Apex Predator

by J. A. Faura

  Steven’s face was streaked with tears. Listening to his wife, her own voice breaking, let him know that she would be there; whatever else was true, that would always be the case. She had also let him know she understood that whatever it was he’d done, he’d done because it was necessary and not out of a fit of rage or anger or a need for revenge.

  “Again, you’re right. As always, you’re right. That’s exactly true, it had to be done, but do you now understand what I mean when I say to you that I don’t know, I’m not sure, where to go from here?”

  She nodded, “I do. I do because I’ve also been thinking about where this goes from here.”

  Surprised, he turned to face her and got another small, understanding smile, “I’ve known you for more than half of your life, sweetheart. I told you, I may be grieving but I’m not stupid, and I think I’ve known since the moment it happened, since I first heard it on the news. I knew you’d tell me in your own way, sooner or later, when you felt I was ready for it or when you thought you had no choice, but I knew we would have this conversation eventually.

  “Do you think I didn’t think about doing the same thing? I wanted him dead, with every fiber of my being I wanted him dead, and I wanted to do it with my own two hands.

  “I’m sorry I can’t go through this with you, because you know that if I could, if there was a way for us to stand together and go through it together, that’s exactly what I would do, I would try to own this along with you.”

  Steven, face now dry, started to protest and again she’d beat him to it, “I know you are trying to protect us, all of us, from what you’ve done, the way you have over the years. But this isn’t something you can protect us from. We’re a part of it, like it or not. It’s not your fault, it’s just how things worked out.

  “I think besides taking my little girl, that’s the worst thing that monster did, he pulled us, all of us, into a nightmare. And that, Steven, is never going to be something you can protect us from, because we are already here. I think that the best thing I can do for you, the only thing actually, is to let you know that I love you, that your family loves you and always will, and that we will always be with you, no matter what.”

  She’d paused for a second and squeezed his hand to let him know that what she was about to say came from her very heart, “I can also let you know that whatever you decide to do, I have faith that it will be worth whatever we all have to go through. I know you will make sure of that, that whatever is coming will all be worth it in the end.”

  Steven had pulled her hand up to his lips and kissed it, looked her in the eyes and nodded, and with that he knew that his wife was in the right place, that whatever he decided, she wasn’t going to fall apart. It was ironic to him that all those years of tough situations, of doing things far from home, things he couldn’t talk about, of killing people and then having to go through it himself and then going through it with Beth, had prepared her for precisely for what she was having to go through now. Things like this were what kept Steven’s belief in something higher, some intelligence or order that brought things together, that allowed things to line up, like this.

  It had been a huge relief, a weight off his shoulders, and more than anything he had realized it was the biggest piece of the puzzle that had been missing for him. That conversation with her, and the conversation with his father-in-law, had been what he’d needed in order to put together a plan and make a decision.

  He was coming down a trail and watching more of the sun come shining up through the trees as he recalled the conversation he’d had with Tom Delaney just the previous evening.

  They’d been playing chess, something both men had enjoyed doing together throughout the years. They were in Tom’s study, the sounds of some Disney movie or another coming through the open door. Both men had a cup of steaming coffee with a hint of brandy next to them. Steven had always held an edge over his father-in-law when it came to chess. He had done quite a bit of study of the game and had played at the expert level during his years at the Academy. Tom was no slouch, he himself held a high rating in the game, but the edge had always gone to Steven. That night, however, playing with the white pieces, Tom had Steven on the ropes and had the whole night.

  Steven had been pondering his next move when Tom interrupted him, “You know that Beth and the kids will always be taken care of, right Steven? You know we’ll always take care of them.”

  Steven looked up from the board with a look of genuine puzzlement, “Excuse me?”

  Tom looked him right in the eye when he responded, “I’m not sure how you are involved in what happened in New York, I’m not sure I want to know, but I wanted you to know that your wife and your children will always be taken care of.”

  As had been the case with his wife, when Steven went to respond his father-in-law had raised his hand to stop him, “I’m not saying any of this to place blame, Steven. I told you before, I know what kind of man you are, and that meant that I know you would never do anything without thinking, just out of some sense of vengeance or vigilante justice.

  “I also want you to recognize that at least when it comes to your family, we know you were involved somehow. Hell, even Lucy made a comment about it in passing. I think you’ve always known that and I think you’ve always known that the time would come when you would have to talk to us about it, to Beth at least.

  “I don’t know when or how it is you are planning to talk to her, but I wanted you to know that Lucy and I will always take care of her and the kids, no matter what happens, no matter what you need to do.”

  Steven had just looked down at the table and allowed Tom to get what he needed to off his chest. He knew that his father-in-law did not know that he and Beth had already had a conversation, Beth would have let him know, but now he came to understand that the two of them, father and daughter, had spoken about it.

  He looked back up across the table and responded, “I do, Tom. Whatever else is true, I’ve always known that much.”

