Sin City Assassin (The Bill Dix Detective Series Book 3) (20 page)

Dix slid over and got in between the agent and Marie.

“This bitch is gonna pay. Get out of my way or I’ll move you out of the way,” said the agent to Dix.

Dix sized the man up. He was large and appeared to be in great shape, but he felt he could prevent him from doing whatever it was he wanted to do to Marie. He also noticed another agent enter the room and disable the camera and audio system.

Marie snickered. “You’d be an easy one. I see how you look at me, how you lust for my body. I’d let you get a little touch of my skin and you’d quiver just before I jammed a knife in your heart,” she said to one of the agents.

Dix glared at her and held his hands about waist high, “Fellas, this isn’t going down like this. Let me deal with her. I’m telling you right now, no one is hitting a handcuffed woman regardless of who she is.” He pointed to the camera. “You got rid of that, but you do something stupid and I’ll have to be a witness.” He hoped the little speech would give the agents more time to think about what they were about to do. Dix positioned himself in a way to protect Marie and have a tactical advantage against the two remaining agents by blading himself to them and standing between them.

“Please, let them come closer,” she laughed, “Didn’t work so well for the last guy you dragged out of here.”

The bigger agent looked at his friend, back to Dix, and over at Marie. Dix could tell he wanted to wring Marie’s neck. However, he looked back at his friend and shrugged as a wry smile developed on his face. “You can’t protect this bitch forever. Get what you need, then get the fuck out of our building.” The men exited before Dix could reply.

After reconnecting the camera and audio, he slid back the chair and sat down looking at Marie. She really was a piece of work. He noticed she was in fact stunning, but her eyes were like a viper’s, and he could tell she used her body to seduce men before killing them.
Somewhere someone really hurt you
, he thought.

Instead of talking to her, he pulled out her file and began reading it again. He’d only have a few minutes until the feds transported her to a high-risk facility. He assumed Marie was a control freak and wondered how to use that to interrogate her. Dix felt taking control away from her might cause her to slip up. He determined a standard interrogation would not work with her because she was intelligent, evil, and simply didn’t fit any textbook definition of a killer.

One by one, he pulled out the gruesome photos of the people she’d killed or was suspected of killing. When he lined the photos all out in a row, even he was shocked. He counted thirty-six dead bodies, two of which were women. Dix assumed Marie had been hired to kill these people.
But, what about the women?

Each photo he placed in front of Marie caused her eyes to light up and her smile to grow wider. He watched her carefully, but the more he saw of her devious reactions to the dead bodies, the less he wanted to see.

Marie nodded to a photo to her right. “That fat bastard deserved to die. I walked in on him having sex with a child. His head splattered all over the bedroom wall. It was glorious.”

Dix did not reply and he didn’t acknowledge her.

She raised an eyebrow and whistled. “That one,” she said as she nodded in front of her. “That arrogant prick actually thought I loved him. He was extremely cautious, though, so I had to let him get inside me before he dropped his guard and I killed him.” She watched Dix for a reaction and got none. The only thing she knew about Dix came from Blass and he’d written Dix off as a hot-shot detective with no intelligence. She studied his face, mostly his eyes, hoping to figure out what made him tick, but the more she pushed, the further he pulled away.

He studied the pictures of the dead women. Both had burn marks and slices down their backs and he recognized they’d obviously been tortured. He figured Marie likely tortured them to find their lover or husband so she could assassinate them. The images and thoughts caused a shiver to run down his back, but he tried desperately not to let Marie see how her murderous life affected him.

“Look asshole, you think sparing me a beating is gonna get me to talk? Fuck you, Dix. And fuck your soon-to-be-dead partner.” She lunged at him but the chains held her back.

Dix resisted the urge to smack her himself and kept feigning to read her file. He was beginning to get under her skin, and although the thought made him sick to his stomach, he needed to push forward to break open this case.

“Hmm,” Dix said without looking at Marie.

On cue, Frazier knocked and came into the room. “Hey, we need to talk.”

