‘Please join me by the pool at your earliest convenience.’
Niko had a few minutes before they arrived back at the hotel, so he took the opportunity to check on Lou. If she was aware of what had happened, he knew Lou was worrying. She didn’t need the added stress.
“Are you alright?” Lou answered her phone, and Niko couldn’t help but chuckle at her and Max parroting each other.
“I am fine.” He assured her. “Why are you awake? Sensei go easy on you because you’re a girl?”
“Shut the hell up.” Lou snorted. “Get home safe and I’ll tell you all about it.”
“Put some redheads on ice for me, would you?” He asked as they rounded the last turn to the hotel. “I gotta go. Get some sleep.” He hung up before she could respond.
There were two agents waiting when the car came to a stop. They opened the door and flanked him on both sides until he was through the revolving door.
“How incredibly rude of you not to have drinks with me at the very least while you’re here.” The stunning woman named Ana was leaning against one of the pillars, waiting for him.
Niko smiled instantly upon seeing her. “I was just trying not to be a bother.” He leaned in and kissed Ana on the cheek. “I meant no slight.”
“I know, but I hate that my husband gets to have all the fun with you when you’re here!” She grinned and threaded her arm through his. “Shall we have a bit of fun? The three of us?” She asked as she led him towards the health club facilities. “What do they call it? A ménage à trois?” She leaned into him as they walked, causing him to chuckle.
When they reached the entrance to the pool room, there were four agents standing guard and a sign that read ‘closed for maintenance’ hanging on the door. Two of the guards opened the door for them. They stepped in to find the swimming pool drained and two men strapped to chairs sitting at the bottom. Thomas sat perched on the edge of the pool, dangling his feet as if there was water. “Darling!” Thomas beamed a smile at his wife. “I see you’ve recovered our esteemed guest, safe and sound.”
“Did you have doubts?” She winked at Niko then went to give her husband a proper kiss.
“Not a one.” He too winked at Niko. “Master Niko, may I introduce Arseny and Vasily Matveev. Our very unfortunate Russian guests.”
“They have no clue just how unfortunate.” Ana giggled.
Niko climbed down into the pool and inspected their guests. Though it appeared that both the men had undergone a severe beating, one had a heavily bandaged nose and two brutal black eyes which led Niko to believe he made excellent contact with his kick earlier that morning. He pointed at him and looked to Thomas. “This one is Vasily?”
“That would be correct.” Thomas confirmed. “They are from St. Petersburg! It would appear these two brothers have been recently employed by a very shady businessman from their hometown.”
“Is that so?” Niko began circling the men. “And what line of work are these fine gentlemen in?”
“Ah!” Thomas clapped his hands and jumped down into the pool. “That is the confusing part.”
“Oh?” Niko watched the two mens eyes dart from Thomas to him and back again.
“Yes.” Ana giggled again as she laid on her side at the edge of the pool. “Apparently they are messengers but for the life of them they can’t remember the message they were supposed to deliver!”
“Messengers?” Niko tilted his head sideways and noted the tears in one of the brother’s eyes. “You were to give this message to me?” The weepy one nodded rapidly. Niko ripped the duct tape from his mouth, eliciting a gasp. “Who sent you?” Niko demanded.
“We don’t know!” Arseny pleaded. “One of his men approached us, gave us lots of money and said there was much more if we do a delivery for his boss.”
“Now it’s a delivery?” Ana snorted. “Make up your mind!”
“I swear! That what the man say so Vasily and I talk it over and we call the number man give us. He pick us up next night and bring us to his boss in Summer Garden. He gives us picture of you, two tickets for plane, a big envelope of cash and tells us to be secret and drive back when you finished. He have more money for us when job done.”
“What’s this boss’ name?” Thomas demanded.
“He never says.” Arseny insisted, but Thomas was not buying it.
