Dead in the Water (DeSantos Book 1)

by A. R. Case

  He watched traffic for a bit longer, but didn’t see anything else out of place. They’d be back, and he had a short window to get Susan and Jonathan out of the house, and stashed.

  For the thousandth time since last night, he wished he hadn’t been cut off by Crank. He could sure use the brotherhood right now to lock down the situation. He’d just have to do this like normal people did. He took the stairs two at a time.

  “Is everything okay?” Susan asked.

  “No, your place was watched. Good news though, they weren’t listening.” He looked around the house. “At least the guy on the street wasn’t.”

  Her eyes got big. “Listening?”

  “Bugged. Video, tiny cameras. We’re dealing with the big boys, that’s what I’d do.” He grabbed the backpack, and handed it to Jonathan. “Get two days of clean clothes, and anything you need for school, although I’d advise that you call out sick for a while.” He turned to Susan. “Grab a bag, and do the same thing.”

  “What? Aren’t we supposed to meet Agent Mills here?”

  Tony cursed. “We’re bugging out, now. And FYI, if we’re being listened in on here, you just bought yourself a future in hiding.”

  “But I don’t understand.”

  Tony got in her face. “Dead bodies, mafia, flash drives, break-ins.” and for good measure he added “Federal investigations. Got it?”

  She blinked, but he could see by her face that she got it.

  He’d have to give her credit for packing faster than her son. Apparently this wasn’t the first time she’d left a place in a hurry, because she had everything she needed plus her paperwork, which was neatly packed in a binder, that she slipped in a messenger bag. It was pretty amazing to see her pull exactly what she needed without hesitation. Tony couldn’t shake that image of her standing, ready, with two bags and her face resolved and focused. Part of his heart whispered to his head saying, “She’s a fighter.” She was, and one hell of a woman.

  He went first, and stood ready while they bundled into his truck. Jonathan wisely took the tiny area that the dealer boasted as a back seat. Mostly Tony used it for his tool bag and spare work clothes. Once he had them rolling, he took a few turns to shake anyone stupid enough to tail him.

  “Plug my phone in.” He handed Susan the cord, and then his phone. When he glanced at her, he saw her face pulled into a frown. “Sorry, please?” It softened a bit, and she complied.

  He needed help, and wasn’t going to get it from Chris or the Brigands. “I’m going to call Mills as soon as it gets a charge. I didn’t mean to snap at you.”

  She reached across, and rubbed his leg. “I know you didn’t. We’re all just a bit freaked out right now, so I get it. Thank you for keeping us safe.”

  They weren’t safe, not by a long shot. He wouldn’t call them safe unless they were four or five states away under guard or different identities. But he didn’t say that. Right now, he knew that anything he did wouldn’t be enough. He didn’t want to scare her more so he said, “No problem.”

  He forced a smile and drove. They stopped at a Denny’s outside Egg Harbor. Susan had called Mills, using his phone, telling him where they were, and what was going on.

  Their order had arrived, and Jonathan was tucking into a Grand Slam when Mills squeezed into their booth. Tony had seen him come in the door so wasn’t surprised.

  Mills had a smile on his face. “Good to see you again, Susan.” His smile faded a little. “Tony.” He nodded at him, then turned the wattage up to talk to Jonathan. “You must be Jonathan.” He held out a hand to shake the teen’s hand.

  Tony felt like growling. Somewhere in the last few weeks, days or hours, this family had become his. To see Mills try to ingratiate himself into it made him see red, or a mild equivalent of red. Not pink though, Tony decided. Jonathan, to his credit, wasn’t enthusiastic about shaking Mills’ hand. Tony stretched out an arm, and draped it over the seat in the booth, staking a claim on the boy.

  The waitress came up to get Mills’ order. He quickly ordered a coffee and ham sandwich without looking at the menu. “I’ve been up since six, so this is lunch.” He said. “What do you have for me?”

