No Mercy (25 page)

Bud and Caulfield had spent an hour talking to Sysco when Bud got a call from Paul. He got up from the table, leaving Caulfield in the room alone with him.

“Nothing more to say?” the detective asked.

Sysco smiled and farted.

“You fat fuck,” Caulfield yelled as he got up to leave the stench in the room. He could not hear Tillman in the monitoring room laughing.

Paul was dropped off at his apartment in the back of Z Pita, by O'Malley, and couldn't help himself. He pulled out the list again and kept staring at the names and the total bounty of each. He pushed his
message
button on his phone as he undressed to shower. The usual people were on it. First it was his father: “Hello, Son, I haven't heard from you. Give me a call.” Rachelle's voice was next, which always made him smile when he heard her speak: “Hi, Paul, it's me, just calling to say I love you and if you get a chance please walk the dogs if you are close by during the day. Oh yeah, and hurry up, get your clothes back on.” She ended the call with a laugh. He shook his head as he grabbed a towel, amazed at how well she knew him.

The messages continued as Bud's voice came on: “Hey, my partner, let's get together for dinner. Time for us to have a private chat. There is something about Caulfield that is not sitting right with me. Later.” Paul heard the click. He went to the machine and replayed the message again as he took out the bounty list. It wasn't about who was on the list. It was about who wasn't on the list. Paul decided to skip the shower and put his clothes back on as the next message came on. It was Rachelle's voice again: “It's time you take care of Paul, because I'm not sure if I can. Please call me.” It was a recording of the call Rachelle made from Deborah's foyer. Paul stopped in his tracks and replayed the message three times. He didn't know what to think, and for the first time in quite a long time he didn't know what to do. He was so distracted he went straight to the precinct without stopping to walk the dogs. On his arrival he asked for an update for the location of everyone. Gina started to give him the information but he interrupted her, asking her to put it on paper for him. The list was in his hands within ten minutes.

Detective Wyatt was a block away from the Wilkerson house, and while there were no bounties on Lindsey Wilkerson, Rachelle, and Deborah, Paul wasn't taking any chances. Detective Caulfield was at his desk after interviewing Kevin Sysco. Detective Bud Johnson just left the building after the Sysco interview. Officer Franks had left his shift at the Lances' Pink Mansion to go home. Officer Wright was now at the house. Detective Baker and Officer Chapman were still in the hospital. Detective O'Malley was on his way to the precinct. Officers Lynagh and Healey were in Riverhead near Rachelle Robinson and Deborah Lance.
Gina
, Paul typed in on the office email,
please send Detective Caulfield to my office.
While Cronin would bellow orders to Gina and others on the intercom, Paul liked less talking and using the email format. Detective Caulfield was in his office within five minutes.

“How's it going?” Paul asked.

“If you mean the search for Tangretti, Simpson, and the other cronies, nothing yet.”

“What about the questioning of Sysco?” Paul replied.

“Well,” Caulfield answered as he sat down, “we spoke to him for over an hour and he claims he told us everything he knows.” “Maybe he has,” Paul answered. He placed the bounty list on his desk in front of him. “See anyone on the list that you know?” Caulfield picked up the list and put it back down. “I know everyone on the list except Sherry Walker.”

Powers pushed the list closer to him. “What about a name you know that's not on the list.” Caulfield looked at it again then recognized what Detective Powers was getting at.

“My name is not on the list.”

“Why would that be?” Paul replied.

Caulfield shook his head and told Powers that he wasn't assigned to the task force unit until after the case had started. It was either that or he was just plain lucky. Powers accepted his explanation for now, and Caulfield was dismissed. As the detective walked out to go home, Gina informed Paul ADA Ashley was on his way to his office.

“Just great,” Paul answered. He sent a text to Bud that he could not see him at Spy Coast at 6:00 pm to talk. He needed to speak to Rachelle about something. Bud answered back:
They are going to the mall later. You can speak to her then, and you and I can speak and get something to eat later.
Paul answered back,
Agreed. Let me know when they are there
.

