Chapter 1
"Myles you have got to do something about it!" The woman's voice on the end of the telephone almost rose into a wail. "What is the point of you working for the FBI if, when we need you most, you refuse to help?" she added crossly. Myles Leland the Third almost rolled his eyes, now his career choice was acceptable.
"Mother," he began, striving to come across as being a patient and caring son. "I understand that you are worried, but the FBI doesn't usually get involved at this stage. The correct procedure is to file a report with the police, if they feel that it requires more then they will transfer the case to the correct department within the FBI."
"Nonsense!" exclaimed his mother. "You don't want to be involved because it is Richard. It was just the same with Anne, you know she refused to help him with that incident at the casino." She added angrily.
"Anne didn't refuse," Myles interrupted the inevitable catalogue of failures he could see coming to defend his sister. "You know that she would have helped if she could but it was just after she had been disbarred."
"And whose fault was that?" demanded his mother.
"Not mine," replied Myles, shortly. "Look I've got to go we have a briefing. If you are seriously worried about Richard get in touch with the police but you know what he is like. I have no intention of using FBI resources just to find out he's sipping mai tais on some Caribbean island with his latest fling. Got to go, I'll talk to you later." Cutting his mother off in mid-flow he turned his attention to the new case which D was about to brief them on.
"Glad you could join us," said D with a hint of sarcasm. He double checked that everyone in the team was now paying attention. "Sue, Sue!" he waved his hand to no avail. "Levi get Sue!" the retriever put his paw on Sue's leg to get her attention. She looked up sheepishly having been caught trying to finish a report whilst Myles was occupied with his phone call. D did a quick scan and saw everyone was now ready and looking at him. "Finally, I've got everyone's attention!" he said in his best acting supervisor voice. "We have a new case. You might have seen on the news that the 'Blue Hibiscus' bar went up in smoke a few days ago." Tara and Lucy nodded, it had been one of their favourite nightspots to go to and let off steam. "At first," continued D "It was thought that two rival gangs had had a disagreement resulting in a shoot-out leaving several members from both sides dead. The 'Blue Hibiscus', if you didn't know, was run by Jed Esposito who also happened to be the leader of gang known as…" he fumbled for the name.
"The Angels," supplied Jack. "They were allied to 'The Saints': Curtis Sandford's old gang."
"Thank you, yes 'the Angels'" continued D. "The other gang was called the 'T-Bolts' short for 'Thunderbolts'. There was a lot of animosity between the two so no one was surprised when trouble broke out. However, we now believe that the fire was deliberately set possibly to destroy evidence and maybe to distract us from this." He held up a disk. "SOG found a box full of cctv footage, some damaged beyond use by the fire but they did recover enough to raise our interest levels. Tara would you do the honours?" Tara took the disk and inserted it into her computer, she tapped a few keys on her keyboard and a video appeared on the large tv screen fixed to the wall. Everyone looked at it in interest.
"Isn't that Giovanni Giordano?" asked Bobby suddenly. "We've had him under surveillance for months. What's he doing there?"
"You're right," answered D. "And the others are probably part of his entourage. I'm hoping Tara can do her face recognition bit with their ears because that's all we have. This man, though, is of significant interest" D pointed to the only other person with their face to camera. "We haven't seen him with Giordano before and we don't think that he is part of either gang. He might just be a waiter who happened to get in shot or he may be more. Either way we need to know who he is and what his role is. If the mafia is involved in the 'Blue Hibiscus' we could be on the verge of a gang war fuelled by the mob! So, Tara find out who our unknowns are and see if there is any record of the other guy in the system."
"Err D, that won't be necessary," said Myles, hesitantly. "I know who he is."
"Some-one's been keeping the wrong company!" grinned Bobby. Myles looked at him in disdain then dropped his bombshell. "He is my youngest brother!" The room went even quieter as everyone, including Levi, turned towards Myles in disbelief. Sue squinted at him, unsure that she had read his lips correctly, waiting for him to add more.
"Are you sure?" asked Lucy. "I've met your brother and he doesn't look anything like him." Bobby and Jack nodded in agreement.
"You have met my younger brother, the one in banking, Julius. This is my youngest brother, Richard James. He leads a nomadic lifestyle; always jetting off to somewhere new, always has a new plan, a new can't fail scheme. We don't have a lot in common."
"So where is he now?" asked D.
"I don't know." Myles answered beginning to feel a little worried. "The phone call, before the briefing, was from my mother. She is very worried because Richard appears to be missing. They were supposed to meet up a couple of days ago at the yacht club but Richard didn't show. Why that should have rung alarm bells I don't know because he is notorious for not showing up to meetings, family events, weddings the list goes on. Anyway, she has tried various ways of contacting him but with no luck which is why she contacted me. Apparently, my being in the FBI is now useful." He ended on a sour note.
