Lake Effect

by K C Gillis

Looking in her rearview mirror, Jordan saw a vehicle approaching. It was a dark SUV, and it was definitely pulling over. Jordan got out of her car and turned to walk back to the dead deer. Looking closely for the first time at the vehicle that stopped, Jordan froze. It wasn’t animal control. Not unless they also drove a Copper Lake police SUV. Jordan’s pulse quickened as she watched the chief get out.

  Oh shit. I have to get out of here.

  His focus was on the dead deer, allowing Jordan to walk backward to her car. She reached to her left and grabbed the door handle. The click of the door opening drew the chief’s attention. Where others may have registered surprise, the chief just stared at Jordan. A cold, hard stare. One reserved for the person he would least want to see.

  Jordan feared he’d prevent her from leaving, but he didn’t. He stood motionless, maintaining his stare as she got into her car and left. She wouldn’t take the chance of turning around and driving past him, so she continued north. She knew she could circle around and get back to the marina from the other side. The extra drive time was worth avoiding an unnecessary encounter with the chief.

  “What took so long?” Rachel said when Jordan made it back to the marina.

  She sat down with Rachel and Travis. “Interesting story. Something unexpected came up. Actually, someone unexpected.”

  “Who?” Travis asked.

  They nearly jumped out of their seats when an object landed on their table. It was the drone.

  As Jordan’s brain scrambled to process the situation, the chief sat down in the vacant chair at their table, leaning forward on his forearms.

  “Let’s have ourselves a little chat,” he said.

  Jordan didn’t wait to see if Travis or Rachel would try to say anything. “About what? Playing with toys?”

  The chief slowly let a smile develop, one of the unfriendly kind. “Sure. We can start there. Does this drone look familiar to any of you?”

  Jordan’s mind worked to assess what the chief could know. She needed to figure out if he knew she and Travis had bought the drone. “I don’t know anything about drones and definitely don’t know how to fly one.”

  The chief’s smile remained. He looked to Rachel and Travis. “Would you two excuse us? I need to talk to Jordan alone.”

  “I’m not leaving my sister.”

  “I’m with her,” Travis said.

  “If you want to make this difficult, I can certainly do that. I can bring her to the station and officially question her. Unless either of you is an attorney, you won’t be allowed to sit in on our little discussion.”

  “It’s all right,” Jordan said. “Give the chief what he wants.”

  “Are you sure?” Rachel asked.

  “I’m sure.”

  Rachel and Travis got up and slowly walked away. Jordan saw Rachel’s look of concern, nodding that it was all right.

  “We’ll come back to the drone, but I want to know why you were on the side of the road. By that dead deer. I looked at your car. There’s no way it hit a deer. Why were you there?”

  Jordan had few options for lying. She kept it simple.

  “Coincidence. I was driving by and saw it. That’s all.”

  “You’re sure it wasn’t because the woman who called it in told you about it? That you thought it was something you should see?”

  The chief was one step ahead of her again.

  “Fine. So what? The way she described her accident, I wasn’t sure the deer was dead. I went to check.”

  “As I’m sure you saw, it was dead. It happens a few times a year in town. But don’t worry. It will be properly disposed of.”

  So much for getting any kind of blood or tissue sample.

  “Good to know. Are we done, then?”

  “Cut the shit. I’m here because of this drone. I know that a couple matching the description of you and the tall black guy were at Best Buy today and bought a drone. The fact that your boyfriend paid with cash is the only reason I don’t have handcuffs on you right now. So let me rephrase my question. What were you doing with the drone this morning?”

  The chief was in the driver’s seat. He knew she and Travis had bought the drone and that they had used it at the NeuSterone site. That was enough to be able to charge her and Travis with trespassing. But that hadn’t happened yet.

  He doesn’t want to charge me. He wants something else.

  “I’m trying to find out what happened to those dead fish in the lake. You know, the ones you removed without reporting it to the authorities.”

  “I am the authorities. I decided that it must have been some kind of accident, or the result of some idiots using dynamite to catch fish. It wouldn’t be the first time. But that doesn’t explain why you were trespassing.”

  Time to see what you know, Chief.

  “Do you know what they do at that place?”

  “I don’t need to know. My job is to protect the owners from trespassers like you.”

  “You’re confusing ‘trespasser’ with ‘reporter.’ I know they’re testing chemicals on animals there. And I’m pretty sure they tested something that killed a lot of fish that ended up in the lake. Whatever killed them was potent. I’m willing to bet that the FDA didn’t approve it. How am I doing so far?”

  The chief’s smile disappeared, his face becoming deadly serious. “You don’t know what you’re getting involved in here. You need to leave this alone. Just walk away. Hell, use your time here to write a story about what a great place Copper Lake is for families.”

  “The fact that you want me to walk away confirms I should do the exact opposite. Tell me, Chief, how does a private company get access to prime government land to break the law? Do you know anything about NorConn holdings?”

  Jordan saw the exact reaction on the chief’s face she wanted to see. Surprise. He hadn’t expected her to know about NorConn. Now he must be wondering if she had made the connections to the senator.

