Reduced Ransom!

by Mike Faricy

  “Idiot.” Now where in the hell had Janice gone, it was time to get his money back.

  Huey stepped into the cavernous space that would ultimately serve as the main floor. Where, exactly, would a young nutcase woman, wearing a pink nightgown and fuzzy slippers wander off to at a construction site?

  He carried his shotgun leisurely over his shoulder, quietly humming, of all things, the Wedding March, ‘Here Comes the Bride’. He was humming it like a funeral dirge. He looked over the vast expanse of open floor with row after row of metal studs sectioning off future hallways and offices. Where in the hell would she go?

  Chapter 92

  “It’s that building back there,” Kelley said, as they drove past the large construction site. Bunny must have known a lot more than he would have guessed. The cost overruns on this project had served as a nice profit center for both he and Timmy White up until the entire project was shut down. Some bean counter, somewhere, pulling the plug until they sorted out the financial irregularities. But he had no idea Bunny knew of his involvement. Why else would they have chosen this location except to let him know? They might have been a pain in the rear, but Kelley was suddenly glad he had Long Nose and his friend along.

  “I’ll drop you off at the end of the next block.”

  “We need ten minutes before you come into the building,” Long Nose said. He pronounced it ‘Build-ink’. Kelley stared at him in the rearview mirror. “Ho-kay?” Long nose said.

  Kelley glanced at the digital clock on the dashboard. “That’s cutting it kind of close, don’t you think. Okay, ten minutes, I’ll do it.”

  Up on the ninth floor Dell signaled Mickey. “A car just drove into the parking area.”

  “That’ll be Kelley, right on time,” Mickey said.

  Two stories underground, Kelley got out of his car and placed his hand on the hood of the rust spotted, burgundy olds 88. What a gas guzzling beast he thought, making note of the still warm hood. Typical of the way they’d operated, a step ahead of him until now. Obviously, the nondescript vehicle was stashed down here to spirit them off once they had the money. The money he thought and quickly got back in his car and drove up to the main parking level.

  He carried the box into the eerily vacant first floor. He walked past long tables covered with blue prints and miscellaneous bits of nonsense to the bright red construction elevator. He placed the box on the elevator, then as instructed, cupped his hands and called, “Olly, Olly in free. Olly, Olly in free.” Yelling it like a kid playing a game. He waited for what seemed like an eternity before the elevator lurched upward, the high pitched, whining engine bringing the elevator to the floors above.

  Dell heard Kelley yelling and looked at Mickey.

  “My own little idea,” Mickey said then looked down the open shaft as the elevator slowly rose towards them.

  The effort of climbing five stories on a staircase had begun to calm Janice down. All that changed the moment she heard Kelley yelling. “I’ll strangle him, I swear to god, and throw him out the window.” She watched, as the elevator rose past the fifth floor. She ran to the open shaft and began to count the floors, thinking wherever it stopped would be the floor she had a better than even chance of getting her hands around Mickey’s neck.

  Down on the third floor, Huey listened to Kelley yelling then watched as the elevator rose past him. Spray painted graffiti scrawled in green on the elevator wall read ‘You Suck!’ and seemed to be directed specifically at Huey.

  That did it, Huey thought and counted the floors as the elevator continued to rise. Somewhere up there Janice was waiting, mocking him, laughing and all of this her idea of some kind of joke. “We’ll see who’s laughing after this,” Huey said.

  At first Long Nose and his friend thought they might have some real trouble on their hands, the building open and completely vacant. Their approach could be covered from any number of uncountable hiding places and sniper stations. They’d never have the opportunity to fire a shot before they were both dead. That was before they heard Kelley yelling.

  The fool they thought, then watched as the elevator rose. They counted the floors as it continued to climb, up and up. Wherever it stopped they would find their elusive quarry, deal with him, then deal with Kelley, plus the added bonus of killing his wife.

  Chapter 93

  Dell brought the elevator up to the ninth floor. He stared for a long moment at the box sitting in the corner. Mickey stood beside him doing the same thing, only his mouth was hanging open.

  “Well, it’s not going to get off there by itself,” Dell said.

  “Huh?”

  “Let’s check it out. Here, just in case there’s a dye pack,” Dell said handing Mickey a handful of newspaper.

  “If there’s a dye pack, that isn’t going to be of much use. Let’s just make sure there’s cash in there. We can count it later. I’d just as soon get Bunny off our hands and get the hell out of here,” Mickey said.

  “No argument from me.” Dell stepped onto the elevator, and gingerly slid the box across the floor using his foot.

  “Will you relax. What could possibly go wrong at this stage?”

  “You disgusting, idiotic, two faced, moron,” Janice screamed from behind. She was red faced after running up the stairs to the ninth floor.

  “I knew it. I just knew you two fools would be up to something. Oh gee, I’m sorry, maybe you didn’t think a phone call might be in order. You know? So, I don’t wig out the way I’m doing now after not hearing a word from you and seeing your place ransacked. This is the meanest, cruelest, worst thing you’ve ever done to me, Mickey. You absolute idiot.”

  Tears ran down her flushed cheeks which made her even more irate at not being able to control herself.

