Avenged in Blood
Part 8
I righted the chair. The look Cabrese shot me could have melted diamonds. He was not amused, he was not happy. Neither was I. I paced in front of his chair, my leg slightly limping from the bullet wound. “This is all such a waste” I said. “Why did you want Jack Reagan?”
He screamed an obscenity at me, his broken lips spraying blood as he yelled. I kept pacing. “What did Jack Reagan do that required his death?” I asked. Silence from Cabrese until my fist came up under his jaw again. “I tell you nothing!” He spat at me. Perfect. I thought. What now? I paced some more. I punched Cabrese again and he fell unconscious.
I sank to the floor myself, very tired and ready to sleep. I started to drift. The scene changed and I was remembering another time. A time with Jack when we had saved each other’s bacon more than once trying to bring down Cabrese.
Cabrese liked to promote himself as the devil. People fell for it. He was very successful making people fear him. He was also successful at bringing people in to do his dirty work for him. After a while, he didn’t even have to leave his house to strike fear, and create his mayhem. People paid protection money. People scurried out of the way of his goons. He gave off a real old school mob boss kind of vibe.
But there was something more that Jack and I knew. He was a phony. He had the talk but there was never any evidence that he could back up what he wanted to do without several of his goons to do it for him. That is what had made him so hard to bring down.
Jack and I had found a warehouse on Lake Street where Cabrese’s crew were distributing dope. We had called vice and invited them to the party. We had them request a warrant while we went to check it out. They should be here soon.
We went inside the building. It was dark and smelled of mildew. We could hear rats and other things scurrying in the dark. The only light we could see was coming from the door of an upstairs room. There were voices inside that we couldn’t make out. We both drew our guns and climbed a rusty metal staircase that groaned as our feet pushed against it.
We climbed. Slowly. Quietly as possible. We got to the only door visible. There was a small rectangular window filled with security wire to the left of the door. It looked to be one big office. There were several people inside. We could see what looked like drugs on the table. Probable Cause.
I could see the door opened inward. I looked at Jack and silently mouthed the word “Kick?” He nodded. I nodded to Jack, I would kick the door, he would go in first. He took his position to the right of the door. I lined up for the kick. I didn’t know it at the time, but this quest would give us some short lived legend status. I kicked the door. We both yelled “Police! Freeze!” as Jack entered the door with me a step behind.
6 people were inside. 5 raised their hands in terrified shock as we entered. One grabbed a pistol from under his jacket. I fired and he went down clutching a wounded arm. For some reason I could remember him falling in slow motion, his face pinched in pain and shock, his right arm clasping the wound on the left. His blood seeping into the orange shag carpet of the office.
That is when another door I had not seen burst open. A skinny man appeared shirtless, and pulling up his pants. “What is going on?!” He screamed. Both Jack and I had him in our sights. I turned back to the others we were arresting as a young girl came out of the back room, pulling a man’s shirt around her bleeding body. It was all too clear what had been happening in that back room. I could almost feel Jack’s blood boil. Mine was boiling too.
Jack’s bullet wiped the smirk off of the skinny guys face and he ran to the girl. She was all of 14. By the time vice got there to clean up Jack was just holding this girl and rocking in the corner. She had been raped and stabbed several times, and she had bled out right there on Jack’s lap.
Jack still sat there as they took her body away. Something had broken in him. He was brewing for revenge. He had an intense hatred for anyone who abused children, let alone rapists. People were going to die if I couldn’t get through to him. “Jack. Jack!” I raised my voice and at least got him to look at me. “Let it go man. You have to focus back. She’s dead, but you killed the bastard who did it. Let it go.” Unshed tears stood in his hard grey eyes. The eyes of a Marine. The eyes of a man who just wants to dispense justice.
He pursed his lips and nodded as he began to stand up. “What about all of this?” he asked while gesturing around the room. One of the vice guys came over when he saw us rising. He said, “Don’t have ID’s on all of them but there is plenty of dope here to get all of them 50 years for distribution. The dead guy I guess was the ringleader here. Guess he got his.” He looked like he wanted to say more but Jack was heading out the door.
“Do you know who he was?” the cop yelled after us. “Raymond Cabrese’s son Domnick.” That stopped Jack and I cold. Cabrese would be very upset. Upset men made mistakes. We could get him. We walked sullenly down the stairs and back to our car. What a mess this was becoming. Raymond Cabrese we were after, Raymond Cabrese we had baited a rather large hook for.
I came back around as Cabrese started to moan. His killing Jack had to be about more than his son’s death. I stood painfully and pulled the chair and its captive back to rights. I would know. I would find the truth, and maybe all of this could end tonight.
I backhanded Cabrese into consciousness. Time for “conversation”.
