Unconscionable, A Rich Coleman Novel Vol 3 Read online

  Chapter 35

  Square One

  When Matt got to the office Melissa advised him the phone had been ringing off the hook. The press wanted to know why he had bailed out of the RMS case when he was doing so well. He ignored those calls and got Detective Finch on the line. After he’d told her his theory of who had killed Lucius Jones he hung up. Melissa wanted to know what was going on, so he told her but cautioned her not to talk to anybody about it.

  “I’m going up to McKinney to help Detective Finch out with her questioning of Rick Shafer and then talk to the FBI.”

  “Do you have any idea who has Candy?” Melissa asked.

  Matt sighed. “No, I don’t. I really thought Shafer had her. Now we’re back to square one.”

  “Well, if I can do anything, let me know.”

  “I will. Thanks,” Matt said, picking up his briefcase on the way out the door. “I’ll call you if anything develops.”

  Matt left his office and went to the elevator. When he got to the first floor he walked past the security desk.

  “Have a good day, Mr. Coleman,” the guard said.

  “Thanks. See you later.”

  Matt strolled through the sliding door that led to the parking garage and headed toward his car. Just as he emerged into the garage he saw movement to his right. Suddenly, a car lurched forward toward him with tires screeching. He froze momentarily but just as the car was about to hit him, he jumped out of its path. As the car went by it slowed, and he saw a man point a gun at him. Instinctively he raised his briefcase as a shield as three quick shots rained down on him. The first two hit the briefcase and he felt it slam against his chest. The final shot hit him in his arm as he fell to the ground. Tires squealed again as the assailant made his escape.

  A second later the security guard came running around the corner. He saw Matt lying on the ground and ran over to him.

  “Mr. Coleman! Are you all right?”

  Matt felt excruciating pain coming from his arm and saw blood gushing from the wound. “My arm. I’ve been shot.”

  The guard pulled up Matt’s sleeve and took a handkerchief from his pocket and used it as a bandage to stop the bleeding. “I’ll call 911,” he said as he whipped out his cell phone and hit the three digits. A moment later he hung up. “An ambulance should be here shortly. I heard three shots. Did the others miss?”

  Matt nodded toward his briefcase. There were two large bullet holes two-thirds of the way down one side.

  “What did you have in there that stopped those bullets, lead?”

  “No. A book. O’Connor’s Texas Evidence. It’s pretty thick, thank God.”

  There was a siren in the distance, and soon an ambulance and fire truck arrived. A minute later two police cars pulled up. The ambulance took Matt to Medical City’s emergency room and rolled him into a room. A nurse came in and took his vitals, and a moment later a doctor arrived.

  The doctor looked at Matt’s chart and then examined the wound. “You were lucky. The bullet went clear through without hitting any bones or muscles. A couple of arteries were severed. That’s why you had all the bleeding, but it should heal okay.”

  “Good,” Matt said, feeling a little relieved.

  The doctor examined Matt’s chest. There were dark bruises from where the briefcase had slammed into him. “What caused this?” he asked.

  “Two shots hit my briefcase. Luckily I had a thick book inside that stopped the bullets.”

  “It’s a good thing. If you hadn’t had the briefcase, one of those bullets could have hit your heart and you’d be dead.”

  Matt swallowed hard. “Yeah. That’s what I figured.”

  “So, do you know who shot you?”

  Matt shrugged. “No. I don’t.”

  As they were talking a well-dressed woman strolled in. She flashed her badge. “Matt Coleman?”

  Matt nodded. “Yes.”

  “I’m Detective Alice Longoria.”

  “Right,” Matt said, recognizing the pretty detective.

  The doctor excused himself and left the room.

  “You know who I am?” Detective Longoria asked.

  “Yes. You’re handling my dad’s prosecution.”

  “Right. So, who shot you? Did you get a look at them?”

  Matt shook his head. “No. All I saw was a late-model, dark blue Lexus coming at me fast. I jumped out of the way as the car passed by and saw a man stick a gun out of the driver’s side window and point it at me. All I could think to do was use the briefcase as a shield, and fortunately, it took two of the bullets. I did get a partial plate number.”

  “Really? What was it?”

  “DTR. I don’t know what the numbers were. The DTR stuck out because I used to be a bankruptcy lawyer and ‘DTR’ stood for debtor.”

  “Okay. I’ll call that partial in. Any idea who would want you dead?”

  “I could think of a few candidates,” Matt said. “As you probably know, I’ve just concluded a rather contentious lawsuit.”

  “But you settled it, right? That’s what they said on the news.”

