Karen Vail 01 - Velocity (45 page)

“Grunge. Ernesto Escobar.”

Turino stepped forward. “Cortez’s right-hand man? He’s your buddy?”

DeSantos knew what Turino was thinking: Arturo Figueroa was obviously an important catch, but possibly a bigger fish than they had anticipated. If he was close to Cortez’s second in command, regardless of their compartmentalized structure, he might hold key information regarding the cartel’s inner workings.

With his free hand, DeSantos pul ed his phone and typed a short message to Jack Jordan tel ing him they had Figueroa in custody—and asking him to get Thomson over here with some of his men as soon as possible.

“So what did Escobar tel you about these discussions with Vil arreal’s rep?” Vail asked.

“That’s it,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t rat on my friends.”

“You haven’t ratted on your friends,” DeSantos said. “Only on Vil arreal. Unless Vil arreal is one of your friends.”

“I’d like to see Vil arreal rot in hel .”

“Help us out, and maybe that’l happen.”

Figueroa’s face contorted into a crooked smile. “We’l take care of it. Our own way. We don’t need your help.
El jefe
knows how to deal with it.”

“
El jefe
,” Vail said. “What do you think of
el jefe
’s plans to kil Hernandez? That doesn’t seem like such a good idea to me.”

Figueroa tightened his jaw. “Big mistake.”

Vail nodded. “So help us find Hernandez before your boss does. No one wil know you told us.”

Figueroa chewed on that a moment, then shook his head again. “I’m done here.

I’ve told you what I know.”

“That’s bul shit, and we both know it,” DeSantos said. “What did Vil arreal want with Hernandez?”

The man looked around into the darkness. He sighed deeply and said, “He wanted us to release him.”

“To keep DEA off your backs.” Vail nodded slowly. “So Vil arreal and his men had something to do with busting Hernandez out. Because if Cortez kil ed him, they knew it’d bring big time heat, destroy their business.”

“Like I was saying,” Figueroa replied. “You already knew what I know. So cut me loose.”

“Where’s Vil arreal taking Hernandez?” Vail asked.

Figueroa forced his chin back. “How should I fucking know?”

Vail tilted her head and studied Figueroa. “Because you do. Even if you don’t know for sure, you’ve got an idea.”

Figueroa looked down, struggled once more against DeSantos and Dixon.

“You’re not hurting yourself here, Arturo. You’re helping yourself. And you’re helping
el jefe.
”

“Las Vegas. They’re taking your friend to Las Vegas.”

“Vegas?” Dixon asked. “Why Vegas?”

“Vil arreal has a place there. Now, can I go?”

DeSantos checked his phone and played with the joystick. Jordan was attempting to pinpoint their position using their cel signals. Thomson was on his way over and would be there shortly. But when DeSantos flipped to the next text, what he saw surprised him. He reread the message to be sure he’d gotten it right.

Turino stepped forward with a set of standard handcuffs. “Dixon, secure our prisoner to the bumper.”

“No fucking way!” Figueroa said. “You said you’d let me go if I answered your questions.”

Vail shook her head. “First of al , I said we
may
let you go. We decided not to.”

Turino tossed Dixon the cuffs, which she caught with her free hand. “Why me?”

“Because I’m in charge and I don’t like what you said back in Napa about my name.”

Dixon frowned, then kicked off her shoes and rol ed up her pant legs. She pul ed and dragged Figueroa to the Land Rover’s rear bumper, located the undercarriage tow bracket, and fastened the handcuffs to it. Figueroa continued to resist, but Roxxann “Buff Barbie” Dixon easily control ed the slightly built prisoner. Once the restraint was in place, Dixon backed away and headed toward shore.

VAIL PULLED HER PHONE to cal Gifford. She knew he was asleep by now, but she felt he would want to be informed about Robby’s whereabouts. He answered immediately, which surprised her.

“Sorry for cal ing at this hour,” Vail said.

“I’m not sleeping. What have you got?”

“A lead on Robby, sir.” She explained what they knew, and provided the information they’d gleaned from Figueroa.

“I’m with Agent Sebastiani de Medina and ASAC Yardley, on a plane en route to San Diego. I’l see if Mr. Yardley can make a few cal s, get us some info on Alejandro Vil arreal. I’l text you anything I find out.”

