by Dan Kelly
“Unfortunately, your right.”
“Man, you need a change in enemies. These guys play rough.”
“I’m trying, believe me.”
Julie speaks up saying, “Maybe you should check my place out also. I’m on these guys hit list too.”
The squad leader calls in the request and is quickly given the okay to proceed to Julie’s.
Julie says, “I’ll follow you in my car so you can check out the inside too.”
“There’s no need. If there was anything in the house, the dog would have smelled it. I’ll call you on your cell when we’ve checked the place out.”
She gave the man her number and that was that.
When the bomb squad leaves Derrick asks Julie, “Are you still hungry?”
“I’m starving and I wouldn’t say no to another Raspberry Nancy.”
The rest of the evening went as intended, good food, good drink and good company, but the dessert was a bummer. The bomb squad leader called and said they found four of the same kind of devices mounted under the eaves of her home.”
Julie says, “You know, with all that’s happened, I wouldn’t mind having these dogs around all the time.”
“They sure showed their mettle tonight. I agree and will put in the request first thing in the morning.”
“I’d better head for home. It’s been a long day and I’m bushed. I’ve got to get up early to attend to household chores I’ve been putting off for way too long.”
“Okay, I’ll see you and Duke out. I put your chili dish in the dish washer. I’ll bring it in to work with me on Monday.”
“You really liked the chili didn’t you?”
“My eating three helpings should adequately answer that question, don’t you think?”
Laughing, she nods her head and they walk out to her car. Clicking her remote to unlock her door she then turns to say good night, but Derrick pulls her into his arms for a long good night kiss. Julie finally breaks away laughing and saying, “My chores await and I must not disappoint them. There’s clutter everywhere and poor Duke barely has a place to stretch out on the floor.”
“Okay, sweet dreams. Watch out for the kooks on the road this time of night.”
Watching her drive off, he finds himself worrying about her and he hasn’t ever worried about anyone like this and he finds it disconcerting. “Man, this lady is really opening some emotional doors that have never been opened before. This is unchartered territory for me and I sure hope I’m up to the task and don’t do anything to make a fool of myself. I’m really a klutz when it comes to stuff like this.”
His self-castigation over with, he hits the sack and sleeps like a baby for almost nine hours. He never does that and when he wakes up he starts wondering if that goodnight kiss had anything to do with it. Mumbling to Champ he says, “Ive got to stop thinking like this or I’m going to wind up in padded cell.”
This gets a woof from Champ and a look at the pantry where he knows Derrick keeps his food and snacks.
“Okay, I get the message. You want your breakfast. Keep your fur on.” Suddenly the absurdness of his thoughts which have him talking to the dog hits his funny bone and he bursts out laughing. “Champ, this lady is really rocking my boat.”
Chapter 57
When Derrick and Julie get into their cars and head into work on Monday morning, they’re only one block enroute when their bodyguards fall in behind them. When Derrick called him on Friday night about the bombs, Jim told him that from then on whenever he and Julie were outside they were going to be surrounded by task force personnel, dogs or no dogs. He stressed once again the necessity of he and Julie keeping him informed as to their intentions whenever they planned to be outdoors, emphasizing this by saying, “Up ‘til now, thanks to the dogs and a bit of luck, you folks have managed to stay alive. At best, it’s been even odds whether or not they’d put you in the morgue and I know you willingly accepted those odds to get a crack at the bastards. Well, with stunts like they pulled at your homes and the Paganellis giving us the slip so damn easily, the odds just tipped in their favor. These guys aren’t going to pull any punches to get at you. It’s my job to see that that doesn’t happen. From now on, my men and I are going to be on you two like butter on bread.”
Derrick knew Jim was right on with his evaluation of the situation. He’s certainly accomplished what he set out to do, but he has seriously miscalculated the severity of the retaliation he would stir up.
When Derrick gets to the station, the first thing he does is check with the bomb squad to make sure the bombs were put into the system for latent fingerprints. Then he heads for the go-go juice. As he’s walking back to his desk sipping on his coffee his cell phone rings. “Chandler.”
“Derrick, Bianchi here. I’ve got some news for you. Every one of those men killed in the intersection assault had ties with Arrigoni and have extensive criminal records here.”
