North’s Nikki Read online

  “I’ve gone with my gut many times.” He shared a nod with North.

  “It’s saved me from even worse disasters. Nothing wrong with an intuitive guess. That’s what we start with more times than not,” Anders said. “We still need to know what’s happening.”

  “Something to do with your granddaughter,” North prompted. “She’s in trouble?”

  He nodded. “She is, indeed. She doesn’t know how much or how bad, and I’m afraid we won’t get any warning on the upcoming retaliation. We’ll just have trouble on the doorstep in the middle of the night, with the intent to take her out and probably me at the same time. So I’ve spent the last few nights standing watch while Nikki slept. I would prefer that you not share that with my granddaughter. Now that you two have arrived, we can take shifts for any on-watch duty.”

  “Of course.” North studied the older man’s face, seeing the lines of fatigue, the lack of sleep. According to Ice, Charles was normally one of those gentlemen always perfectly dressed, but, right now, as he kept running his fingers through his hair, stray hairs stood out at odd angles. “So tell us how she got into trouble, and what kind of trouble is this?”

  “She works for a company in north London. It’s an import e-company. She was going over the receiving bills of late and noticed a discrepancy between orders and shipments received. More was received than ordered. Not knowing if she still had a shipment to pay for—or if they’d been overshipped and needed to return the product—she contacted her boss. She couldn’t get a hold of him, as he’s seriously ill, got his administrative assistant, Hannah, instead. Hannah said Nikki should make a trip to the warehouse to ensure everything was okay because the company didn’t have the money to be paying for extra shipments they hadn’t ordered. These were cases of wine coming out of France. Supposedly.”

  “Okay, good place to start. Let me guess. She went to the warehouse and either saw something she wasn’t supposed to or, when she was tracking the cases, found out something had been shipped that wasn’t supposed to be shipped, and she was seen.”

  Charles looked at him, and then he slowly nodded his head.

  Anders and North both shrugged.

  Anders said, “Considering it’s imports-exports and shipments, it tends to be drugs or something of value, like stolen artifacts.”

  “It is, indeed,” Charles said with a heavy sigh. He replaced the teacup slowly to the saucer. “She is not sure what she saw though. She opened two of the crates because they were marked as being wine, and, when she got them open, they weren’t only wine. The top layer was, but underneath was something else. She didn’t have time to inspect these two crates further as she was accosted by two men who asked her what the hell she was doing. Her warehouse guy wasn’t there, so she presumed these people worked for the subleasee who shares the same warehouse space.

  “When she explained the situation to these two men, they got extremely ugly and said it had nothing to do with her, and she shouldn’t stick her nose into something she knew nothing about. The one guy said she should go back to the corporate office and keep her mouth shut.”

  “But she didn’t obviously.”

  Charles gave him a sharp look and then a hard nod. “You don’t really tell Nikki what to do but especially not to keep her mouth shut.”

  Just then a female’s voice erupted from the doorway. “Who are these men, Granddad?”

  Charles looked up, a guilty look whispering across his face.

  North straightened to greet the new arrival. She was tall, willowy, with red hair down to the middle of her back and a pinched, angry look on her face as she glared at him. He walked a few steps, held out his hand and said, “I’m North Dockter.” At her look of surprise, he gave a sad sigh. “I know, right? My parents’ idea of a joke.” He motioned at Anders. “This is my friend Anders Renau.”

  She gave her head a shake, reached out and shook his hand. “I’m sorry for you. That must have been pretty rough in school.”

  He nodded. “It was. But only for the first little while,” he said curtly. “I learned to fight off the bullies pretty darn fast.”

  “Good, then you won’t have a problem with my temper,” she snapped. She turned and glared at Charles. “Granddad, why are they here?”

  Charles straightened. “Levi sent them over to help. Two other men are close by and will come if we need them.”

  “Why is it everybody goes to Levi for assistance?” she asked suspiciously.

  “Because he’s a great help,” North said. “And, no, we aren’t taking advantage of your grandfather.”

  She sniffed. “I think somebody else needs to be the judge of that.”

  But Charles shook his head. “That is not under discussion, Nikki.”

  She gave him a flat look. “And neither is my business.”

  “I think it’s a little late for that,” Anders said gently. “The minute you start dealing with irregular shipments into the UK, you’re talking about having a major problem.”

  “Can you describe the man who warned you away?” North asked.

  She gave a clipped nod. “His name tag read Carl. I think the second man’s name tag was Phillip.”

  North considered the names and then said, “Interesting. Do you think they were the right men to wear those designated shirts? Or were they wearing somebody else’s uniform? Not that it matters at this stage. More important is, why were they hassling you? You had as much right to be there as they did. Even more that they shouldn’t have known or cared about your company’s business.”

  She shrugged. “I have no idea why they were upset about my visit to the warehouse.”

  “Who have you told?”

  “About what?”

  North just stared at her.

