Scrabble Spells Murder
Chapter 22
22.1
Ironside hung up the phone, wheeled away from his desk and joined his staff at the main table. "The Coast Guard will be on alert tomorrow. Not that I think that is going to be of much help. Ed, make sure they have a photo of Vincent Mortimer. They can't spot him if they don't know what he looks like."
Sergeant Brown moved immediately to the phone and made a call. When he got off the phone, he reported to his boss. "We will have photos for the Coast Guard there in the morning." He sat back down at the table.
"Chief, wouldn't it be a good idea to have plain-clothed officers on boats on the bay as well?" Eve suggested.
Ironside immediately brushed off the suggestion. "Mortimer will know every boat that is entered in the fishing contest. If he spots a phony one, he could kill Fran. I won't take that chance."
"You aren't considering doing this alone, are you?" Mark asked.
"Doing what alone? At this point, we don't even know what Vincent has planned," Ed said, sitting down at the table.
"He plans on killing Fran and the Chief. We can be pretty sure of that," Mark responded to him. "We have to stop him."
"We are not only going to stop him; we are going to end his damn Scrabble game. Think! Considering what Mortimer has done so far, if you were he, how would you go about killing Fran and me, on a boat on the bay, which will have dozens of other boats?"
"First of all, he has to find a way to do it so that there are no witnesses," Eve surmised.
"How can we be sure of that?" Mark asked. "After raiding that house tonight, he must know that we are on to him. At this point, why would he care if anyone knows that he is responsible?"
Ed placed both arms on the table and folded his hands together. He bent forward, leaning his chin on raised thumbs. "Because, despite knowing that we have discovered he is the hacker, he is still going to want to get away. If there are no witnesses, he has a better chance of slipping away unnoticed."
"That should be easy to do among all the boats that will be coming and going tomorrow," Mark remarked.
"Not if we have plain-clothed officers on those boats," Eve said. When she saw the look on Ironside's face, she decided to head him off. She knew he would again deny her suggestion but she had to try. Her concern over the chief's safety trumped risking his wrath. "Okay, I agree that he will probably know every boat that is entered in this contest but I doubt that he will know every individual that is manning those boats"
"What are you getting at, Eve?" Ironside said, impatiently?"
"I am saying, why not put plain-clothed officers on board the boats nearest the Thunderbird? If we could get enough boat owners to cooperate, maybe we could lure him into a trap."
"That would only help if he tried to get away in a boat," Ed said, his chin still leaning on his thumbs.
"How else is he going to get away?" Mark wondered. "He can't sprout wings and fly. He has to get away on the water."
Ironside had been quietly sitting listening to his staff. "We are not going to put cops on any of the boats and the reason we are not going to do it is because he is not going to try and escape in a boat."
With a bewildered look on her face, Eve said, "What other way could he possibly escape?"
"The same way he is going to use Fran to lure me and then try to kill us both. I sent Carl to pick up a few things. This is what we are going to do ..."
22.2
Ironside looked out the window of his office/residence. He knew he should be sleeping and preparing mentally for the showdown with Vincent Mortimer but his thought process was always clearer this time of the night.
There was a knock on the door. Ironside turned his head to the sound. Who could be visiting him at this hour? Mark had gone to bed and he did not want to wake him so he wheeled his chair around and up the ramp. As he reached the door, he turned the key in the lock. When he opened the door, Katherine smiled down at him.
"I know it is late, Robert, but I just had to see you."
Ironside reached out, took her hand and pulled her into his office/residence. As she bent towards him, he placed his hand behind her neck and pulled her into a kiss. When they broke the kiss, Ironside smiled and said, "I am glad you came. Come in."
He turned his chair around while Katherine reached outside the door and picked up the bottle of wine she had set there. After closing the door, she stopped by the kitchenette, reached into the cupboard and removed two glasses. Reaching into the drawer, she picked up the cork screw. Katherine then proceeded to join him at his favorite window.
Ironside removed the bottle of wine and the cork screw from her hand. After he popped the cork from the bottle, Katherine held out the glasses for him to pour the wine.
