Chapter 56

Nikki had no idea how the hell she was going to bug the conversation between Costa and the Captain. That he even knew Angelo Costa well enough to meet with him in a less than official capacity was a bit worrisome. It was well known that Costa played on the wrong side of the law, but he was extremely smart and the Barrow group had very good lawyers, so it wasn't a surprise he wasn't behind bars. Still, she'd asked for, and gotten, today off, so she'd at least be able to tail the Captain. In some ways, this felt a lot more dangerous than spying directly on the police, since Costa's people didn't fuck around. Word was, you crossed them, you disappeared.

She followed Captain Harrison to a restaurant located in a not so great neighborhood. It wasn't a war zone, but it wasn't the kind of place you'd take a stroll after dark either. During the day you'd probably be fine. Harrison didn't get out, but waited in his car, so he must be early.

Taking a chance, Nikki slid out of her car, which was parked more than a block away, and walked towards the restaurant. She was wearing a dark wig and a bulky coat, so she rather doubted she'd attract any attention. She went inside and picked up a menu, ostensibly to decide if she wanted to eat there or not. The place wasn't all that big, but there were a suspiring number of people inside. She caught sight of the Captain heading towards the door, so she walked towards a table. The place was seat yourself for the lunch crowd. Probably for every crowd, come to think of it. Harrison entered and headed towards a table not too far away from hers and sat down.

Nikki smiled to herself. She'd gotten lucky; it was line of site to the other table with nothing between them. She set down her purse and made sure the tiny mic she'd used the other night was in place, then turned on the recorder. This time, rather than a headset, she used ear buds to listen to the recording being made.

The waitress came up and Nikki put in an order, complete with appetizer and something that looked like it might take a while to cook. She wondered how long it would be before Costa showed up.

It turned out she had enough time to get most of the way through the appetizer before he did, looking just a little put out at being here. The Captain looked up as he sat down, but didn't offer his hand. So it looked like they weren't all that friendly.

"Nice place you picked," said Costa as an opening.

"Can't afford most of the places you like to eat," replied Harrisonthe Chief.

"I'm hearing that nowadays, that might not be true," replied Costa.

The Captain ignored the comment, and a moment later, the waitress hurried up and plopped some water and a menu on the table in front of Costa. Costa smiled at her and picked up the menu.

"Not sure what you're talking about," said the Harrison. "But I do know that someone who's of interest to the police has recently signed on with your group."

"Oh?" said Costa, apparently uninterested.

"Guy with the last name of Whitestone," continued Harrison. "You met him?"

"Now John," said Costa, putting down the menu with a slight smile, "you know I don't comment on our clients."

"No, no, of course not," said the Captain. "Thing is, the DA's got a hard-on for this guy and his wife. They got caught in a raid and busted up some cops. If you had heard of them, I thought you'd want to know they might be a little more trouble than they're worth."

Costa chuckled and shook his head.

"I'm sorry that the DA is such a prick," he replied. He took a sip of his water. "Not that that's news. Thing is, I hear a different story. I hear that you got some guys causin' a ruckus in Van Nuys. I also hear that they busted up a biker bar with a couple of civvies in it. Not good press, that. You might wanna be more careful."

The Captain leaned forward. He didn't look like he was happy at all.

"Listen Costa, I tolerate you because you don't make waves," he said. "But you start fucking around here, and you might discover that there are bigger fish than you swimmin' around out there."

Costa looked at Harrison over his menu. The expression on his face was still very friendly and he didn't look the least bit intimidated.

"John," he said conversationally, "you don't know who I swim with." Then his tone became very icy. "Now I don't know -- or care -- what your game is. You're not playing near me, so it's not my business. But it's probably not a good idea to fuck with my clients."

"Don't you threaten me, Costa."

Costa shook his head.

"Wouldn't dream of it," he replied. "But I have to wonder what would happen if certain reporters in this city were to tie what's going on in Van Nuys to a certain precinct? Especially considering all the attention it would generate. Then you take a man like Whitestone. Middle class guy, lottery winner, never been in trouble with the law. You know the kind -- a local guy who makes good. Add in a severely beaten wife, and the media would have a field day."

Harris didn't move, but it was clear he was furious.

"Be a shame if all that happened just because a nice couple out for a few kicks had been in the wrong place at the wrong time," Costa said, putting down his menu. "Might get people asking just why it had been the wrong place."

The waitress chose that moment to walk up to the table, completely oblivious to the tension between the men that Nikki could feel from where she was sitting.

"What can I getcha?" she asked, looking at them.

"Oh, I'm afraid I just got a call," said Costa standing up and reaching for his wallet. He pulled out a bill and handed it to the woman. "I won't be able to stay. But this should cover whatever my friend orders. Please keep the rest as a tip."

Smiling and giving the Chief a short nod, Costa left the restaurant. The Chief waved the waitress off and left a few minutes later. Nikki stayed, eating an open roast beef sandwich that had the texture and taste of a cereal box. She doubted her tip was as big as the one Costa had left.

"Hey Ken, you gotta minute?" asked Bill.

Ken looked up from his computer. He'd slowly been learning about the businesses that he either out right owned or had a majority ownership in. There weren't that many, but they were all quite successful -- up until recently. Two had had changes at the top and while the numbers for those two were up, there were a lot of complaints being generated by the employees. He thought that odd, and wanted it looked into, but had no idea how to go about doing something like that. Plus, the time was soon coming when he'd have to show his face at some of the businesses, but he didn't want to do that either.

Well, except for one of them: Madam Woo's House of Ill Repute (he still got a kick out of that name). That one he really wanted to visit. They seemed to be doing well and the reports from madam there were informative and hinted that she was quite a capable woman. Alas, a trip to Vegas wasn't something he could do right now. Not with the DA still pressing charges.

