Necessary Decisions, A Gino Cataldi Mystery (33 page)

“I don’t know, but stop for coffee. We’ve got to figure this out.”

“Tonight?”

“The drop is tomorrow. When the fuck do you think we’re going to do it?”

“Let me call Rosalee.” He put his phone on speaker and dialed. “Don’t forget to say hi to her, Gino. You know she loves you.”

Rosalee answered right away. “Ribs, where are you? It’s late.”

Even Rosalee called him Ribs. Of course, she’d known him since he was ten, so she grew up with the nickname.

“I’m with Gino,
mi chula
. We picked up some girls and right now we’re locked in a motel room. I don’t think I’ll make it home tonight.”

A long silence, then, “Are you and Gino out playing poker again?”

I laughed. “Rosalee, you are the only woman I know who would suspect her husband of playing cards instead of cheating on her.”

“I’m the only woman that would put up with his ass, Gino.” She laughed, then, “How’s Ron?”

“He’s doing great ever since rehab.”

“I talked to him last week. Did he tell you?”

“He said you called. Thanks. It meant a lot to him.”

“I’m taking Marianna to see him next week. She’s making tamales.”

“He’ll love that, Rosalee. I’m gonna give you back to that asshole husband of yours now. You take care.”

“Are you really going to be out all night, Ribs?”

“We might be. We’re trying to find the kidnapped girl.”

“
Dios mio!
I’ll be praying for her.”

“
Buenas noches, mi amorcita.
”

“
Buenas noches, querido
.”

Ribs hung up and looked over to me. “Where to?”

“Let’s get breakfast.”

“Denny’s?”

“If you’ve got a better idea, I’ll take it. If not…I’ve got Tums.”

Ten minutes later, we slid into a booth at the same Denny’s that Doran had been to this morning. That seemed like days ago. The waitress pounced on us. She had coffee cups filled before we said we wanted any. I thought of ordering tea just to piss her off.

She pulled out her order pad with a sparkly green Bic pen attached to it and positioned herself to take our orders.

“We’re going to need some time,” I said. That sent her away in a huff.

“Treat the lady with kindness,” Delgado said. “Or she’ll put something in our food.”

Delgado always made me laugh. “Okay, Ribs, you win.”

“You know, I been thinking since you brought this up. This sounds too familiar, almost like the poker games and the home invasions, where they also knew too much.”

I ripped the top off the second container of creamer, dumped it into my coffee, and stirred. “Goddamnit, Ribs. Goddamnit!” I pulled out my cell and looked up Doran’s number.

“Who are you calling?”

“Doran.”

“It’s ten thirty.”

“I don’t give a shit.”

After the fifth ring, he answered. “Doran, it’s Gino.”

His voice sounded sleepy. I found myself envious. “Detective, what’s going on?”

“In the garage today, you said they wore gloves and masks.”

“Yeah, both of them.”

“Tell me about the gloves. Describe them.”

“Latex ones, you know, the kind doctors wear.”

Surgeons’ gloves. Just like the others.
“And they wore masks. What kind?”

“Dark nylons. Why, what’s going on?”

“Anything else? Did they say anything to each other? Mention names?”

“No names. One guy called the other one ‘boss.’ That’s all.”

I clenched my fist and forced myself to stay calm. “Boss? You’re sure about that?”

“I’m sure. Why?”

“I’ll fill you in tomorrow. Be there early.”

I hung up and turned to Ribs. “These are the same fuckers who did the Marshall house.”

“Why do you say that?”

“We can forget the masks and gloves, but Doran said one of them called the other one Boss.”

Ribs nodded. “Works for me. Sounds like the kind of organization they use. Structured, disciplined. Masks. Gloves. No mistakes.” Ribs sipped his coffee, added another sugar to it then stirred more. “I know you don’t want to think about it, but if these are the guys who did the Marshalls’ house, it means they’re the ones who did the poker games.”

I nodded. “I’m way past you. That means they’ve not only have Jada, they may have Mary’s watch.”

