Shadows of Deceit (A Series of Shadows)

by Mell Corcoran

  “Immensely.” He chuckled. “See ya in a bit.”

  “Take your time.” She suggested. “The longer you take the less likely I am to stick a pencil up your nose.” She heard him laugh just as she hung up on him.

  By 8:15 a.m. Lou was ready to go and checking her email while enjoying another cup of coffee. When her cell phone started playing some burlesque type stripper song and she read that it was Max on the caller I.D., Lou vowed then and there she was going to find out who was messing with her ring tones. Someone was going to pay.

  “Good morning.” She answered more jovial than usual.

  “Good morning, Detective.” Max greeted her back. “I just wanted to give you an update on the situation. Have a moment?”

  “Sure. Dillon isn’t due here for another ten minutes or so.” Lou shut down her email, grabbed her mug and walked out onto the terrace. “What’s going on?”

  “One family failed to respond to the roll call.” He informed her. “Dunhill will be contacting you this morning but they sent a team in and found the entire family except for the son, decapitated in the middle of the living room.”

  “Oh shit.” Lou shot up out of her seat.

  “My sentiments exactly.” Max sighed. “I have a video conference with the Senatus in a few minutes but I wanted to get you up to speed.”

  “So the blood born kid was taken by Esterhuizen and smuggled out?” Lou asked as she gathered her things.

  “It would appear so.” He was clearly angry, she could hear it in his voice. “You will be coordinating with Dunhill’s team directly. Davidson is going to make it happen in a legitimate stream. The fact that the boy is blood born will be omitted and he will be dubbed as a South African Diplomat’s son for cover.”

  Lou was glad Davidson was getting pulled in to help. “That makes sense.”

  “Niko and the boys have headed to Cuba along with a few of Victor’s Council members.” Max informed her.

  “The South American Aegis Council.” Lou deduced aloud. She was starting to get all the players straight in her head.

  “Correct. As far as Africa, Moshe has already found the traitor within his Council and is dealing with him as we speak.” Max paused for a moment before continuing. “I am not sure what they are going to find in Cuba but I’m sure I won’t hear from them for at least five hours.”

  “You have them traveling at warp speed no doubt.” Lou was trying to make a joke of it. “So this links back to Rojas somehow?”

  “Somehow.” He muttered something under his breath but it sounded like another language to Lou. “I’ll work the Rojas side while you work the Vargas side. I’m thinking that Vargas was a pawn in a bigger scheme, at least Adrianna was. Carlos, he may be clueless but if not, he is deep in it all and probably how Arcano got involved in the first place. I need you to figure that angle out.”

  “Once I get intel on Ernesto Vargas, I should know more.” Lou was optimistic.

  “Ernesto Vargas has been missing for a week.” Max informed her. “You’ll be getting a call from Abby’s contact down south to confirm it through official channels. No one has seen or heard from him since last Thursday night, not even his own security detail.”

  Lou was stunned. “How the hell is that possible?”

  “You and I know how that is possible.” Max growled. “When Ernesto walked into his home in Bogota on Thursday night either one of his security people was paid to look the other way when he was dragged out or someone wiped them of the event. I am guessing that he was terminated when he went inside, then disposed of very carefully. People are being sent to the resort in Costa Rica to question Adrianna Vargas’ uncle but at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if we find him gone and Ernesto’s body being used as a fountain in the foyer.”

  “Well that’s a lovely visual to start the day on.” Lou chuckled. “Is the team headed for Costa Rica going to contact me or you once they have something?”

  “You are point for the rest of the day so keep your cell phone charged and handy.” Max sighed again. “I need to get this meeting out of the way and everything organized before your uncle arrives. On top of everything, Abby is on a tear to get us out of this hotel. I can’t argue with her, it would be a great help for us all to be in closer proximity to one another right now.”

  “Agreed.” Lou tried to force her personal feelings aside. Having Max staying at the house was not only strategically smart but also gave her much more face time with him. That never sucked in Lou’s book.

