Caliber Detective Agency Box Set 1 Read online

  McKay looked over at Kelli, and then back at Jake.

  “I’ll tell you what old man, you let me have that piece of redheaded tail there for ten minutes and I’ll give you that name.”

  The old man hit McKay in the gut and the younger man fell to his knees.

  “You need to learn respect for women, boy.”

  Chief Kane pushed his cowboy hat back on his head and looked away, while Kelli grinned.

  Once he recovered from the blow, McKay stood up on shaky legs and spoke to the chief.

  “That was assault, arrest his ass.”

  “I didn’t see shit, Russell; now tell him the other fella’s name.”

  McKay stepped back inside the cabin.

  “Fuck him and you!”

  After the door slammed, the chief let out a laugh.

  “You got a hell of a punch for an old man, Mr. Caliber.”

  “It ain’t what it was, but it gets the job done.”

  “Thank you for defending me, Mr. Caliber, but now he’ll never tell us that name.”

  “We’ll find it out somewhere else, kid. Jerks like that are better left alone.”

  ***

  Inside the cabin, Russell McKay rummaged through a drawer for a phone number. When he finally found it, he picked up his phone and dialed. His party answered after six rings.

  “Hello?”

  “Is this Remmi?”

  “Yeah, who is this?”

  “It’s me, Russell McKay, and I been keeping an eye out like you said. There’s an old man up here asking questions about Jimmy.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, he showed up here with the sheriff.”

  “Listen, I got a job for you and your friends.”

  McKay smiled into the phone.

  “I was hoping you’d say that.”

  CHAPTER 6

  In New York City, Remmi Harlow put away his phone after talking to Russell McKay. He was in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant.

  As Remmi stepped out of the car, Chris walked up to him and shoved a gun in his stomach.

  “Get back in the car.”

  “Hey! What the hell, you want my wallet? Take it.”

  “This isn’t about your wallet; this is about business. Now get back in the car and slide over into the passenger seat.”

  Remmi complied, and Chris climbed in behind him.

  “What’s this business you’re talking about?”

  “I need guns, and you sell them, that kind of business.”

  Remmi chuckled.

  “Hell dude, you could be a cop for all I know.”

  “You sold weapons last night to The Spawn biker club in the parking lot of a bar. If I was a cop, I could have busted you then.”

  “You were there?”

  “I was there, there were three bikers. The one with the single gold star on his jacket kept spitting out tobacco juice.”

  “I still don’t know you.”

  Chris reached into a pocket and took out an envelope.

  “There’s two grand in there. That’s yours just for having this talk.”

  Remmi reached over and took the envelope, after looking inside, he narrowed his eyes at Chris.

  “Who the hell are you?”

  “As I said before, I need guns.”

  “How many?”

  “A hundred 9mm for two-fifty each, can you handle that?”

  “Yeah, a hundred is not a problem, but I need three bills each for them; they’re top quality.”

  “Two-sixty?”

  “Two-ninety?”

  “Two-sixty-five?”

  “Two-eighty?”

  “How about two-seventy-five?”

  “Deal, and we’ll meet at the same bar, same time, tomorrow night. You, ah, you coming alone?”

  Chris smiled, “I’m never alone,” he then raised his hand to the windshield, and a beam of red light painted a dot on Remmi Harlow’s chest.

  Remmi’s eyes bulged as he stared at the dot.

  “Shit.”

  Chris opened the door and stepped out of the car.

  “Tomorrow night, Remmi, and if it works out this could be a regular thing.”

  “Sure,” Remmi said, with his eyes still locked on the dot. But when Chris slammed the car door, Remmi watched him walk towards another car and get in the passenger seat. When Remmi looked down again, the dot was gone.

  ***

  As they drove away, Chris removed the transmitter from beneath his lapel.

  “Did you hear all that?”

  Velma punched him on the shoulder.

  “Damn, Chris, your brother couldn’t have done better.”

