Toxic New Year: The Day That Wouldn't End: The Day That Wouldn't End (Alex Desephano Series Book 4)

by Judith Lucci

  “Yeah, but so do a dozen other men in our ranks,” John retorted defensively. “No reason for Stark to break rank that we know of, is there?”

  Stoner shrugged his shoulders and glared at him. “Then why can’t we find him? Where is he?”

  John studied his pasta salad for a moment and replied. “I’ve no idea, but he’s a free agent. His wife died the first part of the year, so he’s probably working for a private contractor again. He’s disappeared several times in recent years, so it’s possible he’s gone dark or he’s working for another intelligence agency and is deep undercover. We’ve been monitoring him, along with the CIA, for months. There’s no activity at all, nothing on credit cards, transportation systems. Zilch.”

  “Anything from the Agency? Are they cooperating,” Stoner asked.

  John gave a short laugh. “As much as they ever do. The CIA isn’t one to join hands and kumbaya around the campfire to find the bad guys. But, I have a contact, and he says there’s nothing on Stark. The Agency thinks he’s in the Middle East somewhere.”

  Stoner scratched his head and said, “Could be. You know he freelances with the Brits and Mossad, right?”

  John nodded. “Yeah. He left us when he really needed money to pay for his wife’s cancer treatment. Hell, we couldn’t compete with the private contractors. I’m sure they paid Stark ten times what we paid.”

  Stoner thought for a moment and continued, “I don’t see Jacob Stark’s print on the terrorism attack in Virginia. I think I’ll rule him out entirely.”

  John looked pleased and nodded his head in agreement. “I agree, Stoner. Stark’s an American hero and he’s made plenty of money. Even if he was in debt to Al-Qaeda, he could have paid them back with other intelligence. I don’t see him working against his country.”

  “Yeah,” Stoner nodded as he considered John’s comments. “Besides, if Stark’s has gone dark, we’ll never find him until he wants to be found.”

  “For sure,” John agreed. “Let’s have chocolate cake,” he suggested as he motioned for the waitress. “Case closed”.

  Chapter 60

  Everything looked serene and peaceful when Jacob and Shooter roared through the gates leading to the Chateau. Stark glanced up at the surveillance cameras. They appeared untouched.

  “The cameras look OK, but we can check the feeds when we get to the house,” Stark said, scanning the property boundaries.

  Shooter nodded as he looked out the rear view mirror. “Yeah, so far, so good. We can pull the footage and get it in a few minutes.”

  Stark pointed ahead, “There’s Louis on the veranda. I don’t think he’s too worried or he’d be inside.”

  Shooter nodded, his fingers drumming the steering wheel. “We gotta be smart about this. Mrs. A. called us on the QT. Louis told her not to bother us. Let’s play it dumb and see what happens.”

  Stark stared at Shooter and was quiet for a moment before he responded, “I gotta know all the facts if I am supposed to protect Louis. I’m ready to confront him.”

  Shooter exited the Fiat. “OK, but let’s not give Mrs. A. away. She is totally dedicated to the old guy and has been his right hand for years. We need her on our side.”

  Stark nodded as Louis waved to the men from the veranda and motioned for them to come forward. “Come on up. I just opened some wine and the Scotch is in the chiller. Cook has some wonderful snacks,” Louis said.

  Shooter climbed the terrace steps two steps at a time, reaching the veranda ahead of Stark. Louis had settled into a comfortable outdoor chair, and was contently sipping on his tumbler of scotch. He glanced up at the two and asked, “Did you boys get everything done?”

  Shooter nodded and grinned, his smile stretching from ear to ear. “Yeah, Jacob here is full of talents. Skill sets I never knew he had. If you need your gutters cleaned or your Chateau painted, he’s your man. There’s no end to the surprises this dude offers.”

  Louis laughed and looked at Stark. “Good to know. Are Haley and Sarah coming for dinner?” His face was hopeful.

  Stark smiled and wondered whether his suspicion that Louis was ‘sweet’ on his mother-in-law was correct. “Oh yes, Haley modeled three different dresses to wear. She wanted Shooter to choose which one she should wear.”

