Shadows of Deceit (A Series of Shadows)

by Mell Corcoran

  Lou wasn’t at all surprised to see Max’s elegant graciousness pulled off the cuff. His eloquent words flowed effortlessly and were not contrived or exaggerated. They were sincere and heartfelt. The man simply made her heart melt.

  Once the applause died down, he continued. “As my family can attest, I rarely play favorites.” A few snorts and chuckles could be heard from the crowd and when Lou looked, she could see Yuri and Finn covering their mouths to hide their grins. “Alright, perhaps I tend to favor Abby a bit.” He relented with a wink in Abby’s direction. “But! For the most part I do not.” He grinned again. “However, I must confess that I have become especially fond of the McAllisters and am honored to count them among my extended family. Recently, events transpired in my life and I found myself at their mercy. They opened their hearts and home to me and my family, without hesitation, and I have been humbled by their generosity. Their daughter, in particular, played a huge role in my situation. She was a total stranger to me and mine, but her integrity, strength of spirit and amazing sense of decency has moved me beyond words.” He looked at Lou as if she was the only person in the world as he continued. “You saved me. In more ways than I will ever be able to thank you for.” Lou could barely breathe as she listened to his words. “That is why although this park is dedicated to all of you, I now present, officially...” Max moved to the mound and reached for the sheet, removing it with a grand sweep of his arm. “Lake Tallulah!”

  As the roar of applause began, Lou looked to see the huge stone that had been concealed beneath the sheet. Affixed upon it’s face was a slab of bronze that was inscribed in beautifully etched lettering.

  Welcome to

  Lake Tallulah

  A place of peace and harmony

  Dedicated to the community of Hidden Falls Estates

  - M. A. Julian Family Trust

  She normally would have been livid at the use of her full given name but she found her eyes welling instead. She could not believe that he had named the park after her. Far too many emotions were rushing through her for her to form a coherent thought but one kept screaming at her as she tried to take everything in. He did care for her. He had to for him to do this. For her.

  “Now, let us all enjoy the park and get the celebration underway! Thank you everyone!” Max concluded and quickly shoved the microphone in Abby’s hands.

  “Mimosas and other refreshments are flowing so enjoy the afternoon at your park!” Abby beamed a smile at Lou before the crowd swarmed around the plaque to gawk.

  “I think you could use a drink.” Niko startled her as he appeared behind her. “Let me help you to the bar.”

  “That sounds like a good idea.” She didn’t argue with him. “Did you know he was doing this?” Lou asked him.

  “Of course I did.” He smirked. “He, however, had no idea Abby and your mother were going to ambush him and make him the presenter.” Niko waggled his eyebrows in a mischievous manner. “Only they could get away with that without instigating his wrath. And you too, of course.”

  Lou scoffed at his assertion. “Right. Like I could get away with pulling that off.”

  “You absolutely could.” He informed her as he handed her a glass. “Don’t ever let on I told you that. I’ll totally deny it.”

  Lou laughed then took a long sip of her mimosa as she scanned the crowed of people. It truly was a spectacular event. It shouldn’t have surprised her that Abby and her mother were able to pull off such an event without a hitch. Well, besides Lou’s minor disasters throwing a wrench in the mix, that is. The only thing that could have made the day more perfect is if Lou was able to walk through the park without the crutch or without inflicting severe pain in the process. Slowly but surely, people began making their way to her with a myriad of questions that she was in no way, shape or form prepared to answer. Inundated with questions about what she did for Max, Lou tried her best to deflect and dismiss things as having been greatly exaggerated on Max’s part. Fortunately, Abby and Lou’s mother magically appeared to run interference while Niko and Dillon got Lou safely away from the majority of the crowd. It was then that Lou noticed Max was no where to be seen.

  “Where did he go?” Lou asked.

  “Who?” Dillon wasn’t sure who she meant.

  “He snuck back to the house.” Niko answered, knowing right away who Lou was inquiring after. “He was a little pissed that he got ambushed but he also had to handle business. The Timms situation being what it is, requires a few consultations with the Senatus.”

