The Last Note (Mystical Marvels Mysteries Book 2) Read online

  Lou tapped on Brad’s door. Brad went to the door and said, “Who is it?”

  “Lou. I’ve got a question about Bloomberg. Let me in.”

  “Hold on a sec. Let me throw some clothes on.” He motioned for the others to grab the papers and go into the spacious bathroom.

  Lou stood at the door smiling. They were all there. He heard the faint rustle of papers and clothing. Did they really think after forty years as a cop, he couldn’t detect an attempt to hide something?

  “Sorry about that Lou. Didn’t think you were ready this early to see me in my skivvies. What can I do for you?”

  “I’m been thinking about Conti and Bloomberg. Have you come up with anything else on them or this guy Richter?”

  “Actually, I was going to work on that. Just moving a bit slower than normal this morning. We drank a lot last night.”

  “Yeah, I see you have some emails on your screen. Anything of interest?”

  “No, just some clients having questions.”

  “That right? Erin, you can come out now. I know you and the rest are in there,” Lou said knocking on the bathroom door.

  Erin slowly opened the door and walked into the room. “How did you know?”

  “Birdie saw her nephew going into the coffee shop. Figured something was going on. They sent me to check. Also, Clara twisted the fact that Wade was coming here out of him.”

  “So much for a clandestine operation,” Erin said sighing. “Those women have built in radar. Even as a teenager I couldn’t get anything past them.”

  “Have a seat Lou and we’ll fill you in. We could use your insights and years of experience,” Brad admitted. He explained what they were planning on doing. A couple of times Lou raised his eyebrows and shook his head, but remained quiet until he heard the whole plan. “Well, what do you think? Will it work?”

  He hesitated before he answered. “Do you know what Richter looks like? I thought that he never has been seen in public.”

  “I found an old picture of him when he was at Oxford as a student. I used the aging program and got what we think is a pretty close likeness of what he looks like today.”

  Lou nodded. “Okay. Let’s see it. When’s the arrival supposed to happen?”

  “He hasn’t said yet. His last email said to wait for his arrival and we’d be told the meeting place then. He wants to stay in control obviously.”

  There was a knock at the door. When Brad opened it Wade walked in. “Wow this is quite a meeting.”

  “You know people, this is silly,” Erin said. “It’s apparent that everyone is aware of what’s going on. Wade, does Clara know you’re coming here?” Wade’s face colored and reluctantly nodded. “That’s what I thought. Folks I say we go to my suite and continue our meeting.”

  They all paraded to the new venue. Sitting there waiting for them was Dottie, Vi, Birdie, Clara and the newest member, Sophia. “Greetings, ladies,” Erin said.

  “Sit,” Dottie directed with a smile. “Now suppose you young people fill us old broads in on what’s going on.”

  Brad started the explanation with help from Erin. “Sean, do you understand that you could be arrested for dealing with an international criminal?” Clara asked.

  “That’s why we called Wade. He’ll go with me when I meet with Interpol as well as Krauss and Richter. Erin’s going also, posing as my manager in case there’s trouble.”

  “Erin, you thought you could be a one man army for Richter and his thugs?” Lou asked a bit dismayed at her naiveté. “I would predict that Richter will want you to board his plane and have the meeting there. He’ll then keep Sean and either kill you and Wade or throw you both off while flying at an altitude of 10,000 feet. There again he may keep Erin so he has leverage over Sean, to insure that the songs keep coming. Wade, he’ll get rid of you.”

  The room was silent. “Then we won’t agree to get on the plane,” Erin said somewhat defiantly.

  Lou smiled. “Would you do it if one of the girls was being held?”

  “We get your point Lou. What’s your suggestion?” Brad asked. “We’re just trying to figure out a way to end this.”

