Always Watching (40 page)

“
Yeah,” I swayed
gently.  “Children are innocent.  She deserves the best
life, Celeste.  I have no doubt that you’ll give her
that.”

“
Danny wanted to protect
her from his other world too, Helen, like he sheltered me from
it.”

“
I believe you.” 
More than that, I understood it completely.  I didn’t want my
baby growing up with monsters lurking in the shadows.  I
didn’t want him to ever know the ugliness that I’d seen in
life.

“
You seem different this
morning.  And I can’t help but notice you’re wearing a piece
of jewelry that wasn’t present the last time we talked,” Celeste
said.

“
Oh. 
Yeah.”

“
The paper says you and
Commander Orion got married.”

“
Yes,” I said.

“
I wonder what our lives
might’ve been like, Helen, if we’d met each other without all of
the ugliness that made you and Danny so…”

I thought she was going to wax on the feud
between us.

“
So very much alike. 
I wish he’d taken your path in life instead of the one he chose,”
she said.  “If he’d become a cop, you might’ve been the best
of friends.  I’m sorry that you both understood that dark
world.”

The door to the penthouse opened
again.  Devlin wasn’t alone this time.  A woman who was
probably less than five years older than Datello rushed
inside.  She skidded to a halt in the middle of the room.

Kim Hughes.

Celeste cowered into a protective
shell.  It lasted all of three seconds.

Kim spoke, opened her arms.  “Oh, my
poor baby,” she whispered.  “Celeste, I’m so sorry.
 Daddy and I should’ve been here for you no matter what.”

Hugs and tears followed.  I felt
Devlin’s discomfort growing exponentially.  When the women
finally separated, Kim turned to me.

“
Detective Eriksson, I
cannot thank you enough for looking after Celeste and our
granddaughter.”

I slid the baby into the new grandmother’s
arms.  “Celeste, I’ll be in touch.”

“
Thank you, Helen.  I
hope you’ll
stay
in touch, even after all of this other business is
over.”

In that moment, I really intended to do just
that.

“
Excuse us, ladies,”
Devlin steered me away from the emotional reunion.  Outside
the penthouse, he cleared his throat. 

“
What?”

“
You tell me.  It’s
like an alien has taken over your body, Helen.  You’re doing
all kinds of shit that makes no sense.”

“
What did I do
wrong?”

“
Since when do you bond
with the families of criminals and develop an ongoing relationship
after a case closes?  I get why you’d feel a bond in this case
since we found the little girl and all, but this woman married one
of the most ruthless criminals I’ve ever seen.  I thought you
were gonna start crying because the son of a bitch died on our
watch.”

“
He was a victim too,
Devlin.”

He snorted.  “You ask me, Preston did
the world a favor.”

I gripped his arm.  “Don’t say things
like that.  And don’t let your opinion of Danny predispose you
to believe that Sherman isn’t really part of what we already know
she orchestrated, Devlin.”

He waved one hand between
us.  “See?  This is exactly what I’m talking about. 
All of a sudden, he’s
Danny
.  I get it that you were
once loosely related by marriage, but Helen, that ended with your
divorce.  You’re somebody else’s wife now.  Or have you
forgotten that?”

“
Of course I… never
mind.  Let’s just get over to the fishing operation and take a
look at the books.  I sincerely hope this Raleigh Shaw
understood Celeste’s order enough to follow through.”

“
You’re worried that he
called Gerard, aren’t you?”

“
She dug her heels in
pretty hard according to Crevan.  I wouldn’t be surprised if
Shaw got off the phone with Celeste and called the real boss. 
Look at her.  If you were in charge of a major business, would
you take Celeste seriously?  She’s a beauty queen for crying
out loud.”

“
I wish you’d gotten a
better address for this fishing outfit than the office building at
the marina.”

I grinned.  “Trust me.  You can’t
miss it.  Datello’s businesses are architectural
advertisements for the brand.  We’ll find it.  The level
of cooperation remains to be seen.”