  “Man, that is really scary,” Dell said under his breath.

  The two of them remained riveted in place, as she marched toward them in her pink nightgown and fuzzy slippers, face flushed and fists clenched. The pink faux feathers along the hem of the nightgown had turned grey after traipsing through nine flights of construction dust.

  “Oh, Jesus,” Mickey groaned.

  Huey wasn’t just breathing heavily, he was wheezing, gasping for air on the seventh floor. He paused for a brief moment just to catch his breath or he would be worthless by the time he climbed up to the ninth floor. As soon as he heard Janice screaming from above he stumbled on, carrying his shotgun, sweat pouring down his face and running down his back.

  Long Nose and his pal moved cautiously up the stairwell. One providing cover for the other as they leapfrogged their way up, half a flight at a time. They paused to check out each floor, so no one had the opportunity to surprise them from behind.

  They could hear one, possibly two people on the stairs above them making quite a bit of noise, maybe even stumbling. It suggested there could well be multiple individuals to eliminate before they could turn their attention to Kelley and his wife.

  “Ahh, umm, hi . . . honey. What brings you here?” Mickey said. He attempted to signal with his hands in an effort to get Janice to calm down.

  “Mick? We really don’t have time for this bullshit right now. Bummer, Mickey, real bummer,” Dell half whispered, still riveted to the floor.

  “Okay, okay, relax. I got everything under control, man.” Mickey said, turning toward Dell. His eyes said otherwise.

  “Oh? So now you think you can control me. Is that it? And don’t you honey me,” Janice shouted, as Mickey approached cautiously.

  “Now, Janice, honey, let’s calm down. You have to admit, this whole picture here, it’s just a little unexpected, baby, that’s all. Calm down, now, honey.”

  “Don’t baby me, you moron. And I don’t intend to calm down. You have one hell of a lot of explaining to do and you had better get started. Whatever made you think you could just . . .”

  “You can all stay right where you are, nobody moves,” Huey gasped, as he leaned against the door frame.

  “Oh, God. Thanks, Janice, you brought
your father. Thanks a lot for including us in the old family reunion,” Mickey said.

  “Shit, that’s Huey Evans,” Dell said.

  “Do I know you two idiots from somewhere?” Huey said and started towards them with his shotgun leveled at the group.

  “You, nut case in her nightgown, move over here, and you two fools do the same,” Huey said, directing them with his shotgun.

  “You know what? I have had it up to here with all your bullying. Do you hear me? I have had it,” Janice shouted.

  “All you’ve had, spoiled little girl, is your own way. So, you, shut the hell up and move over there with Laurel and Hardy.” He motioned again with his shotgun.

  Janice stood staring wide-eyed, her feet apparently nailed to the floor.

  “I’m not going to tell you again, move those fuzzy little slippers over there, now. And you, fat ass, you that Donnelly jerk I’ve been looking for? Where do I know you from? You work for me once? More important, where in the hell is the money you took from me?”

  A sudden icy chill seemed to descend over the small group. No one making an attempt to answer.

  “Hey. All of you, move your ass over there, further, go on, keep moving.” Huey motioned again with the shotgun, then focused on the cardboard box Dell had pushed off the elevator and onto the concrete floor.

  “Well, what do we have here?” He slid the box over a foot or two, then reached down to open it up.

  “Hmmm, don’t tell me you were nice enough to have my cash all packaged up for me, so I can just walk out of here, paid in full. Call us even, once I leave you with a little reminder not to ever try and jack me around again.”

  Chapter 94

  Long Nose signaled to his partner that he could count at least four people. He wasn’t sure why the woman was in a costume, but it must have something to do with the next phase of their plan. It didn’t really matter now. What they had to do was to get everyone to drop their weapons.

  He whispered into his partner’s ear. They would go in on either side of the door, one low, one high. First man goes in low and to the right, taking the area 12-6. The second goes in high and covers 6-12. They’d done it countless times, practiced it until it was automatic, lined up, one behind the other and moving on the count of three. Long Nose signaled with his fingers, one, two . . .

  Both Dell and Janice thought they might have caught an imperceptible something in the stairwell, movement, glitter, a light, or maybe a shadow. Neither one was really sure, but they both glanced over Huey’s shoulder toward the doorway. A reaction not lost on Huey.

  He spun around just as Long Nose made his move through the doorway, coming in low and to the right. The blast from both barrels of Huey’s shotgun caught Long Nose at about chin level, picking him up and slamming him back and over the stairwell railing. He crashed a half flight below. That seemed to calm any reaction his partner may have had, and he ran back down the staircase, pausing just long enough to look at what was left of Long Nose before continuing down the stairs racing toward the ground floor.

  “What in the hell was that?” Huey said, looking shocked and peering through acrid smoke toward the now empty doorway.

  Dell and Mickey stood riveted to the floor, their mouths open, ears still ringing from the sound of the blast. They could smell the cordite as they stared through the smoke at the empty doorway. An echo of fading footsteps bounced up from the stairwell.

  Janice was already on the move before Huey could react. She wrenched the shotgun from his hands then hit him in the stomach, hard, full force with the butt of the weapon. As he doubled up she cracked him across the back of the head with both barrels.

