Chapter 29
M
J and I are back in our hotel room, where Lana has posted a local cop outside in the hall in case there are any more bad guys running loose in the hotel. After MJ crept out of the stairwell on the other end of the hall and jumped that guy, I feel safer with her close than I do with an armed officer. I tried to talk Lana into letting Bethanie hang out in the room with us until it was time to return to Denver, but Lana whisked her off someplace to question and debrief her. Lana also knew I'd question Bethanie the minute I got the chance. Since I don't get the chance, I speculate with MJ instead.
“Why do you think everyone was after Bethanie's phone? She was always frantic about knowing where it was, the bad guys wanted it, and Cole took it from her. At first I thought it was diamond-encrusted and everybody wanted to steal and pawn it or something. And it could be that, but I think there's more to it.”
“You said her dad's paranoia was at level ten. Maybe that's how he tracked her,” MJ suggests. “He used the GPS as part of his home-style version of witness protection. Or the cops did. Then Cole made her get rid of it because he thought everybody, including the Family, might use it to track them.”
“That's an excellent theory. See, you'd make a good cop.”
MJ is smiling all teeth from the compliment, until the second sentence sinks in. I help her out when I remember something else about the phone.
“But I have a better theory. She lost her phone during the bodega robbery and was in a panic. I jokingly asked if she had some embarrassing photos on her phone and she got kind of mad. When Cole found it and returned it to her, the first thing she checked were her pictures.”
“Most people would probably check their messages first,” MJ says.
“Exactly. Then when we ran into the bad guys today, Bethanie said something about recognizing one of them from some pictures. She must have photos of something that would incriminate DeLong.”
“Or she was using them as protection insurance for her family. But why carry it around, and why not lock the phone if you are gonna carry it around?”
“I think if you're Bethanie and never stay in one place for very long, always having to get out of town quick, you probably think the safest place to keep something valuable is on you. And now that we know who was after her, she probably figured they could hack any password lock.”
“Okay, but what I don't get is why Cole thought he was bad enough to double-cross the Family. My contact said he hadn't even been working the game that long,” MJ says before she drains the can of 7UP she took from the minibar. After she took out that bad guy, Lana told her to help herself to whatever she wanted out of it, and MJ is doing just that.
“That's just the beginning of my questions for Cole. Right now the only thing I can confirm is that I was right about him setting up that bodega robbery with the other guy who got away. I hope Falcone can find them.”
Just then we hear the key card in the door. MJ grabs a lamp from the desk and is ready to do battle, but it's only Lana.
“Whoa, calm down. We've got a man posted at the door. No one's getting in here.”
“Yeah, I've seen enough movies to know the man posted at the door always gets taken out,” MJ says, unconvinced.
“Exactlyâin the
movies,
” Lana reminds MJ.
“What about Cole and the bodega robber?” I ask. “I suppose Falcone lost them in the crowd.”
“No, we have them.”
“Really? How? I've been in that casino floor crowd. That's how MJ and I got separated in the first place.”
“We got them; that's all you need to know.”
“I don't see how,” I say. “They had a minute jump on Falcone, not to mention Cole is smart. He thinks so much like a cop that I ...”
Lana is quiet but has that look on her face she gets when she's trying to figure out how much she should say. We both know each other better than anyone, we both read people as well as any psychologist, and we both tend to suspect everything. At times like this, we're less mother and daughter and more like two cons trying to outgame each other. But I already saw her flinch.
Everything starts tying together for me. MJ was right when she said Cole had gotten in with the Family quickly, all
Donnie Brasco
âstyle.
“He
is
a cop,” I say. “Cole is undercover and so is the bodega robber. But for whoâDenver or Atlanta?”
“Neither one.”
“Mom, I deserve not to be lied to. MJ and I were on point through this whole thing. Y'all wouldn't have solved this case without us.”
“I'm not lying to you, if you'd let me finish. And this doesn't go outside this room.” She gives MJ the evil eye and MJ nods her agreement. “He's FBI. I didn't know it myself until today. They were involved because of the organized crime with the Family.”
“Isn't he a little young for FBI?”
“They recruit agents at twenty-one.”
I guess Cole didn't lie about that, at least.
