by Rob Ashman
‘It must be from talking to the Huxton woman,’ said Bassano. ‘She probably described us, and Mechanic pieced it together from there.’
‘Shit!’ Lucas paced around the room with the paper in his hand.
‘I’m not sure this changes anything. So she knows it’s us, so what?’ Harper was still trying to be logical. ‘It doesn’t change what we do. Let’s not forget, we still have her sister and that’s our big advantage. That’s our leverage.’
Lucas and Bassano considered the analysis.
‘She knows it’s us and she knows we’re in Vegas. Those two points are definitely not in our favour.’ Lucas was rattled.
‘We need to be extra vigilant in where we go and what we do. Travel separately and not be seen together, that sort of shit.’ Harper was determined to pursue his glass half-full approach. ‘We need to—’
A woman screamed outside. It was not the type of scream which said ‘I’ve stubbed my toe’, it said ‘I’m going to die’.
Lucas opened the door to see what was happening. A couple of people were running to a maid who had collapsed on the walkway near her trolley. A man reached her and called for help while another shouted to call 911.
‘Call the cops, someone call the cops.’ The woman was hysterical.
Lucas gestured to the other two. ‘Wait here.’ He made his way over to the commotion.
He saw a man come out of a doorway and vomit on the floor. The maid was still screaming for the cops and pointing at the room. Lucas skirted around her, creaked open the door and looked inside.
A young couple lay dead in bed with bullet wounds to the head. The sheets were sodden with blood. On the bedside cabinet lay two pieces of purple flesh and above the headboard was written in bold block capitals:
IN YOUR NAME
The scrawled letters were streaked red where crimson rivulets had run down the wall. It was written in blood.
38
Moran eased her car into the Lucky 6 motel. The previous day had not ended well. She’d been expertly sidelined by Mills and was kicking herself – after all it wasn’t as if she hadn’t encountered this before. Being the smartest in the class doesn’t come without its downside.
Her boss had taken time out of his ‘running around like a headless chicken’ diary to speak to Mills, which resulted in her being dropped from the case. Mills even gave her back her page of inconsistencies and across it he’d written ‘That’s Vegas, baby’. What a dick.
She was angry and resented being ignored, but Captain Brennan wasn’t interested, he was too busy. She had resigned herself to smouldering at her desk for the rest of the day but snapped out of it when Despatch told her to attend a murder at the Lucky 6. She leapt from her seat, the adrenaline was pumping once more.
Moran pushed her way through the pack of chattering onlookers. The uniform boys had set up a yellow taped cordon around room G46 and were holding back those looking for a thrill. The inside of the hotel room flashed bright white with exploding camera flashes. She lifted the tape, waved her badge and stepped inside. She was flying solo on this one.
The bloody mess lying naked on the bed stopped her in her tracks.
‘Detective Moran.’ She screwed her face up and introduced herself to the medical officer. ‘What have we got?’
‘A particularly nasty one,’ he replied looking up from his notebook. ‘James Kelly and Kathy Spink, aged twenty-four and twenty-three respectively, both from Layton, Utah. Both shot once in the head, with no sign of a struggle. Looking at the blood patterns they were probably asleep. I estimate the time of death around two this morning. They were due to check out early today and the maid discovered them when she came to clean the room.’
Moran studied the letters daubed on the wall. She took out a pen and poked the purple lumps of flesh on the bedside table. ‘Is this what I think it is?’
‘That depends. If you think it’s a human tongue, then you’d be right. The killer removed them from the vics, probably post-mortem, and if I’m right used them to do this.’ He waved his arm at the writing daubed across the wall above the bed. ‘Like some grotesque magic marker.’
‘Seen anything like it before?’ Moran asked.
‘No. This is a new one on me.’
‘Any idea what the message means?’
‘Your guess is as good as mine. Do you need me for anything else?’
‘No thank you, I’ll take it from here.’ Moran put on a pair of thin latex gloves and picked her way through the contents of the room. She called to one of the uniformed officers by the door. ‘Can you get me the hotel manager and tell him to bring the guest list.’ The officer nodded and shot off in the direction of reception.
