“Is he dangerous?”
“Most of the time, if we set the skip up right, we can take them easily. Things go wrong sometimes, like when we took Bone in. He was so pissed at me, Bone still ran me over with Steve Tasing the shit out of him. I should have calculated animosity into our plan. Your Aunt Lo and I have brought in a bunch of skips in through the years without many mishaps. As it stands now, we normally don’t do skips anymore unless we’re the last resort, and we get top dollar.”
“I’ll go get my shower. When do you have to wake G-ma?”
“A little bit before we go to the office, and it won’t be easy. I’ll have to slap her around a bit before she comes to. If I had rubber sheets on the bed, I could use ice water.”
Jim laughed all the way into the bathroom, so I figured he knew I was kidding.
* * *
We were close to walking out the door. I had my mini-me wait in the kitchen, because he of course wanted to witness the wake-up call. I sat next to my snoring love flower, and gently caressed her cheek until she stirred into consciousness. I then moved the covers away, and began massaging her body with possibly rough but erotic flair. Stacy groaned, but moved into my arms, making me remember I had our young grandson waiting for me in the kitchen.
“I have to take Jim to the office early, babe. I brought you a cup of coffee the way you like it. Lean against the headboard and start sipping it before I go. Cheech will not like his store manager missing in action this bright and early morning.”
She grabbed me around the neck. “I love you so much… you know that don’t you?”
I kissed her with feeling. “I’m working on it. I love you too. Is it safe to leave you on your own now, or do I have to get nasty?”
Stacy held on more tightly. “Define nasty.”
“Do I have to call our grandson in here for a conference on arising for work?”
She scrambled in grumbling form to an upright position against the headboard, reaching for her coffee. “Fine! I still love you anyway. I’m not putting on a nightgown to say goodbye or pretending I’m nothing other than the old wanton whore I am deep inside. Tell him I love him, and his G-ma says to have a good day.”
I enjoyed that statement for a moment while backing away. “I…I will. Have a good day and hopefully, we will relax in front of the TV watching a movie while eating pizza tonight.”
“That sounds like heaven.” Stacy sipped her coffee in earnest so I felt more confident to leave. Then I hit her with the reality facts of life.
“But before we enjoy pizza and movies we have to work out at Jadie’s.”
“Oh… my… God…”
I was gone in a flash. I met young Jim at the kitchen door, motioning him to follow. “Your G-ma loves you, and she says to have a great day. She’ll see us later. After our workout at the gym, we’ll come home and have pizza accompanied by the showing of any movie you want to watch.”
“Can we watch ‘A New Beginning’?”
Although I’d seen it, I had no objection to Jim watching his forbidden love Temple in action. She had been very good in the part. It couldn’t hurt for Jim to do some pre-study on a sequel movie he hoped to be in. “Sure. Let’s go. Knock on the bedroom door, and say bye to G-ma. Then she won’t think we’re leaving with no affectionate parting.”
Jim received a heartfelt parting comment from Stacy G-ma, and we left to begin our day.
* * *
We were all in conference, at least all of us but Jim and Shelly. She was indoctrinating our young protégé on the office management scheme, which would entail enlightening him on the more tedious aspects of our business. Bone had already provided all the necessary elements of my excursion with young Jim to enroll him in Lewis Middle School.
“This is… and I hate to say it… terrific,” Lo stated, with the plan I hatched in hand. “Skipper wants to stay active in spite of being a movie star and having a billionaire husband… then fine. I’ll escort her to dipshit’s beach house as her agent, and all happy as a lark we have a local producer with backing to speak with.”
Trish lit in on the positive side instantly. “The Crone is right. She and I could pull this shit off with our eyes closed. Gannon will be toast in seconds.”
“Skipper’s right, Rick,” Lo unexpectedly sided with her nemesis clone. “If Trish and I ring this idiot’s doorbell, he’ll shit himself after recognizing Trish.”
“Frankly, I planned on a more covered dish – one where we call him, and draw our ambitious producer into a meeting where we simply handcuff him. What the hell is this busting in out of the blue crap?”
