Stacy looked stricken, with all eyes on her.
I didn’t fall off the vegetable truck yesterday. One look into Stacy’s eyes, and the plot presented itself like a ripe apple on the tree. What she hadn’t taken into consideration was unintended circumstances. We now have a goon tribe privy to any honest intention this business proposition had. I shook my head.
“Never mind, Stace. There’s no use in you confirming what you’ve done. Ladies, please come over to my door and see what has been set in motion. A picture… after all, is worth a thousand words.”
Karen and Jadie scrambled hesitantly to the door security eye, peering outwards, blanching and stepping back. I’m with them. These characters did not resemble Jehovah’s Witness apostles’. “Well, I think we’ve unearthed Stacy’s part in this proposition. I’m glad I didn’t have to waste a lot of time revealing it. This is going to get a little tricky so hang back, don’t provoke, and turn this frown upside down.”
I went over to the entry way hutch and extracted a couple of greeting tools not seen by everyone who comes to my door – handy dandy professional Mace, and a stun gun nightstick that would make a grizzly bear consider alternative routes. “Want to tell us which gang or mob these three belong to, Stace?”
The next agitated knock made Stacy flinch. She looked at me angrily. “The idiots shouldn’t be here!”
I grinned. “Meaning they wanted to get the terms down from next to you, rather than wait until you could deliver what they want through the back door.”
The growing louder knocking on my door energized the hand wringing Stacy. “Okay… yeah… I might have promised a few things. I… I’m trying to get even here.”
I walked over to her and pinched her cheek. “You’re just so cute.”
I looked over at Karen and Jadie with a smile. “Any questions?”
Louder banging on my door, which caused a group cringe, except for me. I walked into the bedroom, retrieved my iPhone, and stuck my Ruger 9 mil onto a narrow gun belt that fit under my loose top in the back. I figured I had the tools with the non gunpowder equipment, but no use taking chances on a gunfight where I’d be the only one without a gun. I went to the door and opened it with a big smile.
“Good morning. How may I assist you gentlemen?” I had one hand on the door edge and the other on my special spray.
These tulips looked at each other with a snicker and some moronic togetherness gestures I won’t even bother breaking down for my story. The lead one gives me the high regard, face up, leaning back, half lidded eyes, supposedly masking menace look. I decided to bring out the inner Lois just to get things rolling.
“Say something, Binky, or go tell it to yo’ mamma.”
Binky jutted forward to get some, but he got a face full of wake up juice instead. I snorted as he fell to the doorstep landing, gagging and gasping. “I love the smell of Mace in the morning. Who’s next? Step forward children, and get your own dose.”
The big one at the rear pinged off to the side, gesturing at me. Lucky for him he didn’t have a weapon in hand. “Cut the shit, old man! We’re here on business!”
“I know that. I also know which one of my guests you mean business about. Your problem is that you’ve come to collect before she had a chance to scam her way into the business. It figures your dumbass boss sent you to keep tabs on Stacy while she worked her magic mouth to get the inside track on this new business venture, but think about it. She doesn’t own a part of it. She won’t be part of the buyout group. The best you could hope for is her stealing from the till every night before going home, or getting some bank account numbers. What good did it do to alert the buyout group there were a gang load of wankers waiting to rip off anyone with Stacy in their employ? Now, you get nothin’.”
“I’ll kill you, gramps! You hear-”
Mace it is. That’s two down. I point at the guppy eyeballin’ his distressed comrades. “Hey, how about you? Want some vitamin M breakfast? It’s a great weight loss formula.”
The remaining standing member held up his hands while backing off the step.
I chuckled. “This spray has a thirty foot range. Empty your pockets and back towards me, keeping your hands behind you.”
He did as he was told, cringing when I gave his two buddies a little pick-me-up shot to keep them on the ground. “Now then. Turn all your pockets inside out in your hoodie, strip out of it and set it over by me. Then clasp your hands behind your back and kneel. After bright eyes did as he was told, I called Lo.
