Deadly Treatment (24 page)

Harrison continued to look at Joshua’s picture; suddenly, he went pale as he thought about the conversation he’d had with Elwood and the word he used to describe Scott and Vince —
dwarf
.

Rodriguez let the information sink in a while before becoming more direct.

‘Who are they? What are their names?’ the detective pushed.

‘I only know their first names, Scott and Vince.’

‘Okay so where do they live?’ Rodriguez asked.

‘That I don’t know,’ Harrison answered reluctantly. ‘Shouldn’t I have a lawyer here?’

The detective knew he needed to back up a little.

‘I can read you your rights if you’d like, but the more cooperative you are now, the better it’ll go for you. Like I said, our main concern at the moment is for the boy.’

‘I had nothing to do with them grabbing the kid; this is the first I’ve heard about them having abducted anyone. Are you sure it’s them that have him? It really isn’t their style. As long as I’ve known them, they’ve been strictly arson only.’

Again the detective nodded.

‘How long have you known them?’

‘Quite a few years, well, I say I’ve known Scott for about seven years; he met Vince on a job that he was doing for me. I’m not going to go into any specific details, alright!’

All in good time
, the detective thought to himself.

‘How did you meet him?’ he asked.

‘I was just starting out in insurance sales, and I was struggling to meet my targets. After a few months, I got talking to a, let’s just say a less than desirable guy; who was looking for cover on a building he owned. He was prepared to pay over the top and offered me a bonus if I knew anyone who could cause it some severe damage. Finding firebugs is not as hard as you may think. But finding good ones is a different story.’ Harrison thought about what a lucky find Scott had been.

‘Generally they are under eighteen, thick as two short planks, and most of them do it for revenge. They’re misfits, crap with the opposite sex; the list goes on. Also, they’ve got some sob story about having a dad that beat them, or their mother doesn’t love them — it’s always their parents’ fault. Plus, finding one without a criminal record isn’t so easy either.’

Rodriguez had been on a lot of the basic profiling courses so he knew most of the statistics, but he let Harrison continue to speak. ‘Did you know that only five percent of arson is done for profit?’

The detective nodded; he knew the breakdown of reasons off by heart. Forty-one percent revenge, thirty excitement, seventeen crime concealment, seven vandalism, and finally, five percent for profit. It was time to move forward again.

‘You said they met on a job?’

‘Yeah, several years ago, I gave him a job, it was a pretty big one, one, that to be honest, I thought would be too big for him. But he did me proud; my client was very happy. Turned out he met Vince on the site; he was working for someone else, so they ended up joining forces. One became two — a team, so to speak. You’ve got to understand, these guys are good, true professionals.’ A look of admiration crossed his face.

‘After that one job in particular, I started getting sought out by people who wanted a good insurance broker — if you know what I mean. It’s a victimless crime; no one gets hurt; only the insurance companies lose some money, and let’s face it, with the amount of profits they make, they’re not really going to notice.’

‘So, how do you contact them?’

Harrison paused for a beat; he knew he’d gone too far to stop, but also knew that giving up Scott and Vince would be a mistake — well, specifically giving up Vince — Vince concerned him. Scott was stable and dependable; they had already built up a good working relationship before Vince came along.

Vince was different; yes, he was professional, and yes he was good at his job, but he was reckless too. Some of the stories they’d exchanged after jobs had been done were enough to cause Harrison to be wary. It was strange; there was nothing he could put his finger on, but Vince had that look, that glint in his eye that let you know that all was not quite right. Harrison knew that Vince would fall into the arson for revenge category.

‘My patience is running thin; your friends are dangerous, and they have abducted a young boy. Seems to me that even you don’t know what these guys are capable of. Now tell me how to get hold of them –
right now!
’ Rodriguez was losing his temper.

‘I call them when I’ve got a job for them, and arrange a meeting.’ Harrison’s words were full of trepidation.

Rodriguez strode over to the board room’s phone and snatched up the receiver.

‘Call them now,’ he said angrily.

Harrison put his head in his hands. ‘I can’t…’

Rodriguez grabbed Harrison by the nape of his neck and shoved the phone in his face.

‘Time for games is over. I said call them,’ he spat.

Harrison pulled away and jumped up.

‘They won’t answer — the phone will be off,’ he snapped.

‘What do you mean, the phone will be off? How do you know? I’m sick of this; turn around, you’re coming to the station.’ Rodriguez ripped his cuffs out of their pouch and moved towards Harrison.

