Lonely Coast

by Jack Hardin

  “I do not know this name you keep saying.”

  “You do realize that the top three floors in this building are under renovation, and that construction has stalled? That means no one is coming in today. That also means that when you scream, no one in this building will hear you.”

  Sweat glistened on Ernesto’s forehead, and he was visibly shaking. “They will kill me if I talk.”

  “How do you know that I won’t?”

  His eyes flicked back to hers. She remained steeled and unwavering. “Password?”

  “No.” He spit definitively, and it landed at her feet.

  She sighed and looked over at Cooper. “Okay,” she said and stood up. “But don’t say we didn’t try.” She turned and headed back through the plastic sheeting. Hailey left the laptop and the briefcase where they were, and she and Cooper joined Ellie on the other side. There was a walled section at the other end, sheetrock but yet unpainted. They stepped around it, and Ellie addressed Arturo. “Your turn.”

  Five minutes later, they had Ernesto’s password.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  It was finished.

  Finally.

  Three months of backbreaking and painstaking work, and it was finally complete. The flats of his hands were thick with calluses, the tops covered with a smattering of nicks and scrapes and scabs.

  His creation stood before him like a baby whale, curved and shaped to perfection. Nico stood back and admired it. The welds were straight and without flaw, the paint smooth and even. He never imagined that he could have accomplished something like this. But he had, and now it was time to put it to work.

  The bay door rattled upward as Carlos tugged down on the chain beside it. Sunlight poured into the metal building as the truck outside backed a flatbed trailer into the building. Carlos closed the bay door again.

  His entire creation was held up by a weight-bearing scaffolding that had been planned from the start with an eye to getting it onto a trailer upon completion. Nico stepped back while Carlos yelled at the truck driver and assisted him in positioning the trailer just so. Once it was in place, Nico and Carlos each took a wrench and started disassembling the scaffolding, routinely ordering the truck to back up to get up under the steel structure. Foot by foot they made progress, breaking apart the supports and rebuilding them on the bed of the trailer. It was a painstaking and disorderly means to accomplish the transition, but they did not have access to a crane that could accommodate the weight of the five-ton object.

  There was a scare almost halfway through. In his haste, Carlos had forgotten to tighten down several bolts on his side of the scaffolding and everything started leaning too hard in one direction. Nico raced over, tightened them down and gave Carlos the ass-chewing of his life. If this thing fell off the trailer, they were done; they had no way to get it back on.

  Finally, two hours later, they had it all done. For good measure, Nico welded a couple of steel supports into place, fusing them to the bed of the trailer. They spent an additional hour building a wooden crate around it using pine 2x4s and sheets of plywood. If this was seen for what it was as they rode through the city or across the open highway, that would be the end of it. And of them. All of them.

  When they were finished, Nico grabbed two duffle bags and tossed them into the rear cab of the truck and then got in beside them. It was all he owned. All he was going to take with him.

  He didn’t bother to look back as the truck cautiously pulled out, even though the last five years of his life had been spent here, using his welding torch to create, build, and tear apart. He was never coming back. All he wanted was to get out of this life, this place. He wanted to see his cousin—his hero—and never, ever again return to this place.

  He was so close. So very close. But everything, he knew all too well, could still fall apart.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The scenery flew by as Tyler tapped the steering wheel of his F-150 and passed up the Groovy Grove’s mango orchard, singing freely to Garth Brooks’ “Rodeo.” He flipped his blinker on, waited for a car to pass, and turned off Stringfellow Road and into an older neighborhood boasting one- and two-acre lots. There were no curbs or sidewalks, just an old but smooth two-way road that was missing a line down the middle. The properties were filled with palms, pines, and banana trees, and Tyler passed up the mailbox to Ellie’s childhood home and pulled a tire onto the thick carpet of St. Augustine grass that grew up to the edge of the road. He got out, unlocked the truck’s toolbox, then rummaged around for a few tools before locking the box and making his way across the grass toward the front door. Without notice, the screen door flew open, and Katie emerged with a small suitcase in tow. She was nearly to the driveway before she noticed the man crossing her front yard. She gave a quick jerk of her shoulders before quickly recovering and placing a hand on her chest. “God, Tyler. You scared me.” She was wearing khaki shorts, a long-sleeved T-shirt, and oversized sunglasses.