“The Boss is paranoid about taking anyone into his confidence who has been in the game longer than a minute. He doesn't trust the longtimers. The feds wanted someone who appeared young and impressionable to charm DeLong and infiltrate the Family.”
“Well, that would be Cole. He charmed a lot of people,” I say, running down the list I knew of: that restaurant maître d', the leasing agent, Bethanie, and probably me if I weren't ... well,
me
.”
“Las Vegas FBI have been running this thing for a long time, casting a wider net than DeLong's operation in Atlanta. They started here, but found DeLong's illegal sports book in Atlanta was tied to an organized crime syndicate in Vegas.”
“So that's when they recruited Cole,” I say, realizing why Cole's accent kept throwing me off. “He really was from around Atlanta because they needed a local to fool DeLong. But he also really went to school in DC where the FBI probably recruited him in the first place, but was based in Las Vegas. Before he went to work for DeLong in Atlanta.”
“Not just based here. He started his cover here, as a driver for the Vegas end of DeLong's operation,” Lana explains.
“Cole being a cop explains why he came back when things were looking bad for Bethanie and me in the hallway, right before you got out of the elevator.”
“He never left. He was waiting in the stairwell, had the door cracked a little so he could watch. His partner, the bodega robber, had let him know they were on the way up, and something was about to go down.”
“The bodega robber was undercover feds, too?” MJ asks.
“He was working inside the Vegas operation,” Lana says.
“I guess it was a good thing he was able to get the bodega owner to go along with that robbery setup,” MJ says, looking at me. “It's sort of like he helped the investigation. Kind of heroic and everything.”
I don't care how she spins it, I'm going to eventually have to tell her Eddie might be another bad boyfriend choice. Then it occurs to me what I did to Cole in the hallway.
“Oh no, I can't believe what I did to Cole,” I say, cringing with the recollection.
Lana laughs. “You mean with the fire alarm and the kick? He's recovered enough to tell me I have one tough daughter.”
“Oh my God, I'm so embarrassed.”
“Don't be,” Lana says.
“That's right,” MJ says. “You did what you had to do. He ain't dead, is he?”
“So why did Bethanie scream?” I ask.
“Scream?”
“That's why I pulled the alarm in the first place. I needed a diversion to get them out of the room because I thought he was hurting her in there.”
“I don't know anything about that. You'll have to ask her that yourself when we're back in Denver.”
I plan to ask her that and a few other things.
Chapter 30
I
had a chance to ask Bethanie that question and more once we were back home. She and her mother were given two days to get their lives in order before they became part of the witness protection program. Well, their old lives. Bethanie was about to begin yet another new life, even though the one she'd been living was only a couple of months old. She'd be the new girl again, hopefully for the last time, or at least for a long time. But not before I gave her something from her reverse bucket listâa birthday party with people other than her parents present.
Mr. Larsen was already somewhere in FBI custody until the trial. But her mother, Tiny, and Molly/Josephine helped me pull the party together quickly at their house without Bethanie even knowing what was going on. That's how big their house is. Of course, we had to make an excuse for Lana not being there since not everyone at the party knows she's a cop, but I was able to invite a few other people even though it was so last minute.
Bethanie didn't have much time to make any friends besides me, so I invited my ownâMJ, Tasha, and Michelle. I asked Mildred from school to invite her son Reginald. He'll be starting Langdon after the midterm break thanks to me. While I was keeping myself out of jail last month, I also busted Headmistress Smythe for wrongly expelling Reginald the year before. I figure he'll need a friend in the viper pit that is Langdon Prep when he returns. People will turn on you at the first sign of adversity. Even Bethanie did that to me before we became real friends.
Marco came, too. Alone, even though I told him he could bring a plus one. A girl has to put up a good front, right? But that hasn't stopped me from paying extra attention to Reginald even if all I can think about is Marco. He's here alone but he's still wearing one of Angelique's friendship bracelets. If I'm capable of stopping a crime family from kidnapping my friend for ransom and taking out an FBI witness, I'm sure I can get over being dumped by a gorgeous, sweet, sexy guy who gave me the best kiss known to all girlkind. Well, I'm reasonably sure.
My phone rings and it's Lana.
“How's the party going?” she asks.