“Why doesn’t that surprise me? I’ve been thinking that they probably came into the country illegally, either from Canada or Mexico, and that they’ve done this kind of thing before considering the weapons they used, the way they spread out when firing and that they were carrying no ID. I haven’t received any results back yet from our people regarding any matches on their fingerprints and don’t expect any, but I had to cover all bases as I’m sure you well know.”
“That I do. Please send me a copy of your full report on the altercation. It’ll be a big help to me in building a case against Arrigoni.”
“Will do. I’ll also be sending you some copies of prints lifted off some bombs if there are any. Someone was planning to blow up my house with me in it and intended to do the same with a deputy that has been working with me on this winery case. If it hadn’t been for some very smart and well-trained German Shepherds, she and I would have been an item in the obituaries.”
“Where do you stand with your investigation?”
“Well, the noose is beginning to close around the key players. I told you about this Benjamin Cordell and the Paganelli brothers. With what you just told me we can now tie him to Arrigoni. The drivers of the trucks told us they were owned by Cordell and they work for him. According to them, they were just drivers and not part of the assassination group. I’m tending to agree with them.
“Another failed attempt on our lives was made in the parking lot of a restaurant and we believe it was the Paganellis because just prior to the attempt they managed to drop out of sight and had also taken precautions to purchase a new vehicle which won’t have any license plates for up to 45 days. We heard a vehicle fleeing the scene after the botched attempt on our lives, so we feel it’s safe to assume that the snipers didn’t flee on foot. We found some spent casings at the scene, but have reason to believe they might have been deliberately left behind to mislead us. How is not important for the moment and I don’t want to waste your time.
“How are things going with your attempts to deal with a potential gang war over there?”
“For the most part, there’s just been a lot of posturing, but I have this feeling that all hell is going to break loose any second. Nuzzoli’s death and Arrigoni’s talking advantage of it by trying to take over part of and maybe all of his operation isn’t setting well with a lot of the families over here for a number of reasons too numerous to go into now. Suffice it to say, I’m doing my best to be prepared for whatever comes down the road.”
“Well, good luck and as we like to say over here, keep your powder dry. Bye.”
“Ciao.”
To Julie he says, “That was Inspector Bianchi. The shooters at the intersection belong to Arrigoni. Bianchi’s uptight about the likelihood of a major gang war breaking out in the very near future over there.”
“You know, I’m surprised Arrigoni hasn’t taken the Paganellis out. He obviously knew what Nuzzoli was up to with the acquisition attempts, so it’s not too farfetched to think he knew about the twins as well.”
“Maybe he doesn’t consider them much of
a threat, but it sure would be convenient if he does and comes calling. Maybe they’d kill each other and our troubles would be over. As someone who has sworn to uphold the law, I’d sure have a major tug-o-war with my conscience over whether I should intervene or turn my back and let that scenario play out and deal with the consequences later.”
“Well, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Unfortunately, those kinds of endings only happen in the movies.”
Several days go by with nothing happening to upset their daily routine. There’s been no sign of the Paganelli twins at their primary residence or their getaway place, but the pair hasn’t been idle.
The brothers have been staying in a motor home they’ve had locked away in a storage area for the last nine months because the brothers can’t make up their minds where they want to go with it. It has now come into good use as a ‘safe house’ of sorts to avoid any further harassment from the local cops until they can deal with Derrick and Julie and put an end to the ticket onslaught. They’re figuring the motor home coupled with the new Escalade should give them some breathing room for a while, long enough to eradicate the threat the deputies pose.
They’ve managed to locate and purchase a Dan-Inject Dart gun along with tranquilizer darts to neutralize the dogs before they can warn the deputies of their presence or at the very least prevent the dogs from attacking them and are planning to move on them tonight after they get home from work, first Derrick and then Julie. The two live close enough to each other to execute the plan and disappear into the night before the bodies are discovered.
Later, on the same day the Paganellis are putting the finally touches on their plan for the deputies demise, around twelve-thirty on what is turning out to be a chilly, cloudy Thursday afternoon, Jim Forrester comes into the station and finds Derrick and Julie sitting in Bill Bemis’s old office eating their lunch and discussing who they think might run for Sheriff to replace Bemis. “I’m glad I found the two of you together. As the Irish like to say, now I won’t have to chew my cabbage twice. I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news. The task force is being called back to D. C. Evidently, something else has come up that requires our attention and it’s higher up on the priority list. I’m sorry about this.”
Derrick says, “When do you have to leave?”
