Nelson, page 9
part #21 of SEALs of Honor Series
King looked up and said, “We hear you found someone.”
“His name was Peter,” Elizabeth said quietly, her fingers still lightly stroking the ivory keys. “He was a friend of my brother’s.”
“Do you think your brother killed him?”
“No,” she said. “I think he watched his friend get murdered.”
“That’s what the word is on the streets,” King said.
“We’re waiting to see if the body holds any forensic evidence that will help us identify his murderers,” Nelson said.
King looked at him directly. “My men didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“Good,” Nelson said, “and we didn’t either.”
King didn’t say anything for a long moment. He appeared to be thinking. “One of my men saw something.”
“What did he see?” Nelson asked.
“A face,” King said. “One he didn’t recognize. He thought he’d seen it around in the bars, but he didn’t know him by name,” he added.
Elizabeth looked up at him. “Any chance you have somebody who can draw a picture of him?”
King shook his head. “No, he would probably recognize him, but no way he’ll look through photo books down at the cop station.” His tone was dry.
Elizabeth laughed, her voice light and cheerful. “Of course not. I wouldn’t want to do that either.”
That surprised King; he ended up in a roar of chuckles. As he finally calmed down, he said, “I do like you.”
“I like you too. And I’ll like you more if you can help us figure out what happened.”
“My guy only saw a face, but that’s because he wasn’t heading out to the end of the wharfs. He was heading back toward one of the bars.”
“Which bar would that be?” Nelson asked. “Any chance it would have a security feed which your person could look at?”
“I own the bar,” King said. “And I do have the security feed. He hasn’t looked at it though, to see if the face is on it.”
“Will you let Nelson look?” Elizabeth asked, her voice guileless and innocent.
King’s gaze went from her to Nelson. “For a price.”
Elizabeth stiffened, then nodded. “I guess that’s the world we live in, isn’t it?”
King nodded. “It is, indeed, little one. It is, indeed.”
“And for this price what is it we get?” Taylor asked, speaking up for the first time.
“My man will go through the feed and see if he can identify the person.”
“And can we get a copy of the feed?”
King seemed to consider that, then shrugged. “Sure. Why not? It won’t help much.”
“No, but identification will give us one piece of the puzzle and finding other associates will allow us to find more puzzle pieces.”
King nodded. “As long as my men don’t get involved.”
“But you know as well as I do, if they had nothing to do with it, it doesn’t matter.”
“You can have part of the feed,” King compromised.
Nelson chuckled. “Okay, as long as we agree on the same piece. We want all the feed that has any images of this guy and any of the men he appears to be eating, drinking, talking or hanging around with.”
“As long as I okay any other activities being shown on the same feeds.”
“Agreed. When can this happen?”
“When can you pay?”
“Depends on the price,” Nelson said.
“It depends on what it’s worth,” King said with a calculating tone of voice.
“It’s worth a lot,” Elizabeth said. “It’s my brother. But that doesn’t change the fact I don’t have a ton of money.”
“But you do have enough to pay something?”
“Business is business, so, yes,” she said. “I can scrounge up some. I just can’t scrounge up much.”
He nodded, his fingers going to the ivories.
She picked up the tune he played, playing the exact same refrain on the lower octave.
He laughed. “I do miss having somebody to play the piano with.”
“I don’t have a piano at home,” she said. “But this reminds me how much I would enjoy it.”
“You should get one,” he said.
“Maybe I will when I get back, after this mess is over,” Elizabeth said with a slight incline of her head. “It might help me deal with the trauma of being here and seeing what life is like outside of the comfort of my own space.”
“True enough. You probably live in a lily-white tower and don’t deal with the outside world.”
“I deal with it enough,” she said. “But, when you start losing family members, and you’re down to the last one, it gets a bit dicey.”
“One thousand bucks,” he said.
She gasped.
King sent her a sideways look. “That’s cheap. Normally I charge ten times that.”
She looked at him wide-eyed. “Wow. I’m in the wrong business.”
And that set him off to huge guffaws of laughter. When he finally stopped, Nelson stepped forward with the money in his hand, a clip around it. “That’s all she brought.”
“Good,” he said, “then it was the right figure.” He put the money in his pocket and motioned at two men standing nearby. “He’ll take you into the security room where the monitor is. You’ll run through it, and he’ll see if he can find the man he thought he saw. If so, we’ll pick out the pieces of the film you want copies of.”
Nelson headed toward the room, then stopped and looked back at Elizabeth.
King waved at him. “Go. Your girlfriend will be here when you get back. We’ll just play the piano together for a while.” And, with that, he played Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
With a delighted laugh, Elizabeth dove in and played with him.
Nelson shook his head, looked at Taylor, who just shrugged at him, and the two men walked into the security room. They were taking a chance leaving her, but they were also taking a chance going into this room themselves. At the moment Nelson figured Elizabeth was safer than they were.
They stepped forward, and the door closed behind them.
Chapter 7
“They won’t hurt them, will they?” she asked King.
“Nah,” King said. “We only break bones when people are uncooperative.”
