Shadows of Doubt

Shadows of Doubt Page 13

by Corcoran, Mell

  These were the little things that Max had so wanted to learn about his detective. This was a most auspicious evening after all. Meeting her mother who was all too willing to brag and impart little personal tidbits about the woman who had slammed him like an eighteen-wheeler.

  By the end of the meeting, Frank had all the necessary paperwork signed and thanks to the use of the Gould’s fax machine, was able to get copies off to all relevant parties in order to have the property secured by no later than noon the next day. Max and Frank were the new darlings of the community and Shevaun had insisted that Max join Joe and her for dinner at their country club the following evening. Max had desperately wanted to ask if her daughter would be joining them, but he managed to show a modicum of restraint and didn’t. Once a toast had been made to the new neighbors, and all proper farewells had concluded, Frank and Max were able to head back to the hotel.

  “How did we miss that Donovan was Joe McAllister’s daughter?” Max demanded of Frank.

  Frank bit his lip and continued to drive and only once his cool had returned did he respond. “It had to be the fact that she has a different last name. I didn’t look at her residential information yet. That’s all in the details file I was compiling before we had to leave for this meeting. I know we knew, it’s on record somewhere. We have details on everyone but there are volumes so it’s hard to remember them all. I thought securing properties for residence and the business front took priority over the cop?” Frank couldn’t resist touching that nerve.

  If Max squirmed, he did it on the inside. “Absolutely, but I expect you to be mindful of all operations at all times.”

  Frank took his lump, knowing damn well Max gave it only to cover his own guilty conscience.

  “Do we have a front property for the firm’s annex yet?” Max skillfully shifted the focus now.

  “Abby has that in the bag. Got a historic old bookstore near the design center in West Hollywood. Its going to take some retrofitting and such but once we offered them the ground floor at a peanut lease, they jumped on it. Oh, and we had to stipulate to keeping the garden and some ficus tree.”

  Max gave Frank an odd look. “A ficus tree?”

  “Yeah, its a new-agey place that’s been there since the 1970’s. Has a huge following. One of our local trainers has strong ties there so it really works as a great front diversion.” Frank was so proud of how well things were coming together on the West Coast. Once the dust had settled and Frank was able to hammer him over everything, he knew Max was going to be proud too.

  “Hanna stays in D.C.” Max was finally focusing on matters that were seriously in need of resolving. “She runs that office far too well and I can trust her to be even more ruthless with it in my absence.”

  “So you’re planning on making this coast your primary?” Frank feigned surprise.

  “Its far more volatile out here. I should have discussed this with you, I know you have a life back there.” It occurred to Max that he hadn’t considered anyone else but himself since he became obsessed with Lou Donovan.

  “Yeah, I do.” Admittedly, Frank was milking it a little. “However my life is yours, my Dom. I am where you are always, you know that.”

  Max looked at Frank thoughtfully. “I do know that.”

  “I am sick to death of the snow anyway, so this works out just fine with me.” Frank turned to smile at Max briefly then turned his attention back to the road.

  “Do you think the others will be as amenable? Picking up and taking off just like that?” Even though it was the wisest thing to do, it still was not lost on Max that it was a substantial uprooting.

  “My Dom, it’s what is right and best for the Sanguinostri. That makes it a no-brainer.” On so many levels Frank was absolutely right.

  They looked like those sea lions that hauled themselves up on the rocks at the beach. Lou knew she felt like one and really wished she hadn’t had that second piece of cake. Maybe she should have just chewed it then spit it out and she wouldn’t feel like she was going to burst at the seams.

  “Dear God in heaven, the pain.” Caroline gurgled.

  “I think my stomach is so full that it’s shoved my liver into my sinuses.” Vinny informed them. “I smell the glass of wine I had last night.”

  “That is so lovely, Vinny.” They all turned their heads to the sound of Shevaun’s voice. “I think all our days are a little brighter having been given that information.”

  Caroline snorted but winced immediately after. “Ow!” It hurts to laugh.”

  “It hurts to breathe.” Lou said while trying to sit up so she could shove the last piece of cake over towards her mother. “So how did it go? Did you scare the mean old developer away?”

  Shevaun smiled at her daughter as she picked up the plate, then sat down next to Vinny, being sure to give the cushion a little extra bounce so that he grumbled in pain. “Well it would appear that I panicked without good reason.”

  “So he’s not buying?” Lou allowed herself to fall over on her side making no effort to straighten up.

  Her mother carefully selected which side of the cake to start from. “Oh no, he’s buying. Probably bought by now.”

  Lou shot straight up, despite the pain it caused. “What?!”

  Shevaun refused to answer with her mouth full and smiled gently as she continued to chew.

  “Mother! Hurry up and swallow and tell me what the hell happened!”

  “Hey!” Vinny tried to sit up, he really did, but his belly was in the way. “Don’t shout at your mother like that!”

  Lou scowled at him. “She’s dragging it out on purpose to get me all riled. You know how I hate it when she does that.”

