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  “Thank you so much. I don’t even . . . I mean . . . what . . . what were they trying to do?”

  “It was an . . .”

  Before Mia could say too much, and more than she should have, Recker and Haley interrupted her. In anticipation of running into trouble, and trying to abide by Jones’ wishes that they didn’t use their guns, they brought zip ties with them to bind the suspects hands together. Once they did that, Recker and Haley dragged their victims over to one of the benches and tied them to the bench until a police officer arrived and took them into custody. Once they approached the two women, a car hastily pulled out of a nearby parking spot and sped off. Recker could only assume it might have been the getaway car.

  “Thanks for your help in watching the stroller, ma’am,” Recker said, putting his hand out to shake Mia’s hand, pretending as if he didn’t know her.

  Mia quickly picked up on the charade and shook his hand. “Oh, yes, no problem. Just glad I could help.”

  “I was just telling her, I don’t know what happened,” the nanny said. “I mean, what were they doing? Were they trying to take the baby?”

  Recker nodded. “Unfortunately, they were. The two men are part of a criminal gang.”

  “But why did they come after us?”

  “The baby is the daughter of a judge, correct?”

  “Yeah. Were they trying to get back at her for something? Were they gonna hurt the baby?”

  “We don’t think so. We think it was part of a plan about an upcoming trial the judge has.”

  Recker was getting antsy still standing in the area and realized they had probably been there too long already and looked around for a police car.

  “Well, we’re gonna have to go. Just stay here until the police arrive and tell them what happened so these guys get put away,” Recker said.

  The nanny looked confused as she thought the two men standing in front of her were police. “Wait, you’re not police?”

  Haley shook his head. “No, we’re not.”

  “I just thought you were like undercover or detectives or something.”

  “Nope.”

  “Then how do you know all this?”

  “That’s not important. What is important is that the judge takes the necessary steps in protecting you and the baby. At least for the next couple of months,” Recker said. “Police should be here soon, so you shouldn’t have to wait long.”

  The nanny rubbed her head, feeling a little overwhelmed with it all. Recker noticed she wasn’t looking so good.

  “Perhaps this nice lady here would be willing to wait with you until the cops get here,” Recker said.

  “Yeah, I could do that,” Mia replied.

  “You guys can’t stick around?” the nanny asked.

  “No, I’m afraid not. Cops aren’t exactly pleased with us either.”

  “What do I tell them about you?”

  “Just tell them exactly what went down. If they ask who we were, just tell them The Silencer was here.”

  The nanny’s eyes opened wide, almost in shock with what she just heard. “The Silencer? You’re him?”

  “In the flesh.”

  “I’ve heard so much about you.”

  Recker smiled. “Yeah. Well, I gotta go. You take care.”

  Recker and Haley then quickly walked away. As they left the park and crossed the street, they saw two police cars rolling into the area. As they walked away, he wanted to let his girlfriend know what they were doing.

  “We’ll be waiting in a restaurant over on Locust,” Recker said. “Soon as you’re done, walk over there.”

  “OK,” Mia replied.

  Recker then let Jones know the mission was over. “David, everything’s done here.”

  “Excellent. Everything went off without issue then?” Jones asked.

  “Well, all things considering. The two guys are apprehended, police should be taking them in soon. The nanny and baby are fine. The two women that were helping them got away. Not much we could do about that, though.”

  “They were the least that we should be concerned about. Like you said, all things considered, it was a good day’s work.”

  “There was a car that I saw peel off after everything went down. Might’ve been the third guy,” Recker said. “Looked like a black SUV. Couldn’t make anything out.”

  “I’ll check nearby cameras and see if I can get a make on anything.”

  Recker hung up and continued walking toward Locust Street to wait until Mia finished up with the police.

  “Mia should be all right back there, right?” Haley asked.

  “Yeah, why?”

  “I dunno. With the police and all.”

  “They don’t know she’s with us. I figured it might look more suspicious if she left with us. I didn’t want anybody to connect her with me. It’s better if it’s thought she was just a passerby and happened to be in the area.”

  “Speaking of connecting people to you, you sure it was a wise idea to let that woman know who you were?” Haley asked.

  Recker shrugged. “I don’t know if it really matters at this point. Everyone knows who I am.”

  “She didn’t until you told her.”

  “If they ask questions and show her a few pictures, she’ll recognize it’s me anyway. Besides, I figure it’s better if I identify myself to the public, let them know I’m there to help them, put a face to the name and the stories they’ve heard of me. That way, if they ever see me and recognize me, they’ll know I’m there to help and won’t call the police.”

  “I guess that makes sense. Kind of like preventive medicine.”

  “In any case, of all the people I’ve helped over the years I’ve been here, none of them have said a bad word to the police about me, or tried to give me up or something. Even ones who were just bystanders, or witnessed me doing something. I think the public knows I’m here to help them and accept it.”

  “Wish the police felt the same way,” Haley said.

