by Mike Ryan
“What do you mean?” Thrower asked.
“Maybe we can figure out a way we don’t have to kill this guy.”
Lee nodded. “Yes, let’s figure out a way. I’m open to anything.”
“How much you know about Mallette’s other operations?”
“A little. Not everything, though. You know him. He only lets people know what they need to know.”
Jacobs went over to a desk that was against the wall and found a legal pad and a pen. He motioned for Lee to follow him over. Once he got there, Jacobs directed him to sit down.
“Write down everything you know,” Jacobs said. “Whatever it is. Write it down.”
It took a minute or two, but Lee wrote down everything he knew about Mallette’s operations. Other sites, addresses, and people. Some of that time was spent thinking. It didn’t take long, though. The man didn’t really know all that much, except for the part he was responsible for.
When Lee was done, Jacobs picked up the list and read it. “Not much here.”
“It’s all I know,” Lee replied. “I swear it is.”
“What are these other places?”
“Just some other spots he holds merchandise in. If he’s got more, I don’t know them. These three spots are all I know.”
“And the names?” Jacobs asked.
“The people in charge of them.”
“They all like you? Don’t know much?”
“That’s how Rich does business.”
Jacobs nodded. “I know.”
“Which brings us down to you,” Thrower said.
Lee’s eyes opened wide, knowing his time was short. He had to do whatever he could to stave that off. “You want that money? I can give it to you. Just let me go.”
Jacobs glanced at Thrower. “Boss did say to take care of him. But he didn’t say how.”
“What are you thinking?” Thrower asked.
Jacobs shrugged. “Maybe there’s a deal to be made here.”
“Yes,” Lee hopefully said. “Yes. A deal.”
“Tell you what, maybe we can all make out here.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“Mallette have a safe here?”
“Yes. Yes, he does.”
“How much is in it?”
“Uh, maybe a hundred thousand.”
“Is it legit?” Thrower asked.
“It’s not counterfeit, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“It is.”
“It’s not.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes,” Lee answered. “Rich does not like dealing in counterfeit money. He will if he has to, but it’s not a preference.”
“OK. So here’s what we’ll do,” Jacobs said. “You get us into that safe, we’ll take the hundred grand, and we’ll let you out of here.”
“That’s not what Mallette said to do,” Thrower said, playing along.
“Yeah, well, what he don’t know won’t hurt him. Or us. And it seems like it’s a sinking ship here, don’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“So let’s all of us get out while the getting’s good.” Jacobs then pointed at Lee. “We’ll tell Mallette we took you out, just like he wanted us to. You take your money and get out of here. As far away as possible. Don’t look back, don’t come back. ‘Cause if you do, the next time you won’t be leaving the same way.”
Lee quickly nodded. He was good with anything that kept him alive. “Yes. You’ll never see or hear from me again.”
“And make sure you keep a low profile. If this gets back to us, and we get in trouble for letting you off, then I will kill you.”
“Understood. I’m gone like the wind.”
Jacobs looked at his watch. “Boss is expecting us to call him within the hour, so we gotta make this fast. Get us into that safe, and then you gotta get moving.”
“Yes, absolutely.”
Lee immediately went over to what used to be an office area. Jacobs and Thrower followed him in. Once there, Lee went over to a desk that was against the wall and started pushing it. It was a little heavy and moved slowly, but within a few seconds, he revealed what he was doing. There was a floor safe underneath the desk.
Lee opened it, then took a few steps back. Jacobs went over to inspect the safe as Thrower kept his eyes on Lee. He wouldn’t have been the first to try to pull a gun at a time like this, and he certainly wouldn’t have been the last. But luckily, he didn’t try anything.
Jacobs started pulling stacks of wrapped bills out of the safe and setting them on the floor. There was a gun in there, probably meant for times like these. In other cases, Lee might have used it. But since he thought that Mallette was the one who wanted him killed, he wasn’t risking his life for it now. Jacobs kept the gun in the safe but pulled all the money out.
“That’s it, right?” Lee asked, holding his arms out to his side. “We had a deal? I get to go?”
Jacobs stood up and looked him in the eye. “Yeah. We have a deal. Get out of here before we change our mind. And don’t ever look back.”
“Like I said, I’m gone with the wind.”
Lee rushed out of the room. Thrower followed him out, just to make sure he was leaving without giving them a surprise. With Mallette involved, it wouldn’t have surprised them if there were other secret hiding spots in the building. Ones that had guns or explosives inside. And they weren’t going to get caught with their pants down.
They read Lee right, though. He wasn’t trying any tricks on the way out. He got out of there just as soon as he could. Thrower watched him from the door and didn’t stop watching until Lee had gotten into his car and drove away. Once he was gone, Thrower went back inside. Jacobs was coming out of the office with a black bag he’d found to put the money in.
“What do you plan on doing with that?”
Jacobs shrugged. “I dunno. Keep it, I guess. Just in case this thing with Mallette rages on a while and we get low on funds. It’ll help keep the lights on.”
Thrower nodded. “Sound thinking.”
“Lee gone?”
