Charmed Forces, page 25
By the time I returned to the car, Solomon and Delgado were waiting. “Where’d you go?” asked Solomon.
“A guy jumped out the window around the side of the house and I followed him over to the next street,” I explained as we climbed into the car.
“Damn,” said Delgado, running a hand over his short crop of nearly black hair. “How’d we miss him?”
“Easily,” said Solomon. “He must have heard us enter and took off rather than risking a fight. Did you lose him?”
“Nope,” I said, pulling up the photos and passing the camera to Solomon. He scrolled through as Delgado watched. “Got him all the way from the house, to his car, to driving past me. I don’t think Captain Brandt can explain this. I saw him clearly.”
“You didn’t get the others?” asked Solomon.
“What others?”
Solomon pointed to the house where a vehicle was now parked directly outside. The door to the house opened and Detectives Crump and Hertford stepped out, holstering their weapons.
“Ah,” I said. “Them. Um... no. I guess I was following Brandt when they showed up.” I reached for the camera in Delgado’s hands, pointed it and fired off a few shots. I figured it was better than nothing, although I stood by my decision to follow Captain Brandt. At the time, it was the move to make. He got there first. “Did they see you?” I asked.
“We slipped out the back when they came in the front,” said Delgado. “They even knocked. Stupid mistake on their part. Lucky for us. It gave us enough warning to bail.”
As we waited, Detective Hertford spoke into his radio, and his red hair ruffled in the slight breeze. “They seem to be here on legit business,” I said. “How did they know to come here? Was it a tipoff? And why didn’t they meet with Captain Brandt? He had to have gotten a tipoff before them. Could he have a mole in Tom Victor’s setup?”
“Ten bucks says Brandt is here on his own business,” said Delgado.
“I’m not taking that bet,” I said. “But I don’t see why he didn’t stick around and call you two out for being inside a house you had no obvious business being inside.”
“About that ten bucks...” said Delgado.
“Okay, I get it. He didn’t want to be seen,” I said. “You’re right. That’s suspicious.”
“Highly suspicious,” said Solomon. “These two turning up so quick concerns me too. Let’s get out of here.”
We waited for the two detectives to go back inside the house, then we took off, taking a left along the street I’d followed Captain Brandt as he ran from the house. We took another left in the direction he drove, only we were heading back to the agency.
In the car, I asked, “What if Brandt was the one on legitimate business and the other two were there on Tom Victor’s orders? I’m going to ask Garrett.” I turned my phone on and called my brother, pleased when he answered quickly.
“Before you ask anything about the case,” he said, “I should tell you I’m at home and I know nothing.”
“Officially nothing? Or if anyone asks, you know nothing?” I replied.
“Both, but I officially know nothing. What’s up?”
“Have you heard anything about a Daniel sighting? Maybe a tipoff?”
“No, nothing.”
“Not even about going to check out locations where he might have been?”
“Absolutely nothing. I’m as good as frozen out.”
“Do you know anything about the relationship between Captain Brandt, Detective Crump and Detective Hertford?”
“Are you suggesting they’re having some kind of three-way?” snorted Garrett.
“Interesting to know where your mind instantly went, but no, we just wondered if they might work on things independently.”
“Brandt runs a tight ship. I’m sure he knows exactly where his people are. Crump and Hertford play by the book too. Not the smartest cookies but they do as they’re told and always obey orders.”
“What about their personal circumstances?”
“I’ve told you everything I know about Brandt. Crump’s single, as far as I know. Hertford got married recently. Some whirlwind courtship.”
“What are their first names?” I asked, hoping one of them was a Buddy.
“No clue. Want me to ask around?”
“I’ll find out.” I thanked Garrett and relayed the part of the conversation Solomon and Delgado couldn’t hear. Before I could suggest my next idea, my phone rang.
“I found the link,” said Lucas without any preamble. “And the assassin’s car was also found.”
“I’ll put you on speaker,” I said before I got into information overload and muddled my recall. “Start with the first one.”
