Chapter 10 #6
“No, not really. The odd call goes through, but … hard to get through these walls.”
Derek noted, “That’s the whole point of the alarm.”
Riley nodded in understanding, and very quickly two people could be heard coming through the tunnels. He called out to them softly, explaining where they were.
As they came around the corner, the employees stopped in shock. Riley took control and shared, “Somebody go back topside. We need something to tie up these men with.”
“And call the damn cops,” Derek yelled. “We need them down here fast.”
Riley added, “Call for an ambulance too. The kid needs to be in the hospital yesterday.”
As they stared at him, Riley waved them off. “Move it, you buffoons.” They both bolted backward, trying to get away from him just as much as to get topside and to get the help that they needed.
The old man looked at him and gave a dark laugh. “Seems to me you’ve got a little bit of experience in this.”
“Yeah, a little bit too much,” Riley admitted, as he kept watch on his prisoners. Riley turned to Derek and asked him, “When did you figure it out?”
“I didn’t. God damn it, I lost a nephew today.” They both looked to where Rory’s body had been dragged to the edge of path waiting for help to remove his body.
“Yeah, but you were going to lose Rory anyway because he was just as involved in Timmy’s death as anybody,” Riley told Derek. “That’s who Cain was growling at while in the hospital.”
Derek stared at him, pain in his heart, but finally he nodded. “How the hell did they think this was a good idea?”
“I don’t know. Greed does all kinds of things, but they didn’t even want the pub just for the pub,” Riley noted. “They wanted access to the tunnels and the pub gave them cover.”
Derek nodded. “If you think about it, they could have made a ton of legit money off that pub.” He shook his head.
“Yet they chose to go the illegal route and cause a lot of agonizing pain for other people in the process. … I don’t say this often,” he admitted, “but thank you for coming down and saving my sorry ass.” He stared down at the still-alive nephew in front of him. “I need Billy to survive.”
“Let’s hope that he does,” Riley replied, “but it won’t be quite so easy to sort this out until we get the cops here.
” He looked over at the pool of water. “I’ll get Nick out of there just so we can have him nearby and kick him unconscious more easily.
” Riley struggled with his broken prosthetic, but Derek came to help him.
They dragged Nick’s unconscious body out of the pond and back onto the tunnel.
Riley caught his breath and asked Derek, “I don’t suppose you have two pairs of rubber gloves on you?” He had to laugh at the absurd question.
“Sure do,” Derek proclaimed. At Riley’s frown, Derek reminded him, “I work at a pub restaurant. Health regulations, you know? So all my pants pockets are stuffed with them.” He shared one pair with Riley and put on the other pair himself.
Riley nodded. “I’ll take your three relatives, if you’ll take the three moving men. Just show me what you found that’s incriminating, but put it right back where you found it. We don’t want the local authorities to know that we messed with all the evidence.”
Derek nodded.
Riley checked Nick’s pockets first, surprised that he had no phone on him, but pulled out his wallet. “Well, look at this, Derek.” He produced a Montoya Ltd business card.
Derek cussed up a storm. “That asshole tried to get the pub from Dad but was shot down. So that lowlife hooked up with Nick to steal it from us. Goddamn them all.” He then started to check out the pockets and wallets and phones of the three moving men.
He grumbled as he found stuff but otherwise quietly went from one man to the next to the third.
Riley nodded and checked out the pockets of Billy, finding them empty. No wallet, no business cards, no phone. Not even some cash. “Billy’s clear,” he told Derek.
“Thank God. Stupid kid.”
Riley moved on to Rory. His pockets had nothing but his cell phone.
Unlocking his cell with his fingerprint, luckily still warm enough to work, Riley went through Rory’s contacts.
He shook his head as he scrolled and scrolled.
“Rory’s phone is a goldmine. We have calls to Montoya Ltd, to Nick, to Grandpa Beltran, even a Peter. ” Riley shook his head.
“Peter who?” Derek asked.
“I’m thinking maybe Peter, Gail’s fiancé, who she just broke up with.” He had to smile. “I will happily share this with the cops, when they get here. I hope I have a few more minutes to take pictures of his Contacts.”
“Look what I found off our lackeys,” Derek shared, more business cards from Montoya Ltd, one on each mover.
Riley frowned. “Good job. Put them back as you found them.”
Derek did that, then sat down beside Riley. “So who do you think the muscle-bound bodyguard and the suit-and-tie guy represent? The ones who got away with Gerald?”
Riley snorted. “I would bet you my good leg that they are both Montoya’s men. Of course, Gerald is too.”
Derek grumbled, cursing under his breath again. “I would bet Billy’s life that you don’t lose that bet.”
“And,” Riley added, “we have Nick’s gun. The one that shot Rory and Billy. So Nick’s going away for murder and attempted murder, with you and me and hopefully Billy as witnesses.”
“Damn straight, count me in.” He took off his gloves, stashing them in his pocket.
Riley asked him, “How do you know which ones are used and which ones aren’t, for health reasons?”
Derek rolled his eyes. “You think you can trip me up on that, boy? The right-hand pocket is for clean unused gloves. The left-hand pocket for used that need to be tossed.”
Riley smiled, then took out his own phone and took a snapshot of each screen load of Rory’s most recent calls, going back about three months.
He wanted to capture some of his Contacts in alphabetic format, but he heard the cavalry coming.
So he quickly shut down his phone and pocketed it, then replaced Rory’s phone in the pocket where he found it.
Afterward he took off his gloves and pocketed them.
The cops were down here now, some twenty-five minutes after the kitchen crew had scurried out of the tunnels. Not too bad for this location.
As soon as they realized what was going on, they stepped aside for the two EMTs to deal with Billy. As old man Derek stepped back, he told them, “Treat him decent. He didn’t deserve what happened to him.”
“Does anybody?” asked one of the EMTs, who turned to him. “Do any of these guys deserve what happened to them?”
He winced. “Not my son and not this kid,” he stated quietly. “As for the others here, I don’t know what happened with them except they just got greedy, then everything went wrong.” He turned to Riley and again said, “Thank you.”
Riley just nodded and watched as the old man, his bones creaking with every step, slowly followed the EMTs, carrying the gurney with his nephew strapped in, going back topside and out of the way of the cops.
Riley was left to direct some of the cops to where the three wannabe drug runners had gone, plus for the others to take care of his prisoners.