by Shawn Hill
CHAPTER 9 - THE WAIT
A plethora of information has bombarded Thomas and caused him to struggle with sorting out what to focus on first. It takes a while, but eventually the path to his next move starts to clear. He knows the man named Chief was just in the lounge and has plans to catch a flight to Las Vegas tomorrow morning. It’s also still relatively early, and now, seems as good a time as any to try and nab him. Thomas walks back into the bathroom and closes the door. A few minutes later he comes out and heads directly to the room’s desk, opens the topside drawer, then pulls out a small bag containing a prepaid cell phone. It was the phone Jason had used to communicate with all three of Juliandra’s killers, and had used over the past month. Its fate had also been predetermined since it was going to be destroyed once all contracts were paid in full.
Thomas writes the number on a piece of paper along with other information that could help him save Juliandra’s life. He starts to read it all out loud saying it over and over trying to memorize as much as possible. It was all-important, and he’d done everything he could up to this point. He needed more, more details. He needed to interrogate one of the killers. Enough! he thinks. I’ve got to question Chief. Thomas heads back into the bathroom with the phone and commands Jason to call the man, referred to as Chief, in an effort to get him back to the hotel. At first, Jason refuses, explaining that Chief has already been paid and doesn’t have any reason to return, but it only takes a quick reminder of how much more pain could be inflicted to get him to agree. Jason’s tune changes and he tells Thomas that Chief might be convinced to come back by the interest of a new job. Thomas dials the number and holds the phone as Jason encourages the man on the other end to pay him a visit as soon as possible. The call ends. It was done and the wait begins.
The question is… Would the man indeed show up thinking there is another high paying contract on the table? Thomas exits the bathroom and begins pacing the floor trying to memorize everything he can, including the phone numbers used by the three shooters Jason identified as Chief, Roy, and Boon. The wait seems forever, and his thoughts continually drift between numbers and questions. Without warning, the main door opens, and a man walks straight in carrying his own room key. Thomas is taken off guard and freezes in place. The man calmly shuts the door then reaches inside his suite jacket and pulls out a small-framed pistol which he points in Thomas’s direction.
“Where’s Jason?” He asks.
Although completely still, Thomas’s mind is engaged at Mach 3 trying to calculate the next move, the next step, the way he will avoid being killed.
“Jason’s in the bathroom puking his ass off from drinking too much,” Thomas replies. “He’s kind of a pussy, actually.”
It was him, the man who sat with Jason in the lounge, the one known as Chief. Groans of pain emanate from the bathroom and the armed man smiles. He turns slightly and reaches for the door, opens it, and looks inside. As the killer makes his visual inspection Thomas becomes more desperate, glancing around trying to come up with a way out of the situation. It’s all over, he thinks. It’s going to end right here. I can’t let it end here.
“You’re right, he is a pussy.” Chief says. “Did you do that to him?”
“Yeah, I had to find you,” Thomas replies. “I’m desperate to have someone… Well… Taken out, and Jason wouldn't tell me how to get ahold of his best man.”
After speaking, Thomas feels immediate regret for every word he uttered. That was stupid! FUCK! It’s done now.
Chief takes a step forward. “Now that you found me the results may not be what you expect, mister.”
He then reaches with his left hand into his right jacket pocket and pulls out a black cylinder. Alright, it’s definitely over anyway, Thomas thinks, Nothing to lose, nothing at all. Chief holds the cylinder up and begins to twist it onto the front of the guns barrel. Thomas mumbles, “Fuck it!” and sprints toward the weapon as fast as he can. He reaches out with his left hand open and pushes the gun away before tightening his grip and prying it from Chief’s hand. It was a technique he’d tried during self-defense training but never really thought would work in real life.
Adrenaline still at max, Thomas takes a quick glance at the gun in his hand and says, “Holy shit!” out loud. He doesn’t pause for long though and quickly pushes Chief backwards with his left foot, immediately spins right, and strikes the hired gun with a back kick, knocking him to the floor. It was imperative that he disable Chief to keep him under control, so Thomas runs forward and drives his right knee into the man’s face as he tries to get up, and then uses the bottom of the gun to strike his temple continuously until all signs of consciousness are gone. He had to pause for a second; he was simply amazed that his quick action completely flipped the situation around. Wow! Fuck, shit, shit, holy shit! I can’t believe that just happened. Fuck! I’ve got to tie this guy up quick!
