Chapter 74

Day Seventy-four - Thursday

The phone was ringing. Why would the phone be ringing? I raised up and reached for the phone on the headboard shelf.

"This is Steve."

"Mr. Sharp, this is your security company. Both pair of my guards at your locations has called in that there are suspicious vehicles parked in front of your buildings. So far no one has gotten out of the vehicles but I am calling you to let you know we have alerted the sheriff's department."

"I'll be there right away. Thank you for calling me."

Sue woke up, "What is it honey?"

"The security people called that two strange cars are parked in front of our buildings. They called the sheriff's department already but I'm going to go find out what's up."

"I'm going with you. If you need help, I want to be there."

I was going to say no but I would rather have her with me than to worry about her somewhere else. "Okay, but you have to do exactly what I tell you, no matter what."

She nodded while getting out of bed to slide into a pair of Jeans. We both wore jeans, dark T-shirts, and work shoes.

I rummaged in the closet for the AR15 I bought. I was tearing up the closet till I remembered, I had left it in the wrecked truck behind the seat, damn. I took the short barreled shotgun with the pistol grip that was in there and grabbed a box of 12 gauge double 0 buckshot. I put my 9-millimeter in my waist, pocketed three more full magazines and carried the shotgun out to the Mustang.

I walked over to the cop car that was now parked on the lane actually on the yard grass. "There is some kind of problem down at our buildings. We are going down there. Please stay here and watch the house, as I'm apprehensive about someone getting into the house while we are gone. If you want to wait inside, you are welcome to do so." The deputy radioed in to his supervisor and was told to secure our premise so he got out and I brought him inside. Sue was at the door ready to leave when I brought him in. I filled her in on my thinking that it would be good for him to watch the place for us while we went to the shop.

I asked him if he could confirm from his dispatcher whether anyone had been dispatched to the shop. The deputy used his mobile unit to call in. They confirmed that two units were in route, ETA ten minutes.

Sue and I drove the few miles down to the shop, taking about seven to eight minutes to get there. When I hit the outer area of the business park, I cut the lights on the car and pulled to the side where I powered the top down so we would have unobstructed vision.

I rolled down a parallel street to see if I could see any thing. Just as we neared the corner of the back lot of the shop the two sheriff's cars came down our buildings' main road and stopped in the street in front of our two buildings. We could see the car in front of the door of the factory but we couldn't see the car in front of the shop building.

Just as a deputy nearest the factory started to get out of his car, there were two separate muzzle flashes by the factory door and from the car. Both rounds hit the sheriff's car but not the deputy, thank goodness. We heard another gun go off that must have been from the car in front of the shop.

I told Sue that we had best stay put so the deputies would not confuse us with the bad guys. More cars should be here quickly.

The two sheriff's cars backed up about thirty feet and I saw the two deputies slide out of the cars and go for their trunks. Both came up with what looked like MP-417 rifles. These are weapons made by H&K who build the MP-5 except these rifles are 7.62 and come with a variety of scopes. Most have a scope with an available light option. They are the choice for most military and police snipers. They both got between their cars and looked out at the two buildings.

The one deputy used his car PA, "Put down your weapons and come to the middle of the street with your hands up."

That caused more rounds to be fired from the door of the factory and somewhere in front of the shop building. The deputies both returned a couple of rounds. I heard glass shatter. There went the front window of the showroom.

A sheriff's car pulled up behind us and a deputy got out with his gun leveled. Sue and I put our hands up and explained that we came here in response to our security guards call. The deputies down on the street needed the help. He asked us for ID, and Sue and I both showed him our licenses.

He said he recognized my name. He used his radio to alert his supervisor that they needed the tactical team, as there were two separate groups of shooters attacking the deputies on site. He then started directing arriving cars down different streets so all the surrounding streets would be covered.

Occasionally a round would be fired from the factory front door but the deputies were not returning fire. I asked the deputy with us if he had the same weapon as the other deputies. He said he did.