  Steven understood that his father-in-law didn’t mean financially. The Loomis family was certainly not wealthy by New York standards, but they were on the edge of being considered just that, even by those lofty measures. They had always been careful with their money. Neither he nor Beth had any student loans and even early on they had always done well with each house they had bought and sold. They had invested their money, whatever little there was early on – nobody got rich on a Navy salary – always with Tom’s advice.

  By the time he left the service with a full military pension, their money had grown substantially. Once he came on board at GIC, his entire pension had gone straight into their investment portfolio and, in spite of the ups and downs in the market, had grown to just over three million dollars over the 20 years since they’d begun investing.

  After paying the mortgage on their condo in SoHo, there was still more than two million dollars in their portfolio. All of that did not include a separate account, which Steven had opened after his second year at GIC. Beth had known he had opened the account. He’d told her that it was a ‘just in case’ account, something to have as a failsafe. Beth hadn’t asked ‘just in case of what exactly’ or ‘a failsafe for what’ but he knew she understood. That account, composed of his bonuses and GIC stock, was now also worth more than three million dollars and it would keep growing as long as it remained untouched.

  He’d been paid well at GIC, making in the low six figures at the beginning and getting up to over two million dollars last year. The children also had money put in trusts for them, trusts that had been established by their grandparents but which Steven and Beth had contributed into over the last five years. He now thought, with deep sadness, that Tracy’s money would be split and put into her siblings’ accounts.

  Whatever worry Steven had about his family’s welfare, it had never been about money and Tom knew that, so when he said Beth and the kids would be taken care he meant emotionally, he meant that both Bethany and Christ
opher would be watched over, educated, protected not only by their mother, but also by their grandparents.

  Tom gave him a brief smile and nodded, “Good. Now, whatever else you need to do, whatever you decide needs to be done, you’ll decide with a clear head and the comfort of knowing that your family will be okay.” He paused for a second, looked down at the chessboard and then back up and directly into Steven’s eyes, “No matter what comes next, I know you will make the right decision.”

  The man knew the life. He’d been there when Steven had come back from different difficult operations and had helped his daughter when Steven couldn’t do it. Steven returned the smile and put an end to the conversation, “Thank you, Tom, for everything. Not just for now, for this, but for everything you’ve done for us, both you and Lucy. For everything you’ve done for me, personally.”

  Tom just smiled again, gave him a quick nod and looked back down at the table, “Now, you better pay attention to what you’re doing because you’re about to lose your queen.”

  Steven went back to considering his next move; a plan was forming for him now. Fifteen minutes later the game was over, Tom having won it decidedly. It hadn’t been his next move in the chess game that Steven had gone back to considering.

  He’d walked a good three miles, coming down and around a small pond in the middle of the woods he’d been walking in, remembering both conversations and thinking about how much he’d needed to have both of them in order to decide anything. He was standing looking across the pond when something hit him square in the face, something he hadn’t thought about, but which should have been clear from the beginning. Now that he could think with some clarity, with some real perspective, it became clear immediately and it was something urgent enough that he pulled out his cell phone to make a call that he should have made days ago. He dialed the number for Robert Grady’s cell phone number.

  Grady was sitting in his office putting together a file on the Riche shooting. What he was really doing was trying to think about what his next move should be. He was only a few years away from retirement and he would try to keep his pension if he could, but he knew he would not compromise the case in any way and would completely own up to whatever his role had been in this mess if necessary.

  The investigation following the shooting had led nowhere, as he knew it would. Every agency involved had already contacted individuals of interest, including Loomis who had spoken to an NYPD detective on the phone and told her exactly what he had told Grady. The NYPD had tried to contact those at the ‘meeting,’ but all had been out of the country at the time, unreachable for the next few days. They’d been provided with a time-stamped video feed of that meeting, however, which had satisfied the investigators for now.

  As he was starting the new file, his cell phone rang. Whoever it was would have to wait. He picked it up just to see who was calling and immediately went to answer it, “Hello, Mr. Loomis.”

  On the other end of the line, Steven responded with no emotion, “Hello, Detective Grady. I don’t want to take up too much of your time, but it occurred to me that if you believe that I did the shooting, you and Mark Mullins might do something stupid and share our discussions and what happened at the warehouse with those involved in the investigation.”

  Grady, looking out the window and smiling, responded, “I never thought you’d do something as stupid as this.”

  Loomis was curious, “Something as stupid as what? Call you to make sure that you kept to our previous understanding?”

  Grady, now standing, responded, “No, call to plead your case to save your skin.”

  Now it was Loomis’s turn to smile, “To save my skin? Detective, I have already spoken to two detectives from the NYPD and you know damn well they’ve already contacted the company and verified everything I told them. You also know there is not a single shred of evidence to support this theory of yours and that the only way that I would come back into consideration would be if you and Mullins let the team investigating this know about our conversations and the warehouse, which, by the way, there is also no evidence I was involved with in any way. I went there because I was monitoring police scanners and wanted to confirm it was my daughter, period.

