Con Game Page 19

  Backing up a step, Delta braced herself and kicked the door in. As it crashed open against a shoe rack, she knelt on one knee, her .357 magnum aimed immediately at the two people sitting on the floor in front of her. Heart racing, temples pounding, Delta poised the revolver at Elson Zuckerman, whose head was slightly behind Jan’s. He had Jan in a headlock, which shielded most of his face. Jan’s hands were locked onto the arm squeezing her neck and turning her face red. Jan’s gun was still in the holster and her baton on the floor. Whatever had happened between them had happened so fast, Jan did not have the time to pull her gun.

  “Good choice,” Elson said calmly. “You impress me, Officer Stevens. Thus far, you have managed to come in contact with me far more than I had anticipated. You do make a fabulous warrior.”

  Delta steadied her breathing as she caught the right side of his face through her sights. “Let her go.” Delta stiffened her trigger finger, so that the slightest movement would send a round through his right eye.

  If only she had a clear shot . . .

  “Don’t even think about it, Officer Stevens. You saw what I did to little Helen. I can do the same to your partner. By the time you pulled that trigger, she’d be a dead woman. Surely, you don’t doubt that I can, or would?”

  No, Delta didn’t doubt it. Not for a second. “What do you want?”

  A slight, malevolent grin slid across his face. “Oh, I got what I came for, and he didn’t even fight.”

  Delta stole a glance over his shoulder and saw a young man lying on the ground with a yellow ribbon around his neck and his feet devoid of shoes.

  “I must say,” Elson continued, “I am quite surprised to find that you’ve figured the game out. I hadn’t anticipated trouble from you until level six or seven. That’s a credit to you, Stevens, more than it is to Consuela. She would be nowhere without you. You are an exceptional adversary. Thank you for making this so enjoyable.”

  Delta looked at Jan’s blue eyes. They were saying a million things to Delta, held a million fears—that she might never see her children again; that she might not have the chance to say goodbye to Dennis; that she might not even live to see tomorrow. Her eyes reflected the same kind of fear as a deer’s just before being hit by a car.

  But Delta’s eyes spoke right back to her. She had lost one partner already. She wasn’t about to lose another. Not now, and not to this fucking maniac.

  That much she was sure of.

  “Cut the horseshit, Elson. Let her go, and maybe I won’t kill you.”

  The smile slithered wider. “Oh, I like that. Would you forfeit your partner’s life to save that of your dear friend? The one who delights in belittling people? You would exchange one good life for a tainted one? What an added twist! Delta, you have truly made this one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life.”

  Jan’s eyes were watering now, either from the pressure on her neck, fear, or both.

  “Maybe.” Delta knew that squeezing a round off so close to Jan’s head was a great risk at best. She couldn’t chance hitting Jan with an errant shot. She needed just a little more room.

  “Oh, and maybe not.” Elson’s smile grew. “I see that Consuela has chosen her champion well. I’ve done a great deal of research on you, my friend. I know that you don’t play by the rules. That’s why you and Consuela make such an admirable team; you have opposing personalities. You are the rebel who breaks the rules, and she is as consistent as the sun coming up. Well, rule bender, let’s see, what’s that one cop rule about never giving your weapon up? Didn’t some poor slob buy the farm with his own gun somewhere in an onion field some time ago? Yes, I do believe I read that book. Why not make this interesting, Stevens, and put your weapon down?”

  “Because I’m not insane like you.”

  Elson’s smile dropped a little. “Be true to your rebellious nature. Put the gun down, and I swear, I’ll spare her life. I give you my word as a gentleman.”

  Delta shook her head. “Kiss my ass.”

  The smile did not waver. “You don’t think I’ll do it, do you?” Elson tightened his grip on Jan’s neck.

  “Oh contrary, I’m sure you will. I’ve already written her off as dead, you crazy fuck. I’ve seen what a ‘gentleman’ you can be. My only concern now is that my partner doesn’t go to her grave alone.” Delta steadied her aim on the top right portion of his skull. She just needed one clear shot.

  “You’re bluffing.” The smile faded.

  “Am I?” Delta cocked the trigger—an act done only by cops on T.V.

