by David Archer
“Come on in, Rex,” the woman said. “Jimmy’s in his office. He said to tell you to just go on in when you got here.”
“Thanks, love,” he said with a wink. The older woman blushed a little bit and smiled, then hurried back into the kitchen as Noah made his way to the office. The door was closed, so he tapped gently on it and heard Morgan call out, “Come on in.”
Noah turned the knob and opened the door, then stepped into the office. Jimmy was alone, sitting behind his desk, and looked up with a smile.
“Rex,” Morgan said, rising enough to reach across and shake hands. “Scott tells me you’re shaking things up a little bit.”
Noah put on a nervous grin. “Well, sir, I’ve been noticing some things,” he said. “I’m not trying to tell you how to run things, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve noticed that a lot of the guys don’t seem to think about who might be listening when they talk. That’s kinda what I wanted to talk to you about.”
Morgan sat down again and pointed at another chair for Noah, then leaned back and folded his hands over his belly. “Okay,” he said. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I’ve sorta jumped on Scott today for talking too much over the phone,” Noah said. “I understand that the cops around here won’t bother you, and I’ve even heard stories about feds being run off, but anybody can buy a scanner that can listen in on cell phone calls. That’s one of the ways the feds jammed me and my people up back in Ohio, by catching some of the guys talking about drug deals over cell phones.”
Morgan pursed his lips and cocked his head, then nodded for Noah to go on.
“Maybe I’m overreacting,” Noah continued, “but I’ve always tried to live on the principle of avoiding problems rather than trying to solve them after they start. I’ve got a friend who hustles all kinds of stuff—I mean, he can get anything you might want and save you a bunch of money while he’s at it—and he’s got these special cell phones that nobody can listen in on. They got some kind of scrambler in them, so if one of them calls another phone like it, it scrambles the signal all up so a scanner can’t pick up what you’re saying. I was sort of thinking that if we all had one of those phones…”
“Then we never have to worry about what anybody overheard, right?” Morgan asked with a grin. “That sounds like it might be a pretty good idea. How much these phones cost?”
Noah grinned and tried to look a little more confident. “Well, that’s the thing,” he said. “If you wanted to buy one most places, they’d cost you about fifteen hundred a pop, but I can get them for seven hundred apiece. I, um, I already ordered a few of them myself. I was going to give them to all my guys so nobody could use a scanner to find out where Ralphie was going to be.”
Morgan narrowed his eyes. “You were buying them out of your own pocket? Hell, just give me the bill, I’ll pay it. That’s some good thinking, Rex, but let me ask you this: what happens if you use one of those phones to call some regular, old-style phone?”
“Well, then it turns off the scrambler so the call can go through,” Noah said, “but then anyone listening on a scanner can understand whatever you say. We’d just need to make sure everybody knows to be careful what they say if they, like, call the old lady or something.”
Morgan sat there and looked at him for a long moment without saying anything, then suddenly sat forward. “What about the service plan? Is it something special?”
“No, sir, they work on any carrier. They’ll do just fine on Artel, around here.”
“I don’t think we have to worry about what they might say to the wives and girlfriends,” Morgan said. “Most of them keep the old ladies in the dark, anyway. As far as our own people, we’ve been pretty lucky when it comes to feds, but that doesn’t mean I want to be stupid. And you’re right, the last thing we need is somebody getting a recording that can hold up in court against us.”
Noah tried to put an expression of relief on his face. “Thank you, sir,” he said. “I wasn’t sure about bringing this up, but the last thing I want is to go back to Beaumont. My PO seems to be pretty cool, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t burn me if the FBI started pushing him.”
Morgan nodded. “Let me figure out how many of these things we need,” he said, “and I’ll give you a number this afternoon. That work?”
“Yes, sir,” Noah said. “I’ll get back with Ralph and…”
“Hold on, hold on,” Morgan said. “Scott tells me you’ve got Ralphie pretty well set up, now, and just now you came up with something to help cover all our asses. Rex, I like a man who can think. Let me ask you a question. Just where would you like to end up in this organization?”
