Wrong Exit: Nick Stryker Series, Book Four

by Vicki Graybosch

  Tony sat down in his office chair and fought the urge to scream. In all of Chicago there was only one place John could think of to dump cars? It was so stupid. Tony had never even considered warning John not to put all of the cars in the same place.

  It wouldn’t do any good to get John too excited, he would just make more mistakes.

  Tony rubbed his forehead and said, “Just don’t get stopped by the cops.” Then he had a thought. “Look, if you do get stopped just tell them it’s been a mistake. You took the van home and forgot to get permission. My sister would kill me if I got you arrested for auto theft.”

  C H A P T E R 12

  Monday 6 p.m., 107th precinct

  Wayne dialed Nick. “Hey, we’ve got all kinds of new trouble here from those three hypnotized people. Any way you can slide back over here?”

  Nick glanced at Jen and mouthed ‘Wayne’. “What kind of trouble?”

  Wayne answered, “I’ll give you the short version. All three of them think they have been hypnotized by watching a Chinese language app on their phones. That artist shot her painting because the ‘program’ told her to shoot the first person that made her mad. Peter just got detailed instructions on how to kill the Mayor.”

  “Emanuel?”

  “The one and only. The Chief is all bunched up with the FBI because the mayor has been mentioned. Agent Phillips is here and wants to talk to you.”

  Nick turned their car to head back to the precinct. “Have you found out who owns the brewery yet? Or anything on those V.I.N. numbers?”

  “Nothing yet. Sam’s been on it since this morning.”

  Nick hung up and told Jen what was happening at the precinct.

  Jen exhaled loudly, “Great. This was going to be an all-nighter already. Hey, can you pull into that burger joint and go through the drive-up window? I’m starving.”

  “Me too.”

  Nick got their order, took a big bite of his hamburger and eased the car back into traffic. Two vehicles in front of him was a grey van. A small red car closely followed behind. Nick took another bite and let another car get in front of him.

  “Check out what’s in front of us.”

  Jen grabbed a set of binoculars from the glove box. “Any way you can get in the left lane for a minute?”

  Nick eased their car into the left lane.

  Jen said, “Got it!” She tossed the binoculars to her side and wrote down the plate number. “First three letters are a match!’ She entered the full plate number to their unit computer.

  She looked at Nick, “Sunrise Specialty Hospital just reported it stolen.”

  “Those kids told Kevin they had seen that van at the brewery for several months. I don’t think the hospital realizes the van has been connected to the brewery or they wouldn’t have reported it stolen. They’re probably only worried that someone might have identified the van at Kevin’s shooting.”

  Jen said, “That’s assuming the hospital is involved. If their van was stolen, like they reported, then we don’t know who we’re following.”

  Nick shifted lanes for a better look at the occupants of the car and then shifted back to his original lane. “We have a hospital van that has been spotted at the brewery long before today and a dead family that the coroner says was cut by a surgeon. Logically, Sunrise Hospital is involved.”

  Jen dialed Wayne. “Our van was just reported stolen by Sunrise Specialty Hospital. Nick and I are following it now. Find out what you can about this hospital and call me back.”

  Nick let three more cars get in front of them. The van was easy to keep in sight even in the thick traffic. After ten blocks the shopping centers were replaced with light industrial, commercial buildings, and low rent apartment complexes. The traffic thinned out and the red Camry was still following the van.

  Jen glanced around. “It’s going to get tricky if they keep heading this direction. We’re going to lose our cover traffic. They’re going to make us.”

  “I know. The two guys in the red Camry might be the van driver’s ride back from the dump site. I’d like to just follow these guys.” Nick let another car pass him. “All we have right now is a stolen vehicle charge. We need to know where they took Sharon. We know it wasn’t the brewery.”

  The street was now down to two lanes and all but three cars had turned off to side roads. John had been watching Nick’s black sedan through his rear view mirror. There were two people in the car. A man and a woman. Probably nothing. Still, he didn’t like it. They had been behind him too long.

