Mike Faricy - Russian Roulette

I looked around at the computers, the four guys, the room, all the wiring, the three-foot stack of pizza boxes.

“You got all this and no translator, that doesn’t make sense.”

“You’re right it doesn’t, but those are the facts. I asked Peters if we could borrow that gal, what’s her name?”

“Dziedzic?” I said.

“Yeah, that’s the one. You can imagine how eager he is to share resources. You read all that shit in the paper about budget constraints, well,” he spread his hands palms open.

“You must be able to get someone, somewhere?”

“That’s where you come in, my friend.”

“Me? Sorry to disappoint, I got enough trouble communicating in English. I sure as hell can’t speak Russian.”

“Yeah, but Nikki Mathias can.”

“Nikki Mi… it might as well be the Easter bunny. Don’t you listen? I never found her.”

“Yeah, I know, she found you.”

“Me?”

“When old Sergie lost his head. Her name keeps coming up in the translations we received. They think she was the shooter.”

“Nikki, I don’t think she would…”

“What, since you couldn’t find her, that makes you an expert on her? Or is it because she’s a great-looking redhead who likes to stand around naked on the beach with three people who’ve been murdered? I’ve seen the photo, remember. Listen, her old man was some kind of master hunter or some damn thing. It’s not a long stretch to think his kid could…”

“I was there, or well, I saw it, sort of, in my rearview mirror.”

“So?”

“I just don’t think she’s your shooter.”

“Well, Braco and everyone else seems to think she is. I do too. You find her and we’re a long way toward putting this whole thing to bed.”

“How am I supposed to find her? I wouldn’t know where to even begin to look. I just spent the better part of a week chasing dead ends.”

Hale gave me a big warm smile.

“Funny thing, we got a plan.”

“Why do I think I’m not going to like this?”

“What’s not to like?” Hale asked sounding sincere. “It’s simple, we just use you as bait.”

“As bait, me! Are you crazy!”

“There’s been some discussion on that point.”

“As bait?”

“Look, I think she has a source, pretty close to Braco, real close as a matter of fact. If we can get you to lead her somewhere, we grab her, get her to translate for us. Then we take Braco down.”

“That’s, that’s so insane it can’t possibly work. For starters what makes you think she’ll show up somewhere. How will she know, I mean, are you kidding?”

“No, look, the hit on Braco’s kid, Sergie. She didn’t follow you, she had to be waiting there. Think about it. How long did you talk to Karina, Kerri, a minute, two tops?”

I nodded.

“That’s not enough time to follow, unobserved, then get to a shooting station, take up a position, and fire. In a residential neighborhood? It just doesn’t work.”

He had a point.

“Think about it. She was in position before you arrived, knew Sergie and his pals were going to show up. It was a setup but not for you, for old Sergie. I’m just thinking we do the same thing, again. Only this time we grab her. I’m willing to bet she wants Braco out of business a lot more than we do.”

“If that’s the case, why doesn’t she just get in touch with the police?”

“Gee, go figure, a known prostitute, here illegally, no documentation. Some tight-ass like Peters will just lock her up the first chance he gets, charge her with Sergie’s murder. Then real or imagined she’ll figure Braco is going to kill her family. Too risky for her, we have to find her and convince her.”

“Okay, so let me guess, meanwhile while you’re trying to find her, I’m out there twisting in the wind?”

“I haven’t quite worked that tiny detail out yet.”

A couple of days of doing stretching exercises, eating hot dogs, take out pizza and staring at three guys watching computer monitors put me in a slightly different frame of mind.

“So, how about this?” I said to Hale. “You set me up outside Braco’s, just like I did before. I follow Kerri or Braco, whichever leaves, with any luck they’ll lead me to a prearranged spot. If Nikki knows about it she’ll be waiting there, and you grab her. But, you grab me first, get me out of there. After that you can grab her. If she’s hiding, you find her. If she’s as good as you say she won’t jump up and run away, you’ll have to stumble over her. But you gotta get me out of there first. And then one other thing,” I said, “What’s that?” Hale asked.

“I want LaZelle involved. Nothing personal, Hale, but he’ll make sure I’m safe.”

Hale nodded, “Makes sense to me, I’ll try and set it up. And thanks, maybe you’re not the total fuckup I was led to believe.”

“Then again,” I said.

Two days later I was back sitting on Robert Street. Since I was newly carless, I was parked in some sort of pimped-out ride that had been part of a forfeiture agreement arranged through a drug dealer’s attorney. If I wanted to attract attention to myself I couldn’t think of a better way to do it. Sitting behind the wheel of a metallic chrome green Hummer H3 with black-tinted windows and Sprewell spinners for wheel rims, with a little over a quarter ton of chrome trim that probably glowed in the dark. I was getting more than a few stares.

“You gotta be kidding me,” I’d said to Hale when he had pulled this pimpmobile into the garage.

“Look at it this way, we won’t lose you in the crowd.”

“Shouldn’t I be wearing a full-length fur coat and a white fedora when I’m driving this bomb?”

“Yeah, well, just don’t scratch this thing, it’s a DEA loaner,” he’d cautioned.

So I sat and waited on Robert Street. Sweating in the heat and humidity, trying not to doze off. I limped out of the car periodically to toss more quarters in the meter then waited some more. In between times I did my stretching exercises right there on the downtown sidewalk, attempting to reduce the throbbing still in my back and butt. Nothing happened. Although at one point I think I spotted one of Aaron’s undercover guys leaning against Braco’s condo building looking nonchalant. At seven that evening I drove off, made sure no one but Hale’s crew was following me and returned to my bunk-bed dungeon.

“A number of spurts of activity from Braco’s cell,” Gary said over pizza. Tonight it was sausage with onions and extra cheese.

“’Course we don’t know what he was saying. Maybe he was just chatting with a girlfriend,” one of the Mikes said, I could keep all of them straight by now.

Hale tilted his head back and dangled a triangle of pizza above his mouth. It reminded me of feeding time at seal island.

“Let’s figure we got their attention today. If so, it would stand to reason they would set something up for tomorrow or the next day. We don’t have anything by the day after tomorrow we start back at square one,” he said, then gobbled the pizza slice in three quick bites.

“And do what?” I asked.

“God, I’m not at all sure,” he replied through a mouthful of pizza.

Day two and the weather had changed it was even hotter and more humid. I could feel the effect from yesterday’s nine hours of sitting on my ass. I was on my donut cushion, and it wasn’t helping. My butt and back were throbbing uncomfortably.

“God, I’m sore from doing absolutely nothing,” I said.

“Why would that be different than any other day? Man, you oughta try hiding out on the damn floor back here,” Hale said. He was stretched out on the floor of the back seat with a dark sheet pulled over him. Hiding there, just in case trouble started. Aaron and a team of four were around somewhere, undercover. It was after the noon hour and I’d yet to see any of them.