“It’s nice that we figured this out, but the problem is, they don’t make mistakes.”

“Except one.”

“One what?”

“One mistake. They shouldn’t have taken that girl.”

Chapter 48

Gino Makes a Chart

W
e finished a greasy breakfast, mopped it up with toast, and chased it down with bad coffee. If there had been hope of sleeping before this, it was gone. On the way to my house, we discussed the best way to crack this case and agreed that we couldn’t rely on them letting Jada go. We had to find her. The ransom wouldn’t guarantee her safety. It might, however, make it easier to catch the kidnappers.

Delgado went straight to the fridge at my house and got a Corona.

“How can you drink beer after eating that breakfast?”

He put on his best Mexican accent and said, “It’s a Corona, amigo.”

I laughed again, the second time tonight. “Boil some water. I’m making coffee.”

“You know, Gino, I think what’s more important than what they know is what they didn’t know. That’s what we need to focus on.”

I got a tablet out and a few pens and drew a chart.

What they knew: What they didn’t know:

Knew Scott’s home number/Too easy to get. Not an issue.

Knew Scott’s cell number/Same

Knew the money was ready at bank/Did
not
know we didn’t have money

Knew Detective Cataldi’s name/First time we knew that was at garage

Knew Doran had a cell phone/But didn’t say “Don’t bring it.”

Knew Doran wasn’t Uncle Eddy/But not until they got to garage?

Delgado stood over my shoulder, nodding. He grabbed a big red marker and wrote at the bottom:

Biggest one of all—do
not
know they have wrong girl.

I looked at him and nodded. “You’re right about that. That’s the biggest mystery. How the
fuck
do they know everything else but not that?”

“That’s what we’ve got to figure out. We do that, and we’ve got them.”

I got up to fix my coffee, and Ribs took my seat. “How about we start by scratching out who knows everything? We can eliminate them.”

“To start off with, all the cops know the case, so we can eliminate them.”

“What about the support team? We’ve got Julie, Fat Charlie—”

“Get serious. No way they’re leaking anything.”

“Gino, they’re not the only ones on the support team. They used a dozen people calling motels and gathering information. Any one of them could be a leak.”

“I don’t buy it. I know it
could
happen, but I don’t buy it.”

“Okay,” Ribs said. “We’ve got Winthrop, the Hacketts, Alexa, Mars, the techs at the house…”

As he ran down the list, I gave them thought. “No way on the Hacketts. Same for Alexa.”

The timer went off for my coffee. I poured it, added cream, and walked back to the table. “No on the techs…”

“That leaves Winthrop,” Ribs said.

“And all of the people Winthrop and Alexa have blabbed to. It’s no wonder the kidnappers have the information. Half the people in The Woodlands know.”

“We need to find out what he told his colleagues.”

I sipped the coffee. Shivered. “Ribs, what was the name of that coffee Winthrop had?”

“Martin Henry.”

“What?”

“It’s comes from Martin Henry Roasters, somewhere in the Northwest.”

“Damn, it was good.”

“I could get used to it,” Ribs said.

I sipped some more coffee. Paced some more. “Okay, so who’s giving them information? They knew about the money at the bank being ready. They knew Doran wasn’t Uncle Eddy. But they don’t know they have the wrong girl. How is that possible? Is it someone from Scott’s work? Do the people he works with hate him as much as I do?”

Delgado jotted down more notes. “Their knowing about Doran doesn’t bother me that much. They could have made him for a cop. Maybe they had a kid with them. Teenagers can pick a cop out of a crowd by sight, smell, or sound.”

Delgado had a point. Something gave us away to kids. It was a lifelong mystery likely to never be solved. “Okay we throw out the Doran issue. That still leaves us with a lot of questions.”

“We don’t have time for it, Gino. We’re gonna need more help.”

It didn’t take long for me to decide. “I’m calling Tip.”

“Captain’s not gonna like that.”

I dialed Tip’s number. After a few rings he picked up.

“Tip Denton, best damn detective in Texas.”

