Miami's Forgotten

by Matt Lincoln

  My obligations had to be met first. “I need to see this thing through, with the overdose deaths and the drugs coming in. With both of you back now, I think we can figure it all out and end it. And then, after that, we go for Doc. But we all need to keep trying to reach him, to contact him in every way possible. That’s my take on it.”

  “Alright then,” Xavier answered. “You’re the boss, so that’s what we do. Let’s get to it.” He opened up his laptop and started typing. “Header, would you mind explaining the notebook thing to Rosa while I get ready? Besides, you are better with the storytelling aspects of stuff than I am any day.”

  Maybe it was flattery, but I took it. I turned to Rosa and began. “My friend LaShawn is the one that set me up with all of this, to begin with. He’s been worried about the people he looks after over at the Edler Center, which is a community thing, but they offer services like counseling overnight. That’s when he works, and he’s gotten a few hits about cleaned up ex-addicts who are being used and drugged up for testing, and then they either die from the exposure or, in at least one case, they get murdered later so that they can’t identify the people doing this to them.”

  Rosa nodded, following along and taking it all in.

  “Well, LaShawn’s name got mentioned by a witness or two because he helps them out. This brought Detective Cecily Musik from the Miami Police Department into the mix, and, on a side note, she and LaShawn have started to get close, if you know what I mean.” It may not have been relevant, but the context was. “Anyway, one night, she comes to my place with the red notebook and, well, I think that she was doing some serious soul searching about the case. The DEA had stepped in and claimed the MPD’s only suspect, the one that had shot LaShawn.” I let Rosa and Xavier work all that through before I continued. It was a lot to take in.

  So, the DEA just came in and took this guy? How did they manage that? Rosa was as dumbfounded as I had been when I heard about it.

  I sighed because I hated this next part. “A Federal Judge okayed the transfer or custody exchange. Whatever it was.”

  That’s when Rosa’s eyes grew wide. We’re not talking about…? She didn’t want to entertain that thought either, but we had to. Is Judge Fu involved again? Even after we threatened to expose her? Son of a…

  “Yeah,” I nodded. “I guess that the money and power were too much of a draw against her son. But, going back… So, the detective visits me, and we talk a little, but she’s, she’s having a time trying to decide what to do about her own case. LaShawn, bless his heart, talked her into trusting me, and that’s where I got the notebook from.”

  At this, Xavier held up the pad of paper as proof. Rosa nodded and then turned back to me to hear the rest.

  I continued. “I tried to figure it out, but I was lost. I did find Agent Nace’s name in there, crossed out. I assumed that was done once he was dead, as he was no longer a viable source or contact. There was also the name ‘Caris,’ and he’s the guy that the DEA took from the MPD. The one that shot LaShawn.” I was trying to make all of this easy to understand, but I thought I was coming up short. “Then the other day, one of the witnesses to the group, the trio…”

  Do you mean the three that are injecting the victims? Two men and a woman, right? Rosa clarified this for herself.

  “Right. I track this witness as she’s being taken to where the trio are, only I didn’t know that at the time. I was trying to get close enough to question her about them, but hey, it worked out either way,” I joked.

  “Not for Caris,” Xavier interjected playfully.

  “No, not for Caris.” I smiled at his comment. “The girl, the witness, gets taken to this warehouse place, and inside, I find the trio and their designer drug lab. Caris and his muscle and I shoot it out. He’s now dead and out of the picture, but the other two, now the duo, escape. But the girl is in police custody, and hopefully, she’ll be okay.”

  Wow. You certainly know how to party when I’m away, Rosa teased. I had a hunch that she was just relieved that nothing more serious had happened to me during all of that. I was going to hate to have to tell her about the first attack. Maybe I should save that story for another time. What about that notebook, though? How is that connecting to the case or whatever? And why did the detective give it to you?

  “Ahh, yeah,” I shrugged. “I don’t know why exactly. She never would answer me about that. And if you look through it, you’ll see that it’s been added to by a lot of different people. Separate handwriting, dates, usage… all of it individually sourced and recounted.” It was a mystery worthy of the word, I told myself. “The only thing I did understand or pick up immediately was a shipping lane from Florida to South America. So, I followed it, and that’s how I got the stuff that we gave to George. I assume that they’re the substances needed to make the drugs. With what little evidence he had from his elite patients, he’d mentioned that the ingredients weren’t all manufactured here in the US, so they had to import them somehow.”

  Rosa looked baffled but in a good way. And we already know that the Judge was connected to the Yabut from Colombia. But why would she further this? I mean, we hold all the evidence that could take her down and expose her corruption. All she had to do was stop double-dealing with her Task Force and playing both sides of the drug war. Why would she chance it? She shook her head in disgust. How could her son’s safety mean so little to her?

  “Not just his safety, but his life, remember?” Xavier added. “He heard her say that the Yabut would be doing her a favor if they killed him. Thankfully, they didn’t try to, but with that kind of callousness, does anything she does surprise you anymore?”