  “Why should I?”

  He doesn’t deny knowing about the company.

  “Well, it turns out this little holding company has leased the land where NeuSterone has set up shop. You know, where someone gave you the drone. And a person listed as an owner of the holding company also happens to be the chief of staff for Senator Chisholm. You should know what I’m going to say next. Senator Chisholm grew up in Copper Lake. In fact, you and he are the same age, right? I bet you might have even been friends.”

  The chief’s face now displayed the anger that told Jordan she was correct in all of her assumptions. The question was what his play would be.

  “None of that shit is important. What matters is that there’s a lot at stake for people with a lot of money and influence. People who aren’t used to losing and who will go to great lengths to protect themselves. I’ll say it again. Leave this alone and walk away. It will be better for both of us.”

  “I wouldn’t be much of a reporter if I walked away now, would I?”

  “What would it take for you to drop this? I can’t promise anything, but as I said, people with money will do what they have to do to protect themselves.”

  “You know, Chief, that sounds like a bribe.”

  “I don’t care what you think it sounds like. You’re in over your head, and you don’t know the half of it. Tell me you’re open to negotiating a way out of this, and I can put things in motion. If you don’t, you’ll be responsible for whatever happens.”

  Jordan didn’t need any time to think about taking some sort of bribe or deal. It wasn’t in her DNA to take the easy way out. But the chief had said there was more going on than just the NeuSterone story.

  “What do you mean I don’t know the half of it? What am I missing?”

  “Will you consider a deal?”

  “Not a chance. I don’t take deals to run away with my tail between my legs.”

  “Then the rest doesn’t matter. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  With that, the chief left Jordan to wonder what would happen next.

 
35

  Robbie Vitali was standing in his office in front of the wall of windows overlooking the casino floor. The Riverview Casino was the newest one in Connecticut, with less than three years of full operation under its belt. Robbie was the general manager and had overall responsibility, making most of the day-to-day decisions. But not every decision. Vincent Vitali, his father and the owner of Riverview Casino, made the biggest decisions.

  Vincent was something of a legend in the Northeast, at least in casino and real estate circles. He was known for his shrewd, borderline-illegal business tactics. He was both loved and hated in the two interconnected industries where he made his fortune. He’d risen to a position of wealth and power through a series of real estate deals and investments, several of which had nearly bankrupted him. Along the way, many of his contractors were forced to declare bankruptcy because Vincent hadn’t paid them. But he always seemed to come out ahead. Only Vincent and a few trusted advisors knew what he was really worth, but key among his holdings were several casinos.

  Robbie was Vincent’s oldest child, now in his mid-thirties. Vincent put his son in charge of Riverview primarily to give him a chance to prove he could manage a business. Robbie wanted to be as successful as his father, but more importantly, he wanted his father’s respect. Robbie knew his father thought he had an easy life, with everything being handed to him. Everything Vincent had, he’d built himself. To eventually earn full control of Riverview, Robbie knew that he needed to prove he was capable of not just managing the casino successfully but also of building his own business. And that he could build it without his father’s help.

  It disappointed Robbie that Mike Banfield had turned down his initial offers for East Bay Marina. It was one thing to say no to a hypothetical offer over the phone. But to turn down an in-person offer as generous as Robbie’s had been unexpected. Without even requesting time to consider it.

  Robbie had anticipated Mike Banfield’s attachment to the property. Mike’s father had built the business, and now Mike was in charge. That was a situation Robbie understood all too well. But Banfield had to know Robbie’s offer was the most money he’d ever see for that place. Plus a share in future profits. Assuming there were any profits on paper. One thing Robbie had learned from his father was how to make a profitable business look like a money loser on paper. Tax savings alone had made his father a millionaire. Still, Banfield didn’t know there’d be no profits for him to share in.

  Banfield’s refusal to sell had forced Robbie to adjust his plan. Whether one considered it intimidation or extortion didn’t matter. The purpose was to show how fragile the marina could be in the face of bad luck. That’s where Chief Foster had come in.

  About six months ago, Robbie had been informed of a regular at the casino who was accumulating debt at a rate that suggested he’d never be able to pay it back. A quick background check revealed this customer to be a police chief from the small Massachusetts town of Copper Lake. Robbie knew of the place and had even been there in his youth. Someone in the family had kept a boat at the big marina in the area, but Robbie couldn’t remember who.

  Untenable gambling debt was a common situation. So common that Robbie employed a man at the casino whose main job was to intervene with customers who were getting in over their heads. Nicky Carlucci was a true expert at his job. With his help, early everyone who ran into trouble was able to get themselves out of their particular financial situation. Nicky’s tactics weren’t always pretty, but debts got paid.

  The police chief situation was different. Not because he was a cop. Robbie didn’t care what his guests did for a living. If they got in over their heads, he made them pay their debts. Period. But the police chief was lucky. Robbie had been searching for opportunities to branch out, to build his own casino and develop the surrounding area. This was a challenge because the best locations were unavailable or financially out of reach.

