Cloaked in Blood

by LS Sygnet

  The hand that clamped violently over my mouth woke me from a deep sleep with such a jarring effect, I simply reacted without wondering who it was, what the hell they were doing, or why the disturbance took place. Since my first abduction, I’ve taken to sleeping with a loaded Raven .22 caliber pistol under a pillow. My arms grabbed the body hovering above me, dragged it off balance and flipped it onto the bed beside me. A second later, the gun was in my hand as I kicked the blankets away and pinned the hips of my intruder to the bed. I pressed the barrel into the soft underbelly of his chin.

  “Who are you? What do you want?”

  “Helen, Christ!”

  “Danny? What the hell are you doing in my bedroom? Why did you attack me in my sleep?”

  “Be quiet!” he hissed.

  I eased the pressure of the gun and crawled off. As I reached for the lamp beside the bed, he hissed, “Don’t! There’s someone outside the house.”

  “How would you –”

  “Keep your voice down! I know what I saw. I couldn’t sleep. I haven’t been sleeping for the past two and a half months, if you must know, but I was sitting upstairs staring out the window, wondering how Celeste is, and I saw a man scale the wall between your property and the neighbor to the south.”

  I pulled the slide on the .22 and flicked off the safety. “Take it.”

  “What? I don’t know how to use a gun!”

  He couldn’t see the eye roll. “How can you… never mind. Just point and squeeze. Keep your eyes open, and do not shoot me if you ever want to see your wife again. Johnny would kill you.”

  “If I’m holding the gun, what’re you doing?” he whispered.

  I yanked Johnny’s nightstand open and pulled out another gun. His was a Colt .45, much more lethal than the one under my pillow. I chambered a round and tiptoed toward the bedroom door.

  “Did you get a good look at him?”

  “In case you’ve forgotten, this is Darkwater Bay. We don’t exactly get a lot of moonlit nights out here, Helen.”

  “But you’re sure it was a man?”

  “Yeah, I’m pretty sure it was a guy. If that was a woman, she’s one unfortunate lady.”

  “Explain.” I crept through the doorway and inched along the gallery hallway.

  “Too tall, broad shoulders, extremely short hair.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  “Your shoulders aren’t broad, and I wasn’t trying to insult you. Do you think they’ve sent somebody after you again?”

  “If they did, it was a huge mistake. I won’t be taken unaware a second time,” I said grimly. “You didn’t recognize anything familiar about him?”

  “I don’t know. I panicked and came down here to wake you up. You’re a very sound sleeper by the way. And I’m not used to such lax security. Nobody gets into the penthouse by climbing over a wall.”

  Right. So much for the delusion that my home was secure. Even with the sophisticated alarm system, the gate, the high walls, this wasn’t the first time it had been invaded. “The back of the house was breeched once before.”

  “I recall,” he said dryly. “I seem to remember that being one of the bogus charges against me last winter.”

  “Let it go, Danny. When this is over, you’ll go back to your perfect life with an ecstatic wife and a solid marriage. I’ll still have lunatics trying to kill me.”

  “Maybe if you stopped being so fascinated by how they think –”

  “Quiet!” I hissed. We’d slipped through the living room and stood near enough to the kitchen doorway that I had an adequate view of the wall of glass at the back of the house. Even though the covered lanai prevented shadows, I sensed movement. “Stay here.”

  “Where are you –”

  I crouched and slipped quickly to the cover of the kitchen island. Danny barely peeked around the doorway. I waved him back and held my position. A slight clicking revealed my instincts were still on target. Whoever was outside the backdoor had a lock pick jiggling the tumbler. I held my breath and waited.

  Darkness dilated my pupils. Adrenalin heightened every perceptive nerve in my body. I felt the small gasp of air flow into the room when the door quickly slipped open, heard the soft beep of the alarm system, the soft touch of fingertips against the keypad. The tiny red LED that flickered turned green again, was like a giant beacon of light into the otherwise dark room.

