Shadows of Deceit (A Series of Shadows) (14 page)

“With that small of a window it would have to be real close.” Dillon continued once the woman was gone again.

“Right. Figure they had several loads to haul, a dozen or so guys to pack up, so on and so fourth, in the span of four hours.” Niko was hoping Vinny would put it together rather than him naming locations.

“Only military that I know of within range is Point Magu Naval but we gotta be talking military here for that to be the case.” Vinny scrubbed his face with his hands in frustration. “No way a civilian can go undetected on a military air base running that kind of operation with that kinda aircraft.”

“I wouldn’t bet the farm on that, cowboy.” Niko sat up straight when he saw the waitress approaching with their food.

“You sound like Lou!” Vinny snorted.

Niko just smiled as the waitress arranged their plates on the table accordingly and waited for her to depart again. Vinny was right, he did sound like Lou and Niko found that very funny. He liked Lou’s sense of humor a lot.

“I can do a little digging if you want but it would have to be off the record.” Niko cut into his kreplach with his spoon and noticed Vinny staring at his bowl. “You want to try some? Grab a spoon.”

“You don’t mind?” Vinny suddenly looked like a little boy, dying to try Niko’s soup.

“Try it, you’ll be addicted.” Niko grinned and understood in that moment why Lou was so fond of the man. He was a kid in a tough guy, goodfella suit and Niko liked him.

The men spent the rest of their time together marveling over kreplach and discussing domestic stealth operations. Vinny tried and tried but Niko never revealed the who, where and when of the covert op that he had semi-described earlier. Dillon, for the most part, remained silent throughout lunch. He listened to the two men banter and debate the ins and outs of accomplishing such an operation. It was not lost on Vinny that Niko rarely looked at Dillon, let alone address him directly. When they were finished, Dillon excused himself to go wash his hands while Niko paid the bill and Vinny took the opportunity to ask him about it.

“You don’t like my partner?” Vinny asked, point blank.

“What makes you say that?” Niko gave him a sideways glance.

“Seems like you were avoiding him, like he stank or something.” He wasn’t sure how else to put it but it made Niko laugh.

“Not at all. You’re the boss, right?” Niko counted out several bills and placed them over the check.

“Yeah.” Vinny thought about it a moment. “Yeah, I’m the boss.”

“I deal with bosses.” He scooted out from the booth and gave Vinny a smile. “Force of habit I guess. Rank and file usually don’t have the capacity to get to the point. They have canned responses that they give to civilians until they get permission from the boss. I prefer not to deal with middle men. No offense.”

“None taken.” Vinny stood up and followed Niko towards the door. “I’m just in a tough position right now. Would have liked your take on the guy.”

“He’s up for the spot of Lou’s partner, right?” Niko opened the door for him.

“Yeah. Been through half a dozen morons that I wouldn’t leave my worst enemy with, let alone Lou.” Vinny looked stressed as he confided in Niko. He wasn’t sure why he was, but for some reason he felt he could trust him.

“You’ve done a solid background check on him I assume?” Niko was watching out of the corner of his eye for Dillon’s return.

“As best as I can through legal channels. Kid looks like a choir boy on paper. He’s been grade A so far on this case. Came up with the helo bit.” Vinny looked through the deli window, also to make sure Dillon was not coming yet. “He’s sure as shit strong enough to protect her. You two look like you came from the same stock. Friggin linebackers.”

Niko chuckled and watched Vinny as he huddled under the restaurant awning sheltering himself from the rain.

“I’ll look into him and get back to you.” Niko pulled one of his cigarettes out of his case and lit it then jerked his jaw to signal Dillon was coming out. Vinny nodded slightly to acknowledge the message was received.

“Sorry for the delay.” Dillon apologized as he came out the door. “I got a phone call from your sister-in-law, she has a house she wants me to see. Was a little surprising.”

“How the hell did she get your number?” Vinny was stunned.

“Apparently your wife conned it out of Captain Davis.” Dillon didn’t seem upset, just surprised. “Anyway, I’m going to meet her after work. The place sounds perfect. She’s emailing me pictures and the specs.”

“Sorry about that sport.” Vinny was clearly embarrassed at his sister-in-law being so pushy.

“Not at all! I’m excited.” He pulled his collar up around his neck. “Since you got me thinking about it, I really want to get a place and get settled. It’s a good thing.” He grinned at Vinny.

