The Girl in White Pajamas (30 page)

“I’m going in after her, and I’m not waiting for hostage negotiators to get there. Jeannie planned this. It’s not a spur of the moment thing. I know the building. It’s a twin to the house next door. She planned, so we’ll plan. I don’t want to go in blind. Just let me know who’s in and who’s out?” Bogie asked trying to contain the fear and rage he felt. Bogie reached over the table and covered Jesus Hernandez’ fisted hands with his own hand. “You’re out, man. We’re all hurting, but you’re family. He’s your cousin.”

Jesus looked into Bogie’s eyes. “That’s why I’m going in with you!”

Bogie drew a large rough sketch of the house on the whiteboard. “I think Jeannie has her on the third floor.”

Rose stared at him and asked, “Why?”

“Because they stored Jennifer’s furniture and stuff up there after she died. That’s not an attic, it’s the third floor of the house. It has two rooms and a small hallway. She’s had every light in the house on since Bud died.”

“So she could be carrying furniture downstairs,” Rose argued.

Bogie shook his head. “She’s been drinking for years, she’s in rotten shape. If she destroyed the second floor the way she did the first, the whole house is a shit hole! Besides, I think she might have booby-trapped the place.”

“Why?” Jesus asked.

“Because she’s fuck’n crazy!” Bogie pointed to the drawing of the house. “She’d wire the front, maybe the back door and entrance to the second floor. I don’t think she’d bother with anything between the second and third floor. It would be too much work while carrying a child.” As he said those words, he shuddered with Bailey’s screams echoing through his head like background music while he imagined Isabella’s terror.

“Bogie, you don’t have to—“ Rose started to say.

“Yes, I do and I will! Pop, I’d appreciate it if you’d call Jack and have him go to St. E’s with you to stay with Bailey.” When Darryl nodded, Bogie continued. “Rose, we’re going to need wireless equipment. I’ll need a vest but probably not a gun.” As the group looked at him in astonishment, he continued. “If she has a half a brain cell left, she’ll never let me near her with a gun. I’m going to have to ad lib a lot of this.”

“This is insane! You can’t go in there unarmed!” Rose shouted.

Darryl turned to her. “He’s right. She’s got at least a .45 and a shotgun. Bud had a license for them, but they never showed up when they went through his things. She claimed she didn’t know anything about them. Now we know she killed him with the .45. She killed Angel and the other guy with the same gun. You don’t want her using it on the child. She’ll never let him get near her if he has a gun.”

“This is suicide!” Rose yelled.

Bogie ignored her and said to Jesus, “How are you with heights?”

“No problem,” Jesus answered without hesitating.

“You’ll need to go through skylight in this house, get out on the roof with an air gun and shoot some listening devices over to the skylight in Jeannie’s house.”

As the planning began, Darryl got up and grabbed Bogie in a bear hug. “You take care!”

Bogie nodded. “And you look after Bailey, Pop.”

Darryl nodded and left.

Two black Escalades moved toward the McGruder home. Sitting shotgun next to Rose, Bogie reached in the pocket of his black cargo pants pocket and pulled out his cell phone. He pushed a button. After a few seconds, he said, “Hi, Princess. I just called to say I love you… No, nothing’s wrong...I’ve got to go.” He closed the phone and shut it off.

Rose glanced over at him. “You’re a piece of work!”

“I know,” he said and the corner of his mouth twitched.

As the vehicles pulled up to the curb, everyone poured out and started their assignments. Rose and Jesus walked up the front stairs where James and Trudie stood waiting. They escorted the old couple back to one of the Escalades before entering the house. Rose and Jesus made their way up to the third floor, entered James’ and Trudie’s room and climbed the stepladder James had placed in the middle of the floor for them. As they climbed out onto the roof, they could see George and John Washington below laying down padding and setting up a long ladder on the side of Jeannie’s house. Wearing a Kevlar vest, Bogie moved up the ladder slowly, his right hand stiff and awkward as he rose. George was behind him carrying equipment while John held the ladder at the base. Bogie reached down with his left hand and grabbed a suction device proffered by George Washington. Bogie attached it to the window on the second floor. When he reached down again, George placed a glass cutter in Bogie’s hand. Without speaking Bogie cut the glass around the frame and pulled out the second floor window. He let it drop to the thick padding around the base of the ladder. George Washington handed Bogie a shield and a gym bag which he tossed through the open space. Bogie raised his fist and silently lifted each finger. When he reached five, Bogie flung himself through the opening while Jesus used an air gun to launch a listening device near the skylight window where they believed Jeannie was holed up.

