Death, Taxes, and Green Tea Ice Cream

by Diane Kelly

  This is what I live for.

  chapter forty-five

  Call Me Maybe

  The five of us followed along at a reasonable distance as the truck made two more deliveries, one at a cell phone shop, the other at a run-down house in South Dallas. The place had burglar bars over all the windows and doors, making the structure appear as much cage as house. I parked down the street and watched through the binoculars as the deliveryman wheeled several large unmarked boxes through the door.

  Finally, the driver led us south down Interstate 635, also known as LBJ Freeway, which formed a partial loop around the northern and eastern perimeters of Dallas. Just before reaching Balch Springs, he took an exit and headed into an industrial area. I stayed back as the cars driven by Nick, Eddie, William, and Tanaka converged. The four of them slowed as the truck braked to turn into a truck yard.

  The expansive yard appeared to be approximately the size of a football field. Surrounding the yard was a ten-foot chain-link fence with orange plastic strips winding through the links to create a visual barrier. The fence was topped with barbed wire. Not surprising. I’d heard of eighteen-wheelers being hijacked. Trucks loaded with merchandise were probably a common target for thieves.

  I pulled to the curb and watched through the field glasses as the driver punched a code on a keypad to activate the electronic gate. The four agents drove their cars into the lot of the small one-story brick building that served as the headquarters for the truck yard. They climbed out of their vehicles and walked inside.

  Oh, to be a fly on that wall …

  I’d reluctantly agreed to keep watch outside. We had no idea how extensive this crime ring could be, and it couldn’t hurt to have eyes on the parking lot.

  A moment later, my cell phone bleeped with an incoming call, the sound startling me so much I nearly dropped my field glasses. The readout indicated it was Eddie.

  I hit the button. “Hey, Eddie.”

  Eddie didn’t reply. All I heard was Nick speaking with another man whose voice I didn’t recognize. Looked like Eddie had butt-dialed me once again. When would he learn how to use his new phone? Still, now I could be a fly on the wall. A blind fly, maybe, but at least I could listen to their exchange.

  “We’ve got a warrant to search the place,” Nick said. “We believe counterfeit goods have been shipped from this location.”

  “Counterfeit goods?” came the other man’s voice, followed by words I couldn’t make out.

  The rest of the conversation was disjointed. Eddie must have stepped farther away from Nick and the man he was speaking to.

  Nick voice came through again. “… followed the delivery truck … here…”

  The man’s voice followed. “… don’t know … take a look.”

  There was no noise other than fabric rubbing up against the mic for several seconds before the conversation picked up again.

  Nick spoke again. “… inspect your truck…”

  This time a voice that sounded like the Asian deliveryman’s responded. “… follow … boxes…”

  Frankly, the whole thing was more annoying than intriguing so far. I probably should have let the men handle the bust.

  Though the phone, I heard Eddie shout, “Look out!”

  Uh-oh. Look out for what?

  Pop! Pop-pop-pop!

  Holy shit! Was that gunfire coming from the truck yard?

  I screamed into the phone, “Eddie! Are you guys okay?”

  There was no response.

  Oh, my God! Had they been hit?

  I leaped from my car, opened my trunk, and grabbed the rifle case I’d left in my car after going to the range that morning. In my haste I hadn’t put on my jacket, and the cold wind hit me with a relentless force. But a little freezing wind wasn’t going to stop me.

  Pop-pop!

  Yep. Definitely gunfire. A semiautomatic.

  The next pop was followed by a blam-blam-blam that sounded like a government-issued Glock. I wondered how William was taking all of this. Was he scared shitless, rethinking his transfer from collections? Or was he like I’d been, terrified but thrilled at the same time?

  I hung up on Eddie and dialed 911 as I ran toward the yard, fighting through the brisk wind. “There’s shooting at a truck yard!” I gave the dispatcher the location as best I could. “Federal agents are on-site serving a warrant.”

  She asked me to stay on the line while she put out a call for officers in the area to respond.

