by C. M. Sutter
Kate discreetly elbowed me as we walked. I gave her the eyeball roll. We reached the closed door of a room with a plate marked Security attached to it. Ryan turned the knob and allowed us through. I was surprised to see a well-appointed office with a half dozen video monitors set up on a wide shelf attached to the wall at waist level. Several roller chairs filled the space in front of the computers, and to our backs stood a desk with two guest chairs facing it.
“I’m impressed,” Kate said. “These are pretty nice digs.”
“Well, this is my all-day, everyday, work area. I want it to be comfortable. With the number of vandalisms we’ve had over the last few years, Mr. Safrony had the best equipment installed. Our theft and vandalism insurance premiums were beginning to skyrocket. The system has paid for itself tenfold.”
“Understood, and that’s why we’re here. We knew your company had the best security system in town, and luckily for us, your cameras are exactly where we need them to be.”
“Glad to help. So what are you looking for?”
I explained that we needed to see the street footage at the lights from yesterday between five forty-five and six o’clock.
“That’s easy enough to do with precise times. It should only take a minute. Grab a seat.”
Kate and I sat and watched as Ryan typed the date and time into the surveillance system search parameters.
“Okay, here we go. Is there something in particular we’re looking for?”
Kate responded. “Yes, a midnight-blue BMW that will probably have its blinker on. It’ll be in the turn lane to get onto the freeway ramp. We need the front plate number.”
Ryan nodded. “It’ll be in black and white, but the grille of a BMW is easy to spot. I do work at a car dealership, you know.” He gave us a quick grin. “Luckily for you, Wisconsin is one of the states that have mandatory front plate requirements.” He tapped the forward arrow, and we watched as the clock at the lower right of the screen counted off the seconds and minutes starting at five forty-five.
I mentally calculated the time. It could have been closer to five fifty-five that I saw the Alpina. From that intersection, it would take only about five minutes to get to the sheriff’s office. I kept quiet and stared closely at the screen, yet every few seconds I checked the time.
“There! Pause the footage. That’s the car.” I glanced at the time on the screen—5:56. “How close can you pull it in?”
“Let’s find out.” Ryan checked the zoom bar at the bottom of the screen. “We’re at one hundred twenty-five percent right now. I’ll keep increasing it until it pixels, then we’ll have to back it off a bit.” He moved the zoom bar to the right in five percent increments.
“I still can’t read the plate number. Push it all the way.”
Ryan did, but it didn’t help.
“Why can’t we read it?” Kate asked.
“I’m guessing the shadow of the overpass is interfering by creating artificial darkness.” Ryan pointed at other vehicles that were in full sunlight. “See, those plate numbers show up easily.”
“Can you lighten up the entire screen?”
“Maybe. I have to back out of the actual surveillance video and reset the brightness level in the computer settings. It’ll take a few minutes, but then we can check the video again and see if it made a difference.”
I leaned back in the chair and rolled my stiffened neck as Ryan reset the computer’s brightness levels.
“Okay, let’s try this again.” He logged back onto the video footage and set the time for yesterday at 5:56 p.m. “Here we go.”
Kate and I leaned in. “It’s definitely better and brighter than before, but I can only read the last two digits. Those don’t look like Wisconsin plates, though.”
Ryan took a closer look. “If I had to guess, I’d say those are Illinois plates.”
“Yeah, I agree.” I wrote down what I could make of the plate number and that they were possibly Illinois plates. “That’s the best you can get it, right?”
“Unfortunately it is. Maybe your tech department can tweak it a bit more. I’ll email the footage to you if you’d like.”
“That would be great.” Kate and I stood, and I pulled one of my cards out of my pocket and handed it to him. “The email address is on the card. We sure appreciate your help, Ryan.” We shook his hand and showed ourselves out.
“What do you think?” Kate asked as we climbed into the car.
“I think it’s better than what we had before, which was nothing.”
“I mean about Ryan. I noticed he wasn’t wearing a ring.”
I laughed. “Enough of the matchmaking. You can have him for yourself.”
“Wow, that’s a switch.” Kate pressed her temples and hummed.
I gave her an eye roll. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Trying to figure out why you’re passing a perfectly gorgeous man off to me.”
I smiled and thought about the man I’d met at Dick’s yesterday. I was sure I’d run into him again somewhere. North Bend wasn’t that big of a town.
Chapter 37
McKinley noticed the kites soaring in the distance. Brightly colored animal figures and geometric shapes gained altitude as their long tails zigzagged with the wind and propelled them higher. He was close. Another block up, he would turn into the marina’s parking lot in downtown Milwaukee. He saw the silver Lexus sitting at the far northern end of the lot. It was alone and empty. McKinley parked near the rest of the cars. He didn’t want the Alpina to stand out or be linked in any way to the Lexus. He’d walk the extra distance. It was one of the many precautions they were used to taking.
He crossed the parking lot and headed toward the water. He looked left, then right, and then left again. A man sat alone on one of the benches several hundred feet away. McKinley turned in that direction and followed the sidewalk along Lake Michigan. The benches faced the water and afforded onlookers a beautiful view, and the crashing waves only fifty feet away muffled the voices that whispered secrets.
