Justifiable Homicide: A Political Thriller (Robert Paige Thrillers Book 1)

by Robert W. McGee

  Jules was startled to see them. He had no idea why they boarded the boat. Maybe a robbery. Maybe a hijacking.

  Tomás jammed the pistol into his stomach. “Get below deck. Now!”

  Without a word, Jules turned and headed for the stairs to the lower deck. Tomás and Santos followed. When Jules’s right foot made contact with the floor of the lower deck, Tomás pointed the gun at the back of his head and fired twice. Jules fell forward, hitting the deck with his face.

  Leah heard the noise and turned around to see two men, both holding guns, and her husband, face down with blood oozing from the back of his head. She was too terrified to scream. She just stood there, frozen.

  Tomás turned toward her. “Shut up and we won’t hurt you.”

  Santos took out his Sig Sauer P250 and pumped all 18 rounds into the floor. He had it fitted with a suppressor, and it was below deck, so no one in the dock area could hear the shots as they ripped through the floor of the boat. The 9mm rounds made nice holes, but it would take some time before the boat sank.

  They turned around, went up the stairs and exited from the rear of the boat. Before setting foot on the dock they unfastened the remaining ropes. When their feet hit the dock, they turned around. Each placed a foot on the back of the boat and shoved it out of the dock space, causing it to go adrift. His wife would be powerless to prevent the boat from sinking, but they wouldn’t drown. They all had on their life jackets. But it would make the forensic team’s job more difficult.

  98

  “An oppressed people are authorized whenever they can to rise and break their fetters.”

  Henry Clay

  “For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security.”

  Thomas Jefferson

  Assassinating a judge is a big deal and that’s exactly how the media and police treated it. The FBI got called in, and the headquarters in Washington pulled out all the stops to provide resources. No one thought to challenge the FBI’s authority, although the killing did not involve interstate commerce and although there was nothing in the Constitution that authorized the federal government to have a police force or conduct any police functions. Everyone just assumed the FBI was operating with Constitutional authority.

  Conspiracy theories ran wild, since the hit took place within a few miles and a few days of the assassinations of three members of Congress, a senior official of the Federal Reserve Bank and a real estate magnate and his attorney. These hits were professional, unlike the usual gun related killings, which involved either drug gangs or domestic disputes.

  The gun grabbers were calling for the confiscation of guns and the repeal of the Second Amendment. Thousands of people responded by going to gun shops and buying tens of thousands of weapons before they were outlawed.

  The problem the police and FBI faced was that they didn’t know who did it or why they did it. An examination of the remains of the hollow points and the shell casings might eventually determine that the same weapon was used to kill Daniel Frumpton and Jerry Goldstein, but that would take a while. Tying the three of them together would be more difficult, and would be speculative unless more clues were forthcoming.

  The Sons of Liberty were about to give them more clues … but not yet.

  99

  Keith Ross

  Keith Ross didn’t fit the mold of the usual Miami-Dade County politician. It was generally conceded that you had to be either Jewish or Cuban to win any elective office. If you weren’t in either of those categories, you at least had to have a Hispanic sounding name. He didn’t have any of that. Although his mother was half Jewish, his father was Episcopalian, and so was he.

  In spite of those defects in his family tree, he managed to become the city manager of Aventura, which was a hop, skip and a jump from the Broward County line. Perhaps the fact that only 21 percent of the Aventura population was Hispanic helped.

  He was somewhat concerned about the welfare of his constituents, and whenever anyone complained about something he tried to pacify them and fix the problem. But he was even more concerned about keeping his job. He liked the prestige, the power and visibility that came with running a small suburb, and the extra income opportunities.

  One of those income opportunities was the ability to tap real estate developers who needed approval to build in Aventura. A secondary source of income came from approving zoning board variances.

  Not all of the income was in the form of cash. Sometimes he received a room full of furniture or a vacation package. He had had so many cruises to the Caribbean that he started refusing free cruise offers two years ago.

  He didn’t know that the job had health risks … like concentrated doses of lead shot into the brain.

  100

  Saturday afternoon. Santos and Tomás were having a good day. After taking care of Jules Rapaport, they got some breakfast, took a break, and listened to the radio for news reports of their morning activity. All the news stations were carrying the assassination of Judge Rapaport and they all said pretty much the same thing. The judge was shot and killed. Nobody knew why. There was speculation that it might have been a disgruntled defendant from one of the cases he tried. The boat sank. The wife and kids were able to get off the boat safely.

  Jules had a $2 million insurance policy on his life but his family wouldn’t be collecting anything. He was 12 days late in his premium payment, which was 2 days beyond the 10-day grace period. The insurance company refused to pay. The family spent $30,000 to sue the insurance company but lost. Justice was done. They had their day in court.

