Copp In Deep, A Joe Copp Thriller (Joe Copp Private Eye Series)

by Don Pendleton

  "I feared such," she declared quietly. "Is it Nicky?"

  "Sure it's Nicky," I confirmed. "It's also the PowerTron trio and Angelique and Thomas Chase and maybe two or three other determined conspirators. It's all centered right here, Cherche my love, and that makes your joint ground zero. They've already built one crater to cover the lunacy. I doubt they'd hesitate to bury it all right here. So clear this place out, and do it quickly. Nobody packs, nobody pauses to refresh the makeup— got it? Get 'em all out. I'll meet you outside."

  She got it, and she went out quickly to spread the word.

  I picked up the telephone and called the FBI. Took a couple of minutes to get through to Special Agent Browning and he came on angrily.

  "Don't you ever rest, Copp?" he growled.

  "Depends on what you call rest," I told him. "I need some info and I need it down, dirty, and quick. Do you have Toni Delancey under surveillance?"

  There was just the briefest sense of indecision before he replied, "No, we've lost contact."

  "Me too," I said, "but I think I've got a fix on her. She's booked out of LAX at midnight, Eastern flight to Washington. In case I don't get there in time . . ."

  He said, "Thanks, appreciate the tip. What else do you have?"

  "Frank Dostell is dead, I think."

  Another brief pause, then: "Okay. Where is he?"

  "Last I saw, he was dying behind the wheel of his

  Ferrari in Malibu with a cop looking on. Looked like an OD."

  "With a little help, maybe."

  "Seems that way, yeah. Call the L.A. police, they can update you."

  "Okay. What else?"

  "What'd you find out about your safe house?"

  "Simple timing device. Blast was centered in the crawl space under the house. They used enough TNT to blow up ten just like it."

  "Overkill."

  "Yes, to make damned sure. I'm pissed about this, Joe."

  "You need to be."

  "Yes. If it turns out that you're involved . . ."

  "I'm not."

  "... there'd be egg all over my face, and that would piss me too."

  "Wouldn't blame you. To tell the truth, I'm just a bit pissed myself. Someone has been screwing me over, and I mean with a royal twist. Level with me, my life could depend on it. Has Toni Delancey been working with you?"

  "No."

  "That's the dead level."

  "It's dead level."

  "Someone in the woodpile, Browning, knew about your safe house."

  "Obviously."

  "I mean before that. Either Toni knew or Nicky knew. I need to know which it was."

  "When you find out, share it with me." I said, "I'm betting on Toni."

  "Sounds like an interesting logic, Joe, but I don't have time to pursue it right now. Have another death on my hands." "Yeah?"

  "Yeah. Special Agent Vasquez bought it a while ago.

  I said, "Damn! The numbers are all coming down, aren't they?"

  "Looks like it." "How'd he go?"

  "Shot in the head from behind. I'd had him on Toni Delancey, Joe."

  I said, "Well dammit . . . !"

  "Yeah. Keep in touch, will you?"

  "I'll try," I promised. "See you at the airport maybe."

  "Maybe," he said, and hung up.

  I went in and tore Cherche's boudoir apart. Looked in every drawer, searched every surface, under every cushion and even under the mattress, behind every painting and inside every vase and light fixture.

  Found many interesting things but left them all exactly as they were, got the hell out of there quick. The joint deserved to blow. Old friends or no, that place needed burying.

  I stayed around to assist the bomb squad in what small way they would allow. Told them about the earlier blow in Brentwood Park and they had a telephone conference with the people who'd investigated that one, started their search beneath the house. Basements are a rarity in Southern California and this house was no exception. The foundations were about four feet off the ground, though, so the crawl space was pretty good and these guys knew their business. Took them less than thirty minutes to locate four different bundles of dynamite wired to a single timer, less time than that to defang it and get it all out of there.

