Final Target

by Jack Young

  Earlier in the evening, a couple of hours before Brady’s group arrived, four other bouncers arrived to work. The night wasn’t shaping up to be a busy night, but Paden always felt better with more bouncers in the clubs. These bouncers were all seasoned ones and knew their jobs, so Paden didn’t have to give them much in directives for the night.

  Paden made a lap around the club visiting with regulars while keeping eyes on everyone on the floor. They all seemed to be having a good time but it didn’t take but a second for that to change. Paden was chatting with a regular when a commotion on the far end of the dance floor caught his attention. A group circled what he could tell was a fight. The two bouncers nearest the fight pushed their way through the crowd and began pulling apart the two guys scrapping it out. Paden looked at his co-workers and pointed to the exit. “Get their asses outta here.”

  Paden followed them outside and then stepped between the two who were fighting. “You two are done. Don’t come back. Any of us see you coming in, we’ll throw your asses back out. Got it?”

  The club doors burst open behind him and Paden saw Big John barrel towards one of the guys who was fighting. He was one of the guys who came to the club with Big John and Brady. Big John grabbed the guy and began pummeling hum.

  “Whoa! Whoa!” Paden used all of his strength to pull Big John off of the guy. When he finally succeeded, the guy was bleeding all over himself and spit out a couple of teeth. Big John squared up to Paden and made Paden look small. “Back off, Paden. This is a work thing. I’m his employer and he’s acting the fool, so I’m fixing this. Back off or I’ll have to fuck you up next.”

  Paden stood his ground. “Try me.”

  Big John was about to when a hand was put on his chest. It was Brady. “Easy, John. Easy. Paden’s just doing his job.”

  Big John backed away a step while Brady ushered the rest of his party back to their vehicles. Paden watched them all drive away and let out a sigh of relief. He looked at one of the other bouncers and pointed to the guy Big John beat up. “Call an ambulance or cab for this guy.”

  Paden snapped out of his thoughts and realized that he’d somehow gotten his other truck from home and was now parked back at the police station. He was deep into his thoughts thinking about of how tight Big John and Sean Brady were and had a funny feeling in his gut about him and Davy taking them out. He was sure that Big John was setting them up. He could get anyone to kill Brady, so why them? Just then he saw Davy come out of the station and look around before deciding to walk back the way they came. He wondered if Davy knew his friend and mentor was trying have them both killed.

  27.

  Joe looked at the lifeless, gunshot bodies in the living room. “Fuck.”

  Jacobs stood next to him. “These two were definitely executed.” He pointed upstairs. “Got another body up there."

  “He shot to death, too?”

  “No. It’s a girl. Naked and looks like she’s a drug-related death.”

  “Think our two boys did this? Evans and Carlyle?”

  “Could be, but why? These two turds were nobodies really. A couple of gacked out fuckers from the boonies. This town isn’t even in our jurisdiction. The station here only called us because the van out back matches the description of the one from the school shooting.”

  “But, man, these two have to be connected to our case though, right? That van. At least two guys were in the van at the shootings. Gotta be these guys right here.”

  “Could be, partner. Could be. If they are connected to that van, forensics will tell. If that’s the case, then they-or one of them-was sent to kill Evans, too. Think maybe Evans found out about these two and came here?”

  “I don’t peg Paden as a cold-blooded killer. Sure, he killed those guys a long time ago, but you know as well as I do that those were in self-defense.”

  “Yeah, but his pregnant girlfriend was killed. A guy could almost do anything after something like that, right?”

  Joe nodded. “I suppose you’re right. So, we’re just waiting on the van to see if there’s a connection? We drove all the way out here for that? We don’t need to stick around. Like you said, these guys were virtual nobodies. Expendable to someone and we’re out of our jurisdiction.”

  “Yeah. They’re probably more loose ends that someone felt needed to be cut.”

  “Could be hours before we hear anything back on that van.”

  “Yeah. I just wanted to see this firsthand. Sometimes, it helps me process things. We could head back, I suppose. Whatever they come up with can be faxed our way.”

