Chapter Twenty-two
Daniel Beason had lived in New York long enough to know that if you wanted to get around the city and not be noticed, the way to do that was to take the train. Beason got off the train at the Smith–Ninth Streets station and walked to the warehouse to meet Neziri. As he walked, Beason wondered how Neziri found him at the hotel. He seemed to know his every move. Neziri had somebody waiting for him in Turks and Caicos and knew exactly where to find him now that he was back in the country. He thought that he had been so careful, avoiding cameras, paying cash for everything, staying in cheap hotels, and Neziri still found him.
“Not the police, Neziri,” Beason said aloud. “Maybe he put a tracking device on you.”
But it didn’t take him long to figure out that the truth was much simpler than that. Beason had told Neziri that he was going to Turks and Caicos to look for a backup copy.
“Right before he shot Andrea in the head.”
Neziri sent two men to Turks and Caicos: the one Marva killed, and the one who followed him back to the country and to the hotel he was hiding out in.
Having solved that puzzle, he continued on his way when a new question occurred to him. Why? If he didn’t have the drive, why did Neziri want to meet? The idea that he was going there to be killed crossed his mind, and that made him stop to think.
He started walking again when he thought that if Neziri wanted to kill him, he could have done that at the hotel, and no one would have found his body for days. That thought was, but at the same time wasn’t, reassuring, but he kept walking anyway because he couldn’t see another option.
“I can still fix this, and everybody can go back to doing business as usual.”
When he got close enough to see the warehouse, Beason looked and didn’t see any cars outside. He thought about waiting until Neziri got there before he went inside, but what would be the point in that? He had no cards to play, so he went inside.
Beason had only taken a few steps past the rows of empty shelves, pallets, and fifty-gallon drums when he saw it: the pool of dried blood and the chalk outline of Andrea’s body.
“I’m so sorry, Andrea,” Beason said as a feeling of guilt and remorse washed over him.
He stood there, staring at the outline, thinking about Andrea and Quentin, and Beason thought again about calling the police. He had witnessed Neziri kill Colton, and then he stood by helplessly when he killed Andrea in that very spot. There was no reason for him to believe that it wasn’t Neziri who killed Quentin. Who else would be at his house?
Beason reached in his pocket and took out his phone. If he surrendered and cooperated, the police would certainly protect Susan and her family. As he started for the door, Beason turned on the phone and was about to call the police when Neziri came into the warehouse with four other men.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, Daniel.” Neziri walked toward Beason and took the phone from him. “Traffic. What are you gonna do?”
Meanwhile, ten blocks away, Jack and Diane arrived on the scene where Andrea Frazier’s car was found. The crime scene investigator and evidence recovery technicians were processing the vehicle for any latent fingerprints and were documenting and collecting physical evidence. The steering wheel was swabbed, as were the inside door handles and the seat belt buckles. Photographs were taken of the exterior from each side, each corner, front and rear. Another technician had photographed the interior from the front driver’s area, from each side with the doors open, the ignition area, the dash, the glove box, the instrument panel, the rear seat area, and the trunk area.
“Anything we can use?” Diane asked.
“Nothing I can see that jumped out at me. We’ll check cameras in the area, and I got officers knocking on doors, but so far, nothing. One day it was just there, is what one guy told me. Since we know where the murder was committed, my guess, this is just where they dropped the car.”
“I think you’re right,” Jack said and shook his hand. “Thanks, Sergeant.”
“I’ll give you a call if we get anything.”
“We’d appreciate it,” Diane said, and the detectives walked back to their car.
“What do you think?” Jack asked as his phone rang. He looked at the display. “It’s Santiago.” He answered, “What’s up?”
“Beason’s burner just came on.”
“Where?”
“At the warehouse where Frazier’s body was found.”
Jack picked up his pace. “We’re ten blocks away. Send backup. We’re on our way there now,” he said as they got to the car.
“What’s going on?” Diane asked and got in.
“Beason’s burner just came on at the warehouse where Frazier’s body was found.”
Back at the warehouse, Beason watched Neziri’s men spread out in front of him.
“So why are we here?” Beason asked.
“Do you have the drive?”
“You know that I don’t have it. I told you that last night. So why are we here?”
“What about the copy that you said that Colton made? Where is that?”
“I don’t know. At this point, I can’t even say for sure that there ever was a copy.”
“Then tell me what purpose you serve,” Neziri said, and his men raised their weapons.
“Wait.” Beason put his hands out in front of him. “Nothing has to change. We can go back to doing business.”
Neziri laughed. “What about your legitimate front?”
“You let me worry about that. I still have the ships and the organization in place, and you have cargo that needs to move. We can make this work.”
Neziri nodded because Beason did have a point. He did have the ships and the organization in place, and he did have cargo that needed to move. However, Neziri had a simple solution.
Kill Beason and take over his ships and his organization.
“Police! Nobody move!” Jack shouted.
Neziri’s men turned and began shooting at the detectives.
As Jack and Diane ran for cover behind the drums, Neziri shot at Beason as he ran out of the warehouse as fast as he could. When Jack and Diane returned fire, Neziri ran in the opposite direction, firing shots at the detectives until he was out of the warehouse. Neziri’s men had the detectives seriously outgunned, and their gunfire kept them pinned behind the drums. As the four men continued firing, Diane rose up and fired off a couple of shots before quickly dropping back behind the drums. Neziri’s men returned fire. She emptied the clip and was forced to take cover again.
Jack fired a couple of shots. “I’m gonna try to make it over to those pallets,” he said as Diane reloaded.
“I’ll cover you,” Diane said, and she came up firing. When she did, Jack moved out, but the barrage of automatic gunfire sent him back to cover.
One of Neziri’s men had worked his way around to the side and fired. Jack fired on him, and the shooter went down. He quickly dropped to reload as shots bounced off the drums. He loaded the clip and opened fire.
Diane looked up and saw a man firing his weapon as he came forward. She raised her weapon and fired three times. Each shot hit him in the chest, and he fell backward to the ground.
“Cover me!” Jack shouted and came out from behind the drums. One of Neziri’s men began firing at Jack, hitting him with several shots. Diane watched as the impact took Jack’s body off his feet, and he hit the ground hard.
“Jack!” she screamed. She stood up and fired at the man who shot Jack. Diane kept firing until she had emptied that clip. She hit him with multiple shots as she moved forward. Then she slammed in a fresh clip, and she opened fire at the last shooter.
“Police!” the SWAT commander yelled as he and his team entered the warehouse.
Seeing the overwhelming firepower that had entered the warehouse, the last of Neziri’s men tried to make it to the exit, firing shots as he ran. Diane stopped, aimed her weapon, and fired twice. Both shots hit him in the back, and Diane quickly ran back to Jack.
“I need an ambulance!” she shouted as she ran.
“Officer down! Repeat, officer down!”