by Bob Moats
"You have to get the info for the auction to us as soon as you hear from Dark," Lynn said.
"What if he doesn’t tell me?" Buck asked.
Lynn thought for a moment, "We may need to hook you up for GPS. I’ll have Dave set it up for you."
"Will that thing follow me to the john?" Buck laughed.
"I hope not, but we’re lucky it has no sound capabilities. We don’t need to hear you fart," I said.
"Gentlemen, it’s now after one in the morning, I think we can call it a night," Lynn said as airport security was putting the men from the jet into a van to be taken to the office of the airport Homeland Security to be detained.
We all agreed and went to our vehicles. I drove Earl back to the office where he left his car and he drove off. I headed home and the house was dark by the time I got there. I didn’t hear the driveway alarm going off so I presumed Penny didn’t set it. I parked the van and went in the front door to find Willy sitting in the middle of the kitchen looking half-asleep.
"Are you hungry, is that why you’re in here?" I said standing at the door to the kitchen.
"He and I are both hungry, did you bring any food home with you?" Penny said coming up behind me. "Did you get your kidnappers?"
I put my arms around her and pulled her in tightly, "Yes, we did. They are on ice for now until we get the boys back tonight. I hope this ends on a good note. As to food, I didn’t know I was supposed to bring any."
"It’s alright; I don’t expect you to think of mundane things like feeding your wife and son. I’ll whip up something for us. I presume you haven’t eaten?"
"Had a Carl’s Jr. burger earlier but I could use a meal. Are you going to wake Angelo or attempt to cook yourself?"
She whacked my arm and went into the kitchen, I followed.
We had microwave treats, Penny’s best way of cooking and then headed to bed. Willy was put on his Bate’s Motel chair and circled a few times before plopping down with a snort. We were in bed quickly and Penny snuggled close. She was asleep before I could even get comfortable, she could do that very easily. I lay there thinking about what may go down tonight; hopefully it would come to an end. I slept well this morning.
Morning, Penny was already out of bed, I didn’t hear anything from the kitchen so I figured Angelo was busy with his mother and Gino. Then I figured Penny would be back to her bowl of oatmeal and I would be toasting slices of bread. We shouldn’t get used to Angelo’s cooking, he may move any day now. I thought about fronting the money so Angelo could open his restaurant, but I’d hate to lose him as a bodyguard. I’d ask him about it to see how he felt.
I got up and went to my bathroom and readied my body for the day. I was shaved, showered, groomed and dressed to go out and fight crime. Penny was now banging pans and I went out to see what she was up to. Surprisingly, she cooked up pancakes for us.
"Well, I see Angelo has rubbed off on you."
She smiled and put the dish in front of me. We ate and it wasn’t half bad, then I collected the plates and we kissed at the door to go to our jobs.
"Are you going to see Francis today?" I asked as we walked to our vehicles.
"Later, she’s spending time with Angelo this morning, they are sightseeing."
"Good, I’ll see you later."
I came through the back door of the office setting off the cowbell and waved to the camera. I went to my office and sat checking my email, nothing again. I was offended that no one even cared enough to send me spam.
Lacey came to the door and said, "Talked to Mac this morning, it’s good you guys are going to get the boys back."
"I’m just hoping all goes well. Any messages for me?"
"Nope, nobody cares enough to leave you messages."
"Thanks for the ray of sunshine, go do some work to earn your raise."
She laughed and went off.
I picked up the phone to call the Walkers and the Feltons, being cautious about what I was going to tell them. They both responded well and I gave them some hope. I sat back as my cell phone buzzed, caller ID said it was Lynn.
"I hope you don’t have any bad news," I said.
"Well, not for the boys, but there was another jewelry store hit last night. Same M.O., door unlocked, no alarm."
"Dark is spreading his men out. I thought robbery was going to watch the stores?"
"We couldn’t watch all of them, Vegas just has too many, they happened to hit one we didn’t have eyes on. I don’t know if they knew we were watching or just lucky. Heard from Buck yet?"
"No, I’m just waiting, hopefully they’ll find out something."
Earl walked in and I signaled him to sit. "Where are you?" I asked Lynn.
"I’m at the jewelry store trying to get any connection to Dark. Robbery is cooperating in this since we have a common connection. Why don’t you stop by and do some snooping. It’s near the corner of Tropicana and Decatur, watch for all the black and whites. "
"We’ll do that."
We?" she said cautiously.
"Yeah, Earl just came in."
"Oh goody, we really need him this morning," she laughed and hung up, I put my phone back in my pocket.
"What?" Earl asked. "You were talking about me."
"It’s nothing really, she’s happy you are on the case."
"That’s not what she really said is it?"
"Earl she likes you, even if you annoy her."
"I do no such thing, do I?," Earl said with indignation.
"Yesterday you suggested she become a stripper, she’s a sensitive person right now since she’s pregnant."
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I’ll try to be more understanding."
"Shall we go check out another robbery of a jewelry store?"
"Again? Boy, Dark must need the money."
I went out to the lobby and told Lacey we were leaving and she said, "About time."
