Cold Blooded III: Sins and Sanctions (Nick McCarty Assassin Series Book 3) (2 page)

Nick is an assassin, and in Gus’s estimation, one of the most dangerous men on earth. A former Delta Force unit member, Nick killed people with startling efficiency and no conscience. During negotiations and breakup with a shadowy National Security Agency offshoot, Nick gained a family, but ended the NSA’s black ops chapter while saving Rachel, Jean, and Deke the dog. After flirting with retirement, Gus talked Nick into returning to his deadly occupation, thinking his partner would be so out of his element simply writing, the inaction might drive Nick quietly nuts. In succeeding, Gus had unintentionally activated his partner’s quirky side with a comic book reference, while Nick threaded his murderous way into CIA folds as a contract killer under new department chief Paul Gilbrech.

Gus listened to Nick’s muffled movements, picturing him moving across the park to the interception point. “Do you still have your El Muerto mask on? Take it off, shoot that bastard in the head, and I’ll pick you up along Seaver Street.”

Gus heard Nick mutter something. “What?”

Nick sighed loud enough for Gus to hear. “I didn’t bring my gun. El Muerto kills sometimes with a knife, and many times with his bare hands.”

“Are you stupid? What the hell’s gotten into you, Nick?”

“Quiet… Payaso, my disrespectful sidekick. El Muerto is thinking.”

“I told you to quit calling me Payaso!” Gus bristled at Nick’s new nickname for Gus in retaliation for Gus labeling him El Muerto (The Dead One) in Spanish. Payaso meant clown.

“Can’t talk now, my loyal sidekick. El Muerto must save the damsel in distress,” Nick whispered, watching Kroneg drag Tennington under a park structure eave. So intent on his terror inducing ploy with the knife, Kroneg neglected his own backside.

* * *

Sharon tried to scream, but her attacker’s hand clamped off her throat, pinning her head in an unbreakable grip. As the knife descended toward her face slowly, an arm clamped around her attacker’s neck, and a gloved hand gripped his knife wielding wrist. She heard the bones in the man’s wrist crack. His anguished pain filled scream was choked off by the arm around his throat jerking him away from Sharon, and into the air. Sharon’s vision cleared as she gasped and choked air into her tortured lungs. Someone with a black mask over his head with eyeholes cut into it, and tied in a knot at the back of his head yanked her attacker into the air while grinding his wrist bones without letup. He looked a little like the hero in a movie she saw as a kid: Zorro. Sharon scooted into the structure wall while watching the deadly struggle. It ended a minute later as Kroneg’s body hung in limp submission to death, his eyes bulging in grim illustration of eternity. The masked man holding Kroneg held him for nearly a minute longer before allowing the body to drop from his arm’s grip.

The deadly Reaper made placating gestures at Sharon. She had unconsciously skittered a few feet further away. “Your torture ended seconds ago, young woman. Are you in need of medical attention?”

“I…I’m fine.” Sharon broke down into tears for a moment – rasping, aching renderings of shock and relief. Her savior remained silent, allowing her to regain control without moving. After many moments, Sharon used the structure wall to regain her feet, a wobbly sensation passing through her as she faced the masked man with uneasy grace. “Who are you?”

“I… I am El Muerto!” The masked man struck a pose in crouched form with his right foot extended, and his right arm over the lower part of his face as if he had a cape.

Sharon giggled, but made conciliatory gestures at her savior. “I know you! You saved those two women in the news! Oh my God… you’re real… a real super hero! Thank you, El Muerto!”

* * *

Gus watched the video cam pickup with his face twisted in anxiety as the low light cam portrayed Nick’s hurried flight to prevent Tennington’s death. He grinned as Nick clamped Kroneg around the neck while pulverizing his right wrist. Gus let his breath out slowly as Kroneg’s scream ended in a throat choking arm vice. The aftermath entertained Gus to no end as he watched Nick play comic book super hero, his deadly assassin friend the only one he could ever imagine pulling something like this off. Tennington’s giggle at Nick’s posing prompted a guttural laugh from Gus, and a sigh as she continued on into hero worship.

“Get out of there, Muerto.”

“Shut up, Payaso,” Nick cautioned in a whisper. “El Muerto must make a statement here.”

