Finn was losing his fight for life. The pressure from the tightening rope was choking him, and he was losing the strength to resist the efforts to get him on the stump. He continued to fight as best he could, but he sensed the end was fast approaching.
“Just yank him off the ground with the rope,” the weary demon pled.
Lasalle pulled the rope as hard as he could. Finn was beginning to lose consciousness. A feeling of complete calm came over him. He looked up to the blue sky. Clouds appeared to be spinning and he could hear voices. Were these angelic voices? Was he passing over to the other side?
In an instant, everything changed. Finn was no longer gazing at blue skies and spinning clouds. His face was pressed into dirt and he was gasping to get breath.
“It’s alright. Just breath. It’s alright.”
The voice was both reassuring and familiar. As Finn began to regain control of his respiration, he also noticed that his hands were free. He rolled over and looked up into the smiling face of Paul Taggart.
“You OK?” Paul asked.”
Though his head was bruised from the whack with the tree limb, and his throat aching from almost being hanged, Finn nodded. “Yeah, I’m OK,” he whispered.
Paul helped Finn up and walked him to the stump. “Take a seat,” he said. “Take a few minutes to get a grip on your senses.”
Finn buried his head in his hands. The reality of what had almost happened was setting in and he couldn’t stop his body from shaking. He took several deep breaths until he had the shaking reasonably under control. Finn turned toward Paul and shook his head. “I never realized how dangerous Lasalle really was.”
Paul recoiled and smiled. “Lasalle?” He turned and called out to the opposite end of the clearing. “Wait a minute. Bring them over here.”
Two uniformed NYPD officers marched the handcuffed demons over to Paul. “Evidently, this is going to be a shock to you.” Paul ripped the mask off the first demon. Finn had to gasp for breath again. He was face to face with Rory’s friend Nick.
“Oh my God,” Finn blurted.
“Get them out of here.” Paul directed the officers.
Finn eyes were fixed on the trail leading out of the clearing long after the cops had escorted their prisoners away. Paul put his hand on Finn’s shoulder. “I guess you want to know the story.”
Finn’s expression required no response, so Paul began. “When you called to me and told me about the tunnel and the whole story with Lasalle and the demons, I went back over the entire case folder, as well as the armored car depot heist file. I realized you were on to something and after I called Sgt. Moritz, I had two theories. It was either Lasalle or this guy Nick. “
“What made you suspect Nick?” Finn asked.
“It was you,” Paul replied. “It was when you told me that the Mills kid said the demon’s name was Mormo. That wasn’t in the file. Either the kid didn’t say it in his interview or Rusty McGowan was too lazy to include it – it wasn’t there.”
“I don’t understand.” Finn declared.
“Then listen,” Paul instructed. “I examined the file on the armored car depot heist, and went to the list of former employees who were looked at.”
“And?” Finn asked
Paul smiled, “And there he was.”
“Who was?”
“Nick!”
Finn shook his head. “I’m still not getting the connection with Nick.”
Paul slapped Finn’s back. “Come on! You don’t see the connection between Mormo and Nick Mormorillo.”
Finn put his right hand to his forehead. “Oh my God! Was it that simple?”
“Not quite,” Paul replied. “We still weren’t sure about that Lasalle creep, so Chris and I decided the best thing to do was to begin watching you.”
“Watch me? Why?” Finn asked.
“Because we knew one of these guys was gonna come after you, but we didn’t know which one.”
“Wait a minute.” Finn raised his hand. “How did you know that Nick might be coming for me?”
Paul shrugged. “It was you again. When you told me about the tunnel, you mentioned in passing that you felt bad about telling your friend Rory about it because you didn’t want to get his hopes up.”
“So.” Again, Finn didn’t see the relevance.
“You also happened to mention an asshole friend of Rory’s named Nick who was also at the prison. I looked up the visitor records and found out it was Nick Mormorillo who was there with you. So, when you told him about your discovery of the tunnel, I knew you became a target for him.”
“You couldn’t tell me about all this?” Finn voiced in frustration.