I just ignored her and led Earl out to the van. We arrived at the store and found Lynn standing with a couple suits. I presumed they were official.
We came up and Lynn introduced them, they were from robbery division. "Jim we have another problem, the store owner says one of his employees was in the store all night doing inventory, now she’s missing."
"Think she was taken by Dark’s men or was she in on it?"
"Don’t really know at this point, but she’s a lifelong resident of Vegas, so I doubt she was in on it. Just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I have Warren running her through the system to see. Her name is Delinda Niles, lives in North Vegas."
"So was this place robbed the same as the last?" Earl asked.
"Yep, back door unlocked and the alarm shut down. Owner is blaming Delinda for leaving the door unlocked, but I told him it was a stretch to think that someone just happened to come by at that time to rob the place. Besides, one woman in the building alone at night, I’d be sure she would have had the doors locked."
~~*~~
"Damn it Ned, did you have to bring her back here?" Dark was scowling.
"I just thought she could be sold to the Arabs, she’s not bad looking. Besides she saw us after Benny opened the back door."
"Our sales to the foreign buyers is over for now, we can’t take her on the road with us. Just dispose of her, and do it quickly, we don’t need any more prisoners."
"Okay boss, it’ll be done. The desert here is so nice and big, they won’t find her for a long while."
He left the trailer, Dark looked to Skeeter, "Is the auction going to go on as planned?"
"Yep, it’s all arranged and everyone knows where to meet."
*
Chapter 18
The CSI supervisor, Larry Wayne, came over to Lynn and said, "Same as the other store, we got nothing, and the store’s security tapes are all missing. We did find one camera that I think they missed outside, from across the street at a party store. I have my men over getting the tapes from them; maybe we’ll have something to show."
"Thanks Larry, keep me infor
med if any of Dark’s men show up on it." Larry agreed and went back into the jewelry store.
"Are you taking lead on this?" asked Ted Dresher, a detective from robbery, who was standing by listening.
"I’m sorry Ted, no, I’m just hoping to gather as much evidence on this crew to put them away for way too many crimes, but you have the scene, it’s yours, but keep it under wraps until tomorrow." He agreed and went back to his men.
"If this Delinda turns up murdered, then it goes to homicide, so you may have an official stance on it," I offered.
"Not that I’m hoping for murder, but I’m in a gray area here. Weber is letting me take the case because he wants to see the boys returned and just about all the other department caseloads are heavy. Luckily there have been no murders in the city for a few days, freeing me up," she said with a grim smile.
"I guess my murder curse is taking a vacation," I laughed.
Lynn’s cell phone rang and she answered, listened for a long pause and thanked the person on the other end. "That was Warren, he was running the check on Niles back in the squad room and a report came in, he took it since he was the only one in homicide, it seems they already found Niles, dead in the desert."
"How did they find her out there, it’s a big desert?" Earl asked.
"It seems that two hikers were exploring for rocks out off the highway towards Boulder City when they saw a truck pull into the desert. Two men got out and pulled what looked like a woman from the back of the truck and put a bullet in her head. They drove off and the hikers went to the woman, she was dead of course. They called police and it came back to Warren in the precinct. It’s now homicide, Dark is digging in deeper."
"When we get the boys back, you’re going to have a ball nabbing Dark aren’t you?"
"Bet your sweet bippy, his ass is going to be mine. Him and that whole damn carnival. I’ll have all of our SWAT and backup to arrest the entire bunch of them. They don’t come into Las Vegas and do this crap on my watch."
~~*~~
Buck and Mac were back at the round-up and sweating in the heat, worse now today, it had climbed to over 110 degrees. Skeeter came up and said, "Good work last night, the women were prime beef for our investors, Dark was happy."
"Glad to oblige, we do our best," Buck replied.
"You still wanting to go with us tonight for the auction?"
"Sure, if we aren’t going to get in the way."
"Oh no, you won’t. We need extra men to help control the buyers; they get a little surly at times. They are a mean bunch. The two of you big men can keep them in their place."
"I love a good fight if it comes down to it."
"Hopefully not, just watch the men and if one of them gets a little heated, cool him down. When it comes to young boys, these perverts can get snarly."
"I’m sure Mac and I can handle it. Where’s this all taking place?"
"I can’t say right now, but we’ll lead you there when it’s time. The auction is taking place before we close down so you’ll need someone to fill in for you. I’ll arrange it, later." He turned and went off.
Buck was disappointed that Skeeter didn’t tell him the location. He had the GPS tracker that Dave hid on him this morning after the jet plane incident, so he was prepared.
~~*~~
We took the half hour drive down to the area where the woman’s body was found. The two hikers were sitting on the tailgate of their old army jeep that they brought over to the crime scene after they called the police.
"Did you get a look at the men?" Lynn asked them.
"Sorry, we were too far away to get a good look, they weren’t very big though, kind of skinny and small looking. The woman was bigger than both of them but she was tied up."
"How about the truck?"
"It was a late model Ford pickup, it had a high cap covering the bed, like they used it to haul big things. It was blue and not very clean looking, well used I’d say. There was some kind of lettering on the front door, couldn’t make it out. It was colorful though, with fancy lettering."
