Cloaked in Blood (25 page)

Jerry Lowe was probably my karmic curse.

Chapter 24

I hit my favorite bakery on the way
home.  Traffic was barely out along Bay View Drive by the time
I finished chatting with Jerry Lowe.  Fiona and her crew had
an especially tasty treat delivered to them, courtesy of me, for
getting me on and off the unit without Johnny’s guard knowing
anything unusual happened.

Now if only I could sneak back into the
house without a modern day inquisition.

Of course that wasn’t meant to be. 
Johnny was on the phone in the kitchen barking orders – presumably
to Crevan – about a grid search and other extreme measures when I
dropped the box of confection onto the breakfast bar.  He spun
around, and for a moment looked angry enough to strangle me with
the telephone cord.  At least until he saw the bakery’s logo
on the box.

“Jesus,” he muttered.  “Never mind,
Crevan.  Apparently, the out of control cravings have just
returned, and
somebody
just forgot to put the anklet back on
after her bath yesterday.”

He hung up the phone, and I noticed that
Danny was sitting across the room on the sofa.  His eyes were
round as saucers.

“Oops.”

“Helen, dammit, you scared the hell out of
me.”

“Did you think I was taken, or that I was
running again?”

“You left the Expedition last time.  I
should’ve known that it was something like this.”

I opened the box and pulled out a French
glazed.  “You gonna pour me some milk, or am I on my own this
morning?”

“You should’ve woke me before you
left.  I’d have gone out for you.”

I rolled my eyes.  “It’s barely
dawn.  I can sleep all day.  You’re the one burning the
candle at both ends.  Speaking of which,” I tore off a chunk
of fried dough with my teeth, “what’s on the agenda today, dear
husband?”

Johnny yanked the refrigerator door open and
grabbed the milk.  He poured a glass.  “I thought I’d
talk to our houseguest about his recollections regarding some of
his now-deceased employees.  And some additional questions I
have about Mitch Southerby.”

The milk glass slid across the granite
bar.  I took a swig and shook my head.  “I already talked
to him about that yesterday.  Danny thinks that Sully kept his
fingers in his life whether he wanted it or not.”

“Really,” skepticism dripped from one
word.

“Yep, and I don’t doubt it.  You and I
already discussed the possibility.”

Johnny’s eyes slid over my shoulder. 
“So you think Sully could be the mastermind of the human
trafficking ring too?”

His voice was much closer than the body had
been when I noticed it.  “I wouldn’t put anything past, Uncle
Sully, commander.  I doubt Agent Levine would either, since
his link to terrorism was exposed.”

“Rather diverse guy, huh?”

“If there’s profit to be made, drugs,
terrorism, shady loans, you name it, he’s in,” Danny said.  He
pointed to the box.  “May I, Helen?”

I slid it toward him.  “Help
yourself.  Breakfast is always a self serve proposition when
I’m in charge of it.”

Danny reached into the box and came up with
a jelly roll.  “Celeste was the same way during her first
trimester with Sofia Helene.  I think I gained twenty pounds
just by her cravings tempting me.”

Johnny snorted derisively.  “You won’t
see me getting soft because of her dietary mood swings.”  He
came around the island and kissed my forehead.  “I’m gonna be
at OSI most of the day.  I’ll call if we hear any news. 
Don’t forget to put the anklet back on.”

“Key?” I held out one sticky hand.

“I’ll leave it in the bedroom.”

When he retreated to the shower, Datello
casually asked, “So where were you really this morning?”

“Clearly I went to the bakery.”

“Uh-huh.  Where else, Helen? 
Somehow I got the impression that as much as your husband wants to
believe you, he doesn’t.”

It was probably true.  The relief I saw
was that I came home, not that Johnny believed that only a wild
urge for pastry propelled me out under cover of darkness.

“I’ve got a suggestion, Helen.  If you
need to go out during the day when you know he’s watching, let me
wear the anklet.  He’ll be convinced that you’re here. 
If he calls, I can answer the phone and claim that you’re
napping.”

I chewed thoughtfully for a moment. 
“Why would you do that, Danny?”

He shrugged.  “I believe in your way
over his.  These people, Henderson, whoever else is involved
in this mess, they aren’t gonna play by the cop’s rules, so why
should the good guys be forced into playing fair?  I keep
asking myself what Wendell would do.”

