Velvet Mafia

by Lydia L Watts

  “Hey, Blake, sorry it took so long but I was engaged in my daily constitutional. At my age, it’s important to stay regular.”

  “Too much information, Charlie, too much information.” Blake couldn’t help but laugh, even as he tried to stay focused. “Listen, man, you will not believe this!”

  “I thought we were going to talk later this evening,” Charlie said. “I just got home not too long ago, so I really don’t have too many updates.”

  “That can wait, Charlie,” Blake said with enthusiasm. “Man, you will not believe who called my private line.”

  “No, son, you’re probably right. I won’t be able to guess. So, who called, Oprah Winfrey?”

  “Winifred Theodora Alexander.”

  “Man, shut up! You have got to be kidding me. She called your private line?”

  “Yes, my private line.”

  “What did she say?”

  “She said she got my number from ‘an old and mutual friend,’ and she hoped to talk to me before the weekend was over. She also said what she wanted to discuss was very sensitive. And get this, she’s not in Chicago after all. She’s somewhere in the Maryland area.”

  “Maryland!” Charlie said. “If that’s the case, I know exactly where she is. Or at least a general idea as to where in Maryland she may be. Have you called her back yet?”

  “No, I called you once I got the call.”

  “Well, let me finish up a few things on my end and then we can focus on returning her call. We can’t afford to mess anything up, remember, Teddy’s not stupid. There’s a reason for her call and if she called you at your office, she might already know you’re there now. Hey, aren’t you going to the gym with Eli today?

  “Yeah, I am. He’s meeting me here”

  “Well, once you finish at the gym, I’ll meet you back at your place. Oh, yeah, transfer the message from Alexander to your home phone and make sure you delete it from your office system. You know what, wait. Maybe you should meet Eli at the gym”

  “Why?”

  “He wouldn’t expect anything out of the ordinary if you met him at the gym, would he?”

  “No. Why do you ask?”

  “Just a feeling.”

  “You and your feelings! Okay, I’ll see you later Charlie.”

  Still in shock, Blake could not believe Teddy Alexander had called him. Even though he had never said it out loud, he was a fan of hers. Now he couldn’t believe their lives were so closely connected. For a moment, Blake began to feel sadness. Like Teddy, he too had lost someone he had loved, and his journey toward finding the people behind his brother’s death had just begun, whereas Teddy had been looking for the past eight years. All Blake could do at that moment was pray. He couldn’t fathom chasing Devon’s murderers the way Teddy had chased Isabella’s. So he turned to prayer, something he knew very well how to do.

  Lord, I don’t know what you are doing, but I am sure that you do. It’s not a coincidence that Teddy called me today, so I must believe that her call was your will, and with that said, there must be something you want me to do. I pray that this relationship between Teddy, Charlie, and me is fruitful, and all I ask is that you protect our journey.

  I also have a confession to make, Father — one that I am not proud of. But I can’t seem to rid myself of these feelings. I know that vengeance is yours, but I am so angry! The carnage caused by Guy Yeager and this group of killers has to stop. The harm and the torture they caused Devon and Isabella, not to mention Teddy, was just cruel and unnecessary. Chances are, there are others who have been hurt by them, too. I know you know my heart, Lord, so it will be useless for me to lie to you. At night I lay awake, thinking about doing to the men in the picture what they did to their victims, and I really want Guy Yeager to suffer. I want him to suffer like Isabella suffered. I want him to feel the despair that Devon felt.

  Forgive me, Lord, because right now I have murder in my heart. I know what I feel is wrong, but my heart does not lie. Please, Lord, help me escape these feelings because I know that if I don’t let these feelings go, then I am no better than the men I’m hunting down.

  Again, Blake had another breakthrough. When he heard his own confession, he no longer felt stuck. In retrospect, he had been feeling as if he’d been standing in a pool of blood watching it coagulating tighter and tighter around his ankles. Hate had surreptitiously entered his body and stood motionless in his heart. If conditions had been right, he could have hurt someone, a thought that, for the moment, immobilized him.