  The sergeant in charge of the squad showed me the timer—set for midnight, as I'd suspected—and told me that any one of the dynamite bundles would be enough to blow the place to kingdom come. I made arrangements to meet with him the next day and sign a statement. His men made a thorough sweep of the house and were on their way by ten o'clock.

  Cherche wanted to cancel the evening's activities but I prevailed upon her to pick up and go on as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened there. She also agreed to telephone Nicky and invite him to a "special party" in her apartment at eleven-thirty, after which I took the phone and spoke to him.

  "Hi Nicky, it's Joe Copp. Wanted to let you know that I'll be at the party, and maybe I'll have a little surprise for you."

  "If it is what I am thinking, Joe . . ."

  I said, "Yeah, you got it. Think I've found your missing property."

  "Why don't you just bring it over here."

  "Can't do that because it's not in my hands yet. I've arranged to pick it up at midnight."

  "Perhaps we could pick it up together."

  "Wouldn't work that way," I told him. "It's very delicate business. I'll get it and bring it straight to Cherche's."

  "Why can't you just bring it straight to my apartment?"

  I said, "No, I prefer neutral ground for this transaction."

  "Transaction?"

  "I don't work for free, Nicky."

  "How much will it cost me to ransom my own property?"

  I said, "You're looking at it all wrong. No ransom involved. Call it a finder's fee. Bring ten thousand U.S. Bring cash."

  "This is highly important to me, Joe. Suppose . .."

  "It's important to both of us," I agreed. "Suppose what?"

  "Why don't you let me send Ilyitch to back you up."

  "No way," I said. "Sorry, I have to do this my way. I want you and Ilyitch and the other boys at Cherche's by eleven-thirty. I'll be in touch by telephone and when Cherche tells me you're there, I'll go ahead with the pickup."

  "You are quite determined in this."

  "You got it."

  "Very well. But let's make an alternative plan in case our meeting goes astray."

  "It won't," I assured him. "I'll be there shortly after midnight."

  "But just in case, Joe. One could experience a traffic accident, a flat tire, these things happen. So as to not leave me in suspense . . . can we not say that we will meet elsewhere at a given time should the first meeting fail?"

  I said, "Okay. If we don't connect at Cherche's, meet me at two o'clock in the lobby of the Beverly Hilton."

  "Could we not just set it up that way at midnight?"

  "Huh-uh. I'll have to know exactly where you're at before I go for the pickup. I trust Cherche to tell me where you're at."

  Nicky was a bit dissatisfied with those arrangements but I left him no alternative. I also wanted something else from him.

  "Now let's talk about Angelique. I want to know exactly what was the last thing she said to you."

  "I don't understand, Joe. What does Angelique have to do with our arrangement?"

  "Maybe nothing, maybe everything. I don't know exactly what I might be walking into, see, and I don't want to blow this thing because of some simple misunderstanding. The last thing she said to you."

  "I believe it was 'good night,' Joe."

  "Just before that."

  "Let me see... she said that she would be in touch."

  "About what?"

  "Nothing in particular."

  "She wasn't trying to work anything on your behalf?"

  "I don't understand what you are getting at."

  "You dropped her off in Brentwood Park at about two o'clock. You watched her enter a white cottage with brick planters. W
as she going into that house to accomplish some task for you?"

  "Not that I would know about."

  "Did she tell you why she wanted to be dropped there?"

  "No."

  "You weren't even curious about it?"

  "Perhaps I was curious. But one does not question a lady about her late night appointments."

  "Was she carrying anything?"

  "Carrying? In her arms?"

  "Arms, hands, whatever. Was she taking something into that house?"

  "You place me in a bad position, Joe."

  "Not nearly as bad as the one I'm in. What did she take in there, Nicky?"

  He paused for perhaps ten seconds before replying, "We had spent the evening searching for a rather infamous character who . . ."

  "Dostell?"

  "Yes. When we discussed this earlier, I felt rather constrained from speaking freely to you of this matter, but ... is it tremendously important to you?"

