We gave our second round of the two untouched glasses of Champagne to the Bride at the table behind us. I drank one glass of cheap champagne and Jess maybe had a couple of sips.
Back in the car, Jess said, “You know what I’ve always wondered about when I come out of a place like that?”
“I can’t imagine. What?”
“Men are such creatures of comfort, I always wonder how they can wear those G-Strings or those thong suits. You know how uncomfortable underwear like that is?”
“After everything we saw in there, that’s what you came out wondering?” I asked her. “G.I. Joe—our waiter and the man I lusted after when I saw him without a shirt—is a very nice Security Guard in Jiff’s building, married with two kids, and another one on the way.”
“Oh, don’t worry about him. If Rod sent him over to wait on us, he trusts him. Besides, he didn’t look surprised when he saw you. I told you that get up would work.”
“That really isn’t my point. I feel kinda sleazy having looked at him the way I did,” I said.
“You’re kidding, right? Men do it. We’re as human as they are,” she said and looked non-pulsed.
“I wonder what his pregnant wife thinks, if she even knows he’s doing this. He told us he worked security at the condos for extra money,” I said.
“Maybe he practices his moves at home. It might be why she’s pregnant with their third child, ever think of that?”
“No, I guess I didn’t,” I said.
“His wife is probably thrilled with the extra cash if they have three kids on a military salary,” she said. “Did you get anything from Rod? I saw him nuzzling you. That’s when he passes info.”
“Yes, and one thing I didn’t want to know.”
“If it’s about any of Big Al’s businesses, you need to discuss it with Bev,” Jess said. “I try to know very little of what he does or is into. I try to ignore any and all of his goings on to maintain plausible deniability as Bev puts it.”
Chapter Fourteen
Jess asked me to call Officer Bev on the way back to the condo to meet us there. As I made the call, a flashing blue light came up behind our car and the loudspeaker told us to pull over. We had just left the parking lot. We barely were going twenty miles per hour. Jess pulled off the highway into another business parking lot that was well lit.
Bev answered her cell phone as one of the patrolmen turned on the siren.
“Bev, Jess is being pulled over on Highway 98. We just left the Male Review. We are pulling over into the Olive Garden Restaurant parking lot,” I said.
“I’ll be right there,” she said. “Don’t hang up. Leave this line open.”
Two big, overweight cops were getting out of their car and walking up either side of Jess’ car.
“Step out of the vehicle with your hands up,” one said to Jess.
“You too, Blondie,” the other one said to me.
“Officer, what are we being pulled over for?” I asked ever so politely.
“We think you got cocaine on you or in your car,” the one on Jess’ side said.
Just then, Bev pulled into the parking lot and rolled down her window and asked the one on my side, “What’s going on?”
“Stay out of this. We got it,” my side said.
“Sorry, but if you’re going to search them or the car, I’m going to stay here so I can testify it’s a good search. She’s my sister,” Bev said nodding to Jess. “She’s our cousin,” she said nodding at me. “Neither one is gonna have anything narcotic on them. So, if you’re gonna search either of them or the car, I’m gonna be present as a witness just so there’s no misunderstanding.” She started to get out of her patrol car.
The two looked at each other and the cop on Jess’ side said, “Get outta here,” to us. To Bev, “I hope you remember this when it’s one of us who needs a pass.”
“No pass involved. They’re not holding anything. Go ahead and look,” she said and took out a gigantic handheld flashlight that had to be two feet long—a wicked-looking laser with eye-blinding candlepower.
“Well, you might think about minding your own business, then,” the one on my side told her as they got back into their vehicle.
“Maybe I need to call the Captain and do a search of all of our vehicles right here. Wanna wait for him?” Bev asked.
They didn’t answer. They drove off in a hurry.
“What was that all about?” I asked. “Were we gonna be set up?”
“Looks like it. Those two have more drug busts than everyone else put together, and I’ve heard it rumored it’s because they find stuff that’s not there until they look. It could be you ruffled someone’s feathers in Big Al’s,” Bev said.
