“I heard about that myself. That was Cardone’s way of trying to harm my reputation with Brian. He took over some of my business interests when I went to prison, as you may have heard. He had been my friend but once I was imprisoned he changed. He took control of many things that were far beyond our agreement and I am still trying to straighten things out. Suffice it to say that David Cardone has harmed me greatly. Paybacks come when one least expects them.
“As I said earlier, I have plenty of money. I had no need to press Brian to give me a million dollars. After all, the Bethlehem Scroll ended up exactly where I wanted it.”
She felt an unusual sense of euphoria as she listened to him. “So Cardone’s not the big bad godfather he thinks he is,” she said, flashing a huge giddy grin.
That was a strange thing to say, she thought hazily.
“No, Nicole. I am.”
Did he just say that? She sipped her drink as her brain struggled to process what he was saying. She was getting mellower by the minute, enthralled by this charming man. She knew she was half his age but decided a man like Spedino probably would have no issues in the sex department.
What? What am I thinking?
He smiled and patted the seat next to him. “It’s time to sit on this side.” She smiled back, came around and sat very close to him – closer than she had intended. She suddenly felt very comfortable in his presence.
He asked, “Do you want a third drink or should we go to dinner?”
She spoke lazily, finding it hard to put her thoughts into words. “I think a third drink would be dangerous at this point. Want to go to my place? I could make us a nice quiet dinner.”
What? What did I just say?
“Oh sorry. I didn’t mean to say that. Where did that come from?” She stumbled with the words but he patted her knee reassuringly. She looked down; his hand was higher on her thigh now but suddenly it wasn’t a problem.
“If you’re not in the mood to spend time in a restaurant then I’d be happy to see you home safely. And if you’d like to eat at home that sounds wonderful to me. Whatever works for you.”
She held his arm tightly as they walked to the residences. The doorman was away from his post so she unsuccessfully tried twice to enter an access code. Finally she told the godfather the number. He entered it, held the door and helped her into the elevator. Her head was in a fog as the car ascended and she fumbled in her purse trying to find her key.
“Wow, those drinks really hit me. I guess I should have gone to lunch with you after all and gotten something on my stomach.”
She handed her purse to him; he pulled out her key and opened the door. Inside, he walked to her expansive windows and said, “What a spectacle. Dallas at night. I think this city has one of the most wonderful skylines of any in America. The architecture is unbelievable.”
Nicole didn’t hear him – he turned and saw she was no longer in the room. He walked to the door of her bedroom and saw her clothes thrown on the floor. In the half-light she lay sprawled on the bed in her bra and panties. He sat on the bed next to her, running his hand up and down her leg, higher and higher.
“Umm, Brian,” she mumbled. “Get undressed and get my panties off.” Her eyes were closed and she had a small smile on her face.
John Spedino took his time. He took a video recorder from his jacket pocket. He hung his jacket and trousers carefully in her closet and removed his shirt, t-shirt and boxers. His socks were last. He walked to her bed, set the small device on her nightstand, turned it on and said, “Nicole, I want to help Brian by finding out everything I can about this Tomas Rodriguez. Tell me that’s fine with you.”
“Yep,” she murmured. “Thass fine with me.”
“Now roll over.”
She obeyed and he unfastened her bra. She rolled back over and said, “Brian, pull down my panties. I want you…inside me.” Her words came slowly and her eyes stayed closed.
“I want you to say my name, Nicole. I want you to tell John Spedino to get inside of you.”
She mumbled, “John Spedino, take off my panties. Get on top. I want you inside of me.” He removed her underwear and sat next to her on the bed, running his hands up and down her flawless body, missing nothing. He filmed her as she lazily moved her hand to his manhood, wrapping her fingers around it.
“Wow, somebody’s BIG!” she murmured, half asleep. She spread her legs wide apart. “Kiss me all over,” she whispered.
An hour later he made sure Nicole was sound asleep, retrieved the recorder, dressed and let himself out of her condo. He took the elevator down and walked around the corner to the hotel. He had a glass of wine in the bar then went upstairs to bed. After he checked the video he turned off the nightstand lamp. He had everything he needed.
Chapter Nineteen
Nicole awoke with sunlight streaming into the windows of her bedroom. She squinted at the light then winced as she felt what seemed like little hammers beating inside her head. She glanced at the clock. It was 8:25!
My God, I have to be at the office in thirty minutes!
When she stood up she felt dizzy and nauseated. She saw last night’s clothes tossed all over the floor.
What the hell happened?
She remembered going to the bathroom at the hotel, coming back to a second Cosmo and then things began to fade.
How did I get back to my house? What’s going on with me?
She took two aspirins, stood in a hot shower then called the security guard who was to meet her downstairs, telling him she would be a half hour late. She called Ryan and told him to make John Spedino comfortable until she got there. Then she tried to retrace events to figure out what happened last night. She couldn’t show up at the office and ask her client how she got home. That would be ridiculously immature, like the morning after a college frat party.
Part of me wants to think I got drunk because I hadn’t eaten anything. Another part of me is getting really nervous about what else might have happened. Brian warned me about John Spedino. But surely he had nothing to do with this incredible hangover!
