Back Alley Cop Page 6

  And then just when he wanted more—the phone rang.

  “Let it ring,” Adam urged breathlessly.

  *

  “Sorry, can’t do that,” Eddie said, and stopped what he was doing.

  “Eddie Scarlett here,” he answered, and then listened as a voice spoke out of a mysterious silence. “Tonight’s the night.”

  “Oh, my God.” Eddie looked over at Adam. “Tonight? How do you know?”

  “Because I’ve been following him. That’s what you told me to do, isn’t it?”

  “Well…yes, but…it seems too soon,” Eddie argued.

  “Too soon? Eddie, I’ve been watching him for days, and believe me, he’s hungry for blood. What the hell is wrong with you all of a sudden? I thought you’d be chomping at the bit by now. Why are you hesitating?”

  Eddie jumped up and ran into the other room. “You know that nothing would give me more pleasure than to catch this guy in the act. It’s just…I’ve got company for God’s sake.”

  “Company? Who is it?”

  “It’s Adam.”

  “Eddie, don’t let your affection for Adam ruin this. Maybe tonight’s the night, and maybe it’s not, but I’d rather go out and find out it wasn’t necessary than to wake up tomorrow morning and find that another woman had been killed. You want to deal with that?”

  “Hell no. It just seems too soon, that’s all. I just want you to be sure of your information.”

  “From the horse’s mouth. Is that good enough?”

  “Yeah, okay.” He looked over at Adam who was standing at the bedroom door, and hated like the devil to tell him they couldn’t be together tonight. After hanging up, he said, “Hey, Adam. We’re going to have to cut this short tonight. Sorry.”

  Adam looked at the phone Eddie had just been talking on, and then at him. “Who was that?”

  “Business.”

  “Business? Well, it can’t be police business since you’re no longer on the force.”

  “No questions, okay?”

  “What kind of business is it, Eddie?”

  “I’m sorry, I can’t tell you. Top secret.”

  “Top secret, my ass! There are no more top secrets for you, Eddie. I think you’ve got someone else.”

  “Someone else? Just because I have a little business to take care of?”

  “You’re not a cop anymore, so what kind of business could it be?”

  “Uh…well…”

  “Never mind.” Adam got dressed, grabbed his jacket, and headed toward the door. As he was slamming out, he said, “Goodbye.”

  Eddie got a sinking feeling that this goodbye was final.

  * * * *

  The capture of the Lady Killer…

  He felt sheltered within the belly of the shadow that surrounded him.

  It was the perfect hiding place.

  He stood silently looking around, careful not to make a sound when he began digging into the bag to pull something out. When he had it in his hand, he began brushing it off, and then looked at it with a smirk while mentally patting himself on the back. You could get anything online. He remembered finding the website which gave him the idea of wearing masks. All he had to do was provide them with a picture, and they would make the spitting image of that person. Up to now he’d used comic book villains, but tonight he’d decided to take a different route and try something else, his only contribution to its creation being a snapshot of someone he wanted it to resemble. He remembered the day an office party was going on at KingStar. Someone’s birthday, anniversary, or something. Pictures of wives, husbands, mothers, and children littered their desks, but he couldn’t get a good feeling about any of them until an idea occurred to him. He quickly dug out his cell phone, pretended to take a selfie with this new dude, and held it up before them while the creep smiled like a stupid idiot. Damn, people were so trusting. He was new, and he was a jerk, and it helped that no one liked him. Oh, sure, the creep would deny that he was guilty, but the cops, being the idiots they were, wouldn’t believe him. He quickly pocketed it, then ran back to his office and uploaded it, with instructions to the website that he did business with.

  Within only days he had his mask.

  When he got it, he was as pleased as punch. He couldn’t have picked a better son of a bitch to hide behind than the stupid jerk who thought everything was a joke.

  Well this time, the joke was on him.

