“Shit,” she swore under her breath and quickly hit the mute button. She cursed herself for not setting the mute feature ahead of time.
That’s the second slip up tonight
, she thought. Forgetting about the dog was bad enough.
A noise from out in the hallway caused her to jerk her head up. She quickly turned off her flashlight and reached up to hit the power button to the computer screen, putting the room in total darkness. There was nowhere for her to go but under the desk. She held her breath as the office door opened. Within seconds, the room was awash in light.
“I forgot something. I’ll be right back!” Big Tony yelled from the doorway. He walked over to the desk and stood on the opposite side. From beneath the desk, she could see the tops of his slippers, and if he looked down, there was a good chance that he would see her.
He moved to the side and pulled out the lap drawer. His foot came within an inch of touching her leg. She was afraid to breathe, let alone move, out of fear that he would hear her. She held her breath and waited. She thought about what she would do if he caught her. What would she do? What was the plan? She didn’t have an answer.
Her free hand instinctively felt for the 9mm tucked beneath her jacket. She would have no qualms at all about shooting Castrucci if it came to that. She listened as he rifled through the papers on top of the desk.
It felt like forever before he finally found what he wanted. She heard him walk away from the desk and then flip off the light before shutting the door behind him.
She let out the biggest sigh of her life. That was just too damn close. She had a death grip on the IMS unit. She relaxed her hand and felt the blood start to circulate through her fingers. She rubbed her hands together to restore the feeling. She wiped the sweat off her face with the back of her sleeve and crawled out from beneath the desk.
It took her a few seconds to turn on the computer and plug the USB cable into the computer port. This time, she checked beforehand and made sure that the volume was off before pressing the enter button. The menu popped up almost immediately with a ‘download in progress’ icon. She waited for it to complete the download cycle and inserted the CD into the computer disk drive. She typed in the upload command to run the program on the disk and waited for it to finish.
After doing a check to make sure everything was exactly as she had found it, she crammed the disk in her pocket, removed the USB cable, and made her way over to the door. She leaned her head up against the door to make sure there were no sounds coming from the hallway.
Okay, the easy part’s over and now the hard part begins
, she thought to herself. She had to get back to the guesthouse undetected. She took a deep breath, opened the door, and waited a few seconds before making her way to the kitchen.
She took special care in avoiding the little figurine on the table and glanced down at her watch. Not bad, she thought. It had taken her less than twenty minutes from the time she left the guesthouse to complete her mission. Oddly enough, it felt like hours.
She ducked away from the sliding door just in time as the guard’s flashlight made contact. Jesus, can this be any more nerve wracking?
She waited a couple minutes to give him time to reach the front of the house and then slid the door open. With her back against the wall, she quickly made her way over to the corner of the house. She checked to make sure the guard was nowhere in sight.
She had to make her move now. From her deductions, she figured he was probably coming down the other side of the house and that meant she didn’t have much time left. In her current position, she would be the first thing he saw when he came around the corner, and she didn’t want that to happen.
She broke out into a sprint across the yard toward the guesthouse. She didn’t have much further to go—almost there. She could hear whistling from over her shoulder.
Just a couple more feet and she would be at the large hedge bush.
###
Laura’s head jerked up as the machine beeped to life. She looked over and saw that Edwards had nodded off as well. “Kyle,” she said his name to awaken him. “She did it, she got in.”
He got up from his chair and took a position directly over her shoulder. They watched as the ‘download in progress’ icon popped up on the screen. Moments later, the machine beeped, and the ‘download in progress’ was replaced with the ‘download complete’ icon.
Laura rubbed her hands together. “Okay, let’s see what we got,” she said as she began typing in commands.
###
Rheyna had just ducked behind the hedge when the guard came around the back of the house. She waited for him to disappear and quickly ran over to the patio door and slid it open. She had no more kicked off her shoes and sat down on the couch when the bedroom door opened.
Caroline walked out, yawning. She stretched her arms over her head. “Were you outside? I thought I heard the door.”
“I needed some air. I’m not feeling too well,” Rheyna said as she slowly slid the IMS into her overnight bag.
Caroline sat down on the couch beside her and put her hand on Rheyna’s forehead. Her eyes opened wide with concern. “You’re soaking wet.”
Rheyna pretended to rub her temples. “I have a very bad headache.”
Caroline got up from the couch. “I’ll grab a couple aspirins and fix you a cup of tea.”
Rheyna watched her trot off to the bathroom and desperately tried to fight off the guilt that was threatening to overtake her. She waited until Caroline went in the kitchen and pulled the CD from her pocket and tossed it, along with her gun, into the overnight bag.
###
Laura squinted at the screen, leaning in closer. Her fingers tapped rhythmically against the keyboard. She stopped and turned to look at Edwards, a huge smile on her face.
