Judas Page 7

  “How do we know you aren’t just going to kill us once we turn our back on you?” The left one asked.

  “You don’t. Which is why I’m going to be the one to walk away first. I don’t have that guarantee either, but I’ll take it on faith that you’ll accept the exchange of your lives for mine.” Neither of them responded. Instead, they both just confusedly stared at me. I flashed a quick half smile, nodded towards them, and pushed myself off the wall I was leaning on. As I rounded the corner, I caught a glance of them, watching me just as intently as when I was in the room, but now less for fear of losing their lives. Whether or not they would heed my advice and try to do something with their lives is beyond my control. I can hope for the best, but that’s all I can do. Now, it was time to return to Dominic. We needed to talk.

  Chapter Eight.

  Leo Cadman had gotten accustomed to the scrambled nature of the police station. He’d spent the majority of his working life in it. The environment was chaotic, and emotionally draining, but it was his life. Standing inside his office, he could look out and watch the world outside. It reminded him of his early days of being in the force. Back before Judas, before any part of his life had spiraled out of control. Even though it had changed his life, he loved it. How, from desk to desk, there were so many different cases being worked on in an effort to save lives. He lived for that feeling.

  The only unfortunate thing is that everyone outside his doors could discuss what was going on with their case. Rarely does a head detective have to be hidden in a corner and have to walk through a police station being completely silent about what he’s working on. All the men and women running around, saving lives, sometimes even taking them, had no clue what was happening. They still looked at crime as individual events, but Detective Cadman now worked crime very differently. Crime had a source, and it was all connected. The people processing the scene of a murdered assassin in an FBI facility looked at it as confusing and targeted. Cadman looked at it as the last man to have seen the criminal Judas and lived, at least temporarily. It hurt him to look around the room and see all the people who had no idea what they had gotten themselves into. Something was happening, and it was just a matter of time before it all exploded. His job, at the moment, was to try and save as many people from the blast as he could. For now, though, he had to keep it as quiet as possible, and work within his means. That meant he needed to find Newman.

  He looked down in cold cases, thinking he might have been looking for more Judas files, but found nothing. He checked in the breakroom, and the showers, but still came up with nothing. After scouring every inch of the station, he eventually spotted him out on the balcony, staring out at the city in front of him.

  “Hey Matt, you okay?” Cadman asked, stepping out onto the balcony and walking to his partner’s side. The city didn’t carry the same beauty as a mountain view, but it was a calming scene to stare out at, nevertheless.

  Newman nodded his head, doing his best to pull his head out of the clouds. “Yeah, sorry. Just needed some air, you know?”

  “Yeah, I know. Anything particular on your mind?” Cadman asked, knowing full well that there was probably more on his mind than could be discussed in an afternoon.

  Newman shakily inhaled, looked down at his shoes, then looked back up at the city line. His grip on the guardrail tightened. “It’s just…” He paused for a moment. “You look out at this city. It’s a beautiful city. Lights, people, life. It’s such a beautiful possibility, but it’s just not. Right now, someone is probably being beaten, raped, maybe even killed. A phone right in there,” he frustratedly motioned to the police building just beneath them, “is going to ring, and another life is going to be ruined.” Newman’s chin started to quiver, trying not to cry. “How do you handle it all?”

  Cadman gripped the young man’s shoulder, which made him look up into his eyes. He could see how bad it was affecting him. “I know, it’s a lot to take in. I remember being in your exact spot when I first started. I was newly married, and came to work every day to take calls about another life falling apart. It made me terrified to even let my wife leave the house, because I was certain she was going to be one of the calls I got. It was impossible for me to see the good in anything anymore. Everywhere I went, I saw the evil in things. The evil in people, it ended up being one of the factors that ended my marriage, and it took a long time for me to be able to get back to seeing good again, but it happened.” He could tell that Newman was hearing what he was saying, but it wasn’t enough to settle what the officer was feeling. “Why did you make the decision to get into this business, Matt?”

  He stopped for a minute, gathering his thoughts. “Because, I couldn’t just sit by the sidelines and watch people’s lives fall apart.”

  “You do this because you care about it. You care about people, and you want to see good prevail over evil.” Cadman summarized.

  “Yeah, exactly.” Newman said.

  “You’re doing that, Matt. It’s so easy to get engulfed by everything happening out there,” Cadman gestured to the city in front of them, “that you forget what’s going on in there.” He gestured to the police station. “Yes, there is probably a murder being called in, but there’s also two different missing person’s cases being closed because they found the people. The evil out there is strong, and it will take you over if you let it. But, it’s our job to get out there and fight it.” Cadman could see a glimmer of hope come back into his eyes.

  Newman nodded his head and inhaled deeply. He looked up at Cadman, “Where do we start?”

  Cadman felt that energy again. That energy he thought died a long time ago. Turns out he just needed to bring it back to someone else before it would come back to him. “That’s my boy!” Cadman slapped the man on the shoulder. “Let’s get going. We’ve got a scene to get to.”

  The men snapped back into their jobs, hastening into the building. “Let me grab my jacket, I’ll meet you downstairs.” Newman said.

