“Sheriff O’Brian is attempting to get Cantrell’s attention and lure him out, so we can drop him. Do you understand me?” Ralston nodded calmly, and Steve removed the tape from Ralston’s mouth, and there was some material inside his mouth. Steve pulled it out, and Ralston said, “Is this a bitch or what? Fuck! You become the chief of police, and everyone thinks you’re responsible for the ills of a whole damn department.” Steve moved down and cut the zip ties, and Albert sat up as did Steve, and he asked, “So what now, Agent Hoffman?” “We are going to slip out of this area. There is an elevator just over to our left. I’m going to need your help standing up.” Ralston helped Steve up, and he leaned him against a pillar near the center of the quad. Steve said, “Now, you get over to the elevator and take it down to the ground floor and wait for back up.” Ralston looked at Steve and said, “What about you?” “I will be fine. He’s only looking to kill LAPD. I had a run in with him earlier tonight. He’s not looking to kill me, but he wants to kill you. Now…get going.”
Albert moved across the quad and pressed the button for the elevator. In a matter of seconds, Steve heard it ding, and the light of the elevator lit up the area. The doors closed, and Steve was alone.
Cantrell heard Jim’s voice calling his name from the distance. He slipped and slid in the blood and fought to get his footing. He was covered in blood as was the security guard on the ground at his feet. “You get a stay of execution while I deal with Sheriff O’Brian,” Cantrell said, making his way out of the storage closet and out to the quad. He ran to a nearby ladder and climbed up onto the roof. He was raging angry and talking to himself the whole way. He moved on his stomach on the white roof that glowed bright in the moonlight, and he moved to the edge of the roof covering with a high-powered rifle in his hands. He heard Jim yelling and cursing as he walked in his direction.
“Where are you, you son of a bitch? Get your ass out here, and I will clean the fuckin’ ground with you.” Jim was screaming at the top of his lungs. He was walking freely in the moonlight…an easy target for anyone. He had his weapon out, and he was waving it in the air, taunting Cantrell.
Cantrell let out a laugh, not loud enough for Jim to hear, but loud enough for the Eagle to hear just two rooftops over. The Eagle crawled to the edge of the roof but could not get a good shot at Cantrell. He could see Jim walking right into an ambush, and there was nothing he could do to stop it without giving away his position. The Eagle grabbed his tranquilizer gun from his hip and aimed it at Jim. He had the angle on Jim and took the shot. Jim stopped, looked around, and then said, “Son of a fuckin’ bitch, not again!” and collapsed onto the ground.
Cantrell had Jim in his sights and was about to pull the trigger when he saw him collapse. He let out a slight laugh and said, “You had a fuckin’ heart attack, you dumb ass. Now, if you’re here, so is the damn Eagle.” Cantrell put his eye into the scope and began to scan the ground. The Eagle saw Cantrell and pushed himself up on his knees and then to his feet and moved silently from rooftop to rooftop until he and Cantrell were on the same walkway covering.
The Eagle laid down and began to crawl silently in Cantrell’s direction. Jim started to kick his leg as he began to come to, and Cantrell saw it but wasn’t concerned. The Eagle watched as Cantrell moved the scope side to side and then stopped. The Eagle knew Cantrell had locked on a target.
The Eagle had pulled out his tranquilizer gun and was moving to aim it at him when Cantrell said, “If it’s not the Iron fuckin’ Eagle. I told the sheriff and the FBI agent with him that I bear you no ill will, and I had no intention of killing you unless you tried to stop me, and I can see that you are indeed here to do so.” The Eagle raised the tranquilizer gun and fired, striking Cantrell in the back of the leg. He jerked but stayed focused on his target. The Eagle heard a soft sound emanate from Cantrell’s weapon and realized that Cantrell had fired. The Eagle moved fast to take control of him and saw the pant legs of a figure shrouded in darkness.
Jim was coming to but was way too woozy to move or say anything. He heard the sound of a bell like that of an elevator and saw a dark figure moving in the direction of Cantrell’s voice. He heard Cantrell calling out to the Eagle, but he was confused. He tried to reach for his weapon but collapsed back down onto the concrete and was out cold.