"Right ask your mum for all those contact details and an address then you and Sue get over there to look around," ordered D. Myles nodded and reached for the telephone again. He just hoped that his mother wouldn't gloat too much.
"Sue, before you go," said D. "I'm going to have the video cleaned up a bit then I want you to see if you can make out what is being said. I don't know if you saw anything just then?"
Sue shrugged and pulled a face. "Sorry, no, it was a bit fuzzy. I'll certainly try again later though." She smiled and at a signal from Myles grabbed her bag and they left the building.
"We'll take my car," said Myles. "Apparently Mother has gone to meet friends at her country club, which should be fun." Sue assumed that he was being sarcastic and wisely said nothing. It took a while to get there because of traffic which did nothing to improve Myles' temper. He was short with the parking valet who insisted that he couldn't park in the President of the country club's space. He was officious with the receptionist who said that dogs were not allowed causing her to rapidly revise that statement and he was snippy with the waiter who showed him to the lounge where his mother was sitting with two well-dressed matrons. Sue on the other hand was fascinated with the new experience. Everywhere she looked flaunted money from the crystal chandeliers sparkling from the many electric lights to the thick rugs lying on top of highly polished mahogany wooden floors. The lounge was expensively furnished with a variety of sofas and chairs covered in what appeared to be silk grouped together into intimate seating areas. The French windows had flowery curtains draped to the sides with voile netting gently wafting in the warm breeze that came in through the open doors. A sharp nudge from Myles' elbow brought her back to reality.
"Mother! What a pleasure to see you again! Gloria, Felicity, how lovely!" Sue stared in amazement at this version of Myles. "Ladies, if you don't mind, I need to borrow my mother for a short while. I'll have her back to you in no time. By the way what a simply divine outfit Gloria, it reminds me of something just can't think what." Sue tried to hide a grin as she glanced from the curtains to Gloria's dress. During his greeting Myles had managed to remove his mother from her chair, clasp her hand in the crook of his arm and head towards a small un-occupied alcove.
"Myles!" admonished his mother. "That was incredibly rude, I know that we raised you better than that. You must be fraternising with the wrong type of people. Well, are you going to introduce me to your friend? And why does she have a dog? Dogs are not permitted in the club." She looked pointedly at Levi who immediately raised his paw to shake hands. Unsurprisingly, Mrs Leland did not oblige.
"Mother, this is Sue Thomas, a work colleague. Sue this is my mother Elizabeth Leland," Myles did the introduction swiftly, ready to move on and get out of there as quickly as possible.
"Pleased to meet you Mrs Leland. This is Levi my hearing dog which is why he is allowed in here." Replied Sue pleasantly.
"Your hearing dog?" began Mrs Leland only to have Myles interrupt.
"Yes, yes can we get a move on? Other things to do you know."
"Myles!" exclaimed Sue and his mother at the same time.
"I apologise," continued Sue, sweetly. "Low blood sugar I'm afraid, it's made him a little cranky. To answer your question, I have Levi because I am deaf, he listens out for things like the doorbell or if anyone calls my name and alerts me. I have to say, Mrs Leland, that I can see a strong resemblance to Anne in you."
"You've met my daughter!" replied Elizabeth in surprise.
"Yes, we meet up for coffee every now and again," chatted Sue much to Myles annoyance. Why did he get the feeling that she was doing this deliberately?
"Mrs Leland, I understand that you are worried about Richard, you haven't been able to get in touch with him?" Sue finally got down to business, feeling that she had tormented Myles enough.
"Yes I am worried, not that Myles is taking it seriously," she answered, glaring in his direction.
"I understand your frustration," soothed Sue. "However, he is now taking it quite seriously and we were wondering if you could give us any contact information, you know, phone numbers, email address, home address, that sort of thing. Do you know where any of his friends live so that we can talk to them?" asked Sue.
"Oh my! You think that something terrible has happened to him! I knew it!"
"Calm down mother," said Myles. "Nothing has happened to him, we just want to put your mind at ease. You probably know more about Richard than any of us so it is only natural that we should come to you for this information."
"You wouldn't need to if you didn't keep squabbling every time you meet up!" argued his mother. "However, this is not helping so I will give you the information that you need." She opened her large handbag and removed an address book and a note book and pen. Finding the relevant information she copied it down and neatly tore out the page along the perforations and gave it to Myles. "We'll see you Sunday for dinner Myles," she said. "A pleasure to meet you Miss Thomas, please keep me informed of what you find out." She rose elegantly and returned to her friends without a backwards glance. Myles ran his fingers through his hair letting out a deep breath at the same time, "Right Ms Thomas, let's go and see if he is home."