Vigilante Assassin

by Mark Nolan

  He tapped his phone and sent a text to Elena. She didn’t reply, again. It was as if she was ignoring him. Fine, so be it.

  No matter; he would kill Wolfe tonight. Hopefully the man would enjoy his last meal, and drink plenty of alcohol to slow his reflexes.

  When Wolfe left the house, Dmitry would shoot him as he got into his car, or follow him and strike when he parked the car and got out.

  How many men had he killed while they sat in the driver’s seat, putting on their seat belt and not paying any attention to their surroundings?

  Inside the house, Jake filled a bowl with water and set it on the kitchen floor. Cody lapped up half of the water in a hurry and then let out a wet cough.

  Alicia cut a loaf of sourdough bread lengthwise into two long halves, spread some garlic butter on each half, and put them in the oven.

  Jake grabbed a couple of beers from the fridge. He and Cody went outside, where Terrell was grilling steaks. He handed a beer to Terrell. “A cold one for the grill master.”

  The two friends studied each other.

  Terrell drank from the bottle and then pointed his finger at Jake. “The Jake I know would never take money from LEOs and give it to criminals.”

  “I wasn’t taking money from cops. You guys already have tons of tax dollars to work with. The Family took it from a foreign gang of heroin dealing kidnappers, and kept it as payment for putting the gang out of business.”

  “In other words, you put an Italian mob hit on the Russian mafia? And then stole the Russians’ money to pay the Italians for the hit?”

  Jake scratched his chin. “According to the media, the members of a Russian gang and a Serb gang killed each other, fighting over a fortune in heroin.”

  “A friend of yours at your former media job reported it first, saying she’d received a tip from an unnamed source.”

  “She’s good. I’m sure she has lots of sources.”

  “Uh huh. When I got to the warehouse, a gang started shooting at me and the SWAT team. Then, an unknown individual on the second floor dropped a flash-bang grenade into the crowd on the ground.”

  “Great idea.”

  “After it went off, he got into a gun fight with the gang and fought them with what I’d call infantry Marine precision. One shot, one kill, over and over. Just like a MOS 0311 rifleman who’d been to SOI and was firing an M4 carbine in a war.”

  “Could have been anybody.” Jake leaned toward the barbecue to give the steaks a critical look.

  Terrell waved Jake away, and used tongs to lift a steak and look at the underside.

  “Sorry I lost my temper,” Terrell said. “My headaches have been worse lately.”

  “Sorry for putting you through hell so often,” Jake said.

  “Never a dull moment when you’re around,” Terrell said.

  It seemed to Jake as if Terrell was wrestling with whether Jake deserved jail time or a pat on the back. Jake steered the conversation away from the warehouse. “Grinds, you never told me you were deputized by the U.S. Marshals.”

  “I’ve got a few secrets. Speaking of secrets, how did you know the cash was hidden among the six-packs of bottled water?”

  “When I was a photojournalist, I saw a story about the Miami police finding drug money hidden that way when it was being transported in trucks.”

  Terrell turned the steaks. “Well, at least you squared things with Chief Pierce.”

  “Yeah, and it only took two million dollars to cheer up his grouchy ass.”

  “We need that money to buy the latest crime-fighting technology. The city is having a budget crisis. Your donation could save the lives of my coworkers.”

  “I’m glad I could help my local cops. Let’s do this again next week.”

  “Sure, I’ll put that on my ‘F’ list.”

  “What’s an ‘F’ list?”

  “It’s like a bucket list, but it starts with an F.”

  Jake’s phone buzzed; Sarah was pulling in. He looked through the sliding glass door and saw her walk into the kitchen, getting a hug from Alicia.

  Alicia said something and gestured at the refrigerator. Sarah opened the fridge, grabbed a beer, and joined them on the patio.

  Jake hugged her and held her tight for a while. The bruises on his body cried out in pain, but he tried to ignore the hurt.

  He looked over Sarah’s shoulder. Alicia was standing by the window and smiling at him. He smiled back.