  “I did, but not by choice,” Matt advised and then filled Detective Longoria in on the events of the day.

  “So, the kidnapper decided he couldn’t trust you, huh?”

  “That would be my guess, although I followed his instructions to the letter. I just hope he hasn’t killed Candy. She knew nothing.”

  “I’ll call up to McKinney and explain what happened here to Detective Finch. Maybe they’ll send somebody over here from the FBI.”

  Matt shook his head. “I’ll die if anything happens to Candy. My wife was murdered two years ago. I couldn’t take another loss like that.”

  “Candy means a lot to you?”

  “Yes. I didn’t realize how much until now.”

  Detective Longoria nodded and gave him a sympathetic smile. “I know, I followed your trial. It must have been excruciating for you to lose your wife after only a few months of marriage.”

  Matt took a deep breath, trying to maintain his composure. When the detective had left the room, Matt closed his eyes and tried to relax, but couldn’t manage it. His body felt as if it had collided with a buffalo at full gallop. He had no energy and his mind was in a fog. Eventually he dozed off, but his slumber didn’t last long. Footsteps woke him.

  “Matt. Are you all right?” Ryan asked nervously.

  Matt smiled. “Yeah. I’m fine. My arm is messed up a bit, but it will heal.”

  “Good. I almost died when I heard you’d been shot. Who do you think did it?”

  Matt shrugged. “I didn’t get a good look at him. Probably the same guy who kidnapped Candy.”

  “Man. First Candy and now you. I can’t believe this.”

  The door opened again, and two well-dressed men walked in. They flashed their FBI badges.

  “Matt Coleman. I’m Special Agent Ralph Rule and this is Special Agent Art Ramirez.”

  “Hi,” Matt said. “Any word on Candy?”

  “No. We’ve just been called in on the case. We need to ask you some questions.”

  “Okay. No problem.”

  Matt and Ryan filled them in on the trial and kidnapping and gave them the long list of persons who might have wanted to shut them up.

  “Okay. We’ll get out to the restaurant and canvass the area. Perhaps someone saw something. In the meantime I’ll have Candy’s picture released to the media. Perhaps somebody has seen her today.”

  “I’ll give a hundred-thousand-dollar reward to anybody who provides information that leads to her safe recovery.”

  Agent Rule nodded. “Okay. I’ll advise the media.”

  Agents Rule and Ramirez left, and Matt closed his eyes again. Ryan sat down in a chair and rubbed his temples.

  Matt opened his eyes. “Samantha Jones has to be behind this,” he said. “She’s the only person with so much to lose that she’d do something this brash.”

  “How do you figure? She was at the trial all day.”
<
br />   “She must have hired someone. She wouldn’t have done it herself.”

  “Well, if she did it would be a professional,” Ryan said. “And I wouldn’t have a clue how to figure out who that would be.”

  “But I know someone who might,” Matt said thoughtfully.

  “Your buddy from prison?”

  “Right. Eduardo might be able to make inquiries in his circles and find out who hired a hit man to kill me.”

  “So, why don’t you call him?”

  “Get me my cell phone.”

  Ryan fumbled through Matt’s personal belongings that had been shoved into a plastic bag and found his cell phone. He handed it to Matt, and a minute later Matt had Eduardo on the phone.

  “Hey, man. I heard on the news someone tried to take you out. What’s up?”

  Matt gave him a brief rundown of what had happened. “So, I need you to check with your sources and see if there are any rumors on the street about who put a hit out on me. It’s probably the same guy who kidnapped my girlfriend.”

  “Sure. Anything for you, Matt.”

  “There’s a hundred-grand reward to the first person who tracks the bastard down.”

  “Then I better get working. I’ll get back with you.”

  “Thanks, Eduardo. Talk to you later.”

  A few hours later Matt was released from the hospital, and he and Ryan went to Candy’s place to be with the girls until there was some word on Candy. Sharon, Gina, Jenni, and Mia were all sitting in the den teary eyed and obviously worried about Candy. Sharon jumped up when she saw Matt looking beat up and wearing an arm sling.

  “What happened to you?” Sharon said, examining his arm.

  “The bastard tried to kill me,” Matt explained.

  “Oh, my God!” Jenni moaned. “Are you all right?”

  “Yeah. I was lucky. The bullet passed right through without hitting anything critical.”

  “Oh, geez!” Gina said. “Does it hurt?”

  Matt nodded. “Yeah, it’s kind of throbbing right now.”

  “So, has the FBI turned up anything?” Sharon asked.

