Shadows of Deceit (A Series of Shadows) (17 page)

“Any infringing on space or fraternization between any Colombian cartels.” Lou wished she could articulate it better. “Confrontations with Sanguinostri assets or agents. I wish I could be more clear.”

“It’s OK. I think I know what you mean.” Frank muffled the phone for a second and yelled to someone in the distance he was there. “I gotta go and that is going to take some time anyway. I’ll get back to you as soon as I have something.”

“Thanks Frankie.” Lou smiled. “I really appreciate it. Good luck!”

“Thanks! See ya.” Frank clicked off and droplets of rain started to fall again.

Lou ran around to the front of the house to find that Caroline already had her people erect tenting the entire way from street to threshold. Even the back end of the forensics van was safely shielded from the elements.

“We already got the bodies and parts loaded up and out.” Caroline walked out of the house, pulled off her filthy paper booties and shoved them in the wastebasket on the porch. “This is an all hands on deck case. I already gave Carpesh a heads up that I’m going to need him on this one.” She was referring to her Ukrainian associate whom she recently discovered was also a member of the Sanguinostri.

“You might want to fill him in on where we are with all this.” Lou suggested.

“Frank was handling that.” Caroline said as she refastened her ponytail, positioning it higher on her head. “He told me last night he was bringing him up to speed this morning.”

“OK then. I better get back inside and help the guys.” Lou noticed the rain was coming heavier now. “I have a feeling Angela Boone was not who she said she was.”

“We shall see.” Fastening a clip to her forehead so her bangs were out of her eyes, Caroline huffed when she noticed the rain increasing. “I better get moving. I need to follow the bodies back to the shop. Forensics is going to be here for a good while.”

“OK, you be safe heading back.” Lou poked her friend in the ribs, making her giggle.

“See ya shortie.” Caroline grinned and headed out.

They went through the first floor of Angela Boone’s beach house with kid gloves for the next two hours. The place was conspicuously void of any personal photographs of Boone or anyone else for that matter. There were several cheep art fair landscapes, a series of prints of different species of orchids and a few cafe prints in the kitchen that anyone could get at any home goods store. What was also strange was the lack of any sort of racing memorabilia or trophies. Boone was supposedly a race car driver but she may as well have been a secretary for the lack of anything that pertained to her profession. Absent was also any form of computer. It didn’t ring right to any of them.

“It’s like this was a furnished rental rather then any kind of a full time residence. Everything is generic and void of personal touches.” Dillon stood in the middle of the living room area with a scowl on his face. “Even the entertainment system is bare bones and generic.”

“How long has she owned this place?” Lou asked.

“I’ll have to check on that. I left my tablet in the car so it wouldn’t get wet.” Dillon said as he walked back into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator as if he was looking for something specific. “Even the fridge is generic. Milk, butter, eggs, orange juice, bottled water, even the milk is organic so it could sit here a while. It all seems staged to me. What about you guys?”

“She have a garage?” Vinny wondered aloud and Dillon headed out front.

“He’s pretty sharp.” Lou decided it was time to let Vinny know she approved. “His sense of humor is a little green but I give it two days to shake that off.”

“Are you kidding? I give it until the end of the day.” Vinny grinned at her.

“Probably.” She grinned back. “He’s right about this place though. It’s too generic. The kitchen looks barely used too. All I found were two wine glasses broken in the sink and an empty bottle of Cabernet in the trash bin. No refuse, scraps, nothing to suggest any meal had been made and the pots look like they are fresh out of the box.”

“And there are only settings for four, even the silverware.” Dillon added as he walked back in. “It’s like someone did a quick run through Target and bought the basic necessities then stuck them in the cupboards.”

“Anyone check the trash outside?” Lou looked at both men.

“I just did when I couldn’t find a garage.” Dillon was frowning. “They are empty and look like they’ve been used only once or twice. I am having one of the deputies walk up and down the street to run all the cars, see if one of them is Boone’s”

“What race car driver do you know doesn’t have their own every day toy to drive around?” Vinny stood in the center of the living room with his hands on his hips. “And where are all her trophies? This stinks to me.”