  By then I’d reached the fence. I put my face up to a gap in the plastic but could see nothing. Damn! For all I knew, Nick, Eddie, William, and Tanaka could be lying dead inside. I fought back a rising panic.

  Pop-pop-pop!

  Blam! Blam!

  Frantically I glanced around for something to climb so I could see over the fence. Twenty yards away was a gnarled live oak tree. I ran over, pulled my rifle and a box of ammo from the case, and began my ascent up the trunk. Who would’ve thought all that tree climbing I’d done as a girl in East Texas would one day pay off?

  When I’d climbed high enough to see over the fence, I found my line of sight blocked by a trailer. I continued upward until I looked down on dozens of trailers situated at irregular angles, forming a maze of sorts.

  At this height, the limbs around me were thinner, swaying recklessly in the wind. I just hoped the one I sat on could support my weight. Maybe all that green tea ice cream hadn’t been such a good idea after all.

  The four agents were hunkered down in the center of the yard, next to the back bumper of the white truck the Asian man had been driving. All had their guns at the ready. Luckily, all of them appeared unharmed.

  Thank God.

  At least a dozen armed men closed in from various directions, creeping toward the agents, using the trucks for cover. Nick, Eddie, William, and Tanaka were outmanned and outgunned.

  Sitting ducks.

  From my vantage point, I could see the entire yard. It was like watching one of those maps on a video game with red dots to warn a player of enemies closing in.

  I stuck one leg down between two branches and wrapped my ankle around them to brace myself. “Send the SWAT team,” I told the emergency dispatcher when she returned to the line. “These guys are armed to the teeth with semi-automatics.” I took one more look and said, “Tell the cops not to shoot the girl in the tree. That’s me. Gotta go.”

  chapter forty-six

  How Tara Got Her Gumption Back

  I hung up on 911 and dialed Eddie. He yanked his phone out of his breast pocket and put it to his ear. “Tara! We’re taking fire!”

  “I know,” I said. “I’m in the oak tree.”

  Eddie’s head swiveled as he looked around, trying to find my location. His head stopped when he spotted me. “Holy shit, girl. That’s you?”

  “Yeah. SWAT is on its way. There’s at least a dozen men closing in on you guys. I can pin them down for a little bit, but I’ve got limited ammo.” My SXR could hold only five bullets at a time. I’d have to use them wisely, as precious seconds could be wasted reloading.

  Eddie quickly nudged Nick and pointed up at me. Nick took Eddie’s phone. “Tell us what to do.”

  Don’t you just love it when men say that?

  I jabbed the speaker button and lodged the phone in the crook of the tree so both of my hands would be free. I loaded my rifle and looked over the yard, evaluating the risks. I put my eye to the scope and took aim at the man who’d ventured closest to the agents. I pulled the trigger.

  Bang!

  The man’s weapon sailed out of his hands. He screamed and scrambled under the closest trailer for cover.

  “You’ve got two men coming up on your left,” I said into the phone.

  “Gotcha.”

  I watched as Nick bent down, spied around the corner of the truck, and took out one of the men with a bullet to the shoulder. The other darted around the cab of a bright orange truck, climbed in, and started up the engine. In his haste, he ground the gears before
finding the right one, the engine clanging before roaring to life. He drove the truck to the closed exit gate and rammed it. There was an eye-popping screech of metal on concrete as the truck forced its way through the gate.

  If the guy thought he was going to get away, he better think again.

  “Not gonna happen, buddy.” I took aim and shot out the driver’s side window. Through my scope, I saw the man throw himself to the floorboards, cowering amid the shattered glass. The truck stalled and rolled to a stop, creating an effective barrier for any of the others who might have thought about escaping.

  Another man ran between two trailers, making his way toward Nick, Eddie, William, and Tanaka. He obviously had no idea I was up in the tree, watching him.

  Bang!

  I shot him in the upper arm. He screamed, dropped his weapon, and took off running. Stupid move. One of his cohorts fired on him as he ran around the back of a blue trailer. He fell to the ground, clutching his arm with one hand, his thigh with the other, screaming, “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!”

