by Iris Bolling
“All valid questions that can easily be answered,” Cory replied.
The Captain and Nate stared at the man with identical glares.
The blank expression on Cory's face prompted the Captain into action.
"Your lead, Reigns," Captain Daniels ordered. “We have a warrant for surveillance cameras in the building. No mistakes here. Keep your temper in check; the last thing I need to deal with is an excessive force lawsuit because you lose your temper on a case involving a Commonwealth Attorney who was an ex-cop and a friend."
“Captain, you really have to work on breaking down your sentences," Cory stated nonchalantly as he flipped the pages on his tablet. "It's difficult to follow statements with more than twenty words. You can get your point across clearly with shorter sentences."
The Captain’s face turned red at the criticism. While Cory continued to sort through his notes, he paid no attention to the Captain’s reaction. Nate could clearly see the Captain was about to explode.
“That was what you thought was important? The number of words the Captain used?” Nate frowned when he asked, “Who made you a detective?”
"Detective Vaughan, there are at least 200 apartments in this building. They are all potential witnesses. I'll expect a report with each of their statements on my desk by nine o'clock tomorrow morning."
Cory’s head snapped up. A silly grin appeared on his face. “Captain that could take all night."
"Then you best get started.” The Captain turned. “Nate, Detective Harper is going to team up with you on this. Use whatever resources necessary to clear this case. I want whoever did this to know you don’t touch one of our own." He glared at Nate. "Do it by the book."
Nate watched as Captain Daniels left the room, then turned to Cory. "Start at the top, work your way down. Is that sentence short enough for you?"
7
Cory took the elevator to the lobby. There was no way in hell he was going to hit every apartment in the building. Hell, he could not believe the Captain ordered him to do such a menial task. Officers, without his skillset, could do the neighbors’ interviews. At some point he would get the respect he deserved from these people.
Needing a pep talk, he pulled out his phone to talk with the one person who would understand what he was feeling.
“Hi Krystal.”
“Hello sweetheart. Are you working late?”
“I’m afraid so. We caught another murder.”
“What is it this time, another gang shooting?”
“No, in fact,” he stepped away from the other officers that were in the lobby, “It’s Alex Burnett, the Commonwealth Attorney.”
“Really? What happened to him?”
“I think it was a murder-suicide. There was a woman found in his bed. I think he strangled that woman, then hung himself.”
“He hung himself?” she gasped.
“Stripped down to his birthday suit, hanging from the rafters.”
“And there was a dead woman in his bed?” she questioned.
“Yes. I don’t care what Nate Reigns says. His hero killed that woman then hung himself.”
“He doesn’t agree with you?”
“No. To made matters worse, he contradicted my theory in front of the Captain. Now, he has assigned me the task of interviewing the neighbors. There are so many other things I could do with my time.”
“Do them.”
“Do them?” Cory chuckled. “You don’t understand my job. You don’t just disobey an order.”
“Don’t look at it as disobeying an order. Look at it as taking the initiative. I don’t know these people, but you just stated Burnett is the Commonwealth Attorney, right. What if the girl has something to do with one of his cases? If you make that connection for your captain, he may see that as good police work.”
“That’s not a bad idea, Krystal.” Cory thought for a minute. “There’s no telling what I could come across in his office.”
“You should concentrate on anything you can find on the girl. That way you can connect it to the case.”
Cory stood straight then began walking purposely towards the exit. “I’m going to his office. Thank you for always knowing the right thing to say.”
Krystal hung up the call, took a deep breath, then walked to the office across the hall. She knocked on the door.
“Enter.”
She opened the door then walked inside. Looking at the man sitting behind the desk she questioned again why he had been put in charge. “You had Burnett hung?”
“The death was sanctioned,” Evan Welch said to his assistant without looking her way.
Krystal shook her head. “That was a bit of overkill, don’t you think? That action will prompt unneeded attention.”
“The target is dead. That is all I care about,” he replied as he continued to write.
“If that was the case, why leave the woman in his bed? That will raise questions.”
“We have someone in place to close the case down if need be.” He looked up. “It is not your place to question my actions. You are to follow orders, not think through complex assignments. Was that call from young Vaughan?”
The assignment was designed to be simple to keep from raising questions. If you were thinking with your brain and not your penis you would understand the genius of the plan. The good old boy network is going to be the death of this organization, she thought but held her tongue. “It was.”
“What information did he have?”
“The body has been found. He suggested it was a murder-suicide. However, Detective Reigns does not buy it. The hanging in combination with the woman in his bed will complicate things.”
Evan looked up. “Are you concerned Detective Vaughan cannot handle the situation?”
“My concern is about the mission. Unnecessary actions could jeopardize the master plan.”
“The organization was left under my control when Chambers honored his oath. My orders are to be followed, not critiqued. Did you direct him to Burnett’s office as ordered?”
“I did.”
“Did you advise him to look for information on the trafficking case?”
“I did.”
