The Cartel Enforcers (The Bill Dix Detective Series Book 2) (21 page)

The secretary blushed a little and said, “Why yes, that’s me.”

“Well then this envelope is yours,” he said as he handed her the fake envelope. While the woman was preoccupied with the envelope Smith used the signing tablet to scan the area to allow the camera inside the tablet to record the layout of the warehouse. The built in camera also picked up infrared signals, and with the up and down arrows on the tablet he could tilt the lens to cover the warehouse floor to the ceiling. He was looking around the warehouse and almost missed the fact that the secretary was beginning to open the envelope. He needed to distract her long enough for him to leave.

“Well Ms. Lawton, have a terrific day,” he handed her the signing tablet and said, “Can you give me a quick signature before you tear into that envelope.” He made sure to causally brush her hand as he handed her the tablet and catch her eyes to flirt a little more.

She put the envelope down and signed the tablet. She felt something stir inside herself that she hadn’t felt in a long time. She turned red and suddenly felt flush with excitement.

She handed the tablet back to Smith. “Have a wonderful day and make sure to come back real soon.”

He tried to blush as he retrieved the tablet and said, “You bet, I’m pretty sure I’ll be back real soon. Maybe we could grab a cup of coffee sometime.” Smith winked at the secretary and exited the warehouse with a little pep in his step. He was hopeful the secretary would not be around when he and the other men came to collect Calderon’s money.
It would be a shame for a nice woman like that to get hurt
, he thought.

He changed back into his regular street clothes and jumped into the rental car. He noticed he had little time to get to Calderon’s house and no matter what he did, we was going to be late. The information he obtained from entering the building while doing the UPS ruse was invaluable; however, he went back and forth in his head on how much of it he would share with Calderon.

He was certain he’d need to share some of what he gathered with Calderon to pacify him since he was going to be late to their meeting. At every stop light on the way to Calderon’s mansion Smith edited the video. As he pulled into the large driveway at Calderon’s home he finished the final touches. He noticed Calderon’s men slowly come out of the shadows as he exited his vehicle.

Smith saw Calderon standing on a balcony overlooking the front of his property and said, “Sorry about being late.”

“You will be even sorrier if you don’t have a damn good reason why, especially since you demanded this.”

“Trust me; you won’t be so mad when you see what I’ve got.” Smith counted seven men around him and detected two escape routes. He had a gun tucked in his back and one on his ankle.
This could get hairy
, he thought as he went inside to meet with a very angry Jose Calderon.

Chapter 38

Before trying to go to bed Dix called home. That turned out to be a mistake. He got into a little argument with his wife because she demanded he come home and he just couldn’t do that. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be home. He was knee deep in a case and needed to stop more killings from happening.

He told his wife, “Babe I love you and I’ll be home soon.”

She replied, “You have three days. I’m gone on the fourth.” Dix knew, of course, it was a bluff. She knew her husband was not a quitter when she married him, but it was time for him to come home. She recognized whatever he had gotten himself into must be extremely important.

Dix had learned over the years how to balance work with family life, but this time he was going to have to spend some alone time with his wife to fix this one. He had plenty of “comp time” on the books and since he was one of two sergeants in the task force, he was pretty sure he could pencil in his own time off.

“Okay babe. I promise to be home in two days. Thanks for understanding.” She felt a little better after that because he always followed through on his promises. They ended the conversation in a standoff and it bothered him. He tired to sleep it off, but he tossed and turned all night.

He struggled because he was not feeling good about the trap for Jose Calderon.
Too many people and too many variables
. He also had some concerns about Doug Kovach and Agent Romero. Some of the things they said and did seemed a little off. He realized he’d not seen Kovach in many years and he certainly could have changed. Something wasn’t right. He thought about asking Kovach what was going on with him, but he was sure he wouldn’t tell him the truth.

Over the last three days, Dix had also detected a rift between Kovach and Romero which also concerned him. He felt like they were keeping extra close tabs on each other, like they did not trust each other. The only people on his team that seemed to be behaving normally were Petersen and Sullivan.

Dix picked up the phone to call Petersen, but put it down.
No sense screwing up his sleep too
, he thought.

The schematics for the warehouse and all the notes from the planning meeting were scattered on a coffee table in Dix’s hotel room. He walked over and started looking over them again. This was the sixth time he had done so and the lines and notes were beginning to get blurry.

Thumbing through the blueprints for the warehouse, Dix found he was fascinated by the simplicity of the layout and basic lack of security. Over the years, he’d been in numerous law enforcement warehouses around the country. He had never seen one so inadequate to protect evidence and other law enforcement property. He assumed the warehouse must have been an after-thought or a new acquisition that the Sheriff’s Office had not properly updated yet.

He checked the blueprints for various access points to the warehouse. He created another list to make sure he did not miss any possible way for Calderon’s men to enter and leave. He mulled the game plan over and over in his head until he started to get a headache. While doing so, he caught himself biting his nails and tried to stop. He felt himself getting drowsy and started to get up to go to his bed when he heard a knock on his door.

Dix grabbed his weapon and carefully looked out the blinds to see Petersen standing there.

He opened the door, “Let me guess, you can’t sleep either.”

“Well, I couldn’t so I went for a walk. You won’t believe who I saw and what
he
was doing.”

Dix considered the riddle. “I’m too tired to even guess.”

Petersen excitedly said, “I saw Romero. He was in a rental car keeping eyes on our hotel, which I can only assume means he was watching you and me.”

“What the hell would he do that for?” Dix was stunned.