Bud sent Lynagh a text to let him know when the girls were ten minutes away from the mall. Bud then sent Gina an email to get a detective to check on Linda Tangretti's actual home in Connecticut. He remembered she had a place from the Face of Fear investigation and he could not understand how all of them could manage to stay out of sight. He followed up his text to inform Gina to notify the Connecticut State Police and to take an officer with him. Run it by Powers to approve and get back to me with his approval or disapproval. It was less than ten minutes when Wyatt sent him a text that Powers had approved O'Brien and himself to check out Tangretti's home in Milford, Connecticut.

It was a long day for Officer Franks. He was exhausted and couldn't wait to take a long nap. He got out of his car, pushed the code to his apartment door, walked into the elevator, and as the doors began to shut the man who wore the baseball hat with the mask jumped in and stabbed Franks in the neck. He barely had a chance to reach for his gun. The killer was so quick he held up the doors with his left arm while he stabbed with his right. He didn't want to take a chance of Franks wearing a vest, so he went straight for the throat. Officer Wilson Franks fell to the floor trying to keep the blood from pouring out, but it was no use. He died in the elevator only to be found by a young teenage boy who yelled down the hall to his mom that there was a dead police officer in the elevator. The woman scolded her son for such a distasteful joke, but when she found the floor of the elevator filled with blood and the body of Franks, she fainted to the floor, which prompted her son to call 9-1-1. As soon as officers arrived and saw it was Franks, they called Priority 1. Gina came into Paul's office without knocking, and he could see by her face something was terribly wrong.

“It's Franks,” she said. “He's been killed in the elevator at his complex.”

Paul got up and told Gina to have Bud and O'Malley at the complex right away. Bud had just walked in, so Paul grabbed him to drive to Franks's complex in Smithtown. O'Malley arrived first and looked at the pool of blood and the open eyes of Wilson Franks. He spoke to himself: “This is a shit job.”

Powers and Johnson arrived, and it was difficult to see a close associate who was a good cop die so violently. Bud knelt down next to Franks, being careful not to step in the blood. He put his hand on the officer's head as he bowed his head and prayed. Paul looked at Bud and gave him a few seconds. Bud spoke to Franks when he picked up his head: “I'm sorry, Officer Wilson Franks. We will find whoever did this to you. Thank you for being such a good man, a good cop, and a good friend.” He took his hand and he closed the eyes of Officer Franks forever. Powers sent O'Malley to question the occupants of the building, while he tried to control his emotions as leader of the squad.

“Bud,” Powers said, “get the digital film from the elevator.”

Without saying a word Bud was making a call to find the tenant manager to locate the film. Powers barked to one of the officers to find out from Priority 1 where the hell Detective Wyatt was, as the young officer started running.

“Bud,” Paul looked at him. “The video.”

Bud looked at his partner and said, “I'm not leaving him till they take him. He should not be alone.” He looked at Franks then turned back to his partner. “A good man, and yet he dies in an elevator. For what? For bullshit.”

Paul knew that as crazy and off-the-wall as Bud could be, his heart was worth all the gold in Fort Knox. He waited another thirty minutes until the medical team arrived and went to apartment 4D to speak to the manager of the building. The manager was concerned and cooperative as he brought Bud to the control room to play back footage. Bud watched as Franks entered the elevator and was caught completely off guard as the intruder ran in, put the knife into his throat while putting his arm out to keep the doors from shutting behind him.

“You never had a chance, friend,” he said to himself as he watched the footage over and over again. While the killer had the same hat and mask on, it had to be a different person. The body motion and body type were different, yet it was the same mask. Bud looked at it five or six times, then had the manager stop the footage to look at the hand and watch of the killer. It was silver, about an inch wide and an inch and a half in length. It was a rectangular watch that had Roman numerals instead of numbers. The detective made notes as he continued to watch the footage again.

He said aloud, “You're not going to get away with this.”

Paul Powers was on his way to notify Franks's ex-wife and sixteen-year-old son in St. James when he got a text from Bud that he had reviewed the footage and they needed to meet as soon as possible. Paul replied he would be back at the precinct within the hour and that he would have to be prepared for a press conference. Bud called him when he received that text.

“Paul, if we have no answers, we can't expose the bounty list. It would endanger too many people.”

