Deep Heat II Chapter 4

4.

The Red Lion; a very common drinking place name.

Derek left then. He was dressed in a casual brown jacket, a white shirt, and dark pants. He was in his fifties and his hair was thinning to the rear. He has a nice rear though. I can’t help it for I am an officer to read details.

Liz was not at the unit where we called the nest. I was getting used to the empty nest then. She was at the Hospital. I disliked that. Since Sidney’s death, I disliked going home alone. I had paranoid feelings that whoever killed Sidney may do the same to me. I knew the closure was to be soon after Shawn’s death; shot in my car and then Alice’s words of her involvement. Nigel dead and the Selby’s are defunct or stymied by the other family; the Cohen. I ran the checks on the Cohen. They were indeed the family behind the gangs and never got charged for any offenses. The Cohen is well off and above the scrutiny of the enforcement. I did run more checks and found a menial link of the Cohen to a past Police Corruption Investigation but that turned out to be blanked out. It was only for the highest authority access.

Later, I took a shower and then the doorbell rang. I took my bathrobe and in there was half feet long chisel. I was taking precautions. It was the courier man who was given instruction to deliver to only me. It was a small narrow box large enough for a file case. It did contain a folder and a CD with a note.

“Do I get a tip?” The man asked.

“Fuck off. And stop staring at my boobs. You can go home to see your mum.” I slammed the door. I then looked for the machine to play the disc.

“Hi, Bernice. This is my voice from the dead when you hear this. Trust no one. Read it. Shawn.”

The first caption on the CD was the recording of ‘you are far from solving the real case’. It was from Shawn Michael.

“My name is not Shawn Michael. If you are listening to this recording, then I am dead.” It was his voice. I missed him. “My name is really Sean Michael and I worked for Scotland Yard. I was assigned to Interpol to investigate the Selby and Cohen case. They are a huge organization that held operations from here to Europe. Its ran by the Hangman Group. Sidney Madden was involved as one of the Hangman and offered himself as a material witness. He decided to work on to get more evidence and was saying something big was happening. I was recruited to be with him and to protect him or replace him if need be. The disc will reveal more of the group named the Hangman. Trust no one and be careful.”

I looked at the sender and called the courier What intrigued me was that the courier was told to hold the package until the instruction was given to deliver it. I asked for the name of the person. It was Sidney’s.

I looked for the name Sean Michael in Scotland Yard but there was no one with that name.

However, I have a name; Shawn.

I needed to duplicate the disc. I remembered my CD writer/reader was in the office and so was my laptop. I left the CD in the drawer with the folder on my night table. I then went to sleep. I was a light sleeper and knew whenever Liz stepped back. I knew her footsteps well and that was not her. If it was not Liz; she was like a rhino on the loose when she was supposed to sneak in.

Someone was in the unit.

My eyes twitched when I heard the movements in the bedroom. I opened my eyes and saw the dark shadow over my nightstand. The years of being on alert and responsive to physical altercations got me to do martial training. Well, it helped me to release my stress, especially when bashing the instructor who happened to be a retired Superintendent. Well, sometimes I made the ‘oops, I am sorry’ kick on the groin or the hand chop on the wrist. It was not Karate or Judo, but Krav Maga. And Muay Thai. It was a street fighting for me.

I shot out of the bed and grabbed the intruder. I learned to grab the intruder by the waist and pulled away. It was to unbalance the person. The intruder was lighter than I expected. The intruder was dressed in the jogging attire of vest and pants. The intruder fell against the wall and cried out. It was a woman’s voice. I stood up and realized I was naked. I do sleep in the nude.

I took up my fighting Muay Thai stance. I had my feet shoulder-width apart and my elbows tucked and the hands up. I was on my toes, and my legs were braced for the hard kick. The intruder stood up and faced me with the arms at the side. It was my move to do the low right kick at the left thigh. In Muay Thai, we called it Dteh Chiang. I made contact and she was down on one knee. I went in with the elbow strikes or in Muay Thai called Sok, on the head. The intruder went down hard.

I heard the other intruder to my right and let off the right sidekick. I landed on the intruder in the chest but was grabbed by the ankle and sent toppling back. I landed on my butt and felt the kick on my face. I went down on my left side and the second kick was on my lower spine. That hurt with bent back posture then. I rolled over and grabbed the third kick before it hit me. I twisted the feet and got my intruder off balance. I lashed out with the left leg to topple the intruder and then crouched up before I landed a solid left on the intruder's face. I moved to get up and was hit from the rear. It was a hard blow and I fell facedown. I felt the kick into my left ribs and then the stomp on my neck. I had rolled to the side and avoided the full impact but it fizzled me out.

Next thing, I knew was it was morning and the folder was missing. So it was the CD.

I was fucked.