Avenging Alex

by Lewis Ericson

  17

  John drove into the parking lot of the Comfort Inn and sat in his truck, staring up at the fourth-floor window. He closed his eyes and braced himself, preparing for Alex’s reaction to all that had transpired. His cell phone rang and startled him. It was Alex. He concluded that the only thing to do was deal with it head-on. “Hey, I’m on my way up.”

  He gave each door a cursory glance as he walked down the corridor toward the room. He rapped lightly on their door.

  “John?”

  “Yeah, it’s me.”

  Alex anxiously opened the door, grabbed him, and clung to him. “I wasn’t sure I’d ever see you again.” She inhaled the smell of denim and sweat from his shirt. Just as suddenly and as fiercely as she held on to him she pushed him away. “You scared the shit out of me. Why didn’t you answer your phone?” Her gaze narrowed, trying to read the expression on his face. “Where’s Mama?” She moved past him and peeked out into the hall. “Where is she, John? You said you had her. You said she was with you.”

  John took hold of Alex’s arm and pulled her back into the room. “Alex, c’mon.”

  She jerked away; her breathing bordered on hysterical. “Where is she, John? Where’s my baby? What the hell is going on?”

  “Alex, we need to talk.”

  Alex shook her head and shoved him. “You lied to me. You said she was with you.”

  “I didn’t lie,” John defended. “She was with me.”

  “Then dammit where is she? Where’s my baby?”

  “Can you just wait a minute? Your mother had a really bad asthma attack. She wasn’t in good shape when I found her. I had to get her to a hospital.”

  “A hospital? And you just left her there?”

  “She’s being taken care of.”

  Alex grabbed her purse from the bed. “You have to take me to see her.”

  “I can’t right now.”

  “Why the hell not?”

  “You know why not.”

  “John, if they got to her once, they can get to her again.”

  “No, they won’t. Not this time. I notified Chief Toliver—”

  “To hell with Chief Toliver. How do you know you can even trust him after everything that’s happened?”

  “So, what do you wanna do, Alex? Donovan and Rivera are still out there somewhere. You wanna run out of here and go to the hospital and take the chance of being caught or killed?”

  “It’s better than sitting around here with my head up my ass doin’ nothing!” Alex looked into John’s tired, haggard expression, huffed, and turned back into the room. She threw her purse onto the bed and screamed, “Goddammit!”

  John closed the door, carrying the weight of the day and its burdens in his back and shoulders. With his head bowed he slumped down in a chair next to the bed and pressed the palms of his hands against his face.

  Alex turned to him, her face stained with tears. She was eerily calmer. “Where is my baby?”

  John shook his head. “I don’t know. She wasn’t with your mother when I found her. Your mother said a woman had taken her just before I’d gotten there.”

  “A woman? What woman?”

  John pulled out the pictures he’d taken from Donovan’s safe and handed them to Alex. “The man’s name is Gilbert Mosley, the woman is Pilar Vélez. Do you recognize them? They were working with Donovan.” Alex shook her head and eased down on the bed. John continued. “Your mother and Lorraine were being held in an abandoned farmhouse about an hour outside L.A.”

  “This bitch has my baby?”

  John sighed heavily. “I went to Donovan’s apartment after I left here earlier. I found these pictures and a lot of other things that proves he’s been working with Rivera this entire time.”

  “He’s been watching us?”

  “There were other pictures of your mother and the baby. Places the both of you had gone. People you were with.”

  Alex wiped her tears with the back of her hand. “They took her to get to me, right? They’re trying to lure me out and they’re going to use Cerena as bait.”

  “More than likely.”

  Alex’s countenance flashed with hope. “Then she’s still alive. She has to be, right?”

  John couldn’t answer.

  Alex combed her fingers through her hair, and paced the floor. “This just keeps getting better and better. I’m so fuckin’ tired of being scared. I’m sick of looking over my shoulder, waiting for that son of a bitch to do something else. If he wants me then it’s time to give him what he wants. My life for Cerena’s life.”