An hour earlier, Spedino sat in his room at the Ritz-Carlton and made a brief phone call, initiating a search for information about Tomas Rodriguez. Then he had a light breakfast downstairs and walked to Nicole’s building. Ryan put him in her office and gave him coffee.
Twenty minutes later Nicole and the security guard walked in. Her head throbbed but she tried to ignore it.
“Good morning, John. Sorry I’m late.”
“Good morning. I trust you slept well.”
“Yes, thanks. And thanks for the evening. I’m afraid I may owe you an apology – I know we planned dinner but I don’t think I was very good company.”
“On the contrary. Think nothing of it! I assure you I enjoyed your company immensely. And hopefully you enjoyed mine as well. You seemed to be having a good time.” He smiled broadly and she wondered exactly what he meant.
Drop it, she said to herself. “OK then. Let’s get down to business.”
Chapter Twenty
As the sun rose in the Guatemalan rain forest six adventurers crawled out of their tents with a heightened sense of enthusiasm. Even the two normally stolid Belizean workers were smiling and talking quietly.
“They’re excited to see what lies up the staircase,” Lynne said.
Brian was surprised. “I didn’t realize you spoke Spanish. I know you translated that ancient Spanish document, but you’re a linguist too? My what talents you have.”
“Why thank you, sir. If you’re going to spend time in Central America it’s good to know Spanish. I’m pretty fluent – I can handle a conversation if I have to.”
Brian looked at Sam. “How about you? How much Spanish have you picked up in all your years in Belize?”
“I’m like Lynne. I know enough to talk to the people who work for me at the hotel and to get by. I can speak and understand it pretty well. Odette can too – it’s just something that comes with spending time down here.”
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Since Lynne knew what they were looking for, she asked Alfredo to cut a swath up the stairway. “It might take a few days but the opening has to be big enough for us to easily walk through. Tell them to take their time and don’t push it. It’s hotter than hell in there and we don’t want anyone getting sick from heat prostration.”
The process took two days; the men stopped every couple of hours for a smoke and lots of water. Since there were no extra machetes Lynne and the guys couldn’t help, so they stayed at the campsite killing time while they waited expectantly.
At five Lynne handed the phone to Sam. Brian said, “Can I see that a sec?”
Sam passed the phone to Brian – he saw the battery was at 52%. Only two nights ago it had been at sixty. Furrowing his brow, Brian handed it back.
“What’s up?”
“I don’t know. This is weird. I know you took pictures the other day and I accounted for that. Your phone is losing power faster than it should be assuming it’s turned completely off between the calls we make.”
“It is. Maybe it’s just the iPhone. They’re quirky.”
“Yeah, maybe it is.” He listened as Sam tried the call once, then again.
“No signal. I guess we’re lucky this is the first time that’s happened.”
“It goes in and out,” Lynne reminded him. “Try it again in ten minutes.”
This time it worked. He spoke briefly, disconnected and handed the phone to Brian.
“Collette asked that you call.”
His assistant passed along Arthur’s report that his mother was dying. “He sounded so despondent. Please let me know as soon as you find out anything – you may be his only hope.”
Brian discussed Arthur’s call with the others and decided it would be heartless to get anyone’s hopes up until they had something concrete to report.
Before he handed it back, he glanced at the screen. “Fifty percent battery. Hope our trip ends before the phone dies.”
Immediately after dinner the exhausted workers went to bed. Lynne and the guys took the watch duties to allow the Belizeans a night off.
The next morning Lynne took Alfredo into the jungle down the newly cut trail. She climbed the stairway and they measured.
“Eighty feet,” he called up to her.
Back at camp Lynne gave the workers a pep talk. She figured the top wasn’t far away. “Let’s keep the same steady effort today and maybe we can find what we need.” The men went to work.
Within an hour Alfredo came back with good news. “We are above the trees now. At this height the staircase is covered in grass and low vegetation but you can see upwards because the treetops are below us.”
The three excitedly snaked through the vine-covered tunnel up nearly ninety feet. Toward the top they popped out into bright sunlight and saw the two workmen sitting about ten feet above them on the stairs, smiling broadly.
“Esta es la parte superior,” one said as he patted the ground next to him.
Lynne let out a war whoop. “They’re sitting on the top!”
Like before, the mountains towered majestically around them. The platform where they stood was covered in grass and waist-high vegetation, nothing like the dense growth they’d come through. Below them a mass of green jungle extended for a hundred miles in every direction.
“This is more like it,” Lynne murmured. “Guys, this isn’t a temple. It’s the plaza at the top of a stairway that the Mayans cut into the side of this mountain. So far everything matches the description in the letter.”
Brian pointed to his right. “Look at that!” A hundred feet away a crevice cut into the side of a mountain.
The aperture was wide enough for only one person at a time to pass through and It was full of scrub brush. As the workers cleared it, Lynne complained, “I feel like a kid at Christmas when someone else is getting to open presents and I have to wait. I want to see what’s on the other side!” They all agreed it was hard to be patient even for only fifteen minutes.
