Clandestine Affairs, Part Eleven
Ani finds herself conducting an interrogation for the first time.
If you aren’t caught up, make sure you check out the previous chapters of Clandestine Affairs before reading this installment of the Italian assignment!
I breathe a sigh of relief as we enter the long driveway to the safe house and the gate closes behind us. We wind our way up the hillside and I keep an eye out the back window to see if I notice anyone approach our gate, and I never do. By the time we’re halfway up the road, the reinforcements pull onto the road behind us to provide additional protection as we work our way to the house. Rhys’s team has us covered and I wonder why I’ve never had the pleasure of working with him before now — Chuck’s really be holding out on me, I think, knowing he probably has an arsenal of friends like this in his back pocket and has for years. Maybe I really have leveled up.
Pulling up to the house, a garage door opens, with Noelle inviting us inside. We enter and the door closes behind us immediately. Our driver, Benjamin, hops out and opens Lisette’s door to take her out of the car. She grumbles but doesn’t open her eyes. I follow him inside and find Rhys, Chuck, Noelle, and a few other men I don’t recognize sitting around the wooden plank table in the kitchen. The curtains are drawn and there isn’t much furniture. Benjamin carries Lisette to a bedroom off the main living room.
“I presume you were not followed,” Chuck says, standing up to greet me. “And you’re okay?”
“I am. And we weren’t. Not that I could tell. I also was able to get into her phone before going dark.”
“Excellent.” He gives me a quick, tight hug, uncharacteristically I might add given we’re in front of people, and then grabs my shoulders before whispering through an approving smile, “I knew you were ready.”
Doing what I’m told is really starting to pay off. “What’s next?”
The house is quiet — the hum of the refrigerator and the window air conditioner (definitely added during a remodel of this house). Chuck motions to the empty chair at the kitchen table. “Have a seat, Ani. We need to wait for her to come-to, but we’ll walk through the plan in the meantime.” Chuck glances around the room before continuing. “Wilder, your friends have the perimeter covered now, yes?”
Rhys nods, leaning back against the refrigerator. “Everyone is position.”
“Alan, Mike, go ahead and join Benjamin in the back. Make sure she’s comfortable but not too comfortable. Let us know when she wakes up. Take a bottle of water, too?”
They stand and leave the room, following orders, leaving the four of us in the kitchen.
“Great work, Ani,” Noelle says, handing me a cold bottle of water, which I eagerly open. “Was she difficult?”
“Actually, no. It was clear she had some people with her, or whatever, lingering in the area, but we were able to work around that pretty quickly. She knocked back two Negronis at the cafe, and given her quick descent into sleepiness, I’m assuming Nick’s addition was included in both. I think she was on something else, though. She was speeding through our conversation. Overly excited to hang out with me… quite keen to talk. Should we be worried about that? I’m not sure what Nick gave her.”
Noelle rolls her eyes. “Could be cocaine. She loved the uppers last I knew,” she says with a shrug. “She’ll probably be fine. What was she saying?”
“Well, she was more than forthcoming in the short amount of time we were at the cafe. Telling me she was working on something big and if I was looking for work, she could call me in the near future. That’s as far as I got there, but, maybe there’s something on her phone. I didn’t have time to review it before we got here.”
Rhys pipes up and extends his hand. “Mike can take a look at the phone and copy the data, I’ll have him get started on that. Where is it?”
I pick up Lisette’s bag off the floor and retrieve the phone. “Here,” I say as I hand it over, letting his hand graze mine. Electrifying.
“Thanks, darling. I’ll get Mike on this immediately.” He kisses my cheek and starts to walk back toward the bedroom.
Noelle’s eyes light up as Rhys walks away. I silently beg her to not bring up anything in front of Chuck, but I know I won’t be that lucky.
“I take it you two had a lovely evening and morning?” she asks, grinning.
I desperately try not to blush. “Yes, I think so, thank you.”
She squeezes my hand. “Say no more, unless, you want to?”
“Not right now, Noelle. There will be plenty of time to explore the blind date you sent me on after we figure out what we’re doing with Lisette.” She looks slightly disappointed, but I know she understands the work needs to come first. They taught me well.
