by F J messina
“I don’t know,” Sonia shrugged her shoulders, “it’s just that this thing seems to get bigger and bigger by the minute. But right now, all we need is help monitoring the feed.”
Jet’s face broke into a sly smile. “Three people, huh? And do you have any idea who that third person might be?”
Sonia picked up on Jet’s new mood and matched it with her voice. “Well, I do happen to know a professional private eye who is already sitting around watching hours of boring tape from a restaurant that’s been having meat and fish pilfered from its refrigerators.”
“Oh, you do, do you? And who might that be?”
“The fastest female runner in Woodford County High School history.” Sonia’s chocolate eyes twinkled. “That’s who.”
“Okay, okay.” Jet broke out in a full-throated laugh. “No need to reach back into ancient history.”
“Aaand?
“Aaand, for you, baby girl, anything.” Jet stood up again. “For better or worse, wherever it leads, if you’re in, I’m in. Now let’s go get you that soup.”
Part IV
25
‘
Just before one in the afternoon, Sonia knocked on the door of Semper Fi Investigations. While she had been eating lunch with Jet downstairs at Magee’s, she had received a call from Brad. In his clipped, military voice, Brad had informed her that she would be having a telephone meeting with one of his unnamed colleagues from the past. He had made it clear that the phone would ring at precisely 1:00 PM; she needed to be at her computer and ready to move forward immediately. Given Brad’s apparent need to know exactly what was going on, Sonia was quite certain he’d meant that she should bring her laptop to his office.
At 12:59:30, sitting at Brad’s computer table, Sonia readjusted her laptop for the fifth time. She leaned back in the chair, uncomfortable with how it almost swallowed her, uncomfortable that it was his chair. But this was not the time for being uncomfortable; this was the time to be ready for the challenge. As proud as she was of her own computer skills, messing with an NCIS computer hacking expert was another ball of wax altogether. She pursed her lips. Am I going to be able to keep up with this guy? Is he going to make me feel like an idiot? Do they even use a computer language I’m familiar with? Will his voice be dark and electronically disguised?
As the second hand on her watch indicated 1:00:07, the phone rang. She made the obvious mental note. My watch must be seven seconds early.
“Ms. Vitale?” the voice came. But it was not dark and electronically disguised. In fact, it wasn’t even a man.
“Yes, this is Sonia Vitale.” Sonia cringed. Her words had come out a little too loudly.
The voice was warm and friendly. “Listen, as you can imagine, I can’t tell you who I am, but if Dunny vouches for you, I know I can trust that you’re okay. Are you ready for this?”
Dunny? Dunny? Sonia’s head jerked backward a bit. Her mind rocketed to a new place. His friends call him Dunny?
“Are you there?”
Sonia cleared her throat. “Yes, yes, I’m here. And I’m ready. I just hope I can do what you ask of me.”
“Look, Dunny says you’re a techie. As long as you know some HTML and Javascript, we’ll be just fine. Is your computer open?”
Sonia sat up tall. She placed her fingers on the keyboard. “Yes, it’s open.”
“Okay, I know it seems crazy obvious, but most people don’t have the slightest clue about technology security. I’ll bet we can find a backdoor into that whole communications system right through their public website.”
“They wouldn’t do that, would they?”
“You’d be surprised. They buy the heavy-duty equipment, they spend the time setting up their internal communications system, then someone walks in and says, ‘Hey, we need a public website. Can you set that up too?’ Rather than starting fresh, the guy says, ‘Sure,’ then takes the easy way out by just making it an add-on to their whole system. Let’s give it a try, okay?”
Sonia braced herself but was still afraid this might not work. “Okay. What’s first?”
“What’s the name of the farm you’re interested in?”
“Dahlia Farm. It’s a horse farm.”
“Yeah, okay. Do a search for Dahlia Farm, and let’s see what we get. Now I’ve got to tell you; I can’t follow along with you from here. If I go to that website and then something goes south, I’ll be caught with an empty cookie jar and crumbs all over my electronic fingertips. I can’t even take over control of your computer, I’d leave one gigantic electronic footprint.”
