The Carducci Convergence

by Nicolas Olano

  “This can fly,” said Samuel and Ernie agreed. “Now it’s really a question of finding the right moment to call this meeting.”

  Marco and Patricia were talking just before their guests arrived. “Did you know this M&M fellow well?” asked Marco.

  “Not really. He and Sal went fishing once in a while. He’s a real enthusiast. He stayed here a couple of times but other than small talk I really didn’t have much to say to him. I think Sal used him as a source for information and I know my father has for years. That’s how Sal met M&M, through my father.”

  “So M&M wants to meet Delany and just by chance the man is here. What can this guy want with an FBI agent?”

  “Use him, would be my guess. People like M&M do nothing if it’s not for profit in some way or another. Anyway, I feel I should stay in grace with M&M; honestly he scares the crap out of me.”

  They went down to the terrace and found that M&M was already there with drink in hand, talking animatedly with Matilde, who shrieked with laughter at everything the man said in her native language. When he was aware of their presence he switched to English and said that Matilde was telling him about their uncomfortable romance and how totally adorable she found them in their naive ways. In Panama the brother or nephew would have moved in with the widow after a few days…whether he was married or not. After all it was the right thing to do.

  Marco looked at Matilde but saw no malice in her and had to laugh along with the others. Patricia wasn’t embarrassed so why should he be?

  “I see you know your way around so please make yourself at home. I know you want to meet Special Agent Delany and…”

  “I would very much appreciate it if you could arrange that meeting. I’ll go to DC when necessary,” interrupted M&M.

  “There is no need for that,” said Marco. “He will join us for dinner tonight.”

  M&M was speechless for the first time in years.

  The door opened before the two men rang the bell and they were welcomed by Luigi, who was playing butler for the evening. They were escorted directly to the terrace where Marco, Patricia, and a somewhat European-looking man awaited them. Introductions were made and drinks were offered. All of those present were accustomed to wealth except for Detective Amiable Manning, who could not believe his eyes at the luxury of this place. He lived in a small, rented two-bedroom apartment in Evansville that was filled with books and his collection of blues records, tapes, and CDs. If he had known this house was built with money from activities he had fought against his entire career he might have admired it less.

  Luigi came around with a tray of tiny lamb chops covered in mustard infused cornbread crumbs and fresh plums filled with brie.

  “If these are the appetizers dinner must be cooked in heaven,” said M&M, who with that remark caught Amiable Manning looking at him. Was he maybe a soul to search?

  “I have been hoping to meet you, Special Agent Delany. We have some things to discuss.”

  “I wasn’t aware we knew each other,” said Delany, somewhat taken aback.

  “Not personally, no,” said M&M, “but some notes I’ve sent you over the last year or so have been useful, no? But don’t give it a thought right now. We have time to talk about this later. Now we must enjoy this company and the fantastic meal we are being offered by our graceful hostess.”

  “Talking of food, Matilde is signaling me that dinner is ready. Shall we sit down? Mr. Manning at my side to the right and Marcelo at my left if you please.” Patricia had caught a flash between the two.

  M&M almost had a conniption; nobody had called him Marcelo in years, yet this extraordinary woman did it with such grace…so he thanked her and proceeded to his place. Amiable was dumbstruck so all he did was nod and follow suit. Marco sat next to Delany and an empty chair. The meal was supposed to be informal but everything that Patricia did had a feeling of elegance, class and exclusivity. The starter was a chilled cucumber soup with avocado chunks and cilantro. The main dish was roast beef on the bone and small pan-fried yellowtail snappers accompanied by miniature baked potatoes and a watermelon, jicama, and spinach salad with passionfruit vinaigrette. The dessert was cherimoya ice cream with blueberry sauce served on chocolate sponge cake. Coffee was served at the bar so those who wanted private conversations could go pair off.

  “The notes I have sent you over the last year have been useful to you, Joseph, yes?”

  “They have, Marcelo, very much so. While I can’t do much about the cardinal, it stopped me from going off in a wild goose chase.”

