Cabernet Capers

by Dan Kelly

  Smiling Julie says, “I didn’t know you spoke Spanish.”

  “Oh, I’m quite fluent. Tamales, burritos, carne asada, tacos, salsa, tortilla, guacamole, elotes, albóndigas. I speak the language very well senorita. However, if I don’t want to eat I’m in big trouble.”

  Laughing she says, I know Mi casa es su casa means my house is your house, but what does Estas en tu casa mean?”

  “Make yourself at home.”

  Heading for the kitchen she says, “Gracias le.”

  Laughing he says, “I think my veracity has just been challenged and I’ve gotten in way over my head.”

  After everyone’s belly is full, they all settle in to watch some TV. Around eight-thirty there’s some kind of commotion in the backyard, so Derrick grabs a flashlight from a kitchen cupboard and goes out to investigate with Champ at his side. He says to Julie, “It’s probably some possums trying to get into the trash cans again. For some reason, the Chandler residence has become the in-place for the hungry critters.”

  As soon as Derrick and Champ set foot in the backyard, Champ goes on alert and begins to growl. A second later Champ lets out a yelp and falls down with a dart in his side. Normally, when Derrick gets home he puts his gun in a drawer in his bedroom, but fortunately tonight he didn’t follow his routine as he was preoccupied with thoughts of the recent developments surrounding the winery case.

  He quickly turns the flashlight off, ducks down behind a small pile of firewood which gives him some partial cover and draws his weapon, looking for any movement in the direction the dart came from. It’s pitch black in the yard and Derrick is chewing himself out for putting off installing outside lights. He can’t see diddly-squat, but the light from the kitchen is making him a perfect target and Duilio squeezes one off, missing Derrick but taking a big chunk out of the log at the top of the woodpile.

  Derrick knows he’s outgunned and knows his best chance for survival is to get lost in the dark behind his gardening shed in the near corner of the yard. Before he can move, the sound of the shot has brought Julie and Duke into the kitchen and she immediately turns off the kitchen light and Derrick can hear her opening the patio door.

  A minute goes by and Derrick has no idea where Julie and Duke are and decides to try to sneak over to the gardening shed. As he crawls out from behind the woodpile, a shot rings out and Derrick hears the whoosh of the bullet as it soars by his ear. Then another shot is fired and there’s a scream and the sound of a falling body. Looking behind him, Derrick sees that the neighbor next door has turned on his outside lights to see what is happening outside and when he did that Riccardo Paganelli, rifle in the firing position, became a perfect silhouette and unlike Duilio and Riccardo Julie hits what she aims at.

  At the same time this was happening, when the neighbor’s light came on Duilio was revealed crouching down behind a hedge separating Derrick’s backyard from the backyard of the property directly behind his. Duke takes off like he was shot out of a cannon and leaps over the hedge to get at the hands holding the rifle. While Duke is in mid-air, Duilio manages to get a shot off, and the dog let out a yelp, but lands on Duilio’s chest and clamps his jaws on one of Duilio’s wrists.

  Duilio lets go of the rifle and, petrified, starts screaming, “Get it off of me! Get it off of me!”

  Julie, slowly advancing toward him says, “You even twitch and you’re a dead man.” She calls Duke off and Duilio, holding his wrist, collapses on the ground and starts crying like a baby.

  Derrick runs over to Champ, worried that he might have been injected with some kind of poison and sees that the dog’s eyes are closed, he isn’t moving, but he seems to be breathing normally. Running over to where Duilio is lying on the ground he gives him a hard kick to his shin and shouts, “What was on that dart? Tell me you piece of garbage.”

  There’s no fight left in Duilio and he says, “Just a tranquilizer/knockout drug. It anesthetizes and immobilizes for an hour or so that’s all.”

  Derrick quickly checks Riccardo for any signs of life, but he’s beyond help. He won’t be taking shots at anyone ever again. Rounding up the Paganelli rifles and the dart gun that Riccardo had strapped across his chest, Derrick gets some plastic ties out of his gardening shed and binds Duilio’s wrists and ankles while Julie tends to Duke. Duilio’s shot clipped Duke’s tail and it’s bleeding, but it doesn’t look too bad. Julie says, “Duke should see a vet, but where do I take him at this time of night?”

  “There’s an animal hospital not far from here. Let me call this in and when this scum is taken off our hands, we can take him and Champ there to be checked out.”

  Two and a half hours later Derrick and Julie are leaving the pet hospital with Champ none the worse for wear and Duke sporting some stitches and a bandage around his tail. Julie’s been quiet ever since they left his place for the animal hospital. When they all pile into his car Derrick asks her, “What’s got you tongue. It can’t be a cat. The dogs wouldn’t tolerate any feline getting within a mile of you.”

