Pleasant Harbor

by Thomas Bloom

  “Just guard the evidence. I’ll be back to you in a couple of hours.”

  Amanda made arrangements for two man teams of her officers to be on watch at the marina until further notice and Dusty did the same for the bodies at the coroner’s office. They then called Amanda’s kids in Chicago to say hello.

  “We’re ready to come home mom. This isn’t so much fun anymore.”

  “Just a little while longer,” Amanda said with tears in her eyes.

  Two hours later, at 7:00 in the evening, Tamourini called back. “Okay, we’ve set up a ten person team to work this. Some of us will be in Pleasant Harbor mid-morning tomorrow to take possession of the evidence. Just cover it in the meantime.”

  “It’s covered,” Dusty said.

  With nothing more to do they got some take out at Porky’s and headed to Amanda’s with a bottle of wine.

  As they sat on Amanda’s couch with BBQ and drinks Amanda asked “what do you think ‘modified’ meant in connection with the AK-47’s?”

  “You can buy an AK-47 over the counter in the U.S. or at a gun show. But by law they are all single shot, not automatic. Anyone who knows what they’re doing can buy a kit and convert them to full automatic. My guess is that the AK-47’s they delivered were converted.”

  “And why 48 clips for the sixteen pistols?”

  “Let’s say you’re planning a serious attack. You don’t want to stop in the middle to reload a clip. So you have three extra clips in your gear. It just takes a few seconds to eject the old one and put in a new one.”

  “Jez, what could they be planning that would take that much firepower?”

  “No idea, but my guess would be they plan on doing a maximum amount of damage in a short period of time. That would be a public place—a mall, a stadium, a theater, whatever. Someplace they can both kill a lot of people quickly and also fight off the good guys when they get there. One thing’s for sure. They’re not going to hit a liquor store.”

  “This is scary. Remember when all we had to worry about was B & E’s and bad drivers?”

  “Well, come tomorrow morning, it’s out of our hands. The FBI is going to take what we have and disappear. Then we’re out of it. They’re equipped to handle this. We aren’t. For better or worse it’s in their ballpark.”

  “I want my kids back.”

  “So do I. Our guy has done nothing since the FBI left. Give it two more weeks. If we do bring them back we’ll set up an escort for the kids and at least one watchout on our homes for another couple of months.”

  Chapter Fifty Two

  Well mama, something interesting here. The FBI is gone and they have something much bigger to worry about than me. But I still want to take Mr. Dusty and Miss Amanda out of the picture. No one else will come after me like they will. It’s personal with them. There’s also a chance to make some big money here. I’ll tell you more about that later.

  Chapter Fifty Three

  The next morning Tamourini showed up with nine other agents. They drove two of their usual black SUV’s and a large unmarked cargo truck. Dusty and Amanda spent a couple of hours with the team going through everything they had.

  “Great work on recovering the paperwork,” Tamourini said. “That page is the key. It shows us not only what was going on but what was transferred. These guys from Chicago thought they were the world’s meanest hombres but they ran into someone meaner.”

  “Speaking of that,” Dusty said. “I’ve got two calls into the Chicago Police Department to find out about this Edgar Gomez but they haven’t returned the call.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Tamourini said. “We have someone in Chicago working on it. No offense, but the FBI can open doors that others can’t. What we know so far is that Edgar Gomez is one of several aliases of one of the Mexican drug lords operating out of Illinois. He’s a Mexican national in the country illegally. What we don’t know yet is how he connected with the Arabs. The boat was purchased legally with cash. They changed the name to the ‘Aztec.’ Maybe they never heard that it’s bad luck to change the name of a boat. By the way, did you guys make any effort to track the vehicles after the Arabs left?”

