Maximum Guilt (Hidden Guilt Book 2) (22 page)

I thanked him for his service and turned my attention back to Franklin. He was way too amped up.

“You sure you’re okay, kid? If not, I’ll pull the plug on this thing.”

“I’m good; I swear. And I just got a text from Stacy. They’re in route. About an hour out.”

We gave Franklin a few final instructions and headed for our van.

“I need a minute. I’ll be right back,” I said as the others piled inside.

“Everything okay, David?” Lafitte said.

“I’m good. Be right back.”

I needed to do something I hadn’t done in a long while—pray. I walked over to a nearby bench, sat down, and told God everything I’d been holding in since Miranda’s disappearance: my pain, anger, sadness, frustration. Everything. I thanked Him for bringing Miranda and Karen back home to me. More than anything, I prayed for protection over Franklin and this mission. I knew we were sending him into the lion’s den.

After I finished, I felt such relief, like a huge burden had been lifted off my chest. I headed back to the van, upbeat and ready to go.

“You good now, Davie?” De Luca said.

I think I detected a note of sarcasm in her voice, but I let it slide.

“Yes, I’m fine. Time to catch the bad guys.”

We’d staged a plainclothesman on the street to do a walk-by every five minutes. We had the blinds positioned in such a way that he’d be able to get a quick glance in. Franklin had been instructed to stay on the couch to make sure we had eyes on him at all times.

“Okay, Franklin, say something so we can hear you, buddy.”

Franklin cleared his throat and put on serious face. “Rock me, momma, like a wagon wheel. Rock me, baby, any way you feel. How’s that?”

I couldn’t stop laughing. “Absolutely terrible! Was that singing?”

We all sat quietly and waited.

“Got a car moving in. Two women. Looks like our girls,” our street cop said over the radio.

I pressed the button on my walkie-talkie. “Okay, guys. No mistakes here. Let’s look alive. Franklin, you’re on, kid.”

The car came to a halt and, sure as shit, out climbed Stacy. They’d been so clean and precise on the other murders that we had nothing more than circumstantial evidence. Even her kidnapping of Miranda and De Luca wouldn’t keep her behind bars forever. I needed to catch this pair in the act and put them both away for life.

Stacy was carrying an oversize bag on her shoulder. I was willing to bet it contained everything I’d need to pin the other murders on her, most importantly the 9mm pistol I was eager to turn over to forensics. I was sure she had her concoction of drugs in there, too—the same ones she’d used on Sam Wilson, Jon Rogers, and, most recently, Bubba and Claude Jenkins. I watched her glance around, being extra cautious.

Only Stacy got out. Unfortunately, I didn’t have another unit I could put on Brittany to tail her. I banged my fist on the van wall. “Where the hell is she going?”

“I don’t know,” De Luca said.

I turned my attention back to Stacy and Franklin.

I waived at De Luca. “Turn up the volume some.”

And then all hell broke loose.

Chapter 52

Franklin let Stacy inside and reached out to give her a hug. “Hey, there. God, you look amazing. Your pictures don’t do you justice.”

Stacy returned the hug. “Your muscles . . . they’re so big!”

Franklin was nervous, but he was trying not to show it.

“Aren’t you missing someone?”

Stacy pointed to her abdomen. “Oh, Brittany?  She started her . . . you know . . .  girl stuff.”

Franklin laughed. “Ahh! Yeah, that wouldn’t be much fun.”

Stacy opened her bag and took out a bottle of whiskey.

“I brought this for us to drink. You a whiskey guy?”

Franklin walked over to the kitchen. “Don’t insult me like that. I’m not going to invite you over here and then expect you to bring your own drink. I have a fully stocked bar here.”

Stacy followed Bo into the kitchen. “I’m kinda picky about what I drink. A girl can’t be too careful, ya know.”

“Don’t trust me?”

Stacy put her hand over her mouth and giggled. “Well, we did just meet, silly. Do you like to dance?”

“I’ve been known to cut a rug. Wait, do people still say that?”

Stacy laughed as she followed Franklin back into the living room.

“Too bad we don’t have any music,” he said, pulling her onto the couch.

They snuggled for a few minutes. Stacy squeezed Bo’s muscles, trying her best to make him feel sexy. Then she pulled her phone from her pocket and started flipping through it.

Bo laughed. “So, I’m not good enough company? You’d rather text right now?”

“I’m sorry, baby. It was my sister. She wanted to make sure I was here and okay.”

“Well, that’s nice of her.”

“She’s a sweet girl. She’ll do anything for me. She’d probably even kill someone if I needed her to. I pretty much raised her on my own, so I’m like a mother to her.”

Stacy opened the music folder on her phone and turned on some slow jazz.

She stood up and reached out her hand for Bo. He could see the plainclothesman walking past the window as he reached up and took her hand.

