In Hot Pursuit Read online

  She grimaced as a sharp pain shot through her left side. She pressed her hand to her stomach and leaned heavily onto the wall for support. She couldn’t wait to come face to face with the man who had caused her so many sleepless nights and stressful days. She wished she could sock him across the face a couple times, too, just for the satisfaction of it, but she didn’t need an assault charge tainting her impeccable work record.

  Her stomach felt as if it was on fire. It also felt empty and sore, as if there was a big hole inside. The idiot had almost knocked the wind out of her. Her ribs were sore, and she had a splitting headache from the blows she had received to the head.

  She eased the bullet proof vest up to the side and slipped two of her fingers under it

  to feel to see if there were any broken ribs sticking out. She squirmed a bit from the pain, and took another deep breath. Her breathing seemed fine to her. At least she knew nothing was broken. Her bullet proof vest had cushioned most of the impact of his boot.

  She went over to the man and turned his man’s body over, and pulled her knife from the wound in his chest. She wiped the blood and flesh off on his jacket, folded the knife and slipped it into her jacket’s pocket. She would clean when she got back to the lab. She had no intention of leaving it behind. The knife had been her father’s, a career military commander, who had been extremely proud of his job.

  They’d lost him little over a year ago from stage three colon cancer. Her father had carried the knife with him all the time, and she did the same thing too, whenever she could. The knife had saved her life on a number of occasions, including this one. And having the knife with her made her feel closer to her father. He was the reason she had chosen a career in law enforcement.

  Earnes appeared at her side.

  “You look like hell, Gabb—are you okay?” He peered into her face. “You should get check out by paramedics, just to make sure nothing is broken.”

  Earnes drew closer to her. She tried to move, but she couldn’t stand on her feet.

  She stumbled forward, and he reached out to grab her. She was still having a hard

  time catching her breath, and standing on her own.

  “I’m fine.” She shrugged him off.

  “Are you sure.” He peered into her face.

  Yeah, nothing that a cup of strong black coffee and a couple hours of shut eye wouldn’t cure.”

  Earnes didn’t buy her tough act. “You are walking with a limp, Gabb. You should

  make sure you weren’t shot or have a concussion. That’s a nasty bruise on your

  forehead there.”

  “I wasn’t shot, Earnes. The bastard ambushed me. I had to put up a fight to get away from him. He was going to take me to Raybourne. I wasn’t going to let him do that.”

  “Are you sure you’re alright?” he asked her again, still holding onto her arm.

  “Yeah, I’m sure. I’ll feel even better when I see Raybourne in handcuffs.”

  She didn’t mean to be sharp with him, but this wasn’t exactly the time for kumbaya. There would be lots of time for that after they had Raybourne in custody. Besides, she didn’t need Earnes fussing over her, either. That’s what her mother was there for!

  Earnes glanced at the dead man on the floor.

  “I guess Raybourne planned on using you as a bargaining chip to get himself and

  his men out of here, probably out of the country as well.”

  “Well, I wasn’t about to let him do that.”

  “He didn’t have to.” Earnes gave her a very uneasy look. He couldn’t meet her

  prying eyes.

  “What do you mean? We caught him, didn’t we?”

  She drew closer to Earnes and searched his face, waiting for him to answer her. There was no way Raybourne could have eluded them again—no fucking way!

  “I’m not even sure he was here, Gabb.”

  “That’s impossible, Earnes! You were there—we saw him come in here. He was one of the first people in. We sat in the van and watched him entered the front door. We raided the place soon after. There was no way he could have just disappeared like that. We had people stationed at the front and back of the warehouse.”

  She was frustrated and angry. She’d spent the last few months waiting for this moment, and she would be damn if she let Gilles Raybourne take it away from her, just like that!

  “He got away.” Earnes gave her a wary look. “I don’t know how, but he just did.”

  “He couldn’t have vanished into thin air like that, Earnes. He has to be in here somewhere, probably waiting for us to leave so that he could sneak out and disappear again. I’m going to find him, and when I do, I’m going to make sure he

  doesn’t see the light of day again.”

  He felt Bowles’ frustration. He too, had thought that this was the end of the road

  for them as far as Raybourne was concerned. He was wrong! They were back at square one, almost to the point where they had started. The hunt for Gilles Raybourne, one of America’s most wanted criminals was back on.

  “He got out. Maybe he wasn’t even here. Maybe the person we saw coming in here was a decoy. He could have used someone to make us think that he was here.” Earnes repeated, with more certainty in his voice this time.

  “It was him!” Bowles sounded angry.

  He wished he had better news for her, especially after what they had just been through, but he just didn’t. Raybourne had evaded capture once again.

  Bowles wasn’t giving up. “Did they check all the containers? I will turn this warehouse inside out if I have to. The snake has to be in here somewhere!”

