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  The Eagle put down the phone as Saul’s bloody face and branded body lie strapped to the gurney in operating room one of the lair. Barbara and Sara were both standing in the doorway, and Barbara said, “It smells like burning hog flesh in here.” Sara walked over to Saul and pulled down an empty IV bag and hung another as the Eagle pulled two electrodes from a small steel tray next to the gurney and drove two brass spikes through Saul’s testicles.

  He let out a howl, and the Eagle said, “I can do this all night, Mr. Winston. Now, I’ve been kind to you so far. I have been real gentle, but my patience is growing thin.”

  Sara walked over and injected the IV with SP-17 and looked at the Eagle and said, “This is the highest dose we can give him. If he doesn’t talk with this, he really knows nothing.”

  Saul was coughing and spitting blood and saying, “I don’t know. I truly don’t know who the killer is.” The Eagle sent a low volt of current through the wires and into Saul’s balls, and he jerked against the restraints on the table and shuddered.

  The Eagle kept the current low and leaned over Saul and said, “It makes no difference, Mr. Winston. You are going to die right here. Anyway, it’s just a matter of how much pain I want you to endure before I let death take you.”

  Sara and Barbara were still in the back of the operating room, and Sara asked, “You’re going to kill an innocent man?”

  The Eagle had his back to them and said, “Mr. Winston is far from innocent, isn’t that right?” Saul was convulsing and foaming at the mouth as the Eagle turned down the electricity. The man’s breath was labored, and the Eagle could see that the higher dose of drug was taking hold. “Who killed your wife, Mr. Winston?” Saul took a deep breath. His face was swollen, and his eyes were black and nearly closed from the repeated blows to his face.

  “I don’t know who the killer was. It was set up by Alice Walker.”

  The Eagle stepped forward and asked, “Judge Alice Walker of the Los Angeles Superior Court?” Saul nodded his head weakly, and the Eagle asked, “And you are just an innocent dupe in the murder of your wife?”

  Saul started crying and said, “Howard was supposed to make this whole thing go away. He was supposed to deal with it. He had made a deal with Judge Walker to end my marital status, so I could marry my love. But the money … there was so much money. I couldn’t afford to lose the money.”

  The Eagle leaned on the gurney and said, “So, you had Janet Winston murdered to save you the money, and you were going to kick cash back to Judge Walker and Howard, but he died before the plan could be completed … or so you thought.”

  Saul nodded weakly and said, “I hated the bitch. She was a slut and a cunt. She got what she deserved.”

  Looking into his half shut swollen eyes, the Eagle said, “You are going to get what you deserve, too, Saul. So, Judge Walker is the one behind the murders at Cohen, Miller & Hyde?”

  “I don’t know about any of that,” Saul said. “All I know is that she was behind Janet’s, and now it looks like she will never get the cash she so desperately needed.”

  The Eagle started to ask another question when Saul’s vitals began to plummet. Sara called out, “He’s crashing. He’s in cardiac arrest.” The Eagle stepped back as Sara and Barbara worked to bring Saul back, but after ten minutes, Sara stepped away and said, “He’s dead.”

  The Eagle walked out of the operating room and into the conference room of the lair and pulled the files that Howard had given him before committing suicide. Sara and Barbara were right behind him, and Sara asked, “So, he wasn’t innocent?”

  John was standing under the wooden sign of the Eagle as he shook his head. He crossed a name off the list and said, “Not by a long shot. Howard had Saul on his list of dirty clients. I knew he would not know everything about the plot, but I had a feeling he could lead us to someone who does.”

  Barbara sat down in one of the leather chairs in the room and asked, “You talk as if this Judge Walker isn’t the brains behind this either.”

  John sat down looking at the papers and said, “She’s deep in this, and I don’t know if she’s the ring leader yet. But I now know she is a killer, and that’s enough for me to go on.”

  Sara asked, “What are you going to do? How are you going to stop the killing?”

  John closed the folder in front of him and said, “I don’t know. I need to get Ms. Walker and interview her.”

