by P. Thompson
“That sounds even better. See you at five then.” And he hung up.
I went out front and Loraine was on the phone so I had to wait till she was through.
“I need you to check and see about houseboat rentals. If you find one that matches our guy’s boat, find out all you can and who rented it. Don’t let on about it being blown to pieces at the lake.”
Loraine’s phone rang about that time and she answered it, “Sheriff’s office, Loraine here. Okay, she’s right here, let me get her.” She handed me the phone and said “Doc Simpson for you.”
“Put it on speaker phone.” I told her.
“Yeah Doc, I’m here. What do you need?”
“You need to come by, I’ve got something on the girl from the lake I think you’ll be interested in.” He said.
“I’ll be there in ten. Do you need anything, cup of coffee or a Coke?”
“A Coke would be lovely, made it a diet one, please.”
“Sure thing.”
“Well I’m off, see you guys later. What are Bo and Bubba working on this week?” I asked Loraine.
“Bo’s in court all this week and Bubba has a rape case out at the country club. Looks like you’re on this almost by yourself.”
I left for Doc Simpson’s morgue.
******
I entered Doc Simpson’s cool basement morgue and held my breath. I hate the smell down here.
“Hey, Doc, it’s me. Where are you?” I called out.
He came out of the office and as he did, I handed him his diet Coke.
“Aww, thank you.” He said. Then he cracked the seal on the cap and took a long cool drink.
“So what do you have to tell me that so important I have to come to you?”
“There something funny about her finger prints. I sent them off to the FBI and the TBI and on both accounts was told to mind my own business. Well, I sent them to a friend, who shall not be named, and they came back as she’s an agent with the NCIS. ”He told me, with a grin from ear to ear, like he had pulled one over on the FBI and TBI.
“So does this mean she was working undercover and that’s why the FBI and the TBI are being so closed mouth?” My thoughts were said aloud.
“Could be, could be.”
“To think she married him is way beyond the call of duty, even for undercover. I wonder if Carl knew she was undercover or even an NCIS agent?”
“Good question, one you should ask him.” Doc said.
“Thanks for the info. Think I’ll take a trip over to the hospital and talk with Carl. He’s supposed to get out today sometime. I don’t want to miss him and then have to chase him down.”
When I reached the hospital, I found Carl dressed and ready to leave. Haley was there all smiles and caring. Nurse Cathy was wheeling in the wheel chair and I asked her to wait for a few minutes.
“Carl, we need to talk.” I told him.
He sat back down on the bed and cradled him arm that was in a sling. “What now? I just want to go home or at least to Haley’s place and relax. This has all been more than I can take in. I still have to make funeral arrangements and find out when they’ll release her to me.”
“This won’t take too long and I’ll need Haley’s address and phone number before you go. We sent off Lisa’s fingerprints to the FBI and the TBI. They told us to mind out own business. Thinking that was a little weird we sent them to an unnamed source and we got back some information we weren’t expecting.” I told him.
“What kind of information?”
“Well first, let me tell you what we’ve learned so far. That houseboat you were on was brought to the marina by Diego. We’re looking now to see if he rented it and where.” I watched his face light up and then turn to anger. “Then while we were interviewing people in the neighborhood one gentleman saw then hustle your sister into a dark colored car. She wasn’t happy about getting into it. The windows were too dark for him to see who was driving, but he thought it could be Diego. Now, to the fingerprints. Your sister was an agent working undercover for NCIS.” His face told it all, he had no idea what his sister was in to.
“That’s impossible, I would have known, she would have told me.” He cried.
“We believe she was working undercover on his drug dealings. Right now that’s just a guess on our part. We’ve been told to keep our distance from Diego, but it’s hard to do and work the case of the houseboat explosion and the death of Lisa. I need to sit and pick your brain; you need to tell things you might know that will help us find this guy. Right now he’s made himself scarce. You go to Haley’s and tomorrow I want us to get together.”
I got Haley’s address and phone number and then left him to think about what I had told him.
******
When five o’clock rolled around, I was sitting at the bar of Table Number Nine having a Drambuie on the rocks, make that a double. Sophie was telling me about a bad shipment of beer that had got overheated and was flat as a fritter. I saw Randy when he pulled up and sauntered in the door. Sophie went to the end of the bar and waved him on in to where I was at.
“Hey, how are things going?” He asked.
“Not bad, Randy. What do you want to drink, on the house?”
“Aw, pull me a beer from the barrel, maybe that Mexican one over there.” He pointed to our newest draft beer.
“Ralph has either meat loaf or fried chicken tonight, with all the fixings.”
“I do love Ralph’s fried chicken so I do believe that’s what I’ll have.”
“Me too. Let me go tell Betty and I’ll be right back.”
When I returned I slid on to the bar stool and got comfortable. There was no one else there yet so we had the bar to ourselves. I explained to him about the houseboat, which he already knew because it was all over the news, and then I went on to fill him in on Diego.