  I stood quickly. “Don’t move.”

  “I’m unarmed.”

  “Bullshit,” I growled. “You move, I shoot. It would be justified, you son of a bitch. You just broke into my house, disarmed my security system.”

  Something about his two words uttered so low struck a chord of familiarity that chilled me to the bone despite the fleece I wore to bed. I inched backward toward the wall and fumbled for the light switch.

  “Just listen before you do something foolish.”

  Light flooded the room. I gasped, almost stunned enough to drop my weapon. “Mark Seleeby?”

  I heard another swiftly drawn breath on the other side of the wall. Shit. Seleeby – or anyone else from the FBI – was the last person Danny wanted to find him. Now I had no backup. Surely he was running for the safety of any hiding place he could find.

  Another shock hit. Whispered softly: “I’ve got your back.”

  “What was that?” Seleeby asked.

  “Why are you here? I’m calling your superiors, Seleeby. You’ll lose your badge this time. I promise you that.”

  “I haven’t got a badge left to lose, Helen. Thanks to you. Thanks to Sullivan Marcos.”

  “Don’t blame me for your mistakes. You could’ve left it alone. You could’ve accepted the obvious like everyone else.”

  The dry swallow echoed loudly through the open space. “That’s not why I’m here. I came to give you a warning.”

  “You should’ve emailed me.”

  “We’ve never liked each other. I never bought it that you were completely ignorant about what your husband was doing for Marcos. Maybe you killed Hamilton. Maybe you didn’t. It’s not my problem anymore, Helen, but you don’t deserve the blindside that’s coming your way.”

  I lowered my gun. “I’m listening.”

  “You can’t trust them, Helen. They’ll do to you what they did to me.”

  “David said you got summoned back to Washington, that they had questions for you about the off the record meeting you had with Eddie Franchetta. But you’re wrong about what they can do to me, Mark. The FBI doesn’t own me anymore.”

  “Oh, they called me back to D.C. But it wasn’t because of what that psychopath Franchetta told me on or off the record. They wanted to know about Alfred Preston.”

  “Alfred Preston?” I echoed. “The bastard that murdered Danny Datello in cold blood? Don’t tell me that they think I intentionally killed him, because our medical examiner proved –”

  “Stop talking,” Seleeby said. “You think they want it known that one of their own was part of some human trafficking operation out here? They don’t. And Datello isn’t dead, Helen. That’s why I’m here. I came to warn you. Your great friend, your number one defender, David Levine? He’s been lying through his teeth to you all along, Helen. He’s known that Datello isn’t dead from day one. Soule, that agent they gave my case to, he was angling from the moment Datello was arrested for a way to safely get him into federal custody. Only they didn’t count on one of their own trying to murder the guy.”

  “Go on.” I laid the gun on the countertop.

  “Datello got away from them. He’s gone underground, and now they’re scrambling. Without his testimony against Marcos, the whole case will fall apart. Even I knew Franchetta couldn’t convince a jury he was sitting right in front of them while he sitting right in front of them. Without Datello, Sully Marcos walks.”

  “What does any of this have to do with me?”

  “Ask David Levine. Find out why he’s so interested in a case that his team from Quantico wouldn’t ordinarily touch with a ten foot pole. Camp
aign corruption? How many cases like that did you work when you were part of his team?”

  “None, but he came out here at the request of OSI and Governor Collangelo. And it’s not so unusual for the murder of a state senator to attract attention from the FBI.”

  “He had their attention long before all of this started, Helen. What the hell do you think Franchetta said when he spilled his guts to me before I was removed from the case?”

  “I’m sure it was very credible.”

  He clenched his fists. “Stop being so sarcastic and just listen to me. I met with Franchetta more than once. The first time, it was before that business at Sully’s waste management company went nuclear.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “What did he tell you?”