  Giving him a weak smile she says, “I’ve killed two people since I started working with you and I’m not sure how I feel about that or should feel about it. I’m just trying to deal with it.”

  “What you’re experiencing is normal. The fact that you’re thinking about it is a sign that you’re a lot of steps up from the bad guys. Give yourself a break. You did what you had to do and that should make you feel good.”

  “Thank you for that, Dr. Chandler.”

  “That’s the least I can do for the woman who saved my tuchas tonight.”

  “Wow! You’re full of surprises. You’re multi-lingual. You speak Yiddish too.”

  “Hey, I’m a firm believer in if you got it flaunt it.”

  They’re both quiet during the drive back to Derrick’s house and when they arrive Derrick’s neighbors are all gathered in front of his house talking about the latest in home entertainment for the folks who have everything, backyard shootouts with a canine twist.

  Julie says, “It looks like you’re going to be busy for a while answering a bunch of questions. I’m heading for home and bed. I’m beat.”

  Giving him a good night kiss, she gets out of the car and into hers and is heading down the street before he can maneuver his car around his neighbors and into his garage. It takes him over an hour to answer all of his neighbor’s questions and disburse them. By the time he falls into bed it’s almost two in the morning. “Oh well, sleep is overrated anyhow.”

  Chapter 58

  In the following months, Duilio stays true to form and looks out only for himself and rats out everybody else in exchange for some leniency.

  Starting with Bob Sheldon and his hacking into the competition’s computer systems, then moving on to his gun dealer and then finishing with Benjamin Cordell he spilt the entire can of beans on everyone who played a part in the Paganelli scheme to grow their business.

  As the investigation wound down, the ruse the Paganellis employed by leaving the bullet casings at Henry’s was blown out of the water. For the night of the shooting at Henry’s the gun dealer has an iron clad alibi. He was in the hospital being treated for a bullet wound in his calf muscle. He had a dissatisfied customer who believes action speaks louder than words, so the guy shot him.

  Bob Sheldon is in a heap of trouble for his hacking activities. Someone who hacks into another person's computer can be punished for a number of different crimes, depending on the circumstances. These crimes carry penalties ranging from up to six months in prison, a fine of up to $1,000, or both for a class B misdemeanor or up to 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $15,000, or both for a class B felony.

  In addition to criminal penalties, the law specifically authorizes someone harmed by a computer or unauthorized use crime to bring a civil lawsuit against the perpetrator. These civil actions are in addition to any other grounds for a civil action that the injured party may have. Sheldon, continuing to turn a deaf ear to Derrick’s attempts to get him to trade a confession
for some leniency, is now going to pay the full price for his hacking activities.

  Duilio’s signed confession is passed on to the SFPD who then insists on Cordell taking advantage of the city’s hospitality in a six by eight cell. Cordell takes the same route as Duilio, ratting out Antonio Arrigoni who is subsequently hauled off to the local house of detention in Milan where he will cool his heels while awaiting his comeuppance in the Italian halls of justice.

  When San Francisco has taken their piece out of Cordell’s hide, the city of Chicago will have their turn at him for his killing of Nick Petrillo. Cordell is facing a long spell behind bars, like the rest of his life, but it isn’t to be. One morning soon after Cordell is arrested he’s found in his cell with his throat cut. Speculation has either Arrigoni paying for the hit or one or more of the other families footing the bill for what Cordell did to Nuzzoli. Whoever was behind it, this time around no one has a loose tongue.

  Surprisingly, latent prints were found on the boxes housing the explosive devices planted around the foundations of Derrick’s and Julie’s homes and although no matches were found in any data base in the States, there were matches in Italy. Two sets of prints were found, both belonging to members of the Arrigoni family living and working in the Chicago area. Derrick’s thinking these people figured there would be nothing much left of their houses and there’d be even less tangible evidence of the boxes, so why worry about finger prints.

  Inspector Bianchi launched an extensive investigation into Industrial Ventures International and its subsidiary, Investors Anonymous, and when he was finished, the organization was decimated and some more crime bosses joined Arrigoni in his new home away from home. Maria Conti’s replacement, Felisa Rizzo, was arrested for trying to destroy evidence that would identify major investors who were funneling illegal funds into legitimate enterprises. She got caught in the act of shredding documents for which a court order had been issued, instructing that they be turned over to the prosecuting attorney.

  Remo Bellucci recovered sufficiently to be transferred to the county lockup to await his day in court for arson and attempted murder.

