Chapter 10
Chapter 10
T here wasn’t much information Vicky could get from the man who sat before her, trembling every now and then and shaking his head. Mick Menendez just kept insisting that all he had wanted to do was steal some things to pawn so he could pay his rent.
“You aren’t a very good liar,” she told him. “We know you were there to kill me. And you know what? You’re a lousy liar, but I bet the assignment wasn’t something you liked, and I don’t think you’ve ever killed anyone.”
Menendez looked at her, surprised, perhaps because she had pegged the truth.
“I’m not a killer! I just wanted—”
“Stop it. You were there because you have a relationship with Andrei Hasani, and he somehow managed to get an order out to you. And even though the man is in the hospital and will go away for the rest of his life, you’re all ridiculously terrified of him because he’s managed to make examples of a few people who didn’t follow his commands,” she told him. “You were there to kill me. How did you get the order?”
He was silent, staring at her. Then he closed his eyes. “I’m a dead man!” he breathed.
“No. You’re not.”
He let out a bitter laugh. “You don’t understand how easy it is to kill a man in prison.”
“I’m not arguing that it can happen. But if you can help us get to the truth—”
“I can’t. And I’m not lying. Steven got the message. He called me, and he showed me the text. The message said I was being called on to pay my debt. He showed me the text, but the number just said ‘Florida.’ I swear to you, I don’t know. I would give you anything if it would help me, but I don’t think that anything can help and . . . I don’t know. I just don’t know. I just . . . I got hooked on the pills and then . . .”
He hung his head low, shaking it, and repeated, “I’m a dead man.”
“No,” Vicky said, rising. “Mick, I don’t think you’re a bad human being. What you need to do is rid yourself of this addiction to drugs. And it can be done; I’ve seen it time and again. You’re not a dead man. I was supposed to be dead—I’m not. This man can and will be stopped.”
She realized she was angry. Not just because she was a target—but angry because one man could manipulate and ruin the lives of so many others.
She didn’t know if he believed her or not. She knew they had to get the tech department to work on Steven Page’s phone. Of course, it was going to be a burner. But they might be able to trace a tower, at least.
She got up and stepped out into the hall to find that Eames and Adrien were waiting for her.
“Someone at the hospital—” she and Adrien began together.
“I’ve had Steven Page’s phone sent to our best tech,” Eames said.
“And we need to talk,” Adrien said. “We must find out now just what is going on there.”
“My office,” Eames said.
“Look. This is tricky. What the guy really wanted was to get Vicky to the man we’ve been told is the buyer. And whether this buyer makes slaves of the human beings he acquires or makes snuff films, we don’t know. This man has been operating all kinds of criminal enterprises for a long time now, and we only became aware of it because of these last kidnappings. We’ve already seen just how many people Andrei Hasani has in his network, and there are probably many more. We must get to the head of the snake—”
“And Hasani is in custody, and it doesn’t seem like that changes anything,” Eames said, shaking his head. “Will we ever stop that man?”
“First, we’re going to see that he’s charged federally. That gets him out of the place where he seems to have so many contacts. Here’s the thing; we’re bound to the law. This is one instance when it might have been kinder to the world—and to us—if he’d been killed during our attempt to capture him. But we hold ourselves to high standards that criminals don’t follow. And right now, we’re looking at a veritable witch’s brew of trouble.”
“We’re going to need to use me,” Vicky said.
“Wait, wait, we can’t set you up as bait—”
“I am bait already,” Vicky said. “It would be better to be bait with a plan. I need to be at that hospital again myself—”
“You need to be under a rock somewhere,” Eames said.
“Hasani would find someone to lift that rock,” Vicky said. “And we all know it. Adrien—”
“Yes. We set things in motion in the hospital. Bring Vicky there with a select group of people. No one knows yet that we know there is a leak at the hospital, be it law enforcement or medical staff. Since it just might be someone assigned to guard the place, only the hand-picked group we know will be with us. I personally suspect that the mole is someone who is medical—or is slipping in as medical—and is the one taking directions from Hasani. But we need to cover all our bases.” Adrien paused, took a deep breath, and looked at Vicky. He didn’t like his own plan, she knew.
But it was the best one they could have under the circumstances.