  At the recommendation of his attorney, Robbie had shifted his search away from more typical casino locations to other types of vacation sites. Specifically, he was looking for underdeveloped summer getaway locations, preferably those with adjacent land he could purchase cheaply. Copper Lake turned out to be such a location.

  When Robbie had learned the police chief who frequented his casino was from a town known for its large lake and heavy summer traffic, he took the lead in dealing with the chief’s debt. He offered the police chief a deal that would provide an escape from his debt. It had two elements. The first was to serve as an informant for Robbie and to engage in conversations with select property owners. The intent was to convince owners of key properties to sell and relocate.

  The second was conditional. For those property owners who declined to sell their properties, the police chief would be responsible for coordinating activities aimed at convincing these property owners to sell. If the police chief did his part, and if Robbie was able to purchase the property he wanted, specifically the marina, then he would forgive all debt.

  Heading to the casino floor, Robbie was surprised to see his father. Beside him was Tony Antonelli, his dad’s personal security guard. Vincent Vitali didn’t go many places without Tony in tow, and he rarely came to Riverview. For him to do so unannounced meant he wanted to talk about something important.

  “Pa,” Robbie said as he approached his father. “What a nice surprise. What brings you here today? I thought you were going to be at the Shore all week?”

  Vincent turned to Robbie and gave him a quick embrace, kissing each cheek. “I was at the Shore, but something came up. Something you need to hear.”

  That troubled Robbie. It couldn’t be good news. “Let’s go upstairs, where we can talk in private.”

  The three men took the private stairs up to Robbie’s office. Robbie and his father sat at the long table, while Tony took up a position along a side wall where he could watch the room and the casino floor through the large glass window.

  “What’s so important that you interrupted your holiday to drive up here? You could have called.”

  “You know I don’t like to discuss family business on the phone. It’s about the marina you’re trying to buy.”

  “Oh, that. You don’t have to worry. I’m putting some pressure on the owner. He should be ready to have a serious discussion after tomorrow.”

  “You might not have that long. There’s another buyer, and I heard he might already have a deal.”

  This caught Robbie completely off guard. He didn’t know of anyone else trying to buy the marina. Let alone someone with an edge over him. He resisted his natural impulse to yell, instead forcing himself to display the sort of calm his father would appreciate. “You must have gotten bad information. I would have heard if there was competition. Banfield didn’t even hint he had another offer.”

  Vincent Vitali didn’t respond immediately. He sat upright in his chair and folded his hands in front of him on the table.

  “Robbie,” he began. “Do you think I’d come up here in person if I wasn’t one hundred percent sure of my information? You forget your place to suggest my information is incorrect. A close friend’s brother, who heads up the real estate division for a private equity firm in Stamford, was told personally that a state senator in Massachusetts is leading a group to buy East Bay Marina and large areas of the surrounding land. So believe me when I tell you there’s another player. As of right now, you’re on the outside.”

  Robbie stood up and went to the window, arms crossed. “So that piece-of-shit Mike Banfield tells Koffman he has no intention of selling, while, at the same time, he’s already got a buyer in mind? I should sink him in that damn lake of his.”

  “Relax, Robbie. No need to act like a spoiled child. You haven’t lost the marina yet. Think about your options and decide on a course of action. Sit back down.”

  Vincent Vitali was always the father and never the partner. Just once, Robbie wished his father would treat him like a peer and not a child. Just once.

  Robbie sat back down at th
e table. “OK, Pa,” he said with the smallest hint of sarcasm. “Help me see the options.”

  Vincent took a deep breath. “You have two. Obviously, you could just give up and let the marina and Copper Lake go to someone else. Wait for some other opportunity to come along. But a Vitali would seize control of the situation. Fight for what he wants. You know I’ll make sure you have the resources necessary for the Copper Lake project. But you have to be the one to make the deal. You still have a chance. But don’t send a lawyer. You need to do this.”

  It wasn’t exactly a pep talk, but Robbie knew it was as close to one as he would get. He knew his father was correct, that he had to do this in person. But Robbie wasn’t his father. He’d never had to negotiate a deal of real significance. His father had always done that.

  “You’re right, Pa. I’ll do this myself. Tomorrow.”

  “There’s more.”

  “More? What is it?”

  “Do you know anything about a reporter who’s at Copper Lake? A woman named Jordan Reed?”

  “Yeah. The chief told me about her. Said she’s investigating something about the lake. I think it had to do with fish.”

  “Well, our source thinks she’s investigating us.”

  “‘Us’ as in the Vitali family?”

  “That’s what I mean. Somehow, she got wind of you trying to buy the marina and thought there might be something worth investigating.”

  “That’s not a problem. There’s nothing shady with me trying to buy the marina.”

  Robbie received one of his father’s “don’t be so stupid” looks. “Robbie. She thinks you’re responsible for the accidents at the marina.”

  Robbie’s effort at self-control now evaporated. “Not a chance. There’s no way some dumb-ass reporter could have any idea what we’re doing there. Anyone who says otherwise is full of shit.”

  “Then how could this even come up? The fact that it’s true and we’re hearing it from a third party tells me you’re not in control of the situation. I won’t let this little marina development project jeopardize my other businesses.”