Nowhere To
Run To
Reed’s
Realm
Reed had
seen the kind of operations the department did at places like Club 9. The first wave of police would raid and they
would bring out those who were not fast enough to get away to the mobile unit
where they would be photographed and booked right on the street. Those clubbers would be issued a citation and
then be cut free, unless they were a big player, and then they were taken
downtown. That didn’t happen often. The big players always had their puppets do
their dirty work for them and they knew when to avoid the club. It just didn’t matter how much a cop knew
about the drug cartel master minds, they never seemed to be in the right
position to gather enough evidence against them, and that lack of evidence that
always set them free.
The owners
of Club 9 were used to getting hit by the police and over the years they had
made adjustments to help give themselves and their patrons as much fair warning
as possible before that first wave of a raid hit the front and side doors of
the club. Cameras were mounted at every
angle of the roof. There were also large
numbers of bouncers and guards that served as look outs and were the first line
of defense.
All of the
extra security measures together made Club 9 hard to get close to without being
noticed, and that was exactly what Reed and Martin were trying to do as they
sat in an unmarked SUV across the road.
The SUV had been parked there earlier in the day so as not to arise any
suspicion from those whose job it was to look out for suspicious vehicles
lurking around. From their position a
half block from the corner, they could see the front door and the side
entryway. Reed and Martin had slipped
into the car without being seen after sunset and were in the back seats, shaded
by the dark tinted windows that offered them cover while watching the two
entrances to the club.
“Do you
really think we’re gonna catch this guy,” Martin
asked as he watched the front door through his binoculars.
Reed had
his eyes on the side door that outlet into the alley on the east side of the
club. “I hope we do, but it’s going to
be hard. We don’t have a current photo
and just a basic description at best.
I’m trying to stay optimistic about all this, but truth be known, I’m
not holding on to a lot of hope,” Reed responded.
“You’re
starting to sound like my mama,” Martin said.
Reed drew
his eyes away from the side door of Club 9 long enough to look over at Martin
with a puzzled look, which promted a laugh from his
friend.
“I say
that because my mama almost spoke those exact words to me last weekend. I went over for Sunday lunch and she got on
this kick about me getting married and having kids like she does from time to
time. The only difference was that this
time she ended it all by telling me that she is about to give up all hope for
that happening. She just doesn’t
understand what life is like on the force.
I don’t have the time to get all my work done, much less have a family,”
Martin explained. “What about you? Your folks ever give you grief about not
doing the family thing?”
Reed
paused before responding. “I wish they
could. They both passed away before I
joined the force.”
“Oh man,”
Martin said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“That’s
alright. Don’t feel bad. It’s not like I ever talked about it,” Reed
added.
“No, we
really haven’t. All the same, I’m sorry
for bringing it up,” Martin said.
“It’s no
big deal, really,” Reed said, looking at Martin and reaching out and slapping
him on his right shoulder before turning back to watch the door.
“My father
was a hard working man. I get that part
of me from him. He passed away when I was
16 from a heart attack. I guess all that
work caught up with him. As for my
mother, she was diagnosed with incurable cancer during my first year of
college. It hit her hard and fast, and
before I knew it, she was gone and I was on my own,” Reed continued, pulling
his binoculars to his eyes.
“I’m real
sorry to hear that man,” Martin said.
“Sometimes I forget how lucky I am to have my mama.”
“She made
me promise her that I would finish college and then start a family of my
own. I guess one out of two isn’t that
bad,” Reed added.
“Sounds
like we’re two sad and lonely souls married to their jobs, huh,” Martin said,
laughing and looking over at Reed.
Reed did
not answer his laugh. Instead he leaned
up in his seat, getting closer to the window.
“What is
it?” Martin asked.
Reed put
his binoculars down and looked over at Martin.
“I think we may have something. I
was watching that alley and I can’t be sure, but I think I saw someone go into
the backdoor of the club. It was so fast
that I didn’t get a good look at him, but I think he matched Willings’ description.
There is only one way to find out if that was him,” Reed said as he got
ready to exit the van. “We’re going in.”
“What was
that?” Martin asked.
Reed
looked up and followed Martin’s gaze back to the door. “What?”
