Shadows of Deceit (A Series of Shadows) (22 page)

Niko had made the necessary arrangements and told them to be at the main gate of the Point Magu Naval Air Station by no later then 1:00 a.m.. Vinny sent Lopez to the neighbor west of the Arcano house and Gearhard was positioned across the street at Jane Michaels’ place. They were staked out in the same rooms that the neighbors said they were in during the time of the event.

Lou felt like they had been driving in pitch black for hours. Even though the rain had stopped, the clouds were low and heavy, blotting out any moon or starlight. Dillon had insisted on driving since his vehicle was new and best equipped to deal with the bad weather. Neither Vinny nor Lou protested. They distracted themselves for the first twenty minutes by flipping levers, pushing buttons and asking Dillon what every switch was for. To Lou’s delight, Dillon resorted to swatting Vinny’s hand to get him to stop.

They arrived at the main gate several minutes early to find Niko standing with two heavily armed men in uniform whom he had laughing uproariously. Dillon pulled up along side them and rolled down his window. Lou could hear Niko tell the guards that this was his ride. The guards opened the gate without asking to see any identification or questions.

“Drive on in.” Niko instructed as he hopped in the back seat. “Take a left at the second stop sign.”

“Aren’t we supposed to check in with those guards?” Vinny asked.

“I got it handled.” Niko said with a grin. “Here.” He took a roll of papers out of his inside jacket pocket and handed them to Vinny. “That’s a base printout of all civilians that use these facilities.”

“How did you get this?” Vinny turned in his seat and gawked at Niko. “I’ve been getting nothing but bureaucratic bullshit. I was going to have to go through the Judge Advocate General’s office!”

“It helps to be cute, Vinny.” Niko winked at him and both Dillon and Lou laughed.

“I bet.” Vinny grumbled.

“The problem is that even if a civilian has gone through all the proper channels to use the base, someone can still grease palms to get an off-the-book operation through the gate,” Niko informed them.

“You sound like you are speaking from experience.” Lou snickered.

“I can neither confirm nor deny that.” He snickered right back at her. “Make a right and keep going to the last hangar.”

Dillon glanced at Niko through his rear view mirror and for one split second Lou thought she caught something. Perhaps it was that she was still tired or nervous about flying in a helicopter but she could have sworn she saw some sort of recognition between the two. After thinking about it for a moment, she blew it off to nerves.

As Dillon approached the last hangar he slowed down and looked to Niko for further instruction. When they pulled inside and came to a stop next to Niko’s Range Rover, Lou immediately caught sight of Max and Finn. When they got out of the car Lou couldn’t help but notice that Max was once again in casual attire. It was a tailored bad-boy look that made her heart beat a little faster.

“Hello detectives.” Max greeted them, extending his hand to Vinny first. “Good to see you again Detective DeLuca.”

“Likewise.” Vinny said as he shook Max’s hand.

“Lou.” He nodded to her and grinned.

“Mr. Julian.” She cracked a sideways grin and nodded back, grateful he skipped her handshake since her palms were sweating profusely.

“You must be candidate number eight?” Max looked at Dillon with a weary eye as he shook his hand.

“Dillon Cole, sir.” Dillon stood stick straight, showing that military edge that both Vinny and Lou had noticed before. “It’s an honor.”

“Well, I don’t know about that.” Max held the man’s hand for a fraction of a second longer than normal and Lou caught it immediately.

“Thank you so much for making this possible, as well as loaning us Mr. Gattilusio to consult on this case.” Dillon spoke with extreme respect.

“I am all too happy to help but don’t thank me for Niko’s assistance, he volunteered.” Max turned and slapped Niko on the shoulder. “He’s very handy, I will admit.”

“Thanks, boss.” Niko chuckled.

Lou was still uncertain if she was imagining things but her gut was telling her that something was going on between Niko, Max and Dillon. It wasn’t the time nor the place to get into it though so she shifted her attention to the enormous hanger they were standing in. It was minimally lit but when she looked around she saw two small single engine planes and a Gulfstream G650 parked in the back, gleaming as if it had just been hand waxed and polished.

“Is that yours?” Lou pointed to the luxury jet and gawked.

