Shadows of Deceit (A Series of Shadows)

by Mell Corcoran

  “Ask. Manners, young lady.” Niko grinned at her. “Let Abby know once you get the OK. I have to run over to the house. We’re paying through the nose to have an inspector come out on a Sunday. He just cleared the gate and I have to be there. Tech stuff.”

  “Oh, I was wondering why it was so quiet over there, but I forgot it was a Sunday.” Lou’s suspicion from earlier was correct. “I thought maybe it was finished.” She teased.

  “Soon.” He headed out the back way. “Once the electrical is approved it’s gonna fly! See ya later.”

  “Bye! Thanks!” Lou yelled after him but knew he was probably half way across the meadow already.

  As Lou suspected, it was more than fine with her mother if they had the meeting there. Lou called Abby to confirm then got back to work trying to figure out how the three dead men and the unaccounted for, Casius Arcano, tied in with each other. She felt that if she could get a handle on that, it would be easier to look for the Sanguinostri variable in the equation. Looking at the clock, Lou figured Vinny and candidate number eight had finished their interview at Arcano imports. Lou didn’t want to put Vinny in a bad position by asking him for everything he had on the case thus far so she decided to go over his head and have their captain fill her in. It was yet another handy thing that Captain Davidson was also Sanguinostri. He might be her boss in the normal world, but now that Lou was Principate, she was technically his. She got a weird kick out of that.

  A quick call to Davidson ensured she would set eyes on everything Vinny had as soon as he briefed him. Lou figured that would happen before Vinny headed home for the night so she would have until the morning to review it all. Niko had texted Caroline earlier to run the men through the Interpol database in order for the information to pop for Vinny the right way. Now, Lou had to get Sanguinostri agents alerted at the various agencies so they were ready to intercept once the flags went up. The point was to make sure that the Sheriff’s retained jurisdiction of the case, not the Feds, or Homeland Security, or anyone else. Lou couldn’t tell them anything about her theory just yet so choosing her words carefully was an understatement. She just needed them to watch for the flags to go up, then make sure they were ignored. Simple. It was time for Lou to flex her Principate muscles and see how much power her new position actually had. With proverbial fingers crossed, Lou began typing away.

  It was completely freaking Vinny out how Dillon had driven from Arcano Imports to the Regional Crime Lab, where they dropped off Arcano’s computer for analysis, then to Homicide Bureau as if he had been driving the routes his entire life. Vinny never had to tell him once where to turn or warn him of an upcoming off-ramp. When Dillon put the sedan in park then turned the engine off, he noticed Vinny was staring at him.

  “Sir?” Dillon couldn’t think of what he may have done wrong.

  “How long you been in town again?” Vinny asked.

  “A couple weeks.” Now Dillon was getting nervous. “Why do you ask sir?”

  “How many times have you been to the Crime Lab?” Vinny was still staring at him. “You go downtown a lot?”

  “I’ve never been to the Crime Lab before and no, sir, I had never been downtown before today.” Dillon was really not sure where Vinny was coming from with these questions. “Did I do something wrong?”

  “How the hell?” Vinny scrubbed his hand over his face. “I didn’t have to give you one bit of direction. Lou misses the off-ramp at least twice a month, how the hell did you know where to go?”

  “Oh!” Dillon chuckled then reached up to his left ear and retrieved what looked like an operations ear piece. “It’s my new headset for my cell phone. I had navigation on so I was getting turn-by-turn directions in my ear. It’s the latest gadget. Excellent sound quality and reception”

  Vinny suddenly recalled just weeks ago his first encounter with a hands free headset. He had nearly strangled himself with the cord and been the brunt of Lou’s jokes for days.

  “No kidding?” Vinny looked at the tiny earpiece in amazement. “I gotta get me one of those.”

  “I got this one free as a promotional thing. I have a friend who’s a sales rep for the company. I’ll see if I can get you one.” Dillon was so relieved he wasn’t in trouble.

  “Seriously? That would be sweet.” Vinny got out of the car. “Thanks sport!”

