Kent Conwell - Tony Boudreaux 01 - Galveston (19 page)

That’s when I looked again at the shelves lining the walls. A surge of hope caught in my throat. The shelves were free standing. While they wouldn’t carry the impact of a Queen Mary, loaded as they were, they could provide enough confusion for us to get the jump on the two goons—maybe.

I caught Virgil’s attention, then nodded to the shelves.

He frowned.

I eyed the top of the shelf behind the nearest thug, then pointed at the ground with a finger.

His eyes lit in momentary understanding before his lips mouthed the word, how.

Rubbing my hands together, I nodded to the bathroom.

A faint smile ticked up the edge of his lips.

I called to the guard nearest. “Hey. I need to use the john.”

The other one growled. “You stay where you are, buddy. Nobody moves.”

I shook my head. “You’ll be sorry.”

The second one interrupted. “Go ahead. I can watch him from here, Sid. No sweat.” He jerked his head toward the bathroom. “I said go ahead. And leave the door open,” he added.

“Watch’m good, Mert.”

Mert watched until I started washing my hands. I suppose that wasn’t as intellectually stimulating as the cartoons for he turned back to the Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote.

Virgil and I locked eyes as I started from the bathroom.

Just before I reached for the shelves, the door burst open, ripped from its hinges. All I spotted was a figure wearing sunglasses leaping through. I thought I saw his hair fly off, but I was too busy yanking the shelves over on Mert who was still in his chair, knocking him over backward to the floor and covering him with rolls of toilet paper.

I followed the paper, landing on the shelves and slamming the edge of a shelf into the bridge of his nose. He cried out. Blindly, his fist shot up through the tumble of toilet paper rolls, just grazing my jaw.

All I could see of Mert beneath the rolls of toilet tissue and urinal cakes were his two arms flailing wildly between the metal shelves that still lay on top of him. I did the best I could, slamming my own fists into the rolls of tissue just about where I thought his head was.

Suddenly, I hit something hard. I couldn’t tell if it were the metal shelf or Mert, but I hit it again.

I must have been hitting Mert for his flailing arms stiffened, then dropped limply to the pile of toilet tissue.

Just as I looked up, a gunshot boomed followed by a curse, and then an excited voice yelling “take this, and this, and this.”

I was surprised to see Ted Morrison straddling Sid, pummeling him unmercifully as the thug vainly tried to ward off the blows.

Rolling off the rack of shelves, I scrabbled about for Mert’s revolver, fumbled with it, then stumbled to my feet and yelled at Abbandando’s two goons. “Back off. Get your hands up.”

Virgil lay groaning a few feet away. Janice knelt at his side.

Morrison jerked his head around in alarm, but when he saw me holding the revolver, he closed his eyes and sighed with relief.

The second revolver had flown from Sid’s hand when the door slammed into him and landed against the far wall. I retrieved it and jammed it under my belt.

The thug beneath Morrison groaned. Morrison grabbed him by the labels and drew back his fist.

“That’s enough, Morrison,” I shouted. “He’s had enough.”

Janice looked up and her eyes grew wide when she saw Morrison. “Ted. What—What are you doing here?” She looked at me, confused. “Tony, what’s going on?”

Still clutching Sid by the lapels, Morrison looked up, his fist poised for another blow. He didn’t recognize Janice. He looked at me.

That’s when I noticed he was wearing red overalls. I shook my head. “I said that’s enough. Let him go.”

He nodded and leaned back, releasing the unconscious goon’s lapels and letting his head bounce off the floor.

With a shaky laugh, I muttered. “I’m glad you dropped in when you did.”

Agitated, he glanced around the room. “Where’s Abbandando?”

“What do you mean?”

Morrison spun on me, his face twisted in anger. “I saw you running with the diamonds before Abbandando stopped you. I thought he was up here with you.”

Janice hurried to him. “Ted, are you all right?”

He stared at her. “Yeah. Yeah. I’m fine.” He hesitated, glanced at me, then back to Janice. “Who are you?”

Janice pressed her hand to her lips in shock. She looked at me in disbelief.

I didn’t know what else to say except, “Ted, this is your cousin, Janice Coffman-Morrison.”

Chapter Twenty-One

He stared at her for several seconds before looking back at me. “You didn’t tell her?”

His question jarred Janice from her stunned shock. “Tell me … ”

“No.” I shook my head. “There hasn’t been time.”

