Bullet Trap

by Mike Ryan

  “If I were to get taken again, if I don’t know anything, I can’t tell them anything.”

  “Somehow, I doubt you’d let yourself get taken again.”

  Thrower smiled. “Well, even the best of us have our moments.”

  20

  Recker flew into the office, almost as if he were told he’d just hit the jackpot. Of course, he was hoping to hear something similar to that effect involving finding Ronnie Slater.

  “What do you got so far?”

  Jones turned halfway toward him and put his hands up. “Nothing yet. I’ve only been on it for about twenty minutes.”

  “You’ve figured out a lot of things in that amount of time.”

  “Patience, Michael.”

  “You have patience. I’ve got a girlfriend who’s gonna be spending a lot of time in a hotel room for the next little while, so I’d like to speed things up.”

  “Really? She agreed so quickly?” Jones knew Recker went over there with the intention of trying to convince Mia not to work again until everything was settled, but he really didn’t think he’d have much success with it. At the very least, Jones thought it would take a few hours of bargaining.

  “I’d like to say it was my brilliant negotiating skills, but she’s actually the one that brought it up.”

  Jones looked surprised. “She did?”

  “Surprised me too.”

  “And here I thought I knew her.”

  “Apparently neither of us know her as well as we thought we did.”

  Jones still looked stunned. He looked at the time. “And she put up no fight or argument?”

  “Nope. Like I said, it was her idea. She brought it up without me saying a word.”

  “Well, I am shocked. I really didn’t think she would do it.” Recker sighed, leading Jones to think there was more to it. “What else?”

  “There’s nothing else.”

  “Then why the sigh? She did what you wanted. She’s adequately protected, and now we shouldn’t have to worry about her safety. They shouldn’t find her again. But you don’t seem happy.”

  “I’m happy. Don’t I look it?”

  Jones looked more closely at his stoic face, not noticing him move a muscle on it. He certainly hadn’t broken a smile. “No, you don’t. So what is it?”

  “I guess it’s like I said before. She shouldn’t have to go through this… again. The fact that she’s willing to take herself out, on her own, without me having to say anything, indicates to me that she’s getting tired of all this nonsense too. She just looks like she’s had enough. And so have I.”

  “I can understand. And perhaps you are right. But now is not the time to think about that. Let’s concentrate on the task at hand, then when it’s over, then it’s time to reassess everything. But let’s get to that point first.”

  Recker nodded. “Lead the way.”

  Recker sat down next to Jones, and they both started putting Ronnie Slater’s name through every search they could. It didn’t take long before they started coming up with some hits. As they started going through everything, one of the computers started making a beeping noise. Recker was concerned seeing how Jones reacted to it. He stopped what he was doing and immediately went over to it.

  “What’s going on?” Recker asked.

  “There’s been a change in Chris’ condition.”

  “What?”

  “To prevent myself from looking at it every other minute, I configured it so it would give me an alert if anything changed.”

  “I got that part. What changed?”

  Jones typed as fast as he could. As he looked at the information on the screen, he folded his arms, and put his hand over his mouth. As Recker stared at him, he was starting to get concerned.

  “What is it?” Recker asked.

  Jones didn’t answer. He put his head down, and his hand slid up to his forehead. Recker couldn’t tell if he was bad news and Haley’s condition had taken a turn for the worse, or whether Jones was breaking down upon seeing good news.

  “David?”

  Jones lifted his head up again, as his hand went down under his chin, still staring at the screen.

  “David?”

  Jones finally turned his head and looked at his partner. A very slight smile formed on his face. “Chris has been moved off the critical list.”

  Recker hoped he wasn’t trying to be cute with his answer and avoid saying bad news. “He’s gonna make it?”

  The smile on Jones' face got bigger, and his eyes started tearing up. He nodded. “He’s going to make it.”

  Recker excitedly clapped his hands, then brought them up to his face, curling his hands into fists. He then let out a small fist pump. Jones wiped both of his eyes to keep his emotions in check. Recker put his hand on his friend’s shoulder.

  “I’m so thankful,” Jones said. “Thankful, relieved, happy… I really wasn’t sure… I thought I’d be responsible for another… for his…”

  Recker tapped him on the back of his shoulder. “Hey, I told you, you can’t blame yourself. It doesn’t matter now, anyway. He’s gonna make it. That’s all that matters.”

  “Yes, the hard part for him is now out of the way. Now he has to face the other part.”

  Recker wasn’t sure what he was talking about. “What? What other part?”

  “Me. Now I have to wonder how he will think of and respond to me the next time he sees me.”

  “The same way he always does.”

  “I hope he will forgive me for putting him in that situation.”

  “David…”

  “No, while you were gone, he was fighting me on Paxton, telling me it was time to let go. He told me it wasn’t working, and I just wouldn’t listen. I was too stubborn. I tried to fit that square peg into the round hole and it just wasn’t working.”

  “We all make hard decisions in this business,” Recker said. “We make them, then we have to deal with them. It’s not all gonna be wine and roses, you know. You gotta move on.”

