Chapter 35
WARNING: Most of this chapter is M for sure. It's violent. You can skip almost to the end and still understand what happens.
Show Time
Mary Lou put the last grocery bags in the car trunk and shut it. When she turned a street person was standing too close, "Money for Jesus." It was hard to tell if it was a man or woman. The face was dirty, clothes ratty, oversized and smelly.
"Sorry, I used it all to buy groceries," Mary Lou said as she tried move away.
The homeless person grabbed her and forcefully stuck something metallic in her rubs. "Get in the car and drive. If not, Lenny will be cooking for your boys from now on, Mary Lou."
The voice was familiar but sloppy like the person was on drugs or drinking. Mary Lou examined the face in her rear mirror. It was Joyce Barnhardt.
"Where are we going Joyce?" Mary Lou tried to ask calmly.
"Just shut up and drive bitch," was her reply.
It took Mary Lou's husband three hours to realize his wife was long overdue. He called her cell phone but it went to voice mail. After calling several of her friends and even local hospitals, he called the police and the grocery store. A replay of the parking lot security cam clearly showed the Mary Lou driving away with what appeared as a homeless person in the back seat.
000
"Yo," Tank replied to his phone. He was returning from the gym.
"Sir, police band has a missing person's report, Mary Lou Stankovic, apparently kidnapped from grocery store parking lot, 4 hours ago."
"Got it."
Tank called Hector…. Mary Lou Standovic ha sido secuestrada de tienda de abarrotes hace 4 horas. Se puede obtener el video?" (Mary Lou Standovic has been kidnapped from the grocery store 4 hours ago. Can you get the video?)
Si.
¿Puede usted seguir el coche? (Can you track the car?)
Puedo seguir para como hay cámaras. (I can track for as long as there are cameras.)
Tank's next call was to Mario Martin in Newark telling him of the kidnapping and suspecting is it Joyce Barnhardt.
It took Hector hours but he was able to track Mary Lou's car to the agricultural areas east of Trenton where homes sat on hundred to thousand acre farms. While the camera didn't definitely identify Joyce Barnhardt as the abductor, everyone was working on that assumption. She was not at her address on the bail form and her car was found not far from the grocery store. For a smart woman, that was an error.
Conformation came the hours later when Silvio received a brief call, "I've got a hostage named Mary Lou. The longer you delay the more she'll get messed up."
Silvio called Mario Martin, "She has a hostage named Mary Lou."
"We suspected. Mary Lou Standovic from Trenton, friend of the Plum woman."
So far Joyce was holding all the cards. Mario called Tank to confer. Tank knew Frosyni was excellent in intelligence and operations; time to get her input. He called Lester, "Open phone."
Frosyni POV
We sat and listened in horror at what was happening. I thought for a minute, "We give her what she wants, me."
"Not going to happen." Tank said.
"It's the only way."
"No."
"I'll think of something else," I said and hung up.
After disconnecting I turned to Ram, "Call Hector. Let me talk to him."
"Tienes el número de teléfono y el nombre del hombre que contactó a Joyce? I asked Hector. (Do you have the phone number and name of the man Joyce contacted?)
"Si, Silvio Barela, cell number….
"Gracias Hector."
"Ten cuidado," (Be careful.) Hector understood.
Using a burner phone from the supplies at the safe house, I called the number.
"My name is Efrosyni Pappas Sherman, you are looking for me. Are you alone?"
"Yes," Silvio said.
"No cops listening in?" I asked.
"No."
"We are going to solve the problem. What are your instructions from Joyce?"
Silvio sighed, "Kidnap you, mess you up bad but keep you alive. Then deliver you to her."
"Are you planning on doing it?"
"Hell no, I owe Ric and Pierre big time. I'm trying to figure out how to get out of this without losing my life," he blew out.
"We will work with you, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't mess me up first."
Silvio listened to how coolly this woman spoke. She didn't see phased by the threat. "What do you have in mind?"
I need to be with you when you call Joyce, she'll need verification, probably a cell phone picture. We have a general idea where she is. It's rural, we don't know how far out."
"Whose we?" Silvio asked.
"Does it matter? You and I can't do this alone," I said calmly.
"Are they cops?"
"No, they are trained mercenaries who make your client look like a preschooler."
Silvio gasped. He was sinking deeper and deeper into the mire.
"What type of weapon do you carry?" I inquired.
"9mm."
"We meet. You mess me up and then take me to Joyce."
"I thought you said…"
"Distractions, Silivo, distractions. Oh Silvio, do not call Mario Martin or any other cop; the fewer who know, the better. I'll get back to you within three hours."
He didn't understand but she sounded like she knew what she was doing. He hoped so.