Niko raised an approving eyebrow at Vinny before they made a plan to speak early the next morning. Once Niko made all the arrangements for the test run. There were certain logistics that needed to be handled but Niko assured them that he would take care of everything. All Dillon and Vinny would have to do is get a couple extra men so that they could verify no one would have noticed the helo coming in and out in the neighborhood. The three men said their farewells and Niko took off to who knows where while Vinny and Dillon headed to the morgue to meet with Caroline. Now that they had identification on the three victims they needed to understand how three bad guys of their caliber were taken down in such a barbaric manner. The bigger questions though were who did it, why, and where the hell was Casius Arcano?

Niko called Lou
immediately after he left Vinny and her possible new partner. He filled her in on the meet and told her that he liked Dillon and that Vinny was stressing hard over him. Lou knew Vinny was worrying and wished there was some way she could make him stop. He had enough on his plate already. She already ran Dillon through her super system and everything checked out with the file Vinny had given her. Nothing inconsistent or out of the ordinary although there were some redundancies that Lou found a little odd. Statements that were almost identical in verbiage to one another. She relayed this information to Niko during their call and he told her that he was planning to check Dillon out himself just to make sure nothing was hinky. That reassured her and when they hung up Lou went back to looking at the backgrounds of Peter Taylor, Alonzo Cabrillo and Carlos Vargas.

Peter Taylor had come up clean with the only controversial thing in his background being a public nuisance ticket from a Rainbow Parade back in his college days. Other then that, Taylor was exactly who he said he was.

Alonzo Cabrillo was the son of textbook Mexican immigrants who came to the U.S. and followed all the rules and procedures to obtain legal status. Both his father and mother were model citizens and worked hard to put their only son through college. Alonzo was not an honor student but he too worked hard and obtained his business degree from the University of California at Los Angeles. After graduation, he worked his way up the ladder at Arcano Imports from mail room clerk to Chief Operations Manager in eleven years. Everything on paper lead Lou to believe he was no mastermind criminal but a stereotypical corporate yes man. He may not be directly involved in anything illegal at Arcano Imports but he may very well know about it and be too afraid or intimidated to speak out against it.

Carlos Vargas was relatively clean but his family was another story. His parents had come to the U.S. illegally from Colombia while his mother was pregnant with him. Carlos’ father and older brother Ernesto were caught smuggling drugs in on a freighter and were deported. Carlos’ mother went into labor during the bust so she traded her testimony against her husband, son and their associates in the smuggling ring in exchange for witness protection and the shot at a normal life for her newborn son. After the deal was struck, she and her infant were relocated and she got a job as a housekeeper for Luis Arcano’s corporate counsel at the time. Over the years the man became Carlos’ mentor and even helped put him through law school. After Carlos passed the bar, he was given a low level position in the Arcano legal department.

Carlos’ mother passed away several years later after being diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. It appeared that the loss of his mother sparked Carlos to seek out his brother and father to rekindle the family relationship. Details on the extent of the relationship were sketchy but what was on paper suggested that Carlos was aware of his father and brother’s involvement with a well known Colombian drug cartel. There was nothing concrete to suggest Carlos himself was involved with the cartel but there were questions raised after certain family reunions. It was enough for Lou to take notice and want to dig more.

When the doorbell rang at half past six, Lou was dumbfounded by the time. It had seemed like only minutes earlier she was talking to Niko about his lunch meeting, not hours. She gathered all of her papers together so she could head downstairs for the meeting.

“Hey girlie!” Caroline burst into Lou’s room in normal bright and shiny fashion. The tall blond southern belle was wearing a charcoal gray and black sweater, black pants tucked into her tall black leather riding boots and a charcoal gray and black fedora. Lou looked at the woman with pure envy. Despite the fact that Caroline had come straight out of a deluge, she looked like she had just popped off the pages of the fall edition of Vogue magazine.

“I hate you.” Lou scowled at her friend.

“What I do now?!” Caroline looked aghast.

“You look too damn cute. You piss me off.” Lou huffed as she gathered her files together and got up from her desk.

“Oh shut up! I look like a wet rat.” Caroline disregarded her best friend’s snit and took off her hat. “Besides, you look mighty caliente this evening if I do say so myself.”

“Caliente?” Lou snorted. “You been reading up on our Latin victims perhaps?”