  I guess that it shouldn’t. Rosa took a drink to collect herself and her thoughts about what he’d just said.

  “Then you agree with me that the Judge is somehow behind this resurgence of designer drugs here in Miami and that we need to take it down once and for all?” I wanted the team onboard for sure before I moved forward with my plans. They nodded and got themselves ready to hear what came next. “We need to find the last witness that we know of. The musician, Colby, was killed by Caris, and the girl, Jozie, is in police custody. That leaves us the last guy, and we don’t even have a name. I know that LaShawn was trying to find out something about him from where he works, but I guess that he hasn’t yet, since he hasn’t contacted me with anything.”

  “Oh!” Xavier just about jumped out of his chair when I said that, and then he slapped his head, but not too hard. “My facial recognition prototype got a hit on that! It’s not one hundred percent yet, but the algorithm is set.” He looked so happy about this that I got up to look at his laptop, expecting some sort of miracle. Rosa joined us. “I don’t run the faces through criminal backgrounds, but through social media sites, and that’s where I got a possible hit.”

  “You’re just now telling me this?” I was a little irritated with him for leaving out something so important until now. “Xavier, we need to work on your priority discretion.”

  “But, Rosa…?” He looked a little wounded when I’d said that. “I didn’t tell you because it came in while I was picking her up from the airport, and then I didn’t want to ruin the surprise of you seeing her here and… yeah, I’m sorry. I should have mentioned it sooner.” He looked a little defeated, and now I felt bad about scolding him.

  He’s been planning this surprise for a while, Header, Rosa gently informed me. He knew that you’d been missing having all of us together. And I’m sorry that my arrival got things mixed up for all of us. It won’t happen again. She put a hand on Xavier’s shoulder to reassure him.

  I knew that I’d overstepped a bit. “This case has me on edge in the worst way. Thank you, Xavier, for getting Rosa here safe and sound, and it was a good surprise, unlike most that have been happening around me lately.” I had to keep that in mind. “I’ll be more aware of how I… react about your intel. I know that you’re doing all that you can for this mission.” That done, I turned my full attention back to the
matter at hand, which was Xavier’s hit on the lone witness we needed to find.

  Seemingly satisfied, Xavier continued. “His name is Nohemi Loy, and he’s kind of been into a lot of low amount of trouble. He doesn’t have a record or anything, but he likes to, uh, straddle the fence of law-abiding and not so much.” Xavier pulled up the image we had of him and another off of a site where he was dancing with some other kids his age.

  “Are you sure that’s the same kid?” It was hard for me to tell, even as I got closer and he zoomed in on the two images.

  “Ninety-seven percent match, which is great considering the quality of the pictures I scanned.” Xavier was impressed with himself, so I guessed that I should be, too. “I did find several ages listed for him, though, so he’s somewhere between eighteen and twenty-five. And he has family in Vera Cruz that he visits often. A lot of his social timelines have location tags there.”

  “Sounds like a good place to start looking for him. How soon can we leave?” I eyed them, waiting for an answer with a smile on my face. It was an exciting prospect to be out doing something again, especially with even a part of my team.

  I’m ready now, Rosa replied, looking enthusiastic at the chance of getting back into the swing of things and back on the water, as well.

  Xavier typed in a few things before he replied to me. “I need a little time, half an hour to set this up to run while I’m gone. But then, yeah, I’m good to go, Header.”

  I was super glad to hear that from both of them. I nodded at his screen. “What are you setting up?” Then I saw Doc’s face come up in vivid detail.

  “I’m going to run him through that same prototype algorithm,” Xavier stated. “He’s not exactly a viral media kind of guy, but maybe, if we’re lucky, now that I know it really does work, he’ll pop up on someone else’s pictures. You know, like an accidental photobomb or something.”

  “Good thinking,” I nodded. “I’m going to step outside and make a few calls while I wait. Both of you meet me out at the huge red barn when you’re ready to leave.” I motioned in the direction and started for the deck on the yacht to go out.

  Once I was out in the open air and away from all the noise of other people, I placed a call to George. I hoped that he’d have some news by now about the compounds of that drug. The phone rang twice before he picked up.

  “Mr. Header,” he greeted. “How fortuitous. I needed to speak to you as it stands, and now here you are, ringing me up.” His voice was cheerful today. I hoped that meant good news for what I was calling about. “May I presume that you are inquiring about the substances you brought me to analyze?”

  “You presume right.” It was good to have him so focused on this. It saved me a lot of time.

  “Ah, very good,” he replied. “So, what I have been able to understand is that the cubed material is mostly organic in nature and is composed of eight different elements, five of which are plant-based. The other three are mineral.” George knew what he was talking about, so I let him talk without interruption. “As for the liquid, it’s turning out to be a bit more complicated.”

  “How so? Were you able to find out what it was, at least?” I waited on his every word because once we knew what the compounds were, that would go a long way toward finding out where they came from. We already knew that the Yabut, the DEA, and the Judge were involved, but we needed to know where the source was. We had to take that down too.

