Piece Keeper (16 page)

He looked to his sister. “Who else is in the car,
Ally?”

“Call me Whip.”

Black nodded.

She shook it off. “You’ll meet them other bitches
later. Fill me in on the situation at hand. The old man didn’t tell
me much.”

“You been watching the news?”

“Yeah.”

“One of the cops that got off… I took care of him.
Need to clean it up.”

“That’s all?”

“Should there be more?”

“I guess not. Pops made it seem like you needed some
real aid and assistance. Shit I brought the brigade.”

Black shook his head. “Naw, just a clean-up.”

“You know this thing about to be over and the other
ones are never gonna be charged don’t you?”

Black sighed. “Yeah I know.”

“Let us do what we do. None of it will be connected
to you and we can balance the scales of justice around this
bitch.”

“Just a clean-up.”

“Give them the address. Me and Danesha gon’ ride
with you.”

“Splitting up?”

“Don’t need a party to dump a body. Take us to get
food. We can talk. They’ll call us when they’re done.”

Black did as he was told. He walked over to the car
and leaned his head into the window to give the two women the
instructions.

***

Foster had mixed feelings about Hunter. She didn’t
know whether to be happy that James had taken care of that problem
for her or worried that she may be next on his list. She couldn’t
let the latter stop her from what needed to be done. I’m smarter
than him, she told herself. He was predictable. If he wasn’t gone
yet he would more than likely be at Teresa’s. Everyone knew he had
a thing for her. After doing a ride by of her place she saw Black
speaking with an old man in the parking lot so she decided to sit
and wait. He would show up eventually. She had her team on standby.
After hours of waiting Black and Teresa both finally left going in
separate directions. She decided to follow Teresa hoping she’d lead
her straight to James. She was in full tactical gear including the
velour vest and a black ski mask sat on the passenger seat next to
a throw away hand gun. She was in a car she’d requisitioned from
the police impound. She tailed Teresa back to where Black was
staying. The pickup truck the old man had been driving was in the
driveway. Suddenly Black pulled up behind Teresa. A woman greeted
them at the door and Teresa and Black went inside. Foster called
Billy as back up and waited for him to show up. It didn’t take long
for him to arrive. She took the back, climbing the gate to the back
yard deck. Billy went in through the front. Also in full tactical
gear and a donning a black ski mask, he kicked in the door and
rushed in,

“Run!” Pops yelled out as he rushed towards the
masked intruder. He had years of self-defense training. Although he
was an older man he pinned Billy to the wall and hit him with two
quick knee jabs to the ribs. He was prepared to throw another when
he was shoved off and tasered. Pops fell to the floor shaking.
Billy stood over him and tasered him again before moving towards
the rear of the house.

As Morena and Teresa reached the sliding door that
led to the deck outside the door slid open and Foster entered with
her gun drawn. “Don’t move!”

Before Foster could move any further Sparkle leapt
up clutching her wrist that held the gun. Foster yelled out in pain
trying to shake the dog loose. Unsuccessful, she fell to the ground
trying to wrestle herself free. Teresa and Morena both rushed the
intruder overpowering her and taking her gun. She lay on the ground
balled up yelling for them to get the dog off of her. Just then
Billy entered the kitchen with his gun drawn. Sparkle leapt over to
Billy who shot her in mid-air. Sparkle fell to the ground
whimpering in pain. Before Billy could get off a second shot Morena
squeezed Foster’s hand gun and kept firing until Billy fell back.
She had emptied the clip. Most of the shots hit him in the vest,
one hit his leg, and the other penetrated the neck. She stood over
him clutching the gun still squeezing as he clutched his neck with
blood streaming through his fingers. Morena had gone tone deaf. It
was as if she had tunnel vision. She couldn’t hear anything for a
brief second so she hadn’t heard the click, click, click sound of
the empty gun. Teresa stood back in shock.

