A Shadow of Death in The Woods (31 page)

Chapter 54

Final Orders

With the introductions out of the way, Captain went over the plan. The plan had been worked out beforehand but this was the time for everyone to hear the plan in its entirety and have last minute discussions about it, if required. It was clear Captain was in charge although he maintained an easy way with the men. He never issued blunt orders. Orders were couched in a polite language of requests rather than demands. I saw no hesitancy or refusal to comply. Captain was in charge.

“Mr. Blackman and Eyes, you will be responsible for taking out the satellite dish, disabling their external communications, please. I assume you have picked your position.”

Mr. Blackman responded, “Yeah, Captain, we have a good place about three hundred yards from the house. It will be an easy shot. I can take out the dish with one shot but if not Eyes will tell me how to correct and it will go out for sure on the second shot. I know the gun and have hand-loaded shells. Me and Eyes are set.”

This apparently satisfied Captain and he went on, “When the satellite is taken out, Eyes will send out a signal. We will have radios that are good up to one mile. We will use military protocol to keep the radio traffic to a minimum. Lieutenant, Sarge, Shooter and I will be in a panel truck painted to look exactly like a satellite repair truck based on photographs taken by Snake. Lieutenant and Shooter will be in the back of the panel truck. When we hear your signal, we will wait one hour and a half. That is the earliest estimated time for a response from the satellite company. We will make our move on the house. Meanwhile Mr. Blackman and Eyes will hike out to the road. They will position themselves so that they can shoot out two tires of any legitimate satellite repair truck. Since there is no cell service up there, the repairman’s only two choices will be to walk back to the city or walk to the house. If he walks toward the city, it effectively takes him out of the game. If he walks toward the house, we will kill him. If the people in the house detect that the satellite service is out, they will most likely send a vehicle to the city for repair help. If they do this, Mr. Blackman will take out tires on their vehicle and disable it. When the driver gets out to investigate, Mr. Blackman will kill him. Mr. Blackman and Eyes will load the body in the back of the vehicle and cover it with a black blanket. That way a casual passerby will not notice the body.

“We will drive up to the gate. The guard will stop us. We will tell him we are there to fix the satellite connection. The system had detected a fault. He may say he doesn’t know anything about it. We will tell him to phone or radio the house and verify that the satellite service is out. If he does that, he will find it is out. On the other hand if they have already detected it and have sent someone to the city for a repair, he will know about it. In either case he will want to let us in.

“He will then want to see in the back of the van. When he opens the back door, Shooter will shoot the gateman in the head. Lieutenant will quickly wrap a towel around the guy’s head to contain the blood. Lieutenant and Shooter will load the guy in the back of the van. This will have to be done quickly in case we are on camera but we think that the panel truck doors will shield us from the camera.

“Lieutenant will be dressed as a gateman and will take over the gate. Shooter will get back in the van.

“I will drive the van up to the house. I will get out and go to the door with my assistant, Sarge. We won’t know for sure who will answer the door. He might be a guy who we want alive so we will tazer him and put restraints on him.

“While we are doing this, Shooter will get out of the van and start roving the grounds, looking for the patrol with two dogs that Snake said are there. Shooter will take out the guard and his two dogs. Shooter will join us in the house as soon as he is free.

“Sarge and I will start a sweep of the house. We will tazer anyone we meet until we have the place secured. This will not take more than fifteen minutes or we are in trouble. When we have verified that everyone in the house is either dead or restrained, Sarge and Shooter will go to the guest house and kill everyone there.

“At that time we should have everything under control. Louie and Box Man will come up to the house in the SUV. By this time Sarge, Shooter and I will be in the house. We will bring the people together and identify the top guy, the boss. We can probably do that by looks and dress. If not, we can apply pressure until we have the boss.

“Box Man will find the box and start opening it. Sarge, you go with Box Man to help him and guard him. Shooter, you stand watch at the front of the house and work with Lieutenant and make sure that we have no visitors. If we do get some visitors, it will be their unlucky day. They will have to go down with the rest of them.

“At this time we will start working on the boss and his assistant, if there is one, to find out where the boy is. Hopefully we will discover where the boy is about the time the safe has been opened.

“We can plan only so much. The rest we will have to do on the fly but the idea is that we will bring the boy with us and kill everyone else. We will leave no survivors, including any visitors who might happen by even if they are civilians. They will be collateral damage, which happens in wartime.

