Deadly Deception

by Gilbert, Morris

  Going back to the knapsack, he pulled out a set of heavy-duty bolt cutters with a ring on one handle. He clipped the ring to a ring on his belt and loosened the gun in his holster. Carefully, he dropped over the side, this time wrapping the rope around his leg and rappeling down. Though the rope cut into his leg, he ignored it. He lowered himself until his upper body was even with the top window, then stopped. Carefully, he inched his head to the right and got a look into the room.

  Dani lay on a cot, with Pat huddled next to her. He looked at them for a few long seconds, knowing that when he grew to be an old man, he would be able to pull this memory out of his past—Dani’s face touched by the rosy tint of the rising sun, beautiful even though marked with fatigue and suffering, and the maternal cast of her broad lips as she held tightly to Pat Lanza.

  As sounds came from inside the building, Savage called, “Dani!”

  Her eyes opened at once, and she looked around wildly. He spoke her name again, and she came off the bed, stumbling as she rushed to the window. Her hands reached through the window, touching his face, and tears filled her eyes.

  “I knew you’d come, Ben!” she whispered.

  He reached through the bars with his free hand and caught a handful of the great mass of auburn hair. He held to it tightly, then huskily managed, “Good morning, Boss!”

  They were still for a moment, before Pat cried out, “Ben!”

  “Pat!” Savage called quickly. “Be very quiet!”

  Dani watched as he made some sort of harness out of the line he was dangling from, so that he soon had both hands free. Then he removed the bolt cutters and put their jaws around one bar. He began to squeeze, but the steel was tough. He gave it all he had and was just beginning to give up, when the bolt cutters suddenly sheared through. He gave a deep sigh of relief and, working quickly, snipped through the other bars.

  “I’m going back up,” he told them. “When I let the rope down, it’ll have a slip knot in it. Pat, you get Dani to help you in it and come out the window. Don’t look down; look up at me. All right?”

  “Sure!” Pat cried, his face shining.

  “Good boy! Then I’ll send the rope down again. Put it under your arms, Dani. Let yourself out the window feet first. May be a tight fit, but don’t worry, I’ll have you.”

  “I won’t worry, Ben.” Dani smiled.

  He looked at her, then nodded and went hand over hand up the rope. Quickly he made a slip knot and lowered it. When he saw Pat’s sturdy body coming through the opening, he began to pull, and soon Pat stood beside him, holding onto his leg.

  “Quiet, now,” Ben warned. “We’ve got to get your nanny out of there.” He lowered the rope, and Dani pulled it in. Her legs came out awkwardly, scratching against one of the steel stubs; then her upper body followed. She slipped and gave a small cry as she plunged downward, but Savage was ready and took the shock of the fall. The rope slipped through his hands, burning them, but he tightened his grip, ignoring the pain. As soon as he had brought her to a stop, he pulled up, then reached down and took a new grip. She was much heavier than the boy, of course, but he had her up to the top of the level of the roof and was able to grab her by the wrist and haul her up. They sprawled on the flat roof, and for one moment he embraced her as they lay there, gasping for breath.

  Her lips were only inches from his, but he threw the moment away. “Next time we do this,” he teased, “I wish you’d go on a diet.”

  She knew he was letting the moment pass, for he was a man who drew back from emotional display. She simply pulled his head down and gave him a light kiss on the cheek. “Thanks for the ride,” she whispered.

  Then he rolled to his feet and looked around. The roof was perfectly flat, with only one break—a square wooden affair in the middle. That had to be the exit to the roof from the inside. Savage went to the front of the building and held his hands over his head, then pulled them down three times. He ducked back and moved to where Dani and Pat stood.

  “Come over here,” he ordered. “There may be some shots before long.” He led them to a spot near the rear, where he had a full view of the trap door leading down. “They’ll be coming up that way, maybe,” he warned.

  Dani and Pat both moved closer to him. Ben put his gun away. “Let’s sit down.” He pulled Pat close with his left hand and did the same for Dani with his right. “I got your message, Boss,” he informed her quietly. “You did fine.”