Wind gusted into Vail’s face. “You’re on your way out here?”

“Mr. Yardley felt it was looking increasingly likely that Robby was somewhere out west, so he invited me to join him on one of DEA’s confiscated jets.”

“Sounds like they have a whole fleet.”

“And semis and even a yacht or two. They come in useful. Maybe we can strike a deal, get a private jet just for the BAU, like on TV. Al kidding aside, good work, Karen. No,
stellar
work.”

“I’l consider it stel ar when I’m holding Robby in my arms. We were so damn close. We literal y missed him by seconds.”

“You’l find him. I’ve got confidence in you.”

Another blast of wind slammed against Vail’s body. She turned her back to block it. “Given our intel, sir, you might want to divert to Vegas.”

“Concentrate on finding him. I’l discuss it with Mr. Yardley and determine our course of action. Gifford out.”

Vail joined Mann, DeSantos, and Dixon, who was drying off her legs and feet with a rag from the SUV’s trunk.

“We’ve got a problem with Turino,” DeSantos said. “I was just told he’s—”

“My ears are burning,” Turino said with a chuckle, coming up from behind. “Must be talking about me behind my back.”

DeSantos drew his Desert Eagle and, in one motion, shoved his pistol into Turino’s right ear. The agent’s eyes bulged. “What the h—”

DeSantos wrapped his forearm around Turino’s neck. “Why don’t we start from the top, Agent Turino, and tel us what the fuck you’re real y up to.”

78

W
hoa—” Vail said, holding out her hand. “Hector, what the hel ’s going on?”

Keeping the Desert Eagle firmly against Turino’s head, DeSantos removed the agent’s Glock and shoved it into his own waistband. “Seems that Agent Turino has been working against us. Isn’t that right, agent?”

Turino was arching backward against DeSantos’s torso. “Lower that fucking gun.

Are you out of your mind?”

“Answer my question.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

DeSantos twisted to face Mann, Vail, and Dixon. “The shit’s hitting the fan on Cortez in two days. Agent Turino here has taken it upon himself to keep us busy.

Specifical y, to keep our noses away from Operation Velocity.”

“Why?” Vail asked.

Turino ground his molars. “I told you, Karen. This is bigger than one person.

Going after Hernandez, I understand it. But you’re being selfish. The stakes are much greater. A lot more lives are at stake.”

“Son of a bitch,” Vail said.

“Look at the big picture.”

“We could’ve done both,” Vail said. “I told you that.”

“Is that right?” Turino said. “Look what happened when Hernandez disappeared.

You went searching for him, blew his cover, damn near fucked up an operation that’d been years in the making, and jeopardized several agents we’ve got undercover. Sometimes you have to work with the team and not take matters into your own hands.”

Vail chewed on her lip. She couldn’t argue with Turino—but, damn it, what was she supposed to do when Robby went missing? Did they think she’d just go wine tasting and sightseeing?

“Working with the team’s exactly the point,” DeSantos said. “If we’d known, if you’d shared your concerns with us, we could’ve worked with you, maybe run a fake op to throw them off, a decoy, so it didn’t jeopardize Velocity. There are ways to preserve the overal op but stil get things done under the radar.”

“I didn’t think you’d listen. I did a little research on you people. Karen in particular.

Fol owing rules and working for the greater good doesn’t seem to be in her DNA.”

Vail stepped back.
Jesus. What website did he find
that
on? Even worse, is it
true?

“Now what?” Dixon asked.

“Nothing to worry about,” Turino said. “Cortez no longer has Hernandez, so you’re no longer a threat to Velocity. Once Vil arreal broke him loose, I had no reason to stand in your way anymore.” Turino brought a hand to his neck and pried away DeSantos’s arm to free up the flow of oxygen. “Look, I want to see Hernandez brought home, no question about that. A LEO in the hands of a cartel burns at me. I lived through Camarena. I knew the guy, worked with him. When we found out what happened to Kiki, it kil ed me, affected me deeper than I could ever admit. I wanted to track down those fuckers and do to them what they did to him.

“It’s what drove me to request assignment on Velocity. I wanna see these bastards taken down. Badly. If there’s one thing I have left to accomplish in my career, it’s bringing ’em to their knees. Devastate their ability to bring drugs into our country.”

