Ralphie was the first to arrive, burdened down with boxes of donuts, bagels, and cream cheese, and two very large Thermoses of coffee.
“How is he doing?” he asked as he set the packages down on the table in the waiting room.
“He’s still critical,” Cam answered. “He’s in a coma. It’s minute to minute. Let me go tell Sonya that the food is here.” Cam rose and went down the hall to tell her new boss that the food had arrived. Alan and Max immediately opened the Thermoses and poured out large cups of the hot, dark brown liquid.
“What happened last night?” Ralphie asked.
“Well, whatever went down seems to be good for her,” Will grumbled, nodding toward Cam. “Sonya’s totally in charge now. I guess when you’re sleeping with the boss, you get what you want.”
“I doubt she had anything to do with Nick being shot.” Alan stood up for Cam. “If you’d been there he’d be just as shot.”
“I’m not saying that. I’m just saying that since she’s been here, everything seems to be working out for her.” Will still could not reconcile that someone had taken his place in the organization. “No one else gets everything she gets.”
“You’re just jealous,” Ralphie observed. “I like her.”
“You would. She speaks your language. One spic is as good as any other, especially now that the bitch is in charge.”
Ralphie set the Thermos down and looked away. He knew that Will was a racist but Will had never spoken to him like that before. If Nick or Maurice ever heard that talk they’d be pretty angry. Will could find himself out of a job, or even worse.
“Better not let HER hear you talk like that!” Alan warned as he saw Cam and Sonya walking down the corridor.
“How is he?” Max asked first, before anything else could be said.
“Not good.” Sonya frowned. “He was conscious for a few minutes but he’s running a fever. The doctors are worried there might be an infection in his shoulder blade.” She poured herself a cup of coffee. “Did you get hold of everyone?” she asked Ralphie.
Ralphie nodded. “They’ll be here by one. Maurice wanted to get the restaurant ready to open at three. He said to give you this.” He handed Sonya an envelope.
Sonya set it down on the table without opening it and proceeded to spread cream cheese on a bagel. As she took a bite of it, she picked up a cup of coffee and the letter and sat down on one of the overstuffed chairs.
Balancing the bagel between her teeth, she opened the letter and read it. A look of satisfaction eased over her face. A smile began to show, not too broadly, but it was a smile.
“Something I can help with?” Cam sat beside her with her cup of coffee.
“No. Not now. Maurice has a call in to a friend of his on the police force so we’ll know what the cops are doing about this. We may know more when he comes here this afternoon. Aren’t you going to eat anything? You haven’t eaten since the boys brought you that hamburger early this morning. What time is it?” Both she and Cam looked up at the wall clock. It was almost 11:45. “You’ve got to keep your strength up. We have a lot of work to do.” Sonya motioned for Alan to come sit by her. He walked over and slid into the seat next to hers, his cup of coffee in his hand.
“Do you think it would hurt or help if I went to Miami?” she asked him.
He took a long draw on his coffee and thought about her question for a moment.
“I’ll go down there and see what’s happening. If our Miami connection didn’t know anything about it, there’s no sense stirring up trouble. If there’s a problem, I’ll call you right away,” was his conclusion.
“When can you leave?” Sonya asked.
“If I can get a flight out tonight, I’ll go right after our meeting.”
Sonya nodded her head in agreement. Her eyes showed the anger that Cam had seen earlier. “Cameron, see if there’s a meeting room or some kind of empty room where we can meet. No sense in having visitors walking in and out while we’re talking. I suppose we could do it in the parking garage but I don’t want to be away from Nick that long.”
“Will do.” Cam was on her feet and out the door.
“Let me go call the airlines while we have a few minutes.” With that, Alan also left.
Sonya began to assess her resources. She looked up at the three men remaining in the room. Ralphie was honest and loyal but he was young and new at this job. He’d been in a gang when he was younger, so he had the basics. Maybe he just needed more experience.
Max had been with them for over five years. He was gold.
Will had his good days and his bad days and had a temper that left him the unknown factor in the equation. Maybe more responsibility or more money was needed there.
Cameron was in her pocket. She knew what made Cam tick. With Alan out of the country, she’d have to rely on her to watch Will.
Her mind was racing with the loose ends of the business. There had to be a way to recover from all this.
* * * *
“Control,” Cam whispered into the phone. She’d gotten to a phone as soon as she’d left Sonya sitting in Nick’s room. “Have Dickey arrest Officer Steve Krakowki of the BPD immediately. Make up something to keep him on ice. I’ll explain as soon as I can. I have been ordered to kill him.”
“Is he the mole?”
“Yes.” Cam hung up the phone before anyone walked in and saw her on the phone. Short and precise, the way she’d been told to call. Please, Maggie, she thought, please have Richard get him out of there before it’s too late.
She couldn’t think of anything else to do. She had to go along with Sonya’s orders.
* * * *
Cam had found an empty room along an adjacent corridor just outside of the ICU that would be empty until a new patient was admitted later in the day. They shouldn’t need it for more than an hour. It had just been cleaned and readied.
There were ten people in all. Cam wasn’t familiar with three of them but had seen them in the restaurant. One was the woman who’d placed the bag of groceries behind the bar while she ate.
Sonya was very brusque as she addressed the crew. “Nick’s going to be out of the picture for a few weeks and we have some problems to take care of before it’s business as usual. First of all, I’m in charge now. If any of you have a problem with that, let’s hear it now.”