  “Yes and no,” Dusty said. “When the secretary called in the fire she was so shook up she didn’t say anything about an explosion or that she saw one of the Arabs throw something into the boat well. So all that happened was the fire department showed up and all they could do was to save the hulk. It wasn’t until the marina owner came back to his office and she told him what she saw that he called Amanda’s department. They immediately put out an APB for the two vehicles but no one came up with anything. The State Police are positive that they did not exit the area on either an Interstate or a state highway. They could have taken all local roads but even then someone would have seen them. Besides, that would have required a lot of knowledge of local geography which they probably did not have. They seem to have gone to ground someplace in the area.”

  “That means they could have a local contact,” Tamourini said. “One more complication. Or, they could have pulled something we’ve seen before. Drive in with multiple vehicles, rent some space somewhere in the area, drive to the site of the action in one set of cars then stash them and exit with another set.”

  “What about the truck?” Amanda asked. “Any luck in tracking a rental?”

  “No. We’ve been working directly with Ryder. Every rental in the last month in Michigan, Ohio or Indiana can be traced to a non-suspicious source. But there was a Ryder truck stolen a week ago in Toledo, Ohio, just across the border from Michigan. Unfortunately, no one here in Pleasant Harbor got any plate numbers so we can’t be sure. They probably put stolen plates on it anyway.”

  “What about your sources? Any input at all?”

  “No, we’ve got nothing in Dearborn and nothing anywhere else. We’re starting to think that this is a new cell brought in to do maximum damage in a minimum amount of time. Frankly, we’re scared to death. They are obviously organized and capable. They have money. They have weapons. They are ruthless. They don’t seem connected to anything we know about. They could show up today somewhere and start killing people. That’s why we need the evidence you have gathered. There may be something in there that gives us a lead. Speaking of which, we need to get the stuff loaded and back to Detroit so we can go to work.”

  Within an hour they were gone. They loaded the hulk of the hull in the truck along with four body bags—three from the boat and one from the morgue. Tamourini took the remains of the other evidence in her vehicle.

  “If you hear, think of or find anything new please call me immediately, day or night. There could be many lives at stake here plus our national image if we have another nine-eleven type attack. If they do have a local contact you guys might find it quicker than we can. Stay alert and report anything to us, no matter how unlikely. If you have a piece of something we might have another piece that could make a whole.”

  Dusty and Amanda half waved and half saluted as she got in her vehicle and drove away.

  “What the hell can we do at this point?” Amanda asked.

  “Nothing really, except to stay on our toes,” Dusty responded. “What a mess. So we’re in the middle of it but have nothing more to do with it. For better or worse, it’s out of our hands. Tell you what. Let’s call your kids tonight and make arrangements to pick them up. But, one condition. We can’t continue to live in sin. I bought this two weeks ago and have been waiting for the right occasion. I think we need to get legal with the citizens of this county and with your kids”. He brought out of his pocket a small box containing a diamond ring.

  “Not very romantic and I’m not on one knee but I love you, I love your kids and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you take it?”

  “Of course. I thought we’d already decided this. But a formal proposal is always nice. I hope you didn’t spend too much on this. We have two kids to put through college.” She put on the ring. “By the way, we don’t have time for a
honeymoon. It will have to wait.”

  “That’s okay. Just being with you is my honeymoon.”

  Chapter Fifty Four

  Well here’s the way it went down mama. Remember the gun show I told you about where I bought the sniper rifle. Well, while I’m there I see this middle-eastern looking guy trying to buy an AK-47. Not one shot, automatic, I hear him say. The guy on the other side of the table says look mister, this is the only way you can buy them. You can modify them if you know what you’re doing and you obviously don’t. Besides, I don’t like your looks. I’d just as soon not sell to you. Why don’t you move on.

  Well bells start to go off in my head. I walk up to the guy and tell him I can help him if he’s willing to pay. How much, he says, for automatics? He’s got a heavy accent and I can barely understand him but we end up in a Starbucks across the street and I find out he’s looking for a lot of stuff. I tell him to give me a week. Give me a cell number and I’ll call you I say. No, he says, give me your number and I’ll call you in a week. How can you get this, he asks. Because, I tell him, I’m a police officer and I know how this stuff works. At this point he gets agitated and starts to leave. Hold on, I tell him. Police officers break the law too if there’s money in it. I can help you if we work together. Let me deliver one gun to you to prove I’m serious and we can go from there.

