DEAD MAN'S JUSTICE - A Place of Evil (Stone & McLeish Thriller Series of Stories Book 2) (29 page)

Chapter 64

Stone took the wheel of Finch’s squad car and drove on the edge all the way over to Brooklyn Heights, Finch was navigating and talking to Tariq who was in the precinct at the same time, he’d asked him to call Dr. Harper at the hospital to get her advice on how to care for the girls once they’d found them. She did more than that, she said she’d head over there herself and bring a team of medics to deal with any consequences. Finch gave Tariq further instructions on where Jack and his SWAT guys, and Dr. Harper’s team, cold hold up until they’d located exactly where the girls were, and neutralized any risks.

Stone was tense; his hands were gripping the wheel. Finch realized that he must be going through an unbelievable ordeal and tried to ease the tension.

‘Is she your only child?’

‘What? Laura? Yeah, she’s all I've got.’

‘You're married though aren’t you?’

‘Separated. We’re not in a rush to divorce until Laura’s a little older. If she gets older.’

‘We’ll find her Stone.’

Stone’s face relaxed, the penetrating stare and tight mouth he’d fixed ever since leaving the precinct eased a little.

‘What about you Mike? Can I call you Mike?’

‘Sure. You mean am I married? No. All I have is my sister, Samantha, I call her Sam, you know. My parents died some time ago.’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Stone.

‘You see her often?’

‘Not as much as I’d like, she’s in Washington, has a kid, a beautiful four year old daughter called Emily. She’s married to a big shot Senator.’

‘You should get up there, see them.’

‘I will. Let’s get this done first, and I will.’

Finch’s cell phone vibrated in his pocket, it was Tariq.

He gave Finch the good news that they’d found the fourth girl, Neesha Patel, yards away from her home, alive.

Finch told Stone. Stone breathed out a long nervous sigh.

‘Good news,’ he said to Tariq.

‘There is some bad news I’m afraid.’

Finch didn’t want Stone to hear in case it involved Laura, so he turned his head as far away as possible.

‘Dr. Harper went to see Jessica’s body, the ME was there too, they found bruising on her throat. She’d been strangled Finch.’

Somehow Finch managed to end the call without alerting Stone to the new finding, it was wrong maybe, but he didn’t want Stone to know just yet.

Finch had lost all track of time, he looked at his watch, it was just after six p.m. With the news about the fourth girl being found at six, his theory was still holding true.

‘There’s still time Stone.’

He didn’t answer. He floored the car like a madman.

After following Tariq’s directions to the letter they turned off the main road and into an industrial area by the river. They crossed over a rail line that looked like a goods line to the wharf area.

Finch said, ‘That was the line where the girls heard the bells, it’s got to be close Stone, Tariq isn't usually wrong about these things.’ Finch counted out three lanes down from the main road and told Stone to turn left. ‘Drive down Stone the building is on the right, it’s the fourth building down.’

Stone looked out into the darkness at the old docks area. Most of the buildings were empty and had fallen into disrepair. Stone looked around at the old and sinister buildings, casting threatening shadows, behind which, rusting and echoey warehouses lay dormant and forbidding. Just the kind of place that evil might be perpetrated, he thought.

‘God help the girls if they’re in any of these places,’ said Stone.

The moon wasn’t out yet and there was no street lighting, all they had to help them search was the car headlights, the buildings on either side were in darkness.

‘There! There it is,’ said Finch. He was shining the flashlight across to the face of the building.

‘You’re sure that’s the building?’

Yeah, don’t you remember what Tariq said?’

‘I don’t believe it.’

‘It must be, Tariq is never...’

‘No. I don't mean that...Mac’s in there.’

Finch looked at Stone is utter disbelief, he wasn’t making sense.

‘How the hell do you...’

‘Shine the flashlight near the entrance again.’

Finch shone it out of the car window and saw that there was something on the wall by the door. ‘What? What is it?’

‘See that sign?’

‘You mean the squiggly white mark?’

