Touch my Lips

1988.

Chapter 1

The bullet flew past my head and buried itself in the door jamb. I did not have a gun or a bulletproof vest so I used the door as an exit. I ran as fast as a cheetah to the corner but another bullet buzzed past me as I dived for cover.

The gunman did not seem to be too much of a marksman but I did not plan to wait while he honed his skills. I could hear the sound of approaching sirens and I prayed that the gunman could hear them too.

Apparently he was too fixed on nailing me because another bullet screamed off the wall on the other side of the road. Perhaps he was trying to catch me with a ricochet?

I do not like guns although I have used them myself in the past. I have even killed a man on a previous occasion. There is something about guns aimed at me that I find very distracting.

The police car swung around the corner ahead of me and the gunman decided that nailing me could wait for a more auspicious moment. He disappeared around the corner that I had just tried to interpose between us.

The police car swerved in front of me and a officer of the law jumped out and commanded me: Put your hands on your head and face the wall.

I did as I was ordered and waited for the peace-keeper to approach me.

If you look in my inside jacket pocket, officer, you will find my identity card.

I said over my shoulder.

Face the front, sir. We’ll come to your identity later.

He patted me down and finding no weapon, he said in a slightly aggrieved voice.

Where’s your gun, sir? I saw brick dust flying quite close to that man that ran around the corner. How did you get rid of it so quickly?

Officer, he was shooting at me. If you saw brick dust it would have been the result of a ricochet from a bullet he fired at me.

Yeah, a likely story, sir. I saw the whole thing with my own eyes.

He pulled out his handcuffs and snatched my right hand down from the wall.

Officer, before you cause yourself considerable embarrassment, please take a look at my identity card.

You can show that fiction to the desk sergeant at the precinct, sir.

Hey Buck! An attractive female face peered over the opened car door. Maybe you should take a look at the card. I think I recognize that man.

Officer Mulrooney, you stay in that car. This is my bust and you are my rookie. Don’t go trying to teach the teacher, y’hear?

That’s cool Buck. You are the senior but I think that guy is the Governor’s investigator, Frederick Huntsman.

Officer Buck stared at her suspiciously. "You kidding me here, Mulrooney? Huntsman is a big guy. I saw him once on television. The Police Commissioner was doing everything but lick his shoes."

Look in his jacket like the man said, Buck. You might get a surprise.

Very reluctantly, Officer Buck put his hand into my jacket and pulled out the card that the governor had given me. His eyes almost bugged out of his head but he still got the handcuffs off me faster than a jackrabbit goes down a hole.

I’m really sorry, sir. I could have sworn that you shot at the other guy.

No officer, he was firing at me and as I was unarmed, I deemed it wise to get the hell out of there.

Do you want me to arrest the shooter sir?

Actually, no, officer; I was hoping to ask him a few questions but I guess he mistook me for someone else.

It is still a crime to discharge a weapon in a built up area, sir. I really ought to bust him. I mean, it’s kinda like him taking a potshot at the governor himself, ain’t it?

No officer, I think that he was just trying to protect himself. I had a lead on a protection racket that is being run in this district and I wanted to ask him what he knew about it. I think that he thought I had come to extort some more money from him. Do you think that you could give me a lift back to my car? I ran quite a way.

"Sure thing, Agent. It will be my pleasure.’

I’m not an agent, officer, just the Governor’s security man.

He’s also a hero, Buck. Officer Mulrooney put in. He’s the guy that rescued the Mayor’s daughter before the Mayor became the governor.

How come you know so much about Mr. Huntsman, Mulrooney?

She gave a secret smile. It was in all the newspapers Buck; quite a few photos too.

She turned around in the front seat to face me, sitting in back. She was definitely attractive.

Mr. Huntsman, didn’t I read about you shooting down one of the most wanted men in the state?

I guess so, officer. He came after me and caught me asleep in bed. He already had his gun pointed at me so I had to move very quickly.

She smiled triumphantly. He shot the guy right through the eye, Buck. How’s that for marksmanship?