  So I bought a throwaway phone some time ago just in case and I give him that number. No way he gets my personal cell or my work number.

  So how do I deliver? I remember a year or so earlier that we have a sheriff’s convention in Chicago. It was pretty dull and routine except one night I end up in the hotel bar with a couple of Chicago’s finest and we’re all a little drunk. Our biggest problem is those assholes have more firepower than we have, one of them says. Who’s that, I ask.

  The fucking Mexicans. We’ve got nine millimeters and they have AK-47’s on automatic. And we have to fill out forty-seven pages of report if we ever pull a weapon and fire it.

  Well, if you know who they are and that they have illegal weapons why don’t you just raid them and take them down?

  Not that easy. They are not dumb. They never stay in the same place as the guns or the drugs they sell. All the street stuff is done by low level guys they can afford to lose. The money is kept someplace totally different and they never touch more of it than they need to live. Some of it gets shipped back to Mexico but we’re not sure how and we don’t know what happens to the rest. They never deposit it in a U.S. bank.

  So do these gangs fight among themselves?

  They did for a while but now a guy with the street name Edgar Gomez has pretty much taken over Chicago. He used some of those AK-47’s on his competition. Some we found their bodies and some just disappeared.

  So how do you fight them, I ask.

  We don’t. We just chip away at the edges.

  Well I remember this conversation and on a day off I get up early and drive to Chicago. I find a seedy bar in a Hispanic neighborhood and tell the bartender that I have a business proposition for Edgar Gomez but I don’t know how to find him. The bartender says he knows nothing but I can tell by his eyes that he does. So I sip a beer and wait a half an hour. Suddenly two guys slip into the stools on each side of me.

  Who are you and what you want one of them says.

  I’m working with some guys who want to buy some weapons. I understand you have some. Here’s a list of what they want and here’s what they’re willing to pay for them. It was a seven figure number and it got their attention. I need one fully automatic AK-47 to show that I can deliver then we can do the whole deal. You will have to deliver to someplace in Michigan. I’ll pay you one thousand cash for the one gun. That’s the street price now.

  Who are you?

  Just a guy that does deals. Did I ask who you are?

  Michigan, why Michigan.

  That’s what they want. They will not want to come here with a bunch of cash. This is your territory. They’re the customer. The customer is always right.

  Stay here, we will be back.

  An hour later they slide in beside me again. Okay they say, for your price we will deliver. We have one weapon with us. Give us the cash.

  We’ll do it on the street I say. You hand over the gun I hand over the cash.

  Then I’ll be back in a few days to arrange the final deal.

  Well it went good from there. The guy called me two days later and I said I had the sample and it would cost him one thousand to take it. We met in another Starbucks in Lansing and transferred the gun in the parking lot.

  Okay let’s talk, I say. I know you want to check this out but it’s what I say it is. You guys don’t want to take delivery on their turf. It’s too dangerous because they could end up with your money and you end up dead. Here’s what I suggest. We tell them to get on a boat and head for the west coast of Michigan. When they get close enough we call them and give them an exact location. That way they can’t set up anything ahead of time. So you meet and do the deal and each go your own way. I suggest you keep a watch out just in case they try to bring in some extra people before the meet. But the place I have in mind is far enough out of the way that they would have a hard time setting anything up

  You said you would pay up to one million for the stuff which is what I offered them. But I get twenty percent for doing the deal so you pay me two hundred thousand. Here’s the way we do it. You guys take the cash to a site I’ll tell you about at the last minute. You also send one guy with the two hundred thousand to another spot I’ll also tell you about at the last minute. I don’t want cash. I want a certified check from a major bank made out to bearer. I will have an understanding with these guys that if I don’t clear the deal with them once they are at the site then they just up and leave. I give them the all clear after you give me my share and I’m out of there. Then you do the deal and leave. If you want more stuff in the future you have my number.

