[B.S. #1] Tied Up in Knotts (20 page)

Chapter Twenty-One

James, Angel and Avery arrived back at the apartment and walked in to find the others sitting around the living room having a drink. Chase was among them, drinking his best Scotch.

“Hope you all made yourself comfortable and I hoped you left some Scotch for me?” Turning to his brother, he asked, “Did we adopt you? Why are you still here? Don’t you have an opera to go to?”

“No, James, you took my last opera tickets. Don’t you remember? I’m not leaving until I find out what was so interesting in that bank safety deposit box.” Chase just leaned back on the couch and sipped at James’s Scotch.

Avery, listening to their conversation, only picked up the last bit about the opera tickets. “They were your tickets? James told me he liked the opera. I’m sorry you missed it. It was great.”

Chase started to reply to Avery but Clay butted in trying to get them back on track.

“Can we discuss our leisure time later? Did you have a hard time getting away? We persuaded them not to follow us, well, Brad did, he easily picked off their front tires. Carlos is getting sloppy with his hired help.”

“Let’s get to the interesting part. Where’s the envelope? Did you open it?” Chase was eager to see what it contained.

“No, they didn’t look at it. They starting cuddling and both fell asleep almost as soon as the plane left the ground. So as soon as they were asleep, I took the envelope and opened it,” Angel told Chase.

James reached into his pocket and patted the envelope. “I still have it.”

“Come on, James, you were so comfortable smuggled with Avery. I just picked your pocket, be glad it was only me.” Angel’s black eyes twinkled as he looked at James frown.

James looked a little unbelieving at having his pocket picked so easily, he usually was so aware of his surroundings. He had never had anyone get the drop on him. “I had other things on my mind and knew you were watching, So, I felt safe and knew I didn’t have to keep my guard up. But don’t make a habit of it.” Pulling the envelope out of his pocket, James opened it and spilled its contents on the coffee table.

Looking up at Angel pouring himself a drink from the half bottle of Scotch, James finally asked him if he was going to tell them what he discovered. Or, did they need to go through the contents.

“Not much to tell yet, from what I could see. It contains some personal items that Avery would probably want. The one interesting item it contained was a small book with columns of numbers. I think some were latitude and longitude. My guess is that Avery’s father kept track of all Carlos’s operations. I really don’t know the extent of it, with the first quick glance, but I’m sure Grant can work his magic and decipher it. I think it was an insurance policy against Carlos.”

Grant pushed his glasses up more securely on his nose, then leaned forward, grabbing the small book amongst the other items scattered on the table.

Paging through the book, Grant looked up. “It looks like it has some kind of code written on some of its pages. Avery’s father knew what he was doing, looking at this.” Getting up, Grant strode to the door. “I’ll get on this right away. Thanks for the drink,” he said, closing the door behind him, his mind already wrapped up trying to solve the mystery the book contained

Avery listened to their conversation with great interest from James’s lap. He had pulled her down with him, when he finally sat down. Wiggling, she pushed out of James’s lap and knelt on the floor, beside the coffee table. Picking up the items one by one spread on the table, Avery told the guys without thought, “One good thing I can say about my father is that he always very detailed in everything he did. He made sure Mom and I never lacked for anything important, I just wished that that he made his money like other parents.” The box held her birth certificate, her parents’ marriage certificate and a folded-up share certificate. “What’s this?” Avery asked, pulling the certificate from among the other items and holding it up.

Unfolding it, Avery found that the shares belonged to a numbered company. The papers clipped to it, showed that it held a plot of land in Florida. She had never heard of the town that the land seemed to be part of. Turning to James she handed him the papers. “Look at this—Do you know where this is?”

Chase, who was sitting next to James, grabbed the papers before James could reach them. Opening it he looked at James. “Let me do my thing, I know land, money, stocks and bonds.” Chase whistled. “Wow if this is where I think it is, you might be a very rich little girl. This looks like it’s on the southern tip, where all the new development is going on. In fact some of my investment holdings are in the land down there. It’s worth a bundle.”