  Terrell saw Jake wince when he hugged Sarah, hiding his pain. He’d seen that before. When the hug ended, Terrell yanked on Jake’s shirt and lifted it up, exposing the marks left from his beating. “Do you want to explain these injuries, Jukebox?”

  “I tripped and fell down onto a pile of rubber hoses.”

  Sarah gasped when she saw the red marks, welts and bruises all over Jake’s chest and stomach. “You need to see a doctor.”

  “It’s all right, Sarah. I’ll be fine. And besides, you’re a doctor. Don’t you have some liniment that’s good for man or beast?”

  She brushed aside his attempt at humor. “What happened?”

  Jake looked off in the distance, thinking about Razor. “Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies.”

  “Wrong, you lie like a rug,” Terrell said. He put the steaks on a platter and led everyone inside, where Alicia was tossing her famous Caesar salad.

  A wine store employee rang the doorbell to deliver several bottles of Silver Oak cabernet.

  Alicia looked at the fine wine in surprise. “Jake, you shouldn’t have.”

  “No worries, those are from Dylan’s locker at the wine company. He bought hundreds of top-rated bottles and then quit drinking. That’s just wrong, but he gave me free rein to enjoy any and all of the collection. You have to drink this so it doesn’t go to waste.”

  “Well, in that case, you might want to donate a few bottles to my empty wine rack, just to save your liver from undue stress,” Alicia said, laughing.

  Jake laughed with her. When her back was turned, he sent a text to the wine company, scheduling a delivery for the next day of a mixed case of wines she’d enjoy.

  Outside the house, Dmitry continued waiting in his car. He ran a leathery hand through his salt-and-pepper hair. Various aches and pains in his body were telling him he was getting too old for this work. He was looking forward to going home on the next available flight.

  The coughing fits came upon him then. He hacked violently into a tissue several times. When he took it away from his mouth, it was red with blood.

  “Sweet lady tobacco, the one true love of my life.” He lowered a window and reached into his coat for an unfiltered Russian cigarette, smoking while he waited.

  He craved a shot of vodka too, but he would never drink before a job, only after. This would be over soon enough, and then he’d enjoy a celebratory drink on the airplane.

  Chapter 62

  The doorbell rang and Jake said, “I’ll get it.” He opened the door and let Beth Cushman in along with her little boy, Kyle.

  When Kyle saw Jake, he asked his mom, “What happened to his face?”

  Beth looked at Jake and shook her head.

  Jake smiled at Kyle. “That’s what my mom asked the doctor when I was born.”

  Kyle laughed. “Can I pet Cody?”

  “Wait, I have to give him a talk first.”

  “I know!” Kyle said.

  Jake smiled at the precocious kid. He saw Beth watching him. Kyle was her world—her reason to get out of bed every day. “Cody, be friends. You’re off duty.”

  Cody shook his whole body, stretched his front legs and then then his back legs, flopped his ears from side to side, and let his tongue loll out of his mouth.

  Kyle knelt on the floor and petted him while Beth stood close by and kept her eye on them.

  Alicia carried a basket of hot sourdough bread into the dining room and set it on the table. “Okay, let’s eat.”

  Everybody took seats around the table. Terrell put a rare steak
on a plate and set it on the floor for Cody, who attacked it, chomping on it as if he was worried that someone might take it away from him.

  Jake sat with Sarah on his left. He held her hand as he tasted the wine.

  Sarah looked at Jake with a bemused smile on her face and then glanced at Alicia. The two women grinned. Sarah said, “Jake, I’m right handed.”

  Jake turned to her. “What?”

  “You’ll have to let go of my hand if I’m going to be able to eat dinner.”

  “Oops, sorry. It’s, uh, a new diet. Yeah, the hand-holding weight-loss plan.”

  Sarah tilted her head. “Are you implying I need to lose weight?”

  “No, no, don’t change a thing. Should I just shut my big mouth now?”

  “Yes,” Terrell said.

  Alicia said, “Jake, this red wine tastes delicious.”

  “You should try it with some freshly baked chocolate chip cookies,” Jake said.

