Witness Protection 2: The Return of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

by Holly Copella

  “You think Sal--?”

  “I don’t know,” Lee muttered and shook her head. “I can’t believe Sal is involved with the mafia, but the fed suspects the killer used the penthouse elevator, which points right back at Sal.” She shook the thoughts from her head. “I’d rather not think about it tonight.”

  Lee was about to drink her wine when there was a gentle knock on the door. Both women exchanged puzzled looks. Lee felt her heart pounding in her chest and attempted to keep her imagination in check.

  “It’s nearly ten o’clock,” Tonya announced in a hushed whisper. “Who would that be?”

  Lee was about to get up when Tonya leaped to her feet and hurried past her to the door. She looked through the peek hole. Panic filled her as she spun to face Lee, who now stood. Tonya’s look frightened her.

  “It’s Sal,” Tonya gasped softly. “What do I do?”

  Lee relaxed slightly, although her body still trembled from the initial knock on the door. “It’s okay, Tonya. Let him in,” she replied. “He’s not involved in any of this.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  Tonya took a deep breath, unbolted the door, and pulled it open. She smiled politely at Sal.

  “Sal,” she announced with a false cheerful tone. “What are you doing here?”

  “I came to check on Lee,” he announced with a look of concern on his face. “When I got back from my meeting, I’d heard what happened.” He looked past Tonya to Lee and immediately turned sympathetic. “Are you okay, Lee?”

  She attempted a smile and nodded. “Physically, I’m fine.”

  Sal crossed the room and extended his hands to her. She uncertainly accepted his hands. As he looked into her eyes, she couldn’t see anything that indicated this man was a killer. Although, she supposed she wouldn’t.

  “Don’t feel any pressure to return to work until you’re ready,” he announced gently. “If there’s anything you need, you let me know. I’m here for you.”

  “Thank you, Sal,” Lee replied. “I appreciate that.”

  He released her hands and glanced at both women. “I don’t want to intrude. I know you’re probably exhausted, so I’ll leave you two. You know how to reach me, if you need me.”

  Lee nodded and watched her boss leave the apartment. Tonya appeared surprised and shut the door behind him.

  “Well, that was--weird,” Tanya remarked.

  “He’s just being thoughtful.”

  “That’s one way of looking at it,” her friend muttered then offered a smile. “One more glass of wine, and then I’m ready to call it a night.”

  Tonya returned to the sofa and picked up her empty wineglass from the coffee table. Lee collected her full glass and headed into the kitchen.

  “I’ve had enough,” Lee replied with a dreary sigh. “I’m going to hide under the covers and pretend this day never happened.”

  She dumped her wine into the sink and rinsed her glass. Tonya leaned on the counter, watched her friend, and then lifted the empty bottle of wine.

  “Well, rather than open another bottle, I guess I’ll fix the guest sofa for myself,” Tonya announced.

  “You don’t have to stay, Tonya,” Lee informed her. “I’ll be fine, really. I don’t want to inconvenience you.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” she announced and abruptly straightened. “I’m your friend. You’d do the same for me.”

  “I appreciate that,” Lee remarked and smiled warmly. “See you in the morning. Good night.”

  “Night, Lee.”

  Lee headed into the bedroom and partially closed the door to reduce light from the living room while Tonya made up the sofa for her bed.

  Chapter Six

  It was nearly two in the morning when Lee woke from her light sleep for no apparent reason. She turned over in bed and, through the darkness, saw the outline of a man standing over her bedside. Lee jumped up in bed and attempted to scream, but the man already had his hand over her mouth and pushed her back onto the mattress with all his weight. His muscular body nearly crushed her, and his face was close to hers.

  “You wouldn’t want to alert your friend, now would you?” he whispered in a low, husky voice. “I wouldn’t want to hurt her. Either you tell me what I want to know, or neither of you are making it out of here alive. Got that?”

  Lee mechanically nodded out of fear. He removed his hand from her mouth but maintained his weight on her body, keeping her pinned to the bed.

