Monsters - Chapter 2 – Empty Warehouse

Monsters

By Karen Singer

Chapter 2 – Empty Warehouse

The black limousine pulled up in front of a modern steel and glass structure in downtown Dallas.  Brandy got out of the back seat and glanced at the road behind her.  The motorcycle had just pulled over to the curb about fifty yards back.  The red and black riding suit and helmet didn’t let her see anything about who was riding it, other than that it was a woman.  She had seen the motorcycle following them from the airport.  She had checked it a number times using the mirror in her powder compact.  The driver was either very stupid, or was trying to make it obvious that she was following her.  Her curiosity went way up when she saw the rider purposely nod toward her before revving her bike and speeding away past her.  Her eyes followed the rider until she was out of sight.  Either horribly brave, or horribly stupid.  She turned and hurried into the building.

As usual, she was escorted up to the top floor, up to her Uncle Dominic’s office.  She wasn’t exactly sure how close a relative he was, other than that he was family, but she called a lot of the men in her family uncle.  So in reality, the exact circumstances didn’t matter to her.  Family, was family.  Even though the only ones she really trusted were her closest family members.  And Dominic wasn’t exactly in that group.

“Brandy!” Dominic said as she walked in.  “It’s good to see you again.”

“You too Uncle Dominic,” she replied.  She went over and hugged him, even though it wasn’t something she wanted to do.  Games had to be played.  Appearances were sometimes everything.  The two of them sat down and spent a few moments talking pleasantries.  But she ended that before long.  “I was followed from the airport,” she suddenly told him.

Dominic was immediately concerned.  “Who?”

“I don’t know who, but it was a red motorcycle.  The rider was a woman wearing a red and black riding suit.  I couldn’t tell anything else, other than that it was a woman.”

“I’ll have my people watch for her,” Dominic told her.

“Good.  I don’t know who she was or what she wanted, but she was either being incredibly brave or incredibly stupid.  The moves she made following us made her a bit too obvious, like she didn’t know what she was doing.  But later, she took the time to stop and nod at me before taking off, so I have a feeling she wanted something.”

“I’ll put extra guys on protecting you.”

“Thanks.  I’ve got enough to do without worrying about stupid junk.”

Dominic nodded.  “Yeah.  And I appreciate you coming down this quick to help us out.”

“So what’s up?  You don’t usually need someone like me to do things for you.  You’ve got your own people.”

“Yeah, but in this case, someone suggested that we bring you in instead.  Nobody local.”

“Okay.  I get that.  So what’s the problem?”

“Somebody dropped us a tip.  Passed it on though some unusual channels.”

“Unusual?”

“One of our pimps got a strange phone call and there was no way to trace who the caller was.  But he wanted the pimp to pass on…to me…that one of our…”  He seemed to search around for a good term.  “Accountants,” he finally continued, “has been talking to someone he shouldn’t be about our operation.”

“Did he say who?”

“A guy who works in one of our minor divisions.  His name is Jerry Polvak.”

“Did the caller say anything else?”

“Oh yeah!  Enough for us to worry that maybe this Jerry guy might have talked to someone.”

“Did you investigate?”

“Of course we did.  The guy denies it of course.”

“Of course.”

“But the thing is, that the people he works with, none of them could believe that this guy would do something like that.  According to them, Jerry is the poster child for Mister Loyal.  Everything we’ve dug up says he didn’t do it.  But still, how did the caller get that information?”

“So just kill him and be done with it.  Make some adjustments in your operation.”

“We’ve already made the adjustments.  Some of them.  But we’ve still got to figure out what to do about this guy before we make any more.  The problem is, the guy is kind of useful.  He’s an accountant, but he’s more of an analysist.  The stuff he can figure out with his computer is priceless!”

“I see.  So you need him.”

“Not if he’s dirty.  But at the same time, yeah.  He’s damn useful.”

“You know I’m not always…nice when I do a job.”