“So, anyone assigned to guard Hasani now is taken off. We go in, sir,” he told Eames, “with just you, me, Hank, and two more officers you know to be the best and most loyal. In fact, I’m thinking that we’ll pull in Mike Buffalo and Lance Panther, Miccosukee and Seminole police and—” Adrien said.
“But they have no jurisdiction here—” Eames said.
“We throw them in county uniforms. They aren’t going to arrest anyone; it’s just I’d trust those two men with my life a thousand times over. We wouldn’t have Hasani now if we hadn’t had their help crossing state and tribal lands while we were after the man.”
“You think these men will do this?”
“They will.”
Eames was thoughtful. He looked over at Vicky.
“He’s right,” she said. “With the group of you there—and me challenging Hasani face-to-face, ready to let him know his idiot henchmen didn’t get to me—I’ll be safe. And we might well trick him into making a mistake. He can be riled. The man truly hates women, and one who is getting the best of him might well cause him to—”
“Try to kill you right there?”
“Exactly. And we’ll find the leak, and he or she won’t get anywhere, because I’ll have the best backup known to man.”
“I still don’t like it,” Eames said.
“I don’t, either,” Adrien said. “It’s just better than sitting around like ducks at a carnival shooting range.”
“Get your friends on the line and make sure they agree and that their superiors agree. And, Adrien, while this case has been left with me as lead, I’d like you to clear it with your superiors.” He glanced at his watch. “Hospitals get going early. Let’s see if we can move all this within the next two hours.”
“Yes, sir,” Adrien said.
Vicky glanced at him, and they both stood.
“I have one of the little offices; we can go there,” Vicky told him.
“Lead the way; I’ll make the calls.”
“Take the desk,” she said lightly, “make your calls. I’ll just, um, sit here and think about exactly what I’m going to say to the man.”
She listened as Adrien called his supervising director, who immediately approved his plan, she knew, because he made the call on speaker.
Then he put through calls to Mike and Lance, who in turn had to clear their participation in the operation with their superiors.
But there was no one out there who didn’t want Andrei Hasani stopped.
When Adrien finished, he folded his hands and looked at her.
“We’re a go. Vicky, I—”
“I know. No one likes this, but I do. What can happen to me in the hospital with all of you behind me? In fact, I’m almost afraid nothing will happen, that even Hasani will realize he’s in a hospital with law enforcement all over him and—”
“Hasani doesn’t give a damn about those he coerces—bribes or threatens—into doing his deed. Whoever he has at the hospital will be told to take a crack at you—if he hasn’t figured out a way to do so himself.”
She smiled at that. “He’s in a bed, bandaged to a tee, and strung up, as well. I don’t think that it will be him.”
“But we need to be ready for any possibility.”
“And you will be. And that’s why I do like this plan—it’s my way out.”
Vicky smiled. Her office was private.
“Come on!” she told him. “You promised me a ride on Shiloh. We can’t take that ride until I dare to go out in the open!”
“You’re right,” he said. “Well, we need to wait for Mike and Lance to get here, for them to wear the right uniforms—”
“We should have them deputized.”
“Eames has that power, right? Things are different by jurisdiction—”
“Yes, he has that power. I was about to suggest coffee. And maybe something awful out of the machines,” Vicky said.
Adrien grinned. “That will work.”
Before they could stand to head out on a search for something edible, there was a tap at Vicky’s office door.
Hank had arrived.
And he came bearing a box of donuts and a holder filled with coffee cups.
“So . . . you guys bring in a monster, and we’re still on it!” he said cheerfully. “But trust me, I’m not feeling magnanimous in the least. Whoever makes a move—”
“We arrest,” Vicky finished for him.
Handing her a cup of coffee, Hank said, “We’ll see! Donuts. It was all I could think of, and the donut shop was on the way. And we’re cops—okay, technically, you’re an agent, most of these guys are deputies, we’re detectives, but . . . all cops when it gets down to it. So, donuts!”
Vicky and Adrien both managed to smile, and they tried to keep the conversation light as they ate. Vicky thanked him. She wasn’t really big on donuts, but that morning, she had to admit, they were fresh and delicious.
Mike and Lance arrived together; they were deputized, and they changed uniforms at the station.
Then it was time to go.
