Beer, Bait, and Ammo

by Harper, Chap

  “I know it’s a risk. I may have to start all over with learning, but I think if that’s the case, I can accelerate the process. I’ve wanted a degree, or degrees, for years, but it’s so difficult to complete outside the traditional methods. Law school or a criminal justice degree has been a goal for a while, but afterwards I might stay in law enforcement since I have some skills there. I want to make enough money to adequately support a family as well. My dad has struggled so hard since the Weyerhaeuser plant shut down, and I’d like to help him out to make his life a little easier,” Lester explained. He also believed the family part explained his intentions with Debi.

  “Well, I’m jumping ahead here, but I know my daughter pretty well, and if she gets any more serious about you, I’ll have grandkids a little closer to home before too long. If you guys stay together, and when and if the time comes, I might be able to lend you a little money to help you with your school. I want to see you get that degree as well.”

  Two labs ran through the garage and headed for the men standing by the grill. Bongo and Hershey slowed down and jumped up and around the two men, with tails going into full-fast wag. Marty told them to calm down, but it didn’t seem to help much. Susan and Debi called them and put them back in their pen in the side yard.

  “Great dogs,” Lester said. “And thanks for the offer to help with school. I’m hoping for scholarships and grants—that isn’t for sure, so it’s nice to know I might have a fallback plan. If I did accept help, it definitely would be a loan. Thanks again for the offer.” He was a little shocked that Marty would offer to help on his first visit, but it might have also been his way of saying, “If you want my daughter, then you better, by God, get a degree and a real job.”

  Susan brought out a serving platter to retrieve the pork loin, and Lester followed Marty inside to find a beautifully set table. Susan and Marty knew the look on their daughter’s face while she talked to Lester during the meal. It was as though they were already married and had been for years. Susan had made her peace with Lester. Marty continued to be a fan and was even more impressed once he had actually talked to him.

  Debi ushered Lester to the car after a short period of after-dinner drinks. She had other things on her mind.

  She shed her clothes as soon as they walked in the door of Lester’s apartment, leaving a trail of shorts, tank tops and panties right up next to the bed. She wanted on top and he didn’t object. Both finished far too soon but marked it up to a build-up of emotions. They grabbed robes and moved to the deck, where they shared a couch. Debi laid in Lester’s lap, and she looked up at him while he stared down at her beautiful face. They were talking quietly when Lester’s cell phone rang.

  “Lester, Mike. Hot Springs police want to talk to you at the scene of a murder at Whispering Oaks subdivision. The body’s been moved already. Another died at the hospital. An escort is still alive with a bullet in her arm. Your suspension is over. Get over here, pronto, before the local police screw up your crime scene. FBI said they needed to talk to you as well. The whore has already lawyered up.”

  Chapter Twelve

  “Jim, are these people part of Spider’s organization?” Lester asked when he got Jim Webb on his cell phone.

  “Don’t think so. Three guns left at the crime scene—one an Uzi—a quick check by your local police shows no connection to Tony’s store. No serial numbers on the Uzi. The nine millimeter registered to a Molly Gonzalez—the real name of the whore. The .45 was the Doc’s. If Spider didn’t buy this operation before, she sure as hell will pick it up for pocket change now. We need to find active landlines and tap them, if possible. I’m sure they talk to each other on burners, but we’ll try anyway. Sent a crew to Hot Springs as soon as the local police called us. They’ll be there soon. I’ll keep you informed,” Jim said.

  “Did we get the hooker’s cell?” Lester asked.

  “She didn’t have one on her, according to the police.”

  “Bet she dumped it on the way to the hospital. I’ll do a search,” Lester said.

  Lester pulled up to Dr. Simpson’s house, and was met by Captain Larry Boshears at the door. He showed Lester the three main areas of blood stains, and where the doctor’s body was found. They walked the scene and followed the patterns of gunshots.