  “Where’s the flash drive?” he demanded softly but in a threatening tone.

  Her mind was racing, but his question made no sense. “What flash drive?” she gasped softly.

  “The one Wiley intended to turn over to the fed. I know he was meeting you at the diner tonight,” he growled. “The flash drive he had on him was blank, which means he gave you the real one.” His tone was so matter-of-fact it frightened her. “Where is it? Give it to me, and I’ll let you live.”

  Lee stared at the man’s silhouette through the darkness. There was something almost familiar about him. She was certain he was someone she knew. A thousand scenarios raced through her mind, and every single one ended with him killing her. She didn’t believe him when he said he wouldn’t kill her or Tonya. For all she knew, Tonya was already dead. The thought sent chills down her spine. His body against hers while keeping her pinned to the bed was almost enough to keep her paralyzed with fear. She raced for the response that would buy her the most time and possibly get him off her. Lee nodded across the dark room.

  “It’s in my purse,” she lied softly.

  He moved off her while keeping his hand securely on her wrist and, with great force, pulled her from the bed with him. She nearly fell to the floor from his strength, but he kept her from falling. She clutched his lower arm to catch her balance before he pulled her to the chair by the door. Her senses exploded to the feel of his skin and tight muscles on his bare, lower arm. She was convinced it was Jericho! Sal had sent his strong man to recover some flash drive that he believed Wiley gave her! She couldn’t believe Agent Falcone had been right. It was true! Sal had Wiley killed! While clutching her wrist to keep her from escaping, he dumped the contents of her purse onto the chair. She had stupidly thought he’d either let her go to recover her purse or allow her to retrieve the flash drive she knew she didn’t have. She attempted to pull away from him as he routed through the contents of her bag spread out across the chair. He yanked her by her wrist with force, causing her to fall to her knees near his feet, and stood over her without releasing her.

  “Where is it?” he demanded in a slightly louder tone.

  She struggled to free her hand from his grip. “It was in my purse, I swear,” she easily lied, although the panic in her voice was real.

  She saw the mace disguised as lipstick had fallen on the floor near the foot of the chair. It was only inches from her reach. Lee grabbed the tube in the darkness, even though she knew he would see her.

  “Here it is,” she announced and popped the lid casing as he violently pulled her to her feet.

  Lee raised the tube to his face and plunged her index finger into the firm lipstick. She gasped with horror, realizing she’d grabbed an actual tube of lipstick instead of the one containing mace. Realizing that he’d been deceived, he nearly pulled her off her feet by her wrist and violently shook her.

  “That was a mistake,” he growled while nearly pulling her arm from its socket.

  Lee screamed and thrust the tube of lipstick for his eye. Unfortunately, she missed her intended target, and instead struck him just beneath his eye. Although missing his eye, it had caused him enough pain to cry out and release her. Lee thrust her knee into his groin and bolted from the room as he clutched himself while dropping to his knees. As Lee ran across the living room, Tonya stepped out of the nearby bathroom and nearly collided with her. Both women screamed. Lee grabbed her friend’s hand.

  “We have to go! Now!”

  Before Tonya could question her or protest, Lee was pul
ling her to the apartment door. Both women, in their bare feet, ran along the well-lit corridor.

  “What’s happening?” Tonya cried out with alarm.

  Jericho stepped into the hallway outside the apartment and looked in their direction. Despite the pink lipstick caked beneath his left eye, he was a menacing sight. Tonya stared back at the large, intimidating man with a look of horror while Lee pulled her toward the stairs. Jericho charged down the hallway for them with his teeth gritted and a nasty scowl on his face. Tonya attempted to pull free from Lee’s firm grip.

  “Not the stairs,” Tonya gasped with alarm. “We can’t outrun him.”

  “We don’t have to,” Lee announced and stopped short of the stairs just before the fire pull station. Without hesitation, she pulled the fire alarm. As the alarm wailed, both looked back at Jericho with frightened anticipation. He stopped in the center of the corridor while looking around. Apartment doors quickly opened and residents began filtering into the corridor. Jericho sneered at both women then ran for the opposite fire stairs.

