Bloody Shadows

by Bernard Lee DeLeo

  “No!” Rachel sat straight in the lounger, taking a gulp of wine. “He never said anything about it.

  “We’ve been laughing and insulting him about his matchmaking abilities ever since he mentioned it. John loves the idea, but he’s a Muerto groupie anyhow.”

  “My Muerto, matchmaker supreme.” Rachel took a deep breath. “That’s just… disturbing. I’m going to get Muerto to swim with me. Don’t let anyone touch my wine. That’s the only one I get for the day.”

  “We’ll guard it, girlfriend. Hey… remember that old movie ‘Hello Dolly’ about a matchmaker?”

  “Sure Tina,” Rachel answered on her way out, launching into a swaying dance step singing, “well, hello Muerto, you’re lookin’ swell, Muerto.”

  Rachel glanced around to see both Gus and Tina enjoying her rendition of ‘Hello Dolly. “Is that the one?”

  “Oh yeah… that’s the one,” Tina agreed.

  Rachel found her ‘Dolly’ and the Daughter of Darkness in a comical discussion, feeding each other funny lines. “What’s so funny?”

  The two quieted quickly, which provoked furrowed eyebrows, and thin lipped angst in Rachel. “I feel my Princess Bump rising to devastate her surroundings. If you don’t want that, I better get an answer as to why I’m once again the object of derision.”

  “You’re not,” Nick said. “Jean’s raking me over the coals for leading women on around us. She seems to think as she does while blackmailing me during our walks to school that I’m flirting. I was reminding her that wallflowers do not grow up to be flirts. We delicate flowers grow to be circumspect and conservative. Jean was of course making gagging noises while I tried to explain it wasn’t possible for me to flirt.”

  “Not everything is about you, Princess Bump,” Jean added, immediately hiding behind Nick before Rachel could react. “No hitting. You asked.”

  “Who is Muerto flirting with?” When Rachel looked around, she saw more than a couple of women trying to glance Nick’s way without being noticed. “Never mind. I see a few likely candidates. We’ll have to put him in a burka.”

  Jean giggled.

  “Let me know how that works out for you, Princess. Jean’s hungry. I was going to let her take some money over to the snack restaurant over there called ‘Buckets Incredible Craveables’. She wants a cheeseburger.”

  Rachel saw the restaurant was in plain sight, and she knew Jean was no naïve little girl. “Looks okay to me. Go ahead and get some money from Muerto’s stash in the bag. Be polite and ask Gus and Tina if they want anything.”

  “I will, Mom. Do you want anything?”

  “No, I ate too much at our brunch in the room.”

  “Yeah you did.” Jean hurried off toward the cabana.

  “One of these days… one of these days,” Rachel muttered. “I’m ready for a swim. I’m uncomfortable with how good you look in that black bathing suit, Muerto. Can’t you stick your belly out or something?”

  “We’ll be in the water, but I can go put on a t-shirt to soothe your sensibilities.”

  “No, then I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the view.” Rachel ran a hand over Nick’s chest down to his trunks.

  “You need to make up your mind, Princess. Besides, I think you look wonderful in your bathing suit, and I’m already picturing removing you from it.”

  “In olden days, when a woman got pregnant, she didn’t have sex again until after she had the baby.”

  “That’s a lie. Now, let’s go swimming before you decide pregnant women weren’t allowed to swim either.” Nick took her arm, but their path was blocked by a big guy with dark brown beard, wild looking hair, and Hawaiian print bathing trunks. “Oh, sorry Sir, I should have been looking where I was going.”

  When Nick tried to guide Rachel around the guy, he stepped in their way once more.

  Rachel glared at the man. “Hey, Kong, we’re trying to get over to the pool.”

  “Your boy here’s been checking out my wife for the last twenty minutes.” The man’s hands clenched into fists at his side. “I want to know why.”

  “It’s your imagination, Sir,” Nick said with a smile. “I don’t even know who your wife is. The only woman I’ve ever loved in my life is standing next to me, nine months pregnant with my son. Before she came over to join me by the pool, I was going on the pool slides with my daughter.”

