The Girl in White Pajamas Page 32

  “This is suicide!” Rose yelled.

  Bogie ignored her and said to Jesus, “How are you with heights?”

  “No problem,” Jesus answered without hesitating.

  “You’ll need to go through skylight in this house, get out on the roof with an air gun and shoot some listening devices over to the skylight in Jeannie’s house.”

  As the planning began, Darryl got up and grabbed Bogie in a bear hug. “You take care!”

  Bogie nodded. “And you look after Bailey, Pop.”

  Darryl nodded and left.

  *****

  Two black Escalades moved toward the McGruder home. Sitting shotgun next to Rose, Bogie reached in the pocket of his black cargo pants pocket and pulled out his cell phone. He pushed a button. After a few seconds, he said, “Hi, Princess. I just called to say I love you… No, nothing’s wrong...I’ve got to go.” He closed the phone and shut it off.

  Rose glanced over at him. “You’re a piece of work!”

  “I know,” he said and the corner of his mouth twitched.

  As the vehicles pulled up to the curb, everyone poured out and started their assignments. Rose and Jesus walked up the front stairs where James and Trudie stood waiting. They escorted the old couple back to one of the Escalades before entering the house. Rose and Jesus made their way up to the third floor, entered James’ and Trudie’s room and climbed the stepladder James had placed in the middle of the floor for them. As they climbed out onto the roof, they could see George and John Washington below laying down padding and setting up a long ladder on the side of Jeannie’s house. Wearing a Kevlar vest, Bogie moved up the ladder slowly, his right hand stiff and awkward as he rose. George was behind him carrying equipment while John held the ladder at the base. Bogie reached down with his left hand and grabbed a suction device proffered by George Washington. Bogie attached it to the window on the second floor. When he reached down again, George placed a glass cutter in Bogie’s hand. Without speaking Bogie cut the glass around the frame and pulled out the second floor window. He let it drop to the thick padding around the base of the ladder. George Washington handed Bogie a shield and a gym bag which he tossed through the open space. Bogie raised his fist and silently lifted each finger. When he reached five, Bogie flung himself through the opening while Jesus used an air gun to launch a listening device near the skylight window where they believed Jeannie was holed up.

  A shot rang out, as Jeannie blew out the window when she heard the noise against it. Rose motioned for Jesus to aim the next shot at the roof. With the listening devices in place they could hear Isabella cry.

  Bogie moved quietly through the mess in the second floor apartment and made his way to the door that opened onto the third-floor staircase. Staying against the inside wall, he slowly walked up the stairs. His heart ached as he heard Isabella crying. “Stop crying!” Jeannie yelled in her heavy whiskey voice. “I’ve got chocolate milk for you, your favorite.”

  “I don’t want it! I want my mommy! Help! Da-dee! Mommy! Help!” the little girl screeched.

  “Shut up!” Jeannie screamed.

  Something struck the floor, and Isabella whimpered.

  “Jeannie,” Bogie called out with a small hand held microphone.

  Gunfire erupted from the room peppering the wall and ceiling with bullet holes. There was silence and then the bullet-riddled skylight window crumbled and fell into the hallway leaving broken glass covering the floor.

  Rose froze in place as she heard the gunfire. Jesus grabbed her hand, and they held on to each other.

  After a moment of total silence, Bogie spoke as calmly as he was able. “Jeannie, this is Bogie. I only want to talk to you. Stop shooting.”

  Jesus and Rose almost smiled until they heard another volley of bullets exploding.

  As Bogie crouched under the shield on the stairway, he watched as the wall was again speckled with bullet holes.

  Isabella screamed, “Da-dee!”

  Rose and Jesus listened as Bogie spoke again.

  “Jeannie, I never did you any harm. I don’t want to hurt you. I just want to talk to you.”

  “Get the fuck out of here!” she answered.

  “I’m not armed. I just want to talk to you. Haven’t I always been square with you?”

  “Get the fuck out of here. This has nothing to do with you!” Jeannie yelled out in her gravelly voice as Isabella continued calling out.

