Caught Up (Indigo Vibe) (24 page)

She pushed away from the desk and let up the window. “Dinner will be done in about fifteen minutes.”

“Here I come.”

A few minutes later, Samson stepped into the kitchen with a canvas bag over his shoulder. “Something smells delicious.” He kissed her on the cheek as she opened the oven. “I’ll clean up and be right back.”

She washed her hands, made a garden salad, and then set the table. Having Samson in the house felt so natural to her.
Maybe we’ll make it.

“Need help?” Samson, wearing a clean T-shirt and jeans and smelling fresh, took two glasses out of the cabinet and set them on the table beside the pitcher of lemonade. “I’m starving.”

“I’ll bet.” They took their seats and said a blessing. “You got a lot done today.”

“And how about you? Did you get a lot done today?” he asked between bites of wild rice.

“Not much.” She thought about how Ernesto had acted at breakfast and felt nauseous. Something wasn’t right, and she was determined to find out what. She pushed her plate away. Either Harriet had set Ernesto up—which was something she would do—or Ernesto was in deeper than he let on. “Do you know who those men are in the album with Daddy?”

“Yes.” He cut a small piece of chicken leg, then picked it up with a fork and brushed her lips with it. “Eat.”

“All you think about is eating.”

“All I think about is how much I love you.”

She felt her face flush as she took the bite he offered. “Can you give me the information you have on the men in the photos? I want to…” she trailed off. “Can I see it?”

He pulled his cell phone off his belt clip and dialed Alton’s number. “Hey, could you start making a file with the information on the men in the photos with Ernesto that we can give to Rosa?… I know it’s a lot… I’ll come by later tonight and help… Thanks.” He disconnected, then returned to enjoying his dinner.

“Thank you, Samson.”

“I’ll bring the files by in the morning. We can’t give you everything we have.”

“I understand.” She picked at her salad.

“We interviewed Angela last night, and Ernesto dropped by our office this morning.”

“Daddy came to your office?”

“Shocked the heck out of me, too. He’s decided to cooperate, but I don’t know. There are so many lies to sort through.”

“I know the feeling.” They continued eating their dinner.

“I faxed my letter of resignation this morning. The chief called. He wasn’t surprised.”

“Are you sure you want to quit?”

“David once told me I don’t have the correct personality for a DEA agent. I think he’s right. After we clean the kitchen, do you want to go for a walk?”

“Isn’t Alton waiting on you?”

“Yeah.” He took their empty plates and set them in the sink. “He can handle things without me for another hour or so.”

* * *

Rosa lay across her bed, closely examining the photos. She had slight recollection of some of the men. The phone rang, startling her. She checked the caller ID. “Hello, Daddy.”

“I just called to apologize for leaving so abruptly this morning.”

“What’s going on? Why did you rush out?” Silence. “Daddy, what happened?”

“I saw the album on your coffee table and panicked.”

“You, panic?” she asked slowly. “Tell me the whole truth, Daddy. I can’t take these bits and pieces. It’s making me lose faith in you.”

“I know, honey, it’s just… I worked for David until you were twelve. When we moved to Miami, I cut my drug ties. But some of those pictures are from a few months ago. I speak to thousands of people. Knowing David, those men in the photos have something to do with the drug world, but I honestly don’t know. He set me up.”

She leaned against the headboard. “Why on earth would he set you up?”

“Because he thought I had something to do with his being sent to death row. Because when you graduated from college, I refused to allow him to introduce you to the drug world. Because he was jealous of our relationship. There were millions of reasons.”

She debated if she should tell him that Harriet gave her the photos. Unsure, she said, “This is the last time I’m going to ask. Please tell me the truth. Are you or were you involved in the illegal drug trade or any other illegal activities after I was twelve?”

“No, Rosa.”

“So nothing else will pop up?”

“Only if I’m being framed. David’s money reaches beyond the grave.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Rosa and Samson cleaned and put away the breakfast dishes, then went into her computer room where he gave an overview of the files.

“Thanks for the information, but,” she paused, “I want—need—to do this on my own.”

