Checkered Crime: A Laurel London Mystery

by Kappes, Tonya

  “Then you will have to drag my dead, bloody body with you.” He didn’t budge.

  “Asshole!” I pulled down the gear to drive and peeled out of the driveway.

  “What is going on?” Johnny asked, holding on for his life as I slid through all the stop signs on the way into town and down Main Street straight for the Windmill.

  Jax had never given me his phone number last night. We had only made times and places to meet. He was my only hope. The FBI was my only hope.

  “Johnny, there are bad people in town who want to hurt me.” I squinted trying to hold my lane as the car squealed onto Main. “They are from my past. Way past. As in I never knew them but they need me to enhance their life.” I tried to keep all the privacy I could because I didn’t want Johnny to know my business until I got to the police or FBI.

  “What do you mean?” His jaw hardened.

  “Just take my word for it. I don’t have time to explain right now. Did you get a hold of Derek or the police?” I asked and screeched into the Windmill abruptly stopping at the lobby door.

  “I left Derek a message and told the dispatch to go to Porty Morty’s.”

  “Shit! Where is Louie?” My head darted around looking for any signs of the big guy.

  The doughnut truck was there and so was his car so I knew he had to be there somewhere.

  “I’ll be right back.” I jumped out of the car and ran into the lobby.

  The Windmill wasn’t in the twenty-first century. They still used the old ledgers to check in guests. Old keys hung up behind the counter with the room number engraved on them and only one of them was missing. Room five. Jax Jackson’s. It had to be. There wasn’t anyone else staying there.

  I ran out of the lobby and down the covered sidewalk to room five. I beat on the door.

  “Jax! Jax, are you in there?” I beat harder, even though I knew the room was empty.

  I put my ear to the door. Nothing. Just for kicks, I turned the knob. It was unlocked.

  I looked back at the car. Johnny was turned around looking back at me so it made me feel better knowing that if I went in and something happened, Johnny might have enough sense to come help.

  I pushed the door all the way open with my toe. The room was a mess. The tall floor light was knocked over, the light bulb smashed into tiny glass pieces all over the shag carpet. The bed covers were ripped off the bed and thrown all over the room. Even the glasses were shattered on the floor as if someone had thrown them at the wall.

  Jax had to have been taken like Trixie was…forcibly.

  “Ohmygod!” I turned to go back to the car and ran straight into Johnny…actually ran into his muscular chest. “You scared the shit out of me!”

  “You disappeared into this room and it took a minute so it freaked me out.” Johnny’s eyes were wide open with apparent worry on his face. “You have to tell me what is going on.”

  “We have to go to Porty Morty’s.” There wasn’t anything else I could think of. I walked back to the car. “But my one bullet isn’t going to stand a chance against Trigger Finger’s gun.”

  “Trigger Finger? Gun?” Johnny grabbed me by the arm and stopped me dead in my tracks. “Enough.” He dangled my keys from his finger. “You aren’t going anywhere until you tell me exactly what is going on around here.”

  “Fine!” My hand soared through the air when he jerked his back as I tried to swipe the keys back. “Give me the keys and I can explain on the way.”

  Reluctantly he handed the keys over. I snatched them before he changed his mind.

  “You don’t happen to have a gun do you?” I asked hoping he might be packing.

  “No, Laurel. I’m a phone guy.” He wasn’t amused. “Now, what is going on?”

  “I got fired from Porty Morty’s a couple of days ago. Derek gave me this car. A mob guy thought I was a taxi and jumped in. He hired me to be his driver like they have in New York City and I accepted. Big bucks.” I rubbed my finger and thumb together. I stuck with just the main details because I had limited time to catch him up. “Jax Jackson is an FBI agent and has been watching the mob guy whose name is Trigger Finger. Has piranhas that eat fingers…,” I batted my hand in the air. “Long story. Anyway,” I continued, “Trigger is after me because of my biological family and the FBI doesn’t know that. They think he is here because he might be smuggling guns. I’m working for the mob and the FBI.”