  For Blake to feel that removed from his sense of being, he knew it had been grace that put him in the mind-set of prayer, and that that grace had come by way of a phone call from Teddy Alexander. Without even knowing her, Blake found himself grateful for her being in his life. Here he was thinking that he and Charlie would walk into her life with all the answers to her mystery, but it had been the other way around. God had used her to shed light on his own internal angst, and all Blake was left to do was ask, “What’s next, Lord? What’s next?”

  After working out at the gym, Blake had called Charlie and asked him to come over later. Now, while Charlie ate an authentic Jamaican jerk chicken dinner, Blake showered. He had a lot on his mind and was trying to digest it all before he talked to Charlie. He was excited about calling Agent Alexander and looked forward to finally meeting her. But, more importantly, he was concerned about Eli. He had changed. It was as if someone had taken a remote control and turned off the Eli he knew, replacing him with a newer model. And this model had a darker side.

  “Hey, Blake, you done showering yet?” Charlie yelled down the long hallway.

  “I’ll be there shortly,” Blake said, “so just hang on. Listen, if you want you can listen to Teddy’s message while you’re waiting. Just push the Mailbox1 button on the phone in my office. Also, clean up your mess, old man. There are no maids living here.”

  “I’ll just wait for you,” Charlie yelled. “And for your information, I know how to clean up after myself, and I don’t need you to tell me how or that I should. That’s what’s wrong with this younger generation. They have no respect for their elders.”

  Blake appeared in the kitchen doorway as Charlie was finishing his speech. “Only kidding, old man,” Blake said, trying not to laugh. “I didn’t know you were so sensitive.”

  “Sensitive?” Charlie replied while shaking his head and sucking his teeth. “You got me confused with somebody else. There is nothing sensitive about me. Now, come on, we have work to do.”

  “Okay, Charlie. No harm, no foul. Right?”

  “Boy, shut up and stop playing with me. Just push the button so I can hear the message.”

  Once he’d heard it, Charlie asked, “So, son, who’s connecting the dots for us?”

  “I have no idea, Charlie. I’ve been thinking about it all day, and I don’t know who it could be. I’ve never met Teddy and up to this point, I didn’t think I knew anybody who knew her.”

  “Do you think she’s referring to Eli?”

  “No, Eli would have mentioned something about her by now. As long as I’ve known him, he has never once mentioned her name, not even in passing.”

  “Well, I guess the only way for us to find out is to ask the source directly. Are you ready to call her?”

  “I’m ready if you are,” Blake said.

  “Okay, so let’s call Teddy Alexander.”

  “Hello. Ms. Alexander?”

  “Yes, this is Teddy Alexander. Mr. Jones, I take it?”

  “Yes, this is Blake Jones. I received your message. What is it I can do for you?”

  “Well, first, don’t you want to know who our old and mutual friend is?” For a brief moment Teddy wished she hadn’t been so forthright. She had to calm down and keep her emotions in check.

  “Why, yes, I do,” Blake said. He looked at Charlie strangely.

  “Did you know Isabella Cardosa?”

  “Not really, but I did meet her and a Dr. Basil Rhodes once at an AIDS benefit many year
s ago. She was the award recipient that evening. I was impressed with her comments and I wanted to meet with her and Dr. Rhodes to discuss their position. It was obvious they saw things differently from their peers.”

  “So, did the meeting ever take place?” Teddy asked.

  “Actually, no, it didn’t.” He again looked at Charlie. “A few weeks later, she was reported murdered. So what does Dr. Cardosa have to do with this call, Ms. Alexander?”

  His question met with silence, long enough that he said, “Hello, Ms. Alexander? Are you there? Hello?”

  “Yes, Mr. Jones, I’m here.”

  “Good! For a minute I’d thought I lost you. Did you hear what I said?”

  “Yes, I did,” she said. “I was just confirming it.”

  “Confirming it?” Blake said sharply. “What do you mean, confirming it? Are you suggesting that I’m not telling you the truth? Why on earth would I lie?”

