by J. L. Drake
Lloyd: Tell Jennings. I’ll see you tonight.
She texted Jennings after she was safely inside her garage, and then went into the house to try to calm down before the meeting.
Chapter 29
Butch checked the directions Lloyd had written down for him. The building he’d just pulled up to didn’t look inhabited, but it wasn’t really supposed to. After confirming he had the correct address, he silenced the motor of his rusted pickup truck and climbed out to survey the area around him.
They’d chosen a good building, he noted, seeing that the entire block was taken up with similar structures—smaller and also deserted.
He walked across the cracked, weed-spotted cement lot, heading toward a ramp that led to a door. As he walked up to the entrance, he wondered if he should knock or just walk right in. He decided to just walk right in. He was supposed to be there—he had an appointment—so he assumed he was expected.
As he stepped through the doorway and looked around, he spotted a light on in a room down a long aisle lined with old, dilapidated machinery.
He called out, “Hello!”
There was no answer, so he proceeded with caution. He knew in this business that surprising someone could lead to getting shot. He hoped Jennings wasn’t the jumpy type.
Once he reached the lit room, he stood in the doorway and surveyed the small space. The room had previously been a somewhat spacious office, and now held a crooked row of metal folding chairs that were facing diagonally toward a desk and a blank, water-stained wall.
He stepped inside and spotted Jennings doing something at a small table in a corner of the room that wasn’t visible from the doorway.
“I think I’m a little early,” Butch said, and smiled when Jennings looked up but didn’t become startled. “Better early than late, though, right?”
Jennings smiled and put down what he was working with. He turned to greet Butch.
“I’m glad to see you could make it—yes, better early than late,” he said as he came forward, holding out his hand to the larger, younger man. “Did you have any trouble finding the place?”
“No,” Butch said, shaking the old man’s hand. “Lloyd gave me good directions.”
“I bet he did,” Jennings said flatly.
Butch kept his expression blank even though he’d noticed Jennings’ dislike for Lloyd.
“So…” Butch said, “…what kind of work were you needing done?”
Jennings blinked at him for a moment.
“I think you know what we do already,” he said, “and if my memory serves me right, you’ve done the same kind of work before.”
Butch shrugged. “Something to the same end, anyway. Apparently I’m not as neat and tidy as you are, or so Lloyd tells me. He also said ‘neat and tidy’ brings in more money.”
“Yes,” Jennings said, nodding. “It does bring in more. Can I count on you to take orders and not lose control over your…urges?”
Butch looked more closely at the older man, a little surprised that he’d remembered him. They had never worked together before, but had simply crossed paths because of mutual acquaintances. Jennings was hinting at some of the issues he’d had in the past, but he couldn’t think of anywhere—or anyone—Jennings might have gotten details about his history from. Sonya hadn’t talked about their past, he was sure. If she had he wouldn’t have been called in the first place.
He made a mental note not to underestimate the old man.
“Yes,” Butch said. “I can do the job—I really need the money right now and can’t risk blowing a big payday.”
Jennings nodded and looked around like he was checking to make sure they were still alone.
“What’s your relationship with Lloyd?” he asked, suddenly looking back at Butch with an intense light in his eyes.
Butch shrugged. “I’ve worked with him a couple of times, but we aren’t particularly close.”
“How bad do you need money?” Jennings asked.
“I’m flat out broke right now, so I could really use some money,” Butch said, frowning. “Are you going to refuse to hire me if I don’t get along with Lloyd?”
Jennings laughed. “Oh, no! I’m going to hire you for the family harvest because we need to get that done. But I possibly have another task for you—one that pays extremely well.”
“Really?” Butch asked, crossing his arms and looking at the old man skeptically. “What kind of task?”
“A bloody one,” Jennings said, grinning.
Butch laughed. “A bloody one…that’s right up my alley. What were you thinking you might need me to do? What does it have to do with me getting along with Lloyd?”
“I want you to kill Lloyd for me…after all this is over.”
“Kill Lloyd?” Butch asked, and couldn’t help but smile broadly at the thought.
I guess that tells me what the group dynamic is, he thought, waiting for Jennings to answer.
“Yes,” Jennings said. “My wife and I were discussing it last night, and we think it would be a good idea. He’ll always be a thorn in my side otherwise.”
Butch raised his eyebrow quizzically, expecting Jennings to continue with the details, but he didn’t.
“So, you want to pay me to off Lloyd when the harvest is over…do I have to do anything special? Or do I get to handle this however I want?”
Jennings shrugged. “Whatever you want as long as it’s painful—I want the little bastard to suffer.”
“How much you paying?” Butch asked.
“I’ll pay you one million dollars. Cash.”
“You’ve got a deal,” Butch said, and held out his hand to shake again.
Jennings shook the other man’s hand and smiled.
“Good. I don’t care how you do it, but I want him dead within forty-eight hours after we harvest the family—he has to make the sale and get the money before anything can happen to him. Do you understand?”