“Bud,” Paul replied, “we have lost cops, with two more in the hospital. Whether we have a press conference or not, the bounties are on, and don't forget you are the top dog in this.”

“I don't care about me, Paul,” Bud answered. “I care about the others. And what about the girls?”

“Bud,” Paul said, “do you think there is any way possible that Rachelle could be mixed up in this?” There was dead silence on the other end, so Paul decided to speak again. “Someone sent me a voice message of Rachelle speaking to someone that they needed to take care of me because she couldn't. I'm sick over this.”

“Listen to me,” Bud replied. “You and I are going to the mall to straighten this shit out. By the time you are finished in St. James, the girls will be on their way to the mall. Hold off on the press conference.”

“See you there,” Paul answered. “By the way, Wyatt never met O'Brien to go to Milford to take a look at Tangretti's residence. Check his house before going to the mall.” Bud got off the phone and drove to Detective Wyatt's house. The door of the house was open as Bud pulled out his 9mm Glock. He identified himself as he walked around for ten minutes with no sign of disruption or Wyatt. He called it in to Gina to document it as he headed over to the mall.

O'Connor was outside with a few of the other inmates, but he was playing one-on-one basketball with Reynolds when he was told he had a visitor. When he walked in with Correctional Officer Louis Roberts, he had a smirk on his face when he saw ADA Ashley sitting there.

“How's it going, former Agent O'Connor?”

“Fuck you,” the inmate replied.

“People continue to die, now another cop, because of the bounties. Where are Branca, Tangretti, and Simpson?” While it was a question, the tone of his voice did not ask it like it was a question.

“I don't know anything,” he replied.

“That's right,” Ashley replied. “You don't know anything.” O'Connor sat there silently with the remark as Ashley spoke again.

“Your friend, Wiley or Wakefern or whatever the hell you call him, he tried to kill me last night for the bounty money. Now he's dead.”

O'Connor laughed. “No way you killed him.”

“Well,” Ashley said, “you're right about that. You see, my friend behind the mirror shot him dead, and I think he enjoyed it.” O'Connor looked up as the mirror window lit up and the figure of Detective Lieutenant Cronin was staring at him. O'Connor started to shake as he kept repeating to himself, “No, no, no, no!” as he backed up toward the wall. He went into the corner as he shook more, saying, “No! No! Impossible! No!”

The mirror window went dark as O'Connor, still shaking, spoke again. “See! See! It was a ghost!” He started to fall and curl in the corner as the door to the interrogation room was kicked in, which startled the guard as well.

“I'm sorry,” Cronin replied in a sarcastic voice. “I forgot to knock.” He turned around to look at Correctional Officer Roberts.

“You have been a very naughty boy; we will speak to you later,” he said, as two other guards grabbed Roberts. ADA Ashley had received the reports he asked for, and the common denominator of Linda Tangretti was solved. They went to high school together, and while it was thin in a court of law, they felt comfortable he was the source of communication between O'Connor and the rest of Simpson and Branca's team.

Cronin turned around and looked at O'Connor sitting in the corner in shock. The detective walked up to the former FBI agent and leaned over to be closer to his face.

“Now you are going to tell me where Simpson and the rest of the gang are, or I am going to haunt you in this place forever.”

Paul Powers gave the news to the next of kin and gave them information on what to do and whom to contact. He was trying to hold it together for the sake of himself and the rest of the Priority 1 Task Force team. While on his way to the mall, Bud gave him a call to inform him that Wyatt was missing and the girls were on their way to the mall.

“OK,” Paul replied. “See you there at the entrance next to Macy's. Give O'Malley the update on Wyatt. Have Gina get a location on his vehicle. I need to straighten this out with Rachelle before the chief and the press take hold of what is going on.” He was at the Suffolk County Mall in Lake Grove within fifteen minutes, and Bud was waiting for him. He sent Lynagh and Healey a text asking for their location, and they answered the Red Robin restaurant. Powers and Johnson met up with Lynagh and Healey at the restaurant to speak with them briefly before heading in to greet the girls.

Rachelle looked up and met Paul with her usual beautiful smile as he leaned over to kiss her as well as Deborah. He sat down with a nervous grin on his face and spoke. “Rachelle, I need to speak with you about something.”