SCENT OF A MYSTERY...A CITRUS BEACH MYSTERY (Citrus Beach Mysteries Book 2)

by Victoria LK Williams

  Megan looked hard at Gina, and had to admit she would never have pegged her as a criminal genius. Maybe that was how they were able to get away with it for so long. Taylor was also looking at her mother in astonishment. There were tears in her eyes and her hands were clutched into fists as she tried to control her anger.

  “Did you ever love us, Mother? Or were we just an inconvenient part of your life that you had to work around?”

  “Oh, baby, I’ve always loved you. Maybe not in the showy, traditional mother role, but of everything that happened in my life, you are truly the one unexpected blessing that I am grateful for. I never loved your father, not in the grand way that he loved me. My father pushed for our marriage and I was too willing to go along with his wishes. Your grandmother never approved nor liked me, and that made it harder to be in the marriage. Then your father spent so many years building up the business and working on his causes, I never felt like I was part of anything. Oh, I know he loved me, but he treated me like a fragile doll, only to take out and be admired at special times. We were married for fourteen years before you were born; I never thought I would have a child and you were such a gift. But with your birth, your father pushed me even further into the background of his life; suddenly you became his primary focus. Then I met Malcolm at, of all things, a dinner to honor your father’s work with the homeless and I fell in love for myself. I knew you would be looked after by your father, no matter what, but it was time for me to find some happiness-with Malcolm.”

  Taylor looked at her mother with a bit more understanding. Her words explained so much, but excused nothing. They drove in silence for a while, before Malcolm’s need to brag overtook him once more.

  “Gina wasn’t the only one with contacts wanting to ask for our help. It wasn’t long before our little side business was making money hand over fist. But we knew that it wasn’t smart to stay with it for too long. We were adding to those accounts I spoke of, hoping that we would soon be able to take off together. Our downfall was my fault; I’ll readily admit it. I arranged for a priceless set of snuff bottles to be brought over from china as a gift for Gina. We had started to bring in a lot of Chinese artifacts for the art world by this time and she was enamored by the beauty of these items. For other reasons, as well, these bottles became a staple in our shipments and I just had to let her have her own set. Your father saw them and got nosy. That is what started his demise; if he had just stayed out of Gina’s business like normal, things could have gone on until we were ready to disappear from Miami.”

  Gina looked puzzled at his mention of the snuff bottles having any other reason to be smuggled in, but she said nothing and he continued.

  “Gina agreed to bring the bottles to my condo for safe keeping. I think it broke her heart a little, because you, Taylor loved to go into your mother’s room and sit with her and play with those bottles. A very expensive toy, but you both loved to sit and admire them. It was after they were removed from your father’s house that I noticed that Tom was asking more questions about the warehouse side of the business. He wanted to look over the cargo manifests and inquired about whom we were importing them. I’m positive that he was going in after hours and looking through my desk. I wish I knew how much information he had access to off my computer before I wiped it clean. I tried to beat it out of him that night, but he was stubborn and kept everything to himself.”

  Megan squeezed Taylor’s hand hard to keep her from yelling at Malcolm when he spoke of her father’s beating. The younger woman gulped in a deep breath, but held her tongue. Even Gina winced a bit at the casual mention of the beating that they had thought had silenced Tom. There were a few moments of uncomfortable silence, then, like turning the channel on the TV, Malcolm started talking about everyday things. It felt surreal to Megan, almost as if they were out for a family outing. The one thing that she did notice, was that Malcolm increased his speed and kept heading south, still sticking to the back roads.

  Chapter Twenty One

  Once Aiden had been given the all clear, he and a team of agents, along with Tom, entered the warehouse and split up, half moved quickly to the office area, half headed into the central warehouse that the offices overlooked. Another group of agents positioned themselves outside in strategic positions where they could act as lookouts for incoming traffic and detour any foot traffic that might pass through the area. The key was to keep the warehouse looking as normal as possible and still keep civilians safe.

  The team working in the warehouse started randomly in each corner of the building, planning on working towards the middle. They worked quickly, opening crates and checking the cargo inside. It would have been easier with a team of dogs to help, but they had no idea how much time they had and hiding a team of dogs wasn’t as easy as a team of men. All of the men used their phones to communicate with each other, reporting on their progress as they worked. It was tedious work, but the time went by too fast. Before they knew it, the warehouse time clock was giving the programmed signal for employees that it was the end of their work shift. Only there were no employees there to hear it; just the agents who took the signal as a sign that they needed to wrap things up. According to the timeline that Aiden had projected back in their headquarters, they were now at the point where Malcolm could pull up with his hostages at any moment.

  The team that had gone to the offices on the second level, had divided the area up and broke off into teams of two to go through each office, desk, file cabinet, and computer with a fine toothed comb and a need for speed. Aiden and Tom went straight for Malcolm's private office, ready to tear the place apart if necessary. Aiden sat down at the desk and got to work on the computer, downloading everything he came across onto a flash drive for a more detailed inspection later. Tom, in the meantime, tackled the file cabinets and the drawers full of past loading manifests, filed by date of delivery and then sub-filed by the company or person receiving the cargo. They worked in relative silence, only Aiden’s occasional questions breaking their concentration.