Stacy wrapped her arms around him and held him tight as they swayed to the music. As the sultry saxophone blared, Brittany tiptoed into the room behind Bo, a baseball bat in her hand. Stacy pulled away just as Brittany began her swing. She caught Bo squarely on the side of his face. He fell in a heap on the floor without uttering a sound.

Stacy ran over to her bag, got the voice gadget Marci had given her, and spoke into the microphone. She reached into Bo’s shirt and pointed out the wire he was wearing to Brittany.

“I haven’t slow danced like this in a long while. It’s nice,” Stacy said into the machine, hoping it really transmitted her words in Bo’s voice.

“I’m glad you’re having a good time,” Stacy said.

Brittany was scribbling on a piece of paper. She handed the message to Stacy.

Plainclothes cop out front

Walks by every 5 minutes

Last saw him about a minute ago

Stacy checked Bo’s pulse; he was gone.

Stacy pulled a can of spray paint from her purse and left a message on the wall:

I told you cops not to fuck with me. I always win!

Stacy grabbed her bag and followed Brittany out the back door and into a car Brittany had stolen while Stacy was with Bo.

“We don’t have much of a head start, so let’s go!” Brittany said.

Chapter 53

I was up pacing back and forth in the van. “They’re too quiet! What are they doing in there?”

I picked up a radio. “Do a walk-by. I know it’s only been three minutes, but it’s way too quiet.”

“Maybe they’re just getting friendly,” De Luca said.

“I don’t think so. I don’t even hear the music playing anymore. Come on! Hurry it up!”

“I’m coming up on the window now. I don’t see them, sir,” the officer said.

I slammed my clipboard on the floor. “What do you mean you don’t fucking see them? They’re both in there! Walk back by and look again.”

I got a sick feeling in my stomach.
Why would Franklin go off-script?

“Still no sight, sir.”

“Ring the goddamn doorbell!”

I watched as the officer followed my instructions. Nothing.

“What do you want me to do here, sir? No one is answering.”

I yanked my headphones off, burst out of the van, and sprinted across the street. A car screeched to a stop in front of me, but I kept running. I’d drawn my weapon; I knew this was bad. I could hear De Luca and Lafitte scampering behind me. The officers who had been parked down the street came running, too. By the time I reached the porch, the plainclothesman had kicked down the door.  I rushed inside and stopped dead in my tracks.
My God! This couldn’t be!

Franklin lay lifeless on the floor, a pool of blood around his head. I looked up and saw the message on the wall. We’d been made. But how? And when?

The sick feeling in the pit of my stomach morphed into rage. The officers were clearing the house, but I knew they were gone.

Lafitte confirmed it two minutes later.

I reached down to check Franklin, though I already knew what I would find. I was right again; he was gone, too. This wasn’t fair. Franklin was way too young for this. He had his whole life and career ahead of him. And his poor wife! My God, this was terrible! I could feel my blood pressure rising.

I waived my Glock in the air as I reread the message on the wall. “She doesn’t get away with this. Not this time.”

Anger coursed through my veins. I ran out the front door and back into the street. I flagged down the first car that approached me, my gun raised in one hand and my badge in the other. “Out! Now! Police! I need this vehicle.”

The man and woman gawked at me; I could tell they were afraid. They scurried from the car, and I jumped in. I rammed the car into drive just as De Luca and Lafitte slammed their doors.

I felt my skin burning, and I saw red as I sped down the street.

“Call Captain Alstead. Tell him what’s happened. Have him set up a fifty-mile perimeter around the city,” I said.

They only had about a five minute head start. Much of the city was surrounded by woods. I knew they’d traveled out of the neighborhood on the road behind the house, the same one we were using. The fastest way to the freeway was the direction I was taking. I knew Stacy and Brittany would be traveling the speed limit so they wouldn’t attract attention. I was already doing ninety.

The darkness of night was making it increasingly difficult to see into the cars as we sped by. Lafitte and De Luca shined their powerful Maglites into every car we passed. About a half mile ahead, I noticed a car weaving in and out of traffic.

Lafitte spotted it, too. “David, look! That our girls?”

“I’m betting it is.”

I punched down on the accelerator even harder. I was doing a little over a hundred now, and I had no plans of slowing down. Not after what these monsters did to Franklin.

As I closed the gap to ten car lengths, Stacy’s car swerved all the way to the right lane and exited the freeway. I had no time to think; I yanked the wheel hard to the right, cutting off a handful of cars. I heard screeching tires, but De Luca reassured me that there were no collisions in our wake.

It appeared I was chasing a black, late-model Dodge Charger. Luckily for me, we’d jumped into a Taurus SHO, so keeping up wouldn’t be a problem.

De Luca called in the plates when we finally got close enough to make them out. The windows were tinted, so we couldn’t tell who was driving.

