Fashionably Late (For My Funeral) Pt. 04

"You two are getting married? What does the studio have to say about that?"

"What can they say, they don't own my contract and they certainly don't own me."

"That's great news. I bet this lug hasn't gotten around to asking you yet."

"You'd win that bet. We've talked about quite a lot and have reached agreement as to where and when it will happen, but he hasn't actually asked me yet."

'Darling," I got down onto my knees in front of her in a dramatic gesture. "Would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

"Oh, I'll think about it." (Pregnant pause) Of course I will, stupid." We kissed, and kissed, and kissed.

"Alright you two, time for dinner."

Dinner was great, the food was spectacular, the wine excellent and the conversations, there always seemed to be at least two conversations running simultaneously, were interesting and they didn't touch on our mission at all. It was a very pleasant, relaxing evening and one that took everyone's mind off the problem at hand.

The next day, after recovering from the surfeit of the night before, both culinary and physical, the problem returned with a vengeance.

15

Leaving Sendi stretching and purring like some contented cat, I walked out of the front door of our hotel. The doorman held the door for me, "Car sir?"

"No Henry, I feel so great today that I think I'll take a walk."

"We had a good night did we sir?"

"I don't know about you, I certainly did." I headed in the direction of the 5th Precinct. It was a great day, apart from the smog haze that was settling onto the road causing a dryness in my throat. For the first time in a long while I looked around me and took notice of my surroundings.

The frenetic bustle of the early morning peak hour had passed and the later rush of business was in full swing. Delivery trucks delivered, cabs scurried around like yellow beetles, darting here and there, picking up and setting down passengers. Private cars of all shapes and sizes cruised by, private cars with owner drivers looking for a parking space near to their destination, limos looking for the most effective place to set down their wealthy passengers.

Shoppers stopped, shoppers shopped, packages carried to waiting cars. The wealthy were out and about displaying their wealth for the plebeians to envy. I mustn't have been one of the plebes, I hope that's the right word, my spell checker has failed to recognize it, because I didn't envy them their wealth. I had wealth beyond money. I'm going to have to give this up, I'm starting to get philosophical.

As I walked along the street I became aware that, while I was interested in other people and their foibles, I was the object of someone else's interest. I had seen in the movies how the hero who wanted to shake a tail was able to walk into a shop through the front door and exit through the rear, thereby losing the tail. It doesn't work that way in real life, none of the stores that I went into would allow me to leave through the back door.

I had just about given up on losing my follower when a large, black, shiny limo pulled into the kerb beside me. The rear window hissed down and from the depths of the car issued a cloud of cigar smoke and a gravelly voice. "Mr. Feldham, you have caused us some grief in the past and I'm pleased to say that you have eased that grief. Our business transactions are about to go ahead and when they are completed we will be happy to return the money that you so kindly loaned us, with a substantial interest of course. There is however one condition on the return of the money and that is that you take no further interest in the business transactions. If you do we will be forced to retain your investment as a form of penalty for your failure to comply with our investment terms. Do I make myself clear?"

"What do you mean?" I hadn't been invited to join him in the limo, I would probably have declined because I don't like the smell of cigars, not even expensive Havanas, so I stood at the kerb looking at the occasional red glow from the cigar tip and the smoke haze that obscured his face through the window.

"I am aware that you have expressed objections to the use of your money in these transactions, and I am aware that you have expressed those objections to the police. I am aware that the police officer in question has tried on a number of occasions to interest the DA in pursuing these matters, without success I might add. I feel that it is in your best interests to forget all about what is about to happen. I'm sure that you are aware of what can happen to people who don't do the right thing when dealing with us."

"I think so. I seem to remember that some people of my acquaintance met an untimely end because of me not doing the right thing."

"The man yes, he was no longer trustworthy. The woman was irrelevant but she was punished because she was involved with the man, we regretted having to do it but he didn't leave us with any alternative."

"You've made your point."

"Good. My accountant will contact you to arrange for the transfer of funds back to you." With that the window hissed up and the limo purred away.

As I walked away from the meeting I had visions of what had happened to Melissa and James, and Sendi's beautiful face kept appearing in place of Melissa's. The men meant business. I meant business. I surprised even myself with the clear resolve that emerged. I was going to bring these people down, how I didn't know exactly, but they were down.

Ruiz didn't look all that bright when I walked into his office. "Hard night?"

"It didn't end when you left." He looked in disgust at the coffee that had gotten cold in the bottom of his mug. "Phoebe made me do the dishes and I'm going out later today to buy a dishwasher. Then when I got to bed I found that she was ready for more action. She was insatiable, and a pregnant woman at that."

"I remember reading somewhere that pregnancy can increase a woman's libido. At least in certain cases that is."

"This is one of them."

"Listen, I have just had the most amazing conversation with a person in a limo. I could only just make out his face but I'm sure that I could recognize him if I saw him again. He smoked this huge cigar and when he was putting it in his mouth I saw the most enormous pinkie ring that I have ever seen."

"One problem with that is that we can't get a positive ID on a ring, anyone could put on a ring and smoke a cigar. It won't hold up."

