The Partners in Crime Collection, page 6
“Goodnight,” Jamie replied.
Dead & Buried: Chapter Seven
It had been four days since Mike had been murdered, and the department had finally agreed to release the body for burial. Doherty’s Funeral Home picked up the body at the coroner’s office and took it back to be cremated. Katie had picked out a tasteful urn that would sit on a table beside a couple of photos of Mike and a shadow box with his badge and medals pinned inside next to a uniform patch for the Harbor Police Department. The funeral was scheduled for three days from today, on Saturday afternoon. The Chief sent out an email to the whole department with a reminder to be in full dress blues for the event.
That meant Jamie would have to swing by the station and pick his uniform up before then. He’d awakened at Joe’s house, pulled on sweats and a t-shirt, found his sneakers, and headed downstairs. Joe had left a note telling him where the coffee could be found, but instead of making breakfast, he found his way into the basement workout space. There was a stationary bike, a treadmill, a rowing machine, and one of those mirror strength training things. A mini fridge held bottles of water and sports drinks, and a bathroom with a shower completed the setup. Earbuds in, music cranked, Jamie started to run. This was one of those fancy treadmills with the huge screen that showed a beach run, a forest trail, a mountain path, a city street, or whatever else you wanted to run on. The angle of the base would go up or down to match the video, and Jamie let himself get lost in a nice run through a forest. Five miles later, he walked to a stop and found himself a bottle of water in the mini fridge.
After a shower, Jamie put in a small load of laundry, and made himself some coffee and food.
He settled at the table in the study once more, and pulled out his laptop and files. He might as well do some work because otherwise, he was going to go stir crazy. In between handling administrative case work, Jamie fielded calls from the Sarge, the CSI team in his apartment, and his insurance company. The good news was, insurance would cover everything, minus his two hundred dollar deductible. The bad news was that CSI didn’t find any fingerprints that they didn’t expect to find. Whomever had trashed his place, wore gloves and a hat. No hair, fingerprints, or DNA could be found that didn’t belong to him, or the short list of people that had ever been in his place.
Sarge had asked where he had stayed last night, and he told him he was hiding out at Joey’s place. Sarge then suggested that he stay at Joey’s until the funeral. They were going to have several undercover photographers taking pictures so they could see if the killer might be in the crowd. It was a common thing for murderers to want to witness, first hand, the pain they caused the loved ones of their victim. Even more so when it was a cop and the other cops suffered.
“I’ll ask Joe if it’s okay, Sarge,” Jamie said.
“I already asked him. He said he’s fine with it. I also had him set up a post office box in your name so you could get your mail and packages delivered somewhere we can watch.” Sarge said.
“Why do I have to worry about that? What did I miss?”
“Your neighbor called about a box that got left in the hallway outside your door sometime last night. CSI found it this morning after the neighbor called, and called in the bomb squad. It had two pipe bombs on a mercury switch inside. If the box had been shifted, picked up, tipped, the switch would’ve triggered and it would have leveled that place.”
“My gods,” Jamie breathed. “You got guys at my ex’s place, right?”
“Yeah, I doubled the patrols for Elise and for Katie. Elise said that after the funeral, she’s taking all four kids to Florida on vacation to get them out of the area for a while.”
“Probably a good idea. Thanks for keeping an eye on things, Sarge. I’m sorry this is such a mess.”
“Jameson Kennedy, you did not ask for this, nor did Mikey. Keep your head down and stay alive. I’ll take care of everything else.”
“Appreciate it, Sarge. Thank you again.”
The call disconnected and Jamie put the phone down, then noticed his hands were shaking. “A fucking bomb, outside my door. My gods.”
“What?” Mike asked.
“Bomb squad defused a bomb that had been put outside my apartment door, in the hallway. Two pipe bombs on a mercury switch. Sarge wants me to stay here until after your funeral, and he’s doubled up the patrols on Katie and Elise’s places.”
“When’s the funeral?” Mike asked.
