No Such Thing as a Lost Cause (29 page)

Sherese nodded. “The one they call Torch. He been to the house a few times. Every
time he showed up I’d take the kids and leave. That man is evil, and I don’t mean
it as no compliment. Anyway,” she added, “ like I told you before, what Mario and
Cal was doing was their business. I don’t know nothin’ about it.”

“Maybe you know more than you think. See, I might be wrong, but I don’t believe it
happened the way the police have it figured.”

“Yeah? Well, the cops haven’t done nothin’ for me so far. If you have any idea what
really happened to Cal, I’m willing to listen.”

I recounted for her the events that led me to Wade Stoller. “Does the name ring a
bell?”

Sherese pursed her lips in concentration. “No,” she said, finally. She picked up a
pack of cigarettes from the coffee table, took one out and put it to her lips. “Mind
if I smoke?”

“Honestly?” I said.

She shrugged and tossed it back on the table. “So, you think that Cal and them others
was working for that guy, Stoller. But you don’t know what they was doing for him.”

“Right,” I admitted. “But I’m pretty sure it had to do with his drug detection business.”

Sherese looked wistful. “All I know is Cal said he was working on something that could
make him some money and he’d take me on a vacation.”

Something that had been rattling around in the back of my mind pushed its way to the
forefront. “You’d told me that Cal had wanted to take you on a cruise. Why a cruise?
I mean it’s sort’ve random, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, I thought so, too. But he come over one day and tells me he knows somebody
who can get him a free cruise and did I want to go. I said
hell, yeah.
I never been on a cruise before. Shit, I ain’t never been out of the neighborhood.”

She stood and walked toward the bedroom, talking to me over her shoulder. “I got a
what’cha call, a brochure in here. I’ll be right back.”

Sherese emerged a few minutes later looking annoyed.

“What’s wrong?”

“I can’t find it. It was sitting out in plain sight on my night stand. Ayana!” she
bellowed. She had impressive lung power for a smoker.

Ayana appeared at the doorway.

“Did you take that picture of the ship off my night stand? And don’t lie to me.”

Ayana took a precautionary side step. “No, Mama. I didn’t.”

“You sure?”

The little girl nodded and retreated into her bedroom.

“It was right there,” Sherese murmured.

“I notice the house was…”
hmm…how to put this delicately
…“spruced up. Maybe you put it somewhere for safe keeping.”

“No.” She shook her head, her eyes filling up. “I liked looking at it. Y’know?” She
was quiet for a beat. Then, “Now I think about it, I haven’t seen that brochure since
the break in.”

“What break in?”
Wow. Did this woman have crappy luck or what?

Sherese picked up the cigarette and, once again, put it to her lips. This time, she
lit it and drew a deep breath, waving the smoke away from my general direction.

“Couple of weeks ago, me and the kids went out on errands. When we came home the house
was a mess. Shit everywhere. Every drawer was opened. Clothes and shit was dumped
on the floor. Even the couch cushions were overturned. My baby’s piggy bank was broke
in pieces. I checked around, and the back door window had been kicked in. I had to
go and put boards up to keep the rats from climbing in.”

“What was taken?”

“Nothin’, far as I can tell. I ain’t got nothin’ worth taking. But it was nasty knowing
somebody was pawing through our personal property. Candice, from across the street
helped me to clean up,” she added, lowering her eyes. “I guess I let things get away
from me since Mario passed.”

I knew the answer to the next question, but I asked it anyway. “Did you call the police?”

Sherese dragged on her cigarette and turned her head to let out a breath. “What was
the use? Besides, I didn’t want them snooping around here. I couldn’t take a chance
they’d find something wrong and bring social services down on me.”

I nodded sympathetically, but my mind was elsewhere. “Sherese, the person or persons
that broke in probably took the brochure, which is in line with everything I’ve just
shared with you. Do you happen to remember the name of the cruise line?”

“Uh huh. Island Dream Vacations.”

I was not in the least surprised.

“We was gonna go to some island I ain’t never heard of.”