“I don’t think so,” Jess said, “but Brandy said she knew two guys in there and one was meeting with Big Al.”
“Let’s get back to your condo and talk about this. I don’t want Jess hearing any more than she has to. I’ll be there a few minutes after you. I have to stop for gas.”
Jess and I were met with a strange look from Jiff until I remembered we had the pink and purple stripes in our hair along with some flashy earrings, bracelets and blood red lipstick.
“All this,” I said sweeping my hand up and down from my head to my feet, “was so I’d fit in and not draw attention to myself.”
“That look kept you from drawing attention to yourself?” he looked flabbergasted.
“You had to be there,” I said and Jess nodded. “What’s important is who else was there. And you won’t guess.”
Waiting on Jiff to recover from our updated appearance which was taking a little longer than I thought, I went to the door and Officer Bev Frederick was on the other side about to knock when I opened it.
“Hey,” she said to everyone in general.
“We were just going to tell him what we found out, and what happened. It’s a good thing you’re here too so we don’t have to repeat it,” I said.
“I didn’t think I wanted Jess here since she could have plausible deniability. Did Rod give you the info?” she asked me.
“See I told you she’d say that,” Jess said to me.
I nodded.
“Well, after that bogus stop to search, I don’t think you’ll be working for Big Al anymore,” Bev said to Jess.
“Why not? You don’t think he sent those two goons?” Jess asked.
“What two goons? What stop?” Jiff asked looking from face to face to see if anyone would give him an answer.
“If Big Al saw you in there, on a night he was having a meet with someone, I bet he would suspect you were working for me,” Bev said. “Or that she’s working for us.” Bev nodded at me.
“We saw him in there, at the bar,” Jess said. “I didn’t think he saw me but my name was on the VIP list. Hot Rod put it on there so we’d get right in.”
“You won’t believe who was with Big Al in there,” I said to Jiff.
“Please start at the beginning and only one of you talk at a time,” Jiff said. “Please?”
“Jess and I got there and everything was fairly normal, well, normal for an All Male Review. Rod came by and told me that Big Al was in the back meeting with someone who moves his money around for the drops. He said he overheard Al talking about changing a drop time and location since the girl was murdered and there was heat. He didn’t know his name and that they would be out after they concluded their business to have a drink at the bar. Rod also said, they wouldn’t stay long, only one drink. Male dancers aren’t their thing.”
Jiff rolled his eyes.
“That’s exactly what they did. Big Al and another guy came out and Brandy texted me she knew two men in the place and one was with Big Al,” Jess said.
“Who was it?” Jiff asked me.
“Daniel,” I answered almost ready to burst with the information.
“No, you must be wrong,” he said.
“It was definitely Daniel,” I said to him. Turning to Jess and Bev, I asked if one of them could tell Jiff about th
e two cops that pulled us over. I needed a quiet minute to process some of this. “I’m going to the ladies’ room.”
In the quiet of the bathroom, I laid down on the marble floor. It was cool and calming. It allowed the tension to dissolve out of my body so I could think. The facts I had all seemed to stack like pancakes but nothing was in order. Everything seemed out of place. What had been bothering me was Daniel.
Daniel having Rascal seemed like too big of a coincidence. Then the two guys turn up when we’re away at dinner to mug him. He conveniently happened to be on the end of the pier waiting for us so they could find him easily. These facts had been gnawing on me since that next morning when we took Daniel back to his yacht and Ashley/Abby was waiting for us. Now, I needed to figure out how she was involved with Daniel and Big Al.
I have always believed that our parallel universes bounce off each other, cross over one another or collide when there’s a good reason for them to. Maybe one person is in a universe doing something. Another person in another universe is doing something related and can help figure it out if we shared the same space even if it’s only for a nanosecond. I was waiting for the collision with a helpful universe.
Since we found the dead girl on the beach, I felt like my atoms were orbiting in my head trying to find the ones they were supposed to line up with. To make a molecule, or in my case, a complete thought.
Jiff was pacing when I came out the bathroom.