The SOCO team were still snapping away ensuring every inch of the room appeared in one photo or another. ‘Can we remove the bodies now, ma’am?’ asked one of them.
‘Yes, that’s fine. I’ll be with the manager, if you find anything out of the ordinary let me know.’ As if two dead people with their tongues removed and a bloody message on the wall wasn’t out of the ordinary enough. Moran marched across the car park to the door marked reception.
Lucas, Harper and Bassano were sitting together in one room. The atmosphere was tense, no one made eye contact, each one staring into the distance.
‘She knows we’re here,’ said Lucas. ‘In your name. That’s what she wrote in the paper and that’s what’s written on that fucking wall.’
‘If she knows we’re here, then why isn’t it us with bullets in our heads?’ asked Bassano.
‘Because that’s not the game. If she wanted us dead, we would be,’ answered Lucas.
‘The game? What game? I don’t get it. We have her sister. We’re the ones in control. I don’t understand what Mechanic’s playing at.’ Bassano got to his feet and made his way to the window. Blue flashing lights and people in uniform filled the car park outside.
Harper was equally struggling to get a grip on events.
‘Mechanic doesn’t know where her sister is being held. Her goal has to be her safe return, right? She could take one of us, torture him half to death and extract the location. Why do this? Why kill two innocent people instead?’
‘Because it’s a game.’ Lucas put his head in his hands.
‘What game?’ Bassano was not catching on.
‘Think it through. Mechanic knows there’s an easy option to locate her sister but she’s chosen not to take it. She wants us to know she could kill us. Mechanic wants us to know that two people are dead because of us. She’s playing a game.’
‘What do you think her next move will be?’ asked Harper.
‘She’s shifting the power towards herself. I think she will kill again and keep killing until we return Jo.’
‘What! Like there’s going to be more of these?’ Bassano waved his hand at the commotion outside. ‘More people are going to die? But we have her sister, doesn’t that count?’
‘She’s put the pressure back on us. We either roll over or more people die,’ said Lucas.
‘So it’s kind of, like, we took Jo, so we need to return her.’ Harper was finally getting it.
‘Exactly,’ said Lucas.
‘What’s our next move?’ asked Bassano.
‘She’s gambling heavily on us not hurting Jo,’ said Harper. ‘So I guess we need to up our game, increase the pressure. I don’t think she’ll kill again. I reckon this is a one-off. It’s a frightener to scare us.’
‘She’s done a pretty good fucking job.’ Bassano turned from the window and sat on the bed.
‘We can’t allow ourselves to get diverted,’ Harper continued. ‘We have to press ahead with our plans for the exchange and extract some leverage from Jo. We took her for a reason, we need to use it.’
‘I don’t like it,’ said Lucas. ‘I’m telling you Mechanic will kill again and keep killing until we return her sister.’
‘You don’t know that for sure. Mechanic will be expecting us to run for the hills. We need to stay stro
ng. We need to stick to the plan.’ Harper was on his feet.
The phone on the side table rang.
Harper picked up. ‘Yes.’
The voice on the other end was brief and he replaced the receiver.
‘The police want to speak to everyone at the hotel. Looks like they’re starting with you.’ He nodded towards Lucas.
‘Shit, that’s all we need.’
‘Look, man, it’s standard procedure you know that.’ Harper was trying to be reassuring.
‘I know but we got a ton of things to do.’
‘Go see them and get it over with. We have our cover story and it will be my turn at some point. Me and Bassano will get things moving on the exchange. We need to stay focused and keep our eyes on the prize.’
He got up and patted his friend on the shoulder.
‘This is a typical Mechanic tactic, believe me. We need to stick to the plan.’
Lucas headed for reception not at all sure that’s what they should do.
39
‘I swear they get them straight out of high school these days.’ Harper had been interviewed by Detective Moran and was less than impressed. ‘She looked about twelve years of age.’