Albert Ralston had gotten on the elevator and then off. He remained on the main level with Steve. He heard Cantrell yelling and calling out to the Iron Eagle. He moved in the darkness back to where Steve had released him, but Steve was gone. Ralston was half in moonlight and half darkness when he heard what sounded like a puff of air. He knew immediately it was the sound of a silencer on a fired weapon.
Sara was barking out instructions to the girls as she was trying to help the victims of Mark El Compo and Mary Rogers. Barbara restrained Mark and Mary together in operating room number two until the Eagle decided where he wanted them. Gail had no medical education, but she was trying to help one of the girls who was bleeding profusely from her side. She called out to Sara and said, “Sara, this poor girl is bleeding from her side. I don’t know what to do.” Sara said, “Jade, get to Gail. See what the cause of the bleed is and see if you can stop it.”
Jade ran across the room to Gail who was on her knees in a puddle of blood. “Oh shit, Sara. It looks like this is an old wound that has reopened just above this kid’s right kidney.” Sara asked if she could cauterize it. “Jesus Christ, Sara. I don’t even know where the bleed is. She’s losing blood fast.” Sara yelled to Barbara who was tending to two other girls and said, “Barb, go to the fridge in OR one. You will find O negative in the right hand sliding drawer of the unit. Grab three of them and an IV bag then grab an IV kit from the top shelf and bring it to Jade, stat.” Barbara jumped up and disappeared and was back in less than a minute with everything that Sara had asked for.
Jade said, “Sara, I can’t see shit…” Sara ran over, and she and Barbara grabbed the girl under her arms and carried her to OR three. Jade was hot on their heels with everything that Barbara had brought her. As they walked down the hall, Jade saw the bloody hands and feet of Alverez who was in a sitting position on a gurney, mumbling in agony. She saw two other people strapped down in another room, and then she followed Sara and Barbara into the operating room and helped them get the girl on the gurney. She was still bleeding profusely, and Sara placed a heart rate monitor on her finger. She barely had a pulse.
Sara called Jade and said, “There’s no time to scrub. Pull that table next to you over.” Jade pulled over a steel tray that had scalpels and silk thread for sutures and handed items to Sara as she ordered them. Barbara started an IV and got the blood going while Sara operated. Jade was in a cloud and lost herself for a moment. Sara yelled out and said, “Jade, are you a goddamn doctor or not?”
Jade snapped out of it and handed her another instrument while responding, “I’m sorry. I’m always dealing with death, not ever trying to save lives.” “Well, welcome to the other side. It is my life’s work to keep people alive…” Sara paused, “most of the time.” Jade shivered as she watched Sara work, and after ten minutes of operating she had stopped the bleeding, and the girl had stabilized. Sara said, “That’s a quick fix. We have to get her to the hospital.” Barbara said, “We have to wait for the Eagle.” Sara nodded, and the three women walked out of the operating room, leaving the girl in stable condition.
The Eagle cuffed and hog tied Cantrell and was looking over the edge of the roof when he saw a man step out from the darkness near the legs on the ground. He called out, and the man looked up. Jim was sitting up and started to push himself up all the while calling Cantrell’s name. The Eagle called out to Jim and said, “Cantrell is down, Jim. I have him. Someone is down on the ground. Cantrell got off a shot after I darted him. He thought he was shooting at me.” Jim got to the edge of the landing and walked into the darkness, and the Eagle heard him cry out, “NO…NO…NO!”
The Eagle grabbe
d the edge of the roof covering and dropped to the ground and ran over to where Jim was calling out. There, on the ground, half lit and half in darkness was Steve Hoffman with a bullet wound to his chest. He was gasping for air, and Jim was holding him in his arms. The Eagle was standing next to the man he saw from the roof and said, “Chief Ralston, I assume?” Ralston nodded. The Eagle took out his tranquilizer gun and shot Ralston in the chest. The Eagle said, “I’m sorry for this, but it’s for your own protection.”
The Eagle took off his mask and looked into Steve’s eyes and asked, “Why, Steve? What were you thinking?” Steve coughed a little and said, “To keep the Iron Eagle alive. I saw you behind Cantrell. I knew he would kill you. It’s okay. It doesn’t hurt anymore.” Steve’s eyes dilated as Jim held him in his arms. John hung his head down, and a tear dripped onto Steve’s hand. Jim said, “We are not leaving him here, John.” “No, Jim. We are not. Let me get Cantrell. We can call this in. I will zip tie Ralston, and we will take Steve home.”
