“Wait a minute, Archer.” Jamison stood up and walked over with us where he could see the screens. “Let’s find out about this new security system. I’m a partner with Terry.”
“That may be,” Trish replied, “but our security firm has a policy of only dealing with the representative present on a daily basis. I understand Mr. Woodsum is the principal owner, and also works here daily. He opens and closes the warehouse. I’m afraid Mr. Woodsum must be the one we’ll have to set up as our main contact.”
Jamison took on a scowling pose, complete with folded arms over chest. If he knew who he was scowling at, he’d be pissing his pants. “Do you have any idea who I am?”
“Of course I do, Sir. We do a complete workup of our clients and their financial standing in the community, along with a background check into all partners of the firm. You are Derek Jamison, a minority partner. You have nothing to do with the day to day operations of Terry’s Wholesale Tires, therefore we must set up our security system with Mr. Woodsum.”
Man, she was good. Jamison’s head was about to explode. He glanced at his thug trio, but got a slight head shake from Archer. They were here to intimidate, not get the police called to the scene. He turned to me. “Who is your supervisor?”
“I’m Rick Cantelli. My partner Lois Madigan and I own and run Madigan and Cantelli Security Services. What Ms. Rocha explained is exactly right. We’ll also have to ask you and your friends to leave while we show Mr. Woodsum how our security system works for opening and closing the business.”
They had only two choices, try to muscle us or leave and come back later to get their shipment, which I’m sure headed their priority list. I was ready for either choice, but we wanted them back later, so I added our little gimmick from when we did Gibson’s job. “The system will not even be operational until tomorrow afternoon. That should give you and your partners time to talk over how many should be in on the security system operation.”
“I believe that is a good idea, Mr. Jamison,” Archer spoke up. “You can take this up with your other partners tomorrow. We have an appointment in half an hour anyway.”
“Uh… yes… okay, but this isn’t over by a long shot, Terry.” Jamison stormed out of the office with the three enforcers on his tail.
I immediately FaceTimed Lo. I gave her a quick viewing of the control center and screens. “We’ve had a speed up in plans, Lo. They’re going to hit tonight. Derek Jamison and some thugs were in Terry’s office putting pressure on. We mentioned the system would be off until tomorrow afternoon, and they were willing to leave.”
“Well… what the hell, it’s better than a long stakeout. That was good thinking.”
“I’ll get us a couple of suites at the Ritz-Carlton, my treat. I’ll put our equipment bag up in the sniper’s nest until we arrive later with everything we’ll need. I’m figuring midnight or beyond for their visit.”
“I’ll be there in a few, and bring Frank with me. Since it’s your treat, make sure we’ll be in the lap of luxury for an extra night if we live through this.”
“You got it, Lo. I have our WiFi signal broadcasting already. Have Bone get keyed into the scene from there. He’ll be on with us tonight for the party with a good view, and he won’t have to leave home. Come right to the Ritz when you get to LA.”
“I’ll set Bone up and take off. See ya’ then.” Lo disconnected.
Terry had been waiting patiently near the security screens. “I’m sure glad you and Trish came in when you did. Those guys were leaning on me to forget about the new security system. That guy with the mustache claimed they’d have a roving guard instead on Jamison’s behalf. I didn’t know what the hell to say. This layout you installed is outstanding, Rick. I expected some grainy black and white from the old days. These screens are clearer than my TV. They’ll video the ones that show up in HD, huh?”
“Yep. I’ll have a man down in San Diego jacking into your signal, so to warn us when they come. They’ll be here before morning. Just to be on the safe side, did you get a shipment of smaller radials from back East recently?”
Terry went to his main computer desk, and checked his inventory program. He printed out a sheet. “Come on. I’ll show it to you. We had twenty delivered a day ago. They fit the smaller models.”
Terry led the way out into the main warehouse. A few moments later, we were standing near a rack of tires with the shipping material still in place. “This is the rack of new deliveries that haven’t been inventoried and stocked yet. Many times we don’t stock them for a few days because they’re promised out to shops in the area.”