“We will take the vehicles to the desert and burn the panel truck. We will leave the area in the SUVs and come back here. We will leave no tracks in the desert either by foot or by vehicle. We will divide up any money we find. We Easterners will want only our expense money. You all can have the balance and any drugs that we find. We want to make sure that we take all the drugs to make it look more like a gang-related hit. In the event that there isn’t much money, then we will divide it evenly or perhaps we will give it all to you guys and we will cover our own expenses. We want to make sure that everyone feels that he has been treated fairly.

“The western guys will dispose of the SUVs and our suits and guns. The rest of us will fly home.

“Now all of you have been on enough missions to know that when the action starts we may have to abandon our plan. We will make that call on the run.

“Are there any questions?”

There were a few questions and a general discussion. In short order the plan was set. We were ready to roll.

I felt tense. I probably wouldn’t be shot by the bad guys because I was going in after the place was secured but I might be shot by the good guys if they didn’t like what I was doing.

I didn’t know what I was going to be doing. The first priority was to find Will. After that I could deal with the guy who had stolen Will. I hadn’t made up my mind what I would do to him. First, I had to be absolutely sure it was the right guy. Second, we had to make sure that we had extracted all of the information that we needed. After I got the okay, I needed to know what I wanted to do. The other team members had been gracious in allowing me free rein with the guy as long as it didn’t take long. The longer we stayed in the place, the higher the risk of being caught. I didn’t want to do anything that jeopardized the team. I had a few hours to make up my mind.

The question was: Was I about to become a killer (versus a happenstance murderer)? Did I have a choice? If this guy had Will alive or dead, it was for evil purposes beyond money. Could I allow a person like that live? The law might let him off with a small prison sentence. If he had a lot of money, it might be a very short sentence. Could I live with that? In my heart I knew that I could not. It would destroy the rest of my life. It would eat at me like a cancer.

And what if I chose to become a killer? Then I wouldn’t be a guy who killed in the act of protecting other people. I would be a person who killed to exterminate an evil person and maybe with vengeance. It would be a deliberate act of killing another human being. Could I live with that? Did I have a choice? In a few hours I would know the answer.

And then a crazy thought hit me. What would Lydia think of me killing in this way? Why should I care what she thought? Crazy thought. Crazy woman.

Chapter 55

The Execution

We left the safe house in the night, timing it so we would be near the drug dealer’s house around six in the morning. We had two SUVs and a plain looking panel truck with a ladder on top. We stopped in the desert and parked one SUV. We ripped off the covering on the panel truck to expose the painted logos, transforming the truck into a satellite repair truck. Captain was going to drive the panel truck with Sarge in the passenger seat. Lieutenant and Shooter would be hidden in the back. Lieutenant would be dressed like an estate gateman. I was to take one SUV. Box Man would go with me and we would drop Mr. Blackman and Eyes off on the road so they could hike into position to shoot out the satellite dish.

We left while they were still prepping the panel truck. The show would start when the dish was disabled so we had the lead. It would take some time for Mr. Blackman and Eyes to get into position. I drove up the narrow road toward the drug dealer’s mansion. It was a chip and seal road but in good condition. I could hear the stones popping out from under the tires. Eyes let me know when they wanted to get out. I watched them but they disappeared almost immediately in their ghillie suits.

I found a place to pull off the road nearby and waited with the window down. It was early and it wasn’t hot yet. I wanted to listen. I used this waiting as an opportunity to phone my ex-father-in-law, Bill, using my untraceable satellite phone. Paul had arranged for me to have a satellite phone so I could keep up the routine with my ex-father-in-law and not raise suspicions. I made a point of calling him every day to make things seem normal. If I didn’t call every day, it could cause questions. Paul mentioned this to me several times and Bob mentioned it. Bill and Katherine were still clinging to the hope that they would find Will. I knew that it was probably a false hope but I couldn’t let on that I felt that way.

In about an hour I heard a distant whompf and five seconds later another whompf. He either missed the first time or he wanted to make sure. The radio came alive with the word “d’accord,” French for “okay.” Shortly, there came two clicks on the radio. That was Captain telling us he received the message from Eyes. This started the clock. The ball had opened. Captain would wait one hour and a half and start driving toward the mansion. Mr. Blackman and Eyes would hike out to the road as planned. I watched but I never saw them because of their ghillie suits.