  Now he lifted the mask and brought it down over his head. It was dark, crude, and unrecognizable until he put it on and looked at himself in the small mirror he had with him. Even though it was small, he could see enough to know that the mask bore an uncanny resemblance to Vinnie Torrio.

  From there he moved slowly as he crossed the street and entered another alleyway. As he crept in, a garish red light over an almost invisible door cast a red, blood-like reflection along the dark alleyway.

  And there he waited.

  Finally, she came out.

  Beautiful, she was.

  She walked alone, her flashy costume hidden beneath her trench coat, her stiletto heels clicking along the pavement—click, click, click.

  He loved the sound. It was lonely, haunting, and when her blood flowed from her beautiful, rounded body, it would be the climax of a beautiful dream. He wanted to touch her, squeeze her, just before he—Suddenly he saw her getting away from him, and rushed ahead, moving out of the shadow quickly. While looking here and there, he managed to get across the street and follow her closely until he was finally close enough to grab her from behind.

  * * * *

  She felt his hands gripping her, wrestling her into a dark corner behind a large trash bin and then throwing her to the ground. Fear surged through her as the cold glitter of a large steel blade danced threateningly before her eyes.

  “I saw you,” he rasped, his mouth close to her ear. “Wiggling your pretty ass, you were. In front of all those men.”

  “Mmnnff!” she sobbed, struggling against his rough, callused hand.

  “Know which one I was?”

  She could hardly move, but her eyes slid toward him, searching the dark face caught in the shadows.

  “Did you find a hundred dollar bill in your G-string?”

  She remembered seeing the bill waving before her eyes as she danced to the loud, thumping music. She also remembered that her hips got a little looser, and her dancing a little more raw as she smiled, wiggled, and indulged the man holding it. And then she felt his clumsy, calloused hands digging into her soft flesh, her G-string snapping, and the bill tucked safely inside. That’s when she realized that it wasn’t this man who gave it to her, but a middle-aged man with a look of insanity in his eyes. Now, with a mask over his face, his eyes were nothing but black holes with a glitter of evil looking out. Just then he leaned into the neon brightness, and she gasped. The play of light and shadow gave his face even more of a grotesque look. His evil eyes glowed, looking hungry—but not for food.

  “Yeah,” he said, his face close, his hot breath damp on her face. “I waited for you outside the club. Figured my hundred dollars put me first in line for some of that hot, gyrating little ass of yours. By the way, you can call me Vinnie. Vinnie Torrio. No need to be on such unfriendly terms since I’m about to get myself some pussy,” he whispered seductively. “I been watchin’ you for a week now, and every night you come out at the same time. You’re late tonight. What happened, sweetheart? Stop to give your boyfriend a blowjob?” His hot, wheezing breath stung her cheek as he leaned closer. “Well, now it’s my turn.”

  Becoming panicky, she struggled in his arms.

  A derisive chuckle sounded deep in his throat, but his wicked laugh was interrupted when the door of the club swooshed open, releasing a quick explosion of voices and music. He saw two men come staggering out while holding onto each other and laughing and cracking wise, so he paid little attention to them.

  *

  Eddie and Vinnie stumbled around
in a drunken stagger until they finally reached the curb where a soft buzz sounded from Vinnie’s cell phone. When he put it up to his ear, he stiffened, all indications of too much to drink disappearing when he heard the message.

  “You were right. When he left the club, he waited for her in the alley. Right now, he’s…”

  Still listening, Vinnie slid his gaze over to Eddie, and made a slight indication toward the dumpster.

  “We’re on it,” he assured the caller, his movements subtle as he slipped the cell phone back in his pocket. “He’s got her back there,” he muttered to Eddie. “You know what to do.”

  “Got it.” Eddie looked toward the trash container. “You go in from one side, and I’ll take the other.”

  *

  When the crunching of footsteps sounded close by, the dancer knew someone was approaching. She could hear this brute’s heavy breathing, and his guttural voice gave her chills.

