5 Tutti Frutti (29 page)

She hung up.

Louie sort of came to at that point.

“I see you still have that
unique effect on women.”

“It’s an acquired skill. Hey, these names mean anything to you?” I said then handed
him the list of names I’d just written down.

He took a moment to read through them then looked up at
the ceiling deep in thought. “A couple of these I recognize, heavy hitters. I’m guessing if you told me about the others I’d say something like, ‘Yeah now I remember’. Lester Dalton, wasn’t he one of those real estate developers that went tits up when the economy collapsed? And this other guy, O’Leary. If it’s the same guy as I’m thinking he was disbarred awhile back. Did some time for embezzlement of trust funds. I just didn’t realize he was already out of prison.”

“So
this group of charmers makes up the get-together with the D’Angelos long after midnight last night. You remember, the brothers that haven’t left their house for over a week now?”

“You got the address they were at?”

“It’s at the bottom of that list. If you’re thinking of checking county tax records, I already have. The place is in foreclosure, so there’s a good possibility it is, or at least should be, vacant.”

“Remember the rumors I mentioned about the
D’Angelos and a gambling operation? Ten to one this is it,” Louie said.

“Still doesn’t get me any closer to
Candi.”

“Maybe it does and we just can’t see it.
It might be worth a call to LaZelle on this.”

“What, so they can go crashing in there and arrest everyone for playing some stupid card game? They’ll goof it up
and I’ll be no closer to finding Candi. I got a better idea.”

“Do I want to he
ar this?” Louie winced.

“Probably not.”

Chapter Fifty-Six

The backyard of the
foreclosed condo the D’Angelos had been in the night before butted up against the River Bluff Golf Course. It was after midnight when I began to cut across the fairways to get to the place. It was the first time in a couple of months we’d had a cloudy sky. I misjudged my direction in the dark and ended up maybe a dozen lots to the east, but eventually I found my way.

With the exception of different gas grills
standing out on the patios, the back side of these places all looked the same. Fortunately, the unit I was looking for was the last one at the far end, so I headed in that direction.

The place looked dark and quiet as I sat in the
fairway rough for the next hour brushing mosquitoes away. Mercifully, there was just enough of a breeze to keep all but the most vicious at bay. After some time I began to think I may have drawn another blank when suddenly a thin sliver of light flashed on in an upstairs room. The shades or blinds had been drawn but the light managed to escape just along the far edge of what looked like a bathroom window. The light was on for no more than two minutes before it went off.

I stayed
there crouched in the rough for another fifteen minutes. The breeze had picked up, and I thought I might actually smell rain. Shortly after that a distant rumble of thunder began to roll down the river valley. Off to the west the occasional flash of lightning momentarily brightened the sky.

The
temperature seemed to drop ten degrees just before large drops of rain began to fall. It was the first rain we’d had in almost two months. It figured this would be the night I was outside. I made my way across the backyard and up to the patio to see if I could hear anything. The rain began to come down a little harder as I approached. I crouched behind the patio hedge and waited for a few more minutes. Despite the rain splattering on the patio stones and the distant thunder I thought I could hear a conversational hum punctuated by the occasional shrieking laugh or the odd raised voice.

It was pouring
down now full force and I was soaked. I crept across the patio to see if I could make out what was going on. If I pressed myself against the sliding glass patio door I could make out different voices and hear snippets of conversation. The overhang from the roof kept a good portion of the rain off me, although I was so wet at this point I didn’t think it made much of a difference.

The conversations were
becoming clearer and I moved almost up against the sliding glass door in an effort to hear.

“Oh
, come on, I want to see, it’s been months for God’s sake,” a woman’s voice said.

She sounded very near
. I pressed my ear against the glass just as I felt some sort of vibration, and then the entire door slid past me. I’d pushed myself up against the door so hard that I fell onto my hands and knees as the thing slid sideways. I looked up from a puddle at a half dozen pairs of feet.

“C
ome on people, look its gorgeous,” some happy female voice said.

The
n a not-so-happy voice shouted, “What the fuck?” Suddenly someone was pulling me back by the ankles as I attempted to scramble away.

Another voice
shouted, “It’s the cops,” just before there was an explosion against the back of my head and I saw stars.

When I came to I was lying on
a carpeted floor wrapped mummy-like with an orange electrical extension cord. The room seemed extremely dim like it only had ten-watt bulbs in the sockets. Two big guys in white shirts and black tuxedo trousers were hurriedly folding up large tables and leaning them against a wall. Napkins, bits of food, some paper plates, and a couple of plastic drink glasses were scattered along a trail leading to the front door suggesting people had left in a hurry. A roulette wheel leaned against another wall along with what looked like the top to a blackjack table. Another guy suddenly hurried around the corner carrying a box of clinking bottles. He set the box on top of two others already stacked in a corner then hustled back from where he came.

I was aware of three or four sets of high heeled shoes hurrying
down a staircase and out the front door. One of the women said, “You gotta make this right by me, Tommy.” She squealed as she ran out into the downpour.

One of the white shirt
s glanced over at me and caught me looking around. “Oh shit,” he said. I watched helpless as he picked up a folding table from against the wall, took a couple of running steps in my direction, and threw the thing on top of me.

I regained consciousness at some point
, but I was still stuck under the table. There were voices coming from somewhere, male and female. My head was pounding too much to be able to make out anything that was being said. I thought the tone might have suggested some sort of argument, but I wasn’t sure, and to tell the truth, I hurt so much I just didn’t care.

