Bone Thief

by Thomas O'Callaghan

  “What? You think I should just ignore his offer?”

  “On the contrary, I think his instructions are to be followed exactly. But it won’t be you following them.”

  Chapter 58

  Driscoll’s voice filled the room. “Listen up, everybody. This may be our one good shot at this guy, and I don’t want any screwups.” He moved toward the easel that had been placed in the middle of the Command Center.

  “This is a plan of the Toys R Us parking lot. There are two ways in and out. I want each entrance covered by two cars. I’ll be in the TARU van with Danny O’Brien. Sergeant Aligante, and Detectives Butler and Vittaggio will be inside the store. Danny’s hooked up a pole camera so that he and I can see everyone who goes in or out. I’ll be in radio contact with the three officers inside the store and will give them a heads-up when anybody goes in we think looks good. I borrowed encrypted radios from Technical Services so that if this guy’s got a scanner, he can’t pick us up. We take him outside the store. Is that clear? I want everybody in this room to understand that. The last thing we need is to have some civilian or Toys R Us employee get hurt. Also, I decided against letting the Toys R Us people know what we’re doing. They might inadvertently give it away and spook the guy. We take him as he goes through the exit doors. Coming out. You got that, coming out! Sergeant Aligante, Liz, and Luigi will approach from the rear, and Danny will be up front with me. Cars two and three will pull up in front of the store, and cars four and five will block the exits from the parking lot. Once he’s taken down, I’ll ride back to the house with him along with Sergeant Aligante and Liz. Everybody else will meet back here. OK? Any questions? Good. We’ve all done this a hundred times before. Everybody knows what’s expected of them. Cedric will hold down the office. See Sergeant Aligante for your assignments. Liz, Luigi, over here.”

  Both detectives walked over to Driscoll.

  “When you guys get inside, grab a baby stroller and throw a couple of packs of Pampers in it. It’ll look more natural if you have something to push around. Besides, you never know, Luigi, you may get lucky some day.”

  Liz laughed, and Vittaggio looked embarrassed.

  “Seriously, I put you two inside because I trust you the most. Keep your eyes open and use your heads.”

  “Will do,” said Butler. Vittaggio was still trying to recover.

  Driscoll wished them luck.

  “Margaret,” he yelled. “When you’re finished…” He pointed to the inside of his office.

  Margaret finished giving out the assignments and walked in to meet with Driscoll.

  “Yes?”

  “What do you think? Will he show?”

  “My woman’s intuition says yes. It’s obvious the guy likes to play games, and Moira’s set the game ball in motion.”

  “Think we’ll be able to spot him?”

  “I think he’ll give himself away. He’ll be a lone male, waiting in aisle three for Moira.”

  “That’s why I want you in there.”

  “I know. I’ll know him when I see him. I’ll feel him.”

  “All right, but remember, stick to the plan. We take him as he comes out.”

  “Yes, Lieutenant,” she said mockingly.

  “I want you to be careful. This guy’s no joker.”

  “I know. I’ve seen his work.” Her tone turned serious.

  “OK, then. Let’s rock.”

  Driscoll stood up from behind his desk, and he and Margaret walked out of the Command Center together.

  “Hold on a sec.” Driscoll ducked back inside the squad room. “Cedric?”

  “Over here, Lieutenant.”

  “Call the Division dispatcher and have them keep all radio cars away from the shopping center. I don’t want some nosy cops snooping around and scaring him off.”

  “You got it. Anything else?”

  “Yeah. Here’s a radio. I want you to monitor what’s going on out there. If anything goes wrong, you can switch to Division and get us help right away.”

  “Good thinking, Lieutenant. I am, as always, ever-vigilant.”

  “Thanks, Cedric. Wish us luck.”

  “Lieutenant, when you’re as good as you are, you don’t need luck.”

  “Never hurts, though,” said Driscoll and in a flash, he was gone.

  Chapter 59

  Driscoll and Danny circled the Toys R Us parking lot just to make certain everything was as Driscoll had planned. Finding everyone in position, Driscoll had Danny guide the TARU van into an empty parking space some sixty feet from the store’s main entrance. Driscoll picked up the encrypted receiver. “Radio check,” he barked.