  “What I see here is looking pretty average. Of course, these could be dummy files, with encrypted information. We’ll have an analyst look everything over in more detail. How about you, Tom? Anything jumping out at you?”

  Tom looked over at Aiden and scratched his head, frustrated that nothing significant was glaring at him as he went through each file.

  “It’s been so long since I’ve been a part of the operation. I’m not sure if these are legitimate clients or not. I recognize a lot of these names, but there are many new ones, and I see that Malcolm has had the company branch out from the Orient to some companies from the Caribbean. The cargo seems odd, though.”

  “Odd? How?”

  “He seems to have diversified into more everyday cargo. These files are showing that he has been importing tea, coffee, and spices from the Caribbean. It looks as if most of them are specialized brands and are coming in, packaged in bottles.”

  “Let me see those manifests. You might have just found the key we are looking for.”

  Aiden walked over to Tom and started going through the papers he had in his hand. After a few pages, he shoved them back at Tom, apparently dissatisfied with what he found.

  “When you said coffee, I thought we might be on the right track. Coffee is often used to smuggle drugs; the scent confuses the DEA dogs and masks the smells they are trained to find. But these papers are showing that all of the cargo was hand inspected and cleared when it came into the country. Another dead end.”

  Tom seemed to be only half listening to Aiden’s explanation and he had a confused look on his face. Aiden looked at him with concern, worried that maybe the stress had been too much on him and that he was going to have a relapse. Tom saw his look and shook his head to signal there was nothing wrong with him.

  “Don’t worry about me. There is something here that I know is key, but it keeps eluding me. Something that would prove beyond doubt that Malcolm is smuggling. I found out something important that night, somet
hing that neither you, nor I was expecting. I know that has to be why I had you hold back, I wanted to get definite proof. But I just can’t grasp what it was.”

  Before Aiden could answer him, one of the other agents radioed from their position outside.

  “We’ve got an incoming vehicle. It has just passed the main harbor and has pulled onto the Jamison property. I repeat incoming vehicle.”

  Aiden signaled to all his agents in the building to get into their assigned positions and maintain radio silence.

  “We can’t wait any longer, we need to get out of sight before they get here and concentrate on getting Taylor and Megan away safely,” he said, looking over at Tom.

  Chapter Twenty Two

  At some point during the drive south, Megan realized that Malcolm was done giving them any valuable information and was now just talking to hear the sound of his own voice. She tuned him out and found herself nodding off, her head jerking her back to conscious just as it would fall forward. She looked over to Taylor, but the younger woman was looking out the window, staring but not seeing the scenery flash by. Finally, Megan gave up the fight and let herself doze off.

  It was the sound of a car horn right outside her window that woke her a few hours later. At some point while she had slept, they had left the back roads and were now entering the outskirts of the city of Miami. It had been years since Megan had been this far south, but she was able to find landmarks that she remembered. Judging from the angle of the sun and the flow of traffic, she knew that they were working their way to the coast and the Port of Miami. Megan hoped and silently prayed that Aiden had made the most of the head start he had on their kidnappers and that he would be there at the warehouse with some sort of rescue plan in place. So far Megan and Taylor had been able to keep the fact that Tom was back in Miami, working alongside the FBI, from Malcolm and Gina.

  The trip to the warehouse took them longer than it would have an hour earlier because they had to deal with the afternoon rush hour. But it seemed like it was no time at all to Megan before they were turning the town car onto the road leading into the Port of Miami and the warehouse district. The car followed the road almost to the end of the rows of offices and warehouses. When it finally pulled into a two story, metal building, Megan noticed that it was close to the service road that led out of the port. Malcolm had been smart when he selected this particular building, for it offered a way for a fast exit if he should ever need one.

  Using the automatic overhead door opener control that he had in the car, pinned to the visor, Malcolm clicked the button and waited for the door to open enough to pull his car inside the warehouse. Getting out, he opened the back door and roughly pulled Megan out, motioning for Taylor to follow.

  “Well, well, it looks as if we have beaten the cat to the trap. That will give me enough time to use my own special bait: these two ladies are just what I need to catch a rat. Gina, my love, pull those chairs into the center of the floor and I’ll tie these two up.”

  Gina didn't look at her daughter as she did as instructed. Things were getting out of her control quickly and she wasn't sure what to do about it. She knew she would follow Malcolm to the ends of the earth, but she did not want to see her only daughter hurt. It didn’t take long before Gina had the two of them secured.

  “You know, Gina, this reminds me of that night many years ago when we had your husband tied up just like this. I sent you away that night so you wouldn’t see anything that would disturb you unduly. But this time, I think you have a pretty good idea of how things are going to play out, so I’m asking you to stay here with me to confront your husband and find out what evidence he has on us before I properly take care of him this time.”

  “You know I’m always on your side. I think it’s time that I know what went on that night, though, don’t you? It’s too late to keep me protected. If I’m going to risk getting arrested, I want to know everything.”