  “So did you,” she congratulated him. There was a strange feeling in her breast, a rushing tide of joy as the fear left. “I’ve been praying for you to come,” Dani stated.

  “Me, too!” Pat exclaimed. “We’ve been—”

  He was cut off by the sound of automatic rifle fire coming from the front of the building. After a pause a voice announced over a bull horn, “Surrender now, Ring, and you’ll be all right.”

  But as soon as DeSilva spoke, the morning air was broken by several weapons being fired. Some of them, Savage knew, were shotguns, and he guessed that the police would be putting tear gas inside the building.

  The fight went on for some time. “They’re inside now, the swat team,” he said. “Won’t be long now.”

  And it was not. There was a furious burst of fire from somewhere inside the building, then a silence. It ran on and on—and then the trap door began to open!

  At once Savage drew his gun and put himself between Dani and Pat and the door. He held the gun steadily on the door. Finally it fell back and a man stepped out.

  “Don’t shoot.” Sixkiller grinned as he stepped out on the roof. “It’s only us lawmen.” Then he saw Dani and went to her. She fell against his broad chest and held to him tightly.

  DeSilva came up then and, taking in the scene, declared, “Well, Savage, you messed up my little bureaucratic plan, just as I thought you would.”

  Savage stared at him. “How’s that, DeSilva?”

  DeSilva’s thin face was expressionless, but a gleam lit his dark eyes. “Ring and his two helpers, they made a fight of it.” He shrugged eloquently, a thoroughly Latin gesture. “No trial, no glory for me. just three graves. Too bad.”

  Savage just stared at him. “Yeah, it’s tough. But you can still get your kicks by pulling my license.”

  “You think I’ve got nothing to do but waste my time pulling rank on two-bit gumshoes?” DeSilva snorted. “I won’t waste my time. A hot dog like you won’t last long, anyway.”

  Dani came out of Sixkiller’s embrace. “Pat and I are so grateful to all of you,” she told them. Coming forward, she put her hand out, and DeSilva took it. “You did a wonderful job!”

  DeSilva stood there for a moment, then nodded. “Thank you, Miss Ross. Now, let’s get you both out of here. Are you ready to get to your home, young fellow?” he asked Pat with a smile.

  Pat had been holding on to Ben. He looked at the FBI agent and nodded. “Sure! I’m sick of hamburgers every day!”

  Ben laughed and picked him up. “You’re going to be a very popular young fellow when you get home. Everyone’s been worried about you.”

  After some thought, Pat asked, “Ben, it would be a pretty good time to ask Dad for that Power Wheels I’ve been wanting, wouldn’t it?”

  Ben squeezed him and winked at Dani. “I think you could ask for the moon, Pat.”

  “I don’t want the moon,” Pat argued as they climbed down the ladder. “Just a red Power Wheels. I think I’ll ask Mom for it,” he added confidently. “She’ll get Dad to buy it for me, I bet!”

  Ben rode back to town with Dani on one side and Pat on the other. As the car moved through the early morning, he reached out once and pressed Dani’s hand.

  “Boss, don’t do that to me again!” He said no more and released her hand, but she smiled, knowing what he meant.

  19

  A Little Therapy

  * * *

  Dani folded the coffee-colored blouse and laid it carefully in the suitcase lying on her bed. Then she picked up the .38 in the brown harness. She sta
red at it for a few moments, then placed it on top of the blouse. Taking a deep breath, she closed the suitcase, snapping the catches. The sharp click of the latch seemed to be a final point of some kind or perhaps some sort of fork in the road, a turning that would control her life in the future.

  She picked up the suitcase, took one final look around the room, then lifted her chin and stepped outside. Thomas Rossi had just turned the corner of the hall. “Mr. Lanza would like to see you for a few moments before you leave,” he told Dani. He put out his hand and took her suitcase. “You’ve been good for him.”

  “I’ve grown very fond of him, Thomas,” Dani said. They walked down the hall together, and when they came to the door, she put her hand out and smiled at him. “I’ll be coming back to see him, Thomas.”