  She jutted out her jaw. “Okay, fine. I told my boss’s assistant, Hannah, and I told Granddad.”

  “What did the assistant say?”

  “She said she didn’t know anything about it. She figured it was just a clerical error.”

  “And she had no solution as to how to fix it?”

  “I don’t think she particularly cared to fix it,” Nikki said drily. “Our boss is dying, and she’s his close friend. The business is for sale, but I don’t believe there’s been much interest.”

  “And how long have you been bringing this particular wine product into the country?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “It never occurred to me to look at that.” She stared, her gaze going from one man to the other. “Why? What do you think is happening?”

  “Smuggling of course,” North said. “But whether it’s drugs or stolen goods, it’s hard to determine. If it’s drugs, then, of course, we want to know how long this product has been moved because it would give us an idea of how big the supply chain is.”

  She paled, her lips pinched together. “I don’t like the way you think.”

  “Well, the way I think tends to keep people alive,” North said. “In your case, you’ve already been threatened once. How long do you want to keep working that whole denial thing before you realize this is bigger than what you were expecting it to be?”

  “I’m not sure I’m in denial. I just didn’t know what to do. I figured I overreacted when Carl threatened me, and I called Granddad. He’s dealt with a lot of this in his life, and I figured he would know what to do this time too.”

  “Of course. I called Levi. I also called Bullard.”

  “I’d like to go to Bullard’s just once,” North said appreciatively. “I’ve heard a lot about his new compound.”

  “I don’t think it’s quite ready yet,” Charles said. “They stayed here recently when work was being done. And, of course, Kasha goes back and forth with Brandon all the time.”

  “Those are the people you’ve not wanted me to meet,” Nikki said impatiently. “You never share much about your constant visitors.”

  “I’m sure Charles appreciates them stopping by,” Anders said. “That’s part of your grandfather’s business.”
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  “So I’m supposed to share about my business, and he doesn’t have to share about his?”

  “That pretty much sums it up,” North said cheerfully. “Besides, you haven’t given us a whole lot of information. So, if the crates only had one top layer of wine, with whatever else underneath, did too many cases come in or not enough cases?”

  “Too many. I confirmed the tally on the wine because, at that kind of cost, my company doesn’t have the money to cover what ended up being thirty spare cases.”

  “That would be a decent price tag, depending on which wine it was. But, if you do this on a regular basis, is that not something you can distribute to whoever your boss wholesales to? And who is that?”

  At that question, she barked, “That’s confidential. I can’t really tell you who it is we brought it in for.”

  “You’ll have to,” North said in exasperation. “Do you realize maybe that extra shipment was requested as well?”

  “I already contacted them and confirmed their order, and it’s the same order I had on my paperwork. They ordered thirty cases, not sixty.”

  “Sure, but have you checked the other orders for thirty cases to see if that was really wine being delivered or if it was simply a layer of camouflage for something else as well?”

  Her gaze widened, and he could see she hadn’t considered this.

  “Smugglers already have a system in place,” he said gently. “It could be that it was just a numbers mistake. But that doesn’t mean the original thirty shipped to you were the product you expected either.”

  “And how does customs handle all these?” Anders asked.

  “Everything is cleared on the shipping docks. We’ve never had a problem,” she said, “so I’m not sure what this is all about.”

  “If they hadn’t threatened you, you wouldn’t have thought anything of it, would you?”

  “No,” she admitted.

  “But with Carl’s and Phillip’s extra attention on you and these particular cases, you would have investigated further, correct?”

  “Of course.” She hesitated, looking at her grandfather for added reassurance.

  “You can trust these men as much as you trust me, Nikki. They are here to protect you from whatever ugliness you have unwittingly discovered.” When she remained undecided, Charles added, “And they will protect me too, while you remain here in my home until this is all resolved. It is not safe for you to return to your apartment alone.”

  With a soft nod and a grim set to her mouth, she finally opened up to the two strangers in her grandfather’s home. “I did wonder what else was in the case. If I could have confirmed that, I would have contacted the company, asked about the secondary contents, requested a corrected manifest and proper documentation. Then, if I was satisfied with the paperwork, I’d have asked if they were looking for any more cases, as we’d accidentally been shipped an excess amount.

  “If they didn’t want the duplicated order, I’d look at other suppliers, see if they wanted them. If not, it would go back to the wholesaler,” she admitted. “When the men accosted me in the warehouse, I was escorted out. I started to head home to my apartment but got nervous, since I do live alone and don’t really know my neighbors at all. I called Granddad then, came here and called in sick the next day at work.”

  “How far away is the business from the apartment where you live?”

  “It’s about a half-hour drive in to work, depending on the traffic,” she said.

  “And did you bring copies of the manifest? And the purchase orders?”

  She frowned, her fingers clenching around her hip bones as if considering how to answer that question.

  “We can’t help you if we don’t know all the details.”

  “I don’t want to bring trouble down on the company that they can’t afford to handle.”

  “What other stuff does this company import?”

