Cabernet Capers

by Dan Kelly

  Fifteen minutes later after Derrick has scheduled his check-up appointment, they’re walking to his car when his cell phone sounds off. Julie is still holding it so she says, “Do you want me to answer it or are you ready and raring to go?”

  Reaching for the phone he says, “I’m ready, but I’ll have to get back to you on the raring part. This shoulder is starting to hurt like the devil.”

  “Chandler.”

  “Derrick, it’s Jim. The Paganellis were spotted driving a black Cadillac Escalade not far from Henry’s. It’s a brand new sucker as it doesn’t have its permanent plates yet, just the sticker the dealers put on the windshield. These guys are far from dumb. That was a clever move to dodge the ticket givers. It must be nice to have that kind of cash to spend on a whim. One of your cruisers spotted them pulling up to a drive-in ATM at Bank of America.

  “Since the duo has some celebrity in the area we figured most of your fellow deputies would know what they looked like so we asked that a BOLO be put out for them with the instructions to just report in if they were spotted, but not to apprehend. It looks like the twins are back home as the cruiser followed them from a distance and that’s where they went after the ATM stop.

  “There was no good reason to pull them over and I didn’t want to alert them that we were on to their clever maneuver. If we did pull them over and searched the vehicle and found something incriminating, it wouldn’t stand up in court because it would have been the result of an illegal search and seizure. My gut’s telling me that there are rifles in that car and probably gloves as well even though the weather doesn’t call for them. Even if it was just to satisfy my curiosity, I sure would like to get a look inside that car.”

  “Hmm, maybe we could get a second hand peek.”

  “Would it be legal?”

  “Hell no.”

  “Okay. I just thought I’d ask.”

  “I have friends who have friends who can do what your gut is craving for a price.”

  “Who’s going to foot that bill?”

  “There is other tender besides the folding stuff, like favors when the need arises.”

  “Oh, I have some of that I can kick in if the need arises and what I’m getting is worth it.”

  “Oh it’s so nice to work with colleagues of kindred spirit.”

  This exchange has them both chuckling and Derrick ends the call with, “I hope some good photographs from every imaginable perspective will be acceptable to you. They’ll be the next best thing to being there.”

  “Something tells me you’ve been down this road before.”

  “I have and with no regrets.”

  “If they’re carrying weapons and ammo in the car, there are ways to legally bring them to light or apparently so. Accidents do happen you know.”

  “Something tells me you’ve had some experience with this sort of thing too.”

  “You know that old saying; necessity is the mother of invention. My colleagues and I could give old Ben Franklin a run for his money, pun not intended. It just happened. Do it and I’ll see you in the morning.”

  Still chuckling, Derrick breaks the connection and tells Julie what has happened and is going to happen.

  “I’m beginning to understand why my dad didn’t always go into detail about the cases he was working on.”

  Dropping Julie and Duke off at her condo Derrick hands her the box of 9mm cartridges he bought for her and says, “A conversation piece for your coffee table.”

  “Despite the violent ending, it was a wonderful evening, Derrick. Thanks for asking me to join you.

  “And thanks for joining me. It’s going to be tough to top this one, but I sure would like to try.”

  “And I’d very much like you to try.”

  “I’ve always believed in that saying, action speaks louder than words, so I’ll shut up.”

  He then leans over and gives her an ardent good night kiss which she returns with equal enthusiasm. They are interrupted by the dogs softly woofing in the back seat as though they were being cheered on. Laughing, they say their good nights and Derrick plays the gentleman and waits until she is inside and has closed her door.

  As he drives away he’s thinking, “There’s no damn way I can be this lucky. Somebody’s gotta have his signals crossed.”

  Chapter 56

  While Derrick is doubting his good fortune, the Paganelli twins are lambasting their misfortune.

  They are sitting in their family room sipping some Makers Mark and taking turns venting their anger over what went wrong at Henry’s.

  It’s Duilio’s turn and he’s screaming, “If that damned car hadn’t come down that aisle when it did, those deputies would be history. We had them in our sights and they were just a squeeze away from eternity.”

  Riccardo jumps in with, “If those damned dogs hadn’t come charging at us, I still might have taken the woman out. I have to give those deputies credit though. They reacted to the shots a lot faster than I thought possible.”

  “Damn! Nothing went right. We had to wait forever for that chance to put them down and then we blew it. At least I remembered to toss the spent shells out the window. The guy I bought the weapons and ammo from has his prints all over them. I watched the dummy transfer the ammo from a larger box into the one I bought and thought that was fortuitous and bode well for what we had in mind. If we had been successful, I would have found an inconspicuous way to also leave one of the rifles in an unobvious but believable place in the parking lot. The lot would have been diligently searched, the rifle would have been found and the Sheriff Department would have been running around in circles chasing false leads.”

