Hard Case V: Blood and Fear (A John Harding Novel Book 5) (35 page)

Lora came to me next. “Jesus, I don’t know what the hell’s wrong with me lately, John. I’m sorry.”

Knowing instinctively Lora thought when she goes off into a weird tangent I might bolt on her, I stood, enveloping her in my arms. “I’m never leaving you, unless you kick me out, Hon. Maybe I should have told you about-”

“No… you shouldn’t have told me about any of this.” Lora sealed my mouth off with her hand. “Most I’ve guessed from talking to Della next door. I’m not this naïve. I know mentioning the police being able to end the threat in Flo’s neighborhood was stupid. Hell, they want to lynch cops when they take a stand anywhere in this dumbass city. I can only imagine the fallout for the Blue if they try and rescue a neighborhood from unknown sources. C’mon, Al. Want to help me with the laundry?”

Seeing an opening in her Mom’s unusual behavior lately, Al stepped up. “Sure, Mom. I want to help. Don’t be mad. Dad knows what he’s doing. I’ll help if he’s a little slack on chores, and I don’t care if he has to get someone to fill in as my coach. He’s stopping terrorists! We’re playing softball… big deal! Like Lynn always says, ‘it is what it is’. I know we can’t be part of everything like the fights, and altering what he has to do, but if you ever go psycho on me, I’m staying with Dad. I know he’s my real Dad no matter what the DNA claims. My real Dad hasn’t even called me in months!”

Uh oh. I’ve been so busy with my crap, I hadn’t given Al’s plight a thought. Her Dad’s an okay guy. He lives elsewhere with a family. Blaming him for anything is a crock, but Al writing him off like she did is one step too far in the blame game. “Have you called him, Al?”

Al knew in an instant she’d screwed up. It took a few moments before she shrugged. “No, Dark Lord, I didn’t. I’ll call him tonight. I shouldn’t have said that. I guess we should go do something useful, Mom.”

“Thanks for breakfast. It was great,” Jess said, with Dev and I echoing his compliment.

“No problem,” Lora answered on the way out with Al in tow.

“Back to business. We need to find out who the hell is moving into Flo’s neighborhood, and what they’re selling. Then we may have to lean on someone to find out where they hang out unless Laredo and Jafar can get a read on them. I’m certain they know you, Jess, so when we drive you into the neighborhood with the Godfather minions, we’ll let you do the talking. I’ll ask the guys we’re questioning this morning if they know of anything being started in the neighborhoods on a grassroots level. That Nigerian hit-man they sent in to kill the baby will probably know something about local area operations. The Bulgarians we have will be able to substantiate whatever the fake Doc says. I’m glad we have roots around the ports here. Apparently, they’re in high demand to ship some very dangerous cargo from the East to the West, including terrorist soldiers.”

Dev and Jess exchanged agreeing looks.

“What do you want us to do, Dark Lord?”

“I think it would be good if you two went over to Flo’s house in the thousand dollar outfits we mentioned before, check damage and entry on the house. Drive something impressive, and not that old beater of yours, Dev.”

“My old beater makes that piece of shit Chevy you hold onto look like a scrap yard reject. We’ll go in Jess’s Chrysler though in spite of your insults.”

“Good choice,” I replied. “Remember we want ‘Wall Street’ chic gangsters.”

“You hear this jeans and a t-shirt manikin talkin’ to us, Dev?”

“It explains his disrespect for his brothers in arms, Jess. He’s like when that woman Gertrude Stein described Oakland as ‘there is no there there’. The same goes for brother John’s expertise in dressing,” Dev added, while the two comedians stood away from the table in a huff, joining on their way to my door. “His mama dressed him funny, and now he’s taking it out on everyone around him.”

“No, Dev,” Jess corrected, “John don’t even know who his mama was. Maybe his Daddy wanted a girl, and got John instead.”

Damn it! That was a solid gold serve. “I’m watchin’ you, Jess. You must have a ghost writer writing your lines for you - no way you create that one yourself. Admit it, you’re using Dev’s writer. That he even knows who Gertrude Stein is makes me uncomfortable.”

