“Luke’s right.” I squeezed Anton’s shoulder. “They knew what they were doing. No one would have noticed them or what they did.”
“Of course he’s right,” Canny said. “Look at them. Misdirection is their game.”
As we watched, the two bad drag queens pretended to be concerned and attempted to help Marsha. The grainy, blown up section of the video showed them taking her by the arms, patting her back, and leading her away down a cross street. That’s the last we saw of her. The camera then moved and swept the area. When the view returned to where it’d been, there was only an empty street, pixilated and gritty. Luke brought the focus back to normal and the Dragettes came back into the picture moving along down the street, continuing their antics. Then the screen went black for a second.
“That’s when the card filled up and I put in a new one,” Anton said sadly. Just as he finished the screen lit up again with the parade and the drag dancers, but without Marsha in the background.
“Looks like you didn’t miss much when you changed cards,” Canny said. “You got it all on the other card.”
“I missed everything!” Anton said, voice tight. He clenched and unclenched his fists. His muscles were knotty when I laid a hand on his back. “I concentrated on shooting the damned video without paying attention to what I was really looking at.”
“How could you know what to look for? Don’t beat yourself up,” I said, trying to sooth some of the tension by rubbing his back. “At least we’ve got the video. We’ll give it to the police and they’ll know what to do.”
“They won’t do anything,” Anton said. “You know as well as I do, they’ve already put this down as an accident.”
“I’ll make sure they do something. I’ll call Marsha’s friends. We’ll raise a stink all the way to City Hall. Don’t worry, Anton.”
“I know you will. But…” He hesitated and for a moment he seemed beaten down. I knew Anton well and I knew he was far from defeated. I could see the anger building. I saw it in his tensed fists, in the set of his jaw, and in the darkening blue of his eyes.
“Let’s run the video again, Luke. I wanna make sure I didn’t miss anything.”
“I’m sorry but I can’t watch it again.” Anton stood abruptly. “I know you have to, it’s what you do. I’ve seen what I have to and I can’t watch her being harmed again.” He glanced around as if he were trapped in a room with no doors. “I’ve gotta get out of here for a while. I’ll take a walk and figure out what I should do.”
“The park out front of this building is kinda nice for relaxing,” Canny said. “There’s a statue of a little dog there. A Scottie. He helps me think when I’m confused. Helped me through a lot of things. Just sit and look at him. I guarantee he’ll talk to you.”
“Thanks, Canny.” Anton looked around at us. “I’m sorry. I’m a mess and I won’t be much help anyway.”
I walked Anton to the door and placed a hand to his cheek. “Come back up when you feel better,” I said softly. “We’ll all go to dinner. Someplace nice,” I said. “We’ll toast Marsha’s memory.”
He closed the door gently behind him and I went back to the video room.
“Poor guy looks lost,” Luke said.
“He’ll be all right,” Canny said. “I can see the strength in him. Good kid.”
“Let’s get through this video another time or two before we call in the police,” I said and Luke hit the switch.
It was only after the video began running again and we’d watched a few minutes that the thought hit me. I’d been so engrossed in trying to squeeze more information from the video, I’d forgotten everything else. But then it hit me.
The car that’d been tailing us might be waiting outside. Probably would be trolling the neighborhood for any sign of us. After everything that had happened, it wasn’t hard to figure that Anton was the one they were after. More to the point, they probably wanted the video he’d taken. That’s the only thing that made sense.
I jumped up. “We’ve got to catch him!”
“Catch who?” Luke was startled.
“What’s going on?!” Canny stood dumbfounded as I moved past him.
“Anton! Tell you why after we intercept him. C’mon, Luke.” I flew down the hall and out the door with Luke close behind.
The elevators in Canny’s building were notoriously slow. With a lead of ten minutes or so, there was no way we’d get from the nineteenth floor to the lobby in time to intercept him. But we had to try.
