Trained To Kill (17 page)

“
Not unless we find
something interesting.”

They headed out in Isa’s car. Isa had
called ahead to make sure Ben was at The Inferno. Pulling around
back to the staff parking, Isa parked and they went to the alleyway
door leading to the employee entrance. Isa took out her keys and
searched for the right one, but Ben was already there pushing the
door out and stepping back to let them by. He led them up the
stairs to the office.

“
So,” Alex began. “I’ve
interviewed everyone on Isa’s list that I could find.”

“
Who’s missing?” Ben
asked.

“
Lester
Pruitt.”

“
He quit three days ago,”
Ben announced. “No show.”

“
That’s interesting
timing.”

The office was rather large but
comfortable. The desk was against the far right wall, large
sectional couch, a mini-bar, bathroom in the corner, shelves behind
the desk were crammed with books, employee manuals and binders.
There was some art on the wall but not much.

Alex liked it. It felt like a mix of
Ben and Isa and Maggie. He had been in here twice before, once when
he was hired and then when he was snooping for
information.

“
Lester Pruitt,” Isa said
thoughtfully. “NYU student loans, right?”

“
Yeah I ran another check
after you gave me his info.” Alex turned to Ben, “What else can you
tell me about him?”

Ben thought for a several minutes
before answering, “Not a whole lot. He was a good bartender. I
didn’t know him personally that well.” Ben leaned back in his seat.
“Maggie might know him better, he worked at night.”

“
Alright.”

Ben sent Isa a questioning glance; he
wasn’t sure what to make of her showing up with Alex. She just
twitched her eyebrows at him and said nothing.

Back in her car they decided to go
back to Lester’s apartment. It wasn’t far. He probably walked to
work most nights. Heading up they stood outside the door and
knocked. Still no one home. The door stayed firmly shut this time
and Alex didn’t have a warrant to search it.

“
This doesn’t bode well.
Either he skipped town, or Malone or someone got to
him.”

“
If he was your inside
man,” Isa said. “He could be running from other
problems.”

“
You have a point, but
it’s an awfully big coincidence if he is, and I don’t like
coincidence.”

“
Me either.”

“
Let’s go talk to Maggie,
see if she knew him any better.”

Walking back down to the car, they
encountered a rather large obstacle. It was the man that had lifted
Isa off the ground in a choke hold in her apartment. His eyes were
black and he had a bandage over the bridge of his nose. He didn’t
look angry though. He held out a card and she took it. He said
nothing, just tilted an invisible hat towards her and walked
away.

“
Who was that?”

“
Do you remember the men I
told you broke into my apartment and tried to kidnap
me?”

“
Yes…” Alex reached for
his ankle holster.

“
Alex, wait.”

“
Did you know he was
here?” Alex asked.

“
No.”

“
So he wasn’t following
us. Which means he was waiting here for you.”

“
He had to have
been.”

“
Or maybe you’re getting
rusty.”

“
Maybe you’re touched in
the head.”

Alex kicked a piece of trash on the
sidewalk. They looked at each other sideways, silently agreeing.
They followed him.

The card was Santinez’s phone number.
Isa navigated the roads following the man as stealthily as she
could. They stopped several lengths down from a nice brownstone in
Lenox Hill, the swankiest neighborhood in Manhattan.

“
How come you don’t live
here?” Alex asked Isa.

“
Too snobby.”

Alex ran the address of the building
the man entered. “That’s DeCarlo’s house.”

“
Mhm,” Isa
hummed.

“
You knew?”

She turned her head to look at him.
“You didn’t?”

He narrowed his eyes at her. He was
going to find something she didn’t know if it killed
him.

“
We probably shouldn’t
linger. Either the Mafia or the Feds will catch on that we’re
here.”

“
Right.”

Isa put the car in gear and drove
casually away. There wasn’t anything they could do about it right
now anyway. They stopped for lunch at a bistro near Maggie’s
apartment.

“
So, he found us at
Lester’s apartment which means…,” Alex took a huge bite of his
sandwich.

“…
that Lester was probably
involved,” Isa finished for him. “Yes.”

“
And that Lester is
probably with us no more.” Alex finished for himself.

“
Supposition.”

“
Thank you counselor,”
Alex said dryly.

Isa smiled.

Maggie didn’t have much more to say
about Lester than Ben had. He had apparently kept to
himself.

“
She looks like she’s
doing pretty well considering.”

“
I think so. She’s pretty
tough. I wouldn’t have hired her if she wasn’t.”

Isa drove them back to her place and
they sat in the car for a few minutes. Isa trying to think of what
to tell Alex. Alex waiting to see if she would invite him up. He
glanced at her profile.

“
Are you going to call
DeCarlo?”

Isa dragged her thoughts back to the
present. “Yes, I want to know what he wants from me.”

“
I don’t suppose you’d let
us record it?”

“
How about I’ll record it
and if I think it’s anything you can use, I’ll give it to
you.”

Alex nodded. “Fair enough. Can I at
least be there in the room with you?”

Isa hesitated. “Alex…”

“
Wait. If this is the same
‘we shouldn’t be doing this’ speech, I don’t want to hear
it.”

Isa’s phone rang and she recognized
James Mackenzie’s number. She glanced at Alex and back at her phone
and pushed send to voicemail.

“
Not
answering?”

“
No.

“
Who was that?”

“
James.”

Alex flopped back in his seat and she
could see him struggle to reign in what he wanted to
say.

“
You said you were going
to see him again?”

“
I am.”

“
Why is he ok and I’m not.
Besides the cop thing,” he said before she could say it.

“
There is nothing
else.”