  “Well, they gotta do what they gotta do. We both know that.”

  “Speaking of which, I guess we got some time to work on their problem now.”

  “Maybe, maybe not.”

  “Why not?”

  “Well, this was a three-man crew, right?” Recker asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Well we only got two of them. And we don’t know who those two women were with them. Are they part of their gang now, or were they just two girls they plucked off the street and promised a lot of money to if they helped them?”

  “True.”

  “One thing’s for sure, if one of these guys are still out there, this might not be over.”

  9

  Three days had passed since the incident at the park. Recker and Haley had successfully stopped several other criminal acts since then. They had just finished an assignment and got back to the office after lunchtime. They brought back a sandwich for Jones, and after he finished it, they got down to work again. Jones informed them of an impending situation that was all too familiar to them. As Recker and Haley sat, Jones swiveled his chair around to talk about it.

  “It looks as if we’ve got another problem with Judge Rocco.”

  “They going after the baby again?” Recker asked.

  “Not at all. Now it seems as though they’re going to go after the judge directly.”

  Recker looked confused. “You mean they’re gonna try to kill her? What sense would that make?”

  Haley agreed with the assessment. “Yeah, even if they kill this judge, another one will still be assigned. It’s not like they can just kill every judge they come across.”

  “It’s not quite that dire,” Jones said. “I don’t believe they plan on killing her. They know that would be a stupid move. I do believe, though, that they plan on making decisions, and life in general, very rough for her.”

  “In what way?” Recker asked.

  “I believe they’re going to try to scare and intimidate her.”

  “How are
they going to do that?”

  “That I’m not yet sure.”

  “What’d you pick up on?”

  “Text message from the last remaining member of the gang,” Jones answered.

  “I thought that was silent for the last few days?”

  “It was. Until this morning. I picked up on a message between him and another number which I have not yet identified.”

  “Get a location at least?” Recker said.

  “Yes. It’s not much help, however. Whoever is on the other end of the line, they’re not in this city.”

  “Where are they?”

  “I’ve got it narrowed down to a location in Boston.”

  “Boston?”

  “I can only assume it’s either a superior or possibly whoever hired him,” Jones said.

  “What did the message say?” Haley asked.

  “It was from Ross asking how they wanted him to get to her.”

  “Vague wording,” Recker replied. “Could be just about anything.”

  “They indicate a time frame?” Haley asked.

  Jones shook his head. “No.”

  “Gonna be the same deal again. We’re gonna have to stake out her house again.”

  “Maybe,” Recker said.

  Just as the threesome was about to delve into things further, Recker’s phone rang. It was Malloy. Curious as to what he wanted, Recker quickly answered.

  “Hey.”

  “Just wanted to pass something along to you,” Malloy said.

  “OK?”

  “Our mutual friend wanted to have another conversation with you.”

  “Our mutual friend? Are we talking about the one who has a shiny badge and lots of cool little gadgets at their disposal?” Recker asked, trying to make light of it.

  “That’s the one.”

  “It’s not necessary. I’ll call him directly.”

  “Fine with me. I’m just passing it along. By the way, how you doing on that?”

  “Who’s asking? You or Vincent?”

  “Uhh, I guess you could say both,” Malloy answered.

  “I didn’t know you cared so much about police problems.”

  “I don’t. Just a passing interest.”

  “Well just so you know, and you can tell Vincent, that we haven’t made much progress on it yet.”

  “Shame.”

  “Yeah, I can tell you’re heartbroken,” Recker said.

  As soon as Recker hung up, he let the others know what the conversation was about. “I’m already tired of going through third parties for this.”

  “Why not just give Andrews a phone number to reach us?” Haley asked.

  Recker gave Jones a look to see if he agreed with the idea. While Recker was fine with it, he knew Jones was a little apprehensive about mingling with the police department.

  “What do you think?” Recker asked.

  “I suppose it can do no real harm,” Jones said, opening one of the drawers, revealing a bunch of prepaid phones. “None of them can be traced back to us.”

  “Which one?”

  “Take your pick. As I said, it doesn’t matter.”

  “And when this is over, if he decides to be a big man and take us on, you’re sure none of these can come back to here?”

  “No, they’ve all been reprogrammed to bounce off towers far away from here,” Jones replied.

  Recker picked up one of the phones then closed the drawer. As he deliberated calling the detective, he wondered what else the officer wanted. They hadn’t heard of any other incidents going down. Maybe he was just wondering if Recker made any progress. After a few more minutes, Jones found Andrews’ phone number and wrote it down on the desk. Recker then wasted no more time in calling. The detective picked up after the second ring.

  “This is Detective Andrews.”

  “I hear you wanted to meet,” Recker said.

  Andrews had just gotten into his car and was about to head back to his office, but put his car back in park as he took the phone call. He looked out both front windows as well as the rear-view mirror to make sure no one was around listening, not that they really could with the windows up and the air conditioning on. But he was a little paranoid about someone overhearing him talking to the wanted man.

