Luke Murphy - Dead Man's Hand

Before, it had been only about him. Now he had to protect the only woman he had ever loved since his mother and that increased the complexity of the situation enormously. He could never again leave Rachel alone as he had when pursuing the killer. Right now, it was a siege and a stalemate and the clock was ticking.

He left the computer room and went to the most secure part of the safe house, where they kept the cots and air mattresses. Rachel was sleeping. He watched her dream and breathe, deep and slow. A little tremor and cry left her at one point. Calvin thought it was more than a bad dream. He had to focus and finish a plan.

Two hours later, Calvin sat up. He needed to do some final prep, but otherwise he was ready to act and not alone. The irony of whom he’d chosen as a partner made him chuckle. It was his only choice.

He dialed. It took over two minutes for his call to be transferred. He waited patiently, knowing that this call was probably causing all sorts of chaos.

“Detective Dayton.”

“I’m Calvin Watters. I’m sure you have your technical people trying to trace this call. Don’t waste your time or theirs. My phone is untraceable.”

He heard fingers snapping in the background. Dayton would continue trying a trace, because Calvin knew he had no reason to believe him.

“If you are who you say you are, then you know how hard we’re looking for you. Why should I believe you?”

He told Dayton, in exact detail, the Pitt crime scene and gave details about what he earned as a leg breaker. It was much more than he needed to say to prove his identity and enough to show the extent to which he would cooperate.

When he finished, Dayton replied. “I believe you are Calvin Watters. So why are you calling me? I doubt you are ready to turn yourself in.”

“Should I?” Calvin asked with a smile.

“If you’re innocent, yes.”

“Do you think I am?”

“Mr. Watters, you have no reason to believe me, but I’m the only person in this department who thinks you are.”

That wasn’t the response he expected. His intelligence and years of bill collecting had made him almost a human lie detector. Dayton’s tone and words sounded like the sincere truth. “How can I know that’s really what you think?”

“To be honest, there’s no way I can prove that. Only you can decide whether you can trust me or not. From the beginning, you’ve always been at the bottom of my list of suspects for Grant’s murder, even while you’re at the top of everyone else’s.”

“Dayton, for now, I’m going to take you at your word, as you’re going to have to take me on mine. I had nothing to do with Grant’s murder or any of the others—especially not your dead fellow officer. There’s a lot I’ve done that I’m not proud of, but I’m no killer. And I’m without doubt not stupid enough to blow up my own car and commit suicide. Everyone who knows me knows that I’m the only one who drives my wreck of a car. That means the bomb was meant for me and whoever wants me dead is the same person who killed that cop.”

“Maybe so. If you’re innocent, come in and prove it. You’ll have nothing to worry about.”

“I’m an African-American former football star who can be shown to have gone bad. Even if I had rock-solid proof of innocence, which I don’t, things wouldn’t go my way in court. This isn’t OJ all over again.”

Dayton laughed. “Okay, point taken. But if you don’t want to negotiate surrender, why call?”

“Look, we both want the same thing. Capturing the assassin and removing that death threat is my current number-one priority. I believe that same assassin killed your police officer. So the Vegas Police want to capture and arrest the killer as much as I do. I’ve done my homework on you, Dayton.”

“Ah, classic military principle—know your enemy,” Dayton said.

“Are you my enemy?”

“I’ve already said I believe you’re innocent. So where do we go from here? Do you have any evidence or information about Grant’s real killer, or who is trying to kill you, if it’s a different person?”

“Like you, I have suspicions but no proof about who murdered Grant, Pitt and the prostitute. But I do have some solid information about who’s trying to kill me. All I’ll say now is that I don’t think the person after me is the same person who committed the first three murders, but the two killings may still be connected. If that’s true, then capturing and arresting the hit man may lead you to the real Grant killer.”

Now it was the detective’s turn to stop and think. Calvin was sure that his call had caught him totally unprepared.

“You’ve given me a lot. I’d appreciate it if you gave me a minute to think about where we are now.”

“Take your time,” Calvin said.

Dale was thinking as fast as he could to catch up and think ahead.

Watters was desperate.

He could see that the hit man was a bigger threat to Watters than the police. That was understandable self-interest. If Watters did have information about the hit man, he was offering something valuable. What did he want in exchange?

Could he trust Watters? Only to the same point that Watters trusted him, assuming that Watters believed what Dale had said about his innocence.

While he was thinking, one of the phone techs confirmed that the call was untraceable and unrecordable. Now Dale knew just how much trouble it was going to be to bring in Watters.

They had the same goal, even if their motives were different.

He got back on the phone. “Okay, you got my attention. I’m ready to deal. What do you want from me, from us, in exchange for your information about the hit man?”

The call had now gone on for four minutes.

“I’ve been following the investigations, so I know how little you have. You need me to help you solve this—no offense intended.”

“One thing at a time. What’s your plan?”

Watters explained it. Dale thought it had a good probability of success, but it risked lives, reputations and careers. The usual.

When Watters finished, Dale said, “I’m going to talk to a few members of my team, the ones who have balls and who I trust. Then I’ll see if the bosses will fine me if it fails.” Dale paused, then continued. “No, scratch that. I know they would. So screw them. Anyway, call me in an hour and I’ll tell you if it’s a go.”

“Fine.” Watters hung up.

Book Five: Collision Course

Chapter 36

At exactly 3:00 p.m. the phone rang. Dale and Jimmy, with the sergeant standing in the background, answered separate phones. “Hello?”

“It’s me,” Watters said.

Dale licked his lips nervously. “Okay, we’ll do it.”

“You are sure you can do your part?” There was doubt in Watters’ voice.

“Watters, don’t fuck with me. You need this and so do I, so what choice do you really have? Is someone else going to help you, or do I sit back and let them catch you?”

Watters was silent.

“We’ve held up our end by agreeing to do it your way,” Dale said. “There’s still a warrant out for your arrest and I can’t get it overturned just yet. But my boss has agreed to give us some leeway and time to execute the plan. Now I need something from you.”

“I’ll help. But I want something in return.”

Dale signaled to the sergeant to pick up another phone and listen in. “What do you want?”

“When this is over, you’ll owe me. I don’t trust witness protection programs, but you can do a couple of things to get me started on a new life.”

Dale turned to the sergeant, who nodded. “Okay.”

“Good,” Watters said. “Now for what you want to know. Earlier this year, Pitt told me that Sanders had put a substantial bid in for Doug Grant’s casino. He declined the offer, which infuriated Sanders. It’s my belief that Sanders’ greed led him to commit these murders.”