Determinant (18 page)

“What is this?” I asked.

“I’m Viktor Azarov. It looks like you’ve already met my brother, Andrei.” He smiled and nodded toward Ray.

“Yeah, I met the mongoloid. How’s your nose, Shithead?”

“You want round two, Pig?”

He thumped me in the back of the head with a closed fist.

Viktor waved a finger at me. “I wouldn’t push him. I think he went easy on you the first time.”

“Your brother hits like a woman.”

Viktor smiled. He grabbed his wine and stood. “We’re going to need your help with something.”

I shook my head. “I’m not helping you with shit.”

“You see, you are going to help us. You don’t have a choice if you want her to live.”

“Leave him out of this!” Callie yelled.

I looked back at her. Tears filled her eyes.

“I’m so sorry. I should have told you.”

“Told me?” I asked.

Viktor snapped his fingers to get my attention. “Your girlfriend took something very important to us. We need it back.”

“What did she take?”

“A black, metal briefcase.”

“Just leave him alone!” Callie yelled.

Ray put his hand over her mouth.

“You just need to go to her house and get it.”

“What if I can’t find it?”

Viktor looked to Callie. “Where in the house is the case?”

Ray pulled his hand from her mouth.

Callie said nothing.

Viktor nodded at Ray. With the hand that wasn’t over Callie’s mouth, he reached in his jacket and took out the Desert Eagle. He placed the barrel against my temple.

Viktor stared at Callie. “You have three seconds.”

“Don’t! It’s in the back corner of the master bedroom closet under a pile of clothes.”

“You’re sure?” Viktor asked.

Callie nodded.

I knew for a fact that there was no black metal case in the closet. There wasn’t a pile of clothes. There was nothing but shoes. It was a clue of some sorts from Callie.

Viktor snapped his fingers at Ray. “Get the bitch out of here. Take her back to the wine room and lock her up.”

Ray holstered his gun. He blew in Callie’s ear and laughed. He tugged at her hair. Callie cried and tried pulling away.

I ripped at the cuffs around my wrists and jerked at the straps around my chest. I’d kill him.

“Stop screwing around and take her downstairs,” Viktor said.

Ray lifted her and the chair and carried her across the room. “Your girlfriend and I are going to go have some alone time, Pig.”

“If you do anything to her…”

Ray stopped. “You’ll do what?”

“I’ll kill you. Some way, same how, I’ll put you down.”

Ray laughed and picked her up.

“Leave her alone for now, Andrei,” Viktor said. “Bring me back a bottle of wine.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Ray took her from the room. She yelled my name the whole way out.

I pulled at the cuffs as hard as I could. “As soon as I get free, I’m killing him.”

“Fair enough. You kill him, I’ll kill you and her. Then I’ll search out your families and kill them.”

I said nothing.

“He won’t touch her if you help us. You have my word.”

I smirked as if his word meant anything to me.

“What’s inside the case? Money?” I asked.

“It’s none of your damn business.”

“And what happens once you have the case?”

“I haven’t decided.”

Ray walked back with two bottles of wine. He pulled a chair up to the bar, took a glass, and splashed wine in it. “Are you going to help us, Pig?”

I needed to split these two up if I was going to have a chance at saving Callie, or myself. I spoke to Viktor. “When are we doing this?”

“You can go now. Andrei will drive you. He’ll wait in the car. You’ll go in and get it.”

I nodded. “Let’s go, Mongo.”

Ray gave me a jab to the shoulder. It rocked me back and forth on the barstool.

“As soon as we have that case I’m going to beat you to death in front of your girlfriend.”

Viktor smacked Ray in the side of the head. “You’re going to bring him and that case back here. I’ll decide what to do with them. Understand?”

Ray peered at me and sipped his wine.

“I asked you if you understand, Andrei.”

Ray nodded.

“How far is her house from here?” Viktor asked.

“Twenty miles,” I said.

“If I don’t hear from Andrei in about a half hour, letting me know that you’re in the house, I’m going to put a bullet in her head.”

Ray unstrapped me from the bar stool and lifted me to my feet. I looked at his Rolex to mark the time.

My arms were still linked behind me back. “What about the cuffs?” I asked.