Chuck clears his throat. “It’s been a long time coming, me talking with Lisette face to face. She has some explaining to do. And of course, we’ll need to find out if she’s working with Carmine and Vanessa before anything else. What her end-game is here in Italy.”
Benjamin emerges from the back room. “Boss, she’s waking up… and she’s not happy…”
“And away we go.” Chuck give Noelle a quick peck and touches my shoulder as he leaves the room.
Chuck has been in the back room for nearly an hour. After Mike copied the phone, he hands me an air-gapped laptop and instructs me to plug in the copy to pull up the data. While that’s uploading, I open the contacts and do a quick scan of the numbers. I recognize a few names and wonder how old her contact list is. I switch over to the photo library and scroll through the camera roll to see what she’s captured and then I see it. Without a doubt, it’s a photo of the lobby of the Grand Hotel Ambasciatori, where Vanessa works. I’ve studied that hotel — I know it inside and out without even visiting it myself, thanks to Chuck’s intel and Google Images. I keep scrolling to find sneakily-taken photos of a blonde behind the counter (Vanessa, I assume), several shots of some men sitting around a table outside. Then I land on a photo of my father. In the salon on a plush, deep coral-red sofa, off the main lobby. Reading a newspaper. He looks the same as he did when he left — a life of crime in Italy must be good for aging. I shut the laptop and close my eyes, trying to move myself away from the past.
“Hon, are you okay?” Noelle asks, gently.
“Yes, I… I think I need some air. Where can I go?”
Rhys stands up. “Follow me,” he says, turning toward the garage.
The garage is more stifling than the house with the smell of petrol hanging heavy in the air. I unfortunately know this is as good as I can get right now — going outside is out of the question. I pace, sipping my bottle of water every few steps. My memory is fixated on the moment my father walked out the door and I can’t shake it. Rhys doesn’t say anything, which actually jolts me back to the present. I look over at him, silently willing him to say something, anything, to get me away from this memory. He leans against the Alfa Romeo and crosses his arms. His lips part to speak, but he stops when Mike pokes his head out the door.
“Chuck needs you, Wilder.”
Rhys holds up a finger. “I’ll be right in.” Mike closes the door behind him and Rhys turns to me. “This is quite a lot, I know. Take your time. I’ll send Noelle to check on you.” He kisses my forehead and walks back inside.
I pool some water into my cupped hand and splash my face with it before finishing the bottle. I take a deep breath and roll my shoulders before walking back into the house. The slightly cooler air on my damp face is instantly calming. Get your head back in the game, I tell myself. Now is the worst time to let this shit get to you.
Noelle looks up from the phone and laptop when I walk back in. By now, I’m sure she’s seen the photo I left on the screen, but before she can say anything, I hear Lisette’s muffled yell from the back, followed by a thud, right before Chuck leaves her room. He’s wiping his hand with a towel as he enters the kitchen, going straight for the sink.
“What happened?” Noelle asks, rushing to his side.
“I’m fine, dear, just a scratch.” He removes his ring and sets it on the counter before rinsing his hand.
“I told you to stop punching walls, did I not? Especially here, the stone will absolutely wreck you.” Noelle takes the towel and takes some ice out of the freezer to wrap it around his knuckles. I love how they take care of each other in the mist of all of this. “Dear, I think Ani found something worth exploring,” she says, walking back to the table to pick up the phone. “It appears Lisette was doing some recon on Carmine and Vanessa, based on her photo library. Another man appears a few times with them, he’s sort of familiar? Do you think she was hired to do the same we’re doing?”
“Anything’s possible, with how many people they’ve wronged. She’s not talking, either. I don’t know if we want to spend much time with her, either. Might be counterproductive.”
I cross my arms and sit back in the wooden chair. “Then why are we wasting any time with her? You said yourself, Noelle, she’s a liability. We have all her info, we don’t need her. Right?”
“Surely you aren’t suggesting we off her, Ani?”
