Hooked (24 page)

R
elieved, Linc watched as two NYPD squad cars and one unmarked sedan screeched to a stop in front of Upper Eighties. Another car blocked the alley two buildings up from Cooper’s. A for effort; fucked up for timing, Linc thought. Dennis picked up the warrant a detective from their unit brought while Linc went to the unmarked car. Harry was answering his cell. He listened, then  snapped his phone shut.

“Clauson lost Russo.”

Linc’s gut twisted into a pretzel. “How?”

“Another car pulled out and blocked his way. By the time the guy moved, Russo was out of sight.”

“Did he nab the guy?”

“Yeah, but he was just a kid who said some guy paid him a bundle to get in the way. Didn’t know Russo from Adam. Clauson took his information and let him go. He put out a BOLO on Russo’s car and plates, but he’s probably positioned one of his boys to do a switch. He’s done that before.”

Things weren’t adding up. “How’d he know about Clauson’s car?”

“Having followed Russo for years, he always expects someone’s on his tail. He’s usually right.”

“Shit! That may have been our only chance to find Tawny. We’re going into Cooper’s. You coming?”

“Yeah,” Harry said, “as an observer.”

Linc raked his fingers through his hair in frustration. “If the Coopers don’t where those two guys took Tawny, we’re screwed.”

“Benny should have kept his job on Wall Street. I don’t think he knew the hole he’d dug himself until tonight.”

Dennis, warrant in his hand, joined Linc and Harry, with the cops following. Charles let them in and stepped aside when Dennis waved the warrant. Cooper answered the door of his apartment with the phone to his ear. His demands indicated he was talking to his lawyer. One of the NYPD detectives read Benny and Eileen their rights, while a uniform made the rounds of the rooms on the first floor and two others took the stairs to the upper levels.

“I had nothing to do with this,” Eileen Cooper argued. “It was all Colin. Colin and Reggie.” Tears glistened in her eyes. “Benny might have known.”

Benny rolled his eyes and strained to turn, fighting the cop snapping on handcuffs. “Shut up, Eileen. They can’t prove anything if you shut up.” His body wilted, and he released a long sigh. Pitiful basset eyes centered on Linc. “I could never see past the tits.”

“You don’t think we can prove anything, Benny? People will be waiting in line to flip on you
.” But it was Tawny he was worried about. She knew enough to put the guilty culprits behind bars for a very long time, and it’d be in everyone’s interest if she were never found. “A federal agent is on his way to the hospital because of Reggie Cart. Tell me where Russo took Tawny Dell, before you’re charged with another murder.”

Cooper’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “I never knew about any murders until yesterday. None of them. Well, Martell crushing Cindi was an accident. You have to
believe me.”

The suitcase that was supposed to contain Cindi’s body that Martell wrote about in his suicide note hadn’t been found, so Cooper’s admission confirmed the woman’s cause of death, whether divers found her or not.

Dennis towered over Cooper. “But you covered it up, you son of a bitch.”

Cooper swallowed, a big clunking sound in his throat. “She was already dead. What could I have done?”

“You could have called the police.” Linc’s voice shook. “She has family. They need closure.” He turned away in disgust, then back. “Maybe you never gave that a thought. Well, here’s something else to think about. Dirk Hansen died because you didn’t call the police, and an innocent woman might still die tonight if we don’t find her. Your silence caused Rick Martell his life. Murder is written all over you.”

Dennis pumped his finger in Cooper’s chest. “That makes you an accessory after the fact, before the fact, conspiracy, procurement. I could go on. You’ll be old and gray by the time you get out of prison.”

“Where is she, Cooper?” Linc asked again.

Dark stains ringed the armpits of Cooper’s shirt, all the way to the green alligator logo. His face was red and blotchy, eyes watery, and his voice trembled. “I don’t know. I swear. Don’t you think I’d tell?”

Benny Cooper was the kind of guy who’d give up his own kid if it kept him out of prison. Linc wished he found pleasure in the Coopers’ turning on each other, but that wouldn’t help find Tawny.

“The only thing I might have heard,” Benny said, “and I’m not sure, was…” He stopped.

“Was what?” Linc asked, hope flaring.

“If I tell you, you’ll give me a deal, right?”

Anger boiled in Linc’s gut, and he charged Cooper with fists drawn. Dennis pulled him away. “Ain’t worth it, partner,” he said in Linc’s ear.