“The car was burned out two hundred miles from here. I looked for camera footage in the area but found nothing. I figure she picked up another vehicle or had one waiting but there’s nothing to go on. She’s definitely gone,” he explained. “I did find footage of the car shortly after it was stolen. She wasn’t the driver. It was a dude.”
“That supports our idea she might have gotten local help. I think she’s related to Tom Victor,” I told him. “I’m sending you a photo. Can you work with that? She might be a cousin, or a niece, or maybe a goddaughter. Whoever she is, she’s close enough for him to have her in a family photo on his desk.”
“I’ll get right on it,” said Lucas. “Now, regarding the link you asked me to look into between Tom Victor and the construction company? I found it. It’s actually owned by a shell, so Victor officially looks like an employee but he’s really the owner when we work our way up the shell chain. It’s not connected to his family either. Everything about Victory Construction looks legit, from the accounts filed to the employees, and there’s no record of Jeff Denney. However, it’s skyrocketed from a turnover of nothing to eight figures in less than five years! Multiple developments across the state, mostly non-residential, abandoned strip malls, condemned buildings, and land development. Some are designated for business use. But his latest ventures have been all luxury apartments. He just won a bid for Mill Avenue.”
“Mill Avenue?” I asked. “Where’s that?”
“It’s the not-so-nice area of Harbridge. A trio of former commercial buildings that are soon to be become luxury loft living. The concept drawings are pretty nice. Underground parking, communal garden, even a gym.”
“That’s a big undertaking,” said Solomon. “The city already owns the land. There were some big bids on it.”
“Can you access the bids?” I asked, frowning as a new thought occurred to me. “I want to see if Victory Construction and MH Construction placed bids too. Then compare them to whatever else they had bids on.”
“Got it,” said Lucas.
“What’re you thinking?” asked Solomon.
“Remember the case I had regarding industrial espionage?” I said, unsure if Solomon had filled Delgado in.
“Yeah, you wrapped it up just before Daniel’s whole world blew up then the woman turned out to be related to Tom Victor’s girlfriend,” said Delgado.
“I thought I wrapped it up, but now I’m almost certain I was wrong. I think Lucas will find a pattern of bids from MH Construction and Victory Construction for the same properties over the last few months. I think Victor’s been subtly pumping Louise Milton for information ever since Angelica introduced them, then using the inside knowledge he shouldn’t know to undercut his competitors. That way, he gets to win all the bids and grow his business. I don’t think Louise realized any of it. She mentioned earlier that Victor was always very interested in her career.”
“Let’s get that information backed up,” said Solomon. “How long has Victor known Louise?”
“Six months? Maybe a year?” I said. “Which is also how long he’s been dating Angelica.”
“Lucas, find every bid for the lifetime of Victor’s firm. If Lexi’s right, we’re going to see a pattern of successful bids from the past twelve months.”
“Is this illegal?” I asked.
“I don’t know the ins and outs of it but The Federal Trade Commission might consider it bid-rigging,” replied Delgado.
“Collusion to fix a bid results in prison time or fines, depending on the case,” added Solomon. “It doesn’t sound like Louise’s firm could be in on the collusion so it’s not an anti-trust case. Lucas, double-check that MH Construction doesn’t benefit in any way from Victor’s firm once they their bid is rejected.”
“You’re thinking bribes?” I said.
Solomon rocked his head, apparently unsure. “I doubt it, since Markham Hardy was irritated enough to hire us, but let’s check anyway.”
“At the best case scenario, Louise is going to lose her job,” I said. I didn’t like the sound of that. Louise was nice. I doubted she’d throw away her architecture dream to funnel information slyly to Tom Victor. Yet how could Markham Hardy ever trust her again?
“Maybe that’ll teach her not to shoot her mouth off to mobsters,” said Delgado.
