by Lynn, JB
I nodded.
“I need you to tell me exactly what happened here, Miss Lee.”
“Kowalski called. He said he’d kill Marlene if I didn’t come alone.”
Hooking his thumbs into the belt loops of his dress pants, he frowned at me sternly. “What did he want?”
I’d faced down multiple murderers, so a bent-out-of-shape Federal officer didn’t scare me. I cocked my head to the side. “What is it you want, Marshal?”
He blinked, confused that I’d gone on the offensive. “Excuse me?”
“You’re not really after my father,” I guessed, petting DeeDee to stay calm. “You’re after whatever he stole from that bank.”
Griswald looked to Patrick, who shrugged.
“I don’t think that he stole gems. Who the hell steals gems from a bank?” I continued boldly. “I think he stole something else. Something a lot of people seem to think is worth killing over.”
The marshal cocked his head. “Did he tell you that?”
I shook my head. “Despite what everyone seems to think, I’m not my father’s confidante.”
“What do you think he stole?” Griswald asked.
“Don’t know. Don’t care. I just want my normal life back,” I replied.
“Ha!” God mocked from the sidelines.
Griswald looked in the direction of the squeaking sound. “What the hell was that?”
“The lizard,” Patrick and I answered simultaneously.
Shaking his head, Griswald said, “I can’t tell you what was stolen. It’s need-to-know information.”
“How’s that working for you?” I asked. “You’ve been chasing after whatever was taken for years and bodies are piling up.”
Crossing his arms over his chest, he began to pace. “I do believe I’ve misjudged you, Miss Lee.”
I shrugged.
“I read the police report about the incident concerning Delveccio’s grandson. You do know he’s a mobster, don’t you?”
I nodded. “I read the newspaper.”
“His son-in-law was a criminal too,” Griswald continued, “yet according to those reports you managed to beat him in a fight.”
“I didn’t beat him,” I corrected. “I escaped him and security happened to burst in.”
“But you attacked him?” Griswald asked.
“He was smothering a child with a pillow.”
“Most people would have run away, called for help,” Griswald said. “You tried to stop him. Now tonight you came here alone to face down a man who, according to your aunt’s fiancé and the hospital social worker, came awfully close to raping and killing you.”
“To protect my sister,” I said defensively.
He held up a finger to silence me. “So what that tells me is that you have a strong sense of right and wrong. You protect the weak. So now I have a question for you.” He stopped in front of me, staring into my eyes with a burning intensity.
My hand that had been rhythmically stroking DeeDee’s fur stilled.
“Your father is a career criminal, your mother is mentally ill, and your sister has faced numerous solicitation charges,” Griswald listed.
I flinched at the description of my highly dysfunctional family.
“What I need to know,” Griswald continued, “is whether I can trust you.”
“Considering my pedigree, I’d guess not,” I said in my most sarcastic tone.
He chuckled. “Guess I deserved that.” He looked at the police and marshals milling around the entrance of the restaurant. “Is there someplace private we can go talk? Preferably some place quiet where there are chairs and coffee?”
“My apartment?” I suggested.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Patrick tense, but he didn’t say anything.
Griswald nodded. “I’d like that.” He glanced at the red-headed cop. “I could use some back-up on this one. Off the clock.”
Patrick nodded his agreement.
“No more overtime,” Griswald said. “No time and a half, but I’ll buy you a drink when we’re done.”
“Big spender,” Patrick mocked.
“I’ll owe you one,” Griswald said.
“You’ll owe me another,” Patrick reminded him good-naturedly. “But I’m curious. Why do you need me?”
“Because I know you’re an honest cop.” Griswald looked at the men working. “And because I’ve got a leak, which means I can’t trust anyone on my team.”
Chapter Nineteen
All six of us rode to my apartment in Griswald’s car. The marshal and detective rode in the front, while DeeDee, Piss, God, and I snuggled in the back. Even though Patrick knew exactly where we were going, he played dumb and let me give driving directions to Griswald.
When we got to my place, I put God in his terrarium. DeeDee made a beeline for my bed and started snoring within moments. Piss explored the place.
I made coffee while the two men sat at my kitchen table watching me. “I don’t have much food,” I rummaged in the fridge.
I plopped a couple of jars of olives onto the table and tossed in a box of vanilla-iced cookies.
“Interesting combo,” Griswald said, “but I’ll take it.”
“Salty and sweet,” Patrick murmured.
I blushed, remembering the last time he’d said that to me. I was glad my back was to the men as I fumbled for coffee cups.
Once everyone had their drinks and excuse for food, Griswald began to speak. “This is highly classified information, so I’m going to ask you both not to speak of it outside this room.”
He waited for Patrick and me to nod our agreement.
Piss leapt into my lap, fixing her good eye on the marshal.
“You’re right. Archie Lee didn’t steal gems from that bank,” Griswald said. “He stole computer discs, or as the Lubovsky organization calls them, jewels.”
“What’s on them?” Patrick asked.
Griswald shook his head. “Can’t tell you that.”
