Beau talked to street people in the area. Quite a few were wandering around the library, but none had seen her. Then he walked along the route, looking for evidence of anything unusual. He found plenty of used needles, crumpled fast food bags, and cigarette butts. Then, on the corner of Thirteenth Avenue and Bannock Street, he discovered an electronic contraption about the size of a deck of cards. Its screen was shattered, and a bracket on the back had broken. It reminded Beau of a trip computer he’d recently seen on a friend’s bike. The plastic case was relatively clean, so he didn’t think it had been lying in the gutter for long. Unfortunately, nobody had installed a camera to record what happened on that corner.
She had been kidnapped, she’d either been stalked, or she’d been a target of opportunity. If she’d been followed, the same cameras that recorded her along her way would also show her pursuers. Beau checked the video from the camera closest to Viola’s apartment.
He noticed that a white van had stayed about a minute behind her. Most of the traffic on Thirteenth Avenue that morning zoomed by Viola, but the van stayed in lock-step behind her.
Unfortunately, the cameras had recorded the vehicle from the side, so Beau couldn’t get a license plate number or see the driver’s face. He could tell that the front passenger seat was empty.
Unfortunately, the white cargo van looked like a gazillion others on the roads everywhere. Beau couldn’t see any identifying marks, signs, or distinctive body damage. The best he could manage would be to send the video snippets to the FBI’s vehicle expert in DC. The guy would be able to identify the manufacturer and model, and maybe even the production year. But there were sure to be lots of similar vehicles registered in Colorado. This was a long shot, at best.
Chapter 4
Casa Santiago, near Louviers
Carlotta couldn’t seem to find the right words to explain. “I-I have a dozen business units I’d like to…you to examine…in great detail. Our former accountant, my despicable cousin…she betrayed her family. My blood still boils.”
The jefa’s face was pale and her lips tightly drawn. Although Viola hadn’t been advising clients for long, she’d seen faces full of shock and fury before.
Viola used a soothing voice and spoke in Spanish. “Señora, I know that betrayal by a family member is completely outrageous. It’s the worst form of treachery”
“Agreed,” Carlotta said. “And she acted with others. We only heard a few of their names before Selena lost consciousness for good, but you will surely find the evidence we need to confront them.”
Finally, Viola understood why she had been kidnapped. “The financial reports will tell us which businesses were operating fraudulently. Numbers don’t lie. Then, you can decide whether to involve…”
She was about to say the authorities, but that was ridiculous. Mobsters didn’t call the cops. They dealt with crooked crooks like Carlotta had handled Selena.
Viola’s stomach roiled again, but she controlled herself.
The older woman seemed to notice her distress. She opened a drawer and pulled out a bottle of Grand Marnier and a shot glass. “I discourage drinking on the job, but I’ve found that this can settle an upset stomach.”
Viola accepted the drink and sipped it. “Gracias. And I understand why you’re furious. Why don’t you show me the spreadsheets for the businesses you believe are hiding things from you?”
Carlotta took a manila folder off of a stack on one corner of her massive walnut desk. “I have them arranged in order of likely guilt. This first business is a pottery wholesaler with a warehouse in Northwest Denver. I have long harbored questions about how poorly they were performing, but the coño kept reassuring me that I didn’t understand their particular difficulties.”
Coño meant cunt. It was the first swear word Carlotta had uttered. The jefa seemed to be fine with torturing and slaughtering people, but she wanted to maintain a certain dignity while she did it. The woman probably went to mass every Sunday but didn’t feel the need to confess.
The contradiction was so ridiculous that Viola almost laughed out loud. Instead, she gritted her teeth. In order to survive, she’d have to learn how to control herself around these monsters.
While she sat in front of Carlotta’s desk, Viola examined a series of spreadsheets from the first folder. The print outs covered the first six months of the year. The business’s net profit surprised her immediately. This family was making a killing by selling Mexican pottery and herbs? It posted gross receipts of sixty grand a week, and Carlotta remained unhappy? Bizarre.
Either they were really selling precious Mayan artifacts, or the pottery business was a front for something else.
Numbers had always been Viola’s friend, and they openly revealed their secrets. She’d been the first kid in her grade school class who’d learned to add and subtract, and years later, she’d scored a perfect 800 on the math part of the SAT. Viola was a born number cruncher.
Even so, despite poring over six pages of spreadsheets, she didn’t see what Carlotta had to be upset about. “Sorry, Señora, but I’m not noticing any significant problems.”
Carlotta started. “Oh, right, how would you know?”
She opened an Excel file on her computer and printed it. “Compare those numbers to these, which are for the same period last year.”
It didn’t take long for Viola to understand. The gross earnings a year ago were twenty-two percent higher than the following year, and the business’s net profits had dropped thirty-six percent over the same time.
Viola searched through the details and found the primary cause. “Sales are off dramatically, I see. Are they having supply chain problems or losing customers?”
Carlotta shook her head. “Actually, we are shipping them more inventory than last year, but they claim they can’t sell what we send. And I’m not aware of any new competition. I read four newspapers every day, including the Denver Business Journal, to keep up with local market conditions. Business should be booming. You must discover the truth.”