  “The hooker was on the couch, and fired one shot at the doctor. He returned one shot. Doesn’t really matter in what order. The driver came through the door, firing almost a full magazine at the doctor before the shot that killed him. It appears most of the shots just messed up the décor. Why would she shoot a customer? Maybe she was jacking the price? If he refused, she was going to either extort money or just plain rob his ass. He went for his gun, and she fired at him. He returned fire, and the big gun came through the door. Not complicated, but strange that no money ever changed hands.”

  “Any credit card charges? Anything happen on his computer recently?” Lester asked. The captain told him they were checking, but the doctor did have over a thousand cash in his pockets.

  “Captain, can you spare some men to do a search for a possible tossed cell phone?” Lester asked.

  Captain Boshears ordered the search. Lester directed the men to look only to the left side of the road, since the girl was driving with only a good left hand. He had them walk the area starting on the other side of the gate entrance. The four officers took only thirty minutes to find an iPhone intact, with a charge still on the battery.

  “This call girl just had to have a smart phone instead of a burner phone,” Lester said. He asked the captain to check her recent calls. Vander Usterhoff came up quickly, followed by calls to the Asian massage parlor. Many other calls were to other girls, listed on her phone with apparent aliases. He decided to hand over the phone to the FBI men that Jim Webb was sending to rig up the wire taps. This was going to be done quickly, but Lester figured that the important calls had already taken place. He was right.

  “Vander, this is Angel. Heard about your problem. Want to sell your call girl operation?” Spider asked.

  “Maybe,” Vander said, trying not to sound anxious.

  “Tell me what I’d be buying besides your sites, phone numbers, vehicles, and the names of the girls on contract. Have a feeling some of them are already my girls.”

  “Not many. Pulled those girls when you bought the strip clubs and massage parlor. I have thirty girls located in Arkansas and Oklahoma. None as stupid as the one that got shot tonight. I think she tossed her phone. So far, they haven’t found it. If they bring in McFarlin, there’s a good chance he’ll look for it. Get ready for a tap on every landline listed in her database. You’d also get the web sites and the encryption software. I took down the Wild Girls’ number, but the other two escort services listed in the phone book are mine as well. So, you get thirty girls, website, ads in phone book, five limos, five machine pistols, and ten…no, make that nine, part-time drivers who were issued the weapons. Sell it all to you for a hundred thousand. It brought in a half million last year,” Vander said.

  “Jesus H. Christ! You might have to pay me to take this crap off your hands. All of them will have to be retrained, and this shit of changing prices and holding people up won’t happen in my operation. I’ll have to redesign the website, change all the ads in the phone books, and change the titles on the limos. I’ll give you twenty-five thousand dollars for the whole operation,” Spider said.

  “No fucking way! But I’ll let you have it for seventy-five large, because I think they’ll impound the limo and it’s new.”

  “I’ll go forty thousand and that’s it. You may be in prison and have to use the money to buy body guards to keep from being some nigger’s bitch. I’m going to hang up in five seconds and won’t entertain an offer after that. You need me…I can steal all this from you in time, anyway.”

  Silence extended through the full five seconds. “Holy shit, I’m getting fucked in the ass—okay, do the conversion on feathercoins and send them to my Jeweled Ladies’ account listed on Tor,” Va
nder said. He knew he would clean out all the cash in that account before he transferred it to Spider.

  “Ok. I’ll have to go cyber mining to find them. The transferring account will be Mama’s Automatics. You’ll get half the money, and the rest when you send me all the info. Once you get the money, I’ll need the contact numbers for all the girls and limo drivers. Send all limo titles, ad charges, inventory of weapons, vehicles and their locations, and other miscellaneous items to my S.G. Crystals’ P.O. Box in Mount Ida.”

  Spider was thinking about the steps to find enough cyber money to purchase and then transfer to Vander. It wasn’t like going to a bank; instead, you bought either bitcoins or feathercoins in the cyber fund network at whatever prices you could negotiate, but the transaction would avoid being recorded. They could be converted to real cash by selling them to an eager market anytime. The value was so great, many were now sold by fractions of a coin.