I shrug. I can’t really tell if he’s into that path. But suddenly, I’m hardened. “Who’s gonna miss her?” I ask, immediately shocked by the words that just came spilling out of my own mouth. I take a moment to gather my composure. “I just mean —”
Mike hears my comments as he walks back into the kitchen and interrupts me. “I have to agree with this one, Chuck. That bitch isn’t worth the trouble. She won’t give anything up. Short of drawing blood or breaking something, I don’t know if I can get anything out of her.”
Everyone falls silent for a moment. This is new territory for me and I know I came in hot, but… is she worth keeping around? I don’t know. I normally don’t have anything to do with what happens beyond getting the mark to the next team. I never see the person again and can confidently say I don’t know what happened to them. But this door I just opened, well, that changes everything. Definitely for me. And all of us. I quickly steal a glance in Chuck and Noelle’s direction to see how they react to what Mike and I are saying. What they aren’t doing is rejecting the notion immediately, that’s for sure.
“Ani,” Noelle begins, “why don’t you give it a go?”
I look at Chuck and raise my eyebrows, as if I’m seeking approval. He nods, adjusting his makeshift icepack on the back of his hand. I take two bottles of water out of the fridge and start to walk down the hallway toward the room where Lisette is being held. It dawns on me that I really haven’t ever questioned any of our marks. I am so used to doing what I’m told that I don’t make the decisions. I get the instructions, I play the part to carry them out, and then I go about my day.
Before I can walk into the room, Rhys walks out. I see Lisette zip-tied to a chair, looking at the floor, behind him in the room. He closes the door before she raises her head.
“How’s it going with her?” I whisper.
“She hasn’t said a word since I’ve been in there, so, not well? What are you doing?”
“I’m going to take a crack at her,” I say confidently.
“Want me to join you?”
“Not yet. Any advice? You know… this is my first official interrogation. I wouldn’t even admit that normally, but, you know where I am in all of this, so…”
He takes my hands into his and rubs his thumbs across my skin. “Stay calm. Maintain the upper hand. You need to give the impression you know more than you do. Avoid asking questions that lead you down an emotional path — in this case, I wouldn’t start with asking about your father. Hand her the water, ask her why she’s in Italy, press her to tell you what she is working on. If she doesn’t play ball, come back out in the hallway and we’ll recalibrate.”
I look past him at the door. “Thank you. Really — thank you.” I squeeze his hands.
Just before I let go, he brushes my hair behind my ear. “Remember to breathe. Don’t let her get the best of you. You’re golden, Ani. We’ve got your back.”
Take a breath. Center yourself. You’ve got this.
I open the door slowly. “Hello, Lisette. Or should I call you by your real name? Erin, right?” She looks up at me as I hand her a fresh, cold bottle of water. I’m going to start by being the good cop, I think. “You look like you could use this. Is there anything else you need right now?”
“To get the fuck out of here,” she says, rolling her eyes. “How the hell am I supposed to drink this, you guys have me tied to a fucking chair. What the hell is going on, Ani? Or hey, since we’re foregoing the professionalism… Lizzy. Elizabeth. Or whatever you went by all those years ago.”
“I’m devastated you don’t remember, Erin. It’s Elizabeth. Was Elizabeth. Only people closest to me called me Lizzy. Do you remember when you told me I was going to love being Ani?” She scoffs. I continue and unscrew the cap on the bottle and bring it to her lips. “Well, you were right. I do love it! Ani is everything Elizabeth couldn’t be. I’m sure that’s the same for you too, though. Am I right?”
She nods and I let her drink as long as she wants. It spills a little, so I take the towel from the table next to her and dry her chin. I’m being way too nice, I think.
“Sure, I guess.”
“Look, I’ll call you Lisette if you want. I don’t really care what you go by.” I sit down in front of her. “I’m not going to waste any more of your time, and I hope you don’t waste mine. What are you doing in Italy?” I give her room to answer but she doesn’t. “You said you were working on something big and that you might need some help?”
She looks a little confused, like she doesn’t remember telling me this a couple of hours ago. “What? Wait, when did I say that?” She frowns. “What can I say, I’m playing the part.”
“Oh, I don’t know Lis, you seemed pretty open that something was happening. Matter of fact, I’m pretty sure you were speeding. What did you take before you met me at the cafe?”
