasey, I know it was me that canceled your leave to deal with the gala fallout, but you have been through a lot lately. Perhaps with the stress of the past few weeks, you confused what you saw. In the midst of that carnage, can you really say for sure?

  “It would have happened so fast. Perhaps you were just at the wrong angle and the waiter was actually shooting at the thieves. Who knows? If no one else saw what you saw, I'm inclined to think that you've just been under too much pressure. You are only human, after all"

  “So, what, I'm hallucinating?” Kasey grabbed the edge of the desk with both hands.

  "Easy, Kasey. Don't forget for a moment that I'm your boss and the head of this precinct. If there are any more outbursts or insubordination in my office, your time here will be at an end.” He leaned back in his chair. “I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, but I'll not keep this case open indefinitely chasing shadows."

  “Then, please, at least give Vida a call and ask him about the autopsy," Kasey pleaded. "If nothing is out of the ordinary, I'll give up, I swear. But if he's found something, please let us chase this lead down
."

  West slowly nodded. "Very well, Kasey. I accept those terms. If the slugs Vida pulls out of Cyrus match the thieves’ weapons, then I’m going to reinstate your leave. Two weeks, starting today. I'll not have you suffering a nervous breakdown on our account."

  Kasey squirmed uncomfortably in her chair. On the one hand, the suspension would give freedom to pursue the organization that had been hunting her.

  On the other hand, it would deny her the resources of the NYPD in hunting down the waiter. She couldn't let a killer run free. Plus, since Cyrus was the head of the ADI, she couldn’t help but feel his murder was part of a larger plot.

  "Deal, chief. If the bullets don't match, you let us run down the lead, wherever it takes us. But if they do, I'll take the two weeks and take that rest.”

  "Deal,” the chief replied. "Let us see what the good doctor has for us." He picked up his phone and dialed a number.

  "Patch me through to the morgue, please." The chief tapped his fingers on his timber desk. "Doctor Khatri, just a moment. Let me put you on hands-free." He sat down the phone and pressed a button. "How are you, Doctor Khatri?"

  "Up to my ears in bodies, chief. How are you?" Vida's voice bounced around the small room.

  "Well enough, doc, given the circumstances."

  "We’ve certainly seen better days, that’s for sure,” Vida said. “What can I do for you, chief? It's not often I hear from you directly."

  The chief looked at Kasey and then at Bishop before he began. "I'm here with Kasey and Detective Bishop. Kasey has given me an interesting narrative of last night's events. We were wondering if you have found anything noteworthy in your examinations today?"

  "Well, chief, when Kasey insisted I take a look at Mister Pillar, I was a little curious. I had no idea why she was so fixated on this one. From all the victims, he is arguably the least remarkable of the lot. Certainly, in terms of net worth, that is true. As far as I can tell, he's a part of the Ainsleys’ security detail, or at least he was until last night."

  Kasey's mind was racing. She knew Cyrus was the head of the ADI—Arthur Ainsley had told her as much—but she hadn't been ready for his cover identity. It took a moment for Kasey to process the statement.