  “You think we’ll have something to use to get a warrant to search Carlos Vargas’ place?” Lou asked him. “I have a strong suspicion he is at the bottom of all this along with the missing Rojas brother.”

  “More than likely but I leave the civilian side to you.” Max looked at the time. “Give me a heads up before you go in if you do get that warrant. Unfortunately, I need to go now.”

  “You will be the first to know after the judge signs it.” Lou assured him. “Good luck with the Senatus.”

  “Thanks.” Max smiled. “Watch your back, Detective.”

  “I do my best.” She smiled this time and her heart twitched a little when she heard the call disconnect.

  Lou grabbed her phone charger as Max suggested then tossed her bag over her shoulder. Dillon was probably heading up the drive already and they had a ton of work ahead of them. It was going to be a bit tricky working the underlying situation with Vinny in the mix as well as keeping things nice and above board for the District Attorney’s case. Lou decided she and Dillon were going to have to work out some sort of code words to enable them to work more efficiently without drawing undue attention to things. As she shut the front door behind her she saw Dillon’s SUV rounding the drive. They discussed everything as they drugged along with the throng of traffic and decided they would use certain hockey references for their code words. This lead to the second half of the drive being dominated by Lou converting Dillon into a Kings fan.

  Metaphorically speaking, the earth was shifting beneath their feet the second they walked through the doors of the bureau. Where they stepped was precarious at best. Lou never thought in a million years she would ever wish that Vinny was permanently on a desk, but right at that moment it would have made her job a hell of a lot easier. Lou should have known it was going to be tough on Vinny but she hadn’t expected to find him in such disarray so early. His hair was sticking up on end apparently from tugging on it in frustration and he had already discarded his tie. He was sifting through a stack of faxes that had him so confused they may as well have been written in Mandarin Chinese. Dillon tossed Lou a covert glance as he flung his bag on his desk. They had to get a grip on things fast given Captain Davidson would be arriving any minute to throw even more at them. Dillon and Lou had the advantage of knowing to a certain degree what the picture ultimately needed to look like for the public eye. The tricky part was shoving the pieces together to make that picture come into focus without raising any eyebrows.

  Lou looked at the time and knew that Niko and his crew were probably already on the ground in Cuba, but that was something only she and Dillon could know. What they needed right now was to shine the spotlight on the Vargas family and get probable cause for a warrant on Carlos Vargas’ home and office. If Vinny’s stack of faxes didn’t have the key hidden somewhere in the text, Lou knew that Davidson would be giving them data that would help somehow. She just had to kill ten minutes or so until he got there.

  “Nice of you two to finally show up!” Vinny grumbled as he tossed the papers on to Lou’s desk.

  “It’s my fault, Lieutenant.” Dillon apologized. “I had to drop off a check for the house.”

  “Yeah, well congratulations, now get your ass to work.” Vinny scrubbed his face with his hands, clearly frustrated. “All of that crap was waiting for me when I got here and I gotta tell you, this case is even more of a cluster than it was last night! I have no idea what the hell Interpol is talking about with this shit. I don’t even think they know
!” He paced around his desk for a moment. “The captain is coming down here in a few minutes so I suggest you two try and get a clue on this crap. I’m getting some air and some coffee.” Vinny stormed out.

  “Got any Xanex on you?” Lou asked Dillon, only half joking.

  Dillon watched Vinny fling the door open as he left the office. “That’s gotta suck. Might not be a bad idea to stash a couple for instances like these.”

  Lou gathered all the papers Vinny had tossed and sat down at her desk. “OK, let’s see what we can make of this.”

  Dillon sat down and rolled his chair up close to Lou and they started sorting out the data. They piled up all the information on the surveillance of Esterhuizen that Dunhill had sanitized for public consumption. The field reports were thin enough that it looked like routine surveillance on a suspected arms dealer who just lost his tail somewhere in Cape Town. Nothing was mentioned about him boarding the freighter or anything about Rio or Cuba. Both Dillon and Lou agreed this would be very helpful in turning the biological for sale tip into a bogus lead. If all went really well, a report from their Sanguinostri agent at MI5 would be on it’s way to help bolster this conclusion.

