Hard Case: Boxed Set Books 1,2 & 3 (John Harding Books)

by Bernard Lee DeLeo

  “Duly noted. You guys need a distraction. I’m it. Pick your spots and I’ll go down on the pier. There’s no backup. Cleanup will be hanging around but I can tell Denny doesn’t want them involved. Weapons free.”

  “Okay Champ, go play decoy,” Casey ordered as he and Lucas headed in two different directions. “Say the word if you want to go preemptive on their asses.”

  A muffled roar in the distance announced the Amtrak train heading our way. “I hear that train a comin’. It’s rollin’ round the bend.” My Johnny Cash gets a few laughs as Lucas and Casey jog away. I hustled down onto the pier and positioned myself to look like a security guard. With hands and M-10 clasped against my back I stood at parade rest in front of Scott’s restaurant. I was hoping our new arrivals would think I was assigned there by the restaurant. Boy, was I wrong, proving this decoy business is an inexact science.

  The Amtrak train thundered down Broadway in front of Jack London Square with whistle blaring. A sleek speed boat in the thirty-five foot range raced into sight with four guys on deck. The driver slid that baby up smooth as silk along the pier while the occupants opened up on me. The first burst pinged into the perforated decking while another burst nicked my arm and stitched across my chest. I went with the force as I gasped and fought the familiar blackout. Seconds later, everyone on the speedboat was either rolling around in a pool of blood or not moving at all. I sucked air, got my numb feet moving, and dived onto the boat before it could drift off. Still sputtering like a three pack a day Lucky Striker with lung cancer I secured the boat as it drifted away from the pier. Casey and Lucas being Casey and Lucas I only found the driver still feebly breathing. His brethren leaked blood, brain, and tissue matter in various postures of death. I grinned in appreciation as I flipped the driver over. They’d clipped him in both shoulders and knees. Man, I love working with pros.

  The pros from Dover showed up on the pier a moment later, keeping the hatch to the lower deck of the speeder in their sights until I eased the boat back alongside the pier. They jumped aboard and I headed out into the wide open ocean at a leisurely pace while Lucas threw a flash bang into the compartment below deck. We were rewarded with a scream of agony. It took only moments to bring the only other member of the crew up on deck. He cried real tears, screamed whenever a significant pain reached his brain, and eventually whipped his head around searching our faces for… I don’t know… maybe compassion. Yeah, he came up a little short.

  “So, Princess… how’s it hangin’,” Lucas asked him.

  Our passenger went into immediate Punjabi which I understood. I cut him off at the outrage track. I answered the prick in the language spoken “Hey, we’re not playing that here. I know you speak English. Quit pretending and start talking. You will not live beyond our voyage. Who sent you and who do you work for?”

  “Why then should I speak? You will kill me anyway.”

  I grabbed him up by the throat because I really didn’t care one way or another what he said. We had another live one with holes Lucas was busily patching up. “Who said anything about killing you? Casey here is a friend of mine with special skills. He and I play a game called Simon Says every so often when we get a nitwit like you to question. Casey… show our buddy here how the game works.”

  Casey chuckled in that diabolical way only he can do. “Simon says break our good buddy’s left ring finger.”

  Quick as a flash I gripped and busted tough guy’s left ring finger, shards of bone sticking out. He passed out after the initial scream of agony. We woke him up by dipping him upside down into the ocean. After a few surface dives he came up spluttering and gagging, trying to reach his injured finger. I threw him down on the deck so he could catch his breath and have better luck breathing.

  “Well, Flash, tell us something that will persuade my friend not to start playing our special game. Make it real good, because your buddy over there with the bullet holes looks anxious to please. I think your initial Simon Says performance has him considering his options more carefully. We already know you wished to take Samira Karim. I want the names of your cell and all who helped you in this pursuit.”

  His face a mask of pain while holding his damaged hand, he nodded silently when looking up into Casey’s smiling face. “I will give you all I know.”

  “That’s what I wanted to hear.”

  ***

  Denny picked up on the first ring. “I heard you got dinged.”

