The Secret of Fatima (37 page)

Chapter Fifty-Two

Fredericksburg, Virginia

Kevin had never been to Fredericksburg, Virginia. This sleepy, bucolic town had seen little of the kind of feverish activity it was about to witness. Kevin had often thought of taking a Sunday afternoon drive there to stroll the cobblestone streets and visit the historic houses. Not on this visit.

While on the road, Kevin called Katie. “Katie, this is Kev. I want you to go right now and make sure all your doors are double-locked securely.”

“Yes, of course they're locked. But I'll double-check. What's going on? You're frightening me, Kev.” She was in the upstairs bedroom, reading, with a glass of Merlot. The day had been uneventful. William was sleeping soundly in an adjacent bedroom.

“We're on our way there. I don't want to alarm you, but be on the lookout for anything unusual.”

“Why, Kevin? What's going on?”

“Nothing for sure. We're just being cautious, OK? I'm on my way with Toby. We'll be there in less than half an hour. Is your phone charged?”

“Yes.”

“Stay on the line with me.”

“What about the baby?” asked Katie.

“Go get the baby, and hide him in a closet,” said Kevin. “Do it right away.”

While keeping the phone line open, Katie ran into the bedroom and grabbed William. He barely moved. Thank goodness he was a sound sleeper. She took him into her bedroom and opened the closet door. Inside were several cardboard boxes. She placed him in one of the boxes, covering him with one of his blankets. Then she closed the door. William gurgled and cooed, and went back to sleep.

“OK, he's hidden,” Katie said. “He's asleep, he should be alright.”

“Good,” said Kevin.

In a couple of moments, she screamed, “Kevin!”

“What? Katie. I'm here.”

“Someone's ringing the doorbell!”

Shit
.

“Can you see the front door?” Kevin asked.

“Yes, out the bedroom window.”

“Okay, look out. But make sure your lights are out.”

Kevin looked helplessly over at Toby, who was already calling CIA security and the local police.

“There's a man in dark clothes out there.”

“Stall, Katie,” he said as calmly as he could. “Toby's calling the authorities. We'll be there in a few minutes.”

“How do I stall?” she asked nervously.

“Stay in your bedroom. Lock the doors.”

While Kevin was speaking, Katie heard a thunderous crash downstairs. The back door had been kicked in. She heard footsteps at the front door. Someone was opening it, letting someone else in.

“Oh my God! They're in the house! Hurry!” Katie said.

Kevin heard someone pounding on the door to her bedroom.

“Miss O'Connell!” The voice was deep, throaty, and accented.

Katie shook and her teeth chattered. Her heart thumped in her chest.
Could they hear her heartbeat?
Now in the distance she heard police sirens.
Where was Kevin?
The sirens grew closer and louder.

“I'm crawling under the bed,” Katie whispered into the cell, hoping Kevin could hear.

The next sound Kevin heard on the phone was the bedroom door smashing open. It didn't take the intruders long to figure out where she was hiding. One of them kicked the bed aside.

“Get up,” the deep voice ordered. He grabbed Katie's arm.

Kevin could hear as she struggled to her feet.

“What do you want with me?” Katie asked. Now William began to cry from the closet.

“Well, well … what have we here?” One of them had opened the closet door, and saw little William squirming in the box.

“Please don't touch him!” Katie yelled.

“Shut up.”

There was the sound of someone slapping Katie's face.

The phone went dead.

Toby and Kevin's car screeched to a halt in front of the house. Two police cars arrived seconds later, sirens blaring. Red, blue, and green lights were flashing throughout the neighborhood. The neighbors were fully awake and clusters of people were gathering in their pajamas in their yards and on their wraparound porches.

Kevin rushed into the house. “Katie! Where are you?”

He spotted the open back door and ran back out.

Toby told the police chief, “They're gone. They kidnapped a woman and her baby. You need to form a perimeter around here immediately.”

The police chief wasted no time. Rushing to his car, he spoke into a microphone, giving orders. He went back to Toby and Kevin. “I've got a helicopter taking off and we've got a security perimeter of a half a mile. They don't have a chance.”