  “All kinds of specialty goods. Food, wine products, dry goods.”

  “And how long has the business been open?”

  “Over one hundred years,” she said. “My boss inherited the company from his father, who inherited it from his father.”

  “And does your boss have a son who he will pass on the business to?”

  “No. As I said, he was looking to sell it. He has no children and no close family. He’s planning to give the proceeds from the sale to charities.”

  North filed away that information. “Interesting future.”

  “Why? Don’t you believe a man has the right to do what he wants with his own assets?”

  “Absolutely. The question is, who doesn’t want him to do that with his assets because they think they have a better use for them?”

  “No one,” she said quietly. “Only a handful of us work for the company. There is no one else.”

  *

  Nikki studied the men in front of her. She knew some of what her grandfather did but not the full extent of it. There was something military, unyielding, about these two men. As if there was nothing in life they couldn’t handle. She could really use some of that particular brand of confidence herself.

  The men in the warehouse had terrified her. Something about their features, the tones of their voices, everything about them said that, if she said the wrong word sideways, they’d have broken her neck and tossed her into the river. She’d panicked; no doubt about it now. She currently felt foolish thinking she had made too much out of nothing back then. But she didn’t know quite what to do about it.

  She didn’t even know how Granddad could possibly know men like this, like the pair in his home. But thinking about it further, she’d seen others of this same cut of cloth come through as well. But Granddad has done his best to separate her from them instantly. More often than not, she just knew they were coming through but hadn’t actually seen them.

  Once her parents had moved to Switzerland, she’d spent more time with her grandfather. At the time she had thought it would be nice to keep the old man company but then realized he was far from lonely and far from an old man.

  They had had an interesting relationship. There was a lot of affection on both sides, and she certainly wouldn’t want anything to happen to him. Not only that, when she had found herself in trouble, he’d been the first one she had called. Her parents still didn’t know.

  She had a brother, but he was in med school in the US. He was also the opposite of these men in front of her. He lived for science, lived for every kind of surgical procedure. He would be a general surgeon at first but told her eventually he would focus on specialties of the brain. She couldn’t think of anything she wanted to know less about. The thought of someone cutting into her brain made her cringe. She couldn’t even watch those fake brain surgeries on TV as part of a police series, much less the real surgeries filmed for a documentary. The sight of the blood and exposed brain matter gave her the chills.

  She was happy to be managing imports and exports. She didn’t have a problem dealing with all the related paperwork, although she would certainly get frustrated when the government stepped in and made her fill out yet more documents for various things. But she’d been doing this for the last five years, and she had become comfortable with it. Until this. And these men before her were right; she hadn’t pulled the records to see how much of this particular wine the company had ordered on a regular basis. All she’d done was ask how many cases were supposed to be in this order. The answer had been instantaneous. As always, thirty cases.

  She hadn’t even checked to see how often they ordered. In fact, she’d just run.

  Abruptly she raised one finger, turned and walked away from the sitting room. She ran lightly up the stairs to her bedroom, grabbed her laptop and returned. The men had seated themselves again, sipping tea, eating the sweets Granddad always ended up baking. She didn’t know if he loved baking or if he just loved feeding the mysterious strangers who came through his place. She sat down in a single upright chair and turned on her laptop. “I’m checking to see
if I can access the records from here.”

  “Do you work from home normally?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  “What about logging in from this location though?”

  She looked up with a frown. “Am I putting my grandfather in danger?”

  North shook his head. “Not any more than you already have,” he said gently. “We just want to double-check that, with the new IP address, it wouldn’t be unusual for you to be here.”

  “No, it’s not unusual,” she said slowly. “I have been here before. And sometimes I’ve had work to do here as well. Granddad was sick a couple months back, and I stayed here for several days.”

  North looked over at Charles. “Are you doing okay now?”

  Charles nodded. “When she says sick, what she means is, I broke my arm up high near the shoulder. I was doing fine, but she wanted to babysit.”

  She gave him a warm smile. “Maybe I wanted a few days to spend time with you.”

  Charles’s face softened. “Ditto. But you can come and spend time with me without me having to break something. You know that, right?”

  She chuckled. “Good thing,” she said, “because I don’t really want to have to break something myself to have you return the favor.” She logged into her work’s database. “I’m logged in now. And I’m bringing up the distributor that ordered the wine.”

  “What company is it?”

  “Only the Best,” she said. “They have several outlets they distribute to. We bring their products into the country, then make deliveries to their own specialty stores.”

  “Are they an end user?”

  She looked up, frowning at him. “If you mean, are they selling the wine at a restaurant to people, no. I don’t believe so. I think they sell it to the restaurant, which then turns around and sells it to the patrons of the restaurants.”

  “And wholesalers?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know too much about their business, but I would presume so.”

  “Interesting.” North tucked away that information. “How much do they normally order?”

  “I’m going through their order history right now. … Looks to be thirty cases of this product every three months.”