Shadows of Deceit (A Series of Shadows)

by Mell Corcoran

  “I’ll call you when I hear something.” She assured him.

  “Likewise on my end.” Frank sighed. “This is a mess Lou. I am praying that son of a bitch wasn’t importing his crap here. If he was and we missed it, Max is going to go postal.”

  “I know.” Lou paused for a moment as a thought occurred to her. “Hey, the former agent here, the one that got shipped off to Alaska when you guys came in?”

  “Gilroy?” Frank replied.

  “Yeah, that’s him. Wasn’t he involved in black market crap like this?” Lou vaguely remembered being told something to that effect. She was still recovering when they had briefed her on the agents that were swept out. “That was only a couple months ago. Maybe he was involved and could give us info on Rojas.”

  “Uh, Lou.” Frank whispered. “He was terminated from his position. Not pink-slip go collect unemployment termination. We’re talking fire and brimstone kinda termination. Remember, I explained all that to you?”

  It sounded semi familiar but she was foggy on a lot of things from those early days. “Oh. I kinda remember that. High treason or something?”

  “Exactly.” Frank’s voice was normal again.

  Lou frowned, figuring she hit another dead end there. “I’ll pull up the reports on that when I get home. Maybe I can find something referring back to his operations or a contact that could lead us to Rojas here.”

  “I’ll do that now.” Frank insisted. “It will give me something to do besides worry about the guys.”

  “Thanks Frankie.” Lou was grateful for his help.

  “No problem.” Frank hesitated a moment. “Hey Lou...”

  “Yeah?” She had almost hung up on him.

  “Just a heads up here.” He was whispering again. “No matter what goes on today or tonight, we all gotta be at the dedication tomorrow or Max will flip out.”

  Lou was a little stunned. “Are you serious? With everything going on he’s going to give a crap about the park?”

  Frank chuckled. “Lou, he’s been like a massive dictator over that park. No way in hell he will miss that dedication. If you don’t show? It will crush him.”

  “It’s the one thing I’ve been looking forward to since you silly people invaded.” Lou grinned. “I will be there.”

  “Good.” He chuckled then whispered again. “Don’t let on I told you that, please?”

  “It will be out secret.” Lou hung up just as Dillon got back to the car with his arms loaded, balancing a tray of coffees in one hand while fishing his keys out of his pocket with the other.

  Dillon drove extra slow on the way back so Lou had plenty of time to get him up to speed. They both agreed that with each aspect of the case that they gained clarity, others just got more confusing. Neither of them had really considered the other Rojas brother let alone he and Ernesto being in league together. They agreed that the blood smuggling operation had to be what Arcano imports was being used for but they had no idea how they were going to keep that out of their murder cases. Both Lou and Dillon were praying that somewhere in the mix, Ernesto was smuggling drugs through Arcano’s shipments, otherwise they had no clue how they were going to close this case publicly.

  Vinny was waving the phone at Lou when they walked back into the squad room. Lou did a sprint, trying not to spill the coffees along the way. She grabbed the phone out of his hand without asking him who it was.

  “Detective Donovan here.” She announced to the unknown caller.

  “Detective, this is Constable Flores in San Jose, Costa Rica.” The man spoke with a heavy accent.

  “Yes, hello Constable, thank you for getting back to me so soon.” Lou acted as though they had spoken before.

  “My men and I just got back from investigating the Flora Negra resort in Santa Teresa, Mr. Manuel Rojas’ establishment.” Flores got straight to the point. “I will be forwarding you copies of the reports, of course, but I thought I should call you right away and let you know what we were able to find. I assume you have a moment?”

  Lou tossed her bag on the floor and scrambled for a fresh notepad. “Absolutely! I’m all yours.”

