Hurricane Force (A Miss Fortune Mystery Book 7) (27 page)

Brody left Sinful. I’ve followed him to NOLA. He just exited Magazine from 90.

I showed Harrison the message and he nodded and tapped my phone, indicating I should give Carter information on the takedown so that he didn’t walk into the middle of cross fire.

In position at Deep South Publishing. All parties are in building and our men are ready to execute takedown. Proceed with extreme caution.

I sent the message and a second later the reply came.

10-4.

I nodded to Harrison and he peered out the door, then moved into the hallway. We headed down the hallway and skirted the edges of the reception area to get to the back stairwell. At the base of the stairwell was our inside agent. He pointed up, then held up three fingers.
 

Everyone was on the third floor, the attic.
 

Harrison took point and indicated for me to take the rear position, and we headed up the stairwell to the attic. When we got to the top of the staircase, Harrison put his ear to the door for several seconds. He looked at us and we both nodded. He pressed his headset and whispered, “On three. One…”

I took a deep breath and slowly blew it out. My mind, my heart, and every square inch of my body were in tune with one another and so ready for this I was tingling all over. I felt adrenaline course through me, and my excitement grew exponentially as Harrison counted down.
 

“Two…”

I gripped my weapon and tensed my legs, preparing to launch.

“Three!”

Harrison burst through the door, the other agent and me so close behind we could have been his T-shirt. At the same time, the skylight shattered, spraying glass all over, and the FBI agents dropped in on the other side of the room.
 

“FBI!” one of the agents yelled. “Drop your weapons!”

I knew they wouldn’t surrender, and I was right. The men in the middle of the room were already in a heated exchange and scrambled for cover, throwing over tables and diving behind cement columns. A second later, the gunfire started. I dived behind a piece of printing equipment and took a shot over the edge of it, taking out one of Ahmad’s men. I scanned the room, desperately trying to find Ahmad, but between all the movement and the haze from gunfire I couldn’t locate him.

I heard Ahmad’s men shouting and saw two of them attempt to rush the FBI agents in the back of the room. The FBI agents cut them down before they closed half the distance. I saw movement across from me and realized one of our targets was positioning himself underneath a piece of equipment. I dropped to the floor and placed one round in the center of his head.
 

I saw movement at the back corner of the room and realized a man was climbing up a ladder to a roof access point.
 

Ahmad!

I ran to where Harrison was hunkered down and pointed to Ahmad as he slipped through the roof access. Harrison nodded and covered me as I ran for the ladder. As soon as I made it to the other side of the room, I tossed my smoke grenade a couple feet in front of me and the thick cloud started to form. I headed up the ladder, Harrison close behind. At the access point, I pushed up the hatch and waited for gunfire. When none was forthcoming, I climbed through the hatch and onto the roof, crouching down as I got my bearings. Harrison popped up a couple seconds later and we scanned the roof for movement.

Finally, I spotted him, slipping over the side of the back of the building. I ran for the corner, hoping I could close the distance before he got away. From the roof, I’d have a clear shot of him in the alley.
 

My nightmare would be over. My life would be mine again.

I hurried to the edge and peered over but he was nowhere in sight. Damn! I scanned the alley, looking for any sign of movement, then Harrison pointed to the Dumpster we’d hidden behind before. A tiny sliver of shadow at the edge of the Dumpster shifted in the moonlight.

Behind the Dumpster was a wire fence, closing the alley off from an open space between two buildings on the next street. We’d see Ahmad if he went over the fence, but if he had a way to cut the wire and go through it, all bets were off. I didn’t even care about the risks. I swung my legs over the side of the building and scurried down the ladder, then dashed for the Dumpster. I could hear Harrison close behind.
 

I flattened myself against the Dumpster and listened for any sign of movement, but the only sound I heard was the creak of a wooden sign moving in the breeze. I looked at Harrison and held up a finger. He nodded and I began the count. I was just about to lift my third finger when I heard something behind us.

“Drop those weapons,” a woman said. “Make a sudden move and I’ll cut you in half.”

Chapter Twenty

I knew that voice.

Gracie Sampson!

Slowly, Harrison and I turned around, our weapons and hands in the air. The assault rifle Gracie held was no laughing matter. One burst of fire and she could easily make good on her threat.

“You Feds,” she said with a smile. “You think you’re all so smart, but you had Deputy LeBlanc focused on the wrong Sampson. Brody couldn’t run arms. He’s too inept. Too nice, especially if he’s drunk. Just ask that bitch Celia Arceneaux. Brody would never have slept with her if she hadn’t gotten him drunk, and he’s never taken a drink since. I made sure of that.” She laughed. “The irony is, everyone thinks I’m the nice one.”

I felt the blood drain out of my body. I’d encountered a target before who managed a complete split of personalities as Gracie could. The CIA shrink had deemed him a sociopath. No way was she letting us out of the alley alive, and we were too far from the back of the Dumpster to make a run for it. We wouldn’t be able to even turn before she blew us away.
 

“You don’t want to do this,” Harrison said. “It will only make it worse on you.”

“I don’t see how,” Gracie said. “No one suspects me except my fool of a husband, and he doesn’t know anything. Not really. Besides, I’m done with working. Cleaning house is my final performance and you two are part of the dirty stuff that needs to go. Then I’m off for an extradition-free country where I’ll spend the rest of my life sitting on a beach and having attractive men serve me drinks.”

A burst of automatic gunfire set off in the publishing building again and she smiled. “Sounds like you guys are doing all my work for me. My cousin was useful for his connections, but he’s not a good judge of character. He was too cocky…made too many mistakes—the counterfeit money being the biggest. He should never have used those bills until we got the original artist to finish them. Max was never good enough to pull off a job like that.”

Original artist? If Max wasn’t the artist, then who was?