  A small incline ahead of John marked the first of several rail lines that cut through the district. He reached the rail crossing just as the lights began to flash and the crossing bar lowered. His gut told him to make a move. He crashed through the crossing bar, floored the accelerator and made it to the other side with mere seconds to spare.

  Nick yelled, “Stay with the Camry!” as he slammed the car into park and bolted out the door.

  Jen watched as Nick sprinted into the tree line along the shoulder of the road, past the cars waiting at the crossing. Mere seconds after Nick disappeared into the trees she caught a brief glimpse of him as he ran alongside the train and jumped onto the platform of a passing freight car. She slid across to the driver’s seat, cursing, and focused her binoculars on the Camry occupants. They were in animated conversation and unaware they were being watched.

  Nick worked his way to the far side of the rail car’s platform, jumped and rolled into the tall grasses beyond the rails and sprinted back toward the crossing. A man on a Harley waited for the train to pass. Nick ran up to him, showed him his badge and handed him his card.

  “I need your bike!”

  The man was stunned but looked at Nick’s badge and then the card. “You’re Stryker? Take it!”

  He yelled, “Good luck!” as Nick turned the bike around and raced down the street. The man walked over to the grassy shoulder and dialed his boss. “Hey, I need a ride to work. You’ll never believe what just happened!”

  ******

  Heather fought the urge to succumb to self-pity. She was thirty-five years old and had lived a privileged life by most standards. As soon as her dialysis machine completed her treatment her phone rang. She could hardly believe what she was hearing. Her dad was telling her that her surgery was scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. He was on his way back to take her to the hospital to check in.

  Heather and her care nurse began to pack an overnight bag. Her care nurse kept telling her how lucky she was that a match had been found for her kidney and pancreas. Heather’s excitement and joy at the news was tempered by the knowledge that her good fortune meant that someone had died. Her doctors had explained to her that people need their pancreas to live.

  Heather couldn’t believe that her father had managed to find the money for her surgery. Sunrise Specialty Hospital was expensive, but they were the best.

  She wiped tears from her cheeks with the back of her hands, turned to her care nurse and smiled. “Dad must have found a way.”

  Her care nurse passed her a tissue. “It’s a miracle.”

  ******

  Jen watched as the last train car passed. The shattered crossing arm littered the approach to the tracks and the crossing arm for the other side slowly rose. She was three cars behind the red Camry. There was no sign of Nick anywhere. A man holding a motorcycle helmet stood on the shoulder of the road talking into a cell phone.

  Wayne called. “Sunrise Specialty Hospital is rated one of the world’s best private hospitals. Won every medical award out there. What else do you want to know?”

  Jen answered, “Do you mind sending us the address and contact number? Also, see if you can get the head administrator’s name.”

  “Are you guys going to be a while yet? Phillips from the FBI is still waiting to talk to Nick.”

  Jen laughed, “Last I saw Nick he was jumping onto a moving train but I think he took a guy’s motorcycle and is still on the van’s trail.” She saw the Camry turn off
to the left up ahead. “Gotta go.”

  Wayne looked at Agent Phillips who had been listening to Wayne’s side of the conversation with interest.

  Wayne sat in his chair and said, “You’re stuck with me. Stryker is either on a train or a motorcycle. Either way, he isn’t headed here.”

  ******

  John felt the adrenaline race through his veins. Running that train barricade could have turned out bad. Maybe Tony was right; maybe he did have impulse control issues. He looked in his rear view mirror and exhaled. It looked safe now.

  He dialed Vince’s cell. “Look behind you. Is there a black sedan with a man and a woman in it?”

  Vince repeated John’s question to Juan who turned abruptly in his seat and studied the cars behind them.

  “No. Only got one black car and there’s just a woman driver.”

  Vince asked John, “You hear that?”

  “Yeah. I thought we were being followed.” John wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. “Just meet me at Logan’s Muffler.”

  Vince and Juan rode in silence for a few blocks when Vince said, “I’m lookin’ to quit this gig. John’s goin’ to do somethin’ squirrely and get us all busted.”