"Get it out. Let me see if I can see the shooter in the factory doorway with it."

"You know how to use it?"

I nodded my head, "Marine, Desert Storm."

He opened his trunk and handed me the MP-417 then automatically handed me two magazines. Not really thinking about it, I slid the clip home, put a round in the chamber and checked the safety position. Using his car to stabilize the rifle I sighted through the scope at the front door. I flipped the low light magnification on but the scope glared at me because the street light was at an angle, getting into my eyes.

I laid the rifle on the car and pulled my black T-shirt off and draped it over my head and the rifle scope to keep out the light glare. This time when I sighted in, I could see two men at the door with what looked like Uzi's or some kind of small automatic rifle. They were faking every one out though, as they were firing single rounds instead of bursts. A technique you learned when you were trying to conserve ammo or when you were trying to sucker someone into thinking you only had a pistol. I told the deputy what I had. He asked if I had a target.

"Two, both armed."

"Clean?"

"Very."

"Damn, I can't let you do that. Shit."

I squeezed off a round, watching the target lurch back from the hit. The son of a bitch got up. More body armor.

The other shooter in the doorway fired several shots at the sheriff's cars.

"The guys wearing armor. I'll try for a head shot."

"You can't do that, wait for the team."

"Target acquired, your sights are damned good."

With the magnification and illumination up, I could see the guys eye balls. Very slowly I squeezed the trigger. This time the head snapped back and the target disappeared. The other shooter fired wildly out of the door. I couldn't get a fix on him as he was moving down to check the fallen man and then standing up and looked like he was yelling.

All of sudden there were three more people behind the door.

"One down but three more just came to the door."

The deputy radioed to the two deputies in the street to offer a surrender again.

While the deputy was using the PA, I sighted in on another target in the doorway. As soon as the deputy was making the announcement the target raised his gun and fired a burst this time. I squeezed the trigger and watched his head snap back as the round hit him.

"Two down. Tell him to announce again. Let's see if more of them want to shoot."

The announcement began but this time no one fired. I had a target but no one was making any threatening gestures. I didn't see any weapons in the hands of the three that were standing there.

I relayed this information to the deputy next to me. Sue, who was on my left side while the deputy was on my right nudged me, "There's someone coming from the back of your building. They are running for the gate."

The deputy heard Sue and turned to watch the runner stop to look at the concertina wire atop the gate. It would be near impossible to climb the fence or the gate at this location. If he had known the property better he would have just gone to the other building and slipped under the fence by the drainage ditch. We watched as he went to one of the big race day tractor-trailers parked in the yard, open the trailer door and climb in.

"Guess we know where that one is," the deputy said with a soft chuckle.

Cars and vans were arriving at the corners of the streets. The tactical team was dispersing and setting up at various points. The deputy offered the opportunity to come out again. This time three men came out of the propped open front door of the factory with their hands up. As the three men got to the street a round was heard going off from the shop building and the lead guy fell to the ground. Several deputies opened up at the same time in the direction from where the shot came from.

Someone called a cease-fire and two team members made their way to the front of the S&S building. We couldn't see what was happening from where we were so I stood up, used my T-shirt to wipe down the MP-5 and handed the piece to the deputy. "You did some fine shooting, deputy. You probably saved several lives by downing those two guys in the factory."

"I can't say I did that. They all know I don't shoot that good."

"I guess all your practice paid off tonight," I said while pulling my T-shirt back on covering the gun butt in my waist.

"Shit, I wouldn't have known to cover my head and the sight to see better. I bet the tact team doesn't even know that trick."

"Now you do, and you used it to your advantage. Pick up your brass deputy, there should be three casings. Remember you have a round in the chamber, but you still have a bogey in the trailer."

A tactical team member came out the back door to the shop and walked toward us. When he identified the deputy, the deputy told him there was a guy in the trailer. The team member radioed for assistance and two more of the team came out the back door toward the trailer. When they were in position, the first team member opened the door and called for the man to give up and come out. There was some cursing and noise as the guy was obviously stumbling in the dark. He came out and stepped down to the ground to be put face first down and handcuffed.

