Shadows of Deceit (A Series of Shadows)

by Mell Corcoran

  “It’s a gift.” She shrugged. “Now answer my question.”

  “I don’t know.” He grumbled again. “I am not sure if Lou’s case has Sanguinostri hands on it directly, but I think there might be something. I think this Boone woman is the key.”

  “I hear ya.” Abby propped her feet up on the coffee table and sighed. “I have the same feeling.”

  “You do?” Frank seemed surprised.

  “Yeah. Can’t put my finger on it either.” She wiggled her toes. “I’ve been digging but I’m not finding anything. I need more data.”

  “Me too.” He was suddenly mesmerized by Abby’s socks. They appeared to be gloves with individual fingers but for the feet as opposed hands. The blindingly bright stripes made her feet look freakishly wide. “What the hell are you wearing?”

  “My happy toe socks.” She grinned. “How can you be in a bad mood when you’re wearing happy toe socks?”

  “Hard to argue with that.” He couldn’t help but smile. “Thanks.”

  “What for?” She rested her head against his shoulder.

  “For being you.” He chuckled at her toes.

  “Ah. No need to thank me for that.” She poked him in the rib. “Not like I can help it or anything.”

  “Once again, hard to argue with that.” He watched her wiggle her toes some more but the spell was broken when his cell phone alerted him to a text message. “Caroline has the DNA.” He leaned forward abruptly, sending Abby crashing behind him.

  “Hey!” She protested as she righted herself.

  “Sorry. She emailed me the report and I have to get it to Max.” He began clicking away at one of the numerous laptops sitting on the coffee table.

  “Get what to me?” Max asked as he walked in and removed his soaking overcoat.

  “The DNA for the female victim. The bogus Angela Boone.” Frank’s fingers were going as fast as he could muster.

  “Why would you need to give that to me?” He asked as he loosened his tie. “You do the work, I give the orders, remember?” He grinned and winked at Abby.

  “Usually, but this is different.” Frank gave the touchpad one last click. “There, I sent a copy to your secure system. I need you to run it. You know what I mean.” He looked Max dead in the eye.

  “Really?” Max’s face turned stoic as soon as he realized what Frank was getting at.

  “Really. I may be way off base but I have a bad feeling.” Frank sighed heavily.

  “What’s going on?” Abby was a little lost.

  “Frank will explain while I take care of this.” Max told her as he headed for his bedroom. “Let me get out of these wet clothes first.”

  While Max changed, Frank explained his hunch to Abby. The fact that she was Max’s right hand, Frank being everything left, as she often put it, Abby was aware of the existence of the records. The Aegis Council, Frank and Abby were all privy to top level things but that didn’t mean they had access to them. There were very strict rules in place to preserve the integrity of the Sanguinostri at the highest level.

  When Max returned wearing jeans and a Los Angeles Kings hockey jersey, Abby and Frank gaped at him. Abby could count on one hand the times she had seen Max wearing a pair of jeans but never had either of them seen him wear any sort of sports apparel.

  “What?” He just stood there. “What are you two gawking at?”

  “A Kings jersey?” Abby asked him. “Really?”

  “Why not? They made it to the playoffs didn’t they?” He sat down at the desk and booted up his computer.

  “Since when are you a hockey fan?” Frank asked in astonishment.

  “Niko got me interested.” He tried to appear casual. “It’s an excellent sport. Why shouldn’t I show a little team spirit?”

  “Niko is into it because Lou is into it and got him hooked!” Frank laughed.

  “Which means you’re into it because Lou is!” Abby giggled.

  “That’s so juvenile.” Max pretended to ignore them.

  “Yeah it is! It’s hilarious too!” Frank couldn’t stop laughing

  “Aww! I think it’s cute!” Abby grinned. “You should take her to a game! Oh! We can get season tickets! Or one of those sky boxes! Lou would love that.”

  “Look into it for me.” Was all Max said but he knew Abby was right. “But don’t say anything to Lou about it yet. Please.”

  “You may as well buy a suite. Both the law firm and security can use it for entertaining clients and stuff like that.” Frank suggested.