She sat down on the couch; watched as Ironside removed the panel from the side of his wheelchair and maneuvered his large frame to rest beside her. She handed him one of the glasses of wine.
"I thought we would try one of our new Chardonnays."
He lifted the glass to his lips and took a sip. He smiled at her. "Excellent! Someday I would love to retire and run a vineyard myself."
"Maybe I will just rename mine and call it Ironside Winery. We could run it together." she said.
Ironside smiled again. "I just might take you up on that when I leave the police department."
When the look on his face soured, Katherine knew something was wrong. "Robert, what is it? There is something going on, isn't there?"
Ironside took another sip of wine and put his head back. Katherine never took her eyes off the detective as he told her about the events of the day and what he suspected Vincent Mortimer was going to do.
"Are you saying he is going to force a showdown with you?"
"That is exactly what I am saying. He saved my life when he swam out and removed the trap from my hand," he said.
"A trap that he was responsible for in the first place," Katherine pointed out.
"Yes but I would have drowned if he had not been there," Ironside said.
"Have you considered that he was only trying to avert suspicion from himself?"
"I considered it but that is not why he did it. It was to let me know that he could and had actually beaten me. I forced his hand when I had his computer traced. I have to stop him now, Katherine. He may have beaten me in that battle but he has not won the war. I intend to be the one that does that."
"No, he didn't beat you. He underestimated you as soon as he opened that trap and pulled you to shore. He is so sure that he can take you at anytime, he does not realize that is the weakness that you will exploit to defeat him."
Ironside put his arm around Katherine and pulled her close to him. She could feel his heat beat and hear his steady breathing as she laid her head under his chin. "You should have been a detective," Ironside said.
"You are going to walk directly into his trap, aren't you?"
He sighed. "I don't have a choice. He is only going to keep Fran alive as long as I go after her. If I don't, he will kill her. Her only chance is for me to go after her."
"It will be dangerous for you." It was not a question but a statement.
Ironside held her close to him and kissed her temple. "I won't lie to you. It will be very dangerous but I believe I have a plan that will stop him. Carl Reese picked up some equipment for me and the Coast Guard is cooperating with us. And I have Ed and Eve and Mark." He glanced down at her. He could see the worried look on her face. "You are not going to worry, are you?"
"Just a little. Well, more then a little but I trust that you know what you are doing." She reached up and ran her hand down the stubble on his jaw.
"Everything will be alright, Katherine. I worked everything out with Ed, Mark and Eve. Carl will also be on hand as well as a computer expert. Now, let's not discuss it any longer. Let's just sit here and enjoy each others company."
"Maybe I should get out of here and let you get some sleep," she said.
"I might sleep better if you stayed with me," Ironside told her.
"Alright but on one condition," Katherine said.
"And what might that be?"
"We go right to sleep. You need to be clear-headed tomorrow. You don't need to stay up half the night doing ... whatever you might be considering doing."
Ironside chuckled. "Alright, but I do it under protest."
"In that case, you better finish that wine and switch back into your chair." Scared as she was for him, she knew she would not leave him tonight conditions or not.
22.3
A couple hours before dawn, Vincent Mortimer drove his stolen vehicle, without lights, into a secluded area of the bay. Bringing it to a stop, he shut off the engine. He got out of the car and walked back to the trunk. After placing the key into the lock, he turned it and the latch let go. Vincent opened the trunk and pulled out a wetsuit. He stripped down to his underwear and put it on. He then removed all the equipment he had stolen that would be needed to carry out his plan.
Mortimer walked back to the passenger side of the car. He opened the door and dragged Fran Belding out of the back seat. She was still unconscious. The Hacker estimated she would continue to be so for at least another hour. That should be enough time to accomplish what he needed to do.
Vincent leaned Fran up against the vehicle. Reaching into one of the bags of equipment, he pulled out an oxygen tank and attached to her back. He placed the mask over her face and put the mouthpiece into her mouth. Next, he hooked up a line to the tank. He set the rest of the equipment into the submersible vehicle, which he had also stolen from the Coast Guard, and had placed there, in the middle of the night.