“I’m well aware of that Brandy.  We don’t call on you very often.”

“No.  And that’s good.”

“But a lot of the reason we don’t call on you, is because you tend to go…above and beyond.”

“I do what I want,” she told him.  “Do you know where I can find Jerry, or do I need to go hunting?”

“I’ll have Howie give you the total package on this, and him.  He’s not running.  He’s staying put.  I think that he thinks we believe that he didn’t do it.”

Brandy thought about that.  “There’s been trouble in Vegas,” she said.  “And I suspect that some of it might be similar to what you’ve got going here.  The guys might have been clean, but someone made it look like they were dirty.”

“I’m aware.  And I’m glad Vegas isn’t my responsibility.  But if they’re starting to move their operations this way too, then I want to put a stop to it fast.  Real fast.  By any means at all!”

She smiled.  “Of course, Uncle Dominic.  Don’t worry.  I’ll look into it.”

“Good.  Thanks Brandy.  Howie will set you up with all the info you need.  Including weapons.  Anything else?”

“Just the one thing.”

Dominic’s face became stern.  “I’m not letting you see your Bobbie toy.  You know that.  But…like usual.  I will set something up so you can see her, but she can’t see you.”

“I’m not happy about that.”

“And you also know that Vinny would skin me alive if I let you get too close.”

“Yeah.  He would.  And worse, he’d skin me alive too.”

“I’ll set up something for you,” he told her.

“Thanks.”

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

The motorcycle was tailing again, but this time she barely knew it.  This time she knew for sure that the rider was a pro.  Still, there were a few little things she noticed that told her the rider wanted her to know she was there.  She didn’t have time for shit like this.  She wasn’t interested in dealing with anything like that.  Dominic had four guys in two different cars tailing her.  Let them deal with the motorcycle.  She had more important things to think about.

Jerry Polvak had a wife and kids.  She didn’t care.  Nothing mattered to her except the job she had to do.  It was growing dark as she pulled into the parking lot of a hardware store.  In the reflection from her mirrors she saw both the cars with Dominic’s men pull into different lots across the street.  She had told them she would be making a brief stop.  She didn’t see the motorcycle at all.  As she went into the store, she checked the reflection of the road in the glass windows.  Still no motorcycle.  Was it gone?  She doubted it. 

Ten minutes later, she was back in her car and driving away.  She knew Dominic’s men would follow her.  She knew they were also watching for the mysterious woman on the motorcycle.  Following the directions programed into the GPS of the car, she let it lead her right to Polvak’s address.

Just before she pulled into the driveway, she saw a car backing out.  She was too early, but not by much.  She drove around the block.  Then drove back again.  She was sure that the car pulling out of the driveway had been his wife and daughters.  According to the info she had been given, their mother usually drove the girls to dancing class at this time.  She pulled into the driveway and parked.  The red wig on her head was a favorite.  She pulled down the red mask she had brought to go with it, then went directly to the front door. 

She rang the doorbell.  She kept her back turned to the door as she waited, in case someone tried to see who was calling before they opened the door.  A minute later, she heard the door opening and she turned around.

There was a glass outer door in front of the heavy wooden door that Polvak had opened.  She saw the fear on his face the moment he got a look at her mask.  She didn’t wait.  Her foot went right through the glass door and caught him square in the chest, knocking him down onto the floor.  She was in the house before he could recover enough to start getting to his feet. 

“Jerry Polvak?” she asked as she walked over to him.

“W…what do you want?”

“You!  And information.”

“I can’t tell you anything.”

“I guess that’s going to depend on what I decide to ask,” she replied.  She stooped down over him, and before he knew what was happening, her fist launched out and caught him square in the jaw, driving his jaw backward and knocking him out.  She hefted his heavy body up onto her shoulders, went out to her car, and threw him into the trunk.  She looked around, no motorcycle.  She could see a car parked along the road, way back, but she didn’t see anything else.  The car she could see, she knew was one of the ones belonging to Dominic.  She got in her car and let the GPS system lead her to an old warehouse where she had worked before on a couple of her trips to Dallas.