  Tony and Susan filled him in, between waitress trips, about the phone call from Sergeant Peterson, and Jonathan’s admission he’d picked up a flash drive that night in the wetlands. Mills frowned when he heard that.

  “I didn’t think it was connected.” Jonathan said.

  They all got quiet as the waitress filled coffees, and asked if they needed anything. Mills turned on some charm to get her to agree to let them talk for a bit.

  “And you copied the information onto the laptop?” Mills asked.

  Jonathan dug it out of his backpack, “Here.” He looked at his mom. “It’s okay, isn’t it?”

  Susan filled in, “Anything we need to do to get this over.” She took the laptop from Jonathan, and handed it to Mills. “Here.”

  Mills shook his head. He pulled his own laptop out of a brown leather bag he’d brought in, then a cable. “Where’d you copy it to?” He asked, booting both machines up.

  “You’re going to do that here?” Jonathan squeaked.

  Mills looked around. “Yeah. Here.” He shook his head. “This way if anyone is watching they know you’re not the only ones with the information, okay? I’d rather have a target on my back than yours. That good with you?” He typed into his machine, then asked Jonathan, “What’s your password?”

  After Mills got the information copied off the laptop, and onto his machine, he handed the laptop back to Jonathan. The kid needed to use the bathroom, and Susan said she needed to go, too. Tony suspected she was going at the same time to keep an eye on her son, and make certain nothing happened to him.

  Tony had been thinking, and now that they were alone he asked. “How did they know about Jonathan?”

  “What do you mean?” Mills asked.

  He backtracked. “They dump a body near my business, then go after Lisa when they don’t have the drive. But unless they have a cop in their pocket, they wouldn’t have made a connection between Jonathan and I. Especially not before the date last night. So how could they have known last Wednesday?”

  Mills took a sip of his coffee, and set it down. “You answered your own question, you know that, right?”

  Tony nodded. “Same way they knew when Lisa was going to be gone for a while.”

  The FBI agent leaned back in his seat. “You’re too perceptive.”

  “A lot of training when I was young.”

  “You willing to talk about that?”

  Tony glared at Mills. “Hell no.”

  Mills smiled. “I suppose not. Why’d you visit Crank?”

  That got Tony’s attention. “Crank’s an old friend, works on my bikes.”

  “Yeah, he’s also still affiliated with your father’s gang.”

  “So?”

  Mills glanced toward the bathrooms. “Just tell me if I’m going to have a bunch of half-cocked bikers running all over my case. Other than that, I couldn’t fucking care less.”

  Tony watched him for a tell. The man was cool, and seemed sincere, but that was just the thing, they all were fucking sincere. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, so whatever people do, they do. I’m not Brigand.” He wasn’t lying. Crank had made that clear four fucking days ago. If he was one of the Brigands, they wouldn’t even be having this conversation.

  That seemed to satisfy Mills because he dropped it. “The guy we’re investigating is known to support the police, so I think you nailed it.” He looked toward the bathrooms; Jonathan was on his way back. He let that sink in, and changed gears, looking cheerful and talking small talk with the kid. Susan came back, and instead of sitting back in by her son, where Mills had vacated when he stood up, she sat by Tony. She moved close enough that he draped an arm over her shoulder
s, and gave them a squeeze. She leaned into him, more subdued. It felt good knowing she trusted him.

  The waitress came with the check, which Mills picked up. “On me.” He tapped his briefcase where his laptop was tucked away. “I can expense it.” He joked.

  Jonathan got a kick out of it. He and Susan tried to laugh, but weren’t really feeling it. Mills saw their faces, and nodded. “I’d suggest leaving the laptop at home, in plain sight. That way it can get gone.”

  Susan stiffened. Tony glanced down at her.

  “What about the other stuff on it, will we ever get it back?”

  Mills frowned. “I wouldn’t count on that, but what’s more important?”

  He stopped there, letting her think. Tony jumped in. “We’ll stop at Best Buy, and get a drive, have them clone it, that should help, right?” He looked to Mills, but Jonathan chimed in.

