American Criminal (42 page)

    After whispering for thirty seconds, the group broke up and moved towards the wood-line. No one bothered to tell Burnside what was going on, so he fell in silently behind them. They entered the dark woods and skirted around tree trunks, bushes, and branches until they spotted light beyond the trees. They halted at the woods edge and used the perimeter trees as cover. Ray peered around a tree trunk and spotted the cop’s driveway, house, and lawn.

    The light was better near the edge of the woods, so Burnside could make out the silhouettes of the other four men using the trees as cover. One of the silhouettes waved at the others and began moving deeper into the woods. The others fell in behind the first one and Burnside followed. Ray tried to make as little noise as possible as they continued along the woods edge. They halted again when they reached the back yard.

    Crouching low, Jimmy darted toward the back of the house. When he reached the house, he took refuge behind it so he wasn’t visible to the street. Burnside saw Jimmy’s silhouette peer around the corner of the house toward the driveway. When Jimmy saw it was clear, he waved the rest of them over. Staying low, Burnside followed the others to the rear of the house. A set of stairs led up to a wide wooden porch built into the second level of the house.

    Jimmy grabbed a portable radio that was clipped onto his belt and held it up. 

    “Here’s the deal,” he said. “Peter and Johnny will remain back here. Do you have your radio?” Jimmy asked, addressing one of the silhouettes.

    “Right here,” one of the silhouettes replied as he unclipped his radio from his belt.

    “Hang tight back here until I give you the signal on the radio,” Jimmy whispered.     

    “When you get the signal, ascend those steps to the back porch, shoot out the sliding doors, and enter the house. Smashing the sliders will trip the alarm system and contact the police department, so you need to move fast. Typical police response time is from five to seven minutes, but our escape vehicles will leave them in the dust. Once in, cut through the kitchen area and take a left down the hall. The children’s bedroom is the first one on the right. There will be two boys: age eight and age six. They might be awake because smashing the doors will trigger an audible alarm. After dealing with them, go to the end of the hall and take a left into the master bedroom. The wife should be there. Do her quick and get the fuck out of there. Got it?”

    “Got it,” Johny said.

    Do her quick?
Ray thought.
They’re going to kill the family too?

    Ray felt like he had been punched in the gut. He held back a tide of vomit welling up in the back of his throat. It took all his strength to remain calm. He finally figured out the psychopaths’ insane plan; they were going to take out the cop’s entire family to send a message to the other cops in the department to back off from going after the New York Mob
.

    Burnside felt like he had been paralyzed. This wasn’t what he signed on for. He agreed to kill the cop, not his entire family. He began to zone out. Jimmy’s whispers faded away and he felt like his mind had separated from his body and was floating above the scene like a detached observer. He came back to reality when he felt someone poking his arm.

    “Come on, rookie,” Jimmy said. “You’re with us.”

    Ray came out of his daze and his mind clicked into automatic pilot. He followed Jimmy and Eddie as they returned to the woods. This time, he didn’t bother to crouch.

Now that he knew the entire family was the target, could he go through with the hit?  

    Unfortunately, the answer was the same as before; he had to do what he had to do to survive. There was no way out of it. He had to steel his mind, do the job, and hope God would forgive him for being part of this vicious drama.

    Burnside followed Jimmy and Eddie through the woods until they reached the trees closest to the garage. Once there, Jimmy led them back several feet away from the forest edge until they found a vantage point where they could still see the driveway and the garage through leaves and intersecting tree branches. Jimmy crouched down behind a tree trunk and motioned for Ray and Ed to do the same. Ray ducked behind another trunk and peered around the edge so he had a partially obstructed view of the driveway. He could see just enough through the trees to spot headlights if a vehicle entered.

    “Now we wait for this bastard to show up,” Jimmy whispered from his place of cover. “When he gets here, wait for my signal. We’re going to let him drive his Hummer into the garage, but when we hear the door closing, we move. There are four windows at the top of the garage door. We’re going to position ourselves below the windows and wait for him to exit the vehicle. When he does, we stand and open fire. We also have a back-up in case we don’t hit him on the first try.”

    Jimmy reached down to his belt and unclipped two hand grenades from his belt. He handed one to Eddie and one to Ray.

    “Clip these on your belt and toss them into the garage we open fire. Make sure you toss them in deep enough so you don’t blow us all up. After throwing the grenades, head for the woods. I’ll keep the garage covered as we retreat to make sure no one makes it out. The grenades are special tactical models that possess explosive and incendiary qualities. They’ll blow the garage to hell and then light the place up. It will only take a few minutes for the house to be completely incinerated. Make sure you’re not anywhere near the house when they go off, or you’ll get fried.”