He'd had a meeting with David and the prosecutor's legal rep, which hadn't gone well. The man had demanded to speak with Jane, and was extremely put out that she was still in the hospital. He wanted to 'interview' her there, but Ken explained that wasn't going to happen and offered to put him in touch with her physician, Dr. Levy. The man made a face, and demanded the contact information. He'd quickly backed off when he'd found out that the Barrow Group was involved.

"Just make sure you don't decide to go anywhere," said Strauss. "You and your wife are in big trouble and fleeing will only make it worse."

Ken and David stood and left. There was no shaking of hands.

"I can't wait to see the look on that fucker's face when he hears about the videos," muttered David once they were downstairs.

"He is kind of a prick," nodded Ken.

The two had shaken hands and gone their separate ways. Ken refocused on the present.

"Sure Bill," he said. "What's up?"

"There's been a change in your case," said Bill. "They're dropping it to a simple misdemeanor. Disturbing the peace or something like that."

Ken blinked.

"Excuse me?"

Bill had been surprised too. The little spiders that had crawled into various computers -- and the ones that Nikki had unwittingly installed in the computers at the precinct, were start to phone home. Not to the mansion, of course. They were dumping their info into an innocuous, off shore server that Bill logged into after bouncing his requests all over the 'net. He'd put a special tag on anything having to do with the charges being filed against Ken and Jane, and had been shocked to see the turnaround in the DAs office. He knew that David would be receiving the information later tomorrow; that tidbit had been in an email from the DA to Captain Harris. The words "As per your request" had also been in that email.

"Yeah, I'm pretty shocked too."

"Did David just call and I missed it?"

"Uh ... no," smiled Bill as he tried to look innocent.

"Then how... ?" Ken stopped and smiled, shaking his head. "Never mind. I'm not sure I want to know."

"You don't," confirmed Bill. "But yeah, they're backing off. I have no idea why. Well, other than the fact that the Captain of the precinct that was responsible for the raid apparently requested that the DA 'revisit' the charges."

"What about the Hawkes?" asked Ken.

Bill shook his head.

"No word about them. This was specifically about you and Jane."

"How very odd," mused Ken. "Anything else I should know?"

Bill shook his head. His spiders will still infiltrating the Barrow group. None had made it to a high enough level to snag anything really interesting, and they were programmed to move on or self delete after a certain amount of time had passed. He was really hoping to get something into Costa's machine, but so far that had been a no-go. He rather doubted it was because of their security set up, but he was also under no illusions that while he was good, he wasn't the best. There were people out there that could figure out what he'd done, although he was as certain as he could be that it couldn't be tracked back to him. That level of certainty wasn't one hundred percent though.

Of course, just because he wasn't in Costa's machine, didn't mean he didn't have some information on the guy. But he didn't think it was the kind of information Ken was looking for.

The following morning, at a respectable eight am, Ken received a phone call. Since he was completely embedded in Jane's ass at the time, he didn't bother to take it. The computer message system that Bill had set up routed the message into Ken's box. He didn't notice it until several hours later, when he sat down at his computer to take a longer look at the companies where employee complaints were up. He noticed the notification, and clicked on it.

"Hello Mr. Whitestone," came a very pleasant female voice. "I'm calling from Mr. Costa's office. He was wondering if there was a time when you'd be free to meet today. Please call us back..."

She left a number which was supposedly a direct number to Costa's office. Ken leaned back in his chair wondering why Costa would want to meet when another call was directed to his attention by the computer. The ID said it was David.

"Ken," he heard when the phone was answered. "I got some great news! Gotta call from the DAs office. They're reducing the charges in your case to a simple misdemeanor with a fine."

Ken resisted the urge to tell David he already knew.

"That is good news," said Ken. "Why the sudden change of heart?"

"I have no idea," replied David. "And I'm not inclined to look a gift horse in the mouth. If you decide to take the deal though -- and as your lawyer, I'd strongly advise you do -- we can knock this out tomorrow. You game?"

"What about Jane?" asked Ken. "Will she need to be present? I mean, maybe it's a trick or something."

David chuckled.

"You've been watching too many movies," he said. "This kinda shit happens all the time. Maybe the DA doesn't have time on the schedule to pursue something like this. Maybe he got a great blowjob yesterday and that put him in a good mood. I mean, it's not like you have a record, and I've been pushing the 'wrong place, wrong time' explanation every time I've managed to communicate with his office."

It didn't feel right to Ken. Not at all. But it didn't look like he had a choice. What was he going to do? Insist the DA continue to press charges?

"Did you present any of the medical evidence yet?"

"No," said David. "I did hint that we had some though, and that it wouldn't make them look good. I didn't tell them about the videos either."

"All right," he said. "I'll let Jane know and I'll be there tomorrow. Just let me know when."

"You got it!"

Well. At least David was happy. Ken dialed the number Costa's secretary had left.

"Barrow Group," came the same pleasant voice. "Pam speaking."

"Hi Pam, this is Ken Whitestone returning Mr. Costa's phone call."

"Oh yes, Mr. Whitestone," she said. He could almost see her perky smile, short skirt and low cut blouse. "Can you hold for one moment while I see if Mr. Costa's available?"

"Sure," said Ken.

Costa came on a short time later.

"Ken," said Costa, "thank you for returning my call."

"No problem," replied Ken. "What can I do for you?"

"Well, I was wondering if you might be interested in meeting for a late lunch or maybe even dinner."

"I see," said Ken. "Is there something wrong?"

"Just the opposite," said Costa. Ken could hear the smile in the other man's voice. "I'll tell you what. Why don't you grab that beautiful wife of yours, and meet me at Toscana's at oh ... seven this evening? I'll have someone along who can keep her entertained while you and I have a short business discussion, and we'll all have a very nice dinner."