Noah made us show of swallowing hard, then wiped the grin off his face. “Honestly? Sir, a long time ago I learned to find out who the boss is and do what I’m told, but I also learned that there’s always a benefit to being as close to the top of the heap as I can get. I guess I’d like to go as high as I possibly can.”
Morgan had a shrewd grin on his face. “You see, I like an honest answer, and that’s what you just gave me. Rex, I realize we just met a few days ago, but you’ve impressed me. I’m thinking that we need to improve the bloodline up near the top a bit, and I think you might fit right in. Don’t get me wrong, what I’m talking about is going to mean a lot of work, and nobody goes to the top overnight—I’m sure you know that. If you’re willing, though, I want to keep you with me for a while, see how this thing goes. What would you think about letting Scott handle Ralphie’s security detail?”
Noah relaxed his posture a bit. “Scott’s a pretty good man,” he said, “and I think he’ll learn quickly. I’d say he can probably handle it, especially if it’s all dumped on him at once. Nothing teaches a man like the old sink or swim, right?”
“That’s correct.” Morgan reached over and picked up his own cell phone and thumbed a number into it. “Scott? It’s Jimmy. Listen, I wanted to say thank you for sending Rex out to me this morning, and then I want to congratulate you on your promotion.” He suddenly burst out laughing. “Yes, I said promotion. I’m gonna keep Rex with me for a few days, and he and I both agree that you can take over Ralphie’s detail. You can handle it, can’t you? Yeah, I think so, too. Tell anybody who has a problem with it to check with me. And Scott? Don’t let anything happen to my boy.”
Morgan ended the call and dropped the phone back on the desk. “Okay, it’s official,” he said to Noah. “You’re going to be with me for the next few days. We’ll go out in a bit and figure out how many of these phones were going to need.”
Noah smiled at him. “Yes, sir,” he said.
CHAPTER TWO
“Ho-o-ly cow!” Jimmy Morgan said, as they stepped out the front door of the house an hour later. “I heard about that car of yours, but this is the first time I’ve gotten a good look at it. What is that, a ’69?”
Noah smiled. “Yes, sir,” he said. “Five-hundred-forty-cubic-inch Hemi putting out over nine hundred horsepower. It was custom built from the frame up to be lighter and stronger than the original, and I can assure you it’s the fastest thing I’ve ever driven.”
Morgan shook his head in admiration. “Well, hell,” he said, “you don’t mind being my chauffeur for a while today, do you?”
“Not a bit,” Noah replied. “I love showing this thing off.” He went quickly down the steps and used his remote to unlock the car, then slid in behind the wheel as Morgan got into the passenger seat. He noticed the appreciative look in Morgan’s eyes when the big engine fired up. “Buckle up,” he said.
Noah drove sedately out the driveway but then gave the car its head when he got onto the main road back into town. Morgan laughed when the acceleration pressed him back into his seat.
“I do love a fast car,” he said through his laughter. “You ever want to sell this, you better come to me first.”
“Sorry, boss,” Noah said with a big smile. “I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.”
Morgan directed him to the junkyard, where
he kept his own offices. Noah drove through its gates slowly, because the lot was rutted from truck tires and had a number of potholes. He parked the car in what he considered to be the safest possible place, close to the building, and the two men got out.
Noah followed Morgan into the building, where more than two dozen people were sitting around. He was introduced to all of them, and told which section of the criminal business each of them ran or worked in. Several of them were women, and Noah was intrigued to find that two of them ran the prostitution and liquor-theft wings of the enterprise.
“Liquor theft?” Noah asked, and Leanne Davidson smiled at him.
“Oh, yes,” she said. “We’ve got people all over the Midwest who acquire a few cases here, a few there, sometimes even a whole truckload—it’s amazing what truck drivers will do for money—and bring it to us. We buy it for about thirty cents on the dollar from its wholesale price and sell it to all of the bars and clubs within a couple hundred miles.”