He knows that within seconds this terrible person will wake up and start screaming or struggling. There’s no choice, he’s got to do something fast. Thomas runs over to the desk and puts the gun in the top left drawer before rushing back to Chief. Thomas picks up Chief’s right arm, holds it in a large joint lock and uses leverage to bend it at the elbow until it hyper extends backwards, breaking the joint and rendering the arm unusable. He repeats the process to the left arm to make sure there will be no struggle when he comes to. Just as he reaches out and grabs the legs with the intention of dragging him into the bathroom, he stops to think. I’ve got to prevent this guy from doing anything at all. I can’t risk him trying to get away or trying to fight. His knees!
Thomas immediately reaches down and grabs the gunman’s right ankle, pulls it up, and begins to force his elbow down onto the knee trying to hyper extend the joint. It wasn’t working; he couldn’t get enough leverage and time was running out. Next, he steps over the knee facing the foot, squats down and clasps the ankle with both hands. In a quick motion he pulls upward on the leg while dropping his body weight down on the knee causing it to snap. It was a horrible sound, much worse than the elbows. It was almost impossible to avoid vomiting. One down one more to go. Better make damn sure. Reluctantly, Thomas steps over the left knee and repeats the process.
“Now that fuck is going nowhere,” he says out loud.
Suddenly, his gag reflex gains strength and he’s forced to grab the small trash can near the desk in order to expel the last of his stomach’s contents. The more he released the more he gagged and the more he gagged the more he spewed. Finally, it was enough, and it didn’t take long to recollect his thoughts and focus. He had to get Chief into the bathroom before he woke up. Thomas quickly searches through every pocket on Chief’s clothing and removes all the items, placing them on a small tray found earlier by the coffee maker. He then drags him into the bathroom.
“Hey Jason, your friend is here!”
Now, Chief’s nightmare begins as the water from the shower slams down onto his face, and he’s thrust into the awareness of his injuries.
“Ahhh, what have you done to me? My fuckin’ arms! Ahhh, I can’t… My legs! What the hell? What do you want from me?”
“Chief,” Thomas says, “I don’t have much time because I need to find your buddy Roy before he disappears. I’m sorry about your arms and your legs. I had to make sure you wouldn’t cause me any trouble when you woke up. Wait, no… Come to think of it, I don’t believe I am sorry about it. See, you shot my wife this morning, and well, that wasn’t a good thing to do.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about mister. I didn’t shoot anybody.”
“Ohh, this game again, huh? I don’t understand why everyone lies. Why don’t you just tell the truth right away and avoid getting tortured? I don’t get it; do you Jason? Well, let’s ask Jason about it, shall we. So Jason, is this Chief? Is this one of the men you hired to kill my wife?”
Thomas looks over and sees him nodding his head ever so slightly.
“You see, Chief, or whatever the hell your name is, Jason has co
me to grips with the truth and he says you’re one of the FUCKS I’m looking for, and guess what? I believe him. I do, 'cuz Jason and I have an understanding now. Hell, we could be friends if he hadn’t hired three killers to shoot my wife!”
Thomas reaches over towards the iron sitting on the countertop still plugged in and turns the heat dial to linen. Without pause he leans over the tub, grabs Chief and pulls him out, slamming him onto the tile floor.
“I have a few questions for you, CHIEF! And, if you don’t answer them, I’m gonna make you look worse than Jason.”
Chief, immediately, cries out, “Okay, okay! What do you want to know? What? What?”
“Well, where were you this morning when you pulled the trigger? Where exactly, were you?”
“Why does it matter? I did it. I did it. Just turn me in, for God sakes.”
Thomas reaches for the iron, takes Chief’s right hand and flips it so the palm is up. He presses the iron down onto it as hard as he can for a count of ten while covering Chief’s mouth with a hand towel.
“The next time I ask a question, you just answer it, or this iron will be on your fucking face! Do you understand me? Do you understand me?”
Chief is groaning, pleading for mercy, “Yes, yes, I was in a house 250 yards from your home. The owner was on vacation, so I used it.”
“What house? What was the address? And, I want to know what room you were in and what direction you were looking.”
“2499 Rosewater Avenue,” he says, “just up the hill from your house on the opposite side of the street. I was in the southwest corner, in the bedroom facing down the hill at your house.”