  “Sure thing.” Dillon locked the sedan and took it as a positive sign that Vinny liked his new toy. It was a really cool piece of technology and he was going to get Vinny one, even if he had to buy it himself.

  They headed into Homicide and typed up all their notes and logs to get to the captain since he was making a special trip in on a Sunday specifically to be briefed on the case. Vinny went over the latest information that Barnes had left for him but she and Rochelle had come up with nothing on the surveillance as of yet. They had a little more to go but apparently Rochelle was not planning on putting in any overtime. Barnes estimated they would be done before lunch tomorrow. Caroline had left a message that she had yet to come up with identification on their victims but she was going to start running international databases. Vinny knew that was going to take forever so he wasn’t about to hold his breath.

  It was close to 7:30 p.m. when they finished their run-through with the captain and finally headed back to Lost Hills so Dillon could get his car. Sunday night traffic was blissfully light and Vinny let Dillon drive again so he took the down-time to call and check in with Lou.

  “How ya doin’ kiddo?” It was good to hear her voice.

  “Good! Keep your fingers crossed. The docs might be signing off so I can get back to work soon.” She sounded excited and it did Vinny’s heart good. “They put me through a battery of tests today and they seemed optimistic.”

  “On a Sunday? That’s some kinda health plan you got!” Vinny was excited for her too. “When will you know for sure?”

  “Probably tomorrow night.” Lou wanted to give herself a little wiggle room. “Not sure when I’ll get the paperwork though. We’ll have to wait and see.”

  “Friggin’ red tape. Ya gotta love it.” Vinny felt a little bad for Dillon being out of the conversation. “Hey, I’m gonna put you on speaker. Hang on.”

  “OK.” Lou started humming a tune and when Vinny got her on speaker and it made Dillon grin.

  “You’re on the air!” Vinny jested.

  “Good evening Detective.” Dillon greeted her.

  “Heya number eight. How goes the hunt?” Lou was quite jovial.

  “It goes.” Dillon smiled. “I’ll leave it to the boss to fill you in on our trip to Arcano Imports.”

  “The boss.” Lou snorted. “That’s so funny.”

  “Hey!” Vinny pretended he was wounded.

  “I’m kidding!” She wasn’t really. “It’s just going to take a little getting used to.” A lot of thing were going to take some getting used to, for the both of them.

  The rest of the drive they talked about the case and Lou told them that Niko would be getting in touch about the helicopter. Lou and Vinny both noticed that Dillon fit right into the conversation and neither of them had to modify their behavior because he was around. It was looking a lot like candidate number eight might actually stick. Lou hoped the bubble didn’t burst once she actually worked with him. She was preparing for the worst, just in case.

  “Alright kiddo...” Vinny started to wrap it up when Dillon parked the sedan in the back of the station. “Looks like Dillon has passed the navigation and safe driving portion of the test so you can scratch that off.”

  “Probably the most important part too!” Lou laughed.

  “It’s been a long day so I’m gonna skip stopping by on my way home. I’ll call ya tomorrow as soon as we get anything, OK?” Vinny was beat and Lou could tell by the sound of his voice.

  “That’s been what, an eighteen hour day for you two?” Lou missed long days like that with Vinny. “Go home. Sleep. I’ll talk to you boys tomorrow.”

  “Good night Detective.” Dillon said hi
s farewell then got out of the car.

  “Thanks Lou.” Vinny smiled at the phone. He always could count on Lou understanding him. “Night.”

  “Night boss.” Lou snickered then hung up.

  Vinny got out of the car and walked around to the driver’s side where Dillon waited, holding out the keys.

  “Shall I meet you back here or at the bureau in the morning?” Dillon stepped aside, making room for Vinny to get into the sedan.

  “The bureau.” Vinny studied Dillon for a moment. “Good work today sport. So far so good. Get some rest.”

  “Yes sir.” Dillon smiled quietly. “Drive safely.”

  “Will do.” With that, Vinny shut the car door and fired up the engine.