“Don’t worry about that for now. The important thing is they were after more than
just the brochure. After all, you said it had been left out in plain sight. So, why
would they continue their search after they’d found it?” I thought for a minute. “Did
Cal ever ask you to keep anything safe for him?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. Letters, documents, anything that might incriminate Wade Stoller if
they turned up? Maybe Cal hid something here as insurance against something happening
to him.”

“If he did, he didn’t tell me.”

I handed her my phone number. “If anything comes to you, give me a call.”

*****

After leaving Sherese’s I needed to regroup, and what better place to do just that
than the Barnes and Noble café. “I’ll take a redeye, please.”

The kid behind the counter punched in my order. He looked bored. “Will there be anything
else?”

I scrounged around in my pocket book for more loose change and came up empty. Boy,
being unemployed put a real crimp in my junk food consumption. I shook my head. “Thanks.
That’ll do it.”

The window seat was occupied, so I had to content myself with a long table in the
rear of the café. I took out my laptop and got to work. Or, I would have, except that
someone had left a copy of
Fifty Shades of Gray
on the table, and it seemed only right to see what all the fuss was about.

At around chapter three I reluctantly put it down and started my research. It didn’t
take long to find what I was looking for. As a reward, I picked up the book again.

“I hear that’s fascinating reading.”

Startled, I looked up. DiCarlo stood in front of me, grinning. He was in his gym sweats
and looked especially sexy…or maybe it was just the lingering thought of one of those
fifty shades.

I slammed the book shut and slid it down the length of the table. “I thought it was
a book on monochromatic interior design.”

“Is that what they’re calling porn now?”

“It’s not porn. It’s erotica…and shut up.”

His grin got wider. He pulled a chair out and sat down across from me.

“How’d you know I was here?” I asked.

“Frankie told me this is your new hangout. I stopped in to pick up a book for Sophia,
so I figured I’d come by and say hello. Actually,” he added, “I thought I saw you
the other day at DiVinci’s.”

“Nope, wasn’t me.”

“I’m pretty sure that it was.”

“You’re wrong. It happens. Listen, as long as you’re here, I want to run something
by you.”

Suppressing a smile he said, “I’m all ears, Sweetheart.”

“Okay. But first, promise me you won’t get mad.”

DiCarlo’s eyes narrowed. “Do I have a reason to get mad?”

I pinched my thumb and index together to indicate incremental measurement. “I may
have stepped ever so slightly over the legal line.”

DiCarlo leaned forward on his elbows until his forehead was right up against mine.
“How slightly are we talking here?”

“Hardly worth mentioning. And, the good news,” I hurried to explain, “is that I didn’t
interfere with police business.” Mainly because Wade Stoller wasn’t on anyone’s radar
but mine.

Bobby blew out a big breath. “Just tell me.”

When I got to the part where I checked out Stoller’s computer, Bobby gritted his teeth
but he didn’t say anything. I finished up with my visit to Sherese’s and the break-in.

“I’m afraid for her and her kids, Bobby. I didn’t want to alarm her, but this was
no ordinary burglary. Whoever did this felt threatened enough by what they think is
in that house that they came looking for it. And if they didn’t find it, they might
come looking for it again.”

“Calm down, Sweetheart. You said Sherese didn’t know if Cal was hiding anything in
the house. But if he were, how could she know it was missing if she wasn’t aware that
it existed? Maybe they already found what they were looking for.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“So what makes you so sure Stoller was involved in the break-in?”

“Because of the brochure. The first time I went to see Sherese she mentioned that
Doyle had promised to take her on a cruise. I thought it was odd at the time. I mean
he didn’t strike me as a Sperry Topsider deck shoes kind of guy. But, if he was working
for Stoller on the sly, it makes perfect sense.”

“I’m not following you. Why would the mention of them going on a cruise be significant?”

“Stoller’s records show he has three clients for his drug detection business. There’s
a private rehab center, a high school out in Langhorne, and a cruise line called Island
Dream Vacations. They’re a small, private company that takes off from Penn’s Landing
to the BES islands.”

I gulped a bit more of my redeye and continued. “I’ve been doing a little research.
Cocaine traffic coming out of those islands is on the rise. Drug enforcement agencies
have cracked down hard on cargo vessels, yachts, and the like. So, drug gangs have
turned to cruise ships as a way to get their stash into the country. According to
what I’ve read, cruise ship security isn’t particularly effective at winning the war
against the smugglers.”