“He can finge
r everyone that was in the room,” some guy growled as they seemed to come closer.

“But he won’t,
” a woman responded.

“You don’t know that. For Christ’s sake
, he’ll ruin everything we been working so hard to build.”

“No, I wo
n’t have it. I won’t let you.”

“I’m sorry, honey
, you got nothing to say about it.”

“Don’t do this, please.
”

“You kiddin’
? We got no choice in the matter. You shoulda seen this coming. It’s for your own damn good. No, let go of me, let go damn it.” There was a smack, the sound of a loud slap, and then a crash like something had been knocked over.

“I told you not to screw w
ith this, but you didn’t listen. This is what happens. Come on, we’re taking him to the warehouse.” A moment later the table was pulled off and the D’Angelo brothers stood there with Tommy glaring down at me.

“Better watch him
, Gino, he don’t like Cookie Monster and he wants to hurt him,” Tommy said.

Gino’s blank stare morphed into a snarl.

“Give me a half minute then pick him up and drag his worthless ass out to the car,” Tommy said. I heard the chirp of a car alarm a moment later. Gino picked me up effortlessly and hoisted me over his shoulder. As we went out the door I glanced back into the room. Standing there, biting her lower lip with tears running down her face, stood Candi.

She
gave me a little wave good-bye.

“
Candi, hey, Candi,” I called and tried to kick myself free. It didn’t work. Gino suddenly dumped me into the trunk of the car. Tommy shoved my legs inside then slammed down the lid. A moment later the car started and I could feel us speeding off.

Chapter Fifty-Seven

I
struggled for a
while, trying to wiggle my way out from the extension cord wrapped around me without much luck. Despite the advertisements, I didn’t find one thing roomy about the trunk space in this Mercedes. I was thinking my only hope would be they’d take a long drive and I’d be able to eventually free myself when I suddenly felt the vehicle slow down.

We seemed to
cautiously roll over some dips in the road just before we came to a complete stop. Someone got out of the car and there was this sound like a garage door being opened. The car pulled ahead and stopped again a moment later only this time the engine was shut off and I heard that garage door noise again.

Suddenly
Tommy’s voice said, “Cookie Monster’s going to be really proud of you, Gino.” Then the trunk opened and the D’Angelos stared down at me.

“Get him out of there
, Gino, and put him on the bench,” Tommy said.

Gino wrapped his big hands around the electrical cord and pulled me out like a sack of potatoes. During the ride the cord had somehow shifted up toward my shoulders
, but my arms were still hopelessly bound. He stood me up for a brief moment then gave a grunt, hoisted me over his shoulder, and followed Tommy. I tried to kick a bit, which only made Gino reach behind his back and hit me a couple of times on the side of my head.

I had no idea where we were other than it looked like a large, empty
brick warehouse. There were a series of windows about eight feet up from the concrete floor. They appeared to be covered with some sort of heavy-duty industrial screen. Most of the window panes looked to have been broken by rocks. The parking lights on the Mercedes served to illuminate a portion of the cavernous space.

“Throw
his ass down there,” Tommy said. A couple of steps later I was slammed down so hard it almost knocked the wind out of me.

Gino stepped back twitching and scowling.

“You’re gonna tell us a couple a things and we’ll get along just fine,” Tommy said.

“I don’t know anything,” I pleaded.

“What did you do with all the cookies?” he said and smiled.

Gino nodded then
started to bob and weave.

“What?”

“The cookies you took. What’d you do with them?” Tommy laughed.

I suddenly caught on, “Cookie Monster said I should save them for, for Gino.”

This stopped Gino for a moment. Tommy looked over at him and said, “I think we’re gonna need the helper, better get it.”

Gino drifted
out of the pool of light and into the darkness.

“You
a cop?”

“No, I’m not a cop.
Look, I won’t say a word to anyone, honest. I don’t care what the hell you’re doing, really I don’t. This is all just one terrible misunderstanding.”

“Yeah
, well, we’re going to start understanding everything in just a minute. Why the hell have you been following us? What the hell were you doing at the games tonight?”

“I was looking for
Candi. I was worried something happened to her.”

“
Candi? I don’t think you’re her style, asshole. What are you really up to?”

“That’s it, I was afraid something happened to her. I wanted to make sure she was okay, that’s all.”

“I don’t think so,” Tommy said. Gino suddenly bobbed back out of the darkness carrying a car battery and a set of jumper cables.

“
Hey, you guys aren’t gonna need that. I’ll tell you anything you want to know, please believe me.”

“We’re gonna find out so
on enough,” Tommy chuckled. He took the cables from Gino once he’d placed the battery on the concrete floor. The battery was grayed around the edges from the sulfuric acid that had leaked out over time. Gino stepped back and wiped his hands off across his T-shirt.

“I’m gonna ask you again,
you with the cops?” Tommy said. He bent over and clipped the red handled brass clamp onto the positive pole of the car battery.

“No. N
o, I’m not, Mister D’Angelo, really I’m not,” I pleaded.

“Like I
said, pal, we’re gonna find out pretty damn quick.” He laughed and clipped the black handled clamp to the negative post.

“Please, please don’t
. I just didn’t want to get fingered for Dudley Rockett’s murder, or that hit and run, that’s all and then Candi disappeared and…”