Presidential Cleaning: A Psychological Suspense Novel (5 page)

‘DC Electric!’ I exclaimed, punching the chilly air with my fist.

Lila was safe. Well, as safe as she could be in Harry’s company. Rather than heading back up to my apartment, I decided to take a ride to the 24 hour shop and pick up a new phone- nothing too fancy. I settled on one of those brick looking things with buttons that were clearly intended for fat fingers or bad eyesight.

‘That’s all,’ the tired looking cashier asked before placing my purchase into a bag.

‘Yup. That’s it.’

‘Have a good night.’

‘You too.’

***

Back to my lonely apartment I headed. Once inside, I assumed my regular position on the couch, draping the blanket over my legs and pulling it up to my neck. Ever since Lila was taken, my bedroom became a place I didn’t frequent. Both her side of the bed and mine were left vacant. The couch- though not the most comfortable sleeping medium- was where I spent my nights when I wasn’t scavenging through paperwork trying to figure out a plan.

At six o’clock sharp, I was pulled away from a less than satisfying slumber.

‘Hello.’ I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and sat up in a decent position.

‘Mr. Chandler. How good to hear your voice. I’ve got to tell you, I was starting to get worried. Was damn near ready to get my dentist in here for some tooth work. But he’s not one of those regular dentists, you know. He doesn’t travel with epinephrine or any of those nonsense. He likes to hear them scream just as much as I do.’

His voice was one that could cause even the biggest pacifist to want to throw punches.

‘What is it Harry?’

‘Well. For starters, your wife is doing well. If I didn’t know otherwise, I would say she quite enjoyed my company. She doesn’t complain much, just sits there watching the ceiling. Her face is too pretty to look pissed off, but I can tell that there’s a little anger in there somewhere. Oh, and of course, she’s a bit emotional but I like to think they’re tears of joy. I’m a pretty easy guy to get along with and she knows how to play nice. If I didn’t know better, I’d probably say she likes being in my company.’

‘You bastard.’

‘Call me what you want Mr. Chandler, but it sure looks like I have the upper hand so you might want to tell me all about your progress. How’s my guy doing?’

‘Your brother’s doing fine.’

‘And?’

‘What do you mean ‘and’?’ The fact that I had to have any conversation with this guy irked my nerves.

‘And, Harry, I’ll have him back to you tomorrow.’

‘That’s impossible. You think I’m fucking Spiderman or something. When you did your research, you should have found out that I stopped working a pretty long time ago. So I’m very sorry I’m not as resourceful as you expected.’

‘I’m sure you’ll prove to be just as resourceful as I need you to be. The main thing is that you get Derrick Shaw to me and you get him to me in one piece.’

‘As long as my wife is fine, you can have Derrick Shaw any way you like him.’

‘Now that’s what I like to hear. See, it’s such a great thing to do business with you.’

‘I’m not doing business with you,’ I hissed.

Harry chuckled like a little kid before continuing. ‘You have something that I want and once you bring that to me, I’ll pay you in the form of a woman. Sounds like business to me. Or maybe a form of modern prostitution. You know, I’m thinking that if you fail to deliver, a bit of banging around couldn’t hurt your wife. I can think of quite a few men who would pay top dollar for a piece of ass like her.’

‘Don’t you dare touch my wife,’ I warned.

‘Or else?’

‘Or I’ll bring you your fucking brother on a stick and then I’ll snap your big fucking head off your neck with my bare hands and shove it right on top of his.’

‘Ooh,’ he jeered, ‘getting a bit aggressive, are we?’

‘I don’t know what kind of sick game you’re trying to play here, but I’d prefer if you took it to someone else. I know what you want and I’ve agreed to give you what you want. I hardly think there’s a need for any further conversation. All I need from you now, is to call once each day, just to see when your turd of a brother will be freed.’

‘I could just give you my number.’

‘I said call.’

