by Brad Cooper
He stepped onto the sidewalk one building down, across the alley from Tochigi’s. The light from the kitchen spilled out onto the street, lighting the side of the automobile parked in the space in front of the building. Robbins sneaked toward the doorway and peered inside. His decision to do so was perilous. The door was solid glass, as was the front of the building, leaving him entirely visible and quite vulnerable. As he edged closer to the door, he momentarily reconsidered his move. The large man was almost certainly a bodyguard of some sort and was definitely armed. Kevin remembered leaving his firearm in his truck. The thought of things going so horribly wrong that he’d need it at some point in the night hadn’t crossed his mind. Now he wished it had.
Akira was hidden by the wall but Kevin’s view of the elder Tochigi was unobstructed. He watched as Hotaka carefully removed several packages covered in duct tape from the bags and laid them on the table. The contents were completely concealed. He removed a box cutter and made a small incision beside the tape on one of the packages in order to examine the contents. Kevin waited for him to lick his finger and taste the contents but Hotaka never did.
Another movie myth exposed, Kevin thought.
Hotaka turned toward the unseen Akira, prompting Robbins to spin away from the door and back around the corner. He stood with his back against the brick wall that had been painted white decades before and looked carefully around the corner.
Drugs, Robbins thought. They’re moving drugs.
Robbins took the digital camera from his pocket and switched on the power. He turned off the flash and zoomed in on the illuminated kitchen, quickly taking three pictures in succession. He zoomed in tighter on the area of interest and snapped two more. He winced at the motorized sound of the zoom lens repackaging itself. He didn’t know how useful the digital photos would prove to be but merely having them was better than having nothing. With the camera off and back in his pocket, he hurried back across the street and onto the bridge. Halfway across, he looked to his left and saw Sparks and Amick walking around the side of the building and facing his direction. Kevin ducked behind the concrete wall and looked behind him to check for any approaching vehicles. He crawled forward across the bridge on all fours, feeling the rocks pressing through his jeans and into his kneecaps.
After crossing the creek, he stumbled into Lisa’s front yard and around the right side of the house. He stayed low, despite the fact that he could not be seen from a distance, and pulled himself up onto the railing of the back deck. Kevin unlocked the door and walked into the dark house, feeling his way to the kitchen. He was careful not to turn on a lamp. A sudden burst of light from a house thought to be empty would surely cause a stir among those who he’d rather leave alone for the time being. However, he couldn’t dial his cell phone without being able to see the keypad.
He opened the door to the refrigerator and the interior light shined enough to allow him to see anything within a five foot radius but not enough to be seen from the outside, provided he stood in front of the crack in the door. He dialed Clark’s number and waited for the answer. When Ryan had told him about what he believed to be a phone tap, the time was taken for a code of sorts to be created. Ryan would not speak. He would listen until the salutation at the end of the call and the rest would be handled on Kevin’s end. One statement meant that he was finished and ready to be picked up per the predetermined plan, and another statement was simply a distress call.
After two rings, the call was answered but no words were spoken. “Hey, bring that book by when you get a chance. It’s the next one in the series and you said it was good,” Kevin said.
“No problem,” Ryan said. The line clicked and the call was over. The duration of the call was just under ten seconds.
Twenty minutes remained until nightfall. Kevin was to wait until then before walking the quarter of a mile to the turnoff to Ruby Mountain Road. With plenty of foliage a few feet past the edge of the road, he would have a haven for quick cover should the need arise. Ryan would be by to pick him up, retrieve his camera and whatever else Kevin had, and take him to where his vehicle was parked. Being tailed was virtually impossible, and with the men involved consumed with the action from night of the shipment there would be no one available to do the following.
Ryan looked out the window and tapped his fingers on the windowsill. The last bastion of sunlight was fading quickly but not at a pace fast enough to suit him. The impatience was mounting. The thought of Kevin waiting by the road, in essence unprotected, troubled him. Should one of the cops see him by the side of the road, no car in sight, after dark, they would surely notice and undoubtedly be suspicious. Clark would rather be too early than too late. Too early could be explained away but too late would forever be on his conscience.
He locked the door and walked outside to his car. Getting to the meeting point would take no more than three minutes and only that long when driving extra slow. In addition to the many things that the town represented, including the newly discovered ones, Spring Creek was a speed trap and the police weren’t overly friendly to offenders. A traffic stop meant a delay and there was a schedule to be kept. Ryan wondered if his knowledge of their dirty deeds would be a free pass to go as fast as he pleased until the score was settled.
Classic rock roared from the speakers when he started the engine. He quickly turned the down the volume. Clark rolled slowly to the end of the driveway and looked for any sign of someone whose sole purpose was to watch him. With no one in sight, he pulled onto the road. Two rolling stops at curiously hidden stop signs and an extended red light later, Ryan was approaching the meeting point.
He checked his mirror again and saw no pursuers. He slowed to less than five miles per hour and rolled down his tinted driver’s side window. With no sign of Robbins, he pulled to the shoulder of the road opposite the turn onto Ruby Mountain Road and stopped. Kevin stepped from the wooded area and jogged across the street. He hurried into Ryan’s car and was still buckling his seat belt as Clark pulled away.