  “I’m learning from the best; it’s bound to rub off.”

  “I see the laser sight spooked him as we planned.”

  “Yeah, but if he doesn’t show for this gun deal tomorrow, that means we just blew two grand of the client’s money.”

  “He’ll show, but now we have to be ready for him.”

  “Yeah, it’s time to bring in the cops.”

  ***

  Lieutenant Thomas Delaney sat on the edge of his desk and listened to Chris and Velma talk about Remmi Harlow.

  “I’m homicide, what you need is ATF.”

  “We know that, Tommy, but wouldn’t you like them to owe you a favor? We’re dropping Harlow right in your lap.”

  “You’re becoming as devious as your brother, not only will the ATF owe me a favor, but I’ll owe Caliber one too, right?”

  Velma grinned.

  “We hoped that you would see it that way.”

  “All right, you two get lost and I’ll make some calls, but I know the Feds will want to meet with you before the sting goes down.”

  “We’re in the book.”

  ***

  Jake followed Victor Jansen into his upper west side apartment and got his first look at Jansen’s young wife, Veronica, as she came down a marble staircase.

  Veronica Jansen’s blond hair was tied back in a ponytail, and she was wearing jeans and a pink sweater. Veronica’s make-up was at a minimum, and unneeded in Jake’s opinion, as he took note of the young Mrs. Jansen’s stunning looks.

  Jansen introduced Jake to his wife and Veronica Jansen craned her neck back to take him in.

  “My, you’re a big one, and handsome, but do you really think that my husband is in danger?”

  “If he is, I’ll protect him.”

  “Do you carry a gun?”

  “Yes.”

  “Have you ever killed anyone?”

  “Veronica!” Jansen said.

  She pouted.

  “It’s just a question.”

  “I’ll keep your husband safe, count on it.”

  Veronica put her arms around Jansen.

  “It must have been an accident, who would want to hurt Victor?”

  “That’s what I’m going to find out, ma’am.”

  “Ma’am? Do I look like a ma’am to you?”

  “You’re the wife of a mister, so that makes you a ma’am.”

  Veronica narrowed her eyes.

  “I don’t like him, Victor.”

  “He’ll only be staying with us for a few days. If nothing else happens, well then; I’ll have to assume that it really was an accident.”

  Jake stared at Veronica.

  “Your husband said something about a spare bedroom; I’d like to see it.”

  “Up the stairs, the third door on the right, and we’ll have dinner sent up to you. My husband and I will be dining alone.”

  Jake grinned.

  “Understood, and thank you, ma’am.”

  ***

  Later that night in Texas, the old man laughed as he enjoyed Kelli’s delight at hitting her first target.

  Over dinner, she told him that she planned to take shooting lessons when they returned to New York, but Jake told her that there was no time like the present and he found a deserted spot by a hill where she could shoot.

  Their motel in the small town
of Fort Neches was two miles away. It lights appeared as a soft glow under a star-filled sky.

  Because it was already dark out, they used the truck’s headlights to see by, and after a lesson on weapons safety, Kelli was ready to fire a gun for the first time.

  Jake sat her empty can of diet soda on a tree stump and had her use it as a target for his .45. A target she finally hit on her fifth try.

  “I did it! Oh that was fun.”

  “You’re no Blue Steele, but with a little practice you’ll be good.”

  Kelli stood on her toes and kissed the old man on the cheek.

  “Thank you for teaching me, Mr. Caliber.”

  “You’re welcome, but why don’t you shoot some more?”

  “Are you sure? The gun is nearly out of bullets.”

  “We’ve got plenty; I bought four boxes of ammo in Dallas, remember?”

  “So I can keep shooting?”

  “Knock yourself out, kid.”

  Kelli practiced for nearly an hour, and by the end of it she was much improved.

  Jake spoke to her as he reloaded his .45 and put it back in his shoulder holster.

  “You actually have a knack for this, you know that?”