‘The only person, who could possibly have put that there, is Mac. When we were in
Iraq his team of bomb disposal and mine clearance experts would sweep building ahead of my construction crew. Mac took full responsibility and after he’d checked it for himself, would make that mark on the wall himself.’

CSC

The letters were scrawled hastily on the wall in white chalk, by Mac, just before Khaled knocked him unconscious. 

‘Yeah. It means Checked, Swept and Clear.’

‘What’s Mac doing in
there?
’

‘I don’t know, we’re about to find out.’

Ramirez neared the top of the last flight of stairs to the top floor and saw a large room and a door in the distance. It was a reception area with a secretary’s desk, but the whole room was in darkness. The door at the far side of the reception must be to Maloof’s office, he thought. Ramirez could hear voices, several voices coming from the office. He kept his gun un-holstered and put his back to the wall and slid towards the door very slowly until he was inches away and able to get a glimpse inside.

Maloof was behind his desk in front of the window, he was laughing along with some other men who were just out of sight. Maloof was smoking a cigar and had a glass of whiskey in his hand and there was a good looking woman sat on the edge of his desk, he’d never seen her before.

He needed to know how many men were on the other side of the office that he couldn't see. He crawled on his knees, below the glass and stood up on the other side. He could now see that there were four men sitting around a coffee table, they also looked like Arabs. There were five suitcases on the floor in front of them, going on a journey, he thought. They looked like businessmen, not gangsters, and were probably not armed. He saw no bodyguards and reckoned the two in the basement were the only ones on duty. How long it would be, he thought, before they were missed. His eyes were fixed on Maloof, he hadn’t made his mind up yet what to do. Unguarded and with four harmless businessmen he would have no problem storming in and arresting Maloof, but the woman, he needed her out of the way.

He looked at Maloof again.

The sight of the man who had made his life a misery and threatened his family sent his blood pressure up, he could feel his heart beat in his chest.

Ramirez rested his head back against the wall and tried to calm himself down.

Stone got out of the car and took out his cell phone as he walked over the gravel to the building where Mac’s mark was on the wall. Finch followed him a few paces behind, he had his gun in his hand ready in case of any surprises. As they reached the door they felt a rumble beneath their feet, they both said the same thing at the same time, ‘The subway!’ 

Stone dialed Mac’s number. It answered.

Mac was leaning against the lobby wall when the call came through; he flipped it open and saw seven missed calls and Stone’s name calling.

‘Stone?’

‘Mac are you okay?’

‘Yeah, where are you?’

Ramirez had left the front door to the building unlocked, so when Stone pushed against it, the door opened and Stone and Mac saw each other.

‘What the ...how did you know where to find me?’

Finch walked in behind Stone and stood on guard looking around.

‘We didn’t, we weren’t looking for you. We’re here to find the girls. You look pretty messed up what happened?’

‘I’m okay. This is the address I found at the house, Maloof is upstairs somewhere, I ran into two of his boys, they took me by surprise.’

‘Where are they now?’

‘One’s dead, the guy that planted the bomb, and the other one’s tied up, down there...’ Mac nodded towards the big metal door down to the basement, ‘...if it wasn’t for Ramirez, I’d be dead.’

‘Ramirez?’

‘Yeah, I gave him the address. He came to back me up and...’

‘Where is he now?’ asked Finch.

‘Up there somewhere.’

Stone and Finch looked up the stairs.

‘Mac, we have to find Laura, what else is up there?’

‘Not sure mate, I heard Ramirez go up two floors at least, so try the first floor.’

‘Okay, we’ve called Grolnick for back up and medics and a Dr. Harper may be with them, when they arrive, will you sort them out? Can you do that?’

‘Sure. Go.’

Stone raced up the flight of stairs with his heart in his mouth. Laura had been missing now for five hours and since he saw her being led away to a vehicle by a suspicious looking character on the hotel security video, two girls had been found drugged and sexually assaulted and one poor girl was dead. There’d been no ransom demand and no solid proof that Laura might suffer the same fate, apart from the fact that all the girls were in the same literary club. It all pointed to a planned act of pedophilia by a sick man like ‘Bad’ Billy Thompson, but they now knew it couldn't be him. He was dead.