  “I should’ve sold everything to you when you bought the clubs. Now I have to dodge cops. May be out of touch for a while… Caribbean sounds nice.” Vander hung up, and Spider could imagine the wild scrambling going on to put everything in order, so he could fly off in his private plane to escape the local law. Spider supposed that as long as Vander had an internet connection, he was okay to survive just about anywhere.

  Stick clicked off his cell phone and headed to a meeting with Lauren Bell at a local title company. The sale of the bait store had been accelerated, cash distributed, and an alcohol permit sent off to hopefully be approved. It had been a few years since Stick had had any problems with the law and all had been expunged, so maybe he would pass the process. Angel Gambini’s police report wouldn’t allow her to sell lemonade in front of the bait store, so her name was not on anything, but her money backed the check Stick wrote for the transaction. Once the keys were handed over, an out-of-state contractor would begin to add a concrete room at the rear of the store, where orders for Mama’s Automatics could be filled. The dark net would come to life in Garland County, Arkansas.

  Spider had plans to expand the garage behind S.G. Crystals to include the escort limos, the UPS trucks, and her private Lotus sports car. Guns sold on the dark net could be delivered all over the Southwest by her trained uniformed workers. Everything was falling into place to grow Spider’s backwoods crime network, located apart from most of the world, into a major player. Her chances of bypassing scrutiny by law enforcement were fading rapidly. Lester and Sheriff Jake were about to make a friendly first-time visit. Even the yard man who cut the grass at S.G. Crystals knew there was no such thing as a “Welcome to Mt. Ida” visit from these two lawmen.

  Lester drove to his office and stuck his head in Mike Adams’ door. He didn’t speak when he saw the sheriff look out the window and curse at the person on the phone. Lester proceeded to the evidence room and checked out a piece of evidence from the Quince Jackson shooting case. It was a small cardboard box the size of an old VHS shipping container with the words, “Don’t open without permission of L. McFarlin” marked on top. Lester signed for it and walked back to the sheriff’s office.

  The cursing had ceased and he was downing a cup of coffee that had cooled during his long phone conversation.

  “Mike, can I have a minute?” Lester asked.

  “Shit. I guess, but it better not be some international smuggling ring or something that takes all my deputies from their jobs.”

  “No. It’s simple. If I can find a way for the department to pay for the repairs on my Yukon without going through my insurance company and outside your budget, would you entertain it?”

  “Maybe—if it doesn’t get me arrested,” Mike said.

  “Remember when I found all those guns at Quince Jackson’s place?” Lester didn’t wait for him to answer. “Along with the guns, I found a box of money, and there’s no longer a need to hold it for trial. I heard from Golden’s. My car is fixed, and the tab is six thousand dollars. There’s twenty-four thousand, three hundred dollars in this box to use as general funds, since the money is a confiscated item.” Lester smiled and handed the box over to the sheriff.

  “Did you tell me about this money before? I don’t remember it.”

  “It’s in my report, but a little hard to read. I got busy and failed to record this for Little Richard to type up. Anyway it solves our problems. Me and Jake are going together to S&G and I need my car.” Lester smiled and hoped the Sheriff was too busy to fight him on this.

  “Goddammit, Lester! I’m not sure we’re allowed to do this. Let me bring in the property clerk.” He dialed her number, and she showed up almost immediately. She was pretty and had dated Lester in the past. Lester had moved on when she started getting clingy, but neither had hard feelings.

  “Peggy, I want to pay Lester for his shot-up car—six grand, I think—hell, you know all about the shooting. He found a box of money with the guns he brought in on the Jackson case. Should be our money now since it’s illegal—owner’s dead—all that shit. If you agree it’s abandoned or confiscated property, then log this money out, list what it’s for, and put the balance in our operations account. Get receipts.” Mike handed her the money and Lester followed her to her desk. She took care of the transaction, did the paperwork, and recorded everything so that Mike and Lester wouldn’t be cellmates.

  “I hear you’re seeing the new speech therapist in town. Is that right?” Peggy asked.

