by Dave Daren
“Be careful,” my client said as he sobered and looked over at me. “Did Old Man Tony install those new cameras?”
“Yeah,” I said. “And I met the neighborhood watchdog. I’m going to send Tommaso over with a plate of cannolis to make friends.”
“There’s always one,” Anthony said with a roll of his eyes. “Call me if there’s any more trouble. And Hunter, get the Enzo back by Monday, or I’ll take my father’s advice and go with Jovanni.”
“I will,” I said with a confidence that was starting to waver.
I went back over the plan again on my way back to my Mercedes AMG. The sun had started to set, and everyone was coming home or starting to head to the clubs. I waved to Anthony’s preppy neighbor whose name I also couldn’t remember, and then slipped into my driver’s seat before she could teeter over in her pink high-heeled platform shoes.
A text from Gabriele that told me to call him came in right as I turned the key in the engine. I connected my phone to the bluetooth, put the car in drive, and then pulled into traffic as I dialed the familiar number.
“Hunter,” the hacker said before the first ring had finished. “I think I found something.”
“Okay,” I said and turned my car toward the LIE. “What is it?”
“So,” the purple-haired man said, and I could hear him clap his hands together like he was overly excited and at least one Monster into his evening. “Dian does have a few connections with airports. The dude is super sneaky. He’s been in business for like twenty years or something. And he’s never been caught. I’m fairly certain that he has friends in law enforcement wherever his ships come into port. So Officer White is probably not the only cop in the NYPD that’s on his payroll.”
“I’m sure he has someone in the Port Authority,” I said. “He had an inspection today with stolen cars on the property, and somehow, he managed to get the all clear.”
“Of course, he did,” Gabriele sounded like he was five seconds away from signing up for Dian’s fan club. “Oh! I was going to tell you about the airports.”
“You were,” I said while I weaved between traffic on the way to the Floral Park exit.
“So, I started to look into the charity dinners that he goes to,” the hacker explained. “That’s usually how these high-powered men make their deals. And a couple of the names popped as international businessmen. Anyways, one of them has a few airports in South America, Africa, and Europe. They’re all super small and primarily used for imports. Pretty sure the guy runs drugs, and I found an investigation, but nothing’s stuck so far.”
“Okay,” I said and shook my head at the hyperactive rant. “Have you been able to find a paper trail that leads to Dian?”
“No,” the purple-haired man said, and I heard him gulp down some Monster before he continued. “Well, not directly. Here’s the thing, he uses aliases when he uses the airports. It took about two hours to go through the bunny trails. I think he may have a partner because there’s no way he has that many shell corporations. I can’t give you anything that would work in court, but you can probably use it to threaten him because if this ever went out on the internet, he’d be ruined.”
“I need something legal,” I said. “Something that I could possibly take to Alessia. If he’s as smart as you say, then he’ll be able to smell a bluff. Whatever I threaten him with needs to be real.”
“Okay, okay, okay,” Gabriele said. “I can figure this out. I just need to figure out who his partner is, and then I can link them to the shell corporations. The most important thing to know, though, is that there seems to be a pattern for when his ships leave New York and what airports he uses. I think he does one delivery per continent a month. It’s just a theory, but I’m pretty sure that I can prove it with a little more research.”
“Good,” I said and then pulled off of the LIE into Floral Park. “Do you know which airport he’s going to use for the Enzo?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s going to Europe,” the hacker said. “But I need to double-check. I only found a few months’ worth of data so far. It’s not really enough to make a pattern, especially with all the misdirection with the shell companies. But you’ll have an answer by the time you wake up in the morning.”
“Perfect,” I said. “And Gabriele, try to keep the Monsters to a minimum. Unless you want to turn into your friend Eddie.”
“Oooh!” the overly-caffeinated man shouted. “Speaking of Eddie, did animal control manage to find your furry little buddy and take him away?”
“No,” I sighed and shook my head. “I’m just going to make him into a pet. I already ordered food and a dog house.”
“If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” Gabriele laughed. “Alright, I’ll get back to it. I just wanted to let you know what I found.”
“Thanks,” I muttered and slowed when I neared my house. “Hey, do you see anyone on the cameras?”
“Uh,” the hacker said. “Give me a second. I don’t have it pulled up. There haven’t been any alarms or anything. Why?”
“Because someone is parked out front,” I said. “And no one is in the car.”
“Shit, man,” the purple-haired man said. “There’s no--”
“What?” I asked and parked a few houses down just to be careful. “What do you see?”
“Nothing,” the caffeinated man said. “Let me do a diagnostics check. Maybe Old Man Tony didn’t reboot it right.”
“It was working earlier when he installed the camera,” I told the tech genius. “Could someone have--”
“There’s someone in your living room,” Gabriele interrupted. “The picture is going in and out. I think he has a jammer or something.”
“What’s he doing?” I asked and narrowed my eyes like I would be able to see through the walls of my house.
“Just watching TV,” the hacker said in an indignant tone. “Like he fucking owns the place. The balls on this man.”
“Do you recognize him?” I questioned and ran my hands down my pants to calm my racing heart.