  “Wait…” He laughed.

  “You think this is funny?” I glared at him while trying to keep my eyes on the road.

  “No, but you are working for the FBI when you are a criminal?”

  “I think you can use that term loosely. But why not?” I asked. “I’m good at doing a little con stuff here and there, plus Trigger Finger trusts me. If he only knew I was the one he was after,” I murmured.

  “This Trigger Finger guy doesn’t even know you are the one he’s here for?”

  Slowly I nodded my head. Off in the distance I could see the big port-a-let sign that read Porty Morty’s. My heart pounded as we got closer.

  “He figured out that Trixie was the headmaster which leads me to believe he kidnapped her because he knew I would find out.”

  “But he doesn’t know it’s you?” Johnny looked all sorts of confused.

  “Something like that. Now that I’ve seen Jax Jackson’s room all torn up and Louie no where to be found, I’m thinking Trigger has them too. And maybe they are all at Morty’s.” I slowed down to pull in.

  There were no police cars there and I didn’t see Derek’s truck. He should’ve fixed it by now.

  “Don’t pull in,” Johnny ordered. “You said Jax Jackson is with the FBI?”

  “Yes,” I confirmed and hesitated before I continued driving the car north on River Road passing Porty Morty’s.

  “My college roommate is head of the FBI in Louisville. I think we should go there and see him about this because all of this is way over our heads.” He reached over and touched my leg. “Laurel, I don’t think I could bear it if we went in there, especially with your one bullet, and something happened to you.”

  “What about Trixie?” My voice quivered.

  I had never heard Johnny Delgato ever speak with a lick of sense and what he was suggesting was a great idea.

  “Trixie will be fine. She’s pretty kick ass herself.” He wasn’t lying. I could imagine her in there giving them the business. “It won’t take us a half an hour. I’ll even call Mike to let him know we are on our way.”

  I took a deep breath and did what Johnny told me. It sounded like a solid plan and something Jax would probably want me to do, so I kept going and headed north to Louisville.

  The entire drive my stomach curled. I couldn’t help but think Trigger had Jax and Derek. Especially since Trigger knew Derek was with the police department and had mentioned Nicoli’s body when Derek had approached us while we were parked in front of Friendship Baptist.

  Chapter Twenty Two

  “Mike said that Trigger Finger Anthony Cardozza is the biggest mob boss in the United States.” Johnny gripped his phone. “He said that we are doing the right thing by coming to the office and taking your statement. He even said that he called and got some men ready to go.”

  “Oh Johnny, I don’t know how to thank you.” I looked over at Johnny and completely saw him in a different way.

  Though he’d always been handsome, he was even more attractive now that I had seen he had in fact grown up.

  “Don’t worry about that now, Laurel.” He chewed on his bottom lip. “We need to find Trixie. Let me call Derek again.”

  The traffic in Louisville wasn’t bad and I followed Johnny’s finger directions as he continued to try to get in touch with Derek.

  “No luck.” He shook his head. “What is in your past that makes this guy want you?”

  “You aren’t going to believe it if I told you.” I wasn’t sure what I was able to say and Ben Bassman told me not to say a word to anyone. “But evidently my parents were k
illed in some big mob hit right after my grandfather and Trigger Finger’s grandfather brought our two mob families together to form one big cartel. Only Trigger’s family got greedy. My grandfather thought I’d be safe in Kentucky, of all places.” I left out the Trixie part, along with the rings and money. “Needless to say, I think he’s here on some unfinished business that I have nothing to do with.”

  I felt my front jean pocket for the ring.

  “What kind of business?”

  I shrugged, “No clue.” I lied because I just didn’t know what was true with Ben Bassman’s story and what wasn’t. All I knew was that something had happened to Trixie and Jax which made me think some of Ben’s tale was accurate.

  “This is crazy.” Johnny ran his hand through his hair. “Right here.” He pointed to a spot on the street.

  “Why don’t we park in the parking garage?” I asked what seemed to be a logical question.

