Buffalo Heat

by N Kuhn

  “See you tomorrow.” Yea, not if I can help it. I plan to follow him to wherever Paulie is taking him. I just need to find a car he won’t recognize.

  ********************************************************

  Waking up, I rush around, tossing on black jeans, a black sweater and my knee high winter boots. It looks like a dreary cold day. I’m going to use my real vehicle. The one registered to one Candace Banchetti. It’s a ten year old blue Chevy Cavalier. He doesn’t know about it, so I may be able to tail him to wherever they are going. I rush out of the house, walking the eight blocks to the storage facility that it’s in. My first stop, the costume store. I grab a blonde wig, and toss on my large sunglasses. I slide a four inch Ruko into my boot. This wonderful knife has holes that I can slide my fingers into, making the knife like brass knuckles if need be. Sliding behind the wheel, I head back towards home. Parking in the street, I play around with my phone, trying to not bring any attention to myself. After about thirty minutes, Paulie’s town car moves in behind me and Dominic comes out. He looks at me, then away quickly. Hopefully he doesn’t realize who I am. I’m pretty sure the blonde hair is a great disguise. It’s such a drastic change from how I normally look.

  As I follow them through Buffalo, Paulie heads towards Cheektowaga, where there are a lot of empty warehouses and factories. He pulls down behind the railroad tracks and I pull over to watch. His car disappears behind a crumbling building. Getting out of my car, I walk towards the building, trying to stay out of sight. As I round a corner, I duck behind a dumpster. The men are walking to a door that looks too new to be a part of this old building. It doesn’t fit. Pulling my phone out, I take photos. I try to not get Geek Boy in any of them. The last thing I need is to drag him any further into this case. I slide my hand down my side, checking for my gun. I know it’s there, the weight of it is comforting. Once the guys are inside, I slink around towards the side of their building. Scanning the building, I see a rickety fire escape and wonder if it will hold me without crumbling. There doesn’t seem to be any other entrances I can get to that won’t lead me right to the guys.

  Putting a foot on the rusty stairs, I take a tentative step up. It holds me, but the metal groans underneath my feet. Slowly, I creep up towards the second floor. Ducking out of sight, I try to peek into the window. It’s filmy and grimy from years of dirt settling onto the glass. I don’t see anyone moving beyond the window though. Pushing up on the pane, it budges slightly enough that I can get my fingers underneath. The window screeches as I push it up. Pausing, I listen for any sounds, but there are none. Getting the window all the way up, I stretch my legs into the opening, testing the floor. These old buildings have been a problem for a while. No one knows what to do with them. They are falling apart and hazardous. I seem to be in an empty office. There’s an old metal desk, nothing else. The door to my left is wide open, showing a hallway, the one to the right is closed. I slip over to the right, putting my ear against the wood. My nose tickles at the disturbed dust. I cover it with my hand, trying to quell the sneeze growing. There’s shuffling on the other side of the door, but no voices. I pull my gun out, ready to shoot if necessary.

  I fling the door open, waving my gun back and forth scanning the room. It’s a little bigger than a closet and on the floor, trussed up like a pig, is a bloody, gagged Hanson.

  “Holy shit, Hanson, are you okay? Damn it, give me a second.” Slipping the Ruko from my boot, I cut through the ropes, freeing his arms and legs. He grabs at the gag, but fumbles, his fingers not working properly. He has lost a lot of blood, his skin is almost alabaster, pasty white.

  “Are you alright? Where are you hurt?” He mumbles, trying to form some words. The room smells like piss, his pants are covered in it, and blood is everywhere. Covering his skin, his shirtless chest. But, being the rough tough cop he is, he pushes me away when I try to help him stand. He stumbles a bit, then gets it. Leaning back against the wall, he closes his eyes. There’s a bullet hole in his leg that looks infected.

  “Here, let me help you get out of here, then I need to get back. I have to pull Dom out. Paulie tried wrangling your Geek Boyfriend into playing hacker for him. You should have never told him about this case, you realize that right? Not only could you have died if I didn’t find you, but now you need to worry that Dom is gonna get hurt.”

