Checkered Crime: A Laurel London Mystery (11 page)

“Um…,” he hesitated and looked at his little notebook. “Yes, I knew about that. And we can keep you both safe.”

Hearing him say that made me feel a tad bit better. Not a whole lot. But a little.

There were two things I liked about this whole idea. One, having to be around Jax sounded great. And two…well I really couldn’t think of another, but my one reason was good enough for me.

“Deal. On one more condition.” I put my hand out for him to shake. “You don’t keep me in the dark.”

“Not if you cooperate.” His hand curled around mine. He gripped it…tight. Slowly we shook on it, but deep in my gut I knew he wasn’t telling me the full truth.
 

Chapter Ten

After I took Jax back to the Windmill and gave Louie the old I’m watching you gesture, I went home and took a long, very long nap with Henrietta curled up on my pillow next to me. My head was hurting from all the stuff Jax had told me, Trigger Finger Tony, and the idea that I could possibly have some sort of family disease didn’t make me feel better.

I had also grabbed the cash out of Henrietta’s litter box. I counted out over five thousand dollars that Trigger had given me. I put five hundred in my bag. The rest wasn’t going to fit in Henrietta’s shit box so I put the money in a couple baggies and taped them on the inside of the return air vent in the bathroom. Not that someone was going to break in and steal from me, but I was always careful.

“Let’s go.” I grabbed Henrietta’s leash when I noticed it was almost five o’clock. “Time to pick up Trigger.”

Henrietta stretched out and opened her mouth into a yawn before she sauntered over to the door.

She liked to go outside and sit on the steps and sunbathe. I always put a leash on her so she wouldn’t dart off after a bird or something. But deep down, I didn’t want to take the chance of losing her. A fear I had. It seemed like I held on to dear life to all the people in my life in fear of them walking away from me. Then on the opposite side, I made sure I had a hard heart so I wouldn’t get hurt.

“We are going for a ride and then to Gia’s.” I clipped the leash on her before I opened the door and walked down the steps to the car.

Henrietta was used to riding in the car. I took her on a lot of client calls when I worked at Porty Morty’s. I enjoyed her company. She loved Gia. Since I had been gone all day, I couldn’t bear to leave her alone for the next few hours.

“What the hell is that?” Trigger snarled at Henrietta.

She had found a nice warm spot on the long dashboard of the Old Girl and curled up. I had a deep-set pang of envy when Henrietta barely squeaked open her eyes to get a look at the mobster. She didn’t have time for him. I wish I had felt the same and could have walked away.

“That’s the cab company’s mascot. Henrietta,” I lied, but it sounded good.

If I couldn’t find a job, I guessed I could open a taxi business. After all there wasn’t one in Walnut Grove.
Kitty Kab, Cat Cab,
all sorts of names formed in my head.

“Keep it away from me.” He curled his thick nose, making his cheeks fatter than they already were. “I can’t stand cats. Don’t trust them.”

“Feeling is mutual,” I muttered.

Trigger was unusually silent for most of the trip. He clicked away on his phone like he was texting someone. A few times Henrietta popped her head up and looked directly back at him as if she was keeping her eye on him too.

Trigger let out a few groans and snarls during his ride, but he never said a word until he got out at the Airport Hotel and gave me instructions to pick him up at nine a.m. the next morning.

I agreed only because that was part of my job as a newly employed undercover agent for the FBI.

As soon as Trigger had gotten out of the car, Henrietta got up and jumped down onto the passenger seat with her paws on the door. She loved putting her nose out the window, so I reached over and rolled down the window before we headed back to Walnut Grove to Gia’s house.

I was starving. And I couldn’t wait to tell her about my new job.

“It’s about time you got here.” Gia stood in the doorway on her small stoop with her hands on her hips. “I’ve been calling your phone and it’s dead.”

“Literally,” I grumbled under my breath and clipped on Henrietta’s leash.

“Do you think I come from a line of crazies?” I asked when Henrietta and I walked up to her house.

“What do you mean?” she asked and picked up Henrietta. 

Immediately Henrietta purred because she knew Gia was going to give her a good ear itching.

I followed them into the small ranch her father had given her when she got married to Carmine. He even had a fancy interior decorator come down from Louisville to help her make it exactly like Gia wanted.

