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“Close the door Gabe.” Abe stood at the window. He turned when his agent entered.
“Hey, Cap, what’s up?” Gabe flipped the chair around and straddled it, resting his arms across the back.
“Have you heard from Beckett?”
Gabe glanced around the room in question. Abe nodded his head to indicate the place was clean and safe.
“No, I haven’t, not since he called from the store by the Dane’s cabin.”
“My sources tell me Batt was gone a couple days. This morning he was spotted on the dock. Just makes me nervous about where he’s been.”
Gabe looked like he was about ready to ask a question, but the knock on the window stopped him. He turned toward the sound, Abe turned also. Connie Lopez pointed at a paper in her hand. He’d told her not to disturb him, it must be urgent.
He walked to the door, opened it, and ushered her in before he closed it again. “What’s up?”
“I don’t know if this has anything to do with your case, but two men were found in the trunks of some rental cars. Apparently they went to exchange with a customer who was having trouble with his rental car.”
Abe frowned and took the paper from her. He felt his stomach flip at the descriptions. Wordlessly, he handed the report to Gabe. After he read it, he gave a short whistle.
“You think this is Batt’s work?”
“It sounds like it. Knife across the neck, doesn’t it sound a bit too familiar?” Abe walked around his desk to sit down. “Connie, when did this come in?”
“About ten minutes ago.” She turned, opened the door, and walked out. With it still opened, she poked her head in. “Oh, and Detective Solomon wants to see you.”
“I don’t see him out there, where’d he go?”
“He told me he’d return in fifteen, he went to Starbucks.” She closed the door with a little snap.
Abe turned to Gabe. “What is it with that place? Isn’t the coffee here good enough for you?”
Gabe gave him a look that pretty much told Abe what he thought of the station coffee. “You’re joking right?”
“No, it does the job, keeps you awake when needed.”
“And burns a hole in your stomach and I wouldn’t doubt it causes ulcers.”
Abe decided not to reply since he did have ulcers and his doctor seemed to agree with Gabe. Instead, he picked up the file on the Battista case and thumbed through it. Frustratingly, little new information had been placed in it since Brennan Dane had been killed.
“You don’t think Batt got to Beckett and the Cavanaugh woman do you?” Gabe voiced aloud Abe’s fears.
“It is in the area of the cabin, and we haven’t heard from them. It doesn’t sound good. I think I’ll send someone to check it out.”
“There’s no phone service up there, maybe Beck hasn’t had any chance to call.”
“I’m still sending someone. Here comes Detective Solomon, maybe he has something for us.”
Abe stood and met the man at the door and let him in. “Pull up a chair.”
“Despain, I’m glad you’re here.” David Solomon sat in a chair next to Gabe, “Have you heard from Beckett?”
Gabe looked at Abe before replying. Abe was sure that David was a clean cop. Unfortunately, if Batt had been anywhere near the cabin someone had to have tipped him off.
Abe made the decision to answer, “He took the woman to the Dane’s cabin in the Catskill Mountains.”
“I read the report about the two rental car employees. I don’t need to tell you, it looks like Batt’s work. By your grim faces you haven’t heard from Beckett since.”
“No we haven’t. But if it is his work, how did he find out?”
“Who knew?” Detective Solomon flipped open a notebook he’d carried in with him.
“As far as I know, myself, and Agent Despain.”
“The Cap knows I’d never tip Batt off. I want to find the son of a bitch worse than you do. Brennan was a friend of mine.” Gabe twisted in his seat to glare at David. “What have you found out? Anything?”
“I’m sure both of you saw the forensic report Lola sent out. Nothing to prove it was Batt’s work. Since he stopped signing his work, there’s only speculation. Another case of—we know who did it, but we can’t prove it.” The man looked at Abe and then to Gabe again. “I’ve heard some rumblings on the street about some more girls on the dock.”
