Shadows May Fall (11 page)

“I do?” It was news to her.

“Yes.” Niko informed her. “You’re ribs are healed enough that you can start your training. At the very least, meet Sensei and let him evaluate you.”

“Okay?” Lou wasn’t sure if she should be afraid or not. She had very little knowledge of the Sensei but knew he was a serious badass. Niko had mentioned him to her weeks ago, when she was still on the mend from her chest wound. He had warned her about the training that was to come, but she had sloughed it off after training with Niko. He was brutal so how bad could the Sensei be?

“What did you call for, anyway?” Niko was curious.

“Oh, crap, I forgot.” Lou found her original train of thought and explained what had happened with Vinny. “Will that work? Or is that a bad idea?”

“Sure it will work.” Niko told her. “That will save you a lot of headaches in the future. If you need to explain where you get info, we are free and clear. Aegis consults with dozens of law enforcement agencies, as you well know.”

“Yep!” Lou knew from the last case. “So should I have Vinny fax you the paperwork?”

“I’ll give him a call.” Niko liked Vinny. “That way it leaves you out of the administrative crap. He’ll feel more like I’m his contact rather than yours.”

“That works for me.” Lou was relieved. “Now who do I need to work with about tracing the source of some emails in my case?”

“Yuri can help you with that. Have your techs forward him the data to Markovic at the Aegis email address.” Niko instructed. “You know the address, right Dilbert?” Lou tried not to laugh.

“Yes, sir.” Dillon replied. “I’ll take care of that personally.”

“Thank you, Niko.” Lou was grateful. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and make it to the puck drop.”

“I’ll keep my fingers crossed.” Niko ended the call, and Dillon immediately called their techs at the Department with instructions on where to forward the data.

They arrived at the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner just after five. There were some news agency vans parked out front, no doubt waiting for the release of the coroner’s reports on the recent gang shootings. It was the fifth multiple victim gang-related shootings in a month, and the media was having a field day. The headlines were reading the beginnings of some gang war as if picking each other off was something new. Statistically, gang-related homicides had been on the rise for over a year now and this year it looked as though they would exceed the previous year by a wide margin. That was based on Lou’s unscientific analysis given it was only April and the bodies were piling up. It infuriated her. Communities were screaming on the news about the police not caring and failing to protect. The reality was that no one ever admitted to seeing anything or would come forward with any information. Apparently, the only thing these citizens hated more than their kids dying was actually doing something to help law enforcement. It was a maddening situation that she would never understand.

Dillon parked the SUV by the County vehicles and they snuck in through a back door to avoid reporters. Security had been beefed up with an additional security checkpoint before Caroline’s office. Fortunately, Caroline was coming out just as they were going in so she waved security off when they insisted on verifying Dillon and Lou’s credentials.

“Oh for pity’s sake!” Caroline fussed as she hugged Lou and gave Dillon a kiss on the cheek. “All this gang crap is making everyone so nervous! It’s so silly! Come on down. I’ll show you what I got.”

Doctor Caroline Devereaux was Lou’s best friend since her first crime scene. They had hit it off immediately and been fast friends ever since. Caroline was born in Savannah, Georgia to very old money. She had no clue as to just how old until recently. Lou and Caroline were an exercise in contrasts. While Lou was petite, barely hitting five feet, four inches, Caroline was five feet, eleven inches and insisted on wearing high heels at every possible opportunity. Lou avoided heels like the plague. Caroline was a classic Southern belle with the Georgia peach smile and slight drawl where it counted. A fashionista and heartbreaker, she shamelessly flirted like she inhaled air. Brilliant, polished, gorgeous and a wicked sense of humor, If Lou didn’t love her like a sister, she would have hated her.

“I hate to bring you down here for nothing, but I figured it was the only way I was going to see you this week the way things are going!” Caroline winked at Dillon. “And I do mean, you, Detective Cole.” Dillon blushed immediately.

“Oh come on, Caroline!” Lou protested. “Give the guy a break would you?”

