"Nah, nothing like that. I'll be there in thirty."
"I'll still be here. Lots of eyes and nobody has seen shit."
"Isn’t that the way it always flows?"
"True. True. I'll see you when you get here."
Brody shoved his phone back in his pocket and rubbed his face as he waited for the stoplight to turn from red to green. On impulse, he grabbed his phone again and hit up Blay.
"Sorry, man." Blay's comment was out as soon as his phone stopped ringing.
His shoulders relaxed, and he nodded even though his brother couldn't see him. "Yeah, me, too. You know you have a place with me as long as you want, right?"
"Yeah, but if you were serious about the third apartment, I'll take you up on it. I can work on it while I'm saving for my own place," Blay's voice echoed.
"Are you in the apartment now?" Brody hit his blinker and merged onto the interstate on ramp.
"Yeah. Wanted to check it out. Real nice." Blay whistled. "When did you tile the shower?"
"Two weekends ago. You were working." Brody accelerated onto the interstate and merged into the middle lane.
"Nice. Maybe I'll buy this from you and forget about looking for a place."
Brody blinked and then smiled. "Dude, that's a great idea. It's the largest of the three apartments. The other two take care of the payment on the building. I'll cut you a break if you agree to help me with the upkeep of the building and do the rest of the work on the apartment yourself."
"Man, if you are pulling my leg, that shit ain't funny."
Brody let himself get excited about the possibility. "No, really, it makes sense."
"We could buy the lot behind us, make it a backyard for the entire building. Dude, I could get a dog."
"Who would watch him when you have to pull shifts?" Brody shook his head. Blayze was an animal lover with a big heart. When he was a kid, he'd pick up strays and bring them home. It drove their mother crazy.
"Yeah, I'll figure that out. If you're serious about this, I'm in."
"I'm serious."
"Good. And it wasn't my place to say anything this morning. I'm sorry for that."
"Who'd you talk to?"
"Mom."
"She told you to say that, didn't she?"
"Well, hell, I was going to say it anyway, but yeah." Blay laughed and mimicked their mother. "Blayze Benedict King, you know I love you. You're my youngest son and your brothers let you get away with a lot, but you had no right to insert yourself into Brody and Amber's business."
Brody barked a laugh. "She said that?"
"Serious as a fucking heart attack man."
"Dude, we may need to stage an intervention. Aliens have snatched Mom and replaced her with a pod-person. Come to think of it, she hasn't called me today." He glanced at the old analog clock in Wilma's dash. "When did you talk to her?"
"About an hour ago. She was going to go into the city and help Brianna buy new tile for the restaurant."
"New tile? Does Brianna know about this?"
"Hell if I know. I had to tuck my tail and listen to her fuss at me. I'm not going to stick my nose in anyone else's business today."
"Smart man."
"I can be taught, or so I'm told."
"Don't listen to lies." Brody laughed when Blay hung up on him.
Ten minutes later, he was bumping down a pothole strewn road that fed back under the freeway. As he rounded the corner, the shunned microcosm of society filled the view from his windshield. The homeless, who couldn't get into shelters, the mentally ill, social outcasts, runaways, and drug addicts, had built a community of cardboard homes. Occasionally tents popped up between the shelters. Pieces of rusty, jagged, corrugated tin, old broken plywood, and cardboard of all shapes and sizes, made up small shelters for the residents to get out of the weather, but most of them sat outside in the sunshine today. There were at least fifteen burn barrels scattered through the assembly. Kyle wasn't hard to pick out, neither was Kyle’s partner. He waved to Alex and headed deeper into the community where Kyle was talking to three men.
The scared, the paranoid, the hopeless, the criminals and those who were high or holding, moved away from him as he strolled through the filth and stench. He scanned the area. Communal living with no sanitation facilities. Families seemed to congregate together on the edge of the settlement. The children huddled beside adults. There was no running and laughing, no backyard football game, or a grilled meal to share. Here the barren future held no happiness, only fear and anxiety.
He reached Kyle as the men he'd been talking with shook their heads.
