She hung up the phone and left the restaurant, trembling with reaction.
Somebody has to do something about them, she thought, meaning the Castanos. But just like the other times she’d thought that, she came back to the fact that, if the police, the crime reporters, and the various lawyers couldn’t do anything, she didn’t know who could.
Roni had only gotten about a block from the restaurant when an ambulance and a police car went by on their way toward it. Sordidly curious, she turned and followed them back.
Making sure she was still invisible, Roni stepped into the restaurant. A paramedic was checking the old man for a pulse. After a moment he shook his head. He and his partner covered him with a sheet and moved their stretcher next to the body in preparation to loading him on it.
It’s a crime scene! Roni thought. Aren’t the police supposed to take pictures and dust for fingerprints before those guys move the body?!
The police weren’t even looking at the body or the area around it. Instead they were over looking at a computer behind the bar. At first Roni couldn’t imagine why they were interested in the computer. As she walked that way, a sick feeling rose up inside of her. Sure enough, when she got around to where she could watch the screen, she saw that it was displaying some kind of surveillance video. It had three pictures, presumably from three different cameras. It looked like one each covered the front and back door while the third one covered almost the entire interior of the restaurant with a fish eye view. She’d arrived just as they reached the part where Nick and his man were confronting the owner. The two policemen looked unhappy, but they looked even unhappier, glancing guiltily at one another when the old man was clubbed.
The older cop turned back to the screen, muttering, “Poor bastard.”
The younger man said, “Demopoulos, his name was Demopoulos.” But then he turned his eyes back to the screen.
Nick and his sidekick left the viewing area of the camera, but the policemen kept watching. For a moment Roni wondered why, then queasy certainty washed over her. A moment later she crawled into the scene. I can’t hide from video cameras, she thought in horror, though she realized that it was important substantiation of the concept that she was somehow making people ignore her rather than actually vanishing.
She watched herself in the video just as carefully as the policemen did, moving closer to peer over their shoulders and get a better view. Fortunately, her back was to the camera in the video. She was momentarily grateful for the fact that her family could only afford to buy her the one big, bulky, sexless winter coat that she needed for the coldest days later in the year. With her heavy coat and stocking cap, she thought it was hard to tell she was a girl.
Evidently, so did the two cops. One of them said, “Why’s the guy crawling?”
In an irritated tone, the older one said, “I don’t know. Keep an eye on the screen—see if you recognize him.”
Fortunately, Roni had remained facing away from the camera when she used the phone. There was a small glimpse of her face as she turned to leave the restaurant, but it was brief. She hoped that in that glimpse it remained hard to tell she was a girl much less who she was.
The older policeman grunted. “I didn’t recognize him, did you?”
The younger guy shook his head.
“Okay, copy that part of the video, then erase the disc.”
The young cop sighed. “Are we ever gonna be able to do something about this?”
“Sure,” the older man said in a brittle tone, “on the day you and your family are ready to die.” He turned toward the door, saying back over his shoulder, “I’ll start the report.”
In shock, Roni stood, unmoving.
She realized that fear had paralyzed these two cops too.
Somehow, even though the crime reporter had intimated it, it suddenly struck home that everyone in her city dreaded the Castanos. How could I not have known that? I would never have stared at Nick. If I hadn’t done that, he wouldn’t have ever noticed me and, and…
Panic flooded through her. If the policeman copied the video and it got back to Nick, maybe he’d recognize her.
What’ve I done?!
Thinking that she’d sealed her own death warrant, and perhaps that of her whole family, she got light headed again. She sank to the floor again trying not to pass out and suddenly become visible to everyone. My god! I can’t keep getting dizzy like this! Not when it could kill me!
She looked up at the young cop. He started searching for video files on the computer. A few minutes later he’d found the relevant files. He went out to their car and came back with a portable hard drive. He jacked the drive in and copied the files onto the hard drive. That done, he searched a menu on the hard drive and copied a program onto the restaurant’s computer. That program opened and said, “Reformatting hard disk.”
He’s deleting the evidence! Except, she thought, for the copy he’d made.
The man watched the program for a minute, then, apparently satisfied, he unjacked his external hard drive, slipped it in the pocket of his overcoat and started toward the front door.
For a moment, Roni sat, paralyzed. Maybe they actually can do something to enhance the video that shows me leaving?! Even if they never show it to Nick, what if the cops can tell who I am?
The policeman stopped at the door to wait as the paramedics negotiated the stretcher through it.
Roni stared into the yawning hole of the overcoat pocket where the hard drive resided. Then suddenly she rose to her toes and quickly ran across the room. Reinforcing in her mind that she didn’t want him to notice her, not even her touch, she slipped her hand into the pocket, grabbed the hard drive and pulled it out.
A moment later, the stretcher was out the door. The young cop followed, pulling the door shut behind him and leaving Roni inside. She watched through the glass door as he went over and got into the cop car beside his partner.
