THE BRIDGE TO CARACAS: A DOUGLASS CRIME AND ROMANCE THRILLER SERIES (THE KING TRILOGY Book 1)

by Stephen Douglass

  Karen’s eyes widened. “What did you do then?”

  “I found a partner and bought a retail gasoline company. The partner and I parted company almost two years ago. Since then, I’ve struggled on alone.”

  Karen stared at Mike, intrigued. “You can’t just end the story there. How did you get into the oil business?”

  “It’s a very long story. I don’t want to bore you.”

  “You could never bore me… Are you happy? Any regrets?”

  “As far as the business is concerned, no. About my personal life, lots of regrets.”

  “I’m sorry,” Karen urged.

  “The biggest one is not being able to see my daughter as often as I would like. Unfortunately, my ex remarried and took her to San Diego… But enough about me. Let’s talk about you. Has your life been good?”

  Karen took a deep breath and held it. Her brown eyes glimmered with sadness.

  “Maybe you’d rather not talk about it.”

  Karen stared at Mike with a pensive melancholy. “I don’t know… It’s Jim. I thought I knew him when I first met him. He seemed so sensitive and considerate. He made me feel alive again. But he also led me to believe in things that didn’t exist, and blinded me to things that did.” She dropped her head into her hands. “He never really wanted a wife,” she confessed. “All he wanted was a trophy, and someone to give him a son.”

  “And you did?”

  Karen nodded. “A beautiful boy. Phillip. He makes me feel like it was all worthwhile.”

  She used the fingers of both hands to wipe tears from her eyes. “It gets worse, much worse… for the longest time, I thought Jim was an honest businessman. Now I’m sure he’s not.”

  Mike shook his head slightly. Getting involved in a bad marriage, he could understand. But crooked business was still outside his ken. “How do you know he’s not?”

  “I’ve overheard too many of his telephone calls. He has people hurt, even killed if they don’t pay him,” she whispered.

  “Are you sure? Maybe he was just bluffing.”

  “Jim never bluffs where his money is concerned.”

  “Does he know you know?”

  “No. He would kill me if he did.” Again, Karen wiped tears from her eyes. “He really scares me, Mike.”

  Mike’s mind was spinning within a torrid tumult of joy and a rage. “What business is he in?”

  “I don’t know, exactly, he’s always been vague. Something in the gasoline business.”

  “That’s strange. If he’s in the business, I would have heard about him long before now. The community of players is not that large. What’s the name of his company?”

  “He has more than one. Most of them are numbered corporations. Every time he incorporates a new one, one of his lawyers asks me to sign papers—that’s how I know. He said the documents were to protect me, because they exempted me from liability.”

  “Where’s his office?”

  “He owns a farm in the Caledon Hills. He spends more time up there than he does at home… there and on his plane.”

  “He owns a plane!”

  “Yes, it’s at the farm. He built an airstrip there.”

  “Does he use it for business?”

  “I don’t know. I suppose.” Karen’s eyes pleaded with his.

  Mike reached across the table to cover her hand with his and stared affectionately into her eyes. “What are you going to do?”

  Karen’s eyes watered again. She looked away. “I’m confused… my heart tells me to leave him but my head won’t let me.”

  “Why won’t your head let you go?”

  “Jim’s an incredibly possessive man. He would never let Phillip go, and I couldn’t leave without him.”

  Mike squeezed her hand tighter. “I never stopped loving you, Karen. My heart was broken the last time I talked to you. I was certain we had missed our last chance to be together again. I don’t want to miss it this time.”

  Karen turned her hand and grasped Mike’s. Her watery brown eyes suddenly grew radiant. “This time I won’t let you,” she whispered. “Do you know a place where we can be alone?”

  CHAPTER 30

  “That was beautiful!” Mike panted. “Is it true what you said?”

  “Is what true?” Karen asked.

  “Do you really have all night?”

  She frowned. “I’m not sure… Jim probably won’t be home for days, but I can’t be sure.”