  “If you let me come in and talk to you rather than yelling in the hallway, I’ll get her to calm down. She knows me.”

  “Da-dee!” Isabella screamed hysterically.

  “Jeannie, please. I’ve never done a thing to hurt you. I was always on your side, and you know it. If you let me in to talk, I’ll get her to stop screaming and then leave.”

  “You think I believe your shit?”

  “Did I ever lie to you?” Bogie said in the most reasonable voice he could muster.

  “Slide your gun down the hall,” she croaked.

  “I don’t have a gun! I told you I didn’t.”

  “Strip! And I mean everything! If you come near that door with a stitch of clothes on, I’ll shoot you without saying a word.”

  “My underwear?”

  “Everything! Get moving.”

  “I just have one request,” Bogie said.

  “What?”

  “Promise me you won’t shoot me when I come to the door. Let me talk to the little girl then you can do whatever you want.” After a long silence, Bogie asked, “Do I have your word?”

  “Like you’d believe me!” Jeannie almost grunted.

  “I’d believe you. I never lied to you, and I don’t think you ever lied to me.”

  “You better be naked!”

  “Do I have your word?”

  “Yeah.”

  Bogie quickly removed the vest and all his clothes. He slipped his feet back into the unlaced work boots and slowly walked down the smoky hallway filled with plaster dust and cordite fumes. Bogie held the shield in front of him. When he got to the bedroom door, he slipped off the boots. Bogie stooped his shoulders and placed the shield on the floor all the while looking into Jeannie’s eyes. He held his hands away from his body. “See! I didn’t lie!”

  Jeannie studied him. “What’s that line on your chest?”

  “It’s a scar. I had open heart surgery.” Bogie stood looking defenseless as he moved his hands to his sides. He inventoried the room where the enormous woman sat on a wooden chair aiming the .45 Ruger at his chest. There was an end table next to her that held a near empty 1.75 liter bottle of Seagram’s 7, a full one and a dirty glass. A Browning twelve gauge shotgun rested across the table in easy reach. An AK-47 with a thirty round magazine was propped up against the table. Scattered over the table and floor was an assortment of handguns, mostly older model .38 Smith & Wessons. There were boxes of cartridges piled up as well as a spare magazine for the AK-47. On the floor in front of the table lay Isabella’s miniature Bokken sword and scabbard.

  Jeannie stared at him without speaking. Isabella was lying sideways on the floor tied to an overturned chair that obviously belonged to the child’s table near it. Chocolate chip cookies had been placed on the Pocahontas plate, and the matching mug was filled with chocolate milk. A little, dark blue Rothschild coat and hat hung over the back of the other small chair.

  “Da-dee!” Isabella cried out.

  As if to defend her parenting skills, Jeannie said, “I didn’t do that, she did. She knocked the goddamned chair over twice.”

  Bogie nodded and said, “Let me talk to her. I’ll calm her down then you and I can talk. Is that a deal?”

  Jeannie gave a curt nod. “Don’t take all day!”

  Bogie moved to the other side of the room and looked at Isabella bound to the chair with a thin cord around her middle and plastic ties holding her ankles to the legs of the chair.

  “Don’t
untie her! You can talk to her just the way she is!”

  Bogie nodded. He picked up the chair and wrapped his arms around Isabella and the chair. He spoke softly and soothingly to her as she sniffled and whimpered. At one point, he pulled up her little tie belt and wiped her eyes and nose with it. When she nodded as he spoke, Bogie turned her chair so that she was facing Jeannie. He kissed the top of Isabella’s head and walked back toward Jeannie.

  As Rose and Jesus listened to Bogie speaking to Isabella, Rose put a fist to her mouth to stop from screaming.

  Standing on the roof, Rose and Jesus watched police vehicles pulling up in the front of the house and blocking the street. Light bars flashed as cops exited their vehicles and started yelling at George and John Washington and at each other to get the hell out of the way so they could cordon off the area. The Channel Seven news truck was just behind a black unmarked car. Holding her headset in place, Rose reached in her pocket and grabbed her cell phone. When she pressed the speed dial button, Matt answered before his phone finished the first ring.