  “Sorry, Katie.” He held up a pair of channel locks. “Had some time to come look at your sink. Where’re you headed?” He stepped around a hibiscus and onto the walkway.

  “Heading out for a few days. Chloe’s at camp so I have some time to myself.”

  Tyler studied her. “You okay?”

  “Yeah,” she said but with a little too much effort.

  A frown slowly creased his brow. “You know, your sister, she’s a good liar—I think. At least from what Hollywood shows all us normal folk about spies, I’m assuming she is.” He shook the channel locks in her general direction. “So I don’t mean to be rude when I say that you suck as a liar.”

  “Yeah, well. I’m definitely not my sister.”

  He took a few steps closer. “That’s not what I meant. I’m not saying you need to be.”

  Katie’s lips were tight now, her body tense.

  “You know,” Tyler said, “when I was thirteen, my aunt left my uncle.”

  “I guess I didn’t know that. Look, Tyler, I really should be—”

  “She was married to him for almost twenty years.” Tyler’s boot heel scuffed on the pavement as he took a step closer to her. “I think they had it good until my cousins all went off to college. But then, maybe because he was bored or hadn’t dealt with something back in his past, he started drinking a lot.”

  Katie gave her best, patient smile.

  “Then one day he just got angry.” Tyler moved forward another step. “He started punching holes in the sheetrock, throwing stuff, and then decided that my aunt would serve well as his personal punching bag.” Another step.

  Katie took a halting step back, forgetting her suitcase now and nearly stumbling over it.

  “And then my aunt, who I knew to be the epitome of confidence and happiness, started to take on the look of a doe who just found out it’s the first day of hunting season.”

  “Tyler, what does—”

  “Katie, I’ve known you for the better part of a year, and yet it hasn’t been until this moment that I somehow feel like I’m looking at my aunt, post empty nester.” Tyler reached up and pinched at Katie’s sunglasses, carefully removing them from her face before she could protest. The space around her left eye was swollen, a vivid palette of reds and purples. “Katie, what the hell?”

  She turned away, said nothing.

  “Who did this to you?”

  She hugged her arms across her chest.

  “You called the cops, right?”

  “No.”

  “Well, dammit.” He reached into the pocket of his jeans and retrieved his phone. Katie stopped him, placing a hand on his forearm.

  “Tyler…no.”

  “Katie, I—”

  “Tyler.” She said his name with more force now. “Look, I’m not your aunt. I’m not playing the wishy-washy battered woman here. Carl, he has friends. He’s always had friends. If I file a report on him, then he’ll just send one of them to get back at me. It will make this look like he was being nice. I can’t have Chloe in the middle of
that.”

  “Carl? Your ex?”

  “Yes.”

  “So you’re just going to let this turd get away with assaulting you?”

  “What am I supposed to do?” she snapped.

  “When did this happen?”

  She steeled her jaw like she didn’t want to say. “Last night. He came over when I was watching TV. I was stupid. I should have never opened the door.”

  “And?”

  “And I thought I would tell him to go to hell. Well, I did, in fact, and I guess that’s what set him off.”

  “Why did he come back around in the first place? I thought he was out of your life.”

  “I thought he was too.” She recounted Carl’s unexpected arrival a couple of days before.

  Tyler started rubbing his chin, finally nodding toward the suitcase. “So where is it you’re going then?”

  “A hotel in Fort Myers.”

  “Nope.”

  “What?”

  “You don’t need to be alone. I’ll call Nick. You can stay with him and Tiffany.” Nick was Tyler’s best friend.

  Katie shook her head. “No. I don’t want Tiffany seeing me like this.”

