by James Hunt
There were no words to offer Nate that would ease his pain, but as Nate cried, Jim understood the only way for redemption for either of them was to bring Cutters to justice. Once Nate calmed down, Jim looked his friend in the eye.
“Listen to me,” Jim said. “I’m going to stop him. I’m going to bring him down, and you’ll be there when it happens.”
Nate’s face was red, snot dripped from his nose, and his eyes were bloodshot. But he clung to Jim’s strength and held on to the only piece of hope that remained—revenge.
“What’s the plan?” Mullocks asked.
“Kerry and I will infiltrate Cutters’ house,” Jim answered. “Once we’re inside, we’ll need to call the police from the landline in the house. It’s the only way to ensure officers are brought to the scene. All 911 calls must be followed up on.”
“Why not just call the Calvary now?” Kerry asked.
“Because everything we’ve done has been illegal,” Jim answered. “We’ll all have to fess up to what we’ve done once this is over, but this path forward gives us the best chance at arresting Cutters.” He turned to the lieutenant. “You’ll be our backup on the outside of the house, in case we don’t make it out.”
“I want to go in with you,” Nate said, getting up from the floor. “I want to see the look on the bastard’s face.”
“Kerry and I are going in under the guise of a meeting,” Jim said. “We bring you with us, and he’ll be suspicious. You’ll have to remain outside.”
“You’ll ride with me,” Mullocks said, looking to Nate. “The moment Cutters is in cuffs, you’ll be able to see him.”
It might not have been the answer Nate had wanted, but he accepted it nonetheless. As soon as Nate had calmed down, they went over the plan.
“Once we’re inside, I’ll need to be alone with Cutters,” Jim said. “It’s the only way we’ll be able to get him to talk. Separating him from his security detail is imperative.” He turned to Kerry. “Once I know where the people are located, you need to make that call to the police. And the lieutenant will make sure the cavalry shows up. But I need to find the people first. That’s our smoking gun.”
“And what happens if you don’t find them?” Nate asked.
Jim looked to Nate and the lieutenant. “Then you’ll get your wish of charging the castle. It all comes down to this. Everyone ready?”
There was a general sense of uneasiness amongst them. Everyone knew that even if this plan went off without a hitch, Cutters was still going to do everything he could to drag them through the mud. But still, they chose the hard path because that was the type of unit they were.
Jim and Kerry drove together while Nate rode with Mullocks in the car behind them, along with Bill Fayette, who they had transferred over to the lieutenant’s care before they left the precinct.
Cutters’ mansion was nestled in the middle of all the other high rollers of Seattle’s high-class society. The CEOs and presidents of massive tech industries enjoyed their seclusion in the rolling hills outside of Seattle’s city boundaries.
Mullocks hung back a few houses down while Jim and Kerry pulled right up to the gate.
“Why do you think he does it?” Kerry asked.
“What you mean?” Jim asked.
“The dinner every day at the same time,” Kerry answered. “Seems a little routine for somebody like him.”
“Maybe that’s the reason,” Jim answered. “Maybe he wants some semblance of normalcy. Or maybe that’s what he wants other people to see.”
“It would also probably make for a very good alibi,” Kerry said. “Just think of all of the things he could get done from his dinner table. All of the lives he could ruin.”
There was a level of venom in Kerry’s words, and Jim knew how much she wanted to nail Cutters. “Were going to get him, Kerry. I can promise you that.”
Kerry turned to Jim, and it looked like she had aged another five years in the past day. She looked sad and tired. It seemed that life on the other side of the law didn’t agree with her.
“You told me when I first became a detective that we should never make any promises,” Kerry said. “You said that it could be detrimental not just to the case and to the victim’s family, but also to ourselves. You told me that putting that kind of pressure on us would only make things worse.”
“This is different,” Jim said.
“How?” Kerry asked.
“Because we’re not just partners,” Jim answered. “We’re family.”
Kerry reached for Jim’s hand and squeezed it. It was a gesture that didn’t need words, and Jim knew she felt the same way.
Jim pressed the call button, and it was answered by some assistant.
“Mr. Cutters is currently engaged at the moment,” the assistant said.
“Tell him it’s Jim North and Kerry Martin,” Jim said. “Tell him that it’s about what is supposed to happen tonight. If he wants the exchange to go smoothly, you should—”
The gate opened. “You will pull up to the front of the house, and when you reach the front door, you will park the car, shut off the engine, and then place your hands on the dash. You will remain there until someone comes and retrieves you. Is that understood?”
“Yes,” Jim answered.
The call ended, and Jim drove up to the driveway to Cutters’ estate. The land around the building was filled with trees. Unlike the other pieces of property in the neighborhood that had cleared the brush to make way for large sweeping fields, Cutters had chosen to keep the rugged, natural landscape to add privacy to the home. Instead of driving down a normal driveway, Jim felt as though he were on some narrow backroad in the mountains.
Eventually, Jim saw the lights of the home through the woods, and he followed the circular driveway around to the front door. He parked exactly where he was instructed to, shut off the engine, and then placed his hands on the dash. Kerry did the same.