“Hey, Rick, I thought you’d be sleeping for the next two days.”
“Lo, you will not believe what the early bird got this morning by arising early this glorious morning.”
“What’s that moaning and groaning?”
I gave her a FaceTime view of my visitors, and then swung her around to show her my inside coffee klatch group. Jadie was the only one who waved. As I kept an eye on my outside group I could hear Lois roaring with laughter while trying to tell Frank what was happening at my place. She finally came back on, wiping tears away with a hanky.
“Oh my God, Rick. You made my day. Only you could have a first hour of your morning like that. I’m coming over. Should I bring the police?”
“I think I’ll try reasoning first, Lo. You would be welcome though.”
“Be there in a few.”
I turned back around for a moment. “Karen, could you get a couple towels and soak them in water, and then bring them out here to me?”
“Sure, Rick.”
A few moments later I threw the wet towels to the two on the ground, and crouched next to the one kneeling. “Did you understand what I told your partner over there about Stacy?”
The guy nodded. “Yeah. I get it. We came over and screwed this up. The way she talked we thought she was already in. She ain’t even goin’ to be an owner, is she?”
“Never. She won’t even have an outside chance of working the joint now. You guys were early. She might have been able to skim off some profits for you if she’d wormed her way into a job, so she acted in good faith. Go on back to your boss, and tell him he jumped the gun. Write this off as a bad venture. Tell Julio not to make this personal.”
He looked startled. “You know us?”
“Yep. When you hang out with Stacy, you have to know the crowd she runs with on the side. By the end of the day, I’ll know who all of you are, and every spot you lie down at night in or hang out in. I’m part owner in Madigan and Cantelli Security and Investigations. I’ve been a detective a very long time. Think you can make a deal with Julio about staying the hell away from this?”
“Maybe… if he doesn’t shoot us.”
Lois arrived, cackling as she walked around the toweling off bad guys. She had her hand inside her purse, probably wrapped around the handle of her Glock.
“Get up, and help your homies out to your car. Do what you can to end this. It won’t go well for your crew otherwise. Everyone keeps their hands where I can see them, and no one gets shot. You two can keep the towels.”
We watched the three until they were heading down the road in silence. “I think there’s still a cup of coffee left, Lo. I’ll make another pot too.”
“Tell me one thing, Rick. You didn’t call this meeting to order, did you?”
“That’s just mean, Lo.”
More cackling as we entered my house. Lois pointed at Stacy. “You sit out in the kitchen as far from me as possible. Rick hasn’t told me what this is all about, and I already know you’re responsible for it.”
Although a crook, Stacy was no idiot. She hurried into the kitchen, grabbed her cooling cup and went to the end of my table. I got Lo a cup of coffee as she sat down across from Jadie and Karen. I sat down next to her while Jadie explained their original business idea. Lois drank her coffee, listening attentively. When Jadie finished, Lois looked at Karen.
“You didn’t let the chippie at the table end into your house, did you?”
Karen shook her head no. She didn
’t want to get too familiar with Lois until judging her mood. “Rick asked me the same thing.”
“I’ll bet.” Lois turned to Stacy, and pointed at her warningly. “Your turn, kneepad, and get that squinty pout off your face before I slap it off.”
Stacy sat straight in her seat and shifted her face from feral to neutral. She shrugged. “I got tanked after Jadie had coffee with Karen and I. Julio heard me running off at the mouth about the business. Next thing I knew I was in a car with Julio and a few of his boys. They wanted in, and they weren’t askin’.”
Lois grinned back at me. “Are you done with this crack-head, or am I going to have to shoot her?”
“I’m done.” Stace had gone one step beyond this time. “What do you think of the café idea?”
“It’s not bad. I’ll check out the papers on the business and see how they’ve been doing financially. I know they’re always busy when we come out of the fitness class. It might be a nice venture for us. We could rename the place Rick’s like in Casablanca. You could get one of those white ice cream suits. Karen could play the cheap floozy that’s always trying to bed Rick down.”