  For a moment Lou had forgotten all about their huge predicament and the disaster of a case that had laded in their laps. “I cannot even imagine the mess he has to deal with on you guys’ end.”

  Niko laughed. “Our end? Your end too, missy.” She was Principate, after all.

  “Right.” Lou acknowledged. “What the hell am I supposed to be doing on that front anyway?” Just at that moment, both Lou and Dillon’s phones beeped. When they looked, they both had 9-1-1 text messages from Vinny.

  “Looks like our brief reprieve is officially over.” Dillon sighed. “Let’s say our farewells and head back to your house so we can call in.”

  “I never thought I would actually want to stay at one of these things rather than go back to work.” Lou admitted, making both Niko and Dillon chuckle.

  Fifteen minutes later they were back at the house and Niko was fixing them all coffee as Lou tried to get settled before she called in. She was apprehensive about taking another pain pill given she had a mimosa and she didn’t know how fast she was going to have to hop to, so to speak. When she finally made the call and heard Vinny’s voice on the other end, the pain was starting to surge a great deal. She knew she had no choice but to grin and bare it for the moment.

  “So what the hell is this I hear about you takin’ a header down some stairs? How bad this time?” Vinny had long since given up sounding sympathetic to Lou’s constant injuries. His tone was matter of fact yet there was the distinct hint of concern hidden beneath it.

  “Sorry Vinny. It’s not so bad.” She tried to play it down. “I have to use a crutch for a while though. No two ways around that.”

  “Hey! That isn’t so bad!” He teased her. “I was thinking this time you would have finally landed yourself in full traction!”

  “Maybe next time.” She teased back. “So what’s the 9-1-1 about? Let me put you on speaker since Dillon is here.”

  “He’s there?” Vinny seemed surprised.

  “Yeah, he came to help cart me around for the park dedication today.” She wasn’t about to tell him that Dillon had been with her for the past twenty-four hours.

  “Ah crap, I forgot all about that.” Vinny blew out a breath. “The captain told me you guys worked late but I totally forgot about your thing today. Sorry I wasn’t there, kiddo.”

  “Don’t even worry about it!” Lou set him at ease. “It’s not like your plate isn’t full enough, daddy. My mom is having all the leftovers brought back here so you can stuff your face after work.” Lou hit the button on the phone as Dillon took a seat across from her. “OK, you’re on speaker now.”

  “Hi Boss!” Dillon waved despite the fact he knew Vinny couldn’t see him. Niko made Lou chuckle by waving as well.

  “Hey sport.” Vinny greeted Dillon back. “Alright you two, we got some major developments while you were off getting your beauty sleep, cracking ribs and hob-nobbing with the rich and famous.”

  Lou was actually relieved that Niko was sticking around. She wanted his take on what Vinny was going to tell them. She prayed that her first clean-up job as Principate had gone off without a hitch and the dominoes had fallen where they were supposed to. “Start from the beginning and don’t leave anything out.” Lou insisted and he complied.

  Vinny had arrived at work as expected and began picking up where he thought they had left off the day before. He had put a call in to Agent Callahan from Homeland Security but got sent straight to voicemail. It was about lunchtime that Vinny r
eceived an email from Callahan informing him that they hit paydirt and that the DEA would be calling them in shortly. Callahan hadn’t gone into any detail so Vinny had been fighting the urge to make calls so he could get some answers. It was around 2:00 p.m. when Agent Jessup from the DEA called Vinny and put him on a conference call with Callahan. Vinny learned that Callahan had gotten a tip on a location for their cargo containers and when they arrived at the location, they were greeted by Jessup and his team, along with a hazmat crew and nearly three dozen firefighters. A fire had broken out at the location sometime in the middle of the night and during the course of fighting the blaze, a large quantity of heroin was discovered within bags of Arcano coffee. That was when local law enforcement called in the DEA and Homeland Security. The majority of the building had gone up in smoke but they had recovered a good number of bags of Arcano coffee with the bricks of heroin as evidence. It was clear to all parties that the five murders had been part of a cover up of a drug smuggling operation. Vinny was convinced, as was their captain, at least according to Vinny, that Luis Arcano and Casius Arcano had been murdered to keep them from disrupting the smuggling operation. The Salazar brothers and Esterhuizen had been killed as a message to Carlos Vargas that he better keep playing ball. Casius had been set up by Ernesto Vargas and his brother to fall for Adrianna Vargas AKA Angela Boone, so she could keep him in line, or else. The way they figured it, finding Adrianna and Casius snuggled all warm and toasted to a crisp with the three heads was the “or else” part. Vinny was sure that Casius must have found out about the whole operation and that Angela had been a part of it from the get go. That little discovery was what got him killed and Angela AKA Adrianna was simply of no use to the Vargas brothers any longer and had become a liability.

