Dark Carnival Murders (15 page)

Lynn reached over the
counter and turned the computer screen towards her and studied the
readout. She said, "It says he’s from Gibsonton, Florida. The name
is a typo, we got the room, 2060, second floor."

The team headed to the
elevators, moving passengers out and cramming in the cars. Lynn hit
the second floor button and waited. Earl and I were at the back of
the elevator ready for anything, wanting to get the boys back to
their families.

The elevators came to a
stop and everyone flowed out to the door of the room. Lynn pushed
her way through the men and up to the entrance. She put her ear to
it and listened, she said she could hear nothing.

"Where’s that hotel
security chief?" She called back and he came forward. "Either open
the door or we will bust it in."

He pulled his master door
card and inserted it in the keycard lock, the door clicked and Lynn
pulled him back. "Ready everyone," she said and pushed the door
opened. Everyone burst into the room and stopped just short from
the door. Lynn was startled to see Dark sitting on a couch all
alone. She ran to him and pulled him off his seat and got in his
face.

"Where are the boys,
Dark?" She yelled at him.

He just stared at her,
then said, "What boys? I’m waiting here for a female friend, who
seems to be running late."

"Don’t fuck with me Dark,
or is it Cole. Talk now or I’ll tear you apart!"

"I’m telling you officer,
I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know anything about
any boys."

Everyone was feeling
helpless at this moment, I thought about something and stepped
forward, moving up to Lynn still holding on to Dark.

I carefully pulled her
away and said quietly in her ear, "Lynn you trust me don’t
you?"

She gave me a look and
whispered back, "You have something?"

"I do but you aren’t going
to like it, do you trust me?"

"Jim, I know you want the
boys back as much as I do, do you have something?"

"I do, but you don’t need
to know, can I have a moment with Dark, alone, no one in the room
but him, Earl and I." I paused then said, "Please let me try
something. Yes, I want the boys back and I would never gamble with
their lives if I didn’t think what I’m going to do wouldn’t work.
Trust me to try this."

She stood looking into my
face then yelled for everyone to get out of the room. I signaled to
Earl to come close, as everyone was going out to wait in the
hallway.

Earl came up and asked me
quietly, "What are you up to?"

"Get Angelo on your cell
phone and then put him on speaker." Earl smiled and went off to
dial Angelo.

I went to Dark and said,
"Dark or Cole, whoever the hell you are, from the first day we met
I didn’t like you and I knew you had something to do with the
kidnapping of the boys. You aren’t fooling me or my police friends.
We also know you are involved in jewel heists around the city and
for the murder of a woman who was in the wrong place in one of the
jewelry stores, we have witnesses. I don’t care about all that, I
care about three young boys whose lives you are ruining. I don’t
like that, and I don’t like you. So you can tell me where the
auction is going on or I have friends who would like to deal with
you."

"You can threaten me with
violence, I’ll just have my lawyers put you away for brutality and
I’ll sue the cops for all this," he said quietly.

I looked to Earl and he
nodded, coming up behind Dark. "Dark, this is my associate, a
former CIA operative, now working with me to clean up scum like
you. But he isn’t the one you should be afraid of."

I went to Earl and he said
Angelo was listening to the whole thing. I smiled and took his
phone, "Angelo are you there?"

His voice came through
loud and clear, "I sure is, Mr. R., what you want me to
do?"

"Hang on for a moment," I
went back to Dark. "The man on the other end of the phone is a
friend of mine, Angelo, he is the son of the capo of the Traviano
Mafia family out in New York. Ring any bells?"

Dark said nothing but I
could see a light in his eyes.

"Okay, Angelo told me
earlier that someone by the name of Benny Lesloe is interested in
you. Does that ring a bell now?"

I definitely saw Dark’s
eyes go wide.

"There was a jewelry heist
out in Jersey that you evidently had something to do with, and
Lesloe is wanting you very badly for it. I asked Angelo to hold off
telling Lesloe that you were here in Vegas, but I may reconsider
that. Do you think your lawyers can protect you from the
mob?"

I could almost see Dark’s
legs buckle a bit, he was definitely shaken by the news. "What do
you want?" he said.

"Geez Dark, what have we
been asking for? Where the hell are the boys? I’m giving you ten
seconds to talk or I’ll have Angelo call Benny."

Angelo helped by saying,
"I got Benny on speed dial and I’ll personally come out to hold Mr.
Dark until Benny can send his men out to take him back to
Joisey."

Good one Angelo. Dark
turned pale.

"Nine seconds, eight,
seven, six… times ticking Dark, what’s it going to be? Tell me, or
cement boots for you!"

"The cops won’t let this
happen!" Dark yelled.

"They want the boys back
too. I’m sure they’ll look aside as we take you out of here to a
place where Angelo can hold you. They won’t care about a pissant
like you. Five, four, three…"

"Okay, okay, if you
guarantee my safety, I’ll tell!"

I looked to Earl and said,
"Get Lynn."

He went to the door and
called her back in. She came up and stood by.

"Mr. Dark, tell Lieutenant
Carter where the boys are. Don’t disappoint me. Angelo you still
there?"

"Yes I am," came his voice
from the cell phone. "I got my finger on the speed
dial."

Lynn’s eyes went wide and
she said, "You brought the mob in on this?"

I looked to her and
winked. Dark yelled, "Okay, I’ll tell you where the boys
are!"

Five minutes later Dark
had given us the location of a warehouse where the auction was
taking place. Lynn turned him over to her men and told them to
escort him to the precinct and watch him carefully. I thanked
Angelo and told him to relax for now, maybe we’d call Benny later.
Lynn gave me the evil eye and then smiled.

"You did good, now don’t
tell me any more about it. We need to rescue the boys," she
said.