“Okay… I didn’t want to say it,” Trish said with a deep sigh. “Your vagina is showing, Cantelli. Great plan. Have a seat out in the office while we settle on the significant details.”
Bone takes his cue from me. He is uneasy with either Trish or Lo, but he also has a very tactical mind. When Bone sees an easy play with no aftermath in the hospital or a jail cell, he likes it. “Sorry… but I’m with Rick on this. One of us calls, arranges a meeting, Gannon creams in his pants getting there, and we cuff him. Done deal. What’s your countermove that works better than Rick’s?”
“Skipper and I go to the door. Gannon answers it, and we zap him. Two minutes tops,” Lo stated with absolute certainty. “We don’t need to break out the chess board on this one boys. Trish and I will make Rico-boy dance the dance of the electric for maybe five minutes. Then we drag his ass out, and put him in the wagon. All you three backup boys have to do is drive our vehicle forward for the pickup. C’mon, Hooterville. Don’t overthink this. Girls just want to have fun.”
That entertained Trish. She certainly enjoyed Lo’s carefree obliteration of a no-risk plan, as Lo substituted a high risk abomination in its place. “I have to admit, aside from Steve once again losing his balls somewhere along with his voice, I’m having a hard time understanding why this Harpy and Psycho-bird counterplot is even being discussed. It’s pure idiocy to take a plan with absolutely no danger of failing, and mutate it into some kind of clandestine cluster fuck!”
“Psycho-bird?” Trish was outraged.
“Did you call me ball-less, Cantelli?” Steve was outraged.
Bone was uneasy, and Lo was enjoying the fact Trish was outraged. I was beginning to get worried.
“This isn’t an adventure movie, damn it!” I was outraged. “We never do this. We find the easiest, safest way to bring in a skip. We don’t twist a simple solution into a nightmare. Now, it’s ‘Thelma and Louise’ just want to have some suicidal fun?”
Lo stood up. “Damn good plan, Rick. You’re out. Trish and I will see this done. You’ve killed more men in the last month than all of law enforcement in the entire country in the same time period. We’re cooling your heels. You’re with Shelly during this op, here in the office as coordinating contact. This is your stay out of jail intervention, Hooterville. Run along now, and get Jim registered for school.”
I’m not so old and stupid I didn’t recognize a setup when I get rolled by one. I walked out of the office without another word, grabbed my laptop case with the documentation Bone handed me, gathered Jim, and headed out the door. I didn’t speak until I was in the GMC with Jim. “Did you learn anything with Shelly? She’s normally a terrific teacher.”
“She showed me a lot about taking a case in, and how she does all the initial beginning checks before she brings the folder in to Aunt Lo. I like Shelly a lot. She has teenage kids who drive her nuts. She even told me about the Christmas Eve she drank too much, tried to seduce you, and passed out. You took her home, put her to bed, and installed a high tech alarm system on her house a couple days later.”
For a private investigation firm, we have the loosest mouths in the industry. “I’m surprised Shelly shared all that willingly. You didn’t happen to play her like a violin until you broke her down for information, did you?”
Silence. “Okay… that’s a yes. How’d you do it?”
“I played the orphan card.
She gave me nothing when I asked how she got to know you at first, so I told her all about the foster care ring, and what they were doing to us. After that, she warmed up. I know about the stakeout when Aunt Lo wanted her to do field work, but benched Shelly because she freaked when you had to kill the plumbing warehouse robber.”
Jim had scary good instincts. His recital nearly mind wiped me about Lo’s kicking my ass off the field too, along with Shelly. “Damn kid… you’re a natural.
“You looked really mad when you came out of the meeting.”
“My partner decided to bench me because of all the trouble lately. I had a foolproof plan to take down the skip, but she took it over, and changed it into a direct confrontation. I have a bad feeling about this Rico Gannon guy. He’s an armed robber living the life of Riley in Oceanside on the beach. Where the hell’s he getting the money to do that?”
Jim thought for a moment. He knew I was testing him. “The only way he could get money enough for that is armed robbery.”