Foster took this as an opportunity to attack. She
leapt from the floor rushing Teresa and knocking her to the floor.
Teresa went into survival mode. All the hate, hurt, anger, and fear
came bustling out on Foster. The two women tussled on the floor.
Teresa tried to get a grip on the intruder’s hair and pulled the
mask off. Her shock at seeing it that it was Foster compelled her
to fight harder. With a handful of Foster’s hair she began banging
the woman’s head against the floor. The first blow was face first.
Her nose and some of her front teeth were broken. Teresa got two
more blows in before Foster threw an elbow hitting her in the
breast plate. The blow was enough for her to free herself. She
scrambled to get away but Teresa grabbed one of her legs and pulled
her back. Foster turned over and began kicking wildly. One of the
blows hit Teresa in the face. She fell back bleeding from the
mouth. By this time Foster was back to her feet rushing Teresa but
stopped short of reaching her when she felt a shock of electricity
shoot through her body. She dropped to her knees then fell face
forward as Morena punched her in the back of the head. Morena had
taken Billy’s taser and used it on Foster. The fight in Foster was
finally gone. Billy was still breathing but unable to move. He was
dying slowly. The two women looked at one another then looked
around the room.

Morena moved over to Billy and removed his ski mask.
“You know this one?” she asked.

“Son of a bitch is a cop,” Teresa replied.

“Oh my, God. Pops!” Morena yelled out as she rushed
towards the front door.

Teresa took Foster’s handcuffs and drug her body
over to Billy’s where she handcuffed the two together and made sure
she had both sets of keys. She took their other weapons and cell
phones. She wasn’t going to call the police. She figured Black
would know what to do and if Foster woke up before he came she
wouldn’t get far dragging a dead body. There was no way Billy would
survive bleeding the way he was from his neck and the other wound
in the leg.

Morena finally returned with Pops. He bent down on
the floor and scooped up Sparkle. The white pit-bull looked up at
Pops with sad eyes as the old man moved as quickly as he could
towards the front door.

“Where are you going?” Teresa asked on the brink of
tears.

“Not going to just let her die,” Pops said. “I have
to find a hospital.”

“What? No! It’s not safe.”

“And staying here is?” he asked never breaking his
stride all the way to his pick-up truck.

Teresa and Morena followed behind as Morena dialed
Black to tell him what had happened.

***

She was sitting across the street in a house with a
for sale sign on the front yard. Tucked securely away in a room
with closed circuit TV monitors and listening devices, the woman
with the British accent had been keeping surveillance of Black ever
since he’d come to town. She’d been watching his every move. Her
job was to protect her employer’s interests and Black was doing a
fine job of that whether he realized it or not. Almost everyone
connecting back to her employer was eliminated. She packed up the
equipment, loaded it into a van out back, and made a phone call.
The phone rang once and was picked up.

“Awsum, the town is almost cleaned up. One final
crumb to dispose of,” she said through the phone before hanging up
and climbing into the van to pull off.

Chapter
Fifteen

The streets were desolate and cold. James shook off
the chill that shot through his bones as he pulled the skull cap
slightly down over his eyebrows not leaving very much of his face
to be seen. He took his time moving to the ATM machine. He had
transferred a small portion of his money from the off shore account
to his account in the states. He had been in Burr Ridge for almost
a week now. Nothing or no one, other than Witherspoon, was
connecting him to what happened to Teresa or the others he’d dumped
in the river over the past year. He knew Witherspoon would never
speak and their employer had no idea who it was and didn’t want to
know. He felt bad about not trying to bring Teresa. He contemplated
that she was better off without him. He slid the bank card into the
machine, keyed in the code followed by the amount he wanted to
withdraw, and then waited for the machine to spit the bills out.
Once the money was out he retrieved his cash and card and went back
to his car. He had nothing to worry about yet he still felt
compelled to get out of Illinois. He wanted to see his sister
before he left because he didn’t know when he would see her again.
As he climbed into his car and started the engine he heard the
sound of a click behind his head.