  “First of all you should know it is a very high-end boutique sort of place which made interviewing the staff much easier than we expected.” Flores sounded very pleased. “The front desk, bell and housekeeping staff all recognized Casius Arcano and confirmed that he had been a guest on three separate occasions. He was accompanied by a woman on all three visits and the staff identified her as Angela Boone. However, several of them remember the woman from other visits, alone, without Mr. Arcano. Those statements are interesting. I have accounted for two visits within the last several months but the woman did not use the name Angela Boone, rather she went by Adrianna Vargas.”

  “Really?” Lou was surprised to hear this.

  “Yes.” Flores continued. “The woman was here over the Christmas holiday, into the new year. That was quite a topic of gossip and many of the staff were confused because the owner referred to her at their holiday party as his niece. According to many of the statements he was very warm towards the woman, a little uncomfortably so, as a couple of the maids told me.”

  “Eww.” Lou cringed. “That mean what I think it means?”

  “Yes, it does.” Flores sounded disgusted as well. “Adrianna Vargas and Manuel Rojas had been seen in very intimate settings. Sitting a little too close together, very touchy-feely as you would say. She was here for three weeks during that visit and on three separate occasions, Manuel Rojas was seen leaving her private villa very early in the morning, wearing the same clothing he had been seen wearing the night before.”

  “That family is screwed up beyond belief!” Lou had no real explanation for it.

  “Agreed.” Flores chuckled. “Now, I was able to speak with one of the maids who was in charge of Mr. Arcano’s villa when he was last here with the woman. She clearly remembered the altercation the day that Mr. Arcano left.”

  “What did she remember?” Lou was a little suspicious of someone’s recall nearly a year after the fact.

  “The events as were told to you by a Mr. Taylor? They were pretty well substantiated by the maid but her take on things was a little different.”

  “How so?” She asked.

  “First of all, Mr. Arcano apparently had never met the owner of the establishment, Manuel Rojas that is. Which is a little odd given Rojas has a reputation for being very hands on with the guests. The housekeeping staff do their work around the guests schedules so the maid in question remembered that Mr. Arcano was supposed to be out snorkeling and the Boone woman was scheduled to be at the salon and spa. Logically, she was going to service their villa while they both were out.”

  Lou furrowed her brow. “She remembered their schedules? That’s a little convenient, don’t you think?”

  Flores understood Lou’s apprehension. “Because of what she witnessed. I don’t doubt her for one second. She let herself into clean the villa and walked in on the Boone woman and her boss, Manuel Rojas, getting out of bed, both naked.”

  Lou felt her stomach turn. “Lovely.”

  “If you say so.” Flores jested. “Boone ran into the bathroom while Rojas stood there, naked, yelling at the maid for intruding. The maid gathered her things and headed out of the villa only to see Mr. Arcano walking up the path. She debated on running back and warning Rojas but she hid in the bushes instead.”

  “She hid and watched the train wreck?” Lou snickered.

  “She did indeed.” Flores confirmed. “She was particularly shocked that her boss beat the crap out of Mr. Arcano as opposed to kissing his ass like he usually does when he screws his guests. That is a direct quote from the maid, by the way. Her words, not mine.”

  “OK so I can see how she would remember that so vividly then.” Lou didn’t think she would forget something like that either. “I’m surprised he didn’t fire her.”

  “Apparently, Manuel Rojas’ indiscretions with lady guests is a common occurrence.” The con
stable informed her. “If he had to fire every staff member that caught him in the act, he would have to go to Panama or Nicaragua to find new employees. His reputation as a ladies man is well known in all the surrounding towns.”

  “So what about Adrianna, Angela, whatever her name is, her last visit?” Lou wanted to get back to current events.

  “Adrianna Vargas was here roughly four weeks ago and stayed for a full week. The night manager told me that she arrived on Sunday the twenty-sixth of February, very early, barely past dawn.” The constable was very specific. “Apparently her visit was not planned and she had only a small bag with her. Rojas himself put her in the worst room they have and told the maid staff not to service it. The same thing went for the kitchen. He gave orders for her to receive no room service.”

