by Rayna Morgan
Jim leaned back. “You’ve got my attention.”
“You told me you aren’t pursuing the ranchette project east of town, but there are indications that Mike Young is still trying to buy land and acting in an overly-ambitious manner. He may be crossing lines that shouldn’t be crossed.”
Jim frowned and leaned forward. “He hasn’t discussed any new activity with me. As far as I know, he hasn’t had further contact with any of the property owners.”
“I know he’s met with at least one of the farmers. What’s worse, there are signs of underhanded, possibly illegal, dealings.”
“What kind of under-handed dealings?”
“I’d rather not be more specific,” Paul said.
“I don’t know where you’re getting your information, but I find the accusation hard to believe.” Jim’s voice had taken on a defensive quality.
“Has Mike been above-board in all of his previous negotiations?” Paul asked.
Jim remained silent for several moments, doodling on the blotter on his desk. He finally sat back and folded his arms across his chest. He appeared unperturbed. “I appreciate your concern. I know you believe you’re looking out for my best interests, but I assure you, you don’t need to worry about Mike.
“He’s got the typical aggressive sales personality. It may appear overly-zealous to you, but I’ve found it to be quite useful in negotiations. It’s a viable offset to the laid-back approach people expect from me.”
“I don’t mean to be critical or to overstep my bounds,” Paul assured him.
“You forget we were ambitious like that early in our careers,” Jim said, “insensitive about stepping on people’s toes. Mike will adopt a more diplomatic approach as he ages, just as we did.”
“I beg to differ with you,” Paul said. “Neither of us has ever had Mike’s slant on business. You know that as well as I do.”
“I suppose,” Jim relented, “but you’ve coached kids’ sports. Who did you prefer to coach; the gung-ho kid you had to rein in, or the less-aggressive kid you had to motivate all the time?”
“I can’t argue with that,” Paul said.
“Don’t worry. I can rein Mike in anytime I need to. Besides, he knows I wouldn’t condone anything illegal.”
“Your statement implies Mike would be willing to do something illegal if he thought you’d condone it.”
The sharpness of Jim’s next question signaled dwindling patience. “Do you have anything more specific to discuss?”
Paul’s response was blunt. “The police are interested in the potential profit from that development as a motive for Albert Benson’s murder.”
“Who are they looking at as a suspect, my associate or me?”
“They were looking at you,” Paul said. “After Lea’s discussion with Mike, they’ve turned their attention to him.”
“So Lea’s interest in marketing this condominium project was a ploy to interview Mike as a potential suspect?” Jim asked. There was anger in his voice.
Paul came quickly to her defense. “Lea’s only trying to protect you, the same as me. I brought her in when I found out you were under suspicion by the police.”
“How did you think she could help?”
“I simply asked her to use her inquisitive nature and instinct to sense if anything was off about Mike. You know how women are with their uncanny intuition. It can be astonishingly accurate, although that’s something I seldom admit to Lea.”
“I understand,” Jim said. He relaxed, and the frown on his face disappeared. “My wife’s the same. But are you saying Lea and the police have reason to suspect Mike?”
“The investigation is still underway, but the police are anxious to speak with him. I’m here to alert you before they show up unannounced at your corporate office.”
“Should I warn Mike?”
“It would be better to let the chips fall where they may, but I didn’t want you to be in the dark about what’s going on.”
“Thanks for being so candid.” Jim pushed his chair away from his desk and stood up. “I understand your hesitation in bringing this to me.”
“Let me know if there’s anything I can do.” Paul reached to shake hands.
“I will,” Jim said, extending his hand. “Don’t worry; your honesty hasn’t damaged our business relationship. I wouldn’t expect anything less from you, and I still want to receive a proposal from your intuitive wife.”
• • •
Lea received Paul’s call relaying his conversation with Jim Mitchell. “I hope Jim took it the right way.”
“Jim understood my need to have the conversation. He appreciated my candor.”
“How do you feel?”
“Much better,” Paul said. “I hope our reservations about Mike prove to be unfounded. Regardless, Jim knows we’re both looking out for him. He’s still anxious for you to submit a marketing proposal.”
“That’s good to hear. I need some more information on the company to finish my submission. I’m going to the corporate office—”
“You aren’t thinking of meeting with Mike Young again?”
“No, I’ll leave him to Tom. I’m getting the information I need from Helen Taylor.”
“All right, I’ll see you tonight.”
• • •
Lea checked in with the receptionist at Mitchell Development Company. “I’m here to pick up some information from Mr. Mitchell’s secretary.”
“Go on back,” the receptionist said. “If Helen’s not at her desk, let me know and I’ll page her for you.”
Walking down the hall to the executive area, Lea could see that neither Jim Mitchell nor Mike Young was in his office. Helen Taylor was nowhere in sight. She jotted a message on a post-it note and stuck it on Helen’s chair.
She glanced over her shoulder before rushing into Mike’s office.
There were no files on his desk and his in-box was empty, but his computer screen was open to a directory. She saw a folder labeled Ranchette Project.
She clicked on the folder. It opened to a document titled ‘Land Purchase.'