“Pretty good, considering I had about three minutes to throw it together.”
“I saw Marco go inside.”
“Where are you?”
“I guess you two never made up, huh? You've been watching him since the minute he arrived, but you've barely said a word to him.”
“Lana, where are you?”
“Take a look out front. I'm in the cable truck.”
I go to a window at the front of the house and spot the truck.
“Doesn't this case belong to the feds now?” I whisper, wondering if one day I'll have to leave the state just to avoid being a surveillance target of my mother.
“I wanted to see this thing through to the end. I've made a few friends; they let me hang out. Feds aren't all bad.”
I guess they aren't all humorless, either, because I hear a few laughs in the background.
“So why don't you go talk to him?” she urges.
“His mom hates me, so what's it matter?”
“She doesn't hate you. I've talked to her and she seems nice, just concerned about her kid like any mother. Like me. She and I have the same beef with you, actually.”
“I know. You want me to stop playing detective.”
“Such an easy thing to do, especially if you really want Marco back.”
“I don't think I ever really had him.”
“Oh, I'm sure you did. And to be honest, I'm more than happy for you to stay clear of any boy until you're thirty, preferably married first. But I know that's just wishful thinking. If there has to be a boy, Marco seems like the right one. It's obvious you like him.”
“We're just friends. Or were.”
“Chanti, I'm not clueless. I was your age once.”
The minute she says that, our conversation goes from awkward to undoable.
“What was that?” she asks.
“What?”
“That look. And you flinched.”
“You've got eyes on me right now? Lana, I need to find Bethanie before she has to leave with your new friends.”
“Marco's mom tells me he's seventeen,” she says, undeterred. I turn my back to the window so at least she can't see my reactions anymore.
“So?”
“You're about to be sixteen.”
“Okaaay,” I say, wondering why Lana is so intrigued by the obvious.
“You and Marco are not me and your father.”
“You mean my sperm donor,” I say without thinking. It just slipped out, probably because it's exactly how I feel. And probably because Lana called me on something I hadn't realized myself when I should have been the first to get it.
“I can see why you think of him that way. I do, sort of, except I think of him helping me do the best thing I've ever done. It was the wrong time with the wrong boy, but I wouldn't change a thing because now I have this great kid. She can be a total pain in the behind sometimes, but still great.”
“Momâ”
“Chanti, I'm not asking you to repeat what I did. In fact, you better not or I will send my scariest street informant over to talk to your little friend. But you can't be afraid to take chances.”
“But you're always sayingâ”
“I mean take chances with your heart. Not with mobsters and thieves.”
I don't tell her Marco is already back with Angelique because it would spoil the mood, I'd probably burst into tears the minute I caught Marco's eye, and what kind of party would that be?
“Only a few minutes until these guys come for Bethanie,” Lana says, giving me an out.
I hang up and walk across the room to Bethanie, making sure I avoid running into Marco and Reginald. I don't think I can handle
any
boys after my mother's psychoanalysis, no matter how right she is. When I locate Bethanie, I pull her into the kitchen and away from the party.
“Okay, since I just gave you the best birthday party of your life, you have to answer my questions. All of them, no holding back,” I say.
“The whole truth, and nothing but,” Bethanie says. “That's what friends do, right?”
“Exactly. First question: I know from the photos and school stuff on your corkboard you've lived all over the place. But where do you call home?”
“You were right about that one. Atlanta is home. That's where we started, and after years of moving around, we returned there, which is when my dad got involved with DeLong. You made me crazy every time you came close to figuring it out.”
“The phone ... what was up with everybody wanting your phone? I mean, besides the diamonds?”
“Diamonds?” Bethanie asks, looking confused at first, but then she laughs. “Those were zirconias. You think I'd walk around with that many diamonds? I might be rich, but I ain't stupid.”
“But it must have had something people wanted, maybe more than diamonds, and you walked around with it. Whichâsorryâdoes seem a little stupid.”
Bethanie takes a seat at the bar, the very bar where I first discovered her lottery winnings and where, just a few days ago, she got mad at me and left in a huff. That seems like forever ago, and soon she'll be leaving forever.
“When we were still in Atlanta and DeLong kidnapped me to scare my father, I managed to take pictures of him and some of his men.”