Ray patted the front pocket of his suit jacket. “I’ll take them off before we get there. Go.” He pointed toward the garage. “Walk, Asshole.” Ray shoved me in the back.

I stumbled forward. He grabbed me under the arm and pushed me toward the garage. I saw the black Bentley parked in the first garage stall when we entered. It was the car we had the BOLO out on. He opened the rear passenger door.

“Get your ass in the back.” He shoved me inside and clicked the seat belt over me. He slammed the door shut. Ray slid in the driver’s seat.

He hit the button to lift the garage door and pulled out. We crept down the cobblestone driveway. Each stone got absorbed by the luxury car’s suspension. I looked back at the house. The front gates spread and Ray swung a right out onto the street. I looked for a house number. I couldn’t spot one. He made another right. There wasn’t a street sign in sight. He drove forward a couple blocks. I took in all the surroundings. I still didn’t know where I was. Ray made a left. I recognized the street. We turned onto Interbay Boulevard. It turned into Bayshore Boulevard just up the street. It was the same street I lived on just a few miles up. I looked back to see the street we came from. I missed the sign. The brick street made a pitter-patter under the car. The sound disappeared as the road turned to a paved surface.

I needed to think fast. There was a good chance that the Feds were at Callie’s house. Since I turned the case over, the local PD would have been lifted. If the Feds were there, I doubted they’d let me walk into the house and leave carrying a briefcase. If there was even one there. By the time it took me to explain what was going on and devise a plan with them, Ray would know something was up. He’d call Viktor. Viktor would kill Callie. That is, if the Feds were there. If they weren’t, case or not, I’d get a bullet in the head as soon as I returned. There was no chance that these two would set me free and thank me for a job well done.

I needed to solve the immediate problem. Take out the mammoth driving the car as soon as possible. It wasn’t going to happen while I was cuffed in the back seat. Slipping the cuffs from behind my back to the front was impossible—my arms were too big, and the flexibility required left when I turned ten. I couldn’t wait until he took the cuffs from my wrists. We pulled to a stop light. I tried reaching up behind my back and opening the car door. If I could get outside he’d be forced to come after me. Outside the car, I had a chance to do something. I got my fingers on the door lever. I pulled. Nothing happened. The child locks had been engaged.

I needed to try something else. There was a clear view of the side of Ray’s head. I brought my feet up onto the seat and slid myself down.

Ray noticed my movements. “What are you doing back there, Asshole?”

“I’m trying to get upwind. You smell like shit.”

I kept moving around trying to get into the perfect position. I made my movements quick and violent. The more obvious I made them, the better. I needed him to look back at me between the front seats.

“Quit moving around!” Ray shouted.

“Make me, Pussy.”

It was the perfect trigger. He turned and reached back to swat at me. I lifted both feet and planted them into his broken nose with everything I had. The car jerked left. His head recoiled back into my target zone. I delivered another double footed kick to the side of his giant melon. His head bounced off the driver’s side window. His body fell to the left. So did his hands on the steering wheel. Ray got tossed up into the roof as the car hopped the median and crossed the other lane of traffic. We didn’t slow. A row of bushes flew by the car’s windows. Palm trees zipped by on each side. One clipped the side mirror and bounced us right. The headlights shined on an oak tree. I felt the impact. I remember hearing a bang. My neck jerked forward. The seatbelt kept me in place.

The car filled with smoke from the airbags. I coughed. Ray wasn’t moving. I fumbled with my fingers behind my back trying to unlatch the seatbelt. The release pressed down and unlatched my belt. I jerked at the rear door handle behind my back. It still wouldn’t open. I squeezed myself through the space between the front seats and got a closer look at Ray. His head was soaked in blood. His nose was pushed even further to the side. The top of the car’s windshield was shattered. He didn’t wear his belt. I guessed the impact sent him glancing off the driver’s side airbag into the windshield. It either knocked him out or killed him. I was fine with either.

The car’s turn signal flashed. It lit up a row of trees twenty feet to our left. The headlights shined into a tree line farther back. I expected people to come assist. There was no one. I looked out the car windows. Someone had to have seen the car veer off the road and crash.