“You really don’t want the answer to that
question, Datello.  My father is not the best example of
the good guys
.” I framed the last with air quotes.

“Oh really?  Who’d he kill,
Helen?  Somebody that didn’t have it coming?”

Mostly, they were people who the justice
system failed to convict.  Mostly.  There were a select
few that Dad didn’t let the jury process gamble on.  At least
I suspected as much, and I could trace some of his money to
families with a vested interest in real justice contributing to the
wealth I now enjoyed. 

Datello’s voice dropped to a low
whisper.  “I want this over.  I want my wife back. 
I want my daughter to grow up with a father who isn’t waiting for
some killer to come out of the shadows and make her an orphan like
one of Uncle Sully’s men did to me.  Your way,
Wendell’s
way, is a hell of a lot better bet.  I’m not
here because I trust your husband to do the right thing.  I’m
here because of you.  It might’ve taken me awhile to see the
truth, Helen, but I get it now.  You saved my daughter from a
fate worse than death.  Now finish the job.”

I pulled out my cell phone and dialed a
number.

“Maya’s Mansion of the Macabre.”

I burst out laughing.  “Have you been
up all night?”

“Only since two.  We got the weirdest
call from Bay View Division last night.  Hit and run from what
I can tell.  Probably some drunk on his way home from the
casino.”

“They called
you
for a hit and
run?”

She chuckled.  “This would be one of
the draw backs of sleeping with the head of CSD, pumpkin. 
When he gets his little spidey sense that something isn’t quite
right, I’m number one on his speed dial.”

“Don’t call me pumpkin.”

“You wanna hear what he thought?”

I sighed.  So much for a quick status
report on the DNA.  “Please do.  I can tell you’re
itching to crow about it anyway.”

“So Bay View gets a call that some guy
leaving work got absolutely splattered by some guy in a truck out
on the island.”

I sat up straighter.  “Hennessey
Island?”

“You know of another?”

“Smart ass.  Go on.”

“So Ken shows up, thinking they’re gonna
get… I don’t know, paint chips off the guy’s clothing or have tread
marks rubberized over the concrete.  He gets there and what
does he find?”

“I don’t know.  Apparently this is your
tale to tell.”

“Oh yeah, it is,” she chuckled.  “It’s
just that I so rarely have you as a captive audience that I –”

“Maya, you’re rambling, and losing the
audience.”

“Ouch.  All right.  He gets out to
the island and there’s not a single skid mark.  Cops tell him
that the witness who called it in was some old guy out for his
nightly constitutional, and he swears that this motorist sped up
and swerved
into
the victim.  Didn’t try to miss him,
didn’t stop to see if the guy was all right, nothing.”

“I see.  And that made Ken call you
because…?”

“The kid who got hit had eighteen thousand
dollars in cash in his pocket.  Now call me crazy, but I don’t
think that the Hanging Gardens Assisted Living pays bonuses to its
employees in anywhere near that denomination.  Ken figured
somebody had a reason to want this kid dead.”

Dear God.
  I struggled to tamp
down the fear strangling me.  “Maya, that’s all very
interesting, but what made Ken think this was a case you should
investigate?”

“Oh, did I leave that part out?  Well,
there were no paint chips on the kid, but there was an emblem on
his body, Ken figured it was from the vehicle that hit him.”

“And?”

“He called me so we could get to work
identifying it for the Bay View cops.  It was the emblem from
a Cadillac, Helen.  Can you believe it?  I figure the kid
extorted money from some geezer in that retirement high rise out on
the island, and one of the rich kids of the geezer mows him down in
the Caddy before it can happen again.”

“Uh-huh.  Sounds like you nailed
it.  I take it this means you don’t have an update for me on
the DNA, since Nate’s death has your brain all occupied.”

The silence was crisp.

“Maya?”

“What the hell is going on, Helen?  I
never told you the name of our victim.  How did you know his
name was Nate?”

Oh, I don’t know.  Pregnancy dropping
my IQ perhaps? 

But Maya wasn’t done.  “I’ll be
damned.  Ken was right.  There’s something else going on
with this murder, isn’t there?  You know about it because OSI
is already involved.”

