Street Justice (26 page)

Nate was straining to see what Johnny and Will were seeing. He weaved back and forth a bit trying not to block the light and get a clear view. Suddenly he heard a loud bang and he was thrown forward over the other two men. The pile of them struggled to get up, Will and Johnny trying futilely to lift the great mass of Nate. Six blasts and another half dozen click came from the car. Then a thunk as a large hole appeared in the roof of the car, near where the roof met the rear windshield.

“Get off of us,” Johnny screamed.

Nate mumbled something and started pushing on Will and Johnny, using them as leverage points to raise himself.

“Oww,” Will complained as Nate’s giant hand squished his head against the bumper.

“Damn it, be careful,” Johnny said. Nate finally righted himself and Johnny asked, “You were wearing your vest right?”

Nate nodded but did not say anything. His brow furrowed in a quizzical look and slipped back to one knee. He tried to brace his left arm against the fender of the car and lift himself but his hand slid down and his arm flopped by his side.

“Nate, you okay?” Johnny asked. Will scrambled up off the pavement, drew a weapon and ran to the rear passenger window. Michael lay in the back with a large .50 caliber hole in him. For urban warfare, Kip loaded a round designed to penetrate more than expand, but still the hole was massive there was no doubt that he was dead. He looked over at Nate. Nate slid his right hand up and under his left arm. It came out bloody. Will could see two large impacts in the middle of Nate’s back, they tore through his clothes and had hit him in the back. While not deadly, these two shots spun him enough, that by some chance, at least one of the other shots had pierced through a seam in the vest’s protective material and into his chest.

Nate smiled his signature smile, a little blood seeped from the grin, then a gurgle and Nate flopped to the ground. Johnny was immediately on him, tearing at his clothes. The rip of Velcro releasing Nate’s vest was unmistakable. Johnny lifted the front panel and both he and Will could see two large holes in Nate’s side. One in his armpit and one square in the lung. Johnny bent down and listened for a breath. He heard nothing. Johnny started CPR but Will calmly walked over and pulled Johnny off the big man’s corpse.

“He’s gone,” Will said, his arms wrapped around Johnny from behind.

“No he’s not,” Johnny protested. He struggled to get back to Nate but it was a halfhearted effort as both men knew the truth. Johnny hoped futilely that his protests would wind the clock backward, that they could play the last ten seconds of life over again, that they could know Michael was back there or remember to check the backseat. But he logically knew he could not. Finally he stopped windmilling his arms and said to Will, “I’m okay, I’m okay.”

Will hesitantly released his grip. Johnny took a step away but did not go back to Nate, instead he turned and looked Will in the eyes. He keyed his throat mic, “Nate is dead. We still need to get these cars out of here. Four cars and four of us. That will mean we’ll have to leave the corner unguarded for a bit. But I don’t think they’ll try anything more tonight anyway. Kip, come on down.”

Three minutes later Will, Alex, Kip and Johnny were together in the street.

“I should have seen him earlier,” Kip offered.

“I should have called out that we missed one,” Alex said.

“I should have checked the car, before inspecting the damage,” Will suggested.

Johnny raised a hand, “Listen, we could have all done different things, including Nate. This is all our faults and none of our faults. He knew the risks when he started.”

“Yeah but to survive all we have survived then buy it here, after the engagement was over, to this bad luck…” Alex trailed off.

“It’s bad luck that usually gets us all,” Johnny continued, “Now we still have a job to do.” Johnny moved over to Nate and lifted his limp shoulders, looking back at the other three. Finally Alex walked over and picked up Nate’s legs and the two men moved the body into the back seat. Then Alex, Will and Kip each drove a car out to Lincoln park. They used a small Zodiac to boat the bodies out to deeper water and let them sink. Johnny used the van to tow the Caprice to an empty lot near the airport and set it on fire. They met back at the hotel.

Devon sat at his desk and stared at his computer screen. He knew he had work to do but was getting sick of data entry. His internship with Ivar’s was supposed to be fun and interesting, not sitting around entering data into a computer repetitively. His phone rang. Devon looked around. No one was around so he took the call. “Hello?”

