“Outstanding Jim,” Carvello said. “When did you start adding that wrinkle?”
“When I hired a new pair of hands to get it done,” Sotello told him, gesturing at Craig. “It sure will cut down on the questions. I’ll trust you guys with the original, so you will have something to show Jameson, if you make sure I get a copy before we head back.”
“I’ll make a copy as soon as we get Simmons locked down,” Santos agreed. Craig handed him the cassette. “Want to meet for breakfast tomorrow morning to wind this up, your treat of course, say sevenish?”
“Deal,” Sotello said. “This is my son Craig, by the way Jas.”
Carvello shook hands with Craig. “I heard about the way you cracked Jameson up today. If you ever get back this way, he’ll remember you. We’ll see you guys in the morning.”
__
Sotello called Damon Wilkens from the motel, he and Craig had checked into.
“Wilkens here.”
“We have Lionel, D. The Reno police will be extraditing him back, if you can fax them the paperwork right away,” Sotello informed him.
“Man, Jim, his folks will sure be happy to hear that. Any trouble?”
“Only the usual,” Sotello replied, “but no one got hurt. I have a video of the take down. I’ll bring it back as soon as the police make me a copy.”
“Stop by the office when you get back and we’ll settle up,” Wilkins invited.
“Thanks D, see you then.” Sotello hung up, and sat back, looking over at Craig. “Just one more fiasco to work through, and we can get back to business as usual. What did you think of the way it went down Craig?”
“I can’t see it going any better,” Craig answered. “I liked the way you took no chances whatsoever with old Lionel. Did you wonder what would happen if the Taser misfired?”
Sotello smiled in wonder at Craig’s perceptiveness. “Every second, especially when he reached into his jacket the second he heard his name. No matter how reliable you think something will be, the doubt still grips you just before you pull the trigger. When it didn’t misfire, I was a happy man. I thought maybe I could throw it at him as a distraction if it didn’t fire.”
“Gee, you’re reassuring,” Craig replied. “I thought you were going to say it never bothered you a bit.”
“Apprehending grown men still remains an inexact science, Number One,” Sotello replied. “I’m glad it was your first question. It shows me you’re thinking. Maybe from now on, if Ellen’s up to it, she can film it, and you can back me up.”
“Ellen will want to rotate with me as back up,” Craig put in. “How will you feel about that?”
“Not good,” Sotello admitted. “Jesus, what am I doing? I’m starting to think of this stuff as lightly as you two. Maybe I should get out of this before I get both of you goofballs hooked.”
“Too late for me,” Craig added. “Going in on this all the way through, and meeting your friends really psyched me up. Even Jameson just seemed like a part in the puzzle we needed to work out before going on.”
“Thankfully, the skip traces do not make up a large part of my business.”
Craig struck a belligerent pose, leaning slightly forward, his mouth curled in the same childish way Sotello remembered Jameson’s. With just the right amount of arrogant presumption, he let his right brow come up slightly as he said, “adopted?”
Sotello roared with laughter at Craig’s picture perfect parody of the Reno police captain. “God boy, you are good,” he said finally. “Do not let either Rick or Jas see you do that. It would be all over the department five minutes after we left, and we would never be able to come back. You saw him for what, three minutes, and you can mimic him perfectly. I have got to find a way to exploit you my son.”
“Well, there are just some guys who stick immediately in my mind, and Jameson’s one of them. I think you and I should go have a beer at a Casino of your choice, and then we can have dinner together, Pop,” Craig stated matter-of-factly.
“Well, we are within walking distance. I think we could celebrate a little. I see you’ve been watching the old Charlie Chan movies I have over at the office,” Sotello observed. “With what we are doing, maybe I should start running around in those white suits like he did.”
“If you do, the deals off.” Craig paused. “I did like those hats from back then though. I’ve thought of adding a hat to my wardrobe when I’m wearing my trench coat. How do you think that would look Pop?”
“Smashing, Number One,” Sotello said, putting his arm around his Son as he guided him to the door, “simply smashing.”