"Any way, what he said to me was interesting. He promised me that I would have my money plus interest soon but only on the condition that I don't rock the boat. He as much as admitted that he was responsible for the deaths of James and Melissa and that a similar fate awaited me and Sendi if I persisted."

"But it's not your money."

"He isn't to know that. Now if the shipment is due to arrive soon we will need to be prepared for it. We have to have evidence of the money changing hands and we have to follow the people that have the cocaine so that we can arrest them in possession of it. We have to keep an eye out for the DEA and Customs links. If we are lucky they will be paid with the marked money and if that is the case we will be able to arrest them as well, if not we can still arrest them but it will be harder to make the charges stick."

"You've really gotten carried away with this. Look when you say we you mean me. You're out of this, it's not one of your books where the hero co-operates with the police and gets a pat on the back from the Commissioner at the end of it. This doesn't work that way. The last thing that we want is for some well meaning amateur getting in the way of our investigation."

"What investigation! You have your hands tied on this one. I, at least, have the opportunity and the time to work outside the confines of the legalities that are stopping you, I don't have to break the law to do this, I can get the evidence that you need to prosecute."

"I can't ask you to do this."

"You can't stop me, especially if I don't break the law in the process."

"If, and this is a big if, I give you permission to do this you will have no official status, if something goes wrong don't come running to me to bail you out. All that I ask, in an unofficial capacity, is for you to keep me informed of what you're doing and what evidence you've uncovered."

"I would ask for nothing more than that."

"I think it will be best if this whole investigation has no official status. My boss has been pressured from above to drop the whole thing. It seems as if the Commissioner has been copping it from the DA's office about the wasting of public money on investigating something that won't see the inside of the courtroom. I think that what they don't know won't hurt them so I'll keep it all quiet until we have enough to work with."

"Another thing, Sendi is to be taken right away from this. It is too dangerous for her. One thing that I haven't told you and that is the forensic report on Melissa showed that she had been raped by someone who wasn't James. There were signs of forcible sexual penetration, there was considerable bruising in the vaginal area and traces of semen that didn't belong to James. If it was who I think it was, he works for Costanzo. It has been rumored that he has never been able to put it all the way into a woman and even Guido's whores don't want anything to do with him. You know that joke about the guy who won $500 by flashing his dick and making the donkey cry, well this guy would make the guy who made the donkey cry sob in his beer. She would have been stretched to the limit and in considerable pain while this was happening. I don't think that you would want Sendi placed in the position where she could be subjected to similar treatment, would you?"

"No, but how will I convince her of that. She has flatly refused to leave me in the past and I don't see any reason for her to change her mind."

"Would you get her to come down here. I think I might be able to convince her that she shouldn't be around here. Phoebe can help."

I rang Sendi and asked her to come down to the precinct. Ruiz rang Phoebe and asked her to come down as well. When all four of us were settled around the desk drinking coffee Ruiz started. "Sendi, I have sort of given permission for Jason to continue his work on this case on one condition, and that is that you should leave New York and return to Hollywood. If you are not prepared to do that both of you are out of this as of now."

"No!" She turned to me. "How could you do this to me? Haven't I already been of assistance? I don't want to leave you for any reason, where you go I go, do you understand that?"

"I understand that, but the answer is still no and that's final."

"I can't and I won't do it. You can't make me. If he's allowed to stay I am staying with him."

"I've always wanted to say this, Sendi, read my lips, the answer is 'no', now what part of that word don't you understand?"

"Honey let me." Phoebe cut into the conversation. She stood up and crossed to the desk, she turned the desk lamp around so that the light shone upwards. Placing her face close to the light she said to Sendi, "Have a close look at this. Now when I put my makeup on in the morning I'm faced with this mess. If you look closely you can see the scars. Do you want your face to look like this. It would be the end of your career."

'That doesn't bother me at all. My career will be finishing as soon as Jason and I get married, I will have everything I need then, so my looks are no longer a consideration. You can't use that argument on me."

"There is one other argument that may get you to change your mind." Ruiz took from his desk drawer a file, he handed it over to Sendi. "That is the forensic report on Melissa, Jason hasn't even seen it, but I've summarized it for him and that has forced him to rethink your involvement. I want you to read it. I also want you to look at the photographs in particular those taken during the autopsy. The Pathologist clipped the hair from the vaginal region so that he could get some close up shots of the extent of the bruising caused during the brutal rape."

Sendi's mind changed along with the color of her face. "The bastards." Her voice was a whisper. "How could they do that?"

"They hold little respect for the value of human life, especially when that life is connected with someone who has wronged them. You got a small taste of that yourself and lucky for you the hoods in LA are a little better than those here. These guys don't think twice."

"I think that I'm going to be sick, where's the bathroom?"

"I'll come with you." Phoebe followed her as she rushed from the office.

"That was a bit rough wasn't it?"

"Not as rough as they would get with her if she stayed around here, I think that she will go."

An ashen faced Sendi came back into the office leaning on Phoebe's arm. "I think I get the message that you want me out of the way. I'm inclined to agree with you but that isn't to say that I like the situation because believe me I don't. I don't want Jason here either. I feel that if I am to be removed from danger he should as well."

