Shadows May Fall (6 page)

“Hey!” Dillon appeared out of nowhere. “I got the discs and the guest list.”

“Good.” Lou stood up and moved back to the doorway. “While you do your thing in here, I’m gonna take a walk around the place, see what I can see.”

“Okay, I’ll come and find you once I finish my notes.” Dillon headed in but stopped short. “Hey Lou.”

“Yeah?” Lou stopped before she got out the door.

“Did you check the fireplace out on the patio?” He was staring out through the glass doors.

“No, as a matter of fact, I didn’t.” She headed out right behind him as they went to check the fireplace. It was a good call on his part and she was surprised she hadn’t checked it herself. The fireplace was gas with fake logs but something had definitely been burned in it. There were small streaked piles of ash on the bottom as if they had just been scooped out. “They took the ashes with them?”

“Looks like.” Dillon a made note in his book. “Someone was meticulous.”

“You got that right.” She wondered what exactly they burned. Towels? Papers? One could only guess and she had little hope forensics would be able to tell them but they had to try.

While Dillon went over the place himself, Lou added the fireplace to the Crime Lab’s list then headed out to survey the property. If it was a woman they were looking for, she came prettied up. That meant high heals and that meant she sure as hell didn’t trek through the terrain in the dark. The moon was waning but still closer to full than dark, however the coastal fog was thick, blotting out most of the light. The manager said that Griffen had paid well for discretion and he sure as hell couldn’t have been the only guest to do so. Staff probably made a point of not noticing the comings and goings of guests at night and in this light, who would know the difference between a guest and a visitor? Lou walked the path back to the parking lot then back again, looking for any cameras that might give them a glimpse of anyone walking by. There was only one that might be helpful and she knew that Dillon already had all the footage. She made her way down the path on the parking lot side of the bungalows, no guests would have noticed anyone walking by, even if there were any guests. The other bungalows were vacant for the most part. Even at the opposite end, Lou doubted anyone would have noticed a lone woman taking a walk, and it was really dark. The minimal lighting the resort had installed was directed primarily to the pathway. It gave little illumination to the surroundings. As she rounded the corner to head back to the bungalow, Dillon appeared once again, out of nowhere.

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph!” Lou exclaimed. “You keep doing that and you’re gonna wind up with a bullet in your nose!”

Dillon laughed. “Sorry. I wanted to tell you the coroner is here. They’re waiting until you get back to move the body.”

“Right, okay, let’s go.”

It was good and dark by the time Max and Frank got back the
McAllister home. Frank popped in to the main house to tell Marta they were back but Max could tell Lou wasn’t there. He could sense it. Instead of heading straight to the guest house, Max took a detour up her balcony steps and was greeted by the puppies. He squeezed in the gate and sat down on the ground to give them the attention they were begging for. It didn’t matter he was wearing a six-thousand dollar suit, they were his puppies! He had given them to Lou as a birthday present but he loved them too. It was difficult figuring out what to get her. Sure, he named the park after her, but it was more for him. His private declaration of her importance. A swath of land should have been named after her and he had full intentions of making sure it was as beautiful as she. Lou assumed he used her name because it was the most flowery name he could think of. Also, because she was the nature activist in the neighborhood that would give him the most grief over his building there. She was wrong though. He did it because he adored her. How could she not realize by now? Of course he said nothing, nor even hinted of his affections, to do so would have been improper. Gentlemen didn’t do such things. Then the puppies, she had to have seen they were a pure gesture of his affection, shouldn’t she? It was nonsense. He needed to stop thinking and acing like a love-struck... Puppy. He had work to do.

“I thought I might find you here.” Frank was standing behind the gate. “Marta said Lou and Dillon got called out, but she was here earlier to change and grab some Red Bull.”

“And you find it necessary for me to have this information, why?” Max realized that Frank and the rest of them knew about his feelings for Lou. They all encouraged him to act on it without coming out and saying so. They knew better.

“Because I see you worry.” Frank remembered all too well, when Albert, their rogue, had taken Lou. He remembered seeing Max both distraught and full of rage. Frank watched day after day after Max rescued her, sitting at her bedside while she lay in a coma. He knew Max loved her and that made Lou the most important thing in the universe to them all. Protecting Max’s love, well, it was everything.

“She is perfectly capable of taking care of herself.” Max insisted.

“Sure she is, especially in the morning, or when she eats Abby’s pancakes.” Frank reminded him of a few minor mishaps that resulted in Lou’s injury. “Or when she’s ambushed in a dark stairwell by a psychopath Bloodborn, or a psychotic elder with an ancient grudge against you.” Frank reference their rogue and more recently the Sanguinostri Bloodborn from South Africa that was involved in the major blood smuggling operation Lou stumbled upon. They had only begun to get to the bottom of the situation and had no idea how far or wide it spread. That was part of the reason for the meeting this weekend between all the Principates.