“No,” the purple-haired man said. “He’s not one of our guys. I took a screenshot of his face. It’s a little scattered because of the jammer, but maybe you can recognize him.”
A text came through, and I pulled my phone off of the dash to look at the picture. There were lines through it like it had been taken from an old CCTV camera from the nineties, but I could just make out the face of Officer White.
Sure enough, the corrupt cop was spread out on my couch with one of my cold brews in his hand and a plate of half-eaten lamb on the coffee table. His booted feet were covered in dirt and propped up on the table like he paid the mortgage, and rage bubbled up in my chest.
“It’s that fucking cop,” I swore and put my car back into drive. “I can’t believe he came back. He’s definitely the one who left the note last night.”
“What are you going to do?” Gabriele asked, and I heard him slurp down more of his Monster as if more caffeine would help to calm him down.
“I’m going home,” I replied. “He ate my fucking lamb, too. What an asshole. We have the video footage, so if anything happens, then I can prove it was self-defense.”
“Do you have your gun?” the purple-haired man asked.
“I do,” I said and pulled into the garage. “Call Hank and let him know what’s going on.”
“I’m not hanging up,” the hacker said, like I’d lost my mind, and he couldn’t believe that I wanted him to hang up.
“Fine,” I grumbled while I connected my bluetooth headphones. “Then text him. Just let him know that he needs to get his ass over here.”
“Okay,” Gabriele said, and I heard him tapping on his keyboard.
“Alright,” I said. “From here on out, I won’t be able to talk. But I want you to record everything, just in case we can use it later.”
“Be careful,” the caffeinated man said. “If he’s crazy enough to break into your house, then he might think that he can kill you and get away with it. I
know Old Man Tony, and whatever jammer he’s using has to be top of the line if it’s interfering with your security system.”
“I got this,” I said, and I climbed out of my car, eased the door open, and then walked into my house as if there wasn’t a corrupt cop on my couch acting like he owned the place.
“Hunter,” the cop said with a bright grin when I walked into the living room. “It’s about time you came home. I’ve been here for almost an hour. You know, you really should get a better security system.”
“Thanks for the recommendation, Officer White” I said and purposefully left out that I knew about his jammer so that he’d feel free to talk as much as he wanted. All I needed was to have him talking about Dian and the car theft ring on camera, and I’d have the last piece that I needed to nail him to the wall.
“So what took you so long?” the cop grunted as he pulled his dirty feet off of my brand-new coffee table.
“I had business,” I replied with a shrug and walked to the kitchen to grab a cold brew from the fridge. “Did you want another one?”
“No,” the corrupt man said and pushed himself to his feet. “You know, I really thought that after that note I left you, that you’d be smart enough to back off. But then I get a call that you’ve been bothering my partners again.”
I kept my mouth shut as I opened my bottle of cold brew, but I glanced pointedly at the camera like I wanted to see if the camera was working. It was, because Gabriele had sent me the picture, but the hacker had somehow managed to keep the light off.
“I was just checking to make sure that Dian was okay,” I said. “Importing and exporting can be a dangerous business. And I heard that he’d had an inspection. It’s always important to be careful on those days.”
“You can save your pretty flowery speech, lawyer-man,” Officer White huffed and slapped a small black box with a red button on the kitchen counter. “Your cameras and sensors are being blocked.”
“Of course,” I said, and licked my lips, drank some of my coffee, and then ran a hand through my hair like I was irritated. “It’s good to see that you come prepared.”
“I told you before,” the cop said with a wicked grin. “My partners and I aren’t stupid. Now, what do I need to do to convince you and your boss to leave Dian alone?”
“Bring back the Enzo,” I said with a shrug. “I’ve been very clear about that. If Dian gives my client back what was stolen from him, then we will not pursue any further action.”
“Yeah,” the corrupt man snorted and flicked his jacket out just enough that I could see the gun tucked into his belt. “Like a two million dollar car is just going to come back. It’s been sold. It has a new owner, so let it go, or I’ll have to do more than just pay you a visit.”
“You mean you’ll assault me?” I asked and heard Gabriele sigh dramatically in my headphones.
“Yeah, pretty boy,” Officer White said as he picked up his signal jammer. “I’ll chop you into little bits and feed you to that damned raccoon you have outside.”
“You leave Eddie out of this,” Gabriele said, and I had to work to keep a straight face as the hacker ranted about animal cruelty without any comment about my life being forfeited.
“Your message has been delivered,” I said and made a sweeping gesture toward the door with my arm. “Now, please leave. I need to order dinner. It seems like some pig came and ate my lamb.”
The cop's face turned a bright shade of red at the insult, and his fists balled up at his sides like he was about to punch me in the face, but he took a deep breath and let it out when his phone chimed. He checked to see that he had a text message, rolled his eyes at whatever it said, and then stuffed the phone back in his pocket as he turned his attention back to me.
“It looks like it’s your lucky day,” the man said. “I have work to do somewhere else. This is your last warning. If I have to come back again, then when I leave, you’ll be in little bits in your backyard. Or maybe you’ll drown in the pool. Accidental drownings happen all the time.”
