Shadows of Doubt

Shadows of Doubt Page 14

by Corcoran, Mell

  “I want each of you to pick two possible choices. Either from your own team or from one of the subs. Ultimately it will be up to me to pick, but we’ll work them out together here while we are reorganizing. See how the dynamic goes. We’ll use the alternates here for local enforcement. This place is a fucking mess and it’s my fault for not doing this a long time ago.” Max accepted he had failed. All fifty states were his responsibility but he had gotten lax over the years with California. He had faith that his local agents were doing what he had entrusted them to do, accepting reports at face value. He knew better now. Max was going to have to spend some serious live and in person time making sure people were doing exactly what they were being paid very well to do.

  “You want me to hang back in D.C. and make sure things get settled the way you want them to?”

  That was something else Max had considered carefully. “I think I need you here Niko. Finn likes the crap on the hill so I think I’ll have him hang there and supervise the transitions.”

  “You know this is gonna scare the crap out of the Canadian offices. They are going to tighten thing up so hard on their own so that not a hair is out of place. Those guys would spontaneously combust if they thought even one pencil was out of place for you.” The two men chuckled at the thought.

  “Yeah, well we have good people up there. Plus each of us making rounds up there regularly makes them keep things tight. Its a point of pride with them that things are run like clockwork.” Max appreciated the Canadian Provinces being straight laced and old world minded. Most of the agents up north came from first generation stock and had been raised to the highest standards of the Sanguinostri. He wished he could poach a few of them to fill spots back in D.C.

  “So you ever going to fill me in on what’s going on with you? I know its more than this rogue business and the free-for-all out here.” Niko looked at Max and studied him carefully. They had known each other for far too long and Niko could see what no others could in his eyes.

  “How about I get back to you on that when I figure it out?” Max didn’t even attempt to lie.

  Niko crushed his cigarette out in the large stone ashtray that sat on the table between them. “Fair enough, but I know something is weighing on your gut, so don’t take too long to figure it out. Bad for business.” He hauled himself up off the chaise and stretched out a bit. “Mind if I grab a shower in your room before coffee gets here? I took the red-eye coach so Abby could come in on the jet this morning. The guy next to me fell asleep and used my shoulder as a pillow. I think he drooled on me.”

  Max laughed out loud at the image of his hulk of a friend wedged into a coach seat with some strange man dribbling on his shoulder. “Of course! That’s classic though. Why didn’t you thump the guy and move his head off ?”

  Niko shrugged. “He was flying in because his wife went into labor early. Figured it would be the last sleep the guy got for about eighteen years so what the hell. I’m getting soft in my old age I guess. I’ll be back in a few.” Niko disappeared into the suite to get cleaned up, leaving Max to ponder what the hell he would say to him about the detective if he had to say anything at all. There really was nothing to say other than perhaps he was behaving a tad like an adolescent psycho stalker.

  Max had a grip on himself now, or at least he would keep telling himself that. Things would take on a new dimension now because of his relationship with Joe McAllister, and now the one he was establishing with the detective’s mother. It was easy to see the resemblance between Shevaun and his detective once he discovered the kinship. Shevaun had that same fiery tenacity that he had observed in her daughter. Both carried petite frames, although neither of the women were waifish or frail. They were strong, fierce and undeniably female in their small packages. Shevaun was nobody’s fool, that was clear from the start and it was only the miraculous stroke of luck that she was the wife of Joe McAllister that had given Max half a shot at getting in the door with her. Fortunately he had seen that opening and it had actually worked.

  He had known Joe McAllister for ages and liked the man very much. The McAllister family had been extremely valuable, loyal and diligent stewards of the Sanguinostri for generations. Max needed to make sure they had been properly rewarded for that through the years and if not, it would be an excellent opportunity for him to start taking care of that at dinner later that evening.

  “If you want your coffee, you come and get it. It’s too bloody cold out there. It’ll freeze, or I’ll freeze before I make it to the table.” Frank yelled at Max from inside the suite, the door opened only enough for his mouth to fit.

  Max rolled his eyes and checked his watch as he got up. It would be another half hour before the sun was actually up so he had a bit more time to relax and enjoy his coffee before the day got rolling.

  When he stepped inside he was taken aback by all the bags piled at the entrance to the suite. Frank emerged from his room carrying more bags and sat them on the existing pile with a huff.

  “What the hell?” Max looked at Frank as though he were insane. “What’s all this?”

  Frank plopped in a chair and retrieved his coffee from the tray on the table. “I’m moving across the hall with Abigail and Niko is parking it in here.”

  “Why? Why doesn’t Niko bunk with Abby and you stay put where you are?” Max was clearly puzzled.

  “Yeah man, that doesn’t make any sense.” Niko emerged from Max’s room toweling his hair dry and wearing nothing but a pair of well-worn jeans that he hadn’t managed to button up all the way. “I can bunk with Abby.”