“All right, all right!” Max grumbled. “You’ve made your point.”

“Marta made dinner for all of us.” Frank switched subjects quickly. “Abby is five minutes out and the guys are cleaning up then heading over. You gonna wash up before we eat?”

“We’re not waiting for Lou?” Max thought eating without her would be wrong.

“I texted Dillon to find out when they’re due back.” Frank checked his phone. “No answer yet.”

“Well, ask Marta to hold dinner as long as she can. It seems wrong we break bread under somebody’s roof without them there.” Max gave each of the puppies a kiss before getting up and heading to the guest house. He expected Frank understood his courtesy over dinner was not that simple, but Frank new better than to push that envelope any more than he already had. Frank stepped in the gate and headed in the house through Lou’s room, the two puppies scrambling after his heals. There was a twinge in Max’s chest watching Frank just walk through Lou’s quarters so casually. That was sacred space. Sure it had become a regular congregating ground for the gang over the past week, but it felt wrong to him. Perhaps he was far too old fashioned. A hazard of his age, he supposed. He dismissed his angst and headed back down the stairs and across the grounds to the guest house. Max hoped Lou would make it back in time for dinner. He hadn’t laid eyes on her in two days. Funny how two days would suddenly seem like an eternity to him. So many things felt different to him though. So many things.

It was after
eight by the time they finished and the body of Gerald Griffen was headed to the morgue. They sent one of the lower ranked coroners to the scene but he had done a thorough job in Lou’s estimation. It would be Caroline, however, who would perform the autopsy but that was not going to happen until tomorrow at the earliest. Nothing new had been gleaned from the body at the scene, except the coroner had agreed with Lou’s preliminary time of death. Again, nothing would be known for certain until a formal autopsy could be conducted. As for notification of next of kin, well that was tricky. Griffen was an only child of two only children and both of his parents died several years ago. Griffen’s wife, however, currently could be found floating somewhere in the South pacific. It was going to take some time for the cruise line to locate what ship she was on, then get in contact with it. Vinny figured they had a solid six hours before she would be notified by the ship’s captain, another hour for her to stop freaking out and get off the ship. Another six hours or so of flight time, so the widow Griffen wouldn’t be back in L.A. before noon at best. He ordered Lou and Dillon to take some down time and get back on it in the morning. Dillon suspected Mrs. Griffen wouldn’t be too broken up about her husband’s death. The fact that she had been on a Caribbean cruise without him, and he had been sneaking around behind her back for years, it didn’t make for marital bliss in Dillon’s book. Lou tended to agree with him but she was just glad they didn’t have to make the notification themselves. She would remember to toast the captain of the ship when they got home.

Thankfully, traffic had been light once they made it to the freeway and they were just about to make their way through the Sepulveda pass when Dillon’s SUV announced he had received a text message from Frank.

“Whoa that thing reads your messages for you?” Lou was fascinated by the not-so-new technology.

“Lou, we gotta get you a new car.” Dillon informed her then spoke the commands for replying to the text.

“There is nothing wrong with my car.” She was insulted. Granted, she had the thing since she moved back from Texas but it served her purposes. Besides, she really hadn’t driven it all that much. Her time on patrol used the cruisers, then her partners were always the designated drivers. Lou would take the train to work most days, leaving her car at the depot. As she thought about it, she had to admit the poor little hatch-back was a little oxidized from sitting out in the sun for days on end. She wasn’t even sure they made hatch-backs anymore.

“Lou, what the hell do you spend your money on, anyway?” Dillon was actually curious. She didn’t pay rent, her car was over a decade old, she wasn’t a clothes and shoe addict like Caroline and she sure didn’t take any vacation time from what he knew.

“I save it. I give some to charity and animal rescues, but mostly I just stuff it in my mattress.” She gave him a sarcastic grin.