Noah grinned and shrugged. “Sounds like a winner, then,” he said. He chatted with several of the other “lieutenants” of the organization, filing their names away in his memory so that he could give them to Neil when he got home.
“Well,” Morgan said as they left the office for lunch, “looks like we need about forty-seven of those phones. How soon do you think we can get them and get them turned on?”
Noah shrugged. “I can call my buddy tonight and find out,” he said. “I’m gonna guess probably a week, maybe less.”
“All right, do it. I want them as soon as possible. Just bring me the bill; I’ll take care of it.”
“Yes, sir,” Noah said.
At Morgan’s direction, Noah drove the car toward the KFC franchise, and the two of them went inside to take advantage of the buffet. A number of people greeted Morgan while they ate, and Noah was introduced to several of them.
“This is Rex,” Morgan said more than once, “my new right hand.”
And more than once, Noah heard, “Well, I’ll be sure not to make you mad. Hate to see this guy coming after me.” There was always a chuckle, but the look in the eyes of the speakers told Noah that they were quite serious.
He grinned at each of them but kept his eyes cold. “That’s good,” he said. “I got enough to do, already.” He wasn’t surprised when they shivered, even behind their own smiles.
The rest of the day turned out to be more of the same. Noah met seven more lieutenants, including two other women. These were involved in other aspects of the business, and Noah was only slightly surprised to learn that Morgan actually had an online operation. It was mostly concerned with selling some of the high-dollar auto parts, but it seemed that he had a few people who were capable of milking a credit card. Milking a credit card, he was told, meant running it through bogus websites that were based in other countries, so that the charges were impossible to reverse.
“That makes me about eight or ten million a year,” Morgan said with a grin. “People never know what the charge is for, and you’d be absolutely surprised how many of them never even question it. We know when they do, but it’s almost never.”
“Sweet,” Noah said. “I always wondered how that worked.”
At three o’clock, Morgan said he was ready to go home, so he and Noah walked out and got back into the Charger. Noah fired it up and put the car in gear, backing out of his space and turning around slowly so as not to bounce the car too much in the ruts and potholes. Once they got onto the paved road outside the junkyard, Morgan turned to him.
“Couple times today,” he began, “it looked like you might’ve had something to say. Why did you hold back?”
Noah shrugged. “It wasn’t that I really had anything to say,” he said. “I’m the kind of guy who’s always thinking, always having ideas. There were a few things I heard today that made my imagination explore some possibilities, that’s all.”
Morgan grinned. “Okay, like what?”
Noah was quiet for a moment, then glanced over at Morgan. “Well, when I was talking to the lady about the liquor thing,” he said, “it occurred to me that there might be some possibilities you haven’t explored. I’m thinking of some guys I know back east; if I made a few phone calls, I might be able to get even more product shipped your way, but I didn’t want to bring it up because I don’t know how big your market is.”
“The market is as big as I want it to be,” Morgan said. “There are probably five hundred liquor stores and bars within a two-hundred-mile radius, and I’m only selling to a third of them, right now. I’ve actually thought about setting up a liquor warehouse before so I could run all the hot stuff through it and make it look clean. Only reason I haven’t done it is because I haven’t had enough coming in to justify the expense. What kind of volume you think your people can do?”
“Well, I’m thinking of a guy named Matt,” Noah said. “Matt owns a trucking company, but he’s got a number of drivers that sort of specialize in trailers that aren’t necessarily their own. They work in teams and can back in and hook on to a trailer and be gone in a matter of seconds, then stop somewhere dark and quiet and change the markings and plates so that it looks like one of Matt’s own.”
Morgan’s eyebrows went up. “How do they change the markings on a trailer? Aren’t they all painted up with their owners’ logo?”
Noah grinned as he nodded. “Most of them are, yeah,” he said, “but Matt came up with this system. Each of the teams carries this big roll that sticks to the side of the trailer, and it’s painted with Matt’s own markings. He’s got a few dozen trailers that are ghosts, old trailers he scrapped but kept the paperwork for. Slap this banner on the side of any trailer and it suddenly looks like one of his, and if the tags come back to his company…”
“Then DOT doesn’t bother with it,” Morgan finished for him. “That’s pretty slick. How do you know this guy?”
