Chapter 3C

Moments later I opened the door to see our visitor stepping onto the porch. Manny was correct in his assessment. This guy radiated money and power, but underlying it all was the stench of wrong doing. I kept the gun within sight but down at my side as he looked calmly at me.

"Hello Mr. Miller... hello Carol." Carol had stepped up behind me and I heard a sharp intake of breath as she saw our visitor for the first time. "I suppose introductions are in order... or would you prefer to frisk me first?"

"I'll do the search first if you don't mind. You'll find this a little embarrassing so I apologise in advance but I've learned from experience that this is a very effective way of covering a suspect while doing a search on my own. Turn around and raise your arms to the horizontal position. Good... now spread your legs." He did as he was told and seconds later emitted a harsh shocked hiss as I wedged the muzzle of my Beretta tightly into his ass crack. The search took only a few moments and revealed nothing suspicious. Stepping back I told him he could turn around. To my surprise he wore a wry grin. Definitely not what I expected.

"I'll have to recommend that technique to my men. You definitely had my attention Mr. Miller. May I come in?" Silently I ushered him into the foyer. As he stepped past me Manny's voice came through my earpiece.

"One driver and one bodyguard. The driver is in the car reading a porno mag while the gunman is sitting on the trunk reading the Wall Street Journal. I'm pretty certain they're the only ones with him but I'm gonna take another look. Over"

"Roger that Manny. Glenn out."

"I'll work my way back to the house boss. See you soon. Manny out." Our visitor was eyeing me with a bemused expression as I finished my conversation. Behind him stood Carol, looking scared but determined. Maria sat at her computer but I noticed that she wasn't paying any attention to the screen and that a Glock 19 lay on the table top beside her.

"Okay who are you and why should I be talking to you?" Calmly he moved into the lounge and sat down on the couch. I followed him, prepared to allow him a little more leeway than I would usually give a person in this sort of situation.

"My name is Carmine Frampesomi. I am the consigliere for the Pastorelli family and as such am Robert Taglioni's boss. Or rather... I was Taglioni's boss."

"By that I take it you no longer want to be associated with this psycho son of a bitch?" I wasn't going to mince words with the smiling gangster. I felt Carol move in closer behind me. "Coffee Mr. Frampesomi?"

"Thank you that would be nice." I turned to Carol.

"Honey could you go and grab some coffee for us?" Her expression was unreadable but she nodded and gave me a quick kiss before shooting a defiant look at Frampesomi and leaving to make the coffee. I moved over to the other couch and sat down, putting my gun on the coffee table just as Manny walked into the room. I introduced Frampesomi quickly and then returned to the subject at hand.

"So you no longer wish to be associated with Taglioni? Why is that?"

"Robert is drawing too much attention. His unauthorised activities are making it hard for us to get on with business and quite frankly it's costing us a great deal of money. I want to stress right now that Taglioni's crusade is in no way endorsed by us. It is purely personal and we have nothing to do with it."

"Okay so you don't like what he's doing and it's costing you money. How is that going to help us? If you're asking us to call off the cops so you can get back to business you can forget it pal. When this piece of shit is six foot under then maybe I'll back off... until then I'm gonna use every resource available to me." Carol re-entered the room with coffee cups on a tray. We helped ourselves as Carol settled in close to my left hand side and slipped her arm around me.

"This brings me to the reason for my visit. This is kind of unorthodox and I can't remember ever hearing about a proposal like this before. What if we helped?" I damned near choked on my coffee.

"You're offering to help us take out Taglioni?!" He nodded. "You want me to believe that you'll help us whack one of your own? What happened to the famous code of honour... of familial obligation?"

"Mr. Miller you don't seem to understand. This crusade of Taglioni's is costing us a huge amount of money and causing us major trouble. We have two options to solve this problem. The first is to eliminate you and your confederates. That would satisfy Taglioni but would leave us with a problem with the cops. Or... we could eliminate Robert. When he dies so does his link to us. The cops would have no more reason to bother us... at least not more than normal." It didn't take a brain surgeon to see that what he was proposing would be beneficial to both parties but it also raised another question.

"Okay let's say that you do help us. What's to stop you from coming after us when the heat dies down? Personally I don't want to be swapping one threat for a bigger one. What assurance can you give me that we won't become land fill?" He grinned at my wording.

"Would you accept my word in this matter? Actually the question is moot anyway as is this whole conversation. The reason for my visit is to let you know that we will be hunting Taglioni. This is basically a courtesy visit to let you know that we will be entering the game. You have my word that once this is over, you will not be bothered by us any more. Whether or not you accept that is totally up to you but think about it from our point of view. You've already been linked to death threats from a member of my family. If something happened to you the cops would be on our doorstep morning, noon and night. That is not a situation we would like." He finished his coffee and rose from the couch. "Carol give your Aunt a call. She misses you and needs to know you're okay. Also you might want to let her know you've finally met a man worthy of you. You'll make an old lady very happy." With that he turned and left, escorted out by Manny. As we heard the door close behind him Carol started to shake. She was sobbing as I pulled her into my chest and held her tight. She hadn't spoken a word during Frampesomi's visit but it had raised a lot more questions we would have to deal with.