“Seriously. You are no spoiled rich kid, that’s for sure.” Dillon knew every aspect of Lou’s history. He studied her before he ever laid eyes on her. Lou’s mother and father were the epitome of working class. Sheriff’s didn’t exactly rake in the dough and her mother’s survivor benefits after his death barely covered rent and utilities. Shevaun worked as a secretary to make ends meet but even after she married Joe, who Lou was sure had to be richer than God, they never led an extravagant life. For all intent’s and purposes, their home in Galveston had been slightly upper class at best and Lou got her first job at fourteen cleaning up at the Galveston Sea Turtle Facility. There was a strong work ethic in the genes and Lou’s step-father just reinforced that with his modest lifestyle. Shevaun was never one for diamonds and jewels, nor did she feel the need to travel around the world in posh style. Family was her treasure, and that was one of the things Joe loved about her the most. Later on in life, Joe began spoiling her with a pair of ruby earrings tucked in her slippers, a diamond ring plopped in a jar of her night cream. Her reaction to these surprises became addicting to Joe, so it had become a game for him to out-do himself whenever an opportunity presented itself. Once he asked her to fly down and meet him in Galveston during some sort of business negotiation. It was about an hour into the flight that Shevaun realized they were not headed to Texas. Joe was having her flown to paris where he would be waiting for her. The cabin crew were under strict orders not to spoil the surprise but when Shevaun began pounding on the door of the cockpit with her boot, they were forced to tell her. Shevaun felt terrible about ruining the surprise but they all agreed to keep it to themselves and not let on to Joe. She would act utterly surprised. The woman should have gotten an Oscar for that performance. That was when she learned she would keep her mouth shut in the future and let Joe have his fun.

As they pulled up the drive just after nine, the McAllister house was all lit up and the driveway was once again full of cars. As exhausted as she was, Lou was eager to see everyone after her long and bloody day. She insisted that Dillon stay and get something to eat and when they made it inside and to the kitchen, the horde had descended and was just sitting down to eat.

“It’s about time!” Abby shouted. “We were going to start without you!”

“Sorry guys.” Lou grinned and headed straight for her mother, then Joe to give them hugs and kisses welcoming them home. “How was your trip?” She asked them.

“Well it sure as hell wasn’t Oklahoma, like he said.” Shevaun winked at her husband.

“Oh?” This was news to Lou. She suspected Joe had stopped telling her his secret plans since she spilled the beans to her mother a few times, spoiling things.

“Nope!” Joe grinned as he sat and started shoveling mashed potatoes onto his plate. “I took her to the opera in New York. Then we did a little shopping and had brunch at the Waldorf Astoria.”

“Wow!” Lou found herself highly impressed and there were ooh’s and ahh’s of approval from the peanut gallery.

“Manon?” Max asked.

“Yes!” Shevaun was clearly thrilled but not surprised that he knew which opera.

“That’s a most enjoyable performance, did you find it so?” He asked her.

“Well I am not sure what the hell anyone said, but I enjoyed it!” She stretched her arm across the table to clink glasses with him. “Here’s to opera!”

“To the opera.” Max smiled and tapped his glass to hers.

“I’m gonna run up and change before I eat. Don’t wait for me though.” Lou headed for the stairs.

“Actually, could I bum something from you, Frank?” Dillon asked. “I don’t think anyone will appreciate sitting next to me with the stink of decomp fused to my clothes.”

“Ugh!” Abby stopped preparing her plate. “Thank you for that appetizer!”

“Sure!” Frank chuckled. “Just go on up and take what you need.”

“Thanks.” Dillon charged up after Lou and despite her request they not wait, none of them could pick up their utensils until they got back.

“You think she’s doing okay?” Max asked Niko who sat staring at the swirling wine in his glass like he was on an acid trip.

“Yeah, she’s fine.” He looked up and met Max’s concerned gaze. “I’m sure she’s beat right now though. They’ve been working almost non-stop since Thursday and she’s using any spare moment in between to study and train. It’s making me tired just watching her.”

“Anyone know anything about the case they caught tonight?” Max inquired.

“No but I can put a call in to Davidson.” Frank got up from the table and started dialing his phone. “Caroline might know too.”

“Find out what you can.” Max requested. “As much as I loathe to interfere, perhaps we can toss a little help in her direction, lighten the load a bit. I don’t want her to be frazzled by the time the weekend comes. She’s going to be nervous as is.”

“Can’t you postpone that a week or two, Max?” Shevaun asked, worried as well.

“I wish that I could.” He already tried to figure how to put the meeting with the other Principates off until Lou had her feet on solid ground. They could not delay in getting to the bottom of the illegal blood smuggling operation Lou uncovered. “We simply don’t have the luxury of time right now.”

Shevaun knew they were dealing with an untenable situation. Max and his people needed to act swiftly and fiercely. The blood smuggling operation was a mortal offense to their people. While the offenders they had caught thus far had been summarily dealt with in the harshest of terms, there were more out there that had to be stopped. The Cuban operation that Niko and the rest of the Aegis had dismantled, by way of a few strategically placed bundles of explosives, was surely not the only production facility. An analysis of the bottled blood that Lou discovered turned up clear cut evidence that a good portion of those bottles had come from Russian, Danish, French, Italian and Scottish victims. There were other nationalities detected via DNA testing but trace analysis of the bottles and labels indicated the materials had been from various European regions, not Cuba. With the embargo on Cuba, it was relatively easy to sort through their materials since resources for such an operation were limited. It was both Niko and Max’s fear that Cuba was going to be the smallest operation they would encounter.