Final Target

by Jack Young

  If things weren’t bad enough, one of Richie’s kidneys began to fail. That was the reason for him being in the hospital now. He was having complications and at that moment Davy was having a difficult time sitting in the room with his uncle. He looked at the clock on the wall and saw it was getting late. He stood over Richie and put his hand on his uncle’s shoulder. “I love you, Uncle Richie.” He waited a moment to see if Richie responded, but when he didn’t Davy left the room.

  His mind was all over the place and Davy forgot which way he entered the hospital from and found himself in the hustle and bustle of the emergency room. A couple of uniformed police officers were talking to some ER personnel as well as a couple of plainclothes detectives Davy recognized. He figured he better leave before they saw him.

  When he was outside, Davy found his car quickly and realized he parked closer to the ER than the main entrance in which he entered the building from. He hurried to his car, sat down in the driver’s seat, and fired up the engine. Just as he put the car into drive, the passenger door flung opened and a man covered in blood sat in the passenger seat. “Drive! Now!”

  Davy recognized the man and didn’t hesitate to drive off. “What the hell, man?”

  The man kept looking out the back window in a panic. “Keep going. I’ll tell you where to drop me off.”

  “I know you, right?”

  He looked at Davy. “Yeah. We met yesterday.”

  “Yesterday?”

  “In the Target parking lot and later in the K-Mart one.”

  “Oh shit. Payton?”

  He shook his head. “Paden. With a D.”

  “That’s right. We split the money.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Th’hell happened to you?” Davy looked at Paden who lifted his shirt revealing a bloody bandage on his side.

  Paden leaned back in the seat. “Anyone approach you or look suspicious since yesterday?”

  “No. Why?”

  “I think someone came to kill me, but killed my fiancé instead.”

  “Shit. Sorry, man.” He kept driving and took glances at Paden. “Where do you want me to take you?”

  “I don’t know, man. I don’t. They’re probably after you, too, so your place is probably out of the question.”

  “Yeah. Shit. I gotta ‘nother place. You gonna be okay?”

  “Yeah. The bullet didn’t do much damage. Doctors got it out and fixed me up. I was supposed to stay there for the cops, but I snuck off. So, I’m sure those guys are after me, too.”

  “Alright. Hang on. My other place is about twenty minutes from here. Don’t die on me.”

  “I ain’t dying until I get those fuckers who killed Joanne.”

  17.

  When Paden opened his eyes, he had to blink several times and rub them before he realized they were fine and that he was in a room with no lights. The longer he kept his eyes opened they began to adjust to his surroundings. He was lying on an old Army cot and when he moved, every fiber in his body screamed out in pain. He, too, wanted to scream, but he wasn’t sure where he was and didn’t want to reveal to whoever that he was awake.

  He lay still trying to wrap his mind around what he could remember and as it all came back, Paden’s anger grew. Joanne was gunned down with bullets he was sure were meant for him. She was lying dead on a slab in the morgue and the police wanted him for whatever reason, but he took off leaving them at the hospital where he was patched up. As he left, he spotted the guy he split the bag of cash with, Davy, and made him give him a ride. They came to this cabin along the lake to hide out. Davy said this was one of his uncle’s cabins where he would come and fish in the lake when he was younger.

  Paden heard someone moving around the cabin and practically rolled off the cot before slowly standing up. His side hurt and when he touched the bandage, he felt a sticky dampness he knew meant he was bleeding. His eyes adjusted enough that he could see a sliver of light coming in from the bottom of the door. He walked towards it and opened the door. He was hit with the warmth of the wood stove in the middle of the room and whatever was cooking on the stove top smelled amazing.

  “Help yourself.” Paden turned and saw Davy sitting in a chair in the corner of the room looking out a window. “Get enough rest?”

  Paden nodded. “Yes. Thanks.”

  “It wasn’t like I had a choice. You hopped into my ride like a madman. Acting like the cops or someone was after you and I didn’t want that heat on me either.”