  The smile completely vanished. “You’re killing her by not putting your gun down. You understand that, don’t you?”

  Delta shrugged, keeping her eye trained on his face. “Maybe. That’s a chance I’m willing to take.” Delta looked into Jan’s eyes and saw the almost imperceptible acknowledgment of what Delta was about to try.

  Suddenly, Elson stood, jerking Jan to her feet. Backing toward a stairway Delta hadn’t noticed before, he regained his composure. “I believe you would, Stevens. I believe you would stop at nothing to protect the life of that bitch, Consuela.”

  Delta inhaled, ready to stroke the trigger. “It’s no contest, Elson.”

  Cranking his hold on Jan, Elson stepped closer to the stairs. “I’m a fraction of an inch away from breaking your partner’s neck. I’ll give you one more chance to put your gun down and save her life. It’s that easy.”

  “Not a chance. If she dies, you die. That’s even easier.” Beads of sweat rolled down Delta’s back as she trained the gun on his forehead. She didn’t doubt that he’d snap Jan’s neck, regardless of what Delta did. Delta saw no alternative but to take him out before he could harm Jan. Inhaling slowly, Delta readied herself for her final aim.

  “Do it,” Jan uttered through clenched teeth. “Kill the fucker.”

  Before Delta could squeeze off a round, Elson tossed Jan at Delta before flinging a Chinese star. Delta’s gun clattered to the ground and the two women crashed to the floor as Elson scrambled up the wooden stairway.

  “Shit, shit, shit!” Delta yelled, grabbing her right thigh as she fell against a shelf stacked with bowling shoes. Clutching for her gun, Delta rolled to her side and tried to get up, but the intense pain from the points embedded deep into her flesh brought her back to the floor.

  “Jan?” Delta asked, seeing Jan slowly rise from the ground. “Are you hit?”

  Jan gasped for air. “No.” Grabbing her radio off the floor Jan announced, “This is S-10-12. Suspect fled to the roof of the building. Description: five-foot-six, one-thirty-five, brown hair, short Levi jacket, blue jeans, white tennis shoes. He is armed and very dangerous.” Jan inhaled another breath to continue. “We also have a 187 and an officer down. Repeat, officer down; request an ambulance.”

  Delta sat, holding her throbbing thigh in both hands. Blood soaked through her pants and began dripping slowly to the concrete floor beneath her. She did not hear the response from the radio, concentrating instead on not passing out.

  “Go after him!” Delta growled, as a hot streak of pain seared through her leg.

  Jan was at her side in an instant. “No way, pal. I’m staying here with you.” Jan set her radio down and knelt next to Delta. “If he’s on the roof, he’s ours.” Glancing at the blood-covered star, Jan gulped in some air.

  Delta nodded. “Pull it out. Do it fast.”

  “The doctor will yell at us.”

  “Who gives a shit? I’m bleeding to death anyway.”

  Grabbing the star, Jan turned her face away and yanked it free from Delta’s leg, sending a short spurt of blood across the room.

  “Son-of-a-bitch!” Delta cried. “God, that hurts.”

  Taking a hopefully clean towel off the rack behind Delta, Jan applied direct pressure to stem the bleeding. “How’s that?”

  Leaning back against the shoe rack, Delta sighed. “Better.” Placing her hand over Jan’s, Delta helped put pressure on her leg. “Damn that asshole and his fucking stars.
I should have blown his head off.” Feeling the throb bang her head like a drum, Delta felt weak. “How are you?” she asked, squeezing Jan’s hands beneath hers.

  “Honestly?”

  “Uh-huh.” Her world slowly started spinning, and Delta knew it was simply a matter of time.

  “I think I shit my pants.”

  Delta smiled and nodded, glad that Jan had stayed with her. “When you thought he was really going to break your neck?”

  “No. When I thought you were really going to send a bullet whizzing past my ear.” Jan pressed harder as the towel turned red.

  Delta shrugged and watched as the blood dripped off the towel. “Too close to call.”

  “You weren’t bluffing, were you?”

  “Nope. I was sure he’d kill you first, just out of the meanness of it. I could never live with myself if I just stood there and watched him snap your neck.” The walls seemed to breathe in and out with Delta, and her head was beginning to float off her shoulders.

