Always Watching (24 page)

Will coughed softly.  “He was a
chef.”

“
And a
chef
rates an eyes only
file?”

“
Helen, this is a
sensitive issue.  Human trafficking is reaching alarming
proportions in the world.  If it ever became common knowledge
that someone from the State Department was involved in something
even remotely similar some 40 plus years ago, the impact would be
devastating.  We’re applying a great deal of pressure on
countries to reverse their stance on this practice.  If people
learn that someone from this agency was guilty so long ago, that we
knew it and essentially slapped him on the wrist and told him not
to bother to come home, you can’t imagine –”

“
Especially since
he
did
come
home.  I have every reason to believe that he brought his
little business back to the United States with him.”

“
I can tell you that
Eugene Sherman was an attaché to our ambassador in a small, but
very controversial country in Southeast Asia in the late
fifties.”

“
And?”

“
I believe that the man
who may have stolen his identity possibly worked as a chef at the
embassy where Sherman served in that region.”

“
It might be helpful to me
if you told me where this mystery chef served in addition to
Southeast Asia.”

“
His tenure began in
Paris.  I believe he trained there.  After that, it was
Southeast Asia, the Philippines, and finally Saudi
Arabia.”

“
And that was where the
State Department first questioned his relationship to Graciella
Payette.”

“
I don’t want to know how
you know this information.”  Will’s groan was uttered so
softly, I barely heard it.

“
The woman who claims
Sherman owned her?  Florence Payette, Graciella’s
daughter.  We’ve had a team working for almost two days
digging up information on Florence and her mother, Will. 
Graciella seems to have fallen off the face of the earth five years
ago.  Were you aware that she gave birth to her daughter at
the age of twelve?”

“
Jesus,” he
muttered.  “This man produced documents that indicated
–”  He stopped abruptly.

“
He claimed that Graciella
was his wife, yes?  It makes sense.  I suspected that
Florence was really Sherman’s daughter, or whoever this man really
was.  Let me guess.  It was a slip of the tongue that
young Florence made that tipped the State Department off that
something was very wrong with the picture.”

“
Yes,” he rasped. 
“The little girl said, when asked if…
he
was her father, that he owned
her.  It resulted in his termination from the embassy in Saudi
Arabia in 1972.  I believe that Florence was eight or ten
years old at the time.  We wanted him arrested.  He
didn’t live on U.S.  soil and the Saudi government didn’t see
why such an arrangement would warrant their
intervention.”

“
Why should they?” I
snorted softly.  “Why would they give a damn if a chef owned
women in a country where it’s not at all uncommon?”

“
I –”

“
Do I need to remind you
of some rather high profile cases that migrated across the pond to
this country regarding forced servitude by Saudi nationals?  I
think there was one that got a ton of attention in Colorado a few
years ago.”

He cleared his throat.

“
This is about more than a
missing baby that we happened to recover before any lasting damage
was done, Will.  We found the body of a seven year old girl on
the beach of our bay two nights ago.”

“
Helen, I wish
–”

“
Her name was Analynn
Villanueva.  She was abducted from her home in the
Philippines.  Consider this your formal notification, by the
way.  I didn’t get a chance to fill you in sooner, since the
man who identified her, Agent Alfred Preston of the FBI, died
yesterday after he assassinated an accused murderer in our county
jail.  Oh, and before he killed Danny Datello, he managed to
extract a bogus confession that looks like it’ll exonerate Melissa
Sherman for her role in the kidnapping of that infant.”

“
Gill Vorre,” he
rasped.  “That’s the man’s name, the chef that we fired over
40 years ago.”

“
Thank you,
Will.”

“
Helen, you’ve got to
believe that if we knew he managed to get back into the United
States that he would’ve been arrested immediately.”

“
I expect that was a
recent development relative to the length of his life.  If you
think about it, he couldn’t have picked a better place to come
home.  Darkwater Bay is a gateway, a haven for criminals of
the worst kind.  He impersonated a diplomat, and nobody
questioned it.  Meanwhile, he not only continued to own human
beings, I suspect he was selling them to others.”

“
Is the bureau
investigating this case?”

Nearly a year since I left the FBI, and Will
hadn’t heard about it yet.  Nobody sweeps the dirt under the
rug better than the federal government.  “What do you think,
Will?  Why wouldn’t we be all over this?  We’ve got a
agent from a field office who murdered someone about to go on trial
for killing a district attorney.  Not only that, the murder
victim was of great interest to the US Attorney because his uncle
is Sullivan Marcos.”

“
Oh my God.”

“
Relax.  Like I said,
we’ll do damage control before this thing goes public.”

“
You could’ve made an
official request and gotten the man’s file that way,
Helen.”

“
How many more dead
children should I expect to find while I wait while the left hand
decides it’s all right for the right hand to disclose an
embarrassment?  No thanks, Will.”

“
Point taken.”

“
I won’t use this
information without a formal request for the file – beyond leverage
with Melissa Sherman and her lawyer.  It’s a starting point
for us.  Maybe now we can finally move this investigation
forward.”  I paused.  “I
am
happy that Deanna is doing well,
Will.”

“
And I remain forever in
your debt.”

“
We’re even now,” I
said.  “Think of all the little girls you probably helped me
save today.”

His gasp punctuated the end of our
conversation. 

I replaced the receiver
and stared at the name on the paper in front of me. 
Gill Vorre
.  Who
was he really before he became Eugene Sherman?

“
Helen?”

I looked up.  Johnny, Crevan and Zack
made my office shrink to the size of a small broom closet. 
“When did you get here?”

