Checkered Crime: A Laurel London Mystery (15 page)

Haphazardly I walked around the Phone Shop and thought about what Johnny had said about never being with a foster family or adopted. Granted I was bad, but that was in my later teen years, not the early years when I was cute and didn’t know better. What about all those families who wanted an infant? Why wasn’t I adopted then?

The questions burned in me, giving me heartburn…or some other disease I might have inherited. 5937 Briar Street rolled around in my head. I couldn’t help but think there had to be some sort of answer there. Some clue to my past.

Within a few minutes slick Johnny was back on the showroom floor with my new phone.

“Here you go.” He reached out with the phone in his grasp. Our hands touched. Heat gushed to my cheeks. “I’m serious about dinner, Laurel. A little bird did tell me you were using an online dating service.”

“Thanks.” I plucked the phone from his fingers, careful not to look into his eyes. “Damn Derek.”

I was going to kill him when I got my hands on him. Better yet, I would make sure I’d throw my beer on him when I met Bob for cocktails at Benny’s. Derek and Johnny were always grabbing a beer. From Bob’s picture, he looked like he could take Derek and Johnny down with one swing.

“I’ve got your number!” he hollered after me. “I’ll call you!”

“I’ll be sure to ignore you!” I yelled over my shoulder before I pushed the swinging door open and ran across the street to get back in the car.

“Check.” I looked down at the fancy phone before I threw it in my bag. “Next thing on the list,” I turned the car on, “go meet Jax Jackson and tell him I’m not doing it. There is no way I’m going to be part of the FBI or the mob.”

Chapter Fifteen

“Where have you been?” Jax asked when he jumped in the passenger seat.

“None of your business.” I stewed on Derek telling Johnny about my Lunch Date Dot Com activity. Now the entire town was going to know. Johnny Delgato could never keep a secret.

I flashed Louie the bird when I noticed him looking out of the little window from his perch. For a second I thought about getting out of the car and doing some sort dance on the hood like a prostitute, but he’d run and tell Sally who would immediately tell Trixie. So I just flipped him the double bird.

“I thought Trigger had gotten you.” He had taken the liberty to sit up front.

“Did I invite you to sit up front?” I asked.

“Um…,” Jax was at a loss for words. He changed the subject. “Where have you been?”

“First I had to take Derek to Nicoli Fabrizo’s
dead body
that was found on the side of River Road.” I emphasized dead body so he knew I wasn’t happy about the situation. I gripped the wheel. “Not far from where we found his finger.”

“Nicoli Fabrizo? Are you sure?” Jax’s mouth dropped.

Apparently the FBI wasn’t as up to date as Walnut Grove Police.

Marvin Gaye seductively sang
Let’s Get It On
from my bag.

“What the hell is that?”

“Ugh.” I grabbed my bag and pulled out the new phone. There was a text message from Johnny.

Johnny: Not kidding about dinner. Text me! Hey…did I hear you were prostituting now?

“Stop looking at your phone.” Jax grabbed it out of my hands. “Who’s Johnny and when did you get a phone? Prostitute?”

“None of your business, none of your business, and none of your business.” I snatched it back and put it under my thigh. I proceeded down Main Street and kept going.

“I thought we were going to grab a bite to eat and talk about Trigger.” Jax pointed to The Cracked Egg when I zoomed by.

“We need to talk.” I took a right on Oak Street and turned left into the Lucky Strikes parking lot next to the Food Town. I put the car in park and turned in my seat. “After seeing that dead body today, I can’t say I’m in any way shape or form ready to do this. I’m stressed. My stomach hearts, I have heartburn and I’m not sleeping. And I don’t want to do this.”

“That’s a shame Laurel. It really is.” Jax Jackson’s mouth pinched in the corners. “I guess I’m going to have to have you arrested on aiding and abetting the mob in a federal investigation.”

He reached around and pulled out his phone. I watched, sure he was trying to bait me.

“I guess I’ll call my boss.” He tapped his finger on the phone.

“Wait!” Okay so I took the bait. Plus hurting Trixie wasn’t on my list of to-dos if he did call the FBI. “I haven’t helped them.”

“How did you pay for that new phone?” he asked. Silence fell between us. “Thought so.”

