Daylight

Chapter 59

Tony Vincenzo blubbered, “You were going to stick me with that?! I thought you loved me. I thought we were a team.”

“Shut up, Tony.” Axilrod lowered the syringe and stared at Pine.

Pine said, “Haven’t seen you since you killed Sheila Weathers and left me to take the fall for it.”

“I didn’t kill Sheila.”

“If you didn’t kill her, you know who did and probably ordered it. And then you sent some asshole to kill me. Only it didn’t work out that way.”

“She told me before that you killed Sheila,” blurted out Vincenzo.

“She says lots of things, Tony. But when she opens her mouth only lies come out.” She glanced at the syringe. “What’s in it? Morphine?”

“Just a little shot of Vitamin C.” Axilrod looked at Vincenzo. “You would have felt so good, Tony.”

“Put the syringe down, Lindsey.”

Instead, she held up the syringe like a knife. “Make me, you bitch.” She lunged at them.

Pine calmly altered her aim and shot Axilrod in the hand; the bullet passed through skin and bone before becoming lodged in the wall.

Axilrod dropped the syringe and doubled over, screaming in pain. Vincenzo tried to jerk free, but Pine’s iron grip kept him from going anywhere.

“You shot me!” screamed Axilrod.

“You seem to be the only one surprised by that. And trust me, it was all I could do not to aim at your head.”

Pine gave Vincenzo a hard shove, sending him sprawling face-first to the floor. “Stay there,” she barked.

She pushed Axilrod out of the way, gingerly picked up the syringe, carefully wrapped it in toilet paper, and stuck it in the cabinet under the sink. “Whatever is in there, I’ll leave to a biohazard disposal squad to deal with.” She glanced at Axilrod, who was squatting next to the shower, holding her bleeding hand, and quietly sobbing.

Axilrod looked up at Pine through tear-stained eyes. “You have no idea who you’re fucking with.”

Pine tossed her a towel to wrap around the wound and leaned against the sink. “So enlighten me.”

“You wish,” said Axilrod as she tied the towel around her hand.

“How’d it feel feeding fourteen-year-old girls like Jewel Blake to horny old men, Lindsey? You get a kick out of that?”

“What?” said Vincenzo, staring at Axilrod.

“Yeah, your girlfriend plays pimp, too, as another sideline.” She looked at the woman. “Girls who thought you were going to protect them? And you fed them to the wolves.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. And you have no cause to hold me. I’m outta here.”

“You move to the door, the next thing I shoot will not be your hand. But if you talk, maybe we can work a deal.”

“You will learn shit from me, okay?”

“Is this where you say you want a lawyer?”

“Go to hell.”

Pine glanced at Vincenzo. “Hey, Tony, you want a great deal? All you have to do is rat this piece of shit out.”

“You do that, Tony, and you are dead,” snapped Axilrod.

“She was going to kill you anyway, so what’s the difference?” noted Pine.

Vincenzo turned and looked up at Pine. “What do you want to know?”

“Tony!” screamed Axilrod.

Pine pulled out a pair of zip cuffs and handed them to Vincenzo. “Put these on her hands and ankles.”

“But—”

“Now!”

Vincenzo pushed a struggling Axilrod down, flipped her over, put a knee on her lower back, and managed, with difficulty, to bind her hands and ankles.

“Good boy, Tony,” said Pine.

When Axilrod started screaming a string of obscenities, Pine grabbed the scruff of the woman’s jacket, slid her into the bedroom closet, and shut the door.

She returned to the bathroom and looked at Vincenzo.

“Okay, sit on the toilet. We’re going to have a chat.” Pine took out her phone and turned on the video with the lens pointed right at him.

Vincenzo sat down and rubbed the back of his head. “I can’t believe she was going to kill me. I thought she loved me.”

“Yeah, Tony, you need to get over that. She was using you just like she used everybody else. Now I need you to talk.”

He looked at her warily. “Maybe I need to speak to a lawyer.”