  Juan nodded his head in agreement. “Been thinkin’ that myself.”

  “Can’t just keep waitin’ for the hammer to fall. Look at right now…today. John left them body bags at the brewery, the cops found ‘em…then he shoots up that car…then the cops find our car dump…now he busts through a train barricade because he thinks we’re being followed. Ain’t stable, man. I don’t even want to pick him up!”

  Juan was looking at his phone. “I have a number for Lucas. What if I call him and tell him we want out? If we tell him why, he’ll understand. Shit, if John gets caught, that could screw Lucas, too.”

  Vince didn’t want to make any rash decisions but his gut was telling him it was time to cut his ties to John. “Do it. Call Lucas now. I’ll take the long way to Logan’s.”

  Vince listened as Juan told Lucas about the events of the day. When Juan had finished talking he spent a long while listening. Vince was starting to think that maybe they had made a mistake.

  Juan finally hung up and looked at Vince. “We did the right thing. Lucas says to tell you he owes us both a favor for the warning. He’s got a warehouse job we can start tomorrow over on Denver Street. Not as much pay, but no body bags for a while.”

  Vince asked, “So we don’t have to meet John?”

  Juan pursed his lips in a frown and said, “The way Lucas sounded makes me think ain’t nobody meetin’ with John ever again. Lucas is sending some of his boys to Logan’s to ‘take care’ of him.”

  ******

  Lucas Costellano did not like being lied to; Tony had lied to him. Not only wasn’t everything fine, but Tony’s people had made a series of mistakes that had the cops looking at them. It had to stop at John.

  Lucas called Logan’s Muffler. “Logan? Lucas. You’re going to take your guys and leave the shop right now. Leave everything open just get out of there. I’ll call you when you can come back.”

  Jimmy Logan felt the hairs on his arm stand up straight. If Lucas Costellano told you to leave, you should already be half gone. He yelled at his mechanics to get the hell out and not come back until he called.

  Old Stubby’s 250 lb. body creaked on the mechanic’s dolly as he rolled himself out from under a caddy. “What’d you say?”

  Jimmy yelled, “Lucas called and said for us to disappear! Now!”

  The whites of Stubby’s eyes glowed in contrast to his oil stained skin. “Shit!” He pulled himself up, tossed his wrench on the bench with a clang and grabbed his keys. His two other co-workers were already backing their cars away from the lot fence and heading for the gate.

  Jimmy Logan grabbed the large bills from his cash drawer and sprinted to his truck. Any theft or damage from whatever was going to happen would be made right by Lucas. It always was.

  ******

  Jen followed the red Camry in circles for three blocks. What the hell were they doing? Had they made her? Suddenly the Camry turned to the right, drove a few blocks and parked at what her husband would call a ‘titty bar’. Really? Jen tapped Nick’s number on her cell and listened to it ring six times and then go to voice mail. If he was driving that motorcycle he wouldn’t hear the phone.

  Now what?

  Jen left a message for Nick to call her. She watched the Camry from her spot at the grocery across the street. The information from the plates gave her Vince’s name and an address. Her fingers tapped on the steering wheel. They were running out of time. Sharon was running out of time.

  C H A P T E R 13

  Nick stayed a few blocks behind the van. There was no sign of the red Camry in his rear-view mirror. Suddenly the van turned to the left. When Nick reached that block his choices were: a small strip mall, a three story apartment building and a junk yard boasting a muffler repair shop. Logan’s Muffler was surrounded by a ten-foot chain link fence topped with barbed wire. It took up the remainder of that city block and was deep enough to go all the way to the street running parallel behind it. Thick weeds and vines clung to the fencing and obstructed any view from the street.

  Nick turned at the corner and slowed the Harley down to a crawl as he searched for a sightline through the fence. At the end of the street there was three-foot spot where someone had attempted to kill the brush with spray. A large cement block building grew out of the back of the small muffler shop. Three large overhead doors were open and exposed mechanic bays. Bright lights illuminated the undercarriage of a truck lifted up on a hoist.