  Vinny went on for twenty more minutes laying everything out. The conclusion he had come to, with the help of Agents Jessup and Callahan, was that it had been a family affair with the Vargas Brothers and their cousin Manuel Rojas. While Ernesto was undoubtedly the kingpin, Manuel served as a contact point for the happy family and probably as a routing point for the drug pipeline. The Salazars and Esterhuizen were just hired hands in the operation and probably screwed up somewhere along the line which ultimately got them killed. Vinny admitted that he and the two agents had gone around and around about how and why Casius’ house had been left empty and it was Jessup that had the most likely scenario.

  “He thinks that they were smuggling drugs inside the furniture and they didn’t have time to look for it so they took everything. Cleaned the place spic and span.” Vinny relayed the theory. “Jessup said he’s seen it happen before, would you believe in baby crib? Anyway, I looked back over some of the receipts, it looks like everything had been imported so it makes sense when you think about it.”

  “Do we know what caused the fire?” Dillon asked even though he knew damn well how the fire really had started.

  “Faulty wiring is what I got.” Vinny answered. “They were leaching from the main power line with crappy cables. I’m surprised anything was left standing, frankly.”

  “Was any of the furniture found there?” Lou played along with her question.

  “From the pictures Callahan sent me, I dunno how they recovered what they did of the drugs! The place is a pile of ash. I would bet good money most of that ash was once all of Arcano’s furniture.”

  “Well, that answers that.” Lou smiled. That had been an added bonus, getting the furniture issue written off the case. God only knew what really happened to it. “So the Arcano coffee, will that get us our warrants?”

  “Happy Birthday, kiddo!” Vinny said in a jovial tone. “I texted you as soon as I hung up with the D.A. They were faxed over five minutes ago. I got the whole crew coming in so we can coordinate executing the warrants on the office and the house as soon as you get here.”

  “Let me change then we are on our way.” Lou forgot all about her injuries and tried to get up unassisted. The pain hit her like a battering ram making her wince audibly.

  “Hey kiddo, you gonna be able to do this? Want me to handle it?” Vinny heard Lou’s grunt, indicating she was definitely in pain.

  “I got her Boss.” Dillon interjected. “She may not be able to kick in the door, but I’ll get her there. No problem.”

  “Right. OK.” Vinny was satisfied. “See you two soon. Hurry up! I’ll be glad to get Carlos Vargas in a box.”

  “See you in a bit.” Dillon clicked off the call and thought for a moment.

  “You got a plan, bro?” Niko asked him with a smirk.

  “Just give me a minute, I’ll be OK.” Lou insisted but the pain was so bad that she hadn’t been able to answer Vinny’s earlier question.

  “Does Connor have anything in that trunk of his that will take the edge off but not put her in lala land like the one he gave her this morning?” Dillon asked.

  “Not sure.” Niko answered as he dialed his phone. “We will find out though, won’t we?”

  Dillon made his own call to Abby. He asked her if she could get back quickly and help Lou change since he didn’t think it was appropriate for him to do so. To his amusement, she magically appeared in the doorway.

  “I think I can manage that!” Abby beamed a smile as she entered the room. “Is she confined to a desk or need to be tactically ready?”

