Shooting Star

by Bradley Wright

  “Well, they both tried to use me to get what they wanted. So let’s use me to get what we want. I go to Frank and tell him that I know that Sloan’s enforcer, Diego, kidnapped Lexi and that I want Sloan for it.”

  Cassie said, “Okay, but why would he believe you now? What’s in it for you?”

  “A big part for Lexi in the movie when it gets turned over to Victoria. I’ll tell him it’s the least he can do for me getting rid of Sloan and for him trying to use Lexi in the process.”

  Claudia said, “It’s a reach, but he wants Sloan so bad he might go for it.”

  Jenny asked, “But how does that help us get what we want? You can go get Sloan without going to tell Frank first.”

  “Let me put it all together for you. Besides, going to Frank will keep him off my back while we pull this together.”

  “Okay, so what next?” Claudia prompted.

  “Then I’ll go to Sloan. Tell him I know that Frank has Victoria, and convince him that I believe Frank was behind all of it. And because he involved Lexi, I want him to pay for it. He already thinks I am working to get Frank anyway. Back at the Library Bar when Hector said he worked for Frank, I told Sloan to stage the kidnapping of his son and plant him somewhere remote. I was going to let that be what brought Frank down, but now that I know about Sloan and his involvement in all of this, I know he was never going to stage the kidnapping. He just wanted out of there alive, and he was happy to see me leave and go after Frank.”

  “All right,” Cassie said. She was still unsure. “So you have them both thinking you’re taking out the other guy. How does this come together?”

  “I tell Frank about how I convinced Sloan to stage the kidnapping. Tell him I know where Sloan is keeping his son and that Frank can go get him and use Sloan’s son to get whatever he wants out of him. Whether it’s to get Sloan to turn himself in for all the things he had Diego do, or whether it’s just to get whatever revenge he wants, I’ll let Frank use his imagination.”

  “And Sloan?” Jenny asked.

  “I tell Sloan where Frank is going to be once Frank’s headed where I tell him Sloan’s son is being held. Then Sloan can do what he wants with Frank. Either way, one of them is going to kill the other one, and because we know where it’s all going down, we can be ready to move in and take down the man left standing.”

  The car was quiet for a bit. Everyone was taking in Lawson’s plan.

  “You really think you can pull all that off? Tonight?” Jenny said.

  Lawson nodded to Claudia. “With the FBI’s help, definitely. You just have to keep it from Frank.”

  Claudia nodded in return. “We can do this. I already know a good location for where we say Sloan’s son is being held. I’ll have a task force set everything up.”

  “So what do you need me to do?” Jenny still wasn’t 100 percent on board.

  “You were Clint’s tech genius, right?”

  “Right.”

  “We don’t have time for Claudia to outfit us with tracking devices and cameras. But I’m assuming you have those things?”

  Jenny perked up. “Oh yeah. I have stuff that is undetectable for you to wear. We’ll catch the entire thing. And I have some GPS bugs so small it’s hard to hold them.”

  “Perfect,” Lawson said. “We don’t have much time. Claudia, set a meeting with Frank for Cassie and me. Somewhere public. He’s going to want to know why you haven’t checked in. Tell him I recognized you outside the Roosevelt Hotel and that I have been forcing you to help me ever since. You’ll have to really sell it. Then get a team to whatever location you choose. Let me know where before I see Frank so I can tell him that’s where Sloan’s son will be.

  “Jenny, you can take us now and get me ready to capture everything Frank and Sloan say. We are going to need this evidence later, so I’m trusting you with maybe the most important piece of this. You said you wanted to help. Your camera and tracking work might just be the very thing that takes down these bastards responsible for Clint’s death.”

  Jenny gave a devilish grin. “I am so in.”

  “What about Lexi?” Cassie said.

  “I’ll take her to headquarters,” Claudia said. “She’ll be safe in my office. And I have snacks and satellite.”

  Lawson looked her in the eye. “This is my entire world. You’re sure she’ll be safe?”

  “She won’t leave my side. And Alyson owes me a favor at the office. Plus I’ll put a DOJ agent on the building to make sure she doesn’t leave.”