A shot rang out, as Jeannie blew out the window when she heard the noise against it. Rose motioned for Jesus to aim the next shot at the roof. With the listening devices in place they could hear Isabella cry.

Bogie moved quietly through the mess in the second floor apartment and made his way to the door that opened onto the third-floor staircase. Staying against the inside wall, he slowly walked up the stairs. His heart ached as he heard Isabella crying. “Stop crying!” Jeannie yelled in her heavy whiskey voice. “I’ve got chocolate milk for you, your favorite.”

“I don’t want it! I want my mommy! Help! Da-dee! Mommy! Help!” the little girl screeched.

“Shut up!” Jeannie screamed.

Something struck the floor, and Isabella whimpered.

“Jeannie,” Bogie called out with a small hand held microphone.

Gunfire erupted from the room peppering the wall and ceiling with bullet holes. There was silence and then the bullet-riddled skylight window crumbled and fell into the hallway leaving broken glass covering the floor.

Rose froze in place as she heard the gunfire. Jesus grabbed her hand, and they held on to each other.

After a moment of total silence, Bogie spoke as calmly as he was able. “Jeannie, this is Bogie. I only want to talk to you. Stop shooting.”

Jesus and Rose almost smiled until they heard another volley of bullets exploding.

As Bogie crouched under the shield on the stairway, he watched as the wall was again speckled with bullet holes.

Isabella screamed, “Da-dee!”

Rose and Jesus listened as Bogie spoke again.

“Jeannie, I never did you any harm. I don’t want to hurt you. I just want to talk to you.”

“Get the fuck out of here!” she answered.

“I’m not armed. I just want to talk to you. Haven’t I always been square with you?”

“Get the fuck out of here. This has nothing to do with you!” Jeannie yelled out in her gravelly voice as Isabella continued calling out.

“If you let me come in and talk to you rather than yelling in the hallway, I’ll get her to calm down. She knows me.”

“Da-dee!” Isabella screamed hysterically.

“Jeannie, please. I’ve never done a thing to hurt you. I was always on your side, and you know it. If you let me in to talk, I’ll get her to stop screaming and then leave.”

“You think I believe your shit?”

“Did I ever lie to you?” Bogie said in the most reasonable voice he could muster.

“Slide your gun down the hall,” she croaked.

“I don’t have a gun! I told you I didn’t.”

“Strip! And I mean everything! If you come near that door with a
stitch
of clothes on, I’ll shoot you without saying a word.”

“My underwear?”

“
Everything
! Get moving.”

“I just have one request,” Bogie said.

“What?”

“Promise me you won’t shoot me when I come to the door. Let me talk to the little girl then you can do whatever you want.” After a long silence, Bogie asked, “Do I have your word?”

“Like you’d believe me!” Jeannie almost grunted.

“I’d believe you. I never lied to you, and I don’t think you ever lied to me.”

“You better be
naked
!”

“Do I have your word?”

“Yeah.”

Bogie quickly removed the vest and all his clothes. He slipped his feet back into the unlaced work boots and slowly walked down the smoky hallway filled with plaster dust and cordite fumes. Bogie held the shield in front of him. When he got to the bedroom door, he slipped off the boots. Bogie stooped his shoulders and placed the shield on the floor all the while looking into Jeannie’s eyes. He held his hands away from his body. “See! I didn’t lie!”

Jeannie studied him. “What’s that line on your chest?”

“It’s a scar. I had open heart surgery.” Bogie stood looking defenseless as he moved his hands to his sides. He inventoried the room where the enormous woman sat on a wooden chair aiming the .45 Ruger at his chest. There was an end table next to her that held a near empty 1.75 liter bottle of Seagram’s 7, a full one and a dirty glass. A Browning twelve gauge shotgun rested across the table in easy reach. An AK-47 with a thirty round magazine was propped up against the table. Scattered over the table and floor was an assortment of handguns, mostly older model .38 Smith & Wessons. There were boxes of cartridges piled up as well as a spare magazine for the AK-47. On the floor in front of the table lay Isabella’s miniature Bokken sword and scabbard.