“What part do I get?” Jadie hasn’t learned not to play into Lois’s wheelhouse.
“You get to be Ilsa of course, the broad who never gets Rick.”
Jadie smiled at the resulting laughter. “I walked right into that one. C’mon, Karen. We’ll drop Stacy off at her house. I have a class to do this morning.”
Karen seemed as if she were going to say something, but thought better of it after Lois gave her a look.
Lois turned on Stacy then. “You sit in the back and keep your mouth shut. I’ll be watching you from now on until one of the gang-bangers you hang around with shoots you in the back of the head.”
Stacy’s lip quivered, but she was smart enough to keep quiet and hurry out of the kitchen.
“Thanks, Lois,” Jadie said. “I guess we were on our way to getting robbed.”
“Take some advice. If you see her around, call a cop. Dimwit here knows she’s trouble, but the kneepad was his first love, so he’s been letting sentimentality get in the way of his better judgment. I’ll be in touch with you two as soon as I check things out.”
“I…I like the idea of a name change to Rick’s. I know it was a joke, but it’s a neat gimmick if we altered the place slightly with some old movie memorabilia,” Karen suggested.
“You know… that’s not half bad,” Lois replied. “Let’s keep that in the mix. Would you mind something like that, Jadie? I know the place is pretty popular now.”
“I think it’s a great gimmick,” Jadie acknowledged, the excitement showing on her face. “We could even have a Casablanca night. I love it! I hope you find out everything’s okay.”
“I’m beginning to hope so too,” Lois said.
“I’m glad everything worked out on your trip,” Karen added with a wave as she followed Jadie out.
“Me too,” Lois replied. She stood. “Frank’s taking me to the beach for the day. Think you can stay out of trouble for just one complete Saturday?”
I planned to be so low key, I’d barely need to draw breath. “You have a good time. I’ll hack into the café financials and do some traces on Julio’s crew. We can’t turn our backs on that bunch.”
“Agreed. I hope your old bimbo takes off for the high country. Think you’d like to run Casablanca night, Rick?”
“Oh hell yeah. It sounds like fun. We have the money. See what Frank thinks about it. Buying our own hangout is growing on me.”
“Best not to get too excited about it until you check out the financials. I’m glad we already ran checks on our two former clients and prospective partners.”
Small doubt about that. “Jadie runs a real tight ship. This café idea of hers could be a gold mine for her fitness center.”
“Come over for dinner tomorrow around three and let me know what you find out.”
“Should I bring a date?”
“As long as it’s not the kneepad I don’t care,” Lois called out from my door.
Stacy definitely burned the trestle and the bridge today. My high school girlfriend stopped being any semblance of the young girl I knew in high school forty years ago anyway. She had dropped like an anvil into my life once again after more than four decades when she tried to set me up to be killed by drug dealers she had ripped off. Then she gets mad and tries to lead a posse in to mug me in my own bedroom when I refused a car loan. Unfortunately in the rough mix, I can’t quite weed out first love memories of hot, sweaty August nights in the back of my old ‘61’ Dodge Polara. I’m grinning in silly enjoyment of a brief interlude long ago when Lois spins on me. I cough with my hand covering my mouth. Spock-ella has stolen my thoughts again in a vicious back turned mind meld with my shields down.
“Honest to God, Cantelli!” Lois shakes her fist at me.
“It was only a momentary fond memory you plucked out of my head you old bat!”
Lois smirked, pointing at me. “You are an open book to me, Rick. Remember that the next time you take a walk down memory lane with kneepad.”
I listened to her cackle round the corner of my entrance. She shut the door, her irritating self satisfaction tittering into an evil whisper, promising more. Looking at the clock, I see three of my precious morning hours have marched away like the lost patrol.
* * *
The Collinswood Café looked as good on paper as it did watching the stream of customers patronizing the place every time I went by. The couple who owned it worked the place with dedication. Their credit rating was nearly 800, and they owned the land and restaurant outright. After nearly three decades, partly due to Jadie’s fitness center supplying an ever present clientele lately, the café’s gross profit yearly continued to rise. The owners were in their late fifties, a long way from retirement age. I figured maybe they had done well enough they wanted to travel or something. Wrong.