  Nick’s matter of fact accounting threw the man off. He kept glancing to the side where a blonde woman in a red bikini stood with arms folded over chest, and an angry look on her face. When she saw the man Rachel tagged as Kong looking at her with confusion, she stormed over to his side.

  “He wasn’t looking at you, Hon,” the big man told his wife. “This is his wife, and she’s nine months pregnant.”

  The blonde pointed at Nick. “He was staring at me, and making lewd gestures, while you were in the room.”

  Jean arrived gripping Nick’s arm. “What’s wrong, Dad.”

  Nice timing, Dagger. “The lady here claims I was staring and making gestures at her the last twenty minutes. Would you tell her husband what we were actually doing the last twenty minutes?”

  Jean smiled up at Kong. “My Dad and I were riding the slides until Mom came over to swim with him.”

  Nick could tell Jean’s arrival had completely disarmed the guy. He moved behind his wife, whispering to her. Nick had a suspicion this wasn’t the first time the wife had put him in this situation. For her part, the wife shifted her glare to Jean, who put the lie to her jealousy gambit for attention. The woman spun away from Kong and headed for one of the other cabanas.

  “Sorry about that,” the man mumbled before following after his wife.

  “Gus said to tell you he can’t take you anywhere. Now that I’ve saved your life, can I go finish my cheeseburger?”

  “Sure, and thanks for the save.” Nick shoulder hugged Jean. “I think maybe your Uncle Gus is right. That was very smart sending you when he did.”

  “I was thinking about saying something like, ‘wow Dad, this is the lady you’ve been staring and waving at’, but I resisted.” Having said that, Jean skipped off toward the cabana.

  “Well, it’s nice to see she recognizes a target rich environment,” Rachel said.

  “As of today, I’m taping everything to play back when she’s sixteen.”

  Rachel smirked, yanking Nick toward the pool. “It won’t matter. By then my head will have exploded. What were you going to do with Kong?”

  “Nothing. He wasn’t going to attack me. We may have had to call for security if he kept blocking our way to the pool. Kong was the real victim. He’s married to that shrew who will eventually get him maimed or killed if he doesn’t wise up.”

  “That was really sweet what you said about loving me.”

  “My life was in danger.”

  Rachel hugged his arm. “A life was in danger, but it wasn’t yours. That was so sweet.”

  “If you knew how much I really loved you, I’d get taken advantage of, so I try to keep it to myself. It’s too late now though. I may as well admit it. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me. If something happened to you, and the kids were grown, I’d probably be looking for a way to cash out like Dan.”

  “I’d haunt you. I’d be in your thoughts so much, you wouldn’t be able to think of cashing out. Besides, Jean will have you committed to a padded room if she sees even a sign you’re getting mushy in the head.”

  “Mushy in the head? Really. Just for that, I’ll go out looking for a young Mom to ravish the moment something happens to you,” Nick said.

  “In that case, I’ll let you rot on the vine in your own rancid thoughts until you can’t think of anything else except death.”

  Nick began looking around. “Where is that blonde in the bikini Kong’s married to?”

  * * *

  Nick heard the slight knock on the door at 7 am sharp. He looked longingly at the laptop screen where Diego parlayed with Fatima, the Black Widow type anti-heroine. Grinning
as he went to the door, Nick plotted the final surrender of Fatima’s attraction to the enigmatic Diego. She knew they existed in opposite realities, her mission to gain his complete trust, and betray him. Each time Fatima thought to have gained Diego’s complete trust, he somehow thwarted her efforts at the last moment. She… the light knock sounded again, as Nick realized he had been in suspended animation on the way to the door. Damn, Fatima, I don’t know about Diego, but you sure have me going. Nick opened the door to his comrades in arms, with Deke next to him.

  “Yesterday and this morning have been wonderful, guys. I’m thinking of abandoning the ‘Ripper’, kicking back here at the Lodge, doing a little home schooling with Jean, hitting the water park, running Deke around in the woods, sipping a-”

  “The Ripper sliced apart another prostitute early this morning,” Dan interrupted.

  “Shit!” Nick walked toward the kitchen with Deke, leaving Gus to close the door.

