by B A Trimmer
Sophie left to go back to her apartment to change her clothes. I headed over to Pam’s house. As I left, I called her and told her I was on my way.
I made it to Pam’s house and knocked on her door. When the door opened, I had to look twice. It appeared Jackie was standing in front of me.
“Well,” Pam said, as she posed for me. “What do you think?”
“That’s amazing. You could be her twin.”
“It’s not so amazing. I know how she does her hair and make-up. This wig won’t hold this style for more than an hour or two, even with all of the product I used, but it should work long enough for us to get what you need.”
~~~~
We pulled into the bank parking lot at four-fifty. I looked around, but I didn’t see any of Carlos’s men. Since the bank closed at five, we hurried into the lobby and went straight to the receptionist. She didn’t look happy that customers had appeared minutes before she was to go home. Pam placed the key on the receptionist’s desk and apologized that it was so late but said she needed to grab something from her box.
The receptionist typed the key number into her computer and I saw a picture of Jackie pop up. I had a terrifying thought -- maybe the woman would recognize the name of Jacquelyn Wade from the news reports. If this was the case, I was hoping she didn’t have a way of summoning the police before we were able to get to the box then leave. But who was I kidding, this was a bank. If she suspected anything amiss, the police would be there within minutes.
Fortunately, the receptionist just wanted us out of there as soon as possible. She had Jackie sign an electronic pad with an oversized stylus, which made her signature all but illegible.
So much for their high-security system.
Since the guard, or whomever was supposed to lead us into the vault, had apparently already gone home for the night, the receptionist motioned us follow her. She had us stand at the entrance to the vault while she went in.
The vault was smaller than I thought it would be, with only about fifty safety deposit boxes, all in a group on one of the walls. The receptionist went to one of the boxes, inserted Jackie’s key, and then inserted a key dangling from a plastic bracelet on her wrist.
My heart pounded and my breathing came in rapid gulps as I waited to see if we would get the box. So many things could go wrong. Pam was apparently having similar thoughts because she had grabbed my hand and was squeezing it to the point my fingers were going numb.
The receptionist smoothly turned both keys, opened the small metal door, and then slid out a long metal box. She then handed it to Pam and hurried back to her desk.
There was a small room next to the vault with a door and a small table. Pam and I went in and set the box on the table. We both stared at the box. Finally, I reached out and lifted the metal lid.
Inside was a thick file with maybe a hundred pieces of paper. The file had been folded in half in order to fit into the small box. I carefully lifted the file so the papers wouldn’t all fall on the floor.
I put the file in my bag. Pam went back to the receptionist and told her she could have the box back. The receptionist gave her a grateful look and went to retrieve the box. We then walked back to my car.
I dropped Pam off at her house. I thanked her and told her I would call with any news. I then drove back to the law office in Old Town.
Sophie had beaten me back and was in the reception area, talking with Gina. I walked in with a big smile and told them I was successful. Lenny must have also been waiting because he came out of his office as soon as I started talking to Sophie and Gina.
“Well?” Lenny asked.
I reached into my bag and pulled out the file. I then carefully put it on Sophie’s desk, making sure none of the loose papers fell out.
“Sophie,” he said, as he picked up the file and started flipping through it. “We don’t know how long we’ll have these documents. I want you to make a copy of everything in the folder.”
“I’ve set it up with the cell carrier to trace the location of the next ten phone calls made from Carlos’s phone,” Gina said. “The first call was made from somewhere in south Scottsdale. With the next call, we’ll be able to get the location of the phone down to about three hundred feet.”
“OK,” Lenny said. “That’s good. Our best bet is to make the exchange as quickly and as smoothly as possible.” He then looked over at me. “Stick by your phone and answer it right away when it rings. Plug it in so it has a good charge. This Carlos sounds a little insane and I don’t want an incident because your battery went dead.”
Lenny went back into his office. I nervously made small talk with Gina while Sophie sat at her desk and started organizing the documents to be copied. Every few seconds I looked at my phone and imagined it was about to ring. I was half wishing it would, so we could get it over with, and half hoping that it wouldn’t.
Sophie said she had used the magic software on Carlos. She said other than a few up-to-date pictures there wasn’t a lot of new information. She also said she left the single-page report on my desk in a folder. I was about to walk back to my cubicle and read it over when my phone rang.
I looked down and saw the same Phoenix number flashing on the screen. I looked back and forth between Sophie and Gina. Lenny had come out of his office and was twirling his finger and giving me the hurry-up signal.
“Hello,” I said, as I answered the phone.
“Listen carefully,” a voice I now knew as Carlos’s said. “By now, you should have the paper I want. This is correct, no?”
“Yes, I have it.”
“Very good. You will bring me the transfer document undamaged. If everything is correct, I will give you your friend and you may leave. If you try to deceive me, or if I see any police, you both will be killed. Do you understand?”
“Yes, I understand.”
“I will call you tomorrow morning with the time and location of where to bring the paper. Make sure to answer your phone when I call.”
The line went dead and I fell into one of the red leather chairs. The brief conversation with Carlos had mentally wiped me out and I was already starting to get nervous about the exchange, even though it wouldn’t happen until the morning.