  “He said that Marcos was glad you came out here. He figured you’d off Datello for him and he wouldn’t have to send anybody else to do the job. Then when nothing happened, and you closed that case against Jerry Lowe, Marcos started getting concerned.”

  “Because?”

  “Because you weren’t looking at what he wanted you to see.”

  “Let me guess. He wanted me to find out that Danny had some sort of criminal enterprise out here, right? He figured if I didn’t just flat out kill him, I’d arrest him and then he wouldn’t be a credible witness for the prosecution if your case finally panned out.”

  Seleeby nodded. He started pacing. “I thought you were dirty. But Franchetta told me that it didn’t matter who killed Hamilton. We’d never get enough evidence against Sully to put him away. He said I’d never get enough evidence against you for Rick’s murder either.”

  “So you really had spoken to Franchetta when you came out here in October last year?”

  “Yes! I lied about having the gun, obviously, since it was found in Sully’s waste management plant. I came out here, thought I could scare you or bluff you into tipping your hand. Not that I ever really thought it would work, but Preston contacted me. He was pissed that you got off scot free after Rick’s murder, that the bureau didn’t arrest you and roll the dice with a circumstantial case against you.”

  “Preston brought you out here after me?”

  “Yeah,” a hand swiped though his hair. “At the time, I was ecstatic that I finally had an ally. So he came back east with me and we confronted Franchetta again – off the record. This was after I was posted in Idaho. Franchetta had no idea I was off the case already.”

  “That’s what David said the FBI wanted to know.”

  Seleeby shook his head adamantly. “They don’t give a crap what Franchetta says. Nobody believes him because he keeps changing his story. I’m telling you, they want to find a way to make it look like Preston wasn’t dirty. That’s what I came here to tell you, to warn you that Levine isn’t telling you the truth.”

  I sucked in a deep breath. This confirmed Danny’s fears about David too – not that I doubted him. Seleeby on the other hand, well, I’d never trust him. “And why all of a sudden are you so concerned about warning me? I’d think you’d be dancing for joy that the FBI still doesn’t trust me or believe me.”

  “Helping you helps me,” he insisted. “Don’t you get it? They’d rather have living, former agents to punish for corruption than the dead guy who damaged their reputation that they can’t do anything about.”

  I palmed Johnny’s gun in my hand again, but didn’t aim it this time. “You need to leave,” I said. “Right now. And don’t come back here, Mark. If you’re so worried that the FBI is trying to use you as a scapegoat for Preston’s illegal actions, I’d suggest you go very far away and think seriously about never coming back.”

  “What will you do?” he asked.

  “That’s none of your concern.”

  Chapter 33

  Datello waited until I told him it was safe to come out.

  “Do you believe him?” he asked.

  “I believed you when you warned me about David. I know the FBI is lying, but I don’t trust Seleeby either. How stupid does he think I am? Why would the FBI care about protecting Alfred Preston when they know he tried to kill you? And you’re still alive to shout it in the streets if they try to pedal some revisionist history.”

  Danny’s face drained of color. “Unless they don’t plan on protecting me after I testify against Uncle Sully.”

  “They’re not going to let you be killed. Maybe they just presume in your gratitude that you’ll keep your mouth shut about Preston. There’s a sort of logic in looking at Seleeby, not that I think he had anything to do with what Alfred Preston was up to. It’s like he said. The man was just an unexpected ally. I think we both know why.”

  “Preston, and whoever he really worked for didn’t want you out here. We already knew this because of the private detectives that tried to abduct you in Washington.”

  I rubbed my chin. “I should’ve asked Jerry Lowe why he tried to kill me twice.”

  “Do you think he wasn’t involved in that?”

  “There are so many things about that whole investigation that have nagged and bothered me since we allegedly solved the crime. Don’t get me wrong. There’s no doubt in my mind that Lowe killed your friend and a lot of other young blonde girls. But other things didn’t quite add up.”

  “Like Kelly and Varden.”