0000
The following is pretty raw, M rated for sure. Skip if you wish.
"Where are there no microphones?" I whispered to Lester.
He thought a minute, bathroom especially if we turn on a radio," he answered.
I shook my head yes and we all went in. Ram turned on the radio and I turned on the shower. We huddled together outside the shower and I told them my plan.
"Is this going to work, Colonel?" Lester asked.
"Yes, but it depends how predictable Joyce is. Who knows now?"
"…and how good Hector is and this Silvio whom we've never met," he worried.
"Hector will do his job, that doesn't worry me. Silvio went to the cops instead of turning down the contract or fulfilling it. What need is a driver, who do you recommend?"
"Bobby."
Ram shook his head in approval.
"We need transport, larger SUV, non-Rangeman vehicle, no electronics including his cell, nothing traceable. We also need him to pick up a few things first. I'll make a list, you contact him Lester. I'll talk to Hector to see what he needs."
Escaping a monitored house is hard unless you have someone who can mask your escape and absence. Hector has been carefully recording our comings and goings around the house as well as the routine house noises. He'll mix the sights and sounds randomly and then loop it into the Rangeman monitors. In the mean time we'll leave, masked by Hector, and meet Bobby nearby in an untraceable vehicle.
As we emerged from the neighborhood landscape, Bobby looked at our two rifle cases and simply said, "I figured that's what this is about." We had a location east of Trenton we could use for our work. Silvio was waiting.
When we pulled up in front of the nondescript building I turned to Bobby, "You can go. The less you know the better," I said.
"No, I want to help," he quietly said.
I quickly explained the plan.
Bobby said, "You'll need me to supervise the makeup. Who knows better what a beat down and assault looks like?"
Once inside the building we went to work. "Lester, start darkening your hair, avoid your scalp. This stuff will wash out. Then use the makeup, cover as much of you as you can. Ram will help with coverage."
Working quickly, I had Bobby rip my clothes as if we had been fighting. Then I stripped naked allowing Bobby to apply the putty, colored Karo syrup, and coloring to mimic swollen tissue, blood and early bruising. Emphasis was placed on sexual areas. It didn't have to pass Hollywood standards just cell phone photo.
Silvio stood back and looked green, "This is really fucked up."
When complete I was "arranged" on a dirty mattress, bound but not gagged. I might have to moan.
At that moment Lester came in, "Oh shit," he murmured when he saw me. He was covered in darker theatrical makeup and had dark hair. His only clothing was a cup.
Taking Silvio's phone, Bobby took pictures. "Silvio, take your clothes off and wipe your groin and chest with this red stained rag."
Silivo blanched.
"It's got to look like you've sexually abused her and still carrying the evidence."
He did as he was told.
Bobby directed, "Now get down close and take some selfies, the more suggestive the better. We've got to convince Joyce."
"I can't do that," he objected. "I can't touch her."
I growled, "Damnit, just do it. You are saving three people's life; Mary Lou, Stephanie, and mine. Channel your bad side one more time."
This is just sick, real sick," Silvio said.
"Yeah," all of us agreed.
Bobby began adding putty and color to Lester to mimic my "injuries" while Silvio made the call, "I've got her."
"Let me see, take a picture, put yourself in the shot."
Everyone was surprised I had read Joyce's mind. Silvio forced himself to chuckle, "A selfie!"
He paused before sending the already taken photos.
"Looks like you had a good time. You finished playing with her?" Joyce sneered.
"Maybe." Silvio said.
"I want to talk to her, put the phone on speaker next to her so she can hear me," instructed Joyce.
Ram, Bobby and Lester froze so as not to make a sound.
Joyce's voice came over the phone, "Hey Godzilla, you fuck with me and I fuck with you. Silvio here has just warmed you up for me. Whaddya say about that?"
Silvio lowered the phone and with a low moaning voice slurring my words, "Ffffuck ooo bich."
Joyce laughed, "No dear, you've been fucked and now I'm going to chop you into pieces and mail you back to your Ape Man."
Joyce then said loudly, "She better be alive when you get her here."
Silvio replied, "Depends how far away you are."
Joyce gave the location.
As instructed Silvio gasped, "Hell why not make it Atlantic City? I thought you'd be in Newark. It's going to take time, an hour maybe more." Actually we were not far away.
"Drive fast."
"And get a ticket, no way." Silvio hung up.
Immediately Ram was getting Google Earth photos of the area to find shooting locations around Joyce's hideout. Silvio untied and helped me wipe off the fake blood. As I slipped on spare clothes, Bobby finished up Lester's transformation. He added blood, bruises, stuffed but torn bra for boobs, and body armor; when complete Lester put on my old, torn and "bloody" clothing.