Pointing out the line of new arrivals, he stepped back while I slipped a gloved hand inside the tires, and confirmed our suspicions. “No wonder they were so anxious. There has to be millions here in street value if all twenty are loaded like this one.”
I took pictures of the rack of tires, their location in the warehouse, and then moved aside the wrapping to get some close ups of what was taped into the inside, including video. “Okay, good. Let’s go back in the office and point camera five right on the merchandise rack, so we can film these suckers stripping out the product.”
In the office, I repositioned camera five remotely for a great view of the drug rack. “That’s it, Terry. Let’s get out of here. You go home, and don’t give this another thought. Best to hit the bed early tonight in case our feds want you down here. Trish and I know how to get into your building, so we’ll set up later. We’ll lock up.”
“Good luck, Rick.”
Man! I hope luck has nothing to do with it. “Goodnight, Terry.”
I jogged over to the van and unloaded my equipment bags. Trish drove the van outside the gates then while I deposited the gear we’d need up in my sniper’s nest. I locked up afterward, and used the extra remote Terry had given me to work the security gate. We didn’t get checked in with two junior suites until nearly 8pm. I had left word at the desk for Lo to get checked in, and we’d call about eleven. Trish and I showered and slept like the dead until my inner clock went off just before the room’s alarm clock at nearly 10:30pm. I called Lo, and we met outside of the hotel. We dressed in casual clothes. We weren’t Ninjas after all.
We reached Terry’s warehouse in a comfortable silence. Lo and Trish had their game-faces on, preparing internally for what may or may not happen. I didn’t spoil the mood with jokes or lighthearted banter. This was the first time Lo and I had ever taken anyone out into mission mode. Even on a Company assignment, we rarely worked with another team, and never in a close op like this one. I knew Trish would be fine, and Lo trusted my judgment. I confess I had to stifle myself a little. Lo smacked me in the back of my head many times in the past, because although age has dulled my edges, I’m still an adrenaline junky. Naturally, this did not get past Spock-ella. Lo bopped me in the back of the head.
“Hey… what the hell, Lo? We’re not even there yet.”
“I know you, Hooterville. Even here in the backseat, I can feel that slight idiot grin forming. First you do a beach incursion successfully, then combat unexpectedly at Gibson’s, and now you have a sniper moment. You’re sixty, you geezer fairy princess! Get your head in the game!”
Trish laughed her ass off in accompaniment to Lo’s declaration from the head slap to the admonition. “You… you two are the best.”
“Listen, Skipper, you have a duty here. When Hooterville starts leaning off the rails into the danger zone, you have to rein him in.”
What the hell is this? “I do too have my head in the game: always!”
“Hooterville thinks he’s Tom Cruise sometimes, and real life is his ‘Top Gun’ movie. Ever since his old skank girlfriend, Stacy, showed up, Rick’s been flaky. If you don’t throttle him down, even at sixty, he starts getting delusions of grandeur. He starts imagining he’s a twenty something Seal Sniper again and loses track of reality.”
“Do not!”
Trish laughed harder. “Lo… Lo’s right. You were going to gun down Jamison and hi
s three stooges today in Terry’s office.”
Damn it! Great! Two mind munches working on me. “I prepared for the worst case scenario. It used to be insights like that were appreciated on a mission.”
Lo started cackling with annoying fervor. “I’m with you, Rick! Strictly business tonight, and no adlibs. You cover our asses when the mobsters collect their product, and we do the take down without complications. Once we throw the bangs, we’ll be doing nothing but collection.”
“Same as back in the old days, Lo, you’re disrespecting Cantelli Land. Trish… remember… in Cantelli Land nothing is as it seems.”
“Noted,” Trish said. “I’m going to have fun tonight. I can tell.”
“Blasphemy!” They laughed at me.