  Nick poured coffee for his friends, having already set out sugar, and creamer. “How old?”

  “Middle twenties, rap sheet a mile long, been in trouble since the day she was born, and still didn’t deserve to die like that,” Gus said. “It’s not our fault. We can only move on this so fast. It’s just as you said yesterday when we returned. There’s a firestorm out there with government teams, cops, hazardous material/biological weapons specialists, and media vultures. The vultures are looking for any way possible to make the extermination of the terrorist enclave a travesty against humanity. The Wolf Lodge is a perfect place to lie low with wives, kids, and the Deke. If we can keep you from getting into throw-downs with the local civilian guests, we’ll be fine here until things cool down.”

  “Payaso is right, Muerto,” John added. “Even with Mr. Gilbrech’s background help, there will be government people looking for any sign of the Unholy Trio. I’m sure he would appreciate it if we stayed out of the limelight for the time being. I wish I could have seen the faceoff at the water park. I always miss the good stuff.”

  “You didn’t miss anything, John. This guy’s wife was bored, and decided to stir her husband into a fist fight in the middle of a kid’s water park. Luckily, Payaso ended the threat by sending Dagger over to quell the possible altercation. Like I told Rachel, I would have called security. We were already getting eyed by a couple of them for sure. I’ll be watching out for that goofy woman from now until we leave. I think Kong understood what she was doing though.”

  “Kong?”

  Nick smiled. “Yeah, Dan. Rachel called him Kong when he blocked our way to the pool. Do you guys want a shot?”

  “Wait a minute. Was Rachel in danger? Did the great Muerto allow his wife and unborn Quinn to face a deadly mugger in public? It’s a lucky thing the Daughter of Darkness tag-teamed with the Momster to scare away this scoundrel.”

  “Not funny, Dan.” Nick frowned as everyone else but him, and possibly Deke, found Dan’s pronouncements funny. “You guys are mean. Muerto acts with restraint, and this is the reward he gets.”

  Nick stood and made his coffee Irish. He brought the bottle back to the table, where John and Gus also poured in a taste of whiskey. “Before I heard about the unfortunate woman’s demise, and then was held up to ridicule, I was in the midst of telling you guys how great this place is. I got up at 4:30, and took Deke out for a great run around the woods before dawn. He loves this place. Then, I came back here, and wrote until you ingrates arrived with bad news and bad attitude.”

  “We gathered intel while the great Muerto wrote pulp fiction scenes. Did you get a chance to find candidates for Dan’s pimping project?”

  Nick entered into his iPad, and handed it over to Gus. “I did indeed. There’s our three crews to recruit from. They all work from the Dark Web. Key people in the city such as hotel managers, taxi drivers, etc. give out a card with phone number or Dark Web address. The interested party can peruse the different girls on the Dark Web site, and arrange a date. The pimps handle commerce right on the web without sending the girls out on the streets. This ‘Ripper’ has hacked the Dark Web, which is no easy task. His victims so far have all been taken in route to their meeting with a ‘John’… I mean customer, including the pimps he killed. Here’s the kicker – the FBI task force isn’t looking at the Dark Web at all. They’re focusing on profiles, and street prostitution which the Ripper has nearly ended.”

  “You seem to know a lot about this Dark Web, Nick. How the heck did you get the idea about looking there?”

  “Remember when you and Carol used to see me down at Otter’s Point with my satellite laptop, and I told you I was writing.”

  “Sure. We used to bring you coffee when we knew you were down there.”

  “Most of those beach visits were journeys into the Dark Web, where I conducted my freelance assassin business. The rogue NSA outfit Frank Richert ran kept all of our sanctions done on the Dark Web. Any entity interested in a sanction the NSA felt would be in our interests were dealt a connection on the Dark Web where they found me. That’s how I received all sanctions not given out by Frank directly, and where I made contact with Hayden Tanus and his import/export business, eventually leading me to Rachel, Jean, and Deke.”

  Gus, John, and Dan traded surprised looks before Gus spoke. “Damn… there’s always something related to you we find out in small doses. I’ve heard a little about the Dark Web, but never thought of it as a conduit for assassins.”