  Matt screamed into the phone, “What the hell’s going on?”

  “Jeannie is holding Isabella hostage on the third floor of her house. Don’t send people in! She might have booby trapped the downstairs doors. She also has Bogie now!”

  “What!? How the hell did she get him?”

  “He went in after Isabella.”

  “That fuck’n cowboy is going to get himself and the kid killed!”

  Rose didn’t respond. She closed her cell phone and continued listening to the drama playing out in the house next door.

  *****

  After receiving Bogie’s cryptic message, Amanda became increasingly uneasy. She paced the floor in the reception area trying to understand what was happening. Finally, she walked around the pool and knocked on the door to Apartment 108. Annie opened the door smiling until she saw the look on Amanda’s face. “What’s the matter, Sweetheart?”

  “I got this weird call from Dad.”

  Annie opened her mouth to tell Amanda she was worrying needlessly when a bulletin came over FOX News. A hostage situation in the Beacon Hill area of Boston, Massachusetts. Catie Christenson stood in front of the McGruder house holding a microphone and smiling for the camera as the wind tried unsuccessfully to move her long blonde hair. She reported for the world, “Jeannie McGruder, the widow of the slain Boston Police officer affectionately known as Officer Bud, abducted a small child and has barricaded herself and the child in the third floor of this home behind me. The little girl’s father, Bogie McGruder, Bud’s brother, attempted to rescue the child and is now being held hostage as well.”

  Ann and Amanda held each other. “That crazy bastard!” they cried out in unison.

  *****

  “That’s far enough,” Jeannie said.

  “You’ve got quite a collection there,” Bogie said nodding at the guns. “Are they all yours?”

  “Now they are!” Jeannie laughed then coughed.

  “The cops said that Bud had a .45.” He motioned to the gun in her hand with his chin. “Is that it?”

  Jeannie’s laugh was half-crazed. “He never knew he had it! I bought it for him. Got him the shotgun and Ak-47 too. I love online shopping.”

  Bogie shook his head. “I don’t understand this. Of all the kids in this city, why her?”

  “Her mother! The bitch owes me! It’s her fault Bud’s dead. She’s having his baby. She doesn’t need this one.”

  “Why is it her fault he’s dead?”

  “She’s the one who is supposed to be dead, not him!”

  “You wanted to kill her because she was having Bud’s baby?”

  “I wanted to kill that whore because she turned him against me. He was trying to kill me.”

  “How?”

  “He and that fuck’n Matt. They had this scheme. They were going to burn this place down with me in it and collect all the insurance money. All their problems would be solved. Bud would have money, that bitch, a little girl and a new baby. Matt, the greedy bastard, would have money to get himself out of deep hock. I guess it costs a lot to fuck all the big-time bimbos! Matt kept pushing, saying he needed the money fast. Bud told him to hold off till he was sure Miss Sugar Tits wasn’t going to get rid of the kid.” Jeannie thrust her large breasts forward as though she were bumping chests with an invisible pal but then forgot why she was in that awkward position. She continued, “Matt kept whining about his house getting foreclosed so he had Bud go to the old lady to get a chunk of money until they could get rid of me and the house and have a big payday! ”

  As Rose listened to this conversation, she pressed a button on her cell phone. “Pop, tell Chief Duggan it’s time to pick MacDonald up. He’s up to his eyeballs in this shit!”

  *****

  “How do you know all this?” Bogie asked Jeannie.

  Her laugh was mirthless. “I listened to them. I had bugs in the apartment. I listened to them plotting and scheming. They got this gook to stay at that whore’s house so they could watch her and make sure she didn’t use a coat hanger and get rid of his precious kid. He had a precious kid once, and she’s dead!”

  “So you tried to kill her?”

  Jeannie took a slug from the glass, coughed then said, “Sure. I figured I could shoot the bitch right in front of him and he couldn’t do a goddamned thing about it. I wanted him to know he wasn’t having any kids with her...ever. And if he wanted me to tell that to the cops, I would.” Jeannie tried to point at Bogie for emphasis but her index finger twirled off to the side. Then she continued, “I’d also tell the cops how he and MacDonald planned to kill me. That fucker brought six gallons of gasoline here and put them in the basement! They’re still down there!”