  Both women laughed, and Sara said, “Interview? You mean torture.”

  He nodded slowly and said, “This is now a case for the Eagle. There are just too many names on this list of attorneys and judges to rule out anyone. Howard left a very, very detailed list of everyone on the take, and that list is huge. But in the end, the killer is targeting Howard’s firm and his attorneys due to a grudge.”

  Sara looked up at him and asked, “Then what are you going to do?”

  There was another voice from the conference room entrance, “Kill them all!”

  Sara turned around to see Chris as well as Jim and Sam in the doorway. Chris had said it, and Sara looked at John, who was nodding his head. She looked on and asked, “And just how the hell are you going to do that?”

  John looked at the others and said, “We will have the opportunity to take out all but a few of them at the Los Angeles attorneys’ dinner tomorrow night at the Ritz.” Chris nodded, and Jim walked in with Sam.

  He sat down and lit a cigarette and said, “Gas ‘em like the Eagle did at the church?”

  John nodded, and Chris said, “And what about the innocents? There are some innocents … not many based on that list you have, but they don’t deserve to die.”

  John sat down, and Sam said, “We need to set up an operation to take the innocents out of the equation. We need a plan that will give the Eagle a room full of guilty people.”

  Chris looked up at the wooden Eagle logo behind John’s head and asked, “Weren’t you invited to speak at the event a few months ago?” John nodded. “Did you ever give them an answer?”

  “No. I was involved in some other more pressing matters as you might recall.”

  Jim laughed and said, “Well then … Chris, here, can make up a presentation for you, and you will accept the invitation and take them out at the event. Sam and I will get a copy of the guest list, and we’ll start contacting those innocents first thing tomorrow morning and create a distraction that will keep them from attending.”

  Chris looked at Sam and Jim and said, “That will work for about half of the attorneys, but what about the judges and other attorneys?”

  John looked at the list and said, “I will have you, Philly, and Lance deal with them.”

  “Abduct them?”

  John put his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair and said, “It won’t be that difficult. Lance and Philly have deep connections in the courts. They can get to the judges; Jim and Sam can get to the attorneys. The one problem we have is we don’t know who the killer is that is stalking Cohen, Miller & Hyde’s attorneys or who the next target is.”

  Jim and Chris sat silent as did Sam. Sara looked at John and asked, “The Eagle received a phone call while dealing with Saul Winston. The caller was Violet Harper. What did she want?”

  John’s eyes got wide, and he looked at Jim and said, “You need to get someone to Violet’s house right away. She said she had information on the killer.” Jim called the station and dispatched deputies to Violet’s home.

  He put his hand over the phone as he had dispatch on the line and asked, “What the fuck are we grabbing Harper for?”

  John laughed and said, “Don’t worry about it. She’ll just be glad to see your men and will go with them without argument.” Jim ordered that Violet be picked up and taken into protective custody.”

  After he hung up, he looked at his watch and said, “It’s four a.m. What now?”

  John stood up
and said, “Jim and Sam are going to accompany me to Violet’s home.”

  “Then what?”

  “We’re going to use Sam as bait. If Violet was telling me the truth and knows who the killer is, we have only a few minutes to get her out of her house and Sam in. We’re going to lure the killer to Violet’s home to abduct Sam.”

  Sam shook her head slowly and said, “Why is it that I’m starting to feel like Jim and see my life flashing before the Eagle’s eyes?”

  John laughed and said, “It comes with the territory, Sam. It comes with the territory.”

  Jim leaned over and said, “I will be right there in the darkness. I won’t let anything happen to you.” Sam nodded as Chris stood up and walked out of the room. Sara called Karen on the intercom and asked her to meet her in the lair then called Jade’s cell phone.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Fuzzy pink slippers? Jesus!

  What are you? Five?”

  Jessica had her leg over Jade as the two were tangled in a nude heap on the bed in Jade’s house. Jade was roused by the sound of her cell phone, and Jessica said, “Oh, for God’s sake, isn’t there someone else who can deal with death for one goddamn night?”