Chapter 19
Tragic Complication
“Hey, Ellen came in on a Sunday,” Craig noted. “She must still be catching up on her studies.”
“I’m just glad Rick remembered to get our copy of the tape back, so we didn’t have to wait around for another meeting with Jameson. Ellen can catch us up on what we’ve missed. Maybe nothing at all has happened in our absence, and I will be able to move quickly to the finish line on the Sanders’ case. What do you think Number One?” Sotello asked.
“I think you better stop talking about smoothness in our lives before you jinx us. Remember what happened every time you started liking what we watch…”
“…watched on TV, the network cancelled it,” Sotello finished for him. “When will you ever let that go?”
“Never,” Craig replied.
“You never got over it when they canceled Dark Skies.”
“Ellen said for you to take a look at it with us, and three weeks later it was off the air. A coincidence? I don’t think so,” Craig joked.
“I remember you had a crush on Jerri Ryan, the blonde, right? She made it on Star Trek Voyager too,” Sotello remembered.
“Yea,” Craig admitted. “You started watching it, and now it’s gone too.”
“Did you ever think it might be her, and not me?” Sotello asked laughing.
“It was all those losers she had as a supporting cast. She had to carry the show on her back. You tuning in was the last straw,” Craig continued. “I think it’s your duty to watch Boston Public now, and put that loser out of its misery, so Jerri can move on again, hopefully to a show with a decent plot.
“She’s on her own on that one. I tried watching a few minutes of it, and even she couldn’t get me to watch it long enough to get it canceled,” Sotello replied. “Well, shall we go in and say hello to our support group?”
“You bet,” Craig replied, getting out of the Dodge. “I want her to hear about Charlie Chan’s latest adventure.”
“She’ll be on the edge of her seat. Too bad she didn’t see Jameson in person. She would have choked on you mimicking him.” Sotello opened the office door, leading Craig into the back, where they found a very quiet Ellen sitting at the kitchen table. Sotello looked back at Craig momentarily, and then sat down opposite Ellen. Craig took a seat next to her. She looked up finally from her coffee cup, and smiled at them both.
“Hi guys,” she whispered.
“The hair on my head turns grayer every second you do not blurt out whatever bad news you seem to be guarding,” Sotello said, covering her left hand with his right. “I see you seem to be okay. Are you in pain?”
Ellen looked up at him, and squeezed his hand tightly. “Lynn’s dead, Dad. That Ramon guy murdered her last night at her home. The police think she had left her back door open for her dog to go out during the night. The next-door neighbors found the dog outside at the front door, howling and pawing at the screen. Ramon must have let it out of the back, and then locked it out. The neighbors called the police when they couldn’t get an answer. The police came, and found their way inside, and then they found Lynn.”
“Jesus,” Sotello said, leaning back in his chair. “How do they know it was Ramon? He was supposed to be in jail.”
“They found his fingerprints everywhere. The record of the altercation on the street, with you and Lynn, made him a prime suspect anyway. They had an all p
oints out on him, and one of the ticket people, questioned at San Francisco Airport, remembered him. Ramon made it as far as LA,” Ellen answered.
“Oh man,” Craig said quietly. “What the hell will you do now about going overseas on the Sanders’ case, Dad? Lynn was the only key to getting close to Phillips, and ending the whole thing peacefully.”
“I will call Sanders right away. He probably already knows what happened, with his contacts. Who told you El?” Sotello asked.
“Uncle Jay called me this afternoon around one o’clock. He recognized the names on the sheet, and they questioned him and Uncle Tank about what happened on the street. When he found out you were in Reno, he breathed a big sigh of relief,” Ellen said.
“He probably figured I had found some way to become involved with her murder too,” Sotello replied. Sotello stared at the wall for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts. He turned back, and gripped Ellen’s hand with both of his. “El, how would you like to go to Switzerland with me? I have a plan. If we can get close to Phillips, I can separate him from Sanders’ daughter long enough for you to lay out this whole scam to her. She might buy it from you, where she would probably just flip me off. If we don’t get the truth of this setup told to her, all of the work we have put into this would have been for nothing. Sanders will simply kill Phillips, and the daughter will never listen to the reason.”