  “Or texted or emailed.”

  “Well, yeah. Those, too.”

  “The pictures will come out better in the email.”

  Jacobs shook his head. “Whatever. You know what I mean. It is getting late anyway. We head back now before it gets too dark then we have less of a chance of hitting a deer.”

  Joe laughed. “How many you hit this year, Papa Bear? Four? Five?”

  “Just one you asshole. Just one.”

  “Plenty of time to catch up with that year you hit about one a month.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “Regardless. Let me drive. Don’t need you trashing another one of the departments cars.”

  Jacobs flipped Joe the bird before tossing him the keys. “Alright, High Speed. You drive. See if you can do better anyway.”

  “Oh, I know I can.”

  They made their way out of the farmhouse when Joe’s phone buzzed. He looked at the screen and saw it was a text from Darcy: Beth has that NHS induction @ 6 remember?

  The clock on Joe’s phone said it was five after five. It was a twenty-minute drive home, getting him back just in time to drive to the high school and not miss the induction. He showed Jacobs the text. “We better get to it then.”

  They both sat in the car, buckled up, and then Joe drove them away. There was still enough light out to see as Joe saw the sun begin to dip on the horizon. He hated this time of the day and having to drive in it, but he had his sunglasses on and the visor down to try and help and it did. Plus, he knew this stretch of the road and where the bad spots were and tried his best to drive careful through them.

  Joe saw the sign indicating they had seven miles to go when the vibrations of the road got to him and he began to get drowsy. Jacobs was snoring over in the passenger seat. Joe wanted to mess with him again, but he knew better than to do it while driving.

  He could see the lights of town approaching when something leaped out onto the road. Joe knew to not swerve the vehicle and tried slowing as best as he could, but ended up hitting whatever it was head on. He could feel the bumps in the road as he drove over it.

  This woke up Jacobs. “Th’fuck was that?”

  “I fucking hit something.”

  Joe pulled over onto the shoulder of the road and put on his hazard lights. He and Jacobs both exited the vehicle and Joe grabbed a flashlight from the trunk. When he closed the trunk, he saw Jacobs on the grass in the ditch with a smile on his face. Joe shined the light on him. “I know you’re just loving this aren’t you, old man?”

  “I didn’t say nothing.”

  “Yeah, but you fucking want to.”

  “Oh yeah.”

  “Well, say it.”

  “Gimme the flashlight.”

  Joe went to Jacobs in the ditch and handed him the flashlight. Jacobs had the light on the object they hit. Joe could hear the giggles coming from his normally aggravated partner. “What, Nelson? What is it?”

  “Jesus kid. Not only did you hit a fucking deer, but you killed Bambi.”

  Joe looked to where his partner was shining the light and saw the small deer-a fawn if he remembered correctly-dead. Its body all twisted. “Fuck.”

  Dealing with the dead deer and filling out the necessary paperwork for the department’s insurance caused Joe to almost completely miss the National Honor Society induction ceremony. The advisor was Mike Wells, the high school history teacher, and he gave a particularly long
-winded speech. This caused the actual induction portion of the ceremony to barely begin as Joe found his way to where his wife was sitting. He kissed Darcy on the cheek. “We hit a deer on the way back into town and had to deal with that.”

  “You haven’t really missed anything. Mr. Wells was kind of rambling for a while there.”

  “I went to school with him. I remember some of the speeches he would read in class. He can ramble alright. Glad he did tonight so I didn’t miss Beth’s part.”

  The rest of the ceremony continued and Darcy-along with the rest of the parents-began filming the ceremony with their cell phones. It was a pretty good ceremony even if Beth didn’t want to be there. She was not a fan of being in front of a large group of people. Not in this setting anyway. She could never find the same way to tune people out as she did while playing basketball or volleyball. Darcy was able to calm her down for the induction by emphasizing that life is full of moments where we’d rather be somewhere else. Joe came across this everyday, but he chose his path to become a cop just as Beth chose to be an excellent student and athlete. Her choices in those two areas were going to open some doors later on for her that didn’t open for him.