“We were cellmates back during my first year in the Fed,” Noah said. “We got to be friends because he’s from a town that’s close to where I grew up. He did two years for dealing pot, but his father was already in this racket back then. The old man died a couple years ago, and he took it all over. My stinking PO back in Ohio wouldn’t let me get a CDL, or I’d have been driving a truck for him right after I got out.”
Morgan laughed. “Sounds like his loss is my gain. You think he could get a reasonable number of trailers to us every month?”
“No doubt in my mind,” Noah said. “Of course, we have to make the trailers disappear. They drop it where it’s going, take the banner off the side and the tags off the back, and they’re gone. It all happens so fast nobody really notices anything, and that’s why he never gets caught.”
Morgan chuckled. “I got a cutting operation down by Huntsville,” he said, “a place where we cut up big farm tractors and equipment. We sell the engines and major parts, and the rest gets run through a crusher and hauled to a scrapyard up in Missouri. Those boys could cut up a semitrailer in less than an hour, so that wouldn’t be a problem. And there ain’t no cops around here that would bother to pull us over, even if they noticed the trailer was stolen.”
“Then it could work,” Noah said. “As long as you got a way to get rid of the trailers, there shouldn’t be any problem all.”
“That’s what I’m thinking. How long you think it would take you to get it set up?”
Noah shrugged. “I’m not sure,” he said. “I have to get hold of Matt—that isn’t always easy, because he drives one of the trucks himself. I don’t have his number with me, but I got it at home. I can call him tonight, and if I don’t get hold of him, he’ll call me back when he gets the message.”
Morgan nodded and then reached over and patted Noah on the shoulder. “Rex,” he said, “I think I’m gonna be very glad to have you around. Did you have anything else you want to suggest?”
Noah twisted his face as if trying to remember. “Seems like I thought of something, but I can’t remember right now what it was. I’m sure
it’ll hit me again at some point.”
“Well, when it does, you speak up. Have you got my phone number?”
“No,” Noah said. He took his phone out of his pocket and passed it to Morgan. “You want to put it in there?”
Morgan pressed a button to activate the phone, then went into the contacts and added his own name and phone number before passing it back. “Give me a call now,” he said, “so I can save your number, too.”
Noah thumbed the contact and Morgan’s phone began to ring. He didn’t bother to answer but then saved the number to his own contacts.
“Good,” he said. “That way I can reach you if I need to.” He turned his face toward Noah again. “I’m thinking you might be my new enforcer,” he said. “You okay with that?”
Noah gave him his shark-tooth smile. “Just call,” he said.
A few minutes later, Noah dropped Morgan off at his house and then headed for home. His GPS showed him a shortcut that shaved off several miles, so he was home only ten minutes after leaving Morgan’s place.
Kate’s car was sitting in the driveway, so Noah parked beside it and walked into the house. Kate, Sarah, and Neil were all sitting at the kitchen table.
“Hey, babe,” Sarah said, jumping up to put her arms around him. She gave him a quick kiss and then let go, holding on to his hand and pulling him into the kitchen. “Kate called a while ago and I invited her out for dinner.”
“Hi, bro,” Kate said. “How was your day?”
A quick glance at Neil, who gave him a silent thumbs-up, told Noah that it was safe to talk openly. “I now know the names of all of Morgan’s lieutenants,” he said. He looked at Neil again. “How did it go on the phones?”
“I’ll have ten of them day after tomorrow,” Neil said. “I take it you got somewhere with that idea?”
“Yeah. I need forty-seven of them, as soon as we can get them. I got promoted today to enforcer, and I got the chance to talk to Morgan directly about the possibility of feds using cell phone talk to build a case. When I told him I knew where to get phones that could keep that from happening, he was all for it and wants me to get them as soon as possible.”