“This is exactly what I was afraid of,” he said. “These guys are not playing around. You could have had a felony charge on you two tonight and jail time if this played out.”
I hated when he was right. I hated it even more when he scared me by being right. This wasn’t a good time to tell him he was also right about the male review audience being similar to a wrestling match crowd.
“How well can you trust Mike Perricone?” I asked Bev. “I know he’s a glory hound but do you think he’s clean?”
“I can’t prove he’s done any wrong doing, and he’s a giant pain in the tuchus,” Bev said. “I just don’t trust him.”
“Well, I don’t think we should give him the last flash drive I found,” I said to Jiff. “Even if we tell him what happened and who I saw, I doubt it will make him more considerate of our help.”
“I wouldn’t count on him to act any differently than he did the last time you gave him something you found,” Bev said. “I’ve got a better idea. This is over Perricone’s pay grade, anyway. Mine too.”
Bev put in a call to her Captain, who called his FBI counterpart who told her he was coming to meet all of us himself to see what had developed.
Chapter Fifteen
Area Director Steve Sorenson knocked on our condo door several times before he woke one of us up. It was two-thirty a.m. into Tuesday. We all fell asleep in the living room waiting on his arrival. With him was Bev’s Captain, Claire Duffy with the Police Department.
Bev gave the Area Director and Captain an overview from how we all met when Jiff and I discovered the body, found Rascal, and what we heard and saw tonight at the All Male Review. I thought sparks would fly when the Area Director asked why Bev would enlist the help of civilians, meaning me.
Bev was calm, said we both did similar work to help the New Orleans Police Department from time to time. We found the body and the dog along with the flash drives. Now, I had a good idea of what the codes on those drives meant.
“Here’s what I found inside Rascal’s collar that was hidden under the clasp,” I held out my hand with the last flash drive. “The other sleeve I found and gave to Mike Perricone was rather obvious. This flash drive was separate from those and harder to notice. The data on this one seems more current,” I said.
“More current, how?” Steve Sorenson asked.
“Well, for one thing, the date for what I assume is the payoff for the recent murder was not logged as paid. It does, however, have a drop location and an amount. It was Al Flashpole’s dock box for his Big Al’s Fishing Boat in the Destin Harbor Marina. It looks like DHB108 on this file for Wednesday.”
“There were at least five other entries with no dates, but with the drop off locations and amounts. I think you have to watch them or go to them and open those lockers or dock boxes to find the money,” Jiff said.
“So, we take the money, then what?” Sorenson asked. “We can’t prove its money for a hit or payoff.”
“We sit on the locations and see who comes looking for it. Or, we wait and see who comes looking for Big Al for not paying up,” Captain Claire Duffy said.
“That’s what I was thinking,” I said. “I think Big Al is the contact with Abby’s ex-husband. He has Daniel pick up money from him or some other place, maybe the Caymans, and put it in a drop location. I don’t think Daniel knows the particulars.”
“Daniel?” both Sorenson and Duffy asked.
“Daniel Becnel. He owns a big, fast, catamaran, has access to all of Big Al’s cigarette boats and he’s the one Hot Rod pointed out to me at the All Male Review. He said he moves Big Al’s money,” I said. “Rod didn’t know his name, but I did. I would bet you find the money in those locations in a black, Patagonia, waterproof duffle bag. He had a stack of them in a cabinet on his yacht.”
“You were on this guy’s yacht?” Captain Claire Duffy asked.
“I booked an evening sail with him,” Jiff answered. “Turns out we knew each other from law school in New Orleans. He told me he travels around booking trips on his catamaran from here to the islands now. He no longer practices law in New Orleans.”
I nodded in agreement and added, “We sailed with him Saturday night, the night he was mugged, and he told us he was leaving for the BVI Sunday morning. I just saw him with Big Al in the All Male Review. He’s not in the BVI.”
“How do we find this guy, Daniel and his boat?” Captain Duffy asked.
“The name of his seventy-seven-foot catamaran is In Your Dreams,” Jiff said.
