Raw Vengeance (The Rich Fordham Series) (14 page)

An hour earlier, the hospital had been searched and given the “all clear” by law enforcement. The group headed to the elevator and descended to the fifteenth floor. One long hallway later, her entourage entered Dan’s room. Dan was alert, with Tyler sitting at his bedside while his two bodyguards read magazines in the corner. Gabe fiddled with his camera while waiting for their arrival.

The bodyguard in front knocked on the door and surveyed the room before he entered. Happy with what he saw, he led the group in and the four bodyguards each took positions around the perimeter of the room.

Tyler perked up and narrowed his eyes as he watched Wayne Vale strut through the door, followed by his mother. He walked toward his mother and stopped just short. The smile and concern on her face looked as plastic and fake as a Hollywood porn star. He expected this, but felt her presence was unjustified and self-serving.

Rich and Gabe walked over and met them with a microphone and video camera rolling live. Sarah Kinney had notified them that they’d be covering the story in tandem with Wayne. Viewers at home would see Wayne’s coverage in the background, with Rich’s feed in a smaller window in the foreground.

Tyler glanced over at his own bodyguard, Peter Raines, who looked up from his magazine and returned the stare and nodded. “You came,” Tyler said scornfully to his mother.

The comment made her blood boil, but she continued her forced expression in front of the camera. “Of course I came, honey,” she said as she pulled him in for a hug. “Is my baby all right? You didn’t get hit, did you?” The smell of cheap perfume, stale hairspray, and body odor stung his nostrils. Tyler pulled away as soon as he had a chance.

“
I’m fine, but my friend Dan got hurt,” he motioned to Dan’s bed. “He was almost killed.”

“
Oh, that’s horrible, honey.” Shantell walked over to the side of Dan’s bed and waited for the lights and cameras to follow her every move.

Rich noted how every action Shantell made was deliberate and contrived. He noticed Tyler had changed from his hospital scrubs to a pair of jeans, a white graphic t-shirt, and a light yellow windbreaker.
When had he found time to change?

“
This is your fault,” Tyler accused his mom. “If you hadn’t sent me to that school, none of this would have ever happened.”

Shantell entered damage mode and quickly recovered. “But you know I care about you. That’s why you went.”

“
No, you don’t. You only care about yourself, your agenda, and your hypocritical morals,” he said with heightened emotion. “You’re only here because you want the sympathy vote from your constituents. It’s what all this drama is about. You don’t give a fuck about me, you don’t give a fuck about Dan!” he raged. The rant ended when Tyler saw Shantell’s expression turn to shock and disgust.

“
Why I ought to—” She stopped herself and regained her composure. “Honey,” she said in a soothing voice, “let’s go and talk about this at home. You’re embarrassing me in front of all these people.”

“
Embarrassing you? Are you for real?” He dropped his voice an octave and looked into her bloodshot eyes. “Tell me this. If you care about me so much, when is the last time you told me you loved me?”

The question pierced like a dagger through her politician’s ego. Everything for which she had sacrificed and worked so hard had been put on the line in front of an audience. The silence in the room hung like a wet towel as she struggled with an answer. If she hesitated and stumbled, her constituents would see her as an unloving mother and just another vain politician.

“
Well, the morning I left for the campaign trail I said ‘I love you’ before I left,” she bluffed.

“
Ha!”
he laughed and put his hands on his hips in disgust. “The last time you said ‘I love you’ was right before you sent me to gay boot-camp. Since then, you act as if you don’t even know me.”

“
Oh, Tyler honey, but I do love you. You’re just difficult to love sometimes,” she said as she reached out and tried to hug him again.

Tyler stepped back and threw his hands in the air. “I’m done with you. You’re not my mother.”

Shantell needed immediate damage control. The cameras were still filming live, and the sole reason for her presence had backfired. Then an idea hit her. “Honey, come home with me tonight. You’re obviously upset, and I’m sorry about that.” She gestured at the people surrounding them and said, “I’ll take a few days off, and we’ll talk this all out, but not here in front of the cameras. Please.” Last chance, and the ball was in Tyler’s court.