As they brought him up to a sitting position, I saw it was one of the managers from the plant.

I told the deputy who the guy was as he was put on his feet to walk back through the building to the front.

Sue and I, and the deputy, drove our cars around to the front of the building. Both of the two big plate glass windows were shattered. There was an older Chevrolet with a ton of bullet holes in it and no glass. There was a yellow drape over a form in the driver's seat.

As Sue and I went toward the factory, we saw the man on the ground that had been shot by the draped body in the car. It was the former CFO. I guess he made bail but was dumb enough to try to recover the money and drugs from the safe. The two men that were now cuffed, sitting on the ground were the other two former management types from the factory. They glared at Sue and me as we passed, but kept quiet. We looked into the doorway to see the two men I head shot. The scene was pretty gruesome. One of the deputies had lost his lunch near the doorway. I'd seen worse.

The tactical team Lieutenant was congratulating the deputy that Sue and I had been with for the excellent marksmanship. He said he was a credit to the sheriff's office. The deputy glared at me and I saluted him as we passed.

The four hired security guards came walking up the street. They explained they were there for protection and not to become an army. When they saw how many people there were, they walked up the street to stay out of the way for when the sheriff got there. They figured the safest place to be was far away. I thanked them for calling in and told them to finish out their shift then we could probably call the duty complete.

Deputies with dogs came out of both buildings saying that the buildings were clear. A county detective was coming out saying the men had gone directly to all the safes and opened them to find nothing there. They had opened a fourth safe that was in the executive bathroom between the president and the CFO's office. They must have been interrupted, as there was a large amount of money still in the opened safe. They weren't going to mess with it, as it was still intact, on the premise. Sue and I went into the building and up to the second floor into the bathroom that we had never been into before. The mirror over the sink hid the safe but it was now swung away revealing the open safe with stacks of hundreds again. I told Sue to find a trash can and bring the garbage bag.

"What are you going to do Steve?" Sue asked.

"I'm going to get a bonus for you and me and have some cash for us to do some nice things for others without having to worry about where it comes from."

"Why do we want a bonus, especially money that's tainted?"

"Money is money. Somehow, someway, you and I should be rewarded for all of the bullshit we have put up with recently. This is that reward. This cash will buy some nice things for people but it will also give us a few bucks for a nice vacation."

"We have been through a lot lately, especially from the people of this company. I'll get a bag."

I counted out thirty-five bundles of cash, over a million and a half. I put five bundles back in the safe and closed it, spinning the tumbler to lock it. I closed the mirror and Sue and I put the garbage bag in the closet in Betty's room temporarily.

Back outside there were all forms of police and sheriff deputies everywhere. State and federal detectives were questioning the three men sitting on the ground handcuffed. Sue and I went to the shop and used my phone to call an emergency board up company. I asked them if they cleaned up the broken glass and they said they did. They would be out within the hour.

I looked at the time display on the phone. It was three thirty-five. There goes another night's sleep. I got out a big push broom, a dustpan and a big trash bin on wheels to begin cleaning up the mess. A deputy told me to hold up cleaning, as they need to keep the crime scene intact for a little while longer, as every agency wanted their own pictures.

I went upstairs to the break room to get Sue and me a Diet Coke. We began inspecting whether our display car was hit. None of the inside glass was hit but there were some bullet holes in the walls.

We were sitting in our shop office when our good friend, the Captain, walked in with the deputy that I had borrowed the MP-417 from. He walked up to me and said, "Good shooting. Jack here couldn't hit a wall if he were standing in front of it. As soon as the tactical officer said Jack should get an award, I knew something was up. Then Jack told me who he was with. A Marine could make those shots, but not Jack."

"Give him the credit, Captain, he tried to tell me not to fire, but the two were shooting at your men."