I was sweating and it wasn’t even hot out yet. I told myself that it was the Tyvek suit I was wearing. We were going in the house with the same suits that forensic police use in crime scenes to prevent contamination. We didn’t want to leave any DNA. The guys posing as repairmen had their suits treated to look like coveralls. They even painted shoes on the bottom. That looked funny up close but at a distance it looked fine. With just a glance, they looked like shoes. Besides how many times do we look at a person’s shoes? My suit had been made from cutting up two suits and taping them together because of my oddball size. We had nitrile gloves but I hadn’t put them on yet. They would make my hands sweat. We talked about shaving our heads but decided that would raise too many questions and suspicions. We would wear hoods. This was a little tricky for Captain and Sarge when they were first going in, looking like repairmen. They would have their hoods folded under with a false collar attached until they had taken the doorman out. They wouldn’t go inside the house until they had their hoods in place. We were ready but this was going to be one of the longest days of my life. Wait. Wait. Wait. For me it was torture.

After an hour and a half the radio came alive with the word “aller,” French for “go” followed later by Bob’s two click okay. The repair truck would be starting on its way. In a few minutes the satellite truck drove by our position. Captain flicked his head lights to let Mr. Blackman and Eyes that it was he and not the real satellite repair truck. The next satellite truck coming along, if there was one, would get two tires shot out with a silenced gun. So far so good.

The next ten to fifteen minutes would be the tensest. We wouldn’t know if they got in okay or if there was trouble. One thing we thought we could count on was that the drug dealer would not call the cops. It was too remote for the cops to get there in time and the drug dealer wouldn’t want cops on his property. At least that was our theory. If I smoked, this would be a perfect time to burn a couple. Captain had specified that none of us smoke because we didn’t want to leave a butt with DNA on it. I don’t think any of the guys smoked anyway. There was also no gum chewing for the same reason. I looked at my watch and wondered if it had stopped.

Just when I thought I couldn’t take in any longer the radio came alive with the word “in.” That was the signal that they were inside the mansion and it was time for us to drive up. I clicked the mike three times to acknowledge that we had heard. I started the SUV with a shaky hand. I had fought many fights with my fists but never with a gun. In the army I was an office guy.

We put on our gloves and taped them to our suits for a seal. I pulled the SUV out into the road and rolled toward the mansion. As we approached I could see that the gate was closed. Lieutenant saw us and opened the gate. I drove up the circular drive to the front door and stopped behind our phony satellite repair van. The Box Man and I got out and went in the house. My heart was pounding.

I walked into a huge entrance hall. It was quiet and I guessed that was a good thing. We moved to the right and I heard voices. We headed toward the voices cautiously. I had a silenced pistol in my right hand. We entered a large room that looked like an office. There was a desk and assorted chairs and a sofa. In one of the chairs sat a guy in a silk house robe. He had to be the drug dealer. They were working on him to get the safe combination. In my opinion it was a waste of time. The guy wasn’t going to give up the combination any time soon. He didn’t get to be a drug kingpin by being a wimp. What I didn’t know was that they had his assistant in a lower floor at the safe encouraging him to talk.

Captain told Box Man to go the lower floor and see about the safe. What he found was a walk-in safe like you see in a bank. Box Man wasn’t going to open it in our timeframe. Just like breaking into a house, you don’t just look at the doors. Maybe a window is open. However, an examination showed that the safe had thick concrete walls, floor and ceiling, probably reinforced with steel rods. We could break in by cutting through the floor or a wall but it would take too much time.

Captain’s friends were determined and experienced. In a few minutes the assistant saw the wisdom in giving up the combination. In a couple of minutes the safe was open and the guys walked in.

They send word upstairs that the safe was open. The assistant told them that there was another safe in an upstairs bedroom but he didn’t have the combination. Box Man went to take a look and reported that he would have it open in under ten minutes.

We didn’t need any of them alive anymore. The assistant was shot with a silenced gun. Shooter reported that he had already killed the outside guard and the dogs. Sarge and Shooter went to the guest house and killed all the guards there. Most were killed in their sleep. One while in a shower.

As soon as Sarge was finished in the guest house, he took the security system apart. He destroyed all the computer disks just to make sure. We didn’t think a drug lord would be recording on the security system but you never knew for sure. Maybe he didn’t trust his employees and he had a spy system. Sarge destroyed it all to make sure we weren’t on it.

Sarge came into the room and reported that everyone was dead except the pedophile and that Sarge had destroyed the security system. There were no signs of my son but they found a room in the lower floor that looked like some kind of torture room. There was a small cot and it was obvious that a child had been sleeping there.

I was given the go ahead to do what I wanted with the drug dealer. I asked him about my son. I told him that he had disappeared from Ohio a few days ago and we knew he had been brought here. I wanted to know where he was. The drug dealer started to grin and then he snickered, which turned into a giggle. He refused to talk but giggled uncontrollably. From his reaction I knew he was my guy. It was creepy.