  “If you and Mullins talk, I might come back into consideration, but you and Mullins will certainly face repercussions and we both know that too.

  “This case has a political angle, detective. You and I know that if no arrests are made, your superiors will most certainly be looking for someone to place some blame on, anybody, in order to deflect bad press, and if you and Mark speak, it will be you they look to.”

  Grady, now sitting behind his desk, had in fact thought about all of it. He and Mullins had spoken a few times about it and come to the exact same conclusion.

  Still he wasn’t going to admit that to Loomis, “So I take it you’re calling me out of concern for us, Mullins and myself, is that it?”

  Loomis answered him immediately, “Believe it or not, Robert, I appreciated, still appreciate, how you and Mullins handled the case and our discussions. So yes, I would certainly not want you and Mullins to end what are certainly brilliant careers by talking about something that you did to help me out.”

  Grady bristled, “Hey, let’s get something straight. I did what I did because I wanted to catch this guy. I wanted to catch him and prosecute him. Don’t forget that.”

  Steven hung his head, “I know that, detective, I didn’t mean to imply otherwise, but let’s be real. You and I both know that you also did what you did because you are a dad and because you could understand what my family and I were going through.

  “Look, I don’t want to argue this point anymore. You know I have been straight with you and you know about my record in the military and at GIC. If I had something to do with the shooting, don’t you think that I would eventually own up to whatever it is that I did?”

  Grady perked up at the emphasis on the word eventually. He didn’t say anything because he thought Loomis had more to say, and he was right.

  Loomis continued, “I guess what I’m trying to say is that you followed your instincts about me, about my background and what I would do when my daughter went missing, so trust those instincts, they haven’t let you down before and they won’t let you down now. I think you already know that, too, because otherwise you would have said something immediately after the shooting happened, after you and I had our conversation.

  “You didn’t because, again, you followed your instincts and if you get nothing else out of this call, understand just that, that I’m calling to let you know that you should continue to do that, trust your instincts and not do something stupid.”

  There it was, like most of the conversations between the two men, everything of substance, the actual point, went left unsaid, but was completely clear to both men. Loomis was letting Grady know that when the time was right, he would take ownership of his role in the shooting, regardless of the consequences to himself. Now, talking to him and hearing him say all of this, Grady could better appreciate what Loomis had been dealing with. He made the decision to take out his daughter’s killer, but he probably hadn’t thought about it further than that right away. Hell, with everything that the man had gone through, Grady had been surprised he’d been as effective as he had been in planning what he had done. He probably hadn’t told his family that he’d be doing what he did, and once he pulled the trigger his first instinct had been to go to them and make sure they’d be alright once it all came down. Grady knew all of this because that’s exactly how he had imagined he might play it if he found himself in the same circumstances.

  As had been true throughout the case, Grady would, in fact, follow his instincts, “Alright, Steven, I’m not sure what it is that you have planned, but you’re right about one thing. It’d be a long shot that they’d bring you up on charges, even if Mark and I tell them everything we know about or suspect.

  “I am also absolutely buried in cases that took a back seat
while all of this went on, so Mark and I both agreed that we’d give it some thought and decide once things settled down.”

  On his end Loomis also got the unspoken message ‘We decided to wait to see what you were planning on doing,’ but he simply responded to what Grady actually said, “I think that was a good idea. I can imagine how busy the two of you are, and the last thing you need is to go chasing ghosts, especially when you know that eventually they will probably come to you. Goodbye, Robert, I’m sure we’ll speak again.”

  This time Grady wasn’t snide when he said his goodbye, “See you later, Loomis. Good luck to you.”

  After they hung up, Grady pulled out his Maker’s Mark and poured himself a drink, even though he’d just finished his breakfast coffee. He was sure that they’d speak again, he just didn’t know how long it would be before they did, but he definitely felt better about the wait. He picked up the phone, called Mark Mullins and let him off the hook as well. Their careers would not come to a sudden end after all.

  Steven hung up on his end and let out a big breath. He had no intention of allowing Grady or Mullins to end their careers in order to bring him in. If he had read Grady correctly over the course of the case, which he felt he had, the man had gotten the message and would hold tight. Grady was an excellent detective and Steven knew one couldn’t become that without the ability to assess a situation and decide when it was prudent to just stay put. It was something that he himself had been trained to do and to which he’d adhered his entire life. Until now. Until this.

  He was making his way back up to the house, up a trail on the opposite side of the mostly frozen pond. The sun was now in full morning glory, lighting up what was looking like a clear, gorgeous day. There were now more morning joggers and people walking their dogs, all of them nodding wordlessly as they ran or walked past him. His plan was now on more firm footing. He had made certain his family was covered and had also made sure that those that had helped him along the way, the General, Grady and Mullins, all of them, were also taken care of. Now he just needed to figure out his next tactical move. He knew what his overall objective was, he just didn’t know how to best accomplish it.