“You are no fun!” Caroline poked Lou lightly in the ribs. “Fine, I’ll behave. For now.” She led them into one of the autopsy rooms that was, fortunately, empty. “You got a problem” Caroline informed them as she looked around to make sure the place was indeed empty.

“Who’s got a problem?” Lou asked.

“You do.” Caroline pulled a file out of the back of her lab coat. “This is a copy of a case that came in a week ago.” She handed Lou the file and she and Dillon looked it over.

“How did this go unchecked when we ran similar M.O.’s?” Lou shouted.

The file contained the autopsy and forensics reports for a Marcus Medina who had been found dead in the Jacuzzi of his Beverly Hills home. The interesting part of the document was glaring at them as they scanned through the crime scene photos. Mr. Medina’s head had been smashed into a pancake, just like their Mr. Griffen.

“How did this not make the news?!” Dillon couldn’t believe the paparazzi hadn’t gotten a hold of the story, or anyone for that matter. “Who is this guy?”

“You’ll have to go through the file yourselves but the second I unzipped your guy, I had flashbacks.” Caroline fanned herself for added dramatic effect.

“How could you not tell me about this? Lou glared at her. “What the hell, Lou?” Caroline appeared wounded. “Are you accusing me of something?”

“Caroline, you tell me everything about all your weird cases, even the dude with the green toenail polish last week.” Lou reminded her. “How does a smashed head not make the cut?”

Caroline paused and thought for a moment, almost surprised that she hadn’t told Lou already. “Oh hell, I know why!”

“Why?” Dillon and Lou said in unison. It was becoming a regular thing.

“Because you have been pulling double shifts for the past week you brat.” Caroline frowned at her. “I haven’t seen you in days!”

“It’s true, Lou.” Dillon acknowledged. “We’ve been on something or other, non-stop, since Thursday. You canceled on Caroline twice that I know of.”

“Shut up!” Lou scolded him. “I don’t need your reasoning right now.” Lou found a place to sit in the corner, rolling the stool back to where Caroline and Dillon stood. “So who is this dude? What’s the connection to Griffen? Who’s working on this case at BHPD?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know.” Caroline was making fun of her. “Oh, and, I don’t know.”

Lou stuck her tongue out at her. “What do you know, then?”

“I know that this guy was very high maintenance.” Caroline singled out one of the autopsy photos of Medina to show a headless, but very well manscaped, well, scaped all the way around, man. “Such a waste, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, that is a shame.” Lou agreed.

“Hello?!” Dillon huffed. “Guy in the room! You two are worse than men at a strip club!”

“Now that is just the sin of exaggeration, Detective Cole!” Caroline swatted at him. “We’re just admiring a very fine man, tragically lost before his time.”

“Where’s the rest of his head?” Lou inquired since there was nothing but a bloody stump at his neck.

“They brought the remnants in separate bags.” Caroline cringed. “What was left of them, at least. The totally gross part is that they found him in the morning, and some of his brains were poached, literally, in the hot water. They had to scoop out the pool filter and everything to recover what they could of his skull.”

Dillon’s jaw slacked. “Holy shit!”

“I know, right?” Caroline agreed. “I was so grateful I missed that call! Poor Carpesh.”

Lou couldn’t help but laugh. “He was up?” Peter Carpesh was the newest addition to the Coroner’s office. Fortunately for Lou and Caroline, he turned out to be Sanguinostri, and the one who turned their meddling on the rogue case into Max. Carpesh was a very skittish, very paranoid but extremely thorough man. Now that they knew what side he was on, they got along just fine.

“Wouldn’t y’all loved to have been a Blow Fly on that corpse?” Caroline giggled.

Lou looked at her like she was psychotic. “Actually, no.” Dillon snorted. “You scare me sometimes, girlie.”

Caroline gave her a disapproving look. “Right back at ya, times infinity!”

“So what else besides a waste of a hottie?” Lou got back to the point.

“Skull shattered, massive blunt force trauma, as you already could tell. Not one lick of forensics other than the immediate surroundings, which includes the chunk of wood that was used to tenderize the poor guy.”