  One by one the units responded. Now the waiting game began.

  “Danny, is the pole camera working?”

  “Perfectly, Lieutenant. We’ve got a clear view of the store’s only entrance.”

  “OK, then. Let’s settle in. It may be a long wait.”

  Moments later, another van slid slowly into a parking space in the Voyager Boatyard and Marina. It sat across Flatbush Avenue, some 300 yards from the Toys R Us parking lot. Using a pair of Tasco high-powered binoculars, its driver took note of the Chevy sedan that was sitting close to the lot’s west exit. Under the car sat a pool of water, condensation from a running air conditioner. On the ground, just under the driver’s door, was a pile of cigarette butts. Inside the car two middle-aged men dressed in suits occupied the front seats. On the Chevy’s dashboard were two Styrofoam coffee cups and what looked to be a folded newspaper. A grin formed on the driver’s face. “Let the wait be on,” he muttered.

  For the next four hours the entourage of police personnel fought boredom. It was one-thirty in the afternoon when Driscoll depressed the speed-dial button on his handheld radio.

  “Margaret. Anything? Anything at all?”

  “Nothing. I guess my woman’s intuition was out to lunch.”

  “Liz, what about you?”

  “Besides aching feet and a deep hatred for pushing a baby stroller, nothing. I counted four customers in the last hour, none fitting the profile of our guy. Four customers! How does this place stay in business?”

  “OK, then. That’s it. The guy’s a no-show. Margaret, Liz, Luigi, you can come out now. You guys in cars one, two, and three get something to eat. Meet me back at the Command Center in an hour. Car four, you’re to hang on a minute until I make sure everyone has a ride back.”

  “Ten-four,” the radio crackled.

  “Danny, I’ve got to stretch my legs.” Driscoll slid open the van’s passenger door, stepped outside, and watched as his three detectives exited the store. He walked over to the weary cops. “We gave it our best shot,” he said. “I guess luck wasn’t with us today. Luigi, Liz, you guys got a ride back?”

  “We came with Sergeant Aligante,” said Detective Vittaggio.

  “Here. Take my keys.” Margaret said. “I’ll ride back in the van with Danny and the Lieutenant.” She handed Luigi her keys.

  Driscoll went to say something further when he caught a glimpse of a familiar figure. “Goddamn it, Moira. What the hell are you doing here? I thought I made it clear I didn’t want you within a hundred miles of this place. How did you get here?”

  “I took the bus.”

  “You took the bus.” Driscoll was ready to explode. He turned his attention to his two detectives, Butler and Vittaggio, “You guys can go. Grab a bite to eat and meet me back at the house.” The two cops did an about-face and walked away. “Now, young lady—”

  The crackling of the radio interrupted his tirade. It was car number four.

  “Lieutenant, are we good to go?”

  “Bring the car over here,” he said.

  As the car pulled up in front of Driscoll, he grabbed Moira by both shoulders, opened the sedan’s rear door, and pushed her inside.

  “Take this young lady home,” he ordered.

  “Will do,” said the detective seated behind the wheel.

  Driscoll and Margaret watched as the unmarked po
lice sedan pulled away.

  “I’m gonna kill her. What if he had shown up and somehow grabbed her?”

  “Let’s be thankful he didn’t.”

  Driscoll slowly shook his head.

  “I’m hungry,” said Margaret. “And my feet are killing me. Let’s go sit down somewhere and eat.”

  The pair climbed in behind Danny. As they made their left turn out of the parking lot, neither of them noticed the slow-moving van that had pulled up behind car number four.

  Chapter 60

  It had been hours since the failed attempted capture at Toys R Us. A frightening thought occurred to Driscoll. What if the killer could track down Moira through her computer? He reached for his desk phone and punched in Thomlinson’s extension.

  “Cedric, contact the Tiernans and arrange to pick up Moira and bring her in. I have some technical questions for the little miss.”

  “Consider it done.”