“Yeah I’ve been talking to Dane’s superiors and his partner. It seems he’d received a tip about something the morning before he was killed.” Gabe stood and flipped his chair around and sat down again. Abe wondered about him again, was he that good of friend to Beckett or was he a plant? “The only thing he’d told his partner was that if he found what he thought, then we’d be able to prove DeLuca was Hancock once and for all.”
“He must have had something good. Lola said she didn’t find anything on him to indicate he wasn’t just another random victim.” David turned his head to look out the window again. “Who is Beckett’s contact?”
“I am. He calls me on my satellite cell.”
Abe leaned his arms on the desk and gazed thoughtfully at the two men. “I’m trying to remember who had access to my office the morning you told me where the two were. As far as I know, no one had entered since it was swept for bugs.”
“Maybe you should check the surveillance camera.” David suggested.
“He has.” Gabe turned to Abe in question. “You have, right?”
“Why would I? Until that report came in about the rental car people, I didn’t have a reason to believe we’d had a breach.”
“Do you still have the tape?” Gabe asked him.
“Yes. But there’s been a couple days for someone to doctor it.”
“I’m sure the computer geeks could check it for that,” Gabe said.
Abe picked up the phone, “I’ll give security a call and have them pull the tapes for the last week and have them checked.”
“Do you think someone could have gotten to Beckett’s cell and put a GPS tracker in it?” David asked.
“No. He has one that only I have the number. He had one for his Hancock Industries contacts. He threw that in the river.” Gabe stood and walked to the window. Abe watched him. No, he was being paranoid thinking Beckett’s friend would feed him to Batt. Still, he’d look to see how current his background check was.
“Gabe, when you hear from Beckett again, I don’t think we should discuss it at the station.”
“I think you’re right, Cap.” Gabe turned to David. “What have you heard on the docks?”
“I put the word out to my most reliable snitches.” David snorted as he said the word. Abe agreed, how reliable was a snitch? “Anyway, Batt was spotted this morning on one of Hancock’s private docks. It was before dawn.”
“What was Battista doing?” Abe scooted forward in his chair, picked up his lucky pen, and pulled a pad out from under the pile of rubble that cluttered his desk.
“Apparently he was loading human cargo. Young girls. My snitch said he didn’t dare get too close. There were armed guards all over the place. Hancock was there and a girl.”
“A girl?” Gabe looked surprised. “You mean other than the ones being loaded up?”
“It looked like she was trying to calm the girls taken to the ship. Hancock stood next to her and apparently it looked like they were in deep discussion a lot of the time.” David looked at the captain then turned to Gabe. “Have either of you heard if his daughter, Rosa, is in the states? She’s got to be out of school now. I did some quick research and Rosa would be in her mid-twenties.”
“Christ, I don’t know, she’s been off the radar for so long I’d completely forgotten about her.” Abe ran a distracted hand through his thick gray hair. “Gabe, I want you to see what you can find out about Rosa DeLuca, when she finished school, where she went. Is she working abroad or did the bastard sneak her home to the fold to use her in some way?”
“Cap, you don’t think she’s working for us do you?” David looked out the office window at the people working in cubicles around the office. At least half were women.
“It’s a possibility. If she’s in the country, we’ll have to see who was hired around the same time. See if it fits.”
“Did your snitch give you a description of what she looked like?” Abe asked David, hoping they’d have a break. If she was in the country, maybe the bureau could get to her. She’d always been her father’s little darling.
“It was still too dark. He said he could barely tell she was a woman, and she looked small.”
“I guess it’s something to go on. Did the ship leave port?” Abe walked to the window and looked down on the street.
“Yes it went out with the tide. I went to the Port Authorities and they hadn’t received anything about a shipment going out for Hancock Industries. I reported the vessel to the Coast Guard. I asked them to report to me, but not to stop them. I’d like to know where it’s heading.”
“Good thinking. I’d like to know also. Beckett said that he’d heard mention of exporting underage prostitutes but nothing reliable that could be used as evidence. Maybe we’ve finally got a break. Together, with the report for San Fran, we could tie the two together. He’s becoming greedy operating on both coasts.” Abe exhaled through his teeth, “Be careful, NYPD can’t lose someone else like Dane, he was a good officer.”
