Rod (22 page)

I close my browser and ponder the
information.
 

I text Rodney: “I knew Lester was
shady.
 
So much to tell you.”

Minutes pass and I receive a text
notification from Rodney: “Boris has a van.
 
I made up a story about moving and he said he’d bring it by on
Wednesday.”

I sit in awe of the big picture as it
comes together in my mind.
 

“Call me when you can,” I text him.
 

“Okay,”
he
texts
back.
 
Thoughts swirl about Boris’ van
transporting my scared little sister across town and I grab a pen and my
notebook.

I draw a circle around Boris’ van and
connect it to Lester Samson.
 
Boris has a
van and Lester has the hideout.
 
I
remember the guys talking about Ken Clayton bragging over the large sum of
money that is coming his way.
 

I open my laptop back up to the
investigate information I have in an Excel file.
 
I retrieve Jason Maple’s cell phone number,
recalling his admission to being an electronics expert.

“Jason,” I say into the phone.
 
“It’s Trish Fitzgerald.”

“Hey, Trish, what’s up?
 
Is everything okay?” he asks.

“Yeah, listen.
 
Remember when I asked you if you could check
out bank account information on people?”

“Yeah?
 
Who do you want me to check?”

“Can you look into Ken Clayton’s checking
account, but keep it on the down-low?” I ask.

“Sure, give me an hour or so,” he says.

“Sounds good, let me know what you find,”
I tell him.

“Hey, can I ask exactly what I’m looking
for?”

“Yeah, any large deposits of money within
the last week.”

“Alright, talk to you soon,” he says.

I disconnect the call and focus on finding
out as much information as possible.
 
I
type furiously on my laptop seeking out anything and everything I can find with
regard to Ken Clayton, the
Deathdealers
, Seth Vinton,
Lester Samson and Boris
Cardov
.
 

Digging through archives of Google’s
reach, I find an old black and white picture.
 
It appears to be a much younger Boris with a younger guy that looks like
Rodney.
 
I gather that the picture must
be at least twenty years old, if not older.
 

I snap the picture with my cell phone so
that I can show Rodney when I see him next.
 
If the guy in the picture is his father, we have the connection from
Seth Vinton to Boris
Cardov
.
 

My cell phone’s ringtone interrupts my
thought process.
 

“Hey, it’s me,” Rodney says.

“Can you talk now?” I ask him.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“I found out a lot about Lester
Samson.
 
Apparently he was an older
member of the
Deathdealers
, like your father’s right
hand man.”

“Unbelievable,” he says.

“Yeah.
 
And that child endangerment charge actually stemmed from his attempt at
kidnapping his niece.
 
I found an article
online and it talked about how he was driving drunk with her in the car and was
arrested.
 
The article said that your dad
had a judge in his back pocket and that’s how Lester’s charges were dropped to
the charge of child endangerment.
 
He did
six months in jail and was turned loose.”

“So fucking crazy,” Rodney tells me.
 
“I guess my father is in deeper than I
thought.”

“Yeah, it sucks.
 
What did you find out about Boris’ van?” I
ask him.

“Just that he has one and he’s going to
let me use it on Wednesday.
 
He thinks
I’m moving.”

“I’m guessing that if we can find the van
before then, we might be able to find my sister,” I say matter-of-factly.

“We can try,” he says in response.

“Hey, I found an older picture.
 
It looks like Boris in it, but the other guy
looks a lot like you.
 
The only thing is,
is that the picture looks like it’s at least twenty years old.”

“Can you text it to me?”

“Yeah, I’m sending it now, hang on,” I
tell him as I navigate to the photo and text it to him.

A minute passes as I sit in silence and he
confirms my suspicions.
 
“That’s my
father.”

“There’s the connection.
 
He knows Boris,” I tell him.

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot.
 
When we left Lester’s house, I got a
voicemail from my father.”

“Yeah, what did he say?” I question him.

“He said that I need to get to their club
immediately and that I should bring Boris with me.”

“Why would he need you to bring Boris with
you?” I ask.

“He said that they need to move soon on
their plans and that Boris has a van that they can use.
 
That’s how I knew to bring up the subject of
moving, to see if he’d volunteer the van.”

“He used that van to take my sister to
wherever they’re hiding her,” I say.

“I’m sure that is how it all went
down.
 
Now we just need proof and then we
can get your sister safely back home where she belongs,” he tells me.

“Exactly.
 
I guess we’re just going to have to discreetly pay Mr.
Cardov
a visit and see if we can locate that van.”

“If we can find it, then it might have a
clue as to where they’re keeping her.”

“It’s worth a shot,” I say with a glimmer
of hope in my eyes.
 
Secretly, I’m hiding
a serious fear that something bad has happened to Sasha, but vocalizing it
might make it worse.

“Alright, I’m going to see if I can borrow
someone’s car; a car that he won’t recognize.
 
Then, I’ll follow him around discretely and see what’s what.”

“Sounds good, let me know what you find,”
I tell him.
 
“I’m working on something
with finding out about that money that Ken was bragging about.”

“Keep me posted, too,” he urges me.
 

“You got it, babe.
 