Please let her be alive, please.

Stone had always hoped that it was all a bad dream, that any minute she’d call his phone. Now he and Finch were following the last lead they had, it had to be reliable, he thought. Tameka and Sofia wouldn’t lie.

They wouldn't.

At the top of the stairs there was a double door leading onto a corridor on the first floor. Stone looked at Finch and said, ‘This is it.’

Stone pushed open the door, it creaked and Finch crept through it and it swung closed behind them. Along the corridor they could see five doors. There was light streaming out the window of the end door only, the others were in darkness.

Finch stepped up to the first door and opened it up, keeping his gun ready. Once inside he switched on the light and saw a double bed on the far wall next to the window, the covers were left messy. It was like a hotel room, he thought. He left the room and shook his head to Stone.

Stone took the next room; he found the room in exactly the same condition. Finch quickly checked room’s three and four and there were in an identical state to the first two.

That left the last room, the one with the lights on.

In the darkness of the corridor they saw flashes coming from the window just yards ahead of them. There was no other noise, no screams, nothing.

They inched up to the side of the door, Finch whispered, ‘I’ll open the door, the guy might be armed, when I shout clear, you follow in behind me, okay?’

Stone nodded.

Finch counted down on his fingers, three, two, one...

He threw open the door and shouted, ‘Police, stay where you are, put your hands up.’

A short, balding man froze in total shock; he held his hands up high and dropped the camera on the floor. There was a young girl lying naked on the bed, she looked asleep but they both knew she had been drugged.

Stone rushed forward and covered her up with the bed sheets and felt her body was warm to the touch and very much alive.

‘It’s Laura.’ he said.

He smoothed out her hair and tucked the sheet around her to keep her warm and kissed her gently on the forehead.

He fell to his knees, hugged Laura, and cried like a baby.

Mac was leaning against the lobby wall and thought he heard a vehicle approach outside, he shuffled across to the door and peered through the window and saw another Arab walking towards him. It was Fazeel Aziz who had just returned from dropping off Neesha Patel over in Homecrest in
Brooklyn. Mac had exactly five seconds to decide what to do which was not enough time so he acted on instinct. He hid at the side of the door and Fazeel tried the door handle thinking it would be locked, found it wasn’t and pushed open the door. Fazeel wasn’t prepared and was the shortest of the three of Maloof’s guards and despite being armed was no match for Mac. Mac kicked the back of Fazeel’s right knee and he lost balance, he tried to turn to see what had hit him when Mac unleashed his main blow that sent him unconscious to the ground. Mac removed his gun from his shoulder holster and dragged his heavy body through the doors to the basement. Although each step was agony it didn’t take Mac long to find something to tie his hands and feet with. When Fazeel was safely immobilized he returned to the door and waited for the backup to arrive.

Chapter 65

‘Is she okay Stone?’ Finch was standing behind Stone who was sat on the edge of Laura’s bed.

Stone couldn't speak, he was just so glad that Laura was alive, ‘Can we call for Harper?’ he asked Finch.

Finch called Tariq and told him the good news, his calculations were spot on, it was the building he had said. He asked him to let Grolnick know and that they needed Dr. Harper out a.s.a.p. to attend to Laura. Tariq asked who the pedophile was, Finch said it was a middle aged Arabian guy and that he couldn't believe he was working alone. He also told him that they’d found Ramirez and Mac in the same building, Maloof was here also somewhere on the top floor, he said.

Agent Wade had ordered two marksmen to be posted onto the roof of the building opposite Maloof’s warehouse, where the FBI field officer had called in the unknown visitors to HQ. As well as Ramirez and McLeish, Wade had now been informed that Brad Stone, McLeish’s partner, had also entered the building, and a fourth man who had accompanied Stone, had not yet been identified. Wade was becoming agitated; he had to ensure that the Maloof Arms Operation was not compromised in any way. He had strict instructions from above to take whatever action was necessary
‘Neutralize any interference,’
was the phrase used to stress the importance and confidentiality of the operation.