  Shooter raised his hands in a back off gesture. “Jake, I can’t help it if she prefers my taste to yours. The child recognizes me as a man of great style,” he offered apologetically, grinning wide at Louis and Stark.

  Louis laughed. “I’m not sure about your style, Shooter, but I do know Alex and Sarah took her shopping earlier today. I heard she made a haul. She modeled all of her new dresses earlier for us. She’s quite a little princess, a real fashionista, as Alex described,” he said as he smiled at Jacob.

  “I’m sure she did but Louis, what else happened around here today?” Stark held Louis’s eye with his own.

  “Um, not much,” Louis said, reviewing the day in his mind. “Alex hung out on the veranda for a while, and then left an hour or so ago to take photographs with her teacher. Mrs. A. and I did some work, and I planned a trip to Turin to see the Fiat people. That’s about it,” he offered, and again turned to his Scotch.

  Shooter sighed and said, “OK, Louis. We heard, via the grapevine, there was an intruder on the property. You just happened to leave that out?” There was a caustic edge to Shooter’s voice and his face was grim.

  Louis shot him an irate look. “I was going to tell you. I checked the cameras myself and I didn’t see anything,” he responded defensively.

  Stark cleared his throat and rolled his eyes. “Where did you see someone, Louis? I want to go check around outside.”

  “Over there,” Louis pointed left. “It was a man dressed in black clothing and he was running toward the back part of the property. I went over to the balcony for a better look, but he disappeared in the woods.”

  Stark and Shooter stared at each other.

  “Are you sure he was wearing black,” Shooter asked. “It would be unusual for someone who was scouting out a place to break into to wear black during the day.”

  Louis nodded and said, “Yeah, absolutely. I know he was wearing black.”

  “Do you think he saw you, Louis,” Jacob questioned. “That can make a huge difference as to what they plan to do.”

  Louis shook his head and said, “No, I don’t think so. But he was definitely in a hurry. I checked the surveillance data and I was able to trace him around the perimeter of the estate. I think tomorrow we should look to see what he did.”

  Stark shook his head. “No. I’m not waiting until tomorrow. I’m going out there now and check around, just to be safe.”

  “I’ll go with you, Jacob,” Shooter offered. “Did you ask anyone else if they saw anyone?”

  Louis shook his head and replied, “Nope. Alex was asleep on the chaise, Mrs. A. was in my office, and the kitchen help was in the kitchen. There was no one outside.”

  Jacob nodded. “Will you ask them, Louis? Who knows what they could’ve seen out the kitchen window or anywhere else. Maybe they saw nothing, but maybe they saw the same thing as you ... or something different. Will you do that while we check around outside and look at the camera footage?”

  Louis rose from his chair and said, “Sure. I’ll go right now, but what you need to know is that these people have been with me for years. I personally vetted all of them over ten years ago. They maintain this place when I’m in New York and other places. I trust them.”

  Shooter shook his head and interrupted, “Louis, we just want to know if anyone that works here saw anything unusual. No one is pointing fingers anywhere, I promise you.”

  Louis seemed satisfied, nodded, and picked his drink up off the table as he left the room to check with his employees.

  “It certainly isn’t anyone who is para-military,” Jacob smirked. “I can’t imagine anybody scoping out the location with black on during the day. Can you?”

  Shooter shook his head. “Nope, not unless t
hey have gigantic balls. Let’s check the grounds and see what we can find.”

  Stark nodded. “Yeah, I got it. But, let’s hit the security cameras, check the feeds, and then go outside and do a quick search. I’m concerned about this, Shooter. You think the Mafia would come this far to take out Louis?”

  Shooter looked uncertain. “I want to say no, but I can’t be sure. Some families have connections with other families in all parts of the world. With globalization, all kinds of alliances have been set up.” He paused for a moment and added, “So we can’t rule it out. Let’s look around. I don’t think whoever it is wants you if that helps.”

  Stark shook his head. “That doesn’t help at all. I know how the Feds think. This mafia stuff, man, I just don’t know. It sounds like they may be more sophisticated than we think.”

  Shooter digested this information and said, “Maybe we’re just looking for a plain old burglar.” He glanced around and added, “It looks to me like there’s a bunch of valuable stuff here, enough to make it worth someone’s time.”

