Maximus: A Harvey Nolan Thriller #1 (Harvey Nolan Thrillers)

by Abbey, S. C.

  Gillian released a mocking laughter. “I was the one who tried to convince father to not quit. He had a sudden change of mind when some of his industry acquaintances got caught and slapped with drug offences. He wanted out, said he’d made enough over the years for him to retire in peace. How can it be enough?! It’s never enough!” Gillian paused to compose herself as she recalled the events.

  She swept her hair backwards. “He refused to divulge his suppliers! He simply refused! Old Goat. He would still be alive if not for his insistence and stubbornness!”

  “What did you do?” cried Samantha softly.

  “I went to his competitor, a major player in the state, and struck a deal with him.” Said Gillian, not looking guilty about it.

  “Deacon would supply me with the cocaine I needed,” Gillian said and paused. She took a deep breath before she continued, “And he would take care of father for me.”

  Samantha couldn’t believe what she had just heard. She was beginning to wonder perhaps it was better that she had stayed and died in that godforsaken cell. She couldn’t decide which was worse. “I thought father died of a heart attack.”

  “Indeed.” Deacon replied in a proud manner. “Medically induced, I’m afraid.”

  Samantha tried to look into her sister’s eyes but Gillian eluded her eye contact. “You killed father?”

  “Where did you think you’d got your inheritance from?” Accused Gillian. “You’ve always lived your life mediocrely, scrapping by. If not for father, if not for me, do you think you’d have such a smooth life?! You don’t deserve it!”

  Samantha shook her head in denial as she stared at the floor, deranged. She muttered inaudibly to herself, “Gill killed dad–”

  Harvey cast a look of pity at the woman before he raised his eyes and glared at Deacon. “What about the other women? Why did you kidnap them?”

  “Samantha was the first. Gillian wanted her dead too so that she can get to keep her share of the inheritance but I decided otherwise when I laid my eyes on her. Gill couldn’t refuse me.” Said Deacon. “And it gave me an idea, why not kill off all my competition? It would be good for business.”

  Deacon folded his arms. “And so I did. As for the wives and daughters, the gorgeous ones I keep. All these beautiful pitiful creatures, who’s gonna take care of them? Somebody’s got to take up the responsibility.” Said Deacon with a smirk on his lips.

  “You’re sick.” Said Katie, disgusted with the man.

  Deacon laughed wholeheartedly.

  “What about Christina?” Harvey continued. He instantly had a bad feeling that he wouldn’t be prepared for the answer.

  Deacon laughed even harder, his face flushed in the process. He looked like he was really enjoying it. “Don’t you get it, Professor Nolan? Or are you just acting stupid? John Jenson was a big time drug trafficker, part of the largest trafficking ring in the state of New York. They move more crack than me!”

  He continued. “And of course, he dropped by for a chat when he realized his brother-in-law was doing some work for me. To say the least, he wasn’t very happy about it.”

  Harvey couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Deacon had to be lying. “And you murdered him as well.”

  “I was doing this country a favor.” Said Deacon with an earnest look on his face. “Jenson used kidnapped women as drug mules to transport drugs from Mexico back to the States. He’d threatened to kill their families if they didn’t cooperate. Most did, but Jenson killed them anyway after the job was done. The ones who didn’t survived, died anyway.”

  “You’re lying!” said Harvey with a frown on his face as he thought about Jenson. Soft-spoken John Jenson, a drug trafficker?

  “You know I’m not.” chuckled Deacon. “Honestly, is there a need for me to do that?”

  Harvey Nolan somehow knew deep in his heart that Deacon Novak was telling the truth, he just couldn’t believe he could’ve been so blind. The ever changing Rolexes that Jenson wore – the brand new cars he drove – it was all in plain sight. It all made sense like the pieces of a puzzle falling perfectly together.

  “And Shia?”

  “That was just to get to you, and besides, she’s a beauty.” Admitted Deacon as he glanced at the young black woman and smirked. Shia shivered under the gaze of her kidnapper.

  “All that being said, it doesn’t really matter to me if you believe me or not professor.” Deacon continued in a deadpanned manner. “It wouldn’t matter anymore in precisely 5 seconds because you would be all dead.” He took a side glance at Kaul who had his gun pointed at Katie the whole way. “Ladies first.” Kaul nodded.

  A gunshot echoed through the night, disturbing the cold silence.

  The lean looking man brought his arms down and dropped the gun on the ground. His eyes widened slightly in his otherwise stoic expression before rolling backwards as he crumbled to the ground.