  “The only thing that went right is we bought the Escalade and have avoided any contact with the police. That’s not going to last forever though. What do we do now?”

  “We keep trying. We can move more freely about in the new Escalade because it can take up to 45 days to get the plates in the mail from DMV. If we wear sunglasses and hats, we can make it even harder for anyone to recognize us.”

  “The next time I’d like it to be in a more secluded place. We should try to figure out a way to lure them to a place of our choosing. That should go a long way to eliminating any surprises like we got at Henry’s.”

  “I agree. Let’s get some sleep and tackle that problem first thing Monday morning at the office. We’ve been gone long enough and too much of that isn’t good for business.”

  When Monday rolls around, it’s back to business as usual for Derrick and Julie with Forrester and company even more vigilant than ever if that’s possible. Jim has been kicking himself in the ass for letting Derrick and Julie spend Saturday night on their own with no one watching their backs. He figures he would have spotted any tail if he had been out there doing his job.

  Duilio and Riccardo have done their best to tap their creative juices, but the well is dry as the only things they could come up with to lure the deputies into a trap were too obvious.

  With no progress on this front, it was relatively easy for Riccardo to convince his brother that the best place to deal with them is where they live. He figures this is their best way to gain success and avoid capture because there’s less chance for surprises and no crowds to get in the way of their getaway. There are issues with respect to how they can get close enough without being detected by the dogs or the deputies and this is what they are concentrating on now.

  Unbeknownst to the Paganellis, the other adversary in the middle of this quagmire is thinking along similar but much more violent lines. Antonio Arrigoni has just given orders to some of his people in Chicago for a visit to be paid to the deputies’ homes to plant some explosives around the foundations and then to remotely set them off by phone when the deputies have retired for the night. These are people who are demolition experts with a lot of experience razing old office building and such. This will be a piece of cake for them. There should be nothing left but rubble and ashes. He’s figuring the deputies’ deaths will intimidate the win
ery owners enough to get them to accept his offers and buy him sufficient time to acquire the wineries before new deputies appear on the scene to erect new obstacles and frustrate his efforts to make the wineries his.

  This guy definitely doesn’t play nice.

  A couple of weeks go by without anything untoward occurring and Derrick is beginning to think that their enemies may be having second thoughts about their demise. This is just a fleeting thought as he quickly remembers that attempts are still being made to acquire the same wineries by the new player(s) and are still being rejected.

  Although the Paganellis are parking their new Escalade in the garage, this is of no consequence to one of Derrick’s shady friends. A couple of nights after he was contacted he gained access to the garage, found the rifles lying on the floor behind the front seats of the car, took the pictures requested from several angles and was out of there in less than five minutes without leaving a trace of his ever being there. It was the easiest five hundred bucks he had ever made.

  Derrick and Jim now have proof to substantiate their suspicions about the twins, but have no idea about how they’re going to use it.

  As another work week comes to an end Derrick calls out to Julie and asks, “If you don’t have any plans for tonight, how about I pick up a couple of steaks and we can have a barbecue at my place?”

  “Okay and I have some fresh ears of corn and a big container of seafood salad I just bought yesterday which I haven’t attacked yet. I’ll bring that and some homemade chili I rustled up a few days ago to munch on when I want to give my pores a work out. It’s hot stuff. Do you like spicy foods?”

  “Everything but curry. That stuff makes me sweat worse than a sauna, my eyes tear, my nose run, my throat burn and my stomach belch. It’s not a pretty sight.”

  Laughing as she pictures him in such dire straits she says, “Okay, I’ll bring it along, but if you don’t like it tell me. I won’t be offended.”

  “Alright, how about showing up around seven for cocktails and then we can chow down.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  After picking up the dogs, Julie heads for home to prepare for the evening ahead and Derrick heads for Costco to pick up some steaks and some treats for the dogs.

  A few minutes after seven Julie is ringing Derricks doorbell with Duke at her side.

  After putting the stuff she brought in the fridge, Derrick shows her around the place while the dogs wander over to the TV to see what‘s on. Television definitely holds some fascination for them. Both Derrick and Julie have become convinced the dogs are people in disguise.

  When she is shown the kitchen she sees a couple of rib eyes lying on a platter on the counter. This starts her thinking. “Maybe Derrick’s not a complete incompetent around the kitchen. At least he knows enough to let the meat warm up to room temperature before putting it on the grill.”