  Meanwhile, on the other part of town, Pierce sat patiently behind the wheel of his van. He stretched his back and narrowed his eyes to tiny slits. Waiting was not a favorite pastime. His mind hit upon the details of the day’s activity. The siege at the toy store. The interminable wait. The arrival of the girl, and his following the unmarked police car to her home, outside of which he now sat. It was a quiet, tree-lined street, and his van was not out of place parked where it was, behind a Volkswagen beetle.

  Cedric pulled a set of keys from the pegboard, signed out using the log, and walked down the back steps of the station. He began to look for unmarked department auto number 238. The car could be parked anywhere. There were two things detectives never did. One was to put gas in the car, and the second was to leave a note with the keys indicating where the car was parked.

  Thomlinson walked north on Yellowstone Boulevard, searching for the car. As he walked he noticed a line outside a local bodega. Curiosity got the better of him, and he made his way over to the store to see what was going on.

  “What’s up?” he asked the last man on line.

  “Two hundred fifty-two million dollars is what’s up, my brother.”

  Of course! The Mega Millions lottery, he thought. One of the biggest payoffs in history, and he’d almost walked right by it. He took his place in line, figuring Driscoll wouldn’t mind. Hell, if he won, he might give Driscoll a million or two. It was the Lieutenant who had stood by him when all the others had turned their backs on him.

  As the line slowly shuffled toward the store’s counter, Thomlinson began to dream about what he would do with all that money. It would mean a new life for him. He could finally go home. For good. Home, where it was warm. Home, where he could escape New York City and its cold, relentless winters. He had always longed for the sun and the glistening sand of his native Trinidadian beaches.

  It would also take him away from all the stares, the whispers, and the looks. Away from the accusing eyes and the contempt that was directed toward him. Hell, the city could keep its pension. As a big winner he would walk into the Commissioner’s office, throw his shield on the desk, and, without a word, turn and walk out the door. It was every cop’s fantasy. So, why not his?

  The line moved forward slowly, and it was twenty minutes before he got to play his numbers. He shoved the tickets into his shirt pocket and resumed his search for the car.

  The car was parked in a bus stop 200 feet from the bodega. He got in, started her up, and turned on the radio. Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff” blared from twin speakers. That’s it. It must be a sign, he thought to himself. Yes, Mr. Lottery Director, I’ll take the full cash payout, no installments for me, thank you.

  As he pulled away from the curb, three uniformed cops stopped to stare at the crazy detective who was singing at the top of his lungs.

  Chapter 61

  Moira slammed the door behind her, bound down the steps, and ran past the hedges onto the sidewalk. She looked up and down the street, but didn’t see the car she was expecting. She paced back and forth. Her thoughts were of Driscoll. He had yelled at her in front of his men and had embarrassed her. And now he needed her help again. This time, it’s gonna cost him big time, she thought.

  Pierce couldn’t believe his luck. There she was, right out in the open. He could tell by her actions that she was waiting for a ride. But from whom? Caution flags unfurled in Pierce’s brain. After a couple of minutes of hesitation, he seized the moment and acted.

  He waited until she turned her back on him and then eased the van out of its parking spot and slowly made his way down the street. As he pulled up next to Moira, he rolled down the window and smiled. He would follow her lead.

  “Driscoll send you?” she asked, visibly puzzled.

  “That he did. Hop in.”

  “I was expecting Cedric.”

  “He got called away, so they sent me instead.”

  He was a nice-looking man in a tailored suit. Moira decided he looked the part and got in.

  “I’m Detective Sweeney,” Pierce said, as he stuck out his hand.

  “Moira,” said the girl as she shook it.

  Pierce eased the van away from the curb and stopped at the corner. He turned to face his prize. “Moira, I dropped my cell phone, and I think it slid behind your seat. Could you reach around and grab it for me?”

  “Sure,” said Moira, bending her body away from Pierce.

  With a rag soaked in Halothane, Pierce smothered the girl’s face. Moira quickly succumbed to the powerful elixir, and a gleeful Colm Pierce now had a new toy to play with.