  “Bud?”

  “No! Pay attention, cowboy! MacDonald. Bud was always a momma’s boy. He wouldn’t do anything unless Matt was there egging him on. That fuck’n Matt’s a sicko! He killed that little chink right out in the yard.”

  “How do you know this?” Bogie asked.

  “I saw him! Right out in broad daylight! That asshole was driving by there almost every day, and none of you even knew it. I was watching him, watching you, watching them. He used the wifey’s car.” Jeannie started laughing and gagging. “Wait till that bitch opens her trunk! Suh-plize! The little gook’s all wrapped up and the shovel he killed her with is right beside her!”

  *****

  Rose watched Matt below. He talked to two uniformed cops before walking around the back of the house toward the cellar. She called George Washington. “Stop, Matt MacDonald. I think he’s got a key to the cellar. Don’t let him go in. He’s got gasoline down there. He’ll set the house on fire! He’ll blow the house up!”

  George Washington gingerly stepped around the side of the house and came up behind Matt as he was about to put a key in the basement door. “Don’t do that!” George said as he pressed Matt against the door. “I’m not glad to see you. This is a gun in my pocket!”

  “I’m a cop.”

  “Good for you!”

  “Stand down!” The deep baritone voice resonated behind the men. When George Washington glanced back, he saw the Chief of Detectives, Jack Duggan.

  George Washington stepped aside. “Chief!”

  “Washington, I’m glad to see you’re keeping busy in your retirement.” The large, pewter-haired man smiled. “MacDonald, please come with me. These men have some questions for you.” He gestured to two large stone-faced men standing behind him.

  “I didn’t— ” Matt started to protest.

  “Just move away from the door and slowly remove your gun.”

  *****

  Bogie studied Jeannie and asked, “So why’d you try to kill her after Bud was dead?”

  “She pissed me off! The whore! It was her fault he was dead. Then I saw the kid. She’s a lot like Jennifer.” Tears welled in Jeannie’s eyes. “I figured she’l
l have another one so I’ll take this one. She stole my husband, I’ll steal her kid. Besides, I wanted her to suffer like I’ve suffered thinking about my little girl. That’s worse than death!”

  “Were you the one who screwed around with the brake lines in her car?”

  Jeannie nodded.

  “And shot out her living room window?”

  Jeannie nodded again and chortled.

  “But you killed the cat before Bud was shot.”

  “I was warning her off. I called her, but she didn’t get the message.”

  “The cat wasn’t hers. It belonged to Isabella. She loved that cat. It made her very sad when—”

  “Shut the fuck up about the goddamned cat!”

  “And Angel and the delivery guy? You didn’t even know them, why’d you kill them? You could have tased them. And her sword. You took her sword—”

  “She’s a kid, she shouldn’t have—” At that moment, Isabella sprang from her chair and ran toward Jeannie with her teeth bared. Stunned, Jeannie watched as the child leaped through the air and twisted her body extending her leg. As Isabella started to move, Bogie spun forward and kicked Jeannie’s arm with such force, the bones shattered. The gun dropped to the floor. As he lunged toward Jeannie, Isabella knocked her head backward with her leg. Jeannie and the chair crashed back, and Jeannie’s head struck the floor. Bogie bent down, his right hand went to her throat, and he opened his mouth to speak. At that moment, Isabella lifted her Bokken sword from the floor, pulled it from the sheath and plunged it into Jeannie’s right eye. As blood spurted from Jeannie’s eye, it also poured from her carotid artery. Bogie and Isabella looked at each other. They were both splattered with blood. Jeannie convulsed on the floor. Bogie reached over and grabbed the little warrior with his left hand as his right hand bled from the razor-sharp blades which he’d attached to two fingers. Bogie held her in his arms and wept. Tears streamed down his face as he carried Isabella from the room. Isabella patted his back while he slipped on his boots. “Don’t cry, Da-dee. Everything’s okay now!”