Page 11 of Shakedown in Savannah

“If it was left up to you, you would have already started digging.” Carlita told her what Pete suspected, that the drag marks were from a jolly boat.

“It makes sense. What’s more important is…what was inside the boat. Gold, coins, gems, treasure.” Elvira promised to let her know as soon as she had a definite date. “If I don’t hear from her by tomorrow morning, I’ll follow up.”

“I’m sure you will.” Carlita grabbed the prints and she and Mercedes turned to go.

“Hang on. Before you head out, I thought I should mention Dernice noticed something on the surveillance cameras this morning.”

“Noticed what?”

“I’ll show you.” Elvira motioned for them to follow her through the living area of the apartment, to EC Security Services which shared space with her investigative services office in the front. She settled in behind the desk, turned her computer on and pulled up a new search screen.

With a couple of clicks, she accessed surveillance footage of the back alley. Elvira’s cameras covered every square inch of the alley, the sidewalk, the parking lot. In other words, the entire area was monitored twenty-four hours a day.

“Here it is.” Elvira pushed the pause button and scooched out of the way.

Carlita leaned in and studied the image, her breath catching in her throat. “I knew it. I knew something was off.”

Chapter 4

“Do you know who these guys are?” Elvira asked. “Because it looks to me like they were casing the joint.”

Carlita studied the men from Ravello’s, who had been sitting outside at the bistro table during lunch. One lit a cigarette as they casually strolled down the alley.

“Ma, these are the two men you said were giving off weird vibes earlier today,” Mercedes said.

“Yep. They were seated at a sidewalk bistro table. I took their drink order, and they wanted to know if I was the owner.” Carlita told Elvira what she could remember about the conversation. “They were acting oddly, at least to me.”

“And then when I went out to wait on them, they were fine,” Mercedes said.

The images, thanks to the state-of-the-art surveillance equipment, were crystal clear. They appeared to be, as Elvira pointed out, casing the joint. Not her building, but Carlita’s. At one point, the man who was smoking looked directly at the camera and smirked.

“He knows he’s being recorded,” Mercedes said.

“It’s almost as if he wanted to be seen.” Carlita grew quiet until the recording ended. “Do you have any other recordings of them?”

“Nope. This was it. They walked along the alley checking your place out and then they left.”

“Like I mentioned earlier, maybe they’re interested in buying it,” Mercedes said.

“Could be.” Over the past several months, a handful of local real estate agents who were working with buyers looking for commercial real estate had approached Carlita wondering if she might be interested in selling.

But this was different. Carlita would bet money they weren’t there to buy her property. Maybe it was the accent. Or it could have been the tone. Or perhaps she was slightly paranoid after all she’d gone through with the mafia and her haunting past that kept surfacing.

She asked Elvira to text a still frame of the men to her phone.

“You got it.”

Carlita tapped the message, confirming she’d received it. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Elvira clicked out of the screen. “I know you’re not asking for my two cents, but they look like mob men to me.”

“I suspect the same.” Carlita sighed heavily. “I hope we’re wrong.”

Elvira promised to monitor the camera’s recordings and let Carlita know if they showed up again.

After Mercedes and she left, they meandered to the end of the alley. What were the men doing? Clearly, they were scoping the place out, but why?

“I want to show Tony the picture to see if he recognizes these two.”

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