Tyler shook his head in disagreement. “You say you’re all about family, but Dan is the only one who has accepted me for who I am. He’s my new family,” he said as he walked over to the side of Dan’s bed. The look of disgust and loathing in his mother’s eyes said everything.

“
We’re leaving,” Shantell said to her group as she turned and walked toward the door. Her mind was in recovery mode, but pangs of nausea began to distract her. “Quit filming, and tell your pilots we’ll be ready to go in five minutes,” she said to Wayne.

“
You got it,” Wayne said as his camerawoman began packing their electronics gear for the short helicopter ride back.

Wayne had one thing left to do. He stepped over to where Rich stood and glared. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”

Arrogant bastard.
“I’m not sure we’ve met,” Rich said, playing dumb.

“
You know exactly what I’m talking about. This isn’t your beat. I got the mayor; you stay the hell out,” he said, less than a foot from Rich’s face.

It was time for a different tactic. To Rich, men like Wayne argue by raising their voice, adjusting the inflection in their tone, and using aggressive body language. However, Rich knew instinctively that approach wouldn’t hack it. Rich put his hands on hips. “You’re absolutely right, Wayne. I shouldn’t be here. For that, I apologize,” he said with his hand over his chest. “If I offended you, I’m sorry.”

The soft-spoken concession caught Wayne off guard. He was gearing up for a shouting match. To be out-witted made him seethe, but he couldn’t find the words for a rebuttal, nor could he match Rich’s calm demeanor. Frustrated, he turned and headed for the helicopter.

CHAPTER 20

Peter Raines had three minutes to pull off the crime of a lifetime. The plan wasn’t perfect, but the opportunity arose when Mayor Shantell Cogan went to the bathroom to relieve her sudden nausea. He figured it would take her and the pilots at least five minutes to reach the helicopter pad. The original plan was to place an explosive device in her car and make it look like an accident. Sabotaging the helicopter would eliminate the evidence and make it more difficult to trace the crime back to him. The device he chose was small enough to be concealed in his blazer, but had enough punch to destroy a compact car.

With three minutes to go, Peter pushed the button on the elevator for the helicopter pad. Twenty seconds later, the doors slid open, and he was relieved to see the area around the helicopter devoid of people. The red perimeter lights and the white, green, and red rotating beacon and full moon gave him enough ambient light to find his way around in the dark. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and the winds were light and variable. The helicopter’s tail was pointing to his left, the nose to his right.

As fast as he could, Peter ducked below the tail rotor and stood so he was facing the empennage on the helicopter’s left side, just aft of the rotor. He removed the book-sized bomb made of eight pounds of C-4, removed the adhesive backing, and stuck it into position on the aluminum skin next to the output shaft of the tail rotor assembly. On the outside, the bomb looked benign. It had a white plastic cover with an external antenna. Internally, the antenna connected to a computer that activated a trigger used to detonate the C-4. One minute to go.

Peter made his way back toward the elevator and thought up an excuse for why he was up there already. The doors of the elevator opened. Led by the pilots, Shantell’s entourage made their way past him, and he followed.

“
What’re you doing up here?” Shantell asked him.

“
Needed a smoky treat,” answered Peter as he took another drag on a cigarette.

They were oblivious to the threat.

*****

Andy “Tiny” Porter, the cop from the school shooting, waltzed into the room to see how Rich was doing.

“
Tiny, what’s up, man?” Rich asked. “Never thought I’d see you here.”

“
Free coffee.” He held up his coffee mug and smiled. “Rich Fordham saves the day.” He dropped his voice down low and cupped his mouth. “But between you and me, I couldn’t stand that wench. I couldn’t have taken a bullet for her.” He slapped the back of Rich’s shoulder in a sign of pride and acceptance and let out a huge belly laugh. Rich smiled and enjoyed the new company.

“
So now what?” Rich asked.