“Fencepost?” Lou asked.

“Exactly the same type as with your Mr. Griffen.” She nodded. “No signs of struggle, no evidence of anyone else being there except...” Lou waited, but Caroline wasn’t continuing. “Except what?”

“There was an empty bottle of wine and two spotless glasses next to the sink.” Caroline paused again.

“Caroline!” Lou shouted. “I hate it when you pause for some dramatic effect! Tell me what you found!”

“You are just no fun anymore!” She pouted. “So I had to run an extended tox panel because something just seemed off. There were no defensive wounds and, well, you just don’t sit there and let someone bash your brains in without raising an eyebrow. Right?!”

“Right, unless someone is sneaking up on you and whaps you hard enough to knock you out with the first blow.” Dillon corrected her assertion.

“Yes, but the blows came from his front left side! And the cast-off, spray, spew, trajectory, the way a good healthy scoop of his brain flew out the back-side of his pie-hole, his attacker was in his eye-line when they took the first swing.” Lou and Dillon just stared at her for a while. “What?” She asked when she noticed them staring at her oddly.

“How can such a sweet, mild mannered lady come up with such graphic, unprofessional terminology the way you do?” Dillon was stunned.

Lou nodded in agreement. “It’s just a genius gift. I mean it, I’m jealous.”

Caroline blushed. “Aw, thanks y’all!” She gave them both quick hugs. “Anywhoo! Back to the weird and frightening part!”

“You’re not the weird and frightening part?” Lou asked with a chuckle.

“Ha ha.” Caroline looked at her sideways then fished out the expanded toxicology report. “Check this out.” She pointed, Lou and Dillon leaned in to see what she was looking at.

“Scopolamine?” Lou knew she had heard of it before but couldn’t place it.

“No! You are kidding, right?” Dillon appeared to know exactly what it was.

“The tests do not lie.” Caroline assured them. “And I went straight away with your guy and ordered the expanded tox right at the start, so I am guessing we are going to get the same results.”

“Wait!” Lou was confused. “Remind me what Scopolamine is?”

“Scopolamine is an alkaloid that comes from a good number of the Solanaceae family of plants. Nightshades, for instance. It’s a tropane like atropine and cocaine, but it’s really bad news outside of legitimate medicinal uses, like motion sickness and such. In higher doses, this stuff messes with the temporal lobe big time. Memory loss is not like with GHB or Rohypnol, no no no. This stuff prevents memories from being recorded! This stuff is a big deal down in Columbia. There are a ton of accounts of people being drugged, acting perfectly normal to outsiders but being totally suggestible, that’s why it’s nickname is the Zombie Drug. Also Devil’s Breath. If you don’t know what you’re doing as to formulation, it induces hardcore delirium. LSD is a cake walk compared to this crap. And the episodes can last days and days.”

“Yeah, I remember reading some of these reports when we were looking at the Bogota reports on the Salazar brothers.” Dillon added. “I am not sure why this isn’t getting more public outcry. You can make the crap from flowers that grow all over the place. I have Angel’s Trumpets growing in the backyard of my new place!”

Lou blinked a lot. “What the front door was this guy doing with that crap in his system?”

Caroline closed the file. “That’s why you get paid the big bucks, Detective. I tried to find something resembling a nostril or nasal passage for Medina to see if I could test for residue but no cigar.”

“That must have been a fun expedition.” Dillon snorted.

“It’s remarkable how indiscernible the tissues are, frankly!” Caroline was exasperated. “I mean whoever smashed this guy, they used the end of that post like a pestle and the concrete as the mortar! It took time to do this. They get an ‘A’ for effort.”

“Sometimes I do wish you could hear yourself.” Lou shook her head at her friend.

“What?” Caroline was clueless.

“Never mind.” Lou dismissed the jab. “When will you have the results on Griffen?”

Caroline checked her watch. “Probably not until the morning but maybe late tonight. Don’t hold your breath.”

“Right, well, call me as soon as they come back.” Lou requested.

