Our waitress arrived. Tory had a glass of wine in front of her. I ordered one, too.
“So how are you holding up?”
“I’ve had better days.” I told her about the antagonism between Raines and Ellsworth.
Her face grew serious. “I was counting on Raines.”
“I was, too. Now, I don’t know if I trust either of them.”
“Are you still going to the wedding?”
I nodded. “Have to.”
She fiddled with the stem of her glass. “It’s not fair. There are so many creeps out there—like that guy that was just hitting on me—I don’t know why this had to happen to you.”
“I’m not happy about it, either. In fact, I’m scared to death,” I said honestly. “But I’m planning on getting through it. Somehow.”
She started to say something.
I stopped her. “If I don’t, I’ve had a good life. I had a great marriage. Two wonderful kids. A dog that looked after me.”
She smiled at the mention of Eddie.
“A great career. Something good even came out of this mess—I met you.”
She looked up sharply.
Maybe it was the wine talking. Maybe it was Dr. Swarthmore’s voice in the back of my head urging me on. Maybe it was from my heart. Whatever it was, I did something I hadn’t done in an awfully long time: I opened up. “I thought I’d never care about anyone again. I was sure I’d spend the rest of my life by myself. But you’ve changed that. When I’m with you, there’s an excitement to life. I don’t know how you feel, but I know I’d like to see more of you.” I stopped, unsure of her reaction. “I’m sorry; I’ve probably embarrassed you.”
Her gaze found mine. “You couldn’t embarrass me. You are the kindest, most considerate man I’ve ever known, and I’m terrified I’m going to lose you.”
My spirits, which had been plumbing the depths, soared. I smiled, reached out, took her hands in mine. “We have to make a pact. I’m not going to lose you. You’re not going to lose me. When this is over, we’ll both be around to spend time together.”
Chapter 47
Monday, Raines called me. “Seattle, we’re going to scout City Hall, take a look at the area where this wedding actually takes place, see what we have to work with. It would be good to have you along.”
Of course, it couldn’t be simple as just meeting him there. I had to drive to a home in the gated community of the Longboat Key Club Estates, go inside the home, wait half an hour, leave via a van in the closed garage. My guide was a woman, Tara, who spent the half hour before we left watching out the window. In the van, she watched the mirrors. “We’re clean,” she said into a walkie-talkie as we drove over the causeway to the mainland. We drove to a back entrance of City Hall. Dumpsters and garbage cans lined the wall. She pointed to a door. “One of our men is waiting for you.”
The man inside took me to a room on the third floor. Raines and nine other people were inside, looking over blueprints. He nodded to me when I came in, continued giving the group instructions. When he was done with his briefing, he sent them to the fourth floor in ones and twos. He said to me, “We’re going to have three agents on four, six watching the street entrances, one coordinating from a set of floor plans. Once D’Onifrio and Shears enter the building, it’ll be sealed. We’ll have them.”
I was impressed. Not the shoot-out at OK Corral Ellsworth had led me to believe.
Raines got something out of a backpack, handed it to me.
“What’s this?”
“Bulletproof vest. Try it on. Make sure it fits.”
I put it on, had trouble putting my polo shirt back on.
“Don’t worry about that. Wear a bulkier shirt on Friday,” Raines said. He took the vest from me, put it in the backpack, handed it to me. “Hold on to that.”
“Will you be here Friday?”
“I’ll be close by.” He looked at his watch. “We can go up now.”
Room 410 turned out to be two rooms connected by a door: a large waiting room and a smaller room where the actual ceremonies were conducted. Once couples were called into the ceremony room, they didn’t return to the waiting room. They exited to the hall.
“We’ll have agents at both of those doors,” Raines whispered as we stood in the waiting room. “I want you over there.” He pointed to a long wooden bench by the door to the ceremony room. “Any questions?”
“What time should I be here?”