“I thought as much. I’ll most likely be in the office all day. You can reach me on my cell.” He kissed her gently, then left.

Rosa broke out her notebook and highlighters, then began reading the information on the men. Two hours later, she had finished compiling a summary of what each man’s legal and illegal roles were.

She set the summaries to the side, booted her computer, and logged into the Bolívar International network system as the super administrator. There were literally thousands of directories and millions of files on the network, and she planned to screen each one until she found the truth. She prayed, again, that the truth was Ernesto wasn’t a part of any illegal activity.

She pulled up a search program that she’d made years ago and entered the names of each man separately. The name of the man, the title of the file his name was mentioned in, the name of the directory the file was located, and the last modification date of the file would be piped into a new text file; each result was one line.

Ten minutes later, the program finished the searches. She opened the extensive text file, engaged the sort portion of her search program to order the individual data lines by directory, then hit return. Within seconds, she had a twelve-page list, which she sent to the printer.

While the printer did its dirty work, she scrolled through the list, examining the date stamp.

Many of the files were recent; others were years old. The feelings of nausea returned. She went into the kitchen and grabbed the box of crackers off the refrigerator. She smiled, thinking Samson would kill her if he knew her lunch consisted of saltines.

She padded back to retrieve the printout. The last directory caught her eye—ZZAdjustments. Anxiety levels at an all-time high, she found it hard to concentrate. She couldn’t remember an Adjustments department, and the ZZ prefix meant the whole directory had been deleted.

She maneuvered around the Bolívar network until she was in the ZZAdjustments directory. A few years back, someone had maliciously deleted a whole directory, so she’d created an update that renamed directories with the ZZ prefix and placed them in a temporary location for twenty-four hours before the files were actually deleted.

Crumbs fell down Rosa’s T-shirt as she nervously gnawed on crackers. Ernesto owned the directory, thus he created it. He had also deleted it. She looked at the time of initial deletion, then the clock—one hour until the files would be deleted permanently.

“No, Daddy.” She never thought it necessary to tell him about the updates she’d made to the system. He had no idea the items that he had erased weren’t deleted.

* * *

“I’d like two fried shrimp dinners,” Samson said to the clerk. “What do you want, Alton?”

“A six-piece wing dinner, heavy on the mild sauce and some orange pop.”

“Would you like soup or salad with your shrimp orders, sir?”

“Caesar salad for both, please.”

“I don’t eat rabbit food, so don’t even ask.” Alton’s cell phone rang. He stepped a few feet away to answer. “Yeah, what?… No shit! How?”

Listening to Alton, Samson had missed what the cashier said. He handed her thirty dollars, assuming that would be enough to cover the bill. “What’s happening?” he asked Alton.

Alton held up a finger and went outside.

“Your change, sir.”

Samson accepted his change, then headed out the door. “What’s happening?”

“Hold a second.” Alton gave his full attention to Samson. “Give me a few minutes, and I’ll tell you everything.”

“Is there something wrong with Rosa?”

“No. If you would let me finish this call, I’d tell you. Damn!”

A few minutes later, Alton entered the restaurant and sat at the table with Samson. “Where are my wings?”

Samson pushed Alton’s order across the table to him. On their way back to the office, he intended on dropping Rosa’s lunch off to her. “What’s going on?”

Alton opened the Styrofoam container and grabbed out a wing. “Guess who got himself shot up, Valentine’s Day massacre-style, this morning?” He bit into a wing.

“Oh God, not Ernesto.”

“Nope. These things are good.”

Samson released a giant sigh of relief. “Who?”

“Barry Paige. I’ll bet Ernesto organized the hit.” He took another bite of the wing.

“First, he throws Jeff to us, and then has his father murdered. What is he thinking?”

“Sounds like he’s panicking to me. You gonna eat or what?”

“Let’s go.”

“Where? I’m still eating. Barry Paige is dead. He ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

“I need to warn Rosa about Jeff.”

* * *

Rosa checked her email, and sure enough, there was an automated message telling her about the directory deletion. She closed the email program and entered the deleted directory. She didn’t know which file to read first. Truth be told, she didn’t want to read any of them. She clicked on the first file in the directory. The phone rang, giving her a short reprieve.