They had to wait five minutes before somebody came out to collect them. Both Jim and Kerry were patted down, and their firearms were removed, along with their mobile devices. Once they were disarmed, they were led inside.
Jim wasn’t sure what he pictured Cutters’ house to look like, but it was slightly different than what he expected. The house was large and very modern, but it was much smaller than he believed it would be. It was still larger than most average homes, but it lacked the dozens of rooms Jim had expected to find. He figured it couldn’t have been more than 3000 square feet, which was modest compared to some of the other homes in the area.
Just as they had to wait to enter the house, they were forced to wait before they were finally escorted through the home to meet Cutters. He was still sitting at the dining room at the head of a twenty-foot-long table, and his girlfriend was sitting at the opposite end.
Neither of them looked happy to be there, but it seemed they were going through the motions simply because this was what they had always done together.
Jim recognized the girlfriend as one of the strippers from the club that Cutters used to frequent. They had been dating on the last case he and Kerry had worked together, the case involving The Greeks that Kerry had cut a deal with Cutters that had landed them in their current predicament.
The meal was served on fine china and crystal glassware. It looked like a feast that somebody would have had at Thanksgiving or Christmas, but this was just a random weekday, marking no special occasion that Jim knew of.
Cutters was in the middle of chewing a piece of his prime rib when Jim and Kerry entered the dining room. Jim and Kerry were forced to wait at a distance while Cutters finished his bite, and once he swallowed, he dabbed his lips with the end of his napkin and reached for the crystal glass filled with some type of red wine.
“And what was so urgent?” Cutters asked. “For you two to have the balls to come and interrupt my dinner?”
“You said that you wanted Kerry and me in your pocket,” Jim answered.
“I do have you in my pocket,” Cutters
replied, sipping the wine, the crystal glass almost too big for his small hands.
“You have us on a short leash,” Jim said. “Not necessarily the best way for us to do our jobs.”
Cutters set the glass down and again dabbed his lips with the end of his napkin. He pushed some of the food around on his plate, green beans and sweet potatoes. Most of the meat was gone, but the vegetables remained untouched.
“I don’t care what you do during your regular hours,” Cutters said. “All I care about is making sure you do all of the jobs I tell you to do. Like the one tonight.”
The moment Jim stepped into the room, he took note of the space. There were three entrances into the dining room, not ideal, but all of them had doors. He looked up and saw the security cameras strategically placed around the space, and those were only the ones he could see. If this place were really as secure as Bill had said it was, then there were probably other secret entries into some type of panic room in every section of the house. Cutters struck Jim as the paranoid type, given everything he knew about the man.
But that paranoia was something Jim could use to his advantage.
“How do you know that you can trust us?” Jim asked.
Cutters laughed. “Are you joking? Did you forget our conversation from earlier? I could destroy everything that you love.”
“All the more reason for us to work against you,” Jim said.
Cutters narrowed his eyes as he studied Jim. He sipped slowly from his crystal glass and set it down. “And is that what you’re doing here, Detective?”
Jim took note of the four security guards in the room with them. It was too many for Jim and Kerry to take on, especially since they didn’t have any weapons. Jim needed to get Cutters alone, and to do that, he needed to offer something that would warrant such privacy.
“You must know about my reputation with the department,” Jim said.
“I’m aware of your history,” Cutters clarified. “But you have to be more specific about your reputation.”
“I’m talking about my success on the job,” Jim said. “If you set aside some of the personal issues that I’ve had over the years with the department, I think anybody would agree that I am the best at what I do.”
“I’ll give you that, Detective,” Cutters said. “You are very good at your job.”
With Cutters interested, Jim capitalized on the moment.
“What if I told you we could do more,” Jim said.
Cutters laughed. “This is some kind of a joke? You know your partner tried this little trick on me before. That little bit about her wanting to get some money out of the deal? All that led to a dead accountant. Is that what you want? Another body on your hands?”
Jim shook his head. “I don’t want any blood on my hands. I simply want to keep doing the job I’m so good at.”
Cutters grew silent as he took another bite of prime rib, chewing it loudly as he kept his eyes on Jim. Whatever he was considering, Jim knew that it had to deal with himself and what happened next.
“I already told you that I don’t care about what you do during your day job,” Cutters said, sounding irritated. “You’re wasting my time.” He snapped his fingers, and two of the guards moved toward Jim and Kerry.
Jim’s window was closing. He needed to act quickly. Before the security grabbed him by the arms, he lunged for Cutters' end of the table. “The Greeks aren’t finished.”
The security guard eventually reached for Jim just as he spoke, but when Jim saw the flash of concern in Cutters’ eyes, he knew he had struck a chord.
Cutters held up his hand, signaling the security guard to stop. “What are you talking about?”
Free of the guard’s hold, Jim walked a few steps closer to Cutters. “I know you think that the Feds have pretty much dismantled the organization,” Jim said. “But that’s not the whole truth.”
“How would you know more than the FBI?” Cutters asked.