  “Uhh, yeah, yeah, I did,” Andrews said.

  “I’m a little busy right now, can’t really get away. Talking on here will have to suffice.”

  “No, that’s fine. I’ve heard about how busy you are.”

  “You have?” Recker asked, not knowing what he was referring to.

  “Yeah. Heard about that stuff that went down at Rittenhouse Park the other day.”

  “How you know that was me?”

  “Oh, uhh, the girl identified you. Said you told her who you were.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah. Good stuff. Believe it or not, you have more friends in the department than you might think,” Andrews said.

  Recker was sure he wasn’t calling just to talk about his exploits and quickly shifted the conversation around. “So, what else is up?”

  “Oh, yeah, I was just wondering if you’d come up with anything on our little problem?”

  “Not yet. We don’t really have a whole lot to go on,” Recker said.

  “Yeah, I know. Well, we might have a little more now.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “We’ve got another body,” Andrews answered.

  “Damn.”

  “It’s actually the first cop that got shot. That undercover officer I told you about. Shot dead walking out of his house this morning.”

  As he was speaking, Recker put his hand over the phone and snapped his fingers at Jones with his other hand to get his attention. As Recker put the phone back to his ear, he made a circling motion to Jones to let him know something was going on.

  “Killed this morning?” Recker asked, loud enough for Jones to hear.

  Taking his cue, Jones immediately started typing away to pull up whatever snippets of information he could find. It wasn’t long before he found a few online articles from some of the local newspaper and television websites.

  “I guess it’s the same shooter?” Recker asked.

  “Well, we can’t definitely say for sure right now. The bullet’s still inside him and there was no other evidence at the scene. From the size of the hole in his chest, it looked pretty close to the same as what we’ve been dealing with.”

  “He was definitely targeted then.”

  “I know.”

  “There’s gotta be a common link between the two cops and that dealer,” Recker said. “The other guy probably happened like you said, saw something he wasn’t supposed to.”

  “As far as we can tell, there’s no links between the two officers. They’re from different districts.”

  “I’m sure you’ve gone deep into their packets, is there any chance they’re dirty or involved in something?”

  Sometimes officers took offense when someone mentioned one of them being dirty, but Andrews didn’t even give it a second thought. He quickly responded. “I dunno. Everyone we’ve talked to, friends, partners, relatives, other cops, nobody’s said a bad word about them.”

  “That doesn’t mean they weren’t into something,” Recker said.

  “I know. But from what we can gather, they were just hardworking cops. Nothing more. Now, if you were to ask me to put money on the line and say that, I wouldn’t do it. But we haven’t uncovered anything that would lead us in that direction.”

  “What about former partners? Other districts they’ve worked in? Any commonalities there?”

  Once again, Andrews rebuffed the point. “No. Neither one of them have ever worked in the same district at any point in time.”

  “Ever investigated the same people?” Recker asked.

  “Nope. We’ve checked. I mean, if you think it’ll help, I can give you copies of their records.”

  “It’s not necessary. I can get them on my own.”

  “You can?
How?” Andrews asked.

  “Not important. What is important is if you’ve identified any other officers that you think may be in danger. Any partners, former partners, other cops they’ve been in contact with, anything like that?”

  “No. Another dead end.”

  “You don’t have a whole lot going for you right now, do you?”

  “Now you see why I reached out to you when I did,” Andrews answered.

  “All right, well, we’ll dig into their files further and see if we can find some common links.”

  “Thanks. I appreciate that.”

  “In the meantime, take this number down,” Recker said, giving the detective the number to the prepaid phone. “If you need anything else, get in touch with me there. I don’t like going through Vincent for things.”

  “Yeah, no problem.”

  “Just a warning, if you try to trace it, it’s gonna lead you nowhere, so save yourself a lot of time and aggravation by not even bothering.”

  “I figured as much. Didn’t think you’d give me anything that would lead straight to you,” Andrews said. “Not that it would matter. Remember, I’m one of the cops that thinks you’re doing good for this city.”

  “Well, feelings sometimes have a habit of changing. I just wanted to let you know in advance.”

  “Understood.”

  “Oh, and I don’t want you giving that number out to anyone, even other cops who may be fans of mine,” Recker said. “If someone else in the department calls me other than you, that phone’s gonna be in the river the next day.”

  “No problem again. I figure the less I say about you the better it is for everyone.”

  “All right. Assuming there’s no other problems, I’ll probably call you again in a few days to let you know if I’ve come up with anything.”

  “Sounds good.”

  As soon as Recker hung up, he put the phone in his pocket and leaned forward on the desk to get a better view of the computer screen. He read each news story Jones found on the killing. After the fourth and final article, he took a seat next to Jones and Haley and began discussing the case, as well as their options.

  “Why didn’t you see this earlier?” Recker asked. His tone was not accusing in nature or suggesting Jones wasn’t on top of things, but just a simple question. “You’re usually right on this type of stuff.”