  Vinny and Caroline both nodded and muttered. They knew Lou’s mother made a hobby of getting Lou riled just for fun.

  Shevaun finally swallowed and grinned. “Okay! Well, it seems the man is a long time associate of Joe’s! He is only planning on building on one of the lots, the rest will be landscaped in keeping with the natural surroundings. Its really going to be very lovely. I’m excited about it now.”

  Lou grumbled. “How do we know he’s not going to build some monstrosity or a log cabin?”

  Her mother laughed out loud as she forked another bite of cake. “Oh he is so definitely not a log cabin man.”

  “Oh?” The tone of Shevaun’s voice definitely got Caroline’s attention. “What kind of man is he then? Hmm?”

  Lou’s mother laughed, then took one last bite of her cake before she started gathering all the dishes. “He’s not enough of a bad boy for you, Caroline. I think his aide would be more your type though.”

  “His aide? What’s that, like a secretary?” Caroline got up to help Shevaun with the dishes and get more of a scoop on the new men in the neighborhood.

  “Oh sweetheart, I double dog dare you to call him a secretary to his face!” Shevaun laughed at herself. “They both are lovely, very refined men but the aide definitely has a mischievous side to him. I got the distinct impression that he is a bit of a bad boy, though well mannered. Impeccable manners now that I think of it.”

  “Well that’s a rarity in L.A.” Caroline scoffed. “That’s one thing I do miss about Savannah, Suth’n gentlemen.” She exaggerated her drawl.

  “Well I am going to take these to the kitchen and catch a catnap before Joe gets home. Sweet dreams everyone. Give Vera a kiss for me, Vinny.” Shevaun blew a kiss to everyone, then took her leave.
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  “Night Momma.” Lou shouted after her. “Okay, kiddies. What are we going to do about these cases?”

  Vinny blew out a breath and struggled to put on his shoes. “Not sure there is much we can do. None of them are ours so we can try and work them under the radar until we come up with something solid.”

  “That’s three bodies in four months.” Lou pointed out. “Two of which were killed within a week of each other. This guy is escalating and no one is cluing in to this except us.”

  “They may catch on.” Vinny shrugged.

  “Well you guys are officially screwed with these going to LAPD. Not like you can go plop down at their desks and peruse their files. Me, on the other hand...” Caroline flashed a cheesy smile. “Its perfectly normal for me to be roaming around. Plus Carpesh and I get along pretty well so I can snoop, bat my eyelashes and see what I can get.”

  Lou looked at her slyly. “You think you can get something more off that keratin thing?”

  “You bet you’re ass I’m going to try!” Caroline looked over at the grandfather clock. “I should probably hit the hay so I can get in before Carpesh and dig.”

  “Oh geez!” Vinny looked at the time and sprang up so fast it scared Lou. “I am so late, Vera is gonna beat me senseless.”

  Lou rolled her eyes and relaxed. “If she was pissed she would have called here fifty times by now. You’re cell hasn’t even rung once.”

  He ignored her and raced to grab his coat. “You don’t understand, she will guilt me over this for a week, at least. Don’t get up! I know the way out! Night, girls. I’ll pick ya up around eight, Lou.”

  “Okay, drive carefully.” Lou waved lazily.

  “Night Vinny!” Caroline shouted as he flew out the door. “Okay so now that he’s gone, whats the deal with some guy you saw when you were getting the file I left you?”

  “Oh geez!” Lou folded her arms over her face.

  “Don’t be like that! Vinny seemed concerned. He asked if there was some new fancy dressing admin then told me the story, sorta. So whats the deal?”

  Lou sighed and then proceeded to recount every embarrassing detail, as she had with Vinny. Including the seeing or not seeing him at the crime scene earlier that morning.

  “Well, shit...” Caroline began after Lou had finished. “We need to find out who the hell this guy is!”

  Lou sat up and looked at her friend like she had two heads. “What the hell for?”

  “What do you mean, what the hell for?” Now it appeared to be Lou who had two heads.

  “Why would I want to know who this guy is?”

  Caroline threw one of the pillows at Lou’s face. “Because he makes you a blathering idiot! That’s why!”

  Lou threw the pillow back at her. “That is precisely why I do not want to find out who he is and forget it ever happened.”

  “Lou...” Caroline scooted right up next to her friend and slung her arm over her shoulders. “I know you had that scarey crap happen what, eight years ago? Don’t answer that. I know that in all the time I have known you I have never seen you even bat an eyelash at a guy. Hell for a while there I thought you were gay and couldn’t come out!”

  “What?!” Lou shoved Caroline’s arm off her shoulder.

  “Oh come on! The point is, this guy made you’re toes curl, and not in a Gerard Butler sorta obvious way. You noticed the shoes first and everything else stacked up. I am a firm believer in Fate. If you saw this guy today, there is a reason your paths are crossing and we need to find out who he is.”

  “Crap, I hate it when you do that.” Lou sulked and laid her head on Caroline’s shoulder. “But how the hell am I going to find out anything?”

