“Here come the MIB’s,” Ellie whispered, covering her heads up to Connor with a sip of coffee. Connor nodded imperceptibly.
“Bradwick and James?” The woman asked when the two stood next to the officers’ table.
“I expect you know that already,” Ellie replied with a smile to take the bite out of her words. “No way you’d be looking for us here except if you were listening in on channel.”
“May we join you?” The man asked politely, holding out his ID for Ellie and Connor to see they were FBI special agents. “My name’s Drax Fulton. This is my partner, Anita Guzman. We’re with Homeland Security working the false documentation case.”
“Drax?” Ellie chuckled. Connor gestured for the two agents to sit down at the table with them.
“My Dad was a comic book enthusiast,” Fulton replied as he and Guzman pulled up chairs at the table. “We’ve heard you and Bradwick were brought up to speed on Councilman Stennis’s involvement in an undercover investigation of the man behind the operation on Penniman: Terrell Araya.”
“Who did you hear it from?” Connor waved over their waitress. “Coffee? We haven’t eaten yet but we’ve already ordered. Would you two like to join us for dinner?”
“We’ll just have coffee,” Guzman told the waitress when she came over. “Detective Morton informed us he would be bringing you two in as backup because of your familiarity with the area and Araya.”
“I guess he and Stennis changed their minds about doing the sting behind your backs, huh?” Ellie asked.
“When they first came to us, Stennis was unaware of what the term financial forensics meant.” Fulton smiled for the first time. “We apprised him this morning of how much we had discovered about his financial dealings since he came to us claiming to be working undercover with Detective Morton.”
“Then you know how involved he is with Araya?” Connor paused while the waitress served coffee to the two agents. “Stennis is really dug in deep.”
“Oh yes,” Guzman replied. “We thought perhaps Araya planned to throw us off track with Stennis as bait. Now, we’re sure the Councilman fell into an all too familiar trap and reacted to it in much the same way as any other politician.”
The meals arrived at the end of Guzman’s statement. They all waited silently while the waitress walked away after serving it.
“If you’ve come to us thinking we’re going to get in your way, forget it,” Connor said.
“Actually, we’re a little unclear as to why Stennis went to you and Officer James, even with Detective Morton’s recommendation,” Fulton continued. “You two have been involved in four high profile cases in a very short period of time: federal kidnapping case with three dead, burglary gang with one wounded, drug case with Stennis’s son involved, and now a possible terrorist connection to an MS-13 gang leader.”
“I imagine there are cops in Oakland who go through an entire career without being involved in a single high profile case, let alone spearhead four of them,” Guzman added.
“That what you imagine?” Ellie glared at Guzman, leaning back as the waitress served their dinners.
“We’re not trying to be confrontational,” Guzman said, seeing the look of animosity taking over Ellie’s features. “It’s our job to look into every detail and connection in a terrorist case, especially involving a gang with as many terrorist ties as MS-13. Stennis had a bad week under our scrutiny in that his name has been linked with phony documents, drug peddlers, Araya, and his own son implicated in the drug case. Stennis and his friend Morton trust you two for some reason. We’re wondering what that reason might be.”
“It is an oddity,” Fulton added tactfully. “With Stennis’s career taking a nosedive while the two of you are headed upwards, we’re concerned there’s a missing element in this. Why would Stennis not have rounded up a full scale assault for his supposed undercover bust? Why try and engineer it with only a couple officers for a case this dangerous?”
Connor grinned. “Nicely put. Ellie and I have been thorns in Stennis’s side for quite a while. Morton can’t stand the sight of us. I’m taking the request for help on face value. Maybe Stennis and Morton think we’re the only ones he can trust not to leak the case or be cowed by that psycho Araya.”
Fulton exchanged glances with Guzman and then stood up. “Thank you for your help.”
“You’re not getting out of here that easy.” Ellie’s words stopped Guzman who had been following her partner away from the table.
“What do you mean by that, Officer James?” Guzman turned back with more than annoyance showing in the stare she flashed at Ellie.