“What did you say, El Muerto?” Sharon stepped toward Nick.

Nick made a grandiose gesture of dismissal. “It is nothing young lady. El Muerto must flee the scene of this monster’s death. I have here proof positive this man is a serial killer, who I have been hunting. He will never again terrorize, mutilate and murder. I apologize for arriving only a moment before he subjected you to further horrors.”

Nick handed the woman a small memory disc. “Please call 911, and tell them what has happened. Give them the flash drive to prove what you will tell them is true. Thank you for your cooperation. El Muerto must leave… now!”

“Wait… El Muerto!” Sharon called out. “None of my… you know… friends will ever believe this. Please, can we take a picture with my phone?”

Nick hesitated with Gus laughing in his ear. “Very well, my lady. If it will add to your credibility, I will grant you a picture with me.”

“What!” Gus nearly screamed in Nick’s ear. “Are you out of your ever lovin’ mind? You can’t photobomb selfies on a whim like this! Get a grip, Nick!”

“Shut the hell up, Payaso.”

“What did you say, El Muerto?”

“I merely had to remind my trusted sidekick, Payaso, that you are to be trusted with the secret of El Muerto.”

“Of course… I would never betray you, El Muerto,” Sharon stated. “Hey… doesn’t Payaso mean clown?”

“Yes, but he is a deadly clown, a very dangerous clown – one to strike fear in the hearts of those criminals who do not know him,” Nick explained with Gus making gagging noises in his ear. “Let us perform this selfie with El Muerto while we stand next to the body of this hideous killer of women!”

Sharon lifted her iPhone while huddling close to Nick. He covered the lower part of his face in a caped superhero pose with a right forearm, while draping his left arm around Sharon’s shoulders. Nick then crouched in his all black leather outfit, again with his forearm pose, one foot on the throat of Kroneg’s neck, angling so as to hide his actual height.

“Call 911,” Nick/El Muerto urged Sharon. “Although El Muerto must leave, I will be watching from the shadows. You will be safe until the police arrive. El Muerto… away!”

“I love you, El Muerto!” Sharon called out as Nick fled into the park.

* * *

On the way to their hotel, Gus remained silent while Nick laughed his way through the video on Gus’s iPad. “You know, Payaso… El Muerto doesn’t think he has ever enjoyed killing someone as much as he did Kroneg. A few minutes earlier, and El Muerto could have prevented him from taking the girl. Capturing that scumbag alive for an hour in the park would have pleased El Muerto’s hunger for justice.”

“I doubt you’ve done anything dumber than what you did tonight, and for God’s sake would you please stop referring to yourself in the third person… and quit calling me Payaso!”

“You started this El Muerto thing,” Nick reminded him. “Remember, many people are in deadly fear of clowns. We should make you a costume, Payaso. You could assist El Muerto with an evil and deadly clown mask at times, where El Muerto doesn’t need his trusty sidekick to act as getaway driver.”

“No thanks.”

“Okay then, think about this. If I hadn’t walked into Sharon Tennington’s store after Rachel’s craving for chocolate chip ice cream, I would never have spotted Kroneg. She would be dead now, and Kroneg still on the loose if not for us. It was a miracle.”

“It’s not a miracle when one serial killer can spot another serial killer.”

“That’s hurtful, Payaso.”

Gus chuckled. “I admit it. Your noticing Kroneg, and our research into his background turning up a trail of dead women across the country in the places he’d been was pretty cool. I had my doubts until these past few days watching Kroneg stalk her. How did you know tonight would be the night he moved on her?”

“He didn’t go to the store for the first time. Did you have any luck with Phil? I have three more book signings scheduled, but then we have to move on. I could postpone the dates though if you want. At least you spent time with Katie. I don’t have to be at the wedding anyway. Let Phil be your best man. You can’t blame Phil and Julie for not wanting anything to do with seeing me again.”

“Bullshit! I don’t want Phil as my best man. If not for you, they’d both be dead. Yes, I loved seeing Katie, but it makes no sense for them not to meet you, Rachel, and Jean before the ceremony. He said they might stop by the book signing tomorrow at the Harvard Book Store with Katie.”

“Neat. That’s a nice venue to say hi in, and reassure them I’m not going to thread into their lives with my murderous but heroic Muerto tendencies.”