Linc nodded and took a deep breath. “Tell me and I’ll keep Russo from knowing you spilled your cowardly guts to save your ass.”

“New Jersey,” Cooper blurted out. “I think I heard Russo whisper New Jersey in Reggie’s ear.”

“What are you doing?” Eileen whined. “If they find her―”

“If they find her, what?” Dennis asked Eileen. “You know where they took her?”

“No, and I wouldn’t tell if I did. I’m not stupid, you know. You’re gonna try to pin everything on me.”

Benny snorted. “Now she shuts up. Jesus.”

“Benny, the Lord’s name?” Eileen said. “Remember?”

Linc caught Harry’s gaze out of the corner of his eye, then said, “What room was Tawny in tonight, Cooper?”

His gaze narrowed. “How should I know?”

“Because you were getting ready to bang her when we broke in,” Eileen said. “That’s how you should know.” She turned to Linc. “He set himself up with her tonight, the horny pervert. Imagine, having me for a wife and going after inferior pussy.”

“Imagine,” Harry said under his breath.

“Shut up, Eileen,” Cooper said.

Linc wanted to put his fist through Cooper’s expensive bonded teeth, but he felt Harry’s hand on his arm.

“Don’t. He’d file battery charges, and you’d be on suspension.” Harry whispered in Linc’s ear. “Besides, too many witnesses here.”

Eileen started laughing hysterically. “Benny has a blister on the head of his pecker the size of a grape. He couldn’t do anything if he wanted to. Not without pain. You should’ve seen him jumping around in agony when he hit the bedside table. It was a sight. That’s why he’s walking funny, poor stupid bastard.”

Cooper’s face turned the color of a ripe tomato. Spittle spewed from his mouth when he spoke. “I said, shut the fuck up.”

“Tawny was the only one who would tend to it,” Eileen said. “Rubbed the poor baby with Vaseline.
Yuck.”

“She was the only one kind enough,” Benny said.

“Oh, yeah, news flash, Benny. All the while she was trying to put you in jail.”

Benny shut up but mumbled something about a traitor under his breath.

“Found this upstairs, Linc,” one of the detectives said, waving a purse. “It was in the closet.”

“That’s Tawny Dell’s,” Linc said.

“You sure?” Harry asked.

“Positive.”

“I’ve seen her with it, too,” Dennis said. “It’s hers.”

“Champagne and a nice setup of munchies up there. Oh, and I found these.” He swung the nipple clamps by the chain. “Got Cooper’s initials on them in rhinestones.”

“Those are diamonds, you moron,” Cooper said. “Do you think Benny Cooper would have rhinestones?”

Jesus
.
“Where’s the doorman?” Linc asked.

“Probably hiding in his apartment,” Cooper said.

“Where?” Dennis asked. Cooper told him to go outside and down the stairs to the basement. Linc nodded, and Dennis left.

“After forensics leaves, I want the office emptied. Computers, papers, everything you can find, and get them downtown. If the cupboards are locked, break them open. There are tapes. I want them.” He walked over to Cooper. “What’s Mario Russo got to do with you, Cooper?”

“I barely know the man. Eileen knows him better than I do, don’t you, sweetheart?”

“Fuck you, Benny,” Eileen spat back. “That was a long time ago.”

“What was he doing here?”

Cooper shook his head. “That’s where I draw the line, Walsh. I wouldn’t live twenty-four hours if I cross Russo.”

Linc couldn’t argue.

“All I’m saying now is I didn’t kill anyone, didn’t order anyone killed. And that’s it. I’m not saying another word until I speak to my lawyer. Cooper, over and out.”

With that, Cooper pinched his lips tight.

Linc couldn’t listen to another word anyway. The Coopers’ vitriol wouldn’t help find Tawny. He walked out of the apartment.

Harry followed. “We’ll find her,” he said.

“Probably not before it’s too late. Reggie and Colin have nothing to lose by killing her, unless they’re too stupid to figure out the Coopers will trade them out to save themselves.
If
we find them alive.”

“If we find them at all, they’ll be dead,” Harry said. “Russo doesn’t leave loose ends.”

“No, and he’s too smart to stash her in a building that’s on the books, but I don’t know where else to start.”

“We’ve had forensic accountants trying to untangle his holdings for years,” Harry
said. “If Russo wanted to hide something, Martell made it go away. He was smart. Very smart.”

