Valerie
Angie's party was a success. Ranger let me use the main floor conference room for the party. The parents were pleased the children were protected and had rides home after the party ended. I never asked Mom to help. Ella, Maria, Celia and Jeanne Ellen volunteered when I explained my dilemma.
Maria was Ranger's mom, Celia, his sister and Jeanne Ellen, a cousin. I recalled seeing Jeanne Ellen around Trenton. Stephanie said Jeanne Ellen worked for Les Sebring as a BEA. Kudos to her for working a difficult job. I know the woman was tough.
Stephanie invited Jeanne to Rangeman to spar. Watching the two women fight was mesmerizing and frightening. When my six-month training session ended, Ranger said I had to spar with Stephanie or him. How the heck could my sister fight like that a few months after having Teddy?
It was a few days before Christmas. Stephanie and Carlos planned to work the holidays to let the other men visit their families. They had Christmas Eve to spend with Ranger's family and attend midnight mass. Maria and Ricardo decided to visit Trenton. Stephanie prepared the guest rooms in her house to accommodate the extended family. Ranger's four sisters and one brother, their spouses and children were spending the week with Stephanie.
I wondered how Stephanie and Ranger planned to make everything happen. They would work eight-hour shifts together for the week. It seemed impossible, given the hours.
Stephanie emailed the modified employee schedule and hours for the week. I shook my head at the brilliance behind the shifts. Stephanie and Carlos would work from six pm to two am. The second group would work two am to ten am, leaving the third for the ten am to six shift. It maximized their time with the children while they were still awake.
Shaking my head, I entered the data into the payroll spreadsheet. When the men logged into the system, the workbooks would get updated accordingly. Tank created the spreadsheets. I took over editing the schedule workbook to reduce Tank's workload. He had more time to spend with me and the girls. I sighed, feeling content with my life for the first time. Tank was all the man I needed.
I loved my job at Rangeman. The main floor reception area was situated on how I needed to complete my tasks. Hector helped me get everything situated to maintain privacy. He got Luis to build a shelf where I could tuck my monitor beneath. Anyone looking over the top of the desk couldn't see what I was doing. My desk was L-shaped with a two-foot topper to prevent lookie-loos from seeing my paperwork unless you were tall like my boyfriend. Whenever I left my desk, I locked the computer.
The shrill of the phone interrupted my thoughts. I answered, "Thank you for calling Rangeman. How may I direct your call?"
"Hi, Val. It's Eddie. We received a call from Brown, Gentry and Donatello. Steve Corelli missed the past three days of work. They're unable to find him," Eddie replied.
"What does his disappearance have to do with me?"
"You're on his life insurance policy," Eddie explained. I furrowed my brows, wondering why Steve never removed my name from the documents. It was the first thing I did when Steve left and filed for divorce.
Sighing, I said, "Maybe Steve moved to the Dominican."
"Not likely," Eddie stated. "The apartment he shared with his girlfriend got ransacked. LAPD found her blood at the scene. They're sending a detective to question you."
Why me? Did the LAPD officers think I killed her or Steve? The last time I saw Steve was two weeks before I moved home. "When should I expect him?" I asked, resigned to answering questions about some perceived crime I know nothing about.
"In a few hours," Eddie replied. "Where should we meet you?"
"At Rangeman." I gave Eddie the address.
After hanging up the phone, I called Tank and Hunter. I refused to be interrogated by the LAPD detective without my lawyer present.
The elevator dinged, announcing its arrival. Stephanie and Carlos exited on Tank and Hunter's heels. "What can I do?" Stephanie asked.
"Research Natalia Vicenza," I replied.
"Oh no!" Stephanie said, sighing. "That's not good, Valerie. Do you know who Natalia is?" I shook my head, waiting for Stephanie to enlighten me.
Carlos replied, "Natalia Vicenza is the only survivor of the Vic-Corleone mob. Her family got obliterated by the Corelli mob syndicate."
"Are you serious?" I asked, worried Natalia would come after me and the girls. My palms started sweating. I dried them on my pants. "Did she?" I wasn't married to Steve anymore, but I never wished he was dead.
"We don't know, Valerie," Stephanie kindly said. "I'm going to look for him and Natalia."
Stephanie hugged me before getting on the elevator. Carlos, Tank and Hunter would support me during the interrogation.
Detective Cody Banner arrived with Eddie Gazarra. I realized my cousin-in-law had collected Detective Banner from the airport. My hands were damp from sweat. No matter how often I dried them on my pants, they were still wet. I shook Banner's hand. He didn't react to the cold, clammy flesh.
"Where were you two days ago?" Banner demanded.
"Here," I replied. "I worked eight until four. Rangeman has a camera in the lobby."
Hunter opened his laptop to retrieve the video. He showed it to the detective. It was date and time stamped. "Was this footage modified?" Banner stupidly asked.
"No!" Carlos barked, looking lethal and ready to kill.
Banner seemed flustered. He flipped through his notes. "Eyewitnesses place you at the outlet mall a few miles from Corelli's apartment the day after he disappeared," Banner added.
"Do you have footage?" Hunter asked. Banner nodded, passing the DVD to Hunter.
Carlos and Hunter watched the video while Tank silently comforted me. "The woman is too tall," Carlos announced. "Valerie is only five foot four. Her height in three-inch heels would put her at five foot seven. The woman in the footage is wearing flats. She's at least five foot ten. It isn't Valerie."
"You can't see her face, either. It seems she knows where the cameras are located," Hunter added.
"May I see?" I asked. Hunter turned the screen and replayed the video. I recognized the sway of her ass and the purse. She carried a vintage Hermes purse in the footage. Mine was a knockoff version. "That's Natalia Vicenza."