  “Because Mike said to park here, next to the building.” He pointed to the door across the street that had the FBI logo on it.

  I pulled in and parked. I got out of the car and bolted across the street.

  “He said to go in the side door!” Johnny screamed, but it was too late. I had already run into the front of the building.

  “I’m Laurel London and I need help! Trigger Finger Anthony Cardozza has my Trixie and FBI agent Jax Jackson held hostage and I think they are at Porty Morty’s warehouse in Walnut Grove.” I spouted out to the FBI agent that was sitting at a desk in the lobby.

  I bent over with my hands planted on my knees to get my breath. Johnny ran up behind me.

  “We are here to see Mike Florenza,” he told the guy.

  The guy gave me a sideways glance, raised his brows and picked up the telephone. He whispered a few things in the receiver and put the phone down back on the receiver.

  “Mike is coming down.” He pointed to the chairs in the lobby. “You can wait over there.’

  “Where are the agents with the gun? Equipment on?” I begged to know.

  “Laurel, that happens in the movies. Just calm down. Mike will handle it from here.” He pulled me over to the chairs.

  We barely had enough time for our butts to hit the leather seats before Mike came running down the glass staircase that took up most of the lobby.

  “Come on,” he ordered and we followed. “Tell me everything you know,” he said when we got into the big conference room. He put a tape recorder on the table and pushed a few buttons.

  “We don’t have time for this!” I screamed and beat my palm on the table. “Trixie is in danger!”

  “Laurel London, is it?” he asked with his jaw tensed. “We can’t go in guns blazing without getting all the right information needed. Understand?”

  “Yes,” I calmly said and began to tell my story from the beginning. I didn’t see the need to tell him about the ring or the money because that didn’t seem to matter.

  “Laurel, you wait here and I will take this to the guys who are waiting on standby.” He pointed to Johnny. “You can come with me. I’m going to have an agent get a formal statement from Laurel and you can’t be in the room.”

  “Okay.” Johnny put his hand on my shoulder. “Do you think you are going to be okay for a minute?”

  “Yeah.” I nodded.

  I felt a little better knowing something and someone who had real gun power was going to go down there and figure out what was going on.

  When they left, I took my phone out of my bag and dug deep in the bottom for Ben Bassman’s business card.

  Surely he needed to know about all that was going on. I had to tell him.

  “Yep.” Ben Bassman definitely didn’t have manners like a southern gentleman. Especially when he answered the phone.

  “Ben,” I gasped. “Listen carefully because I’m at the FBI in downtown Louisville waiting to give a statement.”

  “You are where?” Ben frantically asked.

  “I said to listen, Trixie is missing. Jax Jackson is missing. I know Trigger has her and I can’t find Derek. My friend Johnny knows Mike Florenza with the FBI and he took me here to tell them what was going on.”

  “Laurel, you listen to me.” Ben was all calm, cool and collected which pissed me off. How could be so together at a time like this? “Did they record your statement?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do what I’m saying.” He gave demands. “Take the recorder if you can get your hands on it and get out of there.”

  “What? Are you crazy?” I asked.

  “Is your car there?”

  “Yes.”

  “Laurel, I know what I’m doing. Go get in your car and meet me on the docks by Porty Morty’s. I have guys who can fix this. The less the FBI is involved with your situation, the better.”

  “But—”

  “There is no but about it. Do it!” he screamed.

  The phone went dead before I could protest. Something in his voice told me to go. And go now.

  I took the tape recorder like he said and put it in my bag. Slowly I got up and tiptoed to the door. I cracked the door and looked out. No one was there so I bolted to the right where there was an exit stairs sign.

  I ran down the couple flights of stairs and pushed open the exit door. To my luck, it was on the corner of the building and I could see my car across the street.

  Beep, beep.

  “Watch out!” A guy screamed out his car window when I bolted across the street and he almost hit me. “You are going to get killed!”

  I threw my finger in the air. “Trust me! I know that asshole! Either by you or Trigger!”

