The World in Reverse (35 page)

“Uncle, they are ready for you,” Gabriel said, opening his door.  He looked back at Nicola for a moment and read his face.  “Let’s go,” he said, closing his door behind him and opening Dmitry’s for him to step out.

Boris didn’t bother to open Nicola’s door. 
That was going too far for him.
  In fact, this entire meeting made him uneasy.  He could stomach Gabriel, a former cop, because of his father, his uncle and his position on the council, but such a courtesy could not be bestowed on anyone else.  The code had already been bent enough. 

Nicola opened the door and followed Boris, who donned an automatic weapon in the middle of the day like a sentry at a checkpoint.  All four of them walked through the backdoors of the warehouse into the dimly lit space where he could hear distinct voices laughing and talking. 

Without power in the facility, the building boiled in summer heat and smelled of chemicals and dust.  Broken out windows above were the only places ventilation could get through.  However, it was perfect for ensuring that no one could see the men meeting. 

Taking off his suit jacket, Dmitry wiped his face with his handkerchief and muttered som
ething in Russian.  As they rounded the corner of the open space, past large separators that made the space appear to be divided into cubicle space, they came to a large group of men sitting around in metal chairs.

Nicola pulled off his aviator shades and looked around in complete shock.   His mouth flew open as he surveyed the room.  Sorrello, an FBI agent whom he’d worked the Medlov case with, was sitting down on an old desk, drinking out of a Gatorade bottle and sweating his ass off.  Cory Hamilton, a man from his old unit and someone he genuinely regarded as friend sat across from Sorello.  Two men he only knew in passing from the bomb squad was there along with an old friend from homicide, Reynolds. 

Dmitry passed his suit jacket to Gabriel, who stood behind him, and raised his hand.  “Anyone
not
know this man?” he asked, pointing at Nicola frozen in his spot. 

No one said a word. They all looked around at each other, unsure of how the new recruit would behave. 

Dmitry turned to Nicola.  “Anyone here that
you
don’t know?” he asked. 

It took a minute for Nicola to speak.  Pus
hing himself to say something, he fumbled over his words.  “No…” he shook his head. “No,” he said louder.  “I know everyone here.”  He looked around, cursing each man in his mind.

“Everyone isn’t here,” Cory said, sucking his teeth.

Dmitry looked around. “Where is he?” He rolled his eyes in frustration.  There was no time for tardiness. He had other more pressing things to handle more important than this
charity
work. 

“He said that he was a couple of minutes out max,” Cory answered, standing up.  He walked over to Agosto and offered him a hand.  “We heard about what happened.  Just here to help you out, bro.”

Nicola looked down at Cory’s hand. 
What was a handshake anymore?
  “Thanks,” he said, stepping back.  He looked at Dmitry.  “So, this is why I couldn’t make a case stick as long as I was after you?  You had my own men in your pocket?” 

Dmitry smacked his lips. 
Oh the drama
.  “There are many more, Agosto,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone.  “I just pulled the ones you needed for t
his
job.” He clapped his hands together. “It’s hot as fuck in here, and I want to leave.  So let’s get on with the part that requires my attention.  I will let you gentleman handle the details.”

Cory took the floor. “I guess until he gets here, I’ll start,” the young man said, looking around the room. “Based upon what our friend, we have two primary targets.” He passed around files to each man and opened up a laptop on the table.  “Cane, a man that we all know, otherwise should not be in on this mee
ting and Councilman Ferris are the targets.”

Nicola’s head snapped.  “What?” he croaked.
Councilman Ferris?
 

Cory passed him the folder.  “The night that you were extracted from your house, Dmitry’s men also captured one of the hit men.  A guy named Sammy.  You know him?”

“Yeah,” Nicola snarled.  “I know him.”

“As you can imagine, it took some convin
cing for him to come clean. He wasn’t really budging or saying a word until Anatoly came over this morning,” Cory said, shaking his head. “He worked the guy over.  Got some good Intel, but if you want to know much more, you had better get in there quick.  The guy isn’t going to last much longer.”