  “Please call me M&M, I like the moniker, it gives me separation from the mundane. And the other information I have been sending you through Marco? It has been useful, no?”

  “OK, M&M it is. You know how that has turned out. My success is in great part due to your help and Marco’s. What I’d like to know is why…apart from the obvious that is.”

  “The obvious?”

  “Yes, you may someday need me and I will owe you. And if I can I will help.”

  “I, dear Joseph, am like an elephant. I don’t forget and I don’t forgive. Your father was a client and a friend who kept me informed of certain activities of the Royal Saudi family, with whom he had special relations. I in exchange made his progress within the political body…easier. He was eliminated because of that. The people that did it were Cardinal Dupree, Archibald Mason, and your brother-in-law in the United States, and Lord Humphrey Houghton in the UK. They have been using the expansionism and ruthlessness of the Meredith family and when they in turn changed alliances they killed Ana. Now the cardinal has Edward Meredith in his pocket. But I digress…as I said, I don’t forget and I don’t forgive. Because of my…hmm…peculiarities, Humphreys and Mason have snubbed me in public and treated me like dirt and I will not let it stand as such.”

  “Yes, you made me aware of this early on. Terry Taylor is in jail. My sister is divorcing him and the jewelry he stole was found in an attorney’s safety deposit box. Taylor used it to pay for a contract on my life.”

  “So we have Archibald Mason still at large…no?”

  “He has been trying to get in touch with me and I have been avoiding him. But he is a sitting senator and there is little I can do about him.”

  “Here is where my small contribution may be of help; that is, information and advice. Uncle Archie, I think you called him, has a peccadillo that he keeps very close to his chest…but not close enough. He is a consummated child pornographer. He has a collection of active pornography of little girls in particular that he keeps at arm’s length through his chief of staff. There is a small apartment in Rockville, Maryland, rented to a sister of the chief of staff. In it you will find this collection.”

  “The difficult part will be to link him to the collection once we find it,” said Joseph.

  “True, but he does go there once in a while. He cannot stay away. He has to be caught when he is watching this filth, red-handed you might say. Let me explain how he does it…”

  Patricia and Detective Manning were doing a tour of the house. For Amiable it was like visiting paradise. He had seen the luxurious home of the Meredith, but it was dark and stuffy, full of tired old furniture and pictures of people long dead and not happy when they lived. On the other hand this house was alive with happiness; it craved the voices of joyful children, of the celebration of life. Amiable looked at every detail with the eyes of one whose life centered on detail. The more he saw the more he liked the people that lived in this place. Patricia took him through the vine cellar, which was a hoot for Amiable, whose idea of having wine was a white in the fridge and a red in the cupboard. The semi-basement where the fishing tackle was kept was completely foreign to him, as the only memory he had of the sport was once with his father on a long forgotten vacation, trying to catch bluegills in a pond. He did not envy this but felt happy that Patricia and her husband had such a place to love. It was the nature of the man; he was possessed of a natural goodness so distant from the lives of the victims for whom he
sought justice and perpetrators whom he relentlessly pursued. In his thirty-three years of life, Amiable had loved only once. His heart had been captured by a boy a couple of years his senior in high school, a jock who had seduced him, used him, and dumped him unceremoniously. He had repressed it and never again allowed himself such pain, but today he could not keep his eyes off the elegant European, who, while occupied with Joseph, managed to glance at him occasionally. What he felt was as alien as the man himself, yet this was something that stirred deep within him and made him catch his eye again and again.

  Marco was watching M&M talking to Joseph Delany; probably setting him up for future possibilities he thought. Elsewhere, Manning was following Patricia through the room; he could see the detective was fascinated with the house. Probably the first time to Florida, he thought. He also noticed the visual tag that Manning and M&M were playing, looking, dodging, looking again…well to each his own, he said to himself.

