Code Word

by Traci Hunter Abramson

  Jay’s eyebrows shot up. “Seriously?”

  “He’s FBI. Or at least, he was,” Lou told him.

  “Is that why Carina’s mother was killed? Because the top guy thought someone was going to turn him in?”

  Lou nodded. “The threat against Donna and the girls started years earlier. That’s why Giovanni sent them away.”

  “Sent them away?” Jay’s brows furrowed. “Carina thought her mother ran away with them.”

  “That’s what she and her sisters were supposed to think,” Lou said with a shrug. “Giovanni knew the girls needed to be afraid of him and the family. They needed to think there had been a clean break between their parents.”

  “I gather they kept in touch even after they separated.”

  Lou nodded. “I was their go-between. I had been Donna’s bodyguard since Bianca was born.” He hesitated now, his guilt all but consuming him. He looked down at his hand, rubbing at the stubs where his missing fingers had once been. “It was my fault she died.”

  Jay’s eyes followed his movement, staring at his mangled hand. “Alex tortured you. You can’t blame yourself for giving out their location.”

  “I never told anyone where they were,” Lou said, straightening in his seat. “I would have died first.”

  “Then why did you say it was your fault?”

  “Someone told Giovanni that I had talked when they delivered one of my fingers to him in a box. He believed it. I was in bad shape, too beat up to travel. By the time I got to Giovanni’s house, he was already on his way to Denver.”

  “I gather he was followed.”

  Lou nodded. “From what I’ve been able to piece together, the top man got there right after Giovanni.”

  “Why didn’t Giovanni turn him in?”

  “It doesn’t work that way,” Lou told him. “You don’t get to the top without having some very powerful allies. If Giovanni had talked, he had to know that someone would come after his family. He stayed quiet and took the blame to protect his children.”

  “And you’ve been encouraging Carina and her sisters to move every time someone got too close.”

  “Yes,” Lou admitted. “And now I need your help to get them to move again. They aren’t safe here. Not anymore.”

  “I doubt I have any influence on Carina or Bianca.”

  “I think Carina will listen to you. And Bianca will listen to your father.”

  “Carina hardly knows me,” Jay said with a shake of his head. “Tell me what you know about the man in charge. Describe him to me.”

  “Dark hair, balding, average height. He’s probably about fifty now.”

  “Anything more specific? Scars, tattoos?”

  Lou shook his head. “All I know for sure is that he’s a Fed.”

  Jay took a moment to absorb the new information. “Was he from Chicago, or was he assigned there?”

  “He was assigned there,” Lou said with certainty. “Rumor has it that he was from somewhere down south originally. Texas, I think. He came to Chicago as part of the organized crime unit. I don’t think he was in town even twenty-four hours before he was on the payroll and moving up quickly.”

  “I know the mob has been known to pay off judges and people in law enforcement to protect their interests, but I’ve never heard of anyone going from being on the take to heading up the operation.”

  “Neither had I,” Lou admitted. “I’m still not sure how he managed to make the transition, but I do know that he had a knack for taking care of anyone in his way.”

  “How?” Jay asked.

  “You have to understand that this man was more of a ghost story than reality for most of us. Only a handful of people had ever met him in person, and even fewer knew his name. One by one, the people above him in the mob’s hierarchy started getting arrested. Not just arrested. Convicted.”

  “He used his position with the FBI to clear his way to the top?”

  “Exactly.” Lou considered for a minute how much more information he could afford to share. “From where I stood, it looked like Sergio Perelli knew what he was doing and supported the changes. I never could figure out why he let someone from the outside rise to the same level as his own sons, much less pass them up.”

  “This is all fascinating, but what I don’t understand is why someone would come after Carina and Bianca now.”

  Though Lou knew deep down that the package intended for Carina was the likely catalyst, he couldn’t bring himself to trust Jay with it, at least not before he had the chance to explain things to Carina first. Instead, he lied, as he had done so often throughout his life. “I don’t know. I’ve been trying to figure that out since Nick showed up.”

  “Maybe you should pack up a few things and come stay with us.”

  Lou’s eyes narrowed. “Us? Are you staying with the girls?”

  Jay met Lou’s suspicious stare without flinching. “I am. Carina’s friends thought it would be wise to have me stay at their house to look after them.”

  “I see.” Lou considered his options. He didn’t like the idea of his girls staying at a house alone with any man, especially not one who appeared to have broken through the invisible wall Carina had erected against men in general. He also didn’t want to be responsible for leading Nick to the girls for a second time. “I think it’s best for me to steer clear of the girls until they’re safely away from here.”

  “Are you sure?” Jay asked skeptically.

  “I’m sure.” Lou nodded. He hesitated a moment before adding, “But if anything happens to me, tell Carina that she needs to take her sisters out for pizza.”

  Lou saw the concern on the younger man’s face, and his confusion. “Pizza?”

  “And make sure she keeps up the maintenance on her mom’s car.” He nodded again. “Hopefully she’ll understand.”

  “I really think you should come with me.”

  Lou shook his head. “I don’t want to take the chance that they’ll find the girls through me again.”

