The Specter (13 page)

Clive looked her up and down and closed his eyes to remain calm. He wasn’t used to many people questioning him. “Of course I’m fucking sure. Don’t ever ask me that again.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Get Nick on the line. Do it now. Buzz it through to this phone. Don’t come in here again. Do not disturb me unless you hear from Jackson or Hugh.”

“Yes, sir,” Jessica said as she backed out the door, shutting it softly.

Chapter 15

Detective Folley could see the flames from six blocks back. Red lights of emergency vehicles flashed in front of the House of Lancaster as he drove up. He flipped his single dash light off and killed his siren. The area was already roped off with at least a hundred members of the public standing, watching.

The four lanes of The Queensway was backed up, officer directing cars getting through in one lane.

Folley parked as close as he could get, grabbed his cell phone and ran toward the burning building.

Aaron, what have you done now?

He knew the man had to be grieving, but this was no way to handle it. Folley would be forced to press charges if what dispatch heard from the waitress inside the club was true. With Aaron’s attempted murder charge over his head, he was about to be in a lot of trouble.

Folley showed his ID and got through the taped-off area. He headed for the back of the building where the fire was more under control. Inside the cordoned-off area, police officers talked to a group of people.

Two men sat in the back of two different police cruisers parked side by side. He knocked on the back window. After he got the man’s attention and confirmed it wasn’t Aaron, he knocked on the other cruiser’s window.

“Hey,” a cop shouted as he approached Folley. “Who are you?”

Folley lifted his ID. “Detective Folley. I’m here on behalf of Detective Angela Wheeler at Homicide. I’m sure she’ll be along shortly. And you are?”

“Officer Hanley. I’m in charge here until Homicide arrives. The coroner is already here.” Hanley pointed. “When homicide gets here, tell them we have a stiff in the DJ booth.”

“The DJ booth?”

“Yeah, it looks like these two guys,” he pointed at the men in the separate cruisers, “came in with MP5 machine guns and C-4 to raze the place. When we found that one,” he pointed at the cruiser on the left, “he still had another explosive on his person.” Hanley gestured toward a white van parked in the back corner. “It appears that’s their vehicle. It has enough weapons in the back to start a war with a small country. These two were on some kind of private mission or something. Maybe one of the dancers wouldn’t let them finger her.”

I’m sure it’s not that simple, asshole.

Folley tried to wrap his head around everything. He thought Aaron Stevens had been here. That’s what Angela had said the dispatcher recorded. How did that fit with what Officer Hanley just said?

“And you want to know what the best part is?” Hanley asked.

Folley nodded. He could tell Hanley was eager to tell.

“These guys come with no ID and their van is stolen. They have tats though. It looks like ex-military tats, but I’m not the expert. When we get them downtown we’re going to have a terrible time figuring out who they are because they don’t have any fingerprints either and they’re not talking.”

“No fingerprints?” Folley asked, aghast. “How’s that? Did they burn them off?”

“Must’ve been some kind of acid. Who knows,” Hanley said, shaking his head in an exaggerated way, evidently very happy to have made the collar. As far as Hanley was concerned, he just made the arrest of his career.

“Those people there,” Folley pointed at the ten people gathered around three officers taking notes, “who are they?”

“Witnesses. They have some story about four guys coming into the club and saving everybody five minutes before these two showed up and started shooting.”

“Saving everybody?”
What the fuck?

“Yeah. The one waitress said she saw the whole thing. She said she was the one who called us. At first the foursome looked like they were the aggressors, she said, knocking out the bouncers with some kind of high-flying kicks, but then the one guy, who she called Aaron, a brother of one of the dancers, got the DJ to have everyone exit the building. Then these two came in, took the waitress and three guys hostage while the other one opened fire on the DJ and this Aaron guy. I don’t know how the tables turned, but they did and these two were knocked unconscious. That’s how we found them. The bouncers were all knocked out too. We thought maybe they’d used gas on them or something, but they hadn’t. The waitress was fine.”

“Where’s the four guys who saved the day?”

Hanley shrugged. “No idea. We looked for them, but they’re gone.”

Folley figured the two men in the back of the cruisers were the same two who took Gary in a white van, and he guessed the van would have evidence to prove that. If these two were the same men who took Joanne Stevens, then the Casa Loma murders would be wrapped up pretty fast, which would go a long way to dispel public fear that a mass murderer or serial killer was on the loose. But how did Aaron fit into all this? If he really did save the day, then where was he? Why run?

“Who owns the remaining six vehicles in the lot?”

“No idea.”

“Run the plates. Find out if any of them belong to the four men who ordered everyone out of the club. While you’re doing that, I want to talk to those witnesses, especially the waitress. When Detective Wheeler gets here, she’ll be taking over the case. I’m pretty confident this is connected to the Casa Loma murders found earlier tonight. In the meantime, get me the names and addresses of the owners of these cars.”

“Got it.”

Folley walked over and asked the waitress to come talk to him.

Her eyes were bloodshot, the makeup streaked down her cheeks from crying. She stood beside him, fumbled with a half-smoked cigarette and lit the tip, her hand shaking as what she had just been through worked its way through her system.

“You doing okay?” Folley asked.

She looked at him sideways. “What do you care?”

“It had to be difficult having those guys point their weapons at you.”

She took two long puffs on her cigarette, blew the smoke out and then stomped on the butt, squishing it under her shoe. “I just can’t take anymore. I’m quitting this place. I tried to stop smoking two years ago, but working here got me smoking again. I’m fucking done. I want out.”

