No Room for Mercy (59 page)

“Spare me the legal bullshit speech, alright? What is this
concerning?”

“Need I tell you?” Lisa asked seriously.

“I’ve done nothing wrong. I can’t accept you
reading me those rights because I’m innocent of whatever it is
you’re accusing me of.”

“Explain this,” Lisa said as she threw a duffel bag full
of crisp hundred dollar bills onto Jarkowski’s desk and pulled
out her .9mm handgun. “We found this in the trunk of your car a
few minutes ago.”

“You had no legal right to search my car.”

“If you say so—but the question still stands—if you
care to answer.”

“Casino winnings,” Jarkowski snapped.

“Is that right?” Lisa asked as she turned to the agents
standing behind her and shook her head. “Can you believe this
guy?” she asked as she pulled out a tape recorder.

Jarkowski watched curiously as Lisa held the small recorder up and
pressed play.

“
Can’t trust anyone in this fuckin’ business,”
a voice was soon heard by all inside Jarkowski’s office.

“
Ain’t that the truth? See, umm, this has been in the
works for some time now, Mister Maruyama. Lisa is on to your
crew—it’ll only be a matter of time before she gets to
you. She gets to you, she gets to me and I can’t allow that to
happen. I’ve opted to jump ship because of all the betrayal
taking place within your organization.”

“I planted that bug in JunJie Maruyama’s office to catch
him discussing illegal activities. Imagine my surprise when I heard
your voice on the recordings!” Lisa said in a jubilant manner.
“Shall, shall I keep going? Right up until the time you shot
the man?”

Jarkowski was crushed. Lisa was more clever than he’d
anticipated. He knew what else was to come on the tape. In minutes,
everyone would hear the shots fired that he’d lodged into
JunJie. The once respected and decorated agent had been caught, on
tape no less, consulting with a purported criminal master mind and
had attempted to take his life.

“He’s in a coma now,” Lisa said. “But whether
he dies or not, we got your ass nailed to the cross.” Lisa said
matter-of-factly as she patted her gun against her pants leg. “You
were right, you know, Jarkowski?”

“About what you bitch?”

“About me getting those funds. The bust on the docks, even the
capturing of Asa Spade will not compare to this arrest. Your
apprehension, sir, will show the Senators just how badly my
investigation needs funding. I thank you for that. Take him in,”
Lisa ordered.

As the officers approached, Jarkowski, not willing to accept what his
future had in store, looked down at his own service weapon that was
laying on the desk.

Lisa followed his eyes and she need not be a psychic to know what the
man was contemplating. “Daniel, don’t you do it!”
Lisa screamed as she aimed her weapon. “Don’t you fuckin’
do it!”

Jarkowski was going for-suicide—death by cop. He couldn’t
face the music, nor did he want to. He went for his weapon and Lisa
and the three agents opened fire, releasing a hail of bullets that
had ended Jarkowski’s life before he’d ever gotten off a
round. He fell forward onto his desk and died instantly, thereby
bringing an end to what was once an illustrious career inside law
enforcement. Lisa didn’t discriminate. All outside of the law
had to be taken down in her eyes; and as far as she was concerned,
Special Agent Daniel Jarkowski was no more than a common criminal
who’d refused to face his own demons.

“Well,” Lisa said as she breathed heavily, “call,
call internal affairs so we can give a full report.”

*******

While all the activities were unfolding out west, Doss, Bay and T-top
were emerging from the club in Saint Charles and had met up with Dawk
and Junior inside
Connections
, which was directly across the
street from the club.

“Hey,” Junior said. “It’s dark out. It’ll
be three, four in the morning before we make it back to the ranch.”

“I know, but it’ll be a few weeks before we head back
this way and I wanted to leave some instructions with Malik. Where he
went?” Doss asked.

“Him and Jay-D had a quick sell back in Fox Park. I figured we
would be leaving soon so I just sent them down there,” Junior
replied as he checked his vibrating phone. “Everybody ready?”

“Yeah. I guess I can call Malik when I get back to the ranch.”
Doss replied. “This is Kimi and Koko’s first week home
from college. I got ‘em a couple of gifts for their sophomore
year my wife keeping hidden. I’m really looking forward to
seeing my babies. They’re growing before my very eyes.”
he then said proudly as he tapped the counter.

“I can’t wait to see my babies either,” Junior
remarked as he thought about his two beautiful daughters. “You
guys go ahead. I’ll lock up.”