“What I need is for you to get into his phone, his, computer his iPad anything he owns. It’s no good in court, but I need to know everything I can about this monster. You’ve got better equipment that we got so I need a trace on his tags. DMV only gives me so much. I want to know if there’s anything beside the SUV, like boats, other cars, even motorcycles. You have to keep this on the QT from Jeff. Him being the sheriff it wouldn’t look good for him to know and it wouldn’t look good for me if he knew.”
“Not a problem. Do you have his cellphone number handy? The rest I can get from there on. I’ll turn my guys loose on it first thing in the morning. They should be done with our little project we’ve been working on the past week by late tonight.
I gave him all the info I had on Diego plus a number for one of his boys that hung around him.
The chicken came about that time and we chowed down like we were starved to death, which I was. Randy got another beer and I took on a glass of sweet iced tea.
I paid for Randy’s dinner and drinks and left Betty a tip in her jar and one in Sophie’s too. Then I head for home and a nice warm shower. The cold rain had chilled me to the bone.
Chapter Eight
Morning brought cooler temperatures and the rain had dissipated. Ming was howling around the kitchen for something to eat while I was making peanut butter on toast with apple slices for breakfast. I gave her wet food and filled her small bowl with dry and then some fresh water. That should last her the day. I ate my breakfast with a glass of milk while reading the front page of the morning paper out of Nashville. Nothing new here, morning shootings in bad places. I grabbed my holster and got my Glock out of the lockbox. This morning I needed a warmer jacket and a pair of hiking boot with wool sock, winter was coming far too fast for me. I liked nice warm weather. The Jeep was cold and that made me cold also, so I headed to Star Bucks for coffee and then to the office. No place to park out front as everybody had already beaten me here this morning. I pulled around back where the workers were almost finished rebuilding the motor pool. A year ago there had been an explosion that killed both the worker who were inside and destroyed a couple of cop cars. There
was insurance to cover that but no amount insurance can ever bring back the lives of those two men.
Once inside I found Loraine on the phone and making notes. When she saw me she held up her finger for me to wait. I could hear voice in the conference room and knew the morning briefing was getting under way. I didn’t want to miss any of it, but Loraine had said to wait, so it had to be important. Once off the phone she handed me a slip of paper with an address up at the northern lakes.
“Here’s where Diego rented that Houseboat. The man said he had rented it for two weeks with a healthy deposit. I never said a word about it being blown up, but the guy seemed worried that I would be asking about it. He wanted to know if it had been use in a crime of something. I told him we were just checking all houseboats in the marina for registration His name is Robert Mays.”
“Thanks Loraine, that was great. Let me get inside and see what else is on the agenda.” Inside they were drinking coffee and someone had stopped for bagels and cream cheese. If I had only known, I wouldn’t have had the toast this morning.
“Nice of you to join us this morning Detective Jordan.” The sheriff said in a smart ass sort of way.
“I had to wait for Loraine to give me an address on our houseboat rental. Sorry to be late.” So what was with the sheriff this morning?
“Let me start with Bo first this morning. How did court go yesterday?”
“Nothing new there, I did my part and had to hang around as they called lunch about that time so cross examination came after lunch and the judge wasn’t in any hurry to get back to court. I check in with Max before coming back here. Everything with me is clear.” Bo explained.
“Okay Bubba, how is the rape case going?” The sheriff asked.
“We turned Tank loose with his new K9 dog at the scene and he trailed the perp into one of the waterholes on the golf course. The dog went nuts trying to find him and Tank walked him to the other side and they were off on a run. Darnest thing I ever saw was Tank hanging on to that leash running at full tilt across the course. He finally turned Butch loose and he nailed the bastard. Guy’s in lock-up and the lady was taken to the hospital for a rape kit. They found sperm, so his goose is cooked.”
“Next, Roy, what have you got for me?”
“Not much right now. We did get a tape at the Marina that showed Diego was the one who docked the houseboat. We’ve got a witness, who saw him, but the guy had on dark glasses and a cap, so he’s not really sure. Took some officers and canvassed the neighborhood where Diego and Lisa lived. Jenny has a lot more on that.” Roy explained.
“What are you working on today, Roy.”
“Whatever you need me working on. Whatever Jenny has going I guess.”
“Jenny, what’s in the works for you today?” The sheriff asked.
About that time Loraine burst into the conference room. “There’s been a kidnapping of a girl, Tonya Rojas. A 911 call just came in and Officer Lyle and Dean are on their way.” She handed an address to the sheriff and he pointed to Bubba and Bo and said, “You two handle this.”
They scrambled out of the room and were gone when the sheriff turned back to me. “Okay, tell me what you’ve found out so far.”
I explained about Mr. Mendez and what he saw then about Mr. Alvarez and what he had encountered, which wasn’t much as he was too scared to say much.
“Loraine has just handed me the address where the houseboat was rented. It’s at one of the lakes that eventually runs into our marina. It’s quite a trip, but it can be done. I’m off to see him and maybe they have a DVD or tape of who rented the houseboat. I need Roy along as sometimes they don’t take me seriously and Roy can put the screws to them.” I laughed.
“Okay then, you best be getting out there and keep me in the loop.”
******
“Will you drive? I want to work on something here on my iPad.” I asked Roy.