“Wedding’s at two. Be here at one-thirty. Don’t acknowledge any of my people. D’Onifrio will have people here, too.”
“How about Ellsworth? Have you coordinated this with him?”
Raines face hardened. “Ellsworth may have a leak in his organization. The less he and his people know the better.”
I didn’t like hearing that. “What if he asks me?”
“Tell him you don’t know.”
Guess I’d used up my last question. Raines headed for the door. Led me to the service elevator. “Tara will take you back.”
We repeated our little charade at the home in the Estates. I drove back to the Watergate, went by the lobby to pick up my mail. Sure enough, there was a fat manila envelope from Pier ‘n Plane. I carried it all upstairs, dumped it on the kitchen table. The answering machine was beeping. I ignored it, got a can of Diet Coke from the refrigerator, took it out on the balcony.
Looking out at the Gulf, I tried to sort things out. One of those calls on my machine could well be Ellsworth. If Raines was right, I didn’t want to tell him anything. On the other hand, Ellsworth had been pretty convincing when he’d made his case against Raines. I worried it while I drank my drink, didn’t settle anything. I went back inside, played my messages. There were two.
Julian was the first. “Matt, I have the report from Nathan Cohen, the CPA who reviewed the information Nevitt supplied. He said they didn’t give us much, no bank or brokerage statements, no tax returns. It’s a lot of fluff. I’m calling Fowler to set up a meeting, go over Nathan’s report with him, ask for a dismissal. I’ll keep you posted.”
That was welcome news.
Tory was the second call. “It’s Tory. Frankie just called and wanted more details about his honeymoon cruise. Janet’s getting antsy again. He was hoping he’d have something to share with her. They’re having dinner and going dancing tonight. Give me a call. Oh, I had a good time last night.”
I smiled, dialed her number. Her machine picked up. I started to leave a message, but she picked up, out of breath. “Glad you called. I was on my way over to Frankie’s to try and calm him down.”
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“Janet wants constant attention. Frankie doesn’t know what to do with her. I told him I’d come over, help plot some things to get him through these days before the wedding.”
“I’ve got cruise literature. If you’re headed over to his place now, I’ll meet you there. We can go over this stuff with him.”
“Great. See you in a little bit.”
I hung up, started out, hesitated. I’d told Ellsworth I’d call him. I hadn’t. I went back to the phone, dialed his number. After four rings, there was a little hiccup, and I was kicked over to someone else. “Suarez.” A woman answered.
“This is Matt Seattle calling. I was trying to reach Lieutenant Ellsworth.”
“He’s not in right now. Can I help you?”
“I think I need to talk to him. Would you let him know I called? I’ll try to call him back.”
“Matt Seattle, got it.”
“Thanks,” I told her and hung up. I grabbed the envelope from Pier ‘n Plane, headed out.
When I let myself into Fish’s condo, Tory was already there. The two of them were seated at the kitchen table. On a big piece of wrapping paper, Tory had drawn out a calendar of the days before the wedding.
I peered over her shoulder to see what they’d filled in. Not much. “We’re just getting started,” she said.
Within half an hour, she’d penciled in an agenda for Tuesday, Wed
nesday, Thursday. In Friday’s column, she had the wedding marked at two. She tapped that with her pencil. “We’ll arrange for a limo to pick you and Janet up, take you to City Hall.” She marked that down. “Friday night you can spend here or at her place. Saturday you leave for your cruise.”
That was my cue to spread out the cruise literature. Fish studied it intently. He looked up, eyes wide, brows knitted together. “This is great. You don’t know how much I appreciate you guys doing this for me.”
While he was in an appreciative mood seemed a good time to probe for information. “What arrangements have you made with D’Onifrio for after the wedding? Might impact how we get you to this cruise?”
“The boss has thought through all that. He’s going to have papers for her that look like she’s getting access to all my accounts. Instead, they’ll give us access to all hers.”
