“Did you really make $440,000 today?”
“Yes little lady, I did,” he replied cheerfully as he added olive oil, garlic and several more ingredients to the Caesar salad dressing.
“Did your mission have anything to do with the news I was watching on the TV?” Loni asked.
“I'm not supposed to discuss my missions with anyone,” he told her knowing it would not stop her from asking more questions.
“The news said there had been a major battle in Mexico. It was between some drug cartels in Cancun, Mexico. More than fourteen people died, including the police chief of Cancun. The Mexican president is very upset, and he vows to bring the killers to justice. Even if the killers are Americans. What does he mean?”
“I believe he thinks some Americans came to Mexico and did the killings.” What Banyon didn’t say was that the police chief was involved in a white-slavery ring and the rest of the men who died were part of a drug cartel. They were also involved in the slave trade. Banyon knew it was better to give her some information than to deny everything.
“So, how did you earn the money?”
“We helped rescue six young women from a life in sexual slavery,” he said as he poured the Caesar salad dressing over the salad, added some grated cheese, and pushed the bowel towards her to serve.
“Who’s we?” She asked as she tasted the salad directly from the bowel. Loni had a legendary suspicious nature.
“My contract employee and me, of course,” he said evasively.
“Who’s this contract employee? And what did they do for you?” Loni asked as she ramped up her interrogation. Banyon could hear concern in her voice.
“Oh, she is just the receptionist,” he replied with a wave of his hand. “By contract, I have to pay at least one person at the firm whenever I am working on a case. I chose her because she didn't get in my way.” Banyon had already decided to not discuss any of the more personal issues he had dealt with at the firm during his first day.
But Loni dug deeper. “She huh, what did she look like?” Loni quickly demanded.
“Loni, she is practically a teenager — she even wears braces. Her main goal in life is to be in the Olympics.”
“So, is she athletic looking?” Loni asked.
“Not nearly as athletic looking as you are, babe,” he said to deflect where she was going with her questions. To Loni athletic meant good looking.
“Well, I'll just have to go there and see for myself,” Loni threatened.
“Don't bring your purse. She is also a world-class pickpocket,” Banyon said nonchalantly.
“Tell me about the other people you met at work, then?” She said as her eyes grew narrow with suspicion.
“Well let's see,” he started, as he looked up from his work and directly at her. “The managing partner is an illusionist, the IT guy is a world-class hacker, and they have a guy on staff that speaks dozens of languages and can forge most documents, but looks like a ferret.”
“Specifically, did you meet any other women?” Loni demanded as her jealousy grew. She didn't believe that Banyon was telling her the whole truth.
“Well, there is the Catholic nun, who has a photographic memory, and the office manager who is real good at psychology,” he responded. “They are all business,” he added.
“I want to meet them, as well,” Loni demanded.
“I don't think anyone is allowed in the building, unless they are client,” he said.
“That sounds awfully convenient to me,” Loni huffed.
He quickly changed the subject. “Loni you seemed very distracted when I came home today, what's on your mind?”
“Oh, nothing,” she lied. Banyon knew Loni never gave up any information without fight, but expected him to tell her everything.
“Could you be a little more specific? You were clearly thinking about something else when I came home. What was it?”
“I just have some concerns,” she admitted.
“Well, are you going to make me guess?” he replied a little sarcastically.
“I’'s those damn Patel women.”
With a little panic in his voice, he asked. “What’s happened now?”
“Colt, they are always here, at the house. It’s just that I don't want them in our house all the time,” Loni pleaded.
The Patel women, all three of them, were part of Banyon's team. He had actually met them before he ever met Loni. They had a lot of history with Colton Banyon. Loni was insanely jealous of the beautiful, Indian, women, and actually, he knew that she had a right to be concerned.
“I thought you were friends now?” Banyon responded.
“Colt, we are,” Loni replied. “But I can't help these feelings that I sometimes get when they are around. I think they want you back into their lives full-time and I don’t like it. Our private life should be private.”
“But Maya is pregnant, Pramilla is married, and Previne is completely dedicated to her work,” he reasoned.
“Do they have to be here, in my house, all the time?”
By this time, Banyon had finished making the omelet, put it onto plates and proceeded around the kitchen island. He served the meal and plopped down next to her. It had given him a few seconds to think of something to say.
“Why don't you take some of the money I earned today and use it to redecorate your office in Hoffman Estates,” he said. He knew that spending money was one of her favorite pastimes.
“Why?”
“You could add a couple of desks. Then tell the Patel's you made the workspace for them to use any time they wanted. That way they will be obliged to come to the offices of the LCH Detective Agency, LLC to do their work. You could also keep an eye on them there, and get away from them, if you want to.”
Loni face quickly lit up, “Colt you’re brilliant,” she beamed. “And I get to spend some of your money.” She vibrated with happiness.
“I know,” he replied sincerely, but with a smile on his face. “Besides, it is also your money.”
Suddenly, the front door bell chimed. Loni, who was only attired in a terrycloth robe, leaped from her chair and ran down the hallway to peak through the eye hole.
She ran back into the kitchen with a look of exasperation on her face. “It's the Patel Clan,” she screamed at him like it was his fault. She bolted to the bedroom to get dressed.
