Between HeVan and Hell (22 page)

Mine, keep your hands
off!
she thought.

Instead of inviting her to come along
with them for lunch, she introduced them and then hurried off with
the guys. When they got back into the car, she was still angry.
Only now it was at the brothers.

“What the hell did you do to me?
Margie is my friend, and one casual mention of wanting to flirt
with you and I’m ready to tear off her head. That’s not normal!”
she said with an increasingly loud voice while pounding her fist on
the steering wheel.

Jalen, who was sitting in the
passenger seat, turned to her.

“Though we have given each
other pleasure, we have not yet completed the
Joining
ceremony of our people. You
are Nephilim, too. The proximity of your
Ankida
has brought out your
instinctual response to keep what’s yours. After we
Join
, that will fade as
the link between us will always be there.”

“Does that mean some freaky telepathic
thing is going to happen? I don’t want anybody reading my mind,”
she said.

“No, that ability is very rare and
it’s one we don’t possess. And if you already had it, I think you
would have noticed,” said Arjun.

Ten minutes later, they dropped Jett
of at the police station.

Jett walked into the police station.
He approached the front desk and waited for an officer to approach
and acknowledge him.

“Can I help you?” asked an officer
stepping up to the counter.

“I’ve been called in by Captain Udaka
to meet with the State’s Attorney,” said Jett.

“I’ll call up and let him know you’re
coming.” The officer pointed to the stairs at the right of the
lobby. “Go up those stairs, down the corridor, first door on the
left is the detectives’ bullpen. Captain Udaka will meet you
there.”

“I’ve been here once before; I know
the way. Thank you for letting him know I’ve arrived.”

Jett took the stairs three at a time.
He realized that it had been some time since he’d trained. He would
have to remember to ask Jalen where he had been training before
he’d returned last night.

Entering the open door to the bullpen,
he walked through the desks to see Captain Udaka standing in the
doorway of his office.

“Captain Udaka, I was told you asked
me to come here to meet someone?” asked Jett.

“Jett, thank you for coming. I’d like
to introduce you to Assistant State’s Attorney Sheila Carson. She
would like to ask you a few questions about last night. Ms. Carson,
this is Jett Contadina. Come in, Jett, and have a seat.”

The Captain shut the door and returned
to his seat behind his desk. Jett and Ms. Carson took two of the
visitors’ chairs.

“Mr. Contadina, I’m curious. Why do
you believe Anton Kadyrov ordered a hit on you?” she
asked.

“Must there be a reason?” he
asked.

“The only evidence we have that he
ordered your death is the word of a convicted felon. The jury would
have to believe him over the word of a man with no criminal
background. He is suspected of many things, but suspicions aren’t
admissible in court,” said Ms. Carson.

“I’m afraid I can’t help you in
learning the motivation for Anton Kadyrov’s behavior. Everything
that transpired last night is there in the report,” said
Jett.

“You have an interesting accent, Mr.
Contadina; where are you from?”

“I’m from a small village in Northern
Italy. My father was a linguist and taught all of us several
ancient languages. The blending creates the accent you
hear.”

“I see. The report mentions that you
are not an American citizen. How long are you planning on remaining
in this country?” she asked.

“Three months and then we’re going
home. Of course, I’ll come back when you need me to testify. I’ll
need six week’s notice; is that possible?”

“It’s unusual to require so much time
for travel; why is that?” asked Ms. Carson.

“My brothers and I have a mobile
business. We often travel long distances all over the world, even
to remote locations. So we need the time to make our travel
arrangements and get back here from wherever we may be,” said
Jett.

“What type of business has you
traveling all over the world? I ask because your activities and
those of your brother’s will also be deeply scrutinized. In this
country, a man is innocent until proven guilty. Since the burden of
proof lies with us, having reliable upstanding witnesses is
important.”

“Neither my brothers nor myself have
ever been arrested. Not even a speeding ticket amongst us,” Jett
added with a smile while he evaded her questions.

Ms. Carson then turned back to the
Captain. “I can take this to the Grand Jury, but I don’t think we
have enough. I’ll charge him with the battery of Mrs. Levin. With a
little work, we should be able to get him to agree to a line up. In
that case, you’ll need to make arrangements for her to come in.
I’ll speak to my boss about the other charges, but I’m not charging
him with the order to kill just yet. You need more evidence,” she
said. When she stood up, the Captain and Jett stood up also. She
turned to shake Jett’s hand.

“It was nice meeting you, Mr.
Contadina. We’ll meet again, I’m sure.”

“I’ll do whatever I can to aid you in
putting Anton Kadyrov in prison where he belongs,” said Jett
vehemently.

Jett and Captain Udaka watched as she
left the office and strode out of the room. After she was gone,
Jett turned back to the Captain.

“What is the reason you didn’t want to
tell the Assistant State’s Attorney about the listening devices we
planted on the Kadyrovs? I’m sure if we checked the download, we
have a recording of him ordering the attack on me,” said
Jett.

“The only ones that know about the
listening devices are you and your brothers, Grace, me, and one
police technician. And even the tech isn’t aware of exactly what
you did. I want to keep this under wraps until we get as much
evidence as we can. I hate to say it, but there is a leak
somewhere. That’s why we haven’t been able to get a previous
conviction.”