Gina got on the phone and called her contact within the phone company. She wrote down the location, thanked the person, and hung up. She then looked at the address for a few seconds then her eyes got big.
“Oh shit,” she said. “That’s my abandoned grocery warehouse in south Scottsdale, the one just south of Curry Road.”
I’d had some experiences with the industrial and warehouse district of south Scottsdale and they weren’t fun memories.
“Why oh shit?” I asked. “And how do you know it’s an old food warehouse?”
“Because that’s where my drug exchange is supposed to take place tomorrow.”
”Oh, shit.”
“Exactly,” Gina said. “Up until now, I didn’t know or really care who got the drug shipment. Our only interest was in establishing an alibi for our client. Who, by the way, is obviously deeply involved in the drug trade and should turn himself in and throw himself on the mercy of the court,” she said looking at Lenny.
“Yeah,” he said. “We should consider that.” His tone told me he wasn’t ready to give up his fee from the client quite yet.
“Well, I think we can now assume Carlos is the one who will be receiving the drug shipment,” Gina said.
“Oh shit,” Sophie said.
“Why ‘oh shit’ now?” I asked.
“Are we sure Tough Tony isn’t involved in the drug delivery or exchange?”
“Hold on there,” Lenny said. “Do you think DiCenzo is part of this drug thing? If he is, we are going to need to back away. He’s still legally a client of the firm. If we go to the authorities on this drug delivery thing and DiCenzo’s involved, it could boomerang right back to us.”
“I don’t think he’s involved,” I said. “When I talked to Max and DiCenzo, Tony seem
ed truthful when he said he didn’t know who Carlos was. I think he would have at least told me this was something they were involved with and we would need to stay out of it.”
“What?” Lenny said. “Do you have some sort of hold over Tough Tony so he has to tell you the truth?
If you only knew.
“Just because Max is a panty dropper,” Sophie said, “it still doesn’t mean he’s telling you everything he knows about the drug thing. Maybe you should ask him about it directly.”
“That wouldn’t be a bad idea,” Gina said. Let him know we know about the drug exchange and we may be obligated to go to the police on it. See how he reacts.”
“Yeah,” Lenny said. “I like that. Talk to him and find out for sure. I don’t want to be at the top of Tough Tony’s shit list.”
I had to agree. Talking to Max made sense. I walked back to my cubicle and made the call.
“Max, I need to see you.”
“Change your mind about Puerto Vallarta?”
Oh, Yum!
“I still need the rain check on that one. I have a question and it’s something I don’t want to discuss over the phone. Would you have anytime to meet tonight?”
“Sure. Do you have time for dinner? How about Different Pointe of View? That restaurant has the best view in the city.”
That would be so romantic.
“Definite rain check on that. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of time tonight. Could we just meet for drinks somewhere close, like the Casablanca?”
“Of course. When can you meet?”
“As soon as you can get there. What’s your schedule tonight?”
“I can be there in a half an hour.”
“Perfect, I’ll see you there.”
I hung up the phone and realized meeting in a half hour gave me almost no time to fix my make-up or hair. Good thing it’s so dark in there.
~~~~
It was less than a five-minute walk from the office to the Casablanca. When I got there Max had already picked out a table with a beautiful view of the city.
I got a pang of regret my job kept interfering with my love life. Maybe if I had a normal office job, I could also have a normal personal life. I had another brief vision of going out on a date on a Friday night and then having the date last the entire weekend. I knew this was something normal people did and I was a little bit sad it didn’t happen to me.
Max stood up, then pushed in my chair as I sat. A waitress came to our table. Max ordered a Tanqueray & Tonic while I ordered a Diet Pepsi.
“Diet Pepsi?” he asked. “You must be busy tonight.”
“Oh, you don’t know how good a scotch sounds right now. But you’re right, I do have a lot going on tonight and I need to focus.”
“It was nice seeing you on Saturday. We should do it more often.”
“It was great playing golf with you. Why didn’t you tell me you were so good?”
“Now you want to know my secrets?”
“Well, I imagine you have some interesting things to uncover,” I said with a smile.
Stop flirting.
The waitress came back with the drinks and Max handed her a twenty. We each took a sip of our drinks and waited for the other to start talking.
“OK,” he said after a moment. “You wanted to ask me something?”
“Yeah, umm, this is sort of a delicate question.” I leaned close to Max and my voice dropped almost to a whisper. “Umm, do you have anything in terms of a big shipment of, anything, coming into the country tomorrow, specifically into Scottsdale?
“Why do you ask?” His voice had also gone down almost to whisper level.
“Gina is working on an assignment and she’s stumbled into a large shipment of, something, coming into the country from Mexico. If it’s not yours, we’ll probably need to go to the police. If it were yours, well, we’d need to reconsider. It somehow ties into Jackie Wade’s kidnapping and things are starting to get complicated.”
“About Jackie and the kidnapping,” he said, sitting up and talking just a little louder. “We still have enquiries out on Carlos. I told you we picked up a rumor he’s with one of the local drug gangs. So far, he’s only a name. Like Keyser Söze in the movie The Usual Suspects. The only new thing we know about him for sure is he drives a flashy red sports car.”