“Hello.”

“Hello, baby, it’s Samson.”

The panic behind his voice set off her silent alarms. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s Jeff Paige. His father was gunned down.”

“That’s tragic. What’s the world coming to?”

“There’s more. Barry Paige was the head of the Sierra cartel. Jeff is the number two guy.”

“No way,” she gasped.

“We’ve got to get you out of town.”

“Me? Why? Jeff came by snooping like you thought someone would. He couldn’t have found anything, because I don’t know anything.”

“What if he thinks Ernesto put the hit out on his father? The only way to hurt Ernesto is to come after you. Jeff lost the tail we had on him. He must know about his father. I’m only five minutes away. Grab a few mementos, and we’re out of here.”

“Okay, but I need to copy something first.”

“No, Rosa! We don’t have time.” He paused. “I’m sorry for snapping. Please, just do this for me.”

“I’ll be ready when you arrive. I need to hang up, or I won’t be ready. Love you.”

“I love you, too.”

She disconnected, closed the file and reached in her bottom drawer for a blank CD. There was no way she’d leave without saving the directory Ernesto had deleted. She could pack while the system was copying.

The doorbell chimed several times. Samson had said he was five minutes away, so she didn’t think it was him. Her curiosity almost overtook her common sense. The person stopped ringing the bell and instead banged on the door.

“Rosa, it’s Jeff. I need to talk to you about something.”

She speed dialed Samson’s cell. “He’s here. He’s here!”

“Hide. We’re almost there.”

Jeff pounded the door. It was so loud that she was certain he was throwing his body against it. The pounding stopped. She looked around. There were no good places to hide.
How long before he remembers it’s a lot easier to break a window than a solid oak door?

Window.
She stuffed the cell phone into her back jeans pocket and opened the window. Halfway out of the window, Jeff rounded the corner and yanked her the rest of the way out, dropping her to the ground.

She caught herself the best she could, but hurt her arm.

“Why didn’t you answer the damn door?” He showed her his gun. “Time to leave.”

* * *

Alton sped around the corner in time to see Jeff back out of Rosa’s driveway. Her phone was still on, but the voices were too muffled for them to hear. “We can’t rush up there,” Alton said. “We’ll follow at a distance and wait for our chance.”

Samson rocked back and forth. “I’m not losing her. I can’t.”

* * *

Rosa had seen Alton’s blue sedan in the passenger side mirror when they left her place, but she didn’t let on.

“Ernesto murdered my father. That son of a bitch murdered my father!” He pointed the gun at her head. “His ass has to pay.” He lowered the gun while continuing to steer through the congested streets of Oak Park with his free hand. “Take the phone out of my breast pocket and call that bastard.”

She followed his orders. “Daddy,” she said softly.

“What’s wrong? Whose phone are you calling from? It says ‘Private.’”

“Jeff Paige has a gun pointed at—”

Jeff snatched the phone. “You know that forest preserve off Thatcher…” He gave the details. “I like Rosa. I’ll give you one hour. We swap. You for her.” He threw the phone at the windshield. Rosa ducked as pieces ricocheted toward her and every which way.

* * *

Ernesto couldn’t sort through the business cards fast enough. “Jill! Jill!” He hit the intercom. “Jill Walker, get Samson’s number, now!”

Mrs. Walker ran into his office. “What’s wrong?”

“He has Rosa!” He scrambled on his desk. “I can’t find Samson’s number.”

“Who has Rosa?”

“That bastard Jeff Paige. He’s supposed to be dead.”

“Oh no, Ernesto. What were you thinking?”

“We don’t have time for this. Get me the fucking number!” She ran out of the office. He looked at his watch. “Shit, shit, shit.”

Mrs. Walker rushed into the room, dialing Samson’s number. She handed Ernesto the phone.

“The bastard isn’t answering. Call Alton.” He handed her the phone.

She dialed Alton’s number, then handed Ernesto the phone. He never though that he’d be relieved to hear Alton’s voice. “Jeff Paige kidnapped Rosa,” Ernesto said as he rushed out of the office. “You have to save her. He only gave me an hour to make an hour-and-a-half trip. Please. Please save her. He’s headed to the forest preserve off Thatcher.”