The mention of the newspaper explained to Viola why she’d been kidnapped. The Journal had run an article several weeks before about her accounting firm’s team that specialized in working with Spanish-speaking clients. The article had included a picture that identified Viola as one of five fluent Spanish speakers. The article mentioned that they’d recently visited a construction company and conducted an audit entirely in Spanish. The article also included a short bio for each team member.
She still wondered why she was supposed to look like Marilyn Manson while performing mob audits, but she didn’t dare ask that question more directly than she already had.
“Before her well-earned departure to Hell, the coño admitted she’d been receiving kickbacks from two pendejos you will meet tomorrow.”
Viola expected to meet more than two assholes while working for the cartel. “Tell me about the second business.”
Carlotta passed over another folder from her pile. “I will no longer mince words. I’m sure you will find many of our businesses to be unsavory. But spare me any moral platitudes.”
By then, Viola understood that only one answer was acceptable. “Si, Señora.”
Carlotta smirked. “So, you are stubborn but not stupid. That is acceptable as long as you are only stubborn with others. Understood?”
Viola agreed again.
“Very well, the second business manager you will meet tomorrow manages a gentlemen’s club and brothel. You will not be surprised to hear that prostitution is immensely profitable.”
Viola suddenly realized she’d already learned too much to have any hope that Carlotta might let her go. Still, she had to try one more time. “Why can’t you just earn money the old-fashioned way, by selling jewelry or cars like many shady operators do?”
Carlotta pinched her lips. “Once again, you are sorely trying my patience.”
Viola gulped and nodded. The bitch was the boss. “Sorry, Señora.”
“As I was saying,” Carlotta hardened her tone, “the club you will visit tomorrow is, or at least used to be, our most profitable single business unit. This year, we increased the number of entertainers, but both gross receipts and net profit have dropped considerably. Again, I’m not aware of any external cause for the decline.”
As a budding accountant, Viola had visited a wide variety of businesses, but no whorehouses. She had no choice. Another question came to mind and remained there—how could anybody lose money by selling sex?
“Was there a change in management by any chance?” She was grasping at straws.
The older woman shook her head. “And every other brothel we operate has been more popular than ever.”
Carlotta raised her hands, palms up. “There you have it, your new job. If you do your work well, I will reward you appropriately. If you don’t…well, I’m sure you will prefer to excel. Your office is next to mine, through that open doorway.”
Viola followed the jefa to a much smaller, plainer office and shuddered as she remembered what’d happened to Serena.
-o-o-o-
Athena’s ranch, near Ward
Beau called Athena to check on her and Leo, which was sweet of him. “No change. I wish he’d get his butt in gear. It’s like getting everything ready for a birthday party, except the birthday boy can’t be found.”
Beau said, “Listen, I got roped into something at the last second. It won’t keep me from taking off whenever you need me, but I thought maybe you’d want to help me with this so I can finish quicker. It’s for Laura.”
Athena needed something to distract herself, but she knew how hard it could be for him to drop an open investigation. “Are you sure this new thing won’t keep you tied up even as I go into labor?”
“Absolutely sure. Yang doesn’t even know the case. I’m doing Laura a favor. She sends her regards, by the way. One of her young relatives has vanished. A twenty-three-year-old woman named Viola Hawkins.”
Athena wasn’t sure she believed his assurances, but then again, the more she helped him, the faster he could wrap up the project. “Tell me what you’ve done so far.”
He did. When he finished, she said, “What about her cellphone? Every self-respecting member of Generation Z owns one.”
He rattled off Viola’s number, then said, “Haven’t done anything on that end yet. Perfect job for you.”
She tried to find a comfortable position in her office chair and plugged the phone number into a search program on her computer. Athena quickly found Viola’s mobile carrier. Through a back-door program she’d developed, she could access most of the company’s network.
“Here’s what I see so far,” she said. “This morning, Viola’s device was pinging cell towers southeast from where she got grabbed. Then, the phone went south. Probably on Broadway. It’s the only major street going north-south in that part of town. Then the phone stopped before it reached I25. Stayed there for a couple of hours then was turned off. Or maybe the battery died. Hasn’t restarted since.”
“If somebody grabbed her,” Beau said, “I can’t believe they’d leave her phone on for long. It’s too easy to track people that way.”
He was right. And Athena had a very expensive little gizmo she could use to find a cellphone once she was within a mile or two of the phone. Usually, cell tower data was used to get close enough to start the pinpoint tracking process.
“I’ll keep an eye on the network,” she said. “Will let you know if the phone lights up. And it so happens that I already shipped my mutts to the dog sitter. If the phone comes to life, I could drive to Denver. I just don’t want to roam too far away from the hospital in Boulder where Leo will be delivered.”
“You’ll be fine. Bring your stuff, and you can stay with me tonight.”
But Athena hadn’t mentioned her more immediate problem. “Ooh, about staying at your place. Probably not the best idea. Roger just told me Dominique Santiago just cashed in her chips. Whatever protection I got from having her in custody is gone. Roger’s sure the cartel is going to come after me again. How many people within the Bureau know you and I are a thing?”