“Sure that’s fine with me. Punch the address into the GPS and we’ll get going.”
I did as he asked and I went to work on the iPad. I had put most of my notes in there and I wanted to review both Mr. Mendez and Mr. Alvarez’s statements.
I dug my cell out of my pocket and called Randy.
“Hey Randy, I need one more thing, a juvenile record for one Raymond Martinez. Can you hack juvie records?” I asked him.
“There is nothing I can’t hack. He sounds Hispanic, so do you want to also try in Mexico?”
“Yeah, that would be awesome and Columbia, South America. Thanks Randy.”
I turned to Roy and said, “I need to question Mr. Alvarez again. He wouldn’t give up much as to what happened at his bodega. But I think if I pressure him some maybe he’ll come around.”
“We can hit him after we finish with this guy. This shouldn’t take long; getting a tape will take the longest if he even has one to give.” Roy said as we were pulling into the rental agent’s place.
“I guess I had better let him know his boat is no more. There has to be insurance on something that expensive, don’t you think?” I ask Roy as we headed to the rental office.
Roy opened the door for me and we entered into the world of houseboats, speedboats and pleasure crafts. I think you could rent or buy most anything from this guy in the way of a boat. The offices were neat and clean with a blond bombshell of a receptionist at the desk. Roy removed his cowboy hat and said, “Ma’am we would like to see Mr. Mays.”
“Do you have an appointment?”
“No ma’am we don’t.” Roy told her.
“Well, I’m not sure he has time to see you today. What’s this about and I’ll leave a note for him to get back to you?” She said.
Roy flipped out his ID and badge and her eyes got large.
“This is a personal matter; we need to see him now!”
She slipped out of her very high dollar chair and headed down the hall to an office near the back.
Returning she led the way to a brightly colored office of oranges and yellows with a green strip on one wall and pictures of boats and people shaking hands with who I presumed to be Mr. Mays.
“Wait here, Mr. Mays will be with you shortly.” She closed the door and left.
Roy went to the large picture window and looked out over the lake beyond.
“I don’t really get all the fuss over riding around on the water, jet skis, boating in general. I’m a land person. Ride horses and take care of cattle. Water never interested me much unless it had to do with watering animals.” Roy said.
“I think it has to do with the water in the womb, the need for movement as we were carried by our moms. I like riding horses and haven’t done any since Jerry and I split. I might go out to Tony’s and saddle up the next nice Saturday we have. By the way, have you taken Loraine out to see that ranch you want to buy?”
“She’s a city girl, but she loved it and the view off the back deck I think sold her. We’ve put a bid and I think we’ve got it tie up.” He said with excitement.
The door opened and a short, balding little man entered with a cellphone attached to his ear.
“…no, no, no we can’t take the chance on that right now. I’ve got to go, there are people here I have to see, bye.” And he hung up. “How can I help you detectives?”
I pulled out a photo of Diego and showed it to him.
“Do you recognize this man and is he the one who rented a houseboat from you last week?”
He took the picture and studied it for a moment, looked up at us and said, “You’re going to tell me something bad aren’t you?”
“Do you recognize him?” I asked again.
“Yes, he rented a houseboat about ten days ago. Let me get the records.” He went around to the computer that was on the desk and typed in something we didn’t see.
“Yes, here it is, he gave a hefty deposit and got a waterway map. Now tell me what has happened that bring you here.”
We explained about the boat, about the body and about Carl Harris being shot off the upper deck. The man al
most passed out and had to sit back down in another very expensive office chair. I stepped out of the colorful office and asked the girl for some water. She hiked herself to the kitchen and returned with a bottle of water and a questionable look on her face. “Thanks.” I told her and returned to the office. Roy was telling him that we needed a tape or DVD of this man if possible as I returned to the room. I handed the water to Mr. Mays and he unscrewed the cap and took a sip. Replacing the cap he set it aside.
“I’ll see what I can do. I’m sure there’s one from out front, but we don’t do business like that here in the inner offices. I need to contact the insurance company, boy they are not going to like this one bit nor is my partner. He doesn’t like Hispanic’s and he was against me renting the houseboat in the first place. With the deposit being so large I thought we were safe.” With that, he left the office and I could hear him telling the girl to check back on a date a few days ago for the video of the Hispanic guy who rented the houseboat.
He came back in and said his girl was working on it, but it might take a few minutes, as they had never had a request like this before.
Well yeah, it took her almost forty-five minutes to find it, run a copy and get it to us. In the meantime, Mr. Mays was dealing with his insurance company and then his partner.
“I’ll need a copy of the accident report for the insurance company also your badge numbers and where you are from.”
We gave him what he wanted, which I had put a copy of the report in my case and we were on our way. Thank goodness, waiting around was just not my bag!
******
Half way back home Loraine called on the radio. “Jenny, are you and Roy in the truck?”
“Hey, what’s up?”
“The kidnap case Bo and Bubba went on this morning may tie in with your case. The girl that was kidnaped is related to Diego and the mom says they grabbed her and put her in a black SUV. She was kicking and screaming her head off and no one came to rescue her. Bo requested that you take a look at his case when you get back and compare notes.”