Dix slowly got up and the two huddled in the corner and began talking in a quiet whisper. Dix carefully spoke a few key words just loud enough that Marie might hear them. He grabbed Frazier’s arm and turned him away from Marie so they both remembered not to look at her during the ruse.

“So Pahrump and RL Associates are connected to Robert Laurin?” Dix asked with a fake puzzled look on his face.

“Yup, and now,” Frazier continued as he pulled the photo of Robert Laurin out, “this Robert Laurin guy was gunned down outside the hospital where Petersen is.”

“Jesus, is Petersen okay?” Dix asked while doing his best to look concerned and worried.

Frazier nodded, “A little shaken up, but he’s gonna be fine.”

“Man, now what?” Dix continued with the ruse.

“The feds are working with the Canadian authorities to grab people working for RL Associates… and some family, Roy, or something like that,” answered Frazier.

“Roy? Who the hell are they?” Dix had a puzzled look on his face while internally hoping the ruse was working. He really didn’t want to battle Marie, so he was acting out the ruse while trying to get her to say something without even knowing she did it.

“Beats me, but someone connected the dots somehow. Either way, it sucks to be them.” Frazier laughed. “They’re sending U.S. teams to hit all the locations with the Canadians, people are gonna die.”

Dix turned and grabbed his file while Frazier left the room. He let the picture of Robert Laurin slip from his grasp and it waffled from side to side before landing on the floor face up.
Pure luck
, Dix mused,
let’s see if this works.

While Dix and Frazier spoke in whispers, Marie craned her head trying to hear them. She could only hear bits and pieces, but she made out the words Pahrump, RL Associates, and Robert Laurin. She resisted any temptation to acknowledge that she was associated to them or knew who or what they were. She assumed they were just fishing for a reaction. None of it meant much to her until the guy talking to Dix said Robert Laurin was gunned down. That caused a reaction she wasn’t quick enough to disguise as her lip furled and she snapped her head to look right at the two men huddled in the corner. Every fiber and feeling in her body made her believe it was not her Robert who was dead. But, when she allowed herself to look down at the photo on the floor her heart stopped. The one and only man who'd ever loved her, and she loved back, was dead.

She watched as Dix bent over and tried to cover the image of the man on the piece of paper. She needed to do whatever she could to protect herself now that she was alone. Denying everything had worked in the past, so she decided, once she gathered her wits again, to dismiss everything she’d heard and seen.

“Who the fuck is that guy?” she asked Dix.

Dix grabbed the photo and folded it so she couldn’t see the image. “What guy?” he replied. He placed the image in the folder and turned to walk away.

“Where are you going? The
great
Bill Dix isn’t gonna take a shot at interrogating the Praying Mantis?” She used the name she knew Dix would bite on. She had already developed an escape plan, but she hoped to get something she could use to locate and kill Dix when she was free. Or better yet, kill him during the escape.

“Oh no, I’ve already got what I need. Besides, I don’t think I’d last five seconds with you during an interrogation or for that matter, anything. You’re gonna pay for what you’ve done,” replied Dix coolly.

“You don’t have shit! Fuck you, Dix. We’ll meet again.” She gawked at him. “And you’ll only know it right before I stick a knife in your heart,” she snarled.

“I doubt you’ll get that chance, but you’re not what or who I’m after. I’m off to watch the recording devices and your reaction as we talked about Robert Laurin.” Dix watched for a reaction and got none.

“I don’t give a shit about some Robert Laurin guy. He’s just another dead man, big deal. I’ve seen plenty of those in my lifetime,” Marie replied with a hiss.

“I bet you have, but in this case, this Robert Laurin fella, he isn’t dead.”

Her eyes flickered and she hesitated just enough to convince him the man calling the shots was in fact Robert Laurin.

He looked at her and shook his head in disgust. He wasn’t sure what her fate would be, but nothing on Earth would justify what she deserved.

“Fuck you!” she screamed and thrashed about in her handcuffs and leg restraints. She wanted to gouge his eyes out and slit his throat.

Dix left the room and headed to review the audio and digital recordings. He wanted to make sure he was correct before unleashing one of the largest manhunts the United States had ever conducted for one man named Robert Laurin.