“Key witnesses either recant their
statements or evidence goes missing. Sometimes there are procedural
errors, which cause the case to be thrown out of court. We have an
advantage here that I don’t want to lose. And that reminds me.
After we arrested Anton Kadyrov, he spent some time in conference
with his lawyer. Those conversations are legally protected. We
can’t listen in on them. I wrote down the times here on this paper.
I’d like you to remove them from the download. We need to make sure
that the resulting transcripts are completely legal to use in
evidence.

“And that brings me to another thing.
Do you think we should separate the audio from the video? Just in
case the video portion might be deemed as inadmissible so we don’t
want to taint the audio portion,” said Captain Udaka.

“You don’t have anything to worry
about on that score. The downloaded information separates the data
just as the brain separates the functions of speech and vision. So
you’ll have separate files. You can replay them separately or
together,” said Jett.

“Good, I’m pretty sure that we’re okay
with having both, I just don’t want to take chances on losing it
all. So that’s one less thing to worry about. This morning I told
Grace that in order to limit those who know about the fact that we
succeeded in bugging the Kadyrovs, her new assignment will be to
download and catalogue the information, with you and your brothers’
assistance, of course. The rest of the time, get her to show you
around. Do some sight-seeing. She needs to act like a woman that’s
just become engaged to a wealthy man and hasn’t a care in the
world,” said the Captain.

“I’ll do my best to see that she
understands your requirements. I’m aware that she feels my brothers
and I have taken over her assignment. And sightseeing seems more
like a vacation when she feels she should be working. And now I
better go. We’re meeting for a late luncheon.”

Jett and the Captain shook hands and
the Captain went back to work as Jett left the building.

Sheila Carson got into her car to
drive back to the office. Opening her purse, she unzipped the side
pocket and pulled out her second cell phone; one that had been
supplied to her and wasn’t under her own name. She pressed 1 on the
speed dial and waited for an answer.

“Olychka, you have news?” asked Vasily
Kadyrov.

“Yes, Uncle Vasya. I was able to
convince him that he didn’t have enough evidence to charge Anton
with ordering a murder. He will be charged with Battery against the
jeweler, Mrs. Levin. I’m on my way to the courthouse now and won’t
fight his attorney’s bail request. I can set it lower because of
the lesser charge,” she said.

“Good, that is good. Other than Ron,
do we have any other mistakes to take care of?”

“Jett Contadina recorded his own
attack on his cell phone. That recording proves the case against
his attackers, but without Ron’s sworn testimony, there’s no real
case against Anton. Not enough to prosecute, anyway. I reviewed the
recording Ron and myself makes inflammatory suggestions about what
Anton wished him to do. Even with that, it boils down to his word
against Anton’s.

“Per Anton’s version of events, I
recommend adding some notes to Ron’s employee file. The police are
bound to request a copy. Make it appear that he has been
disciplined several times in his work and you were considering
firing him,” she said.

“Yes, I will play the kindly boss,
attempting to have given a last chance to this person and look how
he betrays our kindness. It will be done immediately. What more
were you able to find out about the Contadinas? Something about
them is fishy,” he said.

“I interviewed him today and he
strikes me as a powerful man. I don’t mean just because he’s so
large. He wasn’t nervous the way you’d expect a man who’d been
attacked the night before to be. He wasn’t worried about his safety
or testifying against Anton. The family reputation is well known
and he showed no signs of fear or anxiety. The Kadyrov family has
made a new enemy, and they may prove formidable. The only other
thing I heard was the Captain telling Grace he would be opening a
task force to look into the disappearances of women who associated
with Anton.

“He also told Grace to stick close to
her men, that they would protect her. Even going so far as to tell
her she should move in with them. Anton may have to postpone his
latest project. If he takes her, the Contadinas will look for her,
and I don’t think they will care who gets in their way,” she
said.

“They are two men. They will be dealt
with, if only to send a message to others,” he said.

“There was one other thing. Nothing
specific was said, but two things make me think that Grace is
really a cop. And if she is, then it’s likely the Contadinas are,
too,” she said.

“What did you hear?”

“The Captain said that ‘he was glad
the plug’s been pulled on her job at Hell’ and ‘her assignment now
was to act the besotted fiancé. He could have been alluding to an
undercover assignment.”

“I disagree. You said he was planning
on calling Jett to come in and see you. Obviously, Grace stayed the
night with her fiancé. It sounds as if he were reassuring her. I
had her in my place for three days; we were suspicious only because
Detective Anthony stopped her on the street. We have kept her under
tight surveillance since then. She’s no cop. At the slightest show
of disagreement last night, she was urging them to leave. You did
not see her with her fiancé; the heat they have for each other is
readily apparent. The other one, Jett, also has feelings for her. I
could also see that he tries to hide it.

"She even wore a dress she wanted us
to use in the casino. Does that sound like the actions of an
undercover cop? No, she would have kept her head down and not drawn
notice to herself. Don’t worry, Olga, I’ll take care of the
Contadina brothers, and then Anton can have Grace,” he
said.