A crowd had gathered around the restaurant, staring in at the crime scene. Roni suddenly worried that someone would notice the degradation of their vision when they looked through the spot where she was standing. She’d been standing still, which she knew made the blind spot where she’d been standing more noticeable. She stepped to the side, wondering if she’d have to wait in the restaurant until the crowd dispersed, walking back and forth in order to be sure she remained invisible.
Then she remembered that the restaurant had a back door. She turned and headed that way. As she walked out, she glanced over at the computer that had recorded the video. The hard disk was still reformatting. She considered stopping it, then realized it was also deleting any record of her presence in the restaurant.
She kept walking.
***
Roni’s mind raced the entire walk home. She felt like the entire city was bound up in the Castanos’ reign of terror. From the way the two cops at the Med Delhi had talked and behaved, she had to believe that they didn’t like being under the Castanos’ thumb. But, whether they liked it or not seemed to have a little relevance since the police appeared to be just as terrorized by the Castanos as anyone else in the city. Roni could imagine that defying the Castanos had to be really difficult when you knew they’d come after your family.
At first, she’d thought it had to be impossible for the Castanos to control the entire Police Department, but then she realized they’d probably paid off a few people near the top and threatened the rest. Ordinary cops who tried to buck the corrupt system wound up dead as an object lesson to their compatriots. That wouldn’t have to happen too often before it completely strangled resistance.
The best ones were dead, or maybe they’d left town.
Roni entered their building and walked out to the front where Ravinder was manning the counter. “Dad?”
“You’re late!” he said. Then, as he turned, he saw her face. His expression softened, “What’s wrong?”
“I… I was on Hickory Street on my way home and…” she paused, not sure how to continue her story.
After a moment she went on in a rush, “I saw Nick Castano and his goon go into the Med Delhi.”
Ravinder’s face got a sad expression, “That’s not our business Roni. You need to stay away from those men.”
“I… I know. But, I stayed and watched. I wondered if Nick Castano was harder on us because…” She stopped, then finished in a rush, “Because I knew him in high school and he and I didn’t get along.” She looked up at her dad, “So, I wanted to see how he treated other merchants.”
“Oh, Roni…” Ravinder said apprehensively, sounding like he didn’t want to hear what she had to say.
“Dad, they killed Mr. Demopoulos!”
Ravinder looked shaken. He put a hand on the counter to steady himself, then sat unsteadily on the stool they kept there. “I’m sorry…” he said, though he didn’t clarify whether he was sorry Mr. Demopoulos had been killed, or sorry they lived in the same city as the Castanos, or maybe only sorry Roni had seen the killing.
“Dad! We have to do something.”
Ravinder gave a hopeless shrug, “What can we do?” He looked up into Roni’s eyes, “I quietly tried to organize the merchants in our area once.” He grimaced, “That was before the Castanos became so violent. But somehow they heard about…” He shook his head ruefully, “They burst in and beat up several of the people who’d come to the meeting.” He shook his head, “I couldn’t get anybody to meet again after that.”
“But… There has to be something we could do!”
Ravinder’s expression hardened, “No, there doesn’t. Just because we wish there was, doesn’t mean there will be. What you can do, is stay the hell away from the Castanos. If you see them coming, turn and go the other way.” His eyes softened and focused on his daughter, “And, if they come in the store again when you’re working the counter, come and get me immediately. You shouldn’t have to deal with those bastards.”
“But Dad…”
“No!” Ravinder interrupted angrily, “There’s no ‘but Dad’ to this. Stay away from those people.”
Stiffening her resolve, Roni kept after him, “Can’t we move somewhere else?”
Ravinder closed his eyes for a moment. Roni thought he might be on the verge of one of his explosions. Instead, he shook his head, opened eyes that stared into the distance and said, “My brother, you know he has a store too?”
Roni nodded.
“They have organized crime where he lives too. Not as bad maybe, but it didn’t use to be this bad here either. Let’s say we move… What if it’s just as bad, or maybe even worse in our new location? Even if it’s not, it might get that way. And, that’d be after we spent a huge amount of money making the move.”
Roni remembered that she’d thought about the problems they might have moving and it sounded like her dad believed they’d have exactly the problems she’d already considered.
Ravinder gave her a sad look, then, as someone came in the store, he said, “I know seeing that had to have been… a shock. I’ll cover the counter for a while, and you go see your mother. You two can make some tea and talk about what you saw.”
“It’s okay to tell her about the Castanos?”
“Yeah,” he sighed, “she knows.” He turned to greet the customer.
When Roni stepped into the back hallway, she found Hax standing there wide-eyed. Very quietly, she said, “You heard?”
He swallowed, then nodded jerkily. She had the impression that he hadn’t known much if anything about the Castano family business.
For some reason, she didn’t want her dad to know that Hax had heard. She took him by the elbow and led him away from the entrance to the store. “What did you hear?”
“That the Castanos killed the owner of the Med Delhi.”
Roni nodded, “Mr. Demopoulos.” Somehow, after the young policeman had made a point of it, Roni felt like it was important to say the man’s name.
“Why?!”