They laughed their asses off all the way out the door with Dev making call me gestures with his hand as a phone to his ear. I grinned at their departure, trying to figure out a way to separate Lora from Al for a quickie. Yeah, even we monsters have needs. I wracked my brain, but thought of nothing other than maybe an Al visit to a friend’s house. With Al, you have to be careful, because she’s onto everything her Mom and I formulate as a plan without her. She loves to serve it at an incredibly opportune time without remorse. I gave up, and simply joined them in our laundry room. The looks Lora gave me as I helped with the clothes promised bonanzas in later dark hours.

* * *

“Dark Lord,” Denny enunciated in true Spawn form. “Did mommy finally let you out of the house?”

“She did indeed allow me out to play. Have we any new toys to play with?” I sat down with our monster minions at the Pain Central conference table. Lucas and Casey attended too, so something must have broken free in the info department. They all looked relatively happy, so I figured them to be the bearers of good news.

“First order of business is the remarkable interrogation of Yuri. We showed it to our three Bulgarians, and Doc Ock as you call him. When I told them you were coming in to interrogate them later in the morning, they talked until I thought I’d have to stun-gun them into silence. I believe you broke new ground with that technique. Secondly, we have the name of our leak, thanks to Jafar. He traced an IP address in Christova’s e-mails to one of our supposed benefactors, Senator Kaline Nikolov. He and Laredo followed it along its slimy trail. She is the one. Ever consider assassinating a sitting Senator, John?”

“I am now, but I bet you have a plot in mind far better than simply killing her. Spill it, Den. Don’t make me have to beg.”

Denny slapped the table. “We’re going to double her up. I already have so much on her since we’ve found her name, she’s my bitch to eternity, or she will be bound as a traitor. She will do our will or I will put her in the general population of a prison for the rest of her life. I swear to God, John, if she barters her way free, I will slit the bitch’s throat with my own hand.”

Well, I see Denny is in for the duration of this. “Good start. I can see all the positives in supplying false info to Christova through this Nikolov connection. It buys us time as well as eyes on target. On a local level, did you make anything out of these neighborhood threads I texted you about?”

“We are yours, John,” Quays proclaimed. “Silvio and I will support Gus as the new Godfather of crime in Jess’s neighborhood. We’ve reached into the network with our contacts. We can manage a slight rip-off of the Los Zeta’s Cartel. We have a rather goofy plan we’d like to spring on you though.”

I liked Quays Tannous. He’d been through a lot, and he was unwaveringly on our side. Plus, he was a bloody monster like his two Lynn minions. “Make me believe, Quays.”

Quays chuckled. “We know where this swarm of cockroaches are. We will go there today and barter, but we need your okay to do it.”

Fine, I’m intrigued. “What the hell do you guys have in mind?”

“Quays formulated the basic concept,” Silvio said. “We have money much like the Cartels do. Why the hell shouldn’t we fight these suckers with money? These gangbanging idiots fight for nothing but to last another day as slaves to their drug bosses, and addicts as bad as any of their customers. Why not offer them a real choice… after we show them strength.”

I was beginning to get a chilly liking for this plan. “I have a feeling I’m going to get personally involved in this, my friend. I see it in the humor covering your features. Tell me how.”

“We’ve all seen these movies where one side proclaims to spare all the bloodshed between two opposing factions with champions. With your permission, we’re going to create the Oaktown Cartel. We’ll need a champion to sell this novel idea. Any ideas, John?”

“I’m your man, Quays.” This had a flavor to it I liked. “When do we start?”

“Tonight, after we finalize the details today. We already have it in the works. They have a big bad from Columbia, nearly seven feet tall I understand, and kills with his bare hands rather than disgrace himself with a weapon. When we put out the rumors the neighborhood was off limits, and under our protection, they offered this fight deal. We read trap all the way, but we figured to let you decide what to do with it. We texted Dev and Jess to be subtle in their recon of Jess’s Mom’s house. You could of course be killed in a trap, which is what we think this is, but we’d have our own guys in place who have your back to the death.”

Who needs time off and vacations. I could watch ‘The 300’ every night. I believe the same as those fabled Spartans from long ago. Who knows the truth of legend? I wouldn’t mind carving my own. “Where would something like this take place? We would need to recon the area before I arrive like some rube on his first trip into trouble.”