  “That’s because I work for the Caliber Detective Agency.”

  “You go sit in the truck if you want; I’m going to finish this cigar first.”

  Kelli said, “All right,” as she flexed her hand.

  “Yeah, your hands will probably ache for a day or two. I should have warned you about that.”

  “That was worth a little muscle pain; I can’t wait to do it again.”

  Kelli walk towards the truck, but as she went past the headlights, she made a noise that sounded like a muffled scream.

  “Kelli, are you all right?”

  Five men stepped forward from behind the glare of the headlights. Two of them held rifles, two of them, guns, and the fifth one, the one that was Russell McKay, held a sharp knife to Kelli’s throat.

  Jake dropped the cigar, stamped it out with his foot, and asked a question.

  “What do you men want?”

  “We want you to forget about Jimmy Preston.”

  “Who’s we?”

  “We ain’t asking old man, we’re telling you,” McKay said, and then he began slicing at Kelli with the knife.

  ***

  Back in New York, the younger Jake muted the TV as he heard footsteps approach his door. For a moment, he wondered if the lady of the house had come to pay him a visit, but quickly dismissed that idea, as her dislike for him seemed genuine.

  The footfalls continued past his door, but as he opened it and looked out, he saw the door to the back staircase close. He walked over to the railing that ran along the marble staircase, looked down, and saw that Victor Jansen had fallen asleep in a recliner. That would mean that it was Veronica Jansen who just skipped out the back way.

  Jake opened the door as quietly as possible and then began creeping down the stairs. When he was four flights lower he heard the voices, and as he crept closer, he could distinguish their owners.

  When the voices suddenly stopped, he risked a look, and found Veronica kissing a man with a familiar face. Her secret lover was her husband’s son, Bart Jansen.

  CHAPTER 7

  Velma approached her husband’s room at the VA hospital and heard someone speaking in a low tone. When she reached the doorway, she found a nurse sitting in a chair beside the bed, reading aloud.

  It was her husband’s day nurse, a young woman named Maya. Velma thought that Maya was a beautiful girl, but that there always seemed to be a sense of sadness about her, unlike the other nurses whose sunny demeanors often grated on her.

  Velma felt anything but sunny whenever she visited her husband, and tonight she was especially troubled. She stared at Maya, and as on other occasions, it occurred to Velma that there was something familiar about her. If they’d ever met before, she couldn’t recall where or when.

  Maya leapt out of her seat when she spotted Velma standing in the doorway.

  “Mrs. Channing, hi, I didn’t see you there.”

  “Hello Maya, are you working a double?”

  “No ma’am, it’s just that I like to spend a little extra time with my favorite patients, but I’ll be going now.”

  “You take very good care of my husband, Maya. I appreciate that more than you know.”

  “Thank you, and Michael means a lot to me, despite his condition, he is alive, and that’s a miracle, a miracle my brother never experienced.”

  “You lost a brother in the war?”

  “Yes, like your husband, Benny’s Humvee ran over an IED in Iraq, but unlike Michael here, Benny died.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “Thank you, but now you know why Michael is a favorite of mine.”

  “What was that book you were reading to him?”

  “It’s Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe; we’re making our way through the classics.”

  “I can’t thank you enough for spending time with him.”

  Maya broke eye contact.

  “It’s my pleasure, Mrs. Channing, now you have a good night.”

  “You too,” Velma said.

  Maya grabbed her purse from the table and headed for the door, but she stopped in the threshold and looked back at the bed.

  “Goodnight Michael, I’ll see you in the morning.”

  And then she left, leaving Velma alone with her husband.

  Velma sat in the chair that Maya had vacated, and took her husband’s hand.

  “Michael, baby, there are things I need to say to you, things I need to tell you.”

  ***

  On a secluded hillside in East Texas, Jake Caliber the third faced off against five armed men, as his assistant, Kelli, was being held as a hostage.

