by Dan Kelly
When they come into the diner, they spot him and walk over to join him. The tall one, Rick Slater, said, “Well, well, it looks like Bud’s is getting some of its old riff raff back.” The small one, Vinnie Distsachio, said, “Yeah, and he still hasn’t learned to stand when his betters enter a room.”
Paul responded with, “I thought all the clowns left town when the circus folded up their tents and headed for D. C. to join the rest of the clowns that reside there.”
After much hand shaking and back slapping, they settled in to get caught up with what’s been going on in their lives. After about thirty minutes of that and the consumption of a dozen doughnuts and many cups of coffee, an idea pops into Paul’s head. “Guys, I could use your help on something, but it’s connected to something else I’m working on for Uncle Sam that’s very high on the hush-hush scale, so I won’t be able to answer a lot of the questions that you’re going to want to ask.”
Vinnie asked, “What do you need, Paul?”
“I’m looking for a guy who used to be a friend of mine, but it now appears he’s become one of the bad guys. His name is Damien Christensen and he might have murder on his mind, my mother’s murder.”
This brought on the barrage of questions that Paul had warned them about and he answered them all with, “All I can tell you is my mother has brought suit against a very dangerous man who has started to threaten her with dire consequences if she doesn’t back off. These are serious threats. This is a man who doesn’t bluff. Damien is in cahoots with him. I want to find him and turn him over to certain government officials. That’s all I can tell you.”
The two cops looked at each other and there was a lot of silent communication going on that only someone who has been in a partnership for a long time would understand.
Rick asked, “Do you have a picture of this guy?” Dave had sent one of Damien’s personnel file pictures to Paul’s cell so he showed that to them.
Vinnie said, “I’ve seen this guy recently. He was driving a dark green pick up that looked new, but it had a busted tail light and I remember thinking, ‘It almost never happens to the old beat up ones. The newer ones seem to be the unlucky ones.’”
Paul asked, “Where did you see him?”
“At the Chinese takeout place over on Astoria. He was just pulling into the parking lot as I was leaving. I was off duty and heading home with dinner.”
“How long ago was this?”
“A couple of days ago.”
“I’d appreciate it if you two would keep an eye out for him on the QT and let me know immediately if you spot him again. If you know any other of your fellow officers who would be willing to help look for Damien on the QT, I’d appreciate their help too. I don’t want any of you to get into trouble for helping me out on this, but it’s imperative that your superiors not get wind of this. If they got too inquisitive, the shit would really hit the fan.”
Rick said, “Once a brother in blue, always a brother in blue. We’ll lend a helping hand, Paul. If this guy shows up on our radar, we’ll stick to him like glue until you can get to the scene.”
“A ton of thanks, guys.”
They exchanged cell phone numbers, Paul sent each of them a copy of Damien’s picture, he picked up the tab and they went their separate ways.
Driving home, Paul felt a lot better about things than when he left a few hours ago. With some cops now joining in on their search, the odds of finding Damien have just improved dramatically.
“Now we know that Damien is back in Miami and he doesn’t know that we know. If he thinks he can safely move around, we just might get lucky and nab him early on before he can put a plan together to deal with mom.”
When he got back home, he called Dave with the news that Damien was in town and told him of his QT recruitment of some men in blue to help in the search for Damien. “I’m sorry about the hour, but I thought you’d want to know right away.”
“You did the right thing. Pete and Abby have been busy in Maracaibo keeping a close watch on a beach house that they think Fuentes has rented as a hideout. Although they haven’t spotted him or any of his body guards yet, they believe he’s there or soon will be. If and when they see him and his protectors, they plan to hold off on taking any action for a few days until Damien puts in an appearance or they’ve become convinced that he’s not going to show. Abby’s gut is already telling her he might have gone somewhere else. I’ll let her know that her gut was right.”
“Abby and Pete aren’t going to take on these bozos by themselves are they? That could be suicide.”
“No, Manny’s down there with some of his men to help out.”
“Good. I’ll sleep better knowing those guys are there and will keep that macho brother of mine in check.”
Dave asked, “Did you get that picture of Christensen I sent to your cell?”
“Yeah and thanks.”
“Okay, later.”
Paul hit the sack, but it took him a while to fall into a fitful slumber filled with nightmares of Damien trying to kill his mother by all kinds of means and him getting there barely in time to save her. Each time he saved her, she wound up in another situation. Seals or no seals, getting a good night’s sleep was proving to be impossible.