Chapter 37:

Dix met up with Frazier to watch the video and listen to his quasi-interrogation of Marie. Before they hit play, he checked his phone and saw he had two messages from Pierre, one marked urgent. He stepped out of the room and called him.

“Hey Pierre, what’s up?”

“Yo, Dix, I’m glad you finally called me back. I think we might have a problem,” replied Pierre.

Dix thought,
what else could possibly go wrong?
“Speak to me, buddy, what’s the issue?” He braced for the worst.

“So I was able to get up on both phones, the one for the suspected supplier and the one that kept calling Marie. I believe the users of the phones met up about an hour ago,” said Pierre.

Dix nodded. “Okay, how’d you get that?” He assumed cell towers and possibly pings had something to do with it.

“I followed them through GPS coordinates and cell towers,” Pierre replied confidently. “The devices were within a few meters of each other somewhere off of Interstate 15 about twenty minutes outside of Vegas.”

“Ok, did you see who they were calling after they met up?” Dix hoped a lead was coming out of this discussion. He wanted to see the video and get going toward apprehending Laurin.

“The suspected supplier’s phone made and received quite a few calls right after the devices met up. The other phone remained on, but did not make or receive calls or texts. Then the supplier’s phone stopped communicating with the network while the person we believe is ordering your assassin around headed back into Vegas.”

“Oh man, that can’t be good. Send the coordinates of the devices at the time of the meeting to Frazier and me. I’ll have him send some marked units to the area and see if they see anything useful,” he thought a moment, “Also, where’s the other phone now?”

Pierre refreshed the computer screen and the network searched for the device. Eventually a location was plotted on Google Earth and it caught Pierre off guard. “Dix, that device is right outside of where you’re at!"

“Are you sure?” he thought maybe the system glitched, which happened from time to time.

“Yes, it’s within a few meters of the building you’re in right now,” replied Pierre in a panic.

“All right, keep tabs on the phone and send me every update you get. We’ll develop a plan and see if we can locate the device right after I shore up a loose end,” he replied with newfound enthusiasm. He started walking to the rear of the office to observe the video of Marie.
I hope Laurin is the guy we want.

He walked back into the room with the video and audio equipment. He could see Frazier watching the footage while checking a text on his cell phone.

“Right there,” he pointed to the monitor. “She purses her lips when we mention Pahrump, RL Associates, and Robert Laurin,” Frazier said to Dix. Dix watched the video and saw the same thing. They fast-forwarded the video to the part about Robert Laurin being dead.

Marie spun her head and her eyes slightly bulged at the mention of his death. “And right there her body language clearly suggests she knows him. If you ask me, I think we need to do everything we can to find Robert Laurin, and the sooner the better,” Dix said.

Frazier nodded and turned on the computer next to him to put together a BOLO for Robert Laurin.

While he typed, Dix updated him about what Pierre had told him about the two phones allegedly meeting up and how one of those phones was showing to be near their location now.

Frazier stopped typing. “What the hell does that mean?”

“I’m not sure, but we need to assume someone knows Marie is here and may try to free her,” replied Dix.

Frazier shook his head. “You think someone will attack the Federal building in broad daylight for one broad? That seems extreme to me, pal.”

“I know, but this group has already shown they’ll do whatever they want whenever they want. Someone connected to this case is right outside the building based on the phone records. I sure hope I’m wrong, but we—” Dix couldn’t finish his statement as the rumbling of the building and a loud explosion caused him to fall to the floor and roll over to cover and retrieve his weapon.

He scanned the area to see what damage had occurred and tried to assess what just happened. He could see Frazier was shaken, but on his feet. They ran out of the room and down the hall to the main office area. They stopped short once they realized the windows had been blown out and part of the building had disintegrated.

“Buddy, we gotta get Marie and get the hell out of here,” Dix said to Frazier as they ran to the makeshift interrogation room. They made it just in time to see a six-man team escorting her through the halls and down the stairs to the basement.

Frazier looked at Dix. “That’s been handled, we need to get out of the building and find the people responsible for this attack!”