Page 26 of Carnival Queen

“Never can tell with people. I’ll send the photo out to the boys and see if they’ve seen her.”

“Make sure we keep an eye on the warehouse. That fucking parade has her attention. She won’t just walk away from that.”

He could hear the heels of his partner tapping against the marble floor of his mansion. When the door opened, sure enough, Douglass was standing in the doorway.

“Did you find her?”

“No,” he said, slamming his drink on the table. The whiskey spilled, making him even more pissed off. As the bodyguard left, his partner took a seat.

“Maybe the old man burned everything.”

“No. No,” said Jackson. “He’s not that kind of man. He’s the kind that makes twenty copies and put them in safe deposit boxes. No. The fucking files are out there.”

“Just what was in them?” asked Douglass.

“Everything. Fucking everything. The illegal materials, illegal workers, shipments of marble, and ships that also carried some of our best ass,” he smirked. “We had to do headcounts in order to try and write them off as staff, hired legally. We had all the forged papers for them, making them legal workers.” His partner laughed, shaking his head.

“Legal, huh? I guess some countries don’t give a shit if you count fourteen-year-old ass as legal.” Both men chuckled. “Speaking of, how is the new build coming along in Mansur?”

“Almost done. It should attract the fishing boats and the backwoods boys. We won’t put our best girls out there, but it will make us plenty of money. Also, we need to talk about the two lawsuits on the builds for McNeese and that elementary school in Metairie. The lawyers keep pushing back the court dates, but we’ve got to either settle or fight this.”

“I can’t think about that right now. I’m worried about the shit that woman has.”

“Her house was empty,” said Douglass. “The boys went by yesterday and said most of her clothing was gone. They didn’t find any files, there was no safe in the house, and nothing with our names on it. Maybe she really doesn’t know.”

“Bullshit. That old man put those files somewhere that she would find them, and we have to get them back.”

“What if she’s shared them with someone else?” asked Douglass. Jackson stood, staring at his partner.

“Then we kill every man or woman who has set eyes on them.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“This is reminiscent of my ex-husband,” said Miriam, staring at the documents in front of her. “They’ve found ways to hide just about everything, making it look legitimate. It’s not just one set of fake books but three.”

“How can we be sure it’s not legitimate?” asked Rose. “I mean, I was a fraud expert for the bank, and sometimes, things that look illegal turn out to be just fine. I just want us to be sure.” Miriam nodded at her.

“They’re a construction company. Allegedly,” she said, raising her eyebrows. “No construction company I know of hires thirty-seven female carpenters from Peru, claiming the talent they need can’t be found here. We already know that it can be found here.”

“This receipt says they received eleven tons of Italian marble,” said Tinley.

“Okay. That fits with construction,” said Jean.

“No. Not if the Italian marble was imported from the Philippines. No one does that. No one.”

“The wood is inferior as well,” said Ella. “According to Grant, wood for buildings would need to be pre-treated for termites, water damage, things like that. All of this wood is listed as raw wood brought in from Canada, except the ship that brought it in didn’t come from Canada. It came from Cuba. Also, if you were bringing shipments of wood from Canada, you wouldn’t use a ship. You’d send it over land via trucks, trains, something faster and more direct.”

“Deanna’s father knew all of this. He knew it didn’t make any sense either and that’s why he took the files. He probably questioned everything and then was threatened if he didn’t find ways to make it all look legit. He refused to do business with them. He just didn’t realize that he was leaving a mess for his daughter,” said Jean.

“We need for her to remember what she saw that evening when those men killed her parents,” said Tinley. “I know it must be incredibly painful for her, but if she can identify the men responsible, we could really move forward with everything.”

“Or we could just kill Jackson and Douglass,” smirked Jean.

“As much as I love your big protective muscles,” smirked Ro, “we can’t kill everyone just because. Besides, maybe they’re not the heads of this snake.”

“Why do you say that?” asked Miriam.

“Look. The travel receipts have eighteen flights to Georgetown. Guyana.” Ro looked up at all the women and then at her husband. “Someone in Guyana is running this show, babe.”

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