He's been back for a week now and it seems as if he never left. But he did but it was not his choice his son-in-law had died on that day. There are days after he leaves the BDU that all he wants to do is go home and vegetate on his sofa in front of the TV. But that's next to impossible because he has his daughters and his grandsons are always sounding off in cycles. It's like they have a secret form of communication.
"Rick, can you get me a new package of baby wipes, please?" Kate calls out to him from the twin's room.
Usually, he would jump at her request, hell he'd even relieve her and change both of his daughters but he just didn't seem to have the energy to move right now.
"Dad, I'll get them for mom don't worry," Alexis says as she looked down at him lounging on the couch.
Ever since Alexis had moved in with her children, they were absolute angels. They never made a mess, they always slept longer than they had to at nap time, and after turning three months old, they were almost sleeping through the night. Alexis was able to get a solid five hours of uninterrupted sleep during the night. Even when they woke up, they were never that fussy they both mostly just entertained themselves until they needed to be changed.
His children, on the other hand, were the opposite of his daughters. There would be times when one would stop crying when she got her bottle but then the other would start. It's like they have a secret code just to drive their parents crazy. Then there was diaper duty. Once Hope was changed and cleaned up Faith decided that she simply had to be changed as well. Even though she was just changed less than twenty minutes ago.
But today was Saturday and it was the day they had looked forward to for most of the week. They were all going to take a trip out to Staten Island to see the antique car show. It had been a long week and now it was time to relax and see some classic Detroit iron.
Xx
Smitty had everything finished on his Grand Prix. The car was washed, waxed, and ready to roll. The oil had been changed and he even ordered a new set of chrome hubcaps direct from Pontiac in Detroit. They were sent by Federal Express and arrived yesterday. It was a find that he thought he would never get his hands on. General Motors had released a lot of their older parts just to get rid of them and the ones he had were pitted with a small amount of rust so these brand new stock hubcaps made the car what it is now.
He heads out to the garage to make one last check of his car. He starts it up and listens to the 6.6-liter engine purr and backed it up out of the garage. He decided to remove the T-tops and place them in their protective covers in the trunk seeing that it was such a bright and sunny day out. Now all he had to do was grab his poster board describing the car he owns and all of the trophies that he places in front of the car when it's on display.
Xx
Colin had never thought his luck was going to be this good. He had waited for Smitty to leave for work and then he got to work. The ploy he used was a brilliant one he thought to himself as he crossed the street and into his back yard. If anyone was curious about why he was there at Smitty's house he could show them the order paperwork he had with Smitty's signature on it for a delivery he authorized. He had rented a small cargo van complete with a hand truck to complete the look. He had over 10,000 ¼ inch ball bearings in a wooden crate that was three feet by two feet. Inside the crate was a plastic bag that held all the ball bearings. He had loaded the crate onto the hand truck and rolled it away from the van. He was methodical in his own way as to inflict the most amount of damage to anyone who happened to be near this car.
He first placed the mercury switch hidden on the inside of the frame near the brake master cylinder so it would be overlooked. There was no way that it would be found even if you were looking for it specifically. With this done, he had opened the crate and removed the plastic bag from the box. He had a funnel placed in the tie down hole and scooped out the ball bearings with a small garden shovel. This made his job so much easier. When he was done filling the frame, he checked the placement of the bearings and then went to his bag to get the Semtex. It was very stable for being homemade and he wondered if those morons at the BDU would realize that this was his own creation. He thought about how to place it and he came up with the idea of rolling it out in the shape of a thin rope and run it along the frame.
It worked out perfectly. The emergency brake cable that ran down along the frame provided a way to secure the Semtex the the frame without being found or coming loose in transit. He spray painted the rope of Semtex black to hide it even more. The car that was recently restored from the frame up had no rust on it at all so the black paint covered the Semtex perfectly. The last item to place was the two leads from the mercury switch to the Semtex and provide a power source for the switch. He used the cars 12-volt battery to power the switch. Checking his work one last time he cleaned everything up and left the way he came, almost like a ghost.
Xx
The car show was one of the best to attend. It drew cars from as far south as Florida and as far West as Chicago. This was the 35th year it was being held and there was a record of entries this year. The committee had to separate the cars by the decade that they were made. Then there was the modified, stock, and racer categories and each had their own decade. They even thought about putting each manufacturer's cars into groups but they decided against it.
It turned out that the people who entered the show usually kept their cars grouped together. All the Chevelle's were together, all the Mustangs and Road Runners were together, and all the GTOs were together as well, there was even a foreign car section.
Smitty decided to get an early start on the day and he was up by 6 am. The show started at 9 am so he ate a very sensible breakfast had a cup of good coffee and was out the door by 7:30. He was driving along Interstate 278 from his new house.
2011 Bay Ridge Parkway in Brooklyn was a steal and he should really be thanking that the lunatic who blew up his old house because he was doing him a favor. With the money he received from the insurance company he was able to purchase the house in Bay Ridge for $300,000 less than the asking price because the owners were motivated to sell. With the extra money left over from the purchase of the house, he was able to furnish the whole place. He even had enough money left over to outfit his garage with a new air compressor, a full line of hand tools, and he was able to heat the garage in the winter and cool it in the summer.