  It was an easy day for Dillon as far as actual work went. He was used to a lot more pressure and massive amounts of multitasking under very tricky circumstances. He knew the job, that was a no-brainer. What was critical was making sure he got along well with his associates. Making sure Vinny picked him as his successor was absolutely crucial. Winning Lou over once he got there was important, but he had an ace up his sleeve that he knew would seal the deal. So far so good, Vinny had said it himself. Without any undue influence, calling in favors, none of that, Dillon was making the cut on his own merits. It felt good.

  With all the rumors of how poorly Southern Californians drove in the rain, Dillon gave himself ample time to make the drive to the Bureau. Despite learning the rumors were true, he was able to make it in by just after seven and quickly got to work sorting his notes and running background on the Arcano people. Dillon felt Peter Taylor had seemed genuine but Cabrillo and Vargas were different stories. He was certain those two were not being forthcoming in the least and were flat out lying. The question was, what were they lying about?

  There had been no hits of any kind on Casius Arcano in over forty-eight hours. No activity on his cell phone, no credit card or banking activity, nothing. They knew that Arcano sometimes used a company car but the company Escalade had been accounted for in the motor pool on Friday and hadn’t been used by Arcano or anyone else in over a week. It was confirmed by both West Coast Car Service and Oakridge security that he had been driven into the community at 6:32 p.m. on Friday and the towncar exited the community eleven minutes later. Every other vehicle that entered the community was being checked and double checked to make sure they were who they said they were and went where they were logged in to go. So far, nothing was off. How Casius Arcano, his dog and the entire contents of his home had been removed without detection was the million dollar question. Even as Dillon looked over the logs again, the stealth helicopter theory was looking more realistic than ridiculous. Who the hell would go to that much trouble and for what reason? Who were the victims and why were they left there when nothing else was? Too many questions and not enough leads to follow for Dillon’s liking.

  As he read through Detective Rochelle’s report a second time, Dillon came to the conclusion he didn’t like her one bit. In his opinion she had done the bare minimum on the case. Just enough so that no flags were thrown up to the brass. She had deferred to her partner in every instance for the canvas of the neighbors and noted the most elementary observations of the crime scene which to Dillon’s mind a ten year old could make. It rubbed him wrong. He didn’t like to make superficial judgments but from what he observed of Rochelle in his brief contact with her, and from what he read in her paperwork, she was the worst kind of cop. Arrogant, lazy and skating her way on her partner’s coattails.

  The hustle and bustle of the Bureau was getting into full swing when Vinny arrived a few minutes after eight and found Dillon already hip-deep in the case. That put another notch in his favor. The kid was pulling his weight and then some.

  “Mornin’ sport.” Vinny greeted Dillon and set down a large paper cup in front of him. “Got anything yet?”

  “Morning sir. I was just confirming that so far we have nothing. But it’s Monday so I anticipate that will change pretty quick” Dillon smiled to himself. It was a reassuring gesture that Vinny had thought to bring him coffee. “Thanks boss, I needed this.”

  “Yeah the coffee here is crap. No two ways about it.” Vinny unpacked his gear and started to settle in. “No reason to be cruel and make you drink it when I won’t.”

  “Very kind of you sir.” Dillon spun around in his chair to face Vinny. “Devereux is in autopsy on another case but I left a message for someone to get back to us on the identification of the victims A.S.A.P.”

  “Rochelle and Barnes come up with anything on the video?” Vinny asked as he hung his coat on the back of the chair.

  “Barnes actually cross-referenced the logs with the security footage for the entrance to the community.” Dillon made sure to exclude Rochelle’s name. “Each vehicle is accounted for but it’s being double checked as we speak.”

  “Barnes doing that herself?” Vinny knew damn well Rochelle wouldn’t even be in yet, let alone doing productive work.

  “Yes sir.” Dillon pulled out his notepad out and started from the top. “Nothing on the B.O.L.O. for Casius Arcano. The man seems to have vanished into thin air along with his dog. I’m running background on Taylor, Cabrillo and Vargas and should have data for review within the hour.”

  “Cabrillo and Vargas seem hinky to me.” Vinny apparently agreed with Dillon’s perception of the men. “I got a feeling that anything those two give us will have been scrubbed clean so we can’t rely on it much.”