Jim held Steve close as the Eagle moved to get Cantrell’s unconscious body off the roof. When he made it down and back to Jim, he threw Cantrell on the ground and said, “Get Steve’s wheelchair.” Jim found it only a few feet away and rolled it over to John who was holding Steve in his arms as a father would hold a child. John gently sat Steve in the chair and said, “Take him down to your car and head for Malibu.” Jim looked on and said, “What are you going to do?” Jim could see that the line between the Eagle and John was now blurred. Jim didn’t know if he was talking to John or the Eagle, and he could tell the same was the situation for John. The Eagle pulled his mask back on and said, “I will be behind you with Cantrell. I have to check and see if there are other casualties.” Jim turned, pushing Steve’s body in the wheelchair slowly back to the parking lot as the Eagle ran through the quad looking for survivors. He was about to climb up the ladder that Cantrell had been lying in front of when he heard a faint male voice calling out for help. The Eagle listened and followed the sound of the voice until he got to the doorway that was marked ‘Storage.’ He pushed the door open, but there was no light. He felt for a switch and found it. He turned on the light and saw one of the most gruesome scenes he had ever encountered.
There was a sea of bodies, some in LAPD uniforms, and others in gray uniforms. All were head shot, and blood and skull fragments were everywhere. The Eagle grabbed a pair of cleaning booties from a shelf and put them on his feet. He tried not to slip as he made his way through the piles of corpses looking for any sign of life. He was about to leave when he heard a murmur and saw one of the bodies move. He pulled the body over, and there was an uninjured officer underneath one of the corpses.
The Eagle grabbed the man who was bound and covered in blood, and the guard started to stammer and stutter incoherently. “You’re safe. He won’t be coming back,” the Eagle said. The officer said, “He just kept killing, one after another after another. The more he killed, the more brutal, and the faster he moved to kill the others. He was going to kill me until he heard a voice I heard, too. He said it was the sheriff.”
The Eagle shook his head, “It wasn’t the sheriff. It was the chief of police who had been abducted and brought here to be killed in a very, very public way. What’s your name?” “Robert…Robert Willits.” “You’re in a security guard uniform. Are you off duty LAPD working here?” He nodded slowly and said, “Yea, I’m a detective out of Hollywood division. I picked up this job to make a few bucks and help out some of my friends here.” Willits pointed to the dead bodies and said, “To keep something like this from happening.” The Eagle nodded and helped Robert up and walked him out. He marked the door with a black marker with a crime scene line and walked Willits out to where Chief Ralston was lying on a bench. “Is he dead?” The Eagle shook his head and said, “No, just unconscious for his own protection.” The sun was starting to rise and cast its light into the shadows. The Eagle looked over to see a pool of blood where Steve had been shot. He looked at his PDA, and it was ten after six.
“What now?” Willits asked the Eagle. “Do you have a cell phone?” Willits nodded. “Call 911. You know what to tell them. You and the chief are the only surviving officers. Get them here and explain what happened, so they can start to work this scene.” Willits looked at the Eagle and said, “But I don’t really know what happened. Some nut job took all of us hostage and then murdered everyone. How do I explain this?” The Eagle stood up and said, “The scene will explain itself. Make the call.” He started to walk off, and Willits asked, “You saved me and the chief. Who are you?” Without looking back, he said, “I’m the Iron Eagle, and on this day I was only able to save a few.” Willits looked on at the hulking figure walking away from him and said, “You saved me and the chief. You saved someone.” “This time it wasn’t enough.” Willits watched as the Eagle disappeared. He pulled his phone and called 911.
The Eagle picked up Cantrell and threw him over his shoulder. He was starting to come to as the Eagle threw him in the back of his truck. He took off his mask, started the truck, and headed for the 405 Freeway and Malibu. Cantrell called out to the Eagle in a groggy voice and asked, “Where am I, and where am I going?” The Eagle said, “You are in the custody of the Iron Eagle, and where you’re going is into a literal living hell.” Cantrell was screaming in the back of the truck, and the Eagle did nothing to stop him.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Because Mark is unable to make it,
so a friend sent me to finish you.”