“Well, I haven’t arrested you, which is why I haven’t read you your Miranda rights, so technically, you’re not entitled to a lawyer. But what the hell. You want a lawyer? Okay. I’ll cut Axilrod loose and leave you guys to it. She probably has a second syringe in her purse. I’ll go get her now and you two can work out your differences. I’m sure the murdering bitch would be willing.”

Pine pocketed her phone and moved to leave the room.

“Wait, wait!” cried out Vincenzo.

Pine turned to look at him. “Well?”

“What do you want to know?”

She settled back against the sink, took out her phone, and turned on the video function. She recited the date, time, her and Vincenzo’s names, and where they were located. Not exactly by the book, but the best she could do under the circumstances.

Pine said, “Do you want a lawyer?”

“No, I don’t want a lawyer.”

“Are you speaking to me of your own free will?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, tell me everything. Starting with how you and Axilrod hooked up.”

“She came up to me at a bar one night. She seemed to know all about me, where I worked, the petty crap I’d done.”

“Meaning dealing drugs?”

“I don’t deal, well, not technically. I just make the stuff.”

“Okay, go on.”

“She told me she worked at Fort Dix, too, in the IT department. Then says we can go big-time. She has it all planned out. She had a contact who could move a lot of product.”

“Jeff Sands.”

“Yeah, I met with him quite a few times while we were putting this together.”

“He’s dead, by the way. They blew his head off.”

“Shit.”

“Where did you get your ingredients for the pill making?”

“Lindsey arranged that. Then the boxes would come to my house, always late at night, so no one would see anything.”

“Any idea where the boxes were shipped in from?”

“Not really. I did notice that some of the boxes had weird symbols on them.”

“What, like another language?”

“Yeah. But not one I recognized. I mean, it wasn’t Spanish or anything. I just figured that they came from some place overseas. Hell, just like everything else in this country.”

“Okay, when you made the pills, Danforth and Cassidy would come into play, right?”

“Yeah. They would leave Fort Dix in military vehicles, stop at a designated place, pick up the pills I’d made, drive them to another location, and leave them there. Then they’d go on with their trip, drop the vehicles where they were supposed to, and come back to Dix in another ride.”

“Do you know who Jeff Sands is related to?”

He shook his head.

“Peter Driscoll.”

Vincenzo showed no signs of knowing who that was.

Pine sighed. “You really need to get off your Game Boy, Tony. Driscoll is the Senate majority leader.”

“What, you mean like in the government?”

“Yeah, I mean, like in the government. A very powerful guy.”

“Damn. And Jeff was related?”

“His grandson.”

“Wait a minute, you don’t think this Driscoll dude is involved with this, do you?”

“I don’t know. Tell me about the apartment on Fifty-Seventh.”

“Lindsey took me there. Said it was a bennie, you know, a thank-you for a job well done.”

“And you never questioned how she would have access to a place that’s reserved strictly for billionaires?”

“You want to know the truth? I thought maybe it was like one of those Mexican cartel guys. Pablo what’s his name, or that Chapo dude.”

“Pablo Escobar. Yeah, he was killed about twenty-five years ago, and El Chapo’s in prison, but I get your drift.”

“It was funny, though.”

“What was?”

“I was at the apartment one time, late at night. Not for one of the parties. But there was a snafu with a drug shipment and I needed to meet with someone. They told me to meet them there. While I was waiting, I had to use the can really bad and went looking for a bathroom. But they were all taken. Probably people doing coke and shit. I looked around trying to find some place and then I saw this door, down a hall, out of the way.”

Pine tensed a bit. “And?”

“And it was locked. But I was desperate and I had my knife and I jimmied it. Well, it was no bathroom. It was filled with computer screens and other equipment.”

“Did you see what was on the screens?”

“Yeah, there were camera feeds from the apartment. I mean, like every room. I saw people screwing in the bedrooms and snorting coke and doing other shit that I didn’t want to see.” He paused. “There were men on men, women on women, and men with girls who looked way too young to be doing what they were doing, like you mentioned to Lindsey just now.”

“So the whole place was wired for surveillance?”

“Yeah.”

“So what did you do after you saw what was in that room?”

“I shut and locked that door and just prayed no one saw me. I had my meeting and then ran down the street to a restroom at a Starbucks.”