  “Okay, I’ll pull the car up front.” Cadman replied. Newman nodded and then quickened towards his desk. His leather jacket was hanging over his chair, just like he left it. Coming in today, the reality of everything going on was weighing him down, but now, the reality of it all was what was edging him on. He slipped the jacket on, made sure his gun was securely holstered, ensured his phone was in his pocket, then made his way out of the building.

  As promised, Cadman was just pulling up in his white SUV. Newman climbed in the passenger side of the vehicle, and Cadman took off.

  “Where are we headed, boss?” Newman asked, fastening his seat belt.

  “Looks like a trafficker died. Name is Brutus Ivanov, I think.”

  “Never heard of him, what’s the story?”

  “I don’t really know a lot of details. He was killed in the middle of his facility, though. All I really know is that he was a lower grade trafficker, didn’t make a lot of noise.”

  “Guess we’ll start from square one when we get there. Were there any witnesses?”

  “The guy who called us. Said he and a big group were being held at the facility, but didn’t give many details other than that. The 9-1-1 operator said he sounded like he was in shock.” Cadman explained.

  “Interesting.” Cadman nodded. A moment of silence passed. “Hey, whatever happened to the guards from the Jackson case? The FBI didn’t take them right? You ever manage to get anything out of them?”

  “No, the FBI didn’t take them, but I wasn’t able to get anything out of them. They were just the hired help. Jackson hired them to kill someone anonymous, they were unaware of who it was until they got there. I didn’t expect to get much out of them.”

  “Sorry, Leo. I know it really bothered you to lose Jackson.”

  Cadman exhaled. “Yeah, but sometimes things don’t go as planned. Life goes on. Let’s just focus on this case.”

  Newman nodded. “There isn’t reason to believe it’s part of the Judas case, right?”

  Cadman exhaustedly laug
hed. “Not that I’ve heard, no.” Newman nodded again. Secretly, Cadman didn’t know how to answer. Everything said it wasn’t, but he had a hard time not seeing or hearing Judas everywhere he went. He couldn’t ignore the nagging, knotted, gut feeling that it was somehow tied to the case.

  Eventually, they turned into the facility’s entrance. Three squad cars sat in the front. Officers were stationed in the front doing paperwork, while others were securing the scene. Cadman parked the car and both men got out.

  They walked up to one of the officers who was doing paperwork on his car. “Detective Leo Cadman, and Officer Matthew Newman.” Both men flashed their badges to the officer.

  “Yes, of course, sir. Glad you could make it so soon.”

  Cadman nodded. “What do we have going on here?

  “It’s a mess, sir. It’s deserted, but it looks like there were a couple dozen people here not long ago. But, there’s still only one body. We’ve got the guy who called you warming up in one of the cars. The rest are in the hospital right now. They’re fine, but were seriously dehydrated. The officer rattled off. “What do you want to see first?”

  “Where’s the body?” Cadman asked.

  “Follow me.” He said, setting the stack of paper he was holding down. Both men nodded, then proceeded to walk with officer.

  Newman looked into rooms and offices as they walked through them. Everything from clothes, to notebooks, paperwork, even cups of coffee were left just as they were. “You weren’t kidding, it looks like everyone just up and left.”

  “I know, I don’t know what to make of it. Follow this hallway down, then go down the staircase, you’ll see other officers working the scene. Best of luck, I hope you can make something of it.”

  “Thank you.” Cadman said. The officer nodded again, then headed back to continue his work. From the balcony, they could see the room sectioned off by yellow tape. Officers were combing through the scene. The men walked down the stairs and grabbed the attention of the nearest officer. “What’s going on here?” Cadman asked, hoping they had managed to find something to go off of.

  “Your victim is over there. I wish I could tell you more than that, but right now, we don’t have much to go on.” The officer pointed to the storage building. Cadman nodded.

  “Seems like that with everyone so far.” Cadman and Newman surveyed the scene. A pair of legs stuck out from the room.

  “Yikes.” Newman said. The body had a large hole right in the center of its chest. The color had completely drained from the man’s face. His clothes were soiled with blood.

  “Wow, looks like he made someone unhappy.” Cadman said to the officer working the scene.

  “Yes, sir. Looks like whoever did this knew what they were doing. And it looks like they had a vendetta against him, because that’s not a casual kill, that was aggravated.”

  “Yeah, unfortunately guys like this tend to make enemies pretty easily.”

  “Could it have been one of the kids he was holding in here? I know none of them have confessed to it, but at least there’s motive.” Newman asked.

  “I guess it’s possible, but not likely. I’ve worked these cases before, and human trafficking victims are usually so drugged out that they wouldn’t be able to do something like this. We have one of them here, and there isn’t much in this scene to go off of, so I’d say talking to him is our next best bet.”

  “Sounds good.” Newman took one last long look at the body, noting all the disturbing details. The pale skin, lifeless eyes, and bloody torso.

  Leo nudged him. “Let’s go.” Newman nodded, and both men made their way back to the front of the building. Cadman stopped Newman in the middle of a hallway where no one was around.

  Newman looked at the detective confusedly. “What’s up?”

