Hard Case V: Blood and Fear (A John Harding Novel Book 5) (12 page)

“I could if I didn’t care about gun battles in the middle of the Hilton Hotel. I just need the door to open. I’ll take down Comstock the moment he unlocks the door while you grab your lovely wife away from the door.”

“Be there, soon. We’ll take our SUV. It will hold us all if we make you run alongside.”

“You’re getting to be quite the comedian, Jafar. How about if I squeeze your head like a jelly bean. Would you like to see how much fun that is?”

“Uh… no John, I’m good.” Jafar disconnected.

“Jafar is funny,” Al called over her shoulder, where she helped Lora put away the dishes.

“That’s what he thinks too. Don’t encourage him.”

Lora stopped me from leaving the kitchen to get my bag. “Do you have any idea why Comstock would suddenly arrive in the area out of nowhere? Is there some kind of bad guy convergence going on I don’t know about?”

“I’ll ask him. For now, I’m thinking something big being planned on the horizon. The players are jamming their pieces into place. So far, we’ve moved fast enough. We stopped the one who had his eye on Al after I turned down Kornev, but that was a breach of personal security. The Nigerians parking their asses on my front lawn was another breach of security. Then a supposed coincidence with Comstock on the hunt for our neighbor girl across the street completes our odd trifecta. Everyone is interested in our ports. We have to protect Alexi’s interests with the docks. We know he will warn us if something odd happens there as he has with the arrival of Yuri Kornev. I think Alexi suspects a lot worse from Kornev than sneaking in contraband. After the Anthrax scare so recently, the old man is keeping the port under strict observation. I hear Tommy’s car.”

I gave Lora a kiss and a hug along with her mini-me. Tommy waited by his car, arms folded. I brought out the huge traveling trunk with cargo type wheels along with my equipment bag. I told Tommy we needed to wait for Jafar and Samira. I also explained my door entry plan. “Jafar’s bringing his SUV so he’s driving.”

“I like your idea for getting him to open the door. I bet Jafar wasn’t too thrilled with it though. What’s with you using Samara all of a sudden?”

“She asked. Right now, I only have Lynn to work any op requiring a woman. Danessa liked helping Clint and Lynn, but I’m not sure she’s interested. Samira would be a real asset if used sparingly, and safely. With all the pregnancies, we’re going to be a boy’s only club if we can’t get another woman.”

“Danessa’s street smart. She can spot a phony or con, and she knows what pain is,” Tommy replied. “The downside is she has a large family, and her Mom is falling for Laredo. If something happened to her, the exposure would suck.”

“All good points. Here they are.” Jafar drove along my curb, slowing. Tommy and I put our gear bags in the back along with the trunk. When buckled into our seats, Jafar drove toward the Hilton. “You made good time, kid. Thanks.”

“I called ahead to base. Gus Denova is still there working out some travel options Lynn gave him to investigate.”

“Nice. What travel options?” I didn’t know if I liked the sound of that. Lynn had been so excited with her creating ops for the team to entrap the terrorists we’d been hunting, coupled with directing the ‘Hollywood Bounty Hunters’ season ending hit, I was afraid she’d decided on another gig without telling me.

“I think it has to do with bringing the Hollywood crew to the Bay for a special season opening episode. She wants another extra special capture that will look great on film with them handing over a high value target to FBI Agents Clint and Cheese. I’ve heard her and the minions talking. I think she recruited the three of them as her entourage along with personal assistant Danessa.”

“Very interesting development, my minion, and when exactly were you going to share this new information with your mentor? You know. The Denny Light that runs this team.”

Jafar waved me off without turning. “Lynn swore me to secrecy… no… that’s not true… she threatened me into secrecy. I figured at the rate we are going with crooks and terrorists popping into the open, you would need to know something about what Lynn has in mind. Besides, Lynn’s scarier than you.”

“I’m with you on that,” Tommy said. Samira was enjoying the ‘Fear Factor’ Lynn generated in my friends. “Best you remember he who laughs last, laughs best, Samira. Your day will come on one of Cruella Deville’s less enthusiastic days.”