I bit my tongue so I wouldn’t provoke him and change his plans to leave my house. He was almost gone, and Gabriele had all of it on video and audio so that I could use it later if I brought it to court. I could also use it to force Dian’s hand in bringing back the Enzo. All I had to do was be patient and not punch him in his smug face, no matter how tempting it was when he waved from his car.
The neighbor woman across the street watched from her window, and when I lifted my hand to greet her, she shut her curtain and pretended like she hadn’t seen me. I shook my head and watched until Officer White was long gone. He hadn’t been in his uniform, so I doubted that the neighborhood watch would think that he was anyone but a client coming to visit me.
“That was so tense,” Gabriele said.
“It was,” I said. “But he’s not stupid enough to try to kill me. And you got all of that, right?”
“I did,” the hacker said. “I’ll send a copy of it to your email once it’s cleaned up. And Hank is ten minutes out.”
“Perfect,” I said and shut the door behind me with a sigh. “I’m going to order some pizza and make sure he didn’t leave anything behind.”
“Oh, shit,” the caffeinated man said. “You’re right. Okay, I’ll have Hank loop back and get a scanner so he can check for bugs. It’ll take him an extra half an hour.”
“Sounds great,” I said and hung up right as another call came in from Alessia.
“Hunter,” the beautiful DA said when I picked up.
“Good evening,” I said with a smile while I picked up the plate of half-eaten lamb. “It’s good to hear from you. It’s been a long day, and I do love hearing your voice. Did you want to get dinner? My plans just got cancelled.”
“What do you know about the car theft ring?” Alessia asked and ignored my offer for dinner.
“Not much,” I hedged and wondered what could’ve happened to make her think that I knew more than I had at our last meeting. “What you’ve given me has been really helpful, but I’m not sure that I’ve made much progress.”
“Are you sure about that?” she asked. “Because my guys saw you around the Phoenix Import Company this afternoon.”
“I had some business with him,” I told her. “Why are they watching Mr. Pham’s company?”
“Because he was just arrested for shipping illegal cars,” the beautiful DA huffed.
Chapter 13
“Arrested?” I repeated and tried to seem as calm as possible. “I guess that means that he won’t be able to import the grapes we have waiting in Italy.”
“That’s why you went to see him?” Alessia asked, and I could hear the relief in her voice.
“Yes,” I lied. “One of my clients has a balsamic vinegar company that they need to bring the grapes over for. It’s a whole complicated thing. The Phoenix Imports Company was at the top of the list, but I guess I’ll have to move onto number two. Thanks for the headsup.”
“Sure,” the beautiful DA said. “But I have to admit that’s not really the reason I called. I thought that you and your… uh… client… might have been working with him and his car theft ring.”
“I understand,” I said. “I was asking questions. I wonder if he was behind the ring that stole my client’s car.”
“We’ll see,” the Italian woman said with a smug tone. “He’s in the station now. I’m sure that after a few hours with the detectives on my team that he’ll be singing every name in his organization.”
“Congratulations,” I said as I closed my eyes, shook my head, and hoped that the businessman was as smart as Gabriele seemed to think he was so that he’d keep his mouth shut. “So, did you want to get dinner? Or maybe you can come over for a victory night? I was planning on ordering a cheeseburger and fries.”
“Oh, that’s so tempting,” the gorgeous woman purred. “But I have a ton of paperwork to do. And the rest of the team is going to order pizza and go over everything that they found at the warehouse. There wa
s actually a whole container full of cars! And the Port Authority was there earlier in the day. We’ll have to make sure that the inspector wasn’t paid off. It’s a whole thing.”
“It sounds like you have a busy night ahead,” I said and tried not to sound like I wanted to hang up, though I needed to call Anthony right away to let him know about the latest development.
“Raincheck?” Alessia asked.
“Of course,” I said with a nod that she couldn’t see. “I’m working all weekend. But, maybe next Friday?”
“I’ll pencil it in,” the Brooklyn DA said. “Everything is up in the air until we finish with the car theft ring.”
“I understand,” I said. “I’ll check in with you later. Have a good night, and make sure that you’re getting sleep.”
“If that’s not the pot calling the kettle black,” the beautiful woman teased, and I heard someone call her name. “Oh, Hunter, I’m so sorry, but I have to go.”
I let out a deep sigh the second that Alessia hung up, ran a hand through my hair, and then prepared myself for the call that I had to make. Anthony was going to be pissed that our only lead was sitting in a Brooklyn police department.
“What’s up?” my client asked on the second ring.
“Dian’s been picked up,” I said.
“What?” the mafioso asked in a tense voice.
“Alessia just called me to ask what I knew about the car theft ring,” I told him and began to pace around my living room. “Apparently, one of her officers saw me visiting today, and she put two and two together. I let her know that I was just there representing a client that needed to bring in some grapes from Italy.”
“Good thinking,” Anthony said and the sound of his pen tapping came through loud and clear. “What are we going to do about Dian? Do you think that he’ll talk about the real reason that you were there?”
“If he thought that it would get him anywhere,” I hedged when I realized that I still didn’t know if there were any bugs around. “But we’re going to have to find someone else to do our imports. I have a few ideas about who I can call.”