Chapter Twenty #16
When he didn’t answer me, I glanced over my shoulder. I started to call out his name again until I saw him staring at the storyboard, his face as pale as I’d ever seen it. “You’re seeing what I’m seeing, right?”
Sal slowly nodded.
Eben Juarez, Anton Gambino, Viggo Marcus, and possibly Eduardo Salazar were all the same man, and his name was most likely Fernandez.
“How did no one see this?” I asked as I looked back to the storyboard. Once all the yarn had been connected, the result was right there in front of our faces. “How did no one put this together until now?”
And how was Juarez doing it? He was like a master at disguising himself as someone else or taking on a different guise. He slipped from one persona to the next as easy as a greased pig in hot butter.
“I think this is related to the DEA case, Lany.”
I swallowed tightly as I nodded. “I think you’re right.”
If Juarez was Viggo, then he was behind the money laundering. If he was Anton, he was behind the drug running. If he was Salazar, who knows what he was behind? And then there was Juarez himself, who was behind trafficking in humans.
This was not a nice guy.
“I already called my father and told him to pick up the kids and bring them home,” I told Sal. “I want Brant to send a team to go get them. I want them protected.”
I didn’t for a minute think Juarez wouldn’t go after my family to get to me. The man had no scruples. His version of right from wrong involved how much money he was getting from whatever he was selling.
Sal didn’t question me. He just walked over to the study door and yelled for Brant. When the man appeared in the doorway a moment later, Sal said, “Get a unit of guards to go get Lany’s mother and father and then go pick up the kids. Bring everyone here.”
“Of course, sir.” Brant turned without a word and walked away.
Sal looked toward Marcus and Dmitri. “You two don’t leave Lany’s side. He’s got a target on his back the size of New York City. You might want to gear up and make sure you have extra ammunition.”
“I should probably do the same.” I gestured to my bodyguards to follow me and walked out of the study. I headed directly for the armory. I needed to gear up and get armed. I also needed to get gear and a gun for Lyn. I doubted he had brought anything with him.
Maybe he needed to bring CJ here.
Once I reached the infirmary, I grabbed what I needed, geared up, and then made sure I had enough ammo for the gun in my shoulder holster, and, no, they were not rubber bullets. While I didn’t like the idea of killing anyone, I wanted to make damn sure I stopped them in their tracks.
I carried extra of everything back to the study and handed it over to Lyn and Sal. They were more familiar with it all than I was anyway. It wasn’t often that Sal allowed me to gear up or be armed. I was kind of amazed—and worried at the same time—that he wasn’t throwing a fuss this time.
“Do you need extra ammo, Sal?”
“No, caro, I’m good.”
He was, but I doubt we were thinking the same thing.
“Lyn, do you want to bring CJ here?” I knew I’d feel better. CJ would be safe behind the walls of the estate.
Lyn nodded. “Clarke already left to pick CJ up.”
That would explain why I hadn’t seen Clarke.
“Should we call Sam and tell him to bring Angelo and Cole here?” I wanted all the people I cared about in the same place where I knew they’d be safe. I couldn’t stand the idea of a single one of them being hurt.
“They are probably already on their way here, Lany,” Sal stated. “When I called everyone in, he’d know there was a problem.”
I hoped he was right.
“Sirs,” Brant said as he suddenly appeared in the doorway. “Commissioner Harris is at the gate.”
“He’s on the approved list,” I pointed out.
“Yes, sir,” Brant replied. “I simply wanted to inform you that he was here.”
“Oh, well, show him in when he gets to the door.”
Brant gave a single nod before turning and walking away.
I glanced at Sal again. “Did you inform Uncle Jerry that we have a situation here?” The thought of Sal leaving to go out on a raid chilled me to the bone.
“He knows. He was going to get the paperwork on Carbonados, remember?” Sal replied. “Maybe he has those autopsy reports we wanted Skip to go through.”
Right, I had forgotten about that.
Apparently, I was more frazzled than I thought.
“Hey, guys,” Lyn called out. “I think I might have something here.”
Sal and I both rushed over to his side.
“I was looking at some surveillance from that drug house where Lany was undercover, and I discovered that the same car parks in the alley between that building and the one next to it once a week, same time every week.”
“Okay, and what’s so unusual about that?” I asked.
“That’s a Mercedes Benz S-Class. It sells for about two hundred thousand dollars.
” Lyn pointed to the silver vehicle on his screen.
“A car like that in that neighborhood? The tires alone are worth more than most people’s monthly income.
