Chapter 10: Justifiable Homicide

Black smoke billowed to the sky, curling through the busted windows as the high-pitched sound of the fire alarm pierced the air. “Kasper?” Alexa groaned as she turned onto her side to stand. “Kasper!”

“Here,” he coughed and pushed away a panel of glass. “I’m here.” Alexa pulled herself up to her feet and stumbled over to Kasper. He was bleeding from a large cut on his forehead and a busted lip but, other than that, appeared fine. “What the hell happened?”

“I think someone wants us out of their house,” she replied, helping him stand. “Are those…?”

“The drives,” he said, completing her question as he clutched the remnants of the smashed electronic in his hand. “FUCK! Now what?”

“We worry about it later. For now, we better move. That blast was loud and any moment now we’ll have security and the local authorities in here.”

Alexa and Kasper scurried down the fire exit at the rear of the building, making a quick escape down an alley to the adjoining street and back to the hotel to regroup and heal up.

In their room, Alexa placed an ice pack on Kasper’s bruised shoulder and straightened the bandage on his arm before joining him at the table. “Ok, so I managed to repair one of the discs enough to find what I was looking for.”

“Finally, some good news.”

“Yes, except it really didn’t have much of anything we could use. The other presents a problem. The last drive is encrypted with a bio lock. We’re gonna need Delacroix’s fingerprint to open it.”

“Great. He’s been in hiding since that debacle at WET, not to mention what we just did at his penthouse.”

“I know but, I think I may have an idea.”

“I’m all ears.”

“His schedule; there were only two things on the calendar in his office for tomorrow: meeting with branch manager and lunch at the Cottura Belize with P.V. If he’s a stickler for order, and betting money says he is, I think we have a good chance of finding him at one of those places; especially if he’s thinking of leaving town soon.”

“P.V.? Do we have an idea of who that might be?” Alexa asked, diving into the files Kasper had pulled up on his secondary laptop. There were rosters of employees working under WET management in several different states and countries around the world. “Ok, alphabetized, there are three people with the initials P.V. associated with WET; at least employed.”

“Patrick Vancamp, Penelope Vitello, and Paul Valado. That’s Operations Manager, General Manager overseeing medical advancement, and CFO for the Eastern Division. I don’t know,” she sighed. “Out of these names, I’d go with maybe the CFO, Paul Valado; especially connecting with ‘meeting with branch manager’ that makes me think bank. What do you have?” 

“Priscilla Verano.”

“And who is Priscilla Verano?” Alexa asked with genuine interest.

“Five foot five, blonde, about a hundred and twenty pounds, with a love for the richer things in life,” he answered, showing her an image he screen grabbed from a CCTV security camera near the Avenues, a strip of stores in Danbridge specializing in high-end merchandise.

“Delacroix’s girlfriend?”

“Delacroix’s mistress. Wifey lives in New York. She never sets foot in Danbridge and is supremely unaware of her husband’s side piece.”

“And here he is walking around like he’s holding all the cards. Turns out, he has a weakness to manipulate after all. Why hadn’t she come up before?”

“He had her well-hidden. No paperwork on her, no mention of her in any of his other ledgers, no transactions for her on his personal accounts, I guess to keep his secret from his wife. But, being the meticulous guy that he is, he was bound to have an accounting somewhere. I managed to locate a series of purchases on a company credit card for one P.V. in the Danbridge area. She’s been living the high life above the city, a short hop, skip and jump away from Delacroix’s place in the city.”

“Wait a second, we’re missing something,” Alexa said, analyzing everything Kasper was telling her.

“What?”

“Before now, everything we knew about Delacroix said he NEVER left his penthouse apartment inside WET HQ, right?”

“Right.”

“But now you’re saying he bought his mistress a nice home in the hills away from the city and when we visited his apartment in Danbridge, no one was home.” Kasper nodded and Alexa jumped up from her seat. “Bring up the blueprints for WET’s headquarters.”

“Ok. You wanna tell me what we’re looking for?” he asked, bringing up several diagrams of the 30-story office building. Some were from its earliest conceptions and others were after supposed reconstruction a few years after inception.