  After a while Patricia brought Manning back to where Marco was and they started talking about the troubling man who had brought them all together. Marco told Amiable about the attacks on him and Patricia in the restaurant in Sarasota and the thin escape they had on the Toscana. The detective told Marco – without sparing a detail – the gruesome murder of Ana Meredith and the sequence of clues and luck that had brought him to conclude that the murderer was Monsignor Enrico Testa, in spite of the multiplicity of identities the man used. They were in that conversation when the whole group came together and the discussion about Testa continued.

  “We have traced the activities of the cardinal’s hit man to eight years ago when he first went to the Vatican to assist Dupree in a disciplinary arm of the Church. I can tell you that more than one unrepentant pedophile died in questionable circumstances when Testa was around,” said M&M.

  “Who is this cardinal?” asked Amiable with certain alarm.

  “Oh, excuse me, detective, I was unaware that you did not know that Testa is a servant of a most nefarious and powerful cardinal of the Catholic Church, His Eminence Jean Dupree of the Vatican Bank.”

  Amiable looked to Delany for confirmation.

  “He killed my parents, Amiable, for business reasons I believe. He came to their house for dinner and the monsignor that follows him around poisoned them. It was M&M here who told me about it, but it was a dog that I had for brother-in-law who confirmed it. And now he’s here in Sarasota again,” said Delany. “I just received a text confirming the DNA sample taken from a brush in the motel room. It’s Testa alright; no doubt about it, and he’s in the wind.”

  “We have reviewed the security measures here but there is no such thing as impregnable,” said Marco. “By the way, Detective, where are you staying?”

  “I’m at a Residence Inn just off 441, not far from where Testa was holed up.”

  “Well,” said Patricia “that just won’t do. If Testa knows you’re after him that place is not protectable. You must stay with us. The guest quarters are ample. I’ll have Jose bring your things and cancel the room.”

  “Oh! But I couldn’t,” said Amiable. “I’m here on special leave to pursue the Ana Meredith murder and the department will pick up the bill.”

  “It’s not my place to insist,” said M&M, “but I do…don’t I, Patricia?”

  “We all do,” said Marco, “let’s get Jose cracking on this. It’ll only take about an hour. We can have a drink in the meantime.”

  M&M smiled and smiled and smiled…

  “You are also welcome, Joseph,” said Marco.

  “Thank you, I have a suite at the Ritz-Carlton at Federal expense and it’s only five minutes away. I have FBI and SPD protection there, but thank you again for the kind invitation; perhaps another time.”

  Drinks were served, the conversation continued, the luggage was fetched and the SPD detail deposited Special Agent Delany safely at his hotel. All the others retired to their beds. It had been a long day.

  As dawn cracked inland the sun caught Testa already out of his tent and stretching his limbs on the beach for his morning run. It would be fast and short because he had a distance to paddle in order to get to his netting among the mangroves across the harbor from the Carducci home. When he got there he realized that the house was alive with activity and decided to keep paddling until he had covered the whole place from the water. The shutters were gone and he could see the maid and a man setting up a table on the terrace. Breakfast, he thought; all he had eaten was a power bar and a bottle of water. That would be his lunch also. He went back to the mangroves, pushed the kayak in as deep as it would go, and climbed on the netting and accommodated himself as best he could. He was excited. Carducci and his woman were here. They had hours to live and they didn’t know it. He felt tense with anticipation like a lion hiding in the grass, stalking the gazelle that would be his meal, not missing a detail of his victim’s movements, waiting patiently for the right moment.

  Waiting.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Matilde went about her preparations for breakfast riding herd on Luigi, Pete, and now Jose. She set the table on the terrace because it was a beautiful spring day and Ms. Patricia and the patron would enjoy it. She was ever so happy to see them together. When the old patron had died she had felt terrible for her but now she was as happy and radiant as could be. Radiant, she thought…hmmm.

