Cold Blooded III: Sins and Sanctions (Nick McCarty Assassin Series Book 3) (27 page)

“Meeting with a colleague,” Grace replied. “He’ll be working with us out west soon. We wanted to touch base with him before then. We’ll be flying out tomorrow.”

“Have a safe flight,” Moragado said by way of dismissal.

“Thank you.” Grace led Tim away while both marshals watched the crime scene prep with police officers ringing the sidewalk area, where Nick left his staged gang battle event. “What do you think, Tim?”

“I think plausible deniability is a good thing.”

“Don’t you want to know what happened? Jesus… six dead thugs.”

“Let’s get Nick to his hotel, and go have a couple beers at the hotel bar.”

“Good idea, Timmy,” Grace agreed. “I wish he’d volunteer the info.”

* * *

When Grace and Tim returned to their SUV, Nick sat up straighter. “I’d like you to drive around this block slowly, Grace. I think there’s a bad guy driver staying in place because of the helicopters. We’re going to help him see the light.”

“Six dead, Nick,” Grace stated. “How do you know they had a driver?”

“They were using a store alarm as bait to draw cops to the scene. Those six planned to execute the cops investigating the alarm. They would need a driver. Trust me. You’ll see.”

“On it, boss,” Grace replied. She did as Nick directed.

Nick watched both sides of the streets they drove down, searching for the right kind of van with possibly a driver sitting in place. When they reached Hassell Street, Nick spotted what he had been looking for. A Chevy Tahoe SUV, parked half a block ahead, fit the picture he had in mind. As they passed it, Nick saw a man smoking a cigarette while in the driver’s seat with the window down.

“That’s my bitch. Drive around the block. Turn out your lights as we round the corner again toward him. Stop along the curb once we are about a hundred feet behind. I’ll check him out.”

“When you say check him out, do you mean put a bullet in his head?”

“No bullets, Grace. Relax. I’m going to nab him for you to arrest. The locals will have a guy to question about this cop-killing ploy. If you two don’t care about the locals questioning him, I’ll find out what their intentions were.”

“Thank you for asking, but Tim and I would be glad to have this kind of collar. We’ll play the hunch card when we drive him to the crime scene.” Grace handed Nick her phone. “Take some pictures of the Tahoe’s inside if there’s any incriminating evidence.”

“Will do.” Nick took the phone, and began his approach on the Tahoe.

* * *

“What do you make of this,” Grace asked her partner. “How does he get into shit like this? He killed six guys on a speculation they were baiting cops for killing.”

“I know this much after meeting Nick,” Tim replied. “However he does what he does, it would be better on the outside of the action than in the middle of it. If he’s right about this guy being the driver, we’re going to look real good at the crime scene delivering him. I try to concentrate on the reality of outcome with Nick. Everything we tangle into with him, he always manages to find a shady right path to completion.”

“So we play see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, huh?”

Tim smiled. “How perceptive of you, Grace.”

* * *

Nick passed the rear driver’s wheel well a few minutes later. When the driver flicked his cigarette to the road, Nick used his stun-gun on the casually placed arm, moving with it as the driver jerked backwards. He passed out five seconds later. Nick flung open the driver’s door, and waved to his US Marshal friends. Grace drove alongside. Tim secured the driver. He loaded him into the backseat while Nick inspected the Tahoe interior. The only items of interest he found were the eight by ten pictures of two police officers: a male and female. Nick took pictures of the two photos taped to the Tahoe interior rear hull, exited the vehicle, and photographed the outside of the Tahoe along with the license plate.

“Find anything interesting?”

Nick handed Grace her phone as he entered the vehicle, pushing the groaning prisoner over to the other side. “I did indeed. It seems two Charleston police officers have been targeted by this bunch for a reason yet to be discovered. Their pictures were taped inside the Tahoe. That item of interest opens other possibilities I’m sure either you or Timmy can conjure on your own.”

“It would mean the dead perps had inside help at those cops’ precinct to know when they would be on duty at the right time for an ambush,” Tim replied.