All was quiet when Brian Boyd pulled up in front of the remains of his home. It was half past nine a.m. He didn’t have the whole story, but he knew that the threat had been neutralized. He also knew that only he and the chief of police had survived the night. He looked around at the homes near his own. The windows were blown out of several of them, but there were no injuries. His house had crime scene tape around it, and he showed his ID to an officer on duty, watching over the house and was allowed to pass. Boyd walked onto the concrete where his front door once stood. He walked into the house and walked through the area. There was a yellow tarp in the family room where the remains of Marco Estrada had landed after the explosion. He walked to the backyard, pulled out his cell phone, and called for Mark El Compo. A woman answered the line, and he asked for Mark but was told he was out. He asked when he might be in, and she asked who was calling. He told her his name, but it had no impact on her. Boyd got pissed and said, “You listen to me, bitch, I’m the only fuckin’ cop left who can take care of business for him. If he wants to keep from having an accident, you tell that fucker to call me NOW! I’m the man in charge of the LAPD, and I can make his life a nightmare if he doesn’t give me what I want.” There were a few moments of silence, then the female voice said, “Mr. El Compo will meet you at the Starbucks at the corner of Reseda Boulevard and Ventura Boulevard in a half hour.” “Now that’s fuckin’ better. You sound like a sweet piece of ass. Tell him to bring you with him. I want a blow job.” “As you wish.”
The line went dead, and Brian took off as fast as he could to get to the Starbucks in Tarzana. He was excited and said to himself as he drove down Topanga to Ventura Boulevard, “I’m in the catbird seat now, man. Mark will have to deal with me and me alone. If he wants my protection, it’s going to be a fifty-fifty split, or I will throw his ass in jail. Jesus, I’m going to be rich, and I can dump Cindy and the rest of the family and start my own fuckin’ harem.” He sped off to his meeting, smiling from ear to ear.
Sara hung up the line and looked over at John, sitting on the edge of a chair in the foyer. John called Lance and Patrick and told them to make sure some harm came to Brian Boyd. They said they would take care of him and hung up. John sat in the foyer with Sara; Jim was sitting off to his right with Barbara next to him. Gail was on her knees in front of the couch where Steve’s body lay. She stroked his head. His face was peaceful. Jade stood off in a corner of the room in shock.
Gail aske
d, “Did he suffer?” John told her no. Gail looked over at Jim for confirmation, and he shook his head in agreement. John looked down at her and said, “I’m sorry, Gail. I had no idea he was in the line of fire.” She spoke through the tears and said, “He always looked up to you, John. He told me that finding you was the best thing that ever happened to the Bureau.” John was choking back his own tears and said, “He taught me a lot, and I’m proud to have known him. I just wish he hadn’t died the way he did. He died saving me.” Gail stood up and walked over to John and said, “I loved Steve with all my heart, John. If there was a way to die for Steve, dying in the line of duty protecting a fellow officer in the face of danger was exactly how he wanted to go. This spared him the indignity of dying a horrible death with ALS. I know that wherever he is, if there is something after this life, he’s happy.” She leaned in and kissed John on the cheek and went back over to be with Steve.
Jim looked at the room full of people and said, “He was one of my best friends. We walked a lot of roads together. He died doing what he loved, and the fact that he saved Special Agent John Swenson and the Iron Eagle is more than he could have ever hoped for given his illness.” Heads nodded around the room, and Jade said, “I don’t mean to sound callous, but we need to get Steve on ice. He’s decomposing as we speak.” John and Jim got angry looks on their faces for only a brief moment, then they realized that Jade was right.
Sara asked, “While everything that you all have said about Steve and what he did is true, how are you going to have him listed as being killed in the line of duty?” Jim and John looked at each other, and John said, “He will be found shot in Cantrell’s home.” “And what about Cantrell?” Sara asked. “The Eagle will extract a confession from Cantrell that will verify the story, ballistics will match Cantrell’s weapon, showing Steve was shot and had fallen in the line of duty. That’s the easy part. Living without his presence, far more difficult.” No one asked any more questions about what the Eagle was going to do to Cantrell. Jim and John moved to take Steve’s body to Cantrell’s home and set up the crime scene.
Death's Valley Page 17
