Hard Case IV: A Violent Life (John Harding Series Book 4)

by Bernard Lee DeLeo

Quays took a deep breath. “I will earn your trust.”

  “I too will earn such a statement,” Gus Denova stated.

  Alexi pointed at Gus with humor. “You do not have so far to go, Mr. Denova.”

  “I am happy to be alive,” Silvio stated, waving his hand comically. “We will get this done, my friends. I see now some will stand up to these insane jihadists. I can’t stand the sight of them. I will not make a statement other than I am like the old cowboys in this country: I ride for the brand. I will also earn my place here.”

  “It is good,” Silvio continued, “that I am in the company of monsters. It would be stupid for me to pretend I knew nothing of drug networks and gun running. I am a monster. When Victoria approached us with this deal to set up cells of these lovers of death, none of it seemed worth it, in spite of the vast sums of money we were supposed to receive. I kept thinking the deal would be called off. When Victoria ordered us here, I knew she would insanely carry out this plan. In our business, if we protest too much, we die. I could not convince my friend Hernaldo to think through the deal Gus and Quays explained to us. It was our way out, but now it is my way out. Thank you.”

  “Well… great,” Denny remarked as the weapons pointed at him were put away. “It’s good to get these items cleared up. I’m not so sure how I feel about all the guns pointed at me during a point of possible disagreement though.”

  Lucas put his .45 caliber Colt on the conference table. “It’s democracy in action, Denny. You don’t have a problem with democracy do you?”

  Denny waved him off. “No… I’m good.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Sideways Mission

  “Do you see what I see?”

  Tonto poked his head out past Clint’s on the passenger side as if checking out Lynn’s question too.

  “Our old friends Sam and Janie from the FBI. As if this day wasn’t long enough already.”

  Lynn parked their Toyota RAV in the driveway. The FBI Agents, Sam Reeves and Janie Labrie, walked over from the government vehicle they had been leaning against toward the Toyota. They stopped when Tonto growled.

  “What is it with this dog?” Sam Reeves gestured at Tonto with disgust.

  Clint walked around from the passenger side with Tonto at his side. Lynn had already exited, and leaned against the Toyota, with arms folded over chest, a big smile gracing her features. Clint and Tonto stopped next to her. Clint began ticking points off on his fingers.

  “Let’s see if I can list Tonto’s great qualities: intelligent, knows people, knows when something doesn’t smell right, knows-”

  “Enough… can we come in?”

  “Sure, Sam, but are you sure you want to,” Lynn replied. “Hi, Janie.”

  “As usual, we have a problem,” Janie said. “How are you two doing?”

  “Great,” Clint answered, leading the way to their entrance. He unlocked the door, and held it open for everyone. “We have a young woman, Danessa Moore, living with us. She is Lynn’s personal assistant.”

  “A personal assistant, huh? You’re joking.”

  “Any smartass remarks about Danessa, and I have Tonto escort you out, Sam,” Clint replied. “He likes her. You, he’d just as soon eat.”

  “That’s because you trained him to be a racist. The damn dog likes Janie too. It’s because I’m black he wants to rip by throat out.

  Danessa came out of the kitchen. Tonto began dancing around her, head bumping her leg while she giggled. She knelt down to hug him. “Tonto… I missed you today. Want to go for a walk with me?”

  At the word walk, Tonto raced out of sight, only to come back with his leash and harness. Danessa quickly put on his harness and hooked him up. “I guess he does.”

  “This is Danessa Moore,” Lynn said. “Danessa, I’d like you to meet our FBI acquaintances, Special Agents Sam Reeves, and Janie Labrie. Sam thinks Clint trained Tonto to be racist, because Tonto doesn’t like him.”

  Danessa, who was black, smiled. She shook hands with the two agents. “Very nice to meet you. I’ll take the racist with me for a long walk.”

  After Danessa left with Tonto, Clint and Lynn showed the agents into their huge kitchen. Clint brought over the coffee pot and three mugs. He poured for everyone but Lynn. “Do you want the regular tea or the Chai tea, babe?”

  “Regular. You were defaming our dog with snide remarks. I will accept your apology on his behalf, ingrate.”