  “Alex—”

  “I’m done with this, John. I need to talk to my mother. I need to hear her voice and see for myself that she’s all right. If I can’t talk to her then I’m walking out of here and I’m going to find her on my own. I mean it.”

  John sat pensively and rubbed his hand over his face. “I have an idea.”

  “What is it?”

  He picked up his baseball cap, put it on her head, and stuffed her hair underneath. He handed her his marshal jacket to put on. “Put this under your shirt,” he instructed, picking up a pillow off the bed. She looked like a badly disguised heavyset woman. “It won’t work,” he concluded.

  “It has to work,” she insisted. “We have to make it work.”

  John thought more. “Put these on.” He handed her his sunglasses. “It’s late. By the time we get back to the hospital visiting hours will be over. There shouldn’t be too many people around.”

  “What about guards? If they recognize me they’re not gonna let me anywhere near her.”

  “Let’s just go. Hopefully by the time we get there I can think of something else.”

  Alex slumped down in the cab of John’s truck as they made their way to the hospital. John flashed his badge and a smile and engaged in a brief flirtation with a duty nurse in order to ascertain what room Jamilah was in. Slipping into a supply closet he absconded with a pair of scrubs and a discarded lab jacket for Alex to change into. He was glad that Chief Toliver still trusted him enough to have an agent posted outside Jamilah’s door. He knew the agent and was sure that he’d been given orders to be on alert for Donovan or Rivera, and most likely him and Alex as well.

  “You’re going to have to go in on your own,” he told Alex. “Cover your face and keep your head down.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  John shrugged. “I’ll pull the fire extinguisher if I have to.”

  Alex started walking toward the room. The hulking agent looked up as she approached. “I need to see your ID,” he barked.

  Alex patted her pockets and nervously looked around. “Uh, I must’ve left it in my locker.”

  “Then you need to go back and get it,” the man pressed. “I can’t let you in without it.”

  John stepped up from around the corner. “Hey, Carl, what’s up, man?”

  “John? What are you doing here?”

  John titled his head toward Alex who continued into the room as he distracted the agent. “You’re in a lot of trouble, dude. Toliver is mad as hell.”

  “Five minutes, Carl. That’s all I’m asking.”

  “John, what the hell’s goin’ on with you and Donovan, man?”

  “He hasn’t been here has he?”

  “I haven’t seen him, but both you guys are in some deep shit.”

  “I know,” John conceded. “I had to come by.”

  “He got your text. He also got a call from this doctor a couple of hours ago. He stormed over here and gave me strict instructions to let him know if you or Adriane Sullivan showed up.”

  “Carl, man, I need you to do me a solid and cut me some slack. Go get a cup of coffee or something. Nobody has to know.”

  “That was her, wasn’t it? Look, John, I’m not getting my ass chewed out over this.”

  “Just a few minutes, Carl. Please.”

  Jamilah’s color had returned and her face lit up when she saw that it was Alex behind the disguise. The two
embraced.

  “Omolola, how did you get here?”

  “John. He’s right outside.”

  Jamilah reached out and wiped Alex’s tears.

  Alex took her hand and kissed it. “This is not the best way for you to spend Mother’s Day, huh? I’m so sorry for all of this. If you had died I don’t know what I would’ve done.”

  “Shhhh . . . I’m right here. And I told you before you didn’t get me into anything I didn’t know I was gettin’ myself into.” She pulled tissue from the box on the rolling table next to her bed. “Here, blow your nose. Did John tell you about Cerena?”

  Alex nodded.

  “Listen to me, she’s going to be all right. You can’t give up hope.”

  “We have to be realistic, Mama. Xavier Rivera won’t stop coming after me until I’m . . . If we don’t end this there will always be another Ade going through you to get to me. I need you and Cerena out of harm’s way. If... when we get Cerena back I want you to go back to Nigeria and take her with you. “

  “What?”