“We're going out after them, too,” Kevin said. “Give me a radio and make sure we get clearance.” Kevin gave him the description and license number of his car. A young officer came over with a portable radio tuned to the police frequency.

Toby and Kevin ran to his car. “I'll drive,” Kevin said.

Tires screeched as Kevin maneuvered around a blockade of police cars with spinning multicolored lights. Police barricades were being set up everywhere. The sound of a police helicopter thumped overhead, its two spotlights circling the surrounding streets. Kevin drove at high speed back toward the main road into town, the one leading to Interstate 95, the only viable escape route out of Fredericksburg.

While Kevin drove towards I-95, Toby listened to the portable radio. It squawked endlessly with chatter about every car they were seeing and what the helicopter was observing. Finally, there was something significant. The helicopter tracked a vehicle traveling at high speed out of the neighborhood. It was a blue Ford Taurus. The order boomed from the helicopter bullhorn to stop for questioning.

Kevin listened and noted the route the Taurus was taking. He checked his GPS screen and immediately changed course to pursue it.

Kevin screeched and twisted through the side roads, and quickly spotted the suspect Taurus. It was about to take the ramp to I-95 when the driver suddenly veered away, heading toward the river. Kevin was following at a safe distance. Near the Rappahannock River, the road running parallel to the highway had a series of small parks shaded by tall trees.
The bastard did his homework
, Kevin thought. The only way to escape the helicopter was to get undercover where the chopper couldn't see them.

But the helicopter hung close. As the Taurus veered along the dark streets around the corner, the chopper stayed with them and the spotlights circled closer.

Kevin and Toby still could hear sirens in the distance.

The Taurus tore into a parking lot next to a bank with a railroad-crossing style gated entrance. At this time of night, the entrance wasn't manned, and the gate was down.

Kevin continued to follow, wondering why the Taurus had picked this spot. He saw an old-fashioned wooden riser at the gate house that wouldn't stop a runaway baby carriage. The Taurus driver approached the barrier slowly and ran the car right through it, sprinkling shattered wood fragments in its path. Then the Taurus pulled into the vacant lot and moved under the parapet covering the drive-in teller machines.

Kevin slowed, following them, staying far enough behind not to be noticed. When the Taurus stopped, the driver got out and opened the trunk. Kevin stopped a hundred yards behind and turned the car lights off, out of their line of vision. The driver unzipped the duffel bag and removed a submachine gun. He pulled back the lever and chambered the first round.

Lights way above were circling around the bank. The helicopter had found them.

In the empty parking lot, the gunman walked out into the open, waiting for the lights to find him. The spotlights continued to circle, zeroing in on their target. He was ready. Now the lights were on the bank and the teller machines. The front of the car was visible in the bright spotlight. The other light came around and shone on the gunman. He waved and kept the gun hidden behind his back.

A blaring voice came from the helicopter. “Drop to the pavement, spread eagle!” The helicopter was slowly descending.

In one swift motion, the gunman jerked the machine gun around, pointed at the helicopter and started firing away, spraying bullets right and left.

“He's going to down the chopper!” Toby said.

“We can't go in now, Toby,” Kevin said. “I can't risk Katie and the baby getting hit by the guys in the car.”

The spray of gunfire hit the helicopter, glass shattered, the engines sputtered and smoked, and the helicopter gyrated wildly. The pilot swerved the control stick right and left, trying to regain control, but to no avail.

The man on the ground kept firing. Now the rotors stopped and the helicopter started its descent, very slowly at first, then accelerating. It finally hit hard on top of the bank. Moments later, the deafening crash gave way to a series of explosions. Flames spewed out from the roof and down the sides of the building. The copter's rotors came loose, rolling and tumbling to the ground. Seconds later, all that was left was a torrent of fire.

“Call it in!” Kevin shouted.

The gunman jumped back in the car. The Taurus took off. Kevin started up his engine and pursued.

Dear God, if I ever needed you, it's now.

