DEAD MAN'S JUSTICE - A Place of Evil (Stone & McLeish Thriller Series of Stories Book 2) (30 page)

Chapter 66

Finch got a call from Tariq, he told him that Grolnick and Jack were just around the corner with Dr. Harper just behind with a full medical crew, was right behind them. What Tariq and Grolnick didn’t know was that a TV news helicopter was tracking them relaying their position to a multitude of reporters and camera crews who had followed them since he left the precinct. If he’d tried to keep the operation quiet, he’d failed, pretty soon the whole raid and scene would be beamed live to millions of home across the tri-state area.

The news about Grolnick broke the tension between Stone and Rachel. Finch tied the Arab’s arms and legs to the chair and checked on Laura for himself.

‘Stone, Laura is stable, her pulse is strong, her breathing’s regular. Dr. Harper is arriving any minute, let’s get Rachel downstairs, Grolnick will deal with her, we need to find Ramirez and make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.’

‘Okay. Let’s get her downstairs.’

The area around the building was quiet; in the distance there were several police and ambulance vehicles approaching with their red, white and blue flashing lights. Grolnick had given instructions not to use sirens. They were speeding along the main road two miles from the building.

Behind the warehouse, and not visible from the front there were forklifts and derrick cranes loading a merchant ship with unmarked crates and boxes.

On the roof of the building across, lying motionless and with an M14 rifle mounted on a tripod resting on the parapet, was an FBI marksman on full alert. He had his instructions from Agent wade, PP1 was in live mode.

He saw movement on the first floor of Maloof’s warehouse through the corridor windows and called Wade and said he had Stone in his sights. All that Wade said was that he had his orders.

Finch had read Rachel her Miranda rights and cuffed her hands in front of her and told her to follow Stone out of the door. Stone was standing to the right, directly in front of one of the windows and Finch and Rachel were behind a brick pillar whilst he closed the door.

‘Let’s go,’ said Stone, and started to walk down the corridor. Finch turned to guide Rachel’s arm and saw a red dot on Stone’s chest and realized immediately what it was. He shouted out to Stone and pulled his arm to move him out of the way. One step later and Rachel was now where Stone was standing.

‘STONE...’ Finch shouted and Stone fell to the side bringing Rachel’s body in line with the window. Finch saw the red dot now show up on her, but it all happened so fast and there was nothing he could do.

It was too late.

The marksman’s shot cut clean through the glass leaving a perfect, round hole and made a thudding sound as it scythed into Rachel’s upper chest. She collapsed to the floor instantly and a spray of blood tattooed the window.

‘Stay down Stone,’ said Finch. He tried to see where the shot had come from. From the trajectory he decided it was from somewhere high up on the roof of the adjacent building.

Stone crawled along the floor and cradled Rachel in his arms, there was already a trace of blood in the corner of her mouth. It didn’t look good, he thought, he’d seen this before. The blackened burn hole was inches from her heart.

Rachel grabbed his arm tightly and stared at the ceiling without blinking, she was trying to speak.

‘Brad?’ Rachel’s voice was weak and stuttering, her breathing was erratic.

‘Don’t try and talk Rachel, the medics will be here any moment.’

‘It was all Maloof’s idea...I would never hurt...’ Rachel ran out of strength and could hardly move her head, she moaned as she turned to look at Stone. ‘I’m so sorry Brad...’

‘Okay, it’s all over now. Save your energy.’

‘I always loved you Brad...’ she was losing consciousness and gripped his arm even tighter, her chest was making jerking movements and her eyes started to close.

‘Forgive me Brad... please?’

Stone knew she would not survive and somehow the last few months came down to this one moment and despite her evil and wicked ways, he always thought things could have been so different had she listened to her father. He pitied her rather than hated her. He decided to absolve her in her last dying moments.

‘I forgive you Rachel.’

As the words left his mouth, her eyes closed for the last time, her chest stopped moving and the faintest of smiles appeared on her beautiful lips.