I’ll talk to you later, I’ve got another call
coming in.”

“Bye babe,” he says as I click ‘end’ on
the phone to disconnect the call.

The caller ID tells me that it’s Jason
Maple on the other end.
 
Maybe he has
some news.
 
I hit ‘answer’ and say,
“Hello?”

“Hey, it’s Jason.
 
I’ve got something on Ken’s banking
activity.
 
It looks like he came into a
decent pile of cash two days ago.”

“Wow, that’s pretty recent,” I say in
response.
 
“Does it say where the money
came from?”

“No, but I can look into that.”

“How much money was deposited two days
ago?” I press.

“Roughly twenty grand,” he says.

“Holy crap.
 
Alright, call or text me when you trace the
origin of the money,” I instruct him.

“Yes ma’am,” he says before hanging up.

I pull Rodney’s phone number up and text
him, “Ken just got twenty grand in his checking account two days ago.”

“Did you check Boris’ or Lester’s?” He
asks via text message.

“No, but I can get on that now,” I say
back with furious fingers texting back.

“I have a feeling that the person with the
biggest dollar amount in their account is the one who’s holding Sasha.
 
Keep me posted.”

“I will,” I text back.

I dial up Jason Maple once again and wait
patiently for him to answer his phone.

“Hello?” he says.

“Hey Jason, it’s Trish again.
 
Listen, in addition to Ken Clayton’s info and
the trace, can you also run Boris
Cardov
and Lester
Samson’s information through the system?”

“Am I looking for the same type of
deposit?” he asks.

“Yeah, I think they’re all somehow
involved.”

“Samson’s
gonna
be the hard one, but I’ll get it all squared away and let you know what I
find.”

“Great, thanks Jason,” I tell him.

“No problem, Trish,” he says,
disconnecting the call.

Rodney texts me, “I bet that money traces
all the way back to my father.
 
It was
all part of this long-running plan to take over the Dragons, I just know it.”

I text back, “There’s no way you could’ve
known that.”

“Yeah, but I just feel like a rat,” he
texts me.

“I’m just glad that you’re on our side,” I
text back.

He texts me back a smiley and I decide to
wait for Jason’s phone call before telling my father everything.
 

Hours pass before I hear from him, but he
confirms our suspicions.

“Trish, I have that information for you,”
he says.

“Yeah, let me get a pen and paper,” I
instruct him.
 
I grasp my pen and open up
my notebook.
 
“Okay, shoot.”

“Boris
Cardov
got a thirty thousand dollar deposit yesterday and Lester Samson got fifty just
today.”

“Fifty grand today?
 
Interesting.
 
And where does the money lead?”

“That’s the interesting part.
 
It all leads back to Seth Vinton.”

“I kind of figured it would.
 
Thanks Jason, I appreciate all of your help,”
I tell him.

“Hey, maybe when this is all said and done,
we can go out for a drink?” he asks.

“Maybe, but you should know that I’m
dating Rodney,” I tell him.
 
I don’t want
any misunderstandings and although Jason has helped tremendously, I figure
there is certainly other ways to reward his help.

“Oh, I didn’t know,” he says, sounding
somewhat embarrassed.

“It’s okay.
 
I’m sure there’s some way we can repay you
when this is all over with.”

“I don’t need repayment, Trish, that’s not
why I do what I do for the club,” he says.

“Well, we all appreciate every one of your
efforts,” I tell him.

“No problem at all.
 
I’ll talk to you later,” he says.

“Talk to you later,” I respond, ending the
call.

I gather my thoughts before addressing my
father.
 
I dial up Rodney’s number once
again to let him know about the information I got from Jason.

“Hey babe, what did you find?” he asks.

“Just that Boris got a deposit of thirty
thousand yesterday and Lester got fifty grand today.”

“Wow,” he says in astonishment.
 
“And where did the money trace back to?
 
Or shall I guess?”

“It all traces back to your father.
 
I’m sorry, Rodney, but he’s so deep in this
mess that it’s not even funny.
 
He knows
where Sasha is; they all do.”

“I’m coming over,” he says.

“I’m going downstairs to tell my father
everything we’ve found out,” I tell him.

“See you soon.”

“Bye.”

I close my laptop and walk out of my room
and to the staircase.
 
I walk downstairs,
eyeballing my mother sitting on the couch, zoned out with a glass of wine in
hand.

“Is dad home?” I ask her.

Instead of a verbal response, she points a
finger in the direction of my father’s office.
 
I walk in the direction of his office and overhear him yelling at
someone on the phone.

“Don’t call back until you find
something!” he shouts angrily.
 
I steel
my nerves and knock on the door once I hear him slam the phone down.
 

“Yeah?” He says through the door.
 
I open it up and walk inside, shutting it
behind myself.

“I’ve got some news,” I tell him.
 
His cheeks are red and he looks angry.
 
“This really can’t wait.”

“Well, at least someone has some news, so
let’s hear it.”

“Lester Samson, Boris
Cardov
,
and Ken Clayton are all involved in this, dad.”

He looks intrigued and raises his
hand.
 
“Go on,” he tells me.