  Jade pushed Jessica’s thigh off of hers and said, “Death doesn’t take a break, sweetheart, and besides, that ring tone is Sara not the office.” She pulled herself up on her elbows and grabbed the phone in her hand and answered, “Good morning, Sara. What’s up?”

  Aston was sitting and staring at Alice. Paul was standing behind him, and Alice had put the clip back in the gun and had cocked it. Aston was calm as he repeated that he didn’t send anyone to kill her. She looked at Paul and then at Aston, lifted the gun, and pulled the trigger. Aston’s head jerked back against the chair’s headrest, and blood and bone fragments struck Paul on his right arm and chest.

  “Jesus Christ, Alice. You could have at least given me a second to move.”

  Alice threw the gun to Paul and said, “And had I motioned in the slightest, Aston would have pressed the button on the side of his chair, and we’d all be dead.” Alice stood up as Paul walked around to the front of Aston’s chair where his hands hung limp and a small red light shined out of the tip of a small button on the side of his chair.

  Paul looked down and said, “Oh yeah … Jesus! The things I forget that would have set this whole room in lock down and released the gas. Good catch, Your Honor.” He walked over to her and took her face in his hands and kissed her deeply. They made out as Paul’s hands slid down Alice’s sides and around her rear.

  She pulled away and said, “Oh for God’s sake, Paul, we can fuck later. Don’t you think we should do some cleanup here?”

  “Yes, yes … but it’s been so damn long.”

  Alice walked over to Aston and put her fingers on his throat, checking for a pulse and said, “He still has a faint pulse.”

  Paul checked him as well and said, “He is a tough son of a bitch. Can you hear me, Aston? You dumb ass. I’m glad Alice finally shot you. I am fed up with hearing your bitching about Howard and your goddamn kids. Years, Aston, years and years. You have been on the same damn tirade. Your kids are dead. It sucks, but, Jesus, get the fuck over it!”

  He pulled a pillow from one of the sofas and placed it over Aston’s face and held it tight for nearly ten minutes until Alice, who had her hand on Aston’s neck, said, “He’s dead.”

  Paul pulled the pillow off his face and threw it on the floor and said, “Where do you want me to set him ablaze?” The sun was just starting to rise, and Alice looked at the clock on the wall in the room. It was six ten.

  “Take him to Howard’s firm and set him on fire in Howard’s bedroom. Make sure you douse him good, so he gets a good burn before the sprinklers come on and put out the flames.”

  He lifted Aston’s body out of the chair and threw him over his shoulders and asked, “Do you want me to set the whole building ablaze? I can do that if you want.”

  Alice shook her head. “No … get in and get out.” She looked around and asked, “Is there any staff here?” Paul shook his head and said he’d given them the day off at Aston’s recommendation. “Does Aston have a tool room?”

  Paul looked at Alice with a bit of confusion on his face and said, “There is a work room that the maintenance staff uses. Aston was not the handiest of people. Why?”

  “Take me to it. We need to do something’s to Aston before you set him on fire.”

  Paul walked out of the room and down a long hall and out the back of the house to a shed that was unlocked. He walked in and threw Aston’s body on a table and asked, “Okay, so what do you want done to him?”

  She looked around and saw several pairs of pliers and vice grips. She grabbed a couple pairs and said, “We don’t want them to be able to identify him, even through dental records. Here. Start grabbing teeth and pull.” She had her knee in Aston’s chest as did Paul, and the two spent fifteen minutes pulling the teeth from Aston’s mouth.

  Alice cursed, and Paul asked, “What’s wrong?”

  “The son of a bitch has wisdom teeth, and I can’t pull those out.”

  Paul laughed and said, “Hang tight.” He grabbed a hammer and chisel off the bench and came back and started to slam the hammer against the chisel. Aston’s teeth began to fly out like popcorn, and with a couple of hard blows of the hammer, Aston Phillips was dead and toothless. Alice took the hammer from Paul and turned Aston’s head to one side and bashed in his skull then turned his head to the other side and did the same.