“So I borrowed a few dollars from the stack.” I quipped trying to come up with a better answer.

“Blood money. You used blood money.” He used his finger to hen-peck on his phone. He held it up to show me he had dialed a number. “Before I do this, you are sure you don’t want to help out?”

I bit the edge of my lip.

“I need an answer Laurel,” he demanded.

Fatigue oozed from every single pore in my body. I didn’t have it in me to fight the FBI or the mob. It settled in my soul that I was far too deep into this and I didn’t have a choice.

“What do I have to do?” I asked with my eyes fixed on the hood of the car.

“Since Nicoli is dead, there has to be another one of Trigger’s people here.” Jax looked irritated. His fingers fidgeted with a loose string on the side hem of his khakis. “You are going to have to go undercover.”

“That sounded like fun a couple of days ago.”

“What changed?”

I held my pointer finger up in the air. “Oh, I don’t know.” I swallowed hard, lifted my chin and looked at him. “Finding Nicoli’s cold, dead body minus his finger might have something to do with it.”

“I’m not going to let that happen to you.” He reached over and put his hand on mine. “The FBI won’t let that happen to you.”

“I’m already undercover as a taxi driver. And I think I did good covering up who Trigger was when Derek came up to the car and saw Trigger in the back.”

“What?” Jax shook his head in an animated gesture. “Derek saw Trigger in your car?”

“Trigger wanted to go to church and when I tried to drop him off in front of Friendship Baptist in the square, Derek was on the sidewalk. Only Trigger wanted a Catholic church to forgive him for thoughts of killing his side piece.”

“Side piece? You mean he wanted to be forgiven for killing Nicoli? Did he say that?” Excitement poured out of Jax. Obviously he thought I had something good.

“No, he said he has a side piece, mistress and had thoughts of killing her but he got mad when I asked him what she did. And when he saw Derek in his uniform, it didn’t go over well. Plus Derek mentioned finding Nicoli’s body.”

“Gee.” Jax ran his hands through his hair. “We better step up our game.”

“What exactly are you looking for? What is it that the FBI thinks is happening here?” It was a question I hadn’t even thought about.

“This is top secret and if you ever tell anyone, I will have to deny ever knowing you or ever trying to help you. Do you understand?” His dark eyebrows slanted in a frown.

Slowly I nodded my head.

The corner of his lips turned down. There was a sadness in his voice, “My partner and I got a tip that he was going to run arms through his family’s poultry farm which was a great plan since they have trucks going in and out of there. We had been watching him for years and we finally got a tip.” Jax put his elbow up on the window and rested his chin on his fist. He looked out the window like he was replaying the scene in his head like a movie. “Somehow Trigger found out and they killed him.”

“Then why isn’t he behind bars?” Seemed like a very valid question.

“That’s not how it works Laurel. When you are dealing with the mob, they get things done and covered up. You can’t trust anyone. Not even all FBI agents.” His warning chilled me to the core.

“But we are trained to trust the law and those who enforce it.”

“Yeah, well.” He rubbed his finger and thumb together. “Money shuts people up. Some of the cops could really use a million dollars.”

“A million dollars?” For a brief moment I felt like kicking Jax out of my car and rushing to Trigger’s side. I could do a lot of damage with a million dollars.

“A million dollars to kill one of our own?” Jax shook his head back and forth.

“If your partner was killed at the poultry farm, it would be reasonable to say that Trigger or someone associated with Trigger did it.” Another great question left my mouth. I was feeling a little smarter in the sleuthing department.

“It wasn’t on the property.” He bit his lip like he was biting back tears. “We were on our way in an unmarked truck, posing as a vendor there to pick up the left-over carcasses. We turned on a street a few blocks from the farm. I saw him. I saw the sniper sitting on the over pass, but Lance didn’t want to listen. I screamed at him to turn around.” His voice cracked. “He had a look in his eyes that I knew he meant business. He just kept going. The sniper got him right in the middle of the eyes. Instant death,” his voice trailed off.

I reached over and put my hand on his thigh. There was a slight jump from him but he didn’t look at me.

“I’m sorry. I really am, but aren’t they watching you?”