When she parked her car in front of the warehouse door, she saw no other cars around, not even the ones that Dominic’s men were driving.  But that was okay.  They shouldn’t be seen.  She checked the door and found it open, like it was supposed to be.  Poking her head in, told her that some of the lights were on, but not all of them.  The place was empty.  Just like she asked for.

She pulled a gun from the satchel she had slung over her shoulder and opened the trunk.  She pointed the gun at Polvak.  “Out!”

Slowly and carefully, Polvak climbed out of the car.  “Please,” he begged.  “I have a wife and two daughters.”

“Yeah, yeah.  I know.  Your wife is sitting at their dancing class right now watching them.  The question is, will you be there when they get home like they’re expecting?”

“Please,” he begged.

“Inside!”

She followed him in, keeping the gun trained on him the whole time.  She closed the door behind them and made him go to the center of the room where most of the light was.

“Please,” he begged again.

Her leg lashed out and her foot caught him square in the side of the head, knocking him down and nearly knocking him out.  She was quickly over him.  Pulling rope from her satchel, she tied his arms behind his back, then she started removing his pants.

“Please!  Please!  No!” he begged.

She paid his words no mind.  They always begged like that.  In moments, his pants were off.  She grabbed some thin cord from her satchel and tied it tightly around his balls.  She pulled the cord up between his legs to his bound hands.  She pulled it over the rope holding his hands and she pulled it tight.  He screamed at the pain.  She pulled harder, literally bending him backwards so his head was up off the ground.  Then she tied the cord tightly to keep him like that.  He tried to struggle, but the more he moved, the more it hurt his balls.

Still kneeling over him, she grabbed her gun and stuck it under her arm, pointing it at an area near the door she had come through.  She didn’t look back where she was pointing it.  “I know you’re there,” she said.  “I’ve got a gun on you.”

“I know,” the voice came back.  “And you’re probably just as aware of the gun I’m holding on you.”

She looked back.  She couldn’t see the woman in the totally black shadow, but something moved a bit into the light, and she saw the gun…with a silencer attached to the barrel.  A pro.  “I don’t have time for this,” Brandy told her.

“I know.  I just want to watch.  I live for things like this.”

“A voyeur?”  Brandy laughed.

“Not really.  Just…another artist.”

Her words were troubling for Brandy.  “I’m busy now!” she insisted.

“And I’ll stay out of your way.  I promise.  But later, we need to talk.”

“About what?”

“Later!  You’ve got work to do, and I don’t want to get in your way.”

“You’re already in the way.”

“I know.  But there’s nothing he can tell you that I don’t already know.  So don’t worry about me listening.”

That got Brandy’s full attention.”

“So I should be doing this to you instead of him?”

Carol laughed.  “Good luck!”

“You have no idea what I’m capable of.”

“I know very well what you’re capable of, and what I’m capable of too.  I’m not interested in fighting with you.  That would get neither of us anywhere.  And, it would be totally counterproductive.”

Brandy stood up and faced her. She raised her gun and pointed it more securely at the shadow.  “I don’t want you listening.  I don’t want you here.  What he says will be for me, and only me.”  She heard the woman laugh, but the sound came from a different spot, further along the wall.  She re-aimed her gun at about where the laughter had come from.

“You’re going to ask him about where the information came from that the pimp downtown tried to pass along to Dominic,” Carol told her.

“How did you know that?” Brandy asked.  The woman laughed again, and again it came from somewhere else.

“We already knew.  That’s the biggest thing we deal in.  Information.”

“Who’s we?”

“Later.  When we’re alone.”

“Now!”

“Nope!  You’ve got work to do, Brandy.  I’ll just stay out of the way until you’re done.  You do want to get the gentleman back home to his wife and kids, don’t you?  Although, I’m betting it’s not going to happen.”