“Sure, sure. I can do this.” Her hands flew across the keys and a string of results flickered on the screen. Finding a home page was easy, but that was only step one. She wasn’t at all sure she could do steps two through whatever. “Okay, found it. I’m on their home page.”
“Good. Let’s go find us a backdoor.” There was a smile in her voice.
For the next thirty minutes or so, Sonia and her faceless, nameless, co-conspirator worked together. First, they found a backdoor into the website; then, they followed the electronic path all the way back to the main communications link for the whole system.
Finally, Sonia whispered, “Ho-ly moly! I’m looking at every communication ever sent on their internal network.” Her voice crescendoed. “The whole thing! Every message!”
“That’s my girl. Are you sure you’re in? Can you move around to different messages?”
“Yes! Yes! I’m in!” Sonia grabbed the edges of the laptop’s screen with both hands. She was thrilled that she had actually found her way into the sophisticated system “The last message was . . . let’s see here . . . just about an hour and a half ago.” Sonia smiled. “We’re in. We did it. You did it. Thank you, thank you.”
“No, you did it. You got there on your own. I just gave you a few hints along the way. Seriously, you really do know your way around this world. Trust me, there’s no way I could have led Dunny through this maze.”
There it was again─Dunny. She cocked her head. Hmm. His friends call him Dunny. It sounds so casual, so fun-loving. Is there another part of this guy that I’ve never seen?
“Okay?” The voice interrupted her thoughts.
“I’m sorry?” Sonia apologized for being lost in her thoughts.
“I said I’m going to let you go now. Is that okay?”
“Yes, yes. This is incredible.” Sonia sat back in her seat, but her eyes never left the computer screen. “We should be able to figure out everything from here.”
“Well, don’t get too cocky. Just because they failed with their electronic security, doesn’t mean they’re going to be careless in their communications. Here, check this. Do you see any names, actual names?”
Sonia scrolled through the file list. “Uh, no. I see information being passed, but no names. Like here, it implies that some guy, person, named “Forty” will be looking for a new shipment from “Toro” on the twenty-first, but that’s an old message.”
“Look, it’s not like on the TV shows. The bad guys may make mistakes, but that doesn’t mean they’re not trying their hardest to keep things on the QT. Good luck trying to figure out the codes and who’s who. If I could plug you into our mainframe, the computer could look for matches in a million different places. But that’s something I just can’t help you with. I’m afraid you’re on your own with that.”
Sonia’s shoulders sagged and she let out a heavy breath. Her eyes continued to drift across the messages on her computer screen. “Yeah, I guess I am.”
“Hey, don’t get down.” Her voice was still bright. “You’ve got Dunny, and I’ve never seen a better investigator than him, ever. I’ve never seen a better . . . well, let’s just say, he’s good at a lot of things.”
Sonia waited for more, but the conversation was over.
“Listen, I’ve got to go. Good luck with your investigation. Good luck with . . . everything.”
Sonia heard a click as the line went dead. Good luck with every
thing? What did she mean by that?
Then, appearing out of nowhere, Brad was suddenly behind her, his voice, only inches from her ear. He was leaning over her shoulder. “Are we in?”
Sonia turned and took in his presence─his strong hand on the desk, the warmth of his breath on her shoulder, the smell of his starched shirt. Nothing could be more exciting than what she’d just discovered . . . nothing except . . . . She whispered. “We’re in.” Then louder, “We’re in.” We’re in Dunny. We are in.
26
Sonia stayed seated but stretched a long deep stretch, her hands reaching over her head. She had been hunched over her computer, working intently, for over a half hour, but the sense of pride and new-found confidence that filled her heart more than compensated for the stiffness in her shoulders. As she stretched, she could feel Brad’s eyes on her, as if he were drinking in every part of her while she moved in front of him. When she glanced at him, however, he quickly diverted his eyes. She looked away. Hmm.