It was ten a.m. when they arrived at the hospital, and the morning shift was still in place. Federal, state, and local officers on guard duty were released. Eames gave the direct order.
The doctor in charge of Hasani that day was Leonard Miller, a man who had been with the hospital over thirty years. It was unlikely he was involved in espionage with the man, but anything was possible.
He informed them that he intended to sign the paperwork for Hasani to be moved to the infirmary at the jail where he’d await arraignment the following morning.
As those on guard duty departed, they watched to see if anyone seemed distraught that they’d been given the day off or made any attempt to go near Hasani’s door again.
None did.
They were then a tight-knit group: Mike, Lance, Eames, Hank, Adrien, and Vicky herself.
“You up for this?” Adrien asked her.
“Of course, with you at my back,” she said.
He grinned. “I think you’d be up for this if I was here or not,” he told her.
She shrugged. “Well, you know, by you , I meant it in the plural. But you’re right. I want this over. I want him locked away where the sun doesn’t shine—much less allow for visitors! Anyway, by all accounts, I’m ready. And I am hoping whoever his accomplice is, they haven’t gotten to him yet. I want to see Hasani’s face when he sees I’m alive.”
“We’re set,” he said.
Mike and Lance stationed themselves in the hall on opposite sides of Hasani’s door. Eames chose a waiting room that faced the door to the man’s room.
Hank and Adrien took the positions at the doorframe.
Eames beckoned to her. “Verify with the doctor that you’re fine to go in to question the man. He’ll expect law enforcement to still seek to see him. We haven’t let out anything in the news whatsoever about the attempt to break into your house last night.”
“Right!”
Vicky found Dr. Miller in a room a few doors down. She waited for him to come into the hallway and then asked if she might go in and speak with Hasani.
“Oh, yes, you’re fine. I told you, I’m transferring him out of here tomorrow. Don’t get me wrong, we are grateful for all the security, but my staff and other patients who figured out he’s here in the hospital want the man gone!”
“Of course,” Vicky said.
An older brunette nurse was leaving the room as Vicky headed back toward it.
She gave Vicky a nod and a wince and indicated her tray of instruments. “Sadly, the man has the heartbeat of a twenty-one-year-old in perfect shape.”
“Thanks,” Vicky murmured, and the woman moved on by to reach her next patient.
They were ready to go. Vicky gave them all a thumbs-up sign and entered the room.
When she opened the door, Hasani had his eyes closed.
She walked over to the bed and stared down at him and cleared her throat.
He opened his eyes.
And stared at her with stunned surprise.
No, he hadn’t been informed yet that his assassination attempt of the night before had failed miserably.
She smiled. “Good morning, Mr. Hasani,” she said.
“Is it?”
“Oh, yes, any morning when I’m alive and well is a good one. Don’t you feel that way?” she asked sweetly.
She went and pulled a chair up to his bed. “Of course, any morning when we’ve taken in a few more members of your pathetic little army, well . . . I don’t get it. You’re truly an intelligent man—a very intelligent man—but you’re also the textbook definition of a psychopath. You kill with no remorse, not a speck of guilt. You ruin life after life, and it means nothing, absolutely nothing, to you. I understand that someone in your criminal enterprise reached you here—came to the hospital. You’ve been charged and refused bail. So you will be a guest of the state first, as per procedure, but then you will also be charged by the federal government . . . I just do the arresting, I’m not a lawyer. But even without a law degree, I’m pretty sure you’re going to spend the next decades incarcerated. So, why do you continue to threaten and haunt people? Especially the people you choose. Come on, you don’t order a pathetic addict to go out and commit murder!”
He smiled at her. “Don’t worry. I have better people on the job.”
“Do you?”
The door opened. A young man in a nurse’s uniform came in. He was in his early twenties, and his shaggy blond hair seemed a little long for the uniform. He had fine features and freckles and couldn’t have been more than twenty-five. Vicky rose from the chair as he came closer to the bed.
“I’m sorry to interrupt. It’s time for Mr. Hasani’s medication,” he said to Vicky, before turning to Hasani, looking as if he were almost in tears.
“Excuse me, Mr. Hasani, it’s time for the special medication you requested,” he said.
“Of course. And I am ready for my medication!” Hasani said.