  After mixing a Raspberry Nancy for Julie and a Black Russian for him, Derrick leads the way into his den where they settle in to watch the rest of Jeopardy with the smartest dogs on the planet if you ask the deputies.

  When the show is over and their glasses drained Derrick says, “I’m going to go out and start the grill. If you’d like, I’ll mix you another drink and we can sit out on the patio while we’re waiting for the grill to heat up.”

  “Okay, it will only take five minutes to heat up the chili and I can do that in your microwave when the steak is about done. I don’t know if you boil your corn on the cob or grill it. I think it tastes better when it’s cooked on a grill. Have you ever cooked it that way?”

  “No, but I’m a fast learner when it comes to my stomach. Teach me.”

  “Okay, listen up. Preheat the grill to 350 degrees. Place the corn still in their husks on the grill and close the cover and grill for 15 to 20 minutes, turning the cobs every five minutes to avoid burning. Every time you turn them pierce a kernel with a paring knife to check for tenderness. When it slips in easily, they’re ready for the removal of their husks and to be drowned in BBQ or Herb Butter and assaulted with salt to your liking. Wrap them in aluminum foil and set them aside; turn up the heat to 375 degrees to cook the steaks and when they’re ready dig in. We both like our steak medium rare, so it won’t be long before we can put the feedbag on, depending on their thickness four to five minutes a side to cook the meat to perfection.”

  “Sheesh, you sound like one of those cookbooks.”

  If I wasn’t a cop, I’d be a chef and probably weigh 250 pounds.”

  Laughing, Derrick mixes them another of the same and heads for the patio with the dogs following while Julie makes herself at home in his kitchen setting the table and putting out the salt and the Herb Butter she brought with her. When she is finished, she joins Derrick on the patio, but there is no sign of the dogs.

  “Where are Duke and Champ?”

  “They’re roaming around the yard. It’s all fenced in so they won’t wander off.”

  “Derrick something’s not right. Those animals are trained to keep us in sight whenever and wherever we are.”

  Becoming alarmed, Derrick begins to look for the dogs with Julie close on his heels. Along one side of the house they find Duke and on the other side of the house they find Champ. They are both sniffing around where the walkway meets the wall of the house, but they come when called. However, after only a few seconds, they both run back towards where they were found sniffing around, looking back at Derrick and Julie as if they want them to follow them and Derrick and Julie, now on full alert, do so. Julie follows Duke and Derrick Champ. They are both now thinking something is seriously wrong for the dogs to act like this.

  When Derrick bends down to see what has Champ’s attention, he spots a small metal box that looks like some kind of electrical junction box attached somehow to the bottom of the wall.

  When he reaches for it, Champ pushes him away, stands up on his hind legs, put his front paws on Derrick’s chest, pushing him further away from the box. Derrick is getting the message and lets Champ know he did. He shouts out to Julie, “If you see a metal box at the bottom of the wall, don’t touch it.”

  Running around to the other side of the house hoping she’s heard him, he’s glad to see Duke has the situation well in hand literally. Duke has a gentle but firm hold of Julie’s hand in his mouth and is pulling her away from a similar looking box at the bottom of this wall. Both of them walk back to the patio and Derrick says, “I think these guys saved our bacon again. I forgot that they’ve been trained not only as guard dogs and attack dogs, but also as sniffer dogs. They can detect lots of different things by scent alone, drugs, explosives, even blood.”

  “If they’re bombs, maybe we should get out of here before they are set off.”

  “That’s probably a good idea. I’ll call this in to the bomb squad unit and have them come out to check them out, defuse them, haul them off to be detonated someplace safe, whatever. We’ll wait for them down the street. My closest neighbors are far enough away to escape any serious damage, so there’s no reason to get them all worked up by warning them. I’ll also let Jim know what’s going on. He’ll want the input I’m sure.”

  He quickly places the call and minutes later the bomb squad meets them at the corner of his street and he explains what the dogs have sniffed out and where. Forty-five minutes later he receives a call from the squad leader telling him it’s safe to return to the house.

  When Derrick and Julie get there, the squad leader is holding four of the metal boxes in some kind of a metal container that supposed to be especially designed to contain any explosion from a detonated device. The squad leader says, “There were four of these nasty things stuck to all the outside walls of your house, one for each wall. They contain enough explosive material to reduce the house to rubble and incinerate anything inside, including people and pets. You were lucky the dogs found them. These are rigged to go off when the switch is actuated by a phone call. This is pretty sophisticated stuff and you don’t find it on sale at Walmart. We’ve
made them harmless by cutting out the circuitry to the stuff that goes boom. It wasn’t too long ago that I was out here on another bomb scare if I remember correctly. Am I right?”