* * *
Oh man, this was so good. I’m such a liar. I knew I didn’t have to worry about the competence of my small team. I knew what my gig was on this. I moved the Dragunov sniper rifle through a broad range of sightings. I had my night vision scope in place. I was comfortable. We had already checked our earpiece communications with Bone, and between ourselves. We were just waiting. I didn’t know how my compatriots thought of this mission component: the waiting. This isn’t like surveillance for a cheating spouse. This was that tricky arena of thought, between anticipation and boredom. I’m one of those operatives who never get bored on a mission like this, because I anticipate the worst, handling it in my mind in every way, shape, and form, while I caress the tools I have at my disposal. Then I hear Bone in my ear.
“They just arrived, Rick. Someone opened the gate and closed it. They’re in my sight now. They came in a late model Beamer. I have license plate and everything. That’s great positioning on the outside cameras, brother.”
“Can you tell how many, Bone?”
“Six, Rick, and they’re exiting now. I… holy shit… Rick… Conus is there with Jamison! Holy shit… what the hell do you make of that?”
“Stay focused, Bone. We’re here, and we’ll see what we see. Lo… you copy?”
“You bet, Rick. Locked, loaded, and bang in hand.”
The entrance door opened, and within seconds, our communications blacked out. Uh oh. Game on. I had great sight of the scene from my night-vision scope on the Dragunov. I smiled. I admit it. Conus used an EMP device on us to cut off all our communications and security devices. Luckily, he didn’t blow out our outside camera feed, and on approach he didn’t know that we would be here in person. Lo and Trish had night vision goggles. Lo would know these jerks didn’t just come in and wipe out everything on a lark. They wanted to make sure there were no video or pictures of anything happening in the warehouse.
That left caught in the act. I would have rather had a nice clean round up with photo and video action. We don’t always get what we want. Conus stayed by the door with Jamison, while the other four minions took bags into the warehouse for collecting merchandise. Conus and Jamison didn’t have on night vision goggles. They were shocked as hell, both literally and figuratively when the Taser needles hit them. I could tell Granny Madigan had coached our newest employee, because oh my goodness did the barbeque smell bad. Before the minions returned Lo and Trish had Conus and Jamison dragged out of sight, trussed up like turkeys.
The minions returned with their flashlights. I tried to call down for them to get on the floor quietly, hands over heads. I had to shoot one in the shoulder that went for the door. Then I slithered down with my ears covered as the bangs I knew were coming hit. After that, I joined my partners, who were laughing inappropriately at the yowls of discontent amongst the bang victims. Bleeding orifices or not, the boys had to be restrained. I did so in as gentle a manner as I could before dragging them up against the wall, allowing them to sit up… or scream out from writhing positions on the floor. I patched up my gunshot victim with the warehouse first aid kit Trish brought me. Lo had to get outside the blast area to our equipment van, and use OnStar to call the incident in, and let Bone know we were okay. Lo called our new FBI Agent friend Suero too.
I maneuvered Conus and Jamison over with their cohorts. They were only now becoming coherent after being toasted on the grill. Trish covered me with my Ruger. If we watched them until the police arrived, we could forego touching anything on their persons. Conus was no dummy. I could tell by the look on his face he knew we had his ass. Jamison started threatening everything under the sun.
I nudged him with my foot. “Shut the hell up, Derek!”
“Who do you think you are, Cantelli? We’re here on business, and you attack us?”
That statement was so lame, both Trish and I laughed. “Your buddy Arlen here knows you two are in deep shit. Save your breath for the authorities. Agent Conus actually had an agent under him recruit us for this gig. What do you think, Arlen? How’d we do?”
Conus turned his head toward Jamison without reacting. “Keep quiet, and we’ll make a deal with the feds. They’ll want to roast me alive, and I’m not going to prison.”
I watched Jamison’s face. That folks was fear. I didn’t know about our buddy Arlen, but I could tell Jamison would rather go to prison. “Wow, you guys are in it with some bad people, huh?”
Then Conus looked up at me. “If you had any brains, Cantelli, you’d set us all free, and let me clean this mess up. When you fell into the operation in San Diego, it was mostly Wilshire’s fault for getting greedy, along with that other idiot Tennyson. Play it smart, and your firm can get out from under this before a building falls on you.”