“You sure are going over the line on this one Dad,” Craig put in. “Why not use this as an excuse to back the hell out of this?”
“I don’t know why,” Sotello admitted, “other than I just can’t let it end like this. I gave Sanders my word I could do this, and if I can get it done in some way with no one killed, and his daughter back with him, I intend to do just that.”
“One person has already died though,” Ellen added.
“I can do nothing about Lynn’s death,” Sotello countered. “I can do something about the Sanders’ girl’s life. The fact Ramon murdered Lynn proves the existence of yet another layer to this damn thing we still do not know about. Remember, Ramon was just a player in this, supposedly to make Lynn’s plight look believable. Either he secretly does academy award type acting part time, or the hostility he showed on the street towards Lynn was no act. I have a feeling she meant to cut him out of something she had promised him in this.”
“You have to wonder why she didn’t keep the doors locked,” Craig observed.
“Or turn on the alarm system I set up,” Sotello added.
“You think she met with Ramon, and it turned out badly, don’t you?” Ellen asked.
“It would be the only way any of the facts surrounding her death make sense. She would have had to drop the charges for him to have been on the street to begin with,” Sotello said.
“That’s right,” Craig broke in. “You told us Lynn would be informed if Ramon made bail. It stands to reason if she had been warned, Lynn certainly would not have left her back door open, and the alarm system off, if she had felt she had anything to worry about.”
“She had my shotgun too,” Sotello added. “I need to find out how she died, and where in the house it took place. If this turns out to have anything to do with Phillips, this could get uglier.”
“You don’t mean Phillips became suspicious of Lynn, and contacted Ramon to check up on her, do you?” Craig asked, shaking his head. He stood up and went over with Ellen’s cup to pour them all some coffee. “You’re making my head spin Pop.”
“I think Lynn may have made a deal with Ramon to take care of Phillips once the deal with Sanders went through. She may have had Ramon released so she could back out of it before he talked to someone. As you said El, things may have went badly at their meeting.” Sotello took the coffee cup Craig offered, sipping it thoughtfully. “All the more reason to call Sanders. He would have ways of finding out what went on at Lynn’s house.”
“I want to go to Switzerland with you Dad, to see this through,” Ellen said.
“Good,” Sotello said gratefully. “I will present my plan to Sanders, and explain what I think about Ramon. He will understand the need to find out what Ramon knows. We can add whatever knowledge he had in this insanity to our case, which you will lay out for Gina Sanders.”
“What about me?” Craig asked.
“What about you?” Sotello asked smiling.
“You may need someone to make her laugh. One look at Ellen’s face, and she will need a good laugh,” Craig continued, shooting up from the table, just in time to avoid a head slap from his sister.
“I’ll think about it,” Sotello replied.
Sotello walked into the conference room and called Sanders’ personal line. He spent the next thirty minutes explaining to Sanders what he surmised from the facts in evidence.
“That pretty much sums up all I know at this time, and what I suspect,” Sotello told Sanders over the phone. “I have a scrambler on this line Darren, by the way.”
“Good, what you surmise makes sense. It was very foolish for Lynn to drop the charges on Bennet,” Sanders replied thoughtfully. “She could have come clean on whatever this other connection with Bennet was, and something could have been done to prevent this.”
“I agree, and we may not know the truth until Ramon tells it. Do you have enough leverage to find out what he knows?” Sotello asked.
“I will send my personal lawyer to him with a message. If he cooperates with us, I will have him represented. If he does not, I will have someone find out what he knows the hard way.” Sanders paused. “What a waste. Lynn was intelligent, ambitious, and well educated. Gina shares many of the same traits, which makes me wonder if I can reach her or not.”