“OK, Chase. Now you’ve impressed us. Can you tell us what the hell you’re talking about?” James asked

“You must have heard about the reconstruction down in Florida. They’re doing a complete overhaul of the beach area, with new condos, shopping mall and a new casino. They’re buying up all the old cottages and stores for a new development. It’s to be a new playground for the rich and famous, very pricey when completed. It looks like Avery’s dad had a prime piece of real estate in the area. This could be worth millions.” Chase plopped the papers and share certificate down on the table.

Clay, who had been listening to Chase, jumped up. “That’s not the only thing this represents. I bet it’s where the drugs are hid. It makes sense. Think about it, the majority of Avery’s dad’s dealings were mostly in Florida. How the hell did the Feds miss this? It should have been discovered when Avery’s parents died.”

“That’s what so brilliant. It not in anyone’s name. It’s a numbered company, probably buried under other companies off shore. If I’m right, and I think I am, in the end we will find that one Avery Knotts owns the property, or is the trustee,” Chase added

“That does make sense,” James spoke up. “The Feds’ report I was shown only mentioned digging into the estate of Avery’s dad and mom. They probably didn’t look any further. Remember Avery was still living at home with her folks when it all went down. This plot of land being in a numbered company’s name wouldn’t have hit their radar.”

“Chase, do you think you can dig deeper into this for us? No one will suspect your firm looking into prime real estate. Find out the ownership of shares, if you can,” James asked, turning to Chase, a serious, thoughtful expression on his face.

“Sure, now you want my help.” Smiling, he put his glass of Scotch on the table and eagerly took his cell phone out of his pocket. Leaving his chair, he walking into the kitchen where they could hear him talking to his office.

“So, now we have to wait to hear from Grant and Chase. I want to know about the opera?” Avery persisted. “You took me on Chase’s tickets. I though you said Clay got them from a client and gave them to you. In fact, you said that Clay loved the opera.” Avery turned her body on the floor so she could see both James and Clay in one glance.

Clay blanched. Turning to James, Clay blasted him with, “Why did you tell her that? Couldn’t you think of a better lie? Does your brain always take a ride when she’s around?” Clay looked down at Avery. “I hate the opera and if James was truthful, he hates it, too. He just wanted you to change clothes and I guess that was the first thing that popped into his head.”

“Thanks for outing me, Clay. You talk about Angel, but you’re just as bad at putting things out there.” James was now pissed that Clay had turned it back around on him

Angel, who had been sitting quietly sipping his Scotch, raised his head when Avery glanced his way. “Keep me out of this, I like the opera. I like every kind of music.” He had only taken in part of their conversation, his thoughts were still wrapped up thinking about the book that they found in the safety deposit box. Angel seemed to go into his own little world when something was troubling him.

Avery turned the attention back to James. “What was so wrong with my outfit that you’d make up a lie to get me to change?”

“I thought you looked very pretty, I told James, too.” Clay grinned at James, just rubbing it in. He knew James would have a hard time explaining that he was so possessive, that he would only allow Avery to wear clothes that he approved of.

“Now Clay,” James spoke up without thinking. “I thought she looked great, but too great to go out and advertise it to all the sundry.”

“What do you mean, James?
Advertise
—I was just trying to get your attention.” Avery was now getting steamed.

“Oh, you got my attention and would have had every man’s attention if I would have allowed you to go out in that outfit.” Clay was now starting to laugh. James was just digging himself in deeper.

“Allow, Allow…Who the hell do you think you are? First I’m advertising and then you tell me you wouldn’t allow me to wear the outfit. Well I’ll have you know, I’ll wear that outfit anytime I want. You’re not my keeper.” Avery had now risen to her feet and stalked over to the bar.

“Sweetie, you don’t have to worry about wearing those clothes again. Did you forget, they burned in the fire? One of the good things that the fire did.” James innocently looked at her, like his speech wasn’t condescending and insulting to her. He thought he had every right to tell her what to do.

Avery now had a full head of steam from James’s words.

“You ass!” Picking up the bottle of Scotch, she walked over to James and poured it over his head, dropping the bottle on his lap.

“Let’s see if that will put out the overblown ego that you seem to have developed.” Turning, Avery stomped down the hall to the bedroom and slammed the door.