“Daniel claims he files a sail plan with the Coast Guard,” I said. “It might be worthwhile to see if he’s filed one out of Pensacola to the BVI, or to any other marina around here. It was not in a slip in the Pensacola Marina because his catamaran is too big. He was at the end of pier nine and there was a notation on this flash drive that read PBH9999. If he wasn’t in a numbered slip, that’s the code for a guest slip at the end of a pier. The Harbormaster would have to confirm where he could dock in the marina. That goes for any marina. I took it to mean someone was supposed to meet him there.”
“He certainly moves around in plain sight if he’s on a big yacht and calling in a sail plan with the Coast Guard,” Sorenson said.
“Well, it makes him look legit. A guy with a big boat like that might keep a lot of cash with him in case of emergencies if he’s down in the islands. A boat that size can’t be cheap to fill up or get a part for,” Captain Duffy said. She added, “My family has had every kinda sailboat you can imagine, and none of them are cheap to repair. Every foot of a boat’s length adds exponentially to the upkeep and fuel it takes to operate one.”
“I’d like to get one of the agents in cyber-crime to take a look at this with the both of you. Ms. Alexander, Mr. Heinkel, would you mind?” Sorenson asked.
“Not at all. We’d be happy to do it later today. We’re supposed to leave tomorrow,” I said answering for the two of us. I knew Jiff did not want to do this. He wanted to spend what little vacation we had left, vacationing.
“We can add a day or two if needed,” Jiff said. “Brandy has to be back in New Orleans by Friday.”
“I’ll have someone contact you…” he looked at his watch and said, “later today, around ten a.m. If that’s okay?”
Jiff and I nodded. A few hours’ sleep was about all we were going to get until they sent the tech over from Cyber Crimes, but an hour sounded good right now. We said goodbye to Bev, Jess, Captain Duffy and Area Director Sorenson. On the way out, Bev and her captain lagged behind.
“If you don’t mind, we’d li
ke to contact you further on this if we need some help finding this Daniel and his yacht,” Captain Duffy said.
“Sure, anything you need,” I said and then asked Bev, “Did you ever hear from Ashley Westlake again after I said she showed up at that pier Sunday morning?”
“No, why?”
“No reason. I just wondered if she’s still around,” I said. “I think she’s Abby Westlake, and her sister, Ashley was the one accidently killed in her place.” I looked at Officer Bev and said, “You would know the difference, right?”
“Maybe, but I haven’t seen either one in years. Jess would be better at telling them apart,” she said.
“Why do you think that?” Captain Duffy asked me.
“Just something about the way she wanted to make sure Rascal, was out of harm’s way here. She knew he had been neutered and gave me money to update his shots. It just didn’t track with someone the dog didn’t belong to,” I said.
“How do you mean?” Captain Duffy asked.
“She wanted him to have all of his things, bed, toys, etc. Only someone who really cares about the dog and feels forced to give them up, worries about things like that,” I said. “They want to send things that belong to the dog, like the bed or toys, thinking it will make the transition easier.”
“It might be worth a follow up with her. I’ll stop by her place tomorrow after we see where this sailboat is,” Officer Bev said, and they left.
“It’s three o’clock in the morning. If we’re lucky, we can get five hours of sleep before they send over their tech wonder boy to see what you think those codes mean,” Jiff said as we got in bed.
Jiff fell fast asleep and started snoring. The man could sleep anywhere. One Mardi Gras, we camped out early on the neutral ground all day to define our space for the Endymion Parade. Jiff fell asleep on our blanket while the parade passed and people stepped over him to get to their blankets. I had to wake him up when his friends’ float approached so we could yell and get them to throw us stuff. I was still wired from the entire night and fell into a fitful sleep thinking about Abby and Ashley, wondering if what I thought was true. Something about the meeting on the pier kept coming back as odd. Was Ashley the one murdered and Abby convinced everyone it was really her so she could hide under her sister’s identity? Jess seemed to think so, but Jess hadn’t seen the woman who met us on the pier. Was it to escape her ex-husband or to escape with Big Al?
Dog Gone And Dead Page 11
