“That’s pretty quick.”
“Blame the lab for mentioning it to me. The resemblance of the DOA with Marie. So, you need to kidnap Marie and disappear for a couple of days. We’ll feed a story to the media about it. With the media coverage of a woman being snatched off the street, it should go out really quickly. That would then explain the reason the body is cold. Before you head out, stop somewhere and get a shitload of ice—everything you think you need to bring someone’s temperature down—and I’ll do what I can to engineer everything on my part.
“What about Marie?”
“I’ll tell her to expect someone soon. What are you driving?”
“The white van.”
“Perfect. Don’t worry. I got this.” Shane heard Hobbes’s self-assured words but knew that if his friend failed, Shane would disappear too.
“And what about the Captain and all, signing off on this.”
“Let me handle this. I’ll get him to sign off on everything, working my way up the chain of command. This is surely the test before you meet Lang and Blackwell.”
“That’s what I’m hoping for.”
18
Shane followed the bad plan down to the minute detail. Tailed from Mechanicsville down through Sandston and back through the East End of Richmond, until he reached Northside, he tried to lessen his apprehension. He needed a little bit of madness to make it through the night. Reaching down deep, he tried to scratch away the itch of paranoia that attempted to derail him. He needed to keep his head on, literally and figuratively, if he wished to survive the night.
Stopping at a hardware store, he dashed into the store, rushing up and down the aisles until he found what he thought he needed to perpetuate the perfect crime. He’d read too many thrillers and watched too much Dexter not to know the tools of the sick trade. Finally standing in line, he waited for the cashier to finish with the customer before him. Shane was dressed in jeans with a T-shirt, and his gun bulged from his back. The customers behind him ventured to another line while the cashier scrutinized his stack of items on the black conveyor belt.
“Got an interesting home project here, huh, son?” asked the older woman, who should have been able to fully retire instead of ringing up his purchase.
“Yes, ma’am. I have a problem with rats. Thought this all might help some,” Shane responded.
“Well, I don’t know too many people that wish to kill rats with their own hands, but to each their own, right?” She gave him a knowing smile, as if she too had thought of all of the tools needed to end a human life. Maybe his actions weren’t that abnormal, which saddened him. Maybe his piacular offering would quash the quelling madness that sought to break the backs of the city.
19
It was like a bad dream that kept pulling him in deeper, as Shane continued to prep for the body. With the ice finally loaded, he took a deep breath and drove down Chamberlayne Avenue until he found Marie—a fellow officer who was trying to catch a pervert or two to lock up. He wasn’t sure if it was better for the pervert to then have access to others in jail or just be made into a eunuch. It would at least save the taxpayer a few thousand dollars and save more victims from potential pain and abuse.
Seeing Marie, Shane pulled up to the curb and motioned for her to come over. The petite officer wore a long bright pink wig, short skirt, and tattered fishnet stockings.
“What can I do you for?” she asked leaning in the window.
“Did Hobbes talk to you?”
“Of course, it’ll be fifty dollars,” she shouted, too loudly, he thought, but her eyes cut to the other women and men nearby, who he guessed were listening.
“Get in,” he said, and with a great show, she said goodbye to one of the girls and gave her a tight hug, then stepped into the van.
“What was that all about?”
“To make sure that someone can corroborate our story. Hobbes has everything set up. We need to head to the house on North 23rd,” she said.
She turned and looked in the back. “I’ve needed a vacation, so maybe this is a way to make sure I don’t have to return to the street.”
“Have you thought of changing departments?”
“I’m just burnt out with dealing with prostitutes, johns, and pedophiles. I’m sickened just thinking about it.”
“I owe you one for doing this, Marie.”
“Well, since before today we’ve never spoken, why don’t we just keep it like that? That way, should anything happen, I don’t know a damn thing.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
They continued the trip to Church Hill in silence. Finally pulling up to a safe house as provided by the Greater Richmond Police Department, he backed up his van into the garage and watched the metal garage door inch closed, while catching only a glimpse of the white car that pulled out in front.
“We don’t have long,” Shane said, opening his door and jumping out. A freezer in the back contained the body, already dressed like Marie.
***
“Yes, Boss, I’m here,” Javier said on the telephone. “He’s picked up a woman and taken her back to a house in Church Hill. What do you want me to do?”
On the other end of the line, Jesse contemplated what Blackwell would want him to do. Jesse was the man for Blackwell’s crew and had to keep them under a steel grip or risk being replaced.
“Simple. Head in there, and if she isn’t dead, kill her and bring him to me.”
20
An unplanned aspect of planning to fake a murder: it always brought complications.
“Shane,” Hobbes shouted. Shane looked up and saw Hobbes leaning halfway into the garage from the interior of the house. “We have an uninvited guest.”
“Don’t get involved, Hobbes. This is mine to handle. Get out of here. Marie will be out of the house in the next 15 minutes. If not, then call for back up and report an officer down.”
“Are you sure about this?” Marie asked. “I said vacation, but not a permanent one.”
