No Mercy (13 page)

“Maybe,” he replied, “for the same reason you didn't tell them about your nightmares.” The attorney leaned forward to comfort her as he spoke again. “Maddie, we are going to get you help.”

“I don't care about me,” she replied. “Just make sure my sister and Deborah are OK. She doesn't have me now, and Rachelle needs her, and needs Paul. Don't let anything happen to them.” Even now, all she cared about was Rachelle and Deborah.

“OK,” Simmons answered, “I will be in touch about a doctor to speak with you.”

Janet Gates opened the door and saw the red surrounding Madison's eyes and asked if everything was all right.

“Yes, Officer Gates,” Madison replied as she hugged her attorney good-bye. Simmons walked out of the attorney-client room and headed for the lockers to pick up his personal belongings when he saw Rachelle and Deborah waiting for him. He started walking toward them as he thought to himself,
This just keeps getting better all the time
.

As Officers Lynagh and Healey got out of the squad car at Sean Martin's house, they waited out of courtesy for the local East Hampton Police to question him. When Officers Blair and Lawrence pulled up, they were asked to back them up in the rear. Another unmarked vehicle pulled up to the cars, stopping Lynagh and Healey. Jumping out of the car was Detective Ellyn Baker.

“What's going on?” Lynagh asked.

“Powers,” Baker answered. “He asked me to back you up.” Lynagh and Healey looked at each other before answering her.

“OK,” Officer Lynagh replied. “Come in behind us, but give us ten seconds.” The East Hampton local authorities went behind the house as Healey stepped to the side of the door and knocked on the door. There was no answer.

“The car is in the driveway,” Baker whispered. Healey banged louder on the door but still got no answer.

“Shh,” Lynagh said, “do you hear that?”

Healey shook his head as he replied, “No, let's not pull that shit here.”

Lynagh spoke again quickly.

“I'm serious, listen. Put your head to the house and be quiet.”

The officer did just that and heard moans coming from inside the house. He nodded
yes
to Lynagh as the senior Officer said, “We are going in.”

He turned the doorknob, and it was that easy. The door was unlocked. With guns drawn Healey and Lynagh walked in as Baker stayed by the door. Toward the back of the house the moans were getting louder as both officers moved toward the back bedroom. There, on the bed was a young woman on top of Sean Martin as he lay underneath her with his eyes closed. Lynagh and Healey walked inside the room, put their guns in their holsters, and stood there with their hands on their hips. Healey, with a stone face, eyed the room while Lynagh, with his sunglasses on, was contemplating how to break up the fun.

Finally, he just spoke. “We are sorry for the interruption, folks, but we have a test of the emergency broadcast system.”

The young woman on top started screaming as she got up and ran to the bathroom and shut the door. Sean Martin tried to get up to cover himself, but Lynagh wouldn't have any of it. The officer said, “Stay where you are with your gun out for a moment; we have some questions for you.”

Healey was amused by Lynagh's reference to Sean Martin's penis as his gun. He introduced himself and Healey, as Martin was clearly agitated that his sexual adventure had been prevented from having a climatic ending.

Lynagh spoke again as Healey started to walk around the room. “Have you been sending Deborah Lance text messages lately?”

“What?” Martin answered. “I wouldn't give that stuck-up bitch the effort!” Lynagh moved closer to him as he lay naked in the bed and now seemed to enjoy the attention.

“When is the last time you communicated with her?” Lynagh said in a louder voice.

Martin shook his head as he answered, “That little bitch only liked sex one way. She was a bore in bed. You heard of a whore in bed, well she was a bore in bed.”

Lynagh moved closer as he spoke quietly to Martin.

“If I were you, I'd be careful.”

The officer started to walk away from the bed as the bathroom door opened, with the young woman still naked but this time with a gun in her hand. She fired and hit Healey. As Lynagh turned toward her, more shots rang out. Ellyn Baker had been standing by the door and fired two shots into Holly Moore's chest and then turned and fired two more shots at Sean Martin before Lynagh had a chance to react. He turned and saw a gun near his hand and looked at Baker, still pointing the gun as the backup from the rear came rushing into the house.