“I think we hit pay dirt. Take a look at this,” she said, opening a folder titled ‘Hong Kong Services International.’ She scrolled down page after page of jpg files. She clicked on one of the thumbnail shots, and her face went ashen with shock. “There has to be thousands of them,” she said, shaking her head in disbelief.
Edwards cocked his head to get a better look at the image. “What is that?”
“Child porn,” Laura answered. She brought up another photo that showed a small room decorated with cartoon characters. A pink-canopied bed sat up against one wall. A young girl, wearing a lacy pink, flowery dress was kneeling between the legs of a very large man, who was in the process of unzipping his pants—it was Billy Smith’s little girl.
Laura knew what the sounds were before she even turned her head. Edwards was heaving in the trashcan next to the door. She gave him a minute to collect himself. She
have any children, but Edwards did.
She could feel the anger raging through her veins as she looked through the pictures. She could only imagine what was going through his mind. When he looked up, she saw hate and contempt in his eyes, hate for one man—Anthony Castrucci. Men like Castrucci were monsters—they represented the vilest things in the world.
“Are you okay?” she asked before turning back to the open file.
He nodded, took out his handkerchief, and wiped his mouth.
“That file was hidden in a sector that couldn’t be viewed through the normal operating system.”
He shook his head with utter disgust. If he didn’t hate Castrucci before, he damn sure did now. “That sick son-of-a-bitch,” he spat angrily.
Laura opened up several more pictures, each one worse than the previous. The more she saw, the angrier she got. She wiped at the tears spilling down her cheeks. “They can’t be more than ten years old.”
Edwards squeezed her shoulder in a comforting gesture as the two of them stared at the screen.
“It’s no wonder he wants Massino out of the way. They would kill him over this if they knew.”
Laura nodded in agreement. “There’s no doubt about that.”
He grabbed his jacket off the back of the chair and grinned slyly. “It’s kinda ironic, when you think about it. The Mafia commits some of the most brutal murders, but they still maintain a code of honor amongst themselves. I know they have certain guidelines and rules you never break under any circumstance. Child pornography is at the top of that list.” He lit a cigarette and took a deep drag. “See what else you can find and get it faxed to Washington.”
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“To see a federal prosecutor. We need to can get a Grand Jury convened so we can bring Rheyna home. With the evidence we have, it shouldn’t take long to get an indictment.”
Laura stopped typing to look at him. “She’s not due to call in for another forty-eight hours.”
“That’s okay. Just tell her that it’s almost over. One way or the other, Castrucci’s finished.”
She looked at the screen and frowned.
“What? What is it?” he asked, coming back over to see what she was looking at.
“It looks like a dinner menu with a list of names,” she said. Her face went blank when she realized what it was. “Oh shit, it’s a hit list.” She swung her hand against the cup of coffee, knocking it across the table.
Edwards took out his hanky and started blotting up the liquid.
“I knew it, damn it. I told Stevens.”
The list showed the names and dates of the various Mafia members that had been killed. The last entry was Georgie and Paulie, the two men that had been shot outside of Lil Vic’s Delicatessen.
“Who’s next?” Edwards asked.
She slid her index finger down the list and stopped at the last entry scheduled. She read his name aloud. “Carlos Massino, seven, tomorrow night at Barecci’s.”
Edwards turned to open the door and ran into Stevens.
He looked back at Laura. “Contact L.A. and let them know.” He brushed past Stevens, nearly causing him to spill the contents from the tray in his hands. Stevens set the tray on the table.
“I thought you might like a fresh cup,” he said and handed Laura a cup of coffee. He took one for himself and sat down in the chair next to her. “Where’s he going in such a hurry?” he asked.
“He’s going to try and turn the slow wheels of justice, and thanks for the coffee. I really needed it,” she answered. She turned the screen toward him so he could get a better view of the photos that she and Edwards had been looking at. “Here, take a look for yourself.”
He looked at the screen and shrugged. “Nothing surprises me anymore. Hell, look at Artie. Who would’ve ever thought he’d be in bed with the mob.”
Chapter 19
Edwards was filing paperwork against Castrucci and his cohorts when he received a call from Agent Wilks down at the L.A. Bureau. Wilks asked Edwards to meet him over at an apartment building located in the skid row district of Los Angeles.
The neighborhood looked every bit the part that its name implied. Laura followed Edwards up the steps that led to the top floor apartment and ducked under the police tape draped across the doorway.
She looked around the expansive loft apartment. “Wow, I didn’t expect this,” she said.
“Yeah, he used to have expensive taste,” Edwards said as they walked into the middle of the family room. They looked up at Marco Mancini. His lifeless body was hanging from the end of a rope that had been thrown over the upstairs loft bedroom rail.
“Makes you wonder why he’d commit suicide,” Agent Wilks said from behind them.
Edwards turned and held his hand out to shake his hand. “Agent Wilks, I’d like you to meet Agent Forrest,” he said as
he introduced the two. Wilks nodded at Laura.