  “I agree.” Dillon took a big gulp of his coffee. “Oh this is good stuff. Thanks again sir.”

  “Quit calling me sir.” Vinny grumbled as he booted up his computer. “Let’s see if we got anything useful in the good old inbox.”

  While Vinny sifted through his email, Dillon started reading the information regarding Casius Arcano’s father and the suspicious circumstances of his death. Luis Arcano had been found dead at the bottom of the stairs of his home in Colombia the morning of December 23rd. Colombian authorities had ruled his death as accidental and the coroner’s report was barely a paragraph long. Bottom line was they were saying Luis had fallen down the stairs and snapped his neck in the process. The fall had occurred sometime during the night and he had been alone in the house at the time. His wife was flying back from a holiday shopping trip in New York and Luis Arcano had given the entire staff the night off. No one was questioned, no tox report was submitted, the bare minimum was done during the autopsy. It seemed a little too clean.

  According to the data Dillon had pulled up, Vargas had taken over control of Arcano Imports for the two months following Luis Arcano’s death. This was so that Casius could tend to the family. His sister, Maria, had been away at Oxford attending college and was on a flight home for the holiday break at the time of her father’s death. Other than Maria, Casius had no other siblings and was instantly thrust into the position of head of the family when his father passed. Dillon needed to get in touch with the sister and mother as soon as possible so he started hunting down phone numbers. Perhaps Casius had been in contact with one of them in the past or at least they could provide some scrap of information that could put them on the right track. They had to turn over every rock.

  Forty five minutes later Dillon hung up the phone. Luck had put Casius’ mother and sister at the family home so he was able to speak to them both without a hassle. Vargas had apparently taken the liberty of notifying them that Casius was missing and Maria had been making calls to everyone on the planet she could think of that might know where he was. No one had heard from him in days, if not weeks. Maria suggested to Dillon that he look into Casius’ former girlfriend, the one that apparently cheated on him in Costa Rica. Maria had no contact information on her since she clearly did not like the woman. Apparently it had been a much uglier and protracted breakup than Taylor had let on. After reassuring Maria Arcano and her mother that he would look into every possible angle and keep them informed, Dillon hung up and saw Vinny staring at him.

  “Sir?” Dil
lon wondered if he had said something inappropriate during his call. “Something wrong?”

  “Big time.” Vinny looked highly annoyed. “We got identification on our victims and it ain’t good.”

  The information Caroline had gotten from Interpol was printing out and both Vinny and Dillon were cringing. Based upon what they were reading, multiple law enforcement agencies had their eyes on their victims and were sure to be horning in. “No calls have come in from anyone on these guys yet? Interpol? The FBI? Anyone?”

  “No. Not unless they called Devereux or her team.” Dillon sifted through his temporary in-box and saw no messages or notations for any outside law enforcement calling on the case. “I have a message in for Caroline to call when we can go down there and get a full briefing.”

  “I’m not sure if I’m supposed to at least email Interpol as a courtesy or what.” Vinny suspected he would have to defer to what his captain wanted on this. “I sure as hell don’t want the FBI involved. They will scoop the whole case from us.”

  “These guys are heavy duty.” Dillon was reading through the particulars on the victims. “What the hell would they be doing at Arcano’s? Why would a coffee guy be involved with these thugs?”

  “Beats me but we are going to find out.” Vinny looked at the clock and was sure Lou had been awake for hours, if she had slept at all. He was also certain that Caroline would have already snuck Lou a copy of the file on the victims. He didn’t want to insult Dillon by conferring with Lou rather than him but he really wanted her take on things. Just as he was agonizing on how to handle the situation delicately, Vinny’s phone beeped to indicate an incoming text message.

  “Hey, Lou’s guy came through. Niko Gattilusio from Aegis International just messaged me. Take down his number and call him since you’re the one with the helicopter theory.” Vinny jotted down the number and passed it to him. “I’m going to take a walk and see how Captain Davis wants us to proceed with these guys. When I get back we’ll head over to the morgue.”