Sonia directed Brad’s attention to the screen. “Okay, before us lies the entire communications record of the organization. Now, all we have to do is figure out is who is who, and what the heck they’re doing.”
Brad pulled up a chair and they worked shoulder to shoulder for the next two hours.
Brad eyes were on the computer. “Okay, it appears we know this much. The Mid-West Feed and Hay truck is being dispatched by someone called Toro. I assume he’s pretty close to the origin of the internal distribution system here in the states. We’re not certain, but it may be that the drugs involved in this operation enter the U.S. and are delivered to Toro.” He pointed to a particular message on the screen. “He then dispatches the Mid-West Feed and Hay truck, and I’m guessing several others, to move smaller shipments around the country.” Brad turned and looked at Sonia. “I’m also guessing that Lexington is not the first, nor the last, stop for that truck. I believe the drugs that have been dropped off at Dahlia Farm, and places like it, are then expedited to other, smaller locations for final distribution to dealers and users.” He put his hand on her shoulder. “It’s your boy Marcos and his buddies in those pickups that are doing that.”
Warmth flushed through Sonia’s face. She liked his touch, but she couldn’t quite tell what that hand on her shoulder implied. She turned her eyes to the screen.
“Well, assuming you’re correct Captain Dunham, what’s next? Isn’t it time to call in the cavalry?” Sonia could see by the furrow in Brad’s brow that he wasn’t sure if the use of the term, “Captain,” was a compliment or a barb. She continued. “Really, it’s time for us to call the FBI, isn’t it?”
Brad pushed his chair back from the computer. Picking up a pencil, he began tapping on the edge of the desk as he spoke. His eyes were still on the screen. “No, not now. First, it wouldn’t be the FBI, it would be the DEA, the Drug Enforcement Agency. Second, we’re not ready yet. We need to know more about the operation.”
“Why? It’s not our job to stop the drug ring.”
Brad turned, his bright blue eyes locking Sonia’s. “It’s not a drug ring, it’s just an operation. The ring would be much larger than what we’re looking at. And, of course it’s our job to stop the operation.”
Sonia looked away, breaking the contact. After a very long pause, she asked softly and slowly, “Why, again, is that our job? We’re not the authorities.” She assumed she knew what he was thinking. In his mind, after all those years, he still feels like he is the authorities, we are the authorities. She didn’t say another word.
Brad reached out and touched her arm gently. “Okay. You’re right. We’re not officially charged with this, but I’m not calling DEA until I can tell them a hell of a lot more than what I know now.”
Sonia waited a few moments. Then she looked into his eyes and quietly asked, “Why?”
“Because. Just because.”
Brad stood up and paced around the room. She waited for him to continue, feeling how thick the silence had become.
Brad came to a stop, standing by his desk, looking down at her. “Listen, the guy I would most likely call at DEA is Roberto Alvarez. We call him Robbie. He and I go back quite a ways. We served together in Iraq. While I stayed in the Corps and got assigned to NCIS, he eventually left and hooked up with DEA. Unfortunately, the last time I called him with what I thought was a solid lead on a big drug operation, the whole thing went south. I don’t know if my informant was wrong, or if he was setting me up. Maybe someone in DEA leaked something. But Robbie trusted me and made a big move on a bunch of Cubans in Miami. The raid produced nothing but a bunch of hand-woven baskets, and Robbie was left with his you-know-what hanging out─not to mention an official reprimand in his jacket. All in all, a very bad deal all the way around.”
“So, you’re afraid to let him in on this?”
“Well, maybe not afraid, but I certainly want more to go on before I bring him in. I owe that to him.”
Brad started pacing around the room again. Sonia turned and stared at his back. She was far from convinced that it wasn’t a better idea to just call the real authorities and turn this over to them. Still, they had begun to figure out how this whole drug thing worked, and that would help her get to the bottom of what she really wanted to know─who had done in John Abbott Hensley. She’d never believed he had committed suicide─and he sure as hell didn’t accidentally hang himself. Now, at least, she was pretty certain what the motive was.