  “Then how late can you stay?”

  “I told Phillip’s nanny I wouldn’t be later than eleven.”

  Mike displayed an evil grin. “Great! Then we have time for the second half.”

  Karen smiled and kissed the end of Mike’s nose. “If it’s half as good as the first half, it’ll be great.” She lifted her leg over his thigh and pressed her body against his.

  Thirty minutes later, Mike stared once more into Karen’s eyes. “Do you know what would make me the happiest man alive?” he asked.

  “What?”

  “Living with you.”

  She closed her eyes and exhaled. “I would do that in a heartbeat, but it’s impossible.”

  “Nothing’s impossible if you want it badly enough.”

  Karen stared at the ceiling. “I want it, but Jim is a jealous, vindictive, selfish man. He said he would kill me if I ever tried to take Phillip away.”

  Mike’s body stiffened as reality invaded his happy dream. In spite of his desire, he had no right to place her life in jeopardy, or to ask her to choose between her son and himself. If her assessment of Servito’s temperament was correct, a permanent reunion with her would have unthinkable consequences.

  “Dammit!” he declared, pounding a fist into his pillow. “I’m not going to spend one more second of my life without you. Are you the slightest bit interested in living the rest of your life with that man?”

  Karen looked into Mike’s eyes and placed her hand on top of his fist. “If I could, I’d leave Jim and move in here tonight. I told you, King. You’re the only man I ever loved.”

  Mike experienced an enormous surge of confidence. “Then we’ve got to think of a way of finessing the transition without getting you killed.”

  “There’s only one way… we have to bring Jim down. What can he do if he’s in jail?”

  Mike mulled over the possibilities as Karen explained, becoming more enthusiastic with every second.

  “I’m his wife. I could slip through the cracks in his business. Maybe I can dig up enough dirt to put him in prison.” She kissed Mike’s chest and smiled. “He’ll never know. Besides, he couldn’t make my life any more miserable than it is.”

  Mike shook his head. “I still don’t like it. If your husband really is a killer—”

  Karen placed her fingers against Mike’s lips. “I’ve made up my mind, and there isn’t a thing you can do to stop me,” she said, her elegant chin protruding.

  Shortly after eleven, Mike eased his car to a stop a full block away from Karen’s apartment building. She moved closer to him. “I’ll never forget tonight,” she said. “I’m alive again.”

  He stiffened. “I want you to call me the second you sense any danger, or the second you’ve found something.

  “How about the second I want you again?”

  “That too,” Mike replied with a grin. He kissed her one last time.

  Karen entered her apartment and was startled to see her husband standing in front of the television set in the den. He turned the set off and marched toward her. “Where were you tonight?” he asked with a suspicious glare.

  “Visiting one of the out-patients at the hospital. She had to be admitted today.”

  “Until eleven forty-five?”

  Karen concluded that her best defense would be a strong offense. “Until eleven forty-five,” she confirmed, defiantly returning his piercing stare. “Where have you been? I haven’t seen or heard from you for two days.”

  “I don’t have to justify myself to you, ever! I pay the bills around
here and you never question that!”

  Terrified by her husband’s threatening stare, Karen turned, walked to the master bedroom, and closed the door. She closed her eyes, hoping the confrontation was over. Seconds later, the door flung open and slammed against the inside wall with a loud thud. “I haven’t finished talking to you!” Servito shouted, lunging toward her. He pushed her to the bed and seized the front collar of her blouse, jerking downward, ripping it from top to bottom.

  Karen frantically grabbed at the shreds of her blouse with trembling hands.

  He squinted and clenched his teeth, then slapped her face as hard as he could. “Don’t you ever walk away from me like that again, bitch!” he shouted, his right knee spreading her legs and pressing hard against her crotch. He held her arms against the bed above her head with a vise-like grip, and then lowered his mouth toward hers.

  Fear gripped her. His breath reeked of alcohol. She had never seen such rage in his steel-gray eyes.