  “The rest went smoothly and I’m only missing a piece of skin. Lucas is busily sewing me up as we speak. He said he gets an extra five hundred for being fill-in medic because he has training. Did you get the file?”

  “We’re already moving on it. We’ll let the suits pick up the rest, John. Tell Lucas I said bite me. Any problems with cleanup?”

  “We had a burial at sea. Your crew took charge of the boat when we reached shore.”

  “So I heard. Reddig doesn’t need any visitors. I couldn’t shut him up. Are you guys still at the Square?”

  “Yep. Thanks for leaving our van. Otherwise, Lucas would have slapped iron to my wound and told me to man up. We didn’t know if you’d need help with Benny boy. Want me to tell the guys to go home?”

  “Yes. I’ll tie up loose ends. Jafar’s at your house. Your crew has been paid, my treat. Ms. Connagher went home. We have her under surveillance until everyone on our list is dead or in custody. She left word not to contact her. Leave the van when you get finished. I’ll have it picked up within the hour. Samira would like to try again on an outing day after tomorrow. It should be much less exciting.”

  Small doubt about that. I wonder if Tess meant for now or forever. “See you then, Denny.”

  “Don’t you want to know what’s happened to Reddig?”

  “Nope.

  Denny laughed and hung up. Lucas applied a topical bandage to finish off his patch job on my arm. “We’re good to go home. Denny didn’t need any help with Reddig. Did you guys have a ride here or should I call for one?”

  “I have my new GMC Terrain in the parking lot.” Casey watched Lucas finish with professional interest. “I don’t think you made the stitches tight enough. John’s goin’ to have a scar.”

  Lucas laughed with us. “You wait until I need to sew you up, Case. You’ll wish you had Captain Ahab doing the honors with a harpoon. Want us to drop you somewhere, John?”

  “Drop me off at the Warehouse Bar if you guys have time. I think a small celebration is in order. Want to join me?”

  “Me and Lucas are already in the doghouse over our ruptured dinner plans. We have to go make things right.”

  “Rain-check then anytime you want. Maybe we can down a few together at a port-a-call over in Somalia when Denny sends us over there with our new boat to wipe out the pirates.”

  Lucas jumped up with his hands in the air with Casey laughing like hell. “Damn it, John, now you’ve went and done it. You know that prick probably has the van wired. He’ll take that remark to mean we’ve volunteered for duty.”

  I got up and put an arm around Lucas. “C’mon. Take me to the bar. If family has dulled your edges, me and Casey will handle the Somalia gig. You know it’s coming.”

  “Don’t insult me, punk! I’ve been thinking about it ever since Denny hinted at it. Remember the Americans those slime-balls executed when the US tried to negotiate. If Denny wants a trap set… then oh baby is he goin’ to get one. We goin’ to have some fun then, boys.”

  “That’s what I’m talkin’ about, Lucas,” Casey slapped hands with his partner enthusiastically. “I bet we get some dynamite fishin’ in while we’re baitin’ the trap too on our new boat along with a very nice payday. We’ll give my pard here the master cabin, John, seeing as how he’s old and decrepit.”

  “Fair enough. Seriously though, what do you guys think are the chances of Denny having a Somalia vacation in mind?”

  Lucas snorted in disgust. “You’ve known Denny a long time, John. Ever hear him mention anything haphazardly?”


  No, I hadn’t. I shrugged. “Somalia it is then. At least we’ll have a little time before the boat’s ready. I have to get my business plans back in motion.”

  We locked up the van and walked over to Casey’s GMC. When we were on the move, Lucas grinned around at me from the front. “Didn’t you mention something about your lawyer girlfriend partnering up with you in your new business enterprise after she signed up with Denny? After getting taken hostage twice, I don’t like your chances, my friend. The Russian deal was bad enough but taken by that crew tonight had to sour her on going into business with you.”

  I can’t fault his logic on that one. The look Tess gave me when we split up tonight lacked any hint of affection. “I admit it. Tess might be a long shot in my new scheme. I tried to warn her about how things worked in Denny World but she wasn’t havin’ any.”