“Yep. No hesitation. Hope he doesn’t call Mallette on the way or something. Just to confirm that he was leaving?”
Jacobs shook his head. Lee didn’t strike him as that type of guy. “I don’t think so. Even if he does, so what? There’s nothing Mallette can do now.”
“So what’s the play now? Hit these other spots?”
“No, I don’t think there’s a point to that. You really think any of those spots are gonna be different?”
“Maybe not but might be able to fill the coffers for a while.”
“I think it’d be a lot of time wasted,” Jacobs said. “And if the people there are like this guy, they’re not gonna know any more than he does.”
“Can still hit Mallette where it hurts.”
“Yeah, but we don’t have to do that.”
“Then who will?”
Jacobs pulled out his phone and smiled. “I got a guy.”
19
As the police swarmed the building, Jacobs waited in his car until he saw Buchanan on the scene. Once he was, Jacobs got out of his vehicle and made a beeline for his former partner. Buchanan was talking with Detective Garza as Jacobs approached. Garza stuck his hand out and shook Jacobs’ hand, then hugged him.
“Been a while, man.”
Jacobs smiled. “It sure has. You’re looking good.”
“You too. How have things been going?”
“Ah, you know, getting better all the time. I’m almost there.”
“Good. You know I’ve always been in your corner.”
“I know.”
Buchanan tapped Garza on the arm. “Why don’t you start processing things in there?” After Garza left, Buchanan and Jacobs started walking away from the crowd. “How’d you stumble across all this?”
“Just fell into it, I guess.”
“Really? That’s what you’re giving me?”
“Does it matter how I got the info? What matt
ers is that you’re here, there’s a lot of drugs off the street, and it hits Mallette hard in his wallet. That’s why I called you with this. It’s a win for everybody. Except for him.”
“Yeah.”
“And there’s this,” Jacobs said, handing him the paper Lee wrote on.
“What’s this?”
“Three other places that are supposed to belong to Mallette. I haven’t checked them out, but I’m thinking they’re like this place. Maybe not as big in terms of how much merchandise is inside, but I don’t know.”
“This come from the same source?”
“No, different one. I think he’s reliable just the same, though.”
“And you haven’t looked into these yet?”
“Nope. Just got the information an hour ago myself. Figured I’d give it to you to check out.”
“Why?” Buchanan asked. “Why not look into it yourself like you did here?”
“I don’t think it’s gonna turn up anything other than what this place did.”
“And that’s obviously not good enough for whatever you wanted. What were you looking for?”
Jacobs looked around to make sure nobody else could hear him. “The only thing I want at this point is walking on two legs.”
“And you don’t think Mallette will be at any of these places, so that’s why I get it.”
Jacobs shrugged. “If there’s drugs there, it’ll still be a good thing, won’t it?”
“Yeah. I guess it will.”
“But if you’re gonna hit these places, you’ll probably have to do it now. Once Mallette hears about this place, he’s gonna have those other ones packed up tight and fast.”
Buchanan nodded. He started making some phone calls. When he was done, he went inside to let Garza know what he was doing. Garza would have to take over there, while Buchanan went to one of the new spots. The police were going to raid all three addresses at the same time.
Once Buchanan was ready to leave, he gave one last look at Jacobs. “You wanna come with? Ride along for old-time’s sake?”
Jacobs grinned. “No, I’m good. Thanks for the offer, though. Good luck. Hope you find something good.”
As Buchanan drove away, Jacobs got back in his car. Thrower was waiting in the passenger seat.
“What if Mallette’s at one of these other places?” Thrower asked.
“He won’t be. I’m sure of that.”
“Sure would be nice to see his face when he finds out about all of this.” Thrower laughed. “He’s probably gonna throw a fit.”
Jacobs smiled. “Yeah, he will. We might not be able to see him, but we’ll be able to hear him.”
“What do you mean?”
Jacobs held up a phone. “I grabbed it from Lee when we first went inside.”
“Can you get in?”
Jacobs continued smiling. “Already am. There’s no password or anything.”
“Is Mallette in there?”
“Well, there’s a contact with the initials RM. Who do you suppose that’s for?”
Thrower smiled too. “Rich Mallette. You gonna call him?”
“Let’s get back to the house first. Give the police time to raid those other places. I don’t wanna give Mallette the heads-up and give him a chance to move anything before they get there.”
“This should be good.”
“This might be what we need,” Jacobs said.
“How so?”
“Depending on if this is all Mallette’s got, he’s losing millions and millions of dollars here.” Jacobs shrugged.
“He’ll really start feeling the pressure now.”
“Could make him really desperate. If he thinks I’m taking out his cash sources, he might have to come out of the woodwork sooner than he wanted in order to take me out. If not, he might be living on the street in a few weeks.”
“Or it could make him more dangerous.”
Jacobs shrugged that off. “Could he really get more dangerous? We already know he’s capable of anything, anytime. This just might make him come into the light faster.”
“Let’s hope it does.”
They drove back to Jacobs’ house, where Franks and Tiffany were waiting for their return. After telling them everything that had happened, Franks slapped his hands together and rubbed them.
