DEAD MAN'S JUSTICE - A Place of Evil (Stone & McLeish Thriller Series of Stories Book 2) Read Free Page A

appeared to be a set of bespoke physical characteristics of the ‘goods’ Maloof required her to procure. She eventually lifted her eyes to look at Maloof and tried not to act shocked. Maloof was watching for her expression but Rachel cleverly gave nothing away. He knew she would comply. He dived into the pool splashing water everywhere and spraying drops over Rachel’s legs.
    She placed the sheets back into the envelope, fixed her stare on Maloof swimming up and down the pool and wondered just how she was going to carry out his sordid demands. Maloof had all the right connections with all the wrong people and offered to resolve her problem with Stone. He didn’t want her to have any loose ends or old ties from her past lurking around. Maloof was a very jealous man.
    Rachel knew she had to comply with his demands.
     

 
    Chapter 5
     
     
    ‘You got a lawyer?’ Ramirez threw his question over his shoulder at Stone who was sitting in the back of the police car, squeezed in between the two broad shouldered officers.
    Stone was still numb from the shock that Chief Parker-Brown had issued an international warrant for his arrest for the murder of Guy Randall.
     
    Guy, a U.S. citizen from New York and a magazine editor, had just arrived at Stone’s villa in Palmiste, which was a suburb of San Fernando Trinidad. He’d managed to give his real killer, Chad Loman, a.k.a Shadow, the slip after being trailed all the way from the States, intent on finding the woman who’d double-crossed him out of $1m ransom money.  Stone was his last resort. He was on his cell phone walking around Stone’s pool about to report Shadow to the police when a shot ripped through the air zipping past his shoulder. It ricocheted off the garage wall. Guy Randall didn’t realize what the noise was. Stone and Mac did. They saw the flash and the movement of a dark figure behind the white railings by the poolside. The next shot hit its target.
    Guy was thrown backwards into the pool. He screamed out in pain and clutched at his chest. His blood was already spreading across the surface of the water when Stone jumped in and dragged Guy to the side and laid him on the tiles. Stone cradled him and tried to make him comfortable but he knew he was going to die. He managed to stay alive for a minute or two. Just long enough to give Stone a message for his wife and the keys he was wearing around his neck. The black 4x4 sped off into the night and Mac just saw the plate as it rounded the bend. They knew exactly who the shooter was.
     
    Stone finally answered the question and made no attempt to disguise how annoyed he was.
    ‘I don’t want a lawyer. I don’t need a lawyer. I haven’t murdered anyone and you can’t possibly have any evidence to hold me. I’m saying nothing further. I want my phone call.’
    ‘We’ll see about that Mr. Big Shot developer.’
    Stone ignored the remark and turned his head away to look out the window to avoid seeing Ramirez’s smirk in the rear view mirror. Finch said nothing; it was hard to imagine a more disparate partnership, Stone felt sorry for him living with the smirk ten hours a day.
    On the journey to the precinct Stone started to lose the fuzziness and numbness from the shock of the arrest and started to think clearly. He was certain that Chief Parker-Brown had either been used or tricked in some way. With one phone call to Mac, his partner who was still in Trinidad, and he would sort out all the confusion by going to see the Chief to tell him what had happened. The Chief would then call Ramirez, explain about the falsified warrant, and he would be set free. He had to be. He decided to clam up and tough it out, but first he fired an angry retort back to Ramirez.
    ‘Tomorrow I’ll be at Guy Randall’s funeral as planned.’
    ‘Don’t be so sure wise guy.’ Ramirez seemed agitated by Stone’s remark, which to him was insolence and disrespect for his authority. Ramirez had other ideas.
    ‘Cuff him.’ He