  Not fazed by his tone or his questions, Teddy could tell she had struck a nerve and whether she would admit it or not, she would have been offended too if someone out of the blue had approached her the way she had approached Blake Jones. Plus, she needed him — not the other way around.

  “I am here with Dr. Rhodes and he confirmed your recollection.”

  “Well, Ms. Alexander, I didn’t know that I needed my recollection, as you call it, confirmed. So, what is this phone call about?” Charlie was watching Blake and could see that despite his show of temper, Blake was in total control of everything going on. Making her think he was on the defensive would place her in a position in which she would have to give up more information just to keep him engaged.

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Jones; I meant no disrespect. It’s just that I’m working on something very sensitive and it just so happens that Dr. Rhodes is here with me working on the same issue.”

  “Oh, I get it. Now I’m on speakerphone and others are listening to our conversation. Who else is in the room with you,” Blake asked aggressively, “and why are we on speakerphone anyway?”

  Blake’s strategy was working. Teddy was being forced to defend her position, thus leaving herself wide open for questioning. This was a tactic a seasoned interrogator used when dealing with adversaries: place them on the defensive, then seize control of the conversation and its direction.

  “So again, Ms. Alexander, my time is very important, so what is it you want from me?”

  Recognizing that the conversation had gone awry, Dr. Rhodes jumped in. “Mr. Jones, this is Dr. Rhodes speaking. At first, I could not place you, but once you reminded us that we met at an AIDS benefit, it clicked. Please accept our apology for the cloak of secrecy. As Ms. Alexander stated, we are working on several things at once that seem to be connected and all of which we believe will have a profound impact on the world if we don’t get a handle on things.”

  “So, again, what does what you are working on have to do with me, Dr. Rhodes, and where is Ms. Alexander?”

  “I’m here, Mr. Jones, I’m here,” Teddy said, now barely audible.

  “Well, Mr. Jones,” Basil said, “what I’m about to tell you may seem strange at first so bear with me. You’re involved because eight years ago Isabella uncovered what she believed to be a worldwide conspiracy and as a result of her findings, she was assassinated before she could get all of us together.”

  “How do you know all this?”

  “She left us a message. A message encrypted in a formula and in the message, she explicitly told Teddy and the rest of us that we should find you and seek your help.”

  “Dr. Cardosa died eight years ago, so why are you just now calling me?”

  “Because we didn’t find the message telling us what to do until today,” Rhodes said.

  “Who is we?” Blake asked.

  “Me, Ms. Alexander, and Lance St. John.”

  “Lance St. John! The journalist from the Washington Herald? That St. John?”

  “Yes,” Basil said. “That St. John.”

  “So, how is he involved in all this?” Blake asked.

  Just as Basil was about to answer, Teddy jumped back into the conversation. When Blake had switched the script on her, he had sent her to the bench, but now that she had regained her composure and realized what he’d been doing, she got back in the game. It was now her turn to seize control of the conversation.

  “Mr. Jones, your questions are important to us, but instead of discussing this over the phone, we would like to meet with you in person. Then we can fill you in on some of the details.”

  “I see,” Blake said, as if he were pondering the possibility. “So, when do you want to meet?”

  “As soon as possible,” she said. “When is a good time for you?”

  “How about tomorrow? I can meet you in Beaver Park in the morning.”

  “How did you know we are in Beaver Park?” Teddy looked at Basil and Lance with surprise.

  “Well, in all fairness to you, Ms. Alexander, I wanted to talk to you, too. I have a … friend who was murdered not too long ago because of things he witnessed and knew. And I believe that the people who killed my friend also killed Ms. Cardosa. So, I have a vested interest in what you are doing and I believe that what I can bring to the table can help you, too. So, where in Beaver Park do you want to meet? Somewhere public or private?”

  Blake was giving all the information away at once. The only things he didn’t reveal were who he really was, that his friend was in fact his brother, and that he was working with Charlie. He knew he had to gain Teddy’s trust, but he also knew Charlie — in the background — would be their extra eyes and ears. For Blake knew that if he could find the Velvet Mafia, it wouldn’t be too long before the Velvet Mafia found them, too.