  “Was that your first body?” Cadman asked, real concern is his voice.

  Newman inhaled and looked down briefly. “Yeah…first one I’ve ever seen on the job.”

  “You ok?” Cadman gripped his shoulder.

  “Yeah. It’ll take some getting used to, but I’ll be fine.” Newman said, trying to convince himself of the words he just said.

  “You sure? I remember my first scene. It was with me for a while.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure.”

  “Okay. If you change your mind, let me know. We have people for that.” Cadman said. Newman nodded his head in agreeance.

  They continued back through the building and eventually found their way back to the front of the complex. The boy they needed to talk to was now sitting with the police car’s door open. His legs were dangling out the side, with a blanket over his shoulders.

  Cadman nudged Newman. “I’ll follow you here. You take the lead.” A rush of excitement and nervousness hit him. He slowly approached the young kid, trying to be as unintimidating as possible. The boy noticed the men walking towards him and looked up at them.

  Newman walked up to the boy, while Cadman hung back. He was still within earshot, but didn’t want to make the boy uncomfortable.

  Newman knelt down, so he could actually look in the boy’s eyes. “Hi, my name is Matthew. What’s your name?”

  The boy looked Newman in the eyes nervously. “Damian. My name is Damian.” He looked to be around sixteen.

  “Nice to meet you Damian. Is it ok if I ask you a few questions?” The boy nodded his head. “Great. I know another officer probably asked you a bunch of questions already, so I’ll try and be as quick as possible. Can you tell me about the other people who were here with you?”

  “We were all around the same age. About fourteen to nineteen. The older ones tried their best to keep us safe. There were seventeen of us, I think.”

  “Did you know each other?”

  “No. My younger sister and I were both taken, but they took her to the hospital. The rest of us didn’t know each other at all. Is my sister ok?” The boy asked, concerned tears welling up in his eyes.

  “Yes, she is. They just took everyone to the hospital to get their fluids back up and to give them some rest. From what I was told, you chose to stay?”

  “Yeah, I figured the police would need someone to talk to, so I said I would stay.”

  “Very heroic, Damian.” Newman and the boy subtly smiled. He struggled to ask the next question. “Did anything happen to you guys?”

  “I know what you mean, and no, nothing happened as far as I know. The guy who died, he never even came to look at us. We only saw him when he died.”

  Newman breathed a silent sigh of relief. “The guy who died, did you see or hear anything?”

  “Yeah, it happened right in front of us all.”

  Newman’s eyes widened. “Can you tell me about what happened?”

  “Yeah. Everyone was passed out, but then that guy opened the door and brought another guy in. He was in a long coat, black sunglasses, short brown hair. The guy who died seemed to be terrified of him. It was like everything he did or said was to try and get his approval. They said a few things to each other, then he pulled out this knife and stuck it in the guy’s chest. He pulled out the knife, grabbed the guy’s phone, and threw it to us. Then he said to call you guys, and he left.”

  Newman was immediately confused and concerned, but hoped it didn’t show to the boy. “Thank you, Damian. That was really helpful. You want to get to the hospital so you can see your sister and get some rest?” The boy nodded exhaustedly. Newman stood up and gestured to the officer. He came over. “Could we get someone to take this guy to the hospital to be with the rest of them?”

  The officer nodded. “Yes, sir. I’ll get someone right now.”

  “Thank you.” He said to the officer, who turned right around to find an available officer. “And thank you again, Damian. You’ve been a big help. I know it seems like everything is spiraling out of control, but you’re going to be okay. We’re going to do everything we can to make sure of that.” The boy nodded, and Newman turned around to walk back to Cadman.

  “Well done.” C
adman said.

  Newman smiled. “Thank you, and thank you for letting me take that.”

  “You handled it like a pro.” Cadman smiled and briefly grabbed the man’s shoulder before getting into the car.

  “You ok, Leo? You seem like something is bothering you.” Newman asked, noticing the lack of emotion in Cadman’s face.

  “It’s a detail I overlooked when interrogating Jackson’s guards. Well, until now, that is.”

  Newman’s ears perked up, and his stomach rolled. “What detail is that?”

  “When the guards were giving their testimonies, they all mentioned a tall man wearing a long coat, black sunglasses, and short brown hair.”

  Newman’s heart both sank and raced. “You mean…”

  Cadman finished the thought for him. “It could be a coincidence, but I’ve learned not a lot in this business is coincidence. Especially with this case.” A moment of silence that felt like an eternity sat between the two men. “This was Judas.”

  ▪

  I looked out the window. Killing someone always gave me a rush of emotions. Sometimes it leaves me feeling relieved, but other times…well, let’s just say some turn into the demons that haunt me at night.

  I picked up my phone and dialed Dominic. He picked up after three rings. “Hey, you ok?” He immediately asked.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m heading back to your place.”

  “Okay, what happened?”

  “We’ll talk about it when I get there. I’ll be there soon.”

  “Okay.” Dominic said, clearly distressed. I hung up, and dropped the phone on the seat beside me. I am not a man who gets disturbed very often, but hearing the name Abaddon coming out of the mouths of low level guards like that helped me realize the severity of the situation.