“You’re thinking two cops not on the take causing hard times for local dealers or crooks,” Grace added. “This someone on the inside is probably getting paid to steer the two crime busters away from certain street transactions, and they’re not going along with it. Hell of a bloody way to discourage their incentive.”

“A random cop killing when answering a security alarm report is an easy way to provide an unspoken warning to any other police officers being overzealous in their duties,” Nick pointed out. “I think you two can appear very knowledgeable and intuitive if the Lieutenant you’re reporting this too isn’t the one who set it up. Well, kids, are you fighting crime tonight, or searching for an escape route.”

“You have a distasteful manner when cracking the whip on us poor civil servants,” Grace complained. “This isn’t our jurisdiction. We weren’t asked in on the case, yet here we are on the verge of a possible crooked cop ring. How is it our responsibility to do anything beyond turning the clown beside you in, along with giving local police the hints you found in their escape vehicle?”

Nick clucked his comical disapproval. “Oh for shame. Are we not US Marshals? Didn’t you ever see the movies with Tommy Lee Jones? We are a force of good in a bad world. We-”

“Oh barf! Okay… okay…” Grace relented, while Tim enjoyed yet another Nick and Grace sparring match where his partner came in second place once again.

“That’s the spirit,” Nick said. “Onward to the crime scene, Marshal Stanwick.”

“By your command, Marshal McCarty. I knew this partnership would be trouble,” Grace admitted. “I didn’t know it would happen this quickly though.”

“I’d bet if you get invited in on the case because of this stellar US Marshal work, you’ll be able to bring in your special consultant to ferret out this blight on otherwise upstanding local law enforcement. Enter US Marshal Nick McCarty, detective supreme, to root around the suspected precinct in question, using his precognitive powers of deduction.”

“You’re joking,” Grace stammered, having halted at the roadside curb. “C’mon, Nick. Talking about yourself in third person is annoying enough. You contemplating interference into local police internal affairs is not a laughing matter. Tim… don’t just sit there chortling like a baboon peeling an overripe banana. Say something.”

“I agree with Nick.” Tim shrugged off Grace’s immediate stare of impending doom. “You asked. We either enforce the law, or we should turn in our badges.”

“Bravo, Timmy,” Nick said. “There you have it, Grace. Even your long suffering partner wants you to do the right thing. Step up!”

“Oh, you two are a riot,” Grace replied, amidst humorous appreciation by Tim and Nick.

“God… get me to the hospital. I’ve been tased,” the prisoner moaned. “You…you can’t do this shit. You can’t arrest me for-”

Nick lit off an arc from the tool he had used to capture the man. Then he jammed it against their prisoner’s groin, giving the man a momentary jolt from the electrode discharge after releasing the button. It caused the prisoner to buck into the backseat, curling into a sobbing fetal position. Nick grabbed the man’s hair.

“I’d be careful about what you say, Toasty. Stay quiet, the grownups are talking now. If you behave yourself, it’s possible you’ll make it to jail alive. What do you say, Grace? The Pacific Grove police force actually offered to let me be their Writer/Consultant like that TV show ‘Castle’. You already know I have legal ID’s with the FBI and US Marshal’s Service. All the Lieutenant can say is no thanks. It’ll be fun. I was railroaded into tonight’s show while walking Deke by Jean, who wanted to play superhero.”

Even Grace laughed at Nick’s admission. “Only you, Nick… only you. I’m in. Let’s go see if the Lieutenant would like some assistance.”

* * *

After perusing the pictures, and hearing Grace and Tim explain following a hunch to nab the driver, Lieutenant Moragado seemed more confused than she did when first seeing the two US Marshals. “I know these two officers. I’ll get people over there to secure the van. I don’t know why you did it, but that was damn good work.”

She turned to Nick with a gesture. “And who is this again? Did you say he was some kind of specialist?”