“I’ve got more to add then. His name is Carlos the Butcher. He’s the local leader of a drug cartel from Mexico called the Black Death.”
“Really? You seem to have better sources than we do. We’ve heard of the Black Death over the last few months. But about all we know about them is they’re one of a growing number of groups running drugs up from Mexico. So far, they’ve kept a low profile and no one knows a lot about them. We don’t know how big the group is or exactly what they’re doing here. We assume it’s small time drugs, but who knows.”
“Small time? With a name like the Black Death? It sounds like they’re pretty nasty.”
“Oh, they all have names like that. When you deal in drugs and guns, no one would take you seriously if you said you were from the Fluffy Kitty drug cartel.”
“I suppose you’re right. Well? Tomorrow?”
“No, tomorrow isn’t anything we are involved in.”
“OK, thanks for letting me know. Although, I’m not sure if that helps me or not. Jackie’s been kidnapped by Carlos and we think he probably has her in the same old grocery warehouse in south Scottsdale where the shipment will arrive. He said if we involve the police he’d kill Jackie and I believe him. I’ve talked to him and the man seems to have a lot of issues.”
“Well, we’re not the police. Do you need any help with this?”
“Umm, thanks. But, probably not. Yes, we need all of the help we can get, but I hope you understand I can’t get actually involved with your group or what you do. That would be crossing a line I don’t think I can do.”
“We’ve had this conversation before,” he said. “And of course I understand. You’re a nice girl and you’re probably right to stay away from the business side of what we do. But, it’s there if you need it.”
“Thank you Max. It’s nice knowing I have a friend out there.”
“Just a friend?”
“Well, for now anyway.”
We finished the drinks and I said I had to leave. We walked out of the lounge and down the stairs, with Max going first. Halfway down he stopped and turned. Since I was still a step above him, our height was now about the same and I found myself looking directly into his eyes. He wrapped his arms around me and leaned in for a kiss. I hadn’t been expecting this but I instinctively responded by wrapping my arms around him and kissing him back.
Unlike some of Max’s previous kisses, this one didn’t drive me toward an immediate orgasm. This one was more about affection and romance. It was a slow deep kiss, one I wanted to go on forever. It was a nice change and I couldn’t wait to see what the next kiss would bring.
I’ll probably burn in hell for this.
~~~~
I walked back to the office. Gina and Sophie had gone for the night. Lenny was still in his office working through a stack of papers.”
“Well?” he asked as he heard me walk into reception.
“Well, Max says they don’t have anything to do with it, even after I told him we were going to go to the police.”
“Alright,” Lenny said. “That settles that. If and when we contact the authorities, we’ve given DiCenzo fair warning. I hope he remembers that if things turn to shit.”
Even though it was starting to get late, I still didn’t want to go home. The thought of meeting Carlos in the morning was playing havoc with my nerves.
I started thinking I should learn as much about him as possible before the meeting. I went back to my cubicle and reread the official printout on Carlos. Sophie had said she left the new report on my desk in a folder. I found the folder and opened it.
Even with the magic software, there wasn’t much in the file. As in the standard report
, everything they knew about Carlos fit on a single page. But at least there were three recent pictures. Two were even in color.
Looking at the pictures of Carlos the Butcher made me shudder. Carlos looked big, mean, and his eyes looked a little insane. I started reading the report and suddenly I couldn’t breathe. My heart sped up and I broke out in a sweat.
Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit.
My hand was shaking as I took the piece of paper and slid it back into the manila folder. I then took out my cell phone and dialed Max. He answered on the third ring with his usual confident and powerful voice. I felt like crying.
“Well, that was quick. Change your mind about dinner?”
“Max?” I said. I knew that my voice was trembling.
“Laura, what’s wrong?”
“I need to talk to Tony. Right away. It’s important.”
Max grew serious. “I assume this is about business?”
“Yes.”
“OK, keep by your phone. I’ll call you back as soon as I can.”
~~~~
Less than ten minutes later, my phone rang. When it started playing the theme from the Love Boat, I knew it was Max.
“Tony’s working in his office at the Tropical Paradise tonight. He said he‘ll meet with you. I’ll meet you in the lobby and take you up. Maybe thirty minutes?”
~~~~
I tried to stay focused as I drove up Scottsdale Road to the Scottsdale Tropical Paradise. It was one of a handful of high-end resorts Tony DiCenzo owned outright and I’d been there several times before.
As resorts go, the Scottsdale Tropical Paradise is amazingly beautiful and one of the best in Arizona. It’s one of the original mega-resorts constructed in the early eighties along the north part of Scottsdale road. The Tropical Paradise has two of the finest golf courses in Arizona and has hosted dozens of PGA events over the years.
Even as distracted as I was, I couldn’t help but be impressed as I drove closer to the resort. Surrounding the resort’s golf courses is some of the most expensive and desired real estate in Scottsdale. The area is particularly prized by young Silicon Valley dot-com millionaires, all of who had made their fortunes in California then decided to retire in Arizona.