I smacked the elevator button for the fifth time and the elevator doors slid open.
We jumped in and I hit the lobby button.
“What’s this all about?” Luke asked sounding bewildered.
“Remember the car tailing us on the way here?” I asked.
“Yeah. Kinda forgot about it, though.”
“We’ve been tailed ever since Anton was attacked.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“Not sure, Luke. But I’ll bet it’s all connected to Anton and the video. Whoever it is must think Anton got them on video. And by ‘them’ I mean whoever it is that harmed Marsha. That’s clear to me now.”
“Okay, but what’s that got to do with us rushing out of the building?”
“It’s Anton. I was so wrapped up reviewing the video, I forgot about the car that’d tailed us. After Anton left the apartment is when I remembered.”
“You think they’re waiting for him? That’s great, just great. We’ll be lucky if we find him. The bastards better not touch Anton. Otherwise…” Luke angrily punched the button for the lobby a few times, but the elevator descended at it’s own sweet speed.
***
“Anton wasn’t anywhere in that park you mentioned,” I said to Canny when we returned to his apartment after a frantic search of the grounds and the surrounding streets. “He’s also nowhere in the vicinity.
Canny seemed stunned. He stood shaking his head at all the coming and going. He’d even let us back in without any of his usual OCD maneuvers, which meant that he was really shaken up.
“We looked up and down as many streets as we reasonably could. But I knew if we didn’t spot him right away, it would be useless to keep looking.” I repeated the information about the attack on the street and the car tailing us.
“Just because you didn’t find him, doesn’t mean he was kidnapped.” Canny reassured us as he poured coffee for each of us.
“That’s true, Marco,” Luke said. “Anton is Anton. He probably wandered down some street and ducked into a café or a restaurant.” Luke touched my hand. “He’s tough. He can take care of himself if he needs to.”
“I’m giving it an hour. If we don’t hear from him, I’m getting the police involved. We’ve got the video. Maybe they can find something in it to go on.”
“Let’s review the footage again. Maybe we’ll see something we missed.” Luke was already at the video equipment. The giant monitor flickered back on.
We watched Anton’s video again. The fake drag queens didn’t look familiar in the least. Thuggish, muscular guys under the dresses, they knew what they were doing and did it efficiently. If they’d used a chemical, they probably made sure there was no way to tell afterward. The body was so mangled there’d be no marks and they’d probably used something that’d be undetectable in an ordinary tox screen. I stared at the action over and over trying to latch onto something but it wasn’t happening. I needed time but we couldn’t wait much longer. I wanted to get the police involved before more time was wasted.
Just as that thought occurred to me, my cell phone rang. I tensed up and could see that even Luke was alarmed. Obviously both of us had the same thought: this couldn’t be good.
“Maybe it’s Anton,” I said without much conviction before I looked down and saw “Unknown Caller” on the screen. This was not good at all.
“It isn’t him, is it?” Luke peered at me.
Canny stared at the cell phone as if it were alive. “What’s going on, Marco?”
“I guess we’ll see.” I pressed a button. “Fontana.”
A voice struggling to speak. A strangled cry. Then silence.
“Anton?” I whispered.
“Marco. You gotta—” Something interrupted his frantic cry and my stomach did a flip.
“Anton. What’s going on.”
“Somebody— fuck!” He sounded angrier and more sure now. “Get your hands off! I’ll tell them myself. Marco? They want—” It sounded as if the receiver was ripped from his hands. Someone else was on the line.
“Fontana?” A male voice, rough and crude.
“Who is this?”
“Never mind that. We got your friend here and you have something we want.”
“And…”
“And we’re gonna make a trade. You got no alternative, Fontana. Make the trade or your friend don’t get to go home.”
“All right.” I tried sounding calm. “What is it you want?”
“The video from the camcorder, wise ass. You bring the memory cards, we’ll bring your friend. All wrapped with a nice pink bow.”