We stood back and looked, "We can't get you too close to her, but from a distance, you'll do," Bobby said.
Before they left, I asked Silvio for his weapon. He reached down to his ankle and pulled out a 9 mm.
"No, not large enough," I said. Reaching into my bag I pulled a big Glock. Ejecting the clip I replaced the first two bullets. "The first two are low velocity. Use them to shoot Lester in the abdomen. You'll be within 4 feet, so accuracy shouldn't be a problem. He has extra armor on the abdomen and lower chest. Being a low load, the recoil won't be excessive. If you need to fight, the remaining 13 are full loads.
Lester added, "Please aim, don't hit too low. I still want a family."
Silvio, Ram, Lester and I got into SUV. Bobby slipped into Silvio's Lexus and went to a designated area to wait. When we were a mile away from Joyce's, Silvio stopped letting Ram and me exit the vehicle. We headed for the woods.
Silvio and Lester went over their plan for when they get to Joyce. Lester reminded Silvio his gun's first two cartridges were near blanks but still could do damage.
Silvio called in, "I'm about 7 miles out in a silver SUV."
"Why?" Joyce demanded.
"Hell, she's a mess. I put her clothes back on her, but she'd bloody the car. Anyway, she's tall, I needed room for her." Silvio said forcibly.
"OK, keep coming. When you get to the front gate, come through, stop immediately and turn away from the camera. Open all the doors I want to make sure there are only two of you."
"Fine, you want me to jack it up so you can check underneath?"
"Ass."
Silvio waited giving Ram and me time to set up and unpack the M2010 sniper rifles and scopes. We were around 800 yards from the house, well within the accuracy range of the .300 Win Mag ammunition and well within the comfort range for snipers.
I checked Ram's location, I approved. Using the VOX headset, I checked in with Ram. "Set."
He replied, "Set…..ML's car in trees."
I whispered, "Camera on front gate, we'll take it when we leave.
Roger.
Lester was also listening, "Roger camera."
Lester had transferred to the back of the SUV and Silvio looped rope around him but did not tie the ends. Lester held the ends.
Silvio started the SUV and headed down the road; show time.
To avoid leaving finger prints on the gate, Silvio pulled his jacked cuffs down when he opened the gate. He drove through and turned to the right, stopped and got out opening all four doors and the rear door giving the camera a view of the interior. In the back, laying on "her" side was the victim, trussed up. He shut the doors and drove towards the house turning slightly towards it as he approached the house.
House was a generous term. It was more like a migrant worker shack; made of wood, single story with a porch across the front. The paint was mostly peeled from the siding. A propane tank stood next to the house and an electric drop entered the house. An electric cord rang to the front gate along the ground. Silvio was reminded of a slum home in Newark.
Joyce came out the front door, half carrying a drugged Mary Lou in her left arm, a .45 cal in her right hand.
"OK, get her out," Joyce demanded as she half push half let fall Mary Lou into a chair and held her up.
"I'm not clear of Mary Lou, are you?" I asked Ram"
"Negative."
"Stay on target, wait to clear, fire when clear."
"Roger."
Silvio muttered to Lester, "Kidnapper just outside the door, gun pointing to seated victim who appears drugged."
Silvio carefully began the charade. He walked around the back and dragged his bound victim out and set "her" on her feet. "Stand up bitch or so help me I'll drag you by your hair," he swore loudly so Joyce could hear.
The fake me, Lester, appeared semi-conscious, head down, needing help to stand.
Before they cleared the SUVs rear corner and not yet in direct line with Joyce, Lester pushed Silvio away and "apparently" kicked him in the privates. Silvio infuriated drew his gun and sent two bullets into his captive. Even though non-lethal loads, they knocked Lester back.
"NO." Joyce yelled forgetting about Mary Lou who slumped to the ground. Joyce took only one step before she died. The rifle reports sounded like one as both snipers fired near simultaneously.
Immediately the snipers began repacking their rifles and scopes to move to the rendezvous spot. Lester instantly jumped up, untangled himself from the ropes and ran into the house. Silvio picked up Mary Lou and carried her away from the house but in sight of eventual emergency vehicles.
Inside Lester found the kitchen was next to the front door. Perfect. Pouring oil into a frying pan, he placed it on the stove and turned the flame to high. Taking the dry dish clothes, he ignited them from the stove's fame and set the curtains papers on the table and moved to the living room curtains and tossed the nearly consumed towels on the dirty oily sofa. He found a full bottle of whiskey on the counter broke it and allowed the flames to roll across the liquid on the counter and floor. He kicked over a trash bin, scattering paper and aerosol can in the flame's bath.
Eventually the oil in the frying pan would reach flash point further adding to the conflagration. In time the whole kitchen would be ablaze and spread to the rest of the old dry house.