  Frank snickered. “Well thanks for adding the protection of your virtue to the list, Mr. Modest. Abby considers me her little brother so there’s no worry of her attacking me like she would you. Especially if she got a load of you like that.” Max looked just as Niko looked down at himself.

  “Okay, point taken.” Niko said as he finished buttoning up his jeans.

  “Then there is the practicality of it” Frank added. “You two can talk war all night like you usually do while Abby and I can deal with the administrative minutia that has to get handled, and fast.” He sipped from his cup and looked at the two men, hoping they were buying his story. “Maid is coming in any second to clean up the room so you’ll be good to go within the hour.

  Max wasn’t entirely sure this was the best set up. “What if I need to toss things at you on a moment’s notice like I have been?”

  “I am just across the hall and that’s primarily for sleeping purposes. I’ll be hanging in here most of the time and we’ll probably just prop the doors open since we have the whole floor to ourselves anyway. The other two suites are already blocked for us for when Connor, Finn and Yuri arrive.”

  “Alright. Actually that is a good thing. We can put guards at the elevator to secure the whole level and just prop our doors open.” Niko felt better about the arrangement now.

  “It’s only a temporary set up” Abby said as she stormed through the door with two bellmen at her heels and another dragging a fully loaded luggage cart behind them. She pointed to the door across the hall. “Over there, and haul all this crap in there too, please.” Peeling her gloves off she walked to each of the three men and offered each a cheek. They each gave the customary kiss without hesitation, then she went straight for the coffee tray where Frank had already started to pour her a cup. “Good morning boys. Glad to see you are all up and at it since it’s nine in the morning to me with that stupid time zone crap.” She took the cup that Frank had prepared for her and drank deeply as she scanned her surroundings. She walked across the hall to the now open suite and
barked a few orders to the bellmen then returned to Max’s suite. “Okay, so what do I need to know that I don’t already?” She asked while she sat down in the soft pewter couch and studied the three men. Her gaze paused to look at the shirtless Niko and give him a once over with her salacious gaze.

  “See!” Frank snorted.

  Niko immediately went and dug a t-shirt out of his duffel bag and pulled it on. Max only chuckled.

  “Oh get over it! Abby swatted a hand through the air. “You all know I am what I am, so get over it already. Besides, its too early and I need way more coffee than this to actually be a threat to any male species. Now answer my question.”

  “You probably know everything already except that Max has a dinner engagement this evening. We need to get all the paperwork pushed through on the estate property today, so that’s our main focus besides getting the building plans done and approved.” Frank paused to take another gulp of coffee and Abby continued where he left off.

  “My guys are already handling the lot line adjustments. Those should be recorded before the offices officially open, and ownership is already done. I got that taken care of once you faxed me copies last night. You own it all, lock, stock and smoking barrel and have since 11:14 P.M. last night.” She smiled sweetly then sipped from her cup.

  “That was excellent work, Abby. I have no idea how you managed that in under twelve hours.” Max never ceased to be amazed at how Abby could get things done in the blink of an eye. Especially when the normal course of something would usually take weeks or months to get through. It was good to have power, connections and unlimited resources. The Dominor and his Aegis Council irrefutably had all of the above.

  “I have had a team of architects working around the clock for the past three days and should have four sets of plans delivered here by eight for your approval.” She got up and retrieved her laptop from one of her bags, flipped it open and booted it up. “I have virtual renderings of all the proposed plans here so you can take a look now and perhaps even have a choice made before the architects get here. That way we can spend an hour going over any changes you want so I can make my meeting with the architectural committee, get them to sign off and get the plans through with regional planning by no later than noon. But I don’t think you’ll make any changes since I have had my hands on them already.” She smiled sweetly again then turned the screen so Max could see.

  With the magic of technology and Abby’s laptop, Max was being taken on a virtual tour of an old world Mediterranean style structure that reminded him of a place he often loved to visit in Sardinia. It was perfect aesthetically for the area and had just enough opulence without being tacky or overdone. Stone and stucco exterior with cobblestone drive and walkways, tiled roof, iron gates and storm shutters. There were plenty of bedrooms, a guest house, massive arches and vaulted ceilings with exposed dark-wood beams. It all spoke to him of his old country and he fell in love with it immediately, just as Abby knew he would. But it was the things you didn’t see on the surface that were the true beauty of the plan. Abby had worked her genius within the architecture to make the estate more secure then Fort Knox. The walls were reinforced with steel, windows were bullet proofed and everything that needed to be and even those that didn’t were blast proof. The technical aspect of it all had the entire estate capable of total lock-down at the touch of a button. Two massive generators, very cleverly hidden, would provide full power to the residence for over a month. A fully appointed wine cellar was simply a false front for the basement command center that would be decked out with more high-tech equipment than he expected the Pentagon had. It was all brilliant. One thing he noted as the tour brought him to his master suite, which was a masterpiece in itself and exactly his taste. But it was its placement and positioning in relation to the land that made him pause. He studied it carefully and two of the four walls were made up of folding glass so that when open, the suite simply flowed out onto the pergola covered terrace that wrapped around the southeast corner of the house. The southeast which was the exact view to his detective’s balcony.

