Dark Carnival Murders (11 page)

"She’s smart like me, so
she’ll get in early."

"She’s not your blood
relation."

"So, she picks up from me
every day, she’s a fast learner."

"Whatever, I’m out of
here."

I went out the door to my
van and drove over to Sonic for a burger and onion rings. I enjoyed
my meal and then headed to visit Lynn and Deacon. I went into the
back door of the precinct and the officer at the sign-in counter
waved me through. It was nice to feel like I was part of the team.
I had helped with enough cases to qualify as being part of the
LVMPD. I still had my auxiliary police badge, which no one asked
for it’s return, so I considered myself to be part of the
force.

I didn’t find Lynn or
Deacon in her office, but Deacon was now part of Vice so he didn’t
hang out here much, I would miss him. I could go over to Vice and
visit, maybe check out the women they pulled in, but Penny would
smell it on me, so not a good idea.

Warren was at his desk and
saw me. "Lynn is in with Weber, I hope she gets out
alive."

I went over and sat next
to Warren’s desk and asked, "Now why would Weber harm
Lynn?"

"He’s bothered by the fact
that Lynn is homicide and the case she’s following is kidnapping
and human trafficking, plus now robbery. I’m sure she’ll wiggle her
way out of it, Weber is getting soft lately. Maybe he’s losing it,
he’s been on the force forever."

"He’s a strange little
man, but he’s harmless," I said. I looked over to the lobby hallway
and saw Lynn coming out to the squad room. She saw me and waved me
to her office, I went.

"So what did Weber have to
say?" I asked.

"He fumed about the cost
of our busted bust last night but I explained the whole case to him
and he’s going along with me. He worries about missing children
too. He’s assigning a small task force to this, but with what you
told me, we may be able to clear this up soon."

"I hope we aren’t
disappointed. We’ll see how the kidnapping goes tonight, hopefully
it won’t queer the deal for tomorrow night. We need to think this
out carefully," I said.

"You’re right, if we grab
the kidnappers tonight they may move the boys somewhere else. I may
need to have the women be kidnapped for the duration just to keep
this thing going. I hope they can take it."

"You’re people are pros,
they can do it. Besides if they take the women to the same place as
the kids, our problems are solved."

"I hope so, I want to
bring this case to an end, and we need to get the boys back
safely."

I looked over to see
Deacon walking down the hallway towards us. He grinned when he saw
me sitting by Lynn’s desk in his usual chair.

"Taking my place now," he
said as he came in the room.

"No one can replace you
pal. Are you sick of the hookers yet?" I said.

"Close," he said with a
side glance to Lynn. "The women are not anything I’d want to spend
time with. They aren’t the finest females in the world. Not like my
wife," he threw in for luck.

"You are one smart man,
bunny bear," Lynn said with a grin.

"Please don’t start the
bunny bear stuff again. I’m still trying to live down the last time
you were mad at me and let everyone in the squad hear you call me
that. I’m even getting it over in vice now."

"Sorry my dear, I can’t
call it back now so just wear it as a badge of honor."

"Bunny bear is not a badge
of honor. So how’s the case going? Find the boys yet?" he said
changing the subject.

"Close, but still no
cigar. Buck told me today that the boys are being auctioned off
tomorrow night," I said. "At least we know the boys are still alive
and close."

"Are you still in need of
the women for the kidnapping?"

"Yep, it’s going on again
tonight, but we have to be careful in grabbing the criminals so
they don’t change the auction tomorrow and we lose the boys," Lynn
said with a sigh.

My cell phone buzzed, I
pulled it from my pocket and saw by the caller ID it was Angelo. I
excused myself and went out to the squad room to answer.

"Talk to me my friend," I
said.

"Just wanted to fill you
in on the situation with Mom and Penny, they are done with the show
and I dropped them off at WonderSpa, they’re probably soaking in
mud by now."

"Thanks for the update but
you don’t have to keep me informed."

"That’s not the only
reason I called, I got word from my gypsy friends, they say they
can’t find anything on the man called Jacob Dark, but they tracked
down Lucius Cole."

"Where’s he
at?"

"In Vegas, the gypsies say
there is no real Jacob Dark, it’s a front for the carnival. Jacob
Dark is actually Lucius Cole."

*

Chapter 15

"Oh man, that is great
info, thanks, I’ll tell Lynn. Anything else you have?"

"Nope, that’s all I got,"
he said.

"Good, have a nice visit
with your friends, or you can stop by and follow us."

"Sure, if I get bored
listening to shop talk by my leg breaker friends," he said with a
loud laugh, then hung up.

I went back to Lynn’s
office and sat on the chair I vacated. "Got some good news," I
said.

"Okay, talk."

"There is no one named
Jacob Dark." I sat waiting for a moment.

"Jim cut the suspense,
what are you talking about?"

"Jacob Dark is Lucius
Cole. Dark is the carnival’s name and he’s calling himself by that
name."

"Okay that’s interesting;
I guess he wants to keep up a front. That must be why Warren
couldn’t get anything on him as a person. I never trusted criminals
who use an alias."

"This doesn’t change much
other than we know he is hiding behind the name. We just know more
about the man now. Okay, I don’t feel like sitting here until the
sting tonight so I’m going to go back to the office and try to look
like I work there." I stood and saluted, then left.

"Same room, same time,"
Lynn yelled to me, I responded by waving my hand.