Vicky thought of the nurse she had passed in the hallway just moments ago. And she knew instantly, of course.
Hasani had called in a major debt. This young man was supposed to kill her then and there and die himself. Hasani had something major on the man. Most likely, a valid threat against a wife or children.
Even as the thought raced through her head, the door opened, and Adrien stepped in.
“Stop,” Adrien ordered, with his gun pointed toward the young man.
Hank walked in behind Adrien. He also had a gun aimed at the man.
“Do it or your daughter is dead!” Hasani shouted.
“I can’t kill, I can’t kill . . . I . . . can’t!” the man sobbed.
“No, you’re a coward. Do it! Die like a man yourself. Or she will die. Think of it. Your daughter’s brains spilled everywhere!” Hasani shouted.
The young man reached beneath the snowy towel covering his tray and produced a gun.
“Drop it!” Adrien ordered. Vicky saw his Glock was aimed at the young man.
It looked as if he would drop the weapon, but he held on to it and started shaking. “You don’t understand! She’s just six, my baby girl is just six and . . .”
“We do understand,” Adrien told him. “And we can help you.”
“And we can kill you before you can kill her,” Hank advised.
“My life for hers . . .” the man whispered.
“His people are like you—they don’t want to kill! He has them terrified. If we can reach the network—” Vicky began.
“Like hell, I have some seasoned killers out there, and his daughter will die!” Hasani roared. “Your life for hers!”
“Seasoned killers like this man?” Vicky mocked.
“Damn you, die!” Hasani raged at her.
“Sorry!” Vicky told him. “No, not sorry! Sir, trust me, we can help you!”
The young man’s shoulders slumped. He twisted around, facing Hasani, his hand trembling, the gun about to slip from his fingers.
“Do it!”
“I—I can’t!”
Hasani let out a roar of fury, suddenly rising, ripping the needle from his arm, and lunging over at Vicky.
She knew Adrien was ready to shoot, even though she instantly fell backward, out of Hasani’s reach.
But another shot rang out.
The bullet hadn’t been intended for Vicky.
The sobbing young man had struck Hasani.
Adrien had known he could have gotten a shot off before the man turned his gun toward Vicky.
He hadn’t expected what had happened, except that once again, Hasani’s big mistake had been in not seeing his terrified squad of soldiers were not necessarily natural born killers. He hated to admit it; the shooting of Hasani had taken him by surprise. And while the man would be charged with something—since apparently, he had provided the communication system Hasani had needed—Adrien doubted that he’d be charged with a crime for shooting Hasani. What he had seen was Hasani trying to kill Vicky. So it could be said he shot the man to save her life.
Whoever he was, the fellow had refused to kill Vicky, despite the fact he had been beyond terrified for the life of a child. His child. And if he hadn’t killed Hasani . . .
Adrien couldn’t think of the morality of it all then.
Because it was pure chaos in the hospital the second the gunshot rang out.
Adrien grabbed the gun from the shaking man’s hands, while Vicky rushed to Hasani on the bed. She looked at him, shaking her head. But he could see for himself.
There could be no help for Hasani. The man’s shot had caught him straight through the heart, and blood spilled copiously over his chest.
“Young man,” Adrien said quietly, “you’re going to need to come with us.”
He nodded. “I will take whatever I deserve. I just need for Ellie to be okay!” he whispered.
The real nurse came flying back into the room, looking from Hasani to the group of them, frowning as her eyes lit on the young man.
“Who are you?” she demanded.
“It doesn’t matter,” Vicky said, setting an arm on the nurse’s shoulder and leading her back out. “I’m sorry, this is a crime scene now, and the room is off-limits to everyone but law enforcement. Please—”
Of course, the hallway had come alive with many of the doctors and nurses on staff, along with terrified patients.
But Mike and Lance had control of the hallway. They hadn’t known exactly what had happened yet, but they could see Vicky, Adrien, Hank, and Eames were fine, and that was what mattered to them. They managed to clear the hallway, and when they did, Vicky looked at Hank.
“We need to get him to the station. Quietly. You and I walk out with him and down to the car, and we’ll let the others—”
“Deal with the scene. Come on. Young sir, if you will . . .”