  “I don’t think he is, Gabb. And they are doing a thorough search of the place right now. They are just about covered every nook and cranny of it. We have officers searching every where, including the immediate vicinity outside, and as far back as 14th and most of Gansevoort. The entire area is blocked off—nothing or no one is

  coming in or going out without being searched. ”

  “We have to get an old blue print of the place. We have to make sure there isn’t

  a secret under ground tunnel or exit that we missed. I have to find out how

  Raybourne burrowed his way out of here! The place was renovated five years ago.

  There must be something that wasn’t included in the new copy they gave us.”

  Bowles picked up her gun and went to join the rest of the team.

  The place was littered with dead body, and crawling with police officers, some of whom were joining in with the search.

  “Get most of them out of here,” she told Earnes, nodding towards the officers.

  “We don’t want them contaminating the crime scene. I don’t want to miss anything that could tell us what happened to Raybourne. Don’t let them touch

  anything until our team gets here.”

  “Will do.”

  Earnes left her side to go talk to the person in charge.

  Bowles reached for a flashlight. She walked around the dead bodies and shone the light down on them, peering intently into the lifeless faces, looking for Raybourne’s dark one. At this point, she was hoping that he was one of the dead men. She had wanted him alive before, but not anymore. She would settle for his corpse instead. Raybourne’s body wasn’t among the dead men.

  Thankfully none of the bodies she had seen so far were any of their men. She breathed a huge sigh of relief. She knew a few of the officers had been injured, but it wasn’t anything serious that minor surgery and a few weeks of bed rest wouldn’t cure. They would be back on the job in no time.

  “He’s not here.” She gave Earnes a disappointed and angry look, as he came towards her.

  “He must have escaped during the shootout.”

  “He sent those men in here to sacrifice their lives for him. I wouldn’t expect anything else from him! I wondered if he told them they were walking into a death trap of their own making. He meant for this to happen, Earnes. He meant to frustrate the hell out of us!
And he knew there wasn’t a damn thing we could do about it!”

  “We will catch him, Gabb.”

  “I can’t believe he gave us the slip again! What do we have to do to bring this scumbag down!”

  “At least we know he hasn’t left the country. He’s probably holed up somewhere not far from here. He couldn’t have gotten far, not with the place crawling with cops.”

  “That hasn’t stopped him before.” Bowles gave him a skeptical look. “The man is capable of anything. We know that now. He’s resourceful, and he has money, lots and lots of it too, from what I’ve seen. He could buy his way out of anything. He’s a fucking chameleon. He’ll change to fit in if he has to. He has some of the best criminal master minds working for him. That’s why he has been able to slip under the radar for so long. He’s probably sitting on a plane right now laughing his

  ass off at us.”

  “We will get him.” Earnes reassured her again.

  “Yeah, I will be waiting to see that day!”

  The clean up team—a group of four men and one woman, arrived five minutes after. The group was headed by Dr. Jonathan Bailey, a highly respected forensic pathologist and clinical Psychologist Homeland Security had recruited from Scotland Yard to head up this side of the unit. Dr. Bailey and his team were also cleaners. They took care of the crime scene after they were done with it, including the dead bodies.

  They made everything disappeared, and they were careful not to leave a hint of a trace behind. They were meticulous and detailed. In another couple hours the warehouse would cease to exist. The FDNY would receive an anonymous phone call about a burning building, arriving just in time to stand back and watch it burn to the ground. And any investigation into the cause of the fire would be promptly buried, along with evidence of what had actually happened here.

  What’s left of the property would eventually be acquired by the government. It was another hard stance Homeland Security was taking with criminals like Gilles Raybourne and his known associates who posed a major threat to national security. So far, millions of dollars of his assets had already been seized or frozen since he appeared on their radar almost two years ago. Hitting criminals like Raybourne in his pockets, and where it hurts was already proving to be an effective tool in curbing some of their illegal activities. Now they needed the man himself.

  “We are just about done with the fingerprint analysis.” They stood aside and

  watched as Dr. Bailey moved from one body to the next. “Not shocking, most of the

  ones we have done so far are small time criminals, thugs with minor convictions—petty theft, assault, drugs—the usual gang related violations.”

  Bowles shook her head in disgust. “He baited them to come here. They probably

  thought they were going to walk out of here alive. They had no idea what Raybourne had planned for them.”

  “Well, they met their demise the old fashioned way. It’s a lesson for every small time criminal out there—crime does not pay. They should have known who they were getting into bed with. They literally sold their souls to the devil himself. Take a look at this.” Dr. Bailey beckoned them closer.

  He pulled a bullet from one of the bodies, and held it up to the light for them to see. Bowles and Earnes leaned over and examined the bullet. They gave Dr. Bailey a quizzical look, not quite sure what they were supposed to be looking for.

  “These aren’t our bullets,” Dr. Bailey informed them. “I will take them to the

  lab just to be sure, but I am positive we don’t use these.” He shook the bullet around

  in the palm of his gloved hand.

  “Doesn’t look like the ones we use.” Earnes confirmed.