“How can I be sure you’ll do as you say?”
“You can’t. But you don’t got much choice, do you? Don’t do it, your friend is ground beef. Do it and he’s home free.”
“When and where?”
“We’ll call you with the details. No funny stuff. And no police.”
The click of the phone breaking the connection was like the crack of a rifle. I was worried about Anton. He’s not one to be taken down easily and that could get him hurt. I knew he could take care of himself, I’d seen him at the gym and he was formidable. That might not be enough now, though. He was obviously outnumbered, and those guys didn’t sound like they were fooling around. I didn’t think we had a whole lot of choice.
“Anton’s in trouble?” Luke sat next to me, placed an arm around my shoulder. “Is it what you thought?”
“Yeah, the video. They’ve got Anton and they want the video.”
Canny stared at us silently, while he opened and closed his fingers obsessively.
“Give ‘em the video. This is not worth Anton’s life.” Luke said.
“They’ve killed Marsha.” Canny’s voice shook. “There’s no guarantee—”
“We’ve got no choice. I’m not letting Anton hang. He knows we’ll get him back,” I insisted. “The kidnappers said they’d call with details.”
“So, what do we do now?” Canny asked.
“This gives us time to think,” I said.
“Let’s keep searching the video for something. That’s got to be the key. If we find anything, maybe…” Luke moved toward the video equipment.
“You’re right.” I took a deep breath. I had to stay focused no matter what Anton might mean to me. I had to deal with this. “Let’s run it again and see what we can find.”
“Shouldn’t you get these memory cards to the police?” Canny said.
“They’ll kill Anton if we bring in the police. I’m not taking the risk. They want the video, they’ll get the video.” I glared at Canny and he shrank back.
“But, the police—”
“They won’t do much anyway,” Luke said. “They’re calling this an accident. This video won’t change anything. You know that.”
“I don’t like cutting out the police, either. But if the kidnappers don’t get the memory cards, Anton is history.” Then it dawned on me. Here we were in the middle of a tech playground. “What am I thinking!? Look where we are. There’s a way to give ‘em what they want and let the police in on this, too.”
“That’s it.” Luke said. He was brighter than any ten people, and he could read my mind at times. I was sure he was thinking the same thing. “Yeah, we can do this.”
“Somebody gonna let Canny know what it is we can do?” Canny said from his new perch in a corner of the room.
“We’ve gotta play this right,” I said. “We can give the kidnappers their memory cards and get Anton back. At the same time we can give the video to the police. But we’ve gotta do it carefully.”
“We can’t let the cops come in and try to run the show.”
“No,” Canny said, confused. “Of course — of course not.”
“We can’t let the police know about Anton or the memory cards. We just call them and tell ‘em we’ve got pertinent information to the case on Marsha.”
“Right, but we all know, once we give them the video, they’ll start asking a lotta questions. They could screw everything up,” Luke said.
“I have a friend…” Canny said hesitantly and I assumed he was going to launch into one of his inspirational speeches.
“We don’t have time for a story, Canny. We’ve gotta study the video once more before we decide how to handle all this.”
“Wasn’t going to try and inspire you, Marco.” Canny looked hurt.
“I’m sorry, Canny. The kidnappers might call any time and I want to be ready.”
“My friend Sarge is a police Lieutenant and he has authority over different labs and such. You remember Sarge don’t you?”
“I really can’t— oh, yeah. Big guy, right? How can he help?”
“I’ll call him, see what he thinks,” he said, moving toward the phone. “And don’t worry. I won’t give anything away.”
“Do me a favor, Canny?”
“What do you call everything I’m already doing?” He smiled.
“When you talk to Sarge, just tell him that the video on your hard drive is all there is. See? We can let Sarge view it on your monitor. I need the memory cards and I don’t want him to know they exist. I’m planning something and if it works out, I’ll give the cards to the police when I’m through with them.”