As if reading her husband’s mind, Ana jumped down into the pool and approached the talkative man rather seductively. “I’m sure you must have just forgotten. Take a moment to think harder.” She leaned down and caressed the man’s cheek ever so tenderly then stood up and kicked his brother in the head with her high heel, knocking him on his back.
“Wait! Please!” Arseny cried out then began to sob.
After looking both of the men over, Niko had concluded by their accents and their myriad of mish-moshed tattoos that they were bottom of the barrel Russian thugs. They were completely uninitiated and clueless as to what they had gotten themselves involved in. “Give the lady a name.” He asked, rather politely.
“He was from Deutschland!” The upright brother yelled. “He had a fancy accent; I hear them in Frankfurt long time ago.”
“What did he look like?” Niko suddenly had a bad feeling.
“I don’t know for sure! He had orange hair and keep a cloth over face when he talk.” Niko could see the man’s eyes darting as he tried to remember more. “He had big beautiful ring! Gold with jewels!”
Niko’s stomach churned. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and did a search. As soon as he found what he was looking for, he flipped it around and stuffed it in the Russian’s face. “Did it look like this?!” Niko yelled.
“Da! That the ring, exactly!” Arseny nodded vigorously, as if it were going to save him and his brother.
“What is it?” Ana could see the change on Niko’s face as he walked away from the captives.
“von Massenbach.” He muttered under his breath and the name caused Ana and Thomas to gasp. “He counted on them failing. He staged everything right down to the ring. The Byzantine emblem of my family’s house.”
“Then we are done with these two?” Thomas asked, and Niko just waved his hand as he climbed out of the pool. “Care to do the honors, darling?” Thomas asked his wife as he sat Vasily’s chair upright again so that he and his brother were side by side. He could see Arseny’s breath calm a bit. That made Thomas smile.
“Thank you my love.” Ana kissed her husband then approached the men, again in a seductive manner. Ana lifted her hands to her head and pulled out two bejeweled hair sticks that held her chignon in place. With one fluid, looping simultaneous motion with her arms, she drove them into each of the Russian’s temples with a jarring thrust. “Why don’t you have lunch brought up to the suite for the three of us? I think Niko could use his friends right about now.” As the two men blinked for the last time, Ana turned to follow her husband out of the pool.
“That’s a lovely idea, my sweet.” He held a hand out to help her up then smoothed her hair behind her ears. “You’ll have your boys dispose of the trash?”
“Don’t I always?” She said and grinned at him as they exited the room.
Despite the pure physical exhaustion, Lou found it impossible to sleep. She dozed a few times here and there but after she had heard Max’s car pull up before dawn, she was far too anxious to try to go back to bed. She fixed herself a cup of coffee and booted up her secured system. It was a perfect opportunity to get caught up on everything she could as far as the Black Blood investigation, then pull anything she was able to on her three dead men. There was also the matter of Hunny Trainer to address. Caroline had relayed Carpesh’s findings on the suicide but also put in her two cents on the peculiarity of Hunny’s attire, the lack of shoes and timing of the whole situation. Lou agreed, it just didn’t seem right. Even more so when Lou did her own research on the Brugmansia sanguinea, Bloody Devil’s Trumpet. Th
at was unsettling as hell. Hunny could have been drugged with the plant and simply walked right into that storm drain and right into that noose. Lou found herself talking out loud to no one about the improbability of finding ties to the Sanguinostri in every case she touched. In this instance, just because the flower had a particular name, she was panicked. It could be possible, but Lou needed to stop rushing to judgments and be absolutely sure before she could rule it in or out. The plant also grew in Chile and Venezuela but the Columbia connection, after their case with the Salazars, uncovering the blood smuggling connection. It just seemed like too much of a coincidence. She needed to keep her focus on the tangible.