McKinley zipped his jacket and tucked his hands deep into his pockets.
When his father got closer, Frank rose. “Pop.”
“Frank.” McKinley sat and let out a deep sigh. “Chilly out here today. She sure is a fierce lake. I bet there’s been a lot of deaths and sadness because of her. Why did you call me out here, son?”
“It’s Grant.”
McKinley nodded as if he wasn’t surprised. “Grant is his own man, Frank, and if you two didn’t look exactly alike, I’d swear he belonged to a different family. He doesn’t have the chutzpah you do or your drive for financial gain.”
“Yet everything is split equally among us. I’m your right-hand man, Pop, not Grant. He’s in it for himself and nobody else. He doesn’t have your back like I do.”
McKinley pointed at the flock of seagulls bobbing up and down on the waves. “But he’s my son as much as you are.”
“Grant met privately with me yesterday and told me that you killed Joe and his cousin. He brought up the policeman you shot. He knew about all of that, Pop. The question is, how well do you trust him with that knowledge?”
McKinley huffed and looked out across the white-capped water. “That’s the second question.”
Frank stared at his father. “So what is the first?”
“I’m wondering who told him.”
“No need to wonder—it was Juan. He betrayed your confidence, just like Grant will one day.”
“You know it was Juan for sure?”
Frank pulled his collar up to block the wind. “Yes, Grant said it was.”
“Okay, anything else?”
“Watch your back, Pop, and don’t trust anyone except me.”
“Are you going to keep your eye on Grant and the new business?”
“Of course I will, every step of the way.”
McKinley stood. “I have to go.”
“Be safe, old man, and remember, you can trust me.” Frank embraced his father then watch
ed him walk away.
Chapter 38
The guys looked to be hard at work when we returned to the sheriff’s office and entered the bull pen. Jack saw us pass through the security door and came out of his office.
“Get anything?”
I placed my purse in the desk drawer and took my seat. “Not as much as we hoped for, but maybe it’s enough to identify who owns the Alpina. We could only get a partial plate number. Half of the plate was in complete darkness from the overpass shadow. The man at Safrony’s who handles the security system lightened the image the best he could. From what we could tell, it actually looked more like an Illinois plate than a Wisconsin one.”
Jack scratched his two-day stubble. “Maybe that’s why a registered owner didn’t show up in Wisconsin. Did you get the video?”
“It should be in my in-box by now. Thinking our tech geniuses can improve the quality of the image?”
“Possibly, and it’s worth a try. It could save time if we had a full plate number. I don’t want to waste too much effort on this angle, especially when we have no idea if that car has anything to do with the counterfeiting ring or not.”
“Understood. I’ll check my emails first then give Billy a call.”
“Good enough.” Jack tipped his head toward Clayton and Billings. “Anything yet on the best laser printers?”
Clayton spoke up. “Consumer Reports online has listed the top ten laser printers with the best overall quality. We’re going to start making calls to electronics stores to see who sells them, who they sold them to, and how many were sold to each customer.”
Jack nodded then turned back to me. “Amber, what have you got?”
“The video is in my in-box. I’ll call Billy and let him know what to expect.”
“Tell him to put a rush on it.”
“Absolutely.” I made the call downstairs and explained to Billy what we had and what Ryan at Safrony’s had already tried. I sent the attachment to his email address. I turned to Jack. “Billy said he’d do the best he could and have it in our hands after lunch.”
Jack pushed off the doorframe. “Okay, take a half-hour break. It’s vending machine food today, folks. I want everyone to stay close. We have to make some progress on this case before the end of the day or we’re washing our hands of it. We need to focus on things happening in our own county.” He glanced at the clock above the security door. “Everyone be back here by twelve thirty.”
Kate and I grabbed our purses, left the bull pen, and headed to the lunchroom. We browsed the sandwich selections still available. The pickings were slim.
“Damn it, anyway. When do they fill these machines? We don’t have much to choose from.”
Kate chuckled at my disappointment. “It’s Friday, remember? You better buy something before Clayton and Billings get in here. They’ll snap up anything and everything that’s left, otherwise.”
“Fine, I’ll take the tuna salad sandwich. I’m sure it’s gag-worthy by now, but the peanut butter and jelly isn’t filling enough.”
“Hurry up. I hear them coming down the hall. I’ll take the peanut butter and jelly.”
I dropped eight quarters into the coin slot and pressed the button for both sandwiches just as the guys came around the corner.
Kate smiled as they looked at the machine then at us. “You snooze, you lose. Looks like chips for you guys unless you’re going to share that last pizza slice in the machine.”
I slid a dollar bill into the slot on the snack machine and bought two bags of chips. We took our seats and tore open the sandwich wrappers.
“I’ll cover the first few rounds of beer tonight,” Kate said then bit into her peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
“Oh good, so you’re going to Shooters for sure?”
“Absolutely. North Bend needs a new hot spot, and having live music twice a week is a definite plus for this town. You can’t beat that. Jade is coming, right?”
“For sure. Hey, guys. You stopping in at Shooters tonight for the grand opening?”
Chad responded first. “Sure, if Sue and I can get a babysitter.”