  Lawson didn’t like leaving Lexi, but if he could pull this thing off, he knew she would be much safer in the long run. “Okay. I trust you. Listen, I need a phone.”

  Claudia reached inside her purse. “Take this one. It’s my phone I use to stay in contact with the DOJ. No one knows about it. I’ll text you from my FBI phone so you’ll have my number if you need anything, and I’ll text the fake location as soon as it’s set for sure.”

  Lawson nodded, then gave Lexi a hug and kiss good-bye. He hated leaving her, and she was scared to leave him, but it was the only way. Lawson watched as she and Claudia pulled out of the Pavilions parking lot; then he and Cassie got into Jenny’s car and headed toward Clint’s office to get fitted with all the technical gadgets. He could tell by the look on Cassie’s face that she wasn’t sold on Lawson’s big idea.

  That didn’t surprise him, though, because neither was he.

  43

  The next hour went about as well as it could go. Lawson thought multiple times, as Claudia was reporting back about securing the site and the meeting with Frank, that it would be about damn time for him to get a couple breaks. He managed to get a status update on Taylor; she wasn’t out of the woods yet but her condition was stable. At Clint’s office, Jenny fitted Lawson with a button camera that she attached to the lapel of his suit jacket. He’d retrieved the suit jacket out of his car that he and Cassie had abandoned earlier when they ran from the police. Frank was busy, probably stashing Victoria somewhere, so in the gap before the meeting with him, Lawson decided to go ahead and see Sloan.

  Sloan of course was wary at first. But Lawson knew to play to his ego, which all crime bosses have; it’s their universal trait. Though his ego wasn’t nearly as bad as De Luca’s was, Sloan still wanted you to know he was the man. Lawson let him have that, and the explanation of everything went well. He wasn’t surprised to hear that Frank had Victoria. Yet Sloan didn’t know Lawson knew he had worked with Frank, so Sloan continued to play it off that indeed Frank was evil for doing such terrible things to Lawson and his daughter.

  There were more than a few moments during the meeting where Lawson nearly lost his cool. To sit across from the man who tried to have you killed, and wouldn’t have hesitated to have your daughter killed either, was another level of self-discipline. Something Lawson hadn’t always been good at. He would have never been in that situation if he wasn’t planning to take both of these bastards down. He could do just that if everything went according to plan. And if he could just keep his cool.

  Thankfully, he did with Sloan.

  Now Lawson and Cassie were sitting outside Lost & Found, a dive bar close to the Santa Monica Airport on National Boulevard. He wanted to be more open with Cassie about his meeting with Sloan, but with the camera attached to him and Jenny listening in, he just kept it surface and told her what the doctor had said about Taylor.

  “You like her, don’t you?” Cassie smiled.

  Lawson didn’t bite.

  “It’s okay. I know you do. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be calling to check on her. Hell, you haven’t called to check on me in months. I always have to reach out to you.”

  “You don’t have a potentially fatal gunshot wound.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” she teased. “I don’t have those green eyes and that smile either.”

  Lawson looked over at Cassie with a smirk. “No. No you don’t.”

  Cassie punched him in the arm and gave him a dirty look. Lawson just pointed out the front win
dshield.

  “Showtime.”

  Frank waved the two of them over to follow him as he and two men with him walked into the bar.

  “You sure we’re doing the right thing here? Seems a little thrown together,” Cassie said.

  “Trust me,” was all he said.

  Lawson stepped out of Clint’s car, a loaner from Jenny in case they needed a fast getaway, and stepped into the Hollywood night. The air had cooled and a breeze blew through, carrying the smell of broken dreams along with it. Or it could have just been the dumpster around the corner. Cassie caught up to Lawson and they both walked inside together. It was a dive bar, for sure. Complete with the ugly Christmas lights draped over the bar (even though it was months until the holiday), tile ceiling, and the quintessential pool table with the massive Bud Light signs behind it in the back. Lawson had expected the typical stale beer smell, but instead, all he smelled was popcorn. A pleasant surprise.