Lucas was quiet.
‘She kept asking the same things over and over,’ Harper continued as he threw himself onto the bed. ‘It was a joke, man, a sorry waste of time.’
Both men had experienced a particularly painful day. Moran had interviewed everyone in turn, with the uniform guys doing the paperwork. The problem was it took for ever. Lucas was one of the first to go and Harper one of the last. Bassano thought it best not to hang around and retreated back to his hotel to plan the exchange.
‘Isn’t that what she’s supposed to do?’ Lucas replied.
‘Yes, but I mean, where do they get these kids from?’ Harper was letting his prejudice show.
‘I didn’t like it. She’s trouble that one.’
‘Trouble? She’s just out of pigtails. Come on, man, get a grip.’
‘I’m telling you, Harper, she’s trouble.’
‘Get over yourself.’ Harper slammed his hand down hard on the bedside table. ‘She’s pedalling around on her pink LVPD bike with the trainer wheels still on. Get real.’
There was a knock on the door. Lucas opened it expecting Bassano, instead it was Moran.
‘Hello again, Mr Lucas, can I come in?’
‘Yes, of course.’ He flashed a sideways glance at Harper. ‘How can I help?’
Moran stepped inside. ‘Ah, Mr Harper, good to see you again. I’m glad I have you both together, I have a couple of follow-up questions, that’s all.’
Harper snorted and picked up the morning paper.
‘Yep, fire away.’ Lucas was working hard to hide his anxiety. Harper was working hard to show his disdain.
‘Mr Lucas, when we spoke this morning why didn’t you tell me you were a serving police officer? A lieutenant out of FPD.’
If Lucas had been eating something he’d have choked. ‘I didn’t think it relevant. You wanted to know my whereabouts around the time the couple were murdered. That was all.’
‘He answered your questions, Detective. If you didn’t ask the right ones, then …’ Harper smouldered behind his paper.
Moran ignored him. ‘You also didn’t tell me that you are currently suspended from duty. No doubt that wasn’t relevant either.’
‘I was keen to tell you where I was when the killings took place. That’s all.’
‘Mr Harper, you also didn’t think it relevant to mention that you were a ranked police officer, now retired. That is the case isn’t it?’
Harper put down his paper and fixed Moran with his best intimidating stare.
‘You seem to have all the answers, Detective, so I must have.’
Moran held his gaze, Harper’s stare wasn’t working.
Lucas said nothing.
Moran tapped the side of her head. ‘You see, I asked you where you were at the time of the killings. I also asked you a set of background questions. If it were me, and forgive me for being frank here, I would have said I was a cop, or in your case, Mr Harper, an ex-cop. Because I think it is relevant.’
‘I’m here with Harper to forget the fact I’m a damn cop. I’m currently being investigated and that’s doesn’t feel good. So we will have to differ on the point of relevance.’ Lucas marched across the room to the door.
‘Okay, gentlemen, I wanted to clear that up.’
‘So if that’s it, Detective?’ Lucas opened the door to show her out.
‘Yup I suppose so.’ Moran got up to leave. ‘Let’s be clear, sir. I realise you are a shitload of ranks higher than me, but on the point of relevance it’s me who says what’s relevant and what’s not. Have a good day both of you.’
Lucas banged the door shut and turned to face Harper.
‘I said she was trouble.’
‘Why the hell did you say you were being investigated?’
‘I wanted to get her off our backs.’
‘Okay what’s done is done. We gotta stick to the plan and keep our eyes on the prize. Moran’s a mild irritant and nothing more.’
‘We need to watch her, I’m telling you.’
‘Then you should go to the mall and watch her buy fucking Barbie gear. We got work to do.’
Lucas felt sick.
40
Bassano had been a busy boy. While Lucas and Harper were doing their level best to piss off a certain detective, he’d been putting the final touches to the exchange plan.
The venue of choice was Centennial Hills Park. It was much like many other municipal green space in Vegas but with one significant difference, it had an amphitheatre with grass seating for three thousand people.