“Saturday afternoon. From what I’ve heard, Katie already had your body cremated.”
“And I’m still here – and I didn’t feel anything, so that’s good,” Mike said. “I did find a few more cameras. I went all the way out to Shoreline Drive, so pull up a map and I’ll list them for you.”
Jamie marked the spots where Mike said he’d found cameras, then sent the map to Joey.
Joey emailed back with, “How did you find these?”
Jamie replied in a chat message, “Street view and weather cams. Just check them out. And no, I haven’t left the house. I’m going to order some clothes and have them delivered to that post office box Sarge said you set up for me. Could you get my dress blues out of the closet in my office? My cover and gloves are in the box on the shelf above the hanger.”
“Yep. No problem. And you could just order stuff, have it delivered to me at my place, in my name. I think the post office box is a pain in the ass, to be honest,” Joe messaged back.
“Sounds good. Thanks, Joe. See you tonight.”
Jamie ordered a few things to replace his destroyed wardrobe, and the insurance company went to his apartment and removed all of the damaged items, then cleaned, repaired, and repainted the whole suite.
He spent the days going over case files, making notes, entering data into the HPD system, and nights were spent looking through the canvass statements and video dumps.
Mike would hang around during the day and talk over the cases with him, but at night, he’d go wandering. He spent a lot of time at Elise’s place, just watching his kids. Maureen and Kevin were good kids, but seemed to be really struggling with the loss of their dad. Having them spend time with Elise and Jamie’s kids, Colleen and Eddie, helped keep them from just sitting around, being depressed. The girls were the same age while Eddie was a year older than Kevin, and they all attended St. Agatha’s School together.
Jamie felt the frustration of how long it was taking to get anywhere on this case, and Mike’s concern that he’d disappear after the funeral made him even more aware of how fast time was passing.
“I think the vans hid in that old warehouse on Barrens Way. We don’t see anything beyond it and the last shot is before it. No other location makes sense for a place to hide two vans,” Jamie said as he and Joe shared a pizza.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you. They found the burned-out kill van on Pilgrim Beach, just over the seawall from the parking lot. Seems they pushed it onto the beach, then lit it up. That cove is well hidden, so it wasn’t until the gas tank exploded that anyone noticed. Fire department put out the fire and HPD had the wreckage towed to the impound lot so CSI could go over it this morning.”
“Yeah, we called that, didn’t we?” Jamie replied.
“Yep, we did. They’ve had a BOLO out on Dominick Carrera since they found the van. It’s still not enough evidence, but if they can talk to him and trip him up, they can get a warrant to search his place. The facial recognition didn’t definitively prove it was Nicky Carrera in the grocery store parking lot. Only a thirty-eight percent match.”
“But we know it’s him, don’t we?” Jamie asked.
“I know it. You know it. Hell, even Sarge knows it – but Dumb and Dumber refuse to point to Carrera as anyone with a motive. They say the case was too long ago for it to be tied to Mike’s death.”
“But didn’t Tony get roughed up at the State Penitentiary two weeks ago? Put him in the hospital for a few days? That's a recent enough motive. Tony Carrera gets nearly killed, Nicky goes after the cops that put Tony away. It’s pretty clear to me.”
“And to me, but those two refuse to call it,” Joey said.
Jamie dropped his half-eaten slice on his plate and sighed. “I wanted to have this solved before the funeral. That’s not going to happen at this rate.”
“We’ve got one more day before the funeral. We could always use you as bait, if you were game. Put you in a vest and pick up a couple of pieces of furniture to move into your place.”
“I’d thought about that, too. Let’s do it. Sitting around is making me crazy,” Jamie said.
“Okay, let’s plot this all out,” Joey said, and pulled out a notebook and pen.
The next morning, Jamie pulled on the body armor, then a t-shirt, his shoulder holster, and covered it all with an unbuttoned flannel shirt. He got into his car and followed Joey in his truck to get breakfast at a diner in the neighborhood the Carreras frequented. They sat in a booth in the back, Jamie with his back to the wall so he could see the whole room while Joe kept an eye on the traffic outside the window at their table.