Canny shook his head in disbelief. “I’ll do it, Marco, but you’re making a criminal out of me.” He paused, wiggled his eyebrows, and smiled. “I kinda like it.”
Then he picked up the phone while Luke and I reviewed the video. Very little that was new stood out. I could make out a smudge of a tattoo on one guy’s arm but the details were impossible. Luke ran the video back and forth several times and then, on the I-don’t-know-which-run, I noticed something.
“Feels like we’ve been going over and over the same material but something’s missing. Is there a card we haven’t viewed more than once?” Something felt wrong.
“We’ve been concentrating on the videos Anton said were the most important. The ones with Marsha and those guys.”
“I have a feeling there’s something else. Let’s look at what we haven’t gone over more than once or twice. Can you pull up those files?”
“No problem,” Luke said. “Here you go.” He tapped a key and the video started. It was after the incident with Marsha. Anton had obviously been recording the Dragettes as they regrouped after their routine. The usual lag between floats and groups in the parade, gave them time to take a break and get themselves together again. No one seemed to notice that Marsha was missing. No one looked alarmed or upset. Anton kept the recorder going on every little detail of their movements.
“I thought we’d missed something. Look at that. See? Let’s run through it again, Luke.”
“What’d you see?” Luke asked as he tapped buttons to start it again.
Canny came up behind us. “Sarge will be over in a little,” he announced. “He said you’ve gotta turn in the video but he’ll buy you a little time because of Anton. He says he can take a look though and see if he recognizes anybody. He was undercover for a lot of years—”
“Great.” I interrupted what I knew would be a long story. “Now sit down and be an extra pair of eyes on this video.” I ordered. As much as Canny might protest, I did know that he loved taking orders. Especially if the man giving them wore a uniform. The stories he’d told me.
We watched as Luke ran the video again. The Dragettes picked up pieces of their costumes that had fallen off during the performance and placed them in a box being carried by one of their staff. Now and then they mugged f
or Anton as he recorded but they kept milling around looking for whatever they might’ve dropped and cleaning up the area as well. As we watched, someone else came into frame.
“Look at that guy.” I said.
“What guy?” Canny squinted at the screen.
“One of the thugs in bad drag. One of the ones who took Marsha. He came back.” Luke pointed to a figure on the screen. “What’s he doing?”
“He’s looking for something on the ground. Looking and getting frustrated.” I answered, wondering just what he’d lost and if he’d eventually found it.
The guy’s head snapped up as if he’d heard something and his wig slid off to the side. Glancing from side to side, he then looked straight at the camera and at Anton. His eyes narrowed to slits and his face stiffened with anger. Wearing his dress as if it were a pair of overalls, he moved forward menacingly and shouted. “Stop fucking filming me or I’ll bash—”
He was stopped mid-sentence by Hedda who’d entered the frame and whacked the guy across his head with her outsized handbag.
“Leave him alone. He’s got a right to film. If you don’t like it, shove off.” Hedda hurriedly pushed the guy nearly out of frame. Several of the Dragettes ran over to surround the guy, and whopped him with whatever they held until he was on the ground. I almost felt sorry for the guy.
But, the kidnapper jumped up, snarled aggressively, and scattered the Dragettes, who ran screaming in all directions.
Looking angrily at the camera and Anton, again, he said, “This ain’t finished. I want the video.” The next thing I saw was Hedda moving in on him with her bag again. To his credit, Anton kept filming.
The guy glanced at Hedda, then ran off down the cross street, his dress more tattered and dirty than before. Trailing a length of torn, puce-colored material behind him, he ran to a car parked in the distance. The same Chrysler I’d seen tailing us. He was far down the block but I could see him approach the car, lift his dress, and hop into the passenger seat. The small sound of the door slamming shut was almost lost in other sounds. After a moment, the old Chrysler took off and sped away turning a corner in the distance.
Crimes on Latimer: From the Early Cases of Marco Fontana Page 29