  Tyler raised his brows like a protective brother. “I know you’re all shook up, but she’s your friend. And right now, you need a friend. You’re getting into my truck, and I’m taking you to Tiff’s. Here.” He handed her sunglasses out and she took them, put them back on. “Let me take that.” He picked up her suitcase and started walking it back to the truck.

  Katie watched him, knowing that he was right but not wanting him to be. She returned to her front door and locked it, then made her way to the truck. Tyler returned his tools to the toolbox and then got in behind the wheel.

  It was quiet in the cab as they drove south toward Pine Island Center. Finally, Tyler said, “I’m sorry, Katie.”

  “Please don’t tell Ellie. She doesn’t need this on her while she’s away.”

  “Okay.” Beside him, Katie sniffed. “Where’s Carl staying?” he asked.

  “I have no idea.”

  “Do you know where any of his old friends live?”

  “No. They’ve all moved on. I know names but not where they live.”

  He said nothing to that, but he started to grip the steering wheel tighter and a vein rose up and pulsed across his forehead.

  “Thanks, Tyler. You’re a good man.”

  “I know. Your sister tells me that all the time.”

  Katie turned and eyed him uncertainly. “Does she though?”

  His shoulders slumped, and he smirked. “No...but I keep telling her she should.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Ellie and Hailey arrived at the office before dawn.

  The information they retrieved from Ernesto Cárdenas’s computer was a veritable gold mine, and everyone acted with the understanding that they didn’t have long to do something with it. Up until the Lonely Desert Boys provided them with Cárdenas’s name, no one in the DEA or the Guardia Nacional had ever heard of him. His computer gave them access to a large segment of Cárdenas’s client list, as well as hundreds of files, documents, and emails that detailed the services he provided for each one: inflating business costs, a key function in money laundering; establishing offshore trusts to hide assets; and acting as a shadow CEO for over one hundred shell companies based in the Caymans.

  His client list was massive, and one of those names was Pavel Petronovich.

  What wasn’t directly related to Ellie’s and Hailey’s search for Pavel, their team in Ft. Myers sent further up the chain to the DEA and Homeland so they could utilize the information to initiate new investigations and assist in ongoing ones. Cárdenas’s clients, all of whom appeared to either be connected to the cartels or known cartel members, would have been notified of the privacy breach as soon as Ernesto made it back down the elevator. That meant they would already be shutting entities down, moving money, closing bank accounts, and burning their tracks. Ellie knew that depending on where Cárdenas fell in the pecking order, and just how replaceable he was, there was a good chance that he was already lying face down in the desert, his back being picked apart by the birds that had a taste for disgraced Mexican accountants.

  Ellie and Hailey had been up well past midnight, combing through any information they could find that related to Pavel and his dealings in Mexico. Cross-referencing a couple of Pavel’s known aliases, they found dozens of orders for weapons that he brought in from Russia, Slovakia, and Kazakhstan. They found shell companies that had once held millions of dollars of assets and saw weekly, if not daily, activity. But almost a year ago, it all dried up: the deposits stopped, the orders ceased, and the assets were liquidated. To make matters worse, there were no legitimate addresses on any of the documents that could point to a location that Pavel might be using for a place of business or residence.

  It was as if Pavel was a ghost.

  The clock on their office wall said it was just after seven, but Ellie could feel a wave of exhaustion pulling her under. She had been running off adrenaline she arrived in Mexico, and now that a promising angle was coming up dry, she could feel the rush wearing off. She leaned back in her chair and ran her hands down her face.

  Hailey was still going strong at her computer, scribbling notes on a pad. “This is insane,” she said. “We must be missing something. Did Phil call back yet?”

  Their boss had worked through most of the night too, working with the local team to analyze the information and trying to sift out a connection that his agents in Mexico could un with. working had spoke with. “No,” she said.

  Ellie’s desk phone buzzed with an internal call. She punched the speaker button. “O’Conner.”

  “Hey,” Cooper said. “Is Fiske in there with you?”