So, why has it been going to the same place at the same time every week for over six months? ”
Okay, that was unusual.
And why would someone own a car that expensive? Even dismissing the neighborhood, that was insane. Two hundred thousand dollars for a car? My entire family could live on that for a year.
“Can you get the plate number?” Sal asked. “Maybe we can track it.”
“The angle is all wrong,” Lyn replied. “I’m hunting through nearby businesses and traffic cams to see if I can find another video surveillance that might have a better angle.”
“Keep at it,” Sal directed. “I want to know who owns that car.”
I glanced up when someone walked into the room. “Uncle Jerry.” I frowned at the other man. “Detective Sparks.”
The man gave me a barely polite nod. “Mr. Delvecchio.”
“Did you bring the autopsy reports?” Sal asked.
Jerry nodded as he handed a large folder over. “Is Skip here yet?”
“Yeah, he was in the dining room the last time I saw him.”
“Skip?” the detective asked.
“Dr. Skip Jones,” Uncle Jerry replied. “He’s Junior’s personal physician.”
The man glanced at me, one eyebrow raised. “You really have a personal physician?”
My frown grew deeper when every laughed, including Lyn. “A lot of people have personal physicians.”
“Not on speed dial,” Uncle Jerry pointed out. “Most people don’t have an infirmary in their homes either.”
I sniffled, jutting my chin out. “Maybe I’m just smarter than them.”
“Who’s not allowed to drive because they’ve crashed thirteen cars?”
I stuck my tongue out at my uncle.
Chapter Fourteen
Salvador
“I think I found something else.”
I hurried over to my desk and hovered over the top of Lyn looking at his computer screen. “What am I looking at here?”
“I was able to get the license plate number off a deli security cam a block from the drug house. The vehicle owner is listed as… Eduardo Salazar.”
My jaw clenched.
“But have a look at this.”
Lyn pulled up another screen, which showed the same vehicle at a different location.
This time it was parked and a man in a dark suit was getting out and walking around to open the rear passenger seat door.
That wasn’t too weird in itself, but the man that climbed out of that back seat certainly was.
“That’s Eben Juarez.”
“Well, according to the DMV registration, it’s Eduardo Salazar,” Lyn stated before looking up at the storyboard. “Looks like Lany pulled another one out of his hat.”
“Care to explain that to those of us that were late to class?” Jerry asked.
“Lany theorized that Eben Juarez, Anton Gambino, Viggo Marcus, and possibly Eduardo Salazar were all the same man and his name was most likely Fernandez and that he was connected to the Fernandez Cartel.”
I smirked when Jerry and Mike slowly panned to look at Lany. I knew my baby was smart. Sometimes I wished he wasn’t this smart simply because I didn’t want him in danger, but I also knew without his brain we’d be screwed.
“I’ve heard a couple of those names,” Sparks stated, “but not Juarez or Salazar.”
“Sal, fill him in,” Jerry ordered. “You know more about this case than I do.”
I nodded and then started the long explanation.
“We know that Juarez is wanted by the Colombian government in connection to the killing of three medical personnel at a hospital where he worked. Juarez is a former doctor whose license was revoked for prescribing illicit drugs. He was also suspected of diverting orders of temazepam and selling them illegally.”
“We also know from when he kidnapped Lany that Juarez was also using temazepam to traffic in slaves.” Lyn let out a very rude snort. “If Vinnie hadn’t bought him, we probably never would have seen him or his other victims again.”
“When he tried to sell Lany, we were part of an FBI taskforce that was able to take him and his men down and rescue the victims. Unfortunately, an undercover FBI agent lost his life during the rescue.”
Lany was still beating himself up over that one.
“Juarez was supposed to be behind bars, but we had an officer we trust do a face check, and he discovered the man in Juarez’s prison cell is not Juarez.
” I waved my hand toward Lyn. “Lyn here was able to find questionable finances on a couple of the prison guards, but it will take more investigation before we know for sure if they were involved.”
“Okay,” Mike said, “and who is Anton Gambino? I assume with a last name like that he’s somehow involved with the Gambino family?”
“Actually, no,” I replied. “A few years back, word started to spread that Carlos Gambino’s son Anton was going to be taking over the Gambino family when he retired. The only problem with that is that Carlos’s only son is named Eddie.”
“He’s currently touring Italy on a photo shoot,” Lany added.
Sparks eyed him critically. “And you know this how?”
I snorted.
I couldn’t help it.