Sin City Assassin (The Bill Dix Detective Series Book 3)

by Swinney, C. L.

  Pierre wondered what it meant. He texted Dix and told him the phone received a series of calls from phones with Canadian area codes. He began working on a search warrant for the incoming call phone numbers so he could try to figure out where the phones were based on cell tower data. The search warrant took less than ten minutes to write and he had one of the local cops bring it straight to a judge.

  Thirty minutes later he had the signed search warrant and sent it via email to the phone companies. Now, I just sit and wait, he thought. Or, I could do my term paper…no way! He texted Dix again advising him that he was close to getting data for the numbers that called the target phone. He refreshed the screen and could see the target phone was communicating with the same cell tower from earlier, suggesting it was in the same location. Then he noticed the calls seemed to be going to voicemail and the phone made no outgoing calls. That’s weird, he thought.

  Dix finally texted him back. He thanked him and told him to keep feeding him updates. He advised that they were close to moving on the target phone’s location.

  Pierre pumped his fist and displayed a smile from ear to ear. He wished he could be with them when they stormed the house. Stupid assholes. I could’ve been a kick ass cop. He was miffed a little, but shook it off as Dix called him.

  “Hey, buddy. You da man! Let me know as soon as the phone companies start sending information about those new phones. I’m thinking Blass called for reinforcements. What do you think?” Dix asked him.

  He was stoked that Dix actually included him in the planning and valued his opinion. No one else did around here, he thought. “Well bro, he did make a ton of calls to Canadian numbers and now he’s hunkered down at that property. I’d bet he’s waiting for dudes to show up and save his ass.”

  Dix chuckled. “I think you’re right. You think like a cop, you ever consider wearing a badge?”

  “I tried. My eyes suck, so they kicked me from the program.”

  Dix sighed. “You can’t get corrective surgery or wear contacts?” He was amazed how picky police departments were when it came to vision.

  “Nope. My eyes are jacked up and I’ve moved on. I’m hoping to become a federal analyst at some point and assist dudes like you to grab all these bad guys.” He realized he’d become friends with Dix during this case. The other officers only used him and were nice when they wanted something, but Dix, he seemed genuine. A sense of pride swelled in his chest as Dix treated him with kindness, and as an equal.

  “So the phone is on and receiving calls left and right, but it looks like they’re going straight to voicemail,” said Pierre.

  Dix rubbed his eyes trying to figure out what that meant. “That’s weird, I wonder what’s going on at that ranch.” He paused for a moment. “Is he making any outgoing calls or texts?”

  “Nope. I’ll text you as soon as it happens though.”

  “Okay, sounds good. We’re rolling out to try to locate that phone and grab whoever has it. Let’s hope it’s Blass and he goes quietly.” Dix suspected, based on everything that had happened so far, there was no way Blass would go down without a serious fight. It didn’t matter though. He was confident he was the mastermind and someone needed to be held to answer for all the senseless and brutal killings over the last few days.

  “Will do, over and out.” Pierre chuckled as he hung up, hearing Dix laugh at his old-school cop lingo.

  *******

  Dix rejoined the apprehension team and provided them with the latest information on the target phone. He finished putting on his tactical gear as the teams began filing into their tactical SUVs. Kunkel motioned for Dix to go in one of the SUVs while he got in the other. They’d already designated Dix as the Team Two leader prior to rolling out, based on his understanding of the case and previous military and law enforcement experience. Kunkel had also requested, and obtained, a helicopter for the mission. He alerted the pilots that the teams were moving out.

  Along the way to Blass’s ranch, Dix spent a little time getting to know the men on his team. Their stories were similar to his. Most of them had served in the military, saw front-line combat, and would die to keep their country free and safe. I couldn’t have picked a better team myself, he thought.

