In Case of Death (The Adventures of Gabriel Celtic Book 3) (25 page)

“Found it!” Preacher called from the Kitchen a few moments later.

Making my way back, I saw that he had his head stuck into what turned out to be a mechanical closet. Looking in, I found the tan metal box tucked in between the furnace and the water heater.

Knowing a little about security systems, (very little), I started looking for the power supply that I knew would be plugged in somewhere close to the unit. I heard the beeping of the security system keypad in the background, annoyingly counting off the seconds as I frantically looked.

“Found it!” I exclaimed as I spotted it behind the furnace. Reaching in, I pried the power supply out of the outlet with my fingers.

Beep, Beep, Beep

“Dammit! The battery!”

In my frantic search for a way of disarming the system, I had forgotten that almost every security system had a battery backup!

Looking at the tan box on the wall, I saw that it was also locked! Sighing heavily, I reached into my pocket to again extract my picks until I was unceremoniously shoved out of the way.

“Scuse me,” Preacher mumbled as he whisked by me in the small closet. Extracting the thin knife out of his Bible, he set the book down on the water heater before effortlessly prying the knife under the edge of the door and popping it open. He then grabbed one of the wires that came off of the battery and easily sliced through it with the stiletto.

The beeping stopped.

I took the first normal breath since we had walked up to the door of the apartment. I also noticed that I was soaked in sweat.

Thanks,
I said to Preacher, reverting back to whispers in the now silent apartment.

He nodded as he reinserted the knife back into the Bible.
Mind if I make an observation?
he asked.

Sure!
I replied as I put the lock picks back into my pocket.

You suck at this illegal shit!

***

We spread out, Preacher starting in the bedroom as I worked through the desk located in the living room. We had finally donned gloves, having forgotten during the excitement of entering the apartment. We would have to wipe down anything we might have touched during our break-in.

It didn’t take long to confirm that we were indeed in the apartment of the man that called himself Alonzo Gates. The few bills I could find on the desk showed that he always paid his bills on time, but I could find no trace of either a bank statement or a credit card bill.

Wondering how he paid his bills, I happened across a drawer stuffed full of money order stubs.

Always paid with cash
, I remember Lacy saying earlier.

I took another look at the bills, discovering nothing to differentiate him from an ordinary citizen save for the extravagant amount of porn that he paid for on his cable bill.

Hiding in plain sight,
I mumbled to myself.

Looking through the rest of the desk, I gained no other insights into Alonzo Gates except that he had takeout food a lot, evidenced by the expansive collection of menus I found in one of the drawers.

I sat back in the chair and muddled through some things nagging at my brain.

Alonzo Gates lived an apparently quiet life as far as his public image.

He paid for everything in cash, yet I found not one stray nickel lying around.

If he was our assassin, he would probably have a large amount of cash squirreled away somewhere, not to mention a passport or two.

If he didn’t have another place he worked out of, he had to have a safe or a hidden room of some sort in this apartment!

Standing up, I started moving around the room, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

I tugged at the carpet at various places, thinking he may have something below the floor. Then I started inspecting the walls for some sort of trap door.

“Look around for a safe or a trap door of some sort Preacher,” I called into the bedroom.

“Been looking,” Preacher stated a few moments later as he came out of the bedroom. “Found nothing in there but sex toys, two full-length mirrors and a mirrored ceiling.”

Shaking his head sadly, I heard him mumble,
Those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

His quote barely registered however as something about the room started nagging for my attention.

But what was it?

I made my way back to the mechanical closet, glancing inside for anything hidden in there. Finding nothing, I went back to the living room and looked around the desk, which was positioned on the back wall of the mechanical closet. Kneeling, I crawled under the desk to see if the carpet was loose there. Finding nothing, I sat back on my knees.

As I sat there, my eyes focused suddenly on the carpet in front of the desk. Very faintly, I could make out marks in the carpeting, indents really, in a line moving away from the desk. Putting my face on the floor, I shined the light under the desk.

On each corner of the bottom of the desk, I noticed round plastic discs attached. The desk was one of those large roll top types, and would normally be very hard to move. It struck me that these discs probably made it relatively easy to slide.

Standing then, I moved to the side of the desk, pushing it away from the wall easily.

“Gotcha!” I exclaimed as the safe came into view.

I finally figured out what my mind had been trying to tell me. The wall that the desk was against was larger than the mechanical closet was on the other side. He must have added onto the wall to add the safe.

“That’s a beauty,” Preacher said from behind me as he stared at the safe. And indeed it was!

Three foot wide and at least four foot tall, it was a high-end model, probably used normally for small branch banks and the like.

“I bet it has a TL-30 rating or better!” Preacher stated with admiration.

I looked back at my new friend. “You know safes?”

Nodding, he walked closer to examine it. “I learned a few things about them over the years.”

“Can you break into it?” I asked excitedly, anxious to see what was inside.

“Not without leaving holes that would tell the world that we broke in.” he replied dejectedly. “And finding the combination would require equipment that I no longer have access to.”

Nodding, I sighed.