  “I can get you out of here without being seen.”

  “I think I’m a bit old to be climbing out of bedroom windows.” Lou shot him a sarcastic look. “Just keep my girls safe.”

  Jay hesitated and then nodded. “I will.”

  Lou watched the younger man disappear back the way he had come and heard the scratchy sound of the window closing. He listened for a long moment, impressed that Jay seemed to possess the capability of moving silently through the night. After a minute or two, he let himself relax in his chair once more. He lifted his eyes to look out the front window just as his door burst open. A familiar figure stepped inside and closed the door behind him.

  “You.” Lou felt a bead of sweat form on his brow as he looked into the cold, dark eyes.

  “Tell me where they are,” he demanded, his voice carrying the slightest hint of a Texan drawl.

  “Never.”

  He reached down for Lou’s damaged hand. A cool smile stretched across his chiseled face. “Should I remind you of what happens when people don’t tell me what I want to know?”

  “I didn’t talk last time, and nothing you do to me will give you better results this time around.”

  “Tell me where they are.”

  “I’d rather die.”

  “That can be arranged.”

  23

  Curtis Graham rifled through the scatter of papers on his desk in search of a pen. His already demanding caseload seemed to multiply while he was out of the office that morning, including a new stack of case reports he needed to sign. He probably should have followed his instincts and told his old friend from the Academy to look into the database search himself, but he’d owed him a favor and couldn’t find a way to easily refuse.

  His insistence that Graham handle the matter in person was a bit odd, but then, Alex had always been a bit of an odd one. Besides, he had needed to go to Virginia Beach to follow up a lead on another case anyway. He dug his mouse out from beneath a stack of phone messages and updated hi
s case notes on his computer.

  He was just standing to leave for the day when his phone rang.

  “What did you find?” Alex asked over the phone, his clipped tone hiding the Texan drawl that seemed to have faded over the past twenty-five years with the Bureau.

  Resigned that his long night was about to get longer, he settled back down into his chair. “Let me see here.” Graham shifted the phone to his left hand so his right hand was free to push at papers until he found his notes. “The person who accessed those names on the FBI database was a Lieutenant Seth Johnson.”

  “Who is he?”

  “It’s hard to say. All I’m sure about is that he’s navy and he’s stationed out of Virginia Beach.” With his notepad in his lap, he leaned back in his desk chair and propped both feet up on his desk.

  “You have to at least know what unit he’s with.”

  “I have a partial copy of his service file, but just about everything in it is classified. Apparently the navy wasn’t willing to share more than the basics,” Graham told him. “From what I can tell, he went through flight training shortly after he was commissioned, but everything after that is a mystery.”

  “Did you put a trace on his phone?”

  “Yeah, but he hasn’t used it since I went to see him.”

  “What about the numbers he called before you talked to him?”

  “There were a couple of calls from an encrypted government number that I haven’t been able to identify and some calls to other cell phone numbers.” He read over the phone logs, noticing the way the lieutenant used his phone in spurts, sometimes not making any calls for days or even weeks at a time.

  The tension coming over the line broke into his thoughts. “Who did those numbers belong to?”

  “Let me see if I have that yet.” He shifted his computer keyboard into his lap so he could type while still keeping his feet up on his desk. “He made a couple to Vanessa Johnson. It looks like that’s his wife. The only other number that is repeated recently is Jay Wellman’s. In fact, Wellman was the last call he received before I paid him a visit.”

  “Run a background check on him too and let me know what you find out.”

  “All right. I’ll give you a call.” Graham jotted down the request on his growing to-do list. “Oh, there was one more thing. I have the list of all of the names Seth Johnson ran through our database. I don’t know why he was looking up all of these people, but there are quite a few of them he was interested in.”

  “How many?”

  “Thirty-eight.”

  “Are you sure they’re all related to the same case?”

  “Several of them aren’t in our system, but all of them are from Chicago,” he said. “I’ll e-mail you the list and CC the organized crime unit. Maybe Lieutenant Johnson stumbled on some other members of the mafia up there.”

  “It sounds like some of this information might be sensitive. I was going to head down to DC in a couple of days. I’ll come down a day or two early and visit Norfolk first. We can go grab some lunch and catch up.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to e-mail the list to you? I can have my secretary type it up and get it out to you first thing in the morning.”

  “No, I want this information considered top secret until I can see it for myself. We don’t want to take a chance of it getting into the wrong hands,” he insisted. “In fact, I’d like for you to keep the file with you until I get a chance to come get it.”

  “Okay. You know more about this stuff than I do.” Graham pulled open his top desk drawer and grabbed a candy bar out of it before dropping the file inside beside his car keys. “Let me know when you get your travel plans firmed up, and I’ll make sure I’m here in the office to meet with you.”

  “I’ll make sure you know when I arrive.”

  * * *

  Jay stared down at his phone, surprised that when he called Seth’s number it went straight to voicemail. Even though the Saint Squad was on leave, they all knew that if an international crisis broke out somewhere, they could very easily be called back in on a moment’s notice. He dialed the number a second time, but his efforts yielded the same results.