  The next pile to be sorted was the South American intel. During the night, Abby’s Regional Police contacts had forwarded surveillance reports on Ernesto Vargas which had been sanitized just enough so that things looked completely above board and in line with normal police surveillance. The reports dated back six months and detailed two meetings between Ernesto and Carlos. One such meeting had taken place two weeks before Christmas at a coffee shop four blocks away from Arcano Imports corporate headquarters in Medellin, Colombia. The meeting had lasted just over an hour and surveillance photos showed Carlos and Ernesto embracing as they said their farewells. It looked very warm and cozy to Lou.

  The second meeting, however, appeared to have been an impromptu visit from Carlos’ brother during a very short visit Carlos had made back to corporate headquarters just three weeks ago. Within the documents Dillon had singled out a security report from the Arcano office that detailed an altercation ensuing when Ernesto entered the building and demanded to see his brother. It had taken a half an hour for Carlos to clear Ernesto with security so that he could be escorted to his office. Once Ernesto was behind Carlos’ closed office door, the visit had lasted well over an hour and ended with big brother being escorted out by security. Not so warm and cozy this time. Before Lou could put the paper down, Dillon was already on the phone to the local investigator to see if they could get any more data from the Arcano staff about the altercation. While Lou listened to Dillon rattle off in Spanish, she came to the conclusion that the second visit had not been a planned one and Carlos was definitely avoiding his brother. This was good, really good, and just might put them over the edge to probable cause if Captain Davidson brought them solid data on Ernesto Vargas being missing. Lou knew in her gut that Carlos Vargas was the key in all this but she couldn’t get it straight in her head as to why. At least not yet. It may have been Ernesto at first, using his brother to try and gain access to Arcano shipping lines for simple drug smuggling. Ernesto sends his daughter in to manipulate Casius instead of relying solely on his estranged brother for the access. That didn’t explain the decapitations of the heavy weight bad guys though. Maybe the Costa Rican Rojas brother decided to go into business with his brother-in-law then decided to go back into the old family business like dear old dad. Why risk the wrath of the Sanguinostri playing around with a blood born though? Salvatore Rojas had met the ultimate punishment for running a blood slave operation, wouldn’t his sons have learned how dangerous crossing the Sanguinostri could be after all they had been through? Where the hell was the other brother anyway? What was going on in Cuba? So many questions to be answered but so few of them could ever see the light of day as far as the Sheriff’s Department was concerned. It was like threading a needle with a rope.

  Lou had about three more minutes to wait before captain Davidson was scheduled to arrive. She couldn’t help staring at the door, willing the man to get there sooner. Lou felt like a race horse being put into the gate just before the race. She had to wait for the other horses to get locked in before they hit that lever and they could finally run.

  Niko Gattilusio was not a small man by any means. Despite his mild and gentle demeanor, his imposing stature drew attention when he walked into a room or meandered down a sidewalk. On a mission such as this, that was a distinct disadvantage. They landed undetected on the shores of Matanzas, Cuba, just before first light and had taken cover at the home of one of the very few Sanguinostri operatives on the island. They were briefed by the locals on current events and were given a who’s who of the criminal element throughout the region, including Juan Rojas.

  Doctor Rojas, as he was known in Cuba, had established an exclusive and very lucrative practice he was running out of one of the high-end resorts in Veradero. Dubbed a ‘medispa’ that catered to the filthy-stinking-rich and corrupt of Europe, Rojas’ facility was known for cheep plastic surgery with no questions asked as well as highly questionable anti-aging procedures that the medical community at large considered barbaric. As Niko flipped through the intel, it clearly explained why Caroline had been unable to trace the serial numbers on Angela Boone aka Adrianna Vargas’ implants. She obviously had spent her eighteenth year in Cuba visiting her uncle and getting an overhaul. Niko scanned the data carefully, encrypted the files then transmitted them to Lou via satellite uplink. The Cuban government had such a massive stranglehold on communications going off the island that a simple email was not an option.