"We have had a long discussion about that this morning. Jason will be able to help us in a way that we can't help ourselves. He'll be able to do things that we can't and go places that we aren't able to go."

"Oh you've discussed this without me have you?"

"Look, don't blame Jason for this, I tried to get him to drop right out of this but he came up with this solution and I have to agree that it's our one chance of getting the bad guys. What also happened this morning was that he had a conversation with the big bad guy who wants him out of it. He made several threats that only served to harden his resolve to bring these men to justice."

"Can you leave us alone for a few minutes?" Sendi asked Ruiz and Phoebe. They complied with this request and left the office.

Sendi came over to where I was standing, placed her arms around my neck and pulled my face to hers, there were tears in her eyes, "Darling, I love you so much it hurts. It hurts even more to leave you here in danger. I know that you are only thinking about my safety and I love your for that, I don't love you for wanting to get me away from here, but I understand your reasons, and love you for that as well. If this sounds confused to you that's because I'm confused, and my emotions are confused. Now don't say anything."

I was about to say something, I don't know what. My mouth opened and shut without a sound coming from it.

"I'll go, I'm not happy about going. This will probably be the saddest day of my life. I wasn't even this sad when I buried my parents, I most certainly wasn't this sad saying goodbye to any previous boyfriends. Remember this, I love you and I won't be happy until we are back together, even if that is in the afterlife. Now you take very good care of yourself, and if you let anything happen that keeps us apart any longer than possible, I'll never forgive you, I'll probably kill you." Her light laugh at her attempt at humor hurt me. She kissed me with a hard passion that I'd never experienced before, "I'll see you at our house when this is over." She turned and quickly left me standing, staring after her, in Ruiz' office.

***

Sendi had left the hotel by the time I got back late in the afternoon. She left me a long letter in which she poured her heart out to me and let me know in no uncertain terms what she would do to me if I got myself killed pursuing this investigation. She said that she would wait at our house for as long as it took to finish the business. Her closing made me have some doubts about my actions but then she gave me her total support and I felt better.

I had been busy. I leased a small office in a seedy block opposite that of Costanzo's accountant Paulo Prinzi. In this office I set up my camera on a huge tripod and with an even huger telephoto lens that could take full head shot at one hundred feet. I also bought from one of those stores that specialize in electronic gadgets, a directional microphone that the sales clerk assured me could pick up a fly farting at fifty feet. When I plugged it into my recorder and played back the resultant tape I had no reason to doubt his assertion.

I was prepared to wait, and wait I did until Paulo went home for the night. At least I thought that he went home for the night but it turned out that he went to Costanzo's bar. He spent some time in the office before leaving and, this time, going home to his lonely apartment and his collection of interesting video tapes.

The next day was more exciting. A steady procession of men appeared at Paulo's office. One of them, dressed in seafaring clothes left with what I identified through the telephoto lens to be the same attaché case that I had handed over to the thugs in LA. I assumed that it carried at least some of the money that I gave them, so I called Ruiz on my cell phone. "Someone and I assume that it's the captain of the Enterprise Endeavour, has just left with the same briefcase that I handed over to the kidnappers in LA."

"What does he look like?"

"He's wearing a sea captain's uniform and he's about six feet tall with a full gray beard."

"I've got him." Ruiz was waiting a hundred meters from the office and the captain was walking straight towards him.

As the captain approached the police car Ruiz stepped out and flashed his badge. The captain made no attempt to flee and was led to the police car and transported to the precinct house.

The other visitors fitted into two groups, those collecting money for services rendered and those buying large bags of coffee. All of them were photographed carrying out the transactions and a recording made of the conversations.

While the second group was buying bags of coffee and the invoices that they had supported that these transactions actually took place, the money that they handed over was far in excess of the wholesale, even retail, value of the goods purchased and they didn't take the coffee with them. Instead they drove to the warehouse where the physical part of the transaction took place.

This group was followed by investigators that I'd hired, from the warehouse to the places where the cocaine was to be further processed before hitting the streets through the extensive network of dealers. They were photographed at every step in their journey. As they left the warehouse they were arrested by the police called in by the investigators. The case was building up into one that not even the DA could ignore.

Each hour I would package the film and tapes and send them by courier to Ruiz's office. This would form the basis of the police case against those responsible for bringing this huge shipment of drugs into the country.

It came as no surprise when I saw a familiar black Ford pull up outside the office and a man go in. Well, when I say it came as no surprise, the reason that it was there was the surprise. The driver was alone, 'interesting' I thought to myself, 'if he is there on official business he should have at least one other person with him.' It was obvious that he was not on official business. "I want out of this business." The voice came through to the recorder.

"You have no choice. You're in too deep now."

"But it's getting too hot. If I stick around any longer I'll be of no use to you. Haven't I done enough for you?"

"And you've been paid very well for your assistance, you've been able to support that expensive mistress of yours while at the same time keep your wife in the style that she has grown to love. Tell me how do you expect to continue without the money that you get from us to supplement your DEA salary?"

"I'll just have to find a way. There's a strong rumour going around headquarters that some cop has gotten his hands on a whole bunch of evidence that will see them cracking down on this operation."