Trigger Pull

by Mike Ryan

  “May I ask what it is that you’re doing?” Jones asked.

  Haley didn’t respond at first, still deep in thought. After a delayed reaction, he then answered, realizing something was said. “Hmm?”

  “I noticed you seem to be having a conversation with yourself. Are you developing some new kind of code or something?”

  “What? No.”

  “Would you like to clue me in to your strange behavior?”

  “Oh, I was just thinking,” Haley replied.

  “I kind of assumed as much. Would you like to get into more specifics?”

  “Well I was thinking of how we can turn the tables on Nowak.”

  “And have you come up with anything?”

  “Uhh, I dunno, I might have.”

  Jones’ shoulders slumped, hating to have to draw the information out of him. It almost was if he was talking to Recker. “Chris, please don’t turn into Michael.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Because for as long as I’ve known him, I would say over ninety percent of the time, what could be answered in about a minute, it takes him ten times as long. It’s as if I have to reach down inside him, grab whatever information he’s holding, then bring it out of his body for me to know what he’s thinking about. Please don’t turn into that.”

  Haley laughed. “I’ll try not to.”

  “I would be forever grateful. So, now, let’s try this again. Would you care to explain what it is that you’re deciphering over there?”

  “It’s like I said. What can we do to turn the tables?”

  “So far the answer to that is nothing,” Jones replied.

  “Not so. So far, everything that we’ve uncovered, hasn’t led to anything, or it’s led to some sticky situations. But there’s one thing at our disposal that we haven’t tried. That we already know has a tie-in to Nowak’s crew.”

  “And what would that be?”

  “It’s not a what. It’s a who.”

  Jones thought for a second as to who he was referring to, but all he was drawing was a blank. “I’m not seeing it.”

  “Jerome.”

  “Jerome?” Jones asked, not seeing as how he could help. “I fail to see the connection.”

  “He’s got a line to Milton, right?”

  “I’m sure that’s a lead that is long since dead. They used Jerome for their own purposes. I’m sure they no longer have any communication with him.”

  “But what if he communicates with them?” Haley asked, still a slight grin on his face, thinking his ploy could and would work. “What if he tells them something about us? About how we’ll be somewhere, wherever we decide, and we set up a trap for them?”

  Jones gave a slight shake of his head as he thought about it, unsure this plan could work. “They’re not going to listen to him.”

  “Why not? They apparently thought enough of him to work with him once. And he came through for them. There’s no reason to think they wouldn’t again, not if the tip was juicy enough.”

  As they continued to debate the specifics of such a plan, Recker finished his conversation with Vincent. He came over to the others and plopped down in a chair, tossing his phone on the desk. Jones and Haley stopped their discussion as they turned their attention toward Recker.

  “How is Vincent?” Jones asked.

  “Frustrated.”

  “Aren’t we all?”

  “He sounds as down about everything as I can ever recall,” Recker said. “He doesn’t know what to do. Nothing’s working. Informants aren’t giving him anything. Staking places out has gone nowhere. Acting on the tips he has gotten hasn’t led to anything. It’s frustrating.”

  “Well, I guess he has joined the club.”

  Jones happened to glance at Haley, who was giving him a look of his own, while nodding his head. He still had that smirk on his face. Jones rolled his eyes, then threw his hands up.

  “Why not?” Jones said.

  Recker looked at him strangely, then at Haley as he tried to figure out what was going on. “You wanna get into that?”

  “Chris thinks he may have an idea, though I still have plenty of doubts as to the validity of it.”

  “Might as well hear it. More than we got going on right now.”

  Haley opened up about his plan, giving a few more details than he originally gave to Jones. After listening to his presentation, Recker seemed on board with the idea.

  “Let’s do it,” Recker said, mere seconds after Haley finished talking.

  Jones was stunned, not only that he agreed to it, but that he did it so soon, without even putting a lot of thought into it. “Are you serious?”

  “Why not?”

  “You barely even gave it a second thought.”

  “So?”

  “So, since when did you agree to things so haphazardly?”

  “It’s not haphazard,” Recker answered. “It’s taking an honest look at things and determining that we don’t have anything else going on at the moment. Why not take a stab at it?”

  “Seems very unlike you.”

  “Why are you so against it?”

  “It’s not that I’m against it,” Jones replied. “It’s just that I have my doubts about it working.”

  “Well, I’m looking at it like this. Sometimes if you throw crap against the wall… sometimes it sticks.”

  “That’s not exactly sound strategy.”

  “Didn’t say it was,” Recker said. “Just that sometimes it works.”

  “All right, since you two are gung-ho on this, where do we begin?”

  Recker looked at Haley since it was his plan.

  “Let’s talk to Jerome,” Haley said. “If he’s really serious about Tyrell and upset at being played, then he’ll want to help.”

  Jones couldn’t help but continue to be a Debbie Downer. “Even if you are correct and Jerome gets hold of Milton, or anybody else from that crew, they are going to be on extremely high alert. Don’t you think that they’re going to be on the lookout for some type of… revenge or set up or something?”