“What about construction sites?” Linc said.

“That’s a lot of territory. Russo’s company has jobs in three states. New Jersey’s one of them.”

Linc felt his stomach muscles tighten. Harry was right. Too much territory to clear in one night. If Tawny was somewhere in New Jersey, they were fucked.

Dennis came back into the building. “Doorman heard Colin say New Jersey as they were taking Tawny out the back door. That’s all he heard, he said. He might know more, but he asked for a lawyer. I had one of the cops from the 19th take him in.”

“Not so dumb after all,” Linc said.

Linc, Dennis, and Harry walked out of Upper Eighties while the cops were loading the Coopers into two squad cars. “Talk about nothing to lose,” Linc said. “Russo’s fighting for his life. I thought he was going to collapse when I saw him earlier. He mentioned chemo treatments. Even if he shows up at the hospital tomorrow morning, it’ll be too late for Tawny. He’ll get rid of her tonight.”

“In New Jersey,” Dennis said.

“Yeah.” Linc turned to Harry. “He’s too smart to use his cell, but Reggie and Colin aren’t.”

Dennis said, “
Nor were they prepared for this. I’ll put a track on their cells.”

Mario Russo had spent his life besting the authorities. He wouldn’t let a woman dethrone him at the end of a long, successful career. And he wouldn’t let two fuckups do it either. He’d kill them and kill Tawny too. Leave no witnesses. No loose threads.

“I’ve got phone calls to make,” Linc said. “It’s our only chance to save Tawny.”

T
awny crouched in the back seat, blind, bound, and silenced. She offered little resistance, knowing it was useless. All she had were her ears.

Colin drove for about forty-five minutes. After a while, he drove fast. Highway driving, though she couldn’t guess which direction. No heavy traffic sounds, but then it was the wee hours of the morning, and even in New York, life slowed at that hour. The two men spoke little on the way until they began to argue about turns and streets. The only thing she learned was wherever they were looked like a ghost town. That sounded hopeless. Who would hunt for her in a ghost town? Fear spread through her like wildfire. She needed to get away from these bozos or she was cooked.

The car stopped after a short distance on bumpy road. Tawny could hear the dirt spatter off the wheels into the mudguards. Ghost town, dirt roads, pitch black night. Her heart sank. Even if by some miracle she managed to escape, she was on her own in nowheresville.

Reggie yanked her out by the upper arm and pulled her along; Colin shuffled beside her. Her high heels sank in the dirt, forcing her to trot along on the balls of her feet.

“Where’s the key?” Colin asked.

Tawny heard Reggie mumble and fumble, then a key turned in a lock. They walked
inside an area that smelled dank and musty, as if it had been shut up for months, maybe years.

“Over there,” Reggie said. “The fluorescent lantern Mr. Russo said would be inside the door.”

Which means there are no lights or they’ve been turned off. Given that awful smell, this is an abandoned building.
She almost laughed at the empty theories. What possible difference could it make if she was right? This was the end of the line.

“Got it,” Colin said. “There, better. We can see.”

The tap-tap of their shoes echoed in the space as Reggie gripped her arm and dragged her, tripping, up two sets of stairs. He pushed her along for a few steps, brushing against a doorframe, and into a room. The moldy odor gave way to the scent of fresh air, even in the warm night. What did that mean? An old building? Would they push her out of a window? Would a fall from the third floor be fatal? Reggie removed the blindfold, and after her eyes focused, the scene was nothing like she imagined.

The lantern cast a dim light on a room striped to its core except for a radiator. Why hadn’t they removed that for scrap metal? Was it left on Mario’s orders? Even the window frames had been removed, exposing the vast blackness outside. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered now.

Reggie pushed her onto the floor against the solid steel, wrenching her shoulder and forcing a muffled sound from her throat. She thrust her jaw forward, hoping he’d remove the tape.

“Okay, I’ll take it off,” Colin said. “Scream all you want. No one will hear you. We’re in the middle of fucking nowhere.” With a swift flick of his wrist, he ripped the tape from her mouth.

“Ow.” Tawny felt like her skin had been peeled off.

“Don’t complain, or I’ll put it back on.”

“I’m not. Thank you.” After another scan of the room, she asked, “Where are we?”

“City renovation project, looks like. This will all come down, I’m told.”

“When?”

“I don’t know. Soon, I imagine. Enough questions. Your friend will be here soon to explain everything.

