by Dan Ames
Ellen ran across the room to the door and flung it open, then peeked around the corner.
A gun blasted and echoed throughout the room as Ellen ducked back around the corner.
“Shotgun,” she said. She keyed the mike on her shoulder and asked for backup.
I felt fairly useless. All I had was the pry bar she’d handed me, so I glanced around to make sure someone wasn’t sneaking up on us and I could clobber them.
Ellen peeked around the corner again.
“It’s clear,” she said and disappeared into the room.
I followed her and was aghast at what I saw.
A body on a stainless steel table was in the process of being dismembered, and Barry Kemp was on the floor with a hole in his chest and blood pooling out from beneath him in a widening circle of crimson. The wall behind the table was covered with surgical instruments. Several large coolers and bags of dry ice were spread out on the floor around the stainless steel table.
Barry Kemp was dead. This time there was no doubt. I looked closely at his body and at first I thought his hands were bloody but they were actually encased in surgical gloves, and those were covered in blood.
It appeared Dr. Kemp had been taking apart a body.
“Freeze!” Ellen shouted.
I looked over and Adam Barnes and Judy Platkin were standing in front of an open door that was a shallow closet, full of mops and brooms and assorted cleaning supplies.
Ellen advanced on them and I heard a rustle of feet from behind me and I swung blindly, the pry bar out in front of me and I rotated, swinging it in a backhand motion until I felt the heavy clunk of contact and a shotgun roared.
I felt a burning pain on the back of my left calf as it flew out from underneath me and I fell onto my side, coming face to face on the floor with a man I instantly recognized.
Carrot Top.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“Ellen!” I shouted, as I felt blood running down my calf into my sock.
Carrot Top, the redhead I’d sort of met in the office of the lawyer Gadlicke, was sound asleep on the concrete floor with a huge gash and lump on the side of his head from my expertly swung backhand.
It made me want to take up tennis again.
He was out for the count and I stared at his face. Who was this guy and why did he look familiar?
I rolled onto my stomach and pushed myself up until I was standing, a bit unsteadily, looking down at Carrot Top.
Across the room, I saw Ellen had Adam Barnes and Judy Platkin in handcuffs.
I limped over and nodded toward Ellen. “Did she put those cuffs on you or did you already have them on?” I asked the pair.
“Very funny,” Judy said. She looked pale and disheveled. Adam looked like he was coming off a bad drunk.
Ellen had placed the handcuffs around the leg of a steel table that was bolted to the floor. They weren’t going anywhere.
She had left them, checked on Carrot Top, and was now opening something.
“John, look what’s in the fridge,” Ellen said.
I walked over to her and saw she was standing in front of an industrial-sized, double-door refrigeration unit big enough for two people. I say that, because it looked like there were parts of two people stuffed inside. I saw human organs, brains, hearts, and eyeballs. It looked like a serial killer’s trophy room.
“Black market body parts,” Ellen said.
Suddenly, realization slammed into my thoughts.
“Nate’s serial killer,” I said. Ellen looked at me.
“Nate’s been covering a story about homeless people and hookers being murdered in Detroit, cut into pieces,” I explained. “Nearly all of them infected with AIDS.”
“Ah, that’s a no-no,” Ellen said. “There were rumors of a black market organ ring going around. Looks like someone decided it was easier to kill people for their parts than to harvest them correctly. My guess is they didn’t tell their customers that the parts were infected.”
“Kemp was mixed up in it,” I said. “I bet Dave found out, or at least had an inkling.” Suddenly, Carrot Top’s face merged with Barry Kemp’s. I remembered how Barry’s gray hair was tinged with red. “Holy shit – they’re brothers,” I said to Ellen. “Barry Kemp and Carrot Top. And one or both of the Kemp boys killed Dave to keep the business going. Probably that piece of shit I knocked out with the pry bar. He killed his own brother,” I said, realizing the scheme as it fell into place. “He and Gadlicke, they must have been blackmailing Barry into doing their dirty work for them. That’s why Barry called me, and then Gadlicke and Carrot Top kidnapped him, but tried to make it look like he was dead.”
