However, the dealer drove directly to the parking lot for a run-down strip mall. He got out and walked over to get in the passenger seat of an SUV. As Roni listened to the conversation, muffled by the rolled-up windows of the SUV, she watched the dealer pass a substantial wad of cash to his contact. That has to be more than just today’s take, she thought, feeling very lucky to follow the guy on a day when he met his distributor.
The dealer got out of the SUV with a grocery bag, apparently representing working inventory, put that in the trunk of his car and left.
Roni sat on the bumper of the car next to the SUV while several other people approached, got in and spent time sitting inside. Each delivered cash and departed with bags of product. The guy never got out or unlocked the doors of the SUV though. Roni had no idea how she’d follow when he got ready to leave. Not able to come up with a better plan, she called Madison and told her she was staking out a roofie dealer, asking Madison to get her car keys from their room and drive Roni’s car down to her.
“How am I going to get home then?” Madison asked reasonably.
“Take an Uber.”
“Why don’t you take an Uber?”
“Uber drivers don’t like being asked to tail criminals.”
“You’re going to follow this guy?!” Madison asked.
“Yeah, if you get my car here in time. I thought you wanted to put a stop to roofie distribution?”
“I’m on my way,” Madison said, still sounding worried.
Madison arrived on time, but barely. Then she didn’t want to wait for an Uber in that part of town—and Roni didn’t blame her. So, she rode with Roni as they followed the guy at a distance. Roni wished she could follow close but invisibly so she’d feel less likely to lose the guy or be noticed. But she could hardly put on her balaclava in front of Madison. When they passed a nicer grocery store, Madison agreed to wait for her Uber there and Roni pulled over.
As Madison got out, she turned uncertainly, “Maybe I should stay with you? He’s probably going to lead you into another bad neighborhood.”
Frustrated that Madison hadn’t had this thought until now, Roni said, “Out! I’m going to lose him if we stop to chitchat about this!”
Madison closed the door and Roni sped away, wishing she still had a co-pilot, but knowing she was much safer, alone and invisible.
The SUV made it through a light that stopped Roni, but since she’d willed the entire car to be invisible, she drove through the red light as soon as there was a break in crossing traffic. Driving as fast as she dared and weaving through traffic, she caught up to him just before he turned into a neighborhood. He pulled into the garage of a house there.
Home, Roni thought, with a little frustration as she stopped a block and a half away. Even though she’d felt very lucky to follow the dealer on a night he met with his distributor, she’d been hoping this guy would take her on up the chain that same night. Before she approached his house, she got out and popped the quick release bolts she’d installed on her gray Civic. She pulled the license plate off in case he had security cameras recording the street.
To be sure it was his house, she pulled down to his house and got out. She went around peering in the guy’s windows. Sure enough, there was a woman in the kitchen. In another room she saw the man playing with a couple of toddlers. For a moment she felt conflicted over the fact she was hoping to take down this little family’s means of support. No, dammit! He should’ve thought about his family when he went into a line of work that endangers himself, his customers, and his co-workers.
Back out in her car, Roni got a magnetic GPS tracker out of the hidden pocket in her backpack and used her phone to test it and be sure it located correctly. She stuck it under the bumper of the SUV and headed back to the dorm.
As Roni stepped into their room, Madison looked up and said, “Were you able to follow that guy to his boss?”
Roni gave a little shake of her head, “No, just home to his family.” Not wanting to tell Madison she had a tracker on the guy’s car, she said, “Maybe another night.”
“He has a family?!” Madison said, looking creeped out by the idea.
“Wife, two little boys,” Roni said, feeling discouraged by the fact again.
“Um…” Madison started, and Roni could see her going through the same thoughts, “I guess bad guys have a life too, huh?” It looked like Madison also wondered briefly about whether they should get a family’s breadwinner in trouble, then her expression firmed up.
Roni sighed, “I feel bad for his family too. But he should have thought about them before he chose to go into this life.”