In five minutes our question would be
answered.

Chapter 34

Destiny Gerard paced the front walk outside
Datello’s fishing business.  I suspected that her stilettos
left dents hammered in the hardened concrete.  “Looks like
somebody’s unhappy,” I said.

“
I knew it.  Shaw
called her,” Devlin growled.

“
Maybe we should have Zack
get a warrant after all.”

“
Let’s hear what she’s got
to say.”

On our approach, she stopped pacing and laid
into me specifically.  “How dare you!  I knew you’d prey
on Celeste’s vulnerability, but you’ve gone a step too far,
Eriksson!”

“
I believe that she’s made
her instructions to Mr. Shaw perfectly clear,” I said. 
“Excuse us.  We’ve got work to do.”

“
I’m in charge of this
company,” Gerard hissed.  “You’re not stepping foot into this
building or looking at so much as a blank envelope.  Is that
clear?”

I looked up at Devlin.  “Correct me if
I’m wrong, Devlin, but I don’t think a power of attorney supersedes
a man’s will.  Does it?  Maybe I’m mistaken –”

“
His will hasn’t been read
yet!”

Devlin stepped between us.  “Ma’am,
Celeste told us no more than half an hour ago that the will was
read and Danny Datello left his entire estate to his wife. 
Now, I’m not sure how kindly disposed she’ll be to keeping an
employee who refuses to follow directions, but I’m guessing she
won’t like it all that well.”

“
As I explained to
Celeste, we’re not here to build a case against her late
husband.  We’re trying to prevent someone else from
implicating him in a crime in which we are certain he had no
involvement.”

Her black eyes glittered with hatred. 
“I know what you’re doing.  Do you think that Curtis hasn’t
already talked to me?  What’s to stop me from testifying that
it was possible that Danny orchestrated Sofia’s adoption to the
Sherman widow?  God knows, he’s always had plenty of people
surrounding him willing to do whatever he asked of us.”

“
Did that sound like a
confession to you, Helen?”

“
Pretty damn close. 
Why would you want to help protect the woman who stole Datello’s
daughter, Ms. Gerard?”  It was truly a baffling concept to
me.  Shouldn’t her loyalty to the boss make her more inclined
to see Sherman rot in prison?

“
Just like him, it’s worth
the price to watch you fail, Detective Eriksson.  Go in. 
Search to your heart’s content.  I promise you.  You will
find
nothing
.”

Dev and I watched her storm off to an
expensive sports car and screech out of the parking lot.

“
Is it me, or was that
rather…”

“
Odd?” I finished the
thought.

“
Twilight Zone bizarre,”
he said.  “Now I’m concerned.”

“
Why?”

“
Because she’s known for
two days that we wanted to get a look at this place, and she just
promised that we won’t find anything.”

“
She doesn’t know what
we’re looking for, Devlin.”

“
You sure about
that?”

I shuddered.  “No,
I’m not sure about anything.  And why is she on a first name
basis with Sherman’s lawyer Marcel? 
Curtis
already talked to her. 
Maybe there is cause for concern.”

“
You made a point though,
Helen.  They think we’re looking for glaring evidence, not the
subtle clues you suggested.  I’m inclined to go with your gut
on this one.”

“
Which gut instinct was
that?”

“
That if something illegal
was going on over here that Datello might’ve been in the dark about
it.”

“
Finally. 
C’mon.  Let’s start searching for some of that subtle evidence
that might back up my theory.”

Inside the office, Raleigh Shaw met us,
rather apologetically.  “Ms. Gerard left a standing order that
if the police showed up asking questions, I was to call her
immediately.  I didn’t realize until after Ms. Datello called
that Ms. Gerard isn’t running the show anymore.”

I explained what we wanted to see. 

Shaw frowned.  “The fuel records?”

Devlin nodded.  “Isn’t that what Ms.
Gerard told you to anticipate we’d request?”