He hooked the other end of the line to the equipment that would pump the oxygen to Fran once the tank ran out. The line was controlled by a computer. Mortimer could remotely cut the air off at any time ... just in case Ironside decided to cheat again.
Ironside's nemesis reached in the bag and pulled out a bomb. He connected it inside the submersible. After connecting another remote control to the bomb, Vincent check his smart phone to be sure he would be able to detonate the device.
Quite frankly, he did not want to use the bomb. He wanted to kill Ironside in the same manner he should have allowed him to die before. He wanted to watch him drown, knowing he was unable to save his police woman. He would have preferred to continue the Scrabble game but Ironside had made that impossible. He had expected the detective to cheat but he had not expected him to be so bold about it. In the end, it did not really matter, as the end result was that he would beat Ironside, and have his revenge for him having interfered with his career as a cop.
He would have been an excellent cop ... better than Ironside for sure. Definitely, better than those that worked for him. After all, all they did was to follow his orders.
Once he completed what he needed to do, Vincent picked up Fran Belding and carried her into the water. He tied her to the submersible. The timer on the equipment would begin pumping oxygen to her in about an hour, just about the time the air would run out in her tank.
The process had taken him longer then he had expected. He could see that Fran was beginning to stir. Vincent put his own tank, fins and the rest of his diving equipment into the submersible and shoved the bags in there as well.
He slipped into the underwater vehicle, shut the door and brought it to life. Slowly he backed it out further into the water until he could drop the submersible below the surface.
As Fran's face went under water, the coldness of the temperature brought her fully awake. Immediately, she realized she had been immobilized against some kind of an underwater vehicle. She struggle against the ropes that held her in the unwanted embrace. It was all to no avail, as she was unable to free herself. She turned to see Vincent Mortimer piloting the submersible.
Then it all came back to her ... being dragged into the tree house ... unable to alert Ed and Eve of their presence there. Fran was on her own. Chief Ironside could not possibly know where she was if Vincent was able to slip past the police department. Ironside would have closed down the entire area.
As hopeless as the situation seemed, she had to keep her wits about her. She looked around and noticed the line that went from her to the submersible. She could only surmise that Vincent wanted her in the water longer then the tank of oxygen would last. Then it hit her! Vincent intended to use her to lure Chief Ironside! He wanted to kill them both at the same time.
When she looked back inside of the submersible, she saw the bomb! My God! She thought about what it meant. If Vincent was unable to drown the Chief, he intended to blow him up. She did not like her choices either ... death by lack of air or death by being blown to bits.
Furthermore, she could not even communicate with Vincent. She was stripped of the ability of at least attempting to talk him out of it. She watched as he continue to move the mini-sub through the water. She had no idea where he was going but she was not looking forward to their destination. She was fairly certain that Vincent would see to it that Ironside would be unable to defend himself, let alone her.
Fran scolded herself. She had to stop this. No doubt Ironside would come for her, despite knowing Vincent was setting a trap for him. She had to think of a way to assist the chief as much as possible. Vincent would not beat Ironside. No one beat Ironside.
Fran waited to see where Vincent would finally bring the submersible to a stop. She would check out their surroundings and figure out how to assist the chief.
22.4
Katherine woke to a still dark room. She knew it was very early. Robert's arm was around her and her head laid on his chest. She placed her hand around his wrist and carefully removed his arm. She slipped out of bed as quietly as possible so as to not disturb him. Dressing in the same clothes she arrived in the night before, she left Ironside's bedroom and went into the kitchen. She would give Mark a break and prepare breakfast for the two of them.
She walked barefoot into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. Eggs ... plenty of eggs but she would not make them. She knew Robert would eat them but he was not crazy about eggs.
She checked the cupboard. Finding oatmeal there, she removed it. Robert definitely liked oatmeal. She would have it ready and warm for him and Mark when they awaken.
Soon after she had the oatmeal cooking on the stove, Mark's door opened and he entered in his bathrobe. Expecting that his boss could not sleep and got up to make his own breakfast, he was surprised to see Kathrine cooking in the kitchen.