“I thought
I saw somebody else go in. They must
have been on meth or something, though, cause I ain’t never seen nobody
move that fast,” Martin said.
Checking
his gun at one side and his flashlight at the other, Reed shrugged. “I don’t know. Something is definitely not quite right about
all this. Let’s go see what it is.”
Reed
walked into the club first and moved to the right, close to the wall. The club was jammed full of people, most of
who were on the huge dance floor that took up the largest space in the middle
of the open section of the building.
Techno music blared out of the many speakers mounted around the club,
setting Reed’s ears to pound. A stage at
the front of the club played home to the DJ who was spinning music for the
masses of bodies jumping and swirling together in the flashing lights. They writhed together, gyrating from one
partner to the next in time to the music, their eyes closed, as if they were
all in one big trance. Most of them were
wearing dark clothes and donned themselves in green and blue glow necklaces
like the ones parents might buy their young children when the carnival came to
town. Some of the girls were sucking on
pacifiers, no doubt getting their high slowly on the dance floor, letting their
otherwise reasonable inhibitions go while rubbing their bodies against the
strangers around them.
Reed made
his way along the wall, looking back towards the front of the club to make sure
Martin had followed him. When Martin saw
Reed, he motioned with one hand toward the other side of the room. Martin understood the sign language and they
both started pushing people out of their way to make there way through. Reed quickly realized, looking out at the
endless mass of people, that it is going to be almost
impossible to find Willings in the swarm of people
moving about in the flashing lights.
With his
trained eye and years of practice, Reed watched the crowd. Something out of place eventually caught his
eye. A man dresssed
in light blue jeans and a white t-shirt stood in the middle of the dance floor
perfectly still while everyone else moved around him. Martin traced Reed’s
glare to the strange man and both of them started to make their way through the
crowd in his direction. It was not easy
getting through the crowded group of people.
Not wanting to make a scene and tip his target, Reed resisted the urge
to shove any dancing maniac that he touched to the floor. Martin worked his way behind the man, and
Reed approached him from the front. The
odd man had dark, wavy hair and was in his early thirties, stood among the
throng looking down at the floor.
When Reed
was within three feet, the man finally looked up. Martin had closed in fast, knowing that
things could explode. Looking at the stranger’s
face, it became clear to Reed that he was not Willings. Anger filled him over the wasted time. Reed quickly motioned Martin off just as the
other officer was about to grab the man from behind. The loudness of the music drowned out all
hope of talking, but that didn’t keep Martin from matching Reed’s look of
disappointment and reading his lips as they muttered the words, “Damn It!”
Reed
turned to make his way back off the dance floor. He needed a better vantage point to look into
the crowd. As he surveyed the club, he
noticed something that he could not see while walking around the sides of the
dance floor. A row of private rooms
lined the back wall of the open room up two flanking flights of stairs. Two way mirrors made up the majority of the
walls for each room, no doubt giving the occupants a great view of the club
floor.
Several
people walked across the landing to the private section. As Reed surveyed the area, he noticed a
medium height, medium build man with dark hair moving in and out of the
shadows. He walked along the railing,
looking down at the dance floor as if he were searching for something, or
someone. As Reed watched him, the
policeman had no doubt in his mind that this was the man that had run into the
back door of the club a few minutes before.
Reed
looked back at Martin and motioned up to the man walking. Martin nodded back and they formed a silent
plan to confront the man. Reed was forced to take his eyes off his subject to
maneuver through the crowd toward the nearest wall. In the adjacent corner,
there was a spiral stair case that was being watched by a bouncer as big as a
house. Muscles upon muscles bulged
through his skin tight black shirt. Reed
usually found most club security to be honorable men. When he ran into the few that were actually
thugs, though, they usually proved to be some of the toughest people with which
to deal.
As they
approached, Martin spoke through his closed teeth, “Ah, I hope you have a plan
for getting us past King Kong!”
Reed
continued to look forward and only said, “Just follow my lead.”
As they
walked closer, Kong noticed them heading his way. He stood up off his stool and crossed his
arms. His big head, shaved bald and
shiny under the disco lights, cocked to the side.
“Can I
help you boys?” the man asked.
Reed
immediately responded, “We have a meeting with Marco.”