  She set up fruit and juices, a bottle of Prosecco in case someone had a hangover, and set two French presses with coffee and decaf to which she would add boiling water when they were all seated. Her breakfast specialty, corn “arepas” with mozzarella cheese melted in and topped with sunny-side-up eggs would be prepared and served when they were all eating their fruit. If anyone ordered she could produce hot chocolate or tea in minutes. She and the men had eaten early before they had gone out to check on security. Pete had already prepared the skiff because one of the guests was going fishing, so breakfast would be served at seven-thirty this morning.

  Again M&M was the first to arrive. He was dressed head to toe in Ex-Officio fishing wear. Gray pants, green shirt, breathing underwear…and Crocs. He had a tackle case with his flies, and hanging in back- a full protection fishing cap, also from Ex-Officio. The man was serious about keeping the sun from frying his skin. The next to arrive was Patricia, who went about checking that everything was to her liking. The Latin-American woman in her demanded it. Then Amiable showed up and he exchanged air kisses with Patricia, said hello to Matilde and Luigi, then went to stand next to M&M. Neither of them said a word. Marco was the last one to arrive and went directly to where M&M and Amiable Manning were standing.

  “Good morning, did you have a good night?”

  “Wonderful, simply wonderful,” said M&M.

  “Thank you, fine,” said Amiable, who was flushed red!

  “We had a few drinks after you all went to bed and maybe it was a bit too much for the detective here,” said M&M, trying to distract from the obvious.

  Breakfast was served. The arepas were a hit and M&M gobbled up two of them, had his coffee and begged off because “the fish are out there and I’m over here” and practically ran to the dock where Pete was ready with the skiff.

  “Why didn’t you go with him?” Marco asked Patricia.

  “Oh no, he’s too intense and he honestly prefers to go alone the first day to get to know his guide. M&M takes fishing more seriously than anyone I’ve ever met,” answered Patricia.

  “Agent Delany is picking me up,” said Amiable, finding words with some difficulty. “We’re going to…

  At that moment Joseph entered, escorted by Jose.

  “I hope there is some coffee left, I ran out without a second cup,” said Joseph, looking at Patricia, who smiled and indicated a chair in front of which Matilde was setting up for him. He helped himself to an arepa without shyness and poured himself a large mug of coffee and a glass of orange juice.

  “I know this place is super protected, but I assume so was the Toscana and this maniac still managed to get
to you. He killed Ana Meredith inside her own bedroom and left without any of the perimeter security people or cameras seeing him. If it wasn’t by mere chance that the gardener from across the road saw him, we would never have known it was him. We also received a report on some broker that was murdered in his own toilet. It turns out he had some skin under his fingernails and the DNA report tells us it was our Monsignor Testa who was trying to flush the man down. Funny thing is, he worked for Edward Meredith. Coincidence? – I doubt it. It sounds to me that the cardinal was helping Meredith clean house after the old lady was out.”

  “Which makes me wonder if the son had a hand in his mother’s killing,” said Amiable Manning.

  “My point,” added Delany, “is that you can’t let your guard down.”

  “Not for a second,” answered Marco. “We have reviewed every detail with Allen Security and we can’t find a flaw…naturally that doesn’t mean that there isn’t one, but we’re doing everything foreseeable. We even have undercover “tourists” on the beach and electronic surveillance including satellite sweeps every three minutes. The drones are active but only one of them has an infrared camera.”

  “Well then, we’ll be on our way. The detective and I have a new lead to follow. A partial ID showed up at the cash register of a Dick’s Sporting Goods. We’re going over to see the tape and talk to the people there. I’ll let you know what’s up.” Then he and Amiable left with the SPD detail.

  Testa was sitting inside the mangrove canopy that had become a home away from home for him. Even the critters had become accustomed to him and a night heron fished peacefully by his feet. A big, beautiful iguana shared a power bar with him and snook swam around fearlessly. He watched the breakfast come and go and observed as one of the guests who he did not recognize went off in a fishing skiff with one of the men he had seen doing security patrols. As he sat there a plan started to form in his head. He went over and over it again, checking for faults until he was pretty sure that it would work.