“I had no idea what he was really doing so I doubled back, got to our hotel, and found a cab near the lobby. I decided to watch him since it seemed he was watching us. I rolled around a bit in the cab and had the driver park so I could watch Romero. After an hour, another male adult met up with him and got into the rental car.”

Dix didn’t want to cut his friend off, but he was feeling exhausted and totally confused. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could stay awake, but he had to hear this.

Dix said, “Okay, so what finally happened?”

“They drove around the block twice and it appeared like Romero may have been pointing out spots that didn’t make sense at first. Then, after I really thought about it, the spots looked like great locations for an ambush for anyone leaving our hotel. I hate to say this, but I think Romero may have sold us to Calderon.”

“Steve, that is serious. Romero has been with us since the beginning. I think he’s fishy, but selling us out to Calderon is a pretty big move,” replied Dix.

“I know, but something about him has been wrong. I can’t quite figure it out, but he has been a part of all the chaos in this case. Plus, when the two spilt up, I had the cabbie go with the other guy. We followed him to a local strip club. From there he was picked up in another rental car. After that we lost him.”

“Steve this seems like he’s up to something, but we may be grasping at straws.” Dix was wondering what in the hell Romero was really doing. He had his own reservations about Romero, but he needed something big to pin on him before actually doing something about suspicions alone.
Even then, who do I tell? Kovach? No way, not until I figure out what he’s up to
, he thought.

“We lost the car, but I just got a text from Sullivan, she said she sent it to you too. It says a rental car showed up at Calderon’s house and two Hispanic males got out at the front gate and were met by some of Calderon’s men. They were let into the compound and the agents lost sight of them.”

Dix looked shocked and ran his fingers through his hair. He rubbed his temples as he felt a pounding headache forming. “Don’t tell me it was the same rental car you saw Romero in earlier.”

Petersen nodded. “Yup.”

“Dang. Did you tell Sullivan?”

“Nope.” Petersen only trusted one person in all of this and that was Dix. He was not about to share sensitive information with anyone but him. Although he did feel guilty not letting Sullivan know because he felt he could trust her.

Dix said, “Well, I’d say we tell Kovach, but I’m not so sure he’s telling us everything. I feel like we’re fighting up hill on this whole damn thing. Maybe we just bow out of this right now.” Dix wanted to go to sleep, and then go home on the next flight back to Florida.
To hell with these guys
, he thought.

Petersen considered what Dix said for a moment and noticed the scattered briefing notes and schematics for the S.O. warehouse. Both he and Dix had invested a ton of time and effort in the case and they both agreed someone needed to pay for all the murders. For once, however, Petersen was going to have to convince Dix to ride this out because it was obvious by the look on his face that he was totally done.

“Ok, let’s calm down a second. We can use everything we have seen so far to figure this out. We wrap this up tomorrow and we get the hell out of dodge.”

Dix was obviously still pissed off. “I’m about ready to catch the next flight home. My wife is already mad at me and these guys all seem to be up to something we know nothing about. I don’t need this stress.”

“I know buddy, but this all goes down tomorrow,” as he looked down at his watch Petersen noticed it was actually the following day and continued, “I mean later today. I think Kovach is probably not the mole and based on everything we know, I think Romero is involved someway. We either share with Kovach or not, but let’s just keep on eye on Romero this morning if he slips up or we confirm something we can arrest him for, we take him off and keep him isolated so he can’t blow the whistle.”

Dix was downing a shot of Jack Daniels as Petersen finished. His head felt like it was going to explode. He nodded his agreement and decided to plow forward.

Dix said, “Okay. We observe Romero, don’t tell Sullivan or Kovach, and if we confirm he’s the mole we grab him and keep him isolated.” He liked Petersen’s plan and was excited that he came up with it because it demonstrated he was growing as a leader and Dix was damn sure he himself would never come up with the idea, not in the state he was in currently. Plus, all he wanted now was to solve the damn case and get home.

Petersen could see his old friend was fading fast and began walking to the door to head back to his hotel room. He was also tired and needed some rest. He’d try to make sense of everything and wrap his mind around it all knowing it would help him fall asleep.

Petersen opened the door and said to Dix, “Ok old buddy. I’ll see you in a few hours. Get some sleep. I know you. Don’t go back to planning when I leave.”

Dix chuckled. “All right, I won’t. But I may be knocking on your door in a few hours and I’m warning you, I may be grumpy.”

With that, Petersen left the hotel room and the door shut. Dix walked over to the schematics and his notes and almost began looking at them again. He grabbed a notepad to scribble down ideas if and when they came, and layed down on the bed. Before he could even look at the notepad again he was fast asleep.

Chapter 39

The video from the UPS tablet was almost done playing on Calderon’s seventy-inch HDTV and Smith could tell he was pleased. Even some of Calderon’s men were smirking, which made him think they were impressed too.

Calderon hit the pause button on the television and looked at Smith. “I knew I was right about you. Nothing better than seeing a target location up close and personal like that. I’ll have one of my guys make a copy and we’ll share it with the guys making the entry later today.”

Smith replied, “That’s the plan. You going to tell me when this is suppose to go down or do I have to keep wondering?”

“Patience, Mr. Smith.” Calderon snapped his fingers and two extremely attractive females wearing lingerie came out of a room next to the living room. Both slowly and sensually walked over and sat in Smith’s lap. They began immediately fondling him and kissing his neck.

Smith was aroused, but kept his head on a swivel. This was unexpected and he needed to figure out what Calderon was up to. Smith smiled at him. “I need love like any man, but why don’t we hash out the plans for tomorrow first.”