An Insignificant Case

Chapter Thirty-Four

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Guido hated wearing a suit, but Charlie had insisted. He’d found the suit, the shirt, and the tie he’d worn to court in the back of one of his closets, a relic of his days in academia. As soon as he was in the back of the car heading toward his farm, Guido stripped off his jacket, took off his tie, and unbuttoned the top button of his dress shirt. Now that he was down to shirtsleeves, he felt he could breathe again.

He was anxious to get back to the farm so he could finish a painting of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. He smiled. Being on trial for murder had turned out to have a silver lining. The online sales of his artworks had skyrocketed, and there had been feelers from several art galleries about showing his work. Guido guessed that the old adage was true: there was no such thing as bad publicity.

He leaned his head back and shut his eyes, assuming that the trip would be as uneventful as all the other trips he’d taken to and from the courthouse. His bodyguards assumed the same thing. That’s why they didn’t notice the black van that merged onto the highway after they had traveled four miles.

Guido opened his eyes when the car left the two-lane highway and turned onto the bumpy, unpaved road that led to his barnyard. His bodyguards parked in front of the farmhouse. The moment they got out of the car, two armed men in ski masks ran from the side of the house, wrenched open the passenger’s and driver’s doors, and pointed guns at the officers.

“Don’t resist and we won’t kill you,” the man on the driver’s side said.

When the officers got out of the car, they were thrown on the ground, and their hands and ankles were secured with plastic ties. Another armed and masked man walked out of the house and onto the porch just as the black van that had been following the unmarked car raced into the yard. Guido looked at the van through the rear window. Four more masked men got out. Seconds later, he was pulled out of the car and his hands were secured with plastic ties. Two men waited outside to watch the police officers. Another man marched Guido into his living room and threw him onto a chair. Three more men took up positions in the house. Then the man on the porch followed Guido into the living room and stood over him. Guido smiled.

“That was dramatic. I hope the two officers aren’t injured,” he said.

“You should be worrying about yourself, Larry.”

“I am Guido Sabatini.”

Max Unger smashed a gloved fist into Guido’s nose. Guido squeezed his eyes shut as pain laced through him.

“You are who I say you are, Larry. You’d better stow the Renaissance painter bullshit and get into the real world if you want to survive.”

“This is about the flash drive, is it not?”

“Very good.”

Guido shrugged. “I am no longer in possession of the drive.”

“Where is it?”

Blood ran out of Guido’s nose, but he still managed a smile. “That is for me to know and you to find out.”

Unger hit Guido again. “No jokes, asshole. Those punches were an amuse-bouche. Several of my men are experts at extracting information. Keep fucking around and I’ll turn you over to them.”

“In my day, they used the iron maiden and the rack. They caused unbearable pain, and their victims would say anything to stop it, resulting in many false confessions. Torture me and I will send you here and there looking for the flash drive in places where you will not find it.”

“We’re way past iron maidens and the rack, Larry. We use pharmaceuticals that can get the most stubborn man to tell us what we want to know. Sadly, some of them cause permanent brain damage.”

“Do what you must,” Guido said.

Unger sighed. “I was hoping this would be over quickly. Unfortunately for you, I’m going to take you somewhere I can extract the information I need without worrying about being interrupted.”

Unger turned to two men who were standing in the living room doorway. “Get this idiot to the compound.”

The men pulled Guido to his feet. When they were outside, Guido frowned. His bodyguards and the men watching them were nowhere in sight. His captors were just as puzzled, and they stopped on the porch and looked around.

After Charlie’s meeting with Bridget Fournier and Sally Blaisedale, Sally had talked to Gordon Rawls, and they’d cashed in a raft of favors to assemble the team that was watching Guido’s farm. They had moved into position in the woods that surrounded the farm hours before Guido had been driven to court in case an attempt to kidnap Guido was made in the morning.

Bridget hadn’t told Thomas Grant or anyone else in her office about the surveillance because she wasn’t sure who she could trust, and she was monitoring the activity at the farm in Charlie’s office.

Sally Blaisedale had called Bridget shortly after Guido and his bodyguards left for court to report that a car had parked on the side of Guido’s house, where it wouldn’t be seen when Guido returned to the farm. Three armed men had gotten out. None of them were wearing masks, and one of the men was Max Unger. Bridget felt like she’d won the lottery.

Charlie had argued that Bob Malone and Gary Schwartz should follow the unmarked car that was taking Guido to and from the farm because no one would mistake them for cops and they were definitely not involved in the sex trafficking ring. His argument had won over Bridget and Blaisedale, and the Barbarians followed Guido from the courthouse on their Harleys, careful to stay far enough back so they didn’t spook anyone who was tailing the unmarked car with evil intent. Four miles from the courthouse, their strategy paid off, and Bob phoned Sally Blaisedale.