  “I don’t need to see the others. When can we get this started?” He turned and looked at Abby who was smiling wide. Obviously very pleased with herself.

  “I’ll see if I can get my meeting with the architectural committee moved up, get this signed off then then get it sent to regional. Our people are standing by with the stamps and permits ready. With approval from the architectural committee we can start soil samples and surveying so grading etc. can start Monday.”

  “How long will it take to get finished?” Max wanted to be in the house by the time the weather turned.

  “Do I have carte blanche for palm greasing? Twenty-four hour crews, gift baskets to all residents impacted by said twenty-four hour crews and then I am thinking we should purchase the parcels up next to the road and make it a park with a pond or little lake, and even a little pergola. Dedicate it to the community, then all the residents will be so grateful to you that no one will bitch. So you giving me a green light on the green or what?” Abby batted her eyelashes.

  Max considered for maybe half a second. “Make sure the maintenance of the lake and park are handled by me indefinitely. And get one of those bronze plaques set in stone like we did at that memorial park in Virginia. Make it something poetic without being cheesy. We’ll have a little gathering for all the residents for the dedication, those tents and twinkly lights, a string quartet, champagne, yada yada, you know what I mean.”

  She smiled at him brightly. “I know exactly what you mean. We should have a bridge go over the lake or pond or whatever. Hmm... maybe we need more land.”

  “Abby, how long for the house to be habitable?” He brought her back to the original question.

  She scrunched her nose at him. “Do you want it done fast or do you want it done perfect?”

  “I want it both and you know better than to ask that question.” His tone was a little sharp with her so she reigned in the sassy factor and gave it to him straight.

  “I’ll be conservative and say four months. But I am sure I can bribe the association to allow restricted construction on a twenty-four-seven basis.”

  “I had an idea for CCV feeds that cover the entire area.” Frank interjected. “We could donate some fabulous hand-made old style gas streetlamps to the community that just so happen to have hidden cameras in them for our perimeter feed. But we tell them its for the community’s security & just tap into it.”

  Max nodded. “I like it. Do it. Do it all. Do whatever it takes to get this done perfectly and fast. You have carte blanche.”

  Frank and Abby gave each other a high-five and gathered their things to get started.

  “Abby, Frank...” Max had them stopping in their tracks. “I need a list of all our people in the region. I want dates of when they landed here as well. Addresses, aliases, full detail on everyone and I need it this afternoon.”

  “You’ll have it. I need to get set up and cracking. You all know where to find me.” Abby headed across the hall, snatching up her laptop and coffee as she went with Frank following right behind her.

  Niko sat in the chair across from Max and refilled his cup of coffee, one eye on the cup, the other on Max. “So what’s on the agenda for today?” He asked.

  “I need you’re gut instincts on this changing of the guard, so to speak.” Max leaned back in the chair and ran his hands through his hair. He was really trying to get a grip on things but he wanted to delegate so he could focus on the rogue. “You good with how we’ve left D.C. for the moment?”

  “Abby is as shrewd and ruthless as she is freaking adorable. She has exactly who should be in place and
I agreed with all her choices from the get go. As for a new Council, I think we need to call in a couple of old schools. You’re going to have to take that up with the Senatus, though.” Niko got up to get his cigarette case from his coat. “They may not dig on us fishing outta their pond but I personally think it’s long overdue that things got mixed up a bit.”

  Max held out a hand towards Niko. “Give me one of those would you?”

  Niko quirked his brow. “You know they say these things will kill you?” They both chuckled as Niko passed his friend one of the fancy cigarettes and lit it for him, then sat back down in the chair before lighting his own.

  “What do you mean by mixed up?” Max asked, then drew deeply of the smoke.

  “You know I’m pretty tight with guys in other Councils, yeah?”

  Max nodded, it was one of his ways of knowing what was going on within the other circles, the gossip that Niko would feed him. “You have unique insights there.”

  “Well I have a few buddies that would jump at the chance to get out of their stations to relocate to D.C., but you will want to meet with them first and get a feel. See if they fit with your style.” Niko watched the smoke drift through the air as he pondered. “They each have great admiration for you. One still wishes you had chosen him to make the crossing originally. It’s kind of a constant joke he pulls on me that I beat him out of his spot.”

  “You think he could make a trip out here or should I go there?”

  “Given you’re poaching, I think you should set up the meetings there. Then you can address the Senatus in person once you’re certain you want to poach them.”

  “Talk to your guys. See if its worth me making the trip or if they are just blowing smoke.” Max crushed out his cigarette. “I want you to come with me to make some rounds today. People know I am here. I want to get in some faces, especially local distributors and havens. I want to find out why no one felt any need to inform us this place was becoming a shit hole and all our laws were deemed optional.”

 

‹ Prev Next ›