“I appreciate your concern. You know they’ll never let up now. The main distribution center back East is under surveillance as we speak. Yeah, I could let you walk, but you wouldn’t be cleaning up anything. You’d be running for your life. I’d bet money the only reason you and Jamison are here in person is to take off with the final shipment as your own personal retirement package. You’ll have to make do with whatever deal your buddies upstairs in the FBI can come up with for you.”
Conus’s mouth tightened as I spoke. “You’re too smart for your own good, Cantelli. No way did I ever think you’d take the five grand, and immediately set up shop here the next day. I thought I could get Suero to play you for a while until we collected the shipment. Then she not only screws up a simple seduction, she starts making waves about corruption, and questioning my authority. I’ll make a deal, but I doubt it will do me any good.”
Maybe. “If you’re right about that, then you can see our position in this. I guess Wilshire naming names, and making this an operation over state lines, along with giving up the distribution center back East really screwed up your chances of a cover up.”
“Small doubt about that.”
Lois returned then with a big smile. She pulled me off to the side. “We have a flock of feds heading our way, including your girlfriend, Rita. The local PD will be here shortly, but they are to maintain the scene for the feds. Trish and I will watch the tater tots here while you collect all our gear and stash it in our van. If we can get out of here without any questions about our equipment, that would be very nice.”
Yeah, it would. “On it. I’ll let Trish fill you in on some of the interesting details while you were out.”
I beat the sirens by only seconds. The locals came in pumped for action, so we made sure we were waiting for them with weapons on the floor and hands behind heads. They sorted us out quickly, thanks to a grizzled gray Sergeant Francone, who directed us to the side, called in for EMT’s, and secured the scene with surprising alacrity.
When all things were in a wait and see order, Francone turned to me. “Rick Cantelli, P.I. to the stars, right?”
“Would it do any good for me to beg for mercy, Sergeant?”
Francone chuckled. “I confess I’ve read about so many of your adventures over the past year, it’s a real treat to see you and your partner in action. I’ll refrain from asking how ex CIA agents running a gumshoe security firm in San Diego get tied up in an LA drug operation. I have my orders. Is it true that Conus over the
re is FBI?”
I liked Francone. “Yeah, and he’s in up to his eyeballs.”
“Oh my… good one. I hate taking pleasure in someone’s bad times, but the feds have drop kicked us in the ass so many times I think I’ll just enjoy the moment. My compliments to you and Ms. Madigan. If it wasn’t for Agent Suero arriving shortly, I’d let you all walk right now. It’s not like we can’t get in touch with you. I called the owner. He’s coming down too. Terry vouched for all of you on the phone. I’ve come in here for decades to get my tires done, so I know a standup guy like Terry wouldn’t screw with me.”
“They were setting him up to take the fall for this,” I explained. “You’re right. Terry’s a guy you make sure gets treated right, or you boink the ones trying to screw him.”
Francone held out his hand and I shook it. “That’s how I see it too. I’ll let you know when Suero shows.”
Lois and Trish had stayed silent during the interchange. We score points where we can, and keep the talk down to a minimum. It looked like the locals were on our side, so if Suero arrives without malice, we should be able to get the hell out of here.
“I’m thinking we may be able to spend the day by the pool dozing and partaking of adult beverages, Hooterville,” Lo said.
“I’m going to make the FBI liable for the equipment their dirty Agent Conus ruined with that EMP gizmo he brought. Damn… I hope it was just something to screw up the signal rather than an actual EMP.”
“I’ve been afraid to check,” Lois admitted. She took out her iPhone and hit a button on her contact list. Bone’s smiling face popped into view. I could tell Lo was relieved. I know I was. “Bone… we’re back on.”
“I’m getting signal back from all the cameras too, Lo,” Bone answered. “They used a jammer on us, huh?”
“Thankfully,” Lo replied. “You up to running the place with Shelly tomorrow?”
“You bet. Shelly knows the game. We’ll have it all waitin’ for you and Rick in good shape.”
“You’re on my favored list above Cantelli. Don’t screw it up Bone.”
Rick Cantelli, P.I. Deadly Liaisons (Rick Cantelli, P.I. Detectives Book 2) Page 14