  They had about forty-five minutes before they made it to the dirt road to the ranch. Dix used the time to assign guys tasks. He relayed them to Kunkel. The plan was to hit the house with two teams, one taking the north side and one taking the south side. They’d use lethal force if fired upon, but hoped less-than-lethal would be sufficient. The helicopter, weather and air space permitting, would flank the ranch from the east and hopefully Blass would realize he was completely over matched and would give up. Somehow, I don’t see that happening, he thought.

  It dawned on him that he was going into a real battle without his sidekick and buddy Petersen. He couldn’t recall being without him on a mission since he had come on the force twenty years ago. Dix reflected on all the crazy times they’d had together and how he'd almost lost him because of Blass. He recalled the officers dying on the Las Vegas strip, at the hospital, having to shoot Frazier, and Marie dying trying to get back to Blass. All of the madness surrounded one man, Blass. Dix suddenly realized in all the planning, they hadn’t set up a point car.

  Dix called Kunkel.

  “Hey, you got two guys who can speed ahead and set up the best they can to get eyes on the ranch or roadway to the ranch?”

  Kunkel nodded. “Shit, didn’t think of setting up a point car. Yeah, I’ll get some guys over there ASAP to get eyes on it. Good call.” Dix didn’t need the atta-boy and Kunkel wasn’t handing one out. It was a problem that needed to be solved ASAP.

  Dix wondered what Blass was doing at that moment. It was something he did on all his major cases. He tried to think like the suspect, get a sense of what their move would be so he could anticipate it. He knew Blass had to assume someone identified him at the federal building, but he’d probably feel very safe at his ranch because people would be looking for Robert Laurin and the person with that identity had absolutely no ties to the ranch. Dix also assumed Blass would have no idea law enforcement knew he was also Robert Laurin. And there’s no way in hell he knows we’re up on his phone, he speculated.

  As the caravan motored along, Dix began to pray. He wasn’t highly religious, but it seemed to be something he found himself doing whenever he felt scared and running straight into a battle where he could lose his life.

  Chapter 44:

  Eight men deplaned from a private jet at the north end of the runway at the Las Vegas International Airport. Landing in a private jet afforded them the ability to skip entering the airport, which meant no one would screen them. One of the men backed a large SUV up to the plane, while the remaining five loaded duffle bags of tactical gear and weapons into the SUV. The driver, also the senior guy of the group, retrieved his cell phone and called his boss, Robert Laurin.

  The phone rang once and went straight to voicemail. He shook his head and looked at the men loading the SUV. “We need to step this up, boys. Boss man ain’t answering his phone and the local news has a full-blown manhunt looking for him.”

  The men quickly loaded their gear and drove to a nearby private hangar. Once inside, they donned their tactical gear and prepared for Blass’s extraction. One of the men retrieved satellite imagery of Blass’s ranch house and placed it on a table. They used the map to prepare a plan to extract their boss. None of them had fear in their eyes, which made them particularly dangerous and a serious threat to anyone who happened to run across their path.

  The leader looked at his team. “Listen, eh, this ain’t gonna be a walk in the park, as these idiot Americans say.”

  The men laughed while loading rounds in their assault rifles.

  He continued with conviction. “We shouldn’t see any cops, but if we do, we will take them out—our primary mission is to extract Laurin.”

  The men nodded and grinned. They’d worked for Laurin for almost ten years. He’d fo
und them living on the streets, got them back on their feet, treated them right, and paid them well. He was like the father they never had. Each of them owed their lives to him, and although it was never mentioned, they all knew they’d give their lives to him. Each member of the team had served time in prison and had killed before. Fate had forced them together and the choices they’d made caused what little family they had to disown them. Now, they were the only family each of them had.

  After final preparations, the team headed to Pahrump. Their SUV came equipped with a scanner for police radar and was outfitted with local police radio frequencies. This allowed them to speed to the ranch without too much worry about getting pulled over. In less than an hour, the driver of the SUV slowed to check out the dirt road leading to Laurin’s ranch hideout.