“Of course. You’re gonna need to cancel tonight with this little revelation?” Caroline had to cancel their plans the previous night, she would understand if Lou had to now.

“No.” Lou didn’t hesitate with her response. “It will be faster for me to look everything up from home. I’ll bribe Niko while we watch the hockey game.”

“Your place or theirs?” She asked her.

“Theirs.” Lou checked the time herself. “We still have time to make Spank Me productions, then work from their place.”

Caroline nodded. “I’ll stop and pick up something yummy to bribe them with.”

That would be great.” Lou thanked her. “See ya later.”

“Later kids.” Caroline waved as they walked out. “Be safe out there!”

Max had avoided Abby and Niko for the majority of the day after
walking out on them. He felt foolish for his behavior, but as far as his feelings for Lou, he was in desperate need of everyone backing off. He had walked back to the McAllister guest house and worked on the final placement for the last of the new West Coast agents. It had been a clean sweep of all the bad apples, and the ripple effect had been noticed far and wide within the Sanguinostri community. Connor had shown up a little after noon and said nothing about the dust-up between him and Abby and Niko though Max knew full well they had given him a heads-up. To his credit, Connor stuck to business, and they went through everything he could gather on his Principates, besides Lou.

As Niko told him that morning, Peter Radisson, the Northern region Principate had come up clean. That wasn’t a surprise to Max given how long the man had been in service. His roots were as deep as Canada was vast and had been the first and only Principate installed in the region. Max and Connor knew they could trust him implicitly.

James Cutright was responsible for the Central Region of the United States. This comprised of Wyoming and Idaho to Minnesota and Wisconsin, from the Canadian border south to Kansas and Missouri.

Cutright was an old west, Frontiersman and had no patience for screwing around. Max often joked with the man that John Wayne and Clint Eastwood had to have been his love children. All in all, if Cartwright knew anything about any pipeline for the importation of the Black Blood, he would have put a stop to it and made a very public example of anyone involved. The Sanguinostri public that is. Cartwright was the one who had tipped Max off to Gilroy, his former Western Region Principate, being off the reservation and up to no good. It could have been a ploy, but all of Connor’s research had turned up with Cartwright being as straight as an arrow and running a very tight ship.

Jackson Harris was Max’s Southern Region Principate and a regular golf buddy of Richelieu Devereaux, Caroline Devereaux’s uncle. Rich had volunteered to vet Jackson himself with the solemn vow that if he found so much as a thread out of place, he would personally gut the man and serve Max his head on a platter. Connor had done some digging anyway, and aside from being a blowhard, Jackson Harris was a true blue loyal and a strict traditionalist. Max knew that Rich would be very relieved to hear that.

The last concern was the East Region, and that made Max worry. Up until only a few months ago, that is where Max resided and if his Principate under his nose had the audacity to go off the rails, Max was going to grind his bones to dust with his bare hands.

Connor began laying out Michael Humphry’s dossier. “For all intents and purposes, he is loyal and oversees things very carefully. The problem is he’s completely ignored Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.”

“Well, technically those are Canadian and technically Northern purview.” Max reminded.

“Actually, no.” Connor was the one reminding now. “Remember that big dust up after the Canadian Confederation?”

“Ah, shit!” Max became furious with himself once again. “Why the hell do I keep forgetting that?!”

“My Dom, with all due respect we have exactly five Sanguinostri families in that area, and they are entirely self-governing and holier than thou traditionalists.” Connor was trying to ease Max’s anger. “Finn heads up there regularly to visit his ice bunnies. It’s not like there has been zero oversight.”

“Really? And what if it turns out that is the port where the Black Blood has been funneled through on the east?” Max was just disgusted with himself. He stepped out onto the back patio and began pacing. “I should consider retiring.”

Connor could barely breath. Max’s suggestion knocked the wind out of him. “What the hell are you talking about?” He finally shouted at him. It wasn’t a good idea, but the situation warranted some yelling.

