Always Watching (22 page)

I sucked in a deep breath.  “This case,
you’re not thinking of cutting me out of it now, are you?”

“
I don’t imagine I could
if I wanted to.  I know it’s personal for you.  On one
hand, that worries me more than anything else.  On the other,
I know how hard you work when there’s some sort of personal
investment in it for you.”  Johnny laid down the spoon and
stilled my hands.  “What happened to Danny Datello was not
your fault.”

“
To think that I actually
considered shooting him to put an end to what was going on in
Darkwater Bay,” I confessed.  “And now he’s dead and I feel
guilty because I didn’t prevent his murder.”

Johnny stared at the tray separating
us.  “Doc, what really happened at the jail today?”

I should’ve known he would suspect that I
was holding something back.  I didn’t want our life together
to be built on more lies than those I couldn’t erase.  “Saul
heard what Datello said to Agent Preston.  I told him not to
say anything yet.  Johnny, I didn’t want to put him in a
position where he had to lie, but I cannot let that woman walk away
from what she did.”

“
Melissa
Sherman?”

I nodded.  “He managed to wring a
confession out of Danny by threatening him.  He got Danny to
say that he acted alone, that Sherman’s involvement was unwitting,
that she believed it was a legal adoption.”

“
So now we need to figure
out the link between Preston and Sherman.”

“
Are you angry with
me?”

“
Hold that thought.” 
Johnny lifted the tray from my lap and disappeared into the
kitchen.  He returned a moment later with more hot
chocolate.

“
You’re not mad. 
You’re disappointed.”

“
I’m thrilled that we’re
getting a lot closer to you confiding in me without weeks of agony
before you believe that I’ve got your back,” he said.  “Scoot
over.”

I moved to the center of the bed. 
Johnny flipped back the blanket and sheet and snuggled next to
me. 

“
Hot cocoa?”

“
Only if we share,” I
said.

“
Deal.”

“
I think we need to figure
out how deep this thing with Sherman really goes.  Obviously,
Preston was willing to go pretty far to make sure the woman walks
away from these kidnapping charges.  Dev said that Eugene
Sherman wielded a lot of political power in Montgomery.”

“
Very true,” Johnny
agreed.  “Not only that, there’s a somewhat tenuous link
between Sherman and Datello that might well call into question
whether or not Danny’s confession was legitimate.”

“
Because we know Datello
supported this Senator Sanderfield as the opposition to Governor
Collangelo in the election this fall?”

“
And Sherman pulled his
support from Joe right around the same time that Sanderfield
decided to throw his hat in the ring.  While good old Eugene
didn’t formally lend his support to Sanderfield, Joe had some
pretty compelling evidence that he was illegally channeling a whole
lot of money into Sanderfield’s campaign.”

“
If he openly supported
Collangelo before, why would he be so covert about backing
Sanderfield this time around?” I wondered.  “And who is this
guy, that he had so much influence?  Dev said he was some sort
of retired diplomat.”

“
An attaché to an
ambassador in Saudi Arabia,” Johnny said.  “He retired quite
young if memory serves, early 1970’s.  I think he showed up in
Montgomery in the early or mid 1990’s and quickly became a
political fixture.”

“
His service record might
be very useful in determining if he’s been part of the trafficking
ring –”

“
Alleged,” Johnny
said.

“
Whatever.  It’s one
thing to buy human beings.  It’s another entirely to profit
from the sale.  Begs the question, doesn’t it?”

“
Hmm,” Johnny hummed
around the edge of our cup of hot chocolate.  “Where’d all
this cash he’s dumped into these campaigns come from, and what sort
of services did he think he was buying from our elected officials,
past, present and future?”

“
Including
Collangelo?”

Johnny winced.  “As much as I hate to
consider the possibility, yeah, Helen.  Including Joe.”

“
Does that mean I get to
question our beloved governor?”

“
As long as you promise
not to get frustrated and choke the truth out of him.”

