by Mike Ryan
“Earlier today? And you’re just telling us this now?”
“Well, I wanted to see how that other thing worked out first. Now that we know it’s a bust, now I’m passing along this other one.”
“Why didn’t you just give us both of them at the same time?”
Franks thought for a second. “Oh. Hmm. I’m not sure. Maybe I should’ve. Might’ve saved time.”
“You think?”
“Anyway, that’s not the important thing. What’s important is we got one more place to check.”
Jacobs sighed. “I hope this tip isn’t coming from the same source as the last one.”
Franks briefly looked away. “Oh, well, uh… about that.”
“It’s from the same guy?!”
“Well, I didn’t say it’s from a guy.”
“It’s a woman?”
“Well, I didn’t say that either. Sources have no gender, you know.”
“They don’t?”
“Nope. A source is a source is a source. Whether it’s a man, woman, or child, it don’t matter no way, no how.”
“What?”
“Well, I’m just trying to say that it don’t matter where a source comes from.”
“What?”
Franks briefly looked at the others. “He got wax in his ears or something?”
“Let me put it another way. You want us to go investigate a tip you got from someone, who just gave us another tip that didn’t pan out?”
“Just because the guy gave us one that didn’t work out doesn’t mean the next one will be bad too. Gotta investigate them all equally.”
“Seriously, how big a waste of time is this gonna be?”
“Look, when I told you about the last one, I said the guy told me he didn’t know how legit it was. In fact, he put the odds on it panning out at less than twenty percent. I said all that upfront.”
“So you did. And you told us to go with that one first because…?”
“Well, that one had the better odds of success.”
Jacobs sighed again. “C’mon, Eddie. The one at less than twenty percent had the best chance of working, so then you give us another one? From the same guy?”
Franks shrugged. “Hey, man, I just give it to you as I get them.”
“On a delay.”
“Well, that’s not important. What’s important is we got another place to check out. And just because the first one didn’t work out, doesn’t mean this one won’t too.”
Jacobs raised his eyebrows. He looked less than enthused to be hearing about this, not to mention actually moving on it. “Really? And what are the odds we place on this one?”
“What’s in a number? All that matters is there’s a chance. And any chance is better than none at all. Isn’t it?”
“That depends.”
Thrower looked on, and while he wasn’t especially excited at the prospect of uncovering another empty building, Franks was right in one aspect. Any chance was better than none. “Maybe we should move on it.”
“You really wanna go out there again and look for a needle in a haystack?” Jacobs asked.
“Well, like Eddie said, it’s a chance.” Thrower looked over at Tiffany, making sure that Jacobs noticed him glance at her. “And we’re running out of them before certain other things have to be done.”
Jacobs glanced at Tiffany as well, knowing they had only a few more days before their deal kicked in, which he wasn’t excited about at all. “Yeah.”
“Besides, every now and then, someone finds that needle. Maybe it’s our turn.”
“Wishful thinking, I think.”
As much as he didn’t feel like going back out again, Jacobs knew they had to. Anything that would lead to an end to this—before having to put Tiffany out there exposed—was something that had to be investigated, no matter what the odds were of actually finding something.
“All right, let’s suit up again,” Jacobs said. He looked over at Gunner, who was lying in front of the couch. “You ready to do this again?”
Gunner perked his head up and barked. He was always ready.
Jacobs turned his attention to Franks. “You better give us the lowdown on this new place.”
“Listen, my guy says this place might have been used by Mallette recently.”
“Might have.”
“You want the lowdown on this place or not?”
Jacobs rolled his eyes. “Yeah, go ahead and give it to me.”
“At one point this place was like a… whatchamacallit, a pharmacy or something. A little mom and pop shop. Anyways, that was more than a few years ago. The owners were a little older, retired, nobody ever took control of the building again.”
“Eddie, I don’t need to know the history of the building. I just need to know where it’s at, how it connects to Mallette, and the layout. That’s it. I don’t need a history lesson.”
“Well, sometimes a history lesson can be good for you. It can get you in the know for how things went down at a certain point.”
“Just the details on how this pertains to us now. Please.”
“OK, OK, fine. Word on the street is that this was one of the places Mallette was using as a meeting place. Whether he’s still actively using it or not…” Franks threw up his hands. “Who knows?”
“And where is it?”
“It’s like, at the end of a strip-center-type place.”
“Weird place to do business,” Thrower said. “The other businesses there still active?”
“As far as I know. And not everything is held in completely deserted places, you know. Sometimes the best way to blend in is doing it with a lot of other people around. The whole, um, whatever it was I was thinking… ah, don’t matter. Anyway… what was I saying? I forget. Anyway, that’s the deal.”
Jacobs went over to his laptop on the table and turned it on. He put in the address that Franks had told him so they could start looking at pictures of the place.
“There it is,” Franks said, as soon as the pictures of the building appeared on the screen.
“This is gonna be a waste of time again,” Jacobs said. “There’s only two ways in. The front door and the back door.”
“Isn’t there always a front and back door?”