Unfortunately for Tim and Sally Collinswood, they had been robbed at gunpoint five times in the last three months. Their last encounter included Tim getting beaten badly enough to put him into intensive care for a week. The PD had no leads, claiming they were random events. Five armed attacks instead of burglaries when no one was there spelled trouble. It took only a few more moments to find out low ball offers for the business had started after the first two robberies. All the offers came from one source, Kensington Limited. Tim and Sally weren’t stupid. They presented the racket aspect to the PD after the fourth robbery, and subsequently Tim received the beating that put him in the hospital.
This type of strong-arm tactic stimulated my security business ego. I know the police have to have suspects and proof. They’re not the FBI. Lo and I got into this business because we had old school attitudes about good guys and bad guys. Sure, we did some of the seamy side of the business, but our security section is top notch because we’re the best. I had a new plan about all this, and it didn’t include forcing out a hard working couple getting robbed out of their own business.
Next on my once promising Saturday relaxation day involved revisiting all my files on Julio and his gang. It was tedious, but necessary. In an hour and a half, I had all the players, addresses, likely scams and petty crimes the gang was involved in. Again, the PD needed proof. I planned to make Julio our new pro bono project. I knew there had been more to the Stacy partnership and Julio gang-banger party at my house than met the eye.
Then it was time to get ready and hit the road. First stop, Detective Bill Staley, because I had printed up a very impressive circumstantial case for him to look at on Kensington Limited. I called and reached him right away.
“Hey, Rick. You haven’t been involved in a shooting for a couple weeks. Are you sick?”
I laughed. Of course Bill didn’t know about our road trip north. “I’m being a very good boy. Can I run something by you? I can be over there in fifteen minutes. How’d you catch the duty on Saturday anyway?”
“Expensive life style, Rick
– my family has grown attached to eating, and college for the recalcitrant daughter you fetched back from LA is astronomical.”
“How’s she doing?”
“Very well,” Staley replied with a sigh of relief. “It’s amazing how a near death experience can adjust an attitude. I’m back with Sue by the way.”
Finally, the guy caught a break. “Outstanding, Bill! Riding the wave, huh?”
“Right into the rocks. See you in a few.”
* * *
Staley didn’t short change me on the look into the files I presented him with. He paged through with increasing interest, making notes as he went. I don’t write reports like he had in his hands with the purpose of confusing anyone. They were short, full of detail and facts, leading to very probable conclusions. He glared at me across his desk with a rueful smile.
“These are damn good, Rick. Are you trying to make us look bad?”
“You know better. Lois and I have decided to invest in The Collinswood Café along with Lo’s sister Karen, and the owner of the fitness center next door to the café. I ain’t cheating the Collinswoods. I plan on delivering this Kensington outfit to you on a platter. Interested?”
Bill laced his fingers over the desk, leaning forward. “A win like this could make me a Captain. Who do I have to kill?”
“No one. These robberies only take place during the last couple of operating hours, late on Friday and Saturday nights. The crooks know the Collinswoods can’t have a shootout in their restaurant, so they can’t hire armed guards. Their security system cameras have been useless. The punks come charging in with hoodies, ball-caps and masks. I have another idea. I know who Kensington’s been using.”
“Yeah,” Bill replied, lifting the file on Julio’s crew. “This is some very solid work. I can see why none of my people are putting any of this together though. It took that visit to your house this morning to finger Julio.”
“Nothing happens by coincidence in Cantelli land. You know that, Bill. Julio knew no one in their right mind would ever have Stacy as a partner. The thugs were at my house to scare the investors out of buying Kensington Limited’s latest prospective target. They didn’t expect the way their visit ended. What I innocently hinted to Julio will I think trigger another robbery tonight.”
Rick Cantelli, P.I. (Rick Cantelli, P.I. Detectives Book 1) Page 10