There was a murmur of acceptance. Cam could see that everyone was in agreement, except Will, who remained stolidly silent.
“Good.” Sonya continued, “Until Nick is back on his feet, I want everyone to report to me, personally. If I’m not around you can go through Cameron but look for me first. You all know where I live and what phone to use.
“As you’ve probably heard, the last shipment of coffee came in with nothing but coffee in it. Alan will be checking on that tomorrow. Did you get a flight?”
Alan nodded. “At 8:15 tonight.”
“Good. Be careful. Maurice, did you learn anything from your police contact?”
“Nothing except the fact that they’re not working on this too hard,” Maurice growled. “I guess Nick’s not important enough for them to worry about. Wally said to give them just a little while to get this organized.”
“Then it must be one of them that shot him,” Max interjected. “You can always smell a police cover-up.”
“That’s probably very true,” Sonya agreed, “but it’s not getting us anywhere. I need all of you to check with your resources and see if anything is out on the street about this. Someone must know something. It had to be someone who knew him and knew he’d be at the warehouse.”
“How is he?” Maurice asked.
“He’s sleeping right now. The nurses are keeping a close check on him; they’re watching his fever. I’m not sure what the fever means but it can’t be good. The doctor said that if Cameron hadn’t gotten the police and ambulance as fast as she did, he probably wouldn’t be alive now.”
There was a small round of applause for Cam, who dipped her head modestly, with a frown.
“He’s in ICU and they only allow family members to visit him. Maurice, you can go in if you’d like.”
Maurice nodded gravely.
“Next,” she continued, “I’d like the three of you—“ She pointed at the new people, “—to help Ralphie clean up the warehouse. I understand that there are fifteen cartons of coffee beans spread out there. Cam and Nick kept most of it in the boxes, but all the packages had to be opened and poured out. Try to save as much as you can and bring it over to the restaurant. Maurice.” She smiled for the first time. “I think you’re gonna have more coffee than you can handle.”
“I think we can find a use for it. We’ll run a special on it. I’m sure that Wes can come up with some recipes. Just be prepared for coffee cake, coffee Jell-O, coffee-flavored ice cream, and coffee everything.”
That brought a laugh from everyone.
“Good.” Sonya smiled. “It may not be the very best menu for everyone but at least we’ll all be awake.”
“Hey, if we sell it on the street, we could get the whole neighborhood wired, then they’d have to come to us for something to relax with.” It was one of the three new people, John, who made the suggestion. Everyone nodded and laughed at his wit.
“Okay,” Sonya said when they’d all quieted down, “We also need to find out why we weren’t warned about that boat incident. Again, listen out there on the street. Someone knows something. There’s always someone who knows. It’s just finding them. Nick and Cameron almost lost their lives there. If Cam hadn’t had the experience with that one narc, she wouldn’t have seen what was coming and gotten them out of there in time.” She smiled at Cam. “Now, I’m posting a twenty thousand dollar bounty on whoever shot Nick. I want it to stay within the family, but if someone outside knows, we can work that out, too. There will also be very generous bonuses for everyone who helps to get us through this. I don’t have to tell any of you that this is all confidential. Any questions?”
A low murmur went around the room when she mentioned the money.
The questions went on for the next few minutes. Cam watched all the faces and tried to see what each was thinking. Was it concern about Nick? About their job? About the heroin? About the accident? About working for Sonya? Finally Sonya closed the meeting and sent everyone away with a task.
“Cam, Will, and Ralphie, stick around for a moment, will you?”
Alan stopped to whisper his good-byes and Sonya wished him well and “be careful.”
Everyone else picked up their jackets and nodded good-bye as they walked out into the corridor. Max and John walked Maurice back toward the ICU.
“Ralphie, how are those three doing?” Sonya whispered when the room was clear.
“They’re okay. Lucy says she can do another kilo a week if things keep up as they’ve been going. John also is increasing his market.”
“Good. They seem to be under control. I may need you to do some other things, too.”
“Anything you want, boss.” Ralphie smiled.
“Cameron.” Sonya turned to look at her, “You know our friend, Mr. K. I think he needs to be visited. You’ve got to find out what’s happening with him. I think Nick gave you an assignment concerning him. If you think it needs to done, then you’ll have to do it. Take Will and Ralphie with you in case Mr. K gets too rambunctious. Sometimes just the presence of more than one person is intimidating enough to find out what you want.”
Cam nodded. She’d hoped that she would have this all to herself so she could keep from killing him; she’d turn him over to Deems or make some deal. But with Will around, she wasn’t quite sure how she’d handle it.
“How soon do you want it done?” Cam asked.
“As soon as possible. Tonight would be just fine. I want to get this out of the way. I hate loose ends.” That said, Sonya picked up her bags and walked toward Nick’s room.
Tonight? Cam’s heart started to race. Hopefully Maggie had gotten in touch with Dickey and Steve wouldn’t be around tonight.
“What kind of assignment did Nick give you?” asked Ralphie.
“Several people want this dipstick dead,” was Cam’s answer. “But maybe he just needs to be scared a little,” she lied.
“Nick would never just say to scare someone. He’d agree to take them out,” Will challenged her.
“You can do that?” Ralphie was in awe, looking from Will to Cam.
“If I have to.” Cam picked up her jacket and left the room, feeling sure that she heard Will mumble “Yeah. Right.”