  “I’m the one he wants. You don’t have to keep this up.”

  Jamilah ran her hand over Alex’s hair and smiled sadly. “I am your mother and I love you. I will never turn my back on you. You are my baby. We stand together, Omolola. Is that clear? When you met Raymond and you got into this drug business I looked the other way. Your father was sick and we needed the money, so I found a way to justify it all. I should have never let you get in this deep. If anyone is to blame it’s me.”

  “Mama, you didn’t have anything to do with this. It was my choice to marry Ray and it was my choice to align with Rivera after he died.”

  “I didn’t raise much of a protest to stop you. I will go to my grave regretting that, but I won’t leave you.”

  John tapped at the door and stuck his head inside. “We need to get going.”

  Jamilah held her hand out, beckoning John to her side. He stepped into the room. “You care for my girl, don’t you?”

  Alex grimaced. “Mama, don’t.”

  Jamilah scrunched her nose, shook her head, and waved Alex away. “Don’t you, Inspector?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” John whispered. “I do.”

  “Then you better make sure nothing happens to her.”

  “I’m doing everything I can.”

  “Mama, we have to go. I’ll try to come back soon.”

  “John, catch the people who did this, and bring my granddaughter home.”

  Alex hugged and kissed Jamilah good-bye. John thanked the agent guarding the door on the way out and asked him for his discretion. Instead of chancing the elevator, they took to the stairs.

  Anguished tears streamed down Alex’s face as they made their way back to the hotel.

  “This may not be a good time to tell you this, but I looked up Tirrell Ellis,” John offered.

  “What did you find?”

  “Not a whole lot since his shooting a couple of years ago. His brother’s a DA now. There was some mention of his grandmother.”

  Alex wiped her face in the palms of her hands. “I’m pulling you deeper and deeper into this mess.”

  Thinking about Hank’s forewarnings, everything Lorraine had said, and all that it was costing him John tried to sound reassuring. “You’re not pulling me anywhere. I came into this with my eyes open. Besides, my days as a marshal may be over, but I could always go back to school and get that law degree. Who knows, I could be the next Johnnie Cochran.”

  Once they got back to the hotel John announced that he was going to take a shower. He stripped out of his clothes and disappeared into the bathroom. Alex sat staring at her cell phone, willing it to ring, hoping for any word on Cerena. Every nerve ending in her body tingled with thoughts of the inevitable. She needed relief from the stress that consumed her. She took off her clothes, went into the bathroom, and stepped into the shower. John washed the soap from his face and smiled. The only thing Alex wanted at that moment was to have him inside her. She brushed up against him and the water cascaded over their bodies.

  “Are you sure?” he asked.

  “We may never get another chance,” she responded.

  John brushed her wet hair away from her eyes and cupped her face. “I’m going to find your baby, and I’m—”

  “John—”

  “Let me finish, all right? I’m gonna get you out of this. When this is all over you’ll be on your way to a new city with a new identity and you’ll have a chance to start over again.”

  “I don’t want to have to start over without you.”

  They stared a silent knowing into one another’s eyes as the water pelted them like rain. John pulled Alex into him and kissed her passionately. She felt the swell between his legs. He gripped her buttocks and pressed her into the tiled wall, licking and sucking her yielded breasts. She wrapped her arms around his neck and opened up, allowing him inside her, fulfilling a yearning and momentarily masking heartache. It was an extraordinarily poignant moment. Her body was imbued by his fervor. Neither could be sure what lay ahead, but they knew they were connected and they would face triumph and even death together.

  18

  Alex awoke the next morning to find that John wasn’t there. She found breakfast on the desk in front of the bed along with a note.

  Had to go in. Needed to see Toliver. Got to have help. Be back soon.

  Milton Toliver’s ruddy complexion flushed a blistery shade of crimson informing of his demeanor when John stepped off the elevator into the marshal’s office. “Well, look who decided to finally show up. My office. Now!” John went ahead of his lanky, balding boss. He followed and slammed the door behind them. “Do you have any idea how much shit you’ve caused?”