  Well that’s the way it went down mama. I steer the Chicago guys to Pleasant Harbor after they’re half way across the lake. I meet their contact and wait for the Arab guys to confirm they have arrived. Then I get my money and call the boat with an all-clear. Except here’s what they don’t count on. I set up in the woods with a long range lens and get pictures of their vehicles and each of them—a good face shot for each. While they’re loading up the truck I sneak out of the woods and get the VIN number off the SUV which is parked in front of the truck. While they’re still loading up I print copies of everything on a portable I put in my vehicle. I leave the prints and a note in a big envelope under the wiper on the SUV

  I KNOW HOW YOU GUYS WORK. YOU WILL NOT WANT TO LEAVE ANY LOOSE ENDS SO YOU WILL CALL ME BACK FOR ANOTHER DEAL AND THEN KILL ME. PLEASE SEE THE PHOTOS. THERE WILL BE COPIES OF THESE WITH THREE DIFFERENT PEOPLE I TRUST IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE COUNTRY. THEY WILL BE IN SEALED ENVELOPES WITH THE INSTRUCTION TO TURN THEM OVER TO THE FBI IF I AM FOUND DEAD OR COME UP MISSING.

  ALLTHAT ASIDE, BUSINESS IS BUSINESS. IF YOU REALLY WANT MORE STUFF CALL ME.

  So I covered all the bases and have the two hundred thousand. I don’t know what they plan to do and I don’t care. If they come back to me I’ll sell them more stuff.

  Chapter Fifty Five

  The following weekend Dusty and Amanda drove to Chicago and retrieved her children. They were only a week away from the boy’s Christmas recces so they decided to wait until the new term to bring them back to school. Amanda took a couple of days off work to get up to date with her sons and Dusty joined them in the afternoon. Earlier, they had driven into to Chicago to have Thanksgiving dinner with the kids and Amanda’s sister and brother and law. Unfortunately, the weather was bad and the roads were terrible with more snow forecast so they left early the next morning to beat the worst of it.

  After things returned to more or less normal they sat the boys down after dinner and told them of their intention to marry.

  “It’s going to be quick and simple,” Amanda said. “We’re just g
oing to the local Justice of the Peace and he’s going to do the ceremony. The important thing is that we’ve made a lifelong commitment to each other just like we would in a big church ceremony and also a lifelong commitment to you two. We are now both your parents.”

  “Wow, cool,” Elliott said. “It’s great with us.”

  “Look,” Dusty said. “I have a daughter who’s in college and almost a full grown adult. Of course I love her and would do anything for her but she will graduate in a couple of years and then go on to live her own life. I want to see as much of her as I can but depending on what she decides to do that may not be a lot. But things are different with you guys. We need to get you through high school and into college. We also need to go back to working on the golf as soon as the weather breaks in the spring. I’m not your natural father but I intend to treat you like my own children as much as possible. That means loving you and helping you as much as I can but also maybe occasionally telling you that you’re off base. The important thing is that we start to think of ourselves as a family.”

  “We’re going to live here,” Amanda said. “It’s a bigger house and you guys are used to it. Dusty will sell his house and the money is going into a trust fund for your college education.”

  The next day they went through a fifteen minute ceremony at the Justice of Peace’s office with Amanda’s sons as unofficial witnesses. When they were done they dropped the boys at home under the care of Mrs. Johnson. As they headed back to their respective offices they both got a call from their dispatcher advising them of a problem at a local VFW hall that required their immediate attention. When they arrived separately a few minutes later the lot was full of police cars and an officer stood in the lot waiting for them. “We need you inside right away,” he said.

  “What’s up,” Dusty asked.

  “Just come inside and we’ll fill you in,” the officer said.

  When they entered the building it erupted in shouts, cheers and good wishes. Almost the entire compliment of both departments was in the hall along with decorations, tables of food, wrapped presents and several wash tubs filled with ice and soft drinks.