  “She is.”

  “You two come to my desk, please.” He ended the call.

  They rose from their seats. “Maybe he’s going to tell us that Pavel turned himself in,” Hailey quipped. They made their way down the hall and turned out onto the main floor. Cooper had his desk phone’s receiver to his ear, and he was speaking to someone in Spanish. They waited a couple of minutes for him to hang up. Arturo was sitting in a chair beside the desk, flipping through a copy of People en Español. He nodded to them both.

  Cooper hung up. He looked uncharacteristically frazzled. “Okay,” he said. “Here’s the deal. I have to go to Monterrey. My team is running into some trouble with an asset. We’ve been working on this angle for months, and I can’t afford to have it go south on me.”

  “When will you be back?” Ellie said.

  “That’s what I’m trying to say. Most likely a week. Maybe longer. As far as helping you find Petronovich, this is the end of the line for me.”

  “Okay…” Hailey said, looking for further clarification.

  “I wish I had another agent to put on this with you, but I don’t. I have to go be with my team.”

  “So that’s it?” Ellie said.

  “I wish I could help more, but I don’t have any more personnel to give you. But right now I’ve got a half dozen agents about to enter a badger’s nest, and I’m not letting them do it without me.”

  “What about another DEA office in a neighboring state?” Hailey asked.

  “The higher-ups think Pavel is around here somewhere. As far as I know, the DEA offices in neighboring states know nothing about him.” He shrugged. “I barely had, and he’s supposed to have been doing business around here.”

  “We don’t need an army,” Ellie said. “But we can’t do this without some local help.”

  Cooper spread his hands. “Look around, O’Conner. Half the dark gray uniforms you see in this building work for Félix. We’re in his front yard. You think he doesn’t know that the DEA is right here in this building? I go to bed every night knowing that he knows where I sleep, where I use the bathroom, and how I like my eggs. And the only reason he doesn’t do anything about it is because he’s not willing to bring o
ur government’s retribution down on his own head. My point is that a large portion of the people in this office are dressed like the good guys, but they’re not the good guys. I wouldn’t trust them to work with you.” He shut his laptop and stood up. “You’re welcome to stay as long as you want. You’re bound to find something good in that mountain of data we got yesterday.” He shook their hands in turn. “It was a pleasure working with you. I’m sorry we had a few shaky moments. You both are terrific agents.” And with that, he walked off.

  “Great,” Hailey said as she watched him exit out the front lobby. “What now?”

  Arturo had not stopped reading his magazine. He spoke now, without looking up. “I can help.”

  Ellie brows lifted. “How?”

  He closed the magazine and tossed it onto Cooper’s desk. He stood up. “Come with me.”

  Hailey gave her partner a shrug, and they followed the sicario outside to the parking lot. He unlocked a White Chevy Tahoe and opened the door. “Let’s go,” he said. “Back seat. I’ll tell you on the way.” They got in, Ellie behind Arturo, and he turned out of the complex and started typing out a text message, altering his gaze between the road and his phone. He entered the downtown area and moved down a side street.

  “Where are we going?” Ellie asked.

  “Today is June the third.”

  “Yes. Okay...?”

  “That means it’s your lucky day.” Arturo turned down another alley and came to a stop at the back of what looked like a mom and pop grocery store. A small dumpster was overflowing, and bags of garbage were piled up beside it. A large rat skittered away from the dumpster and disappeared into a hole in the building’s exterior. The store’s back door flung open, and a man who looked to be in his mid-twenties stepped out. He was dressed in jeans and a black wife beater tank top. His black hair was short, a sleeve of tattoos covered his right arm, and both ears were pierced with matching crosses. But of more interest to Ellie was the Desert Tech SRS sniper rifle clutched in his right hand. He came around the Tahoe and opened the front passenger door. He got in, shut the door, and positioned the butt of the rifle on the floor and the barrel against the inside of his leg. He nodded to Arturo, and then the SUV pulled forward and turned out of the alley.