“We won’t proceed unless we find out the spot they have in mind,” Silvio replied. “The moment we find out, I’ll let Lucas or Casey know. I would imagine you’d want them for the long range backup.”

“Yep, I want Lucas and Casey long range. Tommy and Clint will be at my side if Clint can get away from his duties at the hospital for a few hours. I want the rest of you dressed to the nines like Hollywood gangsters, packing body armor, and MP5’s in case I lose. We don’t lose, by the way. I may lose. Then it’s open season on your idea, and our potential Oaktown Cartel.”

“Earl and ‘Rique are in on this too, John,” Quays said. “We called them, because they’re our touchstone to keep our brother Blue’s out of this. They heard rumors about this new strong-arming tactic to push through Section Eight housing, and contacted Denny, who in turn asked what we thought about it.”

“So, they won’t relay the meeting place until later, huh?”

“That is how they specified it. They’ll know the place. We get the details a half hour before the meeting, but we’re going to push for more when we go over there today,” Gus answered. “If they won’t give us the meeting place, I’ll text you for a decision. A half hour is a damn short window to operate in.”

Lucas moved beside me, gripping my arm. “You do know this is a horseshit trap, right?”

“It moves our timetable way ahead if Christova is connected in any way, Lucas. It’s good to get this local crap put in our laps like this. It widens our database of info as to what’s going on in our home base area.”

“If you lose and live, I will of course turn the rest of your life into a living hell. You know that right, Recon?”

“I would expect nothing less.” I gripped his shoulders. “Don’t let me get cut short from my duty. I don’t want some cherry picking me off from far away before I get to face Goliath.”

“You have my word on it… Marine.”

That’s all I needed for this. “I’ll get rested, if there’s nothing else to discuss. Come get me when it’s time, guys. Hell of an idea, Quays. I hope we can use the money in a long range reclamation deal with the gangs. We’ll need to confiscate more from people no longer able to use it. I have to go home, and make this right with Lora. She’ll probably toast my marshmallows, but this fight with the big guy is too good to pass up. I hope Clint can make it.”

“I’ll talk to Clint,” Denny promised. “I won’t pressure him. If he can’t make it, I’ll stand in for him. Are you sure you’re up to this? We can do it another way.”

“It’s what I do. These gangsters have been watching too many movies. They believe the outcome will be me dead on my back. I’m thinking we’re through playing around, and things will be getting rough until we lock down Christova. With Quays idea of an Oaktown Cartel, we could get fed info from multiple sources while squashing the gangs that don’t conform. It’s a hell of a trial run, but I like it. Do we have enough money with all we’ve confiscated to pull off something like he has in mind?”

“We sure do,” Denny replied. “If we land Christova, it will be jackpot time for confiscation. I will go to work on our Senator leak right now. Go home, and get some sleep, John. We’ll handle the details the rest of the way.”

“Will do.”

“Hey John,” Casey called out as I walked away. “You do know there won’t be any rules in this hack fight, don’t you?”

I grinned back at Casey. “I’m counting on it, Case. We can’t win any chips if we don’t gamble some. Don’t forget to pack your MP5 too, Night-shot.”

“You got it, John. No one will interrupt from outside, and if Clint’s with you inside, there won’t be any interference there either.”

“Maybe you should stay and rest up here, Recon. Otherwise, we won’t be sure if Lora will allow you to show for the match,” Lucas zapped me.

I walked out with much laughter behind me.

* * *

Oh baby, this is what it’s all about. I walked into the large grubby shed with a smile of recognition. It even smelled of fear and desperation. A single large fluorescent light array hung from the rafters in the middle. Under the light, the debris had been scraped away so a weighted mat could be laid into place. Nothing but shadows existed beyond the mat area. My retinue of Godfather minions, along with Dev, Jess, Tommy, and Clint were at my side, and at my back. They dressed as we had decided, all in thousand dollar suits, and matching hats, with light overcoats we built holders for the MP5’s into. Luckily, this wasn’t summer on the Bay, and the temperature inside the shed felt to be no more than the high 50’s. Tommy met my gaze, grinning from ear to ear. Yep, he and I were home again.