“A black van just pulled in behind Guido’s car,” Malone told Blaisedale.

“You’re certain it’s following Guido?”

“Pretty sure. It settled in a few car lengths back and hasn’t taken any of the exits. Here’s the number of the license plate.”

“Good work, Bob,” Sally said before phoning Bridget and telling her the license number of the black van.

Just as the car that was transporting Guido parked in front of the farmhouse, Bridget called Sally.

“The van is registered to National Security,” the prosecutor said.

“Bingo,” Sally answered.

“Once Unger is in custody facing kidnapping charges, he’ll cut a deal and tell us everything he knows about Golden’s sex trafficking ring.”

“From your lips to God’s ears,” Sally answered moments before two armed men ran up to the unmarked police car.

“Gotta go,” Sally said, ending the call as Guido’s bodyguards were pulled out of the car and Guido was hustled into the house. Snipers had the green light to shoot the men who had grabbed Guido’s bodyguards if they looked like they were going to harm them.

When Guido was inside, the rescue team moved down from the woods. Several members of the team edged along the side of the farmhouse. The captured police officers were lying on the ground next to the car. The men watching them looked bored. One man was leaning against the unmarked car, his back to the farmhouse. The other man was on his phone. Neither man looked alert, and neither man had his hand on his gun.

As soon as the man who was on his phone turned his back to the house, Rawls raced to him, looped an arm around his neck, and brought him to the ground. The man struggled for a few moments and then lost consciousness.

The other guard heard the sounds of the struggle. When he turned, he found several guns aimed at him.

“Make one sound and I will shoot you,” Sally Blaisedale told him.

The officers and the two masked men were hustled out of sight. A few minutes after the men had disappeared, two men dragged Guido out of the house. They stopped on the steps that led to the porch and scanned the yard. The unmarked police car was present, but the captured officers and their guards were absent.

“Where are Frank, Harold, and the cops?” one of the men said.

“I don’t know,” the other man said. He turned in a circle, scanning the barnyard in an effort to solve the mystery, and found himself facing several men who were pointing weapons at him.

Guido smiled. “The cavalry has arrived.”

“Shut your mouth, asshole,” Guido’s captor said as he pulled Guido in front of him to use as a shield. He pressed the barrel of his gun to Guido’s temple.

“Back off, or I’ll kill him!” he shouted just as Guido used his head like a wrecking ball and smashed it into his captor’s face. The man staggered, and Guido fell to the porch, giving the officers a clear shot at his captor. Sally Blaisedale shot the man who had been holding Guido. The other man dropped his weapon and threw his hands up. Two officers grabbed him and dragged him off the porch.

Sally ripped the ski mask off the dead man. Then she frowned.

“I’ve seen this man before, Gordon. He was guarding Leon Golden’s estate.”

Before Rawls could reply, someone inside the house started shooting. Glass shards and bullets sprayed out of the front window. Everyone on the porch ducked for cover.

As soon as she was out of range, Sally grabbed a bullhorn.

“Mr. Unger, this is Detective Sally Blaisedale. I met you at your headquarters. I was with Bridget Fournier, a deputy district attorney, and my partner, Detective Rawls.”

Sally waited for an answer, but Unger didn’t respond.

“Max, the house is surrounded. Your men are either in custody or dead. We don’t want any more casualties. If you and your men come out, unarmed, no one else will get hurt.”

Sally waited for a response. Several minutes passed. Then a man shouted, “We’re coming out! Don’t shoot!”

The door opened, and two men walked out with their hands up. Neither man was Max Unger.

“Where is Unger?” Gordon Rawls asked the prisoners.

Before they could answer, he heard a shot.

“Oh, shit,” Rawls said as he entered the house with his gun pointing the way. It wasn’t necessary. When Rawls peeked around the entrance to the living room, he saw Max Unger sitting in an armchair with a bullet hole in his temple.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” said Bridget Fournier, who rarely swore, when Sally Blaisedale phoned her from the farm. “I don’t believe this. First Hall and Makarov. Now Unger. Everyone we thought we could turn ends up dead.”

“This is disappointing,” Charlie said. “But there may be a silver lining.”

“I don’t see one.”

“Guido almost died, Bridget. Maybe this will tip him over the edge and convince him to give you the flash drive.”

Bridget shook her head. “He’ll take his survival as more proof of divine intervention.”