  Lawson wasn’t happy to be sitting down with Frank when what he wanted to do was murder him, but the same thing needed at his meeting with Sloan was needed here: patience and a cool head. Frank and his men were in the back, a paper boat of popcorn already under assault, and Frank waved Lawson and Cassie over to their table.

  “Free popcorn, how could you not come here and drink?” Frank said. Butter glistened on the tips of his fat fingers.

  Lawson was disgusted.

  “Have a seat, you two. Let’s talk about old times.”

  Once seated Lawson said, “Let’s not and say we did.”

  “Fair enough. Where’s the kid?”

  Frank pushed the boat of popcorn across the table for Cassie and Lawson. As if they were old pals sharing a beer. The man had always been clueless.

  “I need some assurances first,” Lawson said.

  “You’re making demands?”

  “I am.”

  “On what grounds? You’ve got nothing on me.”

  “On the grounds that you tried to kidnap my daughter.”

  “Means to an end.” Frank crunched some more popcorn, mouth open. “To hell with your daughter and to hell with you. I can make your life miserable.”

  Lawson’s entire body warmed as a tide of anger rolled over him. He took a deep breath and calmed the brewing storm. He reminded himself what he was there for.

  Lawson nodded. “Okay, but I need a second. I have to go to the restroom.”

  “Right now?”

  “Yeah, Frank. Right now.”

  Lawson got out of the booth.

  “Now hold on. Not without Sean going with you.”

  Frank nodded to one of his men who was at the high-top table beside them. Sean got up and ushered Lawson along. Just before Lawson reached the men’s room, Sean gave him a shove in the back. “Don’t get any ideas, asshole.”

  Lawson clenched his fists, then released. Another deep breath. He pushed open the door and Sean followed him in.

  “A little privacy?” Lawson said.

  “You ain’t got nothing I haven’t seen before.”

  Lawson turned his back on Sean for the toilet. “I’m not so sure about that.”

  “Funny man. Okay. Just piss and let’s get back to the table.”

  Lawson did as he was told, and when he finished he took a small piece of toilet paper, wiped his nose, then dropped it on the floor.

  “So how much does Frank have on you to make you do his bidding? Or maybe cop salary isn’t enough so you went dirty? Frank promising to keep you out of jail?”

  “What did you just say to me?”

  Sean was just as big as Lawson. But Lawson knew he wasn’t nearly as tough. Lawson reached down to pick up the toilet paper and popped the button camera off his lapel that Jenny had installed earlier. It fell into the toilet, and he dropped the two tracking bugs in there as well, then put the toilet paper in right after that and flushed it all down. He turned to face Sean.

  “Big guy like you isn’t sensitive, is he?” Lawson smiled.

  “You got something to say?”

  “Frank tried to kidnap my daughter and my partner. My daughter is only thirteen.”

  “Fuck you and your daughter.”

  Lawson front kicked Sean’s left knee cap, and it popped out the back side of his leg. Before Sean crumpled to the ground, Lawson caught him and held him up by his T-shirt. Through Sean’s groans of pain Lawson managed to get a word in.

  “Every single one of you is going down.”

  Then he pulled Sean’s big head straight down onto his rising knee. The impact on Sean’s forehead knocked him out immediately, and he lay on the floor like a crumpled beer can. Lawson washed his hands, adjusted his suit jacket, and walked back out into the bar. Frank stood up immediately when he noticed Sean didn’t follow him out. The playful, cocky look was gone from his face as well.

  “Where the hell is Sean?”

  The other man with Frank stood as well, and puffed out his chest.

  “He’s not feeling so well. Says he needs a minute.”

  “Go check on him,” Frank said to his man.

  As soon as he walked by Lawson toward the bathroom, Lawson took a chair in his hands, turned with it, and smashed it over the man’s head. The impact knocked him out. Before Frank could react, Lawson turned and put his gun under Frank’s chin and, with his other hand, had an iron grip around Frank’s hand that was reaching for his gun.

  “You arrogant prick,” Lawson said, glaring down at him. “You didn’t even have sense enough to frisk me. And you thought you were going to be able to pull off a plan to use me to do your dirty work?”

  Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the look of shock on Cassie’s face. He wanted to clue her in earlier, but he couldn’t with Jenny watching on the hidden camera.

  “Raines, this is a huge mistake. Victoria will have someone after you in no time.”

  “Where, in make-believe land? You think I bought that dumb story you had her tell me about De Luca?”

  Frank didn’t say anything.

  “Lawson, what are you doing?” Cassie asked.

  Lawson turned Frank around, took his gun from his hip holster, and handed it to Cassie, then put his Sig Sauer to Frank’s back. “I’m having Frank take us to where he’s holding Victoria hostage. Once we have her, I have a feeling Sloan just might come to us.”

  Lawson poked at Frank’s back and Frank walked forward. “I’m FBI, Lawson. You aren’t going to get away with this.”

  The crowd that was left in the bar parted to make way so they could walk out. Cassie filed in behind them.

  “You got it all figured out, don’t you, Frank?”

  “Enough to where people are going to know you took an FBI agent at gunpoint.”

  “Fair enough,” Lawson said. They pushed open the door and walked out onto the sidewalk. “But Claudia will take care of me.”

  “My partner Claudia? You dumb shit. You think she’ll vouch for you over me?”

  “No, I think when we get to where you’re holding Victoria, she’ll just arrest you. I mean, she’s been watching you for more than a year and a half. She knows you’re crooked.”

  Frank turned around, and Lawson extended his gun. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Who’s the dumb shit now? She’s DOJ, Frank. Tasked to put a file together on you because everyone was talking about how you’d gone rogue you were so thirsty to take down Sloan.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “Me giving her the details to your little kidnapping is just the frosting on top of the crooked cupcake.”

  “Go to hell, Raines.”

  “After you, Frank.”

  44

  It was only after an elbow to the nose that Frank became willing to navigate Lawson and Cassie to Victoria’s location. Cassie had found a T-shirt next to her in the backseat, and it was currently sopping up the blood running from Frank’s nose.

  From the backseat, Cassie said, “This was your plan all along, wasn’t it?”

  “It was,
” Lawson said.

  Cassie scooted up. “Why didn’t you tell me? I mean, I knew the plan you told us in the Explorer was mediocre at best, but I didn’t know it was a decoy. Why do that? It was just us?”

  “Us and Jenny,” Lawson said.

  “Yeah, so?”

  “Her partner, Clint, worked for Sloan. That meant she did too.”

  “Worked, as in past tense.”

  “No—”

  “Make a right here,” Frank chimed in. The promise of another elbow kept his navigation skills on point.

  “No what?” Cassie was impatient.

  “He was working for Sloan when he got shot.”

  “How the hell would you know that? And don’t say insurance again. If I hear that word one more time, I’m gonna lose it.”

  “Okay, since I can’t say insurance, I’ll say that he’s the one who hit you on the back of the head on the boat slip.”

  “No,” Cassie said.

  Lawson said. “No? But how else did Diego Acevedo know Lexi and Taylor were going to be at that marina? You didn’t even know they were there, right? You thought they were at the Malibu Beach Inn.”

  Lawson checked the rearview mirror and found Cassie shaking her head.

  He continued. “The only person who knew was Clint, he had to have told Diego. That’s why when you got there, Clint wasn’t in front of you, right? He was waiting to let Diego take care of it. Like Sloan must have told him. He came in behind you to keep you from stopping Diego.”

  “Okay, I can see all of that. But tell me this, smarty-pants, why did Diego shoot Clint if they were working together?”

  Lawson shrugged. “My guess? Clint only called Diego in on it at all to get back into Sloan’s good graces. He was hedging his bets. If he couldn’t get me to help him take Sloan down, he needed to get back to work for him so he didn’t lose the reputation he so desperately coveted. Instead, Sloan wanted him gone for good. Probably knew from Hector that Clint wasn’t the type to just roll over. So he told Diego to kill him too. You were just lucky Clint only knocked you out. He must have liked you.”

  “Was that you trying to be funny?” Cassie snarked. “You don’t ever try to be funny, then you wait till my near-death experience to tell a joke? You’re a piece of work, Lawson.”