  Casey nodded. “And you’re to blame of course.”

  “Of course.”

  Chapter Seventeen: Lora

  The guys dropped me off in front of The Warehouse Bar. I called Jafar and he answered on the first ring. “I’m over at The Warehouse Bar if you need me. My phone’s on. You did really good today. It looks like we’ll be just escorting our client from now on.”

  “That is very good news. I have been told we will be escorting Samira again the day after tomorrow. She asked if I could come over to her room after school tomorrow.”

  I couldn’t think of any objections. “As long as you two stay inside I’m okay with that. Take the Chevy to school.”

  “Thanks, John.”

  I looked at my watch. “It’s almost ten. I’ll be home sometime after midnight.”

  “Will you need a ride?”

  “I’ll call a cab. Get some sleep.”

  After I hung up I stood outside the bar gawking up at the clear night sky like some rube in the middle of a cornfield, my windbreaker allowing more than a little cool breeze through. In reality I was counting my blessings. A lot of innocent people would have been killed if I hadn’t taken an interest in my little twin neighbors and struck up a relationship with Alexi. Bad guys died today and I’m still breathing. It’s always a precarious notion to go out and celebrate anything but I’m not much at hiding. I figure when my time’s up I don’t want to look back wonderin’ why I didn’t have a few when I had the chance. I usually celebrated alone at home with music or 1080P HD but I thought I’d run into some of my OPD pals. Denny would be interested in anything I picked up about our gun battles at a major tourist spot.

  Besides, tomorrow I have to start work on neighborhood renovation in the form of gang-banger adjustment. That will take some recon and planning. Then there’s the little item of finding out whether I have a lawyer for my business or not. I took a deep breath of the cool air and walked in the side entrance. I spotted Earl and Jeff Furlong back in the game room. Marla’s working the bar so I stop to order first. There’s a pretty good crowd at the dining tables and the bar. I nod at some familiar faces who give me a wave.

  “Hey, Champ. What can I get you? Is it a Bud and Beam night?”

  “Right as rain, Marla. No foul taste to get rid of, but I feel like a little celebrating for no apparent reason. Better run a tab for me.”

  Marla chuckles while putting a double shot and Budweiser in front of me. “Just plop the empties on the bar if you want refills. Earl asked about you when he came in.”

  “I’m headin’ over there now. Thanks, Marla.”

  “Enjoy.”

  I sipped my Beam while approaching the police department representatives. I stopped to exchange pleasantries with a few I knew at the tables that have to be threaded through to reach the gaming half of the bar. By the time I made it around the corner Earl was already gesturing at me. I didn’t see any smile so I figured our set to at the Square must have drawn a lot of attention, especially with the near riot meant as a diversion. Since I was certain both the restaurant inside and the pier outside had security cameras I figured to be a star in most of the footage. Cleanup gathers all video evidence but there’s always some stuff missed in this day and age.

  “Hi Earl… Jeff.”

  “I’m surprised to see you in here.” Earl’s looking me over with professional curiosity. “Give me the short of it, John. All security tapes were confiscated. Whoever those suits were, smoothing things out, ordered us to scour the entire area to gather up all video taken by onlookers. ‘Rique and me took a peak before handing the stuff over. That business at the JL was serious action and you were the star. What the hell you into?”

  I’d gone over all kinds of answers for a confrontation. I had decided on a very short version of the truth. “Where’s ‘Rique?”

  “Home. He wasn’t allowed out tonight. Don’t change the subject.”

  “It was an action related to Homeland Security. I can’t tell you any more than that, Earl.”

  “That’s plenty, John. I assume you’re on the right side of it though?”

  I grinned and took a long gulp of Bud. “Are you trying to insult me?”

  “I didn’t mean it like that.”

  “We were just surprised, John,” Jeff added. “Earl and ‘Rique know you pretty well. Hell, Earl says he’s known you for years. They had no clue you did anything other than-”

  “Break legs and faces?”

  Jeff shrugged. “Something like that.”