  Paul smiled and said, “I have wanted to do that for twenty years.”

  “So have I. Jesus! He never let me hear the end of it when Francis Statler was acquitted in my courtroom.”

  Paul got a somber look on his face as he looked down at the unrecognizable face of his long time employer and said, “Well, he had a right to be pissed off at you. You suppressed key evidence that would have put Statler away, Alice, and you don’t know how many times he wanted me to kill you over the years. He was pissed at Howard, but when he learned after the Eagle got Statler that you had suppressed evidence to cover your ass, the DA’s, and Howard’s to let Statler go, he was furious.”

  Covered in Aston’s blood, Alice said, “That was then, and this is now. Who was in my chambers last night trying to kill me, Paul?”

  He shrugged and said, “It wasn’t anyone that Aston sent. You’re not exactly the most popular judge in LA County. Did it ever occur to you that perhaps someone unrelated to this situation might be after you?”

  Alice looked down into Aston’s dead eyes and said, “Yeah, it occurred to me, but with all of the killing we have been doing at Howard’s firm, I just figured that it was Aston wanting to end the bloodshed.”

  Paul picked up Aston’s body and said, “Well, it wasn’t him, and it wasn’t me, so you might want to keep your eyes peeled. I don’t want anything to happen to you.” She followed Paul out of the shed and over to one of three garages. He opened the door and walked to the black van that he had used for the other killings, and Alice opened the rear doors, and Paul threw Aston’s body in the back.

  She closed the door, and Paul asked, “So … is there time for a quickie?” Alice laughed and took off her skirt and panties as Paul followed behind her like a dog.

  She was talking as she removed her top and bra and said, “Do me in Aston’s bed then take care of him.” Paul picked her up in his arms and carried her up the stairs to the second floor and Aston’s bedroom. She was holding her clothing in one hand and had her other arm around Paul’s neck as he laid her on the bed and began to strip off his clothes.

  She turned onto her stomach as Paul undressed, her nude white skin shining in the early morning sunlight, and said, “Damn you look good, Paul. It has been a long time.” He dropped down on the bed, spread her legs, and slid his face in deep. Alice’s eyes rolled back as she moaned and said, “
God, I’ve missed your tongue.”

  Philly and Lance were reviewing the lists that John had given them the day before. The two men were making plans to start grabbing people when Philly’s cell phone rang.

  “You have me on the line. What do you want?” John’s voice was on the other end, and Philly put the phone on a coffee table in the living room of their home.

  John said, “I have a new assignment for you two, and I’m sending Chris to assist. He’ll take orders from you.” Lance was about to speak when he heard Chris’s voice behind him.

  “I’m here, and I don’t know what role I am to play, so hit me with it.”

  Lance said, “Great! Are we killing, capturing, or just going to sit around pulling each other’s cocks?” He heard Jim laughing in the background and said, “Oh, come on, O’Brian. You know you want to know what it’s like to have a real man in you!”

  Jim yelled out and said, “Oh, for fuck’s sake. You two homos should be in the new Corps since they got rid of ‘don’t ask don’t tell.’ You two could be a high ranking black operative married couple.”

  That drew a laugh from all, and John said, “New orders, men. Forget about the targets on the grey list I gave you. The Eagle is going to take care of that group tonight at the Ritz. I need you to grab the lawyers on the blue list and keep them safe and comfortable.”

  Lance pulled out the sheet of paper and asked, “Why? They’re lawyers, right?”

  “Yes, but they’re not part of the corruption.”

  Philly let out a laugh and said, “They’re lawyers, John. They’re all corrupt. What’s so special about these few that you should care if they live?”

  Jim could be heard in the background saying, “He’s got a point, John. Here’s a chance to get rid of a whole nest of these fuckin’ snakes. Fuck, man, there’s a whole new class of them coming out. What’s the big deal?”

  John said, “Just grab them and take them to a secure location and entertain them for a few hours.”