She was modern to the core. All leather furniture, even leather kitchen chairs, stainless steel appliances and countertops, fancy Italian stoves (two) and bamboo flooring. Her walls were all sorts of color blocked brights from yellows to black. Gia, hands down, had the best decorated house in Walnut Grove.

We plopped down on her couch in the combo kitchen and family room. I pulled the orange bolster pillow into my lap and hugged it. Henrietta darted off to find the cat scratch stand Gia kept there just for her.

“You know where you come from.” I bit my lip. “I don’t. What if my parents were some sort of loons and I become some sort of loon?”

It was a valid question.

“What are you talking about?” The lines between Gia’s brows creased.

“I have this stomach thing. I wonder if I have an ulcer or something worse.” I pushed on my gut.

“Have you asked Trixie? I bet she knows something.” Gia shrugged. She sat down and reached over and put her hand on my leg.

“No. She always acts so offended when I ask her. Like she didn’t take good care of me, when she did.” I inhaled deeply before I let out a big worry sigh. “And she says I’m a hypochondriac with nothing to worry about.”

“Why are you worried? Is it the stress of losing your job?”

“No. Well, maybe since I am working undercover for the FBI.” I tried to contain my smile.

It was so cool to even think I was undercover.

“Okay. You might be a little stressed.” Gia didn’t seem as excited as me. She stood up and reached for the cordless phone on the coffee table. “I’m going to call my mom and see if she can get you into her psychiatrist like tomorrow.”

I jumped up and grabbed the phone out of her hands.

“You can’t do that! You can’t tell anyone. You are sworn to secrecy.” I held onto the phone for dear life.

“We aren’t in sixth grade, Laurel. You seriously need some help.” Gia took a deep breath. “Okay.” She sat back down and patted the couch for me to sit. “Why do you think you are working for the FBI?”

“Jax Jackson. He really isn’t here on business with the Underworld Music Festival. In fact, he didn’t even know about the festival until I spilled my guts to him the day I first drove him to the Windmill. He is here because they are keeping tabs on Trigger Finger Tony Cardozza.”

“What is the mob doing in Walnut Grove?” Gia asked.

“I don’t know. The FBI doesn’t seem to know.” My brows rose. “They just know that wherever he goes, trouble follows and he’s good at covering his tracks. But he gets dropped off at the docks and picked up by me every single day. Which makes me think that if someone is going to Porty Morty’s about the Underworld Music Festival, maybe Trigger has something to do with it.”

“What did Jax think about that?” Gia was getting all into it. I could see her wheels turning up in her head.

“We haven’t discussed it. He is all secretive and stuff.” I leaned back on the couch. “We are meeting up tomorrow to discuss what all the FBI wants me to do.”

“Oh God, Laurel.” Deep worry settled in Gia’s big brown eyes. “You can’t go putting yourself in danger.”

“He promised I wouldn’t be in any danger.”

Gia snapped her fingers. “Carmine said chopstick girl was there again today. When I told him to investigate the music festival, he said that there wasn’t anything on the account. I mean nothing on any accounts.” Her brows rose in curiosity. “Do you think chopstick girl could be part of all of this Trigger stuff?”

“I don’t know, but it’s a good question to look into.” I made a mental note to tell Jax.

“Carmine said that he thinks Morty is having money problems.”

“Money problems?” That didn’t make sense. Morty had had a ton of events on the books before I had left. “That’s too bad.”

“So back to Jax and this crazy FBI idea,” Gia coaxed me along.

I went ahead and told her everything from the cash, Trigger Finger Tony and the real finger I had tripped over in the tall grass on River Road.

Her face contorted all around along with a big long, “Ewww.”

“I know,” I agreed.

“Let’s see if any of this is on Google.” Gia went to the stove where she took the casserole out of the oven. “Chicken and rice. You’ll love it. While it cools, we can search the Internet.”

She turned the oven off and opened the laptop that was sitting on her kitchen table. She pushed it toward me.

“Go on. Search.”

“Anthony Cardozza.” I typed in his name and hit send.

“Jesus, Laurel. There are thirty pages of Google on him.” She reached around and used her long fingernail to move the mouse to the images button.

