by Mike Ryan
She then remembered her protection and stood. “My security guard, he got hit in the head.”
Recker put his hand out to let her know to relax. “He’s fine. He’s got a nasty bump, but he’ll be OK.”
“Oh, thank God.”
“My baby…”
“You’re baby’s fine. Still in her crib sleeping, not a care in the world,” Recker said with a smile.
A look of relief swept across Rocco’s face as she sat back down. “I don’t know what happened. It all happened so fast.”
“Well, we’ve been watching your house for a while and didn’t see him come in, so he must’ve already been here waiting for you when you got home.”
Rocco looked puzzled. “You’ve been watching my house? Why?”
“We got word that something might happen.”
“Word? Why wasn’t I notified?”
Recker shrugged, drawing another curious look from the judge. “We don’t usually do that.”
“What district are you with?” Rocco asked.
Recker shook his head. “I’m not with the police.”
“What? Who are you, then? What are you doing here?”
“Just helping where I’m needed,” Recker answered.
Rocco looked at his face a little closer, studying it. It was a face that looked familiar to her somehow, though she couldn’t place it at first. “Have you been in my courtroom before?”
Recker smiled, thankful he couldn’t say he had. “No.”
“I’ve seen you somewhere before.”
“I get that a lot.”
Haley then reported back after checking the rest of the rooms. “Rest of the house is clear.”
“All right, I’ll meet you back outside,” Recker replied.
“Who are you talking to?” Rocco asked.
“I have friends.”
Rocco continued studying his face. She knew she’d seen it before. She was positive of it. After another minute, she snapped her fingers as it came to her. “I’ve got it.”
“You do?”
“You’re him.”
Recker knew what she was referring to, but chose to make light out of it instead, not wanting to make a big deal of it. “Well I’ve never been called a her so that’s a good start.”
Rocco smiled. “You’re the Silencer, aren’t you?”
Recker looked away for a second, not really giving any type of confirmation or denial. He didn’t need to give one in either direction, though. The judge already knew it was true.
“Why the special interest in me?” she asked.
Recker looked perplexed, not sure of her meaning. “Special interest?”
“I was told you also intervened at the park the other day. I guess I also have you to thank for that.”
Recker shrugged, not looking for thanks. “Just glad I was able to get there in time to stop it.”
Rocco looked at him and smiled again. “So, you’re the famous vigilante. You know, I’ve always thought we might meet one day.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, but I always assumed it’d be while I was wearing my robe and you’d be in handcuffs.”
Recker let out a slight laugh. “Sorry to disappoint you.”
“Well, as thankful as I am for helping me and my daughter, I have to say it wouldn’t help you if you do find yourself in that situation.”
“Didn’t think it would.”
“I mean, if you ever do wind up in my courtroom, I’d have to throw the book at you.”
Recker smiled, not at all bothered by the warning. “I’d hope for and expect nothing less.”
Rocco then gave him a wink. “But let’s hope it never comes to that.”
Recker nodded. “I can agree with that.”
“How do you do what you do?”
“Trade secrets.”
The judge nodded, not wanting to pry too much into his affairs. Though they were technically on opposite sides, and due to her profession, she was officially against what he did, Rocco was grateful for his assistance in helping her family. But she was a person of integrity, and if Recker ever did show up in her court, she couldn’t do much for him. As much as Recker was enjoying the conversation, he knew he had to be going. Sticking around any longer would be risky.
“Well, I’ll let you get back to your business,” Recker said. “I’ll have the police called in a few minutes.”
Rocco blinked and nodded. “Thank you. I certainly hope I never have to see you again. In any setting.”
“That makes two of us.”
“Before you go, can I ask you a personal question?”
“Sure.”
“Why do you do it? All this. You know it will probably end badly for you. Do you do it for kicks? Notoriety? Money? What?”
“Honestly, I just do it ‘cause I wanna help people. Don’t give a damn about money, fame, or anything else. The only thing I get out of it is the satisfaction of helping people and making sure they’re safe. That’s all.”
“So that’s really all there is to it?”
“That’s really it.”
“What’d you do before this?”
“Why the third degree?” Recker asked.
Rocco shrugged. “Just curious. You’re a polarizing figure. Just wondering what makes you tick.”
“Before this I worked for the government in various situations overseas. Didn’t end so well for me. But don’t go looking me up. You won’t find anything.”
The judge just nodded and gave a faint smile. “I kind of figured that would be the case.”
“You stay safe.”
“You figure this is the last of this type of stuff against me?”
“Well, there was a three-person crew contracted to work against you,” Recker said. “Two are locked up, and this one’s killed, so I think that should be the end of it. We’ll keep an ear out just in case they come up with something new, but I’ve got a feeling they’ll get the hint that this isn’t gonna work.”
“You said we, there’s more of you?”
Recker smiled, but wasn’t about to divulge anything else. “Let’s just say that I’m not alone.”