“Nope. The FBI told everyone I was on leave because I wasn’t able to handle Rod’s death.” He looked down at my hand, then his eyes slid to my face. Our eyes locked. “Only I didn’t take a leave of absence. I’m working undercover. Following these scumbags wherever they go. Unfortunately that wherever is right here, Walnut Grove, Kentucky.”

I pulled my hand away.

He continued, “It’s strange they are here. They are bringing more attention to themselves being in a small town, so I have to think he is here on something that is entirely not related to the guns.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” He rubbed his chin. He glanced over at me. He looked tired, like he hadn’t been sleeping. “There is something in Walnut Grove that he wants. And it’s not the idea of running illegal weapons through the music festival. That is just a bonus for him.”

“How do you know this?” To me all the illegal stuff sounded good. It seemed logical if Trigger wanted to use the river and the warehouse to store his illegal weapons, only and if only Morty was part of it.

I gulped, wondering if Morty knew it was going down right in front of him, but I didn’t say it out loud to Jax. Sure I was pissed off at Morty firing me for bogus reasons, but I didn’t dislike the guy. Was Morty in on this whole thing with Trigger? Was Trigger going to Porty Morty’s when I dropped him off? Gia never said anything about Carmine seeing Trigger. Only the chopstick girl.

“What can I do for you? I need to know.” I needed to know for the sake of Morty and Walnut Grove. Instantly I knew I was going to have to make a stop at Porty Morty’s. I would come up with some good reason to be there. Maybe see if he’d changed his mind about my job.

“I need a break in his activity.”

“What do you mean?”

“All he has been doing is going from the hotel to the docks and back. You taking him back and forth. The FBI doesn’t want to tip them off that I’m here, so they are letting Walnut Grove take the lead on the identification of Nicoli Fabrizo.”

“That doesn’t make sense.” I knew I wasn’t a super sleuth, but it seemed the FBI would be swarming the place, checking for evidence, fingerprints.

“Perfect sense.” He looked at me like I was stupid. “If he knew we were here, he’d move the operation. I swear he’s planning on using the music festival to smuggle arms.”

“The Underworld Music Festival?” I pretended like I hadn’t already thought of that. My heart sank. Was I right?

This wasn’t helping me take my reputation on the up and up. It seemed I was making an ever bigger, worse name for myself. I could see it now: Laurel London brought the mob to the small town of Walnut Grove, Kentucky.

“Yeah,” he snorted. “Your little note you left at the main office in New York got in his hands and he was all over this little secluded area of the country where no one would ever suspect an illegal arms cartel.”

I tried to swallow the ball that had just lodged in my throat. “The contest sounded great for an economy boost.”

“One of Trigger’s many companies is involved with the Underworld Music Festival’s advertising. As a matter of fact,” He clicked around on his phone. He showed me a picture of a woman with chopsticks in her hair. It had to be the same woman Carmine was talking about. “This is the woman who runs the advertising agency the Underworld Music Festival is using.”

“Chopsticks!” I shouted. “Chopsticks has been at Porty Morty’s.”

“You’ve seen her? This woman here?” He jabbed the glass screen on his phone.

“No, but Gia’s husband Carmine has.” My eyes were wide open. “She said that he said a woman who wore chopsticks in her hair, claiming to work with the Underworld Music Festival, is at Porty Morty’s working on bringing the festival to Walnut Grove. She’s been there twice in the last couple of days.”

“Hmm…,” Jax bit his lip. “She does own the publicity company for the Underworld Music Festival which is all tied back to the Cardozza family business. But is she working with Trigger to make sure it’s here so they can smuggle the arms? That is the question. We need to find out if there is any shipping coming through trucks or boats.”

Images of the two white Styrofoam boxes Nicoli had handed Morty popped into my head. Were those filled with firearms? Illegal firearms?

 “Wait.” His urgent voice made me come out of my thoughts. “He told you to pick him up at five which means you can go snoop around the hotel for a bit. See if they know the identification of the woman with the chopsticks in her hair.”

“Go!” He interrupted and jabbed his finger toward the windshield. “We don’t have a lot of time between now and five. You have to find out anything you can. I have a feeling his men are moving in and he isn’t going to need you as much.”

“But I have to tell
—
” I tried to tell him about the boxes I had seen Nicoli give Morty. Maybe it was a lead. Only he refused to listen. He ordered me to step on it, furiously writing something down in that damn notebook of his.