Buck shook his head. Wow! Some shooting; I’m lucky if I hit the target and that while standing still and taking careful aim.

The short ride was over so I did not bother to tell them that my shot had been a lucky accident. I thanked them for the ride and Officer Mulrooney insisted on shaking hands with me. I discovered that she did it for the purpose of palming a slip of paper to me with her telephone number on it.

I decided not to retry the irate shop-owner until I had called him and arranged for a meeting with him.

The whole thing had been coincidence. I had left the governor’s mansion in a state of agitation and had driven to the mall as the most likely place to find two women intent on shopping until they dropped.

I wandered around the mall going to all the shops that Desdemona had visited on the last occasion that I was guarding her. I did not find them but looking down from the mezzanine floor into the main court of the mall I saw two most unlikely-looking men, walking around and talking to each other. It was rather like seeing two pugilists in a ballet class. They were definitely not the type to be shopping in a mall and they did not even have women with them by way of explanation. Men do some crazy things for the sake of the women in their lives.

No, this pair would have been more at home in a bookie’s place of business: elderly suits, gaudy neckties and faces that looked as if they had been used as punch bags for several decades.

Naturally I began to watch their lips as I am an exceptionally good lip-reader. I was astounded by what I picked up.

I done all this side of the mall, Aldo. They pay like small kids handing over their lunch money. The boss says that when we done here we gotta go hit the east side. Apparently there’s a holdout that we need to make an example outta.

Ah, that gotta be Carlo Pozzi. I tried to talk sense into him. Hey, I gotta do that. The guy is Italian. Blood is thicker than water. Shit! You know what that means, Gianni? I never quite dig why folks say that: blood is thicker than water. So what? Damn near anything you can drink is bound to be thicker than water. It beats me. Anyhows, I try to make this Pozzi guy see some sense but he’s as stubborn as a Sicilian mule. Okay, so he’s had his chance now we gotta cream him. When Tito says we gotta make an example outta Pozzi, you know what he means, eh? We gotta work him over with baseball bats right there in his store. It’s gotta be as messy as possible so that it looks like he really suffered before he kicks over the bucket. That’s why I tell you to wear an old suit because we burn ‘em when we done the job.

I had heard of this Tito before. He had been trying to horn into the governor’s campaign but it is a hard thing to do: contribute money to the campaign of a man that can afford to be choosy as to who will expect future favors. The governor’s list was very short and constituted only the cream of the Republican party.

I decided that I had better locate Carlo Pozzi and warn him before these two thugs finished their collection tour of the mall.

Normally I would have called my assistant and asked her to locate Carlo Pozzi for me. She has contacts with the FBI that can be very useful.

But her cell phone just kept ringing against our known policy of always staying in touch.

I was not happy. My live-in girlfriend Jadi Benton had taken Desdemona Bronson, the governor’s daughter, shopping early in the morning and I had not heard from them since.

I am the governor’s investigator and security chief and Jadi is my assistant. It is part of her duties to protect Desdemona but Desdemona had a crush on me and she would do anything she could to get rid of Jadi.

Jadi’s cell phone was not responding to my frequent calls and therein lay my unhappiness. We had recently been through a harrowing time with a criminal who had been determined to take his revenge upon Jadi and me and deep down I was scared that it might all be starting again.

Things had been going fairly well since we moved to the Governor’s residence. There were a number of staff apartments in back of the main house and I had been allocated the best of these by Armagh Wilkinson, the Governor’s residence general manager.

Desdemona had thrown a tantrum because I was not in a room in the main house. She maintained that it was my duty to be there to protect her and Daniel, her younger brother. Armagh had pointed out that the previous security chief to the governor had lived in his own house several miles from the residence and this had not caused any problems but Desdemona kept up a continual complaint until the Governor began to weary of it and asked whether I should not consider moving since even his new wife Janine supported Desdemona’s assertions.

I did not want to upset the governor. He had appointed me to my position despite my lack of any previous experience and he was paying me an unheard of salary purely because I had rescued Desdemona from kidnappers. What is more, he trusted me implicitly. What I could not tell him is that Desdemona was always trying to get into my bed despite Jadi being there already. I had hoped that the time Desdemona had spent in the drug rehabilitation clinic would have helped to put her right but she was even more persistent than she had been before it.