"They had armor on too. One had been hit in the vest, the round was still plastered into the vest. You already ran into that once today from what I heard. Amazing how you could hit a head shot at a little over four hundred yards in the dark."

"That was our job, Captain. We were trained for it. The MP-5 or this case the 417 is a good weapon when you know how to use it."

The deputy said, "You should have seen him. He whips off his T-shirt and covers his head and the sight after the light glared at him then cool as can be he says he's acquired a target then let's go of a round. You should have heard him curse when he saw the man had on armor. But it wasn't thirty seconds later he was firing again. That time he just said, 'One down' then after they shot at the deputies in the street again, he fired and said 'Two down.' This guy is good."

"You are good deputy, not me. Remember that. I had nothing to do with it."

The Captain said after the deputy left, "Noticed you two have a couple of toys in the Mustang. I hope that shotgun barrel is over eighteen inches. I'd bet you both are carrying too. You're legal though, you both have permits."

The Captain asked, "Are you two going to go home and wake up my deputy and kick him off your couch, or are you going to stick around here for a while?"

"We'll stay until the emergency board up folks are done and we can fix the door to the factory. The door may not be broken. These guys seem to be able to go through most doorways."

"Yep," the Captain said, "they were pros alright. The two guys in the factory doorway and the one in the car are all from Chicago. They are a bunch of bad guys for hire. I'm surprised all these local guys are a part of this. You wouldn't think a few management types would be involved in some heavy duty dope dealing."

The Captain mentioned as if fishing, "The detectives said there was some money in a safe in the executive bathroom. Is it still there?"

"We closed the door and spun the lock. We'll get a locksmith to open it tomorrow. There is a lot of money in that safe. That and the money we found earlier must have been what they were after."

"Must have been, Steve. Maybe you can keep that money. The other may be considered dope money since there was the heroin found with it.

Sue spoke up, "Hope we get to keep it. This plant could use some improvements and I'll need all the help I can get to make a go of it. I need to keep all the folks working."

"Put that way, Sue, I hope you guys get to keep it too. I better check to see if we can clear out of here. The day will start pretty soon and you need to get the places cleaned up."

The state and the feds were gone, leaving only the county sheriff's men making one last check around the properties. The deputies let the board up folks through and told them they could begin cleaning up. They also let the professional cleanup guys into the factory entrance to clean up all the blood on the floors and walls. The entrance would probably have to be painted. Thank goodness the floor was tile.

By five, everything was done and the sheriff's people and all the workers were leaving. The four security men went home. The showroom windows were boarded up and the factory entrance was cleaned and even painted. You couldn't tell what had happened. I locked up the shop and the buildings, set the alarm, and pulled the Mustang over to the factory entrance. Sue came out with the garbage bag and threw it into the back of the Mustang. While she set the alarm and locked the door, I put the top up on the car. We drove slowly home and found the deputy sitting on the patio. We told him we didn't think there was going to be any further threats as the ex-president was being charged with the drugs and conspiracy to commit murder. He would be responsible for the four dead men. He could even get the death penalty, but probably wouldn't.

The deputy left, so Sue and I brought in the bag and the extra weapons we had taken with us and put them all away in our bedroom. We took a shower and didn't even think of fooling around, as we were so tired. Sue wanted to count the money, so I told her to just count the one bundle. I made some coffee while she began counting.

It turned out like I had thought. Each bundle was five hundred, hundred dollar bills or fifty thousand. That was a cool one and a half million in cash. We would need a safety deposit box, quick. I had left a quarter million in the safe for the cops to find if they wanted to put their hands on it. Who could have guessed these guys could make so much money dealing drugs. I wonder how they were doing it.

I turned on the patio light at six along with the TV. The local news was full of what had happened. There was even a news truck at the shop, taking live videos showing the boarded up showroom windows. They gave the entire story and how the former management had broken into the factory to attempt to recover cash that was hidden there. They showed a picture of the former president, listing the many charges against him at this time. They even mentioned that he was deemed a flight risk so was not offered bail.