Chapter 131 Chapter 131: Where's Waldo?

Chapter 131 Chapter 131: Where's Waldo?
Leon read what his team reported and then he looked over at the men. “They found the cave and signs of blood on the dirt floor. So, Barrett or Alijala were in there at some point last night. If you’ll remember when they brought Alijala in, he had a wound in his leg. But they didn’t find Barrett, so they are looking for him now.”
Zeus looked over at Click. “See if you can find her vehicle. It’s got to be out there somewhere close by.”
Click nodded then sat down at his laptop. He tapped on the outside cameras to search for her car. He spent the next few hours looking.
They all had lunch and the room was fairly quiet. No one had much to say. All they could do was wait.
Zeus stepped over to click and growled, “Did you find it yet?”
“No,” Click replied in frustration. “Wherever she hid it, she hid it damned good.”
“Well shit,” Zeus swore. “It's got to be out here somewhere. Find it.”
Leon joined them and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Zeus ran his hands over the back of his head and said, “We can’t find her car.”
Leon nodded his head. “Well, if her grandfather taught her anything he taught her how to hide something in plain sight. Giromodo was always very good at that.” He gave a rueful smile “In fact, he was so good at that particular feat he earned the nickname, Hips for his efforts.”
“Hips?” Zeus asked. “What the hell kind of nickname is that?”
Leon shrugged. “It's short for Hiding In Plain Sight, Hips.”
Zeus groaned and raised his hand to his face. Rubbing his forehead as if he suddenly had a headache he asked, “Ok, so if you were to hide a vehicle out in the brush, then where would you hide it? Or rather where would he hide it?”
Leon searched the cameras for a few minutes then he smiled. He raised his amused gaze to Zeus.
Zeus knew right away that he found the car. “You see it don’t you?”
“Si, I see it but I doubt Barrett ever would.” Leon nodded. “You see, I have prior knowledge of her grandfather’s little tricks. He does not.”
“Can you just show us where the vehicle is?” Zeus asked while looking more than exasperated. “I am tired of all the Where’s Waldo shit around here.”
Leon paused and looked puzzled. “The what?”
Zeus shook his head like he was too damn disgusted to even explain.
“Where’s Waldo,” Click replied for him. “It is this game where you have to look at a picture and find the man in the red and white striped shirt. Only the background is all red and white.”
Leon chuckled. “I do admit that we have been reduced to playing child games, haven’t we?” His smile disappeared as he got a hard steely look in his eyes. “So be it. I always win the game.”
Zeus let out a sigh. “I just want to quit playing. Man, we never asked for all of this fucking insane mousetrap, sink my battle ship, ring around the fucking rosie crap!” His voice got louder as he finished. At the raised brow from Leon, he then asked quietly, “Ok, please show me this woman's car.”
Leon nodded then showed him right where the vehicle in question was hidden. He pointed at the spot.
 Zeus scoffed. “I don’t see anything.”
“Of course you don’t, but her vehicle is there all right,” Leon assured him. “My friend Giromodo did the same trick when we were being chased by the police one time. He hid the car and we saw the police cars drive right past us and disappear into the night. We didn’t move for about fifteen minutes then he started the car and drove away. The police never did catch up to us.”
“What did you do to get the police on your case?” Click asked.
Leon shrugged and said, “I was just a kid but we might or might not have been running numbers for the local bosses that night. We think the police got a tip and they were lying in wait for us. We got away with nothing more than the fright of being caught. When I told my father what happened, he got mad at me and we packed up and went to Boston where he became one of the bosses. But before we left New York, my father took me to the bosses I was working for and he raised hell with them for having a kid doing a man’s job. Running numbers was a man’s gig not some half grown kid. When we got to Boston, he taught me the proper way to run numbers and believe me… I learned the difference fairly soon.”
“I still don’t see her vehicle there,” Click spoke up.
Leon leaned closer and pointed out what he saw.
After a moment or so Click finally saw it too. “Well, I’ll be damned. It is sitting there, out in plain sight.”
“Son of a bitch.” Zeus shook his head as he finally saw the vehicle as well. “If that don’t beat all.” He smiled and said, “She’s gonna have to show us that little trick.”
Leon smiled sadly. “I don’t know if she’ll stay once this is all done.”
“Why do you think that?” Click asked.
Leon shook his head. “That girl has more secrets to share or not share and I have a feeling the next one will rock someone’s world. And not for the better I fear.”
“What the hell does that even mean?” Zeus again looked disgusted at these constant puzzles that he had no fucking pieces for.
“Well, that is not a game at all,” Leon told him. “It is a life changing event, so she may or may not want to share it with everyone.”
Delaney looked down the hall where Desi had just run. She had a feeling she might know one of her secrets and Leon was right, it was going to shake her grandfather’s world. Her father and her brothers had pulled some shit in their days but this took the cake.
“She told us your dad hit a jewelry store for about four million in stones and then he went to prison for bank robbery and got about five million from that,” Zeus told her. “Would he hide the money here for some reason?”
“He might,” Delaney stated. Sighing hard she added, “This place belonged to our family for a long time. It wasn’t until after he went to jail that grandpa sold it to you guys.”
“This place was never Barrett’s or your brother’s to keep or sell,” Alfredo said. “Dad left it to me. And the boys never said one way or another that they cared whether I sold it or not.”
Delaney snorted. “But they had to wait until dad got out of prison to come here.”
“Why?” Zeus asked.
“Because dad couldn’t trust them to not steal his stolen money.” Delaney snarled. “Yep, dear ole Dad couldn’t trust his own sons not to steal what he stole in the first damn place.”