  “Shit, are you not a detective?” Caroline swatted at Lou and made her grin. “We just do it. Hey! I’ll tell security someone hit my car the day and time he was there and see if there is any security footage of him!”

  Lou looked Caroline in the eye. “Damn, you should be the detective.”

  The two women laughed then decided it was time to get to bed. Once they cleaned up the place and were heading upstairs, Lou stopped and turned to her friend.

  “What happens if we find him?”

  “Who? Yummy Morgue Guy or the rabid reindeer serial killer?”

  Lou rolled her eyes and laughed. “Yummy Morgue Guy.”

  “Well ya get married and live happily ever after, or so the books say.” Caroline scrunched her nose, pondering a moment. “How about we just find him first. From there, we do a full background check. Then you can ask me that question when it comes back spotless. Sound like a plan?”

  Lou grinned. “Sounds like a damn solid plan.” She turned and resumed heading up the stairs, lucky to have such a good friend.

  The first glimmer of dawn began to silhouette the mountains in the east. Fading just the edges of the blackened night. Max had been sitting on the terrace in the icy darkness for hours trying to get his head on straight. It was better, but by no means perfect. He couldn’t wrap his head around why this woman had gotten under his skin. Things like this simply did not happen to him, affect him, faze him in the least. Yet here he was trying to put an absolute stranger of a woman out of his head so he could focus on the voluminous matters at hand. It was a bit easier to control now that he at least knew where she was, or at least where he could find her. Not that he intended to, that would be absurd. It was just having the option left open that made him feel more at ease. The real kicker, the one that had him unable to sleep, was how this woman kept flying in his path, literally from the moment he arrived in Los Angeles. First it was at the morgue, then at the latest crime scene. Now with Frank finding the perfect piece of property and it’s smack at this woman’s back door. The cherry of all cherries on top was that her stepfather was a long trusted ally of the Sanguinostri which meant she had been right under Max’s nose for all this time. If there was one thing Max had learned so very very long ago, it was that there was no such thing as coincidence. For whatever reason the Fates were weaving this woman into the fabric of his world and he would know why soon enough.

  Now as the cloud-wrapped glow of dawn crept out, turning the black of night into the gray gloom of day, there was much work to be done and one serious pain in his ass to be rid of. This damned rogue had been plaguing their world for far too long now and it was time to get a fix on him and remove him from the face of the planet once and for all. His latest victim needed to be looked at carefully. Aside from the degree of torture being minimal compared to all his past victims, there was something different with this one, but Max couldn’t put his finger on it yet.

  “You know what I love the most about L.A.?” Niko appeared out of the shadows and laid down in the chaise next to Max.

  “No, what do you love the most?” Max smiled, glad his friend was finally there with him.

  “I can pack my surfboard and my skis, hit the beach for some waves at dawn, then head up and watch the sun set from the slopes. That’s just sweet, bro.”

  “Niko, you can pack your skis and your board on the jet and do the same thing anywhere in the world you like, right now.”

  He gave Max a disapproving look. “Its not the same and you know it. Packing up the Jeep, heading out, disconnecting from everything for a solid day and hitting surf and snow in that same day. Loading up on crap coffee and snacks at the mini-mart. Its a real grounding thing. You gotta do it with me one day before the snow melts.”

  “So does that mean you wouldnâ�
�™t hate hanging here for a while?” Max knew Niko was making this easy for him. He appreciated it, but he needed to ask just the same.

  “Hell no!” Niko chortled, snuggled into the chaise and closed his eyes. “Its dead of winter and here we are hanging outside. I mean it’s crisp and all, don’t get me wrong, but this is as bad as it gets for L.A. It sure as hell beats shoveling snow. Not that I’ve shoveled snow myself in ages, but you know what I mean. Besides, this is the only place in the world where it’s cool to be a freak.” They both chuckled, then were quiet a while, just taking in the calm before the storm.

  Niko finally broke the silence. “So you think he’s escalating because he knows you’re here?”

  “I’m thinking he escalated to get me here. He’s been under a long time. He has patience and he’s smart. He’ll let me know one way or the other and it will be soon. I have a feeling there will be something with this last woman. Something that I better damn well not miss this time.” Max reached for the phone and dialed room service. “You want coffee?”

  Niko pulled out a small antique silver case from his coat pocket and retrieved a slender black and gold cigarette from within. “Coffee wouldn’t suck.” He lit the cigarette and inhaled deeply while Max finished ordering, then hung up the phone. “Abby has everything in order back east. She’s like a bloody machine with her efficiency. You going to want to bring bodies over for the annex here or hire fresh?”

  Max had managed to consider that over the past several hours. “Given this is an entertainment town rather than political, I’m going to have Hanna research some top talent for that genre. Then we’ll need to see who’s recruitable. I think Frank’s renting some office space in Century City until the new building is finished.”

  “How are we going to handle putting a new Council together for D.C.?” Niko took another long draw from the cigarette.

 

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