I hung up the phone before he got the chance to go on about how he loved my voice and how talking to me was his new favorite hobby. They guy was a psychopath, there was no doubt about it. Just the sliminess of his voice made me realize how much I needed to make my plan work and I needed to do it quick. Only God knows what this guy would do to my wife if he snorted one too many lines and that’s not something I wanted to find out. How did I know he liked the white stuff? Well, let’s just say, you can hear it in a man’s voice. The constant sniffing and clearing of his throat even though he sounded as though his immune system was right on par. Couple that with the frequent bursts of energy he seemed to get at the oddest of times. Either his adrenaline didn’t know what stretch of night was appropriate to surge or he’d had a little help getting his boost.

Chapter 7

1 day later

Adam left a message to say that it was time to get together. The time to finalize our plans had come. I entered the neatly tucked away meeting room in the bunker to see that everyone was already there, seated around the table and waiting for no one but me.

‘Shit. I’m not late, am I?’ I asked, peering down at my watch to see the time.

‘Nah,’ Adam replied, ‘We just all chilled here for the night so…’

‘Okay. Great. I’m guessing and hoping that you all have got some great news for me.’ I tried hard to keep the optimism alive.

‘Absolutely,’ Tony’s eyes lit up, ‘the birds have landed in the building.’

I chuckled at his wording as it reminded me of my first year working for the US government. This was perhaps the catchiest phrase back then- though not one we used professionally.

‘But in all seriousness, they’re here,’ Tony continued. Russia and Mexico’s presidents, the UN Secretary General and of course, our lovely friend from the CIA.’

‘We’ve also narrowed down the location that Shaw will be transferred to,’ Jones added.

‘Narrowed down as in…?’

‘Narrowed down as in we know where the fuck he’s going.’ Jones didn’t try hard to hide his excitement.

‘That’s perfect,’ I smiled. Things were falling into place and I truly appreciated how efficient these guys worked. ‘You guys are the best. So, now it’s just a matter of waiting until they’re bringing him to the president and then we’ve got to put plan number two in motion.’

‘Say,’ Iron entered the conversation, ‘are you sure you want to go for tranquilizer guns? I mean, it takes a little bit of time to get working and once they’re down, having these guys wake up can be pretty risky.’

Iron had a point but the second part of our plan would hopefully rewrite any bad feelings that the first part left lingering. ‘If we kill the president’s guys then we’re looking at never ending fury. There’ll be no way to talk ourselves out of what we did unless we’re all willing to say goodbye to our freedom and jump right back into our old lives.’

‘Can’t have that,’ Tony agreed. ‘As much as working for the president was fun and all, this new venture we’re on blows it out of the park.’

‘It’s always about money with you,’ Iron said coldly.

‘Don’t act like you don’t like it,’ Tony shot back.

I didn’t feel like hearing them bicker. Bickering was a waste of time and time was something we didn’t have much of. ‘Guys. Cut it out,’ I snapped.

Iron sat back in his chair, but not before shaking his head at Tony disappointingly. Tony smiled cheekily.  I couldn’t figure out what was going on with those two, not that I cared. They were professional enough to not let it affect the work they’d be carrying out for me, and that’s all that mattered.

I looked at Iron and addressed him directly. ‘Iron, have we got enough people looking out and reporting to you.’

‘Yeah, that part’s one hundred percent covered. These are reliable people too, so you don’t have to worry. A bit messed up in the head, yes, but I’ve worked with them before and they’ve done a fine job. Today, they’re going to change position and get closer to the location as to be able to get a better eye on things.’

‘Perfect. Sounds like we’re all set to go.’

The guys and I went over a few final details, ensuring that we got each aspect of the plan down to the T. Once this was done, we split up into teams to take on the different areas of the road, equipping them with all the things we needed to make our plan run seamlessly.

Jones and I headed out onto the lonely streets, a good half an hour away from the bunker. We took his ‘undercover’ car, a Honda Accord, one with plates that didn’t link back to him. Jones parked the vehicle on the side of the road and set things up to make it seem as though he was busy changing a flat. My eyes scanned the surrounding areas for people or the lights of cars approaching. When I was certain that it was safe to make a move, I carried the large duffle bag out of Jones’ vehicle and to the side of the road where the bushes grew wildly and the grass was left untamed.  Using a small machete, which I retrieved from the duffle bag, I cleared away a small space. Next up, was the spike system which I placed into the clear area as to prevent any obstruction when it needed to be drawn. The clear line attached to the spike strip system was given to Jones who pulled it across the road and secured it to a small tree close by. It was then time to get the weapons in place. Rather than having to travel bulkily, we needed to hike our way to the location, leaving all cars behind. The tranquilizer guns, paracord, and two way radios were stuck into the earth and covered with a net that had been fitted with leaves for camouflage. 