“Justin!” Lynagh yelled as he rushed to Healey on the floor. “Damn it!” Lynagh yelled as he opened Healey's shirt and saw he wore his vest. It had caught the small-caliber .22. He stared at Healey. “Justin, you're OK, your vest caught it.” He looked up at Baker, now leaning against the doorframe still holding her gun by her leg.

“I only have one question,” Healey said from the floor, holding his chest.

“What's that, buddy?” Lynagh asked.

Healey spoke as he looked at Lynagh's eyes.

“Why am I the one who is always getting shot? It's always me, never you.”

Lynagh smiled as he replied, “Lynagh luck, I guess.” He looked up at the East Hampton authorities looking at two dead, naked bodies. “Guys, help my partner to the car, please, we've got to call this in.”

Lynagh walked over to Ellyn Baker, who was still staring into space holding her gun, and put his hand gently on her firearm and slowly took it away from her. “Talk to me,” he said.

She turned her head to look at him.

“I never killed anyone before. I read about it. I've seen it in movies, TV, and newspapers. I thought I would be OK when the day came, if it ever came, and what happens? Two at the same time with no clothes on.”

Lynagh put his arm around her.

“You saved our lives today, Ellyn. We got sloppy and Powers sent you in as a backup. We are alive right now because you are one hell of a shot. Come on. We've got to call this in, and I'm going to hold your piece for now.”

Lynagh called Powers to inform him of what happened and the detective sergeant told him to have Baker take Healey to get checked out medically. “You stay at the scene with the other officer's till the crime lab is finished and photos taken at the scene.” Power's hesitated and spoke again. ”George, before you leave there, we need to know why two naked people pulled guns on you today to kill. Then you get Baker back here. Internal affairs will want to talk to her, and they will most likely require her to speak to a professional about what went down.”

“Yes sir,” Lynagh said as he approached the room again.

He put his phone back in his pocket as he looked at Detective Baker sitting on the chair on the front porch. He walked up to her and spoke in her ear: “I know this is tough, but you have to be strong here for the next couple hours. It is important we find out why these two were willing to kill cops while they had no clothes on. You go in there and act like you just saved two cops' lives and don't take any shit from anyone. I will back you up. Keep in mind one thing. We are not leaving till we find out what they didn't want us to see or have.”

Baker bit her lip as she continued to stare at empty space in front of her.

Suddenly she turned to Lynagh and said, “Let's go.” When they entered the room, the dead woman was covered with a blanket courtesy of Officer Blair. Lynagh picked up the blanket to take a look, and two bullet holes were dead center in her chest. He dropped the blanket and looked over at the body of Sean Martin. Officer Blair covered only his private part, but the two bullet holes in the center of his chest made him look over at Baker as she went through jewelry boxes and drawers in the room.

Lynagh thought about Rodrigo Hernandez being shot dead center in the chest. He sent a text to Powers to compare ballistics from Rodrigo's body to the bodies in East Hampton. He didn't like where this was going, but he wanted to be sure that Baker wasn't taking matters into her own hands.
Then again
, he thought,
we are alive right now at this moment because of her
. The officer continued to look at Sean Martin and thought about how close his life was to ending today. It gave him a sense of mortality he had not felt for a while. Thinking too hard about whether or not this is your last day on earth is not productive for a police officer, but this time Lynagh and Healey let their guard down and they almost paid for it with their lives.

The crime unit from Riverhead arrived and everything was overturned and taken, including the computers. Lynagh and Baker stayed for another two hours and the only thing they found out was that the woman Detective Baker killed was Holly Moore. According to her license, she was twenty-five years of age, was from Center Moriches, and was employed at, of all places, the City nightclub in Setauket. She had a pay stub in her clothing from the club that one of the East Hampton officers found. As Powers sat in his new office space, the phone rang and as he thought about being in Cronin's former office he picked up the call on the second ring. ADA Ashley walked in and shut the door behind him as Powers listened to Lynagh telling him what they found and that they had a set of photos of the crime scene.

“OK,” Powers replied, “get in here and hold on to Baker's gun till you get here. We may send Baker to the club tonight as a decoy.” When he disconnected he looked up at Ashley.

The ADA spoke. “We need to talk.”

Officer Lynagh looked at Baker and told her she may have an assignment that night at the club. Blair and Lawrence just stared at each other, not sure what to make of what was going on.