"Are you sure?" Kyle asked the men again.
"Didn't see nothing." Said one of the men. He looked young, maybe twenty, but this life aged people fast. He glanced up and eyed Brody, not missing the badge or gun, both positioned in plain sight. "Nothing." He turned and hurried away. The other two older men shook their heads.
Kyle nodded to him, and they fell into step, walking further into the community. "Amazing how three people end up dead by this burn barrel, in front of all these people, and no one saw a thing." Kyle shook his head.
"Safer for them not to get involved." He glanced at the crime scene. "Who has the death scene?"
"Homicide detectives were here and did the initial canvas. Crime scene techs got what evidence they could, but the bodies had been rolled. No shoes, clothes, nothing of value left on them. It sucks. So many people, so little resources to help."
"Hey, people like Tara and Brianna are doing everything they can."
"True, but what brought you here?" Kyle snapped off his latex gloves and dropped them into a nearby burn barrel.
"We've got good intel that Peña's cartel is bringing in Grey Death. Two ODs are suspected already. Was there any indication that these three were using GD?"
Kyle shook his head. "One died with a dirty needle in his arm. H is my guess. The other two were meth heads. If they had the money, they'd buy more crank."
"One of GD’s primary components is heroine, but they cut it with elephant tranqs."
"Are you serious?" Kyle blinked up at him. "I've heard about GD, but I haven't seen it on the streets. Not here at least. Thank God."
"Do me a favor and keep your eyes open. When the tox comes back on that H user, let me know what it says?"
"Yeah, I've got a good working relationship with Miller and Tripp. I'll give them a call and give them a heads up."
"Thanks, but keep it quiet for now. We don't need anyone talking. If Peña gets wind of us working to close down what we suspect is his pipeline, we're screwed."
"Gottcha. I'll call and make an inquiry then. Casual."
"Perfect. You have much business in the Cottages?" He pushed his hands into his jean pockets so he wouldn't touch anything.
"Always. Cheap drugs cut with everything from baby powder to drain cleaner tend to eliminate the poor suckers that are hooked on the shit, but I'm tracking an anomaly. Prescription drugs."
"No kidding?"
"Yeah."
"Let me know if I can help. We can put out feelers if you have anything to go on. Oh, and thank you for coming to the 'rents’ yesterday."
"I'll take you up on that offer, and dude, mini-you is a great kid. Sorry I couldn't stay longer." He nodded toward his partner, Alex. "We had a call out."
"No worries. I'm glad you made it over."
"Hell, I wouldn't miss it." Kyle glanced at him. "You were getting pretty close to Amber. That on again?"
"It is."
"Be careful."
He groaned, "Man, not you, too."
Kyle chuckled. "You're my best friend. Yeah, I'm going to tell you to be careful. I'm also going to tell you to go for it, because that woman and that kid are worth the effort. I tried to kick your ass into going to see her after the accident."
"Yeah, I remember. Wish like hell I'd taken your advice back then."
"So... you're saying..." Kyle's smile spread across his face.
"Fine. You were righ
t." Brody laughed when Kyle punched the air in front of him.
"Damn, that hurt didn't it?" Kyle's eyes caught on something across the way.
"It did. I'm leaving now."
Kyle blinked back to him; his brow furrowed. "Yeah, okay."
"What? What did you see?"
"Someone that doesn't belong, which makes me edgy. Let's go to the Celtic Cock this week. You owe me a drink or ten for being right."
"Deal. Take care."
"You too." Kyle tossed the words toward him before he headed across the encampment, zeroing in on a woman wearing a backpack. She really didn't fit in. New clothes, nice backpack, and... was she wearing earphones? No wonder Kyle was making tracks that way. The woman was going to get herself robbed or worse.
He threw Alex another wave as he headed back to his truck. With Kyle and Alex keeping an eye open for GD in this district, it wouldn't take long to get notified if the drug had started making it to the inner city and the homeless population.