  Lou thought a minute. “I’m thinking we use Conti and Bloomberg. How does this sound to everyone?” He then explained his changes to their plan.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Lou, Wade, Sean and Erin met with two Interpol representatives at one of the resort’s restaurants. The agents gave them a phone that they were to use as soon as Richter called them. They outlined what they guessed Richter would do, but told them that he had not stayed free all these years because he was predictable. Chips were given to them to attach to their buttons so that Interpol could hear what was going on. They were to make certain that the chips were on them at all times and not covered up.

  “Under no circumstances get on their plane. None,” said the agent who apparently was in charge. “We believe his plane has landed in Boston for refueling already so he should be on his way here soon. The moment you hear from him contact us.”

  “Okay,” Erin said.

  “The FBI has eyes on Conti and Bloomberg, so they shouldn’t be a problem for you.”

  What Lou thought but didn’t express was that someone like Richter didn’t run that kind of international crime syndicate without loyal employees everywhere. They may even be watching us right now.

  * * *

  “So Interpol is with them?” Richter said with laughter in his voice. In Boston he watched the FBI try to conceal themselves as drivers for the fuel truck. They really should have changed their shoes and grown their hair longer. They stick out from a hundred feet away. He had his pilot file a flight plan for Phoenix, but they were really stopping at an airport in a St. Louis suburb known for welcoming many corporate jets without questions asked. A limousine would be waiting to take them to a hotel where they would spend the night.

  He had chosen St. Louis because they had comparatively few FBI agents and no Interpol agents stationed there at the moment. Evidently, not too many international criminals wanted to stay there. The pilots filed a flight plan for St. Louis to Phoenix under the Monsanto Corporation. Richter laughed. That should throw Interpol off for a while.

  “Hahn, dear, when we get to Phoenix we will meet this songwriter and his agent, make our exchange and be in the air within two hours.”

  “I am so excited. Ever since that Bloomberg man sent that song, I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind. This writer is a genius. Maybe he will want to come to Germany with us.”

  “We’ll see.”

  * * *

  The call came to Sean’s cell at ten that morning. Interpol had lost track of the German plane over night. No plane with its call numbers were reported landing at any airport in the US.

  “This is Sean Dooley. Yes, I’m a music composer.”

  “Please hold for Mr. Richter.”

  “Mr. Dooley, are you ready to do business? We have the copyright release forms and the money that was agreed on.”

  “Where do you want to meet?” Sean said nervously. “My manager and lawyer will be with me.”

  “It would be a lot easier if you meet us when we land. It’s a private aircraft and we can complete our business on board. We plan on leaving for Europe tonight.”

  “What airport are you landing at?”

  “We will call you from the airport after we have landed. I’m sure you can understand our concern.”

  “That you’re wanted international criminals? I get that. Your buddies, Conti and Bloomberg made that clear.”

  “Yes, well, buddies they are not. I assure you no deceit is intended here.”

  Erin had an extraordinary ability that very few people knew of … she could read minds. She was telepathic. She was listening at Sean’s ear. Tell him that you need to hear Krauss sing or no deal, she wrote on a piece of paper.

  “Mr. Richter, as I told you in my email, I want to make sure that Mr. Krauss is the right man to sing this song or I will not sell it
to you. I will rent a van and we can have the audition in it. If he is satisfactory, we will have the exchange there.”

  “That might work if you can pull it close to the aircraft. We will call you when we are close to landing.”

  “About how long are we talking about? I have to procure the van.”

  “Figure no longer than three hours.”

  “Fine we’ll wait for your call.”

  Lou made the call to Interpol. They were arranging for a van to be delivered to the resort. The van would be wired for sound and GPS.

  “What did you pick up from him Erin?” Lou asked.

  “He knows the FBI and Interpol will be involved. I also saw a plane with Monsanto on the side. I’m not certain what that means, but he was smiling about it. Could they have changed planes somewhere?”

  “Either that or he redecorated his own plane. They lost track of him once he left Boston,” Lou explained. “Anything else?”