She rolls her eyes again. That’s the third time, I think. She’s two away from a well-deserved backhand. I’m shocking myself with my thoughts.
“Alright, you don’t want to share? Babe, I’m not going to judge you. I was having some fun last night myself,” I say, standing up to pace around the table. “In fact, I’m exhausted, and I really don’t want to be doing this today. I’d much rather be reading by the pool at my villa, but you really wrecked my vacation.”
“You expect me to believe you’re here on vacation? Please, bitch, I know you’re working.”
“Oh? And what am I working on, since you know my movements so well?”
“Probably the same thing I am. I don’t know. It’s a small world, especially in our line of work.” She coughs. “Give me some more water?”
I oblige and give her another drink. “Well, I was on vacation until you ruined it,” I say, tossing blame onto her and pretending like I’m doing something I’m not. “Go on then, elaborate. What’s the job?”
She sighs, heavily. “Why? So you can run back out there and tell Chuck and his right hand bitch? Take my bounty? Leave me out to dry? I don’t think so. We both know he wants me dead.”
I try not to get upset about the blatant disrespect toward Chuck and Noelle. I push the anger down and press into territory I know I shouldn’t yet, but frankly, I’m tired of her shit and I want to get this moving. “Lisette, he doesn’t want you dead. In fact, I don’t believe he even thinks about you, if I’m being honest. So, let’s move on. I know you’re here on an assignment, and I know you’re lying in wait before you go to Sorrento.” I pause to gauge her reaction, which is non-existent. “Come on, tell me what’s so big about this job? What’s in it for you? For you to float it in front of me at the cafe? Can’t be just a big pay day.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. See, unlike you, Elizabeth… I’m still very motivated by money.”
I ignore that last bit. “Okay then, let’s go down that path instead. Who’s paying you?”
Before she can answer, there’s a knock on the door. “Yeah?” I call out.
Mike appears and tells me I’m needed in the kitchen. “I’ll watch this one for ya,” he says with a grin. Alan is stationed outside the door and nods to me as I walk past. I don’t even think I’ve heard him speak the entire time we’ve been here.
Noelle is sitting at the table facing the open laptop. I walk up behind her and she points to the screen. “Ani, I think I found something you can use.”
I quickly skim the document. “How did you get this, her email?”
“Yes. Appears she hasn’t been covering her tracks as well as she thought the last few months. Looks like Interpol has been after her for a while now, too. Whoever sent her this also sent this,” she clicks the trackpad and pulls up another email for me to read.
“Ah. So not just the bounty, but the chance to walk away. Another new life. I kinda can’t believe she wants out.”
“Seems like it. I’m still digging, but I’m sure what we have will eventually give us the real reason why. But here, there’s also this.” Noelle clicks over to the photos library and double-clicks on two photos. One of my father and Vanessa sitting at a table with a man I don’t recognize, and the other is of that man with Vanessa in what looks like an art gallery.
“What do you think, is that the guy who hired her, or her mark?”
“Hard to tell. There’s plenty of photos of all three of them. At galleries, at dinners, at hotels. She’s been watching them for a bit, and not just in Italy. Spain and Germany, France too. Seems like she’s been on them for months. Long before Simon pulled us in.”
Chuck and Rhys come back inside from the garage and ask us how it’s going. Judging the looks on their faces, they know how it’s going and they’re also exhausted by it. I let them know I’m not getting anywhere just yet, but I might be able to use what Noelle just showed me. Hopefully, she’ll find some more information so we can end this. Amidst the situation at hand, I can’t help but realize what else is happening here. The four of us. It feels so… normal. Usual. Like we’ve been a team for years.
I clear my throat and motion toward the room. “Alright, that gives me a bit to work with. I’ll get back in there. Noelle, keep me posted,” I say over my shoulder.
“Will do, hon.”
It feels foreign to be the one calling shots. I keep waiting for Chuck to stop me, but he hasn’t yet. I wonder how much rope he’s giving me, and if I’ll eventually hang myself. Part of me wishes I was doing what I was told instead. It might be easier, but if I wanted easy… I wouldn’t still be in this line of work.