“Why do they call them jewels?” God called from the other room. “That’s gangster vernacular I’ve never heard before.”
Apparently, due to his excessive television viewing, he was up on all the gang slang.
“Why do they call them jewels?” I asked the marshal, knowing that if I didn’t, God wouldn’t shut up about it.
“They like to give things cute code names,” Griswald said dismissively. “In this instance, they call them by their carrying cases. Then, when the robbery went down, some idiot cop,” he glanced at Patrick. “No offense.”
“None taken,” the redhead replied easily.
“Anyway,” Griswald continued, “some idiot cop, who’s there as a customer when the robbery went down, hears the robbers yelling back and forth about ‘who has the jewels?’. He assumed they were talking about valuable gems so that’s what everyone was looking for.”
“But he went to jail for stealing jewels--“ I began, thoroughly confused.
“You didn’t pay much attention to your father’s trial, did you?” Griswald asked.
I shook my head. “No. My sister Theresa went, but I didn’t even follow it in the paper.”
“Your father wasn’t convicted of the robbery. They nailed him for the murder of the teller,” Griswald supplied.
“He says he didn’t do that,” I told him.
Griswald nodded. “That may be the truth. The security cameras were disabled. He was convicted on one person’s testimony.”
Patrick cocked his head to the side and pursed his lips. “Let me guess: the idiot cop?”
Griswald nodded tightly.
Patrick frowned. “How come you’re so involved in the case? Bank robberies fall under the FBI’s jurisdiction.”
Griswald frowned before admitting. “It’s my brother’s case.”
“Your brother is an FBI agent?” I asked
He nodded.
“So you’re thinking that law enforcement runs in your family, so criminality runs in mine?” I didn’t think
he was wrong. After all, my dad was a career criminal and I was a paid assassin.
Griswald shrugged. “Why’d you bring a Hello Kitty bag full of CD jewel cases to the restaurant?”
“Because I found them hidden under a floorboard at the B&B.”
“Technically I found them,” Piss corrected.
I looked down at the cat in my lap. “Okay, the cat found them.”
“Where are the contents?” Griswald asked.
I worded my reply carefully, heeding Patrick’s advice to tell the truth. “They were empty when I found them.”
That was true. What I didn’t say was that I had a pretty good idea where the contents were hidden.
“Why the hell would anyone hide empty cases?” Griswald asked.
I shrugged. “My dad does a lot of weird things. He sold my sister’s Barbie Dream House to cover a gambling debt once.”
“But he hid them in a place where you could find them,” Griswald mused, unmoved by the Barbie story. “And Kowalski thought you had them. So what’s so special about you?”
I bit into a cookie. “Ugggh, these are terrible.”
“And stale,” Patrick muttered.
“Leslie brought them,” I explained. “She liked to keep munchies here…back before she got clean.”
“Focus, people!” Griswald snapped, slapping his palm against the tabletop. “Why did Archie Lee leave them for you to find?”
I’d thought about that question myself and I was pretty sure I’d come up with the answer, but I wasn’t about to tell that to the marshal. I was pretty sure that my theory was the only bit of leverage in this impossible situation. So I said, “His wife is in the loony bin, and I’m his only living child who doesn’t face arrest on a semi-regular basis. Maybe he thought I’m the most stable member of the family.”
I smiled at the irony of that statement. Not only was I a semi-professional hitwoman, I actually believed I could talk to animals.
Griswald was not amused. “But you weren’t.”
“The most stable?” I asked.
“The only living child who hadn’t been arrested. At the time your father went to prison, your other sister was still alive, wasn’t she?”
I nodded.
“Which would explain why they made a move on your niece,” Griswald surmised.
“They think a barely-out-of-a-coma little girl knows where my father hid some discs?”
“They were probably trying to send a message,” Griswald said.
“But I didn’t know where the discs were,” I protested.
“Maybe it was a message for your father,” Griswald countered. “I’d ask him, but according to a text I got from my men, he’s in surgery and there are no guarantees he’s going to make it. I need you to tell me where the discs are before anyone else gets hurt, Miss Lee.”
“He didn’t tell me where they are,” I told him, again sticking to the strict truth.
Griswald stared at me intently, I met his gaze levelly, knowing I’d told him the truth.
“Did your brother screw up the case?” I asked.
He blinked. “What?”
“My father’s escaped from prison before and I don’t remember marshals camping out on my doorstep,” I said calmly.
Griswald looked away.
I flicked my gaze in Patrick’s direction. He gave me an almost imperceptible nod of approval, letting me know I was handling the situation well.
Griswald sighed and then looked back at me. “He’d been building a case against the Lubovsky crime family. You’ve heard of them?”
“They’re the real deal,” God called from the other room. “Hardcore hooligans.”
“Hardcore hooligans?” I mocked.
Startled, Griswald stared at me. “I guess you could say that. Anyway, Glen, my brother, builds this case and then suddenly, the evidence gets lost in a bank robbery.”
“Hang on,” Patrick interrupted. “What the hell was the evidence doing in a bank?”