Ashley looked at Powers before saying, “Baker can't go to the club. She just fired her weapon, killing two people.”

Powers ignored the comment as they both stared at each other.

It was 11:00 at night when Madison got up and called to Officer Janet Gates. The correctional officer walked over to her cell as Madison spoke.

“Janet, I will understand if you can't do this, but if you could make a phone call it would mean a lot to me. I need your help.”

Janet started looking the other way with her thoughts, knowing she would be overstepping her bounds of professionalism again, with no going back, if she made a call.

She looked back at Madison and said, “Madison, you can make a call, you know that.”

Madison spoke quickly.

“Janet, my calls are monitored. Please, I need your help. I'm sorry to put you in this position, but I need this, please.”

The correctional officer started to walk away as she said, “Madison, I can't.”

There was silence for fifteen minutes, then she walked back to Madison's cell and said, “Tell me what you need, no promises.”

The night shift at the jail was rather quiet as Janet Gates checked on Madison every fifteen to twenty minutes with a walk-by. The hour of 8:00 in the morning came fast, especially with all the things inside the correctional officer's head. She served breakfast to the most famous inmate on the East Coast and said good-bye to Madison. The young woman behind bars did not mention the conversation between them.

Janet Gates picked up all her personal belongings, signed out, walked to her car, and hesitated as her hand touched the cold silver from sitting there overnight. She looked back at the facility as if she could see Madison. The officer was clearly struggling with her emotions. Finally, she opened the door, turned the ignition, and drove out of the facility parking lot. When she reached the traffic circle on Route 24 she kept going in a semicircle and headed up toward Main Street in Riverhead. When she passed the Chase Bank she slammed her hand on the steering wheel and turned left into the parking lot away from view. Janet Gates stared into space outside her windshield for about five minutes, then picked up her phone and pushed the buttons. It rang three times and then the call was picked up.

She said, “Hello, you don't know me, but I was asked to give you this call from Madison Robinson.”

The call lasted for about three minutes before it was disconnected. Janet Gates turned her vehicle around and turned left, heading east toward Flanders. On the receiving end of the call, the figure walked into the bathroom. The drawer was opened as the hand reached in for paintbrushes. Inside the bottom drawer was red paint. To the right in the bottom drawer the figure reached in and pulled out a Ghost Face mask. Delicately and patiently, little by little, specks of red were painted on the mask to give the appearance of blood splatter. The hand holding the paintbrush was slow, as the artist was meticulous in giving the blood splatter effect. After forty-five minutes, the mask was moved to the basement to dry.

Janet pulled over again on Route 24 and made a second call and spoke when the voice came on. “Listen, I know you won't get this till after work, but you need to call this number I am going to give you. Please, I know we shouldn't, but please call and hear them out. The decision is yours. Please help her.” She pushed the
end
button, dropped the phone on the front seat, and began to breathe heavily as she said, “God, please help me.” Within minutes she was calm and got back onto Route 24 and let out a forced smile as she passed the landmark Giant Duck on the side of the road.

Paul shook his head and started yelling at ADA Ashley, which got the attention of only Gina. With everyone out of the office, it was an opportunity for Detective Powers to let loose on everything that had happened to the Priority 1 team and the Music Club Murders investigation.

Ashley would not back down. “You don't have to agree with it, but get right with it. You need to let your team know as soon as possible.” With that, the ADA left what once was Cronin's office.

Paul called Bud and had Gina call everyone else to get to Priority 1 as soon as possible. He also called Detective Caulfield to tell him he would be assigned to Priority 1 until the case was finished. His first assignment was to get to Stony Brook Hospital and watch the room of Officer Robert Chapman.

Bud Johnson, George Lynagh, and Ellyn Baker were in the precinct within forty minutes, while Franks, O'Malley, and Wyatt needed an hour to get replacements for the security detail on Deborah Lance and the Wilkerson house. Paul explained Caulfield was with Chapman at the hospital. There was no need to shut the office door because no one else other than the Priority 1 squad or the DA, ADA, commissioner, or precinct commander could walk by and hear what Paul had to say. He sat back in his chair, tapped the desk with his pen, and looked at his squad. All were sitting down with the extra chairs Gina brought in except for Bud, who was moving his feet from left to right with his arms crossed over in front of his chest.