The
bouncer cocked one eyebrow and smiled crookedly. “I don’t think so.”
“What did
you say to me?” Reed asked in a harsh tone.
“I said
you ain’t going up, that’s what,” Kong returned.
“And
why the hell not?”
Reed asked. There was a right way and a
wrong way to deal with guys like this, and he hoped that he’d chosen wisely.
”Cause you don’t look like the kind of people Marco deals with. As a matter of fact, you two look like cops,”
he added.
Reed
unbuttoned his coat and started to reach in.
As he did, the bouncer unfolded his arms and grabbed Reed’s hand with
lightening speed. Martin flinched and
fought the urge to take action.
“Hey, easy
big guy,” Reed said as he slowly pulled his hand out from under his coat and
flashed his detective badge.
The
bouncer looked at the badge, back up at Reed, and then over to Martin. “You a cop too?” he asked.
Martin
reached up and pulled the chain that his badge was attached to out from under
his shirt and let it hang in front of him.
“What
business do you have with Marco?” the bouncer asked.
“I don’t
see how that is any of your business.
You need to step out of our way,” Reed responded.
“Look,
you’re not getting up these stairsuntil I can check
this all out. Until that happens, it ain’t happening,” Kong said as he pulled out his house
radio.
Reed knew
that if the bouncer got word to Marco, his plan to get close would be blown and
things would go bad in a hurry. “Look,
we are already late for our meeting with Marco.
You should know that he is not a man that likes to wait. And when he asks why we were not on time, you
know what I am going to tell him? I’m
going to tell him that we were here, but you
were the one that held us up, because you were questioning his business
dealings. I’m guessing that your night
won’t end too well when it’s all said and done.
I just hope when he is finished with you, he doesn’t dump you in the
river so that I will have to fish your big ass out with a rod and reel, and
then go to the trouble of leading the entire NOPD away from investigating Marco
when they try to find out who offed your ass. And even though you will be dead and maybe
half eaten by the fish in the river, I’m willing to bet that if you could talk
when I’m leaning over your rotting block of flesh you would be saying I should
have let you up the fucking stairs,” Reed ranted before Kong could make the
call on the radio.
The
bouncer looked at Reed with a concerned expression, thinking.
“You know
what?” Reed added, seeing that the man was waivering. “Fuck this.
We’re out of here and you can just explain it all to Marco.” Reed turned to Martin and touched him on the
arm before saying, “Yo man, we’re out of here!”
Before
they could take two steps, the bouncer called out. “Hey man!
I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I was just trying to do my job. I’m kind of new around here. I don’t want to loose my job—or anything
else. You guys can go on up,” he said as
he moved to the side and unhooked the rope that reached across the
stairway.
“I don’t
know man,” Reed said looking back at him and then over to Martin. “What do you think, partner?”
Martin
looked from the bouncer to Reed. “Come
on man. Let’s just go ahead and get this
over with. We’re already here, you
know,” he answered.
Reed
glared at the bouncer and then walked over to the stairs. He stopped before he stepped up on the first
step. “You better thank my partner,
because he just saved your ass,” Reed said staring at him a moment longer.
Reed moved
up the stairs and couldn’t hide the smile on his face when he heard the bouncer
thank Martin over and over.
When he
made it to the top, Reed stopped and waited for Martin before moving out into
the open space of the landing.
“Damn, I
thought we were cooked man,” Martin said.
“Yeah,
that was pretty close,” Reed responded.
They look
out over the walk way. There was no
cover for them what so ever. They could
be seen by whoever was in the private rooms through the two way glass, if they
were looking. Reed only hoped that no
one was paying attention and that they would be able to search the upstairs
portion of the club unnoticed.
That plan
might have worked if it was not for the bouncer who was apparently afraid that
he’d made a huge mistake by holding them up for their meeting with Marco. In an attempt to save his own ass he must
have decided to radio up and send word to Marco that the cops he was meeting
with just arrived and were on their way up.
Reed and
Martin had made it a little more than half way down the walk way when a door
flung open in front of them. Two
security guards, one bigger than the other and both of whom dwarfed Kong,
surged out of the door. Lights behind
them were blacked out by their bulk. They
didn’t even need the guns held in their meathook
hands.