The Cartel Enforcers (The Bill Dix Detective Series Book 2) (18 page)

Sullivan’s adrenaline was spiked based on what had just happened, but she was following the lead of Dix because this was all still very new for her. She’d never been in a shooting but she was smart enough to know she needed to stick with him as he had been in plenty. He could hear Sullivan’s cell phone ringing and vibrating in her pocket and noticed she was unaware of it.

He made eye contact with her and said, “Hey, answer your phone.”

Sullivan retrieved her cell phone and could see it was the stop car officer calling her.

As she answered, the officer who’d stopped the Cadillac said, “I think you guys may have just killed Sergio. The guy I have over here is a Fidel Sanchez.”

“Son of a bitch!” blurted Sullivan. She was pissed off and could not believe her terrible luck. She covered the microphone of her cell phone and motioned over to the body slumped over, “I think the dead guy over there is Sergio.”

Dix looked upset as well and instantly thought,
now what?

Sullivan could hear the officer chuckling. “What’s so damned funny?”

“I’m just messing with you Sullivan. Head over here ASAP. A guy named Sergio Rodriguez is driving the Cadillac. He’s a real jerk. I have to let him go soon before he get’s suspicious, but you guys can get point until the surveillance team catches up.”

“What! You asshole!” Sullivan was fuming and wanted to reach through the phone and smack the officer. She shared the little joke played by the officer with Dix and since there were enough units at the shooting, they headed over to get point on the Cadillac. Dix wondered what the local officers would find in the two duffel bags, he guessed narcotics. Sullivan dialed the surveillance team sergeant and handed the phone to Dix while she found a safe place to observe the Cadillac. He told the sergeant their location and handed the phone back to her.

Sullivan called the stop car officer and told him to cut Sergio Rodriguez loose. Dix had conducted surveillance for thousands of hours and was well known for being undetected by suspects as he followed them. However, they didn’t have time to switch positions in the car so it was up to Sullivan to follow and not alert him to their presence.

Dix noticed Sergio drove cautiously and would park on the side of the road and watch cars drive by. Then he drove around the block several times to see who was following him and would purposely drive through red lights in an effort to see if anyone was in fact following him. He told Sullivan what to do as Sergio continued to drive in a manner he recognized as counter-surveillance. Before Sergio would do something, he’d call it out to Sullivan to give her plenty of time to react and make counter moves. A game of cat and mouse ensued throughout the city. His driving made them believe he was possibly the right guy they’d been looking for. This got both of them excited and they couldn’t wait to see where he led them.

They continued to follow him while trying to lock in the quickly responding surveillance team. Just about the time the team arrived, the Cadillac pulled into the parking lot of El Diablo. The driver exited the vehicle and briskly walked into the restaurant through the service entrance.

Sullivan parked across the street and watched several surveillance vehicles set up in the area. She let herself relax slightly after seeing their cars. She called the sergeant of the surveillance team to let him know their location and was surprised to find out the other surveillance team had followed Jose Calderon to El Diablo as well.

News of the shooting finally made it to Petersen and Romero. Dix felt his cell phone vibrating and noticed he had eleven missed calls from Petersen.

Dix answered the phone. “Hey Steve, we’re good.”

“What the hell happened? I leave you alone for five minutes and you fall apart.”

Dix looked over at Sullivan smiled and said, “We’re about ten minutes from the warehouse. I’ll fill you in when we get there. Neither Sullivan or I shot a round, so we’re free to continue this madness…for the time being.”

“Okay. I’ll get some coffee and sandwiches for the team and meet you at the warehouse,” said Petersen. He shook his head and wondered how many lives Dix had. He also felt a strong sense of relief that Sullivan was unharmed. He wasn’t quite sure why, but he’d been thinking about her most of the day. The way she talked, the way she walked, her smell, all of it made him excited.

Romero could see the negative reaction on Petersen’s face and asked, “Everything ok?”

“Yup, just another classic Bill Dix story. He’ll tell us all about it when we all meet in a few minutes at the S.O. warehouse. Let’s get some coffee and sandwiches before the meeting.”

Chapter 32

Doug Kovach sat motionless in his unmarked vehicle two blocks away from where Jose Calderon planned to have a giant fundraiser for homeless children. He had detected three of Calderon’s men circling the building. They appeared to be conducting counter surveillance. After a few minutes of walking around and looking inside vehicles parked in the area, they went back into the building through a small door next to a large fenced air conditioning unit. As the last man went in, he could see an MP5 slung from his shoulder under his coat. He didn’t recognize any of them, but he assumed Calderon had recently brought cartel men over from Mexico.

Once the last man was inside, Kovach went back to looking at documents and drawings of the city structures. He’d previously highlighted and circled key locations in red, but had not figured out exactly how Calderon would be involved with retrieving the money once his crew took it from the warehouse.

He examined the documents further and smiled as he finally figured out exactly how Jose Calderon would do it. First, the money was in a warehouse only two blocks from the benefit building.

Second, Kovach noticed a series of access tunnels running beneath the city that stretched in a ten block radius. These tunnels included access to the benefit location and the warehouse. He blamed his failing eyes and lack of sleep for missing the obvious. It was a problem. If Calderon’s men were successful and got in the tunnels, the money and Calderon could go anywhere in the ten block radius making it difficult for law enforcement to locate them. He assumed Calderon had a tunnel built from Mexico to the same area. The tunnel interdiction teams were busy everyday intercepting contraband and discovering new tunnels, so it was a real possibility. It would have been expensive and taken years, but money wasn’t an object for Calderon’s boss and the cartel had been in business for a long time. He couldn’t wait to see Calderon’s face when he finally realized Kovach had set him up and played him the whole time.

There was still the issue of his involvement with Calderon. It was a given that Calderon would rat him out. He had a decision to make…run or stay and fight for his job.