  Watching the men close in on the agents, I realized their best bet was to get out of the line of fire.

  “See that red truck behind you?” I said into the phone.

  Down in the yard, Nick’s head turned. “Yeah?”

  “There’s a metal grab bar mounted on the cab. Use it to climb on top of the cab. You’ll be safer up there. I’ll cover you.”

  Nick waved for the other agents to follow him. He ran to the red truck, motioning for William to head up first.

  Bang! I picked off a third man who’d sneaked too close, putting a bullet in his forearm.

  Eddie went up the cab next, followed by Tanaka.

  Bang!

  I put my fourth bullet in the buttocks of a man who held a gun in each hand like some type of crazed Rambo. He dropped the weapons and grabbed his ass, loping cockeyed to the nearest truck.

  I had only one bullet left in my rifle before I’d have to reload. Better make it count, huh?

  As Nick scaled the truck, a man came running up the aisle and spotted him. With both hands on the rail, Nick couldn’t fire his weapon.

  But I could fire mine.

  Bang!

  The man fell to the ground, a bullet in his hip.

  No one messes with my man.

  As I stopped to reload, two cop cars pulled up, sirens wailing. Four officers hopped out of the vehicles, though they hunkered down behind the cars as they attempted to get a read on the scene.

  I waved my arms and finally got the attention of one of the officers. He ran over and pasted his back to the wide trunk of the tree for safety. He looked up at me.

  “I’ve got the agents on the phone!” I called. “So far they’re okay, but they’re way outnumbered!”

  “SWAT’s on the way!” the cop called up to me.

  Lying flat on top of the truck cab now, Nick and the other agents had a tactical advantage. The men in the truck yard assumed the agents would be cowering down low and didn’t think to look up. The agents were able to get off several shots to keep their attackers at bay and buy some time until SWAT arrived. Nick, Eddie, and Tanaka fired most of the shots, though William got off two himself. The first ricocheted off a side mirror. The second took out a tire, which slowly went flat. He could definitely use some more practice.

  The dark SWAT truck roared around the corner and drove up the road. The officer at the base of the tree waved for them to come our way. When the vehicle stopped, five men poured out, two from the cab, three from the back.

  Officer Lamar Thomas jumped down from the passenger seat and looked up at me, his helmet sliding back on his forehead. “I don’t fucking believe this.”

  I raised both my rifle and my free hand to indicate submission. “It’s your party now.”

  “Not so fast,” he said, tossing a walkie-talkie up to me. “We need you to be our eye in the sky.”

  All of the SWAT officers were male and outweighed me by at least fifty pounds. No way could these limbs support their weight.

  “SWAT’s coming in,” I warned Nick through the phone. “Don’t shoot.” I looked down at Thomas. “Our agents are on top of the red truck near the center.”

  He nodded in acknowledgment.

  The SWAT members grabbed their weapons and their shields and ran to the gate, squeezing past the disabled semi stalled there. One of the officers peeked through the window. The man who’d been driving the truck was still on the floorboards, though he raised his hands in surrender. He was pulled from the cab and cuffed by one of the regular officers.

  Another cop pulled out a bullhorn and ordered everyone in the yard to put down their weapons and lie facedown on the ground. None of the men obeyed. One at the back attempted to scale the fence. With the plastic strips in the way, he couldn’t get a foothold in the links and soon gave up.

  “Two to your right,” I told Thomas via the radio as he stormed in. He got off two shots, taking down both men. Bang! Bang!

  Pop-pop-pop!

  I jerked to the left as one of the men spotted me and tried to take me out. Good thing he was a sucky shot. All he succeeded in doing was putting a few holes in the tree.

  One of the SWAT officers ran up behind him, gave him a swift whack in the head with a baton, and the guy crumpled to the ground.

  From my perch, I continued to coach the SWAT team until every armed guy in the compound had either been shot, been disarmed, or surrendered. I pushed the button on the walkie-talkie. “Party’s over. We got ’em all.”

  As I descended the tree, Officer Thomas stepped up and held out a hand to help me down.

