“I can’t believe I’m saying this,” Gus replied as he led off in the direction of their SUV, “but I’m starving. I need food.”
“Your wish shall be granted, Payaso.” Nick used a thick branch with still green leaves on it to brush debris over their many foot prints around the graves, stirring the moist dirt.
His job along the trail proved more difficult because of footprint depth while carting the bodies, especially Nick’s own. He had led with a gloved hand on each of the body-bags while Gus and Johnny packed the shovels and other ends of the bags. He used the heavier leafed branch to poke and prod until most indications left would only be discoverable by a professional tracker. Seated finally, Nick leaned comfortably in his seat.
“Maybe we should have said something over the bodies,” Nick said. “You know… rot in hell or something.”
“It would have just been redundant, Muerto,” Gus said. “Man, I’m glad you thought to buy the Bush in town when we dropped Cala off. I’ll bet everything’s closed. Maybe we should eat there if anything’s still open. We don’t look too bad. The pine scent Fabreeze is working in the SUV. It should work on us.”
“Good input, Payaso,” Nick said. “I don’t know why but I have a real hankerin’ for pork chops.”
Chapter Thirteen
Loose Ends
“Check these out, Cheese.” Lynn showed me her iPad with pictures in our general lounge area while Clint and Jafar worked on the paperwork for Claude to take with him on his visit to see his cousin in our computer room.
I set aside the laptop with final touches on our Pilot Hill compound plans. The feasibility of what we planned for a landing zone with room for vertical jet takeoff would need input from engineers Denny had tapped for the project working for the Air Force. I grinned at the two sets of grave pictures, recognizing the pictures we had seen of Eliah Kader and Haris El-Amin. “Oh my, the pigs’ heads are a nice touch. I bet Claude liked these.”
“Oh yeah, he did. Since we can close the books on all our loose ends here in the states, I’ll feel better about going down to LA to direct the ‘Hollywood Bounty Hunters’ in their season opener. Everything’s ready to shoot the final takes.”
“I liked your idea about keeping the bond skip secret until the drama and love scenes were filmed. When Chuck and Sal called to tip you about Nardo Sirapio returning to the states soon, I figured it would be a disaster trying to entrap him. He troops around Europe dancing the global warming jig with all the limousine liberal jet set, avoiding any place he can be extradited from.”
“It’s a tough one,” Lynn admitted. “I directed the kids to do their continuing romance scenes, combined with some small sub-plotting in case we don’t get our hands on Nardo. He hasn’t been in the states for years. They live by a separate law structure. As long as they’re celebrities making movies, anything they do is okay. I’m surprised Nardo didn’t try to simply turn himself in, buy everyone off, and flit around with street cred. He should have paid more attention to the identity of the girl. The girl’s parents sure made that difficult.”
“Yep. The family of the sixteen year old girl he roofied at a charity benefit for the ‘Climate Change’ con ruined all Nardo’s hit and flit plans. Her Dad’s a cop and a friend of Sal’s that was working security at the event. Red Dragon Security works contracts overseas. They’ve tried bagging Nardo when in the same place but missed him. Here in the states, they’re hesitant about kidnapping a celebrity like Nardo, even on a legitimate bond.”
“We’re in the same position.” Lynn paused, thinking about the entire episode as she had learned of it. “Sal did tell me about Nardo drugging the girl, taking her to the hotel he was staying at, and then leaving her a day later without a trace. Her parents nearly tore apart the city looking for her, only to have her show at the homestead, bruised and raped. Sal said Nardo tried to tell the authorities through his lawyer that he wasn’t even there because he’d used an alias when signing in at hotels. He claimed to have left for Europe right after the benefit. The Dad screwed him on that move by collecting videos of him from security cameras both at the event leaving with his daughter and at the hotel. A rape kit was done. Nardo wasn’t as careful with his condom as he thought.”