“Hey, man, you hear?” came Dario’s voice.

“Hear what?”

“Man, the crew over on Colorado got hit last night?”

“No way. Carl is not going to be happy. You know who did it?” Devon replied.

“Nah, man, it’s worse than that. Dude, I was grinding, like I do, when all of a sudden this white guy dressed in all black steps out of the shadows only feet from me. Well, Tyrell, goes to pull a gun and bam he’s dead, as are the rest of our regulators. Just dead, flopped on the ground, no noise, no fight no nothing. None of the watchers do anything either. The guy says to me, he wants me and the others to keep selling, just like we’re doing, then tells us we can go.

I take off running before he changes his mind and call Carl immediately. Carl doesn’t believe me at first but then says okay and hangs up. I heard he sent his execution squad down there to clean the corner up but they all just disappeared too. Man it’s crazy.”

“What, you tell me that corner was wiped out? Twice? That Carl’s crew of rough riders couldn’t clean house? You gotta be kidding me,” Devon said, shaking his head, “I don’t believe you. Them rough riders are the toughest of the tough.”

“No doubt, no doubt, but that’s what I heard.”

“So what are you doing?”

“Me? I’m going to work,” Dario said matter-of-factly.

“Where, another of Carl’s corners?”

“Carl ain’t called me.”

“So what? You going to work for the guy in black?”

“I gotta make ends.”

“I don’t know man, that doesn’t seem safe. What if Carl comes back on them? I wouldn’t want to be out on the corner when the shooting starts.”

“I don’t think the shooting will start. I think the man in black is magic or something. People going against him just disappear. Besides man, who else Carl going to send at them?”

“I don’t know, it still doesn’t seem safe.”

“If I wanted safe, I’d be hiding out at some desk at a fish joint headquarters, not slanging. This job is always dangerous,” Dario chuckled, “Have fun working for The Man, man.” Dario hung up. Devon sat back in his chair thinking about what he had heard. Carl’s crew was tight and strong. How could someone have come in and wiped them out like that with no signs. He pondered this as he continued to enter data.

At lunch he headed to Pho Cyclo Café. He was not a big fan of Pho but he was meeting Katie and she was paying so she got to choose. It was nice to meet outside of her office and it was not something they did regularly. As he walked, he pondering what he had heard. He hated being off the street. It used to be that he could have heard the story from five different people, put them together and understand the truth was somewhere in the middle. Now his only contact on the streets was Dario.

Devon entered the restaurant and saw Katie already waiting for him. She waved him over and he sat down. The room was small but brightly lit, the tables were white and the walls were painted white and light green. It was busy with people talking, but not too loud. When the waiter came by he ordered the Pho Tai while Katie got the Pho Ga.

When the waiter left Katie said, “So how are things?”

“Good, a bit boring but good. I have this project I am working on, scanning in old papers, then tagging them, which is interesting. However, we’re behind because I can’t get everyone together to set guidelines of what should be tagged with what words. Heck, we’re having trouble just agreeing on what the tags should be.”

Katie smiled. She could hear in Devon’s words that he was taking responsibility and ownership for his work, a big step. She did not want to highlight that the job was working so she went with, “It is like that everywhere unfortunately, any time you are trying to get a group together to come to a consensus.”

“It’d be a lot easier if I could just do as I wanted, I’d be done already.”

“Yes, but then it is the work of just you. If you can get the group together, this can be the work of many, they can help you see issues and solutions you never thought of.”

“If they can work together.”

“Yes,” Katie agreed as the waiter brought their food. “So what else is new with you?”

“Well, not new with me but I just had an interesting conversation with Dario, my cousin…”

“I know Dario,” Katie said coolly.

“Anyway, Carl Marfori is one of the main leaders of the drug world here in Seattle.”

“Is he? You should tell the police.”