Jeannie stared at him without speaking. Isabella was lying sideways on the floor tied to an overturned chair that obviously belonged to the child’s table near it. Chocolate chip cookies had been placed on the Pocahontas plate, and the matching mug was filled with chocolate milk. A little, dark blue Rothschild coat and hat hung over the back of the other small chair.

“Da-dee!” Isabella cried out.

As if to defend her parenting skills, Jeannie said, “I didn’t do that, she did. She knocked the goddamned chair over twice.”

Bogie nodded and said, “Let me talk to her. I’ll calm her down then you and I can talk. Is that a deal?”

Jeannie gave a curt nod. “Don’t take all day!”

Bogie moved to the other side of the room and looked at Isabella bound to the chair with a thin cord around her middle and plastic ties holding her ankles to the legs of the chair.

“Don’t untie her! You can talk to her just the way she is!”

Bogie nodded. He picked up the chair and wrapped his arms around Isabella and the chair. He spoke softly and soothingly to her as she sniffled and whimpered. At one point, he pulled up her little tie belt and wiped her eyes and nose with it. When she nodded as he spoke, Bogie turned her chair so that she was facing Jeannie. He kissed the top of Isabella’s head and walked back toward Jeannie.

As Rose and Jesus listened to Bogie speaking to Isabella, Rose put a fist to her mouth to stop from screaming.

Standing on the roof, Rose and Jesus watched police vehicles pulling up in the front of the house and blocking the street. Light bars flashed as cops exited their vehicles and started yelling at George and John Washington and at each other to get the hell out of the way so they could cordon off the area. The Channel Seven news truck was just behind a black unmarked car. Holding her headset in place, Rose reached in her pocket and grabbed her cell phone. When she pressed the speed dial button, Matt answered before his phone finished the first ring.

Matt screamed into the phone, “What the hell’s going on?”

“Jeannie is holding Isabella hostage on the third floor of her house. Don’t send people in! She might have booby trapped the downstairs doors. She also has Bogie now!”

“What!? How the hell did she get him?”

“He went in after Isabella.”

“That fuck’n cowboy is going to get himself
and
the kid killed!”

Rose didn’t respond. She closed her cell phone and continued listening to the drama playing out in the house next door.

After receiving Bogie’s cryptic message, Amanda became increasingly uneasy. She paced the floor in the reception area trying to understand what was happening. Finally, she walked around the pool and knocked on the door to Apartment 108. Annie opened the door smiling until she saw the look on Amanda’s face. “What’s the matter, Sweetheart?”

“I got this weird call from Dad.”

Annie opened her mouth to tell Amanda she was worrying needlessly when a bulletin came over FOX News. A hostage situation in the Beacon Hill area of Boston, Massachusetts. Catie Christenson stood in front of the McGruder house holding a microphone and smiling for the camera as the wind tried unsuccessfully to move her long blonde hair. She reported for the world, “Jeannie McGruder, the widow of the slain Boston Police officer affectionately known as Officer Bud, abducted a small child and has barricaded herself and the child in the third floor of this home behind me. The little girl’s father, Bogie McGruder, Bud’s brother, attempted to rescue the child and is now being held hostage as well.”

Ann and Amanda held each other. “That crazy bastard!” they cried out in unison.

“That’s far enough,” Jeannie said.

“You’ve got quite a collection there,” Bogie said nodding at the guns. “Are they all yours?”

“Now they are!” Jeannie laughed then coughed.

“The cops said that Bud had a .45.” He motioned to the gun in her hand with his chin. “Is that it?”

Jeannie’s laugh was half-crazed. “He never knew he had it! I bought it for him. Got him the shotgun and Ak-47 too. I love online shopping.”

Bogie shook his head. “I don’t understand this. Of all the kids in this city, why her?”

“Her mother! The bitch owes me! It’s her fault Bud’s dead. She’s having his baby. She doesn’t need this one.”

“Why is it her fault he’s dead?”

“She’s the one who is supposed to be dead, not him!”

“You wanted to kill her because she was having Bud’s baby?”

“I wanted to kill that whore because she turned him against me. He was trying to kill me.”