  “Then there’s whether he’ll want to rejoin the team again, or even whether he’ll be physically able to rejoin the team again.”

  “One thing at a time. The biggest and best news is that we won’t be attending his funeral.”

  “Yes, of course. That’s obviously the most important news.”

  Amidst the good news, a disheartened look came over Recker’s face. He thought of Phillips. Though he didn’t know him very well, and couldn’t say they were friends, he was still a fallen teammate. “Speaking of funerals, I’m almost embarrassed to ask… what about Phillips?”

  “What about him?”

  “I’ve been so wrapped up in Chris, and protecting Mia, and finding out who’s responsible for this, that I hardly took time to think about Phillips. Or any time.”

  Jones didn’t seem concerned. “Why would you? You barely knew him. You worked with him for what, a few days? A week?”

  “Something like that.”

  “I wouldn’t expect you to put in a lot of time worrying about it.”

  Recker shrugged. “Still. He was one of us. And now he’s gone. And I feel like I should’ve mourned over him more than I have.”

  “Mourning isn’t going to bring him back.”

  “No, it won’t.”

  “And why would you be embarrassed to ask?”

  “I guess because I haven’t put much thought into it.”

  “As I said, I wouldn’t expect you to.”

  “Well, now that I am, what about his funeral?”

  “It’s already done,” Jones replied.

  “What?”

  “I had him cremated yesterday.”

  “What?” Recker looked surprised to hear the news.

  “I had him cremated.”

  “Yeah, I heard that part.”

  Judging by his face, Jones could tell that Recker was surprised, not that he knew why. “Is there an issue?”

  “Uh, yeah, maybe.”

  “What would it be?”


  “You had him cremated?”

  “Yes. Why is that a problem?”

  “No funeral? No burial?”

  “First of all, he was not close with his family,” Jones answered. “Not at all.”

  “So?”

  “So they were contacted about funeral arrangements first. They declined.”

  “They declined? How could they do that?”

  “Well, you’ve met Paxton. You know his personality. He could be an abrasive sort. Apparently, he was that way with family members as well. Anyway, as far as I can tell, he hadn’t really spoken to his family in over ten years. They disowned him, he swore them off. They weren’t really surprised at his death, it seems.”

  “OK. That’s them. What about us? Why didn’t we do something for him?”

  “What would you have liked us to do?”

  “Like I said, a real funeral.”

  “And who would attend?”

  “You, me, I’m sure Mia probably would.”

  “And risk the Scorpions being there? Or how about the police, who would I’m sure have a watchful eye over whoever was standing over his grave? Or maybe Jerrick, who I’m sure is just watching and waiting out there somewhere, waiting for his opportunity to jump all over us.”

  Recker sighed. He understood what Jones was saying, and he was probably right, but that didn’t mean he liked it. It still seemed wrong to him. It still felt like they should have been able to give Phillips a proper sendoff.

  “Unless you think we could have attended a funeral from a nearby rooftop with binoculars?”

  Recker scowled and shook his head. “No.”

  “So, with that being said, I thought the next best option was to pay for his cremation. Paxton did not seem like the type of guy who cared what happened to him after his death, as some people do. I did what I felt was right for him.”

  Recker nodded. “At least you gave him something. Though I still think you could’ve told me you were doing it at the time.”

  “Would it have changed anything?”

  “No, but…”

  “All it would have done is taken your focus off the task at hand in dealing with the Scorpions, as well as protecting Mia. And those two things are your top priority at the moment.”

  “Speaking of which, I guess we should get back to it.” Recker then grabbed his phone.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’ve got a phone call to make.”

  “Well I gathered that. To whom?”

  “I’m not passing go, I’m not stopping on free parking, but I am using a get out of jail free card.”

  21

  The following morning, Recker and Jones both seemed a little more upbeat than they had been. Of course, that was all because of Haley pulling through. But it was one less thing to worry about. And now with that off their mind, they could put all their focus into finding the Scorpions and eliminating them. Before they got started, though, Recker was on the receiving end of a phone call. Seeing it was Lawson, he eagerly picked it up.

  “Yeah?”

  “I just thought I’d let you know that Chris is now officially out of police custody?”

  “He is?”

  “As of thirty minutes ago, we now have a man on the door.”

  “Wait, you’ve got a man on the door? I thought you said…”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know what I said. But I put in an extra good word to make it happen.”

  “Well thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “How long can we expect that courtesy?”

  “You’ve got seven days. That’s all I can give you. So if Chris isn’t out of the hospital by that point, you’re on your own.”

  “We’ll make it work.”

  “I hope so. I had to pull some strings just to give you that much time.”

  “I’m sure you did. I appreciate it.”

  “Yeah, well, right now I’m on the good list, so they’re more responsive to things that I’m asking. And I made sure to let them know it was for you, which also didn’t hurt.”

  “Oh? I didn’t realize I still had any pull.”

  “Well, I think some of the top brass still have some guilt over what happened to you. Plus, they want to stay on your good side in case there’s ever a special mission that comes up that they want to recruit you for.”