“Not enough man power, for one thing,” Bobby said. “And imagine being the unlucky
passenger to run across a multi-million dollar transaction. People
accidentally
fall over the side of the boats all the time. Not a big incentive to turn someone
in.”

“Exactly. So the cruise ships hire outside agencies to at least give the appearance
that they’re doing something about the problem.”

“Enter K-Nine Security.”

“Which looks perfectly legit until you examine the company Stoller was keeping.”

Bobby mulled this over in his usual way, fingers drumming rhythmically on the table.
A minute went by and then the drumming stopped. “Okay,” he said. “Say someone on the
ship is smuggling drugs. Stoller is hired to ferret out this person or persons. But—what
if he found a way to make it more profitable?” He arched his eyebrows and looked up
at me expectantly.

Slowly, the light dawned. “Oh my God, Bobby. How could I not have seen this? Stoller
must be on the take to
not
find the drugs. But how would that work? I mean assuming the dogs are properly trained,
wouldn’t they react to anything that smells like the drug?”

“There are ways to get around it. The dogs are not infallible, especially if they’re
getting help not to succeed. Anyway, how he manipulated the results isn’t important
right now. The real challenge is proving he did it.”

“There’s also the question of Doyle and the Lewis boys. They had to be able to offer
Stoller something he couldn’t achieve on his own.”

“Yeah. But, what?”

“Distribution? They would know how to deal on the streets better than Stoller would.”

“That’s assuming he got paid in drugs.” Bobby frowned. “Bran, everything you’re saying
makes sense, but it’s still just conjecture. Have you talked to the officer in charge
of the Doyle investigation about any of this?”

I sighed and drained the dregs from the bottom of my cup. “No. But it’s not for lack
of trying. And after the Claire Dobbs incident, I’m probably not high on their list
of credible sources.”

“Claire Dobbs, the council woman?”

“You mean you didn’t hear about that?”
Me and my big mouth.

“This should be good,” he said and settled comfortably into his seat again.

“Well, I wish I had time to regale you with embarrassing tales of my ineptitude, but
I’ve got to get going.” I stood and picked up my laptop and empty coffee cup.

DiCarlo stood, too. “Hey, you want to hang out tonight? I’ve got the Peter Manfredo
fight on Pay Per View.”

“Can’t. Carla invited me over for dinner.” (which sounded like a great idea at the
time, but, in the light of day, and the re-appearance of sanity, now fell under the
category of “What was I thinking?”) I had actually thought of cancelling, but Alexanders
aren’t quitters. We muddle through no matter how ill conceived an idea may be.

“Could I get a rain-check?”

“Absolutely. Listen, Sweetheart, I’ve got some buddies that patrol the docks. I’ll
see what I can do to look into this. In the mean time—be careful.”

“I will, Bobby. And thanks. I really appreciate this.”

DiCarlo reached over and grabbed the book off the table and held it out to me. He
teased me with a grin. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

I smiled back, innocent as hell. “I’m pretty much all caught up. Keep it. You might
learn something.”

*****

My mom called as I was getting ready to go to Frankie and Carla’s. We were due there
in an hour. I thought about not answering, but she’d only keep redialing until I picked
up.

“Hi, Mom. I’d love to talk, but I’m kind of in a rush.”

“Your brother met a girl,” she interrupted, turning selectively deaf. “What do you
know about her?”

I balanced my cell phone on my ear, grabbed my tooth brush off the bathroom counter
and loaded it with toothpaste. “Paul met someone?”

“Yes. She has an unusual name. Daisy.”

I brushed, rinsed and spit. A big glob of toothpaste landed on my shirt. Crap. I wriggled
out of the shirt and walked into the bedroom. Nick was there. He eyed me and smiled.

“Mom, did Paul specifically say he was seeing someone?”

“Not exactly. I called him, and he said he’d call me back, because he was taking a
walk with Daisy.”

“Are you sure he didn’t say he was taking Daisy for a walk?”

“Why would he say that? She’s not a dog.”