“Trust me on this. I’m good at my job.” Shane removed his gun and held it in his hand.
Just as quick as the kitchen door closed, the side door to the garage opened.
“Not done yet?” Javier said.
“Why? Are you here to help?”
“Boss just called and upped the order. He wants two now.” He slowly raised the gun to point it at Shane. With the speed of a professional hitman, Shane swung his arm around and discharged his gun five times before the goon could discharge one round; each shot hit dead center. “Looks like the boss gets two after all.” Shane said, spitting on the downed man. “I never liked you much anyway.”
Marie stared at the bloody young man and back at Shane.
“We didn’t have a choice, Marie. If I’m made, I’m dead, and if you’re made then we’re both dead. It was either his life or ours.”
He felt her hand on his shoulder. “I know, but remember, you are imagining, pretending to be a part of that world. Don’t become it. You have to not become that, or they’ve won something that we can never replace.” Her hand tightened on his shoulder. The closest thing to someone understanding was right beside him and about to walk out the door, back to the life she wished to live, while he had to remain playing the charade.
“Go, and thanks again.”
He didn’t hear the door close behind her or notice the sound of spinning gravel as Hobbes sped off. With five shots being fired, even in that neighborhood, it could pique too much interest. He had to hurry.
Picking up the tarp, he placed it on the bottom of the van’s floor, heaved the goon over his shoulder and tossed him into the space. Then, removing the donated cadaver, he picked her up and placed her on top of the goon, covering them both in ice. He needed them to be the same temperature, or close to it, but it didn’t take a genius to notice that the female body wasn’t fresh, any more than it was noticeable that she exhibited no external marks on her body, but track marks, which appeared close to fresh and were a good sign, for hi
m at least.
If cold could cause decomposition to slow, he needed to do something to convince Jesse that the bodies were still usable, and good, and if his luck was even more fortunate, he’d even be able to convince him that they were both fresh.
21
Charlie stared at Veronika's ring. Her thoughts swirled around her dear friend. She'd left only to be killed, murdered. For Jesse to tell her though, it had to be his sick way of giving her another warning of what she could expect if she ever just left. No one ever left here. Girls could be trucked in to dance, but after awhile they all started disappearing. The clock was ticking, and as she turned the ring over and over between her fingers she knew it also to be true: she needed a way out. Could Shane be that way?
Dealing with him though would bring even more complications.
Charlie brooded over how the talk would go between her and Shane. She sat before her mirror and reflected. There was too much that needed to be said, too much that Shane didn’t know. Secrets that were about to come tumbling out of her mouth if given half a chance. Maybe tonight she could finally tell him everything, including the reasons behind her working at the Passionate Lai.
Summer had just finished her set when she tapped Charlie on the shoulder. “The crowd is weird tonight. Blackwell’s men are here, and they must be planning something or another. Maybe they wanted to make sure we know who we work for and to remind Jesse that he is not the boss of anything.”
“Don’t,” Charlie tried to hush her, looking around to make sure no one was nearby. “Don’t talk about him or them here.” Charlie then mouthed, “It’s not safe.”
“Girl, nothing in this place strikes fear in me. What are they going to do, fire my ass? I mean really. If you are as afraid of them as you’re acting, well, I don’t know why you hang around with one of his men.”
“You mean Jesse?” She had to take up for him. It was what she did, had always done for him.
“They’re all like that, and the word that I heard from some of the other girls is you’re trying to hook up with that Shane guy. Well, I don’t think he’s going to be around long. Seems like they’re setting him up. After he delivers, they plan on smoking him. They were even debating if it should be one shot to the back of the head or if they should do it slowly, to increase profit, whatever that means.”
“Oh God,” Charlie said, her hand rushing to her mouth.
“I thought you should know, just in case he doesn’t show up tonight.” Summer then sat down before her large mirror and began to wipe her brow and spray on more perfume. “You’re on in five minutes, you know. You might want to finish getting ready.”
“Yeah sure.” Charlie headed out of the area toward the one-toilet bathroom and locked the door. With her cellphone in hand, she scrolled through the list of numbers until she saw Shane’s.
22
“We need to watch that motherfucker to make sure he isn’t a cop,” Sven said, sitting around the glass table, almost elbow to elbow with the rest of the crew.
Otto leaned back in the seat. “I have my reservations, but he’s all right. And he’ll prove it with a fulfilled order.”
“Jesse, you aren’t scared that if he’s able to deliver, he might just take your place?”
“No, I’m not scared of anything on this side of heaven. All I know is if he can pass this test, he can become fully vetted in the family and once family always family.”
“And if he fails?”
Jesse watched the heads of the men in his crew bob up and down, wondering the same thing.
“Then we have something else to deliver to the boss. He’s not picky about the subjects used.”
From the corner of his eye, he watched Charlie making her rounds around the room.
“And her? She’s been getting pretty close to him too.”
“Don’t worry, Sven. If rubber meets the road, we’ll get rid of her too.”