  “One word, bitch, and you’re dead.”

  She felt the prick of his knife at her throat and knew he was going to kill her anyway, so all at once a scream burst from her throat, its chilling echo ricocheting up and down New York’s asphalt canyons.

  “You miserable bitch,” the man croaked while struggling with her.

  His large hand quickly grasped her hair and brutally yanked her head back to expose her neck when suddenly someone grabbed his arm, and twisted it behind him.

  *

  “Not your lucky day, creep,” Vinnie said just as he grabbed the knife, keeping him from slicing it across the woman’s throat.

  While Eddie was struggling with the masked man to take him into custody, he grabbed the other half of the mask and ripped it off his face. “I was right,” he said when he saw who it was. “The Lady Killer is—Warren McAlister.”

  * * * *

  The next day a suspicious-looking man walked into the precinct with a three-day stubble, dressed in a suit that was a bit disheveled. He looked like the stereotype newspaper reporter, complete with his hat pushed back on his head, and the corner of his press pass sticking out of the band.

  But it was all a ruse.

  He walked up to the desk sergeant, and said, “Is the Chief here? I need to see him if he’s available.”

  “Why don’t you take a seat and I’ll see if I can find him.”

  “Over here?” the man asked, pointing toward a line of chairs by the wall.

  “Yeah, that’s fine.”

  Only a few minutes had gone by when the chief walked out and slowly walked up to him. “Did you ask to see me?”

  “Yeah,” the man said, looking around. “Is there somewhere we can talk?”

  He looked worried, and then said, “Follow me.”

  When the chief reached his office, he herded the fake reporter in, and took one last look around before he went in and locked the door. “I don’t usually see you unless there’s something wrong. What is it?”

  “The damned thugs are determined to bring Eddie down, so they’re still hanging around,” the fake reporter whispered. “Vinnie managed to make it out, but Eddie can’t go back home, or to the UC residence until he’s shaken them.”

  Just then someone knocked on the door, and the chief opened it to one of his officers. “Chief, can I use your fax machine? I know you’re busy, but the one out here is on the blink, and Mike is waiting for this. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t so important.”

  “I suppose,” the chief said, noticing the reporter had snapped back to his other identity.

  “Chief, I can’t go back to my boss with nothing. Can’t you give me anything? It doesn’t have to be muck, just something I can use to tell the public regarding this caper? I would really appreciate it.”

  “You’re barkin’ up the wrong tree, Benson,” the chief said while he glanced around at the officer who was using the copy machine. “I can’t tell you anything.”

  “All right, how about I just ask you some questions. Answer me if you can, and if you can’t just say no comment. Is that fair?”

  “I suppose,” the chief said, “But nothing else.”

  “I understand.”

  When the officer finally left and they were alone, the chief said, “I just want to know one thing. Are they okay?”

  “Both Eddie and Vinnie are all right. Like I said, Vinnie’s managed to pull himself away, but they found out that Eddie is the UC that took them down, and have sworn to get him. Eddie’s in hiding now, so it’ll be a few more days…at least I hope it’s only days until they give up.”

  “Hell. Maybe I can get some of my other UCs together and help him.”

  “I’m Eddie’s handler, maybe I can help. Can you give me an idea what I could do? Eddie’s been a good friend to me. I would hate to see him go down.”