“What replacements are ready for assignments?”
“The political division has two ready to step in on the City Council, and one for the Richmond School Board. The education division has five teachers for the high school level, three for middle school and ten for elementary schools. The safety division has fifteen recruits ready for the Richmond Police Academy.”
“We do not have more teachers ready? It is imperative to mold the minds while they are young. It is more difficult to reprogram them once they are older.”
“We have a class of twenty educators in progress. They should be ready before the next school semester.”
“Very well. Then your job is done…for now.”
No, asshole, my job for the night is not over, because you botched your job, The words played in her mind. “Will that be all for the day?”
“It will be,” he replied in a dismissive tone.
Krystal returned to her office, grabbed her purse then left the building.
Walking to her car, Krystal contemplated her next move. If she had her way, she would kill Evan Welch. But with her luck, they would replace him with someone more unfocused on the mission than him. Should she report this information to the next level? She questioned as she started the car. It’s a man’s world. They would take it as her not being loyal to the cause. She shook her head and pulled away still contemplating what action to take.
Her home was nestled only fifteen minutes outside of downtown Richmond in the rural county of Hanover. She parked in her driveway then walked into the house deciding to let the situation with Evan play itself out. Her experience in the past had taught her that men who put personal gain above a mission usually ended in an untimely death. Opening the front door, she turned left, walking into her home office. She placed her purse on the desk, then took a seat behind it.
“Where did the girl come from?” she sighed. “Would he be that stupid?”
Turning on her computer, she hit the shift control keys simultaneously. The screen went black for a second then pulled up the covert site of the organization. Krystal checked the roster of employees assigned to the Elimination Unit (EU). After reviewing the list, she checked the status reports on the night’s activities for the Richmond area. Five EU members were on duty, four males and one female. One male, Ted, handled the communications at headquarters. If anything went awry, he could easily direct resources to intercede in any of the assignments. That left three males and one female to analyze.
Next, she checked the sanctioned list. There were two eliminations, one in the patrol area of the police department, and the other in the Commonwealth Attorney’s office.
Rule number one: All eliminations had to be sanctioned by the controlling levels. The levels with the most powerful control are in descending order, making Level One, the top of the chain of command.
Approval was usually based on the readiness of the replacement. Once the replacement was in line to take over the position, the elimination could proceed.
Rule number two: The replacement had to participate in the elimination. It was important that each member of the organization was fully invested in the success of the master plan. And it never hurt to have evidence to plant against them if they ever turned on the organization.
The elimination of the patrol officer included the replacement officer and a member of the EU. The setup was a distressed female on the side of the road. The patrol officer and his partner pull over to assist. A vehicle rounds the bend, hitting and killing the targeted officer. According to the report, all went as planned. In her mind, Krystal determined the EU employees on that assignment were Carl, the driver and Joanna, the stranded female, aka the eliminator.
“That leaves Ben and Jamison.” She knew Ben was the EU member who accompanied the replacement. He had the same cruel tendencies as Evan and would have no issue deviating from the elimination plans. That meant Jamison was placed to follow the target then feed location and timing updates to the eliminator.
There was no way Krystal could let this incident stand without consequences. There was nothing she could do about Evan at this time. He was her commander. However, she could handle the fools who followed his orders rather than keeping their eyes on the master plan. Checking the roster, she looked up Benjamin Corbin’s address. She pulled up the schematics of his home and studied them.
“A nice, isolated location,” she deducted. “One story, two-bedroom house with a nice back yard.” Looking closer, she nodded. “Nice fire pit out back. That should come in handy.”
Standing, she walked upstairs to her bedroom. Inside the closet, she pulled up two floorboards then lifted an old toolbox out. She sat on the floor as she opened the box, pulling out tools from her past occupation. She unwrapped the items with a smile, realizing how much she missed it.
Since joining the organization, there was no need for her to use them as much as she had to in the past. The organization fulfilled her in a way her other profession did not. The organization gave her purpose. Each day she came home with a sense of accomplishment. She could see the future coming together. Her smile turned into a frown. There was no way she would let Evan Welch, and his taste for cruelness, put the master plan in jeopardy. With determined strides, she pulled another item from the box, then placed the box back in its hiding place.
Less than an hour later, Krystal made a stop at her storage facility and gathered other items she would need. She was now sitting in Ben’s bedroom, waiting for him to come home.
It was after one o’clock in the morning when the headlights from Ben’s pickup truck flashed through the window. Krystal checked around to ensure everything was in place for the task at hand. Satisfied, she crossed her legs and waited until he made his way to the bedroom.
In her mind, she imagined his steps. She listened as the key entered the lock and turned. From his bedroom, she could see when the kitchen lights came on. She heard the refrigerator open. He’s probably getting a beer, she thought. Next, she heard his footsteps in the hallway. She rolled her eyes at the sound of him taking a piss in the bathroom. Ben was a good-sized muscled guy. Getting answers from him was not going to be easy. But hell, she had taken down bigger and brighter men than him. She heard the plastic on the floor crunch.