“Good,” she said. “Because I wouldn’t want to stay up all night and look after them. I make a lousy nurse.”
And again he burst out laughing. “My goodness,” he said, “you are a breath of fresh air.”
“Maybe,” she said, “it’s from living in the ivory tower.”
As soon as they finished Beethoven, she ran her fingers in a rendition of Mozart. Then, in a completely different move, she played John Denver and rolled into a Stevie Nicks number.
He sat back and listened, watching her fingers. “How is it you don’t have a piano at home?”
“I work too much. I don’t have much space, and these are very expensive instruments,” she said.
He was silent for a moment and then said, “You’re right. A good one is. But you’re very talented.”
She shook her head. “No, not like so many are. My piano teacher was always complaining that I didn’t practice enough. The problem was, I wanted to play the songs in my heart, not the songs in her heart. It is such a joy to play again,” she admitted. Her fingers flew across the keyboard, as if they had a mind of their own. They swung from an Adele number into reggae and then into jazz. As she played the jazz piece, she slowed and closed her eyes, letting her body sway to the music as she played.
Finally her song ran down, and she dropped her fingers to her lap, still in a trance. She stared at the keyboard and then over at King and smiled. She wiped the tears from her eyes. “Thank you,” she said. “That was lovely.”
He stared at her in surprise. And something else too.
Just then the door opened, and Taylor and Nelson returned, their faces grim.
“We found him,” Nelson said. “We need you to look at the feed to see which pieces we can have.”
King walked toward him. Elizabeth slipped off the bench and ran toward Nelson. He reached out and caught her up close to him. “Do you recognize him?” she asked.
He shook his head. “No, but we should run through it through our databases with some good facial recognition programs.”
“The question is, whether he’s a local?” she said. “Or if he’s a seaman?”
“He’s a seaman,” King said, looking at the monitor. “He’s not from around here.” He went through several of the film stills and then pointed out which ones they could have. Then the henchmen printed off the images. And they cut part of the video and emailed it to Nelson.
With prints in hand, Nelson, Taylor and Elizabeth walked toward the front door. On impulse, Elizabeth turned, smiled up at King, sitting at the piano, and she said, “Thanks for a wonderful piano session.”
His face gentled, and he nodded. “You’re more than welcome.”
As they stepped out the door, and it closed behind them, Nelson wrapped her up tight and said, “Stay on guard.”
She almost stumbled. She’d been in a happy daze from the music. The reality of what they were doing now wasn’t something she had expected. In a whisper she asked, “What is it you expect?”
“While you were having fun playing with him,” Nelson said, “the woman who accosted us the first evening looked to be incredibly jealous. And what you don’t know is, she stood in the far corner behind you, glaring daggers at you. She wasn’t there when we came back out. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she isn’t ahead of us somewhere, looking to teach you a lesson.”
Elizabeth stiffened. “I forgot about her.”
“I know,” Nelson said. “But I’m not kidding when I say these people are serious about every detail. And, if Chelsea thought King was sweet on you, or that you were trying to steal him from her, you would not survive the night.”
“We’re not far from the hotel.” She glanced around. “So hopefully we’re safe.”
Just then Taylor said, “On your left.”
Nelson’s arm tightened around Elizabeth, then he shoved her behind him as he pivoted toward the threat.
Elizabeth peered over both men’s shoulders to see two of the henchmen and indeed a hard-looking female in front of them.
“You keep her away from here,” Chelsea spat. “I don’t give a fuck how high up in the white tower she is. She’s history if I ever see her again. Do you hear me?”
Elizabeth wanted to defend herself, but the men were shoulder to shoulder, keeping her behind them. “I didn’t mean to upset you,” she called over their shoulders.
Chelsea snorted. “You didn’t. But I protect what’s mine. And King is mine.”
“I just bought him an hour of peace through playing the piano,” Elizabeth said. “Music is something he doesn’t get enough of.”
“What are you talking about?” Chelsea snarled. “He’s on that damn piano all the time.”
“That’s because it brings him peace,” she said. “He tries to lose himself in the music but often can’t get deep enough to be transported out of his normal world.”
The men separated ever-so-slightly. Elizabeth could see the confusion on Chelsea’s face.
But almost as quickly it shut down, and she growled, “Get her out of here now. And I don’t want her coming back to see him anymore. Better if she disappeared.” On those words she blended into the shadows.
Elizabeth reached up and gripped Nelson’s arm. “But I didn’t do anything to make her feel like she was being replaced.”
“You’re missing a piece of the puzzle,” Taylor said.
Nelson wrapped her up close, and this time Taylor walked behind them.
“What piece of the puzzle am I missing?” Elizabeth asked Taylor.
“What you’re missing is the fact that King takes what King wants. And if he decides he wants you to play the piano with him, as far as he’s concerned, you’re there for the grabbing.”
“What if I don’t want to be grabbed?”