“How would you know?”

“Because we know.  I’ll just stay here and wait.  You have work to do.”

“I could call my men to take care of you.”

“Them?  They’re all still back at his house.  Sleeping.”

“Did you kill them?”

“No.  I told you, they’re sleeping.  They’ll probably wake up with a good headache, but that should be about it.”

There was no doubt about it, Brandy was dealing with a professional.  A determined one.  The worst kind of headache.  She didn’t have time for this.  This wasn’t the place for this kind of thing to happen.  She realized one other thing about the woman.  She was silent as hell when she moved…and she kept moving.  There was no steady place to aim at.  But Brandy didn’t doubt for a moment that the woman didn’t keep her gun aimed at her.  So how should she handle this?

“Go to work, Brandy. I’ll wait.  I just can’t wait forever.  I have other obligations to meet.  I have no doubt that you do too.”

“I don’t like working with someone looking over my shoulder.  Especially with a gun aimed at me.”

Carole laughed.  “Don’t worry about me.  Like I said, I’m another artist.  I live to do things like you’re about to do.  I’m not going to spoil your fun.”

“Fun?”

“It’s fun for me.  Maybe not the questioning so much, although I usually find it very stimulating.  It’s what comes after that I enjoy so much.  I’m not going to spoil anything for you.  I’m just going to remain silent and out of the way.  I especially don’t want to kill you.”

“But you’re holding a gun on me.”

“Certain situations…” Carol replied.  “Do your job, Brandy.  We can talk afterwards.”

Brandy looked up and down the shadowed wall.  The damn woman wasn’t giving her much of a choice.  She finally turned around and paid attention to Polvak, but she kept her gun in her hand.  She stooped down in front of him.  He was in obvious pain.

“Please.  Please release me.  It hurts!  I didn’t do anything!” he begged.

“Yeah?  Well we’ll see,” Brandy replied.  “Certain information has gotten out.  And we were told that that certain information came from you.”

“It wasn’t me!” Polvak told her quickly.  “I swear!  It wasn’t me!”

“Don’t swear.  I don’t like it.  If it wasn’t you that handed out the information, then why were we told it came from you?”

“I don’t know.  I swear!”

“Yeah.  You covered that already.  And I told you, I don’t like swearing.”

“Please release me,” he begged again.  “This is killing me.”

“It’ll do more than that if you don’t hold still and answer my questions.”

“I’m trying!”

“Good.  Then tell me, you did a report that gave statistics for the last quarter prostitution, gambling, and drugs, comparing the profits and losses of it all.”

“I do that every quarter.  I do weekly and monthly analysis too.  Now please!”

“In this report, you mentioned that the gambling figures had slipped, and you made a recommendation that the management should look into the handling of the money from the it.”

“Yes!  Yes! I think someone is skimming funds.”

“Do you often find things like that?”

“No.  Not often.  I have no proof, but I thought they should look into it.”

“That’s a good suggestion.  Good work all around.  So why did that information get out on the street?”

“I don’t know!  Maybe whoever I gave it to.”

“Dominic himself?  The report was labeled for his eyes only.”

“It was?  I don’t know.  I just put it together and pass it on to my boss.”

“Who’s your boss?”

“Andrew.  Andrew Davik.”

“Tell me something Mr. Polvak.  Do you ever discuss the contents of these reports with your boss?”

“Sure.  All the time.”

“Did you discuss that report with him?”

“Yes.  He sat down right across from my desk and asked me questions while he looked it over for mistakes.”

“Would he know a mistake if he saw it?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’m guessing not.  I hear you’re very good at your job.”

“I am.  And I didn’t talk to anyone!  I swear!”

“I almost believe you,” Brandy said.

“I didn’t talk to anyone!  I swear!” Polvak said again.

“But you did talk to someone.  You talked to your boss.”

“But he’s my boss!”