  “Fine. I’m sorry. The damn dog always growls at me, and I’ve been around it since Clint got the thing. It took an instant disliking to me.”

  “We don’t like you either,” Clint said. “That doesn’t mean we’re racists. It just means you’re an asshole.”

  Sam nodded while his three companions enjoyed Clint’s putdown. “I had that coming. We need your unconventional expertise with the case of a five year old boy we believe was taken across state lines to Sacramento by his Father, a Syrian diplomat.”

  “Let me guess,” Lynn said. “American Mom back in D.C. and an ugly divorce?”

  “That’s about the size of it,” Janie replied. “She’s the sister of Senator Vera Penebaker. Nora Winston is her name, married and divorced from Rais Zaki. It’s the old story. She met him at one of her sister’s D.C. parties, had a whirlwind romance, married him, converted to Islam with all the arrogant trappings of the newly converted. Nora had a son, Robert. Then came the cheatin’, beatin’, and divorce.”

  “When Zaki lost custody in a court battle. The boy went missing from the front steps of Nora’s home three days ago. A neighbor caught a glimpse of the license plate, but the two men suspected of grabbing the boy wore hoods and ball caps. Zaki is claiming he is being maligned because he’s Arab. We found the van. It was stolen and wiped clean.”

  “Zaki flew into Sacramento yesterday supposedly on business,” Sam added. “We believe he had the boy driven across country. He has family in Citrus Heights, a suburb of Sacramento. We think the boy’s being held there. Zaki has chartered a private plane, and will be heading to Mexico, before continuing East again. Once in Syria, there won’t be a chance in hell of getting the boy back. The Senator is climbing all over our asses, when she should be blaming that idiot sister of hers for ever-”

  “Sam!” Janie cautioned. “An Amber alert has already been issued, but if the child is shielded by the community, they pull the Islamophobia card, and block any investigation. That, and the fact Zaki has diplomatic immunity doesn’t seem to faze Senator Penebaker. Since it’s her nephew, the laws don’t apply.”

  “We get the picture,” Clint said. “What do you want from us, you’re not already doing?”

  “You’re going to make me say it, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah, Sam, we sure as hell are.” Lynn leaned across the table, elbows on the tabletop, with hands framing her face in a look of patient curiosity.

  “We want you to find the boy, and bring him to us,” Sam confirmed. “No… we don’t want to know how. Will you do it?”

  “I’m nearly three months pregnant. I want to know if someone will keep me out of prison or not.”

  “You? Pregnant?” Reeves forgot everything about what they were there for momentarily. “If that isn’t against the law… it damn well should be. I know it’s against the law of the cosmos.”

  “Pay no attention to him, Lynn.” Janie gave Reeves a smack to the head. “Congratulations! That’s wonderful news. Boy or girl?”

  “Boy. Sam’s right. He’ll be a handful. You can bet on that.”

  “You do understand we will probably break half a dozen laws to actually succeed at this, right?” Clint was less than enthused. “We have something important coming up in a week’s time. I don’t think either of you would set us up, but we can’t promise there won’t be any casualties. How much cover can we expect if we get the boy in your hands?”

  Sam brought his briefcase onto the table, and opened his laptop. In a moment, Senator Penebaker’s contorted features raged at full volume. The recording ended with
her stating, “I don’t care if you have to cut the heads off the entire clan! I want that boy back here yesterday! Do you read me?! Get the fuck out of my office and get to work!”

  “Sam… you naughty boy,” Lynn made a shaming gesture. “That’s not bad… illegal I’m sure… but not bad. At least we’ll have something to cling to on our way to the big house. I’ll do it. My baby Sis by another Mom, Samira, would be ashamed of me if I didn’t do this. Allowing that idiot, Zaki, to get away with a kidnapping cannot be tolerated, right Clint?”

  “If you say so. Give me everything you have, and we’ll get to work on it.”

  Janie handed Clint a memory disc in a small plastic case. “Everything is on that disc, including a copy of the Senator’s orders. If something bad happens, release it to the media. There’ll be such a firestorm, Penebaker won’t have time to look for how it got out.”