  Trying to lead Hanson from the room, he stops, shrugging my grasp off of him.

  “Candy, I’m sorry. I tried to get away, tried to protect you.”

  “What? It’s not your fault Paulie took you and I’m sure you didn’t expect Geek Boy to go all Commando on this shit. But seriously, the man carved a hole into the wall of my closet and now has all these toys, like devices and shit.”

  “Candy, stop, you need to listen to me.” He holds his hand up and I see now why he couldn’t pull the gag out of his own mouth. His fingers nails have all been ripped out, and at least three fingers on each hand have been smashed. “Candy, I’m sorry. You need to run, hide, leave town. Please. He knows. Or he’s going to know, I’m not sure yet. Tell Dominic, you’re blown. He needs t-” Hanson doesn’t even need to explain it. He told Paulie. I can’t even fault him. If they had tortured me that bad, I would most likely have done the same. As I stand there, my heart racing, trying to figure out what to do, the door to the hallway flies open and Rico, Paulie’s right hand man comes in. He looks from me to Hanson, then smiles.

  “Damn, two for one, boss is gonna be happy about this.” Without warning, he aims, sending a bullet into Hanson’s head. His body sags, then drops into a heap at my feet.

  “Come on Candy,” Rico sneers at me. “Paulie will want to see you.” With his gun pointed at my head, I have no choice but to follow. He shoves me out the door into the dingy hallway.

  “The stairs, head on down. Mm, maybe Paulie will let me have some fun with you first, since I’m the one that found you.” I shudder, feeling disgusting just from his leer. Turning forward, I slowly head down the hall to the dark stair well. Feeling along the wall so I don’t trip, I make my way slowly. Rico shoves his gun in my back, pushing me to move faster. We emerge into a brightened room, full of computers. Dominic is at the center, typing frantically away. Dominic looks up. So does Jack. Paulie’s other Meathead

  “Who the hell is this Rico?” He stomps towards us, stopping when he realizes it’s me. Guess the wig didn’t make me that unrecognizable.

  Silently I glare at him. If only looks could kill.

  “She was trying to set him free, and well,” Rico stutters, trying to explain why he shot their captive.

  “Don’t worry Ric, he had outlived his worth anyways. We got what we wanted. Paulie ran out to the store, but he’s going to be so happy you stopped by.” Jack says, moving closer. Geek Boy looks up, his eyes wide. I shake my head, casting my gaze to the floor.

  Rico grabs me by the hair and the wig slips off. Using the momentum, I twist my body, kicking into his ribs. The cracking sound that comes from my foot breaking bones has got to be painful. Kneeling, I pull the knife out of my boot. As I stand back up, Jack is racing towards me.

  “Dom, get out of here, run,” I scream. I arch my arm upwards, slicing into Jack’s face. He takes a step back, holding his face, blood gushes between his fingers. To my astonishment, Dom jumps from the computer and runs towards us. Before Jack can get to me again, Dom’s arms are wrapped around his throat. Jack’s hands flail around as he tries to loosen Dom’s grip. His face turns red, more so than the blood from his wound. Rico moans and moves around on the floor. I stomp on his chest, listening to him scream out in pain. Jack’s legs start kicking as he thrusts his body about. Dom seems to tighten his grip, his biceps bulging, and the sleeves on his shirt ripping. Within a few minutes, he’s out cold and Dom drops him into a heap on the floor.

  “Sorry Candace, but I couldn’t let him hurt you.”

  “Where the hell did you learn how to do that?” I ask him dumbfounded.

  “Um, movies. Come on, it’s lik
e, a staple in all action movies.”

  Yeah, right. Turning from him, I try to squash the anger boiling in my stomach. I need to get out of here and fast. This is not going to look good.

  “Give me your cell phone.” He digs it out of his pocket. I dial the station.

  “Oh my god, I was like, out walking my dog, and I heard all these gun shots.” I quickly rattle off the address.

