Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Breakfast at Jackson’s

Shin Lao was the first of the pair back to the house. She parked their new vehicle in the garage, squeezing it in beside her bullet ridden Escalade. Skinner could hear her muttering quite loudly as he switched the camera to cover the garage momentarily. She looked irritated and he couldn’t imagine what patience it had taken to deal with such things as the New York State Vehicle Registration office.

She walked through the door into the office a well dressed little ball of frustration and foul language. “Damn I hate dealing with sleazy car dealers. But they tend to bend over backwards to make a sale so they don’t pay attention to things like the fact that the place I supposedly work doesn’t exist.” She flopped down into the high backed desk chair next to Skinner and peered in at the monitor. “Anything interesting happen while we were gone?” Skinner turned to her slowly, like he had seen something that had scared the hell out of him. It was, in all reality, a look of shock and disgust. “Interesting, no, disturbing and vile…in great quantity. This guy is worse than most of the guys I deal with on a daily basis. That’s saying something when you work in homicide. You get the remorseless killers and the people who did it in the moment and regret it later. But this guy is sick. I’ve got it all on tape, but this man is pure damn scum. I’ve watched him make no less than three drug purchases, ordered and subsequently beat the hell out of a prostitute, and he’s been visited by some of what I assume are Tanaka’s men twice. I don’t know how all of this slipped past everybody on a daily basis.” Skinner rewound the tape and played it on another monitor to show the three men who had visited the former police officer earlier in the day.

“I recognize two of them; they’re definitely Tanaka’s men. But that third guy is new, or at the very least recent. I’ve been out of things on Tanaka’s side for a while now, so he may be a replacement.” They pored over the video for a while before the Viper walked through the door as well. They related the events of the day to each other and Elias flopped down two overstuffed file folders on his desk. “This is all of the information on Boss Tanaka and Officer Jackson. We’ve got a bit of a problem though Skinner.” Skinner turned his head, he was certain that he didn’t want to hear what a professional killer considered to be a ‘problem’. The Viper pulled out the sheets that contained Matsuo Tanaka’s expense reports and handed them to Skinner. “All of the highlighted entries…they correspond to police officers.”

Skinner’s head reeled. He knew a lot of these officers, and much like with Jackson, he had no idea that these guys were on the take. But the sheer number of them was what completely unnerved detective Skinner. “ALL of these are police officers? There’s gotta be over two hundred people on this list.” “Two hundred and seventy four to be exact. That’s how Tanaka’s stayed in business for so long. If you own the police you own the city and so he’s operated with impunity these many years. All of that is going to end soon however. But first we’ve got to get some information out of Jackson. I can’t say that it’s not entirely personal, but he seems to be the main man around there if he was given the job to take me out.” Shin Lao looked at the Viper again with a disapproving face. Skinner caught on to the gist of what he was saying a little late in the game but was the only one who said anything. “You’re going to kill Tanaka aren’t you? So you’re trying to get yourself killed now?” The Viper said nothing as he flopped the file on Jackson down on the desk in front of Skinner. “Take a look through that. This is going to be part two of the job. We’re going to be bringing down all of the cops on that list I showed you, but this is the information the police chief is about to receive on officer Jackson, so we’ve got roughly two hours to pick him up so that we can chat. Shin, I’m going to need you to stay here and watch the cameras. Call me if he receives any visitors before we get there. I’ll need to take Skinner with me. He knows Skinner’s a cop so he’ll probably let him in. He definitely won’t open the door for either of us.” Shin Lao nodded grimly as she knew that this was the only way that it would work, but she would have much rather been there.

“Time to suit up. You’ve got to remember that you’re there to see him to talk, to see how he’s doing with his newfound funds, anything to get him to open the door. I’ll handle the rough stuff after that.” He turned to look at Shin Lao with a reassuring grin. He wasn’t sure if it had the desired effect or not but at least he gave it a try. “Nice choice in trucks by the way. When does it go in?” “Tomorrow morning. Skeet said it’ll be done by no later than midnight tomorrow night. He thinks it’s for me so there’s no issue with it.” “Wonderful. Let’s go pay your buddy a visit.”

It only took Skinner a couple of minutes to get dressed in his suit. The Viper gave him a service .38 revolver out of the weapons locker. “The .45 isn’t exactly standard issue. Our boy’s probably a little nervous right now so might be looking for anything out of the ordinary.” Skinner holstered it and patted his back pocket for his badge, which wasn’t there he remembered, feeling a little stupid. “Let’s do this.” Skinner said as he came out of the bedroom. The Viper was dressed for work himself. The expensive black suit and overcoat seemed to give him a larger than life look that was somehow reassuring. It was like everything was right with the world again, knowing that the ‘bad guys’ hadn’t won that small battle…yet.

