Round Robin

Chapter 22 (Babefan2019)

RANGER

I stared at the whiteboard in front of me, but it was like my brain refused to process the information my eyes were seeing. I know fear is an unproductive emotion but I'm having a hard time pushing mine aside. Stephanie's life depends on my ability to do what I do best, hunt. Track down my target and eliminate the threat. So why am I having such a hard time doing just that?

I know why. I had seen the autopsy report on Amanda Young. Knife wounds over seventy percent of her body. None deep enough to kill; only deep enough to inflict maximum pain. Evidence of sexual assault. The coroner said it was most likely a large, wooden object, like a table leg or a baseball bat. Perforations, abrasions, damage to the cervix and uterus. Not done for his own sexual pleasure, only to cause pain and suffering. He spent hours torturing her. No evidence of a gag. He wanted to hear her scream. And she must have screamed for hours. Probably right up until he gouged her eyes out.

I swallowed hard to drive the bile back down. I've seen and done a lot of bad shit in my life, but this one hit too close to home.

The screaming. He had to be somewhere remote; somewhere where there were no neighbors to hear a gunshot or a woman's screams. Somewhere he didn't have to worry about being interrupted. Assuming Morelli and Amanda was killed in the same location.

The deed search in Mercer County was a bust. Once the registrar knew why we were there, she was more than willing to open the office. The woman was a friend of Amanda Young's mother and wanted to help try to track down Amanda's killer.

That was our mistake. Mercer County is too populated. We wasted too much time looking in Trenton. It was now almost 2300 hours. Stephanie had been gone for close to twelve hours. I know firsthand how much you can make a person suffer in twelve hours.

Shit. Lock it down. Think Manoso.

The vibration of my phone startled me. Just more proof that my head wasn't where it needed to be. I moved to the back of the crowded conference room before I answered the call.

"Manoso," I said, not bothering to look at the caller ID.

"Ranger? This is Edna Mazur," the caller responded.

"Did you think of something else, Mrs. Mazur?" I asked. Stupid question.

"I got to thinking about the Rossi boy and his family. They were all from the 'Burg, you know. Teresa Rosolli was born Teresa Rossi. She was Tito's twin sister. Anyway, she married Sal Rosolli and had a daughter, Connie. She works as the office manager for Stephanie's slimeball cousin Vinnie. He owns a used car lot here in the 'Burg. Vinnie's Gently Owned and New to You Cars. He's the kind of sleazebag that gives New Jersey used car salesmen a bad name."

"Is this going somewhere, Mrs. Mazur?" I asked, trying not to sound as impatient as I was feeling.

"Yes. As I was saying, Teresa Rosolli was Tito's twin sister. When Tito was killed, Teresa should have inherited everything from his estate. Not that he had much, mind you. He liked to play the ponies and always had some bimbo hanging off him. He wasn't much to look at, either, but that didn't stop them gold digger types. We never understood how a nice girl like Janice ended up with him."

"You keep referring to her as Janice, but our intel says Mickey Bolan was born to a Maureen Bolan," I said. I didn't know what difference it made, but no stone unturned.

"She was named after her two grandmothers, Maureen Janice. Her grandmother Maureen lived with the family at the time and the family always called the baby Janice. Guess it stuck," Mrs. Mazur explained. I could relate.

"I don't mean to be rude, but would you please get to the point of this story?" I asked.

"Keep your shorts on, I'm getting there. After you left, I was thinking about all this and remembered there was some big to-do about the estate long after it was supposed to be settled. Turns out, the property Alexander gave to Tito's kid wasn't in Tito's name. Tito used his baby niece's identity to purchase the properties. It all came out when Connie Rosolli had to file for bankruptcy after her cheating loser of an ex-husband cleaned out their bank accounts before the divorce. An asset search found a hunting cabin and a house in Connie's name down in the Pine Barrens, 'cept she didn't know a thing about them."

Bingo. I moved the phone away from my face and called out. "Hector, start running a search of assets listed for Connie Rosolli. You're looking for properties in the Barrens."

"Anything else, Mrs. Mazur?" The way she rambled I couldn't tell if she had anything more that would be useful.

"Just one more thing." Her voice dropped and I pushed the phone tighter to my ear. "Call me Edna," she said, and then she disconnected. I glanced at the phone in my hand. Steph came from a scary gene pool.

Gazzara was obviously listening to my side of the conversation. As I pocketed my phone, he said, "I know Connie Rosolli. Her little sister, Tina, was in my and Steph's class in high school. Connie was a couple of years ahead of us. I think she graduated with Morelli. It will take Hector time to find the information, and the property may not be listed in her name anymore. I'll call her and see if I can get the addresses," he said, pulling out his cell.

Eddie looked like shit. I figured he was beating himself up for agreeing with Steph, and for trusting me to protect her.