The officer had photographs of Maloof, his seven guards, Maloof’s female associate and the five Saudi businessmen, who he knew were almost ready to ship out by plane later that evening. Anyone else not on the list of ‘known participants’, was subject to PP1.

Agent Wade gave the field officer instructions to carry out ‘Protection Protocol One’ as and when necessary.

Stone regained some composure and turned his attention to the terrified guy sitting in the chair fiddling nervously with a ‘Masbaha’, a set of prayer beads. He walked up close to the guy and picked him up by his shirt, the buttons popped off. He thrust the guy up against the wall.

‘Did you touch her? Did you...you...’

‘No touch. No touch. Photos.’

‘If you touched her in any way I’ll...’

‘Photos, photos...’

‘I think he’s trying to say he was just taking photos Stone, she should be okay and remember nothing when she recovers,’ Finch was trying to dissolve Stone’s feeling of dread and panic.

Stone let the guy down slowly and pushed him into a chair. He grabbed up the camera, slid open the battery cover, removed the SD card and smashed the camera on the ground. He stamped on it until it was in several pieces. He turned to the frightened man again.

‘Who’s behind this? Is it Maloof?’ said Stone loudly in his frustration, as if the man would understand better.

‘No Maloof,’ he said in a thick Middle Eastern accent, ‘Woman.’ The guy’s English was not good

Stone look puzzled and looked at Finch,
‘Woman?’
he mouthed.

‘Yes. Woman.’

‘Where? Here?’

‘Yes. Upstair. She preety. Like theece...’ the man pointed to his skin
with his finger, he was trying to show Stone that her skin color was the same as his. He stood up and paced around and realized what he was trying to say to him.

‘He means she’s not white, that she’s dark, not black exactly but...’ Stone didn’t finish, a thought so crazy and monumentally terrifying hit him and shot through his body. ‘Oh my God, it can't be...’ He rocked visibly on his feet.

Finch was lost, he had no idea what stone was thinking or saying.

Stone saw the man’s cell phone lying on the counter, he picked it up and thrust it towards him, ‘Call woman, now,’ he said.

Somehow he understood and scrolled through the phone, he called a number. It answered.

‘What is it?’ the woman said.

‘Come. Pleeze. Now.’

Ramirez was watching and waiting by the door to Maloof’s office. He saw the woman get off the desk and answer her cell phone. He couldn't hear what she was saying, and she had turned her back. She appeared to be angry at something the caller had said. The next moment she was heading for the door. He had to hide quickly. He threw himself to the floor and hid behind the secretary’s desk. The woman stormed out of the room and out towards the staircase.

Stone took out his cell phone and called Tariq. It had only been a second or two but Stone was so anxious to find something out, ‘Come on Tariq,’ he said out loud, he was in a hurry. ‘Tariq?’ He’d answered. ‘This is important Tariq, it’s Stone. Call down to the mortuary and ask the M.E. to check something for me, it will sound crazy but just do it. Ask him to check Rachel Parker’s body, tell him to turn it over and look for a birthmark at the base of her back. It’s almost heart-shaped.’

‘The woman who shot Shadow you mean?’

‘Yeah Tariq, hurry.’

Finch waited patiently. He kept an eye on the Arab and trusted Stone to know what he was doing. The Arab sat quietly playing with his prayer beads.

Stone kept his cell phone to his ears and went over to see how Laura was doing. He could hear Tariq talking to someone on another line. The wait was almost too much for him to bear, if the woman was somewhere in the building it wouldn't take her long to reach the room, he thought.

The woman made her way downstairs to the first floor, she had no idea that there was a Detective hiding behind the secretary’s desk and had been watching Maloof’s office for several minutes, or that another man, Mac, was down stairs in the lobby waiting for Police back up and medics. She pushed open the doors and walked down the corridor towards the end room.

Stone could hear footsteps approaching the room, he asked Finch to hide for a moment at the side near the counter. Stone resisted the temptation to look out of the window in the door in case the woman saw him, and stood behind it, waiting for her to come into the room. Stone was still waiting for Tariq on the other line; he heard him say, ‘Okay, Okay, thanks.’