***
Hallie sat down next to Hax in the cafeteria and he smiled at her. After she’d confronted him the day before, they’d gotten along well the rest of the day but he still found himself wondering why she was hanging out with Elias—of all people. He talked to Hallie about inconsequential things for a while, then when he thought it might be reasonable, he said, “So what is the deal with you and Darren Elias?”
She shot him a look that said she hoped he wasn’t going there again, but then said pleasantly, “What’re you wanting to know?”
“Well, he’s a really good linebacker… and, and, I respect him for that. But, he’s got it in for me for some reason. He’s always trying to hurt me in practice. Early in the season, he’d knock me down and tell me to quit the team.”
“Like I said before, isn’t that what football’s all about?”
“Well, yeah. But you’re supposed to be trying to hurt other teams, not your own teammates.”
Hallie shrugged, “He and I’ve been classmates for a long time and we’ve always been friends. Us hanging around together’s nothing new.”
Hallie paused and Hax thought about inserting a comment about how Elias hadn’t been much of a friend back when Vito Castano was ruining her life, but before he did, she shrugged and said, “Honestly, he’s my friend but I don’t know what the deal is between you two guys. Why don’t you ask him?”
Startled at the suggestion, Hax didn’t know what to say. He settled for, “Um, guys don’t do that kind of thing.”
Hallie snorted, “That’s probably why there’s so many wars, ‘cause men would rather fight than talk. Do you want me to ask him what’s going on for you?”
“No,” Hax said, almost sullenly. But he’d started thinking about how Darren and Hallie had been friends for a long time. Perhaps Johnny Argo was wrong about Elias attacking Hax to help out Elias’s quarterback friend that Hax’d bumped back to third-string? Maybe Darren wanted Hallie to be his girlfriend, and hated Hax because of that?
***
Hax stepped up to the huddle and said, “Okay, we’re running…” He looked back at a slap on his shoulder pads. Jurgens, the first-string QB stood there looking unhappy. Jurgens hooked a thumb across the field, “You’re supposed to go practice with first team.”
“Okay,” Hax said. He told Jurgens the play they were supposed to be running and turned to trot over to first team. He’d expected to feel elated if they ever had him do something with the first-string; instead, he just felt worried. Don’t let it show, he thought.
Aldon Mack watched Buchry trot up to the huddle with a lot of curiosity. And, he couldn’t help it, a little resentment. Buchry didn’t look like much. Tall, but so skinny he looked like he’d fold in two if you poked him hard with a finger. Carl Jurgens and Aldon had been friends since grade school and had started this season feeling secure in their roles as the team’s quarterback and star receiver. But then everyone had started talking about this Buchry kid and how he was such an accurate passer. He was only a sophomore and hadn’t even played football when he was a freshman. Aldon hadn’t thought he’d be a threat, but then Aldon’s little brother Brian—who played second-string fullback at present—had started talking about him too. Then there was what he’d done against Benson—admittedly almost entirely against their scrubs—very impressive. Now he was coming over to practice with C
arl and Aldon’s first team.
Aldon glanced around the huddle. He saw some who looked angry—they all really liked Carl, but there were some who looked as curious as Aldon felt. Buchry stepped up to the QB’s spot in the huddle but didn’t bend over at first. He’s looking at the defense, Aldon realized. Carl just runs the plays coach Hayes gives him, but this kid’s checking out the opposition and thinking about it himself.
Not looking at all nervous, Buchry bent down and called a passing play. Then he looked at Aldon and said, “Mack, you’re the primary receiver. The linebacker’ll be all over you where you’re supposed to hook, so hook two yards early.”
Buchry turned to the secondary receiver and said a few words to him, but Aldon just stared. He’d wanted to tell Buchry to run the play the way coach diagrammed it but hadn’t. He realized Buchry’d played against Elias when they’d both been on the second team. He’d also played against him occasionally when Elias rotated down to second-string. But if Buchry’d actually figured out that Elias recognized each of the offense’s plays and reacted to them, and then came up with a counter, that was… impressive. Aldon had started dreading plays that put him up against the big, young, hyper-aggressive linebacker, but this time he looked forward to seeing what happened.