“
No sir,” he said. 
“She took a bunch of boxes out of here on Saturday though, mostly
those dealing with one of our deep sea ships in
particular. 
The
Celeste
.  She’s Danny’s largest
trawler, though she’s not our biggest harvester.”

Devlin and I glanced at each
other. 

“
Deep sea?” I
asked.

“
Sure.  She heads out
into the Pacific and trawls for tuna.  She’ll be going out
again on another trip this week.  Just got back into port last
Tuesday, if memory serves.  I don’t know what Ms. Gerard
wanted with the files on her.  She didn’t take anything
important as far as I could tell.  We make copies of
everything, you know.”

“
But she took the original
paperwork?”

He nodded at Devlin.  “Sure did. 
Like I said, it was more of a curiosity than anything else.”

“
If you had to speculate,
what reason could you think of that she’d want those records in
particular?” I asked.

Shaw scratched one fingernail through the
thinning strands covering his scalp.  “Well, if I were to
hazard a guess, I’d say she was planning to beef up the operation,
maybe figure out why Umberto and his crew can’t seem to bring in
more fish than even our smallest trawler.”

“
Mr. Shaw, was Danny ever
concerned that
The Celeste
wasn’t performing better than it was?”

“
Sure,” Shaw said. 
“He was on my ass about it nonstop.  I told him these things
happen, but to be honest, I figured that Umberto’s ambition had
more to do with the problem than anything else.  The guy’s
lazy, but talks a good game when the bosses are around.  He’s
always got some excuse about currents and storms and constraints
from environmentalists ‘cause they don’t want us inadvertently
catching dolphins and whatnot.”

“
Hmm,” I nodded slowly,
“and since Danny always had an exemplary record with the
environmentalists and responded favorably to their concerns, he
didn’t push the issue with Umberto directly.”

“
It wasn’t for lack of
trying, ma’am,” Shaw said.  “I asked him once if he ever
wondered why the smaller ships never had any problems avoiding
dolphins.”

“
Did he say
anything?”

“
Not to me, but Umberto
sure gave me the cold shoulder for a couple of months after
that.”

“
You said
The Celeste
is heading
back out to sea this week.  Does that mean that Captain
Umberto is hanging around town?” Devlin asked.

“
Umberto Gutierrez,” Shaw
corrected our assumption that Umberto was a surname.  “And
yeah, I guess he’s probably hanging out in his pad over at the
casino.”

“
He keeps a residence at
the Island Hotel Resort and Casino?”

“
Sure does ma’am.  A
whole lot of Danny’s employees live in the tower.  ‘Course the
penthouse belongs to Danny and Ms. Celeste, but there’s a
residential floor below that.”

“
How far
below?”

“
Few floors, I
guess.  Does that matter?”

“
Probably not,” I said,
“but thanks for the information, Mr. Shaw.  If we could see
those records we requested now, along with the maps Captain
Gutierrez filed for each of his trips out to sea, I’d appreciate
it.”

When we were sequestered in an isolated
conference room, Dev spoke.  “Are you thinking what I’m
thinking?”

“
Not sure.  I feel
like we just took a huge leap in the right direction
today.”

“
We’re gonna find that the
fuel consumption of
The Celeste
doesn’t jibe with the maps Umberto filed, aren’t
we?”

“
I suspect we will. 
I think that it’s pretty obvious that the good captain was using
Danny’s ship to bring cargo of a different kind into Darkwater
Bay.  Shaw said he returned from the Pacific last
Tuesday.  On Wednesday night, Analynn Villanueva’s body washed
up on shore.”

“
You think she came into
town on that ship, don’t you?”

“
What I’d love is to have
a forensic team comb every inch of it looking for evidence. 
We don’t have probable cause at this point.”

Devlin and I spent the rest of the morning
and half the afternoon combing through fuel records and maps of
various excursions.  Shaw came in and answered more questions
we had about Datello’s trawlers, how much fuel they used in
general, what some of the variances we noticed might mean. 
According to him, it could’ve been something as benign as rough
seas or detouring to avoid bad weather.