Death Logs In

Death Logs In by E.J. Simon Read Free Book Online Page A

Book: Death Logs In by E.J. Simon Read Free Book Online
Authors: E.J. Simon
dinner to take them back to the home of some parishioner where they were to stay. The cab never showed up. Their bodies were found wrapped in plastic in the trunk of an abandoned car near the Bruckner Expressway. All three had been shot in the head, execution style.
    Alex looked straight ahead. “Big surprise.”
    “And guess who the priest was?” Michael said.
    “No … don’t tell me … that Irish guy?”
    “Yes, Bishop Kevin McCarthy, the original altar boy molester, the one whose problem Sharkey took care of.”
    Michael found himself fascinated not only to be having a normal conversation with his brother—but also with Alex’s ability to grasp a rather complex situation.
    “I’m not done,” Michael continued. “Remember the cassette tape with Sharkey’s ‘goodbye’ message to me, the one they played in the car just before they figured they’d be dumping me in Flushing Bay that night?”
    “Yeah. Sharkey was known for having his hit men play a personal message that he had recorded for anyone he was having killed. He used to brag about it to me. He said it gave him some special satisfaction. He said, ‘What’s the point of having someone whacked if the guy didn’t know why he was being whacked?’ Kind of makes sense if you think about it. At least in his sick mind.”
    Michael cringed as he recounted his own chilling encounter a year ago, “I’ll never forget it. I’m in crazy Morty’s car, wrapped in duct tape. My feet are encased in a cement block. I’m still drugged up from the chloroform they used to knock me out. Then, Morty puts the cassette player up to my ear and I hear Sharkey’s voice. His last words were, ‘You always lose the final game. Goodbye, Michael.’ Well, the cassette has disappeared from the precinct evidence room. With the three idiots dead, that tape was the last concrete, no pun intended, link to Sharkey for my kidnapping. Except for me, of course.”
    “That’s right; they’ve taken care of everything else. Now if they can get rid of you, Sharkey can come back and the cops have nothing on him. And whoever owed Sharkey a favor for his help just made the first payment on it.”
    “One more thing,” Michael added, “I just found out that the good bishop, of all people, has been placed on my Gibraltar board.”
    Alex interrupted him, “McCarthy himself? No wonder there’s so much sex going on with some of those priests—they do have some balls.”
    “Yes, Bishop Kevin McCarthy himself. But, don’t forget, no one except his superiors in the Vatican knows what he did to those kids years ago. Without them, the investigation had nowhere to go. So now the Vatican worked out a deal to put this creep on the board so Gibraltar supposedly gets the PR benefit of a holy guy and the company’s going to make a contribution to the church or school in the Bronx. It’s unbelievable.”
    Alex laughed. “What a combination—a corrupt big corporation and a dirty bishop.” He became very serious. “But this is their way of telling you that they can get you whenever they want. This is a power play. They’ve put this priest right into your backyard, your life. Your straight life. They’ll know where you are and what you’re doing.”
    “I know.” But Michael didn’t know yet how much information Alex could digest although it appeared that, as his computer consultants had predicted, he was getting smarter each time they spoke. The artificial intelligence program was designed to get smarter as more and more information was fed into it either through program uploads or the conversational interaction such as Michael and Alex were now having.
    Alex stared hard at him, “Do you realize how deep you’re in here? I was no saint, but you’re into some heavy-duty business. Murder, the church, and at least one guy looking to kill you. Can you handle this?”
    It was a good question. “I have a plan and I’m going to need your help to make it happen. I’ll tell you about it soon

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