  “Yes. Word gets out I guess,” Lester said. He smiled, recalling that he and Peggy had some pretty intense nights together.

  “You don’t date cops anymore, do you?”

  “Nope, you cured me of that.”

  “We had some good times,” Lester said.

  “Yes, we did. It just didn’t last on your part. But I wish the both of you well,” Peggy said. She had him sign a receipt for the cash. “Please bring me the invoice from Golden’s Body Shop. And good luck with Jake today. By the way, you know this money should go through the courts first. I won’t tell, but be prepared to have your ass chewed out someday soon.”

  “Thanks.”

  After getting a ride from Rich, Lester learned there was news from New Orleans.

  “Lester, I got that application back yesterday—filled it out—faxed it to them. Got a phone call today saying it’s approved for the 9mm MAC-11—three thousand, three hundred and fifty dollars and it’s mine. Should I talk to Sheriff Mike about it? We now have that money you got from the gun seizure.”

  “Rich, that’s great, but I want to go with you to sell this to Mike, if I can. We need to contact ATF to see if there really is a violation. Find someone at ATF and send them a copy of your application to check to see if it’s legal. Don’t let them do anything yet. If the application is clean, we need to see if we can get them to step over the line when we go down there. Hold tight, but tell the gun dealer that we want to shoot it first and that we’re planning a trip to New Orleans soon. Also, how do you feel about taking Becca? I’ll take Debi so it’ll look less like a couple of cops coming to investigate.”

  “Oh, my God! Do you have a bottle of Viagra I can borrow?” Rich asked.

  Little Richard let him out at Golden’s Body Shop and headed back to the office.

  On Lester’s way to Mt. Ida, his cell phone went off.

  “Hey guy, you on your way?” Debi asked.

  “Yep! Got ol’ red back—good as new.”

  “Great. See you tonight, sweetheart.”

  “Looking forward to it, babe.”

  Lester smiled as his SUV blew past Crystal Springs and headed towards the community of Joplin. He wouldn’t be able to see S.G. Crystals’ operations from the highway, as it sat a couple miles off the highway. Jake had agreed to meet him at the entrance to Mountain Harbor Resort, so he didn’t have to drive another twenty minutes to his office. He did notice a “sold” sign on Joey’s Bait as he went by Crystal Springs and wondered who bought the store. Shortly afterwards, he saw the sheriff’s car parked at the grocery store by the turn-off to Mountain
Harbor.

  “Lester, I want to show you something before we get there,” Jake said.

  He pulled out a file and opened it, exposing several color pictures blown up to 8” x 10” size.

  “Look here, Lester. They’ve got some interesting things in their garage,” Jake said. The photos revealed a couple of UPS trucks, a limo, and a red Lotus sports car, as well as dump trucks bringing in material and backing into the rear of the large metal building.

  The pictures had been taken from three game cameras around the perimeter of the compound that were set to take a digital picture every fifteen minutes. Also at the front of the building were several pictures of a black Hummer occupied by a pretty blond lady.

  “You know, Jake, UPS trucks go back to their service centers every night. These’re probably either stolen ones or fakes used to deliver whatever without questions by the drivers.”

  “This Spider Lady doesn’t miss a beat, does she?” Jake said.

  “It’s scary how efficiently she operates. Give her time and the bitch’ll take over the world,” Lester said.

  “It’s going to take some help to bring her down,” Jake said.

  “Jake, are you ready to go? Let’s take two cars to the turn off and then take your cruiser in. I can pick up my car on the way out,” Lester said. He followed Jake back to the entrance to S & G.

  Jake had called ahead to tell them that he was making a welcome call, and would be there in a few minutes. He could sense they were nervous. The facility was a distance off the road, so they left Lester’s Yukon near the highway. As they pulled up to the guard gate, they noticed a black Hummer parked in front of the metal building. A tall attractive woman stood next to it, smiling.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Vandy, where we going, sweetie?” Tammy Wallace asked.