  “I admit you two have made us look real good lately in our unwanted collaborations,” Sam said. “If we could come out of this at least with our badges… that would be nice. We’re thinking of transferring to the San Francisco office completely. Being based back in D.C. is a pain. People think the FBI is free of pressure from politicians, but the truth is the damn legislators think we work for them as their own Praetorian Guard. I want to see the little boy returned to his Mom. If you could persuade Zaki to leave the boy alone forever, that would be very nice too.”

  “Uh oh,” Clint muttered.

  “Well, now you’re talking my language.” Lynn ignored Clint’s ominously toned remark. “Does that mean Mr. Zaki could disappear? There would be a lot less outrage if the instigator wasn’t around to shoot his mouth off.”

  “The Syrian government would demand an explanation,” Sam replied. “If Zaki couldn’t be found though, we’d be forced to state we were looking everywhere, but found no sign of him yet. There would be the usual uproar, the usual suspects, and the usual ending fueled by the fact nobody cares about this asshole.”

  Janie comically plunked her head on the table for a second. “You realize you just issued a contract on Zaki to a couple of the most dangerous people on earth, right?”

  Sam Reeves stood up from the table. He ignored his partner’s statement. “We better get to the field office in Sacramento and report in. You two have our number. If we can help, we will.”

  Janie followed Sam to the door, only glancing back once with a wave. After they left the house, Clint went over to the cupboard, and retrieved a bottle of Jack Daniels. He poured a rather large dose into a glass, and began sipping it, without returning to the table. Lynn joined him at the counter. She pointed at the glass of Jack.

  “That because of me?”

  Clint gulped the remainder, and poured some more. He turned to his wife with a shrug of his shoulders. “Nope. It’s because of me. I married the most exciting woman on the planet. Sometimes, I just don’t measure up.”

  Lynn wrapped around Clint in a moving embrace. “Damn… I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

  They heard Danessa enter the house. The unfettered Tonto streaked into the kitchen. He head butted each of his human companions before walking over, gripping his food bowl in his mouth, and dumping it at their feet.

  “Are you trying to tell me something, dog?” Lynn put her hands on hips.

  Tonto growled, and nosed the dish over her left foot. Danessa was at the kitchen entrance enjoying the show, while Clint backed a few steps away.

  “Best do what he wants, babe,” Clint advised. “I think all the messing around with Naji today has him on edge. Only his special food will suffice.”

  “One of these days, it’s going to be you and me fur-ball, nose to nose,” Lynn warned. She picked up the dish, turning with a smile away from Tonto. After mixing up his wet and dry food, Lynn placed it in front of Tonto. “There, I’ve paid the blackmail, you ungrateful hound.”

  Tonto grunted and dove into his food with relish.

  “How was your meeting with the FBI agents,” Danessa asked. When she saw Lynn and Clint exchange looks, she quickly waved off an answer. “I get it. It’s monster business, right?”

  Lynn walked over to put an arm around her assistant. “Yeah, it is sweetie. Did you do any Black Friday shopping?”

  “I went with my Mom for a while, but I guess she has a date with your friend, Laredo. She’s all excited, so we cut off the shopping early. Is Laredo an old friend?”

  “Don’t worry about Laredo,” Clint answered, carrying his glass over with more Jack. “He’s someone to be counted on… for anything, anywhere. It doesn’t hurt I can tell you he’s rich. I have an idea about our monster games thing. Would you want to help?”

  A look of abject terror streaked across Danessa’s features. Lynn gave her a hug while laughing at Clint. “Gee… way to scare the crap out of her, Clint. He doesn’t mean anything bad, honey. Clint must have thought up a way you could maybe help us with a case, not a monster gig. What are you thinkin’ cowboy?”

  “Sorry, Danessa. Lynn’s right. That came out wrong. We’re going to Sacramento to hunt for a kidnapped boy amongst the Syrian community there. I won’t go into details, but I thought perhaps you could check inside a couple of the Mosques under the cover of considering converting to Islam. If there are any children matching the missing boy’s picture, I’d just need you to come out and let us know one way or another. I don’t want you doing anything you’re uncomfortable with though. I drained a Jack already, and I took a leap in logic.”