Samira shrugged in the front seat. “I spent a long time in an Afghan cave with only the Cheese between me and torturous death. I was a little kid, and I saw monsters in every shadow. My Father calmed me with only one caution. He told me when I awoke frightened, look for John. If he is alive, we are safe. He is still alive.”

That admission brought on a few minutes of silence. “Thanks, Samira.”

“It is okay, John. I still wish to poke you with poles in the water.”

I grinned. “Of course you do.”

* * *

Samira knocked on the door, holding a fresh batch of white towels I’d taken from the pool area. “Housekeeping. Clean towels for you.”

The door cracked open with the chain still in place on the door. “I didn’t order fresh towels. My room was done hours ago, but the towels weren’t replaced!”

“I’m sorry, Sir. Did you leave them on the bathroom floor? We know to replace them then. Let me have your used ones, and you may have these fresh towels.”

“Fine! Just a second.” Comstock policed his room for wet towels before coming to the door. The moment he removed the chain, I smashed the door into him, followed by a bodily charge which ended when Comstock lay sprawled on the floor with his hands trying to fend off attackers.

I waved at him as Samira, Jafar, and Tommy entered with our gear. “Hi there, Gavin. I got your message while hearing about your stalking of my across the street neighbor’s daughter, Callie. That ain’t ever happening again. We’re going to take you somewhere isolated, and find out what the hell brought your serial killing asshole self to the Bay Area. How we arrive at those findings will be completely up to you. I’m hoping you choose the hard way, so I can work a little magic on you while we drive to our ‘House of Pain’. There, you will find someone arriving who will do things to you only curbed by her imagination, which is extensive. What’s it going to be, you no good little prick!?”

I grabbed his Adam’s Apple for a moment while he came to grips with what would happen if he began screaming. “I see in your face I’m getting my message across. That’s good, because the alternative would be painful beyond your pathetic belief. I don’t believe in coincidences, so I’ll make a deal with your psychopathic ass. Tell me what brought you to the Bay at this time. After I investigate the truthfulness of your admission, I’ll end you peacefully. Start bullshitting me, and we go see Cruella Deville. Believe me, you don’t want that.”

Gavin began spluttering for mercy, innocence, and lawyers. Not happening, my idiot scammer. “Shut the fuck up! Okay, I can deal with you wanting the hard way. I’ll show you a little film. If it changes your mind, maybe I’ll let you in again on the easy way out. If not, you will be disappointed in how little we care about your right to justice, Amigo.”

I showed him the interrogation of Azi to his very obvious horror. I had to smack his face back on target with eyes open a couple of times. “I see you recognize my video subject. That’s where you’re going next if I don’t get some really entertaining reasons you’re here at all. The first thing I want out of you is a complete list of your victims. I know you’ll want to let everyone know about your handy work.”

Gavin was a psychopath, but he understood reality very well. He knew watching the film his two choices would be vengeance on a scale he couldn’t contemplate, or full cooperation with a quick ending. Comstock wrote out the victim list first with smiling satisfaction. With some hesitation dispelled by the looks he got, Gavin outlined everything, including the fact he had been targeting not only Callie but my family as well. He’d found out about us through an anonymous source who knew all about his serial killing ass. They’d given him twenty-five thousand dollars to do what he does best – terrorize the innocent, and in my case, not so innocent people.

He had my attention. “Why on earth would you believe someone decided to launch a scum sucking prick like you for twenty-five big ones?”

Comstock grinned. “Why would I lie with something to face like you showed me on that vid? I’m dead. I can see that much in your eyes. I don’t want to go out screaming. I’ve been asking around ever since I hit town. There’s something big brewin’. There are other plans in place to keep the media busy too, but I was the star I figure. If you’d let me do Callie, and then come back for your wife and kid in a couple weeks, there wouldn’t have been anything else on the news except for the Oakland Strangler.”

One of these days I’ll learn not to make promises I can’t keep. By the time the red haze lifted, I had Tommy, Jafar, and Samira strung out across me, all to no avail. Poor old Gavin suffered something terrible when I busted his rib cage to bits before I broke his neck. Oh well. Win a few, lose a few, I always say. Gonna’ bust me some poles in the water today. I held my hands up in acknowledgement.