  “It would work. Cloning a drive doesn’t do anything to the data on the drive.” He turned to his mom -- a smile wide on his face, “Finally we can get a new laptop, hey?”

  She didn’t laugh.

  Chapter fourteen

  True to what Mills said, the laptop disappeared that afternoon, sometime between them dropping it and the Denny’s leftovers off, and when they stopped back at nine p.m. Susan called the police again to report the second theft. Then they went to Tony’s place to spend the night. It had been a squeeze, and he had a sore back from taking the floor because Jonathan was on the couch, and his mom had been in his room.

  Susan had work in the afternoon, but left early to meet with her lawyer about the custody case. Jonathan had opted to go to school. Tony picked him up when it finished at three thirty. Then they returned to the shop to finish up his stuff. It was about 6 p.m. when they swung by the house again.

  There was a cop waiting outside Susan’s place when Tony drove by with Jonathan, so he kept going.

  “You missed it.” Jonathan said. “There was a spot right back there.” He pointed, but Tony kept driving.

  “Look back by the church.” He told him.

  “Shit, cops. What do they want?”

  Tony turned his blinker on and turned the corner, checking his rear view mirror to see if the cop followed. He didn’t so he breathed a little easier. “Could be they’re watching the place because of the break ins. You want to find out?”

  Jonathan came back pretty quickly with a no.

  He didn’t blame the kid. His “spidey sense” was crawling up and down his spine. This didn’t look right to him, so he was going to play this differently. The one time he hadn’t listened to this was when Chris had gotten shot, so there was no way he’d ignore it now. “You don’t really trust cops, do you?”

  “With a father like mine, would you?”

  He waited a beat before responding do Jonathan. “What did he do?”

  “Broke one of my ribs.”

  There was quiet in the car. So much quiet, the blinker seemed loud as Tony signaled another turn. “On accident, I hope?”

  “Nope. He beat mom up at least once too.”

  “Lovely guy.”

  “Dad of the year, according to his buddies on the force.” Jonathan paused, “I hope I don’t turn out like him.”

  Tony snorted. “You and me both, kid. My dad was on the other side, but I know what you mean.”

  “Your dad was a criminal?”

  “Pretty bad one too.” He nodded. “Motorcycle gang, that crap.”

  “Cool.” Jonathan said.

  “Not cool. Got my little brother killed, my older brother shot, and him dead. So not cool at all.”

  The kid was quiet. “Where we going to go?”

  “I’m thinking the hospital to wait for your mom.”

  “That’s going to take a while.”

  “You want early supper?” He asked.

  “Sure. That Irish place was cool.”

  Tony left a message for Susan to let her know that they were grabbing a bite to eat, but didn’t go to the pub, instead he took Jonathan to a pizza shop down the block from his house. He’d left his cell number with the girl who’d taken the message. They’d just gotten seated at the pizza place when his phone rang.

  “Yo.”

  “Tony?” It was Susan, and she didn’t sound right.

  “Susan? You okay?”

  He heard her sniff.

  “That Mom?” Jonathan leaned forward in the booth. The hostess dropped off the paper pizza menu, and hung around for drink orders.

  Tony motioned the waitress off. Then he handed Jonathan the menu and answered him, “Just a minute.” He walked away from the table toward the back of the restaurant. “What is it?”

  “I talked to the lawyer.”

  “This morning.”

  “No, she called again. There was a problem with the custody agreement.”

  He heard her sob. “Hey, honey shhhh, it’ll be okay, what kind of problem?”

  “The custody revision wasn’t updated when I filed the amendment to move.” Her heard her clear her throat. “Remember I told you I filed for full custody, right?”

  Tony agreed, urging her to continue.

  “Well the court didn’t change the visitation, which means John still has custody -- I mean he has legal rights to visitation.”

  She broke down, and it took Tony a minute or two to get her to answer him. He craned his head to check on Jonathan. He was talking to the waitress. Tony hoped he was ordering, or at least getting drinks. “So, that can be fixed, right?”