"We can talk about this later honey. Obviously there's more to the story but it can wait... and I still love you Carol." Her grip tightened on me and a fresh wave of tears soaked my already stained t-shirt.

"Oh Glenn I've messed up. I haven't been totally honest with you." With that she leapt up and raced from the room heading upstairs to the bedroom. As I jumped up to follow, the doorbell rang. Mike had arrived with my office staff. I wondered if he had seen Frampesomi departing. As much as I hated to do it, Carol would have to wait until I got my workers organised.

I guess I was expecting to have to deal with scared panicky office workers. What I discovered was a group of pissed off, determined, skilled team members, clutching laptops and files. Our secretary, Dianne Clarkson, summed it up for all of them.

"Boss we've talked it over and want to get back to work as soon as possible. No way is this bastard going to terrorise us! Where can we work and what can we do?" It was that easy. Maria took over and allocated spaces for everyone. Then she took charge of the researchers and gave them tasks which would take some of the pressure off her. The receptionist/typists and Dianne made themselves useful where possible, handling things like collating the information coming from the researchers and answering the phone calls from the field operatives as they went about their normal tasks. While Mike was busy taking a statement from Manny I was able to nip upstairs and see Carol. I found her sitting on the bed gazing off into nothing. Her face was streaked with tears and her eyes were red and swollen. It broke my heart to see her like that. I walked over and sat down next to her slipping my arm around her and pulling her close.

"Carol, you want to talk honey?"

"Glenn I don't know if you'll want me around after you hear what I have to say. I am so scared that I'm going to lose you."

"Carol it's going to have to be earth shaking news to make me send you away baby. To be honest I can't think of anything that would make me do that. It's time that you trust me baby."

She was silent for the longest time, gathering herself and preparing to deliver earth shattering news. Finally she took a deep breath and sat up, pushing me back slightly and looking me square in the eye.

"Carmine Frampesomi is my uncle. His wife is my Aunt Celia... my mother's sister." She lowered her eyes and sat there obviously waiting to be banished from my sight.

"It should make for an interesting wedding party then. Will we have to have Chianti on the wine list baby? It's just that I hate Chianti... I prefer a good cabernet or cabernet blend. Oh and I draw the line at Italian opera at the reception honey. We're gonna have a good contemporary dance band and that is that. No arguments will be tolerated."

"But..."

"Carol I said no arguments didn't I? Now what sort of start to our engagement is this if you start arguing about the first issue that comes up? How am I going to be the boss if you're going to argue with every little thing I say?"

"So it doesn't worry you?" She was smiling through the tears but there was still a trace of fear on her lovely face.

"Why should it? The old adage about not being able to choose your family is true honey. Okay so my in-laws are going to include a top ranked member of a well known crime family... big deal. My father stole ice creams from a corner store when he was six. So you see I come from a shady genetic pool too. Carol I love you and a small detail like mobster in-laws isn't going to change that. Unless you want it to..." Carole threw herself into my arms and burst into tears again. The difference was that this time the crying was interspersed with laughter. Kisses rained down on me and it turned frantic for more than a few moments. Carol was in the process of pulling my t-shirt off me when there was a cough from the open door.

"Ummm... when you're finished there boss Mike needs to see you downstairs. I'll tell him you'll be down soon." Manny was grinning from ear to ear at my embarrassment as he disappeared back downstairs.

"Honey you're not your family. You're the woman I've fallen in love with and it's going to take a lot more than a dodgy lineage to change that. Unless you are second cousin to Ray Romano... I can't stand that guy! That would definitely be a deal breaker." She grinned.

"Well at least we agree on something today... actually two things. One: you can't live without me, and two: Ray Romano is a waste of skin. Go down and talk to Mike. I'll get myself together and I'll be down in a minute. Oh and change your shirt... some teary wench cried all over that one." I did as I was told and went down to talk to Mike pulling on my favourite Nickleback t-shirt as I went. It was turning out to be a full day. After I talked to Mike I still had to deal with the asshole over at Axess Chemicals and call Lee Stowers from Richmond S.W.A.T. On top of that I had to take Carol into town to get her a gun along with all the permits and paperwork that would necessitate. I needed more coffee.

"So Mike... what do we know about the bombing today?" We were sitting in the lounge drinking coffee while all around us chaos reigned. Phones rang, keyboards clicked and busy people discussed the information they were gathering. Mike looked around in admiration at my co-workers in top gear.

"Semtex shaped charge, remotely detonated. We found parts of the detonator and switch mechanism. As you know Semtex is as common as dirt these days so that's not going to be any help at all. The fact is since we already know the perpetrator all the forensic evidence will only become useful if and when we get him to court. I have this strange feeling that he won't make it that far though. I'm not going to tell you not to shoot his ass Glenn... just be careful man. Did you know he spent time in the Green Berets during Desert Storm? Taglioni is a bit more dangerous than what everyone is giving him credit for." Carol had told me about his Army background so it didn't come as a major shock. It did explain his proficiency with explosives though.