“Friend?”

“Mr. Russo. He’s your friend, isn’t he?”

Colin’s sarcastic tone clearly indicated the opposite. No, Mario wasn’t her friend any more, or else she wouldn’t be in this death trap. “You won’t get away with this. The Coopers will sell you out to save their own necks. You know that, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Colin said. “Benny’s a survivor. Survivors do whatever it takes. And all because Serena heard me on the phone.”

“That was a careless mistake for someone so smart, Colin,” Reggie said, putting his big arm around the smaller man. “But we’re partners. We’ll be fine.”

Dream on
.
Too bad she wouldn’t be around to see the end result. Then she remembered Mario was coming. Maybe she could talk him out of killing her, for old times’ sake. “So you notch one more murder on your belt, then what?”

Reggie answered, his tone one of awe. “Mr. Russo said he’d give us lots of money to do this one last job, then he’d take care of us, get us out of the country.”

Tawny laughed. “And you believe that? You’re bigger fools than I thought. Mario Russo can’t let you live. You know too much.”

“He’ll take care of us,” Colin said. “He said he would.”

Yeah, he’ll take care of you, all right.
She had thought Colin was the smarter of the two, but now she realized they were both dumb as rocks. No arguing with rocks. Still, she had to give it her best shot.

“You think he’s going to let you walk away after he contracted you to kill Martell? Think again. You’re both loose ends. Mario doesn’t leave loose ends.” The two men exchanged glances, and Tawny thought she might have penetrated their thick skulls. But then they smiled.

“You’re trying to make us let you go,” Reggie said. “Ain’t gonna happen. Mr. Russo’s a man of his word. Everyone knows that.”

Then it dawned on Tawny what Mario planned. Of course. Perfect. “Listen to me. This building is going to come down, all right. Probably tomorrow or the next day, with the three of us in it. Mario will kill you both, and he’ll make it look like you killed me before they blow up this building. Are you both so dumb you don’t see that?”

“Who you calling dumb?” Reggie pulled back his arm to strike Tawny, but Colin grabbed his wrist.

“Mr. Russo said no bruising. One swipe of your mitt and she’d be black and blue.”

“You hear what she called us?”

“Reggie, to be honest,” Colin said, “I don’t think we’ve done things as smart as we thought. We’re involved in four murders, and we’re running from the cops. How smart is that?”

“Yeah, but in a couple of days we’ll be in Rio, lying on the beach, with tons of muscle men all around.”

Colin reached up and touched a finger to Reggie’s cheek. “You can look, sweetie, but you can’t touch.”

“I wouldn’t touch, Colin. Why would I when I have you?”

The two were into each other. This was a good time to make a break. With nothing to lose, Tawny had to try. She’d purposely avoided the light to accustom her eyes to the
dark. Slowly, she slipped off one high-heeled shoe, then the other. Both men had forgotten her for the moment, and she didn’t want to capture their attention. Pulling up her knees to gain traction, she finagled her bound hands against the radiator, and coordinating the thrust of her legs with the force of her arms, levered herself off the floor and ran for the door like an Olympic sprinter. Surprise was on her side. It took them too long to realize what she’d done.

The place was dark as pitch, but her eyes had adjusted enough to find her way to the stairs.
Don’t look back. Just keep going.

Maybe big Reggie was as slow as his brain, but after seeing the speed with which he attacked the
FBI agent in the alley, she doubted he’d be far behind. Ignoring the refuse littered on the stairs cutting into her bare feet, Tawny hustled down the first flight. She heard the two men jockeying for position, swearing at each other for being inattentive.

Good, swear and argue and blame each other. I’m getting the hell out of here
.

She got to the first floor and saw the glass door, hoping the two geniuses forgot to lock it when they entered. Because her hands were bound behind her, she turned around to open the door, allowing herself a glance backward. Reggie and Colin were squeezing down the stairs, side by side, impeding their own descent. If this were a movie, she’d be laughing at the Two Stooges, but it wasn’t, and she didn’t have time to find the humor. She pulled the door, swiveled around, and scooted through the exit before it slammed again. Now it was a matter of speed. She ran as fast as she could but not as far as she’d hoped, before a light flashed in her face.

Tawny crashed headlong into Mario Russo. He teetered, but he caught himself and grabbed her with strength she didn’t know his frail body still possessed.

“Going somewhere, Tawny?”
he said.