"Could it have said, Jacob Dark’s Traveling Carnival and Wonder Show?" I asked.
"That’s a mouthful, but it could have been. There was about the same number of words that you just said. It was kind of like carnival lettering, you know, fancy."
"Thanks, sorry to disturb your rock hunting, especially with a murder. Detective Warren will take your statements and you can go. We may need you again to identify the truck if we find it." Lynn turned to me and said, "I’ll just bet I know where that truck is."
~~*~~
Angelo was enjoying the sightseeing that he and his mother were doing. They had gone up and down the strip to all the casinos and played a good number of games. Francis knew the odds were against her betting, but she enjoyed the action. They had stopped at the McDonald’s on the strip and were sitting with their food when Angelo’s cell phone rang. The caller ID came up private but he answered.
"Yeah, Angelo DeMario here."
"Angelo, it’s Benny Lesloe from Joisy City, can ya talk?" came the voice on his phone causing him to stiffen up.
"Yeah Benny whatcha need?" Francis gave Angelo a look, he just motioned not to worry.
"I understand that ya was lookin’ for a creep named Lucius Cole? Whatcha need him for?""
"I don’t need him, I was trying to get some info on him. Why you boys need to know?"
"We got a beef with him, his crew hit one of our fencing fronts for a ton of jewelry and we wants it back. You know where the mug is at."
"At this moment, no." Which was true, at that moment Angelo didn’t know where Cole, AKA Dark, was at specifically. He didn’t want to lie to the one friendly Mafia family that the Travianos dealt with. "Tell ya what Benny, I’ll nose around out here and see what I can find, hows that with ya?"
"Good wit me Angelo, hows life with ya?"
"I’m sitting her with my mother having burgers and fries on the Vegas Strip. Isn’t that nifty?"
"Sounds real nice, say hi to Francis for me, talk later." He hung up and Angelo put his cell away.
"What did that lowlife want?" Francis asked.
"It’s the case my friends are on, the carnival man, they have a beef with him. I’m going to have to talk to Jim before I let Benny know where the creep is."
"Well if it’s the man who kidnapped the children, let Benny know, that should take care of the creep."
Angelo laughed, "Mom, you always know how to deal with a situation don’tcha?"
"Mafia mothers always know what’s best," she laughed then took a bite of her burger.
~~*~~
I was lounging in the precinct squad room with Earl waiting for our plan to start when my cell phone buzzed, it was Buck.
"What’s the word?" I asked.
"I’m back in my phone booth so this will be quick. They aren’t telling me where we go, just that we follow them so make sure the GPS guy is watching. We go earlier than closing, I don’t know what time, so if I suddenly show we are leaving the carnival, that’s the time. I may not be able to call so be ready. That’s all I know or can say for now, so talk later, hopefully with three boys in tow." He hung up and I called over to Lynn in her office.
She came over, "What’s up?"
I explained what Buck had said, and she looked concerned. "They won’t tell them where they are going, that’s worrisome. I think I need to put eyes on the carnival, just to be sure." She yelled for Warren, who was in the coffee room, he came out and over.
"Yeah Lieutenant?" he said.
"Being formal, is it time for promotions?"
"No, just saying it out of respect."
"Thank you, here’s what I want you to do, take Williams and one other man and go sit on the carnival watching Buck and Dark. His picture is on my desk, watch them and if it looks like they are leaving the carnival grounds, get to me ASAP and then carefully follow them."
"I thought Buck had a tracker on?"
"For some reason I’m not trusting it
and we have one chance to do this, or the boys will be gone."
"You got it, I’ll take care of it." He went off after calling Williams from his desk.
"Better to be safe than sorry, I guess," I said.
*
Chapter 19
Angelo called next and told me about his contact with a Jersey mob looking for Dark. "Can you stall them off until tomorrow?"
"I already did, let me know what you want me ta do," he said.
"I will my friend, now enjoy your time with your mother and don’t worry. I’ll let you know how our sting goes tonight." He agreed and hung up.
I figured it wasn’t something I needed to burden Lynn with, she already had enough worries without telling her the mob wanted Dark also. I leaned over and told Earl and he laughed.
"Boy, Dark is so screwed. You telling Lynn?"
"Oh hell no, you know her feelings about the mob. She’s got enough on her plate with tonight. I may mention it after we finish this, maybe she’ll reconsider and let the mob take Dark," I said.
"It will save the people of Vegas a lot of money in court costs and lawyer fees."
"Yes, it will. Maybe I’ll tell Angelo to inform his friends to take care of all this."
"Hell, you’re too moral to sick the mob on Dark, you prefer justice."
"We’ll see," I said with a smirk.
"What are you two plotting over here?" Lynn asked as she came back to us.
"Just discussing politics. Nothing you’d be interested in," Earl said.
"Why is it I never trust what you say," she replied.
"Have you transferred your hostilities from Trapper to me now?"
"I’m still miffed about the stripper comment you made."
"Hey, I was just commenting on how you look good enough to get into the business."
Lynn opened her mouth but nothing came out, she took a breath and walked away.