  “Yeah. Sorry about that. I saw your car and remembered you from Target and figured I could get a ride from you.”

  Davy nodded. “Yeah. So, what happened to you? You were rambling about something on the way out here, but I couldn’t make out what you were really saying.”

  Paden sat in a chair on the opposite side of the room and told Davy what happened. He had fixed a plate of ham and eggs, but only poked at it with a fork.

  Davy stared at Paden feeling bad about the whole thing. “Shit. Man. I’m sorry. For real. I’m really sorry and feel like I’m partly responsible for that.”

  “No. You’re not. It’s just how this shit fell.”

  “Yeah, but still. I feel I should help you somehow.”

  “You have. You got me outta of town for the time being. That’s help enough.”

  “No. I mean I want to help you get those guys. Seriously. It’s not like me to volunteer for shit like this either, so you better take me up on it. Your girl is dead because of something we did. I wanna help for that, and I might as well take them out before they come for me.”

  Paden took a scoop of eggs and ate it. He had a cup of coffee which he took a swallow from. “Your car was packed like you were leaving town though.”

  “I was, but I can’t leave now in good conscience. You’re too fucked up to take this shit on right now and need a little help.”

  Paden let out a deep breath. “You know where we can get some guns?”

  The physical pain Paden was going through was nothing compared to the pain his heart was feeling. In fact, the pain wasn’t bothering him too much at the moment. Losing Joanne was hitting harder now than he ever thought it would. Now that she and their unborn baby were gone, he realized how much finding out he was going to be a father meant to him. The flooding of emotions began to take over, but he needed to focus because the only thing he cared about now was killing everyone involved with trying to kill him and taken Joanne and their unborn child from him.

  Davy took Paden to a shed behind the fishing cabin. Inside contained what Paden needed. There were rifles, pistols, machine guns, and knives. Paden point to the rack. “Which ones are mine?”

  Davy did a Vanna White-like hand gesture. “Take whatever ones you want, man. Take the whole shed, if needed. Just let me help.”

  Paden grabbed a rifle and felt its weight. “Tell me what you know.”

  “About?”

  “About what was supposed to go down at Target. You said you were taking the bag from whoever was in the truck and taking it somewhere else. Where?”

  Paden saw a change in Davy’s look. Davy held up one of his hands. “Ok. Listen, Paden. I may not have been truthful about why I was there.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Davy let out a deep breath. “Okay. So, I was supposed to be there, but not to take the bag anywhere. Hell, I didn’t even know what was in the bag until later.”

  “So, you weren’t there for the bag or the money?”

  “I mean, I was getting paid to do something there, but not from that bag.”

  “Then why were you there?”

  Davy stared into Paden’s eyes. Paden saw them grow cold. “I was there to kill whoever was in the truck.”

  For some reason, this didn’t surprise Paden. “A hit then?”

  “Yeah, but someone got to them first.”

  “Any idea who?”

  “None. In fact, I don’t know of any reason someone would want me dead.”

  Davy wasn’t too convincing as P
aden thought about that, but he needed his help for now. “Shit. Yeah, probably and I’m sure they want all that money back. Could this have been whoever sent you?”

  Davy shook his head. “No. My guy wouldn’t do that to me. What about whoever sent you?”

  “I thought the same thing at first about my guy. I went to talk to him afterwards.” Paden shook his head and looked down at the floor. “Known him a long ass time, but you never really know anyone.”

  “Do we need to take care of that as well?”

  “I took care of that already.”

  “Really? How so?”

  “Let’s just say I’m unemployed at the moment.”

  Davy nodded knowing what he meant. “Think you’ll feel some heat for that?”

  “From the cops probably. I don’t think the hit on me was related to my quitting my job.”

  Davy nodded. “So, what are we gonna do? Where do we start?”