“You’re early,” Robbins said, clicking the metal bracket into place.
“Better early than late, huh?” said Ryan. He started out toward the Monroeville gas station where they’d left Kevin’s car several hours before. “Got anything useful?”
“You have no idea. How good are you with Photoshop?”
“Photoshop? I’m alright, a little better than a beginner, but I’m not an expert by any stretch. I can handle the basics and a bit more. Why?”
“I took a few shots that may come in handy but they’ll need to be cleaned up a little. The view wasn’t very good and the lighting sucked.
“Weren’t they taken outside? The light should have been fine.”
“I’ve got a few things to explain so try not to run off the road,” Robbins said. ”I think I know what’s going on with that chopper.”
Clark glanced at him then turned back to the road ahead. “What?”
“They’re running protection for someone. Security, whatever you want to call it.”
“That’s not a crime but I’m guessing something else is.”
“Drug trafficking is a crime. At least it was the last I heard,” Robbins said, staring over at Clark and waiting for a reaction.
“Drugs?” Ryan asked in disbelief, alternating his open eyed stare between the front windshield and Kevin in the passenger seat. He remained silent for several seconds then continued. “You’re telling me they’re moving drugs? Alright, I’ll buy that but who are they working for or protecting or whatever?”
“I have no idea,” Robbins said, “but our foreign friends downtown have something to do with it. Just wait ‘til you see the pics.”
“Foreign friends?” he asked, buying time to allow him to think. “The Tochigis? What do they have to do with this?”
“Whatever they took off that chopper went right into the restaurant. I took the pics of them doing stuff in the kitchen. It sure wasn’t food they were bringing in. It’s got to be drugs of some sort.
This is some serious mierda, amigo.”
Clark’s Spanish was rusty but he understood the statement.
Clark rolled into the parking lot and stopped in the space beside Kevin’s car. “How many pics?”
“I don’t know. Four or five, maybe six. That’s just of the kitchen area. There were a few more taken outside that are clearer. I don’t know how much you can do with them but if we get them to one of the other agencies or something I bet they can.” Kevin unbuckled his seat belt and searched for the keys in his pocket.
“I’ll do what I can with them but no promises. Jump online tonight and I’ll send you a message if I get something.” Kevin started to get out but Clark stopped him and said, “You didn’t have to do this, but I’m glad you did. I’m not even sure what we’re doing but it’s not going to work without your help. I’ll owe you several big ones if we get out of this.”
With a smile Kevin said, “Get your girl and name a son after me and don’t worry about it,” and got out of the car.
Ryan watched Kevin pull out onto the road and drive away. He stayed in his parking spot and turned on the digital camera. The first picture taken by Kevin flashed onto the display. The image was unclear but a human form was distinct in the distance. He pressed the button to zoom in on the image and the outline became clearer.
Clark smiled.
Finally, we have something to work with, he thought.
No. We have an advantage.
CHAPTER
30
The computer’s performance was sluggish, Clark noticed, and was in serious need of an upgrade. In reality, he just wanted an excuse to add bigger, faster, and more powerful components to his appliance. If something was going to consume so much of his time, it should at least be top of the line. He plugged the USB cable into his digital camera and waited for the operating system to recognize the new device. When it did, he clicked the icon to view the pictures. Opening the first one, he saw that the first image was grainy and mostly shadowed but could be augmented. The photos that followed were of similar quality but progressively better, particularly the last two which were zoomed in tight on the intended target.
Clark’s first thought was to make an immediate backup of the files, something that had occurred to him when Lisa brought the video to him but had not turned out to be a positive. Instead, it resulted in a break-in, a scuffle, and a stitched but sore and still-healing knife wound on his right arm. With any luck, the disc he was about to burn would not manufacture the same results. He opened the top desk drawer to his right and found his spindle of compact discs to be empty, the last one likely burned by Kara. She had an insatiable desire for many things, including a growing collection of mix CDs, half of which she would inevitably lose. Needing an alternative, he fumbled through the drawer and found his spindle of blank DVDs, took one of the remaining five, and placed it in his DVD recorder.
Ryan moved the pictures from the camera to the My Documents folder on his hard drive, then opened his DVD recording program and waited for it to load. He clicked through the file list and found the folder that contained the pictures along with hundreds of other unsorted random files. Everything from videos to pictures to songs to documents had their icons littered across the screen, making him wish he’d taken the time to sort them or at least rename the file names on the pictures to something easily recognizable upon first glance.
Adam walked through the front door with Kara just behind him. He looked tired, both physically and mentally, and felt just as he looked. He was two weeks past due for a haircut and it showed. Ryan could barely see his eyes, and on their drive back from the hospital moments before, Kara joked that his hair blew in the wind more than hers did. His attitude was sour and his bitterness grew each time he went to see Lisa, not because of her condition but because of the circumstances that had landed her there.
He looked over and said, “How many hours a week do you sit in front of that thing? Just ballpark it.”