11
It’d been a week since Recker and company saved Judge Rocco from the break-in of the last remaining crew member they had been watching. Jones had kept tabs on the judge, typing in a few extra parameters into his search engine to see if he could uncover any further heinous attempts to sidetrack her in an upcoming trial. As far as he could tell, she was in the clear. After two failed attempts, the powers that be behind the attacks had nothing else they were working on.
With the judge no longer an issue, Recker and Haley focused on other cases, neither of them working together on any assignment since then. They were both busy, though, each having at least one assignment a day, and on a couple of occasions, two or three. There were several robbery attempts, kidnappings, a few planned murders, as well as an arson attempt, and a couple of planned assaults. After the busy week, and with their slate of cases currently empty, Recker had planned to sleep late one morning. He took turns with Haley, who slept in the day before. He didn’t come in until twelve, which was around the time Recker was planning on coming in. Mia had a late shift that day and Recker was planning on spending the morning with her. Unfortunately, as it often did, his plans didn’t work out the way he intended.
Though Recker got to sleep in a little, waking up at nine, the rest of the morning was not as quiet as he was hoping. He’d just finished eating breakfast with Mia when his phone started ringing. When he got to the table and saw who it was, he looked up at the ceiling and let out a deep sigh, knowing his morning was about to be cut short. Whenever Jones was calling at a time when Recker was supposed to be off, if there ever was such a thing, it meant something major had just happened and his private time was coming to an end. Before answering, he looked over at Mia, who gave him a faint smile, also recognizing what the call would probably mean.
“Hey, what’s up?”
; “Sorry to do this to you,” Jones said. “I know you were looking forward to having the morning to yourselves.”
“It’s fine. What’s going on?”
“Bad news I’m afraid. It appears that another police officer has been shot and killed.”
“How?” Recker asked.
“Walking out of his house last night on the way to begin his shift. He did the overnight watch.”
“It’s been what, week and a half, two weeks since the last one?”
“Yes. And our special phone rang this morning and has a voicemail on it from our detective friend,” Jones said.
“You didn’t answer it?”
“I think the less he knows about our business the better. He only knows you, only has dealt with you, I think we should keep it that way.”
“Yeah, probably right about that. You listen to the message?” Recker asked.
“I did. It was basically just going over a few details of this shooting and asking you to call him back when you could.”
“Have you been able to look into it yet?”
“Well, thankfully we’ve got a little lull in our case log right now, so I was able to check a few things out so far. Haven’t got too deep into it yet, but it’s still early.”
“Any connections to the other victims?”
“No,” Jones said. “Once again, he worked in a different district, no obvious relationship to the other officers.”
Recker stayed silent for a few moments, the phone still pressed to his ear, as he tried to think of their next move.
Jones hoped his silence meant he thought of something. “Come up with anything?”
Recker let out a sigh, not sure if he did or not. He had something, whether it was any good or not, was still to be decided. “I don’t know yet. Cops are going down every week. I think it’s time we stepped things up a notch.”
“What do you mean?”
“We need to get active about this. We’ve been pretty passive over it.”
“Well, to be fair, it is a police matter and they’ve been investigating it themselves,” Jones said.
“Obviously hasn’t meant much.”
“We have also had our own things to work on.”
“I know, I know. I’m just saying, now, we need to ramp it up.”
“And what do you have in mind?”
“Tyrell hasn’t reported back with anything. How ‘bout if we give him pictures of the three cops that were killed, not in uniform, and see if he can start knocking some doors down,” Recker answered.
“I suppose we could do that.”
“And I wanna have another chat with Vincent.”
“Can I ask what for?” Jones asked, not seeing what good that would do.
“He might know something.”
“Excuse me for being argumentative, but he already inquired about it once before, did he not? When he first introduced you to Detective Andrews?”
“Yeah.”
“I guess I don’t understand what the point of it would be.”
“He didn’t know at the time who was behind it,” Recker said. “That doesn’t mean he might not know what the connection is.”
Jones hesitated before replying. “I guess I can see what you mean. But that is also supposing that there is a connection to be found.”
“Yeah, it is.”
“It might just be some random lunatic.”
“I’m guessing no,” Recker said.
“Why?”
“I dunno. The more I think about it, the more it seems like something that’s planned.”
“Even lunatics have moments of clarity, Mike.”
“I know. But when cops are shot walking out of their house, to me, that shows they were targeted. Those people specifically. Not cops in general. If it was just some random person going on a rampage, I don’t think he’d be sitting and waiting outside their house, assuming he even knew where they lived. He would just wait for a parked patrol car or something, create a false call they’d have to roll on, something like that.”
“I might be able to go along with that,” Jones replied.
“Start working on those pictures and I’ll call Vincent to set something up.”
“OK. If I can’t find anything, then I’ll just digitally alter their police profile pictures and make it look like they’re not wearing a uniform.”
“Whatever’s faster for you.”