“You’ve heard of organized crime?”
With a look of horror, Hax said, “They’re Mafia?”
Roni shrugged, “I don’t know if they’re Mafia, per se, but they seem to be the head of the local organized crime ring.”
“Still, why’d they kill Mr. Dem…?”
“Demopoulos. They shake merchants down for protection money.” She grimaced, “It’s called extortion. If you don’t pay they vandalize your place, or… apparently, they kill some people.”
“He didn’t pay?”
“I guess not. They said they’d given him three chances already.”
Puzzled, Hax said, “How’d you know that?”
“I heard them.”
Astonished, Hax said, “What?! You were in the restaurant?”
“I followed them in to see what they were doing. I knew it wasn’t anything good, but, I… was trying to learn more about them.”
Hax’s eyebrows had ascended as high as Roni had ever seen them. “You followed them in! Are you crazy?”
Roni tilted her head and just stared at her brother, waiting for him to figure it out on his own.
She could see the light dawn. “You were invisible?” he whispered.
Roni rolled her eyes, then nodded. “Of course, I’m not crazy.”
“Holy shit!” Hax breathed. He looked back up the hall toward the store. An inquisitive look appeared on his face. “Why aren’t they… shaking us down?”
Roni lifted an eyebrow.
After a couple of minutes, Hax said, “Oh my God, they are, aren’t they?”
Roni gave a sharp nod, “They’re the reason we’re having such a hard time making a profit nowadays.”
“Oh,” Hax said. He seemed to think for a minute, then he looked back at Roni, “Those bastards! And I thought I hated them because of Sev...” He stopped speaking as his eyes widened, “What about that program we wrote? Should we,” he stopped and looked down, evidently thinking furiously. He lifted his eyes, “Should we be writing programs that’ll piss a Castano off? What if Vito finds out who did it?!”
Roni felt her own expression hardening, “Somebody needs to take a stand somewhere. I don’t think he’s smart enough to work out that something other than a random virus hit him.” She shook her head slowly, “I’m trying to figure out what we could do to take the whole family down.”
Hax looked puzzled, “Don’t we just tell the police?”
“Yeah… Except that’s been tried. The police are scared shitless of the Castanos. The ones in the Med Delhi looked like they hated what’d been done there, but the older one told the younger one they couldn’t do anything unless they wanted everyone in their own families dead.”
Hax looked horrified.
Roni said, “Come on. Dad said to go talk to Mom. He said we could make some tea and talk.” She glanced aside, “Though I don’t know how that’s gonna help.”
They went to the end of the hall where Tansey had her little office. She had a little side business designing advertisements for other people. She also did the advertising for their store as well as ordering their goods. When they appeared in her doorway, she looked up at their faces and immediately said, “What’s happened?”
Roni explained. Before she got very far into it Tansey took them upstairs and started brewing some tea. She listened patiently and, between that and the tea, Roni found she really did feel better. Maybe this is the source of the saying that a shared burden is easier to bear?
After listening to the story and their anxieties, drinking tea and making a few comments, Tansey finally said, “I’d better get back to work. And I expect you guys have your chores too, right?”
Roni got up, thinking she needed to find ways to help the store make more profit. Even if they were losing a big chunk of it to the Castanos, if they could be more profitable they might still come out ahead. As she was about to head down the hall to man the counter at the store, she turned back to her mother, “Isn’t there anything we can do about the Castanos?”
Her mother shrugged. “A lot of people have trie
d… and unfortunately, a lot of those people have died.”
Hax suddenly said, “I thought the FBI was supposed to deal with people like them?”
Tansey looked sad. “There was a nice young man from the FBI investigating last year. He’s dead now. It looked like an accident but… people around here don’t think so. I sometimes fantasize that the agency’s still after the Castanos, just keeping their cards close to their vest until they get enough evidence to put them away. But… I also worry that they’re not. That the Castanos not only killed the nice young man but bought off somebody above him.” She shrugged, “Whatever the truth of it is, please don’t try to call the FBI yourself. What if the Castanos have a mole in the FBI organization…” Tansey shook her head, blinked back a tear, then turned and went into her office, apparently thinking that she’d given them sufficient warning
That night, after Roni’d turned off her light, she began to wonder if she could get to sleep after the day she’d had. Thoughts were pouring through her mind like someone had started a stampede. She heard a knock on her door. “What?”
Since she hadn’t told anyone to come in, she was pissed when the door cracked open a little. Hax leaned his mouth into the crack and whispered, “Can I come in?”
Roni wanted to say no, but then she thought that her brother might be having as much trouble dealing with this whole problem as she was. “Yeah,” she said quietly.
Hax pushed the door open and slipped inside, closing it all but a crack. In the dim light he stepped across and sat on the chair at her little desk. For a minute, he didn’t move. His knee bounced up and down, giving away his nervousness. Just as Roni was about to ask him what he wanted, he said, “I’ve been thinking…”
The Girl They Couldn’t See (Blind Spot #1) (Blind Spot Series) Page 8