“
About the same time you
led whoever you were talking to –”

“
That’s not important,
Zack,” Johnny said.  “We use deception on a regular basis to
get to the truth.  Was that they guy from the State Department
Crevan said you called?”

“
Yes.  The man all of
Montgomery has revered as Eugene Sherman was nothing but an
identity thief.  Fortunately for us, he was a thief who also
worked for the State Department.”

“
In what capacity?” 
Johnny didn’t have room to pace.  The rhythmic clench of his
fists spoke his desire to move.

“
A lowly chef of all
things.”  I waved the page in front of them.  “Thanks to
my lie of omission to an old colleague, we’ve got a name. 
Gentlemen, the man from Montgomery, buried in a grave marked
Eugene Sherman
is
actually Gill Vorre.”

“
Which makes his wife
–”

“
Very suspicious,” I
said.  “I’m wondering who Melissa Sherman really is too. 
Maybe she has more in common with Florence Payette than we ever
imagined.”

Crevan shuddered. “You do realize that the
name makes an unsettling anagram, don’t you? Gill Vorre – girl
lover. That’s just creepy in light of where this looks like it’s
going.”

Chapter 20

While Crevan’s odd contribution curdled my
stomach, Zack whipped out a cell phone and called his office. 
“We need to amend the indictment against Melissa Sherman to include
the name Melissa Vorre.  I’d like someone to start digging for
records of when her marriage to Eugene Sherman, also known as Gill
Vorre took place.  We’re also going to need records regarding
Eugene Sherman’s re-entry into the United States.  Call me
when you’ve got any information that could be useful.”

It might matter, if we indicted Mrs. Sherman
under the wrong name.  All known aliases might be very
helpful, not only for prosecution, but leverage.  “According
to Florence Payette, she married Sherman five years ago,” I
said.  “Wonder what her maiden name was?”

Johnny shrugged.  “Devlin called. 
They’re at the house in Montgomery.  He says the place is like
one of those community show-houses.  Beautifully furnished,
but nothing under the surface.  We’re waiting for the warrant
execution for bank records.  We won’t have access to any of
that until business resumes Monday morning.”

I cleared my throat.  “So, how much of
my end of that conversation did you hear?”

Johnny chuckled softly.  “I suppose
that would be about the time that you led your old pal from the
State Department to believe that you’re still working for the
FBI.”

“
A lie that merely
expedited our access to the information we needed,” I waved it
aside.  “It had another benefit too, Zack.  I already
explained this to OSI, but don’t need men and women combing this
city that
look
like federal agents.  The last thing we want is for
whoever is involved in this crime to think that we’ve got the
slightest inkling of the scope involved.  We want them to
think we solved a single kidnapping incident, that we are
cluelessly victorious.”

“
I get that, Helen, but at
the same time, I’m concerned about the consequences of not
informing the FBI about what we’ve uncovered so far.”

Johnny intervened before I lost all
patience.  “When we’ve got more than suspicion, Helen will
inform David Levine.  At this point, there isn’t any real
evidence, Zack.  We’ve got one terrified woman who won’t
exactly make a stellar witness against anybody, least of all the
Sherman woman.”

“
True enough.  She’s
terrified,” Zack ran one hand through his hair.  “What a
mess.  Every time we think we’re making headway in this city,
some new horror surfaces.”

“
Rome wasn’t built in a
day,” Crevan said.  “The more we uncover, the more we’re bound
to expose.  Let’s not forget how long our hands were tied in
law enforcement by men like Jerry Lowe and Danny Datello’s
under-the-table deals.”

“
We need to talk to
Destiny Gerard,” I said.  “If she’s the acting CEO of Datello
Enterprises, she’s our way in to look at the fishing business’s
books.”

“
Seriously, Helen, I doubt
that Datello would’ve been arrogant enough to maintain any kind of
paper trail that would’ve linked him to suspicious or illegal
activities,” Zack said.  “He managed to maintain the
appearance of squeaky-clean operations at all of his major
ventures.”

“
Still,” I said, “there
could be subtle irregularities, say for instance fuel consumption
on those large trawlers that doesn’t quite match up to the
distances they would’ve traveled in U.S. waters that might point to
proof that they’ve been meeting ships in international
territory.  I don’t expect to find a ledger that indicates the
money made from smuggling slaves through Darkwater Bay.”

“
I guess there’s no gentle
way to broach the subject with her,” Johnny said.

“
No, not a gentle one, but
I have an idea of how to make sure Gerard cooperates.  She was
lurking when Dev and I talked to Celeste about Danny’s murder last
night.  I asked her then if it would be possible to delve into
the records.  She told us to speak to Destiny.  I think
that if we tell her that Agent Preston accused Danny of being
involved in more than the kidnapping of their daughter, Celeste
will insist that Gerard cooperate if for no other reason that to
clear her husband’s name.”

“
That won’t guarantee that
Gerard cooperates fully,” Johnny said. 

“
It will if she doesn’t
want to become a suspect in illegal business practices,
Johnny.  This woman could very well end up running Datello’s
empire now.  The last thing she’s going to want is all the
scrutiny he endured over the years shifting to her,” I
disagreed.  “It might’ve been that she looked so angry last
night because she realized that even though Danny is dead, we’re
not convinced that his empire has crumbled.”

“
Good point,” Zack
said.  “Do you think you and Devlin could meet with Celeste
again to make a formal request?”

“
I could probably call
her,” I suggested.  “God only knows when Dev’s going to be
finished in Montgomery.  I might even try to talk to Gerard
first.  She said she’s staying with Celeste until all of this
mess is resolved.”

Johnny frowned.  “Interesting that she
would put it that way, don’t you think, Doc?  For all intents
and purposes, they should believe it is resolved, since Celeste has
her baby back.”