  “No. Not yet,” Matt said and then brought them up to date on the investigation.

  Matt’s cell phone rang. He answered it deftly with one hand. It was Eduardo. “Hello.”

  “Matt. Okay. There was word on the street yesterday that someone was looking for an assassin and willing to pay top dollar for a kidnapping-murder.”

  Matt’s heard sank. “Kidnapping-murder?”

  “Right. That means it’s got to look like a kidnapping but it’s understood that there’s not going to be any ransom. The target is grabbed, taken to a designated location, and killed.”

  “Shit! Any idea who picked up the job?”

  “Yes. The word has it that a Cuban known as ‘Cork’ picked it up.”

  “Cork?”

  “Yeah. Like on a bottle of champagne. If you saw him, you’d see the name fits.”

  “Okay. Where does this guy usually hang out?”

  “There are a couple of bars he frequents from time to time, but he hasn’t been seen since yesterday evening.”

  “Give me the names of the bars. That will be a place for the FBI to start looking.”

  “No, man. No FBI. No one who knows anything will talk to the feds. Meet me at Club Babalu on McKinney Avenue and we’ll find your man.”

  “Okay. It will be about twenty minutes.”

  “See you then,” Eduardo said.

  Matt told Ryan what Eduardo had said and that they were supposed to meet him in twenty minutes.

  “But this guy has already tried to kill you. Do you think we ought to be chasing after him?”

  “We have to. We’ve got to find Candy.”

  “I know, but this is a job for the FBI.”

  “Eduardo said these people won’t talk to the FBI. Plus Eduardo has a crew that won’t let anything happen to us.”

  Ryan sighed. “Okay, let’s go.”

  “Be careful,” Sharon said. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

  “Don’t worry,” Matt said. “I don’t have a death wish.”

  When they got to the club, Eduardo was sitting on the hood of his car. Several of his men were with him. He got up when Matt approached him. They exchanged greetings.

  “So, what do we do now?” Matt asked.

  “We go inside and see if Cork is there. If not, we start asking people if they have seen him.”

  “Fine. Let’s go.”

  The club was crowded, and the Latin music was deafening. Eduardo approached a group of guys and asked what was up. After a little small talk he got to the point.

  “So, you guys seen Cork here tonight?”

  A couple of the guys shook their heads. One of them said, “No, haven’t seen him for a couple of days.”

  “Hmm. My friends here need to talk to him. Any idea where he might be tonight?”

  They all shook their heads. Eduardo thanked them and repeated the exercise with several other groups of patrons that he knew. Finally, they hit pay dirt.

  “Yeah, Cork has a loft off Central near Citiplace.”

  Eduardo got directions, and Matt and Ryan followed him back out to the parking lot.

  “Okay, so now you call the FBI,” Eduardo said. “And if you find your girl you owe me a hundred grand.”

  Matt smiled. “No problem. I hope tomorrow I’m writing you a check, believe me.”

  Eduardo and his friends left, and Matt called Special Agent Ralph Rule.

  “Hey, this is Matt Coleman. I’ve got a lead on Candy’s kidnapper. He’s a professional hit man who goes by the name of Cork. Word has it he accepted a contract on Candy and me a day or two ago.”

  “How did you find this out?”

  “Well, I’m sure you know I was a guest at the federal prison at Texarkana for over a year. While I was there I developed a few contacts.”

  “Right. Okay. Got an address?”

  “Yes,” Matt said and then gave him the address and directions how to get there.

  “Got it. We’ll meet you there in ten minutes. Just stay in your car. Don’t approach the place.”

  “Okay. We’ll wait for you,” Matt assured him.

  Matt and Ryan beat the FBI to the location and parked across the street in front of an abandoned auto repair shop. It was old, run down, and dark inside. As Matt was looking the place over he heard a car pull up behind them. It was Agents Rule and Ramirez. Matt got out and walked back to their car. Rule and Ramirez got out and looked up at the three-story warehouse building that had been converted into lofts.

  “Our team should be here in a few minutes,” Agent Rule said. “We should have a warrant by then and we can go ahead on in.”

  A few moments later, three more cars drove up and an FBI SWAT team emerged. One of the agents came over and handed Rule his warrant.

  “I’ll deploy my men around the building, and then on your word we’ll go in.”

  Agent Rule put his finger to his earpiece. “Just got confirmation there is a 2009 Lexus in the back parking lot with a partial plate number of DTR.”

  “He’s here!” Matt exclaimed.

