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Outside of Paradise Fish and Chicken, a black Jeep Grand Cherokee double-parked and two men wearing masks got out carrying automatic weapons. When the security guard saw the men approaching, not being armed, he ran for his life just as they opened up.
At the first shattering of glass, everybody inside dove for the ground, trying to find cover as the onslaught of bullets continued. Then, just as quickly as it began, it was over. The two masked gunmen returned to their vehicle and drove off.
When the shooting stopped, the two women that were working the counter stood up, overjoyed to be alive and unharmed.
When Ed Weather came running out of the back, gun in hand, he was not prepared for what he saw. All of his men, several customers and Delicia were all dead.
Since several civilians were killed and injured in the shooting, emergency vehicles were at Paradise Fish and Chicken and the police were investigating. Ed Weather was grief stricken over the death of his wife. But despite that, Ed briefly thought about Sidney Zavala and what Delicia’s death meant for them, especially since he was done with Sidney before all this happened, but then he felt bad for thinking it.
When Bautista heard about it on the radio, she convinced Kirk that they should drop by and they showed up there. After speaking with the officer on the scene, Bautista saw Ed Weather coming out of the back and she went to try to talk to him.
“Ed Weather,” Bautista said as she approached. “What the fuck,” she said with her arms out. “Who did you guy’s piss off?”
Ed shook his head because Bautista’s annoying ass was the last thing he needed right now.
“Detectives. What can I do for you?”
“Everything and nothing, seems like. You have any idea who hit you today?” Bautista asked.
“No, detective, I’m sorry, but I don’t.”
“A lot of dead civilians, Ed,” Kirk said.
“I know. One of the dead was my wife, Delicia.”
“Oh,” Kirk said and put his hand on Ed’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Ed. I mean that. Sorry for your loss.”
“Thanks, Kirk.”
“So who do you think did this?” Bautista pressed forward. “What’s really going on?”
Ed Weather looked at her. He didn’t have time for her shit, but since he really didn’t know what was really going on, Ed went back to being grief stricken.
“I understand that you gotta do this, but my wife is dead,” he looked at Kirk. “So can we do this another time,” Ed Weather said and dabbed his eye.
“Come on, detective,” Kirk said and pulled Bautista away. “Give the guy a break,” he said as they walked away. “The guy just lost his wife, for Christ sake.”
Once Kirk and Bautista were gone, Ed Weather dropped the grief stricken act. “Somebody needs to tell me what the fuck is going on.”
Chapter Sixteen
While Max and Dan watched videos of naked women dancing and then masturbating - you know, for research purposes - Carmen returned to her office to do some research of her own. Once she noticed that the videos ended with the words, a CTI production, in small print. Which explains why neither Dan, nor the usually detail observant Max missed it.
He never misses anything, Carmen thought. But I guess there was other details to observe, so she couldn’t be too mad at him.
Carmen sat down at her desk, got on her computer, and googled CTI. She found that CTI was a video production company, operating across numerous media channels and categories including film, creative advertising, music, social media, journalism, and reality TV to create projects that connect with audiences intellectually and emotionally. They professed to create dynamic motion pictures for some of the world’s most admired companies.
That made Carmen laugh. “Since when did the world’s most admired companies start producing porn videos?”
Enough of that bullshit, Carmen thought as she clicked on contact us. What she found was that CTI only had a PO Box at a UPS store. Once she found the address to the store, Carmen grabbed her stuff and headed for the studio. When she got there, Carmen wasn’t surprised to find that Dan and Max were still in there watching videos.
“I don’t mean to interrupt you boys,” Carmen laughed. “But I’m going to check out a real lead on CTI,” she stuck her head in long enough to say.
“What lead?”
“I have an address for a UPS store on West 86th street where CTI has a PO Box. I’m going to check it out.”
“Okay, Carmen,” Dan said without looking away from the screen. “Keep me posted.”