The woman opened the door and walked into the room.

Tariq replaced the receiver and picked up the other phone to Stone, ‘Stone? Stone?’ Stone didn’t reply, he didn’t need to, he saw who the woman was.

Tariq said, ‘...the woman in the morgue? The M.E. examined her body and there is no birthmark on her back.’

The woman saw the Arab sitting in the chair, still fingering the Masbaha with a terrified look on his face; he saw her and then flicked his eyes involuntarily to the side to look at Stone behind the door. She sensed something was wrong. She turned around to see what or who he was looking at. She saw that it was Brad Stone standing by the door.

The woman was Rachel Parker.

‘You’re dead,’ said Stone. Two days ago Stone saw what he thought was Rachel Parker’s body in the morgue. He thought the woman who had tricked her way into his life and caused terror and evil to him and all around him, had finally left him in peace.

‘Do I look dead?’ said Rachel.

Stone paused; he had no intention in getting into a war of words with her. Laura was his only concern, he had found her alive and he was determined to keep her that way. He could feel no emotion towards Rachel, if she was behind the abductions and had allowed the girls to be treated so cruelly, he would make sure this time that she got what she deserves.

‘So who’s that lying in the morgue down at the precinct?’

‘Rebecca. My twin sister.’

‘Your twin? There’s two of you? I suppose you put her up to killing Shadow?’

‘No. She did that all by herself. I had no idea.’

‘Why would she kill him? It was you he was after.’

‘Long story.’ Rachel was as bold faced as ever, showing not an ounce of remorse for her actions. Stone’s daughter Laura was lying drugged and comatose in a bed behind her and she was perfectly happy trading insults with Stone.

‘Give me the short version.’

‘Rebecca knew Shadow long before me; he raped her, used her and spat her out. When Mom died, also because of Shadow, she took it bad, ended up in an institution. I got her out last week to take care of her. She must have found my gun, dressed up as me and ...you know the rest.’

Stone paced around, he was wasting time, he thought, he asked Finch to find out how long till the medics would arrive. Finch called Tariq.

‘So, you’ve hit rock bottom hey Rachel, dragging defenseless young virgins off the street to sell to visiting Arabs. I’m guessing this guy is not the only one, five girls, five Arabs, am I right?’

Rachel didn’t answer. She looked off to the side, ashamed to look him in the eye.

‘You’ll go down for a very long time,’ said Stone, spitting the words out venomously.

‘
He
made me,’ she bit back. ‘Maloof. It wasn’t my idea. If I hadn’t have done what he wanted he’d have killed me.’

‘Really. You could have disappeared, like you did last time.’

Finch said, ‘Girls have been violated, one is dead, strangled. One of those guys is a killer, did you know that?’

Again, Rachel didn’t answer.

‘So it was you in the big black SUV at the hotel. Why Laura? Was that to get at me again?’

‘No, no, you have to believe me. It was him, he saw me when I was checking your profile on Wikipedia. He was obsessed with you. He got to know about you and me and wanted you dead.’

‘Yeah, I got that message.’

‘That’s when I came up with the idea to frame you for Guy’s murder, to keep you alive, please believe me.’

‘Thanks. Forget about me. Again, why Laura?’

‘He wanted five girls. He told me to click on your daughter’s link on the Wiki page, a picture of her and four other girls in some school club came up. He insisted I chose them, especially Laura.’

Stone listened but Rachel’s self denial and pathetic attitude, and never accepting responsibility for her actions, sickened him. First it was Shadow, twisting her round his little finger, and now it was this guy Maloof. He looked at Laura and it brought him back to most important thing of all.

‘If I find she’s been touched, in any way...?’ Stone was bearing down on Rachel and trying hard to keep his temper, ‘...you won’t have to worry about what Maloof will do to you...’

‘I wouldn't hurt her Brad, that’s why I put the camera guy with her.’

Stone knew better than to fall for her lies, ‘Camera guy, you still kidnapped her, drugged her. Over to you Finch, I’ve nothing more to say.’

Finch handcuffed Rachel and Stone checked on Laura again to see how she was doing.