Chapter 48
- Maracaibo, Venezuela –
Pete and Abby were sitting in the van eating some breakfast burritos when Abby got the call from Dave about Damien being seen in Miami and what Paul, Frank and some friends in blue were doing to find him. Chuckling Dave finished with, “We’d better start thinking about insuring that gut of yours. It’s becoming a very valuable tool in our bad guy kit.”
This got a chuckle back as she said, “My gut thanks you for the nice words, but what will really satisfy it is if we’re proven right about Fuentes renting this damn house and he shows up.”
“I think this fountain is about to become a small drip. Things are going our way, Abby. Hang in there and be patient.”
Abby told Pete what the call was all about and Pete’s only comment was, “I hope Paul uses his head and doesn’t let his anger make his decisions for him. That could get him into a heap of trouble or even killed. Damien’s not the same person he was in school.”
“Pete, Paul was a cop for a lot of years and during that time I’m sure he’s pursued a lot of dangerous people and has been angry about what they have done. His street smarts won’t let him do anything stupid. He’ll keep his cool.”
“I hope you’re right, Abby. I’ve never seen him as mad as he was when I first told him about Damien. I hope you’re right.”
Changing the subject Abby asked, “Are you going to eat that other burrito?”
“No, you can have it. Where do you put it all? I know people twice your size that can’t eat like you do. They just sniff food and they put on a pound. You, you don’t seem to gain an ounce.”
Teasingly she came back with, “So, you’ve been checking me out when I’m not looking, eh?”
Trying like hell not to show his embarrassment and his red face scuttling his attempts, he just shook his head and kept his mouth shut which was probably the best thing he could do. If he tried to come back with some witty remark, he’d probably come up with something that would make the situation more uncomfortable. “Brody, you sure have the knack for sticking your foot in your mouth.”
Abby let him off the hook by not laughing at his discomfort and the moment was quickly forgotten as Manny’s voice came over the speaker in the van. “We’ve got activity.”
Manny and his men had a monitor and two remotes to control the sweeping of one section of the yard surrounding the house and Abby and Pete had the other monitor and remaining two remotes to sweep the rest of the yard.
Abby spoke into her mike. “What have you got?”
“An SUV just pulled into the driveway and two bruisers just got and went into the house. They could be the warm up act for the star of the show.”
Sure enough, five minutes later another SUV pulls into
the driveway and three more gorillas climb out and surround another figure when he jumps out and practically runs into the house. Manny managed to get enough of a look at him to say, “That’s our man.”
Abby said, “Now we know why we haven’t seen anyone but those two lovebirds in the RV and that old man on the patio. I’m still wondering who they are.”
Pete responded with, “As you said, they’re probably relatives or people who work for him.”
“Okay, as far as we know, in addition to the old man and the love birds, there are now five body guards and Fuentes in that house. There might be more bodyguards coming, but we have no way of knowing when and how many. There are six of us, four of which are Navy Seals and therefore each one of them is equivalent to at least two or three of those bodyguards, so I believe we have them outnumbered. Night fall will gives us some cover and an advantage when we make our move, so we’ll wait until then. Hopefully, if there are more bodyguards coming they won’t get here until the show is over, we’ve taken our bows and left the stage. If not, we’ll have to be prepared for an encore.”
“What’s with you and Manny and the show biz jargon? Don’t tell me you two are closet thespians who like to come out of the closet when you think no one’s looking? What gives here?”
This put a smile on Abby’s face and she came back with, “Oh, look who’s become a critic now. Variety might be interested in someone with your sense of humor. On second thought, forget it. They prefer people who know the difference between being a pundit and a jackass.”
Smiling back he said, “If you want to insult me, you’ll have to use words of one syllable containing no more than four letters. I’m one of those vocabulary challenged folks. Words like jerk, dope, dumb, dull and clod work fairly well. Pundit sounds like something my Cockney cousin would say when he’s hit something, you know he pundit. ”
Laughing she said, “Okay, I give up. You win this one. You left out a four letter word though that is most appropriate to describe what you can be when you’re in the mood, droll. You ought to do it more often.”
“Droll? Isn’t that what you’d do when you play craps. You’d roll the dice.”
Shaking her head and groaning she said to herself, “I can’t believe I just encouraged him to do that.”
As dusk approached, another SUV pulled into the driveway and four more Goliath types got out, but these guys stayed outside and posted themselves, one each on each side of the house.
Abby said, “I told you these guys weren’t stupid. They know what the dangers of the night are all about and know how to protect themselves.”