  “You really think he would have?”

  Delta nodded. “Killed you? Yep. Even if it was just to make a point. The guy’s a control freak. He wants us to think he’s got this whole damn thing under his thumb.”

  “Does he?”

  Delta grinned drunkenly. She was sure the walls were moving. Or maybe she was. It was getting harder and harder to tell. “Not anymore.”

  “Well, thanks for keeping me alive. For a minute there . . .”

  “Wasn’t even close.” Jan’s face was becoming fuzzy, and Delta knew it wouldn’t be too long before she passed out.

  “Maybe not, but I’ll be sure to have my kids and my husband thank you anyway.”

  “Hey, that’s what we’re about.” Taking a deeper, slower breath, Delta felt almost ready to let herself succumb to the waves of nausea rolling over her. “Did he say anything to you while you were in here with him? I mean, why did he do this? Why you?”

  “Don’t you get it by now? The asshole admires you. I think he likes you.”

  Delta shook her head but wasn’t sure if it moved. She didn’t quite feel like she was in her body anymore, as grayness and unconsciousness pounded against the shores of her mind. Any moment now, her world would fade to black.

  “No . . . I don’t . . . get it.” In the dismal blackness that enveloped her, Delta heard Jan’s last words.

  “He said he wanted to meet the woman brave enough to track down and face a man as dangerous and as brilliant as he is. He said you were the last of the true champions, or something to that effect. Can you believe it? The guy thinks you’re great.”

  As the final particle of consciousness gave way to the dark reality of unconsciousness, Delta focused her last bit of energy on Jan’s face and exhaled her final conscious breath. “No kidding.”

  Chapter 36

  As the last stitch was sewn into her leg, Delta winced. The star had managed to cut a

  gash in her thigh measuring five-inches across and one inch deep.

  Even with the pain medication, her leg throbbed like she was in the bass section of a stereo speaker.

  In the far corner of the room Jan sat filling out report forms and glancing over every now and then to see if Delta was all right.

  “That’s about it,” Dr. Leslie Weeks said, tying up the last bit of thread. “I know I’m wasting my breath on you, Delta, but I do need to warn you that because of the location of the stitches, you should stay off your feet for a few days to let it heal. Give yourself a day or two for it to mend. It’s pretty deep, and you’ll risk infection if you push too hard. I’m going to cut you loose for a few days, all right?”

  Delta’s immediate reaction was one of displeasure. Then she realized that being off work might actually give her more time to hunt Elson down. Maybe there was a silver lining on that star Elson embedded in her.

  Dr. Weeks winked at Delta. “I can imagine the trouble you’ll get yourself into if you’re not working.”

  Delta smiled. She had always liked Leslie. Ever since she stitched Delta up after a riot broke out, she made sure she always came back to Dr. Weeks.

  “I’ll be back to check up on you in a bit. For now, lay your head back and rest a minute. You’re done fighting crime for the night.”

  Delta grinned through the lingering discomfort. “Thanks, doc. You do good work.”

  Dr. Weeks smiled a near perfect smile. “Wait till the department gets my bill.”

  Leaning her head back, Delta closed her eyes and fought the desire to scratch her stitches. She remembered the first time she got stitches, aged five; she’d run under a garage door that had a bolt sticking out. The bolt caught her square on top of the head, but she just kept running. If she remembered correctly, she had been playing kick-the-can, or something similar. Delta barely heard the door open and someone sitting down on the chair beside her.

  “Had a rough night, eh, Stevie?”

  Slowly opening her eyes, Delta kept her eyes trained at the ceiling and not at the Detective next to her. “What do you want, Leonard?”

  “How are you feeling?”

  Delta lowered her gaze and squinted at him. For all of his rough edges, Russ Leonard really did care. “Like someone tried to make a shish kabob out of me. Did you get him?”

  Leonard averted his eyes as he shook his head. “The bastard had a fucking helicopter waiting for him. He just grabbed a hold of this rope and away he went.”

  Delta remembered hearing the chopper blades shortly before seeing Elson. “A helicopter?”