  “That’s it. I don’t know. Those who sent me would know. My guy and the guy who gave him the job to do, but they never gave me the chance to ask them.”

  “We can talk to who sent me. I trust him with my life. He may not know who is behind this, but he sure has a way of finding out.”

  Paden began grabbing weapons and ammunition from the shed. “The cops took me from my truck where I had my pistol. I’m not going anywhere without a firearm of some sort.”

  “I don’t blame you one bit, man. The way things are going, I hope we have enough.”

  18.

  Joe looked at the bodies lying on the ground. “Well, this is a fucking mess.”

  Joe was on his way home when Jacobs called. Dispatch had given him the quick rundown. A woman called 911. She was the every-other-day housekeeper to the owner of the house and found the bodies in the back yard.

  Jacobs was writing things in his notebook. When Joe stood next to him, he pointed to the bodies. “You recognize either of these guys?”

  Joe crouched down to get a look at the faces. Nearby animals had their way with the bodies some, but they were still recognizable. “Yeah.” He pointed to the one with the BBQ fork stuck in his throat. “That’s Lanford Clark. He goes by Lanny and has that sports bar over on Central and some other clubs around town.” He then looked at the other body. “That’s Marcus Randolph. He owns the lumber mill, the Dodge dealership, and he has his hand in half the businesses on his end of town. Think this is a hit?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “How so?”

  “It’s too sloppy. Looks like someone came here and panicked. In that panic, they killed these two. Used a couple of steak knives and that big ass fork. Tells me the killer wasn’t packing or expecting shit to go bad. I got Newton at the station running a check on these two. Getting their known associates, business info and such.”

  “Good idea. Think this has anything to do with the shooting at the school?”

  “I’m not saying it’s not connected to the school, but look at these guys. They been here a while.” Jacobs handed his notepad to Joe and he took a picture of the notes with his phone.

  Joe handed the notebook back to Jacobs and began walking the scene. When he was done, he stood with his partner watching the bodies being loaded into an ambulance and then driving off. “Hey, Papa Bear. What clubs does, I mean, did Clark own?”

  Jacobs opened up his notebook. “Why the hell did you take a picture if you’re not gonna look at the notes? Geez.” He flipped some more. “Check this out, partner. That titty bar we went to. He owned that one.”

  Jacobs held up the notebook to Joe who nodded. Penni’s Playhouse was listed as one of the clubs Lanny Clark owned. Joe pointed at the notebook. “Evans worked there. Think he had a hand in this?”

  “Maybe. Could be. I don’t know, but he took off from the hospital. Pretty fucking suspicious to me.”

  “This wouldn’t be for the death of his woman. This must’ve been for something else. If it’s even Evans that is.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Find him?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Here’s what I think if it’s Evans. Shit went sideways at the Target and he got caught up in it. He’s a loose end and someone else is trying to take him out.”

  “I’m thinking kind of the same thing. I mean he did leave the hospital and he’s out here somewhere trying to get his payback.”

  “I don’t think these guys were killed for payback, but I wouldn’t blame him and I hate that we’ll probably have to stop him before he does.”

  “Yeah. Sucks, but it’s our job.”

  Joe knew Paden Evans wouldn’t be home when he and Jacobs went there to speak with him. They were just checking all leads. What they did find was the back door of Evans’ place had been busted in and left open. Joe and Jacobs both unholstered their pistols and held them at the ready as they entered. It took them a few moments to clear the residence and they found no one there. The place was trashed as though someone was looking for something. Maybe, it was whatever Evans had in the bag.

  After an hour of searching, Joe suggested they check out Evans’ girlfriend’s house. It didn’t take them long to get there and they found her house in the same condition: back door busted in and the house trashed.

  “We may be onto something here, Papa Bear.” Joe holstered his firearm and began looking around.

  “Yeah. Someone is definitely looking for money or drugs or else why go through all this shit.”