‘All set?’ Jones yelled.

‘Yup. Just about,’ I replied, securing the last end of the net into the ground with a stick.

I made my way to my feet, fighting the persistent branches and leaves away.

The streets- when we began to drive, were still as quiet as ever. No cars to be seen. No voices to be heard.

‘You think we’re all good?’ I turned to Jones for confirmation.

I must have ran the plan over in my head a million and one times but still, there was a slight degree of fear that I’d missed something, or that we’d fail.

Jones pulled one hand away from the steering wheel and placed it on my shoulder. ‘We’re the best there is. Nothing’s gonna go wrong, I can promise you that.’

I knew that I should believe him, but so much depended on us succeeding. Failing wouldn’t only mean not knowing the fate of my wife. It would also mean the possibility of becoming another Derrick Shaw to the president. It didn’t matter that we’d worked for him. It didn’t matter that we’d done a great job at keeping his secrets private and his demands fulfilled. If he got wind of our plan before he needed to, before we could appease his appetite for revenge, we would feel a fury that none of us was willing to withstand. A part of me felt bad for getting these guys involved. I’d moved on so much from the life I once had to know that when you ‘owe someone’ it doesn’t mean that you have to follow through- especially not when the requests are as high as the ones I dealt them.

‘You look worried,’ Jones noticed, pulling his eyes away from the road for a second.

‘I dunno man, it’s just that I gotta get her away from that stupid bastard and I’ve got to do it without getting caught.’

‘It’s nice…’ he glared at me with something that seemed like envy in his eyes, ‘that you’ve found someone who you can… you know, love.’

‘Never thought I was meant for that kinda thing to be honest, but that woman, she’s just perfection.’

‘I feel you. I know that many of the other guys don’t understand it. We’ve had all the love beat out of us in training. We’ve learned to forget that compassion is something that exists. It’s hard to get back from that life.’

I’d never heard Jones so sentimental and that made me think that there was more to what he had to say.

‘Did you meet someone?’ my eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

His eyes told the story faster than his lips could. ‘Yeah. Pretty girl. Very pretty. Patient. Understanding. The whole works.’

‘What was her name?’ I prodded him to say more.

‘Julia.’ His eyes seemed to glisten in the darkness. Filling with tears that he tried hard to prevent from falling.

I’d never seen anyone in our team this emotional. All this while I was thinking that Jones was just like the rest of them, with a fear of being attached; a fear of settling down.  His comment about being too scared to end up like me or loving freedom too much didn’t help me to see through the façade he’d been putting up either.

‘What happened?’

‘Derrick Shaw.’

My eyes widened and I felt as though someone had wacked me right over the head. ‘Huh?’ There’s no way he said what I thought he said. 

‘You heard me right the first time. Derrick Shaw.’

‘I don’t get it.’

‘You weren’t the first person these bastards turned to. They’ve had their practice.’

‘They took your girl.’

‘They
killed
my girl,’ he said with a vengeance.

‘Fuck. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for having drawn you into this. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have asked.’

‘Don’t be. I’m finally getting the chance to fight back- to show these bastards that they didn’t win. So, you can say I’m doing it as much for me as I’m doing it for you.’

‘If I’d known I would have…’

‘You would have helped. I know. Everyone would have. I just didn’t think they’d get away with it. I thought I had the skills, the resources, the talent to take them down single handedly.’

‘How’d they do it?’ I lowered my voice, unsure if I was pushing too much.

‘I had this whole big proposal and shit ready. Picked out the perfect ring and all. She was supposed to meet me for dinner at this restaurant she’d been begging me to take her to, but then she was late. I waited and waited, thinking that she was running late. She was a doctor so it wasn’t that odd that she was behind on time. But after hours and one too many glasses of water, I knew that something was wrong. She would have called, you know. I tried her cellphone, no answer. I called the hospital, they said she left.’