“Maya, I never said that.”

“Huh,” she grunted.  “And let me
guess.  You really can’t say.  Don’t worry.  I won’t
mention this to Ken.  But you know, I’m really getting sick
and tired of OSI butting in with every case in this city.”

“I promise you, that’s not going to happen
this time.  Just because they’re aware of everything, it
doesn’t mean they plan to investigate.  And really,
Maya.  What would you expect considering what happened less
than two blocks away?”

“Well, there is that, I suppose,” she
grumbled.  “But you didn’t have to let me drone on about it if
you already knew everything.”

“What, and kill your story?  Not a
chance.  Now, if you’re done being mad at me for knowing
something I shouldn’t know, how’s the other thing progressing?”

“I’ve told you this before, Helen.  The
science takes as long as the science takes.  Billy did bump it
to the head of the line, this Sherman and Doe sample.  I do
know that he was able to successfully extract DNA from the flap of
the envelope you provided.  We should have a mitochondrial
result by the end of the day, but since the other sample was a Juan
and not a Juanita, it’ll take longer.  I promise to call you
immediately on both results.”

I sighed.  “I love science, but it’s
damn frustrating to wait for the results.”

“Well, you’re lucky you’ve got an in with
us, or you’d be waiting weeks for results instead of a couple of
days.  Now when are we getting together for lunch? 
Better yet, we could have dinner, the four of us at your
place.”

“Now’s not a good time, Maya.  Johnny’s
incredibly stressed over work, plus the FBI’s still out here
working on this Sanderfield thing.  But I promise, as soon as
things settle down, we’ll have another dinner party.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” she said.

“Talk to you soon.”  I hung up the
phone.

Johnny, still damp from his shower stood
staring at me.

“Oh for God’s sake, don’t look at me like
that.  I called her about the DNA results.  I’m
impatient.”

His right eyebrow twitched.  “And what
is it you know that you shouldn’t know?”

“Lots of things?”

“Helen…”

“Oh, all right.  There was a hit and
run accident out on Hennessey Island last night.  I heard
about it before Maya had the chance to share details not available
in the press.  She assumed that OSI is involved.”

He shook his head.  “I need to head out
to the office.  Can I trust you to stay out of trouble
today?”

I made the ever-ready X over my
chest. 

Datello waited until Johnny retreated. 
“Something happened.  Something you know but haven’t shared
with Orion.  What was it?”

  “I told you Dad was watching
Henderson.  Seems somebody driving a Cadillac killed him last
night.  Bay View is chocking it up to a hit and run. 
Forsythe figures it might not be that cut and dried.  He’s
right, dammit.”

“Because?”

“The guy that got hit was found with a
rather sizable amount of cash on his person at the crime
scene.  It just so happens that
Nate
was the orderly
Dad saw Lyle pay off last night, with an envelope stuffed full of
cash.”

“You think he’d pay him off and then run him
down with a car?”

“Wait until Johnny leaves,” I
whispered.  “Then we’ll call Dad and see what he thinks about
it.  If nothing else, he can find out in a hurry if Lyle
happens to drive a Cadillac, and if so, if it’s suddenly in the
repair shop this morning.”

Chapter 25

Johnny had his cell phone out before he hit
the front gate.  “She’s up to something again, Crevan.”

“Johnny, you’ve got to stop suspecting her
every odd expression.  Helen’s –”

“Lying through her teeth like she always
does,” Johnny fumed.  “That’s twice now, since I insisted that
Datello stay at the house, that I’ve caught her whispering to him
or having some clandestine phone call.  It’s a
nightmare.  And you know whose fault this is? 
Wendell’s.  If he’d stayed away, none of this would be
happening right now.”

“Don’t do this, man.  She told you the
truth about where he is.  She admitted that Datello is still
alive.  Don’t assume that she’s all of a sudden keeping
secrets again.”

Johnny hit the gas in the Crown Victoria and
sped down the street.  “It’s more than that.  How dumb
does she really think I am?  She was gone for at least an hour
before I called you.  And she conveniently forgot to put the
ankle monitor back on.  She disconnected the automatic garage
door opener so she wouldn’t make so much noise creeping out in the
middle of the night, and then she expects me to believe she craved
pastries?”