  “Do you see this.” Dr. Bailey turned the head of one of the dead men and shone

  his flash light on the large head wound. “These were close up shots, execution style. These men were murdered up close. They probably didn’t see it coming either. Some of them were hit from the back. Raybourne had some of his more trusted

  men take them off before they left.”

  Earnes let off a small whistle. “A dead man tells no tale. Raybourne wanted to

  make sure they weren’t around to talk to us. He made sure he did them off before he

  fled. They must have known something.”

  “To murder his own men like that, that, my friend is an undeniable act of cowardice and evil.” Dr. Bailey signaled two of his men over. “Bag these men and get ready for disposal.” He pointed to the small row of men on his immediate left.

  He turned back to Earnes and Bowles. “We are good to go. This will be a quick

  and thorough clean up. In an hour these men would no longer exist—all their information would be completely wiped from the US database—their date of birth, what they looked like, their nationality, SSN, employment history; if there ever was one, would be gone. It would be like they were never American citizens or lived in this country. And their old identities would be flagged by ICE. If Raybourne was planning on using their identities to make fake passports or dabble in identity theft, we will catch him.”

  “Thanks Dr. Bailey.”

  “Don’t thank me, Agent Bowles. You and Agent Earnes and the others go out there and continue to do your job to make America and the rest of the world a safe place to live in again. Mind you, things were never perfect, but it’s nothing like this level of intentional evil that has besieged us as of late. It would be a wonderful thing if things can get back to the way they were before Bin Laden and this atrocious gang of Islamic extremists took hold of us. They are like a hideous and deadly form of cancer. We must eradicate them—and the sooner, the better.”

  They exchanged empathetic glances.

  “It’s what we all want,” Bowles told him.

  “I will be in touch if we find anything out of the ordinary,” Dr. Bailey told them, turning back to finish his examination of the dead body.

  Bowles shoved her gun back into the holster, and reached for her jacket. She had taken time to reload her gun minutes before. She pulled an end of her jacket to cover it and headed outside with Earnes. And standing side by side with Earnes, she couldn’t escape the nagging thought that kept coming back to her, over and over again.

  It was something she had read somewhere. She wasn’t certain if it was in the Bible, or in one of those inspirational, self help books she sometimes browsed through when she visit with her mother. Her mother kept a bunch of them at the house since her father died. She said she drew strength from them. She might have grabbed one the last time she was at the house.

  “Evil breeds evil—and unless you stamp it out before it takes root, it will always be there in our midst, swallowing us up alive.”

  That was exactly what Gilles Raybourne was—evil, and a snake, and she was determined more than ever to catch him. And she knew they would get him—one way or the other. She got into the passenger’s side of the black SUV, and reached for the grab-handle above her seat. She held onto it tightly, bracing herself for the drive back, as Earnes sped away.

  Chapter 3

  She hadn’t slept in thirty six hours. Every waking hour had been spent poring over hours and hours of video and audio recordings they had on Raybourne, including stacks of notes and reports they had compiled on him, and the numerous tips they had received in the last months. She was looking for something, anything that would tell her how Raybourne had pulled this off, and where he was.

  She realized they were racing against time—every second counts. They had to find Raybourne before he did whatever he had planned, and they weren’t ruling out random attacks or dirty bombs weapons, either. The guy was a home grown terrorist—anything was possible with him, and they weren’t leaving anything to chance. And they still were sure if Raybourne had gotten his hands on chemical weapons. It was safe to say that they were looking at every possible scenario at this point. Raybourne was a ticking time bomb, with millions and millions of dollars at his disposal. He could do anything.

/>   And his association with terrorist groups made it more likely that he had something extremely dangerous in the works, that, and the fact that he was killing his men off, one by one made it so much more plausible. There must be a valid

  reason why he was cleaning house. He was getting rid of everyone who knew

  something.

  She had looked at every single piece of the evidence and nothing in particular stood out. It was the same old Intel they had gathered in the last year and a half—Raybourne’s known associates, places he frequented, conversations they had recorded of him, a few tips here and there that didn’t quite pan out. Most of the tips had come from their contacts, criminals who knew Raybourne, and had had some sort of dealings with him in the past.

  Now it was her job to look for something new, fresh, different and substantial—

  something that would put her and the team closer to catching Raybourne. And she was going to find him, wherever he was. She was going to take him down, even if

  she had to do it single handedly.

  She pulled her black Chevrolet Malibu into the underground garage of a nondescript building in the Flatiron District, and switched off the engine. The building had been their headquarters for the four three years, ever since the elite unit was formed. Homeland Security had acquired about six or more buildings on the block, and had turned them into secret government buildings. No one knew what went on inside them, well, except for the people who worked there. NSA had been using the same facilities for years, but had relocated to another secret location when they moved in.

  She glanced at the dashboard clock, and sat back in the soft leather seat,

  breathing in the new car scent, thankful that she finally had a car with functional heat and air conditioning. Her old Sedan had been a piece of junk. Her mother used to call it a deathtrap waiting to happen, and had been on her case to get rid of it. She’d had the car since college, and hadn’t been in a hurry to part with it.