“You’re looking at the son of one of The Greeks’ most prominent members,” Jim answered. “You don’t think I have an ear to the ground on what’s happening with them? I don’t want them to be in existence any more than you do, but right now, their infrastructure is still large enough that they can operate for quite some time without any central system in place.”
Jim hoped to leverage Cutters’ own fear against him. After all, it was general knowledge who Jim’s father was, what he had done. It wasn’t as far-fetched to make Cutters believe that he would know something more about the Greeks’ operations.
Cutters rubbed the goatee forming on his chin. “What are you proposing?”
“We both want the same thing,” Jim answered. “We want every shred of the Greeks gone, and we want their society completely dismantled. I have my hands tied with certain aspects of getting to them, but you don’t. Plus, given your network, I assume you could access details within the FBI that I’m not privy to. All I need are names and locations, and I can take care of the rest.”
Jim knew that the Greeks were still Cutter’s largest threat to his supply chain.
“And what happens to the infrastructure after you’ve taken these deplorables into custody?” Cutters asked.
“I don’t care what you do after I have the people responsible,” Jim said. “Sell as many drugs as you want. I’m not on the VICE squad.”
Cutters was quiet for a moment, and the silence stretched for an eternity. But when he finally smiled, Jim knew that he had won the man over.
“You really only care about the results, don’t you?” Cutters asked. “I had always respected that about you, Detective. Truly, I did. And now that we’re working together, I think I love it even more!” He laughed and then pounded his small fist on the table, which barely resulted in a thud. He reached for his glass and then raised it in a salute. “To our good fortunes.”
The only other person in the room who had a glass was the girlfriend at the other end of the table, but she had barely even registered that they were in the room. Jim sort of remembered what she looked like the last time they met, but so much time had passed that he couldn’t be completely sure of the specifics. But one thing he did remember was that she seemed happy the last time. Now, she looked miserable.
If there were ever a physical sign that Cutters was poison, the before and after images of that woman in Jim’s head were all the proof he needed.
“I will need to fill you in on some specifics,” Jim said.
Cutters kept the crystal glass in his hand, and he couldn’t stop smiling. “Of course. We can set up a time—"
“I was hoping to do that now,” Jim said. “I have a bead on a few prospects that I need to take care of. I was hoping to do that after the drop tonight.”
Cutters expression became slightly less emphatic as he set down his glass and studied Jim more closely. That skeptical gaze had returned, and Jim feared he might have pushed his luck too far, but he didn’t have any more options at the moment.
“Tonight,” Cutters said, repeating the same line in a flat tone. “Is that right?”
“That’s right,” Jim said. “And if it’s all the same to you, I’d like to do it in private.”
“We are in private,” Cutters said. “My house is the most private house you’re ever going to find, Detective.”
“Alone,” Jim said.
Jim hoped the bluntness of his words didn’t come off as too bold, but time was of the essence. Still, not wanting to scare Cutters into questioning Jim’s motives, he again preyed upon the man’s paranoia. He moved closer, dropping his voice to a whisper.
“I’m afraid that the Greeks have ears everywhere,” Jim said. “How do you think they managed to grow to the level of power they have? The individuals who were chosen to be in their organization had expertise in deception.”
Jim had remembered how terrified Cutters had been when he mentioned the Greeks. In all of the conversations Jim had with a man since they had first interacted with one another, he had never seen Cutters flin
ch about anything or anyone. But the Greeks were something Cutters feared. And even though the bulk of the organization had been dismantled, even the mere threat that they could still come after him was enough to erase whatever suspicion he held against Jim.
“Very well,” Cutters said. “But if we’re going to speak in private, then it’s going to be just the two of us.” He looked to Kerry. “She’ll need to leave as well.”
Jim flashed a momentary look of panic, but he recovered quickly. He didn’t like the idea of Kerry being out of the room with the security team, but they had to play the hand that they were dealt. And one look at his partner and Jim knew she could handle the situation.
“Okay,” Jim said.
“Leave us,” Cutters said.
The security team hesitated for a moment, and Jim suspected that this wasn’t an order that they received very often. But the hesitation lasted only a few seconds before they retreated out of the dining room, closing the doors behind them. When it was just Jim, Cutters, and his girlfriend at the end of the table, Jim realized that this plan could actually work. But he also didn’t want to put the girl in harm’s way.
Jim gestured to the girl at the end of the table. “She should leave, too.”
Cutters shot one glance at the girl, and without a word, she got up from the table and disappeared through one of the doors, closing them shut behind her.
Now that it was just Jim and Cutters, the room seemed much larger than it had before. He knew there was probably someone watching the video cameras in the room, and Jim knew about the watch on Cutters’ wrist. All it would take would be one flick of the wrist, and then those security guards would storm back into the dining room and shoot Jim dead on the spot.
Jim needed to get close and immobilize Cutters before he had a chance to press any buttons. It wouldn’t be difficult once he was close; he knew he could easily overpower Cutters. But a weapon would still be useful, and the cutlery on the table would work just fine.