‘Wait, wait — listen to what I’m trying to tell you. We work by a rigid system; that way we know that neither of us has been compromised. If I called them now, they’d know the cops had got to me.’ Harrison was a frightened bag of nerves.

‘Tell me how this system works, and you’d better not be lying to me.’

In the car outside the office, the others were getting restless. ‘How much longer?’ Malone blurted impatiently. They’d been there for almost an hour, and they were tired of looking between the front entrance and the second floor. Even with the windows fully opened, four adults in a sedan was more than enough to inflame an already tense situation. The noise and activity of the city did little to take their minds off the thoughts of what was going on in the office.

‘If he’s going to be much longer I’m gonna go and gatecrash the interview,’ Malone sulked. Once again the car went quiet with everyone looking out the window at the entrance of the office.

A small, barely audible growl came from Nick’s stomach.

‘I’m hank,’ he announced to the others.

‘What?’ Taylor snapped.

‘I’m hank Marvin, Starvin, I ain’t had nuffin to eat for ages. How about we drive to Burger King and gets a Whopper, or Arby’s and get a beef sandwich?’

‘
No,
’ the three of them barked at Nick again who then shoved his hands in his trouser pockets and slouched back in the seat.

Back in the office, Harrison took a deep breath and told Rodriguez how it worked.

‘I get a job and call them for a meet. We always meet at a bar in town. If both of them are not there, then we don’t meet; if I’m there with anyone else, we don’t meet. If either them or I get spooked on the way, then we don’t meet. I think you get the picture. We chat like old friends first, then I hand them a file with the details of the job. Things like blueprints, staff rosters, alarm codes, anything that will help them do the job more effectively — a lot of which the client supplies to me — and of course, cash. I then tell them if there’s any special requirement for the job — things like it must look like an accident, or must be done on a certain day, etc.; usually that means a premium for the job, so they like special requests. We shake hands and go our separate ways. Apart from a little phone thing, I more or less won’t hear from them or them from me until the job is done.’

‘What do you mean about the little phone thing?’ Rodriguez asked as he took notes.

‘The phone is a pay as you go, so effectively, anonymous. Once we’ve met and they’ve agreed to a job, they switch it off. They do check it once for messages just before they do the job, in case I call them and put a stop on the job, or, if I ring and don’t leave a message, then they know there’s a problem like I’ve been picked up by you guys or worse.’

Rodriguez could only imagine who or what would be worse than the cops.

‘Only when they’ve completed the job does the phone go back on, and that’s basically for me to hire them again.’

Rodriguez looked at his notes, and then realized why Harrison couldn’t call them.

He put down his pen and stared straight at him.

‘What job are they doing for you now?’   

T
he files on the hotel job were spread across the table. The job was up against the clock, and again there was a hefty bonus at stake. The hotel was in the process of being renovated, and someone didn’t want the job completed. The old hotel was a listed building in the middle of the city. With the continued expectations from hotel guests — whether they were longer stay executives or overnight tourists and locals — for high-tech gadgetry and simpler and faster Internet connections, it meant the hotel needed complete rewiring and re-cabling. So the decision had been made to entirely gut the building and effectively start again. The drawback was the authorities; because it was a listed building, its facade needed to remain, and unfortunately, it was not an attractive one. Both Scott and Vince agreed it was probably the hotel’s owners who wanted the job done. While it really didn’t matter to them, it was fun to guess who was hiring them.

The fact that the hotel was virtually in the middle of the city meant it was going to be a difficult job to do; but on the flip side, they often liked jobs in the city. It was such a busy place, the surveillance and planning could be done at any time, day or night. No one would notice one more person milling around amongst a city population of many millions.

Having reviewed the files, as usual they took turns in going to look at the job. One would babysit Joshua while the other went to the city; this way each planned their own individual attack on the hotel.

Vince was in the living room watching sports on TV when he heard Joshua call out from his room. They were still unsure if he could be trusted not to escape, so he was basically confined to his room; sometimes the door was open, but more often than not, it was locked. Vince preferred the door locked and the kid well out of his sight. Again, Vince heard Joshua call out, so he reluctantly pried himself off the couch and went to see what was going on.

‘What do you want?’ he asked the kid gruffly.

‘I need the bathroom,’ Joshua replied timidly.

‘Well, hurry up, I’m watching the game,’ Vince said as he held open the door and waited for the kid to go past.

‘I’m hungry,’ Joshua said as he came from the toilet.