Lester spotted a laptop used to monitor the front gate camera by the table next to the front door. He grabbed it and the cord. Stepping over what was left of Joyce Barnhardt, he felt her pocket, found and took her cell phone.
Silvio had the SUV turned towards the gate and the door open for Lester. When they reached the front gate, Lester stood on the open gate and pulled the camera off a post and then shut the gate careful not to leave smudges or finger prints.
Silvio drove less than a mile, stopped, opened the SUVs side doors and Ram and I dove in; shut the doors and all left.
Taking an alternate route from which we came, we stopped beside Silvio's Lexus. Bobby took over driving the SUV back to the safe house. Silvio left the borrowed Glock in the SUV, got into his Lexus and drove back toward Newark. We were long gone before the firetrucks rushed to the now totally engulfed burning house.
Two men in the trees put down their high power binoculars. "Very efficient."
"Yeah," the other uttered.
Getting back into the safe house required another call to Hector. Under the cover of night Lester and I stripped down to our birthday suits leaving the Karo syrup sticky clothes with Bobby. All three, Ram, Lester and I, returned to the house and Lester and I showered. The makeup and syrup washed off easily but Lester's hair wasn't lightening as fast as we hoped. We tried dish soap and laundry soap in addition to the body soap and shampoo.
The only option was to shave Lester bald. Fortunately the color didn't stain his scalp. We looked carefully at his chest, legs and arms and found traces of makeup in his blond hairs. It too wasn't washing out; at least that's what we told Lester.
"Ah, Lester, we need to shave more," Ram said.
"How much more?" He squeaked.
"Wherever you put the dark make up."
It was near midnight when Tank called the safe house. Lester answered and had his story prepared.
"Get me away from your crazy wife, get me out of here!" Lester screamed.
"What has happened?"
"I told her some of the names I came up with for her and Hal; I was just being funny."
Tank sighed, "What did she do?"
"She and Ram tied me up and shaved my head. Damn I'm as bald as you."
"Is that all?"
"Isn't that enough! Am I going to have to wax my head like you? What if my hair never grows back?"
"I don't wax my head," Tank growled. "Let me talk to her."
I came on the line sounding sleepy, "Hi love."
"Did you really shave Lester?"
"From head to toe. He was being a real ass, worse than usual. Ram and I had it. Do you know how long it takes to completely shave a screaming Lester? Hours."
"You shaved his whole body?"
I giggled, "The ultimate manscape. Well, Ram did that part. Bobby will probably need to give him something for the, ah rash, later."
Lester groaned loudly in the background. It was not an act.
Suddenly I got serious, "How is the search going?"
"You can come home now. It's over." He sounded tired.
"Over? What about Mary Lou?" I had considered being more inquisitive but it would have sounded false from me.
"Joyce is dead, Mary Lou is in the hospital," Tank spoke quietly.
I groaned, "How bad?"
"Drugged and slapped around, she'll be fine….in time."
"Thank heavens. Fill me in when I get home." I wasn't sure if he suspected I was involved.
"Put Lester in front of the camera, I want to see your work."
"How much of it?"
"Just his head," he warned.
I was dressed in my night shirt and hair disarrayed; Ram in his boxer shorts grabbed Lester and marched him into full view of the camera.
Tank chuckled.
0000
OK gruesome part over.
When Tank called Ranger to give him the news, Ranger simply said, "Efficient. Have you told her you watched?" Ranger asked.
"No and I probably won't. I thought that was her being gut shot until I saw the double tap on Joyce but only one somewhat lengthy rifle report. I don't know how far she and Ram were out."
"Good thought to bug Silvio's phone."
"He should have gone into acting. He held is own with Joyce and Frosyni."
"The police investigating?"
"For about 10 minutes. It occurred in a depressed rural area where home fires and deaths are not unusual. Mario Martin had a talk with the part time coroner, told him about the 4 new murder charges. Suddenly the two gunshot wounds; one to the heart and one to the head were forgotten. Death was ruled asphyxiation and massive burns. House burned to the ground, ruled a kitchen fire. Her weapon was found nearby and ballistics positively tied it to the Trenton murders. Nobody at TPD wanted to investigate further. "
"Is Mary Lou OK?"
"Yeah, Ketamine. She remembers the house and Joyce, not the end."
"Did they really shave Lester?"
Laughing Tank replied, "Head to toe. I suspect the hair color didn't come out. As for the rest of him, it was probably revenge."
"I'll be with Steph and Sam for a few days enjoying the beach."
"Roger."
" …and Tank, thank you for marrying her."
000
Next morning when Tank walked in from the garage into his home, Frosyni was cooking breakfast. Without turning she asked, "Enjoy the show?"