“If Camarena affected you so deeply,” Mann said, “you’d be busting your ass to find Hernandez.”

Turino shook his head. “Not at the expense of blowing a years-long operation that’l save hundreds—shit,
thousands
of lives. And not at the expense of the other UCs whose cover’d be blown if you’d fucked things up. They’d be tortured and kil ed, too. I couldn’t take that risk.”

“Is there anything you’ve kept from us,” Vail asked, “that we should know?”

Turino rol ed his eyes. “You people’ve been a goddamn handful. Trying to keep you in check has been damn near impossible. At this point, I think you know everything I know. In the grand scheme of things, I don’t think I’ve slowed you down that much.”

“When seconds count, ‘that much’ may’ve been
too
much,” Vail said, lacing her voice with contempt. “If we’d gotten to that drop house thirty seconds earlier, it might’ve made the difference.”

“That one you can’t pin on me.”

DeSantos released his hold and pushed Turino away. “Lie down. On your stomach.”

Turino twisted around and faced DeSantos, whose Desert Eagle was trained at Turino’s center mass. “Why?”

“Because I want to talk with my col eagues and I wanna be sure you’re not going to do something stupid.”

Turino complied with DeSantos’s request. DeSantos patted him down and removed a smal er Glock that was tucked into Turino’s ankle holster. He then backed away and huddled with Vail, Dixon, and Mann.

“Al due respect to Karen,” Mann said, “Turino’s not wrong. I wanna get Hernandez back, you know that. But I think we have to take a breath and look at this objectively. One life against hundreds, if not more. A serious blow to Mexico’s most violent cartel. Shutting down their money laundering operations. Al those drugs and weapons off the streets.” He scraped at his forehead with the prosthesis. “I can’t fault the guy. In a way, I respect him. It took bal s to do what he did.”

DeSantos nodded at Dixon. “Roxxann?”

Dixon puffed her cheeks and blew a mouthful of air through her lips. “Tough cal . I see your logic, but seems like the guy’s been acting on his own. I can’t imagine the DEA ordering one of its agents to purposely screw us over.”

“They wouldn’t,” Mann said. “Every DEA agent I’ve ever worked with is a class act. Professional. Committed. But don’t be so quick to judge the man. We got caught up in the Crush Kil er case and we cut corners. Lots of ’em. We did shit we shouldn’t have done. Right?” He got a nod from Dixon and a conciliatory dip of the chin from Vail. “When you’re dealing with a case like that, especial y a huge one like Velocity, it’s hard not to let emotions get the best of you. We al know that’s true.”

They turned to Vail. She shoved her hands into the pockets of Robby’s leather jacket. “I can’t be one to judge him. I’m certainly no angel. The past couple weeks I’ve . . . crossed the line plenty of times. Too many times.”

DeSantos said, “So, what do we do with him?”

“Let’s back up a second.” Dixon ran her hands through her hair. “What if he’s got a broad mandate to run the task force as he sees fit? Bottom line, we’re pissed because he’s looking at the big picture and we’re focused on getting Robby home safe. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Is there a right or wrong here?”

They were silent as they chewed on that.

“So what are our options?” Mann said. “We leave him here or we take him with us.”

Vail said, “Trust is everything. Way I see it, question is, Can we trust him?”

“Our goals are no longer conflicting,” Dixon said. “It’s a moot point.” Vail pul ed up the col ar on Robby’s jacket. “Trust is never a moot point, Roxx.”

“Who tipped you off?” Mann asked DeSantos.

He held up his phone. “Text.”

“From?”

DeSantos rotated his body, checking out the area. Lowering his voice, he said,

“Turino admitted it. Source is irrelevant.”

Vail figured it had to be Sammy. But it no longer mattered.

“If it helps any,” DeSantos said, “we al understand one another now. And I think we woke him up.”

“I’d say grinding your Desert Eagle into his ear definitely got his attention,” Dixon said.

Mann cracked a smile. “I kinda liked that. Old-school stuff. Settle it out in the field.”

“Fine,” Vail said. “We handle this in-house. But I’m done working with him, not until I can be sure we can trust him. If shit goes down and he has to choose between Robby and Velocity . . . ” She shrugged. “We can’t take that chance. I can’t take that chance.” She looked around and everyone indicated agreement.