  I nodded. “First we thought he wanted me here to match wits. And while I’m sure he was irritated that Hardy and Weber brought me here, I think he does enjoy his mind games too much to want me dead. He drugged me and collected blood samples. Had he wanted to kill me, it would’ve been extremely simple to do so at the time.”

  “That explosion near my office building last spring.”

  “Yeah,” I said, “that was an attempt on my life. I presumed that Rogers and Daltry were simply following Lowe’s orders, particularly since Matt Rogers was found dead in the house that used to be where this one is.”

  “Maybe somebody else knew as much about Jerry Lowe and how he ran his detective squad as Lowe thinks he knows about whoever is really pulling the strings behind the curtain.”

  “Kelly and Varden took a plea offered by Zack Carpenter the second it was offered,” I said. “No way will they talk. Whoever really hired them has a habit of choosing men who would rather die than talk. I suspect that if Maya ever identifies Mr. Koehler, we’ll find that he would’ve been another dead end too.”

  I opened the fridge and grabbed the milk. Moments later, I started brewing Johnny’s hot cocoa recipe on the stove.

  “How does somebody hide all of this shit?” Datello wondered. “For over twenty years I tried to prove to people that I wasn’t the same kid that got dragged out of Darkwater Bay by the ear, but everybody knew what happened to my dad, that my uncle was this horrible person, and they assumed I was a chip off the old block, no matter how many good deeds I did. Do you have any idea how much I’ve done for Darkwater Bay?”

  “I know more than you think I know,” I said. “People don’t want to give the man in the black hat a chance to prove he’s not the devil. It’s human nature. I’m as guilty of it as anybody else. All this time, I assumed you were cut from the same cloth as Sully. I know how wrong I was now, but then?”

  “But you thought you were just like Wendell too,” Danny argued.

  “Yeah, and my desperation to keep him hidden from the world was pretty serious,” I admitted. “I even went so far as to let the entire world, including Rick, believe Wendell was dead. I’m not proud of it, but I understand why Dad doesn’t hold it against me, why he wouldn’t fight to prove his innocence. The sins of the father and all that. It haunts the children.”

  “Maybe that’s why this unknown guy is so desperate to cover his tracks now. Maybe he’s got so much to lose in Darkwater Bay that he’d kill to protect that image.”

  I stirred blocks of dark chocolate into the simmering milk on the stove. “That’s something else that’s been nagging at me, Danny. Remember when we talked about Rodney Martin?”

  “Yeah. We need proof
that he was campaigning to climb the ladder in the police department, don’t we? Wendell’s sure that he wouldn’t have had to suck up to anybody to get into the police academy after his undergraduate degree. I think he’s right.”

  “If it was his intention to position himself with powerful people as he began his career, it makes more sense. I don’t believe in coincidence.”

  “What’s coincidental about this notion that he might’ve been involved with the human traffickers, Helen? At least insomuch as knowing certain pieces that would’ve added up to what they were really doing as things happened out here over the past few months.”

  “Me,” I said. “My first trip to Darkwater Bay after he graduated from UCLA. He begged me to come here with him. I thought it was a crush, you know, though I couldn’t understand it. Rodney was a very attractive and popular young man in college. I was… well, I’m me, and not much has changed over the years. I’m still too tall, too thin, too…bleh.” I shuddered.

  Datello laughed. “Okay, then. You do have a chink or two in that self confident armor, I see.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with my esteem. I’m just not delusional, Danny. I’m no beauty queen like your wife. And I don’t mean that in a nasty way. I adore Celeste, if you must know, and it just about killed me when I had to tell her that I failed to save your life.”

  A faint smile crept over his lips. “You were starting to have doubts about me, weren’t you?”

  I nodded. “It became very clear to me after that nightmare on The Celeste that you were a convenient patsy they planned to use all along. I was an idiot not to look deeper in the first place. When Rick told me the truth, that you were his cousin, I should’ve immediately started an investigation. We could’ve avoided all of this bullshit last year.”