“What the hell?” He turned on the lights, looking down.
“Hello, Ben.”
He looked up. “Ms. Krystal. What are you doing here and why is all this plastic covering my stuff?”
Before answering she pulled her gun with the silencer then fired two shots, one in each knee cap. The big man fell to the floor grabbing his knees and screaming in pain.
“Holy shit. Why in the hell did you do that?”
“I need answers and don’t have the patience to get them in a nice way. Where did the woman you placed in Alex Burnett’s bed come from?”
“What?”
She fired another bullet into his thigh. “I don’t have patience Ben. Where did the woman you placed in Alex Burnett’s bed come from?”
Squirming on the plastic, he yelled in pain, “She was one of the whores from the raid the other night.”
“Was she one of ours?”
“Yes, shit, I’m bleeding here Krystal.”
“You will be out of your misery soon. Why did you eliminate her?”
“Come on now Krystal, my legs are hurting like hell. I need to go to the hospital.”
“You’re not going to need a hospital, Ben. Who sanctioned her elimination?” That statement got his attention. She could now see the realization of his situation in his eyes.
“Commander Welch ordered me to kill all the women from the raid.”
“Did he tell you to hang Burnett too?”
“Yes, damn it, yes!” he squealed. “The replacement wanted the man’s reputation destroyed. I was following orders!”
“The order was contradictory to the master plan. You are stupid, but you are not that stupid, Ben. You know what you were doing was out of line with the organization rules.”
“This is crazy, Krystal.” Ben crawled towards the bed to get away from her. His pathway was blocked by something hard. He looked back, “What the…?” his eyes widened. “What in the hell is a chain saw doing in the bedroom?” He looked up at her then asked. “Krystal, why are you in a raincoat and gloves?”
Krystal fired two shots in the center of his head.
“Same reason your room was covered in plastic, you dumbass.” She put her weapon neatly back in its holster and picked up the chain saw.
After she was finished cutting the big man’s body into manageable pieces, she wrapped each piece into plastic, then carried them out back to his fire pit. She started a fire, took a seat, and opened a beer. As the fire built up, she threw pieces of Ben’s body into the pit. Halfway through, she opened another beer, wondering how many others she would have to take out to protect the integrity of the master plan.
8
Nate motioned towards the officers standing at the door. They stepped aside to allow the medical examiner from the coroner's office in.
"Nate, I'm so sorry." Tess Holiday, the medical examiner hugged him." Her thick red hair was pulled back into a ponytail, displaying her tear-stained face. "I loved him, you know."
Nate accepted the moment of comfort. "He cared for you too. We're going to find out who did this." He stepped back, gave her a stern look. "No mistakes. We're doing this one by the book.”
"I'll have to certify time of death."
“I’ll take him down.” Nate watched as she wiped the tears away then nodded. He took a sheet from the coroner, wrapped his friend's body in it, then released the belt. Alex Burnett's limp body fell into his arms. This was the man who’d mentored him when he became a detective. The man who’d schooled him in the art of dealing with the high brass to get a case closed. Alex Burnett was the m
an who came up through the ranks as a beat cop, became a detective, attended law school, and became the Commonwealth Attorney. Nate cared for him as if he was a brother. A lump in his throat threatened to choke him as the weight of Alex’s body consumed him. He took a moment, hugging Alex against his shoulder, then he gently placed him on the open black bag. He took his time covering Alex’s body with the sheet, leaving his head exposed.
He dropped the belt in an evidence bag held by one of the crime scene investigators, then gently zipped him up on the gurney. No friend should have to place another friend’s body in a black bag, he thought.
"I'll find the bastard who did this, Alex. Bank on it," he whispered.
The CSI techs rolled the gurney out as Tess stepped forward.
Tess took her small flashlight and shined the light under the area where the body was found. She then flashed the light on the wall at the far end of the closet, lingering there for a long moment. She stood, examining the area in front of the wall. She flashed the light back towards the bed where the body of the female had been bagged and moved out, then followed the path to the back of the closet. "Do you buy murder-suicide?"
"Hell no, Alex loved himself too much," Nate replied.
Tess sniffled, shaking her head. “It was a short affair between us, but I know well just how much Alex was in love with himself." She swung the light back towards the end of the closet. "What's behind the wall?"
The things Tess Holiday could spot with the naked eye never ceased to amaze him; with a penlight, she was freakishly dangerous.
Nate turned to the area she mentioned then glared at her. “What makes you think there's something back there?"
She flashed the light on the carpet near the bed. "Three pairs of shoes were walking in circles in the back of the closet. The vacuum interrupted the tracks around the area where the body hung, but they pick up in the back of the closet.” She looked up at Nate. "So, I ask again, good looking, what’s at the end of the closet?"
“It’s a secure area Alex used whenever he was working on a sensitive case.”