  “Thanks for your help today,” he said once my feet were firmly on the ground.

  “No problem.”

  He stuck out his hand. “No hard feelings?”

  No hard feelings?

  NO HARD FEELINGS?

  Was this guy out of his ever-loving mind?

  I fought the urge to shoot him point-blank with my rifle, thinking better of it. No way would I go free on that one. “Sure,” I forced out between clenched teeth as I took his hand. “No hard feelings.”

  With all of the adrenaline pumping through my system, I’d forgotten how cold it was outside. Now that the adrenaline had waned, I began to shiver. I returned to my car and cranked the engine on. Luckily, it was still warm. I sat there, enjoying the heater blowing on me full force, while the bad guys were hauled off in multiple Dallas PD cruisers.

  Neener.

  Neener.

  Neener.

  * * *

  Once Nick had finished dealing with the local cops, he glanced my way, walked over, and jerked his head to indicate the yard. “Want to help us search the place?”

  He didn’t have to ask me twice. I turned off my car and climbed out, sliding into my coat.

  The agents and I spent the next four hours going through all of the trucks and their contents. As it turned out, the counterfeit cell phones were only part of a much broader smuggling scheme. Our search turned up an extensive cache of semi-automatic weapons, knockoff designer handbags, even counterfeit pharmaceuticals, including fake Viagra. Someone was going to be disappointed—actually, two people would be, huh?

  Tanaka was thrilled by the find. Given the enormous cache we’d discovered, this seizure would be one of the largest in the history of the Dallas ICE office. He contacted his office, and other agents were dispatched to search the house where the delivery truck had stopped on the way over. Those agents contacted Tanaka soon afterward. Another huge stash of illegal weapons had been found there.

  Eddie and William went into the headquarters and seized the computers and paperwork. Nick and I helped them load the equipment and documents into their cars.

  “So,” I said, turning to William, “you’ve got your first bust under your belt now. How do you feel?”

  He slowly shook his head, his eyes wide. “I feel glad I didn’t crap myself.”

  I gave him a smile. This guy would fit right in at Criminal Inve
stigations.

  As Nick walked me back to my car, I felt a spring in my step that I hadn’t felt in weeks. I felt happy, satisfied, fulfilled.

  I’d got my gumption back.

  chapter forty-seven

  On My Case

  As I sat at my desk in the audit department in Fort Worth late Monday morning, my cell phone rang. The readout indicated it was The Lobo.

  I took the call, ready to hear all about how I’d exceeded my authority as an auditor, how I had no business butting in where I didn’t belong, how I should’ve let the agents handle things.

  I steeled myself. “Commence the ass chewing.”

  All she said was, “Come see me,” before hanging up her phone.

  Great. She wanted to chew my ass out in person.

  I told Clyde Hartford that Lu had summoned me.

  “You better get going, then,” he replied.

  I drove to Dallas Criminal Investigations and rode the elevator up to my old floor. When I stepped into the hall, the place seemed oddly quiet. Viola wasn’t at her desk, and no agents milled about.

  The door to Lu’s office was closed. I walked up and tapped softly on it.

  “Come on in, Holloway!” Lu barked.

  I turned the knob and opened the door.

  A chorus of, “Welcome back!” greeted me, along with the kazoo-like sounds of noisemakers. Lu, Viola, Nick, Eddie, Josh, William, and a half-dozen other special agents were gathered in the room. Streamers hung from the light fixture and colorful helium balloons floated in the air. On Lu’s desk sat an enormous sheet cake in the shape of a special agent badge with my name written across it.

  Did I dare to believe my eyes?

  “I … uh … what?”

  Lu held out my Glock and my badge. “You got your job back.”

  My lungs lurched with a happy sob. “I did?”

  “After that stunt you pulled at the truck yard?” Lu said. “George Burton and the others had no choice but to admit they’d been wrong about you.”

  Nick slid me a cocky grin. “You’re that damn good.”

  I was so elated I felt as if I might float away with the balloons. I sat down in one of Lu’s chairs, my smile so wide it hurt.