“I think Saul Mizzotta just spotted us,” Joe said.
“Nicky’s right hand man? Good. That means the plan’s gonna work. I’m still finishing my breakfast, though,” Jamie said.
“I got a text from Bennett’s Furniture. They have the double recliner on the loading dock for us, so we just have to go through the back and show our ID, then we can get help loading it onto my truck.”
“I’d rather we did it ourselves, without help. Fewer targets for the Carrera gang that way.”
“Yeah, good point. If they even let us get there,” Joe said.
“We’ll get that, then stop at the warehouse store and pick up the table, chairs, and TV. I can fit the TV and table in my car with the back seats down,” Jamie replied as he poured ketchup over his hash browns.
“You didn’t have to poison your fried potatoes. I wouldn’t have taken them anyway,” Joe teased as he watched Jamie eat.
“Putting ketchup on hash browns isn’t poisoning them. You put it on your french fries, right?”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t get on my scrambled eggs that way, either.”
“It’s good this way, you should try it.”
“Nope,” Joe said. “I’m fine without it.” He leaned back as the server refilled their coffee, and waited to speak until she left. “Now Saul is standing outside his car, talking to another car full of people. They’ve pointed this way twice.” A swallow of coffee and he looked back at Jamie. “How could they have survived this long? Either they’re incompetent or arrogant.”
“We’re on their home turf,” Jamie said. “They’re arrogant. If they were incompetent, they wouldn’t have grabbed Mike.”
“Good point. Doesn’t look like they’re in any rush to come inside, so let’s just eat and make them wait.”
“Probably not interested in shooting up their favorite breakfast spot,” Jamie said.
“The food is pretty good here,” Joe said. “If it wasn’t on the other side of the city from where I’m usually at, I’d be a regular here, too.”
Mike appeared at the end of the table. “Jamie, they put a tracker on your car. Not a bomb, just a tracking box.”
Jamie looked over towards Mike and gave a faint nod.
“I’ve been listening to them. They’re waiting to hear if they should try and separate you and Joe or just take you both out,” Mike said.
“Hey, Joe. How about I head out first, then you can come up behind them and we’ll have a better idea of what they might try?” Jamie asked.
“That’s not a bad idea. Call me when you pull out of the lot and we can leave the phones on the bluetooth speaker so as to coordinate better.”
“I’ll go pay,” Jamie said and finished his coffee. “Be careful, my friend.”
“Always, my friend,” Joe replied.
Once he was outside, Jamie ducked his head and asked Mike, “Where’s the tracker?”
“Front driver’s side wheel well,” Mike said.
“That’s stupid of them,” Jamie replied as he crouched down to re-tie a shoe, then pulled the magnetic tracker box off and dropped it behind the tire. That way, when he backed out, he’d crush it and it would look like the magnet had failed. “Not like that’s going to slow them down much, but I’d rather they weren’t tracking me back to Joe’s place.”
He got into his car and spoke again. “Remember, I’ll be on speaker. I can mute it and answer you if I have to – but if I forget to mute or the mute doesn’t click over, we’re in trouble. I’d rather you rode in Saul’s car and then let me know what their plan is as we go along.”
“I can do that,” Mike said. “I’ll pop in if there’s a problem.”
“Thanks, Mike,” Jamie said and started it up, then dialed Joe.
“I’m pulling out of the lot now, Joe. Drop the tip and let’s go.”
“Already done. In my car, cleaning it up a little to stall for time,” Joe replied.
“I can see two cars behind me, spaced out with a car in between each. That silver Nissan and the black Taurus. Got ‘em?”
“Yep, got them. Remember, we need to go around to the back of the furniture store. That’s probably where they’ll try it, because there will be less witnesses. If they don’t try it there, they’ll wait until we get back to your place.”
“I agree. Okay, we’re almost at the store. Heading around the back.”