“It’s a long story,” Grace replied. “Nick McCarty has helped the Department of Justice several times in the past, finding and securing stolen high tech items, which would have been deadly in the hands of our enemies. He also helped find a leak in our Witness Protection program. He’s an ex-Delta Force member, and also a New York Times Bestselling author. He has an Assassin series about a contract killer named-”

“Diego,” Moragado finished for Grace. “I read one of those pulp masterpieces. It read like a damn comic book… a bad one at that. We can’t have some cop wannabe working on this. I’m not even sure I want you two Marshals anywhere near our department. Since you brought in the only live suspect, I considered allowing you Feds to take a whack at finding our crime mole, but I’m not interested in civilians fooling around on something like this.”

“Nick has US Marshal credentials authorized by the Attorney General,” Tim said. “He can find your mole if you’ll let him. We should work this in private, without bringing anyone else in on it from the Charleston Police Department.”

Nick kept his mouth shut during the negotiations with Moragado, although he grinned at the thought his exercise ferreting out police corruption would be a pleasant and ironic diversion. He would be working inadvertently to solve his own killing spree. The chance to identify the insider tipping off crooks to target cops interested him even more.

“You don’t speak much, McCarty. I hated the novel of yours I read.”

“Duly noted, Lieutenant, but we’re here to help, not hinder your investigation,” Nick said. “I write novels, but I think out of the box about complex situations. It can’t hurt to let me help you. We’re on the same side. Another pair of eyes on a strange case can’t hurt anything. I’ve spotted and identified problems where everything appears in order, and no one else has found anything. As Marshal Stanwick explained I have been of assistance in working with law enforcement, both local and federal.”

Moragado held Nick’s gaze for a moment in silence. “You certainly hold yourself in high regard, McCarty.”

“If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be of much use to you, Lieutenant. The important fact is my help benefited the agencies I’ve worked with. I already have a plan. Would you like to try it out?”

“A magic formula, huh? What makes you think I’m not the one tipping off bad guys?”

“You would have stonewalled us to someone else, or refused any liaison at all with the Marshal’s Service. We know we don’t really belong on a local internal affairs case like this, and you could have booted us aside – but you didn’t.”

Moragado took a deep breath. “What’s your plan?”

“Call a meeting with your Department heads. Have them bring along their second and third in command with them. First, explain the situation with the attempt to lure those two police officers pictured in the bad guys’ getaway car. Then introduce Marshals Stanwick and Reinhold to the gathering, letting them know the Marshals collared the driver, and found a lead into a leak within the Charleston PD. I will stay in the background and observe the meeting.”

“That’s it? That’s your plan?” Moragado shook her head, but held up her hand as if warding off any comment. “I get it. You think you’re like that character on TV… ‘The Mentalist’. All it takes is a glance around the room, and nail the bad guy, huh?”

“If you don’t want our help, kick us out. We won’t bother you again,” Nick said. “I have to leave for home soon. I’d be glad to help, but I’m not begging for the chance.”

Something in the real life assassin’s tone stirred Moragado. When she stared into Nick’s features this time, the small hairs on the nape of her neck stood on end. She handed each of them a card. “Be at the address on the card tomorrow at 10:30 am. I’ll set the meeting into action tonight. I’ll call my bosses, but I won’t be specific as to the purpose. Please don’t be late.”

“We won’t,” Grace answered. “See you tomorrow.”

As they walked away, Grace nudged Nick. “Moragado’s not right about you mimicking the TV Mentalist for laughs, is she?”

When Nick didn’t speak, Tim started laughing, but Grace was anything but amused. “I sure hope you can pull it off tomorrow, Mr. Mentalist. Otherwise, you’ll have a couple US Marshal administrators with their bare asses hanging in the cold breeze.”

“Not a pretty picture, Grace,” Nick replied, making a face. “I’ll make sure I’m at the top of my game tomorrow so I don’t have to witness anything to do with your bare ass.”

“I’d take a peek if it comes to that, partner,” Tim adlibbed for Nick’s amusement.

“In your dreams, Timmy,” Grace retorted, but Nick noticed Tim’s poke had thrown Grace off stride.

“Okay,” Tim replied. “I’ll settle for the dream peek for now.”