  Rule nodded, and the SWAT team began swarming the building. A few moments later Rule and Ramirez went to the front door and went in while Matt and Ryan watched from across the street. After a while there were shouts and screams from the building. Then there was gunfire. Finally, several minutes later agents began coming out of the building. Several persons in handcuffs were put into an FBI van that had suddenly appeared. When Ramirez came out he went over to them.

  “We got your guy, but there is no sign of Candy.”

  “Damn it! Where in the hell could she be?”

  “I don’t know, and he’s lawyered up, so I doubt he’s going to tell us anything.”

  Matt shook his head in despair. Then he took another look at the abandoned auto repair shop.

  “You know,” Matt said, “this old building would be a convenient place to sta
sh someone.”

  Agent Ramirez pondered that idea a minute and then motioned for one of the other agents to come over. They talked a moment and then walked toward the building. Matt and Ryan followed them at a distance.

  The door was nailed shut, but the wood was rotted, and one hard pull and it opened. The two agents pulled their Glock 17s and plunged into the darkness. After they yelled “Clear,” Matt and Ryan followed them in.

  It was dark but enough light filtered in so they could see fairly well. Matt heard the two agents go upstairs after they’d cleared the bottom floor, so he and Ryan walked around the bottom floor looking for any place someone could be locked away. Then Matt heard a faint pounding sound. He stopped Ryan.

  “Listen.”

  The faint sound was like the steady beat of a drum. Matt began to move toward the sound until he almost fell into a oil-changing well. He looked around and found a ladder that went down into the well. As he quickly descended the stairs, the sound got louder and his pulse quickened. Finally he realized the noise was coming from a locked closet. Looking around for something to pry open the door, he spotted a rusty screwdriver and picked it up. Adrenaline pumping, he attacked the lock with brutal force until it gave way, and then ripped open the door to reveal Candy, tied and gagged.

  “Oh, my God! It’s Candy!” he screamed.

  Matt carefully pulled off the gag, tears flowing down his cheeks.

  “Oh, Candy. Are you all right?”

  Candy gave Matt a weak smile, nodded, and then passed out.

  “Get Agent Ramirez!” Matt ordered. “We need an ambulance!”

  Soon Agent Ramirez was on the scene, and he helped Matt bring Candy out of the well. A siren could be heard in the distance.

  “Is she going to be all right?” Ryan asked.

  Matt nodded. “I think so. She’s weak—probably dehydrated.”

  Matt rode in the ambulance to Presbyterian Hospital, thanking God for Candy’s safe return. By the time they got to the hospital Candy had awakened and seemed better. Matt figured the oxygen and IV that was running were working and was optimistic that Candy would have no permanent physical injury. Mental anguish was another story. He’d had plenty of experience with that and knew that type of injury took years to overcome.

  Within a week the settlement agreement and check for $500,000 arrived at Matt’s office. After reading it and not finding anything too onerous contained in it, he called Cindy and had her come in to approve and sign it. It bothered him that they’d let RMS off so cheaply, but since Candy was now safe and Cindy Sharp had enough money to keep her off the streets for a few years, he had no regrets. That didn’t mean he had given up on linking Cork to Samantha Jones, however. In fact, he could hardly think of anything else. Who had hired him? He figured it must have been Samantha Jones, but how would he prove it? She was a smart woman and probably hadn’t left any kind of a trail to link her to Cork, but he vowed somehow she’d pay for what she had done.

  As promised, his father finally called to report that they were settled in for a long exile somewhere in South America. Matt was pretty sure he knew where they were but didn’t say anything in case the phone was being tapped. While Rich was on the phone he asked him for advice on how to prove Samantha had ordered a hit man.

  “A kidnapping and hit like that would be expensive. I would bet she wired the money to an offshore bank account.”

  “Do you think a guy like Cork would have an offshore account?”

  “Oh, most definitely. Assassins like to remain anonymous, so they don’t like meetings and they don’t want briefcases full of cash. An offshore bank account is almost a given.”

  “Well, the next time I talk to the FBI I’ll mention that to them.”

  “I’m sure they have already looked into that and came up empty,” Rich said. “I’d guess a guy like Cork would have a business partner or broker who handled the money. What you need to do is find out who that is and give that information to the FBI. Then they will have something to work with.”

  Matt thought about the FBI and wondered if they were making any progress at their end. He hadn’t heard from anybody at the FBI since the night they’d captured Cork. He figured since Candy had been found and was safe, nabbing the kidnapper wasn’t a high priority anymore. So he decided it was time to turn up the heat on the investigation, and he knew exactly how to do it.