I grinned and pried the cup from his
fingers.  “Enough shop talk.  I think we should
consummate our engagement now.”

Of course, Johnny didn’t disagree.

Chapter 18

Crevan unloaded fat-laden lattes, my
favorite: cinnamon.  Devlin brought a dozen assorted donuts
and other pastries injected with artery clogging creams. 
Johnny grinned when the sight of it turned me three shades of puke
green.

“
Sit,” he said. 
“Breathe through your nose.”

A sleeve of soda crackers and a glass of
ginger ale appeared in front of me.  “Nibble and sip.”

“
Johnny.”

He arched one eyebrow.  “We’re not
losing ground all of a sudden to whatever little bug is making you
queasy at the sight of normal cop food.  Behave.”

“
Sherman’s lawyer showed
up last night demanding face time with his client,” Dev said. 
“I know the guy.  He’s a pricey prick from Montgomery who
thinks he’s working out of a posh firm on Park Avenue, if you catch
my drift.  In reality, he’s a sleaze ball in an off-the-rack
suit.  We’re not gonna get anything out of her but invocation
of her right to counsel.”

“
Does Zack know he showed
up last night?” I grazed on the soda cracker Johnny thrust into my
hand.

“
Oh yeah.  This guy
somehow found out about Preston’s deathbed statement and is
demanding an arraignment post haste.  Zack’s got the power to
put it off until Monday, on account of his golf status with all the
judges in the district,” Crevan chuckled.  “So we’ve got more
than our typical forty-eight to hold this woman before she’s
formally charged.”

“
Good.  Let’s hope we
can build a case against both her and Preston before Zack has to
slay the demons at the bail hearing.  I want this woman held
in custody until she stands trial.”

“
Given her wealth and
connections, I think Zack can make a strong case for her flight
risk.  Let’s hope the judge isn’t feeling generous.  God
only knows how many passports she has and under what names. 
If he revokes the legal one, she could still disappear,” Johnny
said.

“
Which reminds me. 
Have we executed the search warrant on the Sherman residence in
Montgomery yet?” I asked.

“
Dev’s gonna head over
there today, unless you think he’s needed here.  His old pal
from Montgomery is going to help him,” Crevan said.

“
I’m not sure I’m
comfortable with anyone outside this group, or OSI at the very
least, knowing what we’re looking for,” Johnny said.  “Dev,
take some guys from the state police with you instead.  I’d
hate for any of this to inadvertently leak to the press or to
people with whom Sherman was associated in Montgomery.”

“
I trust Andy, but if you
think I should keep him out of it, I won’t plead my case,” Devlin
said. 

“
I’m going to get started
on some background information on Sherman,” Crevan said. 
“Johnny told me that you’re wondering how this guy got so rich,
Helen.”

“
I am.  I also
thought I was doing that part of the research today. 
Something that lets me stay home close to my new religious icon,
the porcelain goddess.”

“
Are you feeling sick
again?”  Johnny shoved another cracker into my hand. 
“Eat.  These are supposed to settle an upset
stomach.”

Crevan grinned.  “I think they’re
supposed to work better if you eat them before you actually get out
of bed, Johnny.”

“
Ew!  I will not eat
these crumbly things
in my
bed
.  And where the hell did you hear
this nonsense?”

“
Never mind,” Johnny shot
a stern look at Crevan.  “If you want to do the research on
Sherman, I suppose you can take a phone and the laptop back to
bed.”

“
I’m not sick!  Is it
my fault that your disgusting breakfast is enough to make any sane
person feel a little queasy?  Yuck!  Look at that stuff
squirting out of your pastry,” I pointed to the confection in Dev’s
hand.  “It looks like pus oozing out of a wound.”

Devlin dropped his éclair.  “Thanks,
Helen.  Now I need soda crackers and ginger ale.  This
isn’t some weird eating disorder thing coming out, is it?”

I noticed the nervous glance Johnny and
Crevan shared.  “All right you two.  What’s going on
here?”