  Lena Ruiz, a member of the South American Aegis Council, walked in the front door of the villa they were all hold up in, accompanied by two of her associates. They had arrived on the same stealth transport with Niko, Yuri, Finn and Conner that morning and a plan had been formulated by the time the first rooster crowed. The woman was gifted with the same talent as Frank, the ability to wipe selected memories from an individual. This had come in exceptionally handy for their recon work at the medispa they were currently returning from. Lena had dressed to the nine’s and walked into the facility playing a very wealthy and pampered wife of a very mean and nasty Venezuelan drug lord. As they suspected, flashing an obscene amount of euros got them a personal audience with Rojas. During a bogus consultation for a totally unnecessary breast augmentation and nose job, Lena’s associate was able to force his way into Rojas’ mind undetected and learned that the blood born had been there not long ago and that Rojas and his brother were in cahoots with Ernesto Vargas. Unfortunately they were unable to get much detail on the extent of that relationship. However, Lena and her men were able to glean that Ernesto Vargas was not dead. He had recently been at the facility and left a very healthy man in the company of Doctor Rojas’ brother, Manuel. Now all Niko needed to find out was where they had gone and what the hell they were up to.

  “We know what he is up to.” Lena told him solemnly.

  “Doctor Rojas?” Niko asked. “You got a read on what he’s doing besides being a scumbag plastic surgeon for the lowlife of the universe?”

  “Yes, he got a very clear read on him.” She paused a moment before continuing. “It apparently is an all consuming thought in his mind, which disgusts me to no end.”

  “What is he doing?” Niko could see she was upset.

  “He has taken the blood slave business to a whole new level.” Lena sat down and sighed heavily. “From what we could figure out, the basement level is the production facility. He has his hooks in blood banks all over Cuba and he siphons off the top of every patient that walks through the door. But that’s not the worst of it.”

  “What the hell?” Niko felt his head growing hot.

  “People we know, Niko, members of our families secretly import from this bastard!” Tears streamed down Lena’s face as she continued. “He has people shipped in, kidnapped, holds them prisoner in the basement while they pump out their blood into some sort of special bot
tling system. He pays top dollar for rare blood types, crates them up and sells them like rare bottles of wine.”

  Niko could barely breathe. “How many people does he have down there?”

  “We can’t be certain just by the short read we got off him during the consult.” Lena shook her head. “The numbers fluctuate in his memory but there are too many just to walk out the door all at once.”

  “More than a hundred?” He prayed not.

  “I believe so.” Leana choked back a sob. “How are we going to get them out?”

  “Leave that to me to figure out.” Niko assured her as he grabbed his satellite phone and headed for the roof. “Find out where Doctor Rojas is right now. I think I want to go have a little chat with him.”

  The roof of the small, non-descript villa was set up as an outdoor patio complete with a little garden and sitting area. Connor, Yuri and Finn had been up there going over the security for the medispa when Niko walked up the stairs.

  “What do ya know?” Connor asked, reading the anger on Niko’s face.

  “You can listen in while I tell Max.” He said as he dialed.

  It only took Niko five minutes to brief Max on everything while Connor, Finn and Yuri did a slow burn listening in. Niko’s voice trembled with rage as he relayed the details Lena had given him then requested a directive on how to proceed. Max told Niko to stand by then placed him on hold.

  “What is he saying?” Finn whispered to Niko.

  “I’m on hold.” Niko responded through gritted teeth.

  Connor blinked. “On hold? What the...” Niko quieted him by holding his hand up when Max came back on the line.

  “Given this is a joint operation with the South American Council, I had to get confirmation from Victor before I spoke out of turn.” Max explained.