“I guess it’s time to get out of here and report my findings to Allen,” I admitted tiredly.

We spent the next ten minutes wiping down anything we might have initially touched and putting everything back where we found it.

Cracking the door to make sure the coast was clear; we then locked the door and made our way to the car.

“This sucks,” I growled as the engine roared to life. “We just wasted an hour for nothing. I guess we should have just reported it from the get-go.”

Preacher didn’t answer immediately, staring out the window as we accelerated away from the apartment.

“I wouldn’t say it was a complete loss,” he finally replied as he turned toward me with a grin. “I might have forgotten to mention that I found this.”

Reaching into his coat, he pulled out a small piece of paper. “I found a cardboard shipping tube under the bed, and I pulled off the label.”

My frustrated mind didn’t immediately grasp what excited him about his find.

Seeing my confusion, Preacher continued, “If we assume that he had information or money shipped to his apartment from his boss, the courier company listed on the label may be able to clue us in as to whom that person may be.”

A grin quickly replaced the dour look on my face.

“I
knew
there was something I liked about you!” I replied happily as we headed to the house.

Chapter 65

September 26, 1999

There was a flurry of quiet activity at the apartment of our dead assassin.

The forensic team was dusting for prints and collecting DNA.

Another tech was going through the papers on the desk, which was currently moved to a different wall after I “discovered” the safe hidden behind it.

A local locksmith was methodically working his magic, the noisy drill the loudest noise around us.

Allen had just made his entrance, pulling up beside me as I patiently waited on the locksmith to get the safe opened.

“Morning Allen,” I acknowledged his presence.

“Morning Gabe! Good work finding this place. Good old Lacy Love comes through again!”

I nodded, pretty pleased with myself at that moment.

“Funny thing though, I just met a representative from the alarm company outside. He told me that he had stopped by because they had received an alert about a power outage on the system here, and then the system just died.”

“Later it seems, power was restored and the system went back online. He suspects a dead battery, and since they couldn’t raise the owner on his phone, he had decided to swing by and check it out. Apparently, all this happened about an hour before you called me with the address,”

Looking at me suspiciously, “You wouldn’t know anything about that would you?”

One of the last things we had done the night before was put the security system back together, knowing it would power up in an unarmed state. I hadn’t given any thought to the possibility that the system may be monitored.

I felt suddenly uneasy with the realization that a close examination by someone in the know would quickly reveal the hastily repaired battery wire. We of course hadn’t had the proper tools or connectors to fix it properly.

I shrugged at Allen before looking back toward the safe.

“Maybe there was a power outage…and the battery
is
dead.”

“Got it!” The locksmith yelled at that moment as he easily swung the door of the safe open.

Thank God,
I thought to myself at the timing of his exclamation.

A long whistle followed as the man got a good luck at what was inside the safe. “Wow!” he exclaimed, “I’ve opened bank safes with less cash than this one has!”

One of the lab techs stepped in then, unceremoniously herding the locksmith out of the apartment.

I quickly walked over to the open safe and squatted in front of it. Piles and piles of $100 bills stared back at me, neatly bundled in $10,000.00 bands.

“Must be at least a half million in there,” Allen said over my shoulder.

I nodded as I spied a polished wooden box on the bottom shelf. Reaching in with my gloved hand, I gingerly pulled the box out of the safe and laid open the lid.

“Eureka!”

Inside were a dozen passports, many of them from different countries. Carefully opening one after another revealed various incarnations of our dead assassin’s face. Surprisingly, most of them were of him in the guise of a woman.

Working through them again, I found where he had visited all of the countries on Raven and May’s list of murder victims… plus many more!

How many people had actually been murdered?

I shook my head in frustration as I handed the box to Allen.

“He has traveled extensively. No telling how many people got caught up in this plot Allen.”

Allen shook his head sadly, “I’ll get someone working on trying to find any correlating deaths to his travels.”

He gingerly handed the box to a passing tech, asking him to go through it immediately and get it back to him. Nodding, the tech took it out to their mobile lab.

“Have we found anything yet that points to anyone else being involved?” Allen asked when he turned back toward me.

“Not that I know of,” I answered quickly… and truthfully for that matter. I didn’t actually
know
if Preacher had in fact found anything out yet

“Ok,” Allen sighed, “Keep me informed.”

At that, he turned on his heal and stormed out of the apartment.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I kneeled once more in front of the safe, taking in the sight of the thousands of Benjamin Franklins watching me.

At least they weren’t pictures of George Washington…screaming at me about never telling a lie!

Chapter 66

September 26, 1999

The boy was skittish.

Kneeling on the dirt floor of the oppressively hot shed, the sweat was already soaking through his long-sleeved dress shirt and pants.

Looking behind him every few minutes, he cautiously listened for anyone that might be approaching.

Getting caught in his fantasy would earn him the anger of Roy’s wrath.

God had nothing on Roy where wrath was concerned.

He had been holding his breath. Suddenly realizing it, he exhaled with a shudder before gulping in the relatively fresh air of the dingy shack.