Pete said, “They think they know what to do to protect themselves, but they’ve never had to deal with Navy Seals, Wonder Woman and her sidekick Peter Pundit before.”
Even though the tension has rapidly increased with this new development, her sense of humor is still intact and the giggles kick in, bringing tears to her eyes. She finally manages to get out, “Knock it off, Brody. We’re about to get into some serious shit here and have to stay focused if we want to survive.”
Her words sobered Pete up and he said, “Okay, Abby, you’re right. I’ll behave.”
Still smiling she said, “Thank you, Pete, and thank you for the humor to help me unwind. I know what you were doing and I appreciate it. Now check your weapon and get ready to rumble. Manny, we’re ready if you are.”
“We’ll take out the four outside guards and then give you the signal to move to the front door. Don’t try to go inside the house. Me and my men will move in from the back of the house, neutralize anyone on the patio and then enter the house from the rear and confront the people in the house. If anyone makes a break for the front door, you’ll be there waiting for them. From what Dave’s told me, he’d like to take this Fuentes guy alive if at all possible, so if we can spot him soon enough to nab him before he can start shooting at us we might pull that off. It’s going to depend on how much we surprise them, how off guard we catch them.
“Okay, Seals, let’s do it.”
In less than ten minutes, the outside guards were taken down and two more out on the patio never knew what hit them without a single sound being made to announce their arrival. Manny and his men were now about to enter the house through the sliding glass doors off a huge family room, so he gave two clicks on his transceiver, the signal for Pete and Abby to move into position at the front door, and a few seconds later Manny and his men were inside the house and it was only them that were surprised. No one was there. Signaling everyone to be quiet, they searched upstairs and down and found no one. Manny knows that there should be at least seven people in the house, three bodyguards, an old man, the lovey-dovey couple and Fuentes.
“Where the hell are they?”
Looking around the downstairs carefully, Manny’s thinking there may be a cellar, but he can’t find a door anywhere. Then he spots a throw rug that’s not completely lying flat on the floor and goes over to take a closer look. He pulls back the rug and finds a trap door. When he opens it, he sees a set of stairs leading down into who knows what because it’s pitch black down there. He finds a light switch on the wall, but when he flicks it on nothing happens. He pulls out his pocket flashlight, clicks the switch to turn it on and that triggers a salvo of lead, all of it coming in his direction. What saved him was a noise coming from the front of the house and he turned to see what was causing it. As he turned, several bullets struck the wall barely an inch away from his head. It was Pete and Abby breaking in the front door when they heard nothing happening inside the house and were afraid that Manny and his men had run into some kind of trouble and needed help.
Manny dove out of the stairway, out of the line of fire, and everyone retreated to the front door to regroup and figure out what their next step was going to be. Pete pondered out loud, “Why are they down there? Is there a game room down there or some other kind of entertainment to enjoy? Were they down there when you guys stormed into the house and figured if they turned the lights off and remained quiet, you might give up looking for them and leave? Were they somehow tipped off that something was amiss and took refuge in the cellar? How the hell are we going to get them out of there?”
Manny said, “Enough with the questions. I don’t give a shit why they’re down there. All I want to do is get them out of there alive or dead. I damn near bought the farm when I turned my flashlight on. That was a dumb move on my part. I figured if I couldn’t see them they couldn’t see me and therefore I was out of their line of fire. I figured wrong and almost paid for it with my life.”
Abby volunteered, “The way I see it, we can starve them out or flush them out. I’m running out of patience with these scumbags, so I opt for flushing them out.”
Manny said, “I’m with you. We have tear gas grenades that should do the job.”
No sooner were the words out of his mouth when bullets started to come up through the floor all over the downstairs area. It was like the rodents could hear what they were saying and were trying to prevent the action by killing all of them. They just made it out the front door when the floor where they were standing was riddled with bullets. Pete said, “The cellar must run the entire length and width of the house. Who’s going to be the brave soul to sneak over to the cellar door and throw the grenades down the stairs? With all those holes, the remaining floor is going to squeak like a rusty hinge when someone steps on it. They’ll know where to shoot.”
Manny said, “Damn it, you’re right and we don’t have any grenade launchers with us.”
One of Manny’s men piped up with, “Manny, Gil here was a pretty good quarterback in college. He might be able to toss a few in from here.”
Looking at Gil Manny asked, “That’s a pretty narrow opening from this angle, Gil. Do you think you can do it? If you miss, we’ll have to deal with the fall out up here without gas masks and we only have four grenades between us. It’s going to take at least three of them to do the job down there.”