“Wait a second. Take a breath.”

Ernesto swung open the doors of the stairwell and started running down the eight flights rather than waiting on the elevator. “I don’t have time for games, Alton. This is my child.”

“We’re already trailing them.”

Ernesto stumbled over Alton’s words as he passed the fifth floor. “But how? Never mind. Just keep her safe. I’m on my way.”

* * *

Rosa glanced over her shoulder as they walked further into the woods. Jeff had threatened to shoot into the crowd of people if she didn’t do as he said.

She couldn’t see how Samson and Alton would be able to save her, and there was no way she’d allow Jeff to kill both her and Ernesto. She stepped over several fallen branches as she took in her surroundings.

He pushed her forward. “Move it.”

She stumbled to the ground. “Ouch.” She grabbed her ankle. “I twisted it.” She grimaced.

He stepped closer. “Well, hobble your ass on.”

She leaned back on her elbows and kicked him in the groin as hard as she could. He fell to the ground. She took off, running deeper into the woods, worried because he hadn’t dropped his gun.

A shot rang out. She didn’t look back. She’d always stayed in excellent shape and hoped she could zigzag through the trees enough for the bullets to miss her. A second bullet whizzed past her ear. She cut a sharp right and continued, praying that Jeff ran out of bullets before she ran out of breath.

* * *

A shot rang out. Samson and Alton stopped. Samson recuperated first and ran toward the sound with his gun drawn.

“Slow down. We don’t know what we’re running into!” Alton hopped over a log and continued through the brush. “I’m the hot head. You’re supposed to think things through.”

“I have to save her.” A second shot rang out. Samson caught a glimpse of Rosa’s bright red T-shirt darting to the right. He couldn’t see Jeff. “DEA! Drop your weapon!” he called out.

He saw flashes of Jeff between the trees, chasing Rosa and firing again.

Rosa cut right again.
That’s it, baby,
thought Samson. Lead him across my path. He aimed to where she’d just passed and waited. A few seconds later, Jeff appeared. Samson shot. Direct hit in the upper thigh. Jeff fell to the ground.

“Rosa, get down and hide,” Samson yelled.

Alton passed Samson on his way to Jeff. “Go find her, man. I got this.”

Samson ran for the area where Rosa had headed. He heard something rummaging around in the brush a few yards from his position. He crouched down. “Rosa,” he whispered. Shots rang out. “Rosa!”

“Shit!” Alton cursed. “Fucking bastard.” More shots rang out.

Samson crawled along the ground.

“Samson, over here,” Rosa said under her breath.

He quickly maneuvered through a patch of weeds, grabbed onto Rosa, and held her tight. More shots echoed in the woods.

“I got his ass!” Alton called. “You can come out now.”

* * *

“…and then he said he’d shoot into the crowd unless I did as he said,” Rosa said to the gathering of FBI, DEA, and local police. “So, I went into the woods with him.”

“How did you get away?” a burly female police officer asked.

“I pretended like I’d hurt my ankle, then I kicked him in the groin and ran.” The small room filled with ewws, oohs, and sympathy moans.

“I don’t give a damn!”

Rosa’s ears perked up. “Daddy!” She released Samson’s hand.

“Where’s my child?”

“Daddy!” Rosa raced for the door, but she was stopped by the agents. “Let me go… Daddy!”

Alton left the room, then returned with Ernesto close behind.

Rosa ran to Ernesto and wrapped her arms around him. He combed his hands through her short curls and checked for scrapes and scratches. Seeing none, he pulled her close and rocked her gently. “I’ve never been so scared in my life.”

“I believe you all have enough for your reports,” Samson said. “Let’s give them privacy.”

Alton held the door open, while Samson rushed everyone out.

“I want you to stay, Samson,” Rosa requested. He stood in a corner of the small office.

After everyone cleared, she said, “He thought you ordered the hit on his father, so he went after me.” She shook her head. “That is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. He wanted to kill me because he thought you
might have
put a hit out on his father.”