We were two car lengths away when Brittany hung herself out the window and fired her weapon. The first few shots went right through the windshield. I swerved left and right to keep her accuracy down. De Luca jumped in the passenger seat, hung her head and weapon out of the window, and fired back.

Stacy made a hard right at the next street we came to, running a red light at the intersection. I followed close behind. I couldn’t tell if she was driving me into a trap or just being reckless. Lafitte joined in the firefight. The sound of gunfire was deafening.

“Aim for the back two tires!” I yelled over the commotion.

De Luca and Lafitte leaned out of their windows and fired. A barrage of bullets whizzed by my head; my ears ached from the gunfire.

Finally, De Luca lowered her gun and leaned back into the car. “I got a hit on the right rear tire. I can see it wobbling.”

“C’mon, Paul! Take out the other tire!” I said.

Sparks flew from the car ahead of us as the back tire began to give way.

Stacy made a quick right. I slammed on the brakes, and the car behind us nicked our bumper as it swerved to avoid us. I made a hard right and looked at the stretch of road ahead of me. No sign of the Charger.

“Goddamn it! Where the hell is she?” I couldn’t let her get away.

I sped down the road.  I looked down each side street hoping to catch a glimpse of the Charger.

“There!” De Luca said, pointing down an alley.

I pulled to the curb and slammed the car out of gear. We jumped out, our guns drawn as we sprinted to the Charger.

I pointed my gun and light in the driver’s window. “Freeze! Police! Put your hands up!”

But there was no one.

A man on the street pointed east when we made eye contact.

“You looking for the two blondes that nearly ran me over?” the old man asked.

“Yes! Did both of them go that way?”

“No, they split up. I seen ’em do it.”

“Thank you, sir. De Luca, you and Lafitte go that way,” I said, pointing them in the direction the bystander had indicated. “Watch each other’s back!”

I took off in an all-out sprint. Everyone stared as I ran by them. Finally, I caught a glimpse of Brittany. She turned into a store then I saw the door fly back open. She let out a flurry of gunfire. Some of the shots were close, I could hear them smashing into things behind me.

I wanted to fire back, but there were people everywhere. I couldn’t just start firing into the crowd. I’d have to wait.

I reached the store and eased the door open. I slipped inside, my gun leading the way. A few customers ducked  behind the aisles. I held up my badge to the cashier, and he pointed me toward the back of the store.

“Is there a way out back there?” I asked.

“Yes. It leads to an alleyway.”

I ran towards the front door. I crept around the building hoping to sneak up on Brittany. She’d be waiting for me to follow her through the back door. I got to the corner of the building and stopped. I took out my flashlight and turned it on, hiding the beam in my hand. I spotted her about fifty yards away. Her weapon was already raised and pointed right at me.

I tried to duck back behind the wall of the store, but it was too late. Brittany had already let several rounds fly, and one of them found a home in my left shoulder. I fell hard; the pain was intense. I reached my hand under my shirt. Warm blood oozed from the wound and ran down my body. It was almost the same place I’d been shot by Prodinov’s men in Russia.

I wasn’t going to let it stop me from catching her. I scrambled to my feet and grabbed my flashlight. I cleared the corner with my weapon raised and aimed my flashlight in the direction she was running. Brittany was about a hundred yards away from me. I could barely make her out in the darkness. I couldn’t lose her.

I ran again. It felt like I was running even faster than before. Maybe it was the adrenaline. I couldn’t be sure. I saw her turn into an abandon apartment building. I figured I was about twenty seconds behind when I finally got to the run down building.

Another cluster of shots slammed into the concrete by my feet. I scurried left and right then darted into the building. The shots came from two or three flights up. I slowly walked into the stairwell. The building was almost pitch-black. The only thing I could hear were Brittany’s footsteps as she ran up the staircase. I fired several rounds in her direction, hoping to slow her down.

I heard a door open above me. She’d left the stairwell or wanted me to believe she had. I finally got to the door Brittany had taken. I shined my flashlight down there was blood on the floor. I shined it on the door handle more blood.

I didn’t know where I’d hit her or how badly she was hurt, but at least one of my bullets had hit its mark.

I heard a noise coming from my right, and I headed that direction.

I took one more step and felt my feet slip from under me.

Suddenly I heard three fast steps behind me. Instinct took over. I rolled onto my back to find Brittany standing over me, her arms raised over her head. She was holding something, but I didn’t have time to figure out what it was, nor did I care. I fired three shots, hitting Brittany dead-center. She fell to the floor and lay motionless.

I called 911 and gave them my name and our approximate location. I only had the name of the apartment building.

I crawled over to Brittany. Her pulse was weak, but it was still there.

I lay on the floor for what felt like forever. I was trying to move as little as possible the pain in my shoulder was intensifying as my adrenaline began to subside.