  “We should lock ourselves in the apartment,” Tonya announced and attempted to pull her back toward the apartment.

  “No,” Lee announced and pulled her friend toward the large group of people now heading for the fire stairs closest to them. “Safety in numbers.”

  †

  Both women sat in the bland police station interrogation room still dressed in their sleepwear and nothing to cover their bare feet. Tonya sat in the chair before the table with one leg neatly crossed over the other while bundled in a fire blanket. Her leg bounced around while she chewed on her fingernails, casting stray looks at her restless friend. Lee paced the interrogation room in her bare feet that were almost black from the dirty police station floor. She alternated wrenching her fingers together and running them through her mussed hair. Lee wore a borrowed policeman’s jacket to conceal her mostly see through tank top with no bra beneath it, leaving little to the imagination. The jacket nearly reached the bottom of her floppy shorts.

  “Jericho,” Tonya muttered with her fingernail in her mouth. “I can’t believe it was Jericho.” She vigorously shook her head while staring blankly at nothing. “And to think, I actually considered sleeping with him.”

  “Not all killers are hideously ugly with scars on their faces,” Lee muttered.

  “Yeah, but you have to admit, Finn looks more like a killer than Jericho.”

  “Just because Finn is creepy, that doesn’t mean he’s the killer type.”

  “If Jericho is a killer, it’s because he’s working for Sal,” Tonya warned her. “If Sal wants us dead, we’re completely screwed. We shouldn’t be here. If what your fed said about Sal is true, he probably owns half the police force.”

  “We don’t know that Sal is involved in organized crime or any of this for that matter,” Lee informed her and increased the rate of her pacing. It was becoming more difficult to convince herself of Sal’s innocence. “We don’t know Jericho was acting on Sal’s orders.”

  “Be serious, Lee,” Tonya nearly exploded and stared at her friend. “Jericho isn’t capable of being the brains. He’s all brawn; you know that. Someone is pulling his strings, and that someone has to be Sal.” Her look was demanding. “Do you honestly want to rat out the mob?”

  “I’m pretty sure I don’t want to die,” Lee responded. “My chances of staying alive are better in a police station than they are out there.”

  Tonya rested her elbows on the table and allowed her head to fall into her hands. She groaned softly then threw her hands defensively in the air and glared at her friend.

  “Why did you have to feel sorry for Wiley?” Tonya suddenly cried out, startling Lee. Tonya attempted to collect her emotions and spoke softer. “If you’d just left him alone in his misery, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

  Lee glared at her friend with an astonished look. She couldn’t believe Tonya was blaming her for befriending a lonely man going through a tough time. She loved Tonya, but she wasn’t happy with her right now. Wiley was dead! Murdered! No one deserved that. The door opened, causing both women to jump with alarm. Holden Falcone entered the interrogation room, shut the door behind him, and stared at them.

  “Who wants coffee?” he asked almost politely. “It’s going to be a long night.”

  Lee took several quick steps toward Holden and stopped only a foot in front of him.

  “Did you search my apartment?” she quickly asked with concern. “Did you find the flash drive Jericho was looking for?”

  “We searched your entire apartment, but we didn’t find any flash drive.” He straightened proudly and drew a deep breath. “Look, I know you’ve been through a lot, but we’re going to need to take your statements before we move you to a safe house. If we’re lucky, we’ll get this all straightened out and have Jericho in custody by morning.”

  “And if we’re not lucky?” Tonya asked.

  He frowned at the thought and folded his arms across his chest. “Then we’ll be spending a lot of time together until we catch a break.”

  “Define a lot of time,” Lee remarked gently.

  “Anywhere from a few days to a few months,” he replied.

  Both women groaned. Tonya gently pounded her head against the table before her.