  “A suite at Staples Center for like everything?” Abby thought about it for a minute. “That would be quite brilliant. All the sporting events, concerts. Something for everyone and it wouldn’t look like you got it just for Lou and hockey!” She bounced up and down.

  “Make it happen.” Was all Max said.

  “The level A suite that’s above section 111.” Niko said as he walked in the door looking like a drowned rat.

  “That good?” Max looked up and asked him.

  “Well, Lou loves center ice.” Niko spoke loudly as he walked into his room. “She has ticket stubs all from section 111. The A Suite looks like the lowest level so, that would be my pick.” He came back out toweling himself off.

  “You heard the man.” Max winked at Abby and she got straight to work. “Still raining out there I see.”

  “Just a bit.” Niko grinned at him. “It’s going to make tonight fun.”

  “You mean tomorrow morning.” Frank corrected him.

  “Whatever.” Niko balled up the towel and threw it at him. “When is this weather supposed to let up?”

  “Weather report says it should be moving out later tonight.” Abby informed them. “Looking at the radar it looks like things are already breaking up around Santa Barbara so I’d say a few more hours of this then you should be good to go.”

  “Good. It’s depressing me.” Niko said as he plopped down in an arm chair and kicked his feet up. “I can hardly wait for summer. Do a little surfing, a little water skiing. It’s going to be nice.”

  “When was the last time you surfed?” Frank scoffed.

  “1962, in Fiji.” Niko grinned. “That was one wicked summer.”

  “Alright little surfer girl. We have some work to do before we head out.” Max snickered. “Take a nap if you want.”

  “A nap? Are you implying I am an old fart and need to nap between assignments?” Niko feigned a look of insult.

  “I’m not implying anything.” Max barely glanced his way. “I know you’ve been going non-stop for over twenty-four hours and if you are planning on flying one of our most expensive aircraft in the rain, I want you sharp.”

  “Point taken.” He got up out of the chair and stretched his arms to the ceiling, almost touching it. “I’ll go grab a few winks. Yell if you need me.”

  “Sweet dreams!” Abby shouted after.

  A few moments later a frown spread across Max’s face as he looked at his screen. “I want to know everything there is to know on the descendants of Salvatore Rojas. I am sending you his data now.”

  “There is a link?” Frank was watching him carefully.

  “A familial match. Nail it down.” Max shut down his computer and walked in to his room, slamming the door behind him.

  “That can’t be good.” Abby spoke only after he was gone.

  “Nope. But we both had a feeling.” Frank looked over his shoulder at her. “I’ll take care of this. You keep working on getting us that suite at Staples.” He grinned at her.

  “Consider it done.” She grinned back and they both resumed typing away.

  Behind his closed door, Max paced. He was not happy with what he pulled up from illicit database. The woman that called herself Angela Boone was a familial match to Salvatore Rojas who had been put to death in 1962 in Colombia for running an extensive blood slave operation. He was a Steward to the South American Dominor, Max’s long time colleague, Victor Marcos. Max knew this was in no way a coincidence and somehow or another this cas
e was connected to the Sanguinostri. How the hell was he going to explain this to Lou? Caroline, Joe and Max had sold Lou on becoming a part of their world based on the fact that the Sanguinostri were a people of honor and justice, unfettered by bureaucracy and politics. Only weeks ago a former Aegis Council member, someone Max once considered a friend, had been running across the planet murdering women then kidnapped and tried to kill Lou. Now a second killing spree was upon them and somehow the Sanguinostri was involved. He had no idea how he was going to explain this to her. His only shot was figuring out who and why, then serving them up to her on a silver platter.

  Captain Davidson’s approval for overtime was contingent on Lou, Vinny and Dillon taking a few hours down time beforehand. Vinny and Dillon had been going non-stop since the headless bodies were found and Lou needed to pace herself whether she liked it or not. Despite the moans and groans, none of them were too upset about taking off after they finished the Peter Taylor interview. They had rookies running down the addresses Taylor had given them and nothing else required immediate attention. Everything could wait until tomorrow. A few showers and a few winks were just the ticket to get the trio refreshed and sharp for their midnight helicopter ride.