The ride from the Viper’s secluded base to downtown New York City took slightly less than forty five minutes and the streets were unusually clear of traffic and law enforcement. They parked up the street from Officer Jackson’s apartment and walked the block back. The usual scum littered the alleyways and street corners of the grimy neighborhood. They walked the stairs to the outside door and gave the buzzer a ring, but no sound came. Giving a push on the crusty door it swung open easily giving sight to the graffiti and who knew what that covered the walls floor to ceiling of the first several flights of stairs. A man lay sprawled in a corned of one floor landing with the smell of cheap rum and even cheaper cologne rising up in a putrid mixture that made Skinner wish for a bath. “Time to shine Skinner” The Viper said quietly as they got to Jackson’s door.

Skinner nodded and turned to look at the aged door. The numbers had fallen off long ago, leaving only the imprints of their previous location. The clean patch said 7B and Skinner stretched his face a bit, trying to get a serious, yet friendly, look to it. He knocked loudly on it with the policeman’s knock that everybody who’s ever been in trouble with the law recognized. “Ya who is it?” Came the yell from the other side of the door. “Hey Luke, it’s Skinner. Was just dropping by for a visit. Wanted to see how you were getting on.” There was some hesitation from the other side of the door and then the sounds of rapid cleaning that one often heard following the loud knock of the police, often followed by a drug bust. Skinner continued to look straight ahead at the door as the sounds died down on the other side and the peephole went dark. The sounds of bolts and locks sliding out of place followed quickly and the door opened a crack revealing the round face of Luke Jackson. He peered around the hallway but thankfully the Viper was out of the angle of view so escaped attention for the moment. “Oh, phew. Come on in Skinny. So how’s things on the lifer side of the desk?” His act was convincing but Skinner knew better and he played his part the best he could. “Oh they’re going. I’ve had a couple of days off after the incident so it’s been pretty quiet. I brought by a case of beer to celebrate. It’s the good German stuff. Real classy stuff.” Skinner held his breath to see if the former cop bought the story. They’d both worked stake outs and stings and knew when a cover story was just as it sounded. He didn’t seem to quite buy it and eyed Skinner suspiciously. If Skinner was really here for what he said he was, he would have been pretty suspicious of the officer’s behavior, and had to remind himself of that. “Is something the matter Luke? You’re acting a little dodgy. Been having problems with family begging for money?” He chuckled a little bit to give the joke a little weight and it seemed to soften Jackson up a small bit. “Ya, you could say that Skinny. Come on in.”

The apartment was a complete departure from what Skinner had seen on the monitor. Where hours ago there were bags of coke and heroine, now there was only furniture and a couple of cardboard boxes. “So when do you move into your mansion?” Skinner threw out there as a jest. His act had to be convincing. He knew how this man operated now and he was certain the man wouldn’t hesitate to scatter his skull all over the blank wall behind him. “Next week after I buy my Porsche and the Mercedes.” He gave a brief smile, strained and fake as it was. He was trying to size Skinner up and both of them knew it. Skinner reached into the rectangular shaped bag and the man tensed up. He relaxed slightly when Skinner pulled a thick brown bottle out of the bag and handed it to him. “Some of Germany’s finest. It’s good stuff.” Skinner pulled out a bottle for himself and pulled a bottle opener from the bag and handed it to Jackson. “Hell soon you’ll have someone to open your beer for you Luke. How’s that shit.” Jackson was fumbling with the bottle. It didn’t seem to want to open and he was getting a little frustrated. “How the hell do you open this thing?” He continued to fumble with it until a second later when his door exploded inwards and the Viper stood there in the broken remains. The look of shock on the officer’s face was one of sheer terror and he dropped his bottle, cringing as the Viper pulled his guns out of his holsters and fired two rounds into the man’s chest. Skinner was used to the sound of those guns, but the shots the Viper had taken sounds very different. “Nighty night Jackson. Sweet dreams” The Viper said. Skinner looked down at the officer lying on the floor and noted the two darts sticking out of the man’s neck. He breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the Viper. “A tool for every job. Now let’s pick him up and carry him downstairs. He needs to look like he’s drunk and we’re carrying him to a cab. Sling one of his arms over your should and we’ll drag him between us.”

