Stacey Page 13

  IRIS’ TRUCK SHOT OUT of the parking area like the Batmobile from the Bat cave. "He's got GPS, Toni, get on it!" Iris yelled. In seconds, the position of Casper's Range Rover was known. "He's on 120th Street and First Avenue.”

  "Isn't that Hayes' address?"

  "Yeah. 402 East 120th Street, apartment 4." Toni radioed the information to Agent Cannon who was following Iris’ truck. Cannon in turned radioed the information to all the neighboring precincts. At 124th Street and 2nd Avenue, Iris turned the steering wheel on her truck—hard—to the right. The driver's side of her vehicle slammed into the side of the M15 bus. Cannon had cut his steering—also to the right—to keep from hitting Iris’ vehicle. Pedestrians jumped out of the way as his car stopped inches away from an old couple.

  CASPER PULLED THE TWO stun gun prods from out of his back. The adrenaline that rushed through his body overrode the power of the stun gun. "Anaya, what are you doing...?" The words drifted in the space between him and Stacey McHill. The savage look in the teenager’s eyes sent a chill down the big man's spine. "Holy shit..." A fiery heat overwhelmed the big man when he'd finally realized who was standing fifteen feet in front of him. "You. Filthy, little cunt,” Casper manage to say through his anger. “You killed my wife!" Casper shouted as he charged toward Stacey McHill.

  IRIS’ TRUCK SPED DOWN East 120th Street and ran into an accident. A U-Haul truck had hit someone. Flashing lights from an EMS vehicle and three patrol cars made a mess out of the traffic. Without warning, Iris had jumped out of her ride and ran the rest of the way; Toni was right behind her. Special Agent Cannon watched the two women as they zigzagged through the crowd. His aching bunion dared him to run.

  CASPER SLAMMED HIS massive body into Stacey's, knocking the air out of the teenager. He then grabbed the teenager by the face and lifted her off her feet. "You fuckin' little, bitch, you killed my Lori!" Casper placed his hand between Stacey's legs, lifted her over his head, and body slammed her onto the tile floor.

  Stacey screamed.

  Casper reached down and grabbed the teenager by the hair; he pulled off a wig. He threw the hair piece to the side and took hold of her natural hair. Lifting Stacey McHill to her feet, Casper slapped her forcefully across the face with the back of his hand. Stacey's eyes rolled over.

  He lifted Stacey's body over his head again, but this time he threw it clear across the living room. One of her sneakers scraped the ten-foot high ceiling, leaving a long mark as it sailed across the room. Stacey's back smashed against the wooden wall unit. She disappeared behind a large couch. Casper stormed toward the couch and flung it to the side as if it was weightless. Stacey McHill looked up at the monstrous figure that loomed over her. He grabbed Stacey by the face again and brought her to her feet. His pinky and ring fingers, on his left hand, slipped into Stacey's mouth. A hot, fiery pain superseded Casper's rage as Stacey McHill crunched down on the two digits causing Casper to scream out in agony. Stacey shook her head like a wild dog as she bit down on Casper's fingers; his pinky and ring fingers came off. She spat them into his contorted face. Casper stared at his hand as his blood squirted from the wounds like two mini geysers.

  Stacey McHill emitted an unnerving, ear-splitting scream that caused Casper's heart to beat faster. The big man felt light headed as his life force continued to squirt from his body. Stacey, who was still screaming, forced her knee up into Casper's groin with such force that blood shot from his nostrils. The twin picked up a snow globe and smashed it against Casper's jaw. The big man heard his jaw break before everything went black.

  Chapter 48

  WHEN IRIS AND TONI reached First Avenue and East 120th Street, there must've been over eight shiny black SUV's and scores of police cars there. The flashing lights from the vehicles illuminated the whole block. Men and women wearing windbreakers with the letters FBI printed on them were crawling all over the street. Iris approached a group of agents and told them that their fearless leader was stuck in traffic. "I'm gonna need a battering ram."

  "That's the building there, Iris," Toni said. She was pointing at a building on the opposite side of the block.

  The super had told Iris that he'd seen Anaya with a larger albino. He escorted the detective to Anaya's apartment. "It sounded like they were fighting not too long ago," the super said.

  "Open this door now," Iris said. The super looked around. There were over a dozen FBI agents crammed into the narrow hallway. The super opened the door.

