“What’s wrong? Is it the family? Are they all okay?”
“Yes,” Ian told him. “Everyone is fine at the moment. Everyone but you.”
“It’s not Dad then? He can’t be happy about my arrest when he’s just about to swing this election. He’s still running ahead, isn’t he?”
“Dad’s not concerned about how your arrest will or will not affect his election chances. He’s concerned about you. We all are.” Ian hesitated a moment, then bit his lip.
Dana was astounded. Everything she’d ever read or heard about Ian Danforth said he was the self-assured and competent president of a national firm. But at the moment, he looked stung and unsure of himself. She sat back and waited to hear his story.
“I had a phone call a little while ago, Marc. From…”
“Don’t tell me. I’ll bet it was from our nemesis, Sonny Hernandez. I don’t have any doubts that he’s in on this frame-up. What did he want?”
“Excuse me,” Dana interrupted. “I know I said I’d just be quiet, but who’s this Sonny Hernandez?”
Marcus turned to her. “He a scum gopher for a drug cartel and a local coffee bean importer. Nasty piece of work he is, too. He’s been pressuring us to do business with the importer exclusively.”
“What kind of business?”
“He doesn’t just want to do business with our shipping company,” Ian told her. “He wants our help with laundering their dirty drug money.”
“Ah. Drug dealing is nasty stuff. What kind of pressure?” she asked, in as innocent tone of voice as she could manage.
“The threats started back in February,” Marcus replied. “Then in April they got a lot more personal when they blew up one of our warehouse offices.”
“Blew it up? An explosion? Was anyone hurt?” Dana had read about it in the files, but she wanted their take on who had done it.
Ian shook his head. “No. And so far the police haven’t found any clues as to who set it off. But we know who’s behind it.”
“You mean you think the importers blew up your building to coerce you into doing what they want?”
Ian scowled. “Yes and no. Yes, the explosion was meant to scare me into doing what they want. But no, it’s not coming from the local coffee bean people. Like Marc was saying, they’re just a front for a Colombian drug cartel. The cartel has threatened my life several times, and went so far as kidnapping an innocent woman who they mistook for my mistress. And when those tactics didn’t work, they framed my brother.”
Marcus stirred in his chair then addressed Ian. “So what did good old charming Sonny have to say tonight?”
“It wasn’t Sonny this time,” Ian told him. “The call was from the kingpin himself. Ernesto Estoban Escalante.”
Dana’s jaw dropped opened, but she covertly closed it and swallowed hard. Escalante? The most notorious drug lord in the world? The FBI had been hunting the man for nearly a decade. Every time they thought they had him, he’d drop back into the oblivion of the Colombian rain forests where his cartel ruled supreme.
And he had personally called Ian Danforth tonight? Suddenly everything changed for Dana. If what Ian and Marcus had told her was true, the Danforths were in big trouble. And she had stepped into something much larger than Marcus and his racketeering charge.
But she still wasn’t positive that the Danforths were innocents. What if Marcus had given in to the cartel to protect his brother? He could still make a good informant.
Dana kept her mouth shut and listened.
Ian was speaking to Marcus and shaking his head sadly. “I don’t know how to fix this for you, Marc. Escalante plainly told me that if I would help them launder their money through the coffee supplies that he’d get you off the hook. But…”
“The bastard as much as admitted to you that he framed me?” Marcus snapped.
“Yeah. I thought I’d lived through the worst they could throw at me. But…I can’t sit back and let you go to jail for something you didn’t do.” Ian grimaced and took a breath. “Besides, they won’t stop at that. Next they’ll probably start murdering all of us…one at a time.”
“You can’t be thinking of giving in to them now?” Marcus sounded stunned. “You can’t do that. I’m not going to jail for something I didn’t do. Don’t worry. I’ll find the evidence to prove my innocence. Just give me a little time.”
Dana just had to interrupt again to make a comment. “By any chance did you happen to get tonight’s phone call on tape?”
Ian narrowed his eyes at her. “I don’t normally tape my phone conversations, no.”
“Are you going to try getting the police involved with this again?” Marcus asked his brother. “They have to believe you by now.”
“They do believe us. But there’s nothing they can do without proof. All the leads we’ve given them have turned cold. The cartel is too powerful.” Ian took a deep breath and ran the back of his hand across his mouth. “And too dangerous. I’m not going to let any more of my family suffer out of some misguided sense of righteousness. I can’t. It’s not worth it.”
“Ian, please,” Marcus begged. “Give me at least a few days to find the proof. I promise you, I’m not going to jail…and we’ll find the evidence to stop this once and for all.”
Ian clenched his fists on his desk. Then he turned to Dana. “Can you guarantee me that you’ll keep him alive while he investigates this damned murdering drug lord?”
Dana hesitated for one second then answered him sharply. “I can guarantee you that as long as I am alive, Marcus will be fine. Nothing will happen to him.”
“Yeah? Well, I’d just as soon you didn’t die over my stupid pride, either.” Ian stood and started to pace. “All right, Marc,” he finally agreed. “I can put them off for a couple more weeks. But after that I give up. You are not going to do time for a crime you didn’t commit. Not as long as I can stop it.”
Marcus stood and went to put a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Ian. We’ll beat them.” He turned and smiled at Dana. “And I’ll be all right. I have a guardian angel at my side.”
Dana stood, too. “I’ve never been called an angel before.” She set her jaw and turned to Ian. “But don’t worry, Mr. Danforth. I intend to see that all of you come out of this in one piece. You have my word.”
As both men stood speechless after that strange remark, Dana’s mind was already leaping into a plan. “Okay. Now. What can you tell me about your phone system? And after we check on that, I want you to tell me everything you remember about that phone call with Escalante.”
Marc checked to see that the employee door was locked as they left the office building. Then he followed a very antsy Dana while she cautiously climbed into her car and pressed the door-lock button as soon as he’d closed the door behind him.
She