  “Just that he is actually having a good time with this. Evidently he gets his jollies by outsmarting the authorities, especially Interpol. It’s like a game to him. Other than keeping his lover happy, he doesn’t give a hoot about Sean or the songs.”

  Lou’s phone rang. “WHEN? I’ll be right there.”

  “What happened?” Erin yelled.

  “Someone snatched Dottie and Clara while we were talking to Richter.”

  They ran to the elevators. “How could this happen? What the hell kind of security guards are these?” Sean exclaimed, frustrated to have this happen twice. “All because of me and this damn song.”

  While riding up to the penthouse suites, Erin said with as much calm as she could muster, “Sean, he wants you too, not just the one song. We can’t let that happen.”

  Two security guards were laying on the floor outside Lou and Dottie’s suite, shot. “Paramedics are on the way,” Birdie said.

  “Go inside and tell us what happened,” Erin said taking Birdie’s shaking hand and leading her into the room. “Where’s Brad?”

  “He’s in his room.”

  “Call him, Lou. How did it happen?”

  “Oh Erin, it was so quick. We had ordered some food and thought it was room service delivering. We never gave it a thought. After all we had two guards outside the door. When I opened the door, two men in hoodies rushed in. One grabbed Dottie and put a knife to her throat. Then he pointed to Clara and said, ‘Her’. The other guy put a knife in her side and they backed out the door.”

  “Vi, do you remember anything else?” Erin asked the other Mystical Marvel who was laying on a sofa with a cloth to her head.

  “I tried to stop the smaller one who was going after Clara with a bottle of wine. He swung around and hit me.” She removed the cloth covering the right side of her face, revealing a swollen shut eye and a red blotch.

  “Oh my god, are you alright?” Erin exclaimed.

  “It’s nothing that won’t heal. I did get a look at his hand up close and personal. He has a tattoo on the back of it. I drew it on a napkin so I wouldn’t forget.”

  Lou picked up the napkin. “It looks like a knight’s shield with a swastika in the middle of it. If I recall that’s one of the symbols for the Aryan Brotherhood. Do you think Richter hired them to snatch the women?”

  “Why not?” Erin said disgustedly. “They’d be loyal to a fellow Nazi especially one as famous as Richter and with the resources to supply their group with guns.”

  The paramedics had arrived and were working on the guards. They both had been shot in the chest and were being rushed down to the ambulances at the entry to the resort. Both were hooked up to an IV.

  Soon three men in suits walked into the suite. Two were FBI and one was Interpol. They introduced themselves to the group. The older one took charge and asked what had happened. Birdie and Vi went through the explanation again.

  “Okay, we wait for a phone call.”

  “That’s it?” Erin shouted. “We wait for a phone call?”

  “We have agents at any of the airports here that will accommodate a private jet which is what we can now confirm they are on. Evidently they landed at an airport in St. Louis and disguised the jet as one belonging to the Monsanto Corporation. They also changed the call numbers to one corresponding to some that are actually on one plane in the company’s fleet.”

  Erin’s mouth opened. She couldn’t believe someone could fly into this country and get all this done. There again, she couldn’t believe that someone would do it to abduct a songwriter.

  “We think the men who took the women were promised weapons by Richter for their cause in exchange for the snatch.”

  “Why those two or was it random?” Erin asked.

  “We think it was not random. The one is your aunt, am I right, and the other is Sean’s mother?”

  She nodded her head. Birdie had said that the one had pictures and told his partner which women to take. “So what do you think they are going to use the women for?”

  “We think that they will use them to get what they wanted all along. They want you and Sean. They want to keep you for leverage so Sean will keep producing music for Krauss. The older women would be a bother … high maintenance. We’re hoping that they plan on letting them go.”

  Erin didn’t need it spelled out that their bodies might be all they got back. Tears came to her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she said, “What does the FBI and Interpol suggest we do? So far nothing’s worked out as you planned.”

  The agent overlooked her sarcasm. “We wait for the call. The ball’s in their court as they say. What we think they will want is for you and Sean to board their plane in exchange for the women.”