All three sat in the bar stuffing their faces with tacos and beer. Bassano cleared the table and laid out an assortment of condiments.
‘It’s critical we take Mechanic when she’s out in the open. She needs to be isolated and accessible. This …’ he said placing his napkin in the centre of the table, ‘… is the performance area. It’s surrounded on three sides by grassy hills where the spectators sit. Lucas, you’re here at the top on lookout. There’s a tree line which will provide you with cover.’ Bassano positioned a saltshaker on the table. ‘Harper, you’re here. There’s a wooden bench where you have a clear line of sight to the centre of the amphitheatre.’ He stabbed a finger into the table and marked it with a vinegar bottle.
‘That’s good,’ said Harper. ‘We have high ground and three-sixty-degree vision.’
Lucas liked it so far.
‘I’m in the van parked here in a small car park.’ Bassano placed another marker on the table. ‘It’s about one hundred and fifty yards away. I’ll be waiting for your signal. When I get the go-ahead, I’ll drive to the pickup point, here.’ He marked the middle of the napkin with a sachet of sauce.
‘I got three-way walkie-talkies with earpieces and enough range. We’ll be in constant contact with each other, no problem. When she reaches the van we need to immobilise her. Not sure the best way to do that. It means getting close and we all know what happens when we get too close.’
‘Don’t worry about that,’ Harper said. ‘I’ve kitted us out. There’s a holdall in the car with three handguns and a selection of cuffs, ropes, a hood and a baseball bat. The van we hired has eye bolts in the floor for transporting pallets, we can secure her to those. When we get to that point, she’s all mine.’
‘What happens after we take her?’ asked Lucas.
‘We drive to the Mojave Desert, or to be more precise Red Rock Canyon. It’s twenty miles west of the Strip. Eight miles into the canyon there’s a dirt road leading to an outcrop of rocks about a mile off the main drag. That’s where I’ve dug a hole, that’s big enough for the bitch to flop right into.’ Bassano had looked forward to this for so long, even the hardship of digging the arid ground with one arm had been worth every aching muscle.
‘Sounds good,’ said Harper to
uching the items on the table. ‘When do we do it?’
Lucas picked up the napkin and wiped his mouth. ‘I’ll place the advert tomorrow, she reads it the next day and we go the day after that. I would have liked it sooner but these damn interviews today screwed with our timings.’
‘No worries, keep your eyes on the prize. That gives us two clear days to make the plan really slick.’ Harper was raring to go.
‘What time of day?’ asked Lucas.
‘I figure 7am sharp. The park will only have joggers and dog walkers at that time, so less opportunity for any passer-by disruption.’ Bassano had obviously been thinking as well as digging.
‘Then we’re good to go, guys,’ Lucas said. ‘Explain to me again why we don’t simply shoot her when she turns up in the park?’
Bassano moved in close.
‘Because she gave me this,’ he said holding up his metal hook. ‘And I want her to feel it before she dies.’
41
The next two days were like waiting for Christmas to arrive. They had plenty to do but it felt as if they were marking time until the main event. Lucas placed the advert in the paper. It read:
MECHANIC TO ATTEND CENTENNIAL PARK AMPHITHEATRE
THURSDAY, 7AM SHARP
PRECIOUS POSSESSION IS SAFE
COMPLY TO AVOID DAMAGE
There had been no further contact with Mechanic. At every opportunity Harper made the case that the killings at the hotel were a one-off tactic designed to knock them off balance. The more he said it, the more convincing it became.
Keeping their eyes on the prize was their operational mantra. They would take Mechanic down the following day.
Lucas was keen to utilise the time productively and keep everyone busy. They ran through the plan until it was second nature. The amphitheatre had never been so popular out of season, as the three of them practised over and over. They assumed their positions, relayed instructions to each other via the walkie-talkies, rehearsed getting into the van and driving to Red Rock, only to reappear an hour later and repeat the whole thing over again.