“I am talking about the right thing to do for our people!” Max shouted back at him. “I let the west become a playground for vile and corrupt traitors to our kind for, who know for how long!” His voice was getting louder, causing Frank and Abby to exit the main McAllister house and head for the guest house to see what was going on. “I completely fail to remember a massive reassignment of land from one region to the other! I find myself completely lost in some complete stranger, and I cannot understand why! To the point of making an ass out of myself, scurrying around in bushes just to figure out who she is! Then I make her Principate with only two seconds of knowledge about our kind!”

Abby started to panic when she heard Max’s ranting. She quickly grabbed her cell phone, dialed Niko and didn’t say a word; she just let him listen in to Max’s rant and stayed out of site.

“My Dom, please...” Connor tried to calm him down, but Max just cut him off.

“I am completely derelict in my duties. I should resign immediately!” Max insisted.

“Are you out of your mind?!” Frank stormed through the guest house, shouting at him.

“Francis this is...” Max tried to cut him off, but Frank would have none of it.

“The hell it isn’t any of my business or concern or whatever the hell you were about to say!” Frank got right up in his face, consequences be damned. “You are my Dominor, and I have followed you without question for all these years for one reason and one reason only! I absolutely and without any reservation whatsoever believe in you with every fiber of my being! Now shut the hell up and listen to me!”

Max was a bit taken aback by Frank’s bold and yes, insubordinate behavior. It wasn’t like him. Frank made jokes, pushed the envelope with his wit but always, above all else, he was loyal and respectful. He took a step back and nodded to let Frank continue.

“You have four members of your Aegis Council charged with making sure your will is carried out. Then you have myself and Abby who take that role very personally as well. What happened here in the west was a failure for us all, not just you so stop acting like your the only one with a bruised ego! And I say that with the utmost love and respect so please think twice before you rip my head off.” Frank paused to take a breath before he continued. Abby felt her eyes well with tears of pride for Frank, but she didn’t move or lower the phone. She continued to let Niko listen in. “As for making Lou Principate, you forget it was our idea, not yours!”

“That’s right.” Niko appeared out of nowhere, scaring the crap out of Abby, who had thought he was still on the phone. “The Aegis, Abby and Frank, we all sat and discussed it at length before we brought the idea to you. It made sense, good sense! Fresh blood, with serious conviction and massive balls to boot!” There were a few chuckles, but Niko didn’t blink. He stepped up to Max, just as Frank had just done. “Did it ever occur to you that all of us want you to be happy? Your joy is our joy. So seeing this strange woman spark something in you that personally, I haven’t seen ever! Not even with Nyla! You’re damn right we want to keep her close, and we want you to keep her period! You can get pissed at Abby and me all you want because you don’t want things messy, well I got news for you, bro, shit gets messy! You and I have fought side by side in too many wars not to know that. Why the hell you deny yourself joy when it is right in your face, I will never understand.”

“If you resign, you had better inform the Senatus that they need to ascend a whole new Aegis because I’m out too.” Finn chimed in as he appeared in the doorway.

“Ditto.” Yuri added as he turned up.

“I will never serve anyone but you, my Dom.” Connor shook his head. “Never.”

“I am bound by blood and honor, my Liege.” Niko put his fist on his chest in the ancient salute. “You can be pissed at me forever, but you’re stuck with me regardless. Aeternitas!”

They all echoed the word “Aeternitas!” It was Latin for eternity and was the single word vow that they made. Bound to one another, in truth, wisdom, justice, and peace, for eternity. Aeternitas. They stood silent and let the word resonate.

It was Abby that stepped up, then knelt before him. “My Dom, I beg your forgiveness for my impertinence and disrespect. I forget my place and get lost in our sense of family. The shame is mine for my lack of focus and wandering aimlessly in wistful wishes. Please don’t be angry. Please.” Abby began to cry at Max’s feet, and it broke his heart. He placed a hand on her head and leaned down to put her right on her feet. “Please.” She whispered up to him through her quiet tears.

Max smiled down at her. “Nothing to forgive my little one. “He kissed her softly on the forehead. “How long until I can move into my own home?” He asked her.