“You can have the money and car,” he said.

The person behind him remained silent.

James spoke again. “It doesn’t have to end badly. I
haven’t seen your face so you can just take the cash and go.
Everyone’s happy.”

“This isn’t just a robbery,” the woman’s said as she
pulled the trigger.

***

Waeltz sat behind his new desk in his new office as
the chief of police for the Vermillion County Police Department.
Everything had turned out exactly as the stranger had told him it
would. Things had changed and a lot all of the officers involved in
the Prince case had disappeared. He had no idea what happened to
them. Some detective I am he thought. Well he knew what happened to
Witherspoon. He couldn’t say he was sad. After all it was war.
Surely Witherspoon understood. At least that’s what Waeltz told
himself anyway. He closed his eyes and thought about the week
before.

Flashback

He had been called in to the homicide scene of
Officer Hunter. He’d been advised that he was called in because he
was the primary detective on the Prince case and Hunter was the
suspect in that case. When he arrived the first thing he noticed
was District Attorney’s Benton’s car outside. He was surprised but
proceeded in.

Benton stood over the body clutching a large manila
envelope. She handed the overstuffed package to Waeltz.

“Counselor,” he stated looking down at the
envelope.

“Detective.”

“What’s this?” he asked as he opened the envelope.
The envelope was filled with bundles of cash. “This Hunter’s?” he
asked surprised at the contents.

“No. It’s yours.”

“Mine? Is this some kind of test or set up? Where
are the units that called this in?”

“There are no units. This was never called in. The
cash is yours. You had a visitor last night… you were told that I
would contact you.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. I ought
to—”

“Not rock the boat, Detective,” she said cutting him
off.

“I don’t even know where the boat, as you put it, is
going.”

“Up the ladder of success if you play your cards
right.”

Waeltz looked into the envelope again. He gauged
that there had to be at least $40,000 dollars in his hand.

“Who’s our employer?”

“Doesn’t matter. I have a handler and I’m yours. I
get the orders and relay them to you.”

“What will my orders be?”

“We are in the disposal business.”

“Disposal? In Danville?”

“We get busier than you may think.”

“So the chick from across the pond is your handler
right?”

“Again, I have a handler and I’m yours. That’s all
you need be concerned about. And Waeltz… you should consider
yourself damn lucky that you heard her voice. All other’ before you
ever heard was the sound of the bullet as it left the chamber.”

Waeltz remained silent thinking about last night and
how he hadn’t heard her come in.

Jordan continued. “Witherspoon is out. He must be
disposed of. That’s your first assignment. I suggest you assemble a
team. Don’t get a group of fuck ups like your predecessor did.”

He nodded.

“And just to make things clear, this ends the two of
us and our thing we had going,” she told him. “We can’t risk being
seen together other than on a professional level.”

“Anything else?”

“Yes. If you think about going sideways or backing
out you won’t make it. Our employer has people everywhere. You
never know who you’re telling.”

She stepped around him and out of the house. He
picked up his cell phone and called in the homicide of Officer
Hunter.

Present Day

His thoughts were interrupted as someone knocked on
the door.

“Come in,” he said.

The door opened and Meltzer, the officer who helped
with looking into James’ file, entered. She closed the door. Gone
was the police issued uniform. In its place was a gold badge and
pants suit.

“Looking good, Detective,” Waeltz said to her.

“Thank you, sir.”

“How’s the recruitment for that new task force I
assigned to you coming along?”

“Have some prospects… looking at a few cops from
Detroit.”

“You have any problems with… you know….?”

“No, sir. Disposal was a non-issue.”

“Good. So what can I help you with, Detective?”

“Nothing. Just giving my progress report on building
the team.”

“Well…if that’s all then…”

She nodded. “Yes, sir.” She left the room.

He was left once again with his thoughts. He didn’t
know how long it would be before they deemed him unnecessary or a
liability but he would be prepared whenever they came. He just
didn’t know how.

Chapter
Sixteen