  “Dom, you need to wipe your prints off of all those keyboards. Now,” I scream at him. He jumps into action, tearing his shirt the rest of the way off. Peeling my eyes from his hard muscled body, I turn to Rico. One last kick to his head and he passes out cold. Wrapping his gun in my shirt, I shoot at the computers and Jack. Dominic looks up at me, a scowl on his face.

  “Really?”

  “Sorry, covering our asses. Let’s go,” I tug on his arm until he’s running behind me. Back up the stairs and out the window on the second floor, I step out onto the fire escape again.

  “Is this thing even safe? Will it hold us?” Dominic asks.

  “It held me, I don’t know about your big ass.” Looking over my shoulder, I see him smirking as he shoves his glasses back up his nose. His hair messy from the struggle, falling over his eyes, and this is so not the time to be thinking of fucking him. Landing on the pavement, I look over my shoulder as I take off running. Dominic is right behind me.

  “Shit, we can’t’ take your car, they know it,” he screams at me.

  “Stop, I have my real car, no one knows it.” He stops, turning back my way. He follows me to the other side of the building.

  “That’s what you drive? How suitable.” He stares at me as I throw open the driver’s side door.

  “Don’t knock it. It’s all I could afford then. I’m a cop, remember?”

  “What the hell are we going to do?” his voice sounds stern, almost upset.

  “They will probably pull me out of this case now that Hanson is dead. I’m fucked, the whole case just went down the drain. My cover is blown.”

  The drive back to our building is quiet. Neither of us speaking. I have blood on my arms, Dominic is looking a little white.

  “Hey, I really think you need to go pack a bag, grab your guns and personal shit and meet me in my apartment.”

  “No, it’s alright. I’ll be fine. Paulie won’t know I was there, I’m safe.”

  “Hanson gave you up. I heard Rico talking about it. Paulie knows. You need to go lie low until they can capture him. I’m pretty sure even without the bust, they have enough to pull him in on.”

  “No, that recording you got isn’t enough. It just asks you to do some computer work.”

  “But I had it today too,” he grins at me, his eyes shining with boyish delight. He got the whole fight, everything on recording. This is great, but it still doesn’t make Paulie guilty.

  “I know that look, we’ll get him. He was there for a little while. This thing picks up shit you don’t hear.”

  “So, I’m gonna pack some stuff and I’ll meet you at your place. We’ll grab your laptop and both of us will head to a hotel for the night. Okay? Both of us. I can’t let you get hurt or die because I got you roped into my case. You’re just a civilian.”

  “I’m a big boy Candy, you don’t have to take care of me.”

  “Ok Geek Boy, if you say so.” I remember how he took down Jack. He may be right. He can handle himself hand to hand, but when Paulie gets involved, there will be guns and bullets and even with his muscles, he isn’t bulletproof. No one is.

  We part ways at our doors, Geek Boy scowling at me. I wonder if I hurt his feelings saying that he couldn’t take care of himself. Now is certainly not the time to worry about petty things like that. I’m more worried about getting him out of this alive. I rush to my closet, digging the piece of wall out, letting the plaster fall to the floor. I no longer need to worry about concealing it. I just need to get out of here with my life. My personal items get shoved into a duffle bag along with some jeans and shirts. Screw my bath items. I’ll buy more. Time is of the essence right now. I dig through my drawers, trying to find my .22 and stack of cash. I’m going to need it. Thankfully I’ve been saving all of those tips and the pay from the club. I have a few grand here and more in the bank under my real name. I’ve been secretly stashing it away. But, if Hanson gave me up, Paulie will have my real name. Shit, this is about to get messy. I don’t even know who to contact at the precinct anymore. Hanson said there were some dirty cops involved. Who can I even trust? Someone had to have given up Hanson. That’s the only way anyone would know he was handling the UC on this case. I’m going to find out who and I’m going to take them down.