"Mike he has to have a helper here. I mean he has to have someone sheltering him and helping out with contacts for the things he needs. The Semtex for instance. Okay so it's common in the underworld but he still has to have a contact to get it for him doesn't he?" Mike made a few notes in his notebook and we discussed it a little more. I agreed to put one of my people onto trying to track underworld explosives dealers. Theoretically we would have a better chance at getting a result than the police due to the nature of our work. Soon Mike said that he had to get back to the office. I mentioned that I had a call to make to Richmond PD S.W.A.T. and that got his attention big time.

"Hey I have an old friend there. We were in the Academy together. Lee Stowers. I think he's a lieutenant now. What... what's wrong?" He caught my astonished look.

"The cop I have to contact is Lt. Lee Stowers. Wanna stick around and say hello?" I'd never seen Mike as flummoxed as he was at that moment. Quickly I cleared everyone out of my office except Manny, Mike and myself and dialled the number I had for Lee Stowers. Putting the call on speaker we sat back and waited for Stowers to answer.

"Stowers here." He sounded harried.

"Lieutenant Stowers my name is Glenn Barrett. I was told to call you regarding a trip we're going to be making to Richmond on behalf of Craig Miller."

"How you doing Barrett? Tell me... do you always talk like you're giving evidence in court? My name's Lee or just Stowers. I was expecting your call so how can I help you Glenn?" I laughed at his very casual attitude. Mike stepped in.

"Show some professionalism Stowers. Jesus man how the hell did you ever make it to Lieutenant? They must have a pretty shitty standard down there in Richmond." It rapidly degenerated into a good natured slanging match with barbs being thrown from both sides.

"Abernethy? My god... what the hell are you doing out on your own? They letting you use a real gun yet? Good god Barrett... don't trust your safety to this man. Get your ass to Richmond as soon as you can. Let a real police department take care of you." The laughter was a good release for all of us.

"Lee we'll be arriving on Friday or Saturday. I just wanted to touch base with you on what our status will be regarding carrying weapons in your fine city. Everything else can wait until we get there."

"You're a licensed security operator with permits to carry. I can't see a problem with it to be honest. I'll check out the relevant local laws and have it sorted for you by the time you get here. Just try to stick to handguns and we won't have too many problems. Craig already has the rest of it covered. He has a few good things to say about you and your operation so I'm looking forward to meeting you."

"So we won't be stepping on any toes by coming to town?" It was one of my main concerns. I didn't want to put anyone's nose out of joint.

"Glenn what Craig and Stevie need now is someone who can watch the store and do things that I can't. I'm hamstrung by the fact that I'm an officer of the law... you're not. Listen man I have to get going. We've got a small problem here that I need to iron out. Some idiot has barricaded himself into a bank and is threatening to kill hostages unless we give him what he wants. I'll see you when you get here. Mike we'll have to catch up soon man... it's been way too long buddy." And with that he rang off.

Still chuckling Mike got up and made for the door.

"Hold on a second Mike. I'm taking Carol into town later to sort out a handgun for her. What are the chances of getting a rush job on a permit to carry? I know you normally need a 14 day waiting period but you've got to admit there is a kind of urgency on this one. She's had firearms training and Manny and I will give her a refresher before we give her the weapon."

"I don't see a problem. I'll call you from the office once I've got it sorted. In the meantime go and buy the gun. Register it under your name so that will cut down the paperwork. I've gotta go guys. I'll call you when I have Carol's permit sorted out. Make sure she brings some ID when you come to pick it up."

Ten minutes later I was immersed in a heated discussion with the CFO of Axess Chemicals. Carol entered the office just as I was being my normal subtle self with the pompous little dweeb.

"Put it this way Mr. James. You have a reputation for this sort of thing. We are the third security firm you've tried to pull this shit with. We took you on as a client despite the warnings we got from colleagues at your former security consultants. Now my advice to you is pay the invoice by the end of the day or I'll personally put the word out about you. You'll effectively be black balled in the security community. If you doubt that I have the weight to actually do it, try me... call my bluff. Then after I've done that I'll call Leon Carter. You know Leon Carter don't you? Yes the chairman of your board of directors. He's a damned good friend of mine. I taught him to shoot and we play golf on a regular basis. Pay the invoice Mr. James and don't ever be late paying one of our invoices again. If you are you'll find yourself in security hell. Have a nice day... goodbye." Gently I replaced the phone on its cradle and heaved a happy satisfied sigh. Grabbing Carol I planted a big kiss on her full moist lips.

"You ready to go into town baby? We're going to outfit you with your own gun. Now are you sure about this?"

"Hell yes. I figure that I need to be able to protect myself. Plus I'm sick of being the victim. I want to be able to hit back. Just let me grab my bag." She raced off upstairs nearly bowling Manny over as he came into the office.