“I’m okay… I’m okay.”

“Yeah,” Tommy panted, “but your buddy there is looking around at an impossible angle for him to actually still be alive.”

“He was going on a boat trip tomorrow anyway.” I stood and wheeled my large trunk over. “Nice work, Samira. I’ll wheel dead Gavin down to the SUV. Gather everything with your gloves on. We’ll take his bags next. I need you to investigate anything of interest on his phones and laptop tonight, little brother. I want to hit any accounts he has for hints where the twenty-five grand came from.”

I stuffed Gavin into the trunk. It was easier since his head proved very maneuverable. “I’ll be right back to help with his bags.”

“Stay with my van, John.” Jafar tossed me his keys. “It would be better if we check Comstock out of his room on-line, and then bring the rest of his gear down ourselves. We’ll each walk out separately.”

“Good input. I’ll see you down there.

* * *

Tommy stretched a little, while looking over Jafar and Samira. “Are you two okay? I don’t think John realizes what happened. Trying to stop him in mid-kill is dangerous even for innocent bystanders.”

“I’m okay,” Samira answered. “I will not try that again.”

Jafar nodded his head. “Comstock experienced forty-five seconds of hell. I think I have had enough of field ops for the night. It will be a relief to scan over computer data. Perhaps I will then be able to sleep.”

“I’ll pack the belongings,” Tommy said. “You two work on finding anything and everything of a communications or computer nature. Comstock had our names. I remember an old Louis Armstrong song called ‘I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead, You Rascal You’. That fits perfectly my sentiments about Comstock. Will you actually be able to confirm the info he gave us before he boarded the train to Neverland?”

“Most of it,” Jafar answered. “I will check his whereabouts, credit slips, reservations, and victims named, with their time of death and circumstances. Since Gavin will be going on his final ocean voyage, we may have to wait on giving closure to the victims, even though John surely did exactly that on a permanent basis.”

“Amen,” Tommy agreed.

* * *

Gus Denova opened our large rollup door. Jafar drove in. We unloaded the rolling Gavin. “I’ll help Gus put Gav on ice, and be right back.”

“Okay, John,” Jafar responded.

On the way to our industrial type freezer room, Gus turned as if to say something to me a couple times, but without sound. “Spit it out, Gus. Did the Nigerians give you guys something making you uneasy?”

“It is as you say… an uneasiness. The Nigerians gave us plenty of facts, but they seemed genuinely surprised they weren’t already freed and on the street. One of Kornev’s powerful front groups, based in New Mexico, paid to have this bunch brought in over the Southern border. God knows how many payoffs took place to get them into and through Mexico. They arrived in Mexico by container ship, one our Nigerian buddies said had been hijacked, but now bore the documentation of Kornev’s front group. Jafar texted me you think this guy Comstock was paid to draw headlines. I think the Nigerians were bought and paid for to do exactly that too. Kids snatched, and rape/murders would be a smorgasbord for the media. They would shelve a world war to delve into kidnappings and serial killers.”

“I like your thinking, Gus. You’ve progressed far in your media understanding since Crue starred you in the ‘Hollywood Bounty Hunters’ episode.”

He snorted comically at that remembrance. “I remember thinking every second not to screw up and end tied and gagged in a room with a disappointed Lynn Montoya. Yeah, John, I’ve come a long way in understanding what you and your crew are doing. It’s damn rough justice, but I remember well how to play off the cops and feds in this country.”

Gus gestured around him before looking at me. “Here in The House of Pain we make things better for real people, not psychopathic shitheads who think their fuckin’ Mommy or Daddy abused them. I serve the Cruella Deville by choice. No one arrives here without cause. Quays, Silvio, and I all know we do here what is right. You have created personal lives for us we never dared pray to have. Many will die, my friend, before I allow that to be taken away. We will get to the bottom of this puzzle about using the media to sweep aside the horrendous. We will filter through these puzzle pieces until we know the truth.”