James just sat there and looked at Angel, Clay and Brad laughing their heads off with 12-year-old Scotch running down his face. Fuck! James raised his hands and wiped at his face.
You have to love a woman with a temper.
He knew he would have to do serious damage control with Avery, but Clay was his first concern. Glaring at Clay James barked, “This is all your fault. Couldn’t you just have kept that to yourself?”

“I didn’t want to be known as opera guy. I’ll leave that to you and Chase.” Clay just laughed at James’s pissed off expression.

James got up from his chair, putting the now empty bottle of Scotch on the table, his clothes soaked. He was starting in to berate his friend again when Chase walked in from the kitchen.

“What the hell happened to you? I know you don’t share well, but I thought that was just with the ladies, not your 12-year-old Scotch. Couldn’t drink it all, so you decided to have a bath in it instead. Well that’s a sure way to stop any party.”

Chase sat back down and picked up his glass of Scotch. “Well I’m going to enjoy my drink. For God sakes, James, go and change. Then I’ll tell you what I found out.”

James walked down the hall to his bedroom. Turning the knob, he found it locked.

“Avery, open up. I’ve had enough of your hissy fit. I want to change.”

“Go away, James. Why don’t you strip down and advertise? You seem to be the expert on it,” Avery said in a loud voice from the other side of the door.

James shook the handle. “Let me in, Avery, your ass is going to be red. And I can assure you this time, you won’t like it.”

Clay, hearing the exchange, wandered down the hall. “You’re really losing it, James.”

Pushing James aside, Clay pulled out his tools from his wallet and proceeded to unlock the door.” I would advise you to always have your set handy, if you’re going to take up with Avery. I can see you needing them in the future.” Clay spread the door open just in time to see Avery scramble into the bathroom and hear the lock click on that door.

“Leave her alone for a while, change and come out and we’ll find out what Angel is stewing about. He hasn’t said a word, but those black eyes of his are telling me he’s got something on his mind.” Clay turned and left James to change.

James looked toward the bathroom. He knew Clay was right, he wasn’t going to get anyplace with Avery right now, he didn’t have the time. Pulling jeans and a T-shirt out of the dresser, James dried himself off with another T-shirt he pulled out of the drawer and hastily changed. He didn’t want to miss Angel’s insight.

Arriving back at the living room dressed in dry clothes, he smelled like Scotch and really needed a shower, but that would have to wait. James found that Angel seemed to have all the guys’ attention. Clay was arguing with him.

“What did I miss?” James asked, sitting down and reaching for the new bottle of Scotch that Clay must have got from the bar.

Clay spoke up. “Angel just reminded us that we weren’t hired to recover the drugs. Just tell the Feds what we find and they would take it from there. I was explaining to him, that if we tell the Feds right now what we suspect, Avery will be implicated. I don’t think they will believe her word that she knew nothing about this property.”

James agreed, looking at Angel. It was strange for Angel to want the Feds in on what they were doing, before they had a chance to check things out thoroughly. He always went out of his way to avoid any government figure, since they had been left out to dry with their last army mission. It didn’t make sense to James. Turning to Angel with a puzzled expression he asked, “Why the change in thinking?”

Angel sat up from his slouch on the couch, his intense black eyes directed at James. “I have a bad feeling, this could be a trap and I would rather the Feds take the fall then us. As I see it, we did our job, Let them handle the shit this time.”

“But what about Avery? We can’t let her take the fall for her father. I think we can all agree now that we know her better, that she knew nothing about her father’s deals. If we lead the Feds to this place and it contains the drugs, we will be just asking for a jail sentence for her. I won’t have that. I’d rather take the fall myself than allow the Feds at her again.” James had a grim, no-nonsense look on his face, he was determined that Avery was not going to be the scapegoat.

Chase spoke up. “But what if we could make it look like she had nothing to do with this property, change the shares into someone else’s name? After all, Grant is having to dig deep to find anything. I say that we get Grant to do his magic and change the records. You know Grant can wipe out a trail or create one that no one would question. You’ve bragged enough times about his ability. I’ve heard you say he works the computer like a conductor with a twenty-piece orchestra. Well I say we let Grant conduct the Feds the way we want it to play out.”