“The company’s.” Max grinned then started walking to the opened hangar doors. “Let’s get this show on the road, shall we? Before the rain decides to come back.”

“The BBJ is still being customized.” Niko whispered in her ear as they all followed Max out. “We’ll have that based out of Burbank once it’s done though.”

Lou just rolled her eyes at him. There was apparently no limit to what Max had or could acquire. From stealth helicopters to luxury business jets that could fly from New York to Dubai non-stop while providing hotel like accommodations for up to eight people. Lou was sure this made family vacations to anywhere in the world a breeze, but she still could not wrap her head around having those sort of resources at one’s disposal at any given moment.

“I suppose you guys invested in Apple when they were still building out of a garage.” She whispered to Niko as they stepped out onto the tarmac.

“Abby knows potential when she sees it.” Niko smirked. “I made fun of her when she first said the word Google. Who knew?” Lou laughed out loud causing the other men to look back at her. She cleared her throat and tried to make herself look smaller than she already was in their company.

Had it not been for the raindrops on the fuselage reflecting light from the exterior lamps on hangar, Lou might not have seen the helicopter until they were right on top of it. The thing was a beast. Matte black and nearly sixty feet long with a rotorspan of what looked to easily be forty-five feet. The body of the beast was more squat than Lou expected even though it was probably fourteen feet high. As they approached the open sliding door of the aircraft, Lou could easily see how loads of furniture could be hauled off.

“What’s the payload capacity of this?” She asked.

“Specs will tell you it can hold two cargo pallets with a total of four-thousand pounds inside, then nine-thousand pounds externally with the cargo hook.” Finn took the liberty of responding. “So, total external and internal it can haul around ten-thousand pounds.”

“Five tons?” Lou was terrible at math.

“There abouts.” He grinned at her. “If it’s just personnel deployment, you can haul a dozen or so well armed bad boys about two-hundred-fifty miles.”

“What’s the flight distance from Arcano’s place to here?” Lou asked anyone.

“Roughly thirty eight miles.” Dillon answered.

“So how many trips could this thing make without refueling?” She knew that adding a payload would effect things but once again she knew her math skills were not her strong suit.

“Six at most. When you add cargo, that cuts things down a good bit depending on the weight.” Finn understood what she was getting at. “It’s a short distance so this baby could have hauled all Arcano’s crap in two loads without having to fuss with packing it in carefully. Unless he had a few pianos and billiard tables, I’d say a fair guess would be that they made three trips if they used only interior space to haul everything.”

“So it was really doable within a four hour window?” Vinny chimed in now.

“Absolutely.” Finn smiled at him and for the first time Lou could detect a faint accent to his voice. She had never noticed that before and couldn’t quite place where it was from. She would have to remember to ask him later.

“All aboard!” Niko shouted. “Watch your heads kiddies.”

Max and Finn went directly to the pilot and co-pilot seats respectively and Lou felt her heart thump when she realized he intended to fly the helicopter himself. It wasn’t that she doubted he could fly the thing, it was more that she had him in her mind as one who had people do the driving and flying for him. As she took her place in the jump seat next to Niko, he apparently saw the concern on her face.

“It is his toy.” He grinned at her.

“I guess.” Lou chuckled and strapped herself in.

Niko passed out headsets to everyone and instructed that although the helo was very quiet, the decibel level and vibration of the blades this close could be damaging to one’s hearing. Without delay they all donned the giant headphones and Max started the engines. Niko slammed the door shut and sat back down next to Lou then gave Max a thumbs-up when he was secured. The vibration of the four-bladed rotor thumped at Lou’s chest and was more intense than she expected. Lou had ridden in helicopters before but this was entirely different. The deep base of the blades drummed through her while the whirring of the engine was remarkably quiet. When Max’s voice squawked through her headset she jumped a little.

“Hang on lady and gentlemen, we are lifting off.” He informed them and a second after that they were whisked away into the darkness.

The momentary weightlessness made Lou’s stomach lurch but she knew better than to close her eyes. She fixed her gaze on the handle of the sliding door and didn’t look up even when Finn started playing tour guide over the radio. To her utter shock, no more then eight minutes later Max informed them they were coming in for touchdown and Lou couldn’t help but look out the window. Sure enough, he was already hovering over the Arcano patio where the heat signatures were detected.