  "Casper!" Iris called out. She leads the procession into Detective Anaya Hayes' apartment, her .9mm at the ready. The FBI agents all had their weapons ready also. One of the agents shouted all clear from the kitchen, another from the bedroom. The living room was a mess. Iris saw two shoeless feet sticking out from under an overturned couch. The feet were stark white and covered with blood. "Casper!" When Iris saw Casper's body, all the blood drained from her face. Her friend was lying on the floor butt naked and shaking like a leaf. His chalky, white body was covered with lacerations from where Stacey McHill had cut the clothes from his body.

  Toni pulled out her cell phone and called the paramedics. "The bus is on its way," she said. Detective Leroy Chalk's body was a bloody mess. He was cradling his hand. The pinky and ring fingers on his left hand were chewed down to the knuckle. Iris pulled his underwear from out of his mouth. "She...bit... off my fingers off..." he managed to mumble before blood poured from his mouth. He had duct tape wrapped around his wrist and ankles. Iris removed a small knife from her fanny pack and began to cut the tape from Casper's wrist; Toni did the same to his ankles. Iris knew the Twins’ M.O. was to pour cement glue all over their victim's body before they taped them up. She worked as carefully as she could to remove the duct tape. When she finally freed Casper's wrist, she removed a couple of layers of the big man's skin.

  Casper did not react to Iris removing the tape. He was in shock.

  "Are you all right, buddy?" Iris placed her hand on his head and turned it, ever so gently, to the left. The left side of Casper's face was purple. "His jaw is broken."

  "What the hell happened in here?" Agent Cannon asked one of his men. He marched up to the overturned couch. "Holy Shit! What the fuck happened to him?"

  Iris was leaning over Casper, her ear inches from his bloody lips.

  "Somebody better tell me what the fuck happened in here!" Agent Cannon shouted.

  Casper moaned.

  “Take it easy, big guy. I'm here now," Iris said.

  "What the hell did he say, and where is the UNSUB?"

  Iris wiped away the sweat from Casper's brow.

  Casper's body continued to shake. "Somebody bring me something to cover him up with!" Iris yelled.

  "Here." Toni pulled down one of the drapes that covered the windows and handed it to Iris.

  "What did he say, Williams?"

  Iris glared at the special agent. "He said that Hayes was Stacey McHill and that she was a boy."

  "A what?"

  "That Anaya was disguised as a boy with long dreadlocks..."

  Special Agent Cannon looked shocked. "Dreadlocks?" Ten minutes ago, before Cannon had entered Hayes' apartment, he almost struck a teenage boy with his vehicle. The teenager was carrying a large backpack on his back and riding on a skateboard; he also had long dreadlocks. The boy had given Agent Cannon the finger before he'd skated away.

  "You saw him, didn't you?" Iris asked the dumbfounded agent. "You fuckin' saw him. Where?"

  Cannon was speechless.

  "Agent Cannon, where did you see him?" Toni asked.

  "I... I mean...He. I almost ran him over at the intersection. How could I have known?" Agent Cannon was sweating profusely. He stared at Casper's broken body. "She did that to him? How?" Cannon shook his head. He could not believe that the skinny teenager he'd almost hit with his car could take down one of the largest men he's ever seen. Special Agent Cannon knew UNSUBs displayed feats of extraordinary strength when under the influence of a mind alternating drug, but he could not wrap his mind around
a seventeen-year-old girl taking down a man like Casper. As he stared at the big man’s body, he realized that this would not be as easy as he'd thought. He'd seen the videos of Stacey McHill's disguises but seeing it up close and personal was something altogether different. Her transformation from a teenage girl to an African American adult woman, then to a teenage boy was simply astonishing. "How could I have known..." Agent Cannon said as he removed a handkerchief from his pocket and patted his forehead.

  "Welcome to the world of Stacey McHill, Special Agent Cannon," Iris said.

  Chapter 49

  AT HARLEM HOSPITAL, Detective Leroy Chalk was rushed into the emergency unit before he was taken to the operating room. Iris wrung her hands together as she paced back and forth in the waiting area like a caged lioness. She stared at the large clock that hung over the vending machine, then she glanced at her watch. It was 9:23 pm. Iris and Toni had been at the hospital for over seven hours. Time slows down when anxiety enters the room. "Dammit, what're they doing in there?" Iris looked at her watch again.