  “That’s fair enough. You remember that we walked in on Tom going through some crates of cargo? He thought he was so smart because he caught on to our little business dealing with the stolen Chinese artifacts and coins. Little did he know that was only the half of it. I’ve kept this part of the business from you all these years, Gina. It wasn’t because I didn't trust you, or was trying to keep it from you, it was because I was trying to protect you.”

  Walking over to his wife, Malcolm gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek and ran his finger down her nose in a loving manner. He then walked over to one of the crates that had just recently been resealed by the FBI after they had searched through it. Reaching into the crate, he pulled out a rather pretty, ornate vase. With a quick movement, he brought the vase down hard on the edge of the crate, shattering it at the top. Breaking apart the pieces of the vase, he revealed a beautiful 18th century snuff bottle. It had been cleverly concealed in the vase, buried in the sand. Blowing the granules of sand away from the intricate carving on the bottle, he presented it to his wife with a bow. Laughing she accepted it as she gave a little curtsy.

  Megan was impressed. Who would have thought to look inside a vase that would easily become a novelty shop item, for a priceless artifact? Seeing her look of appreciation, Malcolm smiled at her.

  “You see how easily it was to fool the customs agents. But here is where my little enterprise takes a wonderful turn and makes me even more money. Watch and see if you can follow what I am doing.

  They all followed his movements closely. But it was not only the three women watching, cameras were following his every move and monitors where recording his every word, all operated by the dozen FBI agents stationed throughout the warehouse. Aiden and Tom watched closely, not only Malcolm's movements, but his two hostages as well.

  Malcolm reached down to the sand that had spilt out when he had broken the vase and gathered a handful. Gently pulling off the top of the snuff bottle that Gina now held, he poured the sand in his hand into the bottle. Then with grand gestures, he walked over to a crate in another section of the warehouse. These were crates from the Caribbean, but what no one expected is that they were crates that were outgoing. They had already passed the customs inspections and were now cleared to be distributed to their destinations within the US. Opening one of the boxes of mixed spices stacked inside the crate, he removed the top layer of bottles to reveal a false bottom in the box. With a wicked smile on his face, Malcolm made an elaborate motion of his hands and placed the snuff bottle into the false bottom and covered it back up with the bottles of spices.

  Megan gasped as she caught the meaning of what he had just done. Taylor and Gina did not seem to have caught on yet. Malcolm beamed at her as if she was the brightest girl in class and gave her a mocking applause.

  “So, you understand do you? Maybe you should explain it to your companion. I’m quite proud of this little trick, and it works every time.”

  “Of course it would. Why would anyone give a second look at a cargo that had already passed inspection? That sand you poured into the bottle represents just about anything. But I’m guessing some kind of drug? You just place it in the crates and out it goes for distribution.”

  “Give the lady a prize. You got it right on the first guess. And what’s even better is that someone else is now delivering both the artifacts and the drugs, which is usually mixed with uncut diamonds that my client wants me to send out. The little bit of drugs that these bottles hold are just a thank you gift from my supplier to his clients. Did you notice that these crates are full of things that would go to the restaurant industry? And who is in charge of most of the restaurants down here? The mob and the drug cartels. I get deliveries locally from them with the items to be smuggled in the bottles. I never know from whom, or what it is. I just add it to the bottles and then they get shipped out to local businesses. I don’t ask questions and in addition to my pay, they make an extra delivery after their product is removed and make sure that the artifacts are safely in the hands of my buyers. See everyone wins and I keep getting richer.”
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  Gina gasped as she heard his words, shocked at how far he had gone from their original scheme of smuggling.

  “Oh, Malcolm, not drugs! How could you?”

  But before he could answer, there were shouts from the FBI to freeze and put their hands in the air. Everything went crazy for a moment and Malcolm took advantage of that and managed to get Megan to her feet, pulling her with him to act as a shield. His hands were steady and the gun he held was now pointed directly at Taylor. He had seen Tom come rushing out with the agents and knew the man would have only one thing on his mind: revenge for the things Malcolm had done to him.

  “Don’t come any closer, any of you. I’ll shoot Taylor before you can get a shot off on me.”

  Everyone seemed to come to a standstill at once. The tension was high as they all watched Malcolm and waited for his next move.

  “Gina, I want you to leave ahead of me. You must get out of here safely. We can get away with a hostage. We can go away, we have all that money stashed and we can be safe forever. Come on, Gina, what are you waiting for?”

  “Drugs, Malcolm? We’ll never be free with that hanging over our head. We will have a price on our head just for your knowing who these crates were going to. Let them go, Malcolm. It’s too much, you’ve gone too far.” There was an overwhelming sound of sadness in Gina’s voice as she looked at her husband with tears running down her cheeks.

  “Now, Gina! Walk towards the door and we’ll get out of here. Just you and me, baby. It’s what we’ve always wanted.”

  “No, Malcolm, it’s not. I just wanted to be with you and be happy. You’ve ruined everything.”

  Malcolm's pleading with Gina turned to anger when he realized that she was not going to go with him.