Ellen closed the Refrigerator From Hell and turned back to me.
I held up a hand, “I know, I need to get out of here, back out on the street and act dumb.”
“A role you were born for.”
“But I want to see the sex club first,” I said. I walked over to Adam Barnes and Judy Platkin.
“How do you get into the other place?” I asked. “They’re going to find out how, you might as well tell us first.”
“Fuck you,” Adam Barnes slurred.
“Over there,” Judy Platkin said. “But it’s empty.” She pointed to another accordion-style door. I went over and opened it. The lights were on and it looked like a medieval Hollywood set. Leather restraints. Benches. Some kind of pulley system and a wall full of dildos, whips and leather masks.
After asking Ellen to separate Adam Barnes and Judy Platkin, I formulated my theory to Judy. “This was all about Barry Kemp, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, he was the Grand Master,” Judy said. I knew that Barry had somehow arranged to pin that email address to Dave. Probably after Dave had started to find out what was going on. But Barry had sex pervert written all over him. The weightlifting, the obvious narcissism.”
“So Gadlicke was blackmailing you?” I asked. It was mostly an educated guess, but I figured I was right.
“That bastard,” she said. “It’s why Adam started drinking so heavily. He was under so much pressure to pay off Gadlicke and hide the affair. It’s why my husband left me,” she said, and she began to weep. “I robbed his 401(k) to keep it quiet. He never really knew, but that was it for him. He never wanted to see me again.”
“And Dave?” I asked.
She shook her head. “He was never here, but I think he found out what Barry was up to.”
Ellen appeared and gave me a head-jerk.
It was time for me to go.
I walked out of the sex club/body part factory and found myself back on the street, leaning against the front fender of Ellen’s squad car. The sun was just starting to come up and the first rays of light were hitting the Detroit River. Across the water, Canada still looked sound asleep, but here, more cop cars had arrived along with crime scene techs.
Another murderous morning in Detroit.
I picked up the phone and called my wife.
Suddenly, I wanted to talk to someone I loved.
Someone normal.
Also by Dan Ames
DEAD WOOD (John Rockne Mystery #1)
HARD ROCK (John Rockne Mystery #2)
COLD JADE (John Rockne Mystery #3)
LONG SHOT (John Rockne Mystery #4)
EASY PREY (John Rockne Mystery #5)
BODY BLOW (John Rockne Mystery #6)
* * *
THE KILLING LEAGUE (Wallace Mack Thriller #1)
THE MURDER STORE (Wallace Mack Thriller #2)
FINDERS KILLERS (Wallace Mack Thriller #3)
* * *
DEATH BY SARCASM (Mary Cooper Mystery #1)
MURDER WITH SARCASTIC INTENT (Mary Cooper Mystery #2)
GROSS SARCASTIC HOMICIDE (Mary Cooper Mystery #3)
* * *
KILLER GROOVE (Rockne & Cooper Mystery #1)
* * *
BEER MONEY (Burr Ashland Mystery #1)
* * *
THE CIRCUIT RIDER (Circuit Rider #1)
KILLER’
S DRAW (Circuit Rider #2)
* * *
TO FIND A MOUNTAIN (A WWII Thriller)
* * *
STANDALONE THRILLERS:
* * *
THE RECRUITER
KILLING THE RAT
HEAD SHOT
THE BUTCHER
* * *
BOX SETS:
* * *
AMES TO KILL
GROSSE POINTE PULP
GROSSE POINTE PULP 2
TOTAL SARCASM
WALLACE MACK THRILLER COLLECTION
* * *
SHORT STORIES:
* * *
THE GARBAGE COLLECTOR
BULLET RIVER
SCHOOL GIRL
HANGING CURVE
SCALE OF JUSTICE
Afterword
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* * *
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About the Author
Dan Ames is an international bestselling author and winner of the Independent Book Award for Crime Fiction.
www.authordanames.com
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