"Hey, Connie. This is Eddie Gazzara. Sorry to call so late but I need your help. We have reason to believe it was your cousin Mickey Bolan who killed Joe Morelli and Amanda Young. He kidnapped Stephanie Plum this afternoon and we're trying to find her before it's too late."

He paused, listening. "No, we don't think you're involved. But we suspect Mickey may have taken Steph to one of the properties your Uncle Tito purchased using your identity. They were in the Pine Barrens, right? Do you have the addresses?"

I slid a notepad and a pen across the conference room table towards Eddie. He nodded his thanks and grabbed the pen. "Yeah, I know. It's fucked up. Thanks for your help, Connie. Take care." He disconnected and dropped the pen back on the pad. "Connie doesn't remember the addresses, but she confirmed there were two properties, both located in the Barrens. She had her name removed from the titles, and she thinks Bolan used the name Michael Rossi on the new titles."

"Michael Rossi, si," Hector said, typing on the laptop in front of him.

"I want two teams ready to go in five minutes," I said to the room at large. "Alpha team is with me. That's Santos, Ramsey, and Ramos. Bravo team is with Tank. Brown, Barone, and Parker."

"What about me?" Eddie asked.

"Go home to your family. Stay there until I call you," I replied, knowing I was in for a fight.

"Like hell, I will! This is my fault as much as yours. I thought we could protect her. That's the only reason I backed her play. And when are you going to call in the state police? They can send the HRT. They have trained negotiators to deal with hostage situations," he said.

I made sure I held his eye so there would be no doubt in his mind about what I was saying. "There will be no negotiations. I will not give this man the opportunity to ever hurt Steph again. My men are trained to function as a team. Your presence would be disruptive. And, if you aren't there, you can't be held responsible for what I'm about to do."

He stared at me for a long moment before giving me a slight nod. "Okay. Bring her home safe," he said.

Tank, Lester, Ram, Manny, Bobby, Vince, and Hal were wearing their vests, fully stocked utility belts, and blank expressions when I walked out of the stairwell and into the garage four minutes later. No one said a word as we split up into two black SUVs. I led the way as we pulled out of the underground parking garage and headed south out of Trenton.

The Pine Barrens covers 1.1 million acres across seven counties in southern New Jersey. It would take some time for Hector to find the GPS coordinates on the properties, but the closer we were once he found them, the faster we could be to Stephanie. And my gut was telling me every second counted.

We headed down US Route 206 towards McGuire Air Force Base. I wanted to get closer but didn't want to get so far into the Barrens that we were past our target. It stood to reason that the properties would be relatively close to Trenton if Tito had purchased them for his personal use.

It was close to midnight when Hector's voice sounded in my earbud. The cabin was closer to our position and the brake lights of Tank's SUV were fading into the distance before Hector finished with his report. As soon as Lester had the GPS programmed, I chirped the tires in my haste to be on our way. We were a lot closer than if we had been driving from Trenton, but we were still 15 minutes out when Tank's voice came through the com.

"Bravo team has secured Target 2. No bandit, no Steph. Bit of a mess, though. Looks like our boy had a party. The scene has been secured. I'll invite the official folks for a look after you've checked out Target 1," Tank said. He knew better than to rely on too much information over an open comm. I assumed Tank had found where Bolan held and executed Morelli, and maybe Amanda. Tank wouldn't call in the state CSI unit until after we'd had a chance to check out the house. Besides, no point in waking them in the middle of the night. The evidence wasn't going anywhere.

When we were a quarter-mile from the house, I killed the lights and pulled to the side of the road. I didn't want to risk alerting Bolan to our presence, so we would go the rest of the way on foot. It was no exaggeration when I told Gazzara he'd be in the way. My team moved like smoke through the darkness, approaching the house from the shadows with our weapons at the ready. We would stay in the tree line until the last possible moment. Lester and Manny moved toward the back of the house, while Ram and I took the front. We needed to be careful once we broke out of the cover of the trees. The crescent moon cast just enough light that someone looking out through one of the lit windows would be able to see a dark figure crossing the untended and overgrown lawn.

We were emerging from the edge of the woods closest to the front door when an unearthly shriek shattered the quiet. All effort at stealth was gone and we started running for the house. Without warning, the front door slammed open, and a backlit figure came tearing out of the house like the hounds of Hell were nipping at their heels. I sighted my weapon on the figure and my finger tightened on the trigger as my brain registered what I was seeing. A naked woman. Her alabaster skin was marred by dark smears. Blood. Across her face, her chest, her abdomen. I couldn't tell if the blood was hers or from someone else.

"Hold your fire!" I called, lowering my weapon and moving toward her as she ran toward the woods where we were standing. "It's Steph."