I drove out Industrial
road to our new office, parked and went in. The cowbell that Lacey
attached to the back door clanged, letting Lacey know someone came
in. She was probably watching the security monitor to see who it
was. I waved to the camera as I went to my office and sat at my new
desk. She came bouncing down the hallway and into my
room.

"I got to talk to Mac this
morning; he was telling me they may be done tomorrow night. This is
good, I was starting to forget what he looked like."

"Lacey, you are such a
drama queen. Maybe you can get your own show at Caesar’s Palace,
after Rod Stewart, or is Celine Dion back yet?"

"She’s coming back, but I
don’t think she’d want me after her show, people may forget about
her," she laughed and went off.

"I’m surrounded by
loonies," I said and checked my email on my computer.

~~*~~

Buck was just slowing down
the ride when two women came up and said the phrase he was waiting
for. He smiled and gave them the instructions for tonight. They
went off as Buck and Mac went back to running the
round-up.

From across the midway,
Skeeter was watching Buck closely. He had seen the meeting of the
women and thought it was a bit brief for trying to coax the females
to a party. Maybe Dark was right, they may have some other motive
for their actions.

Skeeter went off to report
to Dark.

~~*~~

My phone buzzed, it was
Penny. "Hey sexy, are you all primped and poised now?"

"My body tingles with
energy. You better be ready tonight for a little
action."

"Well, I may be a little
late tonight, the kidnapping is going on again so just have a good
time with Francis and I’ll be home when I can."

"You are just a kill-joy
aren’t you?"

"I’ll make it up to
you."

"You better or I’ll have
Gino have a serious talk with you." She laughed as I asked her
where she was. She said at the house for now, they were going to a
show at the Flamingo. Angelo was still driving.

I said to have a good time
and we’d talk later, then hung up. I felt a little guilty having
our mob friends in town and I was busy. I’m sure Angelo is probably
filling them in on what was going on.

Earl walked into my office
and sat. "What’s up?"

"Well, the snatch is going
on again tonight, if it doesn’t get canceled at the last minute." I
explained everything new that came up today.

"So, same situation as
before?"

"Yep, if nothing screws
up. Are you still in for it?"

"You bet, I’m ready to
take down a few kidnappers."

"But that’s the thing, we
can’t take them down without giving away our intentions and
screwing up the auction of the boys. We have to walk through this
carefully."

"Got it, let me know when
we are heading over to the Luxor, I’ll be ready."

"You haven’t said much
about Paula? Is she still with you?"

"Hell yeah, she’s really
happy to be here in Vegas. She has this secret desire to be a
dancer on stage, I need to talk to Buck to see if Maria can get her
a try-out for her show."

"It’s a topless show, do
you think you can share Paula’s great breasts with the rest of the
world?"

"What do you know about
Paula’s breasts?" Earl gave me a big grin.

"I may be married to Penny
but I’m not dead, well, close to it."

"I’ll tell her you said
that."

"Go ahead, she’s used to
me by now. So shall we go get something to eat and kill time till
we go save the world?"

"Sounds good to me. I
suppose we’re going to Sonic?"

"Let’s go to Carl’s Jr.
this time, just for a change."

We went out after I told
Lacey that we would be gone the rest of the day. We headed to the
closest Carl’s Jr. and ate, then I drove by the house to see if the
women were still there, they were.

"Sweetie, you just
couldn’t stay away, and you brought my boy toy," she said with a
laugh and kissed me, then Earl.

"Hey stop that, he doesn’t
deserve a kiss. Hello Francis, how are you doing?" I said to her as
she came over to give me a hug. Angelo was standing in the kitchen
and came out to the living room to greet us.

"I’m doing very well Jim.
I hear you are chasing down some despicable person who kidnaps
children?" Francis said.

"Yes we are. We have an
ongoing investigation tonight to stop human trafficking. Sounds
like when we were out in New York," I said.

She laughed and said,
"Yes, and you got shot as I remember, don’t do that
again."

"I have Earl to jump
between me and a bullet tonight."

He looked at me, "I’m
sorry, but when did I sign up for that?"

"You know you love me," I
said and turned back to Francis, "Where’s Gino?"

"He’s doing his business.
I don’t get involved, I learned early in the life that the men take
care of the business and we enjoy the spoils. Are you hoping to get
the boys back?"

"Always, I’m sure we will.
Thanks for your concern, now we have to go back out to fight the
bad guys," I said before I thought that Gino was technically a bad
guy according to the law. "We need to do something fun before you
go home," I said changing the subject. "I’ll let Penny plan
something special. Our case should be tied up by tomorrow night, we
have good info that we can find the boys."

"Wonderful Jim, please
bring them home safely," Francis said.

~~*~~

Closing time at the
carnival. Buck and Mac had shut down the ride and saw the women
coming up the midway. They greeted them and then went off to their
cars. Skeeter was watching at a distance, then followed
them.

Buck pulled into the Luxor
parking structure and parked. He guided the women, new ones this
time from the last, to the lobby and up to the tenth floor again.
They arrived at the door after passing our door. Lynn had the door
open slightly and Buck saw her, just to let him know we were ready.
Earl and I were standing by the table where they had the
communication equipment set up. We could hear Buck talking to Mary,
the female cop with the wire.

"You’re going to enjoy
this party girl," he was saying as he knocked at the door. Lynn had
the room bugged last night, it still was working and we could hear
the men in the room giving orders to be ready.

Everyone in our room was
tense, we had no idea what to expect, but we were ready. Lynn gave
Mary a code word in case things went bad. She listened closely for
it.

The door opened and Louie
was there to greet them. "Hey Buck come on in and bring your
friends."