  The team continually looked from left to right scanning for law enforcement in the area. None of the people they saw stood out to them. The leader waited a little longer than he wanted to before heading up the hill, but he wanted to make sure he wasn’t sending the team into a trap. Just before he was about to give the order to drive up the hill, he spotted something that bothered him.

  A small sedan occupied by two men was parked along the south side of the market, but not entirely in the designated parking lines. The angle of the car gave the occupants a view of the dirt road leading to the ranch house, the house itself, and the main freeway.

  “I bet them are cops in there.” The leader pointed at the sedan where Kunkel’s men sat in the parked car.

  “Shit, what are we gonna do, eh?” asked one of the other men.

  The leader nodded and pointed to the gas station just east of the sedan. “Park it over there. We’ll get out and check it out real quick.”

  One of the men glanced at his watch. “Boss, we gotta get Laurin and get the fuck outta here. You sure this is a good idea?”

  “I know, I know, but something seems off. If they’re cops, we could be walking into a trap.”

  They parked at the gas station and stepped out. They were armed, but their weapons and tactical gear were concealed with cover jackets. They entered the gas station convenience store and peered at the men in the car. The men sitting in the car didn’t appear to be doing much of anything.

  “Fuck it, let’s go have a talk.” The leader lifted his coat a little higher exposing the butt of his semi-automatic handgun.

  The team followed and they walked directly to the sedan containing Kunkel’s men.

  The leader tapped on the window. He looked inside and saw two white guys kissing. He noticed a forty-ounce of beer between them and a pack of condoms. They stopped kissing and rolled down the passenger side window.

  In a slight lisp the passenger said, “You gotta problem big boy?”

  The leader of Laurin’s gang turned slightly red. “You just a bunch of queers, eh, is that it?”

  The rest of the gang laughed at the men in the sedan.

  The passenger’s eyes widened as he noticed the gang leader’s weapon. “Ooh, nice weapon, big boy! You boys care to join us?”

  The driver giggled and took a swig of beer.

  “Piss off, queers!” The leader looked at his team. “Let’s get the fuck up the hill and leave these queers be.” He squinted his eyes and shook his head. He thought about yanking out the driver and beating him, but decided against it because he had more important things to do.

  The team walked back to their SUV, shaking their heads and jabbing their leader about his hilarious mistake.

  They climbed into the SUV and regained focus. While driving around the lot one last time, they checked each vehicle for signs of law enforcement. Satisfied no one seemed to be a cop, they turned to go up the hill toward Blass’s location.

  *******

  The two agents sitting on point had detected the car full of shooters before they detected them. They needed a plan quick and decided to take a huge risk and try to appear like they were a couple. They couldn’t leave and the team needed the surveillance information for the operation, so, they decided to do what they had to do. They fetched some condoms from their wallets and a warm forty-ounce beer they’d used as a prop in the past. As the shooters walked up and surrounded their car, the men embraced.

  After the encounter with the shooters, and even before the shooters made it back to their SUV, they both spit and popped several pieces of gum in their mouth.

  “Jesus man! Did you try to give me some tongue?” the passenger asked the driver.

  “Hell no, you wish, pal!”

  They laughed and couldn’t believe they’d just done what they did.

  The passenger looked at his partner, “No one, I mean no one, ever hears about this, you got it?”

  The driver nodded and laughed. “Agreed, I’m with you pal, this never happened!” The driver kept eyes on the SUV and was able to grab the license plate. They both assumed it was a rental car so it wouldn’t be of much use, but they grabbed it anyway.

  The passenger called Kunkel. “Boss, we have company. Eight men, armed, and headed up the hill toward Laurin’s ranch.”

  Kunkel was confused, “How do you know they’re armed?”

  “They picked us out and contacted us. We played it real cool.” He looked at his partner and shuddered. “And we could see a gun in the waistband of one of them.”