  Toni, who was sitting in one of the hard-plastic chairs, looked up at her partner. "He's getting the best of care, Iris, and that takes time." Iris stared at Toni. "Come, baby," Toni said. "Have a seat." Toni patted the chair next to her.

  "Damn, this waiting is killing me," Iris said as she slumped into the empty chair. She exhaled. "God, I hope he's all right."

  Toni reached over and held Iris’ hand. "He's a big guy, Iris, I'm sure he'll pull through all right."

  Agent Cannon, who'd needed a drink after he'd seen what Stacey McHill had done to that monstrosity, walked into the waiting area. He also needed a drink because his boss had chewed his ear off when he heard that Stacey McHill had escaped. The phone conversation went something like this: "What the fuck do you mean she got away? Listen to me, Cannon, I put my rep on the line for you. You fuckin' better not let me down. Do you fuckin' hear me, Cannon? My rep is on the fuckin' line. The next time I hear your voice, you better be telling me that you have that little bitch in custody. Do you fuckin' understand me?"

  Cannon wore a sullen expression on his face as he walked into the waiting area. Toni nudged Iris as soon as Cannon walked in. Cannon looked at the detectives, then he walked over toward the vending machine. Ten minutes later, a doctor approached the detectives. He was a handsome man in his mid-forties. His hands were stuffed into the pockets of his lab coat. Iris and Toni both jumped out of their chairs. "Is he o.k., doctor?" the detectives said in unison.

  "He lost a lot of blood, but he's going to be o.k."

  Iris exhaled. "Thank you, God."

  The doctor lowered his head.

  "What is it, doc?" Iris asked.

  The doctor removed his right hand from his lab coat and ran it across his hairless chin. "Aside from receiving a broken jaw, which was broken in two places, and the loss of his pinky and ring fingers, the patient received numerous lacerations. It took two hundred and twenty-two stitches to close all of his wounds... we also had to remove one of his testicles." The doctor looked at Toni, then he said to Iris, "What the hell happened to him?"

  "He had a fight," Iris answered, curtly. "Can we see him now?”

  The doctor told the detectives that Detective Leroy Chalk had been out of surgery for over two hours, and that it was o.k. to visit him. "He'll be a little incoherent. So please, make your stay short. He's going to need a lot of rest."

  Toni thanked the doctor as Iris ran toward Casper's room. Iris walked up to Casper's bed and stared at her friend's beaten face. She leaned over him and gently kissed his forehead. Casper's eyes began to flutter. He opened them, slowly.

  "Hi, you big ass polar bear. How ya feelin'?"

  Toni, who was standing beside Iris, waved at Casper. "Hi, Leroy. How are you...?" When Casper tried to speak, his face grimaced from the pain.

  "Take it easy, Casper. Don't try to talk," Iris said. Casper motioned Iris to come closer. She leaned closer to him; he whispered in her ear. Iris looked at Toni, puzzled.

  "What's wrong?"

  "He doesn't remember what happened." A tear slid down Iris’ cheek, then another. "He doesn't recognize us.”

  Before leaving the hospital, the doctor had told the detectives that Leroy Chalk's amnesia might be a temporary, or it might not be. He told Iris that only time would tell.

  The detectives stopped by Toni's apartment. They decided to spend some time with Pamerla and baby Deloris at Iris’ friend's house at Jamaica Estates in Jamaica, Queens. Toni needed to pick up a few things. Afterward, they swung by Iris’s apartment building. Iris’ landlady, who was sweeping in front of the building, moved a no parking cone away from the curb so that Iris could park as soon as she saw Iris’s Durango turn onto the block. She waved at Iris and Toni when they stepped out of Iris’s truck. Iris hugged the old woman.

  Four teenagers were standing in front of Iris’s building; they were all a part of a gang. One of the teenagers blocked Iris from entering the building. He grinned at her, displaying a mouth full of gold teeth, then he said, "What's the secret password?" Iris stared at the young man, then she looked at Toni.

  "The password is," she whispered in the hoodlum's ear, "get the hell out of my way." The teenage boys all glared at Iris, then the leader—the shortest of the bunch, the one with the mouth full of gold teeth—said, "Correct. Let the foxy lady by—"

  "What did I tell you about that, Eric?" Iris said, cutting the boy off. "I'm not one of your little chicken heads, so watch your mouth."