“Correcto. And…” I saw the kid’s eyes glint as he faced me excitedly.
“He…he must have a gang. You think Aunt Lo and Trish will be walking into a trap!”
It looks like I have another Cantelli-land dweller. Jim has all the instincts for picturing everything that can go wrong normally does go wrong in the darkness and shadows of fabled Cantelli-land. He’ll fit right in if I can keep him alive. Let’s see how far he can take this. “Very good. Can you think of a way we should proceed in confirming our theory?”
I started the GMC, and drove toward Lewis Middle School, giving Jim time to mull over my question. At least I was accomplishing my task with getting him into school. I needed to cool down anyway. Lois had a point, but she should have called me in her office before our group meeting. Given time while she aced me out of the operation, I would have considered Gannon’s high living in a more serious manner, and made the connection.
“I know!” Jim sat up, his hands moving with his mouth. “We need to find out if there have been any crimes in the area!”
“Yep. That’s the next step. I’m thinking home invasions. If Gannon’s smart, he’s spacing them out, and doing recon. When wealthy people suffer professional invasions, it would be in every headline. If there are no headlines it means he’s hitting places where he knows people are away.”
“How could he find something like that out?”
“Gannon’s a Facebook freak. He’s been putting his own pictures, and movie clips on FB, playing the bigtime producer recluse. I’m thinking the young lady he’s been playing patty-cake with is an accomplice, not a playmate.”
“She’s a travel agent!” Jim said with conviction.
“Okay… you’re scaring me now. Lo didn’t show you how to steal my brainwaves like she does, or train you in her Vulcan mind melds behind my back, did she?”
Jim enjoyed my squinted look of accusation for a moment. “Nope. I saw it in a movie once. This travel agent would tell this gang of crooks when a rich client would go overseas to Europe, or somewhere they wouldn’t be returning from for a while. It was an older movie though. I thought most people book trips on line.”
Good thinking. “True, but they’ve progressed with the times. Travel agents bundle group cruises or tours overseas, planning out every detail from picking each participant up at their homes to landing them back home after the package ends. They have clients too who travel a lot on their own, and businesses relying on the agents for last minute travel plans.”
“A rich group of friends from the same area going on a long cruise would be perfect,” Jim offered. “Gannon could hit a couple from the group, but still make a lot of money.”
A little more young Jedi. “I can tell you know why the crooks would hit a couple out of the group. That was in the movie plot too?”
Jim shrugged. “Yeah… if they rob everyone, the police would be onto the travel agent.”
“Exactly. People also lay out their travel plans for their friends on Facebook too. They can’t seem to help themselves. You can bet our suspect travel agent ‘friends’ all of her clients, thereby opening a pathway for Gannon to keep an eye on preparations the targets are making. We’ll need to get your registration done, and return to the office. I don’t want Thelma and Louise walking into a trap. Those two are mad dog mean enough to kill the whole crew, but this is a perfect gift for my buddy, Bill Staley. He loves being included, where all he gets is the glory, and none of the headaches tied in with dead bodies.”
“Can I stick with you through this until it gets dangerous?”
“Sure. Once I sell those fair weather cohorts of mine on my update, I’ll take you to the precinct if Bone confirms all this while we’re registering you.”
We arrived at the school slightly after classes started. I texted a 911 to Bone and Lo, touting new developments on the skip. Lois knows I don’t cry Wolf, especially on an op due to be put into play. Bone texted back a ‘thank you’. Lo texted ‘it better be good, or I toast you right in front of Jim’. She would too.
Inside the school office, the secretary buzzed the principal. A woman in her middle thirties with dark brown hair tied straight back, nearly Jim’s height, with curves inappropriate for a middle school principal approached the counter. The navy blue dress she had clinging to her was meant to provide a professional appearance. Fail.
“Rick Cantelli… as I live and breathe. Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, you walk into mine.” She recited with hands on hips.
Now that was funny. I didn’t know her, but she delivered that play on words from ‘Casablanca’ with very entertaining finesse. She stuck her hand out as she rounded the counter. “I’m Valerie Jagoe, principal here at Lewis Middle School.”