  Detective Garrett Frost had had his gun out and pointing at Kaul the moment they had entered the tent, he had not hesitated to pull the trigger. Agent Darrow’s voice followed the sound of the gunshot as he took aim at Tom and Gillian. “Put your weapons down now! I will not repeat myself. Put them down now!”

  Gillian decided to raise her gun. Katie was quick to react as she closed the distance between her and Gillian in a big leap. She pushed the gun upwards with her left hand while forcing her right palm into Gillian’s face. The sharp pain caused Gillian to momentarily loosen her grip of the gun as she yelped. Katie turned the direction of it so that the barrel ended up pointing at Gillian instead of her. She pushed her index finger onto the trigger and squeezed. The second gunshot echoed through the night. Gillian fell like a broken rag doll.

  Katie used her feet to nudged Gillian’s body so that she was facing up to make sure that she was dead. “Stupid bitch–”

  Tom dropped his knife and kneeled on the floor with his hands up in the air, unwilling to try his luck in the face of two dead comrades. Agent Darrow kept his gun pointing at Deacon as Detective Frost strode to the front of Deacon where he stood facing him eye to eye, keeping a brutal eye contact. Deacon blinked.

  “It’s over, Mr. Novak.”

  Chapter 54

  HARVEY SAT ON the old log by the campfire with a blanket over his aching shoulders – it was all they could find, but it was good enough for him. The proximity to the smothering embers also contributed to his comfort, but most importantly, it stemmed from the peace he had derived from his heart that the whole train wreck was finally over.

  Katie treaded toward Harvey, all the while keeping eye contact with him as she spoke on her cellphone. “Yes sir, understood. I’ll do that. Thank you. Good night.” She ended the call and let out a sigh of relief as she slipped her cell phone back into her front pocket.

  “The DEA just arrived.” She said. “They are combing the entire circus grounds. Based on their experience, crooks don’t usually keep all their stock in one location. Or perhaps we just got lucky.”

  Harvey nodded weakly.

  “How’s Christina?”

  “She’s with medical personnel. It seems that most of her injuries are surface. They will be sending her to the hospital for a thorough checkup, they reckon nothing more than a cracked rib or two – she will survive.”

  Katie reached out her hands nearer to the blazing logs to warm them up as she took a seat beside Harvey. She let out a long exhale of comfort.

  “Will this help?” asked Harvey. “Will it make a dent in New York’s drug problems?”

  “Hardly, this is just a drop in the ocean.” Sighed Katie. “Just like the Lernaean Hydra – whenever one head is cut off, two will take its place. Novak was right, Jenson was part of a larger drug smuggling syndicate. It has a hand in one in every four back alley drug deal, party drugs included. Killing him might have affected the numbers for a short while but don’t count on it to last – someone will replace him eventually.”

  Harvey wondered how he was to break the news to Christina when Detective Frost lumbe
red through the graveled floor toward them. “Professor Nolan.”

  “Detective Frost.”

  “I believe I owe you an apology,” said the police officer as he stuffed his hands into his pockets, “And gratitude is due.”

  “There’s no need for that Detective.” Harvey replied. “Though I must say, being in cuffs is right at the top of the list of things I do not like happening to me again.” Harvey rubbed his wrists.

  Frost gave an affirmative grunt. “You did went missing from custody though–”

  Harvey stopped his rubbing and blinked. His brows tightened toward the middle. “I did.”

  “And I believe you were manhandled against your own will and forcefully removed from the federal building by an unknown man?” asked Frost in a serious glance.

  “That was exactly what had happened.” Harvey said, his expression easing into a cheeky smile. “As you can see from the camera recordings.”

  “Too bad then.” Frost declared nonchalantly. “And there’s no way we would ever find out who was it, right?”

  “My sentiments exactly.”

  “That does it. Drop by at your convenience to collect your belongings and sign your release form. Shia will be sent back to her family right after we take some questions. We will take everything from here.” The detective said as he shifted and began walking back from where he came. “Take it easy, professor.”

  “Appreciate it, detective.”

  Katie waited till the FBI detective was out of hearing range before she gave in to her curiosity. “So, how were you removed from custody again, you were saying?”

  “It’s a long story. A masked man rescued me.” replied Harvey casually as is he was talking about the scenery. He recalled the exchange had with the strange masked man.

  “Did he say who he was? Did you managed to see his face?”

  “No.” Harvey said. “He did say something funny before he left though.”