  “We’re executing warrants.” He informed her as he stuffed his phone back in his pocket. “Although she will probably be confined to the car, you never know with Lou so best...”

  “Say no more.” Abby cut him off then disappeared into Lou’s closet.

  “How coherent do you need her?” Connor flew in the door at a full sprint, immediately heading for the first aid trunk that he had left in the corner of the room.

  “Serving warrants and getting the bad guys!” Abby shouted from the closet.

  “OK, so pretty damn coherent.” Connor acknowledged as he rifled through the trunk, finding what he needed. “Here we go! We can supplement this with 800 milligrams of ibuprofen in an hour or so. That should make things tolerable for your op.”

  “If you say so.” Was all Lou could say. She would take anything for the pain at that point.

  “Alrighty, I think this will do.” Abby emerged from the closet with a pair of tactical boots, dark brown yoga pants and a color coordinated henley. “As soon as he gives you your shot, you boys get out so I can get her changed. We’ll meet you downstairs in a few.”

  Abby grabbed socks from a drawer while Connor gave Lou the injection. Lou didn’t even care what it was. After the men left her room, Abby carefully got Lou changed then helped her down the stairs where they were all waiting.

  “This is what is going to happen...” Niko stepped up to Lou and placed some sort of charm around her neck.

  “Aww. How sweet! You got me a birthday present!” Lou gave him a hug. Clearly Connor had underestimated the effects of the drugs.

  “I thought you said it wouldn’t make her loopy?” Dillon started to panic.

  “Crap!” Connor cursed. “I totally forgot it was your birthday!”

  Niko rolled his eyes at him but turned his attention back to Lou. “We will celebrate you surviving yourself another year later. This is a transmitter. We will be close and listening in so we have your back. If Timms is there, we will get him. Your people will not stand a chance so don’t worry, we have your back. Understand?”

  “So this isn’t my present?” Lou was completely uninterested in tactics at the moment.

  “Yes and no.” Niko grinned. “It’s one of them. Think of this as having me with you whenever you need me.”

  “Yay!” Lou hugged him again.

  “OK, we gotta go.” Dillon was exasperated. “You guys will be right behind us?”

  “Yeah.” Niko assured him. “Turn your watch on when you go in so we can monitor you too.”

  “Yes sir.” Dillon answered. He had been given a special watch that all the Aegis wore. It not only told perfect time in three different time zones, bu
t it also had a built in GPS chip complete with homing beacon as well as a microphone that could be turned on and off with a twist of the face. It was an extraordinary blending of craftsmanship and technology. “Wish us luck!” Dillon gave them a weak smile as he helped Lou to the SUV. Lou was in an unusually good mood thanks to the drugs and although Dillon was freaking out over them pulling this off in her condition, her silly demeanor made him smile the whole drive to the bureau. This was going to be one for the history books, if they pulled it off.

  Vinny was unconvinced. Although Dillon had promised him that Lou would be fine, after seeing her injuries first hand, he was not at all comfortable with her going with them to execute the warrants. Especially since the drugs she was given had her actually being nice to Detective Rochelle. Vinny was worried.

  “I’m just gonna stay in the van!” Lou assured him. “I swear!”

  “She can watch the monitors with me.” Parks, one of the Tactical Response techs spoke up in Lou’s defense. “I’ll keep an eye on her.”

  “See!” Lou pointed with both hands. “She’ll keep an eye on me!”

  As the rest of the team continued gearing up, Vinny paced up and down the corridor, thinking. It was his first serious decision as lieutenant and if anything happened to Lou he would never forgive himself. On the other hand, if he left her out, as soon as her drugs wore off she would never forgive him if he made her stay behind. It was the lesser of two evils.

  “Fine.” Vinny relented. “But you get out of that van or do anything but observe and report, so help me...” He dragged his fingers through his hair, still warring within himself about his decision. “... you will be riding a desk for the rest of your life! Do you understand me?”

  “Absolutely!” Lou saluted him and snickers could be heard among the crew.