  The inside of the lot was lined with dilapidated cars and trucks. A monster of a machine that Nick recognized as a crusher, sat silent in the far corner. Stacks of crushed metal sat stacked in the back of a flatbed trailer guarded by an ancient lift truck. Another large gate sat at the far end of the gravel lot. The grey van was parked at the first bay. The driver’s door was open. Nick watched for a moment. A tall figure paced inside of the dark garage bay.

  Nick drove into the lot and parked the Harley squarely behind the grey van. Nick could hear John yelling for Logan in the distance. He glanced into the van’s interior. Glass shards peppered the driver’s floorboard and the butt of a rifle peeked from under a blue scrub shirt on the passenger seat. Nick pulled the AK47 to the driver’s seat and closed the van door.

  He followed the sound of John’s voice and met him in a dark hall near the shop’s office.

  Nick asked, “Logan’s not here?”

  John was noticeably startled. Nick watched as John’s eyes search him. John glanced toward his van and saw the Harley parked behind it. “You look like a cop. Bike cops wear suits now?”

  Nick smiled, “Sometimes. Where is everybody?”

  John nervously glanced around. He wanted to run. He sure as hell didn’t want to talk to a cop. “Beats me. You’re gonna have to move that bike, I’m leaving.”

  Nick pulled a pair of cuffs from behind his back and held them up. “I don’t think so.” Nick grasped John’s arm.

  John twisted and turned to lunge for the van. Nick kicked the back of John’s knee and chopped the side of John’s neck as he started to fall. Nick planted his knee in the small of John’s back as he yanked his hands one at a time to the cuffs.

  John spit the cement dust from his mouth and yelled, “What the hell’s your problem?”

  Nick grabbed John’s shoulder and said, “Roll over and get up.” Nick was frisking John for weapons as John pulled his knees under him to stand.

  Nick tilted his head toward the van. “Lean against the hood and explain to me why you’re driving a stolen van.”

  John suddenly relaxed and smiled. “Oh that! That’s a misunderstanding. I just talked to my boss and he said he was going to call the cops and let ‘em know. He didn’t realize I’d taken the van for the weekend is all. Go ahead and call him.” John was still smiling.

  Nick smiled back. “
What’s his name and number?” Nick had pulled a small notebook from his pocket.

  “Tony Scalla. He’s the administrator at Sunrise Security Hospital. He’s also my brother-in-law.” Tony stopped. He probably shouldn’t have said that. “Anyway, he’ll explain. Can you take these cuffs off?”

  Nick shook his head. “Not yet. What’s the number?” Nick dialed Tony and waited three rings for an answer. “Mr. Scalla? This is Detective Nick Stryker. I found the van you reported stolen but the driver insists that there’s been a mistake. The driver is John Miller.” Nick was studying John’s driver’s license as he talked.

  Tony fought the urge to curse. Now the cops were calling him. His only recourse was to talk Stryker out of arresting John. “Detective Stryker, I am so sorry. I was just getting ready to call the police and admit my mistake. John is my employee. I didn’t realize he had ‘borrowed’ the hospital’s van for the weekend.”

  Nick asked, “So your statement now is that he is a trusted employee of the hospital and this has been a mistake?”

  Tony smiled. This was easier than he thought it would be. “Yes, yes…I’m very sorry. John’s a good man. I take full responsibility for this, detective.”

  “In that case I’m going to ask you to remain at your office until I can get there to interview you. John has an AK47 in the van along with evidence he was involved in an armed assault this morning.”

  Tony sputtered, “What? That son of a bitch has issues! I don’t know anything about any assault!”

  Nick said, “I’ll call you when I’m available. I expect you to wait at the hospital. You might want your lawyer there.” Nick wanted to spook Tony into running. If Tony took off, Nick might have some grounds for a search warrant. Tony would cast himself as a co-conspirator.

  Nick hung up and glanced at John’s shocked expression. “You went from trusted employee to mental case in one sentence. Your brother-in-law just threw you under the bus.”