“I hope we can give you a chance to find out. Lynn had traveled the wrong way for a long time, and yet I felt she had changed. With this latest development, I may have been proven wrong. I hope she had intended on simply ending her deal with Bennet,” Sotello said.
“In any case,” Sanders added, “I will send someone over to Bennet right away, as soon as they return him from LA. While I appreciate your idea of taking Ellen and Craig with you on this, I can’t help but think it would be so much easier to finish what Bennet has started, and bring Gina back quickly.”
“I believe with your men in place, that option can always be implemented if my daughter cannot convince Gina of the truth. If she comes to the same conclusion without force, Gina may come to see just how wrong this path in life can get, with Lynn as an example. I would not even consider taking Ellen and Craig if I thought there was any danger. I can see only one way to avoid more violence, and possibly bring this to a positive end.” Sotello explained. “Also, I have been having trouble stemming my children’s interest in what I do. They have been working for me, earning extra money, for quite some time now, and I can either order them out of the business, or wait and see if they tire of it. You know how well ordering adult children works out.”
Sanders laughed. “Indeed I do. I will find out what Bennet knows, and call you right away. We can put off any final decisions on this until then. I will talk to you later Jim.”
“Thanks Darren, I’ll be waiting.” Sotello walked back into the kitchen from the rear conference room. Ellen waited for him with a note in hand.
“Dad, Lynn’s lawyer called. He says he needs to talk to you right away.” Ellen handed her Father the note.
“I don’t suppose I could pretend I never received the note could I?” Sotello asked, looking at the number.
“Aren’t you curious as to what he wants?” Ellen asked.
“Where did Craig go?” Sotello said, changing the subject.
“Out, now get the phone in your hand and start dialing,” Ellen ordered him.
Sotello laughed. “Today’s Sunday, El. Lawyers do not do business on Sunday.”
“He called today, and he said to call right away,” Ellen insisted. “What are you so afraid of, you big baby?”
“Hey,” Sotello said smiling. “Don’t let curiosity get you another attitude adjust
ment. I’m not comfortable with calling this guy. I just heard Lynn was dead this morning.”
“It may have to do with the case. I…”
“I know that Honey. It does not make it any easier to make the call though. When it has to do with Lynn, there can be a down side to everything,” Sotello interrupted. He picked up the phone in the kitchen and dialed the lawyer’s number.
“Hello, Stan Sheckley here,” the well-modulated, tenor voice announced.
“Mr. Sheckley, this is James Sotello. You left a message you wanted to speak to me.”
“Yes Mr. Sotello, would it be possible for you to come down to my office as soon as possible to meet with me?”
“In regards to what Sir?” Sotello asked in some confusion.
“As you may know, Deborah Lynn Gillingham was a client of mine. She passed away this weekend, as you may or may not know. She made you the executor, and sole heir, to her estate,” Sheckley replied.
“She did what?” Sotello said stunned. “I have only known her a few days. When in the world could she have put me into her will?”
“She did it on Friday afternoon Mr. Sotello,” Sheckley answered. “She said if anything untoward happened to her, I was to make contact with you immediately.”
“Very well Mr. Sheckley, I have your address on the note you gave my assistant,” Sotello replied. “I will meet you at your office in thirty minutes, if that works for you?”
“I am already here Sir,” Sheckley replied. “I will await your arrival. Goodbye for now.”
Sotello turned to Ellen, who waited tensely. “Her lawyer says Lynn went to see him on Friday to make me executor and sole heir to her estate.”
Ellen’s mouth dropped open momentarily as she absorbed the news. “I heard you say you were going to meet up with him at his office. Can I come? I would sure like to hear this.”
“I don’t think her lawyer would mind, and I sure wouldn’t mind having you along,” Sotello replied. “Let’s leave a note for Craig, and see if he wants to meet back up with us for lunch, so we can fill him in on this.”
Sotello: Detective, ex-FBI, ex-Secret Service (DeLeo's Action Thriller Singles Book 1) Page 21