“Enough small talk,” Gracie said. “I’ve got business to attend to.” She trained the rifle on me and smiled. “Bye now.”

When the shot fired, I felt all the blood rush from my head. My knees buckled and I fell back against the Dumpster and slowly slid down.
 

“Fortune!” Harrison shook my shoulders. “Are you hit?”

I bolted out of my stupor and grabbed my stomach, looking for the blood that should be pouring out. But there wasn’t even a hole in my T-shirt. I jumped up and looked down at Gracie, who was splayed faceup on the ground, a single bullet hole in the middle of her forehead.
 

Harrison pointed to the top of the building where two people stood, one holding a rifle, and started to lift his gun when I grabbed his arm.
 

“They’re with me,” I said and gave Ida Belle and Gertie a thumbs-up.
 

Harrison narrowed his eyes at them then shook his head. “The old ladies? Are you kidding me?”

“I told you they weren’t your average senior citizens.”

He glanced back at Gracie. “Yeah, but that shot from that distance…” The admiration in his voice was evident.
 

“Ahmad!” I bolted around the Dumpster and slid to a stop in front of the fence. I pushed the cut wire to the side and cursed. “He’s gone.”

Harrison put his hand on my shoulder. “There will be another opportunity. We’re closing in more on him every day.”

I struggled to control my frustration. He’d been right there, practically in my sights.
 

“Gracie!” A man’s voice yelled behind us and we ran from behind the Dumpster to see Brody drop to his knees next to his wife’s body. “Why wasn’t a normal life good enough?” he wailed. “Why?”

I heard footsteps behind us and turned around to see Carter approaching. He flashed his badge at me and Harrison, took one look at Gracie and Brody, and sighed. Then he looked over at us, his eyes locking on mine, and I knew that despite the clothes and ski mask, he knew exactly who I was.
 

Sirens began to sound in the distance and Harrison turned to me. “Get out of here. I’ll handle the wrap-up.”

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“You were never here. That was what Morrow and I agreed on.” And then it hit me—Harrison was lying. He was never supposed to involve me in the takedown at all. He’d gone directly against Morrow’s wishes. Why he’d picked now to defy an order when he never had before was a question that would have to wait for another day.
 

I handed him my rifle, gave Carter a nod, and dashed for the building, motioning to Ida Belle and Gertie as I went. Ida Belle tossed the rifle over the side of the building and I caught it and put it on the ground for Harrison. I had no idea where she’d gotten it, but I knew she hadn’t sneaked it in the coffin. Harrison would have to explain the shot that killed Gracie. Better to have a weapon to back that explanation up with.
 

I ran down the alley and pulled off the mask before I stepped out onto the sidewalk, then I slowed to a jog until I got closer to the safe house. When I got to the block the safe house was on, I stepped back in a doorway and waited. A couple minutes later, Ida Belle and Gertie came hurrying up the sidewalk.

“Nice shot,” I said as I stepped out of the doorway.

I gave Ida Belle a high five before we threw our arms around each other in a group hug. When we finally broke apart, I looked at Ida Belle and grinned.

“If you could have seen the look on Harrison’s face when he realized who you were,” I said. “It was priceless.”

“I still can’t believe it,” Gertie said. “Gracie Sampson?”

“I know,” Ida Belle said. “I feel bad that we thought it was Brody.”

“He knew something,” I said. “He must have followed her to New Orleans not realizing Carter was following him.”

“And Carter didn’t realize Brody was following Gracie,” Gertie said. “What a big convoluted mess.”

“Hey!” I stared at them for a moment, the thought just hitting me. “How did you two get out? And how did you know where to find me?”

They looked at each other.

“We might as well tell her,” Ida Belle said. “She’s going to see it anyway.”

“Oh no,” I said. “What did you do?”

“Right after you left, I handcuffed Agent Three to the radiator,” Gertie said. “He was still sleeping, so he didn’t notice.”

“Where did you get handcuffs?”
 

Ida Belle rolled her eyes. “You have to ask?”

I thought about Gertie’s two-hundred-pound purse and grinned. “Never mind.”

“I watched out the window to see what kind of car you got in,” Ida Belle said. “When Agent Two came back inside from escorting you, Gertie spilled a soda on him, and we locked him in the bathroom when he went inside to clean up.”

“Then Ida Belle stole his rifle and we hauled booty after you,” Gertie said.

“We made it to the corner in time to see the car you left in turn the corner two blocks over so we ran this direction,” Ida Belle said. “We had just slipped into the parking lot across the street from the publishing company when a sedan with four Middle Eastern men drove by real slow-like.”

Gertie nodded. “We waited until the car turned the corner, then looked around in time to see them pulling into the alley. We figured they must be going into a building on that street, so we climbed up onto the rooftop of the building next door to get a good vantage point in case you all ran into the street.”

“We didn’t see the agents on the adjoining roof until they jumped through the skylight,” Ida Belle said.

Gertie looked excited. “Boy, that was something!”

“Anyway,” Ida Belle said, “we never thought about the fray moving onto the roof.”
 

“Lord help!” Gertie said. “When the gunfire started, I thought I’d have a heart attack right there. It sounded like World War III and then that hatch popped open and that man came out…we dropped like pennies off the side of the Empire State Building. I don’t think I’ve been that skinny in thirty years. I seriously blended into that rooftop.”

“Then we saw you and your partner come out of the hatch,” Ida Belle said.

“How did you know it was me?”

“Please. We’ve been watching your moves for weeks now,” Gertie said. “We’d recognize you no matter what you had over your face. We’re specialists that way.”

Ida Belle shook her head. “We saw your tennis shoes. Anyway, we waited a bit to see if anyone else was coming out of the hatch before moving over to the edge to see what was happening.”