  “The honeymoon was clearly over.” Lou said and wondered why Rojas was so rude to her all of the sudden.

  “Hardly anyone saw her leave the room but when they did they say she looked terrible. Apparently that was very unusual for the woman. The staff describes her as being very vain and flashy. Even when she sat on the beach or by the pool she was all done up. The women here say she was ridiculous. An important point to mention is that no one saw her leave the hotel. By all accounts she took off on Wednesday but there is no record of her checking out and no records of her calling anyone from the room during her stay, not even a cab.”

  “Interesting.” Lou thought out loud. “What does Rojas say about all of this?”

  “Now that is where it gets really interesting.” Flores hushed his voice a bit. “Rojas is not here.”

  Lou blinked. “What? Where is he?”

  “Rojas spent two days with his lawyers after Vargas left. He promoted his part-time day manager to full time and informed him that he would be going away for several days and that he should contact the lawyers if any serious problems arose.” Flores’ voice regained it’s normal deep timbre. “Rojas even gave the manager a villa to live in full time. He didn’t explain anything further to anyone. He was gone Friday, the ninth of March and no one has seen or heard from him since. There are rumors though. The story I keep getting is that he told his lawyers his girlfriend in the States was in trouble and he had to go help her and he wasn’t sure how long it would take.”

  “Have you spoken to the lawyers yet?” Lou asked.

  “I have certainly tried! But they will not say one thing. It’s all privileged according to them but a special investigator is en route and will be conducting another interview tomorrow.” Flores cleared his throat. “This particular investigator is especially skilled in this type of thing. Unfortunately, she is otherwise engaged at the moment so we must wait.”

  Lou got the message loud and clear. “I understand.” The investigator must have been involved with the mission in Cuba, with Niko and the rest of the guys.

  “We’ve checked with all of the local airports and there is no record of Manuel Rojas flying out on anything commercial.” The constable was clearly irritated. “We are currently checking private flights but you might have better success looking on your end. Perhaps your Homeland Security contacts can help you pinpoint when he entered your country.”

  Lou understood that Flores was steering her in the proper direction for everything to be admissible. “That’s my first call as soon as we are finished.”

  “I’m sorry that I couldn’t be of better service to you, Detective.” Flores sighed.

  “Are you kidding?” Lou laughed. “You were a huge help! Thank you so much for everything and I look forward to reading your reports, especially the one from your special investigator.”

  “Everything will be forwarded as soon as possible.” He assured her. “I will contact you if we gain any further information. Good luck on this Detective.”

  Lou snorted. “Thanks, I need some luck. Good bye Constable.”

  “Good bye.” He said then hung up.

  Lou immediately fished out the number for her contact within Homeland Security, knowing there was no way to avoid contacting them anymore. At least he was a Sanguinostri insider that would keep things contained. The man answered her call on the first ring as though he was expecting it. Lou was careful with what she said since Vinny and Dillon were listening in while they devoured their lunch. Agent Callahan told her he would get on it and get back to her as soon as possible. If he could figure out where and when Manual Rojas entered the country, Lou had a better shot of tracking him down. Once again, it was going to take time.

  “What came of the search at Angela Boone’s Studio City apartment?” Lou asked, finally getting a break to eat her own sandwich.

  “Barnes and Rochelle supervised the search.” Dillon told her as he cleaned up his trash and hunted for the report.

  “I got it.” Vinny said as he ate his last pickle then flipped through some pages. “The place was empty when they got there but the lease was paid up until July. It looked like a cleaning crew went through the place. New carpet and paint even.”

  “That sounds familiar!” Lou croaked, having swallowed prematurely, almost choking before she could continue. “No one saw her move out? No one knows when she magically disappeared? There any security on the building?”

  “It’s a key pad thing with an intercom that works through the phone lines.” Vinny squinted as he looked at the report. “Apparently, everyone has the same code. Guests buzz the apartment number and the tenant can buzz them in by dialing the code on their phone. It pops the lock on the gate and voila, you’re in.”