“I don’t think she was. I think she just saw Victor as a well-connected, successful businessman who was genuinely interested in her and generous to her and her cousin,” I said, although I was feeling decidedly prickly about Louise’s involvement. “I think she was just naïve, not malicious. However, we should take another look at her financials and make sure she didn’t benefit in any way either. Hopefully, she didn’t accept any gifts from Victor that could look like payments.”
“On it,” said Lucas.
I told him I would send the assassin’s photo imminently, then disconnected the call. “I know you want Daniel in a new safe house but I think it’s time we spoke to him,” I said. “I don’t think we can wait any longer, not after he came so close to being killed. Or arrested.” I thought about the three police officers we’d seen at the Cameron Drive house. I hadn’t expected to see any of them, and certainly not as separate parties. Could one of them have been corrupted? It was possible, but how? What did it take to turn on a fellow officer? What did it take to kill the others? If someone had made a deal with the devil, well, now we knew whom the devil was. But who made the deal?
“I had a feeling you’d say that,” said Solomon. “I agree. Delgado, head over to Century Street.”
As we sped through the empty streets, nerves knotted my stomach. I was eager to see Daniel, but also afraid. What if he still didn’t remember anything in his defense? Whatever they drugged him with had to be out of his system by now, but what if he never regained his memory for those few hours? As the only survivor, he was the sole witness to the case. Without him, there was no hope of confirming the killer’s identity. Even worse, what if he could remember, but no one believed him? The evidence was stacking up against Daniel and I wondered if it were possible to explain it away? I wasn’t so sure now.
When my phone rang again, I jumped, my nerves now fried to a crisp.
“You okay?” asked Solomon.
“It’s my parents,” I said, tucking the phone away and ignoring it. “I don’t know what to say to them so I figure nothing at all is best.”
“Text them everything is okay but you’re busy,” said Solomon. “They’ll understand. Also, it’ll stop them from calling me.”
“And me,” added Delgado.
I was doing exactly that when the car turned onto Century Street. Thankfully, with the time being long past commuter traffic hours, the street was emptier than normal and didn’t take the usual century to traverse. After only a few minutes, we pulled into the block ahead of a mini-mart and drove around the back.
We hopped out and I followed Solomon towards a rickety set of metal stairs leading up to a black door on the second floor above the shop. The door opened as we approached and we slipped inside cautiously.
“You didn’t have to dress up,” said Fletcher, his back pressed against the wall of the small entryway as we filed inside.
“I see you didn’t,” I said, bumping his shoulder with my fist. Then I forgot about him as Daniel stood up and smiled. He was dressed in jeans, t-shirt and sneakers, none of which were his but at least, they were the right size. He looked clean, fed, and his eyes were no longer bloodshot. Apart from the strain I saw around his eyes, he looked good.
“Dan!” I hugged him and he folded his arms around me, squeezing me tightly. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“Me too, thanks to these two,” he said, indicating Fletcher and Flaherty. Against my ear, he said softly, “Although no one’s told me much.”
“Alice and the kids are at her parents. Everyone’s okay but naturally, they’re all worried about you.”
“Thanks for keeping an eye on them. These two refuse to put the TV on and it’s like living in an information blackout. The minute we got that call, we were out. Was it credible?”
“You had visitors,” confirmed Solomon.
“Close call,” said Flaherty with a whistle.
“Problem is: we don’t know which of the visitors was the true threat,” I said.
“There’s more than one?” asked Daniel.
I nodded. “How’s your head?”
“Better after a lot of sleep and plenty of hydration. Some things are a little hazy still but I remember a lot more. I’m so sorry for scaring you when I turned up at your house like that. I don’t really remember how I got to you or if anyone else saw me,” said Daniel. “I guess my instincts were still intact even if I weren’t all that coherent.”
“Let’s take a seat and you can tell us all you do remember,” I said. “We’ve pieced together several things but there’s a whole lot missing.”
“And you need me to fill in the blanks. Okay. I gave my statement already but I guess it won’t hurt to go through it again.”