    “If we have these grenades, why are we sending guys in through the back door to waste the family?” Burnside asked in a harsh whisper. “Won’t the grenades burn the house down and do the job for us?” 

    “Johnny and Pete are our insurance policy. There is a remote possibility that one of the kids or the wife could make it out a back door or window after the grenades light the joint up. The fire will spread fast, but there could be a brief opportunity for them to get away. The Boss was very clear about this; no one gets out alive. A message has to be sent.”

    “What about Johnny and Peter? Will they have enough time to get out of the house before it blows?” Ray asked.

    “That’s why the timing has to be precise,” Jimmy said. “As soon as the Hummer enters the garage, we will move to the garage door. Stay low so the bastard doesn’t spot you through a window. When we reach the garage, I’ll give Johnny and Peter the signal to proceed to the back of the house. They should be able to complete the job fast enough to avoid getting incinerated. If not, that’s their problem. That’s two less paychecks for Salducci to hand out.”

    Eddie snickered at Jimmy’s comment and then shut up when Jimmy raised his hand.

    “When the Hummer arrives, wait for my signal to advance,” Jimmy continued. “We’ve conducted surveillance on this place and we know the cop’s routine. When he arrives, he will open the garage door remotely as he comes up the driveway. He always hesitates for several seconds while he waits for the door to go all the way up. If he didn’t have bulletproof glass on his Hummer, we’d waste him there. When he starts to drive in, we move. When we reach the garage, I give the signal to the guys in back. Wait a few seconds for my cue to open fire and toss the grenades in. Got it?”

    “Got it,” Burnside said.

    “Good, now shut the fuck up and hang tight,” Jimmy said. “Don’t make a fucking sound and wait for my signal.”

    The waiting was excruciating. Sweat formed on Ray’s forehead as he remained crouched behind the tree. He tried to relax, but he couldn’t get the cop’s family out of his mind. He didn’t sign on to kill an entire family. But if he didn’t, these goons would kill him. He had no choice. He had to do it.

    After what seemed like an interminable amount of time, they finally heard the rumble of a powerful engine approaching from the street. Burnside saw a flash of the Hummer’s headlights as it neared the driveway. He watched the lights move through the trees as the Hummer pulled into the driveway and ascended. The lights halted as the Hummer braked in front of the garage. As Jimmy had predicted, the Hummer waited several seconds before moving again. When the headlights disappeared into the garage, Jimmy gave the signal.

    “Let’s move,” Jimmy said.

    Staying low, the assassins darted through the woods and cut across the grassy patch separating the trees from the driveway. Ray could hear the automatic door lowering. They reached the garage as the door slammed shut. Staying low, Jimmy motioned for them to wait by raising his hand. After a few seconds went by, Jimmy unclipped the radio from his belt and raised it to his lips to give the signal to the others. Ray took this as his cue for action.

    Burnside stood and took careful aim with his TMP. Before Jimmy could speak, Ray lined up Jimmy’s head in his sights and pulled the trigger. Metallic thunder rumbled like Armageddon as the right side of Jimmy’s skull exploded in a flash of scarlet. Ray continued to fire through what was left of Jimmy’s brains until he saw a red cloud burst from the side of Eddie’s head. Eddie collapsed in a puddle of blood next to his partner’s headless body.

    Burnside ducked down as more thunder exploded from the interior of the garage. Bullets whizzed through the garage windows as the cop fired back. Ray figured the cop must have thought the bullets aimed at Jimmy and Eddie were meant for him.

    Crouching low, Ray darted away from the garage until he was out of the line of fire. He heard high caliber bullets punching through the wooden garage door as he moved along the side of the house toward the back. 

    Arriving at the back of the house, Burnside turned the corner and fired at the silhouettes at the top of the stairs. He listened to the unique sound of the silenced bullets zipping from the barrel as the silhouettes crumpled. As the bodies slammed into the wooden porch boards, Burnside darted toward the trees. He entered the shadowy woods and dodged around trunks and branches until he reached the other side. He remembered that Jimmy had left the Lamborghini’s keys in the ignition, which made his next decision easy.

    Without slowing his pace, Burnside sprinted around the front of the Lamborghini and pulled open the driver’s side door. He heard sirens wailing in the distance. Tossing the TMP onto the passenger’s seat, he slid into the driver’s seat and started up the engine. 

    The Ferrari parked behind him didn’t leave him much room, so he backed up until he nudged its front bumper and then turned the wheel sharply to the left. He put the car in drive and pressed down on the gas pedal. The Lamborghini’s tires squealed as it tore across the lawn toward the street. Reaching the street, he pressed down on the gas pedal again and the Lamborghini accelerated like a rocket. Glancing in the rearview mirror, Ray didn’t see any flashing blue lights arriving yet.