I spoke to the governor’s wife, Janine. We were friends of longstanding. I had got her the job as the governor’s press liaison officer and had been the best man at their wedding. I thought that she would understand my reluctance to move back where Desdemona could continue pestering me but to my surprise she supported the view that I should be in the main house.

Only Armagh Wilkinson knew and understood my problem with Desdemona and he said: It will be like old times to have you back as part of the family, Frederick. Of course the new house is much bigger than the mayoral residence and no one is going to notice if you slip over to Jadi’s apartment whenever the mood takes you. I recommend that you use the room in the house mainly as an office. Armagh liked Jadi and he felt that we were well-suited.

Bradford Bronson, the governor, was a busy man. In addition to running a very profitable financial empire, he spent all of his days and many of his nights gathering the reins of the gubernatorial administration in meetings and conferences. Many of these meetings were in Washington which meant that I was required to accompany him. He invariably took Janine with him on such trips. She had gone from being enthusiastic and excited to being bored and irritated by them particularly when it meant long banquets and formal balls in which she sat kicking her heels while the governor was closeted with his political masters.

As long as the venue for these meetings was secure, I was able to spend time with Janine and act as her escort and dancing partner, while Jadi had to remain at home guarding the Governor’s children. At such times Desdemona was as difficult as possible, doing her best to cast Jadi in a poor light so that the governor might be persuaded to dismiss her.

Jadi was not pleased with this arrangement. In the first case she claimed I spent too much time in company with Janine and in the second case Desdemona made her life miserable. She told me that she was seriously considering returning to her job with the FBI even though it would halve her income. Jadi, her name was a Navajo word for antelope, was an expert tracker and her services were much in demand in law enforcement circles not the least because she was also a beautiful woman.

I think that Jadi was holding out for a more permanent commitment from me than merely that of a live-in girlfriend. I was quite happy to offer her an engagement ring because I really do love her but I feel that we are both too young to take the final step. I need more experience and I wanted to establish my career before I became tied down by children while in a job that required constant mobility.

I was pondering all this while I drove over to the east side wondering how I was going to find a shop-owner called Carlo Pozzi somewhere on the east side.

I tried the simple approach by pulling over to a crowd of young boys and asking.

I am trying to find Carlo Pozzi. He owns a store over here on the east side.

Wow! Nice wheels, mister. Said a voluble youngster. Jaguar, ain’t it?

Yes, it is. It belongs to the state governor. Carlo Pozzi?

Old man Pozzi? Sure thing. First left, two blocks: Pozzi’s Emporium.

That was the easy part.

I followed the directions and parked outside a large glass-fronted shop of the very old-fashioned type. You know, plenty of green-painted wood with gold scrolling everywhere. It was very neat and clean and the goods on display were reasonably priced and clearly of high quality. I did not feel out-of-place arriving in a Jaguar dressed in a thousand dollar alpaca suit and wearing Gucci loafers. I was dressed for a Governor’s meeting at noon.

I asked the clerk where I could find Mr. Pozzi and she jerked her thumb at the imposing green door behind her. He is in his office, sir. Straight up the corridor.

I knocked politely at the door and was bidden to enter.

He was a small man seated behind a very large antique desk.

Good morning Mr. Pozzi. My name is Huntsman. I am from...

He pulled out a very large pistol and shouted. Get out of my office you bloodsucker! I will not pay a single penny! That was when he fired the first shot.

It was not the reception that I expected but as I said earlier I did not stay to argue.

After Officers Buck and Mulrooney had dropped me off at my car; I drove away but suddenly remembered that I had not warned Pozzi of his impending problem with Aldo and Gianni.

I called the operator and got transferred to Pozzi’s Emporium and then to Pozzi himself.