“Yeah, I understand,” Butch said. “Don’t tear up the meal ticket before it has been cashed.”
Jennings nodded. “The rest of the team should be here in a little while. I’ll show you around the place while we wait.”
“Sounds good,” Butch said, and followed Jennings out of the brightly lit room and into the dark shadows haunted by prosperous days gone by. His mind was swirling with all the things he’d always wanted to do to Lloyd, but hadn’t.
The little weasel had always been worth more alive, but now he was worth more dead and Butch was loving the idea.
***
The agreed upon meeting time was still over an hour away, but Sonya was restless and needed to get out of her house before she went crazy. She decided to go early and find out if Jennings had gotten a moving truck and hired Butch. The thought of having to spend extra time with Butch almost made her change her mind, but not quite.
She was reaching for the knob to the door leading to the garage when it turned on its own and opened. She jumped back and stifled a scream as her eyes darted around the room for a weapon.
Lloyd stepped inside and she sighed with relief.
“You scared the crap out of me!” Sonya yelled. She punched him in the arm, and then hugged him with a sigh.
“A little tense, are we?” he asked, and chuckled.
She nodded her head against his chest.
“This FBI thing is freaking me out—they’ve never been this close to us before. Or at least, we’ve never known about them being this close before.”
“We’ll be fine.” He squeezed her and kissed the top of her head.
She pulled back suddenly and looked up at him with a frown. “I thought you were staying away from me for a while…”
He laughed. “Do you want me to leave?”
She shook her head.
“I was going to stay away so Butch wouldn’t know where you lived, but he’s at his meeting with Jennings.”
“Oh,” she said. “I wonder how that’s going.”
Lloyd’s face went serious. �
��It’s going well for both of them,” he said. “Not so good for us…well, me.”
“What does that mean?” she asked.
“Jennings just offered Butch one million dollars to kill me.”
“What?” Sonya exclaimed, stepping away from him. “Why would he do that?”
“Gee, I wonder…” Lloyd said sarcastically.
She smiled ruefully. “I guess if someone was going to be on his shit list, it would be you.”
Lloyd laughed. “You think?”
“How do you know he wants Butch to kill you?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.
“I planted a bug in the meeting room of the factory,” Lloyd said with a grin. “I don’t trust the bastard and he just proved why.”
“Did Butch accept the offer to take you out?” Sonya asked.
“Yeah…I would kill him for one million too. There’s no love lost between us. We’ve always shot sparks off each other in a bad way.”
“Then why did you bring him in on the job if you don’t like him either?”
He shrugged. “Because he was the only one I could think of who would be willing to help us slaughter a family. He won’t bat an eye.” He paused and looked at her. “Why don’t you like him, anyway?”
“Slaughter?” she asked, and arched an eyebrow. “You know I don’t like to think of it that way.”
“Sorry, I know,” he said, reaching forward and massaging her shoulders. “Are you going to answer my question?”
“Not right now. Right now you’re going to earn forgiveness for the slip of your tongue.”
Lloyd threw back his head and laughed. “Am I, now?”
She winked. “Well, since I’ve got you here and I’m all tense…I might as well make use of you.”
“Okay,” he said, “but after we seriously have to make some plans on how to deal with Jennings. He fucking told on himself about having money at his fingertips when he put the hit out on me. Get this. He told Butch that he and his wife had decided it was a good idea to have me taken out.”
She stood on her tip toes and kissed him for a moment.
“I really don’t want to talk about Jennings,” she said, looking up at him. “Let’s help each other relax so we don’t go to the meeting and kill them all tonight.”
Lloyd grinned, shoved his hand into her hair, tugged her head back roughly, and kissed her hard.
Chapter 30
Agent David McCoy sat in an interrogation room in a Pittsburgh police precinct, drank stale coffee from a Styrofoam cup, and sighed as he went through the file that had been compiled on William “Bill” Housen and his disappearance again. There wasn’t much in the file and he’d gotten painfully little from the man’s wife.
He sighed, laid the papers on the table, closed his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his nose. He felt no closer to finding Daniel’s kidnappers than he had before he’d come to Pittsburgh. He’d called over to the Pittsburgh FBI office and let them know he was in town and that he’d be there the following day—he’d decided he would stay at the police precinct for the afternoon. He felt he could get some valuable information from the officers and detectives of the precinct at this point in his investigation. Detective Jones had already been invaluable with her knowledge of the local crime rings. He’d sat down with her for over an hour after Jan’s interview and they’d talked about the area and its crime in depth. She didn’t know of any human trafficking rings in the area, but she didn’t know about organ harvesting, either. She knew of a couple of informants that might know of such activity, so she and her partner had set out to see if she could talk to them before the end of the day.
“You look stressed,” a feminine voice said.
“I hope you have some good news for me,” David said, looking up to see Detective Jones standing in the doorway, “or just news period.”
Detective Jones laughed and stepped into the room. Her partner, Detective Cridge, followed her in.