“Freeze don’t move,” I heard a voice say.

They shined a flashlight my way and I held up my badge. “I’m a police officer. Detective David Porter, I called this in. You’ve got a wounded officer here. Your perp is laying here on the floor. She’s got several bullet wounds but she still has a slight pulse.”

The medical crew came over and helped me to my feet. They brought over a chair and sat me down on it. I’d forgotten how bad it felt to be shot. Excruciating didn’t do it justice.

They loaded Brittany on a stretcher and handcuffed her to it. She was in pretty bad shape. They listed her condition as critical.

I jumped into an ambulance to have my shoulder looked at. I reached for my phone to call Paul and De Luca. I prayed their luck was as good as mine had been.

Chapter 54

Immediately I could hear the disappointment in Paul’s voice.

“I’m sorry, David. We gave it everything we had. It just wasn’t meant to be this time. I’ve never wanted to catch someone so bad. We have a team checking out a blood trail. We fired a few shots at her, and it looks like one of us may have wounded her. ”

I winced as the first responder tightened a bandage on my arm.

“Paul, I know you tried your best. I would never question that. I’m sure you guys left it all on the table. We’ll get her. She just made a mistake here, didn’t she? She’ll make another before it’s over, trust me. Maybe that blood will prove useful later. We can get a sample and get it in our database.”

“De Luca got banged up a little. She’ll be okay, though. Went down hard. Tripped over a homeless guy and took a tumble. It was so freakin’ dark out there, man.”

The EMT was finished with my arm. I stood up to get the blood flowing in my legs again. “So where’s De Luca now?”

“The medical crew down here is cleaning her up. She scraped up her knees pretty good.”

“Okay. Take care of her. I’ve got another call coming in. Gotta run.”

I switched over to the new call. It was Captain Wilcrest.

“Well, that didn’t take long,” I said, skipping the standard niceties.

“Bad news never does. What the hell went wrong?”

“You want the short version or the long version?”

“Five minute version. I can get the rest of the details later. First things first: I heard about Franklin. He just got married, you know? His wife is going to be devastated.”

“I know. I feel like shit about that. They definitely knew Franklin was a cop before the meeting.”

“He was undercover. How the hell would they know that?”

“The bad guys have hackers, too, Cap. When Stacy and Brittany drove up, only Stacy got out. We were thinking Brittany may have gone to grab something from the store. Or maybe they were going to let Stacy do this one alone, for whatever reason. We were listening in. Everything seemed normal. Franklin was playing right along.”

“What made you guys realize something was off?”

“We had a boot doing a walk-by every five minutes. He’d switch shirts and toss on a hat so it wouldn’t be obvious on a quick glance. The conversation slowed to a snail’s pace, and we assumed they were . . . you know, making out or whatever. But it just didn’t feel right. The conversation was too sparse. I actually sent our window peeper on a walk-by two minutes early. He confirmed Franklin couldn’t be seen, and we all rushed in. It was too little too late. Franklin was already gone. The girls were long gone, too.”

“Mary mother of Jesus! The three of you okay?”

“Just some bumps and bruises. Nothing that we can’t handle.”

“I’m sorry about Stacy, David. I know how bad you wanted her.”

“We’re still going to catch her. I won’t rest until we do. I suppose you got a call from Alstead?”

“Yes. He said you guys ran a circus through his town. You’ll have to go down and tell this story again.”

“Yeah, I know. The whole operation was understaffed. The city is small with an even smaller force. So, I understood when they couldn’t lend us the support we asked for on such short notice. But that’s one of the reasons the girls got out of that house.”

“Any leads on where she might be headed next?”

“No clue. We’re going to sift through everything tonight. We may end up coming home with our tails tucked between our asses.”

“The entire mission wasn’t a failure. You did manage to catch Brittany.”

“I’d rather her still be out there than to have an officer dead. I’ll let you know which way we’re heading tomorrow.”

Chapter 55

I hitched a ride to the hospital with a local cop. The doctor who looked at my shoulder noted the bullet had passed straight through. He stitched me up and told me to take two Advil, keep the area clean and dry, and that was it.

As I was walking out of the exam room, I saw Alstead heading my way.

He got really close to me, right up in my personal space, like he had something to say that he didn’t want anyone else to hear.

“Porter, first off, sorry about your guy. Secondly, you guys caused a lot of damage here. You left a mess in the streets—a couple wrecked cars, shot-up stores. We ain’t used to all that big city shit here. You picking up what I’m laying down here, buddy?”

Alstead was about five foot seven and one seventy, if that. He definitely had little man syndrome. And if that wasn’t clear before, it sure as hell was now.

“I got it, Alstead. Just trying to do my job here. We’re all on the same team. You think I wanted to get my guy killed? I been chasing those girls clear across the southern United States. You think I wanted one of them to get away? Especially the one that did.”