  The descriptions of the assailants were conflicting. People at the scene gave different descriptions of the two men seen leaving the boat. Either they wore black tee shirts or white tee shirts. Their caps were either black or blue. Their physical descriptions differed. One of the guys who left the boat was of average size and build. The other was either muscular or fat, depending on who was being interviewed. Santos chuckled when he heard the conflicting descriptions of him. So did Tomás, who accused Santos of being fat. One witness said he thought he saw three men leave the boat.

  The police and the courts know how poor eye witness testimony can be. They placed the most trust in his wife’s description, since she saw them up close and had some contact with them for the longest period of time. She said they appeared to be Hispanic. One of them was large. She remembered their tee shirts and caps were dark.

  Santos and Tomás had one more job to do before they could go home. Keith Ross was scheduled to make an appearance and give a short speech at a public employee picnic to be held at one of the parks in Aventura. They knew where the park was, but they didn’t know when he would arrive or when he would give the speech.

  It was certain that there would be police present. Police were assigned to the park even when there weren’t any official activities scheduled. The police presence that afternoon might be heavier than usual, since a group of about 100 public employees had reserved space. Tomás and Santos decided that whacking him at the park would be a bad idea. However, they needed to be at the park so they could know when he arrived and when he left.

  They brought along a bag of sandwiches and soft drinks and decided to camp out at one of the picnic tables about 100 feet from where the public employee picnic would take place. They would just wait, observe and read a book to pass the time. Santos started reading Erne Lewis’s An Act of Self-Defense. Tomás was halfway through Barry Eisler’s Requiem for an Assassin. He also took along a copy of Meira Pentermann’s Nine-Tenths, in case he finished the Eisler book before Keith Ross was ready to leave.

  The plan was to follow Ross to his car after he finished his speech, then follow him out of the park and shoot him somewhere between the park and his next destination, wherever it was convenient.

  They had changed out of their black tee shirts and dark blue caps and into brightly colored shirts with buttons. Santos wore a white cap. Tomás wore a green, orange and white Miami
Dolphins cap. Both wore sun glasses. They looked like they could have been on vacation.

  Ross arrived shortly before 12:30 in his own car. No chauffeur. He wasn’t high enough on the food chain for that. Besides, he wanted to appear to be a man of the people. Men of the people don’t have chauffeurs.

  He made the rounds, shaking hands and engaging in small talk with a few of the people. Then he started his speech. Blah, blah, blah. He recited the kinds of things that public employees picnicking with their families wanted to hear. They were doing a good job in tough times. They were appreciated. It was a nice, sunny day in Florida. He kept it short. He knew they really weren’t interested in what he had to say. They just wanted to eat their hot dogs and hamburgers and get back to what they were doing before he interrupted them. He was just as anxious to leave as they were to see him leave.

  After the speech, he shook a few more hands, chatted a bit and started moving toward his car. Santos and Tomás closed their books, picked up their bags of sandwiches and soft drinks, and started walking toward their stolen car, which was parked about 30 feet from Ross’s car.

  Santos got behind the wheel. Tomás got in on the passenger side. They waited for Ross to pull out. Then they pulled out and followed him, keeping a reasonable distance behind him.

  Ross exited the park, turned right and headed toward Biscayne Boulevard, one of the main streets in Aventura. It would be packed with traffic on a Saturday afternoon.

  Santos turned toward Tomás. “Let’s get him before he gets to Biscayne Boulevard.”

  “OK. Let’s wait until these two cars pass. Then pull up next to him.” Tomás was referring to the two cars coming toward them from about a hundred feet away. The street was a typical suburban street with one lane going in each direction and houses on both sides of the street.

  After the second car passed, Santos zipped into the left lane and pulled up alongside Ross. The sudden movement on a quiet suburban street caught Ross’s attention. Cars don’t just accelerate and pull up next to you on suburban streets. Ross turned his head to the left and saw Tomás pointing a gun at him. He panicked and slammed on the gas pedal, causing his car to accelerate just enough that Tomás’s first shot missed him. The .22 caliber hollow point shattered the window behind him, missing his head by a half a foot.

  “Shit!” Had Tomás squeezed the trigger an instant sooner he would have been successful. If he had used the AA12 shotgun with the Frag 12 rounds he would have been successful, but they decided not to use that weapon because of the noise.

  Ross’s car was now well ahead of them, at least five car lengths and gaining distance. It would be difficult to catch up to him. They decided not to try.

  Tomás turned to look at Santos and shrugged his shoulders. “Better luck next time.”

  The fact that they weren’t able to kill him didn’t really matter. They had more or less accomplished their mission by sending a clear message that people who abuse the eminent domain laws would no longer be safe. They would have to call Wellington to tell him they had failed.

  Tomás took out his cell phone and called Wellington while Santos continued driving. They needed to get out of the neighborhood. It would probably be a few minutes before Ross would feel comfortable picking up his cell phone to call the police, but it was best to get out of the neighborhood as soon as possible.

  When they got to Biscayne Boulevard they turned north. In a few minutes they would be in Broward County, and presumably safe. If Ross called the police, it would likely be the Aventura police. The Broward County police might not be notified at all, or if they were, it probably wouldn’t be until long after Santos and Tomás had blended in with the Saturday traffic in Broward County.