Doss, Dawk and Bay hopped into one of the family’s Suburbans
and T-top climbed into the passenger seat of her CLK and waited on
Junior. When he hopped into the driver’s seat, the crew all
pulled away from the curb and began making their way down to 1
^st
Capitol Boulevard, the main street that led to the interstate.

“Dang! I wanted to tell Bay about this store on First Capitol
Boulevard that sell them seven for all mankind jeans she like,”
Tiva said as she grabbed her cell phone. “Shoot, my battery
dead. Baby, let me see your phone,” she requested.

Junior was reaching for his phone when he saw red flashing lights in
the rearview mirror. “Hold up, let me let this ambulance by,
baby.”

At the same time, Doss’s cell phone had vibrated, signaling he
had a text. He looked down and recognized Asa Spade’s number,
but before he could read the text, he caught sight of an ambulance
headed his way with the lights flashing. He pulled over to the side
of the street to let the ambulance pass, never noticing that the side
door was open on the vehicle.

Bay and Dawk were inside the Suburban with their father waiting for
the ambulance to pass also when it came to a halt beside their ride.
At that moment, Doss recognized the play. He leaned over and shielded
Bay as bullets began penetrating the SUV, shattering its windows and
flattening the tires on the driver’s side.

Dawk hopped out the back passenger seat of the ride and scrambled to
the back of the Suburban and opened fire with a .45 automatic from
the rear driver’s side. The shooter fell forward, landing
inside the ambulance, but was quickly replaced with another one, who
continued firing on the SUV from just yards away.

Tiva was going berserk amidst the gunfire. She grabbed her Glock .45
and was attempting to hop out of her ride to help her family, but
Junior was holding her back.

“Tiva, stay here with me! They’ll kill you!” Junior
yelled.

“Fuck that!” Tiva screamed. “Let me go,
mutherfucka,” she yelled as she snatched away from Junior and
hopped out of her CLK and opened fire with her .45 automatic, hitting
the rear of the ambulance and shattering the back windows.

Together, Dawk and Tiva were able to ward off the ambulance. It sped
off rapidly while sporadically spraying gunfire, but its close
proximity to the Suburban left no doubt as to what they were about
lay eyes upon because the bullets that rained down on the family’s
SUV couldn’t have possibly missed. Only a miracle could’ve
prevented that scenario, but the streets, they knew, were
unforgiving.

Dawk and T-top ran towards the Suburban in desperation. Smoke was
pouring from the hood and all its windows were shot out. The AK-47
spray had shredded the SUV and left it tilting to the left in a
critical gangster lean. Dawk opened the door on the driver’s
side and was hit with a sight that would be forever etched into his
psyche.

At the same time, Tiva had pulled the passenger side door open, and
what she saw was nothing short of horror. Her father lay atop Bay,
his brains spilling out onto Bay’s back as she lay underneath
her father, her body convulsing uncontrollably.

Dawk gently pulled his father back and looked him the eyes. Doss had
been sent into the afterlife. He lay with his back against the front
seats of the SUV with his eyes and mouth wide open and a surprised
look frozen onto his face.

“Dad,” Dawk said as he hid his face in one arm on side of
the Suburban, tears forming in his eyes as he pounded the top of the
vehicle with his balled up fist.

Tiva was weak. She stared at Bay and clutched her twin’s hand
tightly and wept. “I’ sorry, sister,” she cried.
“Bay!” she yelled. “Bay!”

The Holland family had been blindsided with a blow to the chin that
left them weak in the knees. Doss Dawkins, Boss on the streets, and
patriarch on the ranch in Oklahoma, had been murdered in a
cold-blooded ambush.

Bena Holland, arguably the family’s most prolific assassin, had
a bullet lodged in the base of her skull and was near death, barely
clinging to life. Doss was able to cover his daughter, and he’d
absorbed the bulk of the bullets that’d ended his life, but
Bena was still critically wounded in the shooting.

Dooney and Eddie’s daughter, fourteen year-old Nancy Cottonwood
had run onto the scene after hearing the gunshots from inside their
home on the opposite end of the block and they quickly assisted Dawk
and Tiva with Bena by pulling her from the front seat and laying her
down on the sidewalk. Dooney removed his jacket and covered Bay’s
body while Tiva applied pressure to her head wound.