  He kissed her savagely, inserting his tongue and squeezing her left breast until she cried out. Then he sat upright, releasing her arms. “I don’t want to hurt you, darling,” he said with a smirk that sickened her. “I just want you to appreciate that I still call the shots in this marriage. Do we understand each other?”

  She responded by turning to face the wall.

  “Answer me!” he demanded, his right fist clenched.

  “Yes,” she whispered, her eyes closed, her reddened and still throbbing cheek pressed against the pillow.

  “Good. I have to go to a business meeting. You have a nice sleep.”

  She waited until she heard the front door click closed, then climbed from the bed and walked to Phillip’s bedroom. She tiptoed to his bedside and stared at her son in silence for almost a minute. “I’m going to change your life, Phillip… I promise you that with all my heart,” she whispered.

  CHAPTER 31

  Servito stepped from his taxi and hurried into the Brass Rail Tavern, one of the numerous components of the neon jungle at the south end of Yonge Street. Allison was seated at the bar, flanked by Dianne Thorpe and another extremely attractive young prostitute. The number of cigarette butts in the ashtray in front of the three indicated that they had been there for a few hours already.

  He marched to the bar and slapped Allison’s right shoulder. “I want to talk to you,” he said, and then kept on walking.

  Allison nodded and stood. “I’ll be right with you.” He kissed the girl to his right. “Keep your sweet ass right here, baby. I’ll be back.” He turned and followed Servito to the washroom.

  Servito waited until Allison was facing the urinal, and then turned to him. “Did you get the stuff?” he asked.

  “What stuff?”

  “The cocaine, asshole! What stuff did you think I was talking about?”

  Allison nodded and flashed a proud smile. “It was in the manifolds of two of the trucks that came in from Buffalo this afternoon.”

  Servito shook his head. “Come on, Jerry! Wake up! Where’s the nose-candy for the farm tonight?”

  “Got it,” Allison said, patting the left breast of his suit jacket. “Right in here, baby.”

  “Great!” Servito declared. He raised his right thumb, and then frowned. “While we’re in here, I want to talk to you about another couple of items… The first is my wife—I want her followed. I want to know where she is at all times.”

  “You think she’s fooling around?”

  “I’m not sure. I just wanna know.”

  “Okay. I’ll start tomorrow.”

  “No. Get Lanotti to do it. Tell him I want him to start immediately.”

  “I’ll phone him right now,” Allison said, zipping up.

  “Don’t go away—I’m not finished. Tomorrow, I want you to see a man by the name of Lou Patelski. He runs a chemical operation in Erie called Polyco Inc. Patelski wants to pay us a lot of money to get rid of some poly chlorinated biphenyls. He claims he can cut gasoline with as much as two percent of the shit without changing the performance. I want you to go down there and get him to prove it to you. If Patelski’s right, we’re gonna be in the PCB business in a big way.”

  Allison nodded, his mouth slightly opened. “What the hell is PCB?”

  “A very nasty chemical. It’s used in electrical transformers. It’s hard to dispose of because it’s toxic and it takes a long time to break down. Nobody wants anything to do with it.”

  “But we do?”

  “Goddamned right we do! The money Patelski’s offering us is unbelievable, and it’s all cash.”

  “I’ll leave first thing in the morning.”

  After giving Servito a high five, Allison hurried to the pay telephone outside the washroom door.

  Karen searched every cubic inch of the penthouse in an effort to find something that would link her husband to criminal activity. Frustrated and tired, she rested on a stool in her kitchen. When the telephone rang, she placed the coffee on the counter and lifted the receiver.

  “Hi, it’s me. I just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

  “I’m just fine, now that you called,” she said, smiling.

  “I want to see you again, very soon.”

  “I want that, too, but I can’t until I know where Jim is.

  “Will you call me when you do?”

  “Are you at your office?”

  “Yup. I should be here all day.”