  “I just can’t take the chance, Benson. I mean, from day one this has been an extremely volatile situation, and nowhere near the norm for the capture of a killer. Eddie thought he’d just be able to go in there, take care of it, and get out, but it didn’t happen that way. Of course, I’ve only got Vinnie’s report to go on, but apparently when we advertised the fact that Eddie had quit the force it gave the perpetrator a false sense of security. This creep believed he had won and began making mistakes. Knowing the kind of man they were dealing with, both Eddie and Vinnie practically choreographed every movement until the moment came to close in and act quickly. Everything seemed to be going along fairly normal until the day Eddie went down to KingStar to meet McAlister, the acting CEO. That was quite an experience from what Eddie told me. We both knew then that this wasn’t a normal undercover assignment. Eddie told me what he suspected, and we didn’t tell anyone until he did a little of his own investigation. When he finally had the evidence he needed, he came back here, told me what he’d found out. No doubt about it, the enormity of this was unbelievable. I have to admit to giving Eddie a bit of a headache over this because I knew he’d been working straight for a couple of years without a vacation, but as it turned out, Eddie’s suspicions were right on target. Vinnie had already been at KingStar for several weeks, and gained the reputation of a jerk, and jokester. Since Vinnie had made a nuisance of himself among the employees, no one liked him, so that made it easy for the two of them to pretend they didn’t like each other. The only thing Vinnie had been told was that his partner’s code name would be joking. Translated, it was in fact, Joe King…joking. Well, when he heard that name, he knew that everything was under control, and the show began.”

  “Show?”

  “They had to pretend they didn’t like each other. From what I understand they put on a pretty good show of dislike for each other, which distracted the employees, leaving them free to get busy and map out their plans. It took a few weeks, but when they were finally ready to put it all into action, Eddie had to have a reason to quit so he could be free to put everything in place. Since Vinnie had a reputation as a jokester, and with Eddie asking all those questions about one of the employees, everything just seemed to fall into place. In Vinnie’s report he says that Eddie acted out the last scene to perfection. He had actually convinced a whole office full of people that he really believed that Adam Dunbar, the twin brother of the CEO, had been to Sweden and come back a woman. The plan was dreamed up when Eddie remembered his and Adam’s conversation in the Interrogation Room of the precinct. It couldn’t have been more perfect…or beautiful.”

  Chapter 6

  ADAM wasn’t stupid, he knew there were good cops, and bad, but that was an oversimplification in a world where everything was complicated. Cops today are just people. They can be honest, courageous, corrupt, devious, malicious, humane, cunning or stupid—or they can be Eddie Scarlet.

  One thing Adam had learned was that Eddie was not the average cop. You could look far and wide, and never find another like him. In the time he’d known him he’d fallen hard, but now that his job was over he still couldn’t get near him. They’d handed him a bunch of bull like him being on a hiatus
. So, for the time being all he had left were his memories of a great big giant of a cop they called Demon.

  He remembered the day he walked into KingStar and found Eddie there. He was just about to give the whole thing away when he was quickly taken aside by his handler and told what was happening. He was instructed to keep it under wraps, or the chances of Eddie making it out alive were not good.

  So he played along, and watched while the best sting of the century went down.

  When he saw it all come together with the two star actors playing their part to perfection, he was amazed, but his biggest surprise was Vinnie. He had come into the company not long before Eddie, and fit in as perfectly as a worm in an apple. He’d had no idea that Vinnie wasn’t exactly who he said he was. Everything he told them had checked out. He had no idea that his credentials, his resume, and even his background had been false. The NYPD had been thorough, even to the character he had played. He came across to everyone at KingStar as a big-time jerk, a jokester, a creep, and it was no surprise that the longer he stayed there, the more he fit into that role. Over time he’d developed into someone who was always playing pranks, so no one thought anything about it when he played one on Eddie. And to later learn that he was a hard-nosed cop just like Eddie was mind-boggling. No one even guessed that these two were working together. In fact, Adam and Vinnie had made a big show of being anything but friends. He had been on the front lines many times watching as they’d had arguments that had almost come to blows. He’d stopped many of them, even got between them when they seemed to be ready to kill each other. He would have never guessed that they were only playing a part.

  When Adam thought about that day in Ada’s office he was amazed at how it all went down. Eddie deserved a friggin’ Academy Award. They both did. But all an undercover cop gets for their efforts are a few handshakes, and good natured slaps on their backs, and a new assignment. What a shame. It was no wonder the city of New York called Eddie a legend. He was all that, and so much more.