“Vicky was in the room. Does she need to—”
“I’m here,” Eames said. “Vicky didn’t discharge a weapon. She and Hank . . .” He paused, looking at the young man. “She might be best with this fellow. You two take him.”
Vicky nodded, ready to leave with Hank. She glanced back at the bed. At Hasani. Eames had the feeling that she was feeling badly.
She wanted to regret the loss of a life.
She couldn’t.
She glanced at him quickly, nodded, and left the room with Hank and the still unknown young man.
“So, to tie things up here. Doctor to pronounce him dead, and then forensics,” Adrien murmured.
“We need it for the paperwork,” Eames told him.
By then, Dr. Miller had come back. He looked at the bed and then at Adrien and Eames. “There is nothing I can do for that man, you realize.”
“Just pronounce him dead,” Adrien told him.
“You shot him?” Dr. Miller asked.
“I did not. Your pseudo nurse did when he attempted to stab Vicky with a needle from his arm,” Adrien said.
“I must admit, the man was . . . I was frightened every time I was here. Kept the door open and had one of the guards from the hall come in right behind me,” Dr. Miller said. “Well, yes, we’ll get him down to the morgue.”
That took a bit of time. He excused himself to Eames for a minute and went out to the hall. Mike and Lance were still there, speaking with assurance to those who continued to look out and slip from their rooms to ask them what was going on.
“So, Hasani is dead,” Mike said. “Hate to say it about human life, but good riddance. We weren’t all that much help,” he told Adrien.
“But you were. You were the assurance we needed that allowed us to be watching out for Vicky.”
“He wanted to kill Vicky, and he came up dead himself,” Lance said, shaking his head.
“Live by the sword, die by the sword?” Mike suggested. “Exactly what happened?”
Adrien explained the best he could. “We were so focused on Vicky, it didn’t occur to me he’d fire at Hasani. And yet at that moment—Vicky had the situation under control, but the young man may not have realized it—Hasani had lunged at Vicky. His temper always seemed to get the better of him. So . . .”
“Criminal or hero?” Mike asked lightly.
“Maybe most of us are a little bit of both,” Adrien said.
“Hey, speak for yourself!” Lance protested.
Adrien grinned. He thought about all the time they had spent together growing up. Mike and Lance from different tribes, and Adrien from neither; and yet they’d managed even as kids to get together because of their shared love for horses, music, and their ecosystem.
“We really should get the band back together,” Mike teased, as if reading his mind.
“Ah, yeah. Probably not today. So, thanks. Eames is calling men in, and you two will be free from this commitment. Again, thanks. I am not stupid; I know that dirty cops—agents, deputies, whatever—do exist. I just think it’s rare, and the huge majority of the time, we are the good guys. We needed to be certain. So, thank you.”
“Not at all; we had the easy end of the gig,” Mike said.
He gave Adrien a wave, and the two of them started out.
Adrien headed back to the room, where Eames waited with the body of Andrei Hasani. But as he arrived, more officers were getting off the elevator, along with a forensics team and a couple of orderlies from the morgue, who were ready to take the body.
It seemed like forever that they were at the hospital, but he knew all about procedure.
Finally, Eames said they could leave, and he remembered he’d been getting around in Vicky’s car. So it was good to have the ride with Eames.
As they drove, the older man glanced over at him.
“You’ve been a true asset here, you know.”
“Thanks. And I’m happy to say, the work here has helped my bureau coworkers amazingly, as well. They’re busy mopping up across the state. Though now . . .”
“You don’t think Hasani had people who would want revenge, even with him gone?”
Adrien was thoughtful for a minute; then he shook his head. “Men like Hasani—anyone with the power to strike back—don’t give a damn about others. They’re not going to risk their own lives or ‘enterprises’ for a dead man. And seriously, look at the fellow who was in the room—Hasani’s revenge on others failing to kill Vicky. That fellow was a mess.”
“Right. He will be charged; from the reaction to him that we saw, he was never a hospital employee; he acted as one to get in to Hasani,” Eames said slowly.
“How do you think he made the initial contact? And why? If he wasn’t in the hospital . . .”
“Hopefully, Vicky is going to find out how everything was achieved. That man was terrified of Hasani. So if he wasn’t a real hospital employee, why was he there?”
“Let’s really hope Vicky gets it all figured out,” Adrien said.