When the workers came out they were smiling broadly as though they had a secret. Lynne and the others scrambled through. The passage was only thirty feet long; it opened onto a broad flat expanse of grass ringed by ten thousand foot mountains. They stopped in their tracks and looked at what stood in front of them. There was an ancient stone building with a dark doorway in its middle and statues on either side depicting enormous crouching jaguars.
“Those are the protectors,” Lynne said reverently. “The Mayans put them here. We’ve found it.”
Chapter Twenty-One
By mid-afternoon Nicole was struggling. Her head nodded occasionally as she vainly tried to make notes of their discussion.
Finally Spedino said, “Let’s stop for today. You seem tired. I was hoping you might join me for dinner this evening and if you feel up to it I would enjoy that very much.”
“I apologize for this afternoon. I guess I didn’t sleep as well last night as I thought. Thanks but no, tonight I’m going to stay in so I’ll be ready for our meeting tomorrow. We only have a couple of days left before you leave, right?”
“Yes. I’m going back to New York on Sunday so we only have tomorrow and Saturday. I don’t mind working on the weekend if you don’t.”
She assured him weekends were part of the routine. After agreeing to start at nine tomorrow, she showed Spedino out, shut the door and collapsed into her chair. She was physically drained and mentally exhausted. And it was only three o’clock. Still clueless about last night, she packed her notes into a briefcase and buzzed Ryan to call the security guard to accompany her home, saying she wasn’t feeling well.
When Spedino arrived at the Ritz-Carlton the message light was blinking on the phone in his room. His life would have been much simpler had he chosen to use cell phones like everyone else did, but John Spedino didn’t trust the technology. He knew it was possible to intercept calls, to see numbers called and received and to record conversations. His calls were sensitive to say the least, and he decided long ago that he’d stick with landline phones.
He listened to the message then pulled a small PDA from his pocket. Every entry in the device was encoded and he quickly scrolled to the information he needed, picked up the hotel phone and placed a call to Guatemala.
“You know who this is. I will be there on Sunday afternoon. I want to talk to Jorge Arocha face to face. Arrange it for someplace quiet – you know what I mean? You never know how this meeting might end.” He listened a moment and replied sharply, “I don’t care what it takes. I don’t care how important he thinks he is. I decide when we meet. And you will make sure he’s there.” He hung up.
He arranged for his Gulfstream G350 to depart Love Field at 9:30 Sunday morning then called his limo driver. Before five he was sipping a dry martini at Al Biernat’s Steakhouse. The unique bar there was one of his favorites when he was in Dallas and Al knew him by name. Never mind that Al had a reputation for knowing everyone by name. It suited Spedino just fine.
By the time Randall Carter arrived John was on his second drink.
“How’d it go?” Carter asked. “Did Nicole grill you until you couldn’t take any more?”
“We stopped early today. I think she had a bug and she wasn’t feeling well. I’m sure tomorrow morning she’ll be back in good form. Let’s get down to business.” He dropped his voice to a whisper. “How’s my mortgage brokerage operation going? Are we still making money?”
“It is indeed,” Carter responded quietly. “The nominee shareholders in Antigua are holding regular board meetings and I’ve attended every one on behalf of the Panama trust which owns the company’s shares. You should have received last month’s financials by now – have you been getting them every month?”
Spedino affirmed that he had.
Carter continued. “The company is really growing, John. In fact I worry about how big it is. I know you wanted it set up as an offshore corporation but I have to advise you again that the avoidance of U.S. taxes is one thing – th
at’s a good business practice. The evasion of taxes is another thing entirely. This company has U.S. owners. You know it and I know it too. As I told you when we set it up, you need to file a U.S. income tax return.”
Spedino smiled and patted his attorney on the arm. “John, I’ll never presume to tell you how to practice law. You run your business and I’ll run mine.”
The topic of conversation turned to football as the two men were seated at their table for dinner and a fine bottle of Bordeaux wine.
Chapter Twenty-Two
By the time they wrapped things up on Saturday Nicole felt comfortable that his case was under control. She had probed into his past, knowing there were parts he had chosen to gloss over. There had been others where he frankly admitted strong-arming his way into or out of this deal or that.
“I’ve done things of which I’m not proud,” he said to her at one point. “I’m sure we all have. But I have beaten the Feds over and over. This trumped-up fraud charge is a figment of the imagination of Francois Rochefort, a man whose criminal record is well documented. As usual, the government has cast a wide net and caught the wrong fish. They have no evidence other than a felon’s testimony. With you as my counsel, I’ll be fine.”
She walked him to the elevator and he asked if she’d like company on her walk back to the Ritz-Carlton.
“No thanks. I’m staying a while longer to get my notes ready for Ryan to compile on Monday.”
“I’d appreciate it if you’d ride to the airport with me tomorrow, Nicole. I’m leaving early – I have something to show you and I promise I’ll have the driver drop you back home in plenty of time to have the rest of your Sunday to yourself.”
That was a simple request. Why not?
“Sure. I’ll be happy to do that.”
At eight-thirty Sunday morning the sedan swung into the driveway of Nicole’s building. She slipped into the back seat next to John.
Brian Sadler Archaeological Mysteries BoxSet Page 45