  Chapter 6

  My laptop, the recording device, guns, clothes, money. Jefferson had a car left out front for us to use. I filled him in quickly when I got home on what happened. He’s going to take over the scene at the warehouse and make sure the report is done clearly regarding the UC case. Candace should be safe for now, but Hanson’s theory that there are some dirty cops in his precinct is dead on. If there weren’t, then no one would have known he was her handler. He would still be alive. This is going to hell quickly, like I figured it would. If I hadn’t been there, she’d be dead too. Though that kick to the ribs on Rico did some major damage. Sure, she can take care of herself one on one. But with Jack in there, she would have been killed or worse, handed over to Paulie and that’s a death sentence.

  Slamming doors pull my attention away from my bag. I had left the lights off in my place, so that no one knew I was here. Jefferson was going to put out a report of four people involved in the warehouse shooting. Once he realizes Candace is alive, it will hopefully help me. He’ll think I’m dead, which means he won’t be looking for me. Peering out the window, I can tell Candace has her lights on. They brighten up the wall between our places. Shit. My gaze drifts down to the parking lot and I see Paulie with Meathead 1 and 2 storming towards the building. Damn it. Moving quickly, I throw myself into my closet.

  “Candace, get your ass over here now,” I say, trying not to yell. She startles, dropping her bag on the floor. “Give me that bag and get over here. Paulie is here.”

  “What the hell? That was quick. Shit, I left my Ruko in the kitchen.”

  “Forget it, I’ll buy you a new one.”

  “No, that was a gift from Hanson. I’m not leaving it. Here, take my shit. I’ll be back.” Without waiting for my reply, she throws her bag towards my outstretched arms and runs.

  I pull her duffle through, throwing it carelessly behind me. Sticking my head back through, I search for her. Her boots make very little noise, which could be a good thing, but right now it’s bad. I can’t tell if she’s coming back yet or not. Suddenly her footsteps come pounding down the hallways. I lean back into my room as she throws herself into the hole. I pull on her tiny body, dragging her the rest of the way inside just as the front door to her apartment explodes. The floor shakes as it vibrates through the building. I grab the handles on the cut out and slide it back into place. A quick search through her place won’t show it, but if they look closer, they will. Gathering the bags, I help her to her feet.

  “Thanks, that was too close.”

  “We have to go, come on.” Sliding my window up, I climb out to the fire escape. At least this one is sturdier than the one at the warehouse. I hold out a hand to help her, but she ignores me. I hoist both our bags onto my shoulders and follow her down to the parking lot.

  When we get to the ground, I bend my arm, trying to push her against the wall. But being the good cop she is, she’s already there. I look around, no one seems out of place, except us. There’s shouting, gun shots and a loud explosion from above us. Running, we dash around the building to the front. The black Lincoln town car is right there waiting for us. I duck down, pulling the keys from under the tire well.

  “This yours? Why not take your roller-skate?” Funny how she can have a sense of humor at a time like this.

  “Would you prefer to walk? Maybe
Paulie can catch up to you quicker.” She glares at me as I pull away from the curb. I press the gas pedal hard, flying through the city. As downtown Buffalo flies by us, I glance over at Candace. Her usually tan skin is pale, she’s shaking. Pulling over to the side of the expressway, I lay a hand on her shoulder. She jumps in her seat.

  “Jesus Christ. You scared the shit out of me. Why are we stopped?”

  “Are you doing okay?”

  “Yea, I’m fine. Where are we going? Let’s go. I need a shower.” I notice her picking at the blood on her shirt. “What’s with you? You’re acting very strange Dominic. You’re not your usual Geeky-ness. It’s like you’re someone else.” Shit.

  “No, I’ve just seen a lot of movies and played a lot of games. Plus, you’re the only hot girl that’s ever been into me. So I’d prefer you stay alive. Hanson was my friend too you know? If he’s dead, I feel partially responsible. I feel like I could have done something to stop them from taking him.”

  “Geek Boy, they had guns. You would have been outnumbered and dead. It’s not your fault and there’s nothing you could have done. Come on, we need to get somewhere for the night and then we can talk. Drive.”

  “As you wish.”

  “Geek.”

  “Hey, The Princess Bride is a masterwork of art. Don’t be blasphemous.” At this she bursts out laughing. That’s a good sign. At least she’s not going into shock or anything.