by Mike Ryan
With his new plan, Recker went back to his car which was parked down the street. He still had a good view of the club and could see Laine’s car as he was leaving. Once Laine got back to his house, Recker could finish him off with relative ease. It would likely be three or four in the morning once he got home and Recker wouldn’t have to worry about prying eyes. He called Jones and informed him of the plan so he wouldn’t bother asking him every half hour on whether the job was finished yet. Recker was parked in a metered spot and had to put some change in the machine every couple of hours as he waited. He thought about just going to Laine’s house and waiting, but Recker didn’t want to take the chance of his target going somewhere else first before stopping home. Then Recker might have to wait another day to finish his task. And though he was trying to be patient, he wasn’t interested in prolonging this any further. He wanted it to be done tonight. Not only so he could get back to monitoring the CIA more closely, but also because every day Laine was alive, was a day a child could get hurt because of him.
Recker kept his eyes on Laine for most of the time, just in case he ducked out early. But he was still there come closing time at 2am. He stayed for half an hour after closing and most everyone else had left, though there were a few employees still there. Recker knew there was a back entrance and Laine would likely leave through there. Knowing he wasn’t likely to see his target physically leave the building, Recker had to pay extra attention to the street where the cars exited. Luckily, there was only one exit. He finally saw headlights beaming across the side of the building, indicating a car was coming out. It was Laine’s. Not wanting to get too close and possibly scare the man off if he noticed he was being followed, Recker kept a comfortable distance between the two of them. Especially at that time of the morning where there weren’t a lot of cars out on the road, it’d be much easier to spot him if he followed too closely. Luckily, Laine appeared to be going straight home without any stops. It was about a twenty-minute drive from the club to Laine’s home, which was located on a quiet suburban street.
As they pulled onto the street, Recker sped up, hoping to catch up with Laine before he actually entered the house. As he got closer, he could see he was a little too late, as Laine was already unlocking and opening the front door. Recker parked along the curb just as the door closed, making it a tiny bit tougher for him to enter. He honestly didn’t feel like jumping through hoops for this assignment and decided to just be straightforward about it. Though he could’ve gotten in the house by some other means, it was always easier to just go in the front door. The tougher part would be whether or not Laine answered at that time of the morning, since it wasn’t exactly normal to hear someone knocking at your door at 3am. But Recker didn’t really care, he had a gun, he’d just start blasting away if he had to. Most people were sleeping anyway, and when they heard gunshots and woke up, he’d be long gone. But just to err on the side of caution, Recker put a suppressor on the end of his gun. It’d still make a sound, but it would be severely muted and not quite as noticeable. As Recker walked up the steps to the door, he thought about how he was going to finish the job. He could kill him the moment he saw him, but it wasn’t Recker’s style. He at least wanted the man to know in his final moments, why he was being killed. Recker didn’t think he owed it to them, but he thought it was only fair. Recker loudly knocked on the door several times and waited a minute for an answer, though none was coming. He repeated his steps, only to get the same response. He noticed a doorbell and rang it continuously until he heard footsteps coming.
“All right, all right,” Laine shouted from the inside. “What the hell do you want? It’s 3am.”
“I’m just here to take out the garbage,” Recker said sarcastically.
Recker had been hiding his gun underneath his trench coat, firmly planted within his hand. He immediately withdrew it from his coat and pointed it at the unsuspecting man.
“Yo, man, whatever you want, just take it,” Laine said, putting his hands up.
Recker didn’t bother responding and instead pulled the trigger, shooting his victim in his left shoulder. Laine fell backwards, yelling in pain, and clutching at his shoulder as Recker entered his home.
“Yo, what do you want?” Laine asked.
“You hear what happened to your friend, Bowman?”
“I heard he was killed yesterday.”
“Give you two guesses as to who did it.” Recker grinned.
“Why? What do you got against us?” Laine asked, crawling backwards along the floor to try to escape his attacker.
“I don’t like people who use children for their own pleasure.”
“What’re you talking about?”
“I know you’re record. I’ve seen the text messages you and Bowman exchanged. I know what you were planning.”
“All right, man, I admit it. I promise I’ll never do it again. I promise.”
Recker was getting tired of walking and pursuing the man so he shot him in the thigh to stop him in his tracks. Laine screamed out in pain, wondering how long the man was going to torture him for.
“If you’re gonna kill me, just get it over with,” Laine said.