“But wouldn't they have taken the phone from you?”
“They did, but I carried twoâone for regular stuff, and one for emergencies, the kind only my father could get us into. When that phone rang, I knew it was business.”
“Sort of like the Batphone,” I say.
“What?”
“Like on
Batman
. The Batphone was only used when all hell was breaking loose in Gotham City. Never mind, just tell me about the pictures.”
“They didn't realize I had another phone in a secret pocket on my backpack. I snapped a couple of photos and figured if I ever got out of it, I'd take them to the cops. Keeping the phone on me was the safest place I knew.”
“Why didn't you ever go to the police?”
“Going to the cops would also mean exposing my dad to his part in both the illegal gambling and scamming DeLong. We won the lottery soon after and went on the run. I see now it wasn't the brightest move, but without my father knowing, I got word to DeLong that if he ever came after my family, the photos would come out.”
“Not a bright move, but definitely badass,” I say. “Next question. Did you really like Cole that much, and if so how are you doing now that you know the truth?”
“I really did, and it sucks.”
“Details, please,” I say. I already knew a lot, but there were holes only Bethanie could fill in.
“Cole was sent by the Family to kidnap me, but his FBI goal was to protect me. When that guy showed up in my parking spot that day, he'd been sent by DeLong to handle the job. Cole was taking too long and DeLong thought maybe he was too much of a rookie to handle it. That morning you saw the two cars leaveâone was the bad guy, the other was Cole.”
“So Cole started watching your house to figure out your patterns, but ended up watching it to protect you.”
“Right. But that morning, he realized DeLong's patience had run out. Cole tried to find the guy and keep a watch on him, at places like the dog and horse tracks, it turns out.”
“I was wondering about that. At first I thought Cole was looking for your dad at the tracks, but that didn't make much sense if he knew where you lived.”
“But it was too much for Cole to watch me and stay one step ahead of DeLong's dude. That's when he came up with the idea of getting me out of town while the local cops got my dad someplace safe. Since he was based in Las Vegas, and knew they had a wider operation going there, he felt it was safer than Denver.”
“Seems like he could have told my ... I mean the local cops what was up.”
“He needed to keep his cover, even with the locals, because the FBI isn't stopping with DeLong. They're hoping to take down the whole Vegas operation.”
“But why not tell your family?”
When I ask this, Bethanie looks sad for the first time since we yelled
surprise
to start her party.
“He wasn't sure where my father's allegiance wasâto saving me or himself. Not that I blame him.”
Without blowing Lana's cover, I tell her what I know is true. “I've spent some time with your dad. He made some bad choices, but his allegiance is completely to you.”
Bethanie still looks a little bummed, which is the last thing I wanted to happen at her first real birthday party.
“Okay, last crime-related question. Why did you scream when you were in the hotel room?”
“I was playing in-room Keno and had just won a thousand dollars.”
“Seriously? I thought Cole was in there trying to kill you. You have millions of dollars and you screamed like that over a thousand?”
“I've never won anything before. I mean something that was just for me, not a poker game for my dad or a math bowl for my mother.”
“How about running? You won medals for that.”
“That wasn't about winning. That was getting as close as I could to running away, being free.”
“Well, winning a thousand dollars sounds like a perfect reason to scream like you did,” I say.
“You didn't ask for any romantic details.”
“Didn't think you'd want me to. But I did wonder how Cole got you to leave town with him. I figured he told you y'all could elope in Vegas or something.”
“Close. He never told me that; he just said let's take a road trip and when we stopped in Vegas, I thought that's what was going to happen. Can you believe how stupid that is?”
“You're a romantic.”
“I feel like an idiot believing in all that
Romeo and Juliet
stuff. Cole must think I'm a silly child.”
“Not at all,” Cole says, coming in from the mudroom off the kitchen.
I swear this guy has the best timing ever. I don't know how he does it. I had asked him to try to come if he could. He wasn't there when the party started, but as usual, he's right on time.
“What I think is you're an incredibly brave woman. If you were a year older, I wasn't an undercover agent, and you weren't about to go somewhere far away, things might have been different.”
“That's a lot of ifs,” Bethanie says, looking a lot less bummed even though the Cole situation is pretty hopeless.