  He looked up at the Whitmores’ home, not sure if he was ready to face Carina with the truth. How would she react, he wondered, when she found out that her family had been lying to her for years, that the man she had chosen to hate had sacrificed his freedom to protect her? He couldn’t begin to put himself in her shoes, couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to know that his father was flawed, much less a lifelong criminal.

  Pete emerged through the front door, illuminated by the glow of the porch light. “Is everything okay?”

  Jay took a step toward him and immediately felt some of the burden of the truth shift off of his shoulders. “I don’t know.” He held up his cell phone. “Seth isn’t answering, which isn’t like him, and I’m not sure how Carina is going to take the news that I have for her.”

  “Do you want me to stay for a while longer?” Pete asked.

  Jay considered a minute but then shook his head. If he was being told his past wasn’t what he thought it was, he doubted he would want an audience. “I’ll be okay. Where are Carina and Bianca?”

  “Bianca is already in bed.” Pete glanced up at the side of the house, where the main level guest rooms were located. “At least, she’d better be in bed.”

  His father’s sarcastic tone eased a little more of Jay’s tension, and he gave a slight smile. “And Carina?”

  “She’s in the living room pretending to watch the news.”

  “Thanks.” Jay put a hand on his dad’s shoulder. “And thanks for always being there for me.”

  Jay didn’t miss the surprise in his father’s eyes before he controlled it. He gave a curt nod and took a step toward his car. “Give me a call if you have any problems. And make sure you keep those girls safe.”

  “I will, Dad.” Jay managed a full smile this time. “I learned from the best.”

  * * *

  “What did you find out?” Carina asked anxiously the moment Jay walked into the living room. She pushed off of the couch and turned to face him. She noticed Jay hesitate for the briefest moment, and her impatience and nerves went to battle in her stomach. “Well?”

  Jay’s eyes met hers. “We need to go see your dad.”

  “What?”

  Jay closed the distance between them, an odd look of sympathy on his face. He put his hand on her arm and sat down on the couch, gently pulling her down to sit beside him. “I had a long talk with Lou. He doesn’t believe your father is guilty either.”

  Carina stared at him blankly, trying to decipher his words. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why wouldn’t Lou have told me if he thought my father was innocent?”

  “Because Lou knew your father went to jail to protect you and your sisters.”

  Carina shook her head in denial. “Why would my father need to protect us? No one would be insane enough to come anywhere near our family, much less kill my mother. Going after the family of the man in charge of the Outfit is suicide. Who would do that?”

  “The man who is really in charge of the Chicago mob. The man who saw your father as a threat.”

  “What?” Confusion filled her. “But I thought . . .”

  “You thought what you were supposed to think,” Jay said quietly. He took her hand in his. “Your mother didn’t leave your father, at least not the way you thought. Your father sent all of you away so no one would try to hurt you to get to him.”

  Carina shook her head, her reality shifting and falling around her in a dozen pieces. She tried to put them back together in a way that made sense but couldn’t quite manage it. “I don’t believe that.”

  Jay didn’t say anything, as though he knew she needed some time to sort out her thoughts and memories. The image of her fifth birthday party flashed into her mind, her father grinning at her as she rode a pony in her grandfather’s huge backyard. The yard had been crowded with fami
ly and friends, balloons tied to the chairs set up on the patio. Even in the memory, she could recognize the men standing near the gates, undoubtedly armed and assigned to keep them all safe. Lou was there too, never too far away but never in the middle of the action.

  A recent conversation with Lou replayed in her mind, and she thought of how he too tried so hard to protect her from a truth she so desperately wanted to understand. Her voice was soft, barely louder than a whisper when she finally spoke. “I always wondered how my mom managed to support us without working.”

  Jay squeezed her hand, as though encouraging her to open her mind to the truth. “Lou gave me a lot of background information, and it all makes sense, except for why Nick is here now. We need to know what has changed recently that would affect you.”

  “Maybe it has something to do with my grandfather’s death,” Carina suggested. “I got the feeling Nick had been searching for me for a while.”

  “I don’t know. Lou said your grandfather was suffering from Alzheimer’s and that someone else has been in charge for the past few years.”

  “Is there any chance Nick was lying about the death of my grandfather?” Carina asked hesitantly.

  “I’m afraid not,” Jay said, sympathy humming through his voice. “Seth confirmed it when he ran the background checks.”

  Carina swallowed hard and drew a steadying breath. Her eyes met Jay’s, and she forced herself to speak her thoughts aloud. “If it wasn’t my father who was in charge, then it was probably my uncle.”

  “Not according to Lou.”

  “Do you really think my dad would have any idea of what’s going on? As far as I know, he hasn’t had any contact with anyone from the family since he was convicted.”

  “You don’t think your uncle would have kept in touch?”

  “Maybe.” Carina shrugged. “It’s hard to say. From what I’ve been able to tell, when someone in the Outfit goes to jail, ties are kept pretty loose so the associations don’t become obvious to the police. Since my uncle was family, it’s possible he might have visited him. I doubt any letters would be revealing since all of my father’s mail is probably screened.”