  “Probably. That’s why we’re going to have to do it in two stages.”

  “Two stages?”

  “It’s like you said, they’re initially gonna wonder about it,” Haley replied. “But they can’t afford not to at least check out whether it’s accurate or not.”

  Recker now knew exactly what Haley had in mind. “So, the first time will be them making sure he’s not making things up or setting them up.”

  “Exactly. Then when the second tip comes along, they’ll figure it’s definitely on the level, and they’ll roll on it.”

  “And that’s when we get them. On the second go-round.”

  “That’s the plan,” Haley said.

  Though Jones still had his doubts, he nonetheless got on board. He figured if his partners had high hopes of the plan succeeding, who was he to be the stick-in-the-mud?

  “What if Jerome’s left town?” Jones asked.

  “He hasn’t,” Recker answered. “He wanted to try and make it up to Tyrell.”

  “What if that didn’t go over well?”

  “Only one way to find out. Ask.”

  Recker grabbed his phone again and called Tyrell.

  “Hey, I assume you didn’t die from the hospital food yet.”

  “Hey, man, let me tell you, this hospital food ain’t all that bad,” Tyrell replied. “I know all the jokes about hospital food, but it’s really not bad. Especially the mashed potatoes...mmm, they are sweet!”

  Recker laughed. “Maybe you should get shot more often. Least you get some free meals out of it.”

  “No way, I’ll leave the getting shot to you. The food ain’t bad, but I sure don’t wanna stay.”

  “How much longer they keeping you?”

  “Ahh, couple more days. Just wanna make sure everything’s good before they release me.”

  “Listen, did Jerome ever get in touch with you?”

  “Yeah, he dropped by a couple days ag
o,” Tyrell answered. “Apologized for everything, said he was a fool and got played.”

  “You accept?”

  Tyrell sighed. “Yeah, I guess so. I’m a sentimental type of guy, man. I mean, I’ve known him a long time. As much as I really wanted to kick his ass, I mean, it’s the world we live in, you know?”

  “I do.”

  “Things happen. People make mistakes. As long as they own up to, accept it, you gotta move on. What else can you do?”

  “I hear ya. That brings me to why I called.”

  “What, you mean you didn’t call just to shoot the breeze?” Tyrell said with a laugh, knowing full well that he didn’t.

  “Not this time. It’s about Jerome.”

  “What about him?”

  “If things are cool between you two, I imagine he’s sticking around?”

  “As far as I know. Why?”

  “There’s something we wanna try,” Recker said. “We think we can use him to get to Nowak. At least that’s the plan. You think he would help with that?”

  “Well, he said he was gonna make all this up to me somehow, so yeah, I think he would help. I mean, as long as you’re not sending him in to a firing squad or nothing.”

  “No, nothing quite that dramatic. Just using him to pass on bad information.”

  “Then I think he’s your man. You really think he’s gonna be able to get to Nowak’s crew though?”

  “Got to them once before.”

  “That was then. This is now.”

  “All we can do is give it a shot.”

  “Yeah, well, let’s hope it works,” Tyrell said. “Getting tired of all this nonsense. You get shot, I get shot, Chris gets his car blown up, what’s this world coming to nowadays?”

  Recker laughed. “Not safe for man nor beast out there.”

  “You got that right. Man, we gotta get Nowak out of this city. She’s making it an unsafe place to live.”

  “As opposed to before?”

  “Hey, at least nobody was getting blown up, and I was never in the hospital. Pretty soon she’ll be having us all call the cops for protection,” Tyrell said, laughing at his own joke.

  “You must be on some pretty strong drugs there.”

  “Yeah, whatever it is, it ain’t enough.”

  “I bet.”

  “Hey, you make sure you get this woman. She gives all of us a bad name.”

  “You got my word on that,” Recker said. “One way or another, we’ll get her.”

  19

  Recker was standing by the edge of the building, looking at the back door of the jewelry store. It was cold and raining. He tried calling Haley to see where he was, but he got no answer. The phone just kept on ringing. After he put it away, it started ringing again. But it wasn’t Haley though. It was Mia. It was strange, Recker thought. She never called him when she knew he was out working on something.

  “Yeah? You OK?” Recker asked.

  “I just wanted to make sure you’re wearing your vest,” Mia replied. “It’s dangerous out there. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

  Recker looked down at his chest, but the vest wasn’t there. He must have forgotten to put it on.

  “I’ll be fine,” Recker said.

  “You always say that.”

  “Because it’s true.”

  “You better be right. You better come back to me.”

  “I always will.”