“Wait, wait a second. Did you move at any time? I mean, you were going to shoot her in the kitchen and then you shot her in the police car. Did you have to move?”
“What? No, I had a clear shot of the kitchen and the driveway. How the hell did you know we intended to drop her in the kitchen?”
Thomas grabs the iron and moves it towards Chief’s face. “I told you to answer the damn questions not ask questions!”
“Alright, alright! I’m sorry, hold on! Wait, wait!”
“So you didn’t have to move?”
“No, my view was good, I never had to move.”
“The other two, Roy and Boon, where were they to start with? If they were going to shoot into my kitchen.”
“I don’t know exactly where they were. All I know is that I was to shoot from the North East, Roy from the North and Boon was South West of your house. I swear that’s all I know.”
“I want to know every detail of what you did from 8:36am to 9:36am. Tell me everything. I want to know what you were doing the whole time, if you went to the bathroom, if you scratched your ass, looked over your shoulder, everything. And, I want to know what you brought with you and where you put it. Guns, knives, two way radio, cellphone; tell me every detail of what you had and where it was.”
Chief begins explaining exactly what he had done during that time, minute by minute, while Thomas listens intently, jotting down important details on a hotel notepad. He listens for over an hour as Chief recalls every small element of his movements.
Thomas learns that all three had been instructed not to shoot until 9:36am unless Juliandra was thought to be leaving the home, at which point they were to fire at will. Each gunman was settled in by 8:36am and Juliandra’s fate seemed to be sealed. After a while though, Thomas was convinced he could get to Chief’s location and neutralize him in less than fifteen minutes. 250 yards wasn’t a lot of ground to cover on foot, but it would take more time to cover that distance covertly. He’d also need time to somehow disable Chief before he could pull the trigger.
Thomas creates a drawing of the room Chief described, then makes points on it showing where each item was supposed to be located. It was like having the lottery numbers before they were drawn, except the prize was life not millions of dollars. If he maintains the advantage of surprise and gets to them unnoticed, it would be possible. No, not possible, there could be no conditions, it had to work… it had to. The next step is to question Roy and Boon to find out their exact locations. According to Chief, the three hired guns didn’t know each other and shared little information about themselves, just enough to coordinate the job. He only knew Boon came down from Canada, was going to take the longest shot, and Roy was up from Mexico and taking the second longest shot. That was alright though because Thomas had something he could use to find them, Jason.
Thomas stuffs a small hand towel in Chief’s mouth and ties another longer one around his face to keep it there.
“Keep your mouth shut” he tells him. “If you make any noise the iron is going to be your lunch.”
His focus is back to Jason. Two more murderers had to be tracked down which meant two more calls had to be made, and soon before they destroyed their phones. Surprisingly, Jason offers no resistance this time when he’s told to convince Roy and Boon that a meeting is necessary. Thomas almost didn’t even have to ask as he held the phone up. Jason was able to persuade Roy to take a meeting at noon in Houlton, Maine, and the man known as Boon the following day in New York City at 10:00am. This would create an incredible challenge for Thomas, as he needed to remain awake the entire time or risk falling asleep and starting all over again. He’s was used to working late hours, but had never tried to stay awake for the amount of time it was going to take to finally meet with Boon, and hopefully get the answers he needed. Not only did he have to get those answers but he needed to memorize as much information as possible. As he paced around, he took every opportunity to say out loud the most important details he wanted to remember.
What he needed now was a map to help visualize everything. It would be handy to view the home and its surroundings from above. After tying Chief’s broken arms behind his body, tightening the cords that held Jason in place, and doing his best to prevent them from making any sound, Thomas puts the ‘do not disturb’ sign on the room door and heads down into the hotel lobby to use a guest computer. He brings up a satellite view of his house on a mapping website and looks it over. Zooming out reveals the house Chief was in this morning and sparks the thoughts of where the other two men might have been. He also notices the satellite image is dated 2013, and there were two vehicles being washed in the driveway the day the photo was taken, a small pickup truck and a four door SUV. I wonder, he thinks. What if one of those vehicles was there?
Thomas moves the map on the screen back to his house and zooms in to get a closer look. Something catches his eye. It was a spot on the roof. Two more clicks to get even closer and he recognizes the object. My shoe! In an instant he becomes overwhelmed by the memory of how it got there…