Abby hesitated a moment as she calculated. “Two weeks?”

He nodded. “Frank, I need some time to think. Have a helicopter pick me up in an hour.”

“Where shall I say you are going?” Frank was almost afraid to ask. “North.” Was all Max said before he headed in to pack.

They had no idea where, north. No idea how long he planned on being gone. Nothing had been resolved, and none of them knew what to say or do. The only thing they truly shared at that moment was the churning in their hearts and stomachs. They waited, saying nothing, for what seemed like hours before Max came out with a packed duffel.

“My Dom...” Niko was the first to speak, but Max raised his hand to stop him.

“I just need a few days, alone.” He told them. “I’m heading up to Juneau, and I’ll meet with Peter while I am there.”

“But what about..” Frank had a thousand questions.

“I will meet you in Vegas for the meeting.” It was the first reassuring thing he gave them. “Keep digging on the Black Blood. Assist our new Principate as protocol dictates.” He looked over at Niko. “Watch over her. Keep her safe.” Niko nodded, it went without saying. “I just need to get things in perspective, to focus.” He looked over each of their faces then smiled. “One nervous breakdown every thousand or so years is allowed, alright?” He winked at Abby and headed out the door.

The throng of
traffic heading back into the valley gave Lou plenty of time to fill out the applications for the search warrants they needed.

“I cannot believe you have wi-fi in this thing!” Lou was giddy with excitement. “Do you know how much time this is gonna save us?”

Dillon grinned. “I’m glad you like it.”

“Seriously!” Lou reiterated her awe. “Normally we’d have to head back to the office to do this! In this traffic? We save a solid two hours!”

“Yep!” There were a lot of nifty features he loved about his SUV. Knowing the threats that Lou faced, blast doors and ballistic grade glass were a couple of them.

Lou was not taking any chances with Spank Me productions. After her and Vinny’s previous visit to the porn studio, she expected the staff was not going to be as free with the information as they were before. The threats to Gerald Griffen that had come from the Spank Me servers, as well as the ones that named Hunny Trainer as a Spank Me employee, had given them enough probable cause for the warrants. As far as getting anything for the new case, Lou had to figure that one carefully. The Beverly Hills Police Department was famous for not playing well with others and Medina was their case. Requesting any copies or investigating without going through proper channels would be a very bad thing. Since her indoctrination into the Sanguinostri, Lou hadn’t had the opportunity to review BHPD to see what connections they had there, but she knew they had them. The Sanguinostri had someone everywhere. Making contact with one of theirs first would help pave the way for much more amicable relations. As soon as her applications were emailed off to the District Attorney’s office, Lou logged into her home network to access her super secret database. It was the first time she had the need to do so remotely, so she felt a little rush of excitement. It had become a habit for her to hum the theme song to Mission Impossible whenever she accessed her new toys. This time was no different. The screen prompted her to identify herself with a thumbprint, so she slid her thumb along the biometric scanner on the laptop. The screen flashed red then went black.

“What the hell?” Lou stared at the black screen.

“What’s wrong?” Dillon asked but kept his eyes on the road.

“I think I just crashed my laptop!” Lou held the power button down to reboot.

“What happened?”

“I was logging in to my secret network at home. It asked for biometric verification, so I scanned my thumb, and then it went boom.” Lou explained as she watched her laptop boot up normally.

Dillon quickly glanced over at her screen. “We’re hitting a jam up ahead. Hold on and let me watch so I can see if I know what’s going on.”

“Okay.” Lou waited until they were at a complete stop before she attempted to log in again. Just as before, she was prompted to scan her thumb. Again, she slid her thumb over the small slit in her laptop and once again, the screen flashed red then the computer turned off. “What the hell?”

“Call Frank?” He suggested, so Lou pulled out her phone and dialed. It went straight to voicemail. “Try Niko or Abby?”

“That’s weird. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten Frank’s voicemail before.” Lou stated as she pulled up Niko from her contacts and hit send. Straight to voicemail. “Seriously?” She called Abby and the same thing, straight to voicemail.