Johnny cleared his throat.  “The
case.  So if you’re doing the background on Sherman, I guess
Crevan and I will work on that other thing you briefly discussed
with Maya yesterday.”

“
What thing, and since
when do you know what I have or haven’t discussed with
her?”

Crevan said, “We talked to her at the
hospital last night when she came to pick up Preston’s body,
remember?  She said the two of you wondered where someone
might advertise for what kind of person they wanted to… acquire, I
guess.  It was a good question.”

“
Oh, right.  I was
thinking about that last night before I fell asleep,” I said. 
“Do you guys remember a few years ago when some guy back east
killed some massage therapist cum call girl after he answered her
ad on Craigslist?”

“
Sure, I remember.” 
Johnny pulled out a stool beside me at the breakfast bar and sat
down.  “Didn’t that guy eventually commit suicide?”

“
Hmm,” I nodded from
behind the lip of the glass of ginger ale.  “Craigslist sort
of tried to put the kibosh on those kinds of advertisements
on
their
site,
but it got me thinking that this might be a way that these people
are communicating, you know?  Some sort of underground or
covert message board system on the internet.”

“
That narrows it down to
how many billions of websites?” Johnny muttered.

“
It might not be as
difficult as all that,” I said.  “At least maybe not if we’re
on the right track about Darkwater Bay being a portal for smuggling
such victims into the United States.  What I know about human
trafficking involves less monitored ports.  They’re not going
to smuggle folks in as easily through New York or Los
Angeles.  A place like Darkwater Bay however, could be a gold
mine for that kind of operation.  The location of Analynn
Villanueva’s body got me thinking too.”

Johnny perched his chin on my
shoulder.  “And all this came to you before you fell asleep
last night?  Here I thought I left you completely spent.”

I grinned.  “You’ve forgotten how well
I multi-task.  Anyway, foreign ships coming into port are
subject to searches by customs, yes?”

“
They are,” Johnny
said.

“
Remember when we were
waiting to talk to Vinnie Bennett last spring?  He was out of
town when Gwen Foster was murdered, working for his new
boss,
Danny Datello
.  They were in southern California looking for motors
for some of Datello’s trawlers, correct?”

“
Yeah,” Crevan said. 
“He’s got a number of facets to his fishing business, Helen. 
One is as a supplier to smaller scale fishermen.”

“
Equipment?” Dev
asked.

“
Yes, but the major
moneymaker he has, or had, was his own deep sea fishing
operation.  Danny has a number of large trawlers that are used
out on the Pacific Ocean,” Johnny said.  “Where you goin’ with
this theory, Helen?”

“
What if that’s not the
only thing Danny’s ships were bringing back into port?  Think
about it.  How do you smuggle human beings into port without
getting caught red handed?”

“
You find a domestic ship
that won’t be subject to the same scrutiny because it allegedly
isn’t venturing out into international waters,” Johnny said. 
“So theoretically at least, they make the transfer from the foreign
ship coming from Asia or wherever while they’re out at sea, and
Datello’s ship delivers the merchandise to Darkwater Bay where it’s
slipped in undetected.”

“
It makes as much sense as
anything else,” I said.  “Unless of course, we prefer to go
with the theory that since there was one bad FBI agent working out
of  Montgomery, that it translates to a whole slew of
immigration and customs officials in Darkwater Bay that are part of
this ring of corruption.”

“
I like it,” Dev
said.  “I mean, it’s a sound theory.  I wonder if there’s
any way that we could get more information from the FBI on Alfred
Preston.  As you pointed out, Helen, it sounds like an unusual
occurrence, that somebody with federal law enforcement authority
would get sucked into such a heinous crime.  What do we know
about this guy?”

“
I talked to David Levine
about him yesterday,” I said.  “He remembered Preston, though
I’m not sure why.  David thought he was rather unremarkable,
but aspired to great things.  Unfortunately, he lacked the
skill or ambition, I’m not sure which, to advance his career beyond
Montgomery’s field office.”