  “Hello, John?”

  “Hi, Tomás. How ya doin’? Have any good news to report?”

  “We weren’t able to get him. He got away.”

  “Ah, that’s too bad.” From the sound of his voice, he seemed a little disappointed but not mad.

  “We were able to squeeze off a shot but he accelerated and we missed.”

  “So he knows he was being targeted?”

  “Oh yeah, he knows, alright.”

  “Well, that’s good. He got the message, although he doesn’t know what the message is. I’ll send out the announcement so the whole world will know. Good job, guys. You had a good day.”

  Santos and Tomás were glad it was over. Assassinating people was always a risk. Although the odds were in their favor, there was always a chance that they would get caught, or even killed. Luck had been with them that day. But no one’s luck lasts forever.

  101

  Wellington had to edit his prewritten broadcast announcement. The original version he had prepared explained why Frumpton, Goldman, Rapaport and Ross had been executed. He would have to amend the statement slightly, since Ross was able to get away. Not a big deal. The message would be transmitted, and it would be basically the same message whether Ross were killed or not – that those who abuse the eminent domain laws would be dealt with severely.

  One concern he had was how the Boss would take the news. In substance, they had accomplished their mission even though Keith Ross was still alive. The message they wanted to send to those who abuse the eminent domain laws would be received loud and clear regardless of whether the body count were 1 or 100. But the Boss was a perfectionist. If four people were to be executed, then four people should be executed.

  Wellington made the edits and sent it out to all the radio and television stations in the Miami area as well as to various websites, both right-wing and left-wing, as well as a few blog spots. He wanted to make sure the message would not be suppressed. In fact, it would go viral, just like the earlier messages had.

  Greetings from the Sons of Liberty. We would like to end the speculation surrounding the deaths of Daniel Frumpton, Jerry Goldman, and Jules Rapaport and the attempted killing of Keith Ross. We have determined that they are all termites who are eating away at the structure of American society. They and their ilk must be stopped. We are taking it upon ourselves to stop them. It is the patriotic thing to do.

  The one thing they all have in common is their abuse of the eminent domain laws. These laws, which need to be repealed, allow individuals to abuse the Constitution by using the force of government to confiscate private property from the rightful owners and transfer it to people who are little more than thieves.

  Daniel Frumpton was the worst abuser. He was the one who initiated the takings. Jerry Goldman was his attorney who handled the transactions. Jules Rapaport was the judge who put the stamp of approval on these thefts. Keith Ross was the local city official who supported their actions when he should have stood in their way. Keith, we are not done with you. Your day will come, at the time and place of our choosing.

  Let this be a warning to anyone who uses the eminent domain laws to violate the property rights of the citizenry. We will get you. However, we will offer a reprieve to those who have abused the eminent domain laws in the past three years if they repent and compensate their victims. Those offenders who want to be crossed off our list must make a public apology and must fully and publicly compensate their victims for the full extent of their losses.

  SONS OF LIBERTY

  ***

  Nothing changes until there’s a body count.

  Within 24 hours after Wellington sent out the broadcast message, two Miami area real estate developers went on television to offer a public apology for their past actions and promised to compensate their victims within 30 days. The Dade County Real Estate Board held an emergency meeting and amended its Code of Ethics to list the use of the eminent domain laws as an unethical practice. Violators would be punished by the loss of their real estate license. The measure passed by a unanimous vote. The state legislature in Tallahassee planned to hold a special session to debate whether the eminent domain provision in the Florida Constitution should be repealed and made illegal in spite of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling approving the practice. J
ohn Desir, the president of the Haitian-American Bank, announced that his bank would no longer make loans to finance projects that involved the eminent domain laws. He also announced that he would make a motion at the next meeting of the Florida Bankers Association to list the financing of eminent domain projects as an unethical practice. Keith Ross went into hiding immediately after giving his statement to the police.

  102

  Sarah walked in the side door, carrying two bags. “John, I just finished picking up the food for the barbecue. I think I bought too much. Why don’t you invite Bob and Sveta? They can help us eat it.”

  Now that Debbie, Frumpton and the others were out of the way it was time to take a short break before focusing on Steinman and his group. Sarah didn’t know John and his crew were taking a break. She just thought John wanted to have a barbecue.

  “OK, I’ll give him a call. If he’s like most accounting professors, he probably planned on spending his Sunday reading financial statements just for fun.”

  He thought about it and decided it probably would be a good idea to invite him. He could use the opportunity to introduce him to the other team members who would also be there. He perceived that Paige wasn’t fully committed to the Steinman project and that a little bonding with the other team members might serve to get him in line with the program.

  ***

  Paige’s phone rang. He was having lunch with Sveta at Denny’s on Collins Avenue in Sunny Isles Beach. Paige liked Denny’s because the food was decent and fairly cheap.