My Day at the Mall Ch. 03

I chuckled, "Red was our 'scrounger' when we were in the Marines. If you needed it he could find it and get it to you. He knows this is going to take time to settle out. He also believes in a 'plan for the worst, hope for the best' approach to emergency management."

~~~~~

We rode in silence the rest of the way to the safehouse. Red had said it was a cabin. That's like saying Buckingham Palace is a small cottage. The "cabin" was enormous. At least five thousand square feet of living space and that didn't include the pool house for the 25-meter competition size pool or the tennis court. When we arrived we found the key right where it was supposed to be. There were eight huge master bedrooms each with its own attached bathroom suite with Jacuzzi tub and walk-in shower. We quickly moved Becca into one of the bedrooms and took stock of what we had to work with.

I began to look the place over and found a state of the art security system that included motion sensors, infrared sensors, and trembler sensors for the entire estate! I'd been on Navy bases that didn't have security this tight! The security room had a bank of eight monitors with six cameras each displayed on them. Absolutely every approach to the house and drive was covered by at least one camera. In addition the security system had round the clock off-site monitoring. Anyone coming at us here would have a problem. The windows were all refraction armored glass!

[Authors Note: Refraction armored glass, when seen from the outside, moves the image of what is inside to one side by as much as six inches depending on the size of the window. A sniper aiming at what is seen will be put off target by as much as six inches. Only high caliber rounds such as a .50 can penetrate it.]

As I read the security spec sheet in the security room, I had to wonder just who the hell this place belonged to. To the naked eye there was nothing out of the ordinary for a moderate estate. But once you looked deeper, this place was an infiltration specialist's nightmare. There was no easy access to the grounds or to the house without alerting those in the house and the off-site security that someone was there. Seeing this I began to relax a little. I made a note to ask Red for the name of the owner and designer of this place. The security room also had an alert paging system. The pagers would be alerted to any intrusion and notify us instantly. I took one for myself and gave one each to Jerry and Ray.

"Damn, Bossman! This place is tighter than a virgin on prom night!" Ray quipped. I scowled at him. I'd never cared for that phrase.

"Keep looking around in here. I'm going to check on the girls and Maggie." I strode out of the room and headed to Becca's bedroom.

I looked in on Rachel and Becca. They had fallen asleep and were cuddled in each others arms on the king-size bed in the room we had put Becca in. Becca had stripped down to skin and Rachel was wearing just a pair of panties and a crop top t-shirt that Della had given her.

Their beauty was marred by the pattern of bruising and welts that covered them both. Some of the bruises were starting to fade and some were brand new. I could see a tracery of burns on their arms and Becca's exposed breasts. I knew from the hospital that Rachel had a similar pattern on hers. What I hadn't seen was the vivid fresh burn on Becca's right calf. It was a stylized RW. The very sight of that burn made me eager to return to Torrington and end that bastard's life right now.

As I was thinking this the encrypted cell phone Red had given me rang. Only he and Granger had the number. I closed the door to the girls' room as I opened the phone and said "Speak!"

Mel's voice came across, "Wayne? Is that you? What's wrong? Are the girls okay?"

I sighed in frustration. "I'm sorry, Mel. I just looked in on the girls and got a better look at what that bastard did to them. Becca was being branded when we arrived at the estate and I was too late to prevent some of it. The arrogant son of a bitch marked her with his initials, Mel." I had to swallow to clear my throat of the rage I felt.

"Shit! Well that "bastard" is awake and Harper is already making noise about illegal search and trying to order arrests. By the way, Red says that he can set up a video conference with the investigators to clear you of the shooting. We got the whole thing on video; so it's a slam dunk you'll be cleared of any charges. The room was wired for sound and video. We think we have their whole rape and torture as well as the planning of Rachel's sale to a white slaver on tape. That's where he was headed when you interrupted his plans. The man you killed has been identified as a Syrian national named Hammed Fareez. Among other things he's on the terrorist watch list. He's a known terrorist with connections to Hezbollah and Hamas. He's also wanted by Interpol for trafficking in white slavery and drugs. He was a real piece of work."

I started to plan the ways I was going to slowly kill Richard Winslow. It was only going to take several weeks if he was very lucky. "Tell me that Winslow is still in custody."

"Damned straight, Cowboy! His consel tried to make a case for having him moved to Covington and the presiding judge laughed in his face. He was also told any more frivolous motions like that would get him a cell next to his client on a contempt charge. We have tons of video to go through and are planning to charge anyone in them with complicity in the crimes." She took a breath.

"I've been told by my Boss that there are no deals to be made. No plea bargains at all. He doesn't care if they can give up Bin Laden himself, there are no deals. He wants me to go for the death penalty if we can get a capital charge from the tapes. He has also frozen all of Winslow's legitimate assets. He currently would have to borrow a quarter to call 911, he's so broke."

I chuckled grimly. "Thanks, Mel. Keep me in the loop on the case and let me know when you want to do the video conference. Would you mind acting as my lawyer for the interview?"

"Sure thing, Wayne, I'll let you know when or if they want to do this. Also, Red McDaniels said to tell you that he's got his people monitoring the security where you are and that there is a safe room in the basement. He said you'd know what I meant and the code is your service number."

That took a load off my mind. I now had a safe place to stash the girls if I needed it. "Thanks Mel. If you talk to him again tell him I want the name of the designer for this place. I'll let you know where we are when I think it's safe to do so. You'll need to come here for the girls' depositions anyway so plan on staying a day or so."

"All right, Cowboy, I'll talk to you later." I could hear the warmth in her voice.

I got an evil grin on my face, "Bye, ...Sissy!"

I could hear the heat in her voice "My cousin has a damned big mouth!" I laughed as she disconnected and I closed the phone. The rest of the night passed quietly. I still had not been to bed and Maggie had been up all night keeping watch on the girls.

As dawn broke I wandered into the kitchen and saw Jerry closing his cell phone. "What's up?"

"That was my cousin Mike. He wanted to tell me that he and his partner resigned from the Covington PD as of one hour ago. He'll be staying at my place until he finds another job and an apartment. They ordered him to arrest Mel and he told them to go to hell. He called her and told her about the attempt and a federal judge called the chief of police and informed him that any charges would be handled by him personally and any false charges would result in prison time for him." I laughed at that and had no doubt that Judge Smithers was the federal judge in question.

"Tell Mike and his partner to talk to Red and have them fill in for one of us until we get back. This is going to take awhile unless I'm mistaken. He gave up his career to help us so we owe him one." Jerry turned his back and opened his cell phone. I began to make a sandwich when the quiet was rent apart by a loud scream.