“Do we want to get out or just hang here for a while and see if your people can hear us?” Niko asked them.

“Let me get out for just a minute.” Lou requested and Niko unfastened his restraints then opened the door.

Lou jumped out of the helicopter and ducked down low to avoid being decapitated herself. Dillon, Vinny and Niko all followed as she jogged towards the back door of the residence. The helicopter was astonishingly quiet and as Lou walked around to the front of the house there was no doubt in her mind that Lopez and Gearhard were not going to know they were ever there.

“Capacity for personnel is a dozen people, you bring them in to start hauling shit out, take a couple loads...” Lou walked up onto the front porch as she talked it out. “You do your business with the three wonks while the last load is being dropped off, then one last sweep in to pick everyone up and voila! Gone without a trace.”

“I can totally see it now.” Vinny conceded.

“All we have to do is find that helo and the owner.” Lou looked at the men. “Easy peasy right?”

Vinny chuckled and rolled his eyes at her while Dillon and Niko just grinned. Max suddenly appeared behind Vinny, scaring the crap out of him and making everyone laugh.

“Sorry about that, detective.” Max was grinning from ear to ear. “I hope you don’t mind but curiosity got the better of me.”

“Did you bring a key?” Lou looked at Vinny and Dillon.

“I had Lopez unlock it before they took their positions.” Vinny reached for the latch and opened the door. The entry lights were on allowing them to see the foyer in all it’s barren grandeur.

“This is how you found it? Completely empty like this?” Max inquired as they all filed into the entry hall.

“Well, there were three headless bodies laying right there, side by side.” Vinny pointed to the middle of the marble floor. Although the floor had been cleaned, they had not done a very good job. A pale smudgy stain remained where the blood had pooled. “Other than that, yeah. The place was completely vacated.”

“Is it alright if I look around a little?” Max looked to Lou for permission.

She had no problem with it since the scene had been cleared but she thought about it for a second. “Be my guest but don’t turn any other lights on please. I don’t want to tip off Gearhard or Lopez that we are here.”

“Understood. I’ll only be a moment.” He sauntered off towards the interior of the house and disappeared down the hall.

“Why would they do this?” Vinny wondered aloud. “I mean this is a buttload of work. For what purpose?”

“Well, we know now that Boone, or whoever she is, decorated the place. Maybe she hid something and they didn’t have time to dig through everything?” Dillon suggested.

“Or maybe they were trying to eliminate any trace of her and didn’t have time to sort through what was hers and his.” Niko offered.

“Where did everything go?” Max asked Vinny as he returned from his exploration. “If she was as gaudy and tacky as you relayed to Niko, then this woman bought some pricy things. Was there an inventory or photographs of the place when it was furnished?” The fact that he directed his question to Vinny struck Lou as funny. She had no idea Vinny had been such a chatty Cathy with Niko. It meant he really liked him, which was a good thing for Lou.

“Jane might have pictures. She had some of the dog.” Dillon noted.

“Peter Taylor might have those black credit card bills still too.” Lou added. “We could track down the shops and see if we could get details on the big ticket items.”

“I can’t see someone just destroying everything. They could have done that here with a fire like at her beach house.” Max had a very good point. “I’d look into estate auctions. See if any items pop up.”

“You’re pretty smart there fella.” Lou grinned at him.

“Not just a pretty face then?” He grinned back at her.

“Oh puhleez.” Niko made a mocking gesture of sticking his finger down his own throat which made Vinny and Dillon crack up.

“Nice.” Lou glared at them. “Let’s get moving before the sun comes up. Finn is probably asleep at the wheel.”

“Nah, I left him playing Angry Birds on his iPhone.” Max informed her as they all headed back outside and Dillon secured the entry door.

The night, or morning, whichever way you wanted to view it, had proven to be very productive. They had confirmed the viability of the stealth helicopter theory and thanks to Max, they had another lead to follow on the furniture. Dillon stated that he would contact Peter Taylor first thing in the morning and get to work tracking down receipts. It was a good, solid lead and they all were all pretty optimistic. Lou just wished they could get an I.D. on the fake Angela Boone so they knew who the hell she really was.