Chapter Sixteen
Banyon left his meal half-finished and headed down the hallway to the front door. He wondered what the Patel women wanted as it was already late in the evening. He knew Loni was upset, and he felt she had a right to be. These women intruded into their lives a little too often, especially lately. He knew Loni had attempted to be friends with them despite her uncontrollable jealously. But the friendship was strained as Loni knew all three of the Patel women were ex-lovers of Colton Banyon. She suspected they might try to rekindle their sexually-based relationship with him at any time. But what she didn’t understand was that Banyon had completely fallen for Loni, even though she didn’t really believe it. Since they had become lovers, he had been able to resist the Patel’s temptations.
Banyon had actually met all three women while solving his first mystery. Pramilla and Previne were exact twins and Maya, six years younger, could easily pass for either of her sisters. They had been sent by Walter Pierce, now Wolf, to guide and protect him. Their Grandfather Abu Patel had placed the curse that allowed Wolf to speak to Banyon.
An additional curse had been placed on the women so that they could use their well-developed sexual powers to motivate Banyon, or actually, any good man. The grandfather had placed the curse so that his granddaughters could identify the right man to marry. At the time, Banyon was without a woman and was easy prey for the sisters. He also discovered they liked to share and were totally uninhibited around him. The second curse had ended when Pramilla married Eric. But Banyon wasn’t sure about the curse ending, as sometimes they continued to attempt to seduce him. Eric, who was actually Wolf’s grandson and looked l
ike a tall surfer, once confided that he sometimes didn’t always know which one of the sisters was in bed with him. Banyon knew the sisters shared everything — even their men.
But there was a reason for their behavior. The Patel’s had been raised and still lived in central India. Their parents had died in a plane crash when they were very young. They went to live with their Grandfather Abu, who passed on some of his Shaman knowledge, but also trained them to use their sexual abilities to get what they wanted in life. He believed that a woman had only one purpose, to serve a man. They had a lot of material to work with. Each girl was tall, slender, like models, with high cheek bones, and light-brown soft skin, the color of mocha. They had long, silky, black, hair, and captivating dark eyes. They had learned how to seduce men as young teenagers when Abu decided they needed to learn the practical art of strip-teasing in a local club. While they became highly educated and received advanced degrees in archeology, curating and diplomacy, they also were very capable of manipulating any man, including Colton Banyon.
A few months ago, things had changed. Maya had been dating an agent of the FBI and had become pregnant. Agent Gregory Gamble was killed during the line of duty. Maya was now alone and barely a few months into her pregnancy. The twins decided to take a leave of absence from their regular positions in India and stay in America with Maya, at least until she had her baby. They had purchased a big house in Banyon’s neighborhood and were all of a sudden fixtures at his doorstep. This, of course, made Loni very nervous and somewhat irritable.
He opened the door and saw the three Patel women smiling broadly. They were standing in a row and barely filled the doorway. Eric stood just behind the women. He towered over them. They were all dressed in white shorts, displaying their beautiful legs. They wore different colored loose blouses, tied in knots, just above their flat navels. Banyon, as usual, could not tell them apart. So, he addressed Eric.
“What brings you guys out this late at night, Eric?”
“Two things really,” one of the women spoke with the precise English accent that reminded him of the British influence on India.
“Oh?” he replied.
“Yes, Colt,” another replied. “We wanted to find out about your first day at the Law firm and also we have a project you need to help us with.”
“May we come in?” the third women asked as she batted the eyelashes of her shining eyes.
“Of course,” Banyon said and stepped back. He opened his arms in welcome, waving them to enter. The women walked inside three abreast. They proceeded down the hallway to the big kitchen. Banyon and Eric followed. He watched the synchronized, rhythmic roll, of their tiny bottoms as they headed deep inside his house. They were about halfway down the hallway when Banyon spied an old book in the arm of one of the girls. It looked like an old ledger and also looked very familiar.
“I think I have seen the ledger before, haven’t I?” Banyon commented. “Why is it here?”
“Don’t you remember?” the sister said over her shoulder. “We took it from Kammler’s cave in Death Valley.” Banyon now knew the sister dressed in the blue blouse was Maya. She was the only one of the girls who could read German.
While attempting to solve the mystery of Hans Kammler’s cave, about a year ago, they had discovered on old ledger. It seemed to contain names and addresses of several of the founding members of the Effort — the modern day version of the Third Reich. Maya had taken the ledger to translate the information. While, it had been written in the nineteen-thirties, they hoped to find some names they could trace to current members, but Maya had never mentioned the ledger since.
“Actually, I had forgotten about it,” he replied.
“Well, I haven’t,” she said. “I’ve had a lot more free time since Greg died. I found something else in the ledger, but didn’t want anyone to know about it until I checked it out,” she explained.
“But do you have any information about the names in the ledger?” Banyon quickly asked.
“Yes, I do,” Maya sweetly replied.
“Now you have my interest,” he said. They had entered the kitchen were gathering around the kitchen island. Banyon quickly grabbed the dishes and threw them in the sink for Elizabeth, the housekeeper, to wash the next day.