“
The mayor is on her way out with her entourage and one of Tyler’s guys.”

“
One of Tyler’s guys? Which one?” he asked out of curiosity.

“
The fat guy like me—Peter Raines, real nice fellah. Even flew Hueys back in ‘Nam. We chatted it up downstairs while you were playing hero.”

An unsettling premonition fell over Rich. “You say he’s a helicopter pilot?”

“
Yeah, why?”

“
Shantell flew in on a helicop—” His eyes lit up. “Get to the roof. He’s going for Shantell!”

Rich, Gabe, and Andy ran out the door and down the hall to the elevator. Andy ran as fast as his legs would allow, while yelling into his radio, “We have a suspect on the roof, I repeat, a suspect on the roof. Target is a bodyguard wearing a grey suit with a black tie, bald, late fifties, approximately two hundred and fifty pounds. Suspect is considered armed and dangerous.”

The three waited impatiently as the elevator climbed to the top floor. The idling sound of the helicopter’s rotors could be heard even before the elevator doors opened. Andy had his gun ready and was the first out.

“
Freeze! Put your hands in the air and then get
down
on the ground!” Andy said with his gun aimed at Peter’s torso.

Peter spun to his right and glimpsed Andy and the others. He put his hands above his head with a remote detonator in his right. All he needed now was a diversion. The Bell Ranger lifted off the roof into the night sky. Without emotion or a second thought, he flipped the safety and pressed the trigger.

At ten feet above the deck, the rotor assembly and empennage disintegrated as a small fireball mushroomed into the sky. The pilot tried in vain to correct for the lack of resistance on the flight controls as the helicopter began spiraling out of control. Without a tail, he had no way to counteract the torsion of the main rotors. All the pilot could do was kill the engine and hope for the best.

The helicopter dove and slammed back onto the asphalt rooftop. The front landing skids dug in, and momentum caused what was left of the tail to rise into the air. The underside of the nose collided with the roof; the rotor blades sliced into the hard surface and entered into a battle of physical forces. The instant stoppage exerted an exponential amount of additional torque. The mast collapsed like a wet noodle, and the rotors disintegrated, flying chaotically in every direction. Like an Olympian diver performing a stunt off the high-dive, the helicopter half-somersaulted, half-pirouetted onto its roof.

Once the helicopter settled, Peter got on his knee and fired off three quick shots in succession at Andy.

What felt like a red-hot poker burned into Andy’s gut as he returned fire. He knew he hit his mark when Peter slumped over onto his side without moving.

“
Andy, how bad are you shot?” Rich asked as he bent over to study him.

“
Don’t worry about me,” he grimaced. “I’ll be fine. Gabe, get help from downstairs. Rich, you go see if anyone’s alive.”

Rich expected an explosion at any moment. He sprinted to the helicopter, pried the side door open, and peered inside. No occupants wore seat belts, except for the pilots, and each lay precariously in a bed of mangled metal, glass, and electrical wires. Then the smell of aviation fuel hit him.
She’s going to blow
. He went to the other side to check Wayne’s pulse, but he knew he was dead. His head had twisted around backward, eyes staring directly downward at his own butt, snapping his neck. Nothing. Rich took a deep breath and looked at Wayne’s battered, lifeless body; there was no way to save him.

As delicately as possible, Rich lifted Shantell’s body and laid her out flat. Barely conscious, she opened her eyes halfway and smiled at the man looking down at her.

CHAPTER 21

Tuesday mornings are almost as bad as Monday mornings. You know it’s another four days until the weekend, and you’re still recovering from the previous one.

Rich stirred his coffee and took six hundred milligrams of ibuprofen for his throbbing headache. Today, however, felt different. He leaned back in his chair, stared at the Cancun beach wallpaper on his computer, and wished yesterday’s events had come out differently. Messages from other reporters, newspapers, and concerned citizens overwhelmed his voice mail system, and it wasn’t even nine a.m. yet. Three florists had already made personal deliveries.