“Only Laura, and it really would be great to have you here to help me. It will take Fernando Santiago a little while to organize any hit on you.”
Plus, Beau had his way of rubbing her lower back that took away the soreness. “Okay, I’ll be on the way as soon as I can pack all my maternity gear. Having a baby is as complicated as planning to invade some Third World country.”
Chapter 5
Casa Santiago, near Louviers
Viola’s new office contained a version of the same walnut desk Carlotta used. The office walls were decorated with several large photographs of mountain scenes. Suitably anonymous.
The jefa said, “Of course, you can choose what decor you please, within reason.”
Viola bit her tongue to keep from saying that she didn’t intend to stick around long enough to redecorate.
A Hispanic guy about her age walked in a door on the opposite side of the room holding a computer mouse in one hand.
“This is Jesus Martinez,” Carlotta said, “one of my many nephews. Because he wants to do an in-depth examination of Selena’s files on her computer, you will receive a new laptop. He’s setting it up now.”
The guy had a thick pile of black hair on his head and a ready smile. He wore a Caltech T-shirt and baggy shorts. Wireless white buds protruded from his extra-large ears.
The laptop was a large MacBook Pro. The starting price for those was a couple of grand. These people didn’t seem to scrimp on anything.
“Viola, I will leave you here,” Carlotta said. “Please carefully review both of the folders I gave you so that you can complete your audits tomorrow. If you need anything else, you know where to find me.” She left and closed the door between their two offices.
In Valley Boy English, Jesus said, “Hey, sorry, I heard you got jammed pretty bad.”
Playing on his sympathy seemed like a long shot, but why not try? “Listen, Jesus, you seem like a nice guy. I’m really in a horrible situation here. I don’t have a lot of money, but if you get me out of here, I’ll give you everything I have.”
He sighed and shook his head. “We don’t get to choose our family, you know, and you’ve met mine, at least some of them. They’re not the live and let live crowd. Grandpapa paid for me to attend four years of college at an expensive, private school. I overheard Carlotta talking to you about Selena’s picture. I’m giving them no reason to do that to me. But I am really sorry for you. Hell, even if I wanted—”
“I know, this is a fortress, they search everybody, blah blah blah.”
He laughed nervously. “Yeah, sorry, anyway, about your new machine, are you an Apple gal or Windows?”
Even if he wouldn’t help her escape, he could tell her a lot about this place. “Before we talk tech, what should I know to avoid making my situation worse than it already is?”
He again laughed nervously as he removed a thumb drive from her new computer. It seemed like a nervous tick. “You’ve probably figured out that you don’t want to piss off the jefa. But she’ll treat you right if you work hard and play straight with her. Pablo, on the other hand, you want to stay far away from him. He manages the muscle around here. A very horny guy, but because you belong to Carlotta, I think he’ll leave you alone. You didn’t hear any of that from me. Now, the question was, Apple or Windows?”
The kid was spineless. Viola was obviously on her own. “I own an old MacBook.”
“Good, then I won’t have to tell you much. This baby is state-of-the-art, and I upgraded the memory. It already has the full Office suite, and I can install anything else you need. The browser has been disabled of course, but if you need Internet access for some reason, I can make it available under my supervision.”
He paused and bit his lip for a moment. “Actually, let’s be clear about one thing. Your every
single keystroke or mouse click will get sent to one of the family’s IT guys. Someone could be watching you remotely at any time. So, please, don’t do anything stupid. Any other questions?”
“Nope.” She had a million, but she was getting sick of people with plenty of brains but zero conscience.
He worked for a few more minutes and helped her set up the login so her machine would recognize her automatically. Then, he said, “Again, I’m really—”
She put up her hand to stop him, tired of the excuses. “If you are really sorry, once you’re away from here, you’ll figure out a way to send an anonymous message to the Denver cops. Otherwise, let’s just stop with the bullshit.”
Instead of snapping back at her, he rubbed his face with his hands. Tears welled in his eyes before he hid them. Maybe the little bastard had the remnants of a heart after all.
Then, she thought of one question she could ask that didn’t involve her trying to escape. “Do you know why Carlotta turned me into a ghost?”
He laughed. “She did, didn’t she? Unfortunately, the jefa usually keeps her plans to herself. I do know she was madder than I’ve ever seen her after she discovered that some bastards around here are stealing our money.”
The shithead was a full member of the Santiago family, no doubt about that. He’d said our money, not her money. Nevertheless, Viola was glad he was willing to let a little information about Carlotta slip out. “Still, your guess would be better than mine.”
“Maybe she wants to scare the living shit out of the guilty. You remind me of one of those zombies from video games. They slaughter people left and right but they’re really hard to kill because they’re already dead.”
What a twit. “Somehow, I doubt the jefa plays video games. She must have something else in mind.”
Jesus grinned. “Yeah, probably right. She never messes around on the computer. Doesn’t even play solitaire.”
He seemed to be on a roll, so she nodded to encourage him.
Anointed (Vanished Book 3) Page 3