“What else is there to get?” Dmitry asked, walking up to look at the computer.  

“Well, he told us some shit that you’re going to want to know,” Cory said in a lowered voice as the last member of their party arrived.  His eyes locked on the tardy man and put his hands on his hips.  “It’s bad,” he said, looking back up at Dmitry.

“How bad?” Dmitry asked.

Cory swallowed hard.  “Let’s just say that it’s not all about Agosto anymore.  Sammy had a little more to say than what we bargained for.”

Nicola followed Cory’s eyes to the man at the door.  To his surprise, it was Deputy Dire
ctor Magnelli.  Standing like a ghost of the man he once was, he barely recognized his old subordinate, peering back at him through disbelieving eyes. “Agosto,” Magnelli said, like nothing was wrong.

Nicola needed a seat.  Was there anyone that Dmitry Medlov didn’t have his claws sunk into? Leaning on the back of the metal chair in front of him, he looked down at the filthy ground below. “Son of a bitch,” he cursed.  “Not you too.” 

Magnelli was unmoved by Nicola’s undoing.  “Yeah, me too.”  He came in and took a seat.  All of the officers got up and began to pat him on the back, giving their condolences for his loss.  The onslaught of attention only made things worse.   Fighting back tears, Magnelli raised up a hand to stop the men.  Pulling out his flask, he took a swig. “I’m sorry, but I just don’t want to hear it anymore. Every time someone mentions it, it reminds me all over again that she’s dead.” He rolled his tongue around his mouth and huffed. “The only reason that I’m helping you, Agosto, is because it will lead me to Carmen’s killer.” 

Agosto understood.  He was in the same p
osition.  They were all here out of necessity - he hoped.

“Bring him out,” Dmitry said, wiping the sweat from his brow again.

Boris and his men stepped away from Dmitry quickly and disappeared into the factory. 

“Bring who here?” Nicola asked.

“You’ll see,” Dmitry said.  Not wanting to waste anytime, Dmitry got to the business that he had come for.  “Each man here has a purpose. I’ve only used police officers as using my men could present a bigger problem for me later.  Cory will access any records that you need.  Magnelli will help keep the MPD off your ass for as long as possible. Sorrello will help with an Intel regarding a federal investigation that could come about as a result of this job.  The bomb specialists…
well, that’s pretty self-explanatory
.  Gabriel will assist you will the hardware needs, and you all can divvy up the wet-work.  When a plan has been properly put together, then you report it back to me.  Until this is over, Agosto you will stay at the loft above the clothing store.” He knew that Agosto was familiar with the place, considering he had put it under surveillance many times before. 

“Do we still have eyes on it?” Nicola asked Cory with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. 

Cory crossed his arms over his chest. “Just me.” His eyes quickly averted from Agosto’s, knowing that this would forever be a sensitive subject for the two of them, no matter what capacity they worked in.

The sound of a body being pulled across the hot ground make them all look up.  Boris and one of his men pulled Sammy, broken and bloody, by his arms back into middle of the men and dropped him.  He wheezed and gu
rgled, trying to breathe out of his broken nose and through his broken ribs.  Unable to see through his blackened eyes, he stumbled as he tried to sit up on his own.  Boris quickly booted him in the chest and made him crumple back into the fetal position.

Nicola could barely look at the man, and the stench of his urine and bowels colored the room with death to the point where he had to cover his nose. 

“My son takes his work seriously,” Dmitry said, unbothered by the scene.  “Cory, you said he had more to share.  What is it?”  He walked up to the man and kneeled to pull the man’s head up by his sweaty face.  “Can you speak?”

Sammy choked.  “Yes,” he whispered.  Blood spilled from his mouth. 

“Ask him about the person responsible for Carmen’s death,” Cory said, looking over at Magnelli.

Dmitry looked up at Cory. 

Cory shrugged. “I wanted you to hear for yourself.”

“Tell me,” Dmitry said, grip tighter now.

“It was botched job done by Collin Magnelli and one of Cane’s men. No one knew that she was inside,” Sammy sputtered.  He inhaled a shallow breath.  “Please, just kill me or let me go.”