“Oh, man, this is gonna be good! I can’t wait to hear what that old buttermuffin’s gotta say!”
“Butter what?” Jacobs asked.
Franks shrugged. “Just an insult that I made up.”
“Oh. Doesn’t really sound like much of an insult.”
“I’ll work on it. Anyways, you gotta put that on speaker so we can all hear what that windbag’s gonna say. I can almost hear him choking on himself, just thinking about it.”
“I will. But we need to wait until the police have done their thing,” Jacobs said.
“Tell them to put a rush on it, man.”
“I’m sure they’ll hurry just for you.”
“Well, we are kind of tight and all.”
“Yeah, sure.”
Even though it was a little agonizing, they did wait. About an hour. They figured that was enough time. Before calling Mallette, Jacobs dialed Buchanan’s number. The sergeant picked up immediately.
“Have any fresh new tips for me?”
“Sorry,” Jacobs answered. “All out for today. Figured four was enough.”
“I guess we’ll take it.”
“Just wanted to know how everything went. You get them all?”
“A clean sweep.”
“What’d you find in the other buildings? Anything good?”
“More of the same,” Buchanan replied. “Not quite as big a haul as the first one, but it’ll still put a dent into someone’s wallet.”
“Mallette’s.”
“Well, there’s nothing so far to indicate he’s the man in charge of it.”
“He is.”
“You may know it, and I may know it, but proving it is another matter. And right now, we don’t have it.”
“Sounds familiar. Sounds like something we talked about a long time ago involving another matter.”
“And it’s the same thing now. We’ll get him. It’ll just take time.”
Jacobs wasn’t going to argue the point. “Yeah. Time. Well, I’ll let you get back to processing everything. Just wanted to see how it went.”
After Jacobs hung up, he looked at the others, all of them eager to hear how it went.
“Well, don’t keep us in suspense, man,” Franks said. “Let us know what the dealio is.”
“Other three buildings are in police custody,” Jacobs replied.
“What about the stash?” Thrower asked.
“Same. Not as big, though. But similar, I guess.”
Franks rubbed his hands together. He was really eager to stick it to Mallette. “All righty now… let’s shove it inside that old blowhard’s midsection. Let’s get to it.”
Jacobs raised his eyebrows. “Well, someone’s a little excited to do this.”
“You know it, man.”
Jacobs grabbed Lee’s phone and was about to dial Mallette’s number when Thrower suddenly put his hand out.
“Wait.”
“What?” Jacobs asked.
“Oh, man, don’t say it,” Franks said.
“Say what?” Thrower replied.
“I dunno. Whatever you’re about to say, don’t say it. Let’s just give it to him, man. Let’s do it!”
Thrower smiled, appreciating the enthusiasm. “Before you dial that number, let’s have a plan here.”
“What kind of plan?”
Thrower shrugged. “Just a general plan. I mean, we can use this to our advantage. Let’s not just use this opportunity to gloat or egg him on. Let’s use this to advance our endgame.”
“Which is?”
“Getting rid of him once and for all. We’ve got his number, we’ve got a direct line of communication with him, let’s not throw that away for something stu
pid like bragging.”
Jacobs nodded in agreement. “Nate’s right. It’s not about gloating. And once we call this number, it’s a cinch he’ll put it out of service, so we won’t be able to call it again.”
“What about using that number to track him?” Thrower asked. “Don’t even bother calling. We’ll get Hack, track that number, then find him.”
Franks snapped his fingers and pointed at him. “I like your thinking. Uh, the only problem there is, that might be a special number, or a different phone, and one that he don’t carry with him all the time. Might be something he only checks once a week, or every few days or something.” He tapped Jacobs on the shoulder. “You check the call log on that?”
Jacobs looked at the phone. “Yeah, there’s no history, so there’s no way of knowing.”
“Unless we get Hack to check out those phone records,” Thrower said.
Jacobs rubbed around his mouth. “That’s gonna take more time.”
“Better to take time and do it right than do something stupid that throws everything off kilter.”
They debated the options for the next several minutes. Tiffany stayed silent, listening to all their suggestions, thinking they were missing the biggest option of all. Her. She still believed she was the key to getting all this done faster. If they played it right, she thought they could wrap this up sooner. But she knew that wouldn’t go over well right now. So she remained quiet a few more minutes.
The others kept discussing it, while Tiffany stayed in the background, letting them have their say. After a few more minutes, she couldn’t stay silent any longer. She put her hand up as if she were in school. The others noticed her motion and looked at her.
“We’re not in class, you know,” Jacobs said. “You don’t have to put your hand up. Just say what you wanna say.”
“Promise me you’ll let me finish?”
Jacobs sighed and slumped his shoulders. He automatically knew by her tone that it wasn’t going to be something he wanted to hear. “Do we have to?”
“Go ahead, Tiffmeister,” Franks said. “Whatcha got on your mind?”
“I have an idea.”
“No,” Jacobs replied.
“You didn’t even hear it.”
“I don’t want to hear it. I just know I’m not going to like it.”