Miller Field on Staten Island was the location for the car show. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge stood majestically not far from the park. The park was an old military base long since abandoned. There were still old buildings that the military left standing when the base was closed and the graffiti artists had left their mark on them over and over again. The area across from the buildings was where the cars would be staging.
Xx
Colin had already taken measures to access the park and was already in position by the time Smitty had left for the car show. The old abandoned military building overlooking the grounds was the perfect place to be and not be seen. He had a small telescope set up to watch the moment when he finally eliminated the bastard's best friend. It would take some time but he'd wait patiently to take him out. He would love to see the look on his face and that's why he has the telescope in those last possible second before his life ends, he knows what it will look like and that will make him very happy.
Time passes and the field is now filling up with classic cars. They have parking lot attendants to guide the cars of people who drive to the event and they are parking them on the outside perimeter of the field. The cars in the show are almost lined up in a perfect line. The owners are proudly sitting in front of their prides of joy. Most of the people admiring the cars have been asking questions. He can see Smitty talking spiritedly with people who just love his car this plan could not be going any better.
But then it all turns to shit. All his planning and hard work are going to be for nothing. The second he sees them he panics as he verifies that they're actually there at the other end of the telescope. He can't follow through with this now because the bastard has just walked up to Smitty's car with his wife, children, daughter, and her kids. Then it gets a lot worse. The other members of the BDU stroll up and start looking at the car putting themselves directly in the blast zone. There is no way he can stop what is about to happen. He could care less about the other BDU members but Smith, but he wants to make Castle suffer the way he has, painfully and to do that he needs to kill him on a more personal and private level. The only problem is that the mercury switch he wired up was set for a two-hour delay and that two hours will be up in less than 8 minutes. He runs everything through his mind and can come up with only one way to prevent the detonation from happening. He will need to send a signal to the test blasting cap. The problem with that is he is too far from the car for the signal to stop the blasting cap from setting off the Semtex. He knows that he has taken this into consideration and has about five minutes to play with.
He leaves the building and walks out to blend in with the people gawking at the cars. As he cuts through the crowd, he knows that he needs to be at least 100 yards from the car to deactivate the blasting cap and with the crowd getting denser he hopes that he can make it in time. He also knows that he will never get the chance that he was given today. The deactivation of the blasting cap will cause a small amount of smoke from the insulation melting off the leads from the Semtex. Luckily it won't be enough of a means to set off the explosive.
He can see all of them standing around the car and he retrieves the coded fob from his pocket that has the encrypted frequency and waits a little bit before pushing the button. He watches them as he depresses the button and within seconds the smoke that he knew would happen starts to float up around the frame of the car and out from the sides and under the hood.
"Smitty? What's going in with your car?" Charlie asks as a small amount of black smoke rises from under the car.
"I have no idea. I went over every square inch of my car yesterday. Nothing should be going wrong with it. there's no reason for it to be smoking the way it is."
Rick has a bad feeling about this and he tells Kate and Alexis to move away from the car just to be on the safe side.
"Smitty, since the hood is already up let's take a look at underneath the car and maybe near the firewall because that's where it looks like the smoke is coming from," Rick suggests.
"Okay, Rick. But I swear I have looked over everything yesterday. There's nothing that can be causing the car to smoke like this."
Dave and Herman have already seen this type of scenario play out before. What he sees is a car bomb waiting to take out at least fifty to one hundred people or maybe even more.
"Boss, let me and Dave take a look at this. I've seen this type of smoke before and I think it's in line with the cartels down in South America. Smitty, I promise that we won't damage anything while we are looking for what we're looking for."
"Alright." Smitty agrees.
Dave and Herman borrow a floor jack from two stalls away from where Smitty's car is. He carefully places the jack under the frame of the car closer to where the driver sits and not in the middle of the car because they want to pick up the heavier part of the car where the engine is. Since Herman is about 252 pounds, it would be impossible for him to fit under the car so Dave gets the job to squeeze under the driver's side and take a look around. The second need does he knows things are very bad. He can smell the fresh spray paint and while he knows Smitty had the cars frame repeated this is new paint and not old. He touches the rope explosive attached to the brake line running along the frame and then he turns his head to the right and sees the two leads from the mercury switch that's mounted under the master cylinder.
"Rick, you need to move everyone back from this car. Clear about 200 feet from this spot in all directions. There are about two and a half pounds of Semtex wired to Smitty's car."
"Everybody, back you heard the man move now or else. Kate, I want you in Alexis to go home that is the safest place for you right now. I'll be along when I can because now this just became a crime scene." Rick tells her.
"Babe, please don't do this. You just came back three days ago. You need to delegate someone else to investigate this incident." Kate demands.
"This is my job Kate. This is what the city pays me to do. But what I will do is make sure that the scene is secure have Loto take over the investigation and make sure that this car is moved to a location where it won't do anyone any harm. And then I will be back home."
"Promise?" Kate counters.
"I promise."
Xx
Colin slowly walks past the group of BDU personnel, hears them talking about what to do about the car and he catches the request from the bastard's wife. She wants him to leave right now but he calms her down. He'll get his due maybe not right now but he will get his revenge. He needs to go home and think about how he will be able to take his father's killer out without raising that much suspicion because he knows that one fact is true now… they will be looking for just about anything and for him, that's not good.
TBC