“You remember hearing a story about how a Federal building blew up because of a faulty gas line a few years back?” Griswald asked.
Patrick nodded.
“Evidence was there. Got blown to smithereens. But Glen had been worried there was a leak in the Bureau, so he’d made copies and stowed them in a safe deposit box under an alias.” Griswald turned his attention to me. “The bank your father and his crew robbed.”
“He didn’t usually work as part of a crew,” I said slowly trying to process this latest revelation. “And he says he didn’t kill that bank teller.”
Griswald nodded. “You believe him?”
I shrugged. “He sounds convincing.”
“He’s probably telling the truth,” Griswald confirmed.
It was my turn to stare at him. “You really think so?”
“The teller was a cop’s wife,” Patrick said quietly.
Griswald frowned. “The cop’s wife was a key witness in Glen’s case. It was her idea to stash the duplicate discs at her place of work so they’d have easy access to them.”
I sat back in my chair. “And you think she was killed for it?”
Griswald nodded.
Patrick let out a low whistle.
“So let me get this straight,” I said. “There’s a leak in the FBI, cops let Kowalski get away after he attacked me, and you don’t trust your own men.”
“That’s only part of it,” Griswald said. “You’re forgetting that the robbery was performed by three men, but only your father was caught. It’s suspected that the two other robbers were Frank Velicky and Sergei Dubrof.”
“The three prison escapees,” Patrick reminded me quietly.
“My working theory is that Sergei got himself thrown into prison, recruited Velicky to help him, and they broke your father out,” Griswald said.
“Why?” I asked.
“That’s the million dollar question. For the life of me I could never figure out why he didn’t make a deal for his freedom with those discs. If he’d handed them over to the Bureau, he’d never have had to go to trial for the murder. It would have been pled down to next-to-nothing. Instead he chose to do time. Why?” The US Marshal stared at me as though he thought I knew the answer.
I shrugged. “It doesn’t make sense. My father spent his entire life trying to get around the system. He’d try an easy scheme instead of doing hard work. If he had something that would make his life easier, he would have taken it.”
“Unless he was protecting someone,” Patrick murmured.
Surprised, I looked to him, but he stared steadfastly at the container of stale cookies.
“Protecting who?” Griswald asked sharply.
Patrick picked up a cookie. “His daughter.”
“Me?” I gasped, shocked.
Raising his eyes to meet mine, he shook his head. “Marlene.”
“The hooker! Of course!” Griswald crowed.
I looked from one man to the other. “I don’t understand.”
“The Lubovskys are heavily into the sex trade,” Griswald said.
I still didn’t understand, but I didn’t want to look like an idiot by saying so. I nodded as though I understood.
“If someone in the Lubovsky organization,” Patrick said quietly, as though he knew I was still in the dark, “had their hooks into Marlene, they could have used that to get your father to rob the bank.”
“Which would explain why he worked with a team,” I murmured as the pieces started to fall into place.
Patrick nodded. “And it might explain why he didn’t cut a deal to save himself. He may have been trying to save her.”
I sat back in my chair, absorbing that possibility. Was my father really capable of that kind of sacrifice? I’d always seen him as a selfish man always looking for a quick fix, unable or unwilling to put the needs of others before his own. But what if I’d been wrong about him, like I’d been wrong about so many others?
“But that doesn’t explain why things are hitting the fan now,
” Patrick said.
“Maybe she wants out of the life,” Griswald suggested. “According to the visitor’s log she’d been visiting him regularly for the past year. If he was going to make a move to trade the discs for her future, now would be the time.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because tomorrow a Grand Jury convenes against the Lubovsky family.” His phone buzzed and he glanced down at the display, but didn’t stop talking. “Without those discs, years’ worth of work goes down the tubes. With them, the good guys could win one.” Standing, he flashed his phone at me. “I’ve got to take this.”
He moved away, the phone pressed to his ear.
Patrick and I stayed at the table. When Griswald had moved outside, Patrick leaned closer to me and whispered, “Are you okay?”
“Do you really think he’d do that for Marlene?”
He shrugged. “I think some people are willing to do just about anything for those they love.”
Something about the intensity of his tone made my stomach flutter.
Leaning back, he asked. “You know where the discs are, don’t you?”
I squinted at him. “What makes you think that?’
“Because, sweetheart, you said you didn’t know where they were, not that you don’t know where they are. Plus, you sort of told me you did back at the restaurant.”
“I have a theory,” I confirmed slowly.
“But you’re not sure you trust Griswald?”
“I feel like I should get something for turning them over,” I confessed.
“Like a reward?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“How sure are you, about the location?”
“Pretty sure.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “Tell him you want your dad to get a pardon and if he lives to be put into Witness Protection.”
“They’d do that?” I asked, amazed.
“I’ve seen bigger deals cut for less. Your father is a small fish, a pawn. You give them a bigger catch to land and they’ll go for it.”
I glanced at the doorway of my apartment to confirm Griswald wasn’t within earshot. “Paul works for the Lubovsky family?”
Patrick nodded.
“That’s why Delveccio wanted him taken out?”