As her eyes darted across the spreadsheet, she heard the sound of a familiar voice approaching. Racing around the desk, she almost collided with Mike Young.
“Back so soon with a marketing proposal?” he asked.
“I’m picking up some background information on the corporation from Helen.”
“What are you doing in my office?”
“Helen said she’d leave a package for me,” Lea said. “It wasn’t on her desk. I thought she might have left it in your office.”
“There’s nothing in my room for you.” Mike’s tone made Lea’s heart skip a beat.
“No problem,” she said. She turned to make a hasty retreat. “I’ll ask the receptionist to locate Helen.”
“The timing of your appearance is interesting,” Mike said, “so soon after I received a call from a police detective arranging an interview. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”
“Nothing at all,” Lea replied. She moved toward the door.
“You appear to be putting together more than a bid to do our promotions,” he said, extending an arm in front of her, blocking the doorway. “I advise you to stick to creating brochures.”
At that moment, Helen Taylor appeared. She glanced quickly between Lea and Mike.
“Good to see you, Lea,” she said. “I have the information you requested.”
Mike lowered his arm, and Lea brushed past him.
At Helen’s desk, Lea accepted the envelope which was offered.
“Did you get any other useful information?” Helen asked.
“Mike commented on my timing, but my timing’s not nearly as interesting as the dates of his meetings with the ranchers.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Tom called Pat Fisher’s cell phone and left a message for her to meet him at the Pier for lunch.
When she arrived, she found him bending over a plate of food at a table
in front of the fish stand. “I thought you were springing for a real meal at the seafood restaurant.”
“This is a seafood restaurant. Order a fish taco and quit complaining,” he told her, wiping hot sauce from his chin.
When Pat returned to the table carrying a plate of crab cakes, Tom filled her in on Lea’s meeting with Amber. “Amber’s scared, but she’s willing to cooperate.”
“Asking Lea to intervene was smart, boss. The vic was never going to agree to work with the police.”
“That’s why I’ve got extra bars on my sleeve, Rookie.” Tom smiled, always ready to soak in a compliment. “This is the way I see the sting. We won’t keep Amber in one of our safe houses. Lea’s making arrangements through Second Chance for a place for her to stay. We’ll put the word out on the street that we’ve got a prostitute in custody who’s ready to turn over her pimp, but we won’t let our informants know where we’ve got her stashed.”
“Amber’s pimp will want to get hold of her,” Pat reasoned, “so he’ll need to find out the location.”
“Right. He’ll ask the Kingpin to get the address from the mole planted in our division. I’ll give each of the squad members a different location where we’re holding Amber. I’ve ordered surveillance cameras set up at each of the sites. Once I’ve given the officers the false leads, all we need to do is sit back and wait to see which house gets hit.”
“What if Joey decides it’s too risky to spring Amber from a safe house?”
“Did I say Joey would try to spring Amber?” Tom asked. “I agree he’d consider it too big a chance to take if all he wants to do is put her back on the streets. But if Amber is staying with us instead of going back to him, he’ll know she’s made a deal. I think he’ll want to get rid of her permanently. If he doesn’t, the Kingpin will.”
“But she told Lea she couldn’t identify the Kingpin.”
“The Kingpin doesn’t know that. From our previous experience with the dead bodies he leaves in his wake, we know he won’t tolerate loose ends. If Joey doesn’t take care of business, the Kingpin will have no qualms about sending one of his hired guns to make sure she can’t implicate him.”
“Since she won’t be there for anyone to kill, we won’t have grounds to charge whoever comes for her with more than breaking-and-entering.”
“Best case, we catch whoever goes for the girl and charge them with attempted murder. Worse case, it won’t matter because we’ll have what we’re after. The cameras will show us where Joey or a hit man shows up. We’ll know by the location who tipped them off.
“Let’s get back to the precinct.” He threw his empty paper plate in the recycle bin. “I’m anxious to set our little trap in play.”
• • •
Tom called the squad together in the conference room. “We’ve had a break. Pat and I were called to a motel by the beach last night. The desk clerk called in a body by the dumpster.”
“Dead?” The question came from Jack Jones, known around the precinct as JJ.
“It was a prostitute beaten and left for dead.”
“Customer service complaint from her john?” JJ joked. Everyone except Tom and Pat laughed.
“Knock it off,” Tom ordered. “She’s willing to pick out her pimp in a line-up.”
“A prostitute co-operating with the police and ratting out a pimp? What did it take to convince her to do that, boss?”
“I wasn’t the one who convinced her, I used an intermediary,” Tom said. “We’ll get the witness settled in a safe house when she’s released from the hospital. She’ll come in the next day to look at mug shots. As soon as she fingers someone, we can schedule a line-up.”
“What’s the rush, Lieutenant?” Pat asked, leading the conversation where she knew Tom wanted it to go. “You aren’t usually this interested in arresting pimps.”
“Because it sounds like her sugar-daddy has been receiving orders from a higher source.”
“You mean higher as in Kingpin?” Pat asked.
“Bingo,” Tom said, paying attention to the faces of his officers. “With her identification, our case against the pimp should be strong enough to persuade him to turn on his boss in exchange for a reduced sentence. If we’re lucky and he’s got priors, this may be his third strike which makes him ripe to deal.”