23
August 11, 2003
Shane pulled up to the club and parked the van. His gaze scanned the parking lot, and for the first time in days, the lot was full. The loud music boomed.
His gun snug in the back of his pants, secured at the waist, he pulled off the stained bloody white T-shirt and yanked on a fresh one, stuffing the dirty shirt under his seat.
Bypassing the bouncers with a quick nod, he watched as a different girl performed, a new one he guessed, but she looked somewhat familiar. Made-up, sparkling, and barely dressed, he hardly recognized her to be one of the Hispanic women Jesse had picked up only nights before. He couldn’t concentrate on that for the moment though. Jesse was probably in the VIP area, which meant that as soon as Shane had walked in the club, the clock started ticking.
Striding over, as if he owned the place, Shane entered the VIP area and pulled up a seat.
“Okay, I got your requirements for the night,” he deadpanned.
Jesse’s brittle smile faltered as he retrieved the cigarette from behind his ear and lit it. “I didn’t expect to see you so soon. Where’s Javier?”
“Yeah, well, I brought you two bodies. Javier thought to shoot me, and sorry to say, I had to take him out. One I had to place on ice. If you want to have a look, they are in the van, waiting instruction on delivery.” Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Alcide’s reaction.
“Isn’t that nice? You don’t only kill them, but also will deliver them to their destination. How thoughtful. Otto, go to the van and check it out. Let me know if what Shane says is true.”
Otto and another large beast of a man scurried out of the club.
“So, how did you do it?”
“Didn’t the last guy tell you when he was following me? Did you think I wouldn’t perform? My word is my bond, which means I do what I say.” Shane then waved over a waitress and ordered a double shot of vodka.
“And here I was thinking that you wouldn’t do it, but you passed my test quite well. You should probably go get cleaned up though. We don’t want you to scare off any of the patronage. The Boss would be highly disappointed about losing any money.”
Sven yanked Shane up from his chair, forcing his arms behind his back. “Whoa, what the hell. I did what you wanted.”
“Our code doesn’t let just anyone join. Blood in and blood out. You disrespected us by bringing us the body of our brother to flaunt in our faces. Where is the loyalty in that? Take him out back and take care of it.”
All of a sudden, the door swung open and someone yelled, “Police, nobody make a move!”
24
Sitting in the uncomfortable chair behind the simple table in the police interrogation room, Shane wasn’t sure why the police had decided to intercede, putting him at risk. His entire cover could now be blown based on how this was handled. He wiggled, trying to get comfortable.
Hobbes walked into the interrogation room, a folder in hand.
“Why the hell am I here?” Shane asked. Although his words were brash, he was happy the police showed up when they did.
Hobbes cocked his head to the side, toward the camera in the room. He then winked.
Then it dawned on him. By being arrested, he was able to possibly locate a different source for information, an individual in the Brotherhood willing to take the bone of confidential informant. His position was becoming more precarious, and nobody would win if his brains were splattered all over the blacktop.
“Okay, Shane Sterns, you are going down for some serious time if you don’t tell us what you were doing at the club.”
“I don’t know nothing.”
“What about the two bodies we located in your vehicle?”
“I’m not saying a word. You either let me go or arrest me.”
“Don’t you think your boys are going to be looking for you? Wanting to know what you said?”
“Then you can show them the motherfucking tape. Why don’t we do it this way? I’d like to make that call and talk to a lawyer.” Shane knew that he’d be moved to the bullpen now and that he’d get a chance to
talk to Jesse.
The time it took for him to be moved gave Shane the time he needed to figure out Hobbes’s plan. Anyone who worked with a gang could have criminal ties to it.
“Jesse, I need your help man,” he began.
“Yeah, you only have yourself to blame for this, fucking rat,” Jesse said.
“Interesting enough, I’m sitting here next to you with ink on my fingers and waiting in the same damn cell as some of the others who were in the club. Maybe your snitch is someone else, or maybe even you. All I know is I did what you wanted, and now I’m here waiting in this cell,” Shane said. His voice was filled with anger, booming like thunder. He couldn’t show any weakness or he’d risk everything being blown—months and months of work.
Jesse paused before answering. “Good point, I guess. From what I’ve overheard, it was a simple drug raid. Word got out about drugs being on the premises, and we got caught up in the mix. Too bad our police informant didn’t have the insight to tell us about it.”
“Whatever, I don’t really want to know any of that shit. All I need is a lawyer so he can get me up out of here.”
“Don’t you have one on retainer?” Jesse smirked. As a normal criminal, most had a public defender they’d previously worked with, who’d show up and get appointed for their case.
“Nah, I don’t have one. But I can pay someone. I want a real attorney.”
“All right then, since you seemed to have passed my test, I think you qualify for the benefits allocated to service. Call Gage Thornton. He does civil and criminal law and should be able to handle your matter, too.”
“Guard,” Shane yelled.
When the cell door swung back, Shane allowed the officer to lead him toward the payphone on the wall.
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