“Nah. It worked better this way. We still thought that the Lasalle guy may have had it in for you, so we had to watch you to see if anyone started following you.”
“And Nick started following me, right?”
“That’s right,” Paul nodded. “He was on you for five days and we were on him.”
Finn shook his head. “I thought I was going crazy. I believed I was seeing these same cars over and over again.”
“And you were right,” Paul laughed. “I guess we weren’t as covert as we thought.”
“Who was the other guy?” Finn inquired.
“That was Jason Thomas, a druggie friend of Mormorillo’s.”
“Was he the second guy in the robbery and murders?” Finn asked
“Good chance of that,” Paul nodded. “That’s what’s great about having two bad guys to deal with. I’ll get back to the precinct and within an hour I’ll have them both turning on each other. Don’t worry, I’ll get the full story for you.”
Finn stared up at Paul but remained silent.
“I can read your mind,” Paul stated. “As soon as I get a confession for the robbery and murders I will start the ball rolling to get your friend and the Mills kid released.”
“Finn smiled. “Thanks, Paul, but I have one more question.”
“Shoot.”
“What if you had been a few seconds delayed in getting to me?”
Paul shrugged. “I don’t know. The thought never occurred to me.” He patted the top of Finn’s head. “Let’s get out of here. We’re in New York City. I don’t like the woods.”
Paul addressed two uniformed cops who had just entered the clearing. “Tape off the entire clearing guys and wait for the Crime Scene Unit to get here. Don’t worry too much about contaminating evidence – we already got the best evidence – live perps.” Paul turned to Finn. “Ready? Let’s go.”
Finn followed Paul to the trail at the edge of the clearing. Paul stepped onto the trail, but before Finn could depart the clearing, one of the cops called out to him. “Hey, Delaney!”
Finn spun around to face the all too familiar grin of Rocco Gentile.
“Didn’t I tell you that it was dangerous to be cruising these parks?” Rocco grinned
Finn turned away and followed Paul down the trail. He was too fatigued, both physically and emotionally to care about Rocco Gentile – at least for today.
The relative tranquility of the woods was a sharp contrast to the scene on 230th Street. NYPD vehicles were all over the street, with yellow crime scene tape closing off access to the park and keeping curious onlookers on one side of the street. The contingent of cops on the street roused to attention with the arrival of an unmarked vehicle. Deputy Chief Patrick Delaney marched directly to Finn. “Are you alright, Finneous?”
Finn nodded, but Paul Taggart provided the vocals. “He’s fine,” Paul assured. “The kid did good.”
Patrick shook his head. “I don’t know, Finneous. We may have to rethink this private eye business.”
“Come on, Chief,” Paul responded. “The kid’s a natural.”
“Really?” Patrick questioned. He began returning to his unmarked vehicle. “I’ll meet you all back at the precinct.”
Finn slumped in the passenger seat. He fastened his seat belt and closed his eyes as Paul pulled away from
the curb. Finn reflected on Paul’s words to his dad. “I’m a natural,” he thought. “I guess I would have looked very natural swinging from that tree.”
May 31st
Kevin extended his right hand and stared above his raised thumb with one eye open. “Let’s see,” he said. “I think it should go right over there, on the wall opposite the other one.”
“What?” Finn raised his head out of the newspaper.
“This!” Kevin snatched the newspaper from in front of Finn and read the headline out loud. “New Arrests in Demon Murder Case. Queens PI Breaks Demon Case and Armored Car Depot Heist.” Kevin nodded and pointed to the framed newspaper on the wall near the entrance. “That’s a catchier headline than the other one.”
Finn snatched the newspaper back. “Well, at least you’re in a good mood.”
Kevin grabbed a shot glass and the bottle of Sambuca. “Why shouldn’t I be?” He raised the glass in a silent toast and downed the shot. “That creep Nick is in jail. Rory is bound to get out soon, and your boy’s beat down session with that ghoul Lasalle apparently worked. No more dreams or demons.” Kevin poured a second shot and emptied it down his throat. “All is right with the world.”