He was right. Recker didn’t want to torture him while killing him. He usually only tortured people he had a personal vendetta against. He didn’t even torture 17 much. Recker ended his life rather quickly for all the pain and anguish he’d caused him over the years. Recker did what he wanted and let Laine know why he was killing him, which was all he set out to do. He raised his suppressed gun at Laine’s body and fired three more rounds into his chest, quickly snuffing out the remaining breaths of life within him. Not one to admire his work very much, Recker immediately turned around and walked out the door. As he walked to his car he looked around to see if anybody was on the street, but there was no one to be seen. As he drove away, he called Jones to let him know the job was done. Jones had said he wouldn’t go to bed until he heard from Recker when everything was finalized, no matter what time it was.
“David, it’s done,” Recker said.
“Any complications I should be made aware of?”
“No.”
“Where did it happen?”
“Inside his house.”
“And there were no witnesses, onlookers, anything?” Jones asked.
“No, it was a clean hit.”
“Very well. I guess I shall see you in the morning then.”
Recker drove back to his apartment, though he didn’t go straight to bed. He was tired, but still somewhat wound up from the altercation with Laine. Though Recker believed he was completely justified in the killing and nobody would lose sleep over the death of a child abuser, it still wasn’t something he could just forget in a matter of minutes. He never could. Even when he was in the CIA, he couldn’t just block out someone dying and forget about it in a matter of minutes, and it hadn’t changed since then. When he got home, he fixed himself a rum and coke and sat on the couch to take some steam off. He didn’t bother to put the TV on, a light, or anything else to distract him. He just sat alone on the couch in the darkness, trying to sort out his thoughts. He finally slumped on the couch about 5am and drifted off to sleep.
It wouldn’t be as long a rest as he was hoping for though. He initially didn’t figure to get into the office until around noon, as was usually the case when he was out late on an assignment the night before. But he normally didn’t have someone banging on his door in the morning either. Recker was awoken from his sleep by the thunderous pounding on his door. He reached for his gun which was still sitting on the table and slowly sauntered over to the door.
“Mike, I know you’re in there. I saw your car outside,” Mia yelled.
Recker took a look through the peephole, not believing what he was seeing. Though he obviously knew Mia’s voice, he had no idea she even knew where he lived. She picked him up from the lot the one time he left his car downtown after taking out Bellomi and his crew, but he never told her which unit he was in. And he definitel
y wasn’t expecting her right now. He took another look through the peephole, as the door shook from her knocks, just to make sure there was nobody with her. She seemed to be alone, so Recker finally opened the door for her. Mia barged in, not even waiting for an invitation.
“Sure, come in,” Recker said.
Mia stormed into the room, looking like a ball of fire and like she had a lot on her mind. She put her hands on her hips and turned around to face her host. Recker looked at her curiously, wondering what was on her mind.
“What do you think you were doing yesterday?” Mia asked.
“What are you doing here?” Recker said.
“I wanted to talk to you.”
“Ever hear of a phone?”
“No, a phone won’t do for this. This needs to be done in person,” she said, agitated.
“How’d you even find me?”
“I know where you live, I’ve been here before.”
“No, you’ve been in the parking lot. I never told you what unit I was in.”
“Well, you don’t need to be a world class investigator like some people I know to figure it out,” Mia said. “I looked at the names on the mailboxes in the lobby.”
Recker let out a laugh, not believing her. “No, I took my name off the mailbox.”
“Exactly. You have the only mailbox without a name attached to it. I assumed you’d be the only person who’d go that far.”
“Hmm, not bad. But what if you made a mistake and pounded on the wrong door?”
“Then I guess I would’ve just used my sweet personality to apologize.” She gave him a mock smile, crinkling the corners of her eyes.
“Oh.”
Mia took a quick look around the room since it was the first time she’d actually set foot in Recker’s apartment, not really impressed with his décor.
“How many years you been here?” she said.
“Uhh, a few.”
“And this is all you’ve done with it? I’ve seen warehouses looking better decorated than this.”
“Well I’m not here much anyway,” Recker said, looking around. “All I need is the basics. Got a kitchen, a couch, a TV, a bedroom, it’s everything I need. I don’t need fancy pictures and china and candles and all the other nonsense. I’m basically only here to sleep.”
“Speaking of which, did I wake you up? You like look crap.”
“Late night,” he said wearily. “What time is it anyway?”
“After nine.”
“Oh. Well, I had to get up in like three hours anyway.”
“Oh. Sorry. I just figured you were up already. I assumed you were on a case or something.”
“Was. Finished it last night. Late last night.”
“What time’d you get to bed?”
“I think I dozed off at four or five. Something like that anyway.”
“I’m sorry,” Mia said, some of her bitterness fading away.
“You want a drink or something?”
“No. No. You almost made me forget what I came here for. You probably did it deliberately. Change the subject, make me feel sorry for you so I forget all about it.”