“Agreed.” Lou looked around the trashed beach house. “We need to do some digging.”

“I’m going to go knock on some doors and see if any of the neighbors can tell us anything about this woman.” Dillon announced then headed back out again.

“Fifty bucks says you get the standard ‘
She was quiet, kept to herself, rarely saw her
’ spiel from everyone.” Lou was starting to think Angela Boone only existed for Casius Arcano.

“That’s a sucker bet but we gotta start somewhere.” Dillon waved at her as he exited the house. “Give me fifteen minutes. Don’t leave me here!”

Vinny laughed because the thought had crossed his mind that it would be an excellent joke to take off without Dillon. There were plenty of deputies around so he could have hitched a ride but the fact that the same thought occurred to Dillon was yet another mark in his favor. A big one at that.

Lou and Vinny spent another several minutes going over the first floor but both decided that it was a waste of time. If there was anything helpful it was going to be found by the forensic team and they had to get out of the way for them to do the job properly. They got to the car just in time as another torrent of rain hit. Dillon was already in the back seat tapping away on his tablet by the time they got there.

“You were right about the neighbors.” He told Lou. “This Boone lady, we need to find out why she didn’t exist before five years ago.”

“Witness protection?” Vinny suggested.

“If we get a call from the feds then we will know for sure.” Lou figured they would have heard from their captain by now if that was the case.

“I need to talk to Arcano’s sister again, and his assistant.” Dillon set his tablet aside. “They seemed to know her at least a little. Maybe they can give us something more to go on.”

“Maybe.” Lou doubted it. “I honestly don’t think we are going to get a real I.D. on this woman by conventional means. Arcano’s assistant said he broke up with her in Costa Rica?”

“Yeah, and left her there when they were vacationing together.” Dillon recounted. “He said that Arcano caught her having an affair with the cabana boy or someone like that and then he flew home without her. That was supposedly the end of that.”

“Interesting.” Lou muttered.

“Why is that so interesting?” Vinny asked her.

“Because our headless brothers made frequent stops in Costa Rica. It would be really interesting if they made one of those stops the same time Arcano and Boone were there.”

“That would be really interesting.” Dillon concurred. “How do you know that was one of their stops?”

“Probably one of her secret contacts.” Vinny grinned. “Now that she’s all buddy-buddy with Aegis International big wigs and knows the super secret handshake, she has resources we can’t touch normally.”

“What about admissibility?” Dillon was concerned.

Lou couldn’t believe she had flubbed so badly, spouting off knowing the travel routes of the Salazar brothers. It was pure luck that Vinny was thinking it was her security connections and she needed to be more cautious in the future. “Think of it as like breadcrumbs on a trail.” Lou reassured him. “We use it to point us in the right direction but we tie it all together in a nice legal and above board little bow for the D.A.”

“I’ll buy that.” Dillon shrugged. “So long as we get the bad guy and it sticks. I’ll take whatever help we can get.”

“We have a lot of work to do so I’m just gonna make a stop for us to grab sandwiches for lunch.” Vinny informed them.

“Sounds like a plan.” Lou approved, realizing her stomach was growling rather loudly. “We heading to Lost Hills?”

“Yeah, I ain’t driving to the Bureau in this rain if I don’t have to.” Vinny said as he flipped his windshield wipers to full steam.

They drove through the canyon at ultra cautious speed then made their stop at a small sandwich shop around the corner from the station. Lou was hoping things went smoothly for Frank and that he would be able to get back to her on Angela Boone before too much longer. It was not an option for her to head home to run the woman herself on her super system. She had to just wait and hope they came up with a lead the old fashioned way.

Max and his
council had been making their home at a swanky Hollywood hotel since they arrived several weeks ago. They had a special arrangement with the owner who was well aware of their unique circumstances and made every effort to accommodate them. It was also extremely lucrative for the man, especially this time given Max had rented the entire top floor at a considerable mark-up for his trouble. After a few weeks Abby had suggested they rent a house but Frank and Niko felt that staying at the hotel was more secure until Max’s residence was finished. By Abby’s calculations, they had four more weeks to go, barring any major disasters.