“Tell me what?” Her tone became more demanding. She shook my arm. “Tony. Tell me what?”

Before I could reply, the sound of sirens and screeching tires filled the air. I hurried to the bathroom window and peered down at the dock. My blood ran cold. Sergeant Jim Wilson was at the head of a squad of armed cops and they were racing into the warehouse.

“Who is it?” Morrison called out.

I couldn’t help glaring at him suspiciously. “Your buddy, Wilson. Sergeant Jim Wilson.”

He gave me a puzzled look. “Wilson? I don’t know any Wilson.”

Janice called from the other room. “Tony, hurry. Your friend needs a doctor. He’s bleeding bad.”

I jammed the revolver in my pocket and muttered a curse. I had no choice but to believe him. “Come on, Morrison. Help me get him out of here.”

He hesitated.

With a shrug, I said. “Abbandando and the diamonds are long gone, Morrison. Forget them.” It was a small lie, worth only, say about thirty million or so. As soon as I told it, my conscience started nagging at me. I did my best to ignore it.

He studied me a moment, shook his head in disgust, and reached for Virgil.

We hoisted him between us, his arms over our shoulders. Janice led the way to the elevator. I called to her. “The stairs. They’ll be watching the elevator.”

She glanced over her shoulder and frowned. “And not the stairs?” She continued toward the stairway.

Beyond the stairs, another one hundred feet, I spotted a sign, ‘emergency exit.’ I nodded to it. “That one. Take the emergency exit. Maybe they’ll overlook it.”

Just as we reached the door, the elevator bell chimed behind us. We jerked open the emergency exit and slammed the door as racing footsteps echoed down the hall.

Virgil was a dead weight. We stumbled down the stairs with him. Between clenched teeth, I muttered to Morrison. “You don’t know Wilson? He’s in thick with Abbandando and Briggs.”

Morrison shot a glance at me. “I never heard Cheshire say nothing about a dirty cop by that name.”

Virgil groaned.

Janice stayed half-a-floor ahead of us, signaling us at each level to continue. Finally, we reached the ground floor.

Pausing to catch my breath, I stared at the closed door. My conscience got the better of me. “If I’m not mistaken, this door opens onto the dock. The pickup you put the diamonds in is no more than a hundred away. I didn’t—”

“I know. I saw Abbandando take them from you.”

Morrison had interrupted me before I could tell him the truth, which I quickly decided was a sign that Fate wanted me to keep the secret to myself.

“Diamonds!” Janice’s jaw dropped open. “What diamonds?”

I nodded to the door. “Time enough for that later. Open the door, and let’s go.”

She flung open the door, and we froze.

Glaring at us with drawn revolvers and cold resolve in their eyes were six Galveston cops with Sergeant Jim Wilson at their head.

When he saw me, the grim frown on his face faded, replaced with a broad grin. “Am I glad to see you, Boudreaux. I thought we were too late.” He gestured to a couple of his men. “Adams, Wolfe, get these people to the squad car. You others get inside. Find Abbandando and Briggs.”

If Wilson’s reception hadn’t confused me enough, his orders sent my head spinning. Before I could put together any kind of question, the two officers hustled us to a cruiser.

So much had happened so quickly that I didn’t even have time to think about the diamonds during our rush to the hospital. Once there, we carried Virgil to the emergency room where doctors and nurses hustled us out and turned back to their patient.

The three of us, Janice, Morrison, and me, found ourselves in the waiting room staring at each other. The two uniforms, Wolfe and Adams stood just outside the door, making sure we waited for Sergeant Wilson.

I wasn’t sure if I should tell Wilson about the diamonds or not. What if someone stumbled across them? But who? I glanced at the closed door, anxiously awaiting Wilson’s return.

I tried to put events of the last few days in perspective, but regardless of the storyboard I drew, it had a dozen empty holes and incidents for which there was no explanation.

The reason Morrison had returned was obvious, the diamonds. But why had Wilson saved us? What did he mean by sending the cops after Abbandando and Briggs? Why had he earlier been trying to find Morrison?

Janice broke into the turmoil tumbling about in my skull. “What diamonds were you two talking about, Tony?”

Turning to Morrison, I said. “Maybe you better explain it. You’re the one who put them in the pickup.

He grinned sheepishly. “You had me figured out, huh?”

“Yeah. For someone who was planning on leaving town, you waited around a spell.”