  Just as he muttered the words, the back door to the jewelry store flung open, a gang of thieves stepping out. There were seven of them, all wearing masks, and carrying assault rifles. Recker quickly hung up and put the phone back in his pocket as he readied himself to stop the gang from fleeing the scene. Recker jumped out from beyond the building, in plain view of everyone, and started firing his gun. The other men dropped white sacks of merchandise and began doing the same. After a few minutes, the men were just too much for Recker to overcome. Recker’s chest was soon riddled with bullets as he was knocked off his feet. His gun flew out of his hand as he lay there on his back, motionless. His eyes flickered as they began to feel heavy. He could barely feel the rain now as the life inside him felt like it was draining out of the numerous holes in his chest. His eyes became too heavy to stay open any longer and they closed for the final time.

  Recker jumped up in his bed, breathing heavily, the nightmare seeming all too real. He looked down at his chest and put his hand on it, making sure there were no holes there. Sweat was pouring off his face, and he wiped his head with his forearm. He then shivered, trying to shake loose the all-too vivid images from his memory. Mia could feel him moving around and also woke up. As soon as she saw him sitting there, sweating, shivering, and looking rattled, she knew what happened. She put her hands on his back, resting her head against his shoulder. When Recker felt her touch, he turned his head, putting his against hers.

  “How bad this time?” Mia asked.

  “Same as the others. This one felt the most real though.”

  “What happened?”

  Recker hesitated, not sure if he wanted to remember it. But then he thought maybe it would be therapeutic. “I was at the jewelry store again. Same situation. But Chris wasn’t there this time.”

  Mia had a feeling she knew how it was going to go but stayed silent so as not to interrupt.

  “Just before they came out, you called and told me to make sure I had my vest on. But I didn’t have it. Then they came out and we got into a fight. Next thing I know I’m on the ground, dying.”

  “It’s just a dream,” Mia said, rubbing his back.

  “It felt so real.”

  “It doesn’t matter. It’s all in your head.”

  “They feel like they’re getting worse,” Recker said.

  “Maybe you should talk to somebody. A psychiatrist or something.”

  “And tell them what? That I’m the famous Silencer that runs around knocking everybody off?”

  “They’re doctors, they have confidentiality agreements. I’m sure you’re not the first person they’ve treated that’s been on the opposite side of the law or done something…”

  “No, I can’t. Whatever it is, I’m just gonna have to figure it out on my own.”

  Though Mia didn’t like that answer, and wished he would talk to someone about it, she had to respect his wishes. Recker was right, the dreams did seem to be getting worse with each passing week. They became more vivid and they lasted longer. It seemed his incident at the jewelry store only made them worse. But even though Mia wanted him to get help, she knew she couldn’t force him, and she couldn’t keep nagging him about it. If she kept bringing it up, Recker would just close himself off. That’s just how he was. And she didn’t want that. She wanted him to at least be able to confide in her, if no one else.

  Mia looked at the time and saw it was three o’clock. While she would have been willing to stay up the rest of the morning to help Recker through his problems, she thought it would be best if he tried to go back to sleep. She didn’t want him, in his current state, to be out somewhere on a dangerous assignment and be tired. He would be lethargic, and his decision making might be slowed, making one of those nightmares become a reality. At least if he was fresh, he would think and act more clearly.

  “C’mon, let’s go back to bed,” Mia said, pulling him down beside him, putting her arms around him as he put his head on her chest.

  “I’m not sure I want to.”

  “Just relax and close your eyes,” Mia said in a warm, soothing voice. “Just think of something pleasant. Just think of us. Don’t think of anything else. Just us.”

  Her comfortable and gentle embrace did the trick, as Recker drifted off to sleep a short time later. They didn’t wake up again until eight o’clock, with Recker having a peaceful sleep the second time around. He looked over at Mia, who was still lying next to him, and was staring at him. Recker leaned over and gave her a tender kiss.

  “Thank you for helping me last night.”

  Mia gave him one of those
beautiful smiles of hers. “Anything for you. I do wish you’d talk to someone about it. And I’m not gonna keep pestering you about it. That’s all I’ll say about it.”

  “Just talking about it with you is good enough. You help me more than anyone else could.”

  They spent the next hour getting dressed, eating breakfast, and just talking, though not much of Recker’s problem. He didn’t like being the focus of attention and quizzed Mia about what was going on at the hospital. Once nine o’clock came around, Recker knew he should be leaving, as he was already later than he usually was, but had a hard time tearing himself away from Mia.

  “Shouldn’t you be going soon?” Mia asked, also observing the time.

  “Trying to get rid of me?”

  “Never. But you’re almost always gone by now.”

  Recker shrugged. “There’s nothing really pressing. Don’t really have to be anywhere until later.”

  They started kissing but were quickly interrupted by the sound of Recker’s phone, which was often a mood killer.

  “Saved by the bell again,” Mia sarcastically said.

  Recker pulled out his phone and answered it without looking to see who it was. “Yes?”

  “Rise and shine, sleepyhead,” Jones kidded.

  “I’m not sleeping.”

  “Oh, are you planning on playing hooky today?”

  Recker rolled his eyes at Jones’ sense of humor. “No, I’m coming.”

  “Before lunch? Should I roll out the red carpet for you?”

  “Is there something that’s breaking and urgent?”

  “No.”