It had been a long time since I’d heard that asinine phrase of his. “What happened to ‘best in the world’?”

“Today I’m only best in Texas. And what the hell are you doing calling this late? You know I need my beauty sleep.”

“I need help, old partner.”

“On that home invasion?”

“Kinda. I’m still on that, but the last two days, I’ve been on a kidnapping. We’re pretty sure the same people are involved. And by the way, if you haven’t heard, in the home invasion deal, that kid died. It’s now felony murder.”

“Y’all can count me in on this. What do you need?”

“I got Delgado over at my house. Come over, and we’ll plot this out.”

Half an hour later, Tip walked in with three cups of coffee and three taquitos. I didn’t have the nerve to tell him we’d already eaten; besides, no way I was turning down a taquito. I filled Tip in on everything from the poker games up to tonight’s disaster at the motel in Conroe.

He sat still, looking deep in thought. “I’m gonna have to interview that thong-panties girl first. She sounds like the culprit to me. Might take me the rest of the night, but I’ll get it done.”

Delgado’s laughter cranked Tip up. “Delgado, did I ever tell you the one about the midget and the sex-starved Mexican?”

I made more coffee. This was going to be a
very
long night.

“Did you call Coop?” Tip asked.

“I’m calling her now.”

“Oh shit.”

It rang four times before she answered. “Cataldi, I swear to the Lord in heaven, this better be an emergency.”

“I need Tip on this case. We’ve got too many leads to follow and no time to do it.”

“Have you called him yet?”

I opted not to answer that question. “Were you sleeping?”

“I was in the damn tub. Again.”

Tip grabbed the phone. “Hey, darlin’, can I come over and share that tub with you?”

“Denton, is that you? I knew it. It’s starting already.” We heard the sounds of water splashing, like she was getting out of the tub. “I better not end up with a bunch of bodies.”

“Thanks, Coop. We’ll call in the morning.”

“It
is
the morning.”

After that, we got back to strategizing. The plan was for Tip to go to Scott’s work to interview his team and anyone else he came in close contact with. Delgado would pick up where he left off with Lance and his crew of mercenaries, and I would head to the bank with Scott, pick up the money then wait for the kidnappers to call.

Delgado said, “I hope those fuckers forget their smart pills tomorrow, because they sure outfoxed us today.”

About four o’clock, I couldn’t take it anymore. “I have to catch a few hours of sleep. One of you can crash on the couch, and there’s a spare bed in the other room.”

“I’ll take the couch,” Delgado said.

“Wake me early,” Tip said. “I’m fixin’ to shoot somebody before noon.”

“Remember what Coop said, Tip. This ain’t Tombstone.”

“It was you that shot everybody last time. Not me.”

“
Good night,
Tip.”

“Night, darlin’.”

I heard Delgado laughing as I went to bed.

As I lay in bed, I heard the clock ticking, heard the house creaking, heard goddamn Delgado snoring, even through the walls. It was no wonder I couldn’t sleep. Worst of all, I could hear Lucia crying when she saw that picture of Jada naked. I’d
promised
these people I’d bring her home safe. How was I going to do that? These guys had outsmarted me at every turn, and I had no brilliant plans for tomorrow.

For another hour, I lay there, running the whole thing through my head again and again. I pictured the way they handled the drop with Doran, tried to anticipate what they might do tomorrow…today. Then I thought about the motel angle, assuming Alexa’s interpretation of Jada’s Uncle Eddy comment was correct. I closed my eyes and pictured them in the room, Jada tied to the bed. Suddenly it hit me. What were they doing when the maids come in? I jumped out of bed. “Delgado! Tip! Get up.”

“What’s going on?” Delgado sat up, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

Tip stumbled into the kitchen. “I said early, but I wanted
some
sleep.”

Adrenaline rushed through me. “Ribs, what do they do when the maids come?”

He looked at me as if I were nuts. “What?”

“The maids! Motel rooms are cleaned every day. These guys can’t have maids coming in with Jada there.”