  “Yeah,” John answered. “I have a pretty good idea.”

  “What the hell, John? Two of my best inspectors are running amok. I got two dead guys, and a missing baby. Give me one good reason I shouldn’t lock you up right now. Where the hell is my missing witness?”

  “She’s safe.”

  “Safe? That’s all you’ve got to say?”

  “I’m not ready to tell you where she is.”

  “This isn’t a request, Inspector. You’re a United States marshal. You’ve broken at least a half a dozen regs that I know of, if not more. You’re thumbing your nose at policy and procedure. Just what the hell do you think you’re going to accomplish?”

  “I need to finish this, Chief.”

  “It is finished, John. At least it is for you.”

  “No, sir, it’s not.”

  “This Lone Ranger shit isn’t going to cut it anymore, John. The Department of Justice is all over this thing.”

  “I didn’t know who I could trust,” John responded. “I still don’t.”

  “You’re not referring to me, are you, Inspector?”

  John’s lack of response was answer enough.

  Infuriated, Toliver leaned back in his chair and shook his head. “I don’t even know what to say to that.”

  “Say you’ll give me the time I need to figure out where Donovan is hiding out.”

  “Why the hell would I do that?”

  “Because I know him. I know how he thinks.”

  “You apparently don’t know as much as you think you do, otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to get by you for so long.”

  “Donovan fooled us all. Including you, sir.”

  Toliver could not deny that aspect. “If I were to give you more time how exactly do you intend to go about flushing him out?”

  “They still don’t have Alex Solomon. Rivera didn’t go to all this trouble slipping back into the country and watching her and following her for nothing. He took his time; that’s why he took her mother and baby. He’s a sociopath. He wants her to suffer. If he simply wanted her dead he’s had more than one opportunity to kill her. We can use his arrogance to our advantage.”

  “So, what are you suggesting? We just wait for him to make his next move? You got lucky this time. You were
able to get your wife and Jamilah Solomon out of this alive, but what if your luck has run out; what then?”

  “You can’t pull me off this case. I gotta . . . I need to do this. Please, I can’t trust anybody else with this. Look what’s already happened.”

  “I’m curious, what was it that got you on to Harley Donovan in the first place?”

  “It was something I remembered him saying about enemies.”

  “Shit.” Toliver leaned into his desk and folded his hands in front of him. “You’re holding on to this case like a dog with a bone. Is it just because of Donovan, or is there something else you’re not telling me?”

  John looked directly into the chief inspector’s eyes. “That son of a bitch worked with me for five years. He called himself my friend. He’s been to my house . . . around my kids. He kidnapped my . . . I want him, and I want him to pay.”

  If Toliver suspected more he didn’t ask. Whatever he may have heard or thought he knew about John’s involvement with Alex Solomon he didn’t question. He grunted and shook his head. “I spoke to your wife last night.”

  John tensed up, wondering what Lorraine may have said.

  Toliver picked up a file from his desk and tossed it over in front of John. “Based on the description we got from her and Jamilah Solomon, and the evidence we found at Donovan’s place, I did some digging. There is something you may find interesting . . . Pilar Vélez is Rivera’s daughter.”

  John perused the file and studied the woman’s picture. “Donovan told me that he had done all of this for love and money.”

  “As far as we can establish they’ve been travelling in and out of the country together under assumed names for the better part of a year. There are dates on the documents you found that coincide with all the time Donovan had taken off going back to the beginning of 2009. The doctored passport tracked half a dozen or so trips into Cuba and a place called Castillo de los Tres Reyes Magos del Morro. There is a villa deeded to a Marisol Yelina . . . formerly Marisol Vélez. She was Pilar Vélez’s mother.”

  “Was?”

  “She died giving birth in 1981.”

  “Why didn’t she show up in any security checks on Rivera before now?”