I shook her hand. “I guess you know me for some strange reason. I’m happy to meet you, Ms. Jagoe. This is my grandson, James Randall Bishop. I’m his guardian now, and I wish to register him here at Lewis.”
She looked over Jim with a discerning gaze. “You do resemble your grandfather, Mr. Bishop. Come in my office, and we’ll discuss the registration process. Hold my calls, Arlene.”
Inside her office, she sat behind her desk while Jim and I sat in the seats fronting it. Ms. Jagoe leaned forward, hands clasped. “You have a problem, Rick Cantelli. I’m a news nut as well as an entertainment news nut. I know you live oh so close to us on Bernadette Lane. You have had multiple attacks on your property, including automatic weapons fire. You have killed so many men in the past year, I’m unsure as to how I can even process a child registration on your behalf. Yes. I also know you’ve killed eight men in the past few days. Why… are you not in prison, Mr. Cantelli?”
I went for the one liner. “Uh… they were all bad?”
She appreciated humorous candor. “I’ve often contemplated attending one of your ‘Casablanca Night’ specials on Fridays, but with all the gun battles, I thought perhaps it would be stupid to tempt fate. You nearly have your own page in the scandal sheets… well deserved I might add. You haven’t said anything, Mr. Bishop.”
“You can call me Jim, Ms. Jagoe. If not for my Pa, my grandma and I would be dead. He killed men… very bad men… to save our lives.”
Oh man… the kid delivered the lines without blinking, looking away, or any hint of nervousness in his voice. Witnessing gun battles while covering his grandmother with his own body makes for a solemn recounting of reality. This kid is a treasure beyond measure. Jim put Ms. Jagoe in open mouthed awe for a moment.
“I’m sorry, Jim. I recounted my slim knowledge of your grandfather poorly. Here’s my issue. Will we have urban warfare on our school grounds with Jim as a student? I frankly don’t know what to do in a case like yours.”
“Jim and I wish life was simple too, Ms. Jagoe. We’re hoping on the positive side that all these violent happenings are in the past. In the meantime, I’ll leave our information with you, and if you’ll be kind enough to give us a registration packet, I will fill it all out and get i
t to you ASAP. I understand your forebodings very well. I share them, but Jim is with me and his grandmother from now on… period.”
The principal’s features took on a weird look for a moment. “I understood from the tabloids and news you were single, Mr. Cantelli. They paint you as escorting starlets, and affairs with celebrity stars.”
“A lot has happened in a short span of time. Please call me Rick. Jim’s grandmother is living with us. We will be his guardians from now on, as explained in the file I’ve given you. There is one added caveat in his registration details. He has been offered a starring role in the sequel to the movie ‘A New Beginning’. He will be tutored during the entire filming with your school’s curriculum. Jim is an excellent student as you’ll find in the file. I hope we can work around any periods of absence due to this movie opportunity.”
She sat up. “I’m sure we can accommodate Jim’s singular circumstances. I ask this because I have to. It’s my job. Will there be a minimum presence here in relation to you dropping him off or picking him up, Rick?”
“As minimum as possible. I do not wish any trouble, but I also know events sometimes happen beyond imagining. I hope to make sure there will be no surprises.”
Valerie looked at me with unusually sympathetic eyes. “I’m sorry this is all happening to you and Jim. I’ll try and get him registered as soon as possible. With your contact information I see in the file you’ve given me, I’m sure we will be able to get him into classes quickly.”
I stood to leave with Jim following. “Thank you. We appreciate your help with expediting the process. I don’t want Jim falling behind in his studies. He did very well at his other school under less than ideal circumstances.”
“Rick… are you really… you know… with Jim’s grandmother.”
I thought back on the night before with Stacy, and the morning awakening. “I sure am. We were high school sweethearts nearly thirty years before you were born. She and I plan to make the rest of the short years to Jim being out on his own as problem free as we can.” Wow… God knows where that promise is going.
Rick Cantelli, PI: Into the Darkness (Rick Cantelli, P.I. Detectives Book 3) Page 22