Without turning from the window where he’d been standing during his speech, Abe called the meeting to an end. “I’ll let both of you know what security finds on those tapes, if anything. David, when you hear from the Coast Guard let me know, but it’s best we take this outside the office.” Finally he turned and walked to his desk. “Gabe let me know what you find on Rosa. From now on, nothing is discussed here or anywhere near the station.”
Gabe stood, looked around the room, then said, “Do we need to worry about this discussion?”
David stopped at the door as he was about to open it. “He’s right, I don’t want DeLuca to know we know about the ship or that we’re checking on Rosa.”
“I had it swept this morning in anticipation of speaking with Gabe. I haven’t been out of my office since, or no one has come in, with the exception of you two.” He couldn’t help it, his gaze swung to Gabe.
He watched as Gabe stiffened in defense. “It’s not me, Sir.” Without another word, he pulled the door open, almost taking David’s hand off in the process.
Detective Solomon gave a brief nod to Abe, then followed Gabe down the hall. He watched the two men for a moment, walked to the door and gently closed it. Once he was at his desk, he picked up the phone.
“This is Captain Abe Rothschild, I need a background check on a federal agent.”
*****
Gabe was at his car before he stopped to take a deep breath. How in hell could the captain think, for even a nanosecond, that he was a dirty cop? God, was the man looking at everyone or just him?
“For what it’s worth I don’t think the Cap really wants to believe you’re bad, he’s just being cautious.” David Solomon’s voice startled him. He turned and the detective stood with a hip leaning against a red mustang.
“Thank you. I’m not the mole. Someone is, but it’s sure as hell is not me.”
“Hey, not arguing here. Let the Cap do his checking, meanwhile, we’ll get on with business and do what we can to find Batt.”
Gabe glanced uneasily around the parking garage. It was the perfect place for bugs. Many discussions were held out by the cars at the end of the day. He watched the detective look around and then shoved away from the car.
“Let’s take this elsewhere.” Gabe looked at his watch, past lunch, no wonder he was hungry. “Let’s go grab a bite at Duke’s.”
“Sounds good. I’m walking, it’s too close to bother with a car.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
Gabe looked over the menu. They hadn’t talked on the walk, and by mutual agreement had decided to order first. Man, he could never decide what to eat. Barbecued ribs or Aunt Mae’s meatloaf?
The waitress came to take their order. After she left Gabe hunkered down to business.
“Did you tell the captain everything you know or what you’ve heard?”
“Yes. We all know that DeLuca’s exporting girls and importing black market prescriptions. But how do we stop him without solid proof. Every time anyone gets close, Batt’s there to take care of them. And until Ms. Cavanaugh ID’d him, no one knew what the hell the bastard looked like.” David paused while the returning girl placed their iced tea on the table. “Do you think those two rental car employees were killed by Batt?”
“Yes, I do. And I’m worried about Beckett. The two cars were found nowhere near the cabin, but still in the Catskill Mountains. Too close for it to be coincidence.”
“My snitch saw him this morning. He either didn’t get to Beckett, or finished him off in time to arrive at the dock in time for the shipment.”
“There’s no signal or phone at the cabin. Beckett had to call me from a pay phone at the convenience store.” Gabe took a swallow of his drink. He’d already shredded the napkin, a nervous habit of his.
“Can you call him?”
“I told him I wouldn’t, but hearing nothing isn’t a good sign. Keira Cavanaugh is the only witness we’ve ever had to testify against Batt.”
“Still won’t get us DeLuca. Batt won’t give up his boss,” David said in disgust. “Batt being his right-hand man though, once he’s behind bars, maybe DeLuca will make a mistake.”
“I’m going to call him. To hell with waiting. We need to know.”
Gabe punched in the number to Beckett’s secure phone.