  Teddy knew she had to trust Blake. Plus, she was curious about what he had to bring to the table.

  “Mr. Jones, let me talk things over with my colleagues and we will get back to you with our decision.”

  “Of course, Ms. Alexander. You have my number.”

  Charlie could not believe what had just happened. First, he hadn’t had a clue that Blake had known where Teddy was and second, he was surprised Blake knew how to play the game as well as he did.

  “Son, you would have made a great agent in the bureau. Now, tell me, how did you know where she was?”

  “You told me she’d been seen in Chicago, DC, New York, or Maryland. When she called, I knew from the prefix it was from Maryland, and then I called a friend of mine who was able to find the address. Once we found the general location, I had him give me a list of all the residents in the area. Do you see any familiar name on this list?”

  Blake pulled a two-page document off his fax machine. Listed on it was Dr. Isabella Cardosa, 1111 Beaver Park Drive.

  “Unbelievable,” Charlie said. “Simply unbelievable. You know she is going to ask how you found out.”

  “I know, and I have taken the liberty of ensuring that no one else finds out.”

  “How did you do that?”

  “I had my friend scramble the coordinates and the MLS number from the national real estate database.”

  “Damn, son, I didn’t know you had those kind of friends,” Charlie said.

  Before Blake could respond, his phone rang.

  “This is Blake.” “Mr. Jones, this is Teddy. How about 10:00 AM?”

  “Great,” Blake replied, signaling to Charlie that it was Teddy on the phone. “Now I just need someone to pick me up at the airfield outside the city.”

  “I can pick you up,” Teddy replied.

  “Good,” Blake said. “I look forward to meeting you, Ms. Alexander.”

  By the time Blake and Charlie finished ironing out their plan, it was getting late.

  “Can you believe what it is we are about to do, Charlie?” Blake asked.

  “No, I can’t, son. I’ve spent the last eight years trying to gather all the pieces and now, the victim, in her infinite wisdom, brought us all together. It’s incomprehensible, man.”

  “You know,
Charlie, we have to play this close. Too much is at stake.”

  “I know. That’s why I think you should meet Teddy on your own. She doesn’t need to know we are working this case together. It might spook her. When the time is right, we can tell her everything we know, but until then, this is best.”

  Blake knew Charlie was right, but he was being asked to keep yet another secret and that bothered him.

  “You know, Blake,” Charlie said. “Since it’s only about a four-hour drive, instead of flying up with you in the morning, I think I should drive up tonight. That way, I can get a look at the house and the surrounding area this evening. What do you think about that?”

  “I think that’s a great idea. I was actually thinking the same thing. In fact, I thought about us flying in tonight, but if I know Teddy the way I think I do, she will be at the airfield early enough to see me land. If I’m there before she thinks I should be, she will become even more suspicious.”

  “You’re right; she would,” Charlie replied. “Listen, son, I don’t want you to take her lightly. She is intrinsically involved in this game of charades and we need her.”

  “I know, Charlie. I know. So, what time do you think you’ll leave?”

  “I’m going to head back to my place and get a few things. Like my service revolver. There are benefits to being in the bureau, and one is that I can carry my weapon on me across jurisdictions.”

  “That makes sense,” Blake replied. “Hey, do you want to ride in some style and comfort? Don’t get me wrong! I’m not saying your old beat-up truck won’t get you there and back.

  I just figured that since this is a professional matter, you wouldn’t want to take your old clunker.”

  “Boy, let me straighten you out on something. That old clunker, as you call it, is an American-made truck. It has over two hundred thousand miles on it, and still runs like it’s brand new.” Charlie smiled. “But, to answer your question, yeah, I’ll take you up on your offer because my truck is in the shop.”

  Both men started laughing and continued to do so until tears appeared. They found enjoyment in messing with each other. They shared the same sense of humor and had the same temperament. And when it was all over, they both knew without saying, they had each other’s backs; a refreshing thought, considering what they were about to get into.