I took hold of the passenger door handle and yanked it. The door opened a few inches. It was pinned against the crushed metal of the front fender. I fell into the door. It opened enough for me to fall out onto the ground. I got to my knees and then my feet. I took in our surroundings. The tree we hit was planted deep into the front of the Bentley. There were trees surrounding us. No houses in sight. I rounded the car to Ray’s door. I turned, grasped the door handle behind my back and pulled. Ray flopped out.

I looked for anyone in view. It was dark. I could see some landscaping lights deeper into the trees. The street was a hundred yards away behind us. There was still no one coming to help. I squatted over Ray’s body and fished through the front pockets of his suit jacket. My fingertips brushed the keys to the handcuffs. I snatched them up and contorted my hands to get the key into the cylinder. I needed to be quick in case Ray woke up. They key found home. I turned it and freed my left hand. I pulled my arms in front and clicked off my right. They were latched around Ray’s wrists. The cuffs just caught the last few latches.

I checked him for a pulse. He was still alive. I went through the rest of his pockets finding a knife and cell phone. I stuck them in my pocket. Inside his suit, a chrome, .50 Caliber Desert Eagle was holstered under his arm. It was, without a doubt, the murder weapon used at Tamboro’s restaurant. I didn’t touch it. It needed to be bagged and tagged properly to be used as evidence and matched with ballistics. I wouldn’t risk being able to convict him. He needed to be put someplace safe.

I grabbed Ray by the feet and pulled him through the grass to the back of the car. I opened the trunk. The smell inside hit me before the light inside flickered on. A dead body lay within. He appeared in his forties. He had bruising around his neck. I didn’t recognize him. He looked like he had been dead for at least a day.

I propped Ray up against the back of the car and shoved him next to the body in the trunk. I slammed the lid down and went to the driver’s seat. The car was off. The key stuck out from the ignition on the left side of the dash. I twisted it. The car did nothing. I saw a push button start located in the center console. I footed the brake and depressed the button. Again, the car did nothing. I went to the back of the car again and looked at the plate. I memorized the tag number:
AJF-P63.
The car wasn’t moving. Ray was locked in the trunk. It would be fine sitting here out of sight.

I jogged to the street. I knew my surroundings. My house was three miles up the road. I was a little over a mile from the house we left. The bay sat before me. I checked my watch. I could be back to the house in ten minutes on foot. It left me a few minutes before Ray was supposed to make the call to Viktor. I grabbed the name of the closest street and started running south. I yanked Ray’s phone from my pocket to call for backup.

I got off the phone with the 9-1-1 dispatcher and called the only number I knew by heart. It rang.

“Hank Rawlings.”

“Hank, it’s Kane. I need backup.”

“Backup? What number is this? Where the hell are you? Are you OK? We’ve been at your condo for the last two hours. We just left like ten minutes ago. What the hell happened?”

“Long story.”

“What are you doing? It sounds like you’re running.”

“I am. You need to get down here. I know where Callie and Viktor Azarov are.”

“I’m on way. Where am I going?”

“Big brick house a few blocks off Interbay Boulevard. It’s just up from Ballast Point Park.”

“Do you have an address?”

“No, but I have a plate number you can trace from the BOLO Bentley. Pretty safe to assume the car belongs with the house. Try to find out who the owner of the car and property are. You ready for the tag number?”

“Shoot.”

“Adam John Frank Paul six three.”

“Adam John Frank Paul six three?”

“Correct. If the tag doesn’t turn up anything, just find the biggest house in the neighborhood. That’ll be the place.”

“It’s going to take me at least twenty minutes. I’ll call it in and get some people dispatched.”

“I already called the station.” My feet pounded the ground. I sucked wind in through my mouth. “Get a couple cars to West Lawn Ave off of Bayshore. The Bentley is there crashed in someone’s backyard. Ray Azarov is in the trunk as well as an additional body.”

“An additional body? Who?”

“Don’t know. It might be the homeowner. I’m not sure.”

“OK. I’m on my way.”

“I’ll get a house number to you if I get there first.”

I clicked off.

Wind rushed past my face. My heart thumped. Blood and adrenaline coursed my veins. My footsteps jarred my teeth. Sweat ran into the cuts on my head. It stung. I had never run harder in my life.