The ball hiked and Aldon shot downfield. He saw Elias coming for him, but for the first time recognized that Elias was actually shooting to meet the spot where Aldon was supposed to hook. That’s how the son of a bitch makes all those interceptions in practice! Aldon thought. When Aldon hooked two yards early, Elias was behind him and the ball was right there! Aldon turned and made another five yards before Elias tackled him.
Back in the huddle, Buchry looked Aldon in the eye and said, “Nice!”
Aldon felt astonished to have a warm feeling flood over him upon being complimented… by a sophomore quarterback.
Buchry confidently called the next play, once again showing comprehensive knowledge of each player’s role and what the defense was about to do…
Practice over, Hayes looked around, “Mack! Aldon Mack!”
The kid turned, looking alarmed like the kids often did when their coach singled one of them out. Hayes waved him over and the kid started trotting his way. “Yes Coach?”
“Walk with me here,” Hayes said, starting toward the locker room himself. “I’m wanting to get a feel from you, as one of our seniors and one of our best players. What did you think of Buchry today?”
Hayes steeled himself against a dismissal of the sophomore from one of the seniors that Hayes knew was a good friend of Jurgens’, but Mack only said, “Um, he’s really accurate.”
“I know that much. But, that’s not all there is to playing quarterback.”
“Um, Coach, you know, part of the reason he plays so well is, he knows what all of our defensive players are going to do… Um, how they’ll react to each play. What their strengths and weaknesses are. So, in the huddle, he tells us what they’re going to do and how to deal with it…”
Hayes tried not to let his eyes widen. A perspective on the huddle had been just what he was after. He’d been thinking he might hear that some of the guys disliked Buchry, after all there could be a lot of jealousy when someone younger was so good. He’d hoped that he might hear that they were excited to play with someone they thought might win some games. But hearing that Buchry had analyzed the defensive players and was working around their strengths… To Mack, he said slowly, “You sound like you think that’s a problem?”
“Um, well, when we’re playing for real against another team…” In response to Hayes’ elevated eyebrow, Mack continued, “Um, he isn’t going to know what those guys are gonna do, so…”
Hah! Mack thinks what Buchry’s doing is a form of cheating! He doesn’t realize that’s what the very best quarterbacks do, instinctively if not intellectually. He slapped Mack on the shoulder pads and said, “Maybe I’d better get him the scouting tapes for Wilson then, huh? Then he’ll know what to expect.”
Mack headed on into the showers while Hayes thought to himself for a minute. I think I will get Buchry that video.
Chapter 6
Roni checked the location of the SUV’s GPS tracker and saw it was gone from the lot where the guy met his dealers. For a few seconds she tried to figure out if it was at the guy’s home again, then realized it was actually still moving. It doesn’t seem to be going toward his house, she thought. She supposed there were a lot of other places he might be going. His wife might have him picking up bread on the way home.
Roni sighed. She couldn’t tell whether he was on his way to meet with his higher-ups in the mob by watching GPS. She grabbed her backpack and headed for her car, pulling on her balaclava as she went.
The SUV was parked in a dirt lot in the industrial area of town when Roni caught up to it. A trucking company was on one side of the lot and the local trash and recycling company was on the other. Since the guy’d gotten there about twenty minutes before Roni, she felt no surprise that the vehicle was empty. It’d be more surprising if he was still in it, she thought, parallel parking a block down the street and getting out to start looking for the guy.
The trucking company seemed similar to Castano’s warehousing business, so Roni walked invisibly into that building first. In fact, as she looked around she realized that they must do some warehousing as well. It seemed busy, with trucks coming and going. She supposed that Castano’s place could’ve been busy during the day as well; she’d only been there at night, so she wouldn’t know.