  “Helps to have friends in high places, I guess.”

  “I guess it does. Well, I have some other matters to attend to, and I’m sure you do too, so I’m gonna get going.”

  “Thanks again.”

  “Sure. I was going to tell you that if you need anything else to let me know, but somehow, I have a feeling you’d do that, anyway.”

  Recker laughed. “Yeah. I probably would.” As soon as he hung up, he turned to Jones. “Chris has got a week’s worth of protection on the door.”

  “So that means?”

  “He’s not in police custody now. They’ve got a man on the door for seven days. After that, they pull the plug.”

  “In which case Chris needs to be out of there or else he’s unprotected.”

  Recker nodded. “Yeah. It also means we need to wrap this stuff up soon.”

  “Well, you’ve got Tyrell on it, Vincent’s on it, our computers are searching, everyone’s on the lookout for Ronnie Slater. Sooner or later, his name is going to come up somewhere.”

  “Let’s try and make that sooner, huh?”

  “We can only do what we can do. If he appears, we’ll get him.”

  “I’m gonna do more than just get him. I’m gonna obliterate him.”

  “Well, all we can…” Jones stopped midstream as they heard another of his computers start to beep. He turned his head, with Recker also going over to it.

  “Chris again?”

  “No.” Jones hit a few keys on the keyboard as he tried to figure out what was going on. “It seems as if…”

  “As if what?”

  “It seems as if we got ourselves a hit on Ronnie Slater.”

  “What?”

  “His face just popped up.”

  “His face?”

  Jones stopped and turned toward his friend for a moment. “Yes, his face. I know you were gone for a while, but have you forgotten how we operate around here?”

  “Enlighten me.”

  “I put out all the usual alerts. Credit card, phone, etc.” Jones continued typing away. “Well it appears right now that his face was caught on a traffic camera.”

  Recker leaned in, hovering over Jones’ shoulder. “Where?”

  “Downtown. Looks like he’s in the passenger seat.” Jones zoomed in on the picture. They compared it with the picture from the driver’s license photo they obtained of Slater. It was a match.

  “That’s him. Where’s he at?”

  “Let’s just see if we can trace his movements. Maybe another camera will pick him up somewhere.” Jones kept pressing keys, looking on several different monitors.

  “Wouldn’t you get an alert if a camera picked him up?”

  “Only if it’s certain there’s a match. If it only picked up a partial of his face, then it would not. So maybe if I can figure out the path he’s on, I can pick up on one of those pictures and get a clearer idea of where he’s going.”

  Recker continued to hover over Jones’ shoulder for another minute, then started walking around the room as he waited for an update. There wasn’t one coming quickly. Recker paced for another twenty minutes, beginning to grow tired of the lack of progress.

  “Haven’t you come up with anything?”

  Jones never took his eyes off his computer. “This isn’t like a drive through service where you order what you want, and seconds later it’s delivered to you. I am doing what I can.”

  “I know, but…” Recker sighed. “I wanna hurry up and get this over with.”

  “As we all do.”

  “You haven’t found anything else?”

  “I’ve found several things.”

  Reck
er stopped, hopeful. “Well?”

  “Unfortunately, they’re not particularly helpful.”

  “How can that be?”

  “I’ve uncovered what looks like three other pictures of Slater.”

  “And that doesn’t lead us anywhere?”

  “If they did, don’t you think I would have told you?”

  “I dunno. Would you?”

  “Is that a serious question?”

  “Well how can you have three partials and not have anything?”

  “Because they’re all of him traveling in the same direction,” Jones answered. “He didn’t turn, and I can’t pick him up anywhere else, so that means he could have gone just about anywhere from there.”

  Recker sighed again and slapped his leg. “Great. Can’t you just pick up the car?”

  “I can try. But there’s no good shots of the license plate. Only a partial.”

  “Great. Another partial.”

  “It’s the way things go in this business sometimes. You know that as well as I do.”

  “I sometimes get impatient.”

  Jones stopped typing and glanced at him, raising an eyebrow. “You don’t say?”

  Though he wasn’t exactly hopeful of coming up with anything else, Jones still kept at it. A few more pictures might give them an idea of where he was going. Recker wasn’t waiting for that, though. He got back on the phone with Tyrell, peppering him with questions, hoping he had something. Unfortunately, he did not.

  As Recker talked on the phone, he noticed Jones shifting in his seat, his facial expressions changing. He’d been around him long enough over the years to know that usually meant he was looking at something interesting. Recker quickly got off the phone.

  “You have something?”

  Jones looked up at him. “No one could ever say you are not observant.”

  “Is that a yes?”

  “I’ve found a few more partial photos.”

  Recker walked around the desk and stood behind his partner. “Where?”

  “I’ve pinpointed everything on this map.” Jones pointed to another computer, where he was mapping the photos to get a clearer picture of Slater’s path.

  “He’s heading west.”

  Jones nodded. “He definitely is.” He kept pointing at the screen. “What’s more interesting is that he turned left at this light here.”