Kevin’s jubilation was interrupted by a burst of street light from the opening pub door. Someone was about to join them in the empty bar. Finn spun around on the stool. “Hey Paul!” Finn spun back toward Kevin. “It’s Detective Taggart. I was telling you about him.”
Kevin grabbed the Sambuca. “Here’s a man who really deserves a shot.”
Paul waved off the Sambuca. “Too much for me this early, but I will have a Bud.”
“Your wish is my command.” Kevin plopped down the cold bottle of beer on the bar.
Finn extended his hand. “What brings you over here, Paul?”
Paul took a sip of his beer. “The Chief told me I would likely find you here. I promised I would brief you on the developments and I wanted to do it in person.”
Finn turned completely on the stool to face Paul. “I can’t wait.”
“Like I figured, Mormorillo and Thomas couldn’t turn on each other fast enough. I got confessions from both of them on the armored car depot heist and they are fingering each other as the knife man in the Demon Murders, which is just about as good as a confession.”
“So, what actually happened?” Finn asked.
Paul took another sip from his bottle. “It all started back when Mormorillo was working at the depot. One night while he was working there was a malfunction of the fire sprinkler system and water flooded some areas of the facility, including the cash vault. Once the system was repaired, Nick was assigned to mop up the water on the floor of the vault. There was a rack for the DVRs recording the CCTV cameras in the corner of the vault. There was water under the rack, so Nick had to move it to mop the area. The rack was bolted to the floor, so he had to first remove the bolts. When Nick moved the rack, he discovered a vent on the floor under the rack.”
“What was the vent really for?” Finn inquired.
Paul shrugged. “I’m not really sure. Nobody I’ve asked actually knows. The best theory is that it was supposed to vent the heat generated from the DVRs.” Paul continued. “Anyway, Nick finds this vent and he removed the grating and goes into it. He finds out like you did, that it led to the tunnel. At that moment, his plan was hatched. He put the DVR rack back over the vent, but he did not tighten the bolts. A few weeks later he quit his job.”
Finn nodded. “And then he went back through the tunnel.”
“That’s right,” Paul agreed. “He recruited his druggie friend Jason Thomas and waited until a night when he knew only one guard would be in the depot. It turned out to be your friend Rory, but Mormorillo could care less that the heist would be pinned on Rory.” Paul finished his beer. “So, on the night of the murders, Mormorillo and Thomas enter the park at 230 Street and pass through the clearing in the woods before Charlie Mills and the victims got there. When they got through the tunnel and near the vent they changed into the hoods, robes and masks.”
Kevin put another Bud in front of Paul. “I don’t understand something. Why the disguises?”
“The masks were like an insurance policy,” Paul explained. “When Nick opened the vent grating in the floor of the vault, the first thing he had to do was move the DVR rack out of the way. The second, and most important thing he had to accomplish was to pull the wires on the DVR, so the CCTV cameras would stop recording. Just in case something went wrong and there were cameras recording, all they would see were a couple of demons. It was the same principle for their escape. When they got out to 230th Street, if there were any joggers or dog walkers in the area, there would be no witness identifications.
“But they didn’t plan on running into the ritual in the clearing,” Finn added.
“No, they didn’t,” Paul agreed. “And apparently, they panicked. Both of them said they wanted to run right through the clearing and keep going but that the other one said they could not risk the witnesses.”
Finn shook his head. “So, it was all just coincidence that they were wearing demon costumes and ran smack into some jerks performing a demon ritual.”
“Yeah,” Paul chuckled. “Add to all this the Mills kid throwing out ‘Mormo’ – a real demon name, and we have the Demon Murders. Frankly,” Paul admitted, “Rusty McGowan and the rest of us in the Detective Bureau should be ashamed of ourselves for not being able to make the connection between the murders and the heist.”
“What happened to the money?” Finn asked.
“Mororillo put it in a storage locker in one those storage places you see on the TV show.” Paul thought for a moment. “What’s the name of that show?”
“Storage Wars!” Kevin blurted.
“That’s it,” Paul agreed.
“Not the storage place that is where the depot used to be? Finn exclaimed.