The cars split up and one followed Jamie, the other went around the other side of the lot. Jamie pulled all the way to the far side of the lot, then followed the truck delivery road around to the back to the loading dock. He parked off to the side and waited.
“I’m here,” Jamie said into the phone. “Hanging up now.”
Mike popped into the passenger’s seat and shook his head. “They’re really hungry to take you out. They don’t want to hit Joe, but they will if he gets in the way. I heard Saul say that it looked like you were picking up furniture, so they could wait until your hands were full, then shoot.”
“That’s what I figured they’d do,” Jamie said. “Okay, gonna head inside now that Joe’s here.”
Jamie went into the store with Joe right behind him. They signed out the boxed up piece of furniture and the dock manager walked them over to the box, checked it off his list, and backed away when they said they didn’t want help. Joe backed his pickup to the correct loading dock and left it running while they slid the box off the dock and into the bed.
The first shot went through the top of the box, and Jamie yelled, “Everyone, get down!”
Joe hit the button on his cell phone and called it in. He quickly explained two off duty officers were under fire, then described the two cars Saul and his buddies were in. Ducked down behind the side of the pickup, he yelled into his cell phone while Jamie got behind the pickup and took shots at Saul and his men. One of the guys in Saul’s car took a bullet and Saul dragged him into the front passenger’s seat, then pulled away, leaving the scene. Four men were left with the other car, but their interest in taking out Jamie waned when Saul left – and then even more when three police cruisers pulled up.
Cops rolled out of their cars and ducked behind their doors, guns pointed at the remaining four shooters. It didn’t take long before all four were cuffed and shoved into the back seats of the cruisers.
“How’d you two end up in this mess?” Sarge asked. He’d pulled up just after the four were arrested to tell them that Saul had disappeared. They had alerts out at the hospitals for a gunshot victim, but nothing to report yet.
“We knew Carrera wanted to take me out. I have no furniture left in my place, so we both wore vests and decided to try and mitigate any possible damage to innocents by loading up the furniture ourselves,” Jamie said.
“So you used yourself as bait and tried to take them out before they could take you out,” Sarge said.
“Something like that. Look, I am going to Mike’s funeral tomorrow. Now I can go and know that they’ll be thinking twice about coming after me,” Jamie replied.
“You could’ve trusted that I had taken all of that into consideration,” Sarge said. “I’m not going to let one of mine get taken out at his partner’s funeral. I’ve got three teams that will be watching the crowd, snipers on the rooftops near the church, the cemetery, and at the reception hall afterwards. Wear your body armor under your dress blues and keep your head down. Got it?”
“Got it,” Jamie replied.
“Looks like your new couch got a bullet hole,” Sarge said as he looked over the box in the back of Joe’s pickup.
“I’m hoping it’s just the box and not the leather padding underneath,” Jamie said. He climbed up on the back of the truck and pulled at the hole in the cardboard to make it bigger. “Yeah, just the box and the foam. Went right through. The furniture is fine.”
“Good thing. I don’t think your insurance company will cover yet another couch,” Sarge said. “How about you two get out of here now? I’ll expect your reports on my desk Monday morning.”
Jamie gave Sarge a nod and got into his car while Joey closed up the tailgate and moved out to follow him. They stopped at the warehouse store and picked up the last few things, then headed to Jamie’s house. A second floor walk-up sucked for moving things, but at least it was a straight run up the stairs to his door. They unwrapped the pieces outside and carried them up to the apartment without any further trouble. Jamie had paid extra to get a better lock system put on the door and a security system installed. A new mattress had been delivered, but the bed frame wouldn’t arrive until early next week, so he’d be sleeping on the floor for a few days. Just not tonight. Tonight, they opened up the mattress to let it expand and air out, locked up the place and set the alarm.
“Chinese food tonight?” Joey asked.
“Yeah, sounds good. The adrenaline rush is gone and right now I want food, booze, and sleep.”
“Same here. I’ll pick it up and meet you at the house.”
“See you there,” Jamie replied.