  Russell McKay turned his knife towards Kelli and sliced away at her dress until it was cut all the way down. It fell aside to reveal her undergarments, a pink lace bra with matching panties.

  “We’re going to take turns with her, old man, and we’re gonna make you watch.”

  Jake let out a long breath.

  “If you men put down those guns right now, I’ll let you live.”

  McKay started laughing, and was joined by the other men.

  “What the hell are you talking about, you old fart? There’s five of us, all armed, and that old-timey revolver of yours is still in your holster.”

  One of the other men spoke up. He was standing beside McKay and Kelli and was a burly brute with an unruly black beard.

  “Take off that holster and toss it away right now, or I’m gonna come over there and make you eat it, grandpa.”

  “Kelli?” Jake said.

  “Yes sir?”

  “Close your eyes, honey.”

  Kelli closed her eyes and Jake’s hand flew to his holster. The first shot entered the brute’s head at a point just left of his nose, and the massive exit wound resulted in a rain of blood and tissue. Before any of it had fallen to the ground, the old man had fired three more shots into three more heads and ended three more lives.

  Kelli exhaled wildly as the warm blood splattered her face, and then she watched as the old man marched towards her and McKay with his gun arm extended. When he reached them, he pressed the gun’s still warm barrel against McKay’s forehead.

  “Drop that knife.”

  McKay tossed the knife and released Kelli. Afterwards, he proceeded to urinate on himself, as he fell to his knees and begged.

  “Please don’t kill me! Oh Lord almighty, please don’t kill me.”

  “Shut up, punk!”

  As Kelli went to the old man, her shredded dress fell to the ground, and he wrapped his free arm around her.

  “Are you all right?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Pick up your dress and clean yourself off as best you can with it, and then get my trench coat out of the truck and put that on, that should keep you warm.”

  Kelli hugged him tighter
.

  “You saved my life, thank you.”

  “Anytime, doll.”

  As Kelli wiped the blood from her face and neck, Jake holstered his gun and then reached down and hoisted McKay to his feet.

  “Who put you up to this?”

  “Are you gonna kill me too?”

  “That depends on you, now who put you up to this?”

  “It was Remmi Harlow, Remmi Harlow, he doesn’t want anyone asking about Jimmy.”

  “Is James Preston alive? Where is he?”

  “I don’t know; all I have is a phone number for Remmi. I lied before too, I don’t know that other fella’s name, that John dude, he was Remmi’s friend, not mine, but I have a picture of him, of all of them together.”

  “Where’s this picture?”

  “It’s in my truck, back out by the road.”

  “Show me, and if you try running away I’ll shoot you. I’m too damn old to give chase.”

  “I won’t run, just don’t kill me like you did those other fellas, and sweet Jesus how can you move so fast?”

  “Never mind, just show me this picture.”

  They reached McKay’s truck and Kelli followed behind, with Jake’s trench coat cinched around her, as its hem reached to her ankles. McKay snatched a photo from beneath his sun visor and handed it to Jake.

  “See, there it is, and like I said, there’s all of them.”

  Jake studied the photo. It showed three men sitting around a beer cooler on what appeared to be a bright summer day, and in the background, you could see the Neches River.

  Two of the men were facing the camera, they were Remmi Harlow and the man known only as John, while the last man, the missing James Preston, had his back to the camera, but his head was turned, and so you could see his face as well.

  The old man took note of the birthmark on Preston’s back. His mother had described the port-wine stain as being in the shape of a dragon, but in the photo, it appeared as just a colorful blur.

  “Kelli, call Chief Kane, tell him what happened.”

  “Yes sir.”

  “And make sure they send an ambulance for McKay here.”

  Kelli looked at McKay and then back at the old man.

  “But he’s not injured.”

  “He will be by the time they get here.”

  Jake grabbed a whimpering McKay by his long hair, to drag him across the grass and towards the shadows.

  “Mr. Caliber, don’t!”

  “This man threatened you with...,”