  Rossi’s stern lips suddenly turned upward in a smile. “That’s a good thing, Miss Ross. We’ll all like that.” He opened the door, then stepped back. “Go right on in.”

  Dani entered the room and found Lanza sitting in his favorite chair. He was looking out the window, but his head turned toward her as she came to stand beside him. When he spoke, she noted that his voice was weaker than before, and his lips were drawn back in the manner of the very old or the very sick. “Ah, you are leaving us,” he commented. “Well, that must be.”

  Dani asked quickly, “Have you heard what the FBI found?”

  “No. A man named DeSilva left a message for me to call him, but I have not.”

  “Do it, then,” Dani encouraged him. “You’ve been worried that a member of your family has been unfaithful.”

  “There has been a traitor among us,” he insisted.

  “Yes, but not of your blood. I talked to DeSilva this morning. Ring left a lot of evidence behind—including plenty of it concerning how he got his information.” She paused and spoke quietly, “It was Faye Dietrich, Dom. DeSilva has letters in his handwriting. Apparently he and Ring were out to gain control of your business as well as Joe Martino’s. You really had no security, Dom.”

  Lanza considered that. “I knew the man had ambition, but I had not thought him a traitor. I will have to deal with him.”

  “No, the FBI’s taken care of it,” Dani corrected him. “He’s a party to the kidnapping and will stand trial and will be convicted. You don’t have to do anything.” She hesitated, then added, “And the shortage, Frank told me that the accountant finally found it. It was a laundry thing.”

  “Not the kind that washes clothes, I’m afraid.” Dom shook his head sadly. “It was a ‘laundry’ for money, Dani. You know about that, I’m sure.”

  “Yes. It’s a way to get illegally gotten money into circulation.”

  “Well, it can get to be very complicated. Eddy and Max were juggling operations around, and I guess they got an account buried.” He shrugged, adding, “The one bright spot in the whole thing is that the family is not stealing. Stupid, yes. But not stealing. Faye is different. I will have to deal with him.”

  Dani wanted to take his mind off Faye. She sat down and reached out for his hand. “Don’t think you’re rid of me,” she warned with a smile. “My office is too close for that. We’ve got a lot of talking to do, you and I, Dom Lanza.”

  He stroked her smooth hand, looked down at it, and lifted his eyes. “I wish I had met someone like you a long time ago. Maybe if I had discovered love and kindness outside the family, things would have been different.” Then he cocked his head, studying her with his dark eyes. “I have never known such a thing, the way you have made such a change in people in so short a time. Rosemary—she is a new person. And Frank, he is different, too. Not to speak of the children.”

  “I’ve changed, too, Dom,” she admitted slowly. “Sometimes I think we are the sum total of the people we meet. They say we are what we eat, but I think the real part of us is made by others.” She looked down at his hand, thinking of the past weeks, then softly noted, “You and I are very different, Dom, but God has given me a great love for you.”

  He studied her shining auburn hair, appreciated the smooth curve of her cheeks, and noted again how strength and beauty were so well united in the woman. He wanted to say many things, but he chose the one element that had become most pressing to him. “Dani, you have saved my family, and you have made me aware of God.” He paused, then added, “I thought that God could never be a part of my life. Now, you have opened up my heart. I read about Jesus Christ, and if what I read is true, He draws no lines.”

  “Never! Jesus came to show us what God is like,” she explained. “One of his disciples once said, ‘Lord, show us the Father.’” And Jesus answered, “‘He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.’ Jesus is God, Dom. What we read in the Bible about Him is what He wanted to show us about his Father.”

  Dom replied, “I am much closer to God, Dani, than I ever thought I’d be—yet I am still troubled.”

  “We all have questions, Dom,” Dani comforted him. “Let’s go on together. I’ll come back, and we can talk.” She hesitated. “I always get a little nervous when someone says, ‘God told me to do thus and so.’ Maybe that’s right, but I don’t get such a direct message. But sometimes a certainty comes into my heart, and I just know that God is speaking to me. I’ve had that kind of certainty about you,” she insisted. “God is drawing you, and He will have you in the end.”