  Chapter 62

  By the time Thomlinson got to Moira’s house, the girl was nowhere to be found. He rang Moira’s bell. Her mother told him the last time she saw her daughter was when she was pacing the sidewalk waiting for her ride. That was twenty minutes ago.

  Thomlinson used the car’s police radio to contact Driscoll. “Lieutenant, I’m outside Moira’s house, but the girl’s not here. Her mother says she was waiting outside the house for me. She call you?”

  “No. I haven’t heard a word from her.” A feeling of dread came over Driscoll. “Cedric, start knocking on doors and see if anyone saw her in the last half hour or so. Get back to me, pronto.”

  “OK. Anything else?”

  “Yeah. What the hell took you so long? It’s a half hour ride, and it took you close to an hour.”

  “I hit construction on the Belt. It was backed up solid,” Thomlinson lied.

  “OK. Start knocking on doors and get back to me.”

  Within ten minutes Thomlinson was back on the phone to Driscoll. “Lieutenant?”

  “What have you got?”

  “A lady down the street saw Moira get into a van and leave about a half hour ago. She says she wasn’t really paying attention, but she’s sure it was a van. Nothing else. Just a van. She doesn’t even remember what color it was.”

  Driscoll felt sick in the pit of his stomach. He has her. His policeman’s instinct told him so.

  “Detective Thomlinson, get your ass back here now!” Driscoll hung up without another word.

  As he drove back toward the precinct, Cedric pondered his fate. He was far too good a detective not to know the girl was in danger. For the second time in his life, his mistake had put another human being in harm’s way. He retrieved the Lotto tickets from his shirt pocket, ripped them in half, and tossed them out the window. There would be no warm winter back home, no early resignation, and no escape from his fellow officers’ looks of disdain.

  He saw the sign for KELLY’S BAR up ahead. Veering the car toward the curb, he pulled into a spot out front. Stepping out of the car, he opened the wide oak door and slipped inside. Wordlessly, Detective Second Grade Cedric Thomlinson stepped out of the light and into the shadows that were his past.

  Chapter 63

  Twice that night, Driscoll’s sleep was shattered by the whine of distant sirens. Each time he had dashed to the window, only to stare at a deserted shoreline. Sleep starved, he pondered what Margaret had reported to him concerni
ng the DA’s daughter. She had interviewed Doctors Astin, Galina, and Pierce, along with the ICU nurse, Susan Dupree. What Driscoll found curious was that Nurse Dupree had indicated that Doctor Pierce, a radiologist, had tried repeatedly to revive Clarissa using defibrillator paddles. Now what was a radiologist doing in a pediatric ICU with defibrillator paddles? Margaret further reported that all three doctors were at the girl’s side when she suffered a massive heart attack and died, despite the extreme measures exercised to bring her back. Had the cardiac arrest been a result of the injuries she had sustained? None of the physicians believed so. Her autopsy indicated no link as well. So why the heart failure? And what about the conversation she had had with Godsend over the Internet? Where did that fit in?

  Driscoll had dozed off with the TV on, tuned to New York 1, an all-news channel. His eyes became fixed to the screen as Aaron Miesner announced breaking news: “This morning, at 4:32 A.M., security officers at Pinelawn Cemetery reported that a mausoleum had been desecrated, and a body interred in its white marble chamber had been mutilated. The butchered remains have been identified as those of Clarissa Parsons, the daughter of Manhattan’s District Attorney, Jack Parsons—”

  The telephone rang. Driscoll answered it. The DA’s voice roared in his ear.

  “Jesus Christ, John. If you can’t defend the dead, what am I paying you for?”

  A beep interrupted the verbal assault.

  “Jack, that’s call-waiting. It’s gotta be someone from the squad. I gotta put you on hold.”

  “Don’t you—”

  Driscoll cut off Parsons and depressed the “talk” button. It was Thomlinson.

  “The motherfucker mutilated the girl’s body, and now Parsons is on the warpath. He went up one side of me and down the other. Called me an incompetent drunk! Said I was the reason for the fuckup. And now he’s after you. I tried to head him off, but he’s bearing teeth.”