  “Think Evans had the bag or whatever on him at the time of the school shooting?”

  “I wouldn’t doubt it.” Jacobs pulled out his cell phone and touched the screen a couple of times before putting the phone to his ear. “Newt. You guys go through that truck from the school shooting yet?” He didn’t put the call on speakerphone, so Joe was only getting half of the conversation, which was a bunch of noises of acknowledgment. “Keep me posted.” Jacobs put the phone away. “Okay, so Newton and his crew are in the process of going over Evans’ truck. They’ve done the outside and just laid out everything that was inside. They’ll be doing an inventory here soon. He’ll give me a holler when that’s complete.”

  “And in the meantime?”

  “You tell me, partner.”

  Joe rubbed his temples. “The other guy in the video. We need to find him, too.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Remember in the video, they seemed to talk to each other briefly.”

  “They did, didn’t they? Think they know each other?”

  “Maybe. You never know.”

  “Back to the station then?”

  “Suppose so. We need to connect these two guys. Why were they both there and have they been in contact since?”

  “I think we’ve already speculated that Evans was probably handing the bag off to whoever in the truck. We know it was Gordon’s truck, but not Gordon inside. The other guy though? Evans’ backup? Or was he there on his own for a different reason?”

  “Yeah. He had a pistol or something by his side.”

  “Sent to hit the guy in the truck?”

  “Maybe.” Jacobs’ phone buzzed and he answered it. “Yeah. Okay. I figured that would be there. Anything else stand out? No? Okay. Thanks, Newt.”

  Joe pointed to the phone. “What did Newt have to say?”

  “They got all the truck’s contents laid out on a tarp. Nothing major stood out until they opened the small gym bag.”

  “And? Money? Drugs?”

  “Money. A hundred grand.”

  “Damn. That probably means the hit on Evans was about the money. What if there was more money?”

  “What do you mean?”

  Joe shrugged. “Just thinking is all. Maybe, it was more and Evans and this other guy split the money. Maybe, that’s what they were talking about in the video.”

  “Let’s go figure out who this guy is first and find him.”

  “Yeah before more get caught in the crossfire.”

  19.

  Davy was hesitant about bringing Paden to Big
John’s place. Big John was his mentor who he’d built a trust with over the past fifteen years. That trust went both ways though. Their relationship was known to a select few. This kept the authorities away from both of them. Early on, though, Davy practically lived at Big John’s house. It was there that he was taught many aspects of the world he chose to live in. Big John helped Davy with Connor all those years ago and over time Davy became good at what he was hired to do.

  Paden drove them to Big John’s house while Davy directed him. When they arrived, they both sat in the car for a moment. Davy chin-pointed to Big John’s house. “Listen, Paden, I’ve never brought anyone here, so I’m not sure how he’ll take it.”

  “You want me to stay in the car?”

  Davy thought about this. Paden was already there and that itself would probably piss off Big John. Davy tried to think if Big John ever actually told him not to bring anyone to his home. Davy just never did until now. “Naw. C’mon. He might get pissed, but then again he might not.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah. If anything, he’ll be mat at me. He don’t know you. Don’t worry.”

  “And who is this guy?”

  “Guy who took me under his wing when I was a kid.”

  “I see.”

  They walked up the driveway and as they stepped onto the big step in front of the main door, the door opened. Big John stood in front of them taking up the entire space. His head nearly touched the top of the doorway. Big John was definitely a big man who always reminded Davy of Wilson Fisk from the Spider-man and Daredevil comic books he read as a kid. Big John’s head was even shaved, but he kept a goatee and several days’ worth of a beard. Big John wasn’t a “fat” big man. There was some of that around his waist, but he was mostly muscle. Davy had seen him lift a car with his bare hands before. Once, four guys tried to take him on, but he sent all four to the hospital with major bones broken.

  Big John stood with his arms crossed. “Whatcha doin’ here, boy? I didn’t call you to come here.”