  Chapter Seven

  An abandoned, dilapidated warehouse boldly sat on a corner lot in the moderately undesirable area of the city’s business district. It was just before sunrise and several unsavory characters stumbled along the sidewalks, possibly heading home after an all-night bender of substance abuse. A black SUV drove up to the abandoned warehouse through the severely bent although functional gate in the chain-link fence. A beat-up black sedan with a coating of dirt on its slightly dented finish followed behind as they stopped before the building. A plain clothed officer got out of the sedan and surveyed the area. When all was clear, he nodded to the SUV. Agent Holden Falcone and both women got out of the vehicle. Lee and Tonya, who secured a change of clothes, looked across the dirty building. They shared similar distaste and followed Holden into the dilapidated warehouse. The plain clothed police officer followed them inside carrying a duffel bag for each woman.

  “Not to complain, Agent Falcone,” Tonya announced timidly while looking around at the cobweb-infested rattrap that looked worse on the inside. “But couldn’t you come up with someplace a little less--”

  “--like a roach motel,” Lee muttered while grimacing at a large spider crawling across the floor.

  Lee wasn’t stuck-up, but she wasn’t prepared to spend a few weeks or longer sharing a bunk with a bunch of crackheads. Somehow, eluding a killer seemed the lesser of two evils at the moment.

  “Trust me,” Holden announced while hiding his grin. “It’s nicer on the inside.”

  “Uh, we are inside,” Tonya remarked.

  “Not exactly.”

  Holden lifted a rusted panel to expose a digital keypad. He pressed several numbers and an electronic hum followed, opening the door. He stood aside and allowed the women to enter first. They uncertainly entered the massive, studio apartment. The well-appointed, two-story apartment was roughly the size of a house with an open floor plan. There were at least four bedrooms upstairs. The first floor had a kitchen, living room, dining room, and game room combined all in one. The tastefully furnished room contained high-end electronic equipment and a large screen television. Tonya grinned her approval.

  “Okay, now this is more like it,” Tonya announced while scanning the large area. “Just tell me where the hot tub is, and we’re in business.”

  “Sorry, there’s no hot tub,” he replied.

  Lee stared at the large windows lining the backside of the room then looked at Holden with concern.

  “I’m not comfortable with those large windows,” Lee announced timidly.

  “Think of those windows as large two-way mirrors,” he informed them. “You can see out, but no one can see in. To anyone on the outside, they look like they’re coated
with dirt, and they’re also bulletproof.”

  Holden gave a nod to the plain clothed officer, indicating that he could leave. He left their bags and headed out.

  “All four bedrooms are essentially panic rooms,” Holden informed them. “If the alarm sounds, you have ten seconds before the bedroom doors seal. Anything short of an atomic bomb isn’t getting through.”

  Both women eyed the bedrooms on the second floor then exchanged looks.

  “And if we’re not in one of the four bedrooms?” Lee asked with concern. “Can I assume that’s our only exit? If someone gets in, are we sitting ducks?”

  “There’s an emergency exit on the first and second floor,” Holden replied then straightened proudly. “I’ve grown paranoid over the last few years. I’m not a fan of safe houses without emergency escape routes.”

  “Where’s this emergency escape route?” Tonya asked. “I mean, if you’re killed, I’d like to know the backup plan.”

  Holden indicated for them to follow him to the stairs leading to the second floor. He lifted a fake light switch plate to reveal a simple, red button.

  “You press this and the wall opens up,” he announced. “There’s an identical one at the top of the stairs. Once this button is pressed, the alarm sounds and we’re in lockdown. There’s no escape through the main door, and the bedroom doors seal. The emergency exits become the only escape route. Once that emergency door closes behind you, there’s no returning.”

  “And anyone not through that door is suddenly trapped with the bad guys breaking in?” Lee asked.

  “Every security feature has its risks,” he replied. “If things go south, we always have the option of tossing in a few canisters of knockout gas, and it’s nighty night bad guys.”

  Lee let out a nervous laugh while rubbing her chilled arms. “Wow, you guys really thought of everything.”

  “I had a particularly difficult case once,” Holden announced. “Motivated killers with a long reach and deep pockets; and a spirited witness, who was a bit of a flight risk and a major pain in the ass.”