All the men seemed eager. Tom wasn’t able to pick out signs of any officer being distressed at the news.
Pat picked up the cue on the Lieutenant’s glance. “Which safe house is she stashed at?”
“I’ll give the information out on an as-needed basis to the officer I assign to guard her.”
“I’ll volunteer,” JJ offered. “I wouldn’t mind hanging out with a cute little squeeze all day.”
The others snickered before Tom responded. “It’s not that kind of surveillance. It will be a boring day sitting in an unmarked car outside to make sure she has no visitors.”
He walked toward the door. “That’s all for now. We’ll convene tomorrow morning for updates.
“JJ, you’re riding with Rick today. I’ve got a meeting with the Superintendent. Take Pat over to the yard to get an unmarked vehicle. She can pick me up after my meeting.”
“Roger that, Lieutenant,” JJ said, throwing a mock salute in Tom’s direction. He turned to Pat and Rick. “C’mon, you two, I’m driving. We’re stopping at a drive-through on the way. I haven’t had breakfast.”
Pat turned up her nose. “Did you ever consider having something healthier for breakfast, JJ?”
“Like pancakes and bacon?”
“Like yogurt or oatmeal.”
“You and I don’t live on the same planet, Pat.” JJ laughed and led the way to the lockers.
• • •
Tom alerted the software tech to intercept all calls in and out from each officer’s cell phone for the next forty-eight hours. It was a long shot, but on the off-chance the guilty officer would slip up and use his own phone instead of a burner phone to tip off the Kingpin, he wanted to know about it.
“I want to find out who they’re calling and when. Log it all. I’ll check with you later to get the results.”
Tom went to his office and propped his feet on his desk. He reviewed the plan in his mind. He would make sure the officers didn’t communicate with each other by waiting until the end of the shift the next day before assigning each squad member a location to guard Amber. All he could do now was sit back and wait.
Waiting was the worst part of his job. The thought of the Kingpin slipping through his fingers a second time weighed heavily. He needed a distraction.
He wouldn’t have long to wait before one would arrive in the form of an emergency call from Maddy.
• • •
The three officers picked up their gear and piled into a squad car.
“You’re in the back, Rookie,” Rick said, sliding onto the front passenger seat.
Pat couldn’t help but notice the contrast between the two officers in front of her. The hair loss on the back of Rick’s head, the lines etched on his forehead, and the dark circles under his eyes were signs of a man with small children and responsibilities at home. Besides his youthful looks, JJ moved with the swagger of someone without a care in the world.
“When are you going to stop treating me like a second-class citizen?” she asked.
Pat was in an awkward position. She wanted to be accepted by the members of the homicide squad, but she felt they resented her. And now she was working undercover with Tom to bust one of them as a mole.
“When your probation period is over,” Rick said. “Don’t worry. After the way you handled yourself on the Card Club bust, it should be sooner rather than later.”
Pat noticed JJ tighten his grip on the steering wheel. “Are you still pissed because Tom picked me to go undercover on the operation at the Card Club instead of you?”
“You didn’t have enough experience,” JJ said.
“It turned out pretty well.”
“Except Mickey got away
. He was our best link to the Kingpin.” JJ pulled behind a car stopped at the drive-through window. “That wouldn’t have happened if I’d been undercover on the assignment.”
“Are you saying you’re a master of going undercover?”
“I sure as heck know more than a rookie.”
“Yeah, well, you need to get over yourself, JJ,” Pat said, staring at the menu.
“The Lieutenant’s obsessed with bringing down the Kingpin,” Rick grumbled.
“Something wrong with that?” Pat asked, tuning into Rick’s complaint.
“His obsession can be dangerous to the rest of the squad. If he’s not thinking clearly, he’s likely to put us in a high-risk situation.”
“I haven’t seen him do anything yet to jeopardize our safety,” JJ said. He leaned toward the speaker and placed their order before turning back to Rick. “Dangerous situations are part of the job. Our ops don’t come with safety nets. Besides, it’s just his way. Once he latches on, he’s like a bulldog; he won’t let go.”
Rick shrugged. “No criticism intended. I’m just saying—”
“What’s the matter, Rick, getting cold feet?” Pat asked. She handed money to JJ when he stopped at the first window.
“Heck, no. Can’t a person make an observation around here without getting jumped on?”
“You seem a little jumpy yourself lately,” JJ said. He paid the cashier and drove to the pick-up window. “Something else bothering you?”
“Filling in for you last night didn’t help things at home,” Rick said.
“I told you I’d make it up to you,” JJ replied.
“That’s the second shift this month I’ve covered for you.”
“Yeah, JJ, what’s up with that?” Pat asked. “It’s not like you.”
“Stomach problems, that’s all.”
“Maybe you should see a doctor,” Pat suggested.
“Forget sending him to a quack,” Rick said. He took the drinks JJ passed and handed one back to Pat. “I told lover-boy here to suck it up and quit calling in sick. For all I know, he was on a hot date.”
Pat took her drink from Rick. “We aren’t all supermen like you. He could have been sick. Give the guy a break.”