  “Let’s concentrate on the prostitute business. I looked through all the cases. Every one of them was from a referral to the Dark Web. I found pictures of all the victims that haven’t been taken down yet by the pimps running the show. The fourteen year old runaway was taken off Craig’s List. She was opening her own business off her cell-phone. There was no mention of the Craig’s List ad she took out, which the FBI would have had to actually pursue to find. They started on the wrong end – from the scene of the crime. I cut them some slack for the runaway though, because she tried to go right into business.”

  “Fourteen,” Dan said, shaking his head. “She gets a bus ticket to Seattle, launches herself on some Internet predator site as a prostitute, and gets hacked to pieces. I don’t want to think about her last moments, knowing her short life ended with a bus ticket and an Internet ad.”

  “It sounds like all you would need do is introduce yourself to the FBI task force, school them on the Dark Web, and let them have the Ripper,” John said.

  “True, John, but they would never run an operation like we’re going to. If they listened to me which is doubtful, they would form an offshoot from the regular task force to study the Dark Web, and a myriad number of incidentals unrelated to the case. Although useless, the minutia they found I’m sure would be vital to their task force information gathering bullshit. In the meantime, the Ripper stays on the down low, carefully enticing targets of opportunity where he can get them.”

  “If for no other reason than to erase the thought of that fourteen year old girl’s last moments I’m in. We should get this guy if we can. I assume you have more of a plan formulated for me and my pimp Geezer assignment.”

  “That’s where this will be a bit tricky. I’m letting John and Gus ferret out three or four really high end girls, but with the toughness to take the money I’ll be paying them, and risk their lives to get the Ripper. I plan on them being protected every step of the way, but they won’t know to trust me, so they’ll have to believe they’re tough enough to handle a confrontation with the Ripper. We have a lot of money from the Isis score, so we don’t have to touch our own funds or Paul’s. We’ll make the girls we pick an offer I doubt they’ll refuse.”

  “What’s the specifics for your confrontation and trap,” Gus asked. “I see where you’re going with the contacts and such, but once the Ripper is on the hook, he’ll be hard to spot and handle.”

  “We need to get this set into motion today. Luckily, it’s only an hour and a half’s trip from here to Seattle. That’s what makes the Wolf Lodge perfect as our
base of operations. The book signings in Olympia are way closer than Seattle. We won’t have to stay in either city. As to the physical part of the operation, I have a pattern we’ll follow every time out. Once an interested party contacts our Dark Web ad, only one of our girls will go out at a time, and we will insist on at least a two hour window. I’ll get into position with my silenced .50 caliber Barrett with a view of every step from the vehicle to the meeting place. Dan will accompany the girl with Gus driving, and John in the shadows, all well in advance of the meeting. I’ll call Grace and see if she and Timmy are in Seattle yet. I’ve been putting that call off because she’s still a bit raw I’m thinking from my Sadun snatch.”

  “If you reach her this morning, are we going there today?”

  “There’s no reason for all of us to go, Dan. I’d like you three to narrow down some prostitute candidates. I’ll contact any of them that seem promising while I’m in Seattle. Besides, I can’t have you guys with me anyway in case I have to meet with this Kaitlin Anderson.”

  “How much trouble can Anderson make? Hell, you’ve got a great track record with the DOJ.”

  “Aw… you’re so cute, Gus. Plenty of trouble. If not for Grace, my last collaboration with law enforcement out of state would have been futile. They don’t listen. They don’t reason, and they don’t abandon any guideline in their goofy manual, even when it doesn’t work. I swear. I don’t know if they get their guidelines from TV or TV gets them from the FBI. Another plus to not staying in Seattle is I don’t want the Ripper spotting me with the Feds, and then seeing Rachel and Jean.”

  “Hey,” John exclaimed, seeing Nick get another Irish coffee. “Are you driving to Seattle, Mr. Hemingway?”

  “Nope. I’m taking a limo for the day, including any prostitute visits I have to make. I’ll have a driver who knows to keep their mouth shut and drive. I’ll write Diego scenes all the way to Seattle and back again.”

  “You don’t mean Clyde, do you, Muerto?”