‘For fuck’s sake, it’s always something with you, ain’t it? Come on, there’s some cheese in the fridge and bread on the side; you can fix yourself a sandwich if you like. You do know how to make a sandwich don’t you?’

‘Yes,’ Joshua replied indignantly.

‘Well, make it quick and make it quietly,’ he barked as he went back to the couch and the game.

Joshua pulled out the cheese and butter from the fridge and put them down on the counter beside the bread, then opened a couple of drawers until he found the one with the cutlery. He fished through the knives until he got one with a sharp blade and picked it out. As he held the cold steel in his hand, he looked over at Vince who was sitting with his back to him watching the tube.

Nasty thoughts rapidly passed through Joshua’s mind. Ever since he’d been grabbed by the two men outside of the toy warehouse, Vince had been mean to him. He had shoved him in the car, blindfolded, gagged, and tied him up. He had taken his PSP and laughed when he lost it at the Mulholland job, calling him retarded, and had regularly threatened him. He’d even smiled smugly at him when he’d been told about his mother not wanting him, and his grip was tight and sore around the back of his neck when the fat couple spoke to them in Mulholland. No, Vince was not a nice man, not a nice man at all. Joshua’s knuckles were white as he gripped the knife tighter and tighter.

‘Fix me one of them while you’re there, kid,’ Vince called out, bringing Joshua back to his senses. He went back to making his sandwich — and one for Vince — and then it was back to his room to eat it.

‘You took your time!’ Vince said flippantly when Scott returned.

‘What do you mean?’ Scott replied slightly flustered.

‘Nothing, I’m just getting stir crazy here.’

Scott casually checked the clock on the wall; his diversion had taken longer than he thought.

‘I uh, there was a crash on Alameda,’ he lied.

With Scott’s return, Vince went out to have his own look at the job. As soon as Vince left the house, Scott went to Joshua’s room.

‘Do you want to come and watch some TV?’ he offered.

Joshua was quick to accept.

Scott fixed them both a drink: coffee for him and a coke for Joshua, and they sat quietly side by side on the couch.

‘What’s going to happen to me?’ Joshua asked gingerly.

‘How do you mean?’ Scott asked, turning down the volume on the TV.

‘I mean, what are you going to do with me?’

Scott let the question sink in; he actually didn’t have an answer for him.

What could he say? That Vince wanted to dispose of him? That he’d made up the story about his mother not wanting him, but it didn’t matter, he wouldn’t get to see her again anyway? That he had grown attached to him, and didn’t want anything to happen to him? That on the way back from looking at the hotel, he’d swung past Erin’s house?’

‘We’re not gonna do anything with you,’ was how he finally answered. ‘You’ll be fine; now watch the box.’ He patted him on the head and thought about Erin Costello.

Since watching the news broadcast of Erin pleading for her son to come home, the image of her face had stuck in Scott’s mind; she was beautiful. It wasn’t just her looks, although she was way above average in that department, it was the way she carried herself, the way she spoke, and the way she cared so much for her son. There was such a childlike naïvety about her, and when she looked and spoke to the camera, it seemed to Scott that she was looking directly at him. He’d decided there and then that he wanted to see her in person

He knew it was dangerous, and he knew there was a chance he’d get caught, but on the drive back from viewing the hotel, he took a detour to the Costello’s home in Van Ness. After a slow drive by to see if the blue Ford was outside and to check for any sign of life, he parked a couple of blocks away and sat in his car trying to pluck up the courage to get out. He’d caught a flashing glimpse of her inside the house as he drove past, and there was no car outside. ‘It’s now or never,’ he said out loud and got out of the car.

It wasn’t dark, but the daylight was way past its brightest as he walked casually around the block. He passed by the house again but didn’t look in, just kept on going and took a left at the end of the street. As he rounded the corner, he saw there was an alley behind her house so without a second’s thought, he ducked down it and hopped over the fence to the rear. His pulse was racing;
what the hell am I doing
? he thought to himself.
What if someone saw me
? With his back pressed to the house, he took a few breaths to steady his nerves then slipped down the side of the building to the window. He heard her moving around the house, rattling plates, clanking cups, and then the movement stopped and the TV went on.