“Any secret passages underneath the building that may lead out of the area,” she replied.

“Oh I see what you’re getting at. Delacroix has another way in; essentially an escape route he uses to move around unobserved.”

“Yeah, and if I’m right, he’ll be using it to get to his girl tomorrow,” she said, glancing at revision number 4.0. “What’s this?”

“Ah that’s nothing. It’s just the installation of a service elevator,” Kasper replied, clicking away from the image.

“No, wait a second, go back.” Alexa waited for him to pull up the last blueprint and she went over it with a closer eye. “The service elevator we went on wasn’t on this side. It was to the left of the reception and through this hallway.”

“This was submitted early June of 2011 and isn’t the last number in the series. It’s possible they scrapped this idea for something else later on.”

“Or, these service elevators were never installed, leaving a large hole in the building where rats could run when the heat was on. Bring up the final revision.” Again, she waited for Kasper to do as asked. “Good, now can you overlay the images?”

Once he’d finished, they were left with a diagram of a building hosting several ‘holes’ and trapdoors leading to an alley on the far west wall. “Holy shit,” Kasper sighed, finally seeing the bigger picture.

“I think we may have discovered how he moves around unnoticed. Now, the hard part. Finding where the tunnel ends.”

“Hard? Come on, A, what’s my name?” Kasper grinned and went to work.

Alexa stood on the corner of First National Bank on Wyatt and 5^th while Kasper waited in the car. They’d worked through the night and part of the morning searching the information they’d uncovered from Delacroix’s penthouse in an effort to find where he banked. After narrowing it down to two locations, Alexa flipped a coin and decided to go with this one. If she was wrong, there was always the chance of finding him with his mistress, which was starting to look like the safer bet. “I don’t think this guy is going to show,” Kasper said through her earpiece. 

It was already past the appointed time and still no sign of Frank Delacroix or his entourage. “Yeah, I think you’re right.” With a sigh, Alexa turned and started back to the car. “What time is the lunch?” she asked, sliding into the seat beside him.

“2:30.”

“Good. There’s still time.”

“Time for what?”

“Us to get to the hills above Danbridge. Priscilla’s not making her date, I have a better idea.”

Frank Delacroix slid out of his limo and stepped into the hangar housing his private jet. By this time tomorrow he and his mistress would be basking in the warm glow of the sun on the golden sands of Croatia. “Bring that bag inside and hurry it up. I want to be wheels up in ten,” he said as he traversed the stairs to the cabin.

“I’m afraid your flight’s been cancelled,” Alexa said, her fist delivering a fast right hook to the man’s jaw. He tumbled back and down the steps to the ground below. When he came to, he was tied to a chair in the middle of his private hangar. Kasper sat out of view near the back of the hangar while Alexa knelt in front of the groggy CEO, smiling as his eyes blinked and he regained consciousness.

“Well, it’s about time. You sure know how to keep a girl waiting.”

“Bitch. How did you find me?”

“Is that really your main concern?”

“What? You thought I’d be scared right now? Begging you for my life? I know who you are. We were cut from the same cloth. You’re here for a reason, you might as well see to it. ‘The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.’ Mark Twain said that.”

“Cute. I’ll make sure they write it on your headstone,” Alexa said, dropping a white handbag at his feet. Frank stared at it a moment, then recognition hit. “You think the owner of that purse would feel the same way?”

“What have you done?”

“That hill where you bought your house, it’s a dangerous stretch of road, Frank, especially at night; accidents happen all the time.”

“If you harm one hair on her head so help me…”

“Ooh. Making threats now? Tsk, tsk,” she said, wagging an admonishing finger at the WET CEO. “You know how this goes, Frank. We did this little dance not too long ago, only, the roles are reversed and you won’t get away so easily.”

“What do you want?”

“Answers,” Alexa said, dropping a bloodied shoe to the ground in front of him. “Otherwise, I’m afraid I’ll have to extend this little invitation to Priscilla and maybe the wife upstate; provided you care even a little for her.”

“Let Priscilla go and I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”

“You’re in no position to negotiate. You’ll answer me, one way or the other, or you’ll get to watch Priscilla suffer until I decide to end her misery.”