  "I think it is," I told him.

  "Very well. The search for Dostell was on the behalf of Angelique. She desired very much to find him and to purchase something from him. We found him. She asked me to effect the purchase on her behalf. I did so. Then she asked me to drop her at Brentwood Park."

  I said, "Let's be sure I have this straight. It was Angelique, not you, who made the buy from Dostell."

  He replied, "I, on her behalf."

  "Who put up the money?"

  "Angelique gave me the money."

  "How much?"

  "Two hundred dollars."

  "So you bought the stuff and gave it to her."

  "Yes."

  "And she had it with her when she left you in Brentwood Park."

  "That is correct."

  I said, "Thanks, you're a prince. See you at Cherche's."

  I hung up and told Cherche, "He'll be here. For a while, anyway. But if this guy starts getting antsy and thinks up a reason to leave before midnight, maybe we'll know a lot more about cousin Nicky than he's dared to tell us."

  Cherche was very distressed by that.

  "I would have staked my life on Nicky," she quietly commented.

  "Well don't write him off yet," I suggested. "Let midnight tell the tale."

  "Very well," she said. "But if he tries to leave early, I feel that I might wish to kill him myself."

  I almost believed she meant it.

  I guess she did mean it.

  I asked her, "How long has Alexandra been with you?"

  "Quite some time," she replied absently, the mind obviously still playing at Nicky's throat.

  "Before or after Angelique?"

  "What do you mean? Oh. I found her months before Angelique found me. Is it important?"

  Important enough, yeah.

  The theory of the case was closing on itself fast, maybe too fast. At least I was in the saddle now and riding hard.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  I "borrowed" Alexandra to keep me company at the airport. Working on a hunch, see, and thinking I might need an extra set of eyes to keep everything in sight. She was good company too. There'd been a chemistry between us from the beginning, besides which she was smart and observant. Took us half an hour to get to LAX, even at that hour of the night, and I used the time to satisfy some questions that still remained in my mind concerning Cherche's operation.

  I asked her, "How does it work for a guy like Nicky Gudgaloff? Did he actually buy into the corporation?"

  She replied, "Oh yes. There is no other way, really. Once in, though, the stockholder can distribute his dividends however he chooses."

  "Gift certificates?" I asked with a grin.

  "Subject to certain limitations," she said soberly. "He couldn't send a dividend to skid row, for example."

  "No packages for the needy, eh?"

  "Not that kind, no. These are usually business packages, Joe."

  I said, "Suppose I was a stockholder. And I had cert- ain dividends to collect. So I pick you up and we're riving about town in my limousine. We bump into a business acquaintance. I want to impress him. So I give you to him for the night. Would that be kosher?"

  "To a point," she replied.

  "What point?"

  "It's more or less up to the girl, at that point."

  "She could refuse?"

  "If she felt uneasy about the situation, yes."

  "But the pressure is on her to please the stockholder, isn't that true?"

  "To a point, yes. Cherche is most careful, though, to educate the girls about certain dangerous situations and how to avoid them. She is really very protective of her employees. The final decision is always theirs."

  "Have you ever had a situation like I just hypothesized?"

  "Similar, yes."

  "For example."

  "I have gone to parties with one man and departed with another. Or I have gone with one and ended with several."

  "You aren't afraid of those?"

  "Depends. Generally, Joe, we are treated very well y our stockholders, with total respect. And you develop a relationship with some that furthers your sense f security."

  "Like Nicky."

  "Nicky is always the gentleman. He has never placed a girl in a dangerous situation."

  I said, "But, generally speaking, these guys—stock- holders—can pass you girls around to whoever they please."

  She replied, "Well, that is the beauty of it. For them. Each man who joins the corporation becomes like a sul- tan with his own private harem. He can dispense favors that few men alive today have at their disposal."

  "Quite a business advantage, then, I would guess.'

  "From what I have seen, yes."

  "Nicky has done a lot of that."