It didn’t take any time for a page full of Trigger Finger Tony to pop up, staring right back at us. The crooked grin in most of them. There were some pictures of him in floor length fur coats, stacks of jewelry, and women dripping off him.

“That’s him,” I confirmed. “The ring.” I pointed to all the pictures. “Every single person surrounding him has the same ring. Just like Jax said.”

“Who is she?” Gia pointed to the scantly-clad woman who dripped off Trigger like his gold necklaces.

“I don’t know. He just pays me to drive him back and forth from the docks to the Airport Hotel. We don’t talk personal life stuff. Really we didn’t talk at all tonight. He just told me to pick him up at nine a.m. tomorrow.”

I went back to the Google search screen and typed in Jax Jackson.

“There’s nothing here.” My eyes scanned down the screen. I put my finger at the top one and went down. “Surely I missed something.”

“Hmm. Click the images.” Gia pointed to the image search.

I clicked.

A ton of pictures turned up but none of them stood out as him.

“He doesn’t look like any of these people. Do you think he’s lying to you?” Gia asked a good question, putting a little doubt in my head. “You know I have a really good bullshit meter. And I have to say it dinged a little when I was around him at the bowling alley.”

“Well, he has been really secretive. He knew who Trigger was. He also didn’t want me to call Derek when I tripped on the finger.” I stared at a picture of a funeral on the screen.

All the men, dressed in black, were carrying a casket down the steps of what looked like an old church. I leaned down and looked closer.

“I need to make this one bigger,” I said.

“Click on it,” Gia said acting like I didn’t know my way around a laptop.

“Duh. I’ve been hacking computers a long time now. I know what I’m doing. Remember?” I reminded Gia of how we first met the day at the library. She was trying to check out a book but the librarian said she had to bring the others back first. Gia was so sad and cried. I followed her out of the library and told her that I could break into the library computer and wipe her library card clean. Of course she agreed. End of story.

“Shoot me.” She put her hands in the air. “You said you were going on the straight and narrow. And this.” She made a circular motion with her finger at the computer. “This is definitely not the straight and narrow.”

I clicked on the picture again which took me to the website where the picture was originally posted. It was the obituaries in The New York Times.

The accompanying article read:

Federal Bureau of Investigation officer Lance McAllister was gunned down during a raid with known mobster Anthony “Trigger Finger Tony” Cardozza. In attendance at his funeral were other FBI agents, including McAllister’s long-time partner Jax Jackson.

“Here!” I tapped my nail on the screen. “It says here that he’s an FBI agent and that his partner was killed in the line of duty. The FBI believed that Trigger Finger Tony Cardozza’s cartel was behind the hit.” I held my hand up in the air with my pointer finger tucked under. “Oh God, Gia. He is undercover. I’m freaking working for the FBI and the mob!”

Gia squealed so loud, Henrietta darted through the kitchen and down the hall.

“This is so awesome! I’m
so
jealous!” She jumped up and down. “This means you need a gun.”

“Gun?” That was something I so did not need.

“You have to protect yourself. Even if you don’t load it, you got to have it to wave around if something goes wrong.” She cocked her brows and twerked her head back and forth.

She was right. I would be a real badass if I carried a gun. Not that it would be loaded or anything, but if Trigger tried to pull something funny, I might be able to scare him with it.

Gia leaned back over the laptop and looked at the article.

“I hope he has your back.” Concern dripped out of her mouth.

“He said he was going to protect me.”

“Just like he had his
dead
partner’s back? About that gun.” Gia had me there. She knew exactly the right buttons to push. “Since you have a little bit of cash to spend,” she eyed me suspiciously, “we can look on Craigslist.”

“Fine.” The idea didn’t set well with me, but I knew it was something I had to do. I was in no situation to be without protection.

I typed in “hand guns” on Craigslist and a slew of them popped up.

“That’s cute.” Gia’s eyes twinkled. “Oh God! Laurel, you are so lucky!”

I sent the seller a quick email and made sure I told them I could only respond to emails.

“Remind me again how I’m lucky?” I couldn’t wait to hear what she had to say. Just a few short minutes ago I was ready to check myself into a behavioral health facility.