“You and Drax owe three bucks for the coffee,” Ellie replied deadpan, gesturing at the nearly untouched cups at the table where the agents had been sitting.
Guzman, lips clenched tightly, fished into her purse and came up with a five dollar bill she tossed onto the table. Without another word, Guzman stalked out past Fulton. Her partner hurried in order to catch up. After Fulton and Guzman left the restaurant, Ellie chortled with delight.
“That was tight, El.” Connor sighed. “I’ll start researching for tax lawyers.”
“Huh?”
“Anybody pisses off the feds gets five years of IRS audits.”
“Frack!”
Chapter 12
Christmas Eve
“What did you think, Nita?” Fulton asked his partner when they were out in their car with Fulton in the driver’s seat.
“Clean but annoying,” Guzman answered, arms folded over chest in a manner projecting she was still perturbed. “That James really set my teeth on edge. She’s looking for an attitude adjustment.”
“Not from you. Those two are achieving cult status locally. The Bureau took notice when they flat out ended those freaks’ lives, kidnapping kids across country. When they busted the illegal alien document den, it drew attention from some of our talent scouts.”
“Bradwick took out all three kidnappers, not James.”
“You came into the Bureau straight from college, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, so what?”
“I came out of five years in Philly PD. One thing I learned: partners on street patrol in a city like Oakland don’t do anything alone. It’s a holy or unholy alliance like no other. Besides, James shot a perp with an Uzi before he sprayed two other cops. Put your personality conflict on hold. We’re under orders to expedite this little operation. This is a win-win for us. It’s our case. If Stennis screws up, we’ll still be ahead of this with no blame because the locals handled the sting. If Stennis gets Araya, we nail a major player and have Stennis on the hook.”
“What if Bradwick and James decide they don’t want any part of this after we tipped them off?”
“They’ll be in it,” Fulton replied confidently.
* * *
“I bet Stennis won’t come up with any confession after getting a lesson in fed capabilities.” Ellie and Connor reentered their squad car after leaving the restaurant.
“Then we bow out of this mess,” Connor concluded, starting the car. “The feds are all over this. Unless Stennis gives us what you asked for I say we duck back under the radar for the time being. I’d love to have a hand in busting Araya but we need some-”
The radio interrupted with a shots-fired bulletin, directing them to a house on Arkansas Street, which ended the discussion. Ellie acknowledged the call while Connor drove away at maximum safe speed with lights and siren. They were less than a mile away. In under two minutes, Connor squealed to a stop in front of a slate gray two story frame house with large front porch. Both officers exited the squad car, weapons drawn and ready. A man staggered out of the front door in a black stocking hat, black pullover sweatshirt, bloody jeans, and a bloody face. He stumbled and fell to the porch floor, groaning and clutching his right knee. Connor ran up on the porch kneeling next to the man while Ellie kept watch in firing position from the steps. Connor frisked the man, not knowing for certain if the man was a victim or perpetrator.
Ellie, glancing in both directions from her vantage point, intercepted a woman running toward the porch without losing sight of the house front.
“You have to help her!” The woman screamed at Ellie.
“We will… calm down…” Ellie soothed, still watching the front, while grappling with and shielding the woman from the porch. “Focus! Do you know the man down on the porch?”
“No one lives there except for Carla, damn it!”
“Connor! Cuff him and let’s move in. He’s a bad guy!” Ellie shouted, releasing and patting the woman’s arm. “Do you know how many are in there?”
“I saw two break the door down!” The woman yelled, unable to lower the decibel level of her voice. “Carla’s the only one that belongs in the house!”
“Two went in, one woman owner!”
Connor immediately flipped the now screaming man over to his stomach and handcuffed his hands behind his back. He waited while Ellie disengaged from the woman and cautioned her to remain back. When Ellie stood next to him ready to enter, Connor rushed through the broken open front entrance. Connor scanned the room to his right, and then stood up from the shooter’s crouch he was in. He waved a clear sign. Ellie followed Connor, her weapon at ready but less tense. She knew Connor had seen something out of her vision.