She was dead.

Finch opened his cell phone and called Grolnick. At that very second he could see flashing lights reflected on the corridor walls. Grolnick’s vehicle had just arrived and an ambulance pulled in after him, their wheels sliding through the gravel as they came to a stop.

Finch sided up to the window ledge and saw an unmarked saloon draw up and Agents Wade and Gray stepped out.

Grolnick answered Finch’s call.

‘Sir?’

‘Yeah Finch what’s the situation?’

‘Someone tried to shoot Stone. They got a woman we were taking into custody instead, she just died. There’s a marksman on the roof of the next building, I think he’s FBI. Ramirez is somewhere upstairs, I think he’s gone after Maloof and Mac’s in the lobby on the ground floor, he’s okay but he can’t walk. All of Maloof’s men have been neutralized but take precautions anyway. That’s about it Sir.’

‘Okay I’ll get the medics up to you straight away to check on Laura. FBI you say, I just saw Wade arrive, leave it to me.’

‘Sir? There’s something else, you’ve got even more company, there’s a dozen media vans coming down the road towards us.’

‘Vultures, they’ll screw the whole dammed operation up if they’re not careful.’

Finch closed the phone and turned to see Stone disappear through the doors at the end of the corridor. Stone met Dr. Harper at the top of the stairs and told her that Laura was in the end room,
‘Finch is down there, he’ll show you’
, he said.

Stone ran up the stairs to the top floor and slowly checked around and saw a light coming from the door leading to an office. He walked over and peered through the window and saw Ramirez pointing a gun at Maloof with one hand and pointing a gun at four Arabian guys with the other. Stone slowly opened the door.

Maloof was sitting behind a desk and had his hands out flat in front of him. The Arabs had their hands on their heads. Stone saw the look of horror on their faces; they knew their little game was up. One of them was a killer, he thought.

‘I don't know why I don’t kill you right now?’ said Ramirez. Stone walked out from behind Ramirez and told him to think things through.

Maloof’s face was even more in shock at the sight of Stone. He was told by Scarface that Stone had died in the Delicatessen bomb.

‘You’re dead,’ said Maloof.

‘Sorry to disappoint you. You need to get more reliable staff. What’s going on here? Grolnick’s downstairs, it’s all over Ramirez.’

‘This man needs to suffer for all the crap he’s dished out, he sent a man to kill Conchita, he tried to kill you, he grabs young girls off the street and feeds them to these animals,’ Ramirez waved the gun he had pointed at the four Arabs and sneered at them.

‘Go ahead, shoot me. The FBI will track you down and you will disappear off the face of the earth,’ said Maloof.

‘What are you talking about, FBI?’ It only served to make Ramirez more angry and nervous. He clicked the gun and straightened his arm taking direct aim at Maloof’s forehead.

‘Woow steady Ramirez,’ Stone walked over to him and talked calmly to him, ‘...he’s not worth it, you’ll ruin your career, take him in, let him face the music for what he’s done. He won’t see the light of day ever again, Maria and Conchita are safe now,’ said Stone.

Ramirez relaxed the tight grip he’d had on the gun and lowered it down, but kept it pointing in Maloof’s direction.

Stone walked around the back of Maloof’s chair and looked out of the window. He saw the activity on the quayside below him. A merchant ship was being readied for leaving the wharf; a guy was unwrapping ropes from the capstan. There were two FBI officers standing around as if they were guarding or supervising, Stone didn’t know which.

‘What’s that down there Maloof?’ asked Stone.

Maloof laughed.

Stone could see boxes through the hold doors on the ship which hadn’t been closed yet. He then read the baggage labels on the Arab’s suitcases lined up in front of the coffee table. One said the
Yemen, another said Jordan...Stone put two and two together and realized the guys were buyers, and that the abuse of the young girls was probably a sweetener as part of the deal.

‘There’s something else going here, these pedophiles are just a side show, I’m sure of it. We need to get them downstairs Ramirez; the bust will be all yours.’