  Terrell savored a bite of steak and took a drink of wine. “I can’t keep covering for you when you break the law, Jukebox. It’s a full-time job. You need legal protection to keep your dumb ass out of jail.”

  Jake nodded. “I’m a lawyer now, so maybe that’ll help my dumb ass.”

  Sarah stared at him. “So, it’s true? You’re a lawyer?”

  “Yeah, I studied law online.”

  “Why didn’t you ever mention it?”

  “Lawyer haters would have tried to talk me out of it.”

  Terrell said, “What if you could carry that U.S. Marshals badge full-time? Get the creds to go with it. Maybe Agent McKay could talk them into putting you on their payroll and making you an official manhunter.”

  “I’m not qualified to be a Marshal. They’re highly trained and bad to the bone.”

  “You could go through their training.”

  “That would be an honor, but then I’d have to drive to the federal building every morning and report to my boss. No thanks. I’d rather just be a boat bum lawyer and spend most days taking the Far Niente out on the water.”

  “Good luck with that. The feds have their claws in you and they’ll never let go.”

  “Thanks for being the voice of doom. I can always count on you.”

  Alicia said, “Jake, you should just say no. Tell the government to find another tool. Not that I’m saying you’re a tool.” She studied her fingernails.

  “You’re right, Alicia, I am a tool. I’m their blunt instrument. They use me to hammer on their enemies.”

  Sarah looked at Cody, and considered his wound that was healing up and scarring over. She crossed her arms and shook her head.

  Alicia noticed Sarah’s concern. “Jake, you have a family and a home now—Sarah and Cody and the Far Niente. You have to take them into consideration. Don’t be reckless.”

  Jake nodded and stared at the tablecloth. “I need to learn to control my temper, but…”

  “And think twice before you get deputized by the U.S. Marshals and become involved in some kind of dangerous task force.”

  Jake glanced at Terrell, who gave him a slight shake of the head.

  “That’s true,” Jake said. “But it’s usually a secret, so your family doesn’t worry.”

  Terrell kept an innocent look on his face. “Sorry I mentioned that. But talk to McKay. Maybe your deputized status could be useful.”

  Jake nodded. “The law says if the threat that prompted the deputation is ongoing, the individual may qualify for a continuation of the Special Deputy U.S. Marshal status until such time as the threat has abated.”

  “There you go again with that legal mumbo jumbo.”

  “I think I’ll ask them to deputize Cody instead. He can wear the badge on his collar and be in charge.”

  Cody stopped chewing his steak bone for a moment, let out a dog burp, and nodded his head.

  After dinner, Jake said his goodbyes, then walked Sarah to her car and gave her a kiss. “Cody was hoping you’d join us on the Far Niente for an after-dinner drink.”

  “Oh, Cody was hoping that, huh?”

  Cody wagged his tail.

  Sarah smiled. “I’ll be happy to come over later, after I check on a patient at my clinic. But no fooling around; you have all those bruises.”

  “That’s just wrong. I think we should talk it over … in bed.”

  “Unbutton your shirt—let me see your chest.”

  “Can I say that to you sometime? It would only be fair.” Jake unbuttoned his shirt.

  Sarah studied his injuries, touching him here and there. “Soak in a hot bath and drink some of that Irish painkiller you love so much. See you soon.” She got into her car, and Jake and Cody got into the Jeep.

  Both cars drove away in opposite directions.

  Dmitry observed his target kissing a woman. Was she the girlfriend Elena had planned to kidnap? Did Elena fail, or did Wolfe have more than one girlfriend?

  He couldn’t shoot Wolfe without putting the woman at risk and that was against his personal code.

  He waited until Wolfe drove off and then followed him.

  Now was the time to get him alone and finish this.

  Chapter 63

  Jake drove to a park where he stopped the Jeep and clipped a leash onto Cody’s collar. They walked toward a fir tree in a dark corner and Jake went behind it, reached into a hedge, and removed a black trash bag.