Ryan let out a breath. “Too many but I do have some news.” He got up from the chair and walked toward Adam. “Our anonymous friends in the chopper showed up right on time tonight.”
“How many were killed?” Adam asked, half-joking and half-serious. He wasn’t smiling.
“None, but I think we’ve made some progress. Let’s just say that while you two were at the hospital, Kevin and I went Mission: Impossible for a little while and it paid off.”
“What are you talking about?” Adam asked.
“That’s why I wanted you two out of the house. We stashed Kevin’s car and he kept an eye on what was going on from Lisa’s house. He even got a few pics with my camera. You’re not going to believe this.”
Adam waited a moment for him to elaborate. “Well?”
“Look for yourself,” Ryan said, walking toward the computer. He sat down and brought up the window for the folder containing the pictures. He double-clicked the first image, which instantly appeared on the screen.
“Tell me what I’m looking at,” Adam said.
“Tell me what we’re looking at,” Kara said from over Ryan’s other shoulder. He jumped at hearing the unexpected voice.
“Well, thanks for joining the discussion,” Ryan said to Kara. Then to both: “He shot this looking into Tochigi’s. Two guys in the back. One of them is Mr. Tochigi. One of them is a big Japanese guy but we don’t know who he is. He came in on the chopper with some other guy who’s probably his boss, but that’s not the important part.” He swiveled around in his chair and looked up at the two people who hovered over him. “It’s all about what they brought in with them.”
“Which is?” Kara asked.
“Two duffle bags. They took them out of the chopper and straight into the building. Kevin followed them over and snapped a few shots but it’s what he saw that counts. He thinks he knows what they’re hauling in here that’s so important.” He paused for effect and said, “I assume you two are familiar with drug trafficking.” Clark reclined in his chair and interlocked his fingers behind his head. He looked up at them and waited for a reaction with raised eyebrows.
“All this… all this… for drugs? One guy dead, one guy in jail, and an innocent girl almost killed because they want to ship drugs in here?” Adam was in a controlled rage that was seconds away from boiling over. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” he said, pacing in order to burn the energy off. “Bastards!” he screamed in disgust.
“Look, we’re going to get this to whoever needs to have it and we’ll get them to talk to Kevin and take care of these guys. Remember, we’ve got something again. The video is gone but we both know they didn’t destroy it. We show them this stuff, they’ll go in and get the tape, get their proof, and haul them off.”
“We have nothing,” Adam barked back. He pointed at the screen and said, “We’ve got grainy pictures that may or may not show two people in the back room of a building doing something. That’s it.”
Clark spoke calmly, hoping to encourage Adam to do the same. “We’ll handle it. We just need some time to think.”
“We’ve had time, Ryan. We’ve tried doing the right thing and it’s come back to screw us over and over again. I’m done with it.” He threw his arms up in disgust and left the room, pounding his feet down the stairs and into the basement.
Ryan started to call out to him but thought better of it. “Go see if you can calm him down. You know how he gets and I’ve got to get these backed up and ready to send to whoever needs to have them. Please?” he said to Kara.
“I’ll go talk to him. I’ll yell if I need you,” Kara said.
Clark clicked back into the window for the DVD recording program and sorted out the files he wanted to burn to the disc. Inside the folder was another folder labeled My Videos. He remembered the football games he’d encoded and made a mental note to burn a couple of games to DVD so he could clear the space from his hard drive. The games were listed in alphabetical order, one file for each quarter of each game. At the top of the list was a single
file that appeared out of place. Instead of the football-specific filenames given to the others, the file was named “Video 1.avi”. He pointed the cursor to the file and the properties appeared, showing a file size that was too large for an unlabeled file that escaped his memory.
Clark double-clicked the file and the media player appeared. The video of he and Adam playing chess was the first scene of the video. “I don’t believe it. I completely forgot,” he said to himself with a smile. He immediately closed the media player and dragged the icon for the video into the DVD burning software. He started the process of burning the DVD and stood up from his chair. “I love when karma’s on my side.”
After hearing footsteps from the stairway, Ryan looked to the hall and saw Kara. “Get down here now,” she said.
Ryan rushed downstairs and saw Adam frantically searching through the shelves under the steps. The anger was apparent on his face. “What are you looking for?” he asked.
Adam didn’t answer. He halted his search of the second shelf and moved to the third. Ryan looked on the top shelf and saw an object lying there that did not belong. The single barrel shotgun that his father left for him, an antique passed down from his great-grandfather, was always kept on the other side of the basement and he knew that Adam was searching for the shells. For what purpose he didn’t know, but he suspected the worst.
“You mind telling me what you’re doing?” Ryan asked. “Have you completely lost your mind?”
Again, Adam didn’t answer. He pulled out the box of shells and blew the dust off of the box. He looked at Ryan but didn’t speak and walked away from him.
“Hey!” Ryan called out. Adam turned around to face him. “What are you doing with my shotgun?”
“Relax. You’ve never even fired it,” Adam said before turning to walk away again.
Ryan grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. Kara watched from halfway up the stairs. “That doesn’t make it any less mine. Where do you think you’re going?”