“No, no,” Paul stated. “This storage facility is on the other side of Queens. Those places never go into the lockers, so the only thing inside the ten foot by ten foot locker was the bag with the money.”
“How much did you recover?”
“A little over a half million.”
Finn’s eyes widened. “Wasn’t over $1.2 million stolen?”
“That’s right”
“What happened to the rest?”
Paul worked on his second beer. “Remember, they had that money for over two years. With drug expenses and trips to Atlantic City two and three times a week, the money went very quickly.”
“So, what happens now?” Finn asked.
Paul took a deep breath. “Mormorillo and Thomas are going away for good, regardless of who you believe did the cutting. It really doesn’t matter at this point.” Paul smiled. “But I’m pretty sure that’s not what you’re asking about.”
Finn shrugged. “I don’t know. What do you think I’m interested in?”
Paul sipped his beer. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe something about the status of two incarcerated people.”
“Well?” Finn could hardly stand the anticipation.
Paul put his hand on Finn’s shoulder. “About an hour ago, two judges signed court orders directing the immediate release of Chris Mills and Rory Burns. I already notified Rory’s attorney, but I thought you might want to make the call to Nancy Mills yourself.”
Finn instantly had his phone to his ear. “Hello, Nancy, it’s Finn Delaney.”
“Hi, Finn, how are you?”
“Good, Nancy. I have some news.” Finn was about to provide Nancy with the news she had waited over two years to hear, and his emotions were betraying him. He tried to talk, but he couldn’t. He lowered his head and tried in vain to hide his breakdown.
Paul took the phone from Finn. “It’s OK.” Paul consoled. “Let it out.” Paul slapped Finn on his back and put the phone to his ear as he walked to the opposite end of the bar. “Ms. Mills. This is Detective Paul Taggart. I have some good news for you.”
“Yeah,” Kevin
gave Finn a playful punch on his arm. “It’s OK. You did good, Finbar. And I won’t even tell anyone that you were blubbering like an old woman – at least not for a while.”
Epilogue: Demons are Real
May 31st
Finn was agitated - at Kevin, but also at himself. He hated being late, but now he was walking up to the restaurant entrance twenty minutes late due to the tardiness of his friend. Finn had sat in his Camry steaming outside Kevin's apartment as the clock ticked and Kevin took his sweet time getting dressed. Meg’s commentary that this behavior was nothing unusual for their friend did nothing to dissuade his anger. In fact, that was the main reason he was mad at himself. Meg was right. Kevin being late was nothing unusual, but Finn continued to be an enabler for his friend’s recalcitrant behavior because he waited, when he should have simply pulled away from the curb and traveled to the party with only Meg.
Finn looked up at the restaurant sign. The circumstances of the past few weeks made Angelina's seem like something of an old friend. Finn took a firm hold of Meg’s hand, if only to take a shot at his tardy friend.
“By the way, why no date?” Finn asked. “Still taking a break?” he mocked.
“Who said I have no date?” Kevin shot back. “Maybe I’m meeting someone here.”
“How exciting,” Meg interjected. “A mystery date.”
“Yeah, right,” Finn scoffed. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
On this evening, Finn was feeling especially self-conscious of his walk. He believed his self-perceived odd gait was particularly visible as he moved swiftly into the marbled lobby of the restaurant, guiding Meg along with his hand on her back. There were two active party rooms inside Angelina's, and Finn greeted the stiff maitre d' with nod and a hand shake, faltering somewhat when the greeter became mannequin-like instead of mirroring his joviality.
The maître d's lukewarm greeting caused Finn's smile to wane, but when he led them into the first party room, a raucous cheer of welcome erupted from a flower adorned long table on the right. The maitre d' visibly jumped and turned sharply in the direction of the noise, his skin a shade paler. Finn was met by the customary twinkle in Nancy Mills eyes, but there was an extra dimension to this twinkle, one of unabashed joy. Finn thought Nancy's hug would never end. When he finally wrested himself free from the embrace, a parade of enthusiastic but less physical greetings commenced from familiar faces.
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