Chapter 16
Amber held the ladder for Brody. The small camera he was mounting to the eaves at the corner of the house masqueraded as a flood light. They'd arrived about ten this morning and made a show of pulling up the SOLD sign that hung in the front yard.
Brody had wheeled in several suitcases that held nothing but monitoring equipment. She’d toted in several boxes with extra pots and pans they'd scrounged from their kitchens over the last two days. Dawn and Hannah were taking turns picking up Gage from school this week. Gage was thrilled he could introduce his grandmother to his friends at school. She grabbed Brody's jeans when he leaned forward on the ladder. "Don't you dare fall off this thing."
He chuckled and leaned even further. "Yes, dear." He leaned over. "Heads up." He grabbed the cap that would hide the small camera and snapped it into place. The lens of the camera looked like a sensor, not the wide-angle lens that would record the comings and goings of the people in the two-story colonial next door.
"Hi!" A beautiful, dark haired woman strolled across her manicured lawn and headed their way. "Are you moving in?"
"Hi!" She held the ladder until Brody was no longer standing on the top rung. "Yes, we are. I'm Amber. This is my fiancé, Brody."
"Clare Edelman." The woman extended her hand.
"Nice to meet you. Your yard is absolutely beautiful." Amber nodded at the vast expanse of perfect green.
"Thank you. It was a mess when we moved in about four months ago, but I have a green thumb and love to dig in the dirt. Erik, my husband, built me a greenhouse." Happiness shone through her smile, and she spun and looked back at her house. "You can't see it, but it's between the house and the hangar."
"I'd love to look at it sometime." Amber pointed to the pathetic flowerbeds that rimmed the ranch style house they'd 'bought'. "I'm not sure what's a weed and what's supposed to be there."
"Oh, I can help with that. I've been itching to get my hands on these flower beds, but Erik thought maybe the new owners would object."
"No objection, I'll take all the help I can get. I don't have a green thumb."
"Perfect, anyway the reason I stopped by is my husband is due back any time now. Would you like to have dinner with us tonight? I know you probably haven't had time to go shopping yet. You've been working on your lights most of the afternoon." She pointed at the camera system they'd installed.
"Well, I guess that's on me." Brody laughed. "I wanted them installed before I brought the plane in. I'm also going to make sure the lighting in the hangar is up to par."
"Oh no, are you an airplane widow, too?" Clare's hand went to her chest in mock horror and then a blazing smile appeared.
Amber's genuine smile spread fast. "I am. I admit it. Before we've even tied the knot, I've become a widow." Amber pushed her hair back and smiled.
"Don't worry. I'll keep you busy gardening when your man and mine are lost in the clouds. Unless... you're not a pilot, are you?" Clare arched an elegantly tweezed eyebrow.
"Me? No. I tend to get airsick in small aircraft." Amber screwed up her nose at the memory of her last ride. She'd lost lunch and breakfast during that flight.
"I did too until Erik got the new plane. It has a pressurized cabin. But I don't travel with him much. My plants get more flying time than I do."
Brody put the last of his tools in the toolbox and closed the lid. "Plants?"
"Erik is the best. He travels to Jacksonville three times a week for work, and he's such a sweet man that once a week or so he brings me back a small pallet or two of flowers or plants. She pointed to the blooming color around her house. "I'm going to try to grow some of the sturdier plants in the greenhouse through the winter. Listen to me rattling on, I came to invite you for dinner, not go on about my flowers."
"Dinner sounds wonderful. What time?" Amber gave a mental fist pump. Contact with one of the two neighbors they needed to get close to, and they hadn't even finished setting up their equipment.
"Erik is due to land at six-thirty. Why don't you come to ours for drinks about then, and we'll grill since it is such a beautiful day."
"You sure your husband won't mind?" Brody closed the ladder as Amber asked.
"Not at all. I'll have a drink waiting for him, and he and your fiancé can go kick the tires on the plane while we get the grill going."
"That sounds perfect." Amber genuinely smiled. She really liked Clare and hoped for the woman's sake that her husband wasn't involved with the Peña cartel.