Doing eighty miles per hour on the empty road, the Taurus screamed past them. Kevin braked and spun his car around in heavy pursuit. Toby held his pistol, aiming at the car. “Stay with them, Kevin.”

They followed the Taurus at breakneck speed, until reaching the entrance to a recreation park marked by a row of tall trees clustered together. The park entrance welcomed visitors with a wooden sign:
CLOSED AT DUSK
.

The Taurus sped faster and Kevin's Toyota followed in hot pursuit.

Toby radioed the police chief. “We're going in.”

“I don't want you guys to get in the way, ya' hear? Stay in your car and let the police handle this. We'll be there in a few minutes.”

Kevin and Toby looked at each other, knowingly.
No way would they just let the police handle this!

The Taurus continued barreling along the road, which was turning into a gravel path. It was dark and hard to see. The height of the trees blocked the light of the crescent moon from filtering through. Kevin followed at a moderate distance, knowing that the showdown was near.

Sure enough, the gravel road ended and the Taurus stopped. The occupants surely knew that the Toyota was about to catch up with them. Seconds later, the Taurus driver got out of the car with his machine gun.

Toby turned to Kevin. “I can take a shot before we stop,” he said.

“Don't. Katie and William are in the car. We can't risk it.”

Kevin pulled up to within fifty feet of the Taurus, his headlights shining on the car and the tall, dark, armed man standing in front of it. Kevin instantly recognized Carlos Alameda, aka Columbo. He stood and held the machine gun prominently in front of him, his finger on the trigger. The sight of him reminded Kevin of the many combatants he'd encountered over the years, all eager and ready for a fight. Kevin knew the feeling. He was one of them.

Through the car's rear window, he could see the back of Katie's head. Kevin kept his eye on the machine gun Alameda was clutching with both hands.

“Now what?” Toby asked.

“I'm getting out of the car.”

“That'd be suicide, Kevin. We don't know how crazy this guy is.”

“I know him. I'm betting he's rational crazy, not
crazy-crazy
.”

“Well, if he does something stupid, I'm taking him down, not that at this point it'd help you much,” Toby said.

Kevin opened the car door and got out slowly. He kept his hands by his side where Alameda could see them.

“Turn the lights down,” Alameda ordered.

Kevin nodded. Toby turned the brights off, leaving only the parking lights on. They were in a gravelly patch at the end of the road surrounded by tall trees.

“Don't do anything stupid, Father,” Alameda said. “Your friend is in the car with two unpleasant colleagues of mine.”

“What do you want?” Kevin asked.

Alameda smiled. “I want to leave with the child. You can have your friend back.”

Kevin shook his head, as if to say,
I don't think so
.

“Then let's see who'll die first,” Alameda said.

Standing by the car, Kevin heard the sound of the front seat window being lowered. He knew Toby had to make some decisions. He prayed they were the right ones.

Toby pointed his pistol at Alameda. “My bet is you go first,” Toby said, drawing Alameda's attention. Before Alameda could react, Toby fired a shot, hitting him in the arm. Alameda cried out, dropping his weapon.

One of the men in the Taurus got out with a pistol in his hand. When he hesitated for a few seconds, deciding who to shoot first, Toby shot him in the chest. He went down.

The third man remained in the car with Katie and the baby.

Kevin approached Alameda, who got up slowly, clutching his wounded arm, trying to stop the blood flow. Police sirens shrilled in the background. They'd be there soon.

As he pointed his pistol at Alameda, Kevin's heart was racing.
Should he or shouldn't he?
One shot would finish him off.
Then what?
The decision had to be fast. Katie and the child were still in the car with one of Alameda's thugs.

“Here's your deal,” Kevin said. “You let Katie and the child come with us, and I'll let you live. The police will deal with you.”

Alameda hesitated, which worried Kevin.
What was he planning?
The answer came quickly. Alameda was a strategist; he'd recognize when retreat was his best option. Alarmed, he glanced at his wounded arm, nodded to Kevin, and called to his man in the car to get out.

The man obeyed and got out, looking puzzled. Alameda repeated his order. The man stood by the car, next to his fallen comrade, his hands by his sides.