Finch opened the door and saw what was going on. Ramirez turned to look at him and shot a quick glance back to Stone.

‘Detective Finch, arrest these men. Cuff them and read them their rights. This one’s mine,’ said Ramirez, referring to Maloof. It wasn’t necessary for Finch to take any action; Jack burst into the room followed by his six SWAT guys who immediately closed the whole room down and starting cuffing the four Arabs and then led them away down the stairs. Ramirez and Finch handcuffed Maloof and they led him towards the stairs and to ground level. Stone stopped them just before they reached the door, ‘Maloof, I’m sorry to have to tell you that Rachel Parker is dead, we think she was shot by the FBI who was aiming at me.’

Maloof’s facial expression hardly changed, his lips creased into an empty smile, ‘and?’ he said.

‘Forget I mentioned it Maloof, she obviously meant as little to you as all the innocent young girls.’

Agent Wade thumped the dashboard of the car as it pulled into the side road when he saw the melee of lights and vehicles before his eyes. TV crews were being held back behind a cordon of incident tape that had been hastily installed by the backup brought in by Grolnick. The police cars and ambulances still had their lights flashing illuminating the whole area in front of the warehouse.

Wade saw Grolnick talking to his officers and he turned to Gray and told him to get the marksman to stand down and to disappear pronto. Wade and Gray stepped out onto the gravel and walked over to Grolnick.

Dr. Harper was coming out of the main doors followed by two medics pushing a gurney carrying Laura Stone out to a waiting ambulance. A drip was suspended above her on a metal pole and the tube from it looped down into an IV in Laura’s arm. She was wearing a breathing mask and Wade heard Grolnick ask Dr. Harper how she was doing and she answered
‘Just fine.’

The squad of four officers walked out from the warehouse and led the five Arab guys away to black and whites waiting on the gravel. Two more were rounding up Maloof’s guards from the basement, for one they would need a body bag.

Maloof then emerged from the darkness of the lobby; he was wearing handcuffs and also a demonic smile on his face. Ramirez was not far behind with his gun still pointed at his back.

‘Stop right there Ramirez,’ said Wade.

Grolnick walked over to back Ramirez up. Stone was helping Mac by supporting his shoulder as he limped across from the warehouse and heard what was going on.

Grolnick stood right in front of Wade stopping him from going any further.

‘He’s mine,’ said Wade. Gray was standing by his side with his hand hovering near his shoulder holster, ready to draw his weapon.

‘Sorry. No can do. He’s under arrest for...well how long have you got?’ Wade smirked in his face. Grolnick continued, ‘...Murder, causing death by explosion, corrupting an officer in the course of his duty, the procurement and abduction of underage girls for sexual gratification...’

‘You don't understand...’ started Wade.

Stone shouted out from behind Grolnick, ‘How about the illegal sale of arms, there’s a ship out back loaded with crates and boxes bound for the Middle East.’

Agent Wade told Grolnick to get everyone away, he needed to talk privately, it was a matter of National Security, he said. Grolnick reluctantly told the SWAT team, backup officers and medics to move away ten yards at least. They did as was instructed.

‘Ramirez and Finch are staying,’ he said.

Wade rolled his eyes and conceded. Grolnick got his retaliation in first, ‘Why have you been standing back watching this sordid criminal activity go on? Four young girls are scarred for life, and one is dead, strangled by one of these animals Wade. And you could have stopped this illegal arms traffic. Why didn’t you?’

Maloof laughed again. They all turned to look at him and he turned his face away.

‘You still don't understand do you, any of you,’ began Wade. ‘We’re here to make sure the arms sale goes ahead without any problems.’

The look on Grolnick, Ramirez and Finch’s face was hard to describe, somewhere between shock and total disbelief.

‘It’s bigger than you, bigger than any of us, if you quote me, I’ll deny it...’ Wade didn’t get a chance to finish. Stone overheard what he had said and rushed towards Agent Wade.