  Niko had made the necessary arrangements and told them to be at the main gate of the Point Magu Naval Air Station by no later then 1:00 a.m.. Vinny sent Lopez to the neighbor west of the Arcano house and Gearhard was positioned across the street at Jane Michaels’ place. They were staked out in the same rooms that the neighbors said they were in during the time of the event.

  Lou felt like they had been driving in pitch black for hours. Even though the rain had stopped, the clouds were low and heavy, blotting out any moon or starlight. Dillon had insisted on driving since his vehicle was new and best equipped to deal with the bad weather. Neither Vinny nor Lou protested. They distracted themselves for the first twenty minutes by flipping levers, pushing buttons and asking Dillon what every switch was for. To Lou’s delight, Dillon resorted to swatting Vinny’s hand to get him to stop.

  They arrived at the main gate several minutes early to find Niko standing with two heavily armed men in uniform whom he had laughing uproariously. Dillon pulled up along side them and rolled down his window. Lou could hear Niko tell the guards that this was his ride. The guards opened the gate without asking to see any identification or questions.

  “Drive on in.” Niko instructed as he hopped in the back seat. “Take a left at the second stop sign.”

  “Aren’t we supposed to check in with those guards?” Vinny asked.

  “I got it handled.” Niko said with a grin. “Here.” He took a roll of papers out of his inside jacket pocket and handed them to Vinny. “That’s a base printout of all civilians that use these facilities.”

  “How did you get this?” Vinny turned in his seat and gawked at Niko. “I’ve been getting nothing but bureaucratic bullshit. I was going to have to go through the Judge Advocate General’s office!”

  “It helps to be cute, Vinny.” Niko winked at him and both Dillon and Lou laughed.

  “I bet.” Vinny grumbled.

  “The problem is that even if a civilian has gone through all the proper channels to use the base, someone can still grease palms to get an off-the-book operation through the gate,” Niko informed them.

  “You sound like you are speaking from experience.” Lou snickered.

  “I can neither confirm nor deny that.” He snickered right back at her. “Make a right and keep going to the last hangar.”

  Dillon glanced at Niko through his rear view mirror and for one split second Lou thought she caught something. Perhaps it was that she was still tired or nervous about flying in a helicopter but she could have sworn she saw some sort of recognition between the two. After thinking about it for a moment, she blew it off to nerves.

  As Dillon approached the last hangar he slowed down and looked to Niko for further instruction. When they pulled inside and came to a stop next to Niko’s Range Rover, Lou immediately caught sight of Max and Finn. When they got out of the car Lou couldn’t help but notice that Max was once again in casual attire. It was a tailored bad-boy look that made her heart beat a little faster.

  “Hello detectives.” Max greeted them, extending his hand to Vinny first. “Good to see you again Detective DeLuca.”

  “Likewise.” Vinny said as he shook Max’s hand.

  “Lou.” He nodded to her and grinned.

  “Mr. Julian.” She cracked a sideways grin and nodded back, grateful he skipped her handshake since her palms were sweating profusely.

  “You must be candidate number eight?” Max looked at Dillon with a weary eye as he shook his hand.

  “Dillon Cole, sir.” Dillon stood stick straight, showing that military edge that both Vinny and Lou had noticed before. “It’s an honor.”

  “Well, I don’t know about that.” Max held the man’s hand for a fraction of a second longer than normal and Lou caught it immediately.

  “Thank you so much for making this possible, as well as loaning us Mr. Gattilusio to consult on this case.” Dillon spoke with extreme respect.

  “I am all too happy to help but don’t thank me for Niko’s assistance, he volunteered.” Max turned and slapped Niko on the shoulder. “He’s very handy, I will admit.”

  “Thanks, boss.” Niko chuckled.

  Lou was still uncertain if she was imagining things but her gut was telling her that something was going on between Niko, Max and Dillon. It wasn’t the time nor the place to get into it though so she shifted her attention to the enormous hanger they were standing in. It was minimally lit but when she looked around she saw two small single engine planes and a Gulfstream G650 parked in the back, gleaming as if it had just been hand waxed and polished.