  “I—I will look forward to our meetings,” he declared. Then he picked up her hand and kissed it with a humble and eloquent gesture. “Now, give me your blessing before you go.”

  Dani prayed a simple prayer for him, then impulsively leaned over and kissed his withered cheek. “I’ll see you soon,” she said, then not trusting herself to keep the tears back, she left the room quickly.

  She found Frank in his study, and he got up from his desk at once. He took her hands, questioning, “So you won’t change your mind and stay?”

  “No, Frank. It’s tempting, but I’ve got an agency to run.”

  “Well, Dani, I wish you would stay.” A peculiar expression ran across his face, and he suddenly asked, “Would it make any difference if I told you things are going to be different around here?”

  She looked at him inquiringly. “Different, Frank?”

  “Yes!” he shrugged his shoulders and began to pace the floor. “This thing has shaken me up, Dani. Made me see things differently. Rosemary and I have had some long talks about things—you know, the kids and the way we have to live. Well—we decided there are things more important than money.”

  “You’re leaving the family business?” Dani asked in surprise. She and Rosemary had talked about it, but it had seemed unlikely that Frank would ever think of such a thing.

  “That’ll be up to Pop, I guess.” Frank shrugged. “We’ve got a lot of legitimate things going—more than I’d thought. I’m pulling out of the rackets, everything that’s brought all this trouble. Eddy and Helen can do as they please, but we just want to live normal lives.” He laughed shortly. “I guess Pop will kick me out on my ear. Maybe I can learn a trade. Think I’m too old to learn to be a good plumber, Dani?”

  She smiled and put her hand on his arm. “You’d be good at anything you took up, Frank. But I don’t think your father will be too hard on you. As a matter of fact, after the shock is over, he’ll be glad, I think.”

  “Yeah, he’s different now. That’s more of your doing, Dani. I never saw him accept an outsider the way he has you.”

  “You’re going to be fine, Frank.” Dani smiled. She put out her hand and added, “I’ll be seeing you pretty often. When I said good-bye to the children, I had to promise some frequent visits. I’ll come see your father, too.”

  “I’ll count on it,” Frank pledged. “Send us a good fat bill, Dani. Money won’t pay for what you’ve done, but it’s a start.”

  Dani left the house and walked rapidly toward the garage. She found Ben and Abby waiting for her. “Well, all set?” Savage asked.

  “I guess so.” Dani nodded. Then she put out her hand. “Look out for th
e kids, Abby—and for yourself, too.”

  “Sure, Dani.” Abby shook her hand, and then a mocking light came into her eyes. She turned and threw her arms around Ben’s neck. Pulling his head down, she gave him a long kiss, then turned and grinned at Dani. “I thought I’d better do that, Dani,” she explained. “He won’t get anything like that from an iceberg like you!”

  She whirled and ran out of the garage. Dani stared at her, then looked at Ben. He had lipstick all over his mouth and a confused look in his eyes. But he intervened quickly, “Well, Boss, I guess we better get moving.”

  Dani spoke stiffly, “I’ll see you tomorrow at the office.”

  “Can I bum a ride with you? Can’t get my heap started.”

  “Come on,” she snapped. “I don’t see why you don’t get a decent car.”

  Savage got in beside her and leaned back in the seat. “Don’t like to waste money on things like cars. Rather spend it on important things like wine and women.” He knew his remarks irritated her and said nothing until they were on the causeway. “What say we have an orgy, Boss? Let’s go eat at Christian’s,” he suggested.

  She gave him a critical glance. “Do you know what it costs to eat at that place?”

  “As the French say, Pomme de terre!”

  “That means ‘potato.’” She laughed.

  “Yeah, but it’s the only French I know.” He shrugged. “I’m hungry. I figure we have it coming to us.”

  “All right,” she gave in. “I don’t think you’ll get past the door. You’re not in proper dress.” She looked at his jeans, Nike shoes, and white knit shirt. “You can wait in the car while I eat.”

  “Not to worry,” he murmured, his head laid back. “I got an in at Christian’s. I had a date once with one of the waitresses. She’s so crazy about me, she’ll convince them I’m an eccentric celebrity.”