“Oh man, yes I have and I am sticking to Myrtle Beach or Miami for vacations from now on, that is for sure.” Caroline headed into Lou’s bathroom and came out a few seconds later dragging a brush through her long platinum blond hair.

“I can’t argue with that. You think this outfit is OK?” Lou walked into her closet to check herself in the mirror. The closet was enormous and had a dressing area that was floor to ceiling mirror. She inspected herself for the fiftieth time, wondering if the plum ensemble she settled on was too drab. The neckline was high enough that it covered her scar so she didn’t feel self-conscious. To cut the drab factor she tossed on a long strand of plum beads that looked like they were stolen off a flapper from the 1920’s. Finally she slipped on a pair of black ballerina flats rather than go barefoot and figured that was as good as it was going to get.

“You look beautiful!” Caroline stepped behind her and took a good look in the mirror. “This color suits you. I may have to steal that necklace, just so you know.”

“I could put on some jeans and a...” Lou was second guessing herself, again.

“No. You just need some lip gloss and a little blush and you are perfect. Some perfume too.” Caroline cut her off and dragged her by the hand into the bathroom. “Let’s make him drool a little, shall we?”

“Oh yeah, that’s gonna happen.” Lou snorted and let herself be dragged.

“He drools over you. You just don’t see it is all.” Caroline dug out the right color gloss, a brush and some blush from Lou’s vanity drawer. “He’s a grown up, not a teenager.”

“Max isn’t the drooling type and you know it. It’s hard to remember he’s really old when he looks younger than Hugh Jackman, ya know?”

“I know. Age is irrelevant anyway.” Caroline went to work on her friend, just adding the right finishing touches. “Just be patient. Hang in there. He’s a totally different breed of cat that we are not used to is all.” With a last swipe of the gloss wand on Lou’s lips, Caroline was done. “Now go spritz with that perfume I got you for your birthday and you are perfection.”

“If you say so.” Lou rolled her eyes and headed back in to the dressing room where she kept the cherished bottle Caroline had given her.

Lou spritzed as ordered and gave herself one last look to see Caroline’s handy work. She had to admit the gloss and blush had been an improvement. Lou’s normal beauty routine consisted of soap, moisturizer, mascara and lip balm on any given day but since Max had come into her life she had started making a little more effort. She had gotten pretty good at the eyeliner and lip gloss bit but that was where her expertise ended. Caroline, on the other hand, had more lotions, potions and paints in her bathroom than the make-up counter at Macy’s. Lou admitted she loved to play dress-up whenever she stayed over at Caroline’s although she always felt like a drag queen when she was done.

With another ring of the doorbell, Lou and Caroline headed downstairs to find Abby, Niko and Connor hanging around the kitchen island while Lou’s mother stirred one of the enormous pots bubbling on the stove. Abby nearly knocked Lou over when she tackled her with a hug then proceeded to give her the third degree over how she was feeling. After Lou assured her that she was better, Abby relaxed and ordered Frank to open bottles of wine before he had even taken his coat off. Yuri, Finn then Max came in behind Frank and the hellos and how-are-yous went round and round. The kitchen was packed with the half dozen hulking men but Lou barely took notice when she saw Max.

One of the things that made Lou’s toes curl was how Max was always dressed like a fine English gentleman, in exquisitely tailored suits and top coats. He was impeccably groomed at all times and smelled of soap and warm spices from some far off land. Lou had grown accustomed to his proper appearance so tonight, she found herself taken aback. She had never seen Max in anything even close to casual attire but tonight he wore a heathered chocolate turtleneck sweater that was molded to his chest as if it had been knitted straight on his body. The chocolate trousers he wore were slim fitting, worsted wool that had Lou blushing when she caught sight of his backside. She was not a leering person but the man was killing her. His hair was softer, tousled loose and more relaxed from the normal glossy slicked style. Droplets of rain were still clinging to the strands as he raked his fingers through them. Lou could barely breathe. Thankfully Caroline caught her and gave her a solid thud to the center of her back, snapping Lou out of her ogling. She could feel her cheeks flush with heat as she realized what she had been doing. Quickly, Lou darted for the oven, nearly knocking Marta out of the way, snatching the oven mitts right out of her hands to pull the fresh baked bread from the rack. Lou heard Caroline snort and she tossed her a look of death, clearly indicating she had best shut up.