  The truck drivers, Victor Casciano and Joseph Faustino, got off scot free because the judge believed that they had no advance knowledge of what was going to happen at the intersection and there was no way to prove otherwise and that they fired their guns only in self-defense, not knowing who it was that was firing at them.

  Maria Conti came out of hiding and is now working for a new winery consortium that was recently established. Hans Arlinghaus with the help of Basilio and Alfonso Paganelli approached all of the wineries Duilio and Riccardo had targeted for acquisition saying, “If we all join together, we will be too big to attract the attention of anyone else who wants to try to force us into selling out. There’s not only strength in numbers and the economies of scale to be considered, but when you add in all of the years of experience we all have no one can surpass our ability to create good wines and manage a winery enterprise. We will be a force to be reckoned with.” It was an easy sell. Basilio and Alfonso seem to be handling the revelations about Duilio and Riccardo better than expected, all things considered, and feel they owe the victims of their progeny and can somehow help heal the wounds by melding Paganelli Wineries into the new structure.

  When Derrick and Julie found out about the new consortium, the irony of the situation immediately crossed their minds and they are still wondering how Duilio is reacting to the new development.

  Everything is now pretty much back to normal. Derrick is back to linking paper clips and is currently pondering over a new case that has just crossed his desk. His thoughts are interrupted by Julie coming into the office and strutting down the aisle yelling, “I passed! I passed!! I passed!!!”

  Julie applied to take the detective examination and with her academic background, job performance and Derrick’s recommendation was given the green light to take it and obviously she just got the results. Derrick had no doubt she’d pass it with flying colors.

  Derrick is ecstatic for her, proud of her and looking at her excited expression he now knows for certain he is a goner. It is a moment he’ll never forget. Before he can chicken out he says, “Congratulations, Detective Styversant. There’s also another name I’d like to start calling you.”

  Fleeting looks of confusion then of consternation and then of hope cross her face as she’s beginning to get a glimmer of what he is about to say. With an enormous amount of effort she manages to haltingly ask the obvious question. “What might that be?”

  “Mrs. Chandler.”

  With tears of joy in her eyes she says, “Give me a Nano-second to think about it. Yes, yes, yes, YES!”, and then she throws herself into his arms amid an enthusiastic round of applause, laughter and whistles from all the people who have come into the area to congratulate her on her promotion.

  A few weeks after this happy development another surprise comes out of the blue, Bill Bemis gives Julie a call. “I heard through my grapevine which is still in place down there that you made detective. Congratulations. I’m also calling to make you an offer. How would you like to come work for me?”

  “Uh, doing what?”

  “Why being a detective of course. Two weeks ago I was hired as the captain of your dad’s old precinct in San Francisco and I’ve been asked to shake things up around here.”

  “Really?”

  “I wouldn‘t kid you of all people about something like this.”

  “Well, evidently your grapevine needs some attending to as there’s been another development here.”

  “What’s that?”

  Derrick asked me to marry him and I said yes and there’s over thirty witnesses to the occasion so he can’t back out without losing face.”

  “Really?”

  “I wouldn’t kid you about something like this.”

  “Hot damn! I knew there was something cooking between you two. Have you set a date yet?”

  “April 1st.”

  “Are you crazy? That’s April Fools’ Day!”

  “Gotcha.”

  “Oooh, you haven’t changed.”

  “June 15th. It was my parents wedding day.”

  “That’s very nice, Julie. That will make your mom happy. Now, how about it? Will you make the switch?”

  “I can’t go traipsing off to San Francisco. I now have a fiancé to think about.”

  “Oh, didn’t I tell you. I’ve offered him a job too as a lieutenant of detectives in my precinct, but he said it would depend on how you reacted to my offer. So, what’s your answer?”

  “Hmm. When did you make Derrick the offer? He hasn’t said anything to me.”

  “A few minutes ago. We wanted to surprise you. He should be standing in the doorway of my old office now looking at you to see if you nod or shake your head. Take a look.”

  Not immediately following his instructions she asks, “So, you already knew about Derrick and me and you two have just been toying with me for your own amusement?”

  “Well, we thought it would make a great story to tell your kids and grandkids.”

  As she turns her head towards the office, sure enough, Derrick’s leaning against the doorjamb with a big grin on his face. She nods her head so vigorously she has people looking at her like she’s wigging out.

  “Hey, Julie, I can’t see what’s happening. Is he getting a nod or a shake of the head?”

  “When do we start?”

  “The sooner the better and don’t forget to say hello to Baldwin for me.”

  She laughs and Bemis hangs up. Looking over at Derrick, she can’t remember ever being this happy.

 

 

 
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