“Usually with bigger buildings and in more remote locations. I don’t see how we’re getting in there without being seen.”
“How ‘bout the roof?”
“I’m not going through the roof.”
“Maybe we should just go, stake it out a bit,” Thrower said. “See what transpires. We don’t actually have to break in. We just have to monitor it a bit and see if anyone shows up. Or is already there and leaves.”
Franks snapped his fingers and pointed at Thrower. “There you go. That’s cooking with the old noggin.”
Jacobs went over to the couch and picked up his gear. “Let’s do this, even if I think there’s not going to be anything worth doing.”
“Positive attitude, man. Positive attitude. It’ll take you far in life. Remember that.”
“Uh-huh.”
“And who knows? Maybe we’ll get lucky. Speaking of lucky, I got an appointment with Lucy and Deb soon. Let me know how it goes.”
Jacobs looked at Thrower. “So we get the boring job, while he goes and gets himself a good time.”
Franks smiled. “Perks of the position, man. Perks of the position. But good luck with that. Hope you catch something.”
“I’m sure we will,” Jacobs said. “Just hope it’s not a bag of air.”
18
Jacobs and Thrower were sitting outside the former pharmacy, albeit in two different spots. Jacobs was in the car, watching the front, while Thrower was keeping tabs on the back, nestled in some bushes that were behind the property. They were the only two ways in, and they couldn’t see both from one vantage point, so they had to split up.
They’d been there for about an hour, and Jacobs was already frustrated, though he was to start with. He tapped the steering whee
l with his fingers as he watched the parking lot. There were only a handful of cars left there at this time of night, and all of them seemed to be empty.
Jacobs and Thrower were in constant communication with each other, letting the other know if a car drove by, or a person was seen walking near, though nothing of interest came to fruition.
“How much longer you wanna give this?” Thrower asked.
“Ready to give up already?”
“No, just wondering.”
“I dunno,” Jacobs said. “We’re here. As much as I think it’s a waste of time, we might as well give it a chance. Couple hours, maybe?”
“Works for me.”
“How are things in those bushes? Getting attacked by bears or wolves yet?”
Thrower laughed. “I did hear a few growling sounds.”
“Probably your stomach.”
“Might have been. Next time, you get the bushes and I get the car.”
“I guess that’s a deal, though I’d prefer if there weren’t a next time.”
“Yeah, it’d be nice to wrap this thing up now, wouldn’t it?”
“It would,” Jacobs replied. “I don’t think we’re going to be that lucky, though.”
They continued to wait. Another hour went by, and there wasn’t a sign of anything. Even the cars stopped driving by.
“Hey, Brett.”
Jacobs wiped his groggy eyes. “Yeah?”
“You’re not gonna believe this.”
“You found a bear?”
“No, but I did find someone coming out the back door right now.”
Jacobs immediately perked up. “What?”
“There’s a guy coming out the back door right now.”
Jacobs’ eyes went to the front door. There was no activity there. “Who is he?”
“Don’t know. Don’t recognize him. He’s locking up right now.”
“Strange. Should we follow him and see where he’s going, or find out what he’s doing in there?”
Jacobs had to quickly think. He thought the odds of this person leading them to Mallette right then and there were probably pretty low. But there was obviously a reason for him being in that building. And Jacobs was curious what it was.
“Let’s grab him,” Jacobs said.
Thrower emerged from the bushes, heading for the man who was starting to walk away by now. There was another car, further down the alley, behind the group of stores that he was walking toward. Jacobs put his car in drive and zoomed behind the back of the building. He drove around Thrower and the other man, cutting the guy off as he turned his car to the side.
As the man saw Jacobs’ maneuver and Jacobs getting out of the car, he stopped, worried about what might be happening. He quickly turned around, but before he was able to move, he saw Thrower walking in his direction. He knew he was in trouble, though probably not for the reason he was thinking.
The man was in his late fifties, with a coarse beard and a full head of gray hair. He was thin, and even in his early days, wasn’t much of a fighter. So if these men cornering him wanted a scrap, he wasn’t likely to put up much of a fight.
As Jacobs and Thrower started to close in on him, the man knew he only had one option. Run. And he did. He took off, splitting between Jacobs and Thrower, heading for the little stretch of trees and bushes behind the center. He hoped he could get there and slow down his pursuers long enough for him to slip away.
Unfortunately, as much as he wasn’t a fighter, he wasn’t much of a runner either. He’d never had much speed to begin with, and he was slower than both of the guys chasing him. Thrower grabbed him by the back of the shirt, just before they hit the trees. As Thrower turned him around, the man immediately put his arms up, breathing heavily from his brief exertion.
“Listen, I didn’t do nothin’. Tell Rich I didn’t do nothin’.”
Thrower immediately looked at Jacobs; both were a little surprised to hear Mallette’s name, especially right away. But it was a good start. It let them know right off the bat that they had something here. Now they just had to ask the right questions.
From the way the man was talking, he assumed Mallette had sent them. Jacobs saw no reason to change that. They needed to play along.