When Frank arrived on their floor he was greeted by two hulking guards standing just outside the elevator doors. The heavily armed men nodded in greeting to him and Frank gave them cordial hellos before he headed straight for Max’s suite. The doors to all the rooms on the floor were kept propped open after Max decided he was sick to death of having to keep track of multiple key cards just to walk down the hall to ask a question. When he made the turn into Max’s room, Frank nearly ran headlong into Abby who was exiting at the same time.

“How’d it go?” She demanded.

“Fine.” He looked down at the diminutive redhead. “Hi to you too.”

“Hi. Sorry. So we got the permits?” She persisted.

“Yes! We got the permits. They are in my bag.” Frank rolled his eyes at her and proceeded into the suite.

“How’d it go?” Max echoed Abby as he came out of his bedroom to see Frank arriving.

“Fine! We have the permits!” Frank shouted.

“Someone is grumpy.” Abby scoffed as she waited for Frank to fish the paperwork from his bag.

“I am not grumpy. I am just wet and have a ton of things I have to get to.” Frank rifled through his bag and pulled out a manila folder then handed it to Abby.

“What’s up?” Max inquired.

“Besides the normal daily disasters with a side order of pouring rain which you know I hate?” Frank hung his soaking coat on the hook. “Lou needs me to run someone and do some research for her and it needs to be a priority.” Frank knew Lou was on to something. He trusted her instincts.

“Let me get these faxed off to the contractor and I’ll be right back to help you.” Abby flew out the door.

“You spoke with Lou already today?” Max appeared concerned.

“Yeah. She was at Angela Boone’s beach house which apparently had been torched.” Frank walked over to the kitchenette and fixed himself a cup of coffee.

“Who is Angela Boone?” Max didn’t recall the name.

“Casius Arcano’s ex-girlfriend.” Frank inhaled the steam from his cup. “Lou needs me to look for any reports of any cartel connections, run-ins, flags, any Sanguinostri consorting with any Colombian cartel or affiliated people. It’s a broad search but I think I understand what she is looking for.”

“Illuminate me then.” Max took a seat on the sofa and waited for Frank to explain.

It didn’t take long for Max to catch on after Frank started relaying what he knew about Angela Boone. When Abby returned they all got busy and within an hour they had already come up with several incidents that they needed to follow up with, all involving South American Aegis Council members. Max had known the Dominor, Victor Marcos, for centuries so he knew he would be the one to follow up on anything involving his Council.

Angela Boone was an enigma. This particular Angela Boone had absolutely no trace of existence before five years ago. There were several other Angela Boone’s but none of them was their girl. When they peeled back the layers it was clear that everything about their girl was fabricated right down to her being a race car driver. It was an extremely well funded fabrication with a false credit history, educational background complete with college transcripts. Everything anyone needed to establish themselves as a well to-do young woman in a jet set world. On a hunch, Abby ripped Frank’s laptop out from in front of him while hers was still scanning crime reports in Colombia.

“Hey!” Frank protested.

“Just wait, I have good reason.” Abby’s fingers clicked away at lightning speed and after just a few moments she grinned from ear to ear. “She was designed for Arcano and tossed out as bait.”

She spun the laptop around so Frank and Max could read. There on the screen she had two side-by-side windows, one showing Casius Arcano’s travel information for the past four years and the other window showing Angela Boone’s. Over a four year period, Angela Boone had conveniently been in the same location as Arcano. That was absolutely no coincidence.

“Lou needs to see this.” Max insisted.

“I’ll call her right away.” Frank pulled out his cell phone and started to dial.

“Do we know when Arcano and Boone started dating? Or when they actually met?” Abby asked.

“No, but Lou will know. Or she can find out.” Frank got up from the table while he waited for Lou to answer.

“Someone wanted Arcano and used Boone to get at him. We need to find out who she really is. Make sure we get a copy of her prints.” Max instructed Frank.

“So, we have a completely fabricated back-story with the paper trail starting five years ago.” Abby was thinking out loud. “It was almost exactly a year after that she started popping up in Arcano’s path. What was going on for that year?”