Mr. Pozzi, I am calling from the State Governor’s office. My name is Frederick Huntsman, I am the Governor’s security specialist. You drove me out of your office by firing at me with your pistol. I had come to warn you that I have received information that two of Giovanni Tito’s thugs will be calling on you with baseball bats to make an example of you for failing to pay for his protection.

Mr. Huntsman, you say? Any man that come into my office dressed the way you come is a mobster or a politician. I do not wish to speak to such peoples. If you are who you say you are, why do you warn me instead of sending protection that I who pay taxes should get?

I am about to do something about that now, Mr. Pozzi, but I fear that the attack might be more immediate than the time it will take to go through channels. Please, lock your doors and summon whatever help you are able to find until I can get the police to assist you.

The police? Pah! They are all in Tito’s pocket.

Perhaps I could prevail upon the FBI to help?

FBI? Why haven’t they arrested Tito already? I tell you why, they take his money too!

In that case, whom do you wish to assist you?

You say you are Governor’s security specialist, send in state troops!

I did not have much chance of doing that in a hurry so I thought of an alternative plan. I use a security firm to assist in large functions at the governor’s mansion so to them I am a prime customer. I called the CEO of the company.

Jack this is Freddie Huntsman here. I need four armed guards in the east end of town immediately. How soon can you get them here?

Freddie for you I can do it immediately, of course I’ll have to come myself so the bill is going to run high.

I’m paying for this myself Jack so don’t overdo it. Just get here as fast as you can make it. It’s Pozzi’s Emporium on Roosevelt Street. You are guarding Carlo Pozzi against a couple of thugs sent by Giovanni Tito.

Giovanni Tito? That’s a really dangerous opponent you are going against there, Freddie. Is this going to be a gun battle?

I don’t know. I confessed. All I know is these two thugs are coming to kill Pozzi by beating him to death with baseball bats for refusing to pay Tito protection money.

Jack Holden had been a Navy Seal until he was invalided out. He does not scare easily.

I’m bringing six guys, just in case, Freddie. I just hope that in the end the state governor is more powerful than the local mafia.

I put down the phone on Jack and redialed, this time to cute officer Mulrooney but I was not calling for a date.

Hello, Officer Mulrooney? This is Freddie Huntsman of the Governor’s office. Cathy? Oh, sure Cathy, look, I am sorry but this call is business. You know that guy that was taking pot-shots at me this morning? His name is Carlo Pozzi . I have information that two of Giovanni Tito’s goons are headed to Pozzi’s Emporium to kill Pozzi. I have sent Jack Holden of Holden Security out to protect the old man but I thought that you might like to have two important arrests on your record. You don’t have to do anything. Just wait for Jack to stop them and then you step in an arrest them. Can you do that?

She was extremely grateful; apparently it was just what she needed to get her out from working with Officer Buck.

Chapter 2

I returned to the governor’s mansion in time for the noon meeting. Before going into the meeting I checked with Armagh Wilkinson who told me that Desdemona and Jadi had not returned as yet.

I was a worried man as I walked into the meeting.

The governor was sitting at the head of the table and his wife was on his left. Janine was taking notes so she did not look up as I sat down.

Gentlemen, I think that you all know my investigator, Frederick Huntsman. Frederick is here in the capacity of my advisor. I like to get his viewpoint on things. He has an unusual way of looking at things, so I value his input. I apologize for the interruption, please continue with what you were saying Senator, we still have a few minutes before the money men are due to arrive.

As I was saying, Governor, there is this rumor going around that you are about to approve a bill legalizing casinos in this state. The party views that with alarm and it could damage your chances to advance beyond your current status. Senator Whitmore said seriously.

Let me assure you senator that the rumor is nothing more than that: merely a rumor; started no doubt by Tito, who has been doing everything in his power to make me beholden to him. I won’t take a red cent from him and according to Frederick, whose viewpoint I value, he is about to move from honey to vinegar. We expect him to start making subtle threats against me and my family.

"Let me be clear on this Governor, we will stand behind you one hundred percent. The FBI has set up a special taskforce to deal with Tito. They are looking for anything they can use against him but I guess he has learned from Capone. He has the smartest legal brains that money can buy and every penny he