“Yeah.  But is he supposed to read those reports and discuss them with you, so he understands what’s in them?”

“What do you mean?  He’s my boss.”

“Has he always read and discussed those reports with you?”

“Not always.”

“How long has he been doing it now?”

“I don’t know for sure.  A couple of months.”

“Months!”

“Yes.  Please.”

Brandy had talked to a lot of people in her time, and she had a feeling that this guy was clean.  But his boss, Andrew Davik, he might be something totally different.

“So what should I do with you, Mr. Polvak?” she asked, more to herself than to him.

“Let me go.  Please!” he begged.  “My wife.  My daughters!”

“I’m not going to kill you,” Mr. Polvak,” she told him.  “It seems that no matter what, Dominic wants you to stick around for a bit.  But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to punish you for talking to your boss about this stuff.”

“But he’s my boss!  If he says I have to tell him, then what am I supposed to do?”

“Good question, Mr. Polvik.  Tell you what I’m going to do.”

“What?”

But Brandy didn’t bother answering.  Instead, she went around behind him and pulled even harder on the cord that was coming close to ripping his balls off.  She tied it off while he was still screaming his head off.  She left him there and went in search of something.  She found an old wooden pallet and carted it back over toward him.  She set it down right in front of his face.

“What…what are you going to do?” he begged.  “Please, my balls.  I’ll die!”

“No you won’t,” Brandy told him.  “As long as you hold still and don’t move.  Although, yeah, you’re pretty close to ripping your own balls right off your body.  But hopefully, not for long.”

“Please!” he begged again.

Brandy chuckled.  She grabbed him and pulled just his head up onto the wooden pallet, ignoring his screams of pain as she moved him.  Kneeling down on the wooden pallet just in front of his face, she grabbed a pair of pliers she had bought at the hardware store.  As he was screaming, she suddenly stuck the pliers into his mouth, grabbed his tongue and pulled it out as far as she could.  His screaming and struggling increased, but the more he tried to struggle, the more it hurt him, so he couldn’t struggle.  She grabbed the hammer and the large nail she had gotten at the hardware store too.  Very quickly, she stuck the nail right through his tongue, pinning it to the wood below.  She grabbed the hammer and nailed his tongue solidly down to the wooden pallet.  He was screaming like crazy, but there was nothing he could do about it.  She set the hammer down near his face.  She went around and cut the cord attached to his balls, freeing them.  She cut the rope tying his hands behind his back.  But with his tongue nailed to the pallet, he could still barely move.

She laid the knife down near his head next to the hammer.  “Dominic didn’t want you killed.  It seems he likes you more than I do.  So I’m giving you a choice.  If you’re innocent, then you can use the hammer to get the nail out.  But if I find out later that you’re really guilty, then if the tip of your tongue isn’t cut off, I’ll kill you instead.  And I might do it right in front of your wife and daughters.  Your choice Mr. Polvak.  Innocent or guilty.  Hammer, or knife.

“Nice.”

Brandy looked up to see the woman in the motorcycle suit standing over them, looking on.  The gun was in her hand, but it was pointed at the floor.  No helmet this time so she could see her face.  She judged the woman to be about her own age.

“I did one recently where instead of nailing his tongue down, I made him nail his own penis to a tree stump.  Two nails, one just behind the head and the other up near his body.  Then I made him drive a nail through each of his balls, nailing them to the tree stump too.  I only left him a knife though.  He had no choice but to cut his own cock and balls off to get free.

Brandy laughed despite the situation.  “Nice.  I’ll remember that one.”

“Drink?” Carol asked.

Brandy looked up at her for a moment.  “Yeah.  Let’s get this over with.”

“Good.  You choose the place.”

“The last bar we passed before getting here,” Brandy decided.  “I want to get this over with as soon as possible.”

“Works for me.”

Turning her back, Carol walked toward the door, hoping that Brandy wouldn’t shoot her in the back.  She got lucky.  Brandy was considering it.