DEAD MAN'S JUSTICE - A Place of Evil (Stone & McLeish Thriller Series of Stories Book 2) (5 page)

Chapter 9

Upon arrival at the Hotel, Officer Khan, a quiet and attentive man, spoke to the desk manager and explained that he and Mac intended to conduct a search of room number one and its surroundings.

The receptionist turned to get the room key from the wall behind her and handed it to the officer. Luckily the room was not occupied so they could take as much time as they needed. The officer opened up the door; they both entered and stood in the middle of the room wondering where to start the search.

‘You weren’t here that night were you officer?’

‘No Sir, I heard all about it from the guys who were though. I knew Boodram, the officer who got shot, he was a good man, we all miss him.’

‘Yeah, I saw the whole thing, I was just yards away from him. The man who escaped, Loman, he tried to shoot me and missed, catching his partner, then just before he ran off he was spooked or something, I think he thought that Boodram was going to shoot him first so….you know the rest.’

‘So what exactly happened in the room here, how did they avoid being captured, I thought the Chief and the SWAT team had the place surrounded.’

‘Good point. They did, they would never have been able to shoot their way out, the only way they could go was up, through the roof space.’ Mac looked up at the hatch door and Khan followed his eyes up to the ceiling.

‘Is that how they got out?’

‘Yeah. I think we have to get up there. You got a flashlight?’

‘Yes, but it’s in the vehicle, I think I may have two in there.’

Officer Khan ran back to the patrol car and brought back two torches. Mac was already in the roof space. He’d put the hatch door to one side and was reaching down to Khan.

‘Hand me the flashlights and jump up here.’

Mac shone his torch around and all he could see at first was the timber rafters and central supports. Then to one side he could see there was a line of air conditioning ducts running across the top of the ceiling with drop connections to each room bel
ow.

As their eyes adjusted to the darkness they could make out more and more and there was a gap between the upright supports forming a walkway, right the way through to the end of the block.

‘Okay Khan it seems pretty clear to me that this walkway must have been their escape route. Let’s concentrate on checking every inch of this place. If he was crawling through with the gun stashed loosely in a pocket it may have fallen out along the way.’

Mac knelt down and crawled slowly along shining the torch from side to side scouring the floor area and corners for anything metal and shiny. Khan followed Mac and covered the same area but kept his eyes peeled just in case he overlooked something. After ten minutes or so they had advanced roughly half way between room one and the end room, room 12. Mac continued to search, keeping his eyes trained on the end of the torch beam. The only objects that came into view were odd lengths of electrical wire, aluminum washers and empty drink cans strewn across the gypsum ceiling boards.

‘You see anything Khan?’ Mac was beginning to sweat. It was thirty-five degrees outside. It must have been forty in the roof space. He wiped his brow with his shirtsleeve and sat up for a moment to get his breath.

‘No. Nothing yet Sir,’ Khan replied.

Khan was trying to think where a gun could possibly be hidden from view. Both he and Mac could easily see the whole of the roof area and he too was only seeing wires, cans and other items of rubbish. He leant his head down lower and saw that there was a two-inch space below the a/c ducting. He kept his head low and shone the torch beam under it and along it. He wondered whether the other search teams had bothered to check underneath the ducting in the same way.

Mac had carried on sweeping the width of the roof with the light and was almost at the end of the space. Khan nudged away a drink can with the end of his flashlight and thought he saw something.

He did.

‘There. There Sir. You see it?’ Khan shouted excitedly and Mac turned round to see what he was talking about.

‘What is it Khan? What do you see?’

‘There Sir, on the left under the ducting, almost hidden by the jointing, you see that dark shape, with a pipe like protrusion?’ The pipe was like the barrel of a gun. It was only two feet away from the central walkway but unless you had your eyes down level with the underside of the duct you’d never see it.

‘Khan you’re a genius. How did you spot that?’

Khan laid down on his stomach, reached under and got his fingertips to the object. He took care not to touch it with his hands in case he smudged vital prints that may be on it. Khan lifted it up by poking a pen through the trigger guard and when it was fully into view they saw that it was a gun.

It was Shadow’s gun.

Khan laid the gun on a piece of toweling and carefully offered it to Mac. Mac took the pen holding the gun and checked it over for himself. He wrapped it in the piece of toweling and carried it as they walked out to the car.