"Wonderful. We are casual. I'm wearing this tonight, so don't worry about putting on airs." Clare nodded to the other house they were watching. The Dawes residence. "I invited the Dawes for dinner and didn't tell them not to dress up. Needless to say, I was in capris and Erik was in khaki shorts. They arrived buttoned up and pressed."
"Oh wow, I bet that was uncomfortable." Amber watched Brody head to the garage with the ladder.
"It was! Erik and I laughed about it after they left. Olivia and Samuel are nice people, but they're older and from a different era. We like to have drinks on the back porch, grill and visit."
"That sounds heavenly actually." Amber glanced at the Dawes' home. "Does she fly?"
"Yep. She and her husband are lawyers, and they fly to different cities to consult. I used to see that plane coming and going all the time. Not lately though. What is it that you do?"
"We own and operate a couple of web design platforms and recently added a digital information storage business platform." It was an excuse that allowed them to be around the house all day without anyone thinking it was abnormal.
"Gah, computers. I don't know a thing about them. Erik uses them for work, and he's always checking his email on his phone."
"What does Erik do?"
"He's a business consultant. He's responsible for ten or fifteen companies at a time. His company moves in when a business is in trouble and helps them streamline, remove the dead weight and trim to become efficient and effective again."
"Wow, that sounds interesting. No offense, but I hope we never need to call in his company." Amber made her eyes cross.
"Oh, Amber, we are going to get along fine. I'm so glad." Clare made a big production of looking to her right and to her left before she leaned in and whispered, "Most of the women around here have a stick up their ass, or so many kids they’d give anything to have a stick up their ass."
A shocked laugh erupted from her before she could stop it. "Well, I'm not a fan of sticks." She was damn proud of Gage, but she wouldn't bring him into an operation. Keeping him safe was paramount and making sure potential suspects didn't know about a personal vulnerability was absolutely essential.
Brody came back out of the garage and dropped his arm on her shoulders.
"Well, I'll let you two get back to moving in. See you at 6:30, and come straight to the backyard. I won't hear the doorbell and there is no sense going to the front of the house when you can walk through the yard."
"Thank you again." Brody extended his hand and shook Clare's.
"No problem, welcome to the neighborhood!" Clare waved and headed back to her immaculately pruned and groomed yard.
Brody watched the woman walk across the lawn. Amber leaned into him. "I really hope she's not smuggling dope. I like her."
He chuckled and turned her toward the house. "Smile and flip off the camera."
"How about we don't and say we did?" She elbowed him in the side, and they both meandered back into the garage and then into the house. They were lucky. The house had been staged to sell, so there was a couch to sit on. They'd brought an air mattress and bedding. The bedrooms hadn't been staged except for a few plants. Tonight, the surveillance van would start its coverage. The city utilities van they'd commandeered three years ago would once again be a set up for utilities work that never actually happened. The bullpen had drawn straws for shift coverage as the houses would be monitored 24/7, even when Brody and Amber were there.
Amber brought him a cold water as he worked on the computers they'd set up in the office. They had two monitors each, and the cameras were sending the stream into the cloud. They would be able to monitor take offs and landings from the security system already installed on the hangar by the previous owner. The hangar was alarmed, but not the house. Brody shook his head. Whoever lived in this house had their priorities wrong.
He picked up his earwig and hit the mic key on the computer. "Do you have us?" He glanced at the feeds he had on his screen and then looked over the top of his monitors to Amber. She nodded that she had all the feeds.
"Roger that. We have nine feeds. Three on House A, three on House B, and three on the hangar. We can see down the entire flight line. Those are good cameras."
"Installed by the previous owner." Brody continued to work through the program his cousin had sent him. He hit the small icon and instantly both screens flashed black before a myriad of pop-ups appeared.
Amber pushed away from the computer and held her hands up. "I didn't do that!"
He chuckled and hit the icon again, sending everything back the way it was. "That is a gift from my cousin, Jewell. If we have unannounced guests, click on the black treasure chest at the bottom of the screen."
Brody (Hope City Book 3) Page 16