Recker grinned and shrugged. “Not me. I would never.”
“Yeah right.”
“Don’t you have work today?”
“No, I’m actually off for a day.”
“Lucky you. Well why don’t you run along and spend time with your new BF,” Recker said, grabbing her arm and leading her to the door.
Mia quickly shook off his grasp of her and took a few steps back, getting the urge to fight again, ready to light into him.
“No. You know how mad I am at you for yesterday?” Mia asked.
“Yesterday? What was yesterday?”
“Are you seriously gonna pretend like you don’t remember what happened?”
“Refresh my memory. I barely know what day I’m in half the time. With my schedule, all the days just blend together sometimes,” Recker said, playing dumb, though he knew exactly what she was referring to, buying some time so he could fashion a sarcastic reply.
“You know, lunch at the hospital, you, me, Josh. You remember, that one?”
“Oh,” Recker said, tilting his head back, changing his voice slightly as he played along. “Yeah. I remember now.”
“Yeah, I thought you might.”
“What about it? What are you mad for? I thought we all had a great time.”
Mia laughed. “Great time? Yeah right. You know how embarrassed I was sitting, listening to you?”
“Why? I thought we were all just sitting there, talking, trying to get to know each other.”
“No. I know exactly what you were doing. It was the very reason why I didn’t want to introduce you yet.”
“Why?”
“Why? Because you were trying to make him look bad, you were trying to intimidate him, you were trying to...”
“I meant no harm,” Recker said gently.
“You really think I believe that?”
“Well, I mean, he kind of seems like a...like a...”
“Like what?” Mia said, hands on hips.
“Like a tool.”
“Seriously?”
“Just my opinion. I think you can do better than him.”
“No. You’re not playing this game with me.”
“What game?”
“You’re not doing this. You don’t get to choose who I go out with. I was never so embarrassed as I was yesterday listening to you.”
“Really? More embarrassing than being kidnapped and tied up in an empty office with a psychopath and a notorious gang and your life hanging in the balance?” Recker asked.
“That wasn’t embarrassing. That was just...it was...I dunno, it was just something else.” Mia stammered the words, caught off balance.
“Oh. Makes sense.”
“You’re gonna need to ease up on him.”
“Does it really matter? It’s not like I’m gonna be seeing the guy every week.”
“Well, if we’re still gonna be friends, then you’re gonna need to get used to seeing another guy around me.”
“Mia, all kidding aside, if it makes you uncomfortable being around me from now on, I’ll understand. If this other relationship is something you really want, then try to make it work the best you can. If there’s not room for me, I’ll be OK.”
“I don’t want to cut you from my life. I don’t. I understand things between us will never progress the way I once hoped. I’m accepting the situation. I am. But I still care about you and I don’t want to never see you again. I know we’re never gonna go double dating or anything sappy, but there’s no reason we can’t still see each other from time to time.”
Recker nodded, agreeing with her position. “OK. I promise I’ll never try to intimidate him or embarrass you or anything.”
“Besides, you still need me. Who else would you go to if you ever got shot again? Which is probably likely considering everything you do.” Mia’s lips curled up slowly into a tight smile.
“Good point. Maybe I’d just have to find myself another nurse.”
“You better not.”
“OK. I promise I’ll be on my best behavior next time.”
“That’s all I ask.”
New York---Lawson entered the Centurion offices with vigor, confident she was on the right track in finding her target. Well, maybe it was more hopefulness than confidence, but regardless of semantics, she felt like she was making headway. She felt that she had a good understanding of her subjects, how they thought, how they behaved, and where Smith might have gone. She went into Davenport’s office to request a few things that she needed.
“Mr. Davenport,” Lawson said.
“Mr. Davenport’s in conference right now,” the secretary said without looking up.
“Well, you can either buzz him to come out or I can start pounding on his door.”
“Uhh, just one minute.”
The secretary called into the office and told Davenport that Law
son was here and insisted on seeing him immediately. Within a minute, Davenport opened the door and emerged from his office, closing it behind him as he greeted Lawson.
“I hope this is important,” Davenport said. “I have critical business that I need to get back to discussing.”
“I have important business that I need to discuss too,” Lawson said, standing her ground.
“What do you need?”
“I need two of your analysts assigned to me for the next couple of days.”
“Why?”
“I believe John Smith may be in a major city somewhere on the east coast. I need a couple of analysts to try to track him down.”
“What makes you think he would be on the east coast?” Davenport asked, sounding unconvinced of her findings.
“Well, after talking to the doctor, along with my own personal observations, that’s the conclusion we’ve come to,” Lawson said.
“Sounds like a wild goose chase to me.”
“Somehow, you don’t surprise me.”