    When the cops arrived at the house, they would find the gangster’s dead bodies and a getaway car parked in the driveway of the foreclosed house next door. It would take them a while to puzzle out what had happened, and by that time he would be long gone.

    Burnside quickly became lost in an endless maze of suburban roads. Just when he had lost all hope of escaping the maze, he found a main road that took him to the highway. Once on the highway, he headed for the city.

    Ray pulled into the middle lane, checked the speedometer, and lit a cigarette. He planned to drive the speed limit all the way back to avoid attracting attention. As the car filled up with smoke, he realized he hadn’t cracked the window. Pressing a button, the window rolled down. The cool breeze felt refreshing. Taking a deep drag from the cigarette, he blew out a stream of smoke and watched the gray cloud get sucked out the window.

    It was only midnight, so there was still some traffic on the road. By cruising at a moderate speed, he was able to blend into the traffic fairly well - despite the fact he was driving a vehicle that cost three-hundred-thousand-dollars.

    He had to go back to the Palladin Club to get Alicia. He didn’t know if she would agree to go away with him, but he had to at least ask her. Obviously, it would be dangerous to return to the Club after purposefully botching the mission, but it was worth the risk. His connection with Alicia had motivated him to do the right thing. If he had killed the cop or allowed his family to be killed, he wouldn’t be able to look her in the eye again.

    Ray drove carefully through the city until he reached the parking garage. Ascending the ramp, he parked next to his Camry on the second level. The Lamborghini was far too ostentatious to work as an escape vehicle, so he would have to leave in the Camry - or even better - Alicia’s SUV. He hoped to God she would come with him because he didn’t want to go back to the way things were without her.

    Burnside unscrewed the silencer from the TMP and placed it in the Lamborghini’s glove compartment. Retracting the stock, he shoved the weapon under the passenger seat. He kept his back-up piece shoved in the rear waistband of his pants. 

    Ray left the keys in the ignition as he slid out of the driver’s seat. He hoped that a homeless person taking refuge in the garage would find the Lamborghini and realize he/she had hit the lottery. Descending the stairwell, Burnside exited onto the sidewalk. Steeling himself, he headed toward the bright lights of the Pallidin Club. He had to play this smooth and pretend he had completed the mission as planned.

    Burnside’s heart sank as he spotted Big Frank at the front door checking IDs. What would the big lug do when he saw him returning alone? Frank’s eyes widened as they connected with Burnside’s. He would have to improvise.

    “The rest of the guys are on their way,” Ray said to Frank. “Since I’m the first one back, I’m going to let Salducci know we were successful.”

    Frank looked Ray up and down, skeptically.

    “You guys really pulled it off?” Frank asked, frowning.

    “You bet we did. Is Salducci still in his office?”

    “He’s still there. I saw him pacing back and forth earlier.” Frank said. “He won’t leave the Club until he knows the mission has been completed.” 

    “Then, I’ll bring him the good news,” Burnside said as he forced himself to smile at the enormous bouncer.

    Ray stepped aside to pass Frank and cut through the restaurant toward the bar area. At this time of night, the restaurant was winding down and there were only a handful of patrons at the tables. The real action was happening in the Club; the dance floor was packed to capacity. Burnside weaved and dodged around patrons as he made his way toward the bar. As he entered the bar area, he spotted Alicia. She was serving a customer, so she hadn’t seen him yet.

    Alicia’s eyes widened as she watched him approach the bar. She ran out to meet him.

    “You made it!” she said, hugging him tight.

    “Not only that, but I did the right thing,” Ray said as he hugged her back.

    Alicia stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the lips. He kissed her back and then stopped.

    “Alicia, the only problem is that because I did the right thing, I’m about to become very unpopular around here. I’m sorry to put you on the spot, but I have to leave right away. I want you to come with me.”

    Alicia looked stunned. This was not what she was expecting.

    “Ray, what happened?”

    “We were supposed to kill a cop and his family. I couldn’t do it, so I killed Salducci’s goons instead. I have to leave immediately – before Salducci finds out what happened. You have to make a decision now.”

    Alicia hesitated as she stared into his eyes.

    “You really have to go?” she asked.

    “I want you to come with me, but I’m not going to lie to you. It’s going to be dangerous. When Salducci finds out what happened, he’s going to send goons after me. We have to go far away.”

    Alicia hesitated and glanced over her shoulder toward the bar. Karl appeared to be overwhelmed by customers.

    “We have to leave now?” she asked.

    “Right now.”

    “Okay, I’ll come with you,” Alicia said as tears formed in her eyes.

    “Good,” Ray said. “Where’s your SUV parked?”

    “It’s parked on the third level of the garage.”