Brad stopped in front of the window that looked out onto East Main, the window from which he could see Magee’s─and, of course, the offices of BCI. Sonia’s heart jumped a tiny bit as she wondered if he had stood there as many times looking at her offices as she had stood at her window looking at his.
“Here’s what we need to do.” Brad turned to her. “It’ll be a two-pronged operation. The first time the truck comes in, and according to what we think those messages are saying, that’s Friday, we follow one of those pickups on its delivery route. We won’t interfere with anyone. We’ll just be trying to gather enough information to make a real case that Lexington is, in fact, a hub in a larger distribution system.”
Brad moved briskly to his desk and sat down. He made a notation on his calendar. “Then the next time the truck from Mid-West Feed and Hay comes in we’ll follow it. There’s no question that eventually that truck is heading back to its base of operations.” He looked up at Sonia. “God only knows how long that surveillance will be or where it will take us, but . . .” He stopped and cocked his head a bit. “Have you ever ridden a trail horse? You know, the kind you rent by the hour, and the poor animal walks the same path over and over again, several times a day, day after day?”
Sonia stood and walked toward Brad’s desk. “Actually, I’ve never been on a horse.” She took a seat across from him.
His piercing blue eyes popped open and stared at her. Then a big grin slowly passed over his face. “Well, we’re just going to have to take care of that someday. Yes, we will. And it won’t be on one of those trail horses, either. I’ll take you to one of the farms I used to work on up in Paris . . . Kentucky, that is,” he said smiling. “Then we’ll do some real cross-country riding, through fields and streams. It’ll be great.”
Sonia smiled, not sure what to make of the invitation.
“Anyway,” he continued, waving a finger, “if you were to fall off one of those trail horses, hell, the horse would hardly notice. He’d just walk right on back to the barn and stand there waiting for someone to unsaddle him. I’m guessing that’s exactly what this truck does. Same route every few days. And we’re going to follow that nag right back to the barn.”
Sonia understood what Brad was saying, but the invitation to go riding had her mind spinning just a bit. She wasn’t at all certain she wanted to be crossing streams and galloping through meadows on horseback. But . . . .
Brad looked down at his desk calendar pad, “Alright, you’d better clear your schedule. This surveillance might take several days.”
/>
Sonia looked at him in surprise, taking in a breath.
He plowed on. “Now, if our reading of the messages is correct, that part of the surveillance won’t start until Tuesday. But you never know. I think they’re still trying to make up for deliveries they missed when John Hensley bought it. The truck has been pretty irregular. We just need to keep our eyes on those messages and our computer feeds.”
Sonia looked at the short-cropped hair on the top of his head while Brad was still making notes on his calendar─blocking out four days of the next week in red. They were going to be out on the road together, probably for several days. Several days? How does that work? Where do we sleep? In motels, I guess. Her brain was running at top speed. And what about the bad guys? Do we all agree to stop at the end of the day and eat dinner together, then retire to our rooms? ‘See you guys in the morning. Let us know when you’re leaving and we’ll be surreptitiously following behind you all day. But listen, we’ll let you know if one of us has to pee, so you can─’
Wait. Retire to our rooms? What about the rooms? One room, two rooms? Does he expect me to share a room with him? A bed—
“Right?” Brad said, breaking into her thoughts.
“What?” Sonia’s mouth was open.
Brad shot her the “Are-you-with-me?” look. Then he outlined his expectations very slowly and clearly. “You will be able to clear your calendar next week? Right? I mean you don’t have a date or anything, do you?”
Sonia could feel the heat in the question. She could also feel the heat in her own face. Was that pure annoyance, based on the fact that she had put off last night’s session because of her date with Johnny? Or was there just a tinge of jealousy in the comment. She hoped it was the latter. She took a quick breath. “No. I can be ready to go. But are you sure this is the right way to proceed? You said, yourself, that these boys play for real.”