“As soon as we can pack up our gear and drive the SUVs to San Francisco International Airport. Some kind of military air transport will be waiting to fly us back.”
Julie says, “It sounds urgent.”
Forrester replies with, “It always is.”
Standing up Derrick says, “I can’t thank you and your men enough for what you’ve done. If you hadn’t been around all this while, we probably wouldn’t be around.”
“Together we might have thrown a big enough monkey wrench into the works to dissuade at least some of the jackals after your hides to look for easier game. Be careful and good luck.”
Watching Forrester leave Julie sighs and says, “You know, I’m getting sick and tired of going back to square one. This will be the worst trip yet.”
“Well, it is what it is and we’ll have to deal with it. We now have the dogs with us all the time and that’s a step up from where we were before.”
“That’s for sure.”
Their conversation is interrupted by the phone on the desk ringing. Derrick says, “All the calls to this number are supposed to be forwarded to George Baldwin. I wonder why this one wasn’t.”
Answering it he is surprised to hear Holly Caldwell’s voice saying, “Just the man I’m looking for.”
“Hi, Holly. What can I do for you?”
“To start off with you can begin keeping your promises. I haven’t heard a word from you since right before that broadcast. What gives?”
“I’m sorry, Holly, but other things keep popping up that push you further down my ‘to do’ list. Let me bring you up to date and I think you’ll understand. You’ve got to promise me one thing though. You’ve got to keep what I’m about to tell you buried until I turn you loose. Agreed?”
After a moment’s hesitancy, brought about by what is deeply rooted in every reporter’s psyche, the compulsion to announce to the world a breaking news event before anyone else can beat them to the punch, she agrees.
After Derrick has told his tale Holly says, “I knew there was a lot more going on than what that political hack George Baldwin was letting on. You sure accomplished what you set out to do, maybe a little more than you bargained for, huh?”
“There have been some surprises that’s for sure. Your newscast gave me the leverage I needed to bring the rats out of their holes and I’m grateful. Just bear with me a little longer and you’ll be the envy of every newscaster in the state.”
“I’m going to hold you to that, Sergeant.”
“You can take it to the bank.”
Breaking the connection, Derrick immediately calls the station switchboard operator. “How come that last call to Bemis’s old number wasn’t forwarded to George Baldwin?”
“He ordered us to have all the calls to that number go to voice mail. He said he didn’t have the time to do a sheriff’s job and a Chief Administrator’s job too.”
Hanging up he says to Julie, “It got too hot for Baldwin to bask in the PR sun of his personal sacrifice to serve the community in a time of need, so he’s opted to run for cover in a maze of political obfuscation, misdirection and claims that his agenda doesn’t allow sufficient time for comment. What a horse’s ass.”
“Is that what Holly just told you?”
“No, it’s my reading between the lines of what she said and what the switchboard operator just told me.”
He relates to Julie what was said and then he says, “Until something breaks on this winery case, you can continue to help me with that Barner case. As you know, some new evidence just came to light and I want to touch base with some old friends of the family who have moved away. I want to locate them and have a little chat.”
“Okay, I’m on it.”
Nothing of consequence rears its head as the afternoon slowly slips away which gives them both time to dwell on the possibility that this is the calm before the storm. At quitting time, Derrick and Julie, with their canine partners at their heels, head out for a quiet evening at home to scrounge around their pantries, and refrigerators for something to eat, tend to some domestic chores, catch up on some reading and perhaps watch the boob tube before hitting the sack. The same thing millions of other people will be doing when they get home.
Around seven that night there’s a knock at Derrick’s door and when he goes to answer it Champ follows him but doesn’t go on alert or softly growl. Looking through the window alongside the door, he learns why. It’s Julie and Duke and Julie’s holding a big bag of something in her hands and Duke is holding a small sack of something in his teeth.
Upon his opening the door Julie says, “We were bored and hungry and thought you two might be in the same fix, so we stopped by the Deli and picked up some goodies for all of us to share along with our company.
Smiling Derrick says, “Well, Champ and I were just about to drive out to Robert Redford’s place to join him for dinner, but we can make up some excuse and cancel.”
“Well, we’re pretty sure our food will suit your fancy, but you’ll have to settle for soda pop to quench your thirst. Lately, just the thought of wine gives me a headache.”
Laughing Derrick opens the door wider and says, “Mi casa es su casa. Estas en tu casa.