  “Shit, all right. They got us beat, we won’t be there for another ten minutes. They have time to hunker down and throw everything they got at us. Stay put. When we arrive, follow us at the back of the stack.” Kunkel was hopeful his team could take down the ranch house, but with eight more shooters, he decided to call for even more backup.

  “Copy that. We’ll keep you updated if anything changes.”

  The two agents donned their ballistic vests and waited for the teams to join them on the assault on the ranch house.

  *******

  The SUV headed slowly up the hill toward the ranch while the leader continued to dial Laurin. On the third try, Laurin answered.

  “Where the fuck are you guys?” He had woken up hungry, hung-over, and had a pounding headache.

  “Nice to hear from you, boss. Look out your window.” The leader grinned after hearing Laurin’s voice. The driver mashed on the accelerator to get to the house quicker.

  Blass stumbled up from the leather sofa and walked toward the window in the living room. He pulled the blinds down a little and could see headlights coming up to his location. He’d felt like shit prior to this, but after seeing his team show up, now he felt great. They were basically adopted children in his eyes, but he loved each of them like a son. The memory of his biological son flashed in his mind. He hoped to see him soon.

  “It’s about time! Get your asses up here and get me the fuck back to Canada!” He gave them a lot of grief, but he knew they could handle it. He hung up and noticed he had over one hundred texts, phone calls, and messages. The time on his phone screen told him he had passed out for almost six hours. Man, I’m getting too old for this shit.

  *******

  Pierre finished a few paragraphs of his term paper then shook the mouse for the computer monitoring Blass’s phone. He whistled out loud when he noticed the phone had recently made an outgoing call to one of the other numbers now on his radar.

  He frantically dialed Dix.

  “What’s up, Pierre?” Dix answered right away. He hoped whatever Pierre had could add more to what Kunkel just learned from his agents.

  “Blass’s phone is back up and he made a call to one of the other phones I’m also monitoring. I plotted the location of the number he called and it’s near the ranch as well. Whoever he called after the shootout at the federal building is with him now.” Pierre wondered if Dix was walking into a trap.

  “Good work. That makes sense because some of the agents on point just saw eight men drive up to the ranch. We’re gonna be in a shootout real quick.” Dix paused a second. “Hey, Pierre?”

  “Yeah?”

  “If I don’t make it through t
his, can you do something for me?” Dix asked.

  “Shut up bro, what are you talking about?” Pierre was stunned. He never thought he’d hear any officer say such a thing, and to him no less.

  “Listen Pierre, I’m a realist, this goes bad, I need you to tell my wife I love her and tell Petersen everything about this case so he has a chance to survive if we don’t capture or kill Blass.” Dix didn’t like the sound of what he’d just said, but it had to be done.

  Pierre shook his head frantically. “Man, okay, like I’ll do it, but this ain’t right! Just come back so I don’t gotta do it.”

  “You’ll be fine. I gotta go. We’re pulling over to rally up before hitting the house. If somehow people get away, stay up on their phones and give the Intel to Frazier.” Dix hung up before the kid could think or even reply.

  Chapter 45:

  Sergeant Kunkel retrieved a white drawing board and drew the layout of the ranch, based on county records. He designated two teams to assault the ranch house. Kunkel and Dix agreed hitting simultaneously from two points would confuse the suspects and give them a better shot at taking the ranch with fewer fatalities.

  As the teams prepared for combat, Kunkel took a phone call. He looked over at Dix as he listened to the caller and nodded. “Okay, copy that.” He hung up and joined the group. “Air support is inbound and will be overhead in ten minutes,” Kunkel informed the group. “We’ve got two more teams from Pahrump PD rolling code three this way. Their ETA is ten minutes. Once they get here, we move in.”

  Agents and officers loaded and checked their weapons. They placed their trauma plates in their ballistic vests, front and back, and dusted off their ballistic helmets. Every man knew the risks they were taking and dealt with it differently. Some texted their loved ones, some rehearsed breaching techniques, and others wanted to hit the house without waiting for backup.