“We’ll get to that soon enough,” Dmitry said, looking over at Deputy Magnelli who quickly stood and walked over to the man. 

“What did you say?” Magnelli asked, eyes wild. 

Dmitry stood up and stepped away from the man, giving Magnelli plenty of room to get to the man.  He wasn’t exactly moved by the murder of some local cop during a drive by, but he was very moved by the murder of a man’s only daughter by his only son.  He had a daug
hter, and Anya was his pride and joy.  There was no separation in emotion evoked at the news.  Everyone in the room was stunned, and he was no different.

Tears formed in the corners of Magnelli’s eyes.  Screaming out in anger, he snatched Sammy up, jerking his head as he choked him.  “Don’t you fucking lie to me, you bastard!”

Sammy tried desperately to breathe.  With the little strength that he had left, he pried at Magnelli’s fat fingers from around his Adam’s apple.  He began to turn blue, drifting into a full black out.

Nicola stepped in and grabbed Magnelli’s arm.  “Let him breathe, man,” he said in a low, calm voice.  “At least until you find out for sure.”

Magnelli shook in anger.  Face red, he trembled as he held Sammy, wanting right then to choke the life out of him.  However, Agosto was right. Loosening his hands just enough for the man to breathe slightly, he bent lower.  “How do you know this?  How do you know my son killed my daughter?”

“Collin works for Cane,” Sammy whispered.  “He is part of the three wise men.”

“The three wise men being Cane, Ferris and Magnelli,” Cory added for clarification.

“Is there anyone else?” Nicola asked Sa
mmy.  “Was Twist involved?”

“No, just the three of them,” Sammy a
nswered, wincing in pain.  He spit blood.  “It was always the plan to get Twist out of the way.  Your investigation just made us have to push up the timeline.  Twist already had his suspicions and he got confirmation from his main Molly dealer…some bitch named Roxie, tailed Cane to a meet with Ferris after Agosto spooked him at the house.”

Cory chimed in.  “Why does Cane still need Ferris?  Since he was cleaning house, why didn’t he get rid of him too?”

Sammy struggled to put together a cohesive thought.  “Cane can’t get of Ferris because he knows that he has evidence against him. They needed Magnelli to be the mole on the inside.  He was cyphering information out of you,” Sammy said, trying to peer out of his swollen eyes at Magnelli. 

“But why kill all those kids?” Nicola asked confused.

“The kids were not a part of the original plan.  Ferris provided Cane with start up capital for his drug operation in turn once the operations were up and running, Cane would fund Ferris’s run for mayor and upon his election would push to have Magnelli replaced with Magnelli.  There were never supposed to be any kid deaths, but Ferris’ problem got out of control.”

“What problem?” Nicola pushed. 

“He’s a pedophile,” Sammy sobbed.  “No one knew until after.  He was using the sample Molly that Cane was giving him on the children, and they kept overdosing, so we had to keep getting rid of the bodies.  Cane was worried about the heat that would come down but Ferris said that he could…” Sammy began to lose consciousness. 

Magnelli slapped him in the face.  “Hey!  Hey, Ferris what?” He shook him.

Sammy’s eyes opened lazily.  “Ferris set everyone up to make himself look like the savior.  Cane knew once they put Agosto on the case, there was a high probability of it being solved so, he set him up after he had surveillance put in his house and figured out his triggers. Then Cane had Ferris kill DeMario in the hospital with a bad fix. But then Johnson and Steele showed up, so Cane sent Magnelli and some of his men to get rid of them before they could connect the dots. He wanted to get rid of any loose ends.  He sent us to kill everyone except Ferris.  We were only supposed to make it look like a hit was put on him.  The only one we couldn’t find was Twist’s girl, Roxie.”

Dmitry pulled his gun from out of the ho
lster under his arm and set the gleaming weapon on the table beside Agosto and Magnelli.  Voice soothing and calming, he shoved his fists down his pants pockets. “You’ve been very forthcoming, considering your condition.  Why?” He tilted his head and looked at the tortured man in mock concern.