  “God, I’ve wanted to do that for years,” she said, as Huey landed on the floor. “Okay, boys, he’s not dead but he’s going to wish he was when he wakes up. Is there another way out of this place?” she asked, and stepped over Huey.

  “She’s right, Mick. Come on, let’s get going. We can take the back staircase, it’s on the other side,” Dell said.

  Mickey ran to the small area where Bunny sat on the floor. He left the pillow case on her head as he spoke to her. “I’m undoing your hands. When you get all the tape off, you’re free to go. Believe me, we will never, ever, bother you again. I promise, in fact all of us promise.”

  He freed her hands then hurried across the vast, empty floor catching up to Janice and Dell on the back staircase. Mickey and Dell slowed and calmly walked out the back entrance carrying their box to the El Dorado. Janice made her way down two more levels, climbed in her car and drove home.

  Chapter 95

  Kelley waited a long time after he saw Long Nose’s partner run down the stairs and out the door. He thought he may have heard some noise from another part of the building a few minutes later, but he couldn’t be sure. He cautiously climbed the steps up to the ninth floor, past Long Nose’s body lying in the stairwell. He guessed, more or less accurately, what had happened, at least as far as Long Nose was concerned, dead before he went over the railing.

  He found Huey Evans sprawled out on the floor, groggy, confused and more than willing to remain where he was. Of course, the double-barreled shotgun Kelley pointed at his head served as a powerful incentive until the police arrived.

  Following Bunny’s mistaken identification of Huey as one of her kidnappers he was charged, tried, and convicted on kidnapping and murder charges. He had attempted an insanity plea, claiming of all things that his stepdaughter had been there to pick up the ransom money in a pink nightgown. He further claimed that she had scammed him out of a hundred thousand dollars, but his defense never really got off the ground and the trial concluded in just three days.

  Huey was sentenced to twenty-five years, without parole, at his age effectively a life sentence. He is currently serving his sentence in Stillwater prison.

  The trial publicity and her stepfathers claims proved too much for Janice. She ultimately quit her waitress job and left town with her daughter, Ashley.

  Long Nose’s partner left town, but not before he tied up one loose end, namely Jack Kelley. He commandeered Kelley’s car and drove back to Chicago. Along the way he tossed a piece of Kelley out the window every thirty miles, just as regular as clockwork.

  Chapter 96

  Dell creaked open the lid to their cooler. Across the back of his t-shirt was the image of a sailfish jumping over the caricature of an inept fisherman in a rowboat.

  “You want another?” he asked with his back to Mickey, grabbing two beers and not waiting for an answer. He passed the chilled can over his shoulder.

  Mickey, wearing a straw Panama hat and a neon blue shirt festooned with sail boats, handed his fishing rod to the attractive blonde coed at his side. “I’m telling you, this is the best place to fish. Look around at everyone here. Do you really think we’d be fishing here if it was lousy? Come on, give me a little credit.” He popped open his can and licked the beer spray off his tanned hand. He hoped she didn’t actually catch a fish, he hated dealing with the damn things.

  Her top was knotted above her midsection, revealing a tanned, flat stomach. She’d gone from gangly to gorgeous over the course of a couple of years and now, at eighteen, she was a drop-dead beauty. Wholesome, solid, in that kind of cornsilk Midwestern way, just like her mother. She looked to be the kind of woman you could count on to watch your back.

  She’d done a lot of growing up over the past three years, a lot of maturing, and had her own job waiting tables at her mother’s restaurant, when she wasn’t attending classes.

  She liked Mickey, was fond of him for becoming the father she never had. And, being just like her mom, she wasn’t beyond speaking her mind.

  “The only reason you two, and all these other guys fish here is because that store at the end of the pier sells beer. And right next to the beer store, is the fish market. How many people do you know catch fish and then bring the fillet’s home wrapped in white paper? And since when can you catch walleye in the Pacific? Come on Mickey, admit it, you�
��re full of it.”

  “Yeah, well maybe, Ashley, but don’t tell your mom.”

  “She already knows, you moron.”

  The End

  Thank you for taking the time to read Reduced Ransom!, the first book in the Hotshots series. I’m indie published and reviews are a big help. If you enjoyed the read I would really appreciate a review. Even if it’s just a sentence or two it really, really helps. Just click on the appropriate link below to leave a review and thank you very much. All the best,

  Mike

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  Don’t miss the samples of Spade Work and The Office.

  Enjoy the reads!

  Spade Work

  Jack Dillon Dublin Tale 6

  Mike Faricy

  “Ace of Spades?

  You dance with the devil himself!”

  Prologue

  “Fourteen euros,” the taxi driver said, as he pulled to the curb.

  “I got it. You okay, honey?” Joey said, and looked over at the blonde in the sexy black dress.

  She gave him the finger.

  Not that he cared. Right now he was just thankful for the silent treatment, at least she was done bitching. He wondered how long it would be before she said anything positive. It was a mistake to have brought her over in the first place. They were on a flight back to Boston in the morning and he planned to ditch her at the airport the moment they landed. He tossed two twenty euro notes into the front seat. “Keep the change, pal.”