“Did you ever tell anyone you saw that room? Like Axilrod?”

“Look, I’m not stupid, okay? I mean, I didn’t think the bitch was going to stick me with a needle, but it’s not like I trusted her all the way, either.” He paused. “And there’s one more thing.”

“What?”

“I was in New York one night taking care of some business. I was near the building so I decided to walk past. It was late, around eleven.”

“Did you go in?”

“No. The parties and stuff they throw up there are pretty infrequent. They send out a notice when they’re on.”

“So what did you do?”

“I watched the limo coming and going. Fancy-looking people getting out and going into that building.”

“They could have been going to other apartments?”

“Nope.”

“Why not?”

“’Cause I know the limo driver. See, it was the same driver and limo. He was just ferrying folks, because no one came at the same time. He sometimes comes up to the parties. I’ve talked to him. No, they were going to that apartment, for sure.”

Pine thought about all this for a few moments. “Okay, let’s move on. What about Sheila Weathers?”

“She was just a chick at the fort. She worked in the cafeteria. She was nice. She really knew nothing about the drugs. Why would they kill her?”

“Because they wanted to frame me for it and make sure I wasn’t around to defend myself, that’s why.”

“That’s really shitty.”

“They killed your old man, you know. Because we talked with him. He knew something was going on with you. He said you were in over your head.”

Vincenzo’s head drooped. “Yeah, I figured out that he was right, a few minutes ago.”

“Why did he say you were in over your head?”

“I went to visit him. I was getting freaked out. I mean, the strange writing on the boxes, this fancy apartment with all the cameras, Lindsey popping up at the bar like she did and coming on to a guy like me.”

“And what did your father tell you?”

“He told me to get out while I still could. Only I couldn’t figure a way to do it.” He looked up at her. “So what the hell is going on here? It’s not just about drugs, is it?”

“No, it’s a lot more than that. But let me ask you something else, totally off topic.”

“What?” he said curiously.

“Your grandfather, Ito?”

Vincenzo looked surprised. “My grandfather? What about him?”

“Did you ever meet him?”

Vincenzo’s eyes narrowed. “If I did, I don’t really remember. He... he just disappeared one day, or so my dad told me.”

“Any idea what happened to him?”

“No. My dad said he just up and vanished. Not a word to him or my grandma. They were pissed. Why are you interested in him?”

“Just in connection with something else. What else did your dad tell you about him? I know about the ice creamery. What else do you know about his past? Did he serve in Vietnam?”

“Yeah, in the Army. My dad told me Ito had a low lottery number and got drafted. Did his training at Fort Benning. You know that place?”

“Oh, yeah, I know it. You ever go up in the attic here and look through the boxes, old photo albums?”

“I only come here to drink beer and sit on the beach.”

“You ever heard of a man named Leonard Atkins? Who might have saved your grandfather’s life over there?”

“No.”

Pine was about to ask another question when she heard a noise outside. She hurried to the window overlooking the front of the house and saw a black SUV pull in.

She ran back into the bathroom and grabbed Vincenzo. “I hope you can run as fast as you did when I was chasing you.”

“What? Why?”

“Because your girlfriend’s cleanup team is here. Move!”

Axilrod must have heard the sounds of the car, too, because she started to kick the wall of the closet and scream.

Pine jerked the door open, leaned down, and clocked her in the face with her fist. Axilrod slumped unconscious. Pine looked up at Vincenzo. “Damn, that felt good.”

She and Vincenzo flew down the steps and then out the back door. They ran flat out toward the beach and turned right when they hit the sand. This direction, Pine knew, would carry them toward the police station she had passed on the way in.

As she sprinted along, Pine pulled out her phone, punched in 911, identified herself, gave the address of the beach house and what had happened there and their approximate current location. Then she put the phone back in her pocket, turned, and saw light skipping over the sand and coming toward them. A second later, bullets sailed past her.

“Go, Tony, go,” she screamed at him, and he picked up his pace even more, as Pine slowed just a bit. She was going to keep herself between Vincenzo and the people after them.

To get to him, they’d have to kill her.

And right now, Pine wouldn’t have bet on herself surviving the night.