  When the ceremony concluded, a dinner was provided by a local catering service the school used often for events such as this. Tonight’s meal was prime rib with side dishes of steamed vegetables with either apple pie or strawberry/rhubarb pie. Students from another student organization did the serving and Joe realized he was hungrier than he thought he’d be when he arrived at the school. Three dead humans and one dead baby deer would probably turn most people’s stomachs, but, other than the deer, it was all in a day’s work for him.

  The meal and evening were great. It was just what Joe needed. He needed this family time and a change of scenery. Work wasn’t getting too complicated, yet he knew it was far from being over. The forensics team at the farmhouse would contact his department with their findings, but those wouldn’t get to him or Jacobs until the morning. Since there wasn’t anything Joe could do about it at that moment, he chose to enjoy the evening with his wife and daughter.

  People began leaving once they finished their meals. Joe was ready to leave as well, but Darcy was mingling with some other parents and he couldn’t get her attention. Beth was standing next to him and backhanded his arm. “You are old-school, Dad. Text her. She’ll be more apt to respond to that.”

  Joe laughed a little. “You’re right.” He pulled out his phone and sent a text: You ready to leave?

  Darcy must have felt her phone buzz in the bag she was carrying because she held up a finger to a parent excusing herself for a moment and pulled her phone from the bag. She was still talking to the parent when she responded: IDK…Why don’t you guys leave. Send Lindsey home and get the kids to bed.

  Joe: K…luv ya!

  Darcy: Luv ya 2

  Joe put away his phone and looked at Beth. “I guess it’s just you and me, kiddo.”

  Beth smiled. “Okay.”

  They both waved to a few people on the way to the car. In the car, Joe didn’t say anything when Beth switched his classic rock station to some pop one. He didn’t mind because as much as he tried to be home and do things with his kids, the moments he had with only one of them at a time weren’t as often as he liked.

  “Dad?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Can we just cruise for a little bit before going home?”

  “Sure, kiddo. Anywhere in particular?”

  “No. Just cruise.”

  This made Joe smile. It reminded him when she was little and he’d take Darcy and Beth for a ride. He was still a uniform cop then and worked in shifts and not the ungodly hours he kept as a detective. The memory made him smile, yet he felt sad. This was the path he chose and he was good at his job, but the last thing he wanted was for his family to resent him because he worked all the time.

  “Dad?”

  “Yeah?”

  Beth looked a little nervous. “Um. A, um, boy asked me out tonight.”

  The moment caught Joe a little off guard, but at least he didn’t freak out. The moment Beth was born, he often thought of when she would begin dating and how he would react. He and Darcy talked about this a few times and weren’t against their kids dating while still in school, but they did want them to be aware of everything that went with dating.

  “Do I know the boy?”

  “Yeah. It’s Lindsey’s older brother, Cole.”

  Lindsey was in the same grade as Beth. She was actually the one babysitting Beth’s brothers. Garret was old enough to look after Thomas, but the boys would just fight when left alone. This allowed Garrett to do his thing and yet have Thomas looked after. “Cole Hart?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What grade is he?”

  “Junior.”

  “Sixteen? Seventeen?”

  “He’s sixteen still. His birthday isn’t until this summer.”

  Beth’s sixteenth birthday was right at the beginning of the summer. “So, he’s really not that much older than you then?”

  “Yeah. He asked me if I wanted to go to dinner at Ma’s and maybe a movie afterwards.”

  That seemed harmless enough to Joe. “Have you spoken to Mom about this?”

  “I did.”

  “What did she say?”

  “She was fine with it.”

  “She didn’t tell you to ask me?”

  “No. I just wanted to tell you and get your permission also. If you said no, I had an alternate plan because I really like him.”

  Joe chuckled. “Oh yeah? What plan was that?”

  “I was just going to ask him over for lunch or dinner at our house sometime.”

  Joe nodded. “I kind of like that idea, too.” He though for a moment. “How about this. We have him over for dinner and then you two go to the movies after that?”