  “That’s just the thing, because they never updated the paperwork, John’s claiming I took him out of the state illegally.”

  “No fucking way.” Tony wanted to hit something. Fucking bastard.

  She gathered herself a bit, and cleared her throat again. “I’ve got twenty-four hours to turn him over to Child Services, so they can return him. I don’t know what to do.”

  “What did your lawyer say?”

  Susan sighed. “She said she would file a temporary order for custody tomorrow morning.”

  “Can you keep him tonight?”

  “I don’t know.” Her throat caught again. “I’ve got to get back to my shift, but wanted to tell you. So you didn’t get into trouble. You should probably drop him off here, I guess.”

  “We’re grabbing pizza, I’ll bring him afterwards, okay?”

  “Don’t tell him. I’ll tell him.”

  Tony made a sound of agreement.

  “And Tony?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  He heard a note of finality in her voice. “Don’t be sorry. Fight, babe. I expect you to fight this. You’re tough, you can do this.”

  “But, it’s just so much. I mean the break-ins, the body, you…”

  He didn’t like where she was taking this. “None of this is you, okay babe? And as far as me goes, not going anywhere. You’ll get through this, and we’ll get through it, you know?”

  “It’s not fair to you.”

  He chuckled. “Life isn’t fair, no surprise. Just hold your chin up, we’ll see you soon, okay?”

  “You’re too good to be true.”

  “No babe, I’m me. That’s all. I have faults, some pretty big ones, so don’t feel bad about this. Got it?”

  “Got it.”

  At least she’d stopped crying. “Now, clean up, and go kick ass. I’ve got your back.”

  Her exhale was shaky, but the gratitude in her voice evident. “Oh... thank you.”

  Tony got a chill down his spine listening to her breathy voice. His pants got tight and he had to re-adjust them as he said goodbye.

  He had to wait a moment, before composing himself to go back to Jonathan.

  Jonathan had ordered, and apologized for not waiting. “I didn’t know if I should or not.” />
  “It’s cool. I like anything on pizza, except fish. That’s just weird.”

  “And gross.” Jonathan agreed.

  They talked about baseball, basketball, pizza, and places around AC that they’d seen. Apparently Jonathan was a huge roller coaster fan, and next year his mom was planning to take them up to Coney Island to ride some of the ancient and new attractions there. In the back of Tony’s head, he soaked it up, and stored it away, knowing that this kid needed something to remember that didn’t suck.

  Luckily, Jonathan didn’t catch on to his solemn mood, and happily munched while they watched a basketball game on one of the TVs. Somehow they managed to save a slice for his mom. Tony ordered a salad to go to add to Susan’s meal. He hoped she was calmed down by the time they got there.

  They drove to the hospital, Tony telling Jonathan that they’d agreed on this during the call, rather than going back to the house. “That way she can see you’re safe. You know how moms are.” Tony joked to cover up the anxiety that was beginning to make the pizza he’d eaten squirm around.

  They entered in the side entrance of the ER near the clinic, not the main emergency room. Jonathan pointed out that it was less busy, and had a direct hallway into the ER section. As they passed through the double doors into the mayhem, he searched for Susan, but didn’t see her.

  One of the nurses saw Jonathan though, and motioned them toward the circular desk she was manning. “Susan’s in the break room, but there’s social services with her now.” She told Tony.

  “What?” Jonathan’s voice squeaked. “Why are they here?”

  “When did they get here?” Tony asked.

  “They’ve been here with her for about a half hour. Do you know what’s going on?”

  “Yeah, what’s going on, Tony?” Jonathan asked, his voice getting low.

  Tony glanced at Jonathan with a scowl, but fixed his face. It wasn’t Jonathan’s fault. “Your mom told me that there’s been a bit of misunderstanding. It should be all fixed by tomorrow. Okay?”

  “But if they’re here tonight, what’s going to happen now?”