Maya set the ledger on the marble top and began flipping through pages. “Where is Loni?” another of the sisters asked.
“She’ll be along shortly,” he smoothly replied.
“She needs to be here,” Maya noted.
“I thought you needed my help?” Banyon asked.
“Yes, we do. But Loni is the one that is going with us.”
Chapter Seventeen
“Where am I going and why am I going with you guys?” Loni asked as she skidded to a halt at the kitchen island. She was now dressed in her traditional garb. It consisted of black skin-tight leotards and a loose white top. She had pulled her hair back into a ponytail, and it bobbed as she spoke. She didn’t wear any shoes and was a full head shorter than the Patel sisters. Banyon was glad to see that she was in a better mood.
“I’ll get to that in a second, okay?” Maya pleaded with Loni. “I need to finish with Colt first.”
“Tell me about the names?” Banyon pressed Maya.
“There are ten names listed in the ledger. Many of them have been dealt with already. They are already dead. The first name is Hal Jones, who was really Klaus Gerut. He was killed by a fellow white-supremacist.”
“Yes, that was when we were hunting for the rightful owner of the Mein Kampf book,” Banyon remembered.
“Next, we have his brother George Gerut. He was the original head of the Effort in America. He died some time ago, but we faced his son John Gerut. Remember, he stole the artifacts from Area 51.”
“Yeah, he turned to dust right in front of our eyes,” Previne chuckled and elbowed Pramilla, who was also there.
“We also encounter the political family of Randolph and Sarah Sanders and ended their presidential aspirations. They are the children of two additional members, Adolf Sanders and Franz Hamburg. They both died several years ago,” Maya said.
“And I found my loving husband, Eric, in the process,” Pramilla pointed out. Banyon now knew which sister was Pramilla. She had on the red blouse.
“Then, when we found the old German plane in the desert and we had to deal with Adam Dunne,” Maya continued.
“Yuck, what a creep he was,” Loni said as she made a face.
“The final two names are also dead. They are Henry Fogel and Albert Spitz. They both died during our last caper.” Maya suddenly became chocked up and started to cry. It was during the last mystery that Greg Gamble had also died. No one said anything for a few minutes as they each relived the tragedy.
Banyon then recapped. “So, we have run across these men or their children in each of our mysteries.”
“Wow,” Loni quickly remarked. “We had a hand in the demise of all of them. We must be pretty good.”
“And solved the mysteries that surrounded them too,” one of the twins pointed out. “Not to mention the money that we made.”
“And Previne, you have several artifacts we collected. They are secreted away in your museum in India, don’t you?” Banyon added.
“Yes, I do,” Previne admitted. Banyon congratulated himself for solving the mystery of which twin was which. Previne had the blue top.
“I’d say we have had a pretty good run, so far,” Banyon told them. “We have also put a serious dent in the Efforts plans.”
“You guys are my best friends,” Previne gushed. She turned and hugged her sister. Soon everyone was hugging each other as emotions ran high in the room.
The spell was broken by Colton Banyon. “But that still leaves three names,” Banyon pointed out to everyone.
“That’s right,” a sadder Maya responded as she wiped her eyes with a tissue. She looked down at a sheet of paper and continued. “Two of the people in the ledger have simply disappeared. I’m having the FBI trace the
names, but so far no luck.”
“Give me the names, Maya and I’ll have Wolf find them,” Banyon said as he opened a draw and rummaged around with his hands looking for a pen and paper.
“Loni, where can I find a pen and paper?”
“I thought you would never ask?” She remarked.
As he looked up, Loni handed him both. She then showed him her hand where her green jade ring glistened in the kitchen lights. She had a wide grin on her face. Banyon smiled back and grabbed the items, preparing to write.
“The first name is Bernard Schultz,” Maya then spelled out the last name.
“Wolf has mentioned his name before,” Banyon announced,
“Why haven’t you followed up?” Pramilla asked.
“It was a month ago, when everything was going down with the Chinese and Albert Spitz. I’ve been a little busy since then. I haven’t followed up with Wolf on him,” Banyon admitted.
“You need to pay more attention to us,” Pramilla said sharply as she pointed at each of the people at the island.
“What?” Banyon said in confusion.
“We can’t solve these mysteries without knowing the details, especially if you keep them in your head,” she added.
“I’m sorry,” he replied sincerely.
“The second name is Werner Koltz,” Maya read from the paper.
“Okay, I’ll check on him too when I talk to Wolf,” Banyon promised. “That still leaves one name.”
“I know and it gets a little more complicated here,” Maya said.
“How so?”
“Her name was Hilda Brand,” Maya said.
“A woman?” questioned Banyon. He knew it was very uncommon for the Nazis to include a woman in their plans. To the old-line Nazis, a woman was meant for one thing. They were meant for breeding. “Why would she be listed?”
“I think I can answer that,” Maya told him. “Her first husband was named Wilber Brand. He was a high-ranking Nazi General, but was killed fighting the communists in Spain, around nineteen-thirty five. He must have drawn her into the Effort before he died.” Maya said as speculation.
A Dubious Position (A Colton Banyon Mystery Book 7) Page 7