  Karen sighed. “I just spent the last four hours turning this place upside down. Jim doesn’t keep anything here. The only place we’re going to find anything is at the farm.”

  “Do you have a key?”

  “Yes.”

  “Does your husband know you have it?”

  “No. I borrowed his and had a copy made.”

  “Smart girl.” She heard his smile, and it delighted her. “When can we go?”

  “As soon as he takes another plane trip. He should be taking one soon—it’s been almost four weeks since his last one.”

  “Great. Then I’ll wait for your call. I love you.”

  “Me too, you.” Karen hung up just as Servito entered the kitchen. She froze in terror as she watched him march straight for the refrigerator, open the door, and snatch a can of beer. He snapped the lid and took a sip, then wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his brown leather jacket. He took another sip before sitting on the stool beside Karen. “Sorry I didn’t make it home last night. We had a meeting at the farm. It didn’t end until three-thirty, so I decided to stay there and come back this morning.”

  Karen sat silently, forcing herself not to tremble.

  “Aren’t you going to welcome your husband home?” he asked with a devilish smirk.

  Relieved, Karen forced a smile. “Welcome home,” she said, her voice oozing with contempt.

  “I hate to tell you this, but it looks like I have to go away again.”

  Karen gave him a blank stare, attempting to appear disappointed. “When?” she asked.

  “Today. I’m taking the plane to Florida.”

  “When will you be back?”

  “Friday. When I get back, we’ll go out and blow a wad on dinner. Just the two of us.”

  Karen frowned, deliberately showing her displeasure. “You should consider staying home and spending some time with your son. He’s eight years old and he hardly knows you.”

  “I will. I promise. We’ll have a fabulous dinner on Friday night. Then I’ll spend the rest of the weekend with Phillip,” he promised. He stood and headed for the kitchen door.

  After Jim left, Karen waited for five minutes, and then raced to telephone Mike. “He’s gone,” she said. “He left five minutes ago. I’ve never been so happy to see him go.”

  “Where did he go?”

  “He said he was taking the plane to Florida, but I don’t believe him.”

  “Why Florida? And why don’t you believe him?”

  “He said he needed to arrange to have some work done on the house in Palm Beach, but I think he uses
the plane to take money somewhere else.”

  “He has a house in Palm Beach?”

  “That’s how we met. He bought a house beside my parents’ place.

  “Okay, if he doesn’t take his money to Florida, where do you think he takes it?”

  “Grand Cayman. I think. I found a copy of a deposit slip in his wallet. It was from a branch of The Banco International Venezolano, in Grand Cayman.”

  “How much was deposited?”

  “Two million, four hundred thousand dollars.”

  “Wow! Whatever his game is, he’s obviously a big player. Did you keep the deposit slip?”

  “No. I didn’t want him to find it missing and I didn’t have time to make a copy.”

  “Make a copy of the next one you find.”

  “I will. I’ll keep the original if I have to… Do you have any idea how he could accumulate so much money?”

  “If he’s really in the gasoline business, there’s only one way. He’s evading taxes. Did he say how long he would be gone?”

  “Until Friday.”

  “Are you sure he’ll be gone that long?”

  “No, but I don’t care. I just want to be with you.”

  “You say all the right things. I’ll pick you up at your place at seven.”

  CHAPTER 32

  Mike closed the door to his apartment and wrapped his arms around Karen. “Do you have any idea how much I love you?”

  She grinned. “Show me?”

  He kissed her passionately, and then grasped her hand and led her in the direction of his bedroom. Once again, the two born-again lovers recaptured the joy of their love and the ecstasy of their bodies. Fate had given them a second chance, and the rapture of the moment had rendered their problems irrelevant. For them, tomorrow was never.

  The following morning, they enjoyed a late breakfast in bed. Then they set out for Servito’s farm. When Mike’s car emerged from the underground parking garage at his apartment building, the lovers failed to notice the black Mustang parked directly across the street. The driver was George Lanotti, and he was photographing as fast as he could click his Minolta.