  “There are four buildings, three floors with seven apartments per floor.” Dillon apparently found his copy of the report. “Service elevators run at the back of each building and lead to the tenant parking lots. There is a camera at the entrance of the lots but according to the property manager, one has been broken for a year.”

  Lou rolled her eyes. “Of course it has.”

  “A moving van could have come in from the broken side and loaded up without anyone questioning anything.” Dillon continued. “The turnover rate at that complex is pretty quick so no one really gets to know anyone or pays much attention to people moving in or out.”

  “None of her neighbors knew her at all. One guy on the ground floor remembers seeing her a few times but I think he just remembered her implants.” Vinny scoffed. “He thinks he remembers seeing her on Valentine’s Day because she was dressed for a hot date, wearing a really low cut red dress and matching stilettos.”

  Dillon grabbed another pile of papers and started flipping through them. “Inventory of the beach house closet has a red dress and red stilettos. Had to be her.”

  “So she had a hot date on Valentine’s Day.” Vinny waggled his eyebrows.

  “Yeah but with who?” Lou wondered. “You think it was Casius?”

  “Let me look at his calendar.” Dillon said as he pulled up the file on his laptop. “He has a notation for dinner with Luna here, nothing else.”

  “The dog.” Lou spun around in her chair again.

  “I can call Taylor and ask him if he remembers anything about Valentine’s Day.” Dillon suggested. “Casius may not have told anyone, but Taylor may have some recollection of his behavior that day or the day after?”

  “It was on a Tuesday, right?” Lou asked them. “I was in a coma so I missed it.” She tried to make a joke of it.

  “That’s kind of morbid, Lou.” Vinny said with a scowl while Dillon just looked dumbstruck.

  Lou laughed. “I was joking! Sheesh! Yeah, call Taylor and see if he remembers anything.” Dillon picked up the phone and dialed.

  Their list of players had gone off the grid at various points in their timeline. Those that had resurfaced had done so dead. Ernesto Vargas and Manuel Rojas, along with the blood born boy, were all still missing unless Niko and the rest of the Council could find them in Cuba. Lou looked at the time and knew that even thought it was just past 3:00 p.m. for her, it was three hours ahead for the guys. She wouldn’t learn anything more from that end until much la
ter. It was all up to the agent at Homeland Security now. If he could find a time and location for Esterhuizen or Manuel Rojas entering the country then they would have a place to work from. As it stood, they only had speculation and hunches about Carlos Vargas, none of which the District Attorney would buy for a warrant. Even if Dillon got a solid read from Peter Taylor on the possibility of a Valentine’s Day reunion between Casius and Adrianna Vargas a.k.a Angela Boone, it really only added something else to the timeline. Given Taylor’s detailed description of how devastated Casius had been upon his return from Costa Rica, it really seemed unlikely to Lou that he would ever meet with the woman again. At least not willingly. Their bodies had been bound together before they had been set on fire, forcing them into that embrace. Perhaps whoever sent Adrianna Vargas to seduce Casius in the first place was sending some sort of message. If they had just stayed together, would either of them have been burned to death? Was it the suspect’s way of getting what he had wanted from the beginning in his nefarious plan, in some sick and grotesque manner? The thought of this rang inside Lou’s head as plausible. It made sense. Another sadist exacting control, one way or another. Even with this new thought it didn’t get them any closer to the who. It could have been Adrianna’s father, Ernesto Vargas, or her uncle Carlos for that matter. There was clearly something going on with her uncle, Manuel Rojas and they knew now that Adrianna was aware he was her uncle and he clearly knew she was his niece. Not like that mattered. Lou felt her skin crawl when she thought about the uncle and niece having an affair together. They were obviously tweaked and depraved to be sleeping with each other. How tweaked and depraved was a question Lou was not in any rush to have answered.