Scott waited a while longer then edged up the wall to peek through the window. Tentatively he looked in, and there she was, sitting side on to the window, watching TV, and eating dinner on her lap. She was even better looking in real life. She ate so daintily, almost mouse-like, each mouthful looked like a chore. Although she was watching what was playing on the box, he could tell she wasn’t really into it; she was just escaping her sadness. He knew it was him and Vince who’d brought such sorrow into her life, and he didn’t know how to change it. She dropped her fork onto her plate, put her head in her hands, and began to sob, Scott wanted to go and hold her and tell her that it would be alright; he wanted to tell her that Joshua would be back with her soon…But how could he? How could Joshua be convinced not to tell her — and in turn, the cops — all about them? What they looked like, where they lived, and what they’d been doing.

Feeling bad, Scott slipped back down the wall, up over the fence, and briskly back to his car. Maybe there was a way, maybe they could give him back and skip town or even the country. When he thought about trying to get Vince to agree to let Joshua go, all he could think was — maybe not.

Vince was full of beans when he returned from his look at the hotel. He bounced into the room, and then stopped abruptly as he looked at Joshua sitting on the couch.

‘What’s he doing out here?’ he snapped, pointing at Joshua.

‘I let him out to stretch his legs,’ Scott replied protectively.

‘I thought we’d agreed to keep him in there.’

‘We did, but now I’ve decided he can sit out here when we’re in.’

‘Oh, so you decided did you!’ This time Vince was snapping at Scott more aggressively.

‘What’s your fucking problem?’ Scott stood up and squared off at him.

‘You’re my fucking problem, and that…’ again he pointed at Joshua, ‘that fucking kid.’

Joshua was cowering on the couch.

‘Well, there was nothing wrong with him when you wanted him to do the office job, was there?’

‘Yeah, well look how that turned out, we had to go do it again.’

‘Stage fright, that’s all. He did it in the end — how were you on your first burn? Bet it took you a while to pluck up the courage!’

‘Well, that was then; this is now. Now we have to get back to normal and do what we do — and he – he’s in the way.’

Joshua burst out crying and ran to his room.

‘Now look what you’ve done!’ Scott yelled.

‘What? I made a kid cry? A kid that we’ve kidnapped, a kid who’s seen our faces and can identify us? Well, so fucking what!’

‘No, you idiot, what you’ve done is made a kid cry, a kid I’ve just spent the last few hours convincing that if he told on us you’d find him and kill him — or do something worse than that to his dearest mother — a kid we could be rid of without having to
kill!
’

‘Shit,’ Vince said as he slumped on to the couch.

‘Yes, shit,’ Scott agreed, and stomped off after Joshua.

Of course it had been a lie, but under the pressure of the argument, the story had jumped into Scott’s head — and now as he knocked on Joshua’s door, he was thinking that maybe this could be the answer he was looking for. Maybe Joshua could be convinced that he or his mother would be killed if he split on them. After all, it had worked as a way to get him to climb into the office duct. Maybe he could be returned to his mother. And last but by no means least, this might be the way he could put a smile back on Erin’s beautiful face.

‘Joshua,’ he said as he entered the room, ‘I need to talk to you.’

Once he’d finished with Joshua, Scott went out and sat next to Vince on the couch.

‘How did it go?’ Vince asked.

‘Actually, it went well. Your big outburst may have worked in our favor. Seems he’s more scared of you than ever. So in a roundabout way — well done.’

A smile crossed Vince’s face. He’d seen the way Scott had been acting around the kid, getting more and more protective of him each day. He wasn’t sure if he believed Scott’s story, but it didn’t really matter. He’d already made up his mind he was going to get rid of Joshua on this next job anyway.

They sat at the table to review their individual assessments of how best to do the job. If done in the dead of night, due to its location, it was unlikely there would be any human casualties; this was not an area for passersby. While it was only a mild possibility, it was worth consideration. Vince wasn’t too bothered, but Scott had a solution in mind. The sidewalk was already closed off by signs placed by the construction workers, but he thought it would be good to add a few more and extend the area a bit. He’d spotted some additional signs on his way back that they could collect en route. Much worse though was the proximity of the hotel to the other buildings. Sure, there was going to be damage to the buildings beside it — that was inevitable; but they were both professionals and both liked to control their fires. As it stood, the fire could easily leap across to other buildings and pretty soon half of downtown LA could be ablaze.

They agreed that Scott’s method of attack on the Europorium where they first met would be the best way. Namely, to create a large buildup of gas, get it to leak up through the building, and then ignite it. It would create a large and thunderous explosion that would be sure to ruin the listed façade; the burn would be intense but fast, and more importantly, confined.