Inside the house, Connor checked over a man’s body stretched out grotesquely on the floor. A long bladed bloody knife lay discarded next to him. Connor suddenly rushed over to a woman collapsed on the floor. Ellie searched the interior, weaving from left to right until she was certain they would not be surprised before hurrying to Connor’s side. Connor holstered his Ruger and grasped the woman’s hand. He felt for a pulse. Very thin, cloaked in a long pink robe, the gray haired black woman reached with her other hand patting Connor’s hand. The two officers noticed the old .45 caliber automatic next to the woman. The front of the woman’s robe was red with blood. They could see sliced slits in the front of it where it lay in tatters against the woman’s breast. Ellie called for an ambulance.
“Di…did I get ‘em?” The old woman’s eyes fluttered, trying to focus on Connor’s face, a peaceful gray pallor settling over her features.
“Yes, Ma’am, you sure did,” Connor stated, glancing over at the man’s body across from her with an extra hole between his eyes, knowing she was near death.
“Is… is my baby okay?”
Connor jerked upright, his eyes scanning everywhere around him. A calico cat lay near the love seat on his right, its eyes moving and body twitching slightly as if struggling with consciousness. Its front paws were bloody. Connor didn’t see any other sign of wound. He immediately assumed the cat was what the old woman had mentioned. Connor stripped off his jacket and then his shirt, pressing the material against the woman’s ghastly knife wounds.
“I see your cat, Ma’am, and it’s moving.”
The old woman sighed happily. She then coughed up bloody froth. “She…she gave me a chance to reach my gun. The… bastard stabbed me… and… and Nasty jumped. She raked him good! I made it to-”
Connor saw gentle darkness staring back at him from the old woman’s eyes and he closed them with a slight hesitant movement of his fingers, breaking protocol. He stood up and walked past Ellie without a glance. She raced after him, holstering her automatic and leaping on top of him from behind.
“Don’t you do it, Opie! That woman died with her boots on! Don’t spit on it by ending up in prison! Do your fracking job!”
Connor stopped, his arms dropping, the only significant sign Ellie evoked from her all out assault. He took a deep breath. Ellie gripped him with all her might. Connor put his hands over his partners, clasping them gently. They remained in position for a moment, Ellie absorbing the rage coursing through Connor’s body, and Connor taking strength from Ellie’s touch.
“I’m okay,” Connor said.
Ellie relaxed from the position she had maintained, legs enclosed around Connor, and arms locked around his neck. She slid down to her feet, his hands still holding hers as Ellie leaned into him. They remained locked in position, emotions ruling all else. Connor patted Ellie’s hands.
“Let’s take care of business, El. Thanks.”
“Anytime, but don’t you go near our wounded perp.”
Connor hesitated.
“I mean it, Opie, don’t you touch that man!”
“I just want a few words with him, El. I give you my word,” Connor replied, already hearing ambulance sirens in the distance. He didn’t know who was on in reserve to back a shots fired call but he knew they’d be there soon.
“Okay, but I’m watching you… damn it,” Ellie said, so unsure of her deal, she followed Connor out to and beside the still conscious man. “I’m warning you, Opie, I’ll-”
The woman waiting anxiously outside rushed toward the door, tears streaming from her eyes. Ellie intercepted her, glancing uneasily at Connor, who remained next to the wounded man on the porch. Ellie forced the woman off the porch, reconciling herself with whatever happened.
“I…I need help!” The man with cat’s claw marks across his face yelled at Connor.
“Listen to me, asshole! I know it was you stabbed the woman, and I know your prints will be on the knife. Know this! You ever get out here into reality again while I’m alive and I will make your death last five full days.”
“I never even-”
Connor grabbed the man’s Adam’s Apple hard between the compressed finger and thumb of his right hand, trying to shield everyone behind him from the deed. He released the man’s Adam’s Apple reluctantly, his fingers grasping in a spasm of intent.