  "Sorry, Ms. Iris." Iris asked the leader if he had seen anyone suspicious hanging out on the block. The teenager told her no. "Well, I want you and your boys to keep your eyes open, o.k.?"

  "O.k., Ms. Iris." As Iris and Toni walked away, the leader shouted, "And my name is Ghost Catcher."

  "Whatever, Eric."

  "Who are those boys?" Toni asked.

  "Those are my little misfits. They're the neighborhood watch."

  Chapter 50

  TEN MINUTES AFTER IRIS and Toni had entered Iris’s apartment, Toni heard a noise at the door. Someone was trying to get in. She removed her .9mm Glock from its holster and pointed the weapon at the door. Iris walked into the kitchen. Toni pressed her index finger to her lips. The door slowly opened. Iris’ landlady walked in carrying a tray with an old-fashioned tea kettle on top. She kicked the door closed with her foot. She dropped the tray when she saw Iris and Toni pointing their guns at her.

  Toni lowered her weapon; Iris did not. Mrs. Green was wearing an oversized N.Y. Giant hoodie. "What is your maiden name, Mrs. Green?" Iris said to the old woman.

  Mrs. Green could not speak.

  "You've got five seconds to answer my question or I'll blow your freakin' head off." Toni stared at her girlfriend.

  Iris had her gun trained on Mrs. Green forehead. "Five, four, three, two—"

  "Carter. My maiden name is Carter!" Mrs. Green finally managed to say. Iris lowered her weapon. "You scared the hell out of me, Iris." Mrs. Green had the key to all the apartments. Usually, after Iris got home from work, Mrs. Green would bring up a pot of green tea. "Are you o.k., Mrs. Green?" Toni asked.

  Iris went on to tell Mrs. Green all about the case—something she'd refuse to do in the past. Mrs. Green was already familiar with Stacey McHill from Iris’s last bout with the twins. "Here's the thing, Mrs. Green, every time you see me, or Toni I want you to say..." Iris had to think of a password.

  Toni, who was standing by the stove, said: "That outfit looks good on you. That's the password."

  Iris let Toni drive to Queens. She glanced at the faces as Toni drove. Detective Iris Williams had never been so paranoid. Any one of the people that she passed could've been Stacey McHill... Anyone.

  The way that Stacey McHill had infiltrated the Double 0 blew Iris’ mind. She could've killed us anytime she wanted to... Iris looked over at Toni. How am I gonna catch someone so proficient in the art of illusion? Iris thought.

  "What are you thinking about?" Toni asked as she drove.


  Iris didn't hear her partner.

  "Iris, are you o.k.?"

  "Huh?

  Toni's repeated herself.

  "How could she...? I mean, we knew how good Stacey and Jannifer were with their disguises, but this... this thing with Hayes was unbelievable..." Iris placed her hands over her face and shook her head. "Un-freakin'-believable. "

  Toni nodded her head. "I should've known something was up." She braked for the light. "Remember when Lori first introduced Anaya to the squad, how fearful she was of Casper?"

  "Yes, I remember. She couldn't even look at him."

  "Then at the funerals for the Deputy Mayor and the Deputy Police Commissioner, Lori, was consoling him like she knew him for years."

  The light turned green.

  "Yeah, and the way she had talked about him when I confronted her about her intentions with him..." Iris felt a lump in her throat when she thought about her friend lying in the hospital.

  "How in the hell are we gonna catch somebody like that?” Toni asked.

  Iris stared out of the passenger side window. And without looking at Toni, she said, "I don't know, Toni...for the love of God, I do not know."

  Chapter 51

  WHEN IRIS AND TONI arrived at Iris’s friend house in Jamaica Queens, they were happy to see that Pamerla and the baby had settled in and that Pam seem to be at ease. Iris’s sister, Deloris, was also there to comfort her daughter. Iris and Toni dropped their belongings on a ten-piece sectional couch that snaked around the beautifully furnished basement. “Hi, sis," Deloris said to her baby sister. She hugged Iris, then she pulled away from her. "Let me look at you...girl, you look like crap." Deloris then turned to Toni. “So, do you."

  "It's this damn case," Iris said. She flopped down on the couch and Pamerla passed her the baby. Iris took the baby into her arms and kissed her as she kicked off her Nikes. At that moment, Iris’ friend came down the basement stairs. She was carrying a tray of food.