  Stark nodded. “Yeah, Louis has a valuable art collection and you’re right, it could be some local thug, but we still don’t know who or what they want. Let’s go check the cameras.”

  Chapter 61

  Fredrico Petrelli sat in a Cajun Poor Boy dive in Gulfport, Mississippi, drinking steadily as he punched numbers into his international cell phone. Damn this thing. I should have gone to Italy myself. That would have been easier than working this phone.

  Finally, in a rage, he pitched the cell against the wall and stalked angrily over to the bar for another beer just as his phone began to ring. He ran quickly and retrieved it from under the table.

  “Whatdaya want?” Petrelli hollered into the phone, his voice harsh and angry. A mob boss could never sound pleasant.

  It was his contact. “We’re on,” the accented voice said, and immediately hung up.

  Petrelli smiled to himself as he stared into his beer. It was going to be a wonderful day.

  Chapter 62

  Shooter and Stark stared at the computerized images on the monitors that were located throughout the Chateau and the grounds. They followed the intruder with their eyes as he circled the house.

  “What in the hell is this guy doing? I can’t see where he’s doing anything but walking around and looking at the place,” Shooter said impatiently.

  Stark was puzzled as well. “Not sure, but he’s doing something and he’s taking his time at it, in broad daylight. Louis was right, he’s wearing black. But, he’s got to be doing something, Shooter P., or he wouldn’t be here. We’ve just got to look harder,” Jacob said, his voice emphatic as he flipped through the images again, frame by frame.

  “Look, what’s he doing now? It looks like he broke into the alarm box,” Shooter observed.

  “Yeah, let’s go out there and check things out,” Jacob suggested, reaching for his gun belt. “Bring your weapon, Shooter,” Jacob cautioned as he winked at his friend.

  “Ah, duh, OK,” Shooter retorted with a grin.

  While Stark and Shooter explored the perimeter, Louis sat in his office, drink in hand, and clicked through the security images on his iPAD for the third time since he’d seen the intruder. He couldn’t figure out what the man was doing either, but he certainly seemed to be checking out the house. Perhaps it was just a thief. Would Fredrico really come over here to kill me and how did they find me. This property is buried pretty deep in my portfolio.

  Louis closed his eyes and remembered back to the old days when he and Fredrico had been good buds. They’d had a lot of fun until Fredrico changed. He’d gotten mean, deadly mean, and began killing people for sport. Louis had been married to Alex’s mother at the time and was trying to turn his life around, to get out of the organized crime game. He was also in law school at the time, and Fredrico poked fun at him and ridiculed him about his education all the time. Deep down, Louis had believed that Fredrico was jealous of him.

  Louis’s mind sifted through images, good and bad, until he remembered how Fredrico had murdered Shooter’s mother when Shooter was a small child. Maggie had been a good girl and a wonderful mother to Shooter. She’d called Louis once after Fredrico had beaten her, almost to death, and Louis had helped her escape from New Orleans. Of course, Fredrico had tracked her down with a vengeance and a few months later, put a bullet in her head as Shooter watched. Fredrico had never forgiven Louis for helping Maggie and had hated him ever since. Louis had become Petrelli’s sworn enemy.

  “Well, would you look at that? Are you napping, Louis,” Shooter teased as he entered Louis’s study with Jacob at his heels.

  His mind jolted back to the present, Louis responded, “No, I was waiting for you guys to get back so we could continue cocktail hour. Are you ready?”

  Shooter nodded and Jacob said, “I think we have a burglar and I think he’s planning to come tonight.”

  Louis raised his eyebrow. “Really, I wonder why. Don’t most burglars look for drugs these days?”

  Stark nodded. “Drugs and cash are favorites. But so is jewelry, and art. You have a lot of art around here that he could fit in this,” Jacob said as he opened a duffle bag and pulled out a large nylon laundry bag.

  Louis’s eyes widened. “Humph. What else is in that bag and where did you find it?”

  “In the hedge behind the kitchen window. The thick hedge. The one with the thorns,” Shooter added as he showed Louis the scratches on his arm. “Look what else we have,” Shooter said as he removed a Phillips screw driver, a glass cutter, a can of foam insulation, and a map of the Chateau.