  “I do stuff on kind of a contracting basis and I’m still in the Corps reserve. I need to ask if you guys heard much get leaked out to the news or if there’s a lot of speculation about what happened. Is the kidnapping ring story holding? That is what the major part of it was in reality.”

  “It’s holding,” Earl answered. “That’s what you’ll be seeing on the news and in the papers. Should we be worried about something a hell of a lot worse?”

  “Nope.”

  “I never figured you for a secret agent man in a million years.”

  “I’m not, Earl.” I’d gulped my stuff faster than I meant to. I felt it right down to my toes. “Let me get a couple more. I’ll be right back.”

  Jeff blocked me. He took my empties and walked to the bar without a word.

  “Did the riot mess you guys up in the front?”

  Earl shook his head in the negative. “The neat timed tip we received put us in the right place at the right time. We were all over them before they got out of hand. So, it was meant to be a riot?”

  “Yep. It was meant to cover the kidnapping.”

  “I wish we could nail those gang-bangin’ pricks for it,” Earl replied as Jeff arrived back with my Bud and Beam.

  Jeff handed me my refills. “Was Ms. Connagher the target?”

  “She was an unfortunate addition to the mess. Samira Karim, whom I’m taking care of for the next few weeks was the prime target. What’s the rumor mill churning out?”

  “Suicide bomber, terrorist cells… you know… the usual,” Earl answered. “Care to confirm or deny for us simple uniforms?”

  “Confirmed and taken care of, thank God, because it was mostly due to plain old dumb luck or divine intervention. The three letter suits are busily rounding up all the participants.”

  “I hate that luck out scenario,” Jeff commented. “How often… oh yeah… you can’t tell us anything anyway. I’m glad it worked out in our favor.”

  “How does all this change our run-ins from now on, John?” Earl let a slow smile spread on his face as I polished off my Beam without answering. “I have to hand it to you. You never pulled the secret-agent-man card on us when we took you downtown. Do you have a get-out-of-jail-free-card you can pull?”

  “I’m talking to you guys tonight because I don’t want to get relocated. If what happened today is under the radar we can keep on helping each other and I won’t have to take up residence in Bumfuck, Idaho.”

  Earl and Jeff yucked it up for a few moments in appreciation of my declaration.

  “It went down without any notice, John. Most speculation will be rumors. I’m glad you came by t
o fill us in. We were debating whether to stop over at your place and bring you in.”

  “If there are any repercussions you guys hear about, I’d appreciate a heads-up.”

  “I hope that goes both ways, John.” I can tell Earl is thinking about what I hadn’t told them about the Square adventure. “You’ve always been straight up with us, I hope, if our lives out there were in danger.”

  “Nothing’s ever come up like this before, Earl. You can damn well believe I’d tip you if something like this ever surfaces again. The tip about the bangers doing a Mehserle protest to cover for the kidnapping attempt didn’t come to us until an hour before it happened.”

  “That’s good enough for me. We have to call it a night. C’mon, Jeff. Take care, John.”

  “You too, Earl. See ya, Jeff.”

  “We’ll call you if the media start playin’ this any other way.” Jeff followed Earl out with a wave.

  Watching the two OPD exiting the bar, I’m thinking Denny would probably be less than thrilled with how much I let slip. Gulping down the last of my Bud and Beam I decided to sip another duo at the bar slowly while I listened to the sounds of relative normalcy for a while. As I made my way to the bar, Tess’s sister Lora entered through the front entrance. I thought karma was catching up to me and the shit hit the fan, but when Lora saw me she waved and smiled. She was wearing an ankle length black cashmere coat that highlighted her long red hair. Lora hurried over to me and grabbed my hand.

  “John! Jafar told me you might be here. Thank you for saving Tess today.”

  “I wasn’t alone, Lora. What brings you out here tonight? Is everything okay?”

  Lora’s smile faded. She looked around the bar quickly before pulling me toward an empty table. “Maybe we better sit down.”

  I caught Marla’s eye and held up my empty Bud bottle. She nodded and I sat down with Lora. “Would you like a drink?”

  Lora shook her head no at the waiting Marla. “I’m driving so I think not. Tess is gone. She left you this note.”