The Devil to Pay
By David Edgerley Gates, first published in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
A shipment of military munitions is hijacked, and as the NYPD look into the case, they realize that the infamous Russian mob is likely behind the heist.
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Plot Summary
Tommy Meadows is visiting his grandmother at the assisted living facility where she lives. He has just come out of fourteen months at a state correctional facility. Babs DiMello is a detective in Brooklyn. Currently, the main problem the police face is the Russian mob. There was a hijack on a shipment of military munitions, and Babs thinks the Russians had something to do with it. Babs and her team decide to find Tommy and see if he knows anything about the heist. Babs and another officer, Pete Beeks, show up at Tommy's meeting with his probation officer and ask him for any information he might have on the munitions heist. Tommy tells her that his guess is that Viktor Guzenko — a feared Russian gang lord — was involved. Babs is informed that the shipment in question, which had been waiting to ship at JFK airport, was far too large to be shipped by aircraft. It being at JFK, therefore, is a mystery. Lydie Temple is a senior analyst at a private security outfit. She is also looking into this shipment heist, and has determined that somebody has hacked into a website and misdirected the shipment. Tommy, his co-conspirator Nico, and undercover officer Pete Beeks arrive for a covert meeting with a man named Bagatÿon to talk about a potential deal. The deal quickly goes south, however, and the infamous Viktor Guzenko himself steps out of the shadows. Guzenko tells his bodyguards to kill all three men, which is when the SWAT unit storms into the building. Lydie has helped with surveillance of the site, and Babs is one of the first officers on scene. In the office where they'd met Bagatÿon, Guzenko reaches into a desk drawer, and an officer shoots Guzenko dead. Babs looks into the drawer — Guzenko had been reaching for a disposable cigarette lighter. The police deem the raid a successful bust. Tommy, for his part, is doing fine. He visits his grandmother and pushes her around the assisted living facility's grounds. She is content to have his company.
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