  Katie snorted at the lack of details. “I ought to ask Bertram about it.” Harvey continued. “Not that I expect to get anything out of him – he and his little secrets. I sometimes think he is too idle for his own good.”

  “I’m sure you can worry about that tomorrow.” Katie said, her stomach rumbled immodestly. “In the meantime, how does stuffed cabbage sound? I always wanted to try that 24-hour Ukrainian eatery on the junction of 2nd Avenue and East 9th street. I never got about stepping into it.”

  “Sure, do u think we can hitch a ride from Frost and Darrow?”

  “I think you will have better luck asking Darrow. He seems like the nicer one.”

  “Shall we then?”

  “After you.”

  Epilogue

  SPECTOR STARED AT the text message on his cell phone in disbelief. His superior wanted him to head straight to Headquarters immediately upon arrival. What did they think he was? A robot? Spector snorted at the absurdity of the order that he was going to ignore. He would jolly well step into office whenever he was ready, they could fire him for all he care. Not that they would, he was too much of an asset to them.

  Spector entered the departure hall of the John F. Kennedy International Airport through the automatic sliding door with his brown duffel bag slung across his chest as he typed a new message into his cell phone and sent it to one Bertram Moore.

  ‘Catch you later, buddy.’

  Spector switched of the cell phone and removed the SIM card from it. He snapped it cleanly into two and tossed it along with his cellphone into a nearby recycling bin. He always liked being off the grid and not contactable, it felt liberating. He headed toward the direction of his check-in counter but he was hindered by a young boy who was sitting on the floor playing with his toy car while his parents argued.

  “Did I not told you to let me keep the passports in my handbag, now what?!” The woman grumbled at her husband as he dug into his duffel bag, presumably looking for their passports. “Calm down, honey. I’m sure they’re in here somewhere. I threw them in right before we left home.”

  A young girl tugged at the woman’s dress while she fussed over her husband. “Mummy, mummy, mummy–”

  “You’d better make sure they are in there.” Said the wife in a threatening tone as she ignored her daughter. “I’m not missing this flight. I’ve been looking forward to this trip for months.”

  Spector smiled at the scene as he circumnavigated the family, their voices faded as the distance widened between them. He joined the queue to the row of check-in counters. There was quite a number of people in front of him but most of the counters were staffed. It didn’t take long before there was only one person in front of him. The young man was speaking on the phone with his lover quite unabashedly, sharing details with Spector that should have been kept in the bedroom. He spotted a Mohawk and was dressed in a leather bomber jacket and jeans – all in black. A counter freed up after a minute or so and the lady manning it called for the next in queue. The young man didn’t seem to realize he was being called as he was pretty absorbed in his conversation. Spector tapped on his shoulder.

  “Excuse me.”

  The young punk gave a look of irritation as he turned around. “Sup, old man?”

  Spector pointed to the lady at the counter. The man took a quick look at the direction before turning back to stare at Spector hostilely as he picked up his bag from the floor and swaggered away.

  Spector shook his head in disapproval. “Kids these days.”

  A lady from another counter called for the next in line and Spector walked to her, handling her his passport.

  “Hello sir, where will you be flying this evening?”

  “London, trip ended too soon in New York. Fantastic city, would have loved to stay longer.”

  “Where dreams are made of–” chuckled the woman as she continued typing on her keyboard.

  “Sir, your ticket reservation and travel document seems to be in order. Can I just get you to confirm your full name please?”

  “It’s Spector, Alastiar Spector.”

  The End

  Harvey Nolan will return.

  Have you checked out the other books in the Harvey Nolan series of thrillers?

  Book #0 – Resurrection Book #1 – Maximus

  And many more to come.

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  Copyright

  Copyright © S. C. Abbey (2016). All rights reserved.

  First edition.

  www.scabbey.com

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is fictionalized or coincidental.

  The indisputable right of S. C. Abbey to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the
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  About the Author

  S. C. Abbey was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and raised in Asia. He has since made the road his home and the sky his blanket. S. C. Abbey is the author of the Harvey Nolan thriller series, which is a mixture of action, mystery, and humor. He unbelievably still writes in long hand and enjoys drinking way too much. An ideal day to him would be lazing on a white sandy beach somewhere warm with a glass of whisky topped with ginger ale, 2 cubes of ice.

  If you feel the need to talk to Abbey, in which he will reply unless deterred by factors unfathomable by Man, you may email him at: abbey@scabbey.com For up to date promotions and release dates of upcoming books, sign up for the latest news here: Author’s Page: http://www.scabbey.com