“I called nine, one, one. Help is on the way,” Junior
said as he stood over Bay. “Dawk, how’s dad?”

Dawk only shook his head as he began removing his father’s
watch, wedding ring and wallet. “I’m gone call home and
tell my momma what happened,” Dawk said somberly. “
Who
the fuck did this?”
he asked himself as he searched the
Suburban for his father’s cell phone.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

THE FAMILY SECRET

“If we add four more cattle to this trailer and take one off
the second trailer, and do that four times with the remaining
trailers, it’ll all balance out on paper because the listed
weight will match the head count on the bills of lading,” Naomi
told eighteen year-olds Kimi and Koko, the three of them shuffling
papers and entering data into two laptops as they all stood behind
their mother’s desk inside her office on the second floor of
Ponderosa.

A satchel of money belonging to Dawk, Bena and Tiva, $36,000 dollars
in total, was in the process of being funneled into the family’s
legitimate ventures for the week. Kimi and Koko were becoming expert
money launderers, but Naomi was the crème de la crème
when it came to washing dirty dollars clean. She could tally hundreds
of thousands of dollars in her head, multiply, subtract and add
figures in rapid succession and keep an accurate account of the
family’s assets and liabilities on a daily basis. She was a
force to be reckoned with, and Kimi and Koko were walking directly in
her footsteps.

A ringing phone caught Naomi’s attention and she walked over to
the mantle above the fireplace inside her bedroom and grabbed her
cell. She saw Doss’s number on the screen and answered only to
hear Dawk’s voice on the other end.

“Momma,” Dawk said lowly.

Naomi could hear sirens and walkie talkies going off in the
background and she was hit with an ominous feeling, the tone in
Dawk’s voice was dead giveaway also.

“Where are you, son?” Naomi asked anxiously.

“I’m in Saint Charles, momma. Got umm,” Dawk choked
back tears as he watched coroners removed his father’s lifeless
corpse from the Suburban and place him inside of a body bag. “Dad
and Bena got hit tonight. Bena still holding on, but dad, dad didn’t
make it.”

“What?” Naomi asked in disbelief.

“Momma, they killed daddy tonight,” Dawk said somberly as
the full force of the situation’s reality hit him head on. He’d
just loss his father and his sister was on the verge of death.

Kimi and Koko heard Naomi’s voice of concern and looked up from
the desk in time to see their mother lean forward as if her heart was
weighted down.

“Momma, what’s wrong?” Kimi asked as she walked
over to her mother, Koko following close behind. “What’s
wrong, momma?” she asked again.

“Get me Martha,” Naomi said as tears flooded her eyes.

“Who’s that on the phone?” Koko asked as she
snatched the phone from her mother’s hands. She eyed the number
on the screen, placed the phone to her ear and said, “Daddy,
you okay? Daddy, this Koko. You okay?”

Dawk heard Koko’s voice and he couldn’t find it within
himself to give her the facts. He ended the call and went and sat in
Tiva’s car as Dooney and Nancy stood beside him.

“We got you, big dog,” Dooney said as he patted Dawk’s
shoulder.

There were no words of comfort for Dawk at this moment. He leaned
back against the head rest, placed a hand over his closed his eyes,
and screamed a loud, angry scream before sitting upright and pounding
the steering wheel and kicking about wildly inside the car.

*******

Back inside Ponderosa, Naomi, with tears streaming down her face,
stared at Kimi and Koko. “Where’s Martha? Get Martha for
me?”

“Momma, what happened?”

“I said get Martha, dammit!” Naomi yelled as she snatched
the phone from Koko’s hands and turned and faced the mantle.

“Momma, no!” Kimi said as she hugged her mother from
behind. “No,” she cried, sensing the tragedy that was
beginning to unfold.

Naomi turned and faced her two daughters and hugged them both as she
looked to the ceiling, tears pouring down her face, lips trembling,
but all the while trying to be strong.

“What, what happened?” Kimi asked sadly. “Where Bay
‘nem?”

Naomi, in a gentle manner, eased out of her daughters’ grip and
walked forward, her back to Kimi and Koko to hide her pain. She
placed her hands on her hips and bowed her head to the floor in
disbelief. Her husband had just been killed and her oldest daughter
was near death. Who was responsible was a question she had, but
securing the family was the most important thing. Just as she turned
to face Kimi and Koko, there was a knock at the door of the master
suite.