I waved my hand through the air. “No excuses. You know damn well your mom will babysit anytime, day or night. How about you, Billings?”
“Count us in. Lynn and I haven’t gone out and done anything fun in five months.”
“Good because Jade is coming too. Maybe we can even get Jack to go. He needs a break from the serious side of life now and then.”
Billings nodded. “I’ll work on him.”
We chowed down our lunches and returned to the bull pen on time. I wondered if Jack had eaten at all. He sat at his desk and stared at his computer with a cup of coffee in front of him.
“Boss?”
He glanced toward the door. “Yeah. What’s up, Amber?”
“I can run back to the lunchroom and get a bag of chips for you if you’d like. Since it’s Friday, there isn’t a lot to choose from anymore.”
“Thanks for the offer, but I’m fine. Give Billy a call and see what he’s come up with on that footage, please.”
“Sure thing.” I returned to my desk and called our tech department.
Todd picked up on the second ring. “Technical Department, Todd speaking.”
“Hi, Todd, it’s Amber. Is Billy around?”
“Yep, one second.”
Billy got on the line. “Hey, Amber, I’ve tweaked the image the best I could and got one more letter of the plate to pop. Oh, and it’s definitely an Illinois plate. I’m sending the new and improved still shot to your in-box right now.”
“Thanks, and by the way, we’re all going to the grand opening of Shooters tonight. Hope you come.”
“Thanks, I just might do that.”
I hung up and called out to the group, “Billy just sent me the tweaked image of the Alpina’s front plate. Let’s take a look.”
Everyone gathered at my back. Jack pulled my guest chair around the desk and placed it next to me. He took a seat. I opened the email attachment, downloaded it, and then double-clicked the image to enlarge it.
“There we go. That’s definitely better than before. Guess our tech guys do earn their paychecks now and then. So, it looks like we only have the first three numbers of the second half of the plate. Basic Land of Lincoln Illinois plate, though. With a car like that, you’d think he would be sporting a vanity plate.”
Kate smirked. “Yeah, like hot shit or something to that effect.”
“Don’t think those types of words are permitted on plates, Kate,” Billings said.
“Did Billy say if he plugged those three digits into the Illinois DMV for that specific car?”
“He didn’t say, but I’ll have him do that right now.” I made the second call downstairs and asked Billy to enter what we had into the Illinois DMV database. I stayed on the phone while he conducted the search.
“Well, that was easy enough. There are only four BMW Alpina B7s registered in the entire state and only one that’s midnight blue. Guess it’s your lucky day, Amber. The vehicle is registered to MFG Incorporated.”
The air deflated from my high-flying balloon. “It’s listed to a corporation, not an individual?”
“Afraid so, and if it’s a privately registered business, you may be out of luck. I’ll try the WHOIS database and see if that company name has a website. If they do and it isn’t privately listed, the owner’s name should show up. I’ll call you right back.”
I hung up and explained our second roadblock. “Billy is going to call me back in a minute.”
“Type the name of that company into the search bar and see what comes up,” Jack said.
I did, and the only thing listed was that MFG Incorporated was a holding company owned by a parent entity identified only as SOG. At that point, the trail ended.
“What the hell does SOG stand for?” Kate asked.
Jack rubbed his furrowed brow. “No clue, but the deeper we get into this case, the less we understand it.”
/> Chapter 39
McKinley returned to the warehouse and retreated to his office. He slammed the door and poured a glass of Scotch. He downed four ibuprofen with the whiskey. The meeting with Frank had given him plenty to think about and opened his eyes to the betrayal going on right under his nose. The thought of Grant, his own son, questioning his ability to run the family business and confiding that doubt to his brother pissed him off and gave him a radiating headache. And then there was Juan, the man who had been McKinley’s right-hand man for years. McKinley had warned Juan and Marco not to discuss the shootings with anyone, and the fact that Juan told Grant anyway was unforgivable. He couldn’t let another day pass—McKinley had to deal with Juan that night.
He chugged the glass of Scotch and poured a second. He scrolled his contact list and tapped on Marco’s name. He waited impatiently as the phone rang five times before Marco picked up. “Marco.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Come into my office now.”
“I’m on my way, Mr. Moore.”
Seconds later, a knock sounded on McKinley’s office door.
“Come in.” He stared straight ahead as Marco turned the knob and entered the room. “Close the door behind you and lock it.”
Marco closed the door, turned the lock, and gave the knob a jiggle. It was secure. He stood until he was offered a seat.
“Sit down, Marco.”
“Thank you, boss.” He took a seat on the velvet chair nearest the door.
“Your new role and responsibilities begin today. I’ve changed my mind about your title.”
“Sir?”
“I’m making you second in charge of business behind Frank. But as far as the daily activities in the warehouse, you’ll answer only to me. I’m making you head of production.”
Marco raised his brows. “I don’t understand, Mr. Moore. Grant is equally in charge of business with Frank, and Juan runs the warehouse production duties.”
“Not anymore on either count.” McKinley stood and reached for a glass from the liquor cabinet behind him. He returned to his seat, poured the second glass of Scotch, and pushed it across the desk.