  Louis was impressed. “This guy looks serious. Looks like he is coming tonight.”

  “Yeah, I think he is. Is your safe bolted to the floor,” Jacob asked.

  “Yes, he won’t be able to get that, but I hope he won’t get any further than the kitchen,” Louis replied with some concern. “Do you boys think we can handle him or should we involve the police?”

  Shooter laughed, “We’ll get him, don’t worry, but the guy is pretty sophisticated. He’s already jammed the alarm system box with this foam insulation, which is now harder than a rock. Oh, and he’s disarmed the magnetic alarms on the windows as well.”

  Louis laughed, “We’ve got that coved with the silent alarm in the foyer that’s hooked into the telephone system, unless ….” Louis thought for a minute and continued, “Unless he cuts the phone lines.”

  “He will,” Jacob assured him, “I’m sure that’s what the wire cutters are for. This guy’s a pro. However, I wouldn’t object if you wanted to hire some private security to keep an eye on the lake side of the Chateau and the pier.”

  Louis nodded, secretly relieved that it wasn’t a Mafia hit, but he wondered why he would be getting robbed within a few months of arriving in France. The house would be much easier to burglarize when he wasn’t in residence. “That’s a good idea, Jacob. I’ve got a private security firm I’ll call now. I’ll get three or four guys for the next week. We should know what’s going on by then.”

  Shooter nodded. “Why not put somebody on the upstairs terrace to keep an eye on the front and side entrances.”

  Stark interrupted, “I’d put a man on the front and the back and the waterfront, just to be safe.”

  Louis nodded, picked up his cell, and called the private security firm. “Let’s adjourn to the veranda and think this through,” he suggested to Shooter and Stark. “Alex should be back in a half an hour and I don’t want to upset her with this. She’s had enough this year with the attack on her Grandparent’s farm, and she is still having nightmares from that.”

  Shooter nodded as Jacob’s guilt and self-disgust escalated to a new level.

  Chapter 63

  “How is Alex’s family? Have they recovered from the attack this year,” Jacob asked Louis unexpectedly. “Did they ever find out who was behind it?”

  Shooter glared at Jacob out of the corner of his eye.

  Louis paused before he answ
ered. “She’s OK, I think. Still has some PTSD. Alex said her grandparents are doing well. The Lee’s are strong people, even at their advanced ages. The horse barn has been rebuilt and they’ve put in a new security system that has new and experimental technology, but seems to be working. I guess we’ll find out next month at their annual July 4th party. That would probably be when they’d expect another potential hit.”

  Jacob nodded. “That’s good. It must have been a terrible thing.”

  Louis nodded. “It was. It still is. Alex said the Secret Service and FBI think it’s possible that one of the terrorists changed his mind and defused the second explosion.”

  Shooter laughed. “I can’t imagine a terrorist having a change of heart. That is so unlikely!”

  Louis ignored him and looked at Stark. “Apparently, there was a ton of explosives hidden in a semi in an outbuilding near the central area of the party. If that had detonated, everything and everyone would have been killed or destroyed.”

  “I think it’s more likely the second bomb just malfunctioned,” Shooter said with authority. “I can’t imagine a terrorist, particularly Al-Qaeda, sparing an American life.”

  Louis shrugged and had a long sip of scotch. “Who knows? At least it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Anyway, the Secret Service thinks it’s possible that the CIA had a dark agent working with the terrorists, and he defused the bomb and killed the other terrorist. Who knows? Now, what do you think about this burglar thing?”

  Stark’s heart soared with hope and he saw a small, satisfied smile on Shooter’s face. He turned to respond to Louis as he stirred his drink with his finger. “I don’t know. In some respects, it seems too easy. Why would someone case the house in the middle of the day and leave their tools? It’s almost like we’re being baited,” Stark ventured.

  Shooter was thoughtful for a minute, happy the discussion about Wyndley Farm was over. “I’ve thought about that as well. It’s almost as if someone wants to disarm us and focus our attention on looking for a cat burglar when in fact, something else is gonna happen.”