He ducked his head. “Now, Tony. I didn’t exactly tell you when I was leaving, just that I was going.” He shrugged and shot a furtive glance at the two cops at the door. “I don’t see any way out of here right now. Abbandando’ll probably be gone when we get back, just like you said. Him and the diamonds.”

I shrugged nonchalantly. “Probably.”

Janice exclaimed in frustration. “Will one of you tell me about the diamonds? Ted? You know about them? “It’s obvious Tony won’t tell me.”

Morrison studied me a moment. “Why not? And there are one or two other things you need to know, Miss Coffman.”

“Miss Coffman?” A puzzled frown wrinkled Janice’s forehead. “Is this some kind of joke, Ted?”

“No, Ma’am. It isn’t. And I’m not your cousin.”

Her eyes widened in disbelief as Morrison told his story, about the DNA deception, the smuggled diamonds. “Truth is, I didn’t care about you or your aunt. It was just a hustle. I figured on picking up a few hundred thousand, but that was before my hustling just about got me measured for a six-foot deep hole. Then I wanted out. That’s why I told Tony about you and the DNA business. I just want a clean break.” He gave me a crooked grin. “Truth is, I’m glad the diamonds are gone. Who needs them? I figure I can make a good living selling used cars.”

I was feeling pretty good about then.

Janice stared at him in shock for several seconds. Slowly, she turned to me. “Why didn’t you tell me, Tony?”

I closed my eyes and leaned back on the couch, suppressing my laughter.

“I don’t see what’s so funny.”

Leaning forward, I laid my hand on hers. “This morning at the motel was the first time I’ve seen you since Morrison, or whatever his name is, told me the truth. We’ve been pretty busy since then, too busy to sit and chat.”

“But—“

At that moment, Sergeant Jim Wilson entered. He stopped when he saw me and nodded. “Well, Boudreaux. It’s all wrapped up. We got Abbandando and Briggs on the run. We busted their little organization into a hundred pieces.”

I eyed him warily. “Briggs? But, I thought you … You’re not part … I thought that you and Briggs … Well … ” My words faded away.

He shrugged. “I had to keep you off balance. Your exploits, for better or for worse, caused Briggs to get careless. He was afraid those good old boys he’d been taking bribes from would get cold feet and back out, so he and Abbandando planned to get rid of you like they did Albert Vaster. We have it all on tape, and right now, all of their records are being confiscated.” He chuckled. “I imagine there will be more than one CEO who is going to have quite a headache tomorrow.”

I gestured to Morrison. “Off-balance, huh? Is that why you called me at the motel looking for him?”

“No. Briggs didn’t know about him. I’d got word some of the meat eaters on the force were after Morrison. I wanted to put him where he wouldn’t be hurt. I’d been sent in here by the Attorney General in Austin three years ago to nail Briggs and his bunch. We knew Briggs and Abbandando were bedmates, but it took your fumbling around to force them to make their mistakes.”

His assessment of my achievements wasn’t any too flattering. “But you were my informant.”

He grinned sheepishly. “Sorry for lying, but I couldn’t take a chance on you talking to the wrong person.”

I frowned. “What about the first call? The one saying Cheshire was in the smuggling caper with Maranzano?”

Wilson shook his head. “Not me. From the phone records, it looks like it was Briggs. Obviously, he was trying to shift your investigation to Maranzano.”

 “So then it was Briggs who sent those goons after me. The drive-by, the mugs on the dock, even the shooter at the cement company. All were sent by Briggs.”

Wilson arched an eyebrow. “And Abbandando. He was the one who sent you a bodyguard. That bothered us at first until we found out it was Virgil.” He cleared his throat. “Nobody buys Virgil. He’s one of us we sent in here a couple years back.”

I shook my head in wonder. “How’d you find us at the warehouse?”

He chuckled. “Well, my contacts were keeping an eye on you, but we lost you. Maranzano tipped us to your situation.”

“Maranzano?” It was my turn to stare in disbelief.

Wilson nodded. “Yeah. Seems like he got a call from Joe Vaster to keep an eye on you. Apparently, when Mister Vaster talks, Sam Maranzano listens.”

“Joe Vaster?” I grinned crookedly. He worked fast. I’d only spoken to him a few hours earlier.

“One of his boys worked for Maranzano. A bald-headed goombah. Joe put him there to keep his eyes on Sam. He was the one who passed the word.”