“What do you mean, you gave your statement?” I asked, with a frown. “To the police?”
“No. I’m still hiding from my own people,” said Daniel, frowning back. “I meant...” He stopped as a sharp rap sounded on the door.
Solomon nodded to Delgado and Delgado headed to the door. “Are we expecting someone?” I asked, looking around for an exit. We were in a large open plan room that looked like it once was an office at some point. Desks and chairs were heaped in a corner of the room, a bookcase was stacked with dusty boxes and files, and the carpet was the thin, mottled, commercial kind that could handle heavy traffic. A couple of cheap couches occupied one end of the room, near a kitchenette that was carved out of a corner. Three duffel bags were piled on the floor next to the couches and a bag in the kitchenette appeared to contain some basic essentials. It wasn’t as nice as I imagined the safe house probably was but the apartment was dry and not overlooked.
When I pulled my attention away from Daniel and our surroundings, I was surprised to see Maddox and Farid strolling into the room. I held my breath, waiting for the inevitable moment when they told us we were all under arrest but instead, Maddox said, “I could do with a coffee.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked, looking around at the lack of surprise on anyone else’s face.
“Nice to see you too. You shouldn’t have dressed up.”
“I was undercover!”
“That’s definitely your dress.”
“Well, yes.” I waited for the moment Maddox slipped in a comment about the last time he’d seen the dress. That was when it was dangling from his living room light fitting, but he politely didn’t mention it.
“And your shoes.”
“I was undercover at a party.”
“Someone gets all the good jobs,” said Maddox with a shrug. “What were you two? Bodyguards? Bouncers?” he asked, addressing Solomon and Delgado.
“We stayed outside,” said Solomon.
“Sensible,” said Maddox and pulled a face. “Anything could have happened.”
I waited for Solomon to mention the fire or my escape via the balcony, but he didn’t and I was grateful for that.
“Seriously, what are you doing here? Because I don’t think you’re arresting us,” I persisted.
“I could if you like?” said Maddox, a small smile threatening to curl his lips. “Did you set anything on fire?”
I gasped. “When?”
“I like that you need to ask ‘when?’ I was referring to today.”
“No, but Lily did.”
“Oh, boy!”
“Stop deflecting and tell me why you’re here!”
“He’s the one who’s going to stop me from going to jail,” said Daniel, and Maddox nodded.
“I thought we were doing that. Mom and Dad hired us!” I said.
“They told me when I stopped by for lunch,” said Maddox, shrugging with the kind of nonchalance I envied. I was confused and wanted answers and Maddox was taking his sweet time about giving them. He was obviously enjoying it. “Figured I’d throw in some government services for free, so here we are,” he added.
“I called Maddox the night everything went down,” explained Solomon. “It occurred to me when I was drawing Daniel’s blood that my word wouldn’t suffice in court and a good lawyer could argue that I might have tampered with the evidence, so I arranged for Maddox to get Daniel officially checked out. That started an evidence chain that would stand up in court. My lab results confirmed drugs were in Daniel’s system, but it couldn’t be admissible. Thankfully, the Feds’ tests are admissible and they achieved the same results.”
“We have everything,” said Farid. “Clothes, blood, urine, photographs, and statement.”
“Our boss was looking into corruption angles with other aspects of the Victor brothers’ case and felt this might slide in neatly,” added Maddox.
“I don’t know what to say,” I said, surprised as well as relieved. At least, now I knew why Maddox was dodging my calls and ran away from me at the coroner’s office.
“I’m sure that won’t last,” said Maddox.
“I was going to explain everything I remembered,” said Daniel. “There are a few other things that came back since I spoke to you that night.”
“In that case, I’d like to make this official,” said Maddox. “I want to record it.”
“Sure,” said Daniel. “But I’d like to go through it informally with everyone here first, and then we can make the recording. I don’t want my sister or anyone else’s voice on the tape. I don’t know what blowback could come from this and I don’t want anyone else getting caught in the crossfire.”
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