He thought about what Jose Calderon would have against him. He figured he could be looking at some jail time and lose his job once the dust settled-depending on just how much he or Calderon shared with the investigators. He was previously duped by Calderon, but now he was going to set things right. He’d fall on the sword by telling his bosses his side of the story. Once he truly accepted that fact, he felt much better and his mind was clear for the first time in a long time.

He looked down at his watch and noticed he was late for the meeting at the Sheriff’s Office warehouse. He started his vehicle, took one last look at the benefit building to see if he could detect any surveillance cameras, and headed over to the meeting. A sense of excitement, something he had not felt for many years, overwhelmed him. It reminded him of why he swore to protect people and uphold the law.
Because it’s the right thing to do
, he thought.

As Kovach pulled into the warehouse parking lot, he noticed a white male adult sitting in a vehicle parked adjacent to the warehouse. The man had binoculars up to his eyes and apparently had not seen Kovach. Out of the corner of his eye, he was able to catch the license plate of the car and commit it to memory.

He called dispatch to run the license plate on his way into the building to see if it meant anything to him. He assumed the man had something to do with Jose Calderon, most likely surveilling the warehouse. He decided against sending someone out to contact him because he needed Calderon to continue as planned.

Kovach stayed at the doorway and watched the man intently for a few minutes. Then, he walked into the conference room brimming with confidence. He examined the room to see who he knew and who he could manipulate. A junior agent was pouring a cup of coffee and made eye contact with him. He motioned to the junior agent to walk over to him.

The junior agent said to Kovach, “What’s up boss?”

Kovach grabbed the rookie’s cup of coffee and replied, “Take this license plate and find out what you can. If it’s a rental, I want the contract and the video of the person renting it ASAP.”

The rookie slumped and grabbed the piece of paper from Kovach’s hand. He left the room dejected after the way Kovach had spoken to him.

Kovach noticed the warehouse schematics projected on a pull down screen. A captain, lieutenant, two sergeants, and four deputies from the Sheriff’s Office were in the room. They represented the agency in charge of the warehouse. Also in the room were HSI agents and bosses along with Dix, Petersen, Romero, and Sullivan.

Dix looked up from pointing at some notes he had written and noticed Kovach had entered the room. He watched as Kovach scanned the room. Dix was upset about several things, but he was most pissed off that they were losing valuable time to plan while it appeared Kovach took his sweet time getting to the meeting.

Dix said to Kovach, “Doug can you head over here so we can get this going? We’re running out of time.” Dix was tired, hungry, and was hoping the plan would be made quickly.

“Why certainly. Sorry about the delay. Let’s get started,” replied Kovach smugly.

The meeting started with Dix having everyone introduce themselves. Once that was done, the captain made a few remarks about how the Sheriff’s Office would help any way they could and they would provide as many resources as possible. After the captain finished speaking, he and the lieutenant left the room.

Petersen began to walk toward the projection screen to point out concerns as Dix stood up with some notes in his hands to address the group.

“All right folks, I’ve been working on planning for this

operation. At any time feel free to throw out ideas,” said Dix. He paid close attention to what Kovach was doing because he was concerned with how he had been acting lately. Dix knew Kovach was not telling them everything and it bothered him.

Dix explained the single most important part of the mission was not actually protecting the money or preventing Jose Calderon or his men from getting it, but rather it was to allow them to take the money, but make it difficult. Resistance was needed to sell the ruse. The money had to make it into the hands of Jose Calderon. Once he finished, Dix noticed Romero seemed perplexed.

“What do you think Romero, this not adding up for you?”

Romero was a little embarrassed and felt his face get flush and warm. He didn’t want to say anything, but Dix had called him out so he had to say something.

“So, we put up a ton of resistance, then let cartel hired hit men walk away with millions of dollars, placing staff at risk, just to catch Jose Calderon in possession of the money?”

Petersen jumped in. “That’s about the gist of it. You got a better idea to hammer Calderon?” The room was quite and all eyes were on Romero. Dix studied him trying to get a read. He had detected there was something not right with him, but he couldn’t put his finger on it…not yet anyway.

Romero said, “I don’t like letting cartel members storm the warehouse where someone may get hurt or killed, and then letting them just walk away. These guys are ruthless. They need to be held accountable for all the killings. Is one arrest of a top cartel member worth the risk?”

Dix replied, “Romero I like how you’re looking at the whole situation and I also believe someone needs to pay for the loss of the agents and deputies,” he looked steely-eyed at the whole team and continued, “Rest assured, someone will pay. But, we only have one play here if we want to pin something on Jose Calderon.

Locating the stolen money from the warehouse in his possession will tie him to this whole conspiracy and the murders. The risk is high, but we do this right and we can take this Calderon cartel down.”

Romero nodded. “Ok, I’m in, but I’m just skeptic that Jose’s going to take the bait and be dumb enough to get caught with the money. He may do one or the other, but not both.”

Petersen said, “Good point, but a guy like Calderon has a boss. That boss is going to want the money.” Petersen had read numerous books about cartels from people who had infiltrated them or studied them over the last thirty years. He was confident Calderon was not the main boss because he was sloppy and emotional.

The team circled around the table and each member pointed out problems or weaknesses with the plan while trying to finish off sandwiches. They considered several points of attack on the warehouse and identified escape routes.

Dix had been going back and forth with a thought in his head that had bothered him for several days. He struggled with how much of the plan he wanted to share with members of the team excluding Petersen, and how much of the plan he wanted to share with warehouse staff and assisting law enforcement officers and agents. Ultimately, he decided sharing the entire plan with everyone was the best decision because it would allow the people involved to be prepared for any possible scenario.
Preparedness normally leads to less injuries or deaths
, thought Dix.