“You know the reason we’re here?” Jacobs asked, talking tough.
“Tell Rich I didn’t do it. Honest. I didn’t do it.”
Jacobs looked around, pretending like he was worried about onlookers, even though there was nobody else out there. “Let’s go back inside.”
“No, please.”
“Let’s go back inside, and maybe you can convince us we don’t need to be here.”
The man glanced at the both of them, a look of fear in his eyes, then he nodded. The fact that he was still alive was a good sign. “OK. OK.”
As they walked back to the building, the man out front, Jacobs had to get some answers without making it seem like he was an outsider. If he made it sound like he had no idea what was going on, the man might clam up.
“What’s your name, anyway?” Jacobs asked.
“You don’t know?”
“Mallette don’t tell us anything. He just tells us where to go and what to do. Doesn’t always give us the details.”
“Oh. My name’s Lee.”
They finally reached the back door.
“Open it up,” Thrower said. Lee got out his keys and opened the door. “You first.”
Lee walked in, followed by the others. Jacobs put his hand on the wall to find a light switch and flipped it on. It didn’t take long to figure out what was going on here. The room was lined with boxes. Some were open, and some were closed. They were against the wall, in the middle of the floor, big and small. Some were covered with blankets or sheets, and some were just out in the open.
They’d found one of Mallette’s stashes. Jacobs started walking around, as Thrower kept Lee in his sights. Jacobs started looking in some of the open boxes.
Lee was nervous as he watched Jacobs look around. “I swear I didn’t take anything. I swear.”
“Boss thinks differently,” Jacobs said.
Lee wiped the sweat pouring off his face. He figured his time on earth was coming to an end soon. “No, I wouldn’t. I swear I wouldn’t.”
“Convince me.”
Lee gulped, though a small look of hope now appeared on his face. “OK. OK. I can do that. I can do that.”
“So what’s going on here?” Thrower asked.
“You don’t know?”
“About why Mallette thinks you’re stealing?”
“Oh. I dunno. I dunno. Maybe it’s because when we did inventory last week we were a little short. But I swear that wasn’t from me.”
“Aren’t you in charge of this?” Jacobs asked.
“Yeah, but it’s not just me in here! I mean, Rich has got people coming and going to deliver stuff all the time. Any one of them could’ve taken a little more than they were supposed to.”
“Shouldn’t you have known that?”
Lee threw his arms up. “C’mon, it’s not that easy. I mean, keeping this place secret, people coming and going, all the stuff in here, you see it, there’s millions of dollars of stuff in here. I’ve told Rich before, I need help.”
“He don’t have help to give.”
“But that’s not my fault. We need like three more guys here. It’s not just me.”
Jacobs continued looking around, opening boxes and inspecting them. They mostly consisted of drugs. But some boxes had guns in them. And some had ammunition. But Lee was right, there had to be millions of dollars of merchandise in the place.
“Mallette didn’t tell us exactly how much all this stuff is worth,” Jacobs said. “What’s the tally?”
“As of last week, it comes out to thirty million dollars on the street.”
Jacobs whistled. “Big haul. How long’s this been here?”
Lee looked at him curiously. He thought it was a strange question to ask. Surely, everyone in Mallette’s organizatio
n would know that. “You don’t know?”
Jacobs could see a seed of doubt in Lee’s mind and had to quickly relieve it. He knocked a box over for effect, making it seem like he was a hot head. “Boss don’t tell us that kind of stuff! We’re the muscle for him, got it?”
Lee took a step back, the fear showing back up in his face. “Yeah, yeah, I got it.”
“I asked a question.”
“Oh, yeah, uh, it’s been here for like two years.”
“He had this here even before he got sent up?” Thrower asked.
“Yeah.”
“You been here working this all that time?”
“Yep. Every single day. Even when I was sick. I was here. I’ve been nothing but loyal to him. I’ve never said a word about this place to anyone. I looked after it while he was gone, and I haven’t done nothing to earn his distrust.”
“Except for the missing stuff,” Jacobs said.
“I told you, that wasn’t my fault. I can try to make it good somehow.”
“And how are you gonna do that?”
“I dunno. Just give me a day or two to figure it out. I’ll make it work.”
“A day or two and you’ll be out of the country.”
“No, I would never do that. Rich has been good to me, giving me a chance here, and I’d never do nothing against him. I swear.”
“Well, I guess we got a problem here, then, don’t we?” Jacobs said.
“What do you mean?”
“Boss sent us here for one reason.”
Lee put his hands up in front of him. “No, please don’t. Just give me a chance. I swear I won’t say nothing. I’ll make it good.”
Jacobs and Thrower both took steps toward the man, trying to intimidate him further, though it really didn’t take much to accomplish that.
“Look, I can give you money,” Lee said.
Jacobs and Thrower stopped. “What money?” Jacobs asked.
“I got some saved up.”
“How much?”
“About fifty thousand. It’s all I got. You can have it, though. Just don’t kill me. Let me go. Please.”
Jacobs tapped Thrower on the arm. “Maybe we can figure out another way, here.”