Just then the drug dealer croaked out, “You want to know how your son screamed when I did him? He screamed like a little girl.” I told the drug dealer to get in a wooden chair sitting by the wall. He refused to move. I grabbed him under his arms and before he realized what was happening I lifted him straight up over my head. If the ceilings had been of normal eight feet height, his head would have hit the ceiling. I carried him over to the chair and slammed him down as hard as I could. He hit the chair so hard it cracked. I slammed his head back into the wall and told him to tell me what he had done with my son. He didn’t show any signs of talking.

Sarge came up to me. He had wire and tubing cutters. He grabbed the guy’s hand and twisted a wire tight around one of the guy’s fingers to control the bleeding so we wouldn’t get covered in blood. He then put the finger in the tubing cutters and showed it to the drug dealer. The guy’s eyes got wide but he didn’t talk. I told him he had one chance to answer my question, otherwise his finger would come off. He didn’t say anything and Sarge cut the guy’s finger off. The guy almost passed out.

Sarge prepped a thumb. I asked my question again. The guy remained silent and his thumb came off. This time he passed out. I was surprised when Captain stepped up with smelling salts and woke the guy up. You have to be experienced and prepared to think of bringing smelling salts on a raid.

Sarge prepped the other thumb. The creep had a change of heart and said that there was a map in his wall safe but he wouldn’t tell us the combination. Captain went to see how Box Man was doing. He had just opened the wall safe. Inside was some jewelry, some money, papers, an accounts record book and a map. Captain brought the map down. It looked like a cemetery with a particular fan-like pattern.

Sarge took the map and headed outside. I was going to go with him but Captain stopped me. While we waited, Sarge found a shovel and dug into a place shown on the map. In a few minutes he came back in. His face was pale and he said that he had found Will buried in the garden. He had recognized Wills' shirt.

Captain said it was time that we wrapped things up and got out of there. We would let the police do the rest of the work. I nodded my understanding. The police would have a field day with the record books. It would take them weeks to identify the bodies by DNA but there would be a hue and cry to put a priority on it. It would be sensational news.

The other guys had been busy carrying out bags of money and drugs. There was a quantity of gold. All jewelry was left because it was traceable. There was a lot to carry.

I grabbed the drug dealer and slammed him face down on the floor. I put my knee on his back and held him down while I slid one hand around his head and grabbed his face. I held his head down with my other hand and gave a great twist. I felt his neck break. I twisted it some more and turned his head almost around backwards. With that I was ready to leave. I was calm but detached from the surroundings. Captain guided me out the door.

We drove down the road and picked up Mr. Blackman and Eyes. It turned out that a legitimate satellite repair truck didn’t show up. We drove out into the desert where our other SUV was parked. We took off our suits and put them in a bag to be disposed of later. We set the repair truck on fire and left. As we left, we used brooms to erase foot and tire tracks. I had also used a broom to erase the tire tracks where I parked, waiting for the signal to go to the house. We were leaving no DNA, no tracks and no witnesses.

We drove back to the house in Albuquerque. It was a long drive and I was beginning to feel the effects of many hours without sleep but pumped on adrenaline. When I came down from the adrenaline, I was going to crash.

At the house the guys estimated how much money there was. They didn’t have time to count it. It was estimated that there was ten million dollars and twenty kilos of heroin. Interestingly, we found no marijuana nor a place large enough to store it. He must have had another site for the weed. That was okay; we didn’t have the room for the MJ anyway.

The amount of money was a surprise. Captain decided that we would take a million for expenses and the other guys could split the rest. Snake, Nick, the guys tracking on the road and the spotters at the Johnson place would be paid a salary and not share in the take because they didn’t participate in the raid. I didn’t have a lot of interest in the money but I did take note that I wasn’t going to be in hock for the rest of my life, paying off the search debt.

It wasn’t much of a consolation. I was heartsick about Will. I had prepared myself for finding him dead but it still is miserable when such thoughts turn into reality. I couldn’t stop thinking about how Will died.

We grabbed a big bag of money and went to the airport, ready for the flight home. The guys would get rid of our Tyvek suits, guns and the SUVs. The SUVs weren’t particularly critical since stolen plates had been used. The SUVs could be sold. We got on the plane. I drank a lot of water, laid out on a seat folded down and fell asleep. Passed out was more like it.

It was the sleep of the exhausted. I remember stopping once for fuel and then we were landing in West Virginia. We were back. It was over except for the memories and the nightmares.