  “Can you believe it? Dropped a line, he grabbed it, and away he went. We couldn’t shoot at it and have it crash on the streets below.”

  “So, he got away.”

  Leonard nodded. “I’m tellin’ ya, Stevie, I’m gettin’ really tired of this shitbag.”

  “You and me both, Russ.”

  Leonard scooted the chair closer. “Then work with me, Stevie. Give me everything you have on this guy.”

  Delta closed her eyes and leaned her head back. Her leg was on fire.

  “Come on, Stevie. You know the kind of trouble I could get you in for withholding evidence in a case like this.”

  As the pain travelled up her leg, Delta shook her head. “I’ve got nothing to tell. We have a psycho loose.”

  “Bullshit.”

  Jan rose from the chair. “Sergeant, Delta is telling you the truth.”

  Leonard looked at Jan and shook his head. “I figured you for smarter than falling for Stevie’s bag of tricks, Bowers. She’s snowed you, too, and look where it almost got you. Laying on a slab next to Helen.”

  Delta jerked her eyes open and her head forward and immediately regretted doing so. “Back off, Leonard. You had your chance to work with me and you fumbled. Leave us alone.”

  Leonard shook his head. “Can’t back off now. Everyone from the Chief to dispatch wants to know how it is that you and this Elson guy referred to each other by name. You have a lot of questions to answer when you leave here, Stevie.”

  This revelation hit Delta hard. She had forgotten that piece. Of course everyone would be wanting answers by now. It was clear to everyone that this case had developed into something more than a serial killer. Downtown would want to know just what that development was.

  “Can you explain that to me, Stevie? Because in a few minutes, the big bosses are gonna be breathing on your ass so hard, you’ll think you’re in a hurricane.”

  Delta looked at him and grinned. “Lucky guess?”

  Leonard snorted. “The way I see it, maybe you’ve had more than one contact with our nutcase.”

  “And maybe you should have listened a little harder, Leonard. The way I see it, we came to you with evidence, and you shooed us away like we were some wet-eared rookies. Try explaining that to the Chief.”

  “Don’t fuck with me, Stevens. This is a homicide case you’re messing with. Right now, you’re standing in the way. You may be getting closer to the perp who’s pulling the jobs, but you sure as hell ain’t p
reventing these deaths from happening. It’s time to stop playing amateur detective and give me everything you have. And, in case you’re the least bit confused, this isn’t a request.”

  This made Delta laugh. “Leonard, if the Chief and the Captain really wanted to know how Elson and I knew each other’s names, they’d be in here right now. Don’t bullshit me. You started with nothing, you have nothing, and you’ll finish the fourth quarter with nothing. I needed your help and came to you ready to deal. Maybe if you would have compromised a little, my partner’s life wouldn’t have been threatened tonight. So don’t go telling me what you’re going to do to me, Leonard, because you’re full of shit.”

  Leonard was suddenly on his feet. “Now look here, Stevens—”

  Before he could say another word, Jan was right in his face. “Back off, Leonard. Back way off.”

  Leonard sneered at her. “Don’t go looking for trouble, Bowers.”

  “And don’t you even think about harassing the cop who saved my life tonight.”

  “She’s the reason your life was in danger in the first place.”

  “That shows just how little you know about this case, Leonard.” Jan stood on tiptoe.

  “I know enough.”

  Jan’s voice rose to a level Delta had never heard. “Delta is one hell of a cop, and you know it. If she wasn’t, I’d be on a slab in the morgue right about now. She’s closer to Elson than you’ll ever be by scratching your balls and waiting for a clue to walk through the door. Connie and Delta came to you, and you burned them. You turned them away because what they had to offer wasn’t concrete enough. Well, take a good long look at that star over there, and you tell me if that’s concrete enough.”

  “That’s where you’re mistaken—”

  “Right or wrong has nothing to do with it. I’m alive because Delta knew which door to pick. I’m alive because she was able to bluff him into going for the stairs, instead of killing me. I’m alive, you narrow-minded, pig-headed man, because for the past two weeks, she’s done nothing but eat, sleep and drink this case. He’s in her head. You can’t force that kind of knowledge out. You have to possess it yourself. Delta owns it, so just back the fuck off.”