Alex closed his eyes and leaned his
back against the headrest, “That doesn’t make it any
easier.”

Isa was staring out of the window at
the ugly gray walls of her parking garage. She didn’t know what
else to say so she tried again. “We can be friends Alex. But, if
that’s too difficult I understand.”

Alex didn’t say another word, he got
out of the car and leaned back in, “Tell me when you call DeCarlo,”
and walked out to his car.

Chapter 21

Alex blew out several breaths trying
to calm his racing heart. He saw a white haze instead of the street
and he needed to drive carefully. His rage threatened to choke him.
He could see the men that had hurt her; Roger Thorn; and James. He
could see them all hurting her, threatening to take her away. He
didn’t know what to do. He had to up his game if he wanted to keep
her from this James guy, but Isa wasn’t letting him. He had been
shocked that she had agreed to let him in her bedroom last night,
but she had been careful to keep her distance.

He decided he needed to go for a run
to clear his head. Isa was calling DeCarlo sometime today and he
needed to calm down so they could talk about the case. Arriving at
home, Alex put away his laundry and dressed in sweats and running
shoes.

He popped in his ear buds and took off
on his normal route. The air rushing by was cold but it felt good
against his hot skin. He jogged for a slow warm-up but soon was
running full out. His mind emptied and his muscles went lax. This
is exactly what he needed. It was over all too soon but it was too
cold to stay out for long.

As he rounded the corner to his
apartment, he spotted a man leaning against the corner of the
building. Alex wasn’t taking any chances, so he looped around and
came up behind the man.

“
Can I help you?” The man
jumped a foot in surprise.

“
Jesus Jax!” He put a hand
to his chest and laughed. “Give me a heart attack.

“
Johnny.” He hadn’t
recognized him in his winter coat and hat. “Come on in.” Alex
unlocked his door and let Johnny inside. He and Johnny Merrick had
been partners in uniform. Rookies on the street together, answering
Double D’s and breaking up bar fights. It was a bond for life.
Johnny had gone to Homicide when Williams had tagged Alex for
Narco. They kept in touch when they could but it had been
awhile.

“
Still a sneaky fuck Jax.
I’d be dead if you’d been a bad guy.”

“
Who says I’m
not?”

“
Yeah right,” Johnny was
chewing his habitual wad of gum. His brown hair and blue eyes were
average and he had a lean, wiry build. But he was quick in a fight
and deadly accurate with a gun. He was one of the good
guys.

“
How was the run?” Johnny
asked while rummaging through the cabinets.

“
Cold,” Alex heard him
snort. “What’s up Johnny? How have you been?”

“
Oh just peachy. I love
being hauled out of bed at 2:00 am to freeze my ass off at the
docks with a DB.”

Alex knew he wasn’t being sarcastic.
He actually did love it. He grinned at Johnny, “So who’s
dead?”

“
Lester
Pruitt.”

“
Shit.” Alex walked over
to the closet. “I hate being right,” he said pulling out jeans and
a flannel.

“
Yea.” Johnny gave up on
finding any food and started coffee brewing instead. “I talked to
Williams this morning. I figured I’d give you a few more hours of
peace on your day off before I tracked you down.”

“
Yeah. Let me grab a
shower and I’ll go with you to the morgue.”

“
Figured.”

They chatted on the drive. Johnny had
heard about Jax’s cover being blown. Apparently everyone had. He
had also heard a rumor about the lovely suspect he was seen holding
hands with.

“
She’s not a
suspect.”

“
Still a part of the case
right? Be careful man.”

Alex didn’t answer, and Johnny let it
drop. They pulled up to the morgue and went in, beating the snow
off their boots at the entrance. They flashed their badges and
signed in. The receptionist buzzed them in and they met the coroner
in charge of Pruitt.

He walked them to the hall to the
‘motel’ as they called it. The room with several cold boxes filled
to capacity with cold bodies more often than not.

Dr. Shelley pulled a rack out after
checking the name, and Lester Pruitt’s blue, stiff body greeted
them. Alex remembered him vaguely from the club, but hadn’t talked
to him more than twice.

“
Double tap, back of the
head. No burn marks or singed hair. Slight bruising on the knees
and heels of the hands. Probably from a fall. Caught himself,”
Shelley demonstrated, thrusting his hands out in front of him.
“Then bam, bam. Quick succession.” He made his fingers in the shape
of a gun.

“
Yea thanks,” Johnny
talked to Shelley for a few more minutes about any evidence, but
there was none.

They walked out, talking about Pruitt
and Alex’s case. Johnny filled him in on the crime scene, but there
wasn’t much to tell.

“
Down at the docks.” Alex
muttered. “Why the docks if they didn’t throw him in the
water?”

“
Could have been people
around, they didn’t want to make a splash. We’ll study the security
cameras around the area, but you know what it’s like down
there.”

“
Yea, I know. Thanks man.
I appreciate the head’s up.”

They parted ways and Alex grabbed a
bus back to his neighborhood. His thoughts were on Pruitt and who
had killed him and why. Had Malone ordered it from jail? Or was
DeCarlo calling the shots? He wanted to know if Isa had called him
yet but he didn’t want to crowd her right now. He trusted she would
call him with the information when she was ready. It was time to
pay another visit to Malone. But he would have to wade through the
lawyers first.

Chapter 22

Isa decided to call DeCarlo while she
was in a foul mood. It would make it more interesting. But she sat
in her office staring at his business card, brooding for a good
half hour before she dialed.

“
Santinez.”

“
Santinez? If you say so.
Isadora La Beau. You’ve been harassing me?” She spoke as if he were
a credit card company calling about interest rates.