  "Oh yes."

  "Could he, say, set up a party on his own turf, have a number of girls attending?"

  "He does so frequently. Nicky is one of our major stockholders."

  "And the girls all respect him?"

  "Oh yes. Nicky is a doll."

  “Well I didn't know about that. But a certain scenario was setting into my head. I asked, "Has he thrown private parties in Cherche's apartment?"

  She gave me a sharp look and said, "We're getting rather specific, aren't we?"

  I explained, "Cherche hired me to protect her best interests. I'm trying to do that. I know about all the hid den microphones and concealed television cameras in her apartment. I'm just trying to put together now an understanding of how they might be employed. You told

  me the other night that video parties have been

  arranged. Would that be part of that?"

  "Could be," Alexandra replied quietly.

  "Could be or has been?"

  "I don't know if I should be . . ."

  "I'm working for Cherche too, dammit."

  She showed me a smile; said, "Did you know that he is planning to make you an offer no sane man would refuse?"

  "What's that?"

  "She wants to keep you on annual retainer as a

  security consultant, check out prospective stockholders and that sort of thing. Opportunity of a lifetime, Joe."

  I said, "That would be like hiring a diabetic to run candy store. Don't think I could take the heat, kid. It's an offer I could refuse."

  "You ought to give it some thought, at least. Cherche is a very generous employer."

  "Thanks," I said, "but I'm a man who knows his limitations."

  She laughed softly. "I do believe that you are a hopeless square, Joe."

  "Hope so," I said.

  "Yes."

  "Yes what?"

  "Nicky has used the apartment for parties. Several times."

  "Did the participants know about being on candid camera?"

  "Oh yes. Cherche is very careful about that."

  "So why is it all so hidden?"

  "The idea is to be non-intrusive, not secretive Helps the inhibited relax and get into the spirit."

  "But each participant can buy a video?"

  "Only the stockholder may order vide
os."

  "But as many copies as he wants?"

  "Yes."

  "Has Nicky bought videos?"

  "Yes."

  The scenario was developing nicely, yes.

  We reached the Eastern terminal at eleven-fifteen and I called Cherche at eleven-thirty. "Is he there?" I asked her.

  "Nicky is just now arriving, Joseph."

  "In full force?"

  "In two cars, yes."

  So it was all set.

  The next half-hour should cast the scenario in concrete.

  I placed Alexandra in the cocktail lounge in a position with an unobstructed view of all passengers arriving ii the gate area, instructed her to watch for familiar faces then I went on to meet an arriving flight from Washing ton due in at 11:45.

  This was part of the hunch I was working. It had seemed a bit too easy to get that departure line on Toni under her legal name and all. If she had set it up that way as a decoy, then maybe also she was the consummate operative I'd suspected her to be, selecting a decoy that would allow a sudden switch at the last moment, should it be necessary. LAX is one of those modern airports where individual airlines have their own separate terminal buildings. It is not easy to move from one to the other.

  And I had a hunch about the 11:45 flight from Washington.

  They were posting the flight to arrive on time, at a gate at the opposite side of the hub from which the midnight flight was scheduled to depart.

  I got over there at 11:40, joined a crowd of fifty to sixty people waiting to greet the flight, tried to be as inconspicuous as possible while scanning the faces of those assembled there.

  A noisy group of teenagers were part of the crowd, several obvious family groups as well, but most of the greeters appeared to be individuals waiting to meet someone. I got no whiff of Toni in that. The other flight would start boarding at 11:45 so I didn't want to devote too much time to checking out my hunch, was about to write it off and go to the other side when the incoming plane rolled up to the gate a few minutes early and the passengers immediately began deplaning.

  So, what the hell, I gave it a few more minutes and hung around out of respect for my quivers.

  It was the usual scene at such moments, weary travelers moving through the gate and searching the crowd for familiar faces, that crowd thronging about the exit point and also anxiously scanning every new face