“He doesn’t have time for that, does he? The awards presentation is only a couple of hours later.”
“He’s planning on doing it right after the ceremony. I mean right after we say our ‘I do’s.’”
“Did he say any more about Rosemary?”
Fish’s jowls quivered, his version of a frown. “I asked. He said he’d have her there like he told you.”
That helped.
Fish held up the cruise literature. “Thanks again for this.”
I smiled. I hoped I’d be there on Saturday to wish him bon voyage.
Chapter 48
On Wednesday, Ellsworth called. “Mr. Seattle,” he said politely. “We need to talk.” When I hesitated, he said, “Now.”
On my drive to the police station, I copied what I’d seen Tara do. I checked my mirrors, watched the cars behind me, took a circuitous route. This late in the game I didn’t want D’Onifrio’s people seeing me going to the police.
Ellsworth didn’t offer me Starbuck’s, only a brusque “Sit down.”
When I was seated, he handed me a stack of eight and a half by eleven black-and-white glossy photos.
“These were taken at Sarasota/Bradenton International Airport earlier this afternoon.”
I looked at the top photo.
“That’s Enrico Menendez.” The photo showed a stooped, older man with a lined face and thinning hair walking across the tarmac from a private jet.
I went to the second photo.
“Little Ernie. Behind him, on the right, is Paso Diaz, head of security. They brought fifteen bodyguards on this trip. That’s a lot of muscle, even for them.”
I placed Little Ernie’s photo on the desk next to Enrico’s. Looked at the next one.
“That’s the other nephew, Eduardo.”
I put his photo next to Little Ernie’s, studied the nephews. They looked like brothers; both had the same dark hair brushed back, the same round face, the same slash of a mouth. Little Ernie wore a goatee, Eduardo, a moustache. Little Ernie looked shorter and thicker than his brother. No one—in any of the photos—was smiling.
“The rest are close-ups of the bodyguards, shots of the limos that took them to the Colony.”
I rifled through those quickly, placed them in a pile on the desk.
Ellsworth gathered the photos, put them in a certain order, set them on the side of his desk. He leaned back in his chair. “Did seeing them make these people real for you? Do you understand that each one of these men has been responsible for multiple deaths?”
I nodded, said nothing.
“Keeping you alive isn’t going to be easy.”
Again, I nodded, said nothing.
“Don’t make it harder than it already is, Seattle. I know you’re planning something; tell me what.”
There was no mistaking the threat in Ellsworth’s voice. “All Raines told me was he wanted to catch D’Onifrio with Rosemary. He didn’t tell me how or where he planned to do that.”
“Then why did you go to City Hall with him?”
“He wanted me to see the place. His idea was for D’Onifrio to bring Rosemary to the wedding, make the exchange there. But D’Onifrio wouldn’t agree to it.”
“Of course not. D’Onifrio’s not going to put himself in a position where he can be caught with this woman. So what’s the plan, now?”
“I don’t know that there is one.”
Ellsworth stared at me, frowned. “I could put you in protective custody, keep you alive.”
“You could, but he said he’d kill Rosemary if I’m not there. If you want to help us, don’t let them take us out of that building.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll do what I need to do—even if you aren’t leveling with me.”
Having made his point, he told me to go. I did. I drove home hurriedly. In my condo, I paced from room to room. Maybe Ellsworth had been right; seeing those pictures did make it real. I was definitely more tense. I started to put on my workout clothes, picked up the phone instead, dialed Tory’s number.
“Hello,” I said after she answered. “I was wondering if you had plans for dinner.”
“My plans included cold, left-over pizza.”
“I can do better than that.”
“I was hoping you could.”
“How about if I pick you up in an hour?”
“I’ll be ready.”
When I pulled in the drive, she was sitting on her porch. She smiled, stood, walked down two steps to the drive. I got out of the car, opened her door for her.
“Thanks,” she said as she slid in the seat.