Lou had put in for warrants on the ride home from the dojo for phone records on all three of their dead men as well as financials. Medina had been using a burner phone and paying cash, so that was going to come up very thin. When Detective Haas’ email came in verifying Lou’s other hunch on the bondage toys in Medina’s possession, she suggested they root for any receipts, anything that could help them build a timeline on Medina’s movements. Haas also told Lou that he revisited one of the nosy neighbors to find out if they remembered anything else about the party Medina had thrown a few weeks back. The woman recalled a delivery and catering truck but could only come up with partial names. He was going to run every company in the county to find them. It was something at least, and she appreciated his help.
The way Lou figured it, the men were linked based on their proclivities. Maybe their femme fatal had attended that party, unaware of what kind of party it was. Maybe they drugged and raped her, and this was her revenge. It tracked in Lou’s mind, but she knew Hunny Trainer figured into it somewhere. She just had to figure out where and how. Maybe Medina had a drug connect from Columbia, and that’s how the Scopolamine figured in. It was all total speculation until they could find someone who actually saw or heard something. On a whim, Lou pulled out a calendar and started counting backward with what they knew so far. When Hunny dropped out of sight, when her body was found, the date of the Medina party. Lou knew there had to be a guest list somewhere. All of that had occurred the last couple weeks that Lou was on medical leave. Right around the same time Esterhuizen and Timms had landed in Los Angeles. Scum of the earth, birds of a feather. None of it may have had any Sanguinostri involvement, but Esterhuizen was just a bad dude who happened to be working for another bad dude who happened to be Sanguinostri. They were stealing people. That required a lot of work without someone kicking and screaming. Scopolamine would have come in real handy for those kidnappings and long distance transports. The coincidence thing was flying out the window, and Lou knew she needed to run all this by Max as soon as possible. She got up from her desk and looked out across the back yard. His light was on.
“Screw it.” Lou said to herself. “This is way more important than my sappy feelings.” She threw open her balcony door and headed for the guest house. With every step, she shoved her personal feelings deeper down and pulled the cop to the forefront. By the time she made it to the door, she was psyched. That is until the door opened before she had a chance to knock.
“Is everything alright?” Max stood there with a stricken look on his face.
“Yes.” Her heart thudded inside of her chest like a jackhammer the instant she set eyes on him. “I mean no. I mean, I’m not sure! Can I talk to you a moment?”
Max relaxed instantly, seeing that she was alright. He grinned and stepped aside so she could come in. “Can I get you some coffee?”
“Yeah, thanks.” Lou needed all the caffeine she could get her hands on. “That would be great.”
“Couldn’t sleep either?” He asked as he poured her a cup.
“No.” Lou suddenly realized she was still in her pajamas. Not even decent ones. She had on a horribly ratty pair of pink sweats and bleach stained tank top from high school. She adjusted herself to make sure no holes were in inappropriate places. “I have a bad feeling that the drugs used in my murder cases might have come from our blood smugglers.”
Max handed her the cup of coffee, prepared just as she liked it. “Well that would be a very bad thing, wouldn’t it?” He motioned for her to sit. “Why do you think this?”
“Caroline said the Scopolamine used to drug all three men comes from the same plant. Brugmansia sanguinea.” Lou paused to take a sip of coffee.
“Bloody Devil’s Trumpet.” Max said, knowing it’s common name.
“Right.” Lou set her cup down. “So you are familiar with it’s origins?”
“Indeed. I would come to your same conclusion.” Max sat back in the chair and thought it out carefully.
“You need to know that these men, my victims, and I use that term loosely, they were complete scum, pervert slime.” Lou leaned forward, sitting on the edge of the chair. “These kinds of scum tend to run with the same kinds of scum. I know I need more evidence, but my gut is telling me that their paths crossed, along with Timms and Esterhuizen.”
Lou continued to lay everything out, including Hunny Trainer’s odd suicide and Lou’s speculation as to how she came to hang herself. She told him where she was at with the BHPD and how she had made use of her status as Principate to facilitate their cooperation. She told him how she even met them for lunch to introduce herself. Max tried not to smile at his pride in her. She was adapting and making use of her position just as he knew she would. She was also establishing herself on her own, without his help or that of the Aegis, Frank or Abby. He couldn’t have been more pleased.
