Hold Me In Heaven

DEA Agent Carol Redding came to the squad room early the next morning... She sat in the interrogation room and waited patiently for our murder suspect identified as Neil Hamilton...A high priced hitman from the west coast...Suspect in at least 27 contract killings...no convictions....He was very professional, very high priced...Johnny Malinga had reached out....This is how afraid he was of whatever Audrey Restin had to say and was determined to quiet her...He had.

Duke, Tyriq and Sharon brought him into the "Fishbowl" as the detectives called it with handcuffs and leg braces on...

He sat down  across from Agent Redding and said nothing...He was playing the cool hitman to the hilt..

Outside...I passed tumblers of coffee to Lt. Sissy Van Buren, My wife, Detective Carlotta Rodriguez-Wallace, Detective James Barlow, Detective Sirena Pile and Detective Tony Hopkins, who watched...

Agent Redding was no nonsense....She produced glossies of Neil Hamilton shooting Audrey from behind and engaging in a gunbattle with Agent William Gold and Lt. Tragg...

"There...We got you in the act...First time you've been caught on camera eh Neil?  and this here is a ballistics report...Guess you didn't have time to toss your gun....This is the gun we found in your apartment and the silencer, which is illegal by the way....Guess what?  The bullets are a match!   We got you cold Neil...Two counts of First Degree Murder and one count of attempted murder....That was my partner you killed you son of a bitch...a federal agent..  That was a witness you killed....that was a Philadelphia Police officer you nearly killed....Guess what? He woke up last night....He identified you from mug shots.... A jury won't deliberate more than ten minutes on you....So here is how this works...You give me Malinga...I give you life with no parole...You play silent sam....I'll make sure you get a needle and I'll buy popcorn and sit upfront at your execution!" she said.

He was no longer smiling.....For the first time...the feared hitman who had seen the look of fear in so many eyes before he mercilessly snuffed out their lives looked afraid.

''Look...I can't give you Malinga...I never met the man...Sure...I knew I was doing this job for him...Once I was told who I had to kill....I read the papers...But I never actually met the man in person...but how bout I give you someone else...???Someone close to him???" he said.

"Who?" asked Carol Redding.

"Malinga's number two...He's the point man in all of this...Raphael Saurez....He's staying in town...He's the guy who made the arrangements..He paid me to do the job...He rented the apartment I was staying in ,under an assumed name and he paid in cash..He's still here.I can tell you where." said Neil Hamilton...

"He'll give me Malinga?" asked Carol.

"You get him...You get Malinga....What happens to me?" he asked.

"You get locked up in a Federal Prison on the west coast for the rest of your miserable life where he can't get to you...Oh and by the way....Those three guys who tried to take you from those detectives yesterday...They weren't there to rescue you....They were there to kill you....You screwed up...You were only supposed to kill the girl." said Carol.

He looked at Carol...

"For what it's worth...I didn't mean to kill your partner...I saw the girl walking by herself down the street..I followed her...I never expected him to come out of the house and come down the street...After I popped her..He fired on me...and I didn't know where that cop came from or that he was even a cop....The whole thing got out of hand....He was hit pretty bad...He crawled over to the girl, who I'm sure was already dead and held her in his arms and said-"Hold Me in Heaven.." and then he fell over and died....I got the hell out of there then..because by then, I was wounded myself...I've done a lot of jobs as you must know....They were all clean...I got the person..I was paid to get...Never any bystanders or extra people...This was the messiest job I'd ever done...This was just one job too many for me...I was thinkin about quittin, but Malinga's boy ,Suarez offered me way too much money to turn it down." he said.

''And that is supposed to be some solace to me?? You sick son of a bitch! ,Duke, Rico, Sharon...Get him out of my face." she said and put her head down on the table...
Duke,Tyriq and Sharon turned him over to the U.S. Marshalls who had just entered.....

Sissy walked into the room after they left...She put her arms around Carol...
"You gonna be alright girl?" she asked...

Carol hugged Sissy tightly.

"Yeah,I'm going to be good...Thank you so much Sissy." she said and looked into her friend's eyes as if to ask her something...Something that had no bearing on this case....But Sissy, who would have made a great poker player, would betray nothing...Not with an expression.

II-

Our van sat across the street...I had a walkie talkie...Two uniformed officers sat in the van with me...We got a visual of Raphael Saurez and a young lady coming out of a tony club and laughing and talking...

''Lieutenant..I got a visual...He's coming down the street now..He's got a girl with him."  said one of the patrolmen.

"Copy that...Duke...Rico, you got him?" said Sissy.

''We on him Lou...Top..You and Jimmy ready?" he said.

"Yupper...Let's do this papi." said my wife...

"Let's roll" said Jimmy.


Raphael began to walk briskly and he noticed Duke and Tyriq walking behind him...He looked around..He must have had a sixth sense....he began to run rather briskly leaving the girl....Sissy and four uniformed policemen came from across the street and Carlotta, Jimmy and three uniformed policemen approached him with guns drawn from the other side of the street..

''Let us see your hands papi" said Carlotta as they swarmed on him.. Sissy got to him first and disarmed him..as Duke and Tyriq aimed their glocks at him to make sure he understood that resistance was futile...and Carlotta cuffed him...Jimmy read him his rights and turned him over to the uniformed police...

He was apparently trying to get to a black Lincoln Navigator that was parked just a block away...Two men ,who had been in it were now lying face down on the pavement....handcuffed....The handiwork of Detectives
Sirena Pile and Tony Hopkins ,along with three Philadelphia Policemen.

I got out of my car and walked over to the trio....

"Well. Well, Well...The gangs all here..I'm ADA Keith Wallace,You must be Raphael Saurez....Welcome to Philadelphia!" I said smiling...

He obviously did not share my sense of humor!

III-

The three suspects were turned over to the U.S. Marshalls....Two were wanted on unrelated charges in Washington D.C. Raphael Surez was held here in Philly in the federal lock up for questioning...The bodies of the three gunmen killed in the shootout with Carlotta,Sirena and Hop the day before were all identified as Washington D.C. local thugs...heavy in the drug game and wanted on a series of violations...All with long rap sheets....We had our shooter in custody, two cleared murders and Johnny Malinga's lieutenant in custody....It had been a good couple of days....

Carlotta and I stood on the roof of C.I.D. headquarters holding hands and looking out at the city...

"This is beautiful isn't it?  This city." she said.

"I have to admit...When you take the time to look at it from here, it really is..." I said.

"This is Boss Lady's quiet spot...She told me that she often comes up here to think, to meditate...."said Carlotta...

"It's a good spot...Where is Boss Lady?" I asked.

"She and Carol and Sharon are going over the preliminaries of the case...Rico,Sirena,Duke and Hazel and a lot of the uniforms have left...Hop is waiting for Sharon and I saw Jimmy leaving with Angie."said Carlotta.

"Wow...Wanna go and get some coffee?" I asked.

"Coffee? Noooo...I just want to be here with you in the quiet of the night.." she said and smiled at me...

"Hold me in Heaven" I said.

"Huh?" she said ...

"That's what a dying Agent Gold said to Audrey Restin as she lay dying.....They died in each others arms...according to Neil Hamilton...I just thought that was so beautiful." I said.

Carlotta smiled at me...

"You have a surprisingly sensitive side Keith..."she said and gave me a long,soft and tender kiss...

"I do at that don't I?" I said smiling and pulled my wife to me and kissed her again.

(CONCLUSION NEXT)