“God man, say no more!” Connor whispered fiercely next to his ear in reply, pulling away both hands from the man’s neck. “Remember what I told you. No force on earth will save you if ever you get free.”
The man shut up instantly, gagging momentarily as his body pulsed with pain. Connor went back in the house, picking up the nearly comatose cat and taking her outside cradled in his arms. Ellie and the neighborhood woman were standing near the porch steps, with Ellie clasping her arms around the woman, trying to comfort her as best she could. The ambulance stopped outside the house as two backup police cars arrived. Connor impressed on the EMT’s the importance of doing as little as possible to disturb the scene, informing them of the circumstances quickly. Talking to one of the tech’s, Connor convinced him to take blood samples from the cat’s front paws while Ellie took pictures, knowing the chances of a forensics team on Christmas Eve were negligible. He wrote out a form for the EMT and the old woman’s neighbor, attesting to the cat’s importance. With back up on site, Connor rode in the ambulance with the dead, wounded, and non-human to the hospital. It was a ride, Connor thought as he held Carla’s now purring cat, not unlike many of his other Christmas Eves past.
* * *
After securing the scene, Ellie joined Connor on duty at the hospital with their murder suspect. When she exited the elevator, Ellie paused, smiling at Connor’s hulking form leaning against the wall of their suspect’s room in only his t-shirt, pants, gun-belt, and Kevlar vest. Connor had transferred his badge from his bloody shirt he’d used as a bandage to the front of the Kevlar vest. Ellie approached Connor slowly, gauging how long it would take him to notice. He never glanced up, continuing to look down at the floor, his eyes staring as if in a trance. When Ellie crept within ten feet of Connor, he lifted his head and smiled at her.
“Merry Christmas, El.”
“Merry Christmas, Opie, where’s the cat?”
“Spending the night at the pet hospital.”
“Donaldson’s sending someone over to relieve us in another hour.”
Connor nodded, returning his gaze to the hospital floor.
“Carla Dennison was eighty-two,” Ellie told Connor, nudging up against him.
“Her cat’s name is Nasty.”
“Yeah, I heard.”
“I’m going to keep her.”
“She’s a good fit for you.” El
lie elbowed him.
“You were right, El, Carla died with her boots on.”
“Yeah she did,” Ellie confirmed with a slight tremor in her voice.
* * *
“Did you pick up Nasty the cat today?” Ellie asked, as Connor slid into her Jeep’s passenger seat.
“No. They told me when I left her with them yesterday they’d be closed Christmas Day. I was lucky they had a drop off on Christmas Eve.”
“Yep, that’s you, Opie, Mr. Lucky. Did you shop for the stuff I looked up on the Internet for you to get?”
“Food dish, water dish, scratch pad, bed, litter box, litter strainer shovel, clumping type litter, and catnip.”
“Food?”
“Frack!”
“They’ll have some over at the vet’s if you don’t get a chance to stop somewhere before picking her up.” Ellie giggled. “Are you sure you want a cat?”
“No.”
“That’s the spirit,” Ellie remarked, reaching over to shake Connor’s shoulder. “Look on the bright side. Any cat takes on an intruder instead of running like most of its shifty eyed brethren is worth saving.”
“I figured it the same way.”
“I’ll bet Jules will like her. When’s your shrink moving in with you anyway?”
“She did look good in that black dress,” Connor replied, not taking the bait. “I could do worse.”
“You haven’t had a steady squeeze since Whiney stopped waiting around for you to get serious.”
“I still see Brandy occasionally,” Connor corrected Ellie’s twisting of his ex-girlfriend’s name.
“Yeah, dinner, movie, sha na na?”
“None of your fracking business, James.”
“Sure it’s my business. You broke up me and Rick.” Ellie tried to keep a straight face. “He thought you were boinking me during the day on patrol.”
“He did not.” Connor sighed. “Rick said the hours were murder on a relationship and it was too hard keeping up with your mood shifts.”
The Protectors: Vigilante Justice (Vigilante Cops Book 1) Page 15