Skinner had never seen the man operate in person. He’d only heard the tales from the occasional thug and those were no doubt exaggerated tales. But Skinner was impressed with the way the man operated. He seemed to take everything into account and things just seemed to fall his way. They picked up the officer the way that the Viper had described and drug him down the stairs, saying things that you would say to your drunk buddy after one too many at a party. “Almost there man. Don’t puke now; we’ll get you home in a couple of minutes.” It seemed to work as they stepped out onto the darkened New York City streets. They drug him back to the BMW with only a few glances from the street rats that were flitting about looking for their next hit or possibly even some company for the evening. They stowed him on the floor of the back row of seats, his hands and feet handcuffed behind him. “He’ll be out until we get back to the house, but I don’t want to take any chances.” The Viper had explained as they pulled out onto the street heading towards the interstate.

They didn’t seem to draw much attention as they roared up the flat open roads upstate. They pulled Jackson out of the truck and drug him around back. “We’re not bringing him inside?” Skinner asked. He hadn’t been filled in on this part of the plan so was genuinely curious. “No, never bring a hostage into your house. Things tend to go badly when you do. I’ve got a place I take them. It’s underground out back here.” As they rounded the back corner of the house Skinner saw nothing out there by empty fields. But as they got further out into the field the Viper dropped the arm of the unconscious officer and grabbed at a couple of rusted rings that lay a few inches below some sun baked grass. The bulkhead opened into a dark staircase and the Viper flipped the light on as they drug Officer Jackson underground. The tunnel went on for twenty feet or so before opening up into a concrete room roughly fifteen feet by fifteen feet. “I assume it was some sort of bomb shelter back when such things were deemed necessary, but I’ve got more interesting uses for it now.”

Indeed he did by the things that Skinner saw laying down there. One corner was occupied by a five foot by five foot cage. Thick iron bars made up the bulk of it and they seemed to have been set straight into the thick concrete that made up the ceiling. They were reinforced every twelve inches or so with a cross piece. The door looked very similar, but had several locks and slide bars on it to lock it into place. “Put him in there for now. I’ll interrogate him later.” That being said they flopped him down in the cell and slide the bars across and locked them into place. “Let’s see if anything has happened while we were gone.” They walked the short hall to the bulkhead and flipped the light off, plunging the place into complete darkness. Skinner looked at the Viper and he simply gave Skinner a blank face. “It’s all psychological. All he’ll know is that he’s in a cage in pitch darkness. He’ll crack by tomorrow morning I’m sure. If not there’ll be other ways that I can get him to talk.” Skinner just nodded and shut his side of the bulkhead. They slid several bolts across the doors and walked back to the house. Skinner didn’t like the way this was turning out. So far tonight he had been an accomplice to kidnapping a police officer, albeit an incredibly twisted one and had helped to imprison said officer. Things certainly had taken an interesting turn in the last week.

“You just missed the officers guys.” Shin Lao piped up as they walked into the office. “Three of them. Upper management by the look of them. I was surprised when it wasn’t a uniformed officer that came to the door, but then again I wasn’t. Who’d you send that file to Elias?” “I sent it to the chief. I didn’t see his name on Tanaka’s list so I assumed that he was clean. Apparently I was mistaken.” Skinner felt sick as the gravity of the situation hit him full in the face. If the chief was in on it there was no way he could go back to his job. There wouldn’t be anywhere safe for him now and he knew it. “We’ve got company down in the playpen. We’ll talk to him later. But for now I could really use something to eat. What do you feel like Shin?” She seemed thoughtful for a second, it amazed Skinner how easily they seemed to blow off another person’s life while concerning themselves with something as trivial as dinner. “Let’s eat in tonight. I noticed some steaks in the freezer; we could throw them on the grill out back.”

Skinner was shocked by the statement. “How can you cook out there while there’s someone being held ten feet below you? “You’re right Skinner. Let’s just throw them on the broiler.” The Viper picked up on Skinner’s tension and tried to lighten the mood a bit. “You still think this is all black and white don’t you detective. Well let me tell you that in your world it may be. Right and wrong. Good and evil. Those really are luxuries that we don’t have. We don’t, and can’t, have things that easily. It’s got to be all shades of grey for us. No offense but that’s the way it is for the rest of us.” Skinner simply leaned silently against the table holding the several surveillance monitors on it. He knew that the man was right, but was reluctant to admit it. Black and white indeed was the only way that he could make it through the week. But he was quickly learning that he was quite possibly the only one that lived that way. “I understand Elias, but I’m just a little apprehensive. I’m just concerned about the turn my life is taking lately is all. I just found out that just about every other cop I know is taking money from a crime syndicate. And they’re all right with it. It’s just a bit of a shock to the system.”

The Viper nodded and took a deep breath. “Things will work out for the best for you Skinner, don’t worry about that. You may not be able to go back to being a cop, but you won’t go to jail, I can assure you of that. Hell you might even come out of this looking like a hero. God knows this city could use one.” Skinner nodded simply. He knew things were changing, but he didn’t know whether for the best or the worst yet.