“I’m not a snitch, besides Carl is smart, and I mean real smart. He didn’t come into his way the most of the guys around here do. He didn’t work his way up from the street. Carl was a businessman who had friends who dealt. He did financing for them, lending them money to buy shipments. Then he expanded into telling those he was lending money to how to run their operations, which meant they got pinched less, so Car got paid much more often. Now he simply runs things end to end, but he’s never near any drugs and never has been.”

“Okay,” Katie nodded her understanding.

“Yeah, well Dario works for Carl, way down the line, on the street. Anyway, he said last night Carl was hit, hard. His biggest corner was wiped out.”

“What do you mean ‘wiped out?’”

“Well that’s the odd part. Dario said the protection at the corner just died then some guy dressed all on black appeared out of the dark and said he wanted Dario and his crew to work for him. Dario took off at that point but then he heard that Carl sent in his rough riders. These guys are tough, they only go after the toughest target, but the rumor is, all these guys disappeared too. Just disappeared.”

“Hmm,” Katie said.

“Yeah, weird. Anyway, I am not sure what really happened. Stories get twisted on the street but still makes you think. The corners are dangerous. To tell you the truth, I am kind of happy I’m not on the corners right now. If this is true, a war could be coming and that leads to a lot of dead people. At Ivar’s not much chance of me catching a bullet either intentionally or as a bystander.”

Katie smiled again. Devon was taking ownership of his work and seeing the safety of his choice to stay off the street. She did not often have success stories but they felt great when she did and this was shaping up to be a great one. Still, knowing the name of a drug dealer and possibly about an upcoming drug war weighed on her. She knew she had to try and do something.

An hour later, the phone on Sarah’s desk rang. She picked it up and said hello. “Hello Sarah, how are things?”

Sarah did not need the voice to introduce itself, “Katie, my dear, how have you been, it has been too long.”

“Tell me about it. How do we live in the same city, working blocks from each other and never catch up?”

“I don’t know but we must change it. So how are things?”

“Things are busy but good,” Katie admitted.

“I hear you.”

Katie paused then said, “I have something I need to tell you but I’m not sure how or what you should do with it.”

Sarah sat up a bit straighter in her seat. “What is it? You can just tell me, I will help in any way I can.”

Katie laughed, “No it’s not like that, I’m not in trouble. It’s just that I have information but it was given to me by a case of mine. I’m not supposed to share it with anyone, but I can’t just sit on it.”

“Well, that’s good, you had me worried for a minute. But listen, you are fine just giving me rumors and speculation. I can sort through my options once you tell me. I can promise you we will not investigate nor try and locate the source. If we need to get an entry to what you tell me we will find another avenue and will not ask for your source nor pressure you in anyway. If I need to pass it along I’ll just tell them it was one of my CIs.”

“Okay, well, I heard there is a man called Carl Marfori who is a lead drug leader or whatever you call them…”

“I am not familiar with the name, but I can look into it, someone in narcotics might know it.”

“And… I also heard a drug war is about to kick off. Lots of people have apparently already died. I don’t know what happened to them but apparently it was a good number of drug dealers. I know you may not care about that but they are still people.”

“I assure you, we care about all murders, even the murder of dealers. Do you know where?”

“No, I forget to ask him, I mean my contact.”

“No worries, I’ll ask around… and Katie, thank you.”

“My pleasure, well not my pleasure, I mean, I didn’t like telling you this--”

Sarah interrupted, “I know what you mean. Now how about you and I getting together for dinner.”

Alex, Johnny, Kip and Will stood on the rooftop overlooking their corner. Will had a map of the surrounding area spread out on a small folding card table. “OK, our objective is to work smarter, not harder. We need to hold with one or two men what they held with a dozen. Now, they were sloppy and didn’t use any technology to speak of, so it shouldn’t be too hard.” He pointed at two series of blue dots arranged in approximate concentric circles around their corner. “These are full spectrum night vision cameras with motion sensors and lights. That means they will let you see infrared, regular video and in the dark. The sensors on them can be set to alert you when they are tripped though with the amount of traffic we have going on I have turned that feature off.”