  “Sure… I could do that!” Danessa was excited. “I could really help. I’ll do it, and I won’t overplay it. I know they don’t treat the women like the men, but since I’m pretending interest in converting, they’ll be more open with me. I don’t know if they’ll let me into all the areas where the child might be though.”

  “Not to worry. The boy may not even be held there,” Clint said. “I want to cover all our bases though. I should be able to narrow it down by location, so the only logical choices will be one or two at the most. This guy Zaki will want to keep the boy close to the family he has in Sacramento. The Amber alert will force them to hide the child.”

  “I don’t like people taking kids,” Danessa said. “This is some kind of parent abduction of the kid, huh?”

  “Yeah, with transport overseas to that Syrian hellhole,” Lynn replied. “We aim to keep the boy here. There may be casualties.”

  Danessa grasped Lynn’s hands in both hers. “I won’t let you down, Lynn!”

  “Look, honey, you have to put the past behind you,” Lynn said. “I am never going to hurt you again ever. I’m a monster. You met the monster because we crossed paths in a bad way. It’s over. The bad part will be if anyone ever messes with you. It could happen during our Sacramento gig. Just close your eyes or look away, or whatever. I plan on bringing Clint Junior to your college graduation. Clint can tell you. When I set my mind on something, it’s very bad if someone tries to derail my mindset. Not to mention, my mate Clint here is deadlier than I am. He likes you, and loves your work here around the place and with Tonto. Imagine if someone threatened that.”

  Clint chuckled, sipping his Jack. “That would be very bad… very, very bad, kid. As Lynn told you, you are our golden girl. I’m even going to get Tonto into your grad ceremony.”

  Tears welled up in Danessa’s eyes. “I…I don’t know why I couldn’t see my way before - stupid… just plain stupid. I will put the past behind me. Thank you for this. I will never be able to repay you… ever.”

  “Show me the diploma, and your Mom next to you for a picture, and we’re square. That will be awesome.” Lynn hugged her formerly tortured protégé to her tightly. Lynn forced Danessa out at arm’s length. “Now don’t you get any weirdo ideas about doing anything on this field trip other than what we tell you. Yes, this is an important thing, but your part in it is a quick look, and then out. Clint and I will come up with a dozen other contingency plans if you don’t see the boy.”

  Danessa hugged h
er back with fervor. “Don’t worry about me. I will simply look around for the missing child, and then get out of there. You can count on me.”

  * * *

  At Jafar and Samira’s house the next morning, Samira inspected the conservatively dressed Danessa, who wore an ankle length, loose fitting navy blue dress with sleeves to cover her arms. Samira helped her cover her head with a matching scarf, which covered her hair.

  “They will know you as a visitor,” Samira said. “Someone will ask right away, probably before you enter if you are visiting. They will be polite and kind. You will be assigned a guide, usually a young woman. I wish I could go in your place, but I am too well known. I envy you this assignment.”

  “I’m nervous.” Danessa reached down to pet Tonto, where he and Naji were nosing around each other.

  “They will expect you to be nervous. Your guide will take you to a cleansing room where you will be instructed in the process of three washings of hands, wrists, forearms, elbows, faces, hairlines, feet and ankles. Each body section is washed in sequence and has an associated prayer to be uttered. The Citrus Heights Mosque is a beautiful building. The size makes it a very likely place as Clint has theorized. Women and Men are not segregated there, so you may be guided throughout the facility if you show an interest in their academy, and other sections.”

  Jafar handed her a pair of women’s glasses. “These are clear. Anywhere you look, Clint will see. If you are asked about them, simply say they are for a stigmatism. They are shaded just enough to make them look exactly like a regular pair. Try them on.”

  Danessa put them on. “They fit perfectly, Jafar.”

  “Look around the room,” Clint instructed from across the room where he and Lynn watched his laptop screen. He put on his headset. “You three say something as if conversing in a normal tone now.”

  After a few moments of random conversation, Clint took off his headset and stood up. “Perfect. Let’s hit the road. I’m glad John was able to loan us the action van. We’ll have plenty of room to take in a couple guests if we have to, and Tonto won’t be cooped up.”