Mac knew that this would bury Shadow for good.

‘Khan, I can’t thank you enough, let’s get out of here and call the Chief. I’m absolutely sure the ballistics results will prove that this gun fired the bullets that murdered Guy Randall. It also killed a police officer. Officer Boodram.’

Khan returned the room keys and they set off back to the station.

‘Mac and Khan well done boys. I’ll get this across to the lab and see if we have a match with the bullet from Guy’s body.’

‘Chief I’m going to have to get out of here, will you call me? If the tests prove the match is good could I take the evidence with me back to the States?’

The Chief walked around his desk rubbing his chin deep in thought.

‘I could get permission for a special diplomatic pouch for you to carry the items on board as long as we clear it with the airline. Leave it with me. I’ll pull a few strings. I’ll call you with the test results and have the pouch sent up to you, what time are you flying?’

‘7.15 a.m.’

‘Okay.’

The Chief and Mac shook hands silently, they both new just how important this find was. Quite apart from producing the evidence that would convict and jail Shadow for a very long time, it had an extra special significance for the Chief. On the night of the siege, despite having him surrounded, Shadow managed to escape. Now the Chief had another chance to settle a ten-year long score. The man that took his wife away, and was ultimately responsible for her death, was now close to getting the punishment he deserved.

‘Thank you Mac.’

Mac left the station.

There was no way he could talk to Stone to tell him the good news so Mac had to make do with the feeling of satisfaction all by himself.

At least he was one step closer to getting Stone released.

Chapter 10

Early The next morning Chang was into his usual routine. At six a.m. exactly he hit the streets for a five-mile run. He got home before seven, took a shower and had breakfast. At eight a.m. he called the boss to give him his morning wake up call. Eight was early for Shadow. Gangsters don’t do early.

At
ten a.m. he had to be ready to pick up the boss with a fresh, hot, non-fat Latte for him sitting on the dashboard.

It was
9.59 a.m.

Shadow slid into the front seat alongside Chang and told him to head for Central Park West. If the traffic was light it would take about an hour to reach the apartment where Rachel had lived since her return from the
Caribbean. Somehow the last few weeks had seemed like a lifetime to Rachel Parker. A lot had happened.

A lot had changed.

When Shadow first stumbled upon the beautiful young rookie sitting up at the bar doing amateur tricks on players and rich boys, he’d seen talent, raw talent. Rachel was his niece, she wasn’t aware of that at the time she started to work for him. He saw something of Rachel’s mother in her, her look, her mannerisms and the way she could attract a man, any man.

He recruited her and if she’d listened and worked as instructed she’d be a rich woman by now. At least she had the apartment to show for her short, fated liaison with Guy Randall.

Shadow had finally come to terms with the fact that Rachel had not double-crossed him at the ransom exchange as he had originally thought. He now understood that her leaving so soon afterwards was not related in any way. Shortly after the
St. Lucia debacle he’d spoken to Breaker, his old partner, who was working for John Jack Bissett at the time. The end game with Rachel went bad and it cost Jack his life.

Breaker was out on bail for aiding and abetting Bissett on a lesser charge of extortion. Prior to Rachel turning up alive he was in custody on a charge of conspiracy to manslaughter. He told Shadow what had happened that night on the hill. How Rachel had tricked Stone into transferring the $2 million ransom money into her account in the
Cayman Islands, but how it was all in vein. During the heated argument and confusion there was a shootout and Jack shot Rachel. She fell over the cliff, her body was not found and was presumed dead, washed away by the ebb tide. A second later her father, who had followed Stone out to the island, shot Jack dead at point blank range.

Two weeks later Shadow heard on the street that the rumors of Rachel’s death were exaggerated and that she was alive and living in
New York.

Chang checked the address again on the piece of paper that Shadow had given to him and although the address was 19 central park west, the entrance was on 76th St.

‘That’s the entrance right there boss.’

‘Okay, pull over, circle for a while, I’ll call you when I’m done.’

‘Sure thing boss,’ said Chang.