  “Is that yours?” Lou pointed to the luxury jet and gawked.

  “The company’s.” Max grinned then started walking to the opened hangar doors. “Let’s get this show on the road, shall we? Before the rain decides to come back.”

  “The BBJ is still being customized.” Niko whispered in her ear as they all followed Max out. “We’ll have that based out of Burbank once it’s done though.”

  Lou just rolled her eyes at him. There was apparently no limit to what Max had or could acquire. From stealth helicopters to luxury business jets that could fly from New York to Dubai non-stop while providing hotel like accommodations for up to eight people. Lou was sure this made family vacations to anywhere in the world a breeze, but she still could not wrap her head around having those sort of resources at one’s disposal at any given moment.

  “I suppose you guys invested in Apple when they were still building out of a garage.” She whispered to Niko as they stepped out onto the tarmac.

  “Abby knows potential when she sees it.” Niko smirked. “I made fun of her when she first said the word Google. Who knew?” Lou laughed out loud causing the other men to look back at her. She cleared her throat and tried to make herself look smaller than she already was in their company.

  Had it not been for the raindrops on the fuselage reflecting light from the exterior lamps on hangar, Lou might not have seen the helicopter until they were right on top of it. The thing was a beast. Matte black and nearly sixty feet long with a rotorspan of what looked to easily be forty-five feet. The body of the beast was more squat than Lou expected even though it was probably fourteen feet high. As they approached the open sliding door of the aircraft, Lou could easily see how loads of furniture could be hauled off.

  “What’s the payload capacity of this?” She asked.

  “Specs will tell you it can hold two cargo pallets with a total of four-thousand pounds inside, then nine-thousand pounds externally with the cargo hook.” Finn took the liberty of responding. “So, total external and internal it can haul around ten-thousand pounds.”

  “Five tons?” Lou was terrible at math.

  “There abouts.” He grinned at her. “If it’s just personnel deployment, you can haul a dozen or so
well armed bad boys about two-hundred-fifty miles.”

  “What’s the flight distance from Arcano’s place to here?” Lou asked anyone.

  “Roughly thirty eight miles.” Dillon answered.

  “So how many trips could this thing make without refueling?” She knew that adding a payload would effect things but once again she knew her math skills were not her strong suit.

  “Six at most. When you add cargo, that cuts things down a good bit depending on the weight.” Finn understood what she was getting at. “It’s a short distance so this baby could have hauled all Arcano’s crap in two loads without having to fuss with packing it in carefully. Unless he had a few pianos and billiard tables, I’d say a fair guess would be that they made three trips if they used only interior space to haul everything.”

  “So it was really doable within a four hour window?” Vinny chimed in now.

  “Absolutely.” Finn smiled at him and for the first time Lou could detect a faint accent to his voice. She had never noticed that before and couldn’t quite place where it was from. She would have to remember to ask him later.

  “All aboard!” Niko shouted. “Watch your heads kiddies.”

  Max and Finn went directly to the pilot and co-pilot seats respectively and Lou felt her heart thump when she realized he intended to fly the helicopter himself. It wasn’t that she doubted he could fly the thing, it was more that she had him in her mind as one who had people do the driving and flying for him. As she took her place in the jump seat next to Niko, he apparently saw the concern on her face.

  “It is his toy.” He grinned at her.

  “I guess.” Lou chuckled and strapped herself in.

  Niko passed out headsets to everyone and instructed that although the helo was very quiet, the decibel level and vibration of the blades this close could be damaging to one’s hearing. Without delay they all donned the giant headphones and Max started the engines. Niko slammed the door shut and sat back down next to Lou then gave Max a thumbs-up when he was secured. The vibration of the four-bladed rotor thumped at Lou’s chest and was more intense than she expected. Lou had ridden in helicopters before but this was entirely different. The deep base of the blades drummed through her while the whirring of the engine was remarkably quiet. When Max’s voice squawked through her headset she jumped a little.