  I jumped in my car and squealed out of the parking spot, tearing out in front of a car that had to swerve from hitting me.

  There was no slowing down. I had the Old Girl speeding as fast she could go, ripping through every single curve.

  It only took me fifteen minutes to get back to the docks, but Ben wasn’t there. I parked my car on the side of the building next to the dumpster. I grabbed my gun and Trixie’s knife from the glove box before I got out.

  My adrenaline was pumping and there seemed to be no stopping my feet once they hit the ground.

  I put the knife in my back pocket once I reached the side door of the warehouse. I heard someone talking and I peeked around the corner to the boat dock. Jennifer was on the dock having a heated conversation with Trigger. So heated that she smacked him and he smacked her back making her fall flat on her ass.

  She was crying holding her face and he spat on the ground next to her screaming something that was inaudible. I didn’t have time to worry with him because if he was out here, then he wasn’t in there.

  “Laurel! What the hell are you doing?” Johnny was standing behind me getting out of a blue Crown Victoria.

  “Who’s car?”

  “You left so quick, Mike let me take his car. They FBI is on the way.” He grabbed my hand. “Please tell me you aren’t going in there.”

  “I am and you are either with me or against me,” I warned.

  “I’m with you.” He opened the door and looked both ways before we darted in.

  “Follow me. I know this place like the back of my hands.” Which had to be an upside to working there for so long.

  The entrance we went in was where the extra porta-lets were kept behind a chained wall. There was a little rustling around and if this wasn’t going on, I’d have thought it was a mouse, but I had to check it out.

  “Shh.” I put my finger up to my lip and grabbed the set of keys off the hook to unlock the padlock for the gate.

  I had no idea why Morty kept the keys hanging right there if he didn’t want anyone to get in the chained area, but that was Morty for you.

  We walked up the rows of unused potties until I heard a grunt coming from one of them. I opened it.

  “Trixie,” I gasped when I saw her gagged and bound to the sanitizer dispenser that was attached to the plastic wall. There was a beating coming from the potty next to Trixie. “Johnn
y, you help her.”

  I opened it and Louie was stuffed in there like a little pig in a blanket. He had tears streaming down his face.

  “No! Not my finger!” I heard Derek scream in the distance.

  “Johnny, help them.” I didn’t wait for his response when I ran out of the chained area and down the dark corridor leading into the open warehouse where I thought I heard Derek screaming from.

  With the gun and one bullet held out in front of me, I slowly turned the corner. There was some big guy with a tied-up Derek, Morty, and Jax. In front of them was a large fish tank that had never been there before. Next to the fish tank on the ground were the two Styrofoam boxes that I had seen Nicoli give Morty on the dock that day.

  The big guy was dipping a net in the Styrofoam container and taking out piranhas and putting them in the larger tank.

  “I think you are first.” The big guy cackled with a big grin on his face looking straight at Morty.

  He was obviously taking pleasure from taunting Morty. There was sweat dripping off of Morty’s bald head.

  “Please not my hand.” Morty begged and wiggled around in the rope that he was all bound up in when the big guy approached him.

  In horror, I stood there with my mouth open watching as the big guy hooked Morty to the port-a-let lifting crane that we used to get the potties on the truck bed for delivery. Just like an unsteady port-a-let, Morty was hoisted into the air. The big guy untied Morty’s right arm and held his hand over top of the tank, giving the crane operator the go ahead to lower.

  The guy’s hand glistened with one of the Cardozza family’s rings that looked a lot like mine. Slowly they lowered and lowered Morty.

  Jax and Derek squirmed. Jax saw me and profusely shook his head for me to go back. But I couldn’t stand it.

  “Hold it right there or I will shoot!” I took a step and stumbled over a walnut.

  The gun went off and the bullet ricocheted into the warehouse rafters, landing on one of the unopened crates that filled the space. I fell to the ground as the big guy let go of Morty. Morty’s body swung around and around. My body swung around when the big guy grabbed me, but not before first grabbing my gun.