Shadow stepped out onto the sidewalk, adjusted his shades, looked up at the outside of the building right up to the eighth floor and looked down again at the entrance. The air was chilly, he buttoned up his leather coat and stuffed his gloved hands into his side pockets and walked across to the bank of intercoms on the wall. He traced the names with his fingers from the top down and stopped at number 4. The name beside the button stenciled neatly on a white background was G. Randall. He knew he had the right one. He buzzed it and waited for a reply. He quietly practiced speaking in a higher voice a few times. There was an answer.

‘Who is it?’ It was Rachel’s distinctive voice.

‘Parcel for Ms. Parker.’ Shadow shyly checked around to the left and to the right to see if anyone had heard his stupid attempt at a falsetto voice.

‘Come on up. Bring it to the eighth okay?’

The buzzer sounded. The latch clicked and the door sprung slightly open. He got his hand to the handle in case it shut again.

Shadow rode the elevator to the eighth floor, when the doors opened he saw a plate on the wall showing that apartment number four was to the right. He turned right and found the door. He took off his right glove and knocked lightly.

Raising his voice again he said,
‘Delivery.’

A few seconds later Shadow heard footsteps inside on the tiled hall floor and then the door to the apartment opened. Rachel saw immediately who it was and started to close the door as fast as she could. Shadow knew she would do that and was ready, he stuck his right foot against the jamb and reached out and held the door open.

‘That’s not very friendly is it?’ said Shadow.

‘What the hell do you want and how did you find me?’

Shadow muscled his way in and closed the door behind him. Rachel walked backwards keeping her eyes on him at all times.

‘Heard you were back...’ said Shadow, ‘...from the dead.’ He added.

‘You need to leave right now. We’ve got nothing to say to each other.’

‘I’m just stopping by to say hello. You look good girl. Relax; you got nothing to worry about. I know what happened out there.’

Rachel moved closer to the kitchen area and eyed the knife block with the corner of her eyes, she kept inching slowly towards it until it was no more than an arm’s length away. Knowing that she was in the same room as a killer, one that thought you’d double-crossed him, put Rachel on edge.

Was he back for revenge?

‘Well if you do know what happened, you’ll know I don’t have any money and I’m not working anymore.’

‘I know. I heard the whole story and I’m sorry. I had you down for skipping with the money. I know now that Randall switched it. I’m cool.’

‘So is he. Guy Randall. Stone cold in fact, why’d you kill him?’

Shadow looked around the room and complimented Rachel on the apartment, pursing his lips and nodding his head in admiration for the place. He sat down in the middle of a white leather couch and spread his hands across the back of it.

‘Didn’t intend to...all I wanted was my money. He began to piss me off. All he was interested in was you. Tracked him down one night to Stone’s place and heard him talking to the police. He was gonna squeal on me. Couldn’t let that happen baby.’

‘You didn’t need to kill him. He didn’t deserve that.’

‘Look who’s talking? You pulled 2mil and thought nothing of throwing out the man’s woman with the trash. Lucky she survived.’

‘The bitch should have died. She took Stone away from me. She ruined everything. And Stone was smart. When I was declared dead he got his bank buddies to get his ransom money back. All I have now is this.’ Rachel threw her eyes around the room as if it was a cheap crash pad.

‘Ditch it and bank the cash.’

‘Not yet. I need somewhere, just for a while anyway, maybe later.’

Shadow leant forward again towards Rachel resting his arms on his knees. He knitted his fingers and waited for the right time to put something to her.

‘You didn’t say what you wanted,’ said Rachel.

The opportunity came earlier than he thought.

‘You’re gonna need to get back into action. Let’s start over. We were good, you have to admit.’

Rachel couldn’t believe her ears. Was he trying to trick her? Could he be serious? She took her time to reply. Then she recalled what Stone had said that fateful night on the hill in St. Lucia. ‘How can I ever trust you? All that time and you never told me you were my uncle. What’s more you knew what happened to my mother and never even told me. That day in Jennifer’s apartment you recognized my mother in the photograph. I thought there was something strange about the way you looked at it. She was your sister wasn’t she? And you felt guilty.’

Even big guys squirm and Shadow tried his best to avoid Rachel’s penetrating glare. She didn’t think she would ever get the opportunity to question him about these matters. She had never really known the truth about her mother. Why she abandoned her when she was so young. Why she had left her father. Why she never came back for her.

The wounds were just as raw as they ever were.