“Well, I have some news for you,” she said. “There are no human traffickers in Pittsburgh that handle adults—that’s all I could get on that subject.”
“Definitely not,” Detective Cridge said. “Everyone we talked to thought that was the most comical thing they’d ever heard.”
“It was worth a shot,” David said, and shrugged. “What did they say about organ harvesting?”
“No one knew anything about it, but they said it could be possible,” Jones said. “But it was very clear that if it was going on, they would have to have inside connections to move the parts while they were still usable.”
“Meaning they would have to have their own person moving the organs that they already have connections with—no one in the area has those kinds of contacts at this time,” Cridge said.
“That would make sense, since they change locations so often,” David said. “But what about hospitals? If they are medical professionals, could they have inside connections and move things through the morgue? How hard would that be?”
“I think that would be plausible,” Jones said. “I guess hospitals and morgues would be the first logical place to check, since the human trafficking ring idea was blown out of the water.”
David nodded. The human trafficking theory was the one where his brother might be alive. That theory was dead now, just like his brother probably was. He focused inwardly and forced himself to keep his breathing steady—he would have plenty of time for his emotions once he was alone in his hotel room.
“I’ll be heading into the FBI office tomorrow morning,” David said. “I’ll see if I can get warrants for each hospital’s morgue paperwork for the last month, just in case.”
“If you need any help, let us know,” Cridge offered as he and Jones headed for the door. “We know the area and are willing to help in any way we can.”
“Thank you,” David said, standing as well. “Can you make a copy of this file and send it to the FBI office for me? Oh, and a copy of the interview video too?”
“Sure thing,” Jones said, pausing at the door and looking back at him. “We’ll do it before we leave so you’ll have everything you need in the morning.”
“Perfect,” David said, grabbing all his stuff and following them into the hallway. “Thank you for all your help.”
He headed out of the building after handing Jones the Housen case file and saying his goodbyes. They had been more helpful than he’d expected. He was thankful for their connections and assistance.
***
Roger arrived at the factory a little early and frowned when he saw the rusted pickup in the parking lot, then he remembered Butch’s meeting with Jennings and relaxed.
He made his way into the building and heard Butch and Jennings talking and laughing in the meeting room; something about that bothered him. He didn’t think they knew each other that well and he didn’t see them as being of the same ilk―at least not enough for them to be chummy.
He stopped a few feet away from the door and listened for a few moments. He heard them planning Lloyd’s death.
With a sigh he thought, Everyone is planning to kill everyone else. This could get interesting and we could all wind up dead. He swallowed the laugh that fought to escape from his throat as he thought about the irony of the situation.
“Whatcha doin’?” Sonya teased, grabbing ahold of Roger’s hips from behind.
He jumped and spun to face her.
“Don’t scare me like that!” he exclaimed, and half-smiled.
“Sorry,” she said. “What are you doing standing out here? Why haven’t you gone in yet?”
“Just listening for a second…” Roger said, smiling at her. “Sounds to me like things are getting all fucked up and we’re in for a whirlwind of shit—at least Lloyd is.”
Sonya nodded and he noticed she wasn’t surprised.
“You already knew?” he asked, cocking his head to the side. “This is messed up.”
She smiled coldly and nodded again.
“Let’s go in before we get cau
ght lingering out here,” she said, walking past him into the meeting room.
“Hello, Sonya,” Jennings said a little too loudly.
She smiled but didn’t respond other than a polite nod in his direction.
Butch whistled and let his eyes travel over her.
She shot him a disgusted glare.
“Don’t look at me like that, doll,” Butch teased. “I remember you…”
She shook her head and looked away.
Roger stood just inside the doorway watching the exchange and nodded to Butch when he looked in his direction.
“So, I take it we’ll be working together,” Roger said, holding out his hand to the new man on the team. They were almost the same build, but Butch was slightly taller.
“Looks that way,” Butch said, shaking Roger’s hand.
“Good,” Roger said, “we need to get this job done fast!”
“No shit,” Sonya said. “I don’t like it when the FBI is all but breathing down our necks.”
“What did you find out, Sonya?” Jennings asked.
“Shouldn’t we wait until Lloyd gets here to discuss everything?” she asked, blinking innocently.
“I suppose,” Jennings said, crossing his arms.
“Don’t wait too long,” Lloyd said, sauntering into the meeting room, “‘cause I’m here!”
Roger fought to hide a smirk as Jennings’ eyes filled with hatred, which he blinked away before plastering a fake smile on his face.
“Great!” Jennings exclaimed. “We’re all here, so now we can get on with the meeting. Sonya?” He looked at her again.
She nodded and began. “Jan said the FBI is already here. I really don’t know how much more they know right now. I was careful when I left her to make sure I wasn’t followed home.”
“If they figure out what we’re doing, setting up a contact inside a hospital will have been a bad idea,” Jennings said. “Have you warned Miles yet?”
“Well,” Sonya snapped, “since you didn’t tell me Lloyd was coming, I did what I thought needed to be done. No, I haven’t talked to him yet.”