“That, I can understand,” Folley said, trying his best to sound consoling, a friend. “Can you tell me what happened here tonight?”

“I already told the cops what happened.”

“Yeah, but I need to hear it from you myself. Is right here, right now, good for you?” he asked in his most understanding voice. “Or would you rather go downtown to the station where I can take a formal statement?”

“You wanna know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?”

“Something like that.”

“I’m pretty freakin’ scared.” She hunched her shoulders and lowered her head, about to cry. “Aaron, Joanne’s brother, came by earlier looking for his missing sister. I was wrong about him. He’s one of the good guys, but when he flipped the bouncer and twisted his finger almost off this morning, I though Aaron was the bad guy.”

Folley gestured for her to keep going.

“He came tonight and said he was gonna blow the place up, but then those two came back in and they had guns—”

“What do you mean, ‘came back in’?” Folley asked. “You
know
them?”

She glanced at the cruisers, then up at the night sky. “Yeah. But I’m not saying anything else.”

“Why not?” Folley asked.

“Because of them.”

“I don’t understand. Explain it to me.”

The waitress straightened her hair, pulled it back and then pushed it behind each ear. She scanned the ground, appearing to want her cigarette back, but it wasn’t coming back from its squished existence. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Why not?”

“Because of what happened here tonight.”

“You’re talking in circles.”

She looked him in the eye. “I will tell you what I saw here tonight. I won’t hide anything. But I can’t talk about nothing else that deals with them.”

“I’m still not following.”

She looked away and put her back to the cruisers with the two suspects. “You’re pretty stupid for a detective.”

He didn’t rise to her insult. He waited, knowing she wanted to tell him something, also knowing that he could take her to the station and sweat her for information.

“Those two men showed up here tonight to kill everybody,” she said.

“That part seems clear.”

“That means they came to kill me, too. Because of what happened three nights ago.” She stopped and fiddled with her hair, twisting it around a finger. “Which is something I won’t talk about.”

“Maybe by telling me what happened, I can help. If I know the whole story, I can make sure those two go away for a long time.”

“Trust me, it’s not that simple.”

“I hear you, but I don’t understand you. Have it make sense for me.”

“Something happened three nights ago. The bouncers and I were witnesses. Don’t you see? If I talk, I’m dead.”

“If they came to kill you tonight, you have to consider something. The people who hired them will send others.”

The waitress’s hair fell in front of her face, and she left it there. Some of the other witnesses were dispersing as the officers moved away. Things were calming down, the tension leaving the air. But for the waitress in front of him, the nightmare was still very real. She wiped at her eyes.

“I probably should’ve asked you first, but what’s your name?”

“Julie Kingsley. I’ve only been working here for two months and I quit. Don’t come here looking for me.”

“I’m going to need your phone number and address,” Folley said as he pulled out a small pad and pen.
 

Julie gave him her information and even her date of birth when he asked for it.

“Last question. Where is Aaron now?”

“No idea. How should I know?” Julie wiped her face and pushed her hair back over her ears.

“Did you see him leave?”

“I was so scared, I ran for the front of the building where the police were showing up. I think they went down the street that way,” Julie said, nodding at the road in the back of the club.

“They? You mean the foursome?”

“Yeah. The guys who saved our lives.”

“Detective Folley,” Hanley said as he came running up.

“Yeah, what is it, Hanley?”

“Detective Wheeler is entering the building at the front and wants to see you up there.”

“Okay, thanks. I’ll head over. Can you take Julie here and place her in an empty cruiser?”

“What?” Julie snapped.

“I’m going to need to talk to you again,” he told her. “We’ll do it down at the station where those two can’t watch you talk. I need to know everything about what happened three nights ago.”

“I’m not comfortable with this. I don’t even know if I’m ready to talk about it. It’s late. Can you let me think about it?”

“Whoever sent those two to raze this place and kill everyone in it, with as much weaponry as they had, won’t be waiting until tomorrow. Hanley, that goes with all the bouncers, too. Every one of them is to be taken into custody until we know more about what’s happening here.”

“Got it,” Hanley said and headed off.

“Listen, Julie. I have something to tell you. What I’m about to tell you hasn’t leaked to the media yet, but it will by tomorrow. Jan Elliot and Joanne Stevens are dead, as well as Nancy Demeers. All their bodies were found tonight with Frank and Gary Weeks’ bodies too. This is very serious. These guys don’t play games. You were supposed to be on the list as well as everyone in this club tonight.”

Julie covered her mouth with her hand and slid down the wall to crouch on her knees. Her eyes widened in shock and tears dripped as her shoulders hitched up and down.

“I need to know everything you know to stop the people who did this. Having you downtown at the station will offer you protection until we can figure out what’s going on.”

Her nod was barely evident, but he caught it. Hanley returned and gestured to Julie. Folley nodded and Hanley helped her to her feet and started walking her to an empty cruiser.
 

Before Folley headed to meet Angela, he gazed down the dark street where Julie had said Aaron ran.

Aaron, where are you and what are you doing now?

Chapter 16

Aaron was fighting the biggest internal battle he had ever encountered in his life. Should he run or turn himself in? He could grab money and food and drive the hour and a half south to cross the Peace Bridge in Niagara Falls, and get lost in the States somewhere. Or he could drive to Folley’s office and tell him everything he knew. Would Folley lock him up for attacking the bouncers? Or would Aaron look like a hero for getting all the paying customers out before the gunmen showed up? His friends were only there to help if things went bad, and it did. What would happen to them?