The building had a small office but otherwise had an open plan. She checked the little office without seeing her target. Roni couldn’t see any other place where the guy from the SUV might be meeting anyone. As she trotted to the opposite side of the dirt parking lot, she realized the lot was actually part of a big open-air storage lot for the recyclers. Could have saved myself time if I’d noticed that the parking lot was part of the recycling place, she thought irritably. The lot had piles of industrial scrap and what looked like composting organic waste vying for space with large heaps of glass and aluminum. When she entered the building, she saw huge stacks of corrugated cardboard and another area with paper waste, presumably kept under roof to keep them from getting waterlogged.
She looked around and started toward what looked like some walled off areas inside the building. The guy from the SUV was coming out of one of them with a shorter, older guy who—wasn’t dressed up exactly—he wore something like a track suit. It looked like a really expensive track suit though, especially for someone working in a recycling facility. Roni turned her smartphone’s video camera on. As she walked up, sending out thoughts that they shouldn’t notice her, the older man said, “Also, Tomas, I want you to ask your guys over at the U to keep an eye out. Someone sent a message to the police from one of the library computers there. It had the street names of some of your boys working the University’s area. Said they were dealing and wanted the cops to do something about it.”
Roni flushed with anger at the cops for turning Indigo’s information right back over to the drug people.
Tomas looked angry, but nervous, “I’m real sorry Mr. Romano. We figure out who did that, we’ll make him awful sorry.”
Romano shrugged and smiled broadly. “This’s why I take a cut of you boys’ earnings. I keep the cops off your backs and I deal with these kinds of problems. Now, I don’t expect your boys to find out who sent the message, ‘cause figuring out computer stuff isn’t exactly their skill set. I’ve got other people who work computer problems. But, if your fellas have someone sniffing around, buying small quantities, asking questions, they should get pictures and names for us to check out, okay?”
A chill went through Roni’s marrow as she resolved to tell Indigo to stay far away from any deals.
“Yes sir, Mr. Romano. We’ll get on that right away,” Tomas said nervously.
Roni wondered about Tomas’ nervousness. Romano seemed pretty genial. Tomas left and Romano went back in the door h
e’d come out of. Roni followed him closely almost inured to the slight hesitation in the way Romano closed the door behind him. Just enough hesitation to let her slip inside behind him without any bumping. It seemed so strange that when she made herself invisible—essentially by telepathically telling people not to notice her—that they subconsciously still knew she was there and maneuvered themselves to keep from running into her.
Roni looked curiously around the office. It was furnished exactly as you might expect an industrial park office to be fitted out. Steel filing cabinets, laminate desk, rolling chairs, concrete floor. Nothing to suggest a drug kingpin. She swept it with the video camera on her cell phone anyway.
Romano didn’t pause. He kept walking through the room to another steel door in the concrete back wall of the office. Roni stayed right behind him. It had a combo lock. Romano punched in a combination while Roni held the camera in position to record the numbers. Romano opened the door, stepped through and once again hesitated just enough to let Roni enter behind him.
Roni’s eyes widened. A frightened-looking, scantily-clad, pubescent girl in high heels approached and handed Romano a drink. He took a sip, smacked his lips and handed it back. Then he turned and kicked a bloodied woman Roni hadn’t noticed lying on the floor.
Horrified, Roni suddenly forgot about the video she was recording. Romano squatted down next to the woman’s head. Looking up at a sobbing, handcuffed man who was firmly gripped between a couple of big toughs, Romano said, “So, Tillman, what’s it going to be? You ready to talk yet?” He looked back down at the woman and rolled her bloody face toward Tillman, “Haven’t done any permanent damage yet, I don’t think. Couple broken teeth, black eyes, broken nose, but the medicos can probably fix all that back up almost like new. Maybe even better considering her nose was kinda big before.” Romano looked back up at Tillman. A knife appeared in his hand, “But, if you don’t give me some answers now, I think she ain’t never gonna look good again.” Romano formed that broad, bland smile he’d given Tomas outside, “What’s it gonna be?”
The Boy Who Couldn’t Miss (Blind Spot #2) (Blind Spot Series) Page 12