She turned to see Mark standing there. "Good morning, Mark. I thought I would give you a break and make breakfast for you and Robert."
"I doubt the chief will be hungry this morning. Did he tell you what is happening today?" Mark asked her.
Katherine could not hide her concern. "He did." She turned away from him.
Mark came up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Everything will be alright, Katherine. The chief knows what he is doing."
She turned back to him and smiled. "I know but I am allowed to worry just a little. That way Robert knows I care."
Mark nodded. "Why don't you let me take over breakfast. Have a seat at the table. The chief should be up shortly."
"I am fine, Mark. I know this is Robert's job and I am proud of what he does. I can handle it."
"Okay, I will go take a shower then." Mark disappeared into the bathroom. A few minutes later, Ironside appeared in the main room.
"Good morning, Katherine."
She turned to see the detective in his bathrobe. "Good morning, Robert. I thought I would cook breakfast for you and Mark."
He wheeled over to her and took her hand. "I appreciate that, although I would have preferred to wake up with you in my arms." She bent down and kissed him.
"Does that make up for it?" she asked.
He smiled, displaying the dimples in his cheeks. "It's a start."
Mark came out of the bathroom. "Water's still hot," he said to Ironside, then went into his room and closed the door.
"Will the oatmeal hold until I have had a shower?" Ironside asked.
"I will keep it warm until you get back. But Mark did not think you would be hungry this morning."
He smiled and said, "I wasn't until I realized you were the one that cooked it." Ironside wheeled into the bathroom. Within a half hour he and Mark were both back, dressed and sitting at the table. Katherine began serving the two men their breakfast. As it turned out neither had an appetite to eat it.
The door to the office opened and Sister Agatha came down the ramp. She brought with her the habit which consisted of a tunic covered by a scapular and cowl, with a veil. "Will this suit your purpose, Robert?"
"That will be just fine. Thank you, Sister."
Agatha started to leave but turned back to look at Ironside. "I don't suppose you will listen to me when I tell you I think this is too risky?"
Touched by her concern but unable to show it, Ironside said, "I don't have a choice. I am the only chance Fran has."
She nodded, grimly and said, "May God be with you. Please call me and let me know that you are alright."
"I will." Sister Agatha left the office. She passed Ed and Eve on the way out.
Eve and Ed sat down at the table as the phone rang. She picked it up and announced, "Chief Ironside's office ... yes, he is right here." She handed the phone receiver to her boss.
"Ironside." The chief listened for a few minutes, thanked the caller and hung up. "We just got a break. That was the coast guard ... "
The door to the office opened and Commissioner Randall came down the ramp. "Bob, I must insist that you allow police officers on the boats nearest the Thunderbird."
"No, Dennis. If Mortimer spots them, he will kill Fran. I cannot take that chance. I am going to do this my way."
Randall could tell from the look on his friend's face that not even an order to the contrary would change his mind. There were times when no one, not even Randall could order Bob Ironside to do anything other then what he wanted to do. This was one of those times.
Ironside told Randall and his staff about the call from the Coast Guard. "Now, can you think of a better way to handle this, Dennis? If you can, now is the time to tell me."
Randall put up his hands. "Alright, Bob. Do it your way. You always do. I just hope you know what you are doing."
"So do I, Dennis. So do I."
Randall looked at his top detective. He got up and headed for the ramp. As he reached to door, he grabbed the door knob. He turned and looked over his shoulder. "Be careful, Bob. Call me and let me know when it is over." He started out the door before stopping again. "If I don't hear from you ... I'll ... I''ll bust you down to traffic cop." He left the office allowing the door to slam behind him.
Ironside smiled, hearing Randall threaten him with his own frequent threat he used against his staff, when he was worried about them. He looked at one by one. They remained quiet waiting for him to take the lead.
"Why in the blazes are we still sitting here? Let's go arrest Mortimer."
Ed, Eve and Mark shot out of their chairs and ran up the ramp. Ironside took Katherine's hand, kissed the back of it and wheeled out of the office to catch up with his team.
To Be Continued ...