"Are you sure? We found enough of her blood in the apartment to indicate she died," Banner asked.
"Oh my gosh," I groaned. "Are you sure it's Natalia's blood?"
"Preliminary tests indicate it's from a female with her blood type," Banner replied.
What did Natalia do? Save samples of her blood to make it seem like she got murdered by me? Wouldn't the forensic team rule me out from lack of evidence?
"Did they find my DNA at the scene?" I asked.
"They found used tampons from another woman, not matching the sample collected from the floor."
That was disgusting. Steve cheated on Natalia, which didn't surprise me. I doubted Natalia would let him get away with it. She seemed the type to go highly murderous.
"You think the tampons were mine?" I asked.
"Yes. I need a sample for comparison," Banner demanded.
"No. I refuse to cooperate because I haven't set foot in LA since I moved in September. My DNA would not be uncovered at the scene. I wasn't there. I've got nothing to hide, but I refuse to participate in your scheme to charge me with murder," I said.
Hunter jumped into the conversation, "Have the tampon results sent here for comparison. Ms. Plum's DNA would only appear at the apartment if someone planted the evidence."
"I have sworn statements from my employees proving Valerie's location during the past few weeks. She was inside Rangeman, working, or at home with her children. Valerie's bodyguard can confirm her whereabouts," Ranger said. He asked someone to retrieve the documentation.
Cal entered the conference room, dropping a thick file folder on the table. Inside was a stack of notarized copies of letters indicating I was in Trenton during the time in question. Detective Banner rubbed a hand through his hair and down his face. "I'm sorry for wasting your time, Ms. Plum," Banner said. He collected his files and the sworn statements from the Rangeman staff. "Watch your back, Ms. Plum. It seems someone is attempting to frame you."
~~~~~
Stephanie
I got Hector to help me search the various government databases for storing DNA samples collected. He found a copy of Valerie's DNA attached to Steve Corelli's disappearance. "How did they get this done so fast?" I asked. The sample collected from the floor was confirmed to belong to Natalia Vicenza.
"High profile case," Hector replied. "Corelli's family has money."
Groaning, I checked where they sourced the DNA. It came from a used tampon. Someone plucked the item from Valerie's garbage months earlier, then planted it inside the trash. "Hector, quick. Contact everyone to come upstairs. We need to get on top of this clusterfuck. Everyone who worked in the past few weeks must provide letters if they saw Valerie on the premises," I ordered. While Hector contacted the employees via emergent text messages, I called Hunter's partner, George Fischer, to notarize the documents.
The response was nearly overwhelming. Every employee onsite rushed to the fifth floor to issue their statements. Those out of town got their letters notarized at the local city hall, then sent digital copies to George for printing. At Rangeman, we care for our own, but we're honest, too. Nobody would falsely claim they saw Valerie.
I checked every money trail for Steve's bank accounts. The money he moved to an offshore account was missing. Every cent was gone. In a single transfer, the cast got redirected through six shell companies before getting deposited into Costa Rica. "What the hell?" I asked.
Hector gently pulled the laptop toward him. His fingers flew across the keyboard as he opened a programming window. It took nearly an hour, but we found the account's owner was Jorge Araya. Natalia Vicenza was secretly married to Jorge, the newest drug cartel leader in Costa Rica. How the hell did Natalia get mixed up in that shit?
A second later, the money in the Costa Rican account disappeared. It was gone forever. We had to stop Natalia from bringing drugs into the States with her beauty supply shipments. Someone was helping her get them past customs, but how?
Oh boy. I had to tell Carlos. The military had Jorge Araya on watch. When things worsen, the Army will ask Carlos and his team to neutralize the threat. They were attempting to find a connection between Araya and a US citizen. Hector and I uncovered that nugget.
We continued digging into Natalia's life. She had abnormally high iron. Her monthly cycle wasn't enough to reduce her iron levels. Natalia went for phlebotomy treatments when the chelation process stopped working. It explained why the forensics team found a significant amount of her blood in the apartment. Natalia took the blood from the clinic to fake her death. It was diabolical. The woman was devious. She had everything planned. Her husband needed capital to hire men. Natalia only dated Steve to get his money. She was Steve's accountant. Natalia used her position to steal money from her clients.
"Why didn't the others charge her with theft?" I asked.
Carlos entered my office when I asked the question. "The men were ashamed they cheated on their wives with her," Carlos replied. "I contacted a few of her clients."
"Hector and I found a connection with Jorge Araya's cartel," I announced. Carlos raised a brow. I pointed to my laptop. He read the intel and grinned. "Does this mean you have to leave after Christmas?"
"We can wait until the new year," Carlos replied. "I need time to organize a team and research the area."
It was too close to Christmas for Carlos to send a buddy on a reconnaissance mission. A few men in Rangeman Miami would jump at the opportunity to sneak around Costa Rica.
I listened as Carlos called a friend who lived in San Jose and worked at the airport. He asked for someone to watch the tourists for women, fitting Natalia's description. Carlos didn't provide much information but asked for a message if she arrived.
"How's Valerie?" I asked.
"Miserable. Tank sent men to pack her clothes. Valerie and the girls are moving into Rangeman until we catch Natalia. We don't know where Natalia was travelling. She could arrive in Trenton or fly to Costa Rica. I have Rodriguez watching New York, Newark, and Philadelphia airports for Natalia. She won't be travelling under her name," Carlos replied.
I printed a list of Natalia's known aliases. The one I thought she would use was Natasha Romanoff. Carlos scoffed and shook his head.