  They returned to the car and got inside, where Jake took a quick look in the bag. It held a vacuum-bagged bundle of cash. He’d hidden it there before delivering the truckload to the police, guessing they wouldn’t miss this one small slice out of the multimillion-dollar pie.

  Jake tossed the bag onto the front passenger seat and drove away.

  Dmitry followed Wolfe to a park and saw him get out of his car and walk among the trees.

  What was the fool doing? Was this a trap?

  He used night vision goggles to keep an eye on his prey.

  Soon, Wolfe came walking back toward his car. He had a bag in his hand. Dmitry considered trying to shoot him now, in this quiet place. However, it was too dark. If he drove past, one tap on his car brakes would turn on the red lights. If he tried to sneak up on foot, the dog would smell and hear him before he could get close.

  Dmitry sat watching the man and dog get into the car and drive away. He waited a while, then began following, but not getting too close.

  Jake didn’t notice the car following him as he drove to the church where Father O’Leary held mass and gave confessions.

  When he and Cody arrived at the old stone church, he grabbed the trash bag and went inside. Candles flickered in the dim light, emanating the aroma of beeswax. The polished wooden pews were empty except for one young woman, kneeling and crying.

  A small sign said that Father O’Leary would be hearing confessions this evening.

  Jake and Cody went into a confessional booth. Jake closed the door and knelt on the pad, causing the light to go out. In the darkness he said, “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. So many sins, so little time. It’s all a blur to me now. And Cody too—if he could talk, the tales he would tell you.”

  Father O’Leary chuckled in the dark. “Ah, Jake, how do you manage to sin more than anyone else, when there are only twenty-four hours in a day?”

  “I make an extra effort, and I use one of those day planner things. Right now I want to partially atone for my sins with a donation to the soup kitchen.”

  “Good lad. We’re going through a tough time. We’ll be all out of food for the homeless folks in just a few days without a donation.”

  “This will buy some more meals.”

  “Where did you get the money? Did you come by it honestly, I hope?”

  “Not exactly. A criminal gang got this money by hurting people. I took it from them, and now the cash will help those in need.”

  “That works for me. Are you trying to stay out of trouble?”

  “Not really. Sorry, Padre.”

  O’Leary let out a sigh. “At l
east you’re honest about your shortcomings.”

  “You’d never believe me if I wasn’t.”

  “God bless you, son, and Cody too.”

  “Thank you, Father.” Jake left the trash bag in the booth, said his goodbyes, and exited the church.

  Dmitry found the Jeep parked on the street but there was no sign of Wolfe. He might be in one of the restaurants, or visiting someone at an apartment building. As he passed by a church, Wolfe came out the front door and walked down the steps.

  Dmitry was on a one-way street and had to go around the block. By then, the Jeep was rolling. He cursed and followed the beacon signal.

  Jake drove to the cemetery where Stuart was buried. He and Cody visited Stuart’s grave and Jake got down on one knee.

  “Hey, Stuart. It’s me Jake, and Cody’s here too. We miss you, buddy. I wanted you to know I’m taking good care of Cody, and he’s taking good care of me.”

  Cody dropped to his belly on the grass next to the grave and let out a mournful howl.

  “We got rid of the heroin dealers. Their drugs won’t kill any more veterans. And they won’t be trading AK-47s to terrorists who shoot at our troops.”

  Cody howled some more. Jake petted him on the back for a while and then faced Stuart’s grave again. “Rest in peace, Marine. Fair winds and following seas, brother. We’ve got it from here. Semper Fidelis, until we meet again…”

  When Jake tried to get up and walk away, he couldn’t move. Once in a while his grief would overwhelm him and break out of the vault where he kept it locked away. He knelt there and wept, for Stuart and his family, and for so many other families who had lost someone in military service.

  Cody whined and licked Jake’s tear-streaked face.

  The world seemed to stop for Jake as he knelt there like a statue. After so many of his friends had died so young, he felt both bitter for their loss and also grateful to be alive. He was painfully aware that each day was a gift. It could all end tomorrow—there was no guarantee that you or anyone you knew would live another day.