The first set went fairly well considering I walked in picked up my guitar and went right onstage. I couldn't concentrate at all though. To much on my mind I suppose. During the break the guys were really busting my balls to find out what was going on, they still couldn't believe I was with Eliza.
TOO BAD BOYS read the fucking book!
Danny walked in with one of his guy’s right at the end of the second set and waved to me, pointing to the back that meant to Jakes office. The set ended, so I grabbed a beer and headed to the office. In there with Danny were Jake, Pete, myself and a uniform, his name was Strader, Dave Strader LAPD.
Pete was an electronics & surveillance expert who worked for Danny; I forgot to mention my brother owns one of the premier executive security companies in the world. Jake was a great detective he retired a Captain, he and Danny were close. Jake had taught Danny a lot and Danny relied on Jake when he needed advice with sticky problems like this one.
In short order I found out why the LAPD was present, Strader had used this Alesworth asshole as an informant a few times and he owed Danny as did half the LAPD. He was more than happy to fill in whatever blanks he could about the guy, no questions asked. Between what Strader told us and what Cosmo dug up we knew more about this guy than he did himself.
Alesworth, as we discovered was a partner with a guy named Frank Stensland and guess what Stensland did for a living; he made videos, like weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, sweet sixteen parties and blackmail of course.
This is where Pete came in he knew this guy was probably the one who would have the tape, he would edit it and make copies so they could shop it around to various distributors and websites to see what the highest bidder would pay . The other option open to Alesworth was to take Eliza's $500,000 if she had it and market the tape himself, keeping the lions share.
What nobody said was that either way Eliza's life was in jeopardy.
Cosmo checked Stensland out and found something funny it was like this guy didn't exist until about 9 years ago and then the digging began. It didn't take him too long but when he checked Alesworth's prison record guess what he found, his cellmate for his last 2 years in San Quentin was a rapist named Mike Ratigan and Mr. Ratigan's mug shot looked a lot like Frank Stensland. He quickly called Danny. As Danny hung up he looked at Pete and said “Stenslands got to be the guy.” Then he filled everybody on what Cos had found.
Jake was deep in thought and said, "Call computer head back and ask him to find out if this guys married, family you know personal stuff."
"Why?" Danny asked.
"It sounds to me like this guy started himself a new life after prison and I bet his new wife and friends don't know about it" Danny smiled knowing exactly where Jake was going, information like that could come in handy later on should they need to sweat Stensland.
"We may need to remind him of his previous life."
Danny nodded then looked to Pete, "Find that tape if you can, if not do what has to be done, and be careful."
Pete smiled, "Always Boss."
Pete would be the one to go into Stenslands studio and it would have to be tonight. Pete thought that was too quick, but that's the way it goes sometimes. Pete would probably not have time to search for the tape so he would just electronically erase every tape in the place; Pete was called Felix the cat because he had a serious fucking bag of tricks.
Danny told Pete to take Andy with him; the kid was sharp and had great instincts in the field. Strader hadn't said much but he told us he'd heard Alesworth was into Tony A for over 100 grand. Jake started laughing.
“What's so funny?” Danny asked,
"The guy owes me a favor "Jake replied with a smile.
Tony A is a big time mob loan shark/bookie and his collection methods made a date with the Tourquemada-the grand inquisitor look like a play date. Jake filled us in on the favor he was owed. Ox and I were in the Skyline Diner after closing about 3 or 4 weeks ago and there were 3 young girls sitting in the booth next to us, they were just kids, maybe 20-21 and two of them were twins. They were all beautiful, Danny cut him off saying "Get to the fucking favor part already".
Jake continued, "These three dirt bags come in and sat at the counter, they were wasted and being a pain in the ass to everyone. When one of them saw the girls they made a beeline for them. The three idiots started to get really nasty; you know talking dirty to the girls so I turned around and told them to leave the ladies alone! Well you can guess what happened next, it was fuck you's all around and Ox and I ended up tossing two of them in a dumpster and stuffed the other one in the trunk of his own car. The girls were pretty shaken up so we followed them to make sure they got home ok.”
“2 days later Big Tony himself walks in right before closing with three of his gorillas he looks at me and says, ‘You Jake?’ I answered ‘Yes, what can I do for you?’
"You know who I am right?"
I was beginning to get annoyed now, ‘What do you want, I gotta business to run here.’
’I came by to thank you for the other night.’
’What the hell are you talking about?’
’The twins in the Skyline were my daughters, they told me what you did and I wanted to thank you personally.’
'How the hell did you find me?’
Tony A explained, ‘it was easy, your son. My girls described him and everybody knows the Ox, they said a nice old guy was with him so I figured I was you. Look I know you don't like guys like me but I had say thanks personally and if you or your son ever need anything I mean anything at all here's my private number.’