Nelson looked down at her. “Remember? That’s the point about not understanding this world. He controls a lot of people. He controls prostitutes and murderers. People do things on his behalf because they’re too terrified not to. So, if he asks them to kidnap you, then they would do so. Not only that, they would do it with a smile on their face because it would be making him happy. And, after that, if he kept you, it would be in whatever capacity he wanted you in.”
Elizabeth could feel the joy of the evening drain away, and her stomach clenched in panic. “I was too nice, wasn’t I?”
Nelson sighed. “I hate to say it, because there shouldn’t be such a thing as too nice, but yes, you were too nice.”
She groaned and flung up her hands. “What am I supposed to do? I can’t stay on guard all the time. It’s not who I am.”
“Of course not,” Nelson said. “But I would be happy if you never saw King again. Sometimes I wonder if the reason we weren’t called there was just so he could visit with you again.”
“He did give us a good price for that video, or was that all part of the sales pitch?” Elizabeth turned to look at Taylor. “Right. Maybe that was just all part of the same slimy deal.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Nelson said, “because we did get something useful. And now we have a lead on the man who was followed from the dock after Peter was murdered. If we can identify him, we’ll identify those he hung out with.”
“That’s perfect then,” she said. “Let’s get back to the hotel and track down who this person is.”
“We can’t do that,” Nelson said. “That’ll go through NCIS, the local cops and Mason.”
“Why Mason? It seems like you’re always in touch with him anyway.”
“He’s the one who got me assigned to this,” he said. “And his wife has an incredible computer system at home that can access all kinds of government software.”
“Legally?”
“She has very high clearance,” Taylor said with a laugh. “And she’ll use it every once in a while to help us out.”
“That makes her a very good person to know,” Elizabeth said in admiration. “Wouldn’t it be nice to think that was something we could all have access to?”
When they reached their room, it still smelled of fish tacos and fried chicken. “Is there more?” Elizabeth asked.
“We only ate the chicken,” Taylor said. “There are lots of tacos. Help yourself.”
“Is there anything else we have planned for this evening?”
“After our meeting with NCIS Special Agent Johnson, no. Depends on what we come up with. At the moment, nothing. Sit down and eat.”
“Maybe I will then.” Elizabeth grabbed a box. “Do we serve it or am I just eating out of the box?”
“Eat out of the box,” Nelson said. “We are big enough to share. And we’re a little short on dishes.”
“Got it,” she said with a laugh. She sat down on the bed, picked up the TV remote and clicked on a news station with a story on the body found at the wharf. There were just enough pictures to realize it was the body they’d found. She could speak some Spanish but not fluently, still, this report was hard not to understand. Hating to, but knowing she didn’t dare miss any tidbits of news that would help find her brother, she turned up the volume. Both men came around so they could watch too. There was film of the body being removed from the water. She noted herself and Nelson down by the dock. They weren’t identifiable that far away, but it was the same location and scene. “I wonder who gave the news station that footage,” she asked.
“That’s not a bad question to ask,” Nelson said. “We also need to figure out if they have found out anything we don’t already know.”
But there wasn’t anything new, until the cameras panned away. Elizabeth jumped forward. “Did you see that?”
“See what?” both men asked.
She tried to hit the Stop button, but of course it was live TV, not a recorded movie or anything she could pause. “Damn it,” she said. “I thought it was that man down at the bar, the one we went to King for and got the stills of.”
They held up the picture, and she shrank. “I hardly had time to look, but, yes, it looked like him.”
“Interesting,” Nelson said. “Because that would mean he went back to the scene of the crime. Not back to the ship—if he was a seaman too.”
“Quite likely he’s telling his other seamen buddies what’s happening,” Taylor said. “Somebody had to stay behind to see if anybody finds the body. The longer that body stays gone, the less forensic evidence they will find. Imagine if it was six months later.”
“Right,” Elizabeth said. “But we found the poor man late ourselves. It’s been a week in the water, which I guess is pretty nasty in terms of what happens to the body, but there might still be something usable to find.”
“Which means this guy is telling the rest of his buddies what happened.”
“Definitely. And we know who his buddies are,” Elizabeth snapped. “Seamen aboard Chris’s ship.” With the news done, she flipped through the other channels, looking for something to take her mind off things. She went past a murder mystery and settled on a chick-flick. When she brought it up, she grinned. “This could be good.”
The two men looked at the TV and groaned. “Seriously?”
“Hey, what’s wrong with it?”
“It’s a chick-flick, for women,” Nelson said. “Hardly guy content.”
“What do you guys want to watch?” She glared at them. “The sports channel, I suppose?”
“Yes,” Nelson said, “that would be a good answer. Or a good fantasy movie or something action-based would be nice.”
“Agreed,” Taylor said. “However, we’re working over here, so, if that’ll help you get through the rest of the afternoon until our meeting, then fine.”
Elizabeth nodded. “Good, because I want to watch it.” She hit the remote’s Start button. With half an ear, she listened to the two discuss what they were doing, what they’d found, but she quickly lost interest because it seemed like they were doing nothing but sending emails and looking at maps. Finally, when the show ended, she rolled over on the bed. “So what’s next?”