  “Then we’ll do it,” Erin said matter of factly.

  “No you won’t,” said the Interpol agent. “We know this guy. He will never allow Dottie and Clara to walk out of that plane. Actually, I doubt that they are on the plane at all.”

  “Where are they then?” Erin said louder than she meant to.

  “We think that they are probably being held somewhere else right now. We have agents investigating all the known places that the brotherhood might be holding hostages. Trust me we’ve had eyes on them for quite sometime. We also have eyes on Conti and Bloomberg. We’ll find them.”

  “But will you find them in time and alive?” No answer came.

  The older agent nodded to the younger one and indicated for him to leave by some evidently prearranged plan. “I want to go over what we want you to say when they call.”

  They sat at the table and listened to the agents. Lou had been extremely quiet. When they were finished, he asked Erin to go out onto the balcony with him. “You do know they don’t give a damn about Dottie or Clara, don’t you?”

  “Yeah I figured as much. I was reading the one’s mind. He’s all about capturing Richter so that he can get transferred to Washington and his wife will quit complaining about how the desert is drying out her skin. She’s apparently from back east.”

  Lou smiled. “You’re a wonder.”

  “Any ideas of how we can do something so everyone lives?”

  “Yeah. Tell me if you think this will work.” Lou told Erin his plan. “We can adjust it after we get the call.”

  “Do you think Sean will go along with it? We’re asking a lot of him. He’d be putting his head on the block.”

  “I think he will. He’s very cool and collected. We’d better go back in. Let me give you a hug so it looks like I’m consoling your grief for your aunt.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The call came forty-five minutes later, which told Lou that the girls were taken about 30 minutes from the resort. From the muted sounds of the plane’s engines in the background, it was obviously that Richter was still in the air. The call came in on Sean’s phone as before.

  “Hello,” he said curbing his anger as Lou had directed him.

  “Mr. Dooley, I think we can talk more realistically now. We will be landing at Sky Harbor in about 40 minutes. Meet us where the
private jets are parked in one hour. If we see anyone but you and Erin, you will never see Clara or Dottie again. They both send their best by the way. Erin if you’re listening, your aunt hasn’t stopped talking since she got here,” Richter said laughing.

  “Richter, if you harm either one of those women, I’ll …”

  “You’ll what? You’ll do as I say or you can plan their funeral. Parachuting without a parachute can be dangerous. One hour.”

  The phone went dead. “Did you pick up anything Erin?” Lou asked her.

  “Nothing I wanted to hear. The guy’s a psychopath. The women are waiting in a van and will be loaded onto the plane before it reaches the small jet parking area. The thugs have them tied up.”

  “Did you get a look at the numbers on the plane or anything about it that we would recognize?”

  “I saw a few of the numbers … the last three. 795. Will that help?”

  “We’ll see.” Lou called his FBI contact and told him what had transpired.

  When he hung up, Sean asked, “What did they say?”

  “They talking to airport security right now. Let’s get going. You two sit in the front. I’ll hide in the back. When we get there, you do not get out of the van until we see the girls are outside and coming toward us. Got it? We don’t care what Interpol or the Feds tell you to do.”

  “Got it Lou,” Erin responded. Sean just nodded.

  Lou’s phone rang and he put it on speaker. It was Interpol. “Here’s what we want you to do …” they told him.

  Lou smiled. “We got it.” He disconnected. “Well, we stick to our plan. If we do what they say, they might get Richter, but we’ll all be dead. That ain't going to happen on my watch.”

  “They’ll probably search you Erin. When they find the gun on your back and on your ankle, they’ll never think that you have one on your inner thigh or on your calf. Let me check the knife on your arm.”

  “All set. I think this southwest outfit hides my arsenal pretty well, except for what we want them to find. Once the girls are in the van and we’re on board, shootout the tires and I’ll know it’s time to scream and take out Richter and any thugs who get in the way.”