Gus took a deep breath. “What the hell was I thinking when I tagged you with the El Muerto label as a joke. I should have known you’d take it to the undiscovered country of insanity. Rachel, Jean, and Tina will be accompanying us tomorrow for a change. Their interest in the old Harvard Book Store overcame the boredom factor.”

“They know they can leave whenever they want to,” Nick said. “Add in meeting Phil, Julie, and Katie to the mix, and we have a very comfortable gathering. Cassie expects to see hundreds there for the signing with a possibility of a thousand attending. This has been a great experience since enlisting you as my sidekick Payaso, along with sharing the signing events as Jed, my character Diego’s partner.”

“Jed, yes… Payaso, no, you tool!”

Nick grinned. “You know you love being Payaso, the heroic sidekick of the great El Muerto. I hope tonight’s adventure doesn’t get blown out of proportion, or our cover story of night research at Boston harbor will be dead in the water with the girls.”

“Rachel will be so on to you, Muerto,” Gus replied, enjoying what he considered a done deal with the media headlines sure to come. “If you’d skipped the picture taking idiocy, you may have had a chance. Posing with the woman, and with your foot on Kroneg’s dead neck, I believe you can kiss any chance of anonymity goodbye. Rachel and Jean will be on your case so fast it will make your head spin.”

Nick considered the situation with grim amusement. The thrill he felt lance through him when he choked Kroneg to death as Gus’s comic creation, El Muerto, did not fade at all since the deed. His interaction with Sharon Tennington added a humorous flavor to the sanction of Kroneg beyond justice. Nick considered it a small payment for his many sins. Without payment from a sanctioned contract, Kroneg’s final accounting for his sins could be thought of as Nick’s own penance. Nick sighed.
Who am I kidding? I did some good. It felt good, and I killed a bad guy. No use getting delusions of grandeur.

“I think it will end up on the back page, Gus. The media won’t know what to think of it. The police will keep it on the down low because they had nothing to do with it. By the time any mention of it gets published or on the TV, Rachel and Jean will be wrapped in some other trip endeavor.”

“I hope you’re right, Muerto, but I know you’re wrong.”

“Trust me, Payaso, my doubting sidekick. All will be well.”

* * *

“What the hell have you done now?” Rachel stormed into the kitchen with a very amused Jean, waving a copy of the Boston Herald.

Nick arose at five in the morning as was his custom. He had been writing continually in the hotel room suite’s kitchen after walking Deke. Rachel and Jean went through their usual morning routine upon waking at nearly nine. They took a morning walk, and had breakfast, leaving Nick alone during his favorite writing time. Unfortunately, Nick could see El Muerto’s adventure did not escape the Herald’s front page. Deke ran around behind Nick’s chair at Rachel’s tone.

“You’re supposed to protect me from this type of attack, Deke, you slacker,” Nick told the dog, shaking his finger at him. Deke grunted, while peeking out at Rachel who dumped the paper in front of Nick, pointing at the front page pictures with headline ‘El Muerto Strikes Again’.

Nick perused the article with growing uneasiness. It covered El Muerto’s torture killing of Dominic Leka, the serial killer Nick had sanctioned under CIA contract. Although acknowledging his saving the two young women trapped in cages for months by Leka, the vigilante tag kept recurring throughout. The Herald did list the facts admitted to by the police concerning the proof Nick had given to Sharon Tennington, describing her ordeal the past night in detail. The paper condemned El Muerto’s supposed vigilante justice while revealing that the police were investigating horrific murders now tied to Gavin Kroneg. Nick smiled at Sharon Tennington’s glowing recount of her savior’s actions.

“This guy, El Muerto, is pretty neat,” Nick said. He pulled Rachel close, running his hand over her protruding stomach. “How is the newest member of our family doing this morning? He’s kicking like hell.”

“Don’t sweet talk me.” Rachel’s tone softened at Nick’s touch. “Jean and I aren’t stupid. We know who El Muerto is. You’re smarter than this, damn it. What the hell happened to your rules that coincidences should be avoided at all cost?”

Nick pasted a surprised look on his features with the ease of a killer who could act out a performance rivaling the greatest actors in any century. “You think I’m El Muerto?”