As soon as Recker hung up, he glanced at Mia, who was sitting on the couch. She had the TV on, but she wasn’t paying much attention to it. But she was listening to what her boyfriend was saying. And she didn’t like it very much. Recker could tell by the scowl on her face and the unfriendly stare she was giving him, that something wasn’t sitting well with her.
“What’s that look for?”
“Hmm? Oh, nothing.”
“Mia? I know that look. Something’s bothering you, just tell me what it is.”
She quickly relented, not wanting to get into a long, drawn out give-and-take with him. Especially since he always found out what was bothering her anyway. “It’s just I heard you say you were going to meet with Vincent.”
Recker batted his eyes for a moment, not understanding what the issue was. “So?”
“You know I hate it when you meet with him.”
Recker sat next to her and put his arms around her. “You know sometimes I have to.”
“I just don’t trust him. I’m always afraid he’s going to double-cross you somehow.”
Recker smiled, then planted a kiss on her cheek. “Believe me, he’s not gonna double-cross me. If he was going to, he’d have done it long before now.”
“You’re acting like he’s a moral person or something. He is a criminal you know.”
“I know that. Trust me. I’ll be fine.”
“You’ll take Chris along as backup?”
Recker rolled his eyes, but agreed with her request, even if he wasn’t positive the other Silencer would be tagging along. “Yes, I’ll take Chris along.”
He took a few more minutes to put Mia’s mind at ease, then called Malloy to set up a meeting with Vincent. Luckily, the crime boss was willing to meet with him in about an hour. He had to go to the office first before the meeting, so he couldn’t hang out with Mia much longer.
“Make it up to you later,” Recker said.
“It’s OK,” she replied, after getting a kiss on the cheek. “Want me to bring dinner home?”
“You’re working late.”
“Well, something tells me you’ll be working late too.”
Recker smiled. “You know me too well.”
Recker took a few minutes to get himself together, then gave Mia a goodbye kiss before heading to the office. When he got there, Jones and Haley were both sitting at the desk working. Recker walked around to the front of the desk, facing them.
“You print out those pictures yet?” Recker asked.
Jones nodded, then reached for a folder on the desk and handed it to him. Recker opened the folder and saw five four by six pictures, three of the cops, one of the drug dealer, and the one they assumed to be the innocent victim.
“Meeting at the restaurant?” Jones asked.
“No, at the trucking place,” Recker replied.
“Are you really hoping he will tell you something?”
“Not hoping for anything. Just ticking off the boxes. Maybe something will come of it.”
“Want me to go along?” Haley asked.
Recker briefly thought of Mia when he asked the question, but he knew there was no reason for backup. He and Vincent were on good enough terms where he didn’t even have to entertain the thought of something going wrong. Plus, saving Vincent’s life should have been enough to earn Recker a lifetime pass from him. Though he knew he was technically breaking his promise, he knew it just wasn’t necessary. If there was even a one percent chance, Recker would’ve agreed to let Haley come along as backup. But with things as they were, he felt Haley was better off working on other
things.
“No, I’ll be fine,” Recker said. “We got anything else in the hopper?”
“Yes, but nothing that’s critical enough to warrant both of you being on it,” Jones answered. “Chris can take care of it.”
“What is it?”
“There’s a man threatening his ex-girlfriend.”
“How bad?”
Jones shrugged, not knowing how to answer. “How bad are these things usually? There’s a threat that’s severe enough for us to act on. Don’t worry about it. I’ll put Chris on it. Concentrate on your business with Vincent.”
Recker agreed and looked at the photos in the folder again. It also information about each of the victims. As he glanced at the contents, Jones wondered about a few things Recker mentioned to him previously.
“What about Tyrell? When was the last time you heard from him?”
“Five or six days I guess,” Recker answered.
“Are you still sending him the pictures?”
“Oh, yeah, I almost forgot about that. I’ll give him a call now and see what’s up.”
Recker immediately called Tyrell, who answered on the second ring.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“Just wondering if you’ve made any progress on that police thing we talked about?” Recker asked.
“Nah, not so far. Nobody seems like they’re that interested in talking.”
“Kinda figured that’d be the case. I’m gonna email you some pictures. Flash them around, see if anybody recognizes them.”
“Will do.”
After his conversation with Tyrell ended, Recker took a few more minutes to read some of the files on the fallen police officers. He got so caught up in what he was looking at he almost forgot the time. Once he looked at the clock on the wall, he quickly shuffled the papers back into the folder.
“I need to get going,” Recker said.
Recker walked out of the office and headed for Vincent’s trucking business. When he got there, the front gates were already open, with a few trucks pulling in and out of the premises. Recker usually was only there at nighttime, when most of the business was done for the day. He had almost forgotten there was an actual business in operation. The security guard was already given instructions to clear Recker when he got there. Recker pulled into a parking spot and headed into the facilities. It was only a minute or two until Malloy greeted him.