“Please!” he begged with genuine concern in his voice.

“Then talk. I want to know who else was involved with this contract to murder me and the Starks.”

“That’s all?” Frank laughed, the sound of it echoing in the enclosed hangar. “I could have saved you the trouble of kidnapping Priscilla. I don’t know who you’re looking for.”

“Save it. Do you really expect me to believe you have no idea who’s pulling the strings? You’re the CEO for crying out loud!”

“Yes. A tiny part of a whole. The person, or persons you’re looking for, they weren’t exactly inviting me to sit at the table. I was as much a puppet as you when paid.”

Alexa picked up the fireplace poker she’d brought with her and quickly stabbed the sharp tip into the man’s shoulder. He screamed. Blood oozed from the wound and down the front of his gray jacket. “I’m telling you the truth. They only contacted me by email, never over the phone and NEVER in person. I don’t know names, only an anonymous address for email.”

“Fine. If you don’t know anything, what use are you?”

“Do it,” he groaned, staring up at her as more blood spilled beneath him. “What are you waiting for?”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? That’s just how miserable you are,” she said, stabbing the hot poker deeper into his shoulder, causing his chair to fall back. “Don’t worry, Frank. You’ll go to hell. Just not yet.”

“You ruined my life. You robbed me blind, blew up my home and went after my family,” he said, rolling to his side in an attempt to upright, Alexa charged him with a knee to the chin that had him tumbling to the ground once more.

“Rewind that for me. You think we’re responsible for what happened at your penthouse?” Alexa asked, glancing briefly at Kasper whose face held the same look of confusion. With her toes on the tip of the chair, she righted Delacroix, watching the desperation on his face. “Sorry to disappoint, Frank, but that little explosion, it wasn’t us.”

He glanced up at her with wide eyes as a lightbulb went on in his head. “Shit.”

“Yeah. ‘Shit.’ Sounds to me like we’re not the only ones looking to end your worthless life. In fact, that hit squad was probably sent there for you also. Gee. I can only wonder what it is that made even your closest of colleagues turn their backs on you. Maybe your obsession with the Stark family? Or, perhaps, our brief yet, extremely costly tête-à-têtes? I can’t imagine losing close to $8 billion looks great on a resume.”

“You bitch!”

“Hmm, you know what I’m thinking? I think I could walk away right now and leave you to your friends to decide your fate. From what I know about the company, you wouldn’t last long no matter where your plane touched down.”

“Help me. Get your friend to erase me like he has your identity and I’ll let you keep the money, all of it! I’ll stop pursuing you. You can go and live on an island in the middle of nowhere and I won’t come looking.”

“Sorry, Frank. We’re not open for business any longer; you saw to that. The only thing I want now is information and you’ve already admitted to not knowing shit.”

“Do you really think what you do today will matter? It won’t stop what’s coming. And it’s not going to clear your conscience. How much blood do you have on your hands now?”

“I sleep fine, thank you. And so will a lot more people with you gone.”

“I guess we’ll have to see about that. Well, go on then, what are you waiting for? I already told you I won’t beg. It’ll never happen.”

“In time, Frank. I’m waiting for…”

“Got it!” Kasper yelled in triumph.

“That. You know I’d say it’s been a pleasure, Frank, but, I’d be lying. This is for Mary.” Alexa drew back on her trigger, firing until her chamber ran dry. Grabbing her spent casings, Alexa led Kasper to the car and the two started back to the hotel.

“And that’s the last of that,” Kasper announced.

“Have I told you lately that I love you, K?” Alexa asked, watching the last of the files disappear from the WET mainframe, courtesy of Frank’s locked hard drive. They had won. They had successfully gotten rid of all instances of their existence on WET’s databases and could breathe easier, slinking back into the shadows.

“I don’t know if there’s time to celebrate just yet, we’ve got bigger problems. Wait until you see what else I’ve recovered from those drives,” he said, turning his computer for her to view.

“Holy shit, Kas. If you’re right, this thing is much bigger than we’d ever imagined.”

“Yeah, and their next strike is scheduled for when…”

“President Thompson comes to town.”

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