I got in my side, backed up, headed for a place a mile or so down the beach from her place called the Sandbar.
“This is better than cold pizza,” she said when I pulled into their parking lot.
The Sandbar had good food and a location that provided panoramic views of the beach. In season, we’d have had to wait an hour for a table on the deck overlooking the Gulf. In August, five minutes.
“What prompted this?” Tory asked when we were seated.
“We probably have some business that needs discussing, but mostly, I wanted to see you.”
She smiled.
Our waiter arrived, gave us menus, took drink orders, and left.
Tory reached in her black bag, took out a five-by-seven printed booklet, handed it to me. “A stack of those came today from Bill Perez. I dropped off two dozen with Raines.”
I examined the booklet. The cover was dark blue, the logo of the Foundation for Latina Speech and Hearing Services imprinted in silver. Inside, on the left-hand page, was the agenda for the evening. The page on the right included a photo of D’Onifrio and a bio listing his accomplishments. The next left-hand page showed the rest of the evening’s award recipients. Five smaller awards were also being handed out. The rest was about the organization.
“Raines thinks he can fit my little write-up in this?”
She nodded. “That’s what he said. He’ll have people positioned as ushers who’ll watch for Enrico and the nephews, hand them the doctored programs.”
Our drinks arrived. I raised mine. “Here’s to pulling this off.”
She clinked glasses with me. “It’s going to go swimmingly. I know it is.”
I took a sip, put my glass down on the table. “Ellsworth wanted to see me today. Showed me pictures of Enrico, Little Ernie, and Eduardo walking from their private jet. Questioned me about what Raines was planning.”
“You say that like he’s planning trouble.”
“He might. He says they’ll cooperate, but there’s something between him and Raines.”
“Raines seemed pretty confident when I talked to him. He has forty agents working on this. He said he had D’Onifrio under twenty-four hour surveillance, scenarios for everything that could possibly happen. He also suggested I spend Friday at his headquarters. He said I might be able to help and would be safe there.”
It felt reassuring to hear that Raines had forty agents, more reassuring to know Tory would be safe. Some of my doubt about Raines vanished.
“The lovebirds seem happy, too. Frankie has been taking Janet
places, spending money on her. That seems to be what she wants, constant attention.”
“No chance she’ll stand him up at the altar?”
“The limo’s to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Our waiter returned. “Have you folks decided yet, or do you need a little more time?”
We opted for more time. We weren’t in any hurry.
“Has he had any more conversations with D’Onifrio?”
“They talk every day. My sense is things must be getting better. Frankie seems more upbeat and confident that he’s actually going on his honeymoon.”
“Nothing more we need to do for him?”
She shook her head.
“Anything more we need to do for anybody?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Then the business part of this meeting is adjourned; on to more pleasant topics.”
She grinned. “And what might those be?”
“You and me, of course,” I said lightly. “I want to know all about you.”
We traded stories over dinner and coffee. Went for a walk on the beach. Talked more. It must have been eleven by the time I drove her home. Even then, we sat in the car talking. Neither one of us wanted the evening to end.
I walked her to the door. She leaned forward and kissed me. It was a kiss meant to be quick. It quickly turned into something far more. Reluctantly, we parted.
“There’ll be time for us once this is finished,” she said, smiling.
Chapter 49
Thursday morning at seven-thirty I called Dr. Swarthmore.
“Matt, good to hear from you. Things are going well, I hope?”
“That’s why I’m calling. I think they are going well. I’ve met someone, a lady by the name of Tory Wright.” In the background, I heard the scratching sound of her pen taking notes.
“The two of you are attracted to each other? You have told her how you feel?”
“Yes. To both. I surprised myself. I opened up.”
She gave a little dry laugh. “Felt good, didn’t it?”
“You know, Adelle, it did.”
“And you don’t feel guilt, do you?”
“No guilt. Uncertainty. But no guilt.”
Jay Giles Page 23