  Joe stole a glance at Beth who was smiling. “I really like that idea, too, Dad. Would you make your awesome tacos?”

  Joe smiled. “Sure.”

  They pulled into their driveway and held hands as they walked to the front door. Joe loved that and although Beth was fifteen, she wasn’t too afraid to still hold his hand.

  Inside, Joe paid Lindsey and offered to drive her home, but her mother arrived soon after Joe and Beth got home. When she left, Joe began wrangling the kids into their evening routines so they could go to bed. Eventually, they all made their way to their individual rooms leaving Joe in the kitchen drinking a beer when Darcy came home. She saw Joe smiling in the kitchen. “What are you smiling about? Did Beth talk to you?”

  He nodded. “Yep.”

  “And?”

  “She’s upstairs on her phone talking to Cole right now. We’re having him over for tacos Friday night before they head to the movies.”

  “Ooh. I like that idea. You come up with that one?” She walked up to him and they hugged. “Are you sure you’re ready for one of our kids to start dating?”

  Joe laughed. “I guess we’ll find out.”

  28.

  Davy had Paden drop him off at his place. He had no intentions on leaving town in a hurry now that he and Paden were going to take out Sean Brady. Brady had to know about Parker and Davis by now and who killed them. There wasn’t much that Brady didn’t know when it came to criminal acts in his area. Davy was thinking it was pointless to go after him at night and probably pointless to go after him at all. The man lived in a fortress.

  Before he was dropped off, Davy offered up his place for Paden to crash, but he said he had something to take care of before they made their move on Brady. Davy let the offer stand and Paden thanked him before taking off. Davy took out his pistol and held it at the ready as he entered his trailer. He checked every room and closet to make sure no one was hiding inside waiting to shoot him or worse. After clearing the trailer, he went back outside to his shed.

  In his shed, Davy took a mental inventory of his small arsenal and what he and Paden would need. It wasn’t going to be an easy
task and they needed to be quick. Carrying a shit-ton of weapons was going to slow them down. They were going to have to do more with less. Brady always seemed to have more than a dozen of guys at his place and four or five when he left to go anywhere. A small nugget of a plan appeared in his head, but he wanted to run it by Paden first and get his thoughts. He was hoping that whatever errand he was running wouldn’t take long.

  Davy grabbed a couple of pistols and M-4 rifles along with boxes of ammunition and extra magazines which he loaded. He also grabbed a couple of tactical vests with Kevlar body armor in them and pockets to secure the extra magazines. When that was completed, he began cleaning all the weapons.

  “Holy shit. Are you Rambo or some fucking thing?”

  Davy turned with a pistol pointing at who startled him. When he saw it was Jamie, he lowered his weapon. “Holy fuck. You startled me.”

  “Sorry. I was just driving by and saw your light on. I hadn’t heard from you in a couple of days, and I thought I’d stop by and see if you’re okay. You missed work, too, which isn’t like you.”

  Davy let out a deep breath. “I’m okay. Just busy with shit. Plus, I quit the store.”

  “I figured as much.” She held up an envelope. “Found this in my car.”

  Davy recognized the envelope as the one with instructions about the cash he left at the store and the pre-paid cards to be filled. “Good. Did you do anything yet?”

  She gave a small laugh. “You mean with the hundred grand in cash? No. I haven’t had time. I’ve been too stunned about it. I was gonna call or text you, but never got the nerve up to do so.”

  “Here.” He handed her the tactical vests. “Help me carry some of this shit inside and I’ll tell you everything. Then you gotta leave and tomorrow you need to start taking care of that money.”

  Jamie grabbed the vests while Davy slung the two rifles over his left shoulder and carried the bag with the extra ammo and magazines. The pistols he had tucked into the waist of his pants. Once inside, Davy placed everything on the medium-sized table he had in the kitchen. Jamie did the same. Davy then opened the fridge and grabbed them both a can of beer. He handed one to Jamie before cracking his open and taking a long pull. “What do you want to know?”