We left the room as she
was calling for full back up to go to the warehouse, and directed
the SWAT team to the destination.

We drove up and over to
Maryland Avenue and found the warehouse where the auction was going
on. I was surprised that it was the same warehouse where Angelo and
the porn actress were kidnapped back during the hypnotic murders.
The parking lot had many expensive cars, telling us we had the
right place. SWAT and Lynn’s men covered the front door and the
back.

Lynn went up to the
entrance next to the big garage door and tried it. The door was
locked. I was next to her and pounded on it. She gave me a
look.

"What? They should
answer," I said just as the door open and Lynn grabbed onto the man
just inside and yanked him out. She signaled to her men and they
all flowed into the room. I followed and saw what I hoped to see,
the boys, alive and looking well.

*

Chapter 21

The warehouse was a tangle
of cops in flak uniforms and assault rifles all aimed at a group of
about a dozen men seated in folding chairs in front of a makeshift
stage. The boys and three carnies were on the stage, one of the
carnies grabbed one of the boys and held a gun to his head. I was
working my way around the back of the platform in all the
confusion. The men in the seats didn’t move with all the fire power
aimed at them.

"Yo shitface, let the boy
go," Lynn yelled with her gun aimed at the man.

He sneered and said to
make him. I came up behind him and hit him hard with the butt of my
Glock. He went down as I turned the gun around and pointed it at
the other two men as I grabbed the boys, pulling them back. Lynn
came up on the platform along with Warren and seized the men,
handcuffing them.

Lynn came over to where I
had the boys and she knelt down to the youngest one. "We’re the
police and we’re getting you out of here and back to your parents,
how’s that sound?"

The young boy looked worn
and beat, but he smiled and nodded. Lynn yelled for Warren and
Williams to take the boys to her car and watch them. They went out
as Lynn went to the stage and yelled for silence.

"Okay all you perverts,
you are all under arrest for pandering, child endangerment and
pedophilia, the line forms to the left. Get moving now!"

They all grumbled but
lined up. I was watching the procession just as Buck came flying in
the door. He had taken Mac to LV Medical by way of Tim in his
patrol car. Buck saw me and came over.

"Damn, you couldn’t wait
for me to start the attack?" he said.

"We got itchy. How’s
Mac?"

"He’s going to be alright.
He knew I wanted to be here so he chased me out of the hospital.
Tim hotfooted it over here." Buck looked over to the three
handcuffed men who were running the auction and I saw his eyebrows
go up. He walked to the men and stopped in front of one of
them.

"Well Skeeter, we meet
again and you don’t have a gun this time. That sort of evens us
up." Buck brought his fist up and smashed Skeeter right in the
face. "You’re lucky I don’t shoot you in the leg like you did Mac,"
he shouted down to the man now on the floor. He gave his famous
grin and came back to me. "Damn that felt good. I’ve hated that man
since I started working at the carnival. Hey, I can quit my job
now," he laughed.

"Yep, you’re back to work
at our business. Did you call Lacey about Mac?"

"Hell no, she’ll blame me
for Mac getting shot. I don’t want to incur her wrath when I go
back to work."

"I’m sure Mac has already
called her. We’re lucky he didn’t get killed," I said.

Lynn came over and asked,
"Jim, can you call the parents and have them come to the precinct
to get their boys?"

"I’d be delighted, it is
the highlight of this whole case." I went off to the side of the
warehouse and called the Walkers first, then the Forents. It was a
tremendous feeling to hear them expressing happiness that their
boys were safe. They said they’d be down as soon as they could. I
told them the boys were still with us and it would be about a half
hour or more, so take care driving.

The perverts were all
being led out to a couple vans that arrived, then Earl and I got in
the car with the boys, Lynn was driving. The Forent boy sat in the
front and we had the Walker boys between Earl and I. It was good
that we had them, it would soon be over.

We arrived at the precinct
and Earl and I led the boys to the squad room of homicide. Weber
came in even though he was signed out, he wanted to greet the boys.
The Walkers had already arrived and grabbed on to the boys as soon
as they came through the door. The Forents came through the front
entrance guided by an officer. They latched on to their son as soon
as they saw him.

Mr. Walker came over and
thanked me. "I can’t take all the credit, Lieutenant Carter and her
men did a great job on this also. Plus my men on the inside made it
possible to track them down. It was a team effort. Now don’t be too
harsh on the boys for running off to the carnival, I’m sure they
won’t do that again."

He laughed and then Lynn
said, "I have the names of a couple good counselors for the boys.
I’m sure they’ll need to talk to someone who can help them get over
the ordeal."

"If the cost of the
counselors is going to be a problem, let me know, I’ll take care of
it," I offered. "Now take your boys home, they look like they could
use a nice hot bath."

The Walkers thanked us
again and left. The Forents thanked everyone and left also. Weber
congratulated everyone and he skittered out. It was now quiet in
the squad room, it sounded nice.

All was right in the world
now.

It was just after eleven
in the evening. Lynn still had to take her men out to the carnival
and close it down. She told me they’d have a bit of work ahead to
sort out the good from the bad carnies. I had told her the carnival
didn’t own all the rides as they lease out space for private
operators to set up their equipment. So not all the people were in
on the criminal activities. Buck had told Lynn that they saw Dark
with the jewelry in his trailer, she said they’d tear it
apart.

I was really wearing down,
so Earl and I left followed by Buck. I drove Earl back to his car
and headed home. I drove in the drive and could hear the alarm
going off. I guess Penny wanted to know when I got in. I parked the
van and went into the kitchen nearly tripping over Willy who came
bouncing into the room. I reset the alarm just as Penny came
bouncing in also and latched on to me with a big wet one on the
lips.