As she continued talking, she got up in mid-sentence, grabbed their cups and went in to get them more coffee. He kept quiet and watched her out of the corner of his eye. It was so natural. He took stock of her attire and cracked a grin. She was so unfussy and comfortable in her own skin. She hadn’t even mentioned his attire, he being in sweatpants and a tank top as well. A much newer version of hers, but in gray, not pink. She hadn’t stopped talking since she got up. Not once, even as she returned and handed Max his cup back with the coffee prepared, just as he liked it.
“So am I nuts or what?” She asked him and he found himself flustered, not having heard what she just said.
“You know you’re not nuts.” He smirked.
“Is there any way to talk to some of the girls that Niko and the guys rescued from Cuba?” She asked, looking very hopeful. “Find out if they might have been dosed with Scopolamine?”
Max quickly put two and two together on what she had been talking about. “Niko could help you with that, but I’m afraid there has been a development.” He hesitated to continue.
“What kind of development?” Lou asked, suddenly very concerned.
Max ran through what he knew of what had happened in Holland. He still needed an update on what went on after he and Niko last spoke, but that would have to wait until he got back. For the moment, Max brought her up to speed on everything they had uncovered about possible leads on the blood smuggling operation and that the Northern European Dominor had been read in. He also took the time to explain their suspicions on St. Petersburg and how he and several of the others believed the Black Blood was coming out of that port as well as China. He told her about how the Aegis in Rotterdam had disposed of the ship carrying Black Blood and how her fellow Principate and he had narrowed down some possible suspects in Canada. Once he finished briefing her, Max felt like a weight had lifted off of him. Just talking it all out with her, like equals, like friends, had made him feel more at peace than he did in Juneau.
“We need to set up some major sting operations somehow!” Lou decided with conviction. “We need to get these bastards and put them down!” There was nothing ambiguous about it, as far as she was concerned. Making Max even more convinced he had made the right choice appointing her as Principate.
“Easier said than done, Detective.” Max took another sip of his coffee.
“Do you trust all the other Principates?” Lou asked, knowing it was a tough question for h
er to be asking, and probably totally out of bounds.
“I don’t think any of them are involved in the smuggling, and I do feel our investigation has bared that out.” Max believed what he was saying to her.
“But?” She could sense his hesitation.
“But I am not sure about the agents they have employed.” He admitted.
“Use me then!” Lou blurted.
“What?” He wasn’t sure what she was eluding to.
“I don’t know any of these people, and none of them know me!” Lou explained. “Having me run around, meeting all the agents as learning the ropes kind of thing, it’s a perfect cover!”
“That’s far too risky.” He dismissed the notion immediately.
“How so?” Lou asked. “Only you and I, right this moment, know what the real reason for me roaming about would be. I’m brand new to the Sanguinostri and brand new to the whole Principate thing!” She pleaded her case. “It’s completely reasonable for me to want to learn from my elders, so to speak.”
“That’s not what I mean by risky.” Max qualified his previous statement.
“Then what?” She asked him point blank. “Because I’m a girl? Because I am just a cop? I risk my life getting out of bed every morning! How the hell is this any less dangerous?”
He laughed at her. “Well, you do have a valid point there.” He wanted to lean over and grab her by the back of the neck and kiss her right then and there. It took every fiber of his being to stay put. She was so brave, without even realizing it, and her tenacity was just inspiring. It was an excellent idea. He hated it. Putting her at risk was something he never wanted to do. But then again, he had to since it was his brilliant idea to make her his Principate. If he was going to make this work, he needed to start right then and there. “Let me run it by Niko when he gets back. After he’s filled me in on what else he has learned.”
Shadows May Fall Page 20