  “It’s made up of synthetic opioids that in turn have been chemically altered,” he replied. “Once injected, it will latch on to a user’s dopamine levels and create highly individualized experiences. This makes the dosages and outcomes so erratic that no two people taking the same amount will react in similar ways. This is more dangerous than I could have imagined.” George stopped talking long enough for me to ask a few things.

  “Designer drug to the extreme, huh?” I commented. “Could that be why they have had to test it so much? They aren’t even sure of the outcomes when they inject someone?” I wanted a medical opinion on what I was thinking.

  “That’s precisely what I would guess,” he agreed. “Everything about the effects is arbitrary. And unless they find or have found a solution that can stabilize the compound and create a baseline for reactions, this will continue to kill the users randomly.” He sounded genuinely concerned about it, and I couldn’t blame him at all. “There is no way, from my understanding of the substance, that they can predict how people will respond to their drug.”

  This took me a minute to accept. My mind was working overtime, trying to comprehend it, and appreciate the sheer scope of what that encompassed. “Every user, willing or not, is a potential homicide victim then? Do I have that right, George?”

  “You do,” he replied shortly.

  “So then, those who are creating it could, in essence, be responsible for that many attempted murders.” I was trying to see through it all when that hit me. By creating and altering it, they knew that it could most likely kill someone, anyone, at any time. They couldn’t calculate the reactions because they obviously still hadn’t perfected the compound. It was sadistic at best, fatal at the worst. “Thank you, George. I appreciate all the work that you’ve done on this. You’ll keep this to yourself, for now, right? Just until my team and I get more evidence against who is doing this.”

  “I will,” he agreed. “But may I ask, how close are you to finding the culprits? There could be many potential casualties out there right now, Mr. Header. I have to consider their lives and how they could be saved if this came to light sooner than later.” He was correct, and I knew that.

  I didn’t know how a public outcry or even the current media process would help or hinder us in locating the duo now. To tie this back to Judge Fu, I needed at least one, but hopefully both, of the remaining trio in some kind of custody. I felt that I could trust Detective Musik, but would the DEA step in again and derail everything that the MPD had, or what I could give them? That was a chance I didn’t want to take just yet.

  “How about this?” I asked. “Can you inform the medical community without alerting the authorities exactly? That way, you can protect the possible victims without giving anything away for the Judge to get tipped off about?” I knew that was a tall order and probably not the most legal or legitimate way to go about this, but I needed more time, and I needed to help. I wanted there to be a way to do both.

  George sighed, but he seemed to understand what I was asking and trying to get at. “Yes, I can make some calls and shrewdly dictate the manner in which this information will be released. I cannot guarantee that it will remain private or free from the news or authorities, though, Jake. If my contacts deem it necessary, then they will release this information to the public. People’s lives are at stake, and we must try to halt that. I expect that you can appreciate that.”

  “I get it. Thanks, George.” That was all that I could ask of him, and I was more than grateful for it.

  24

  Jake

  Within the hour, Rosa, Xavier, and I were loaded on Wraith with a few days’ worth of supplies like clothes, food, and weapons, in case we ran into the kind of trouble that I expected us to. I had no idea how long we were going to have to stay in Vera Cruz, but we all wanted to be prepared. We had the name and picture of the guy, Nohemi Loy, that we were looking for, but that was about it. He was somehow connected to the drug dealers, as we had photo evidence. Xavier had been able to locate the area that this guy’s family lived in but didn’t have an actual address. It was going to be a door-to-door search, and that may be the best-case scenario.

  We had plenty of time during the trip to make plans and study the city maps that Xavier had worked up for our benefit. We were hoping for a straight run-through without any major stops other than fuel, food, and rest. During this time, we all had contacts to make and phone calls to put through.

  My first call was to LaShawn to let him know what was going on.

  “Hey,” I said as soon as he picked up the phone,
“just so you have a heads up, my team and I are going to be out on a little run. We think that we’ve located the other guy, the last witness that we’ve been looking for.”

  “Seriously?!” he shouted. “That’s great! What can I do to help you guys out?” He wanted to be a part of this, and I had a job for him to do while we were gone.

  “Keep an eye on Jozie Chavira,” I requested. “Both eyes when you can. And ask Cecily to be careful with her. I have a bad feeling that the Judge or the Yabut may move on the witnesses before this is over.” I wanted him to understand how cautious we all still needed to be.

  “I’ll do everything humanly possible,” he assured me. “Don’t worry about that. But you guys all take care, too, you hear me?” There was a very heavy tone of apprehension in LaShawn’s voice when he spoke to me. He was a tough man, with tough emotional skin, but I knew that he realized what we could be getting into by going to Vera Cruz.

  I tried my best to reassure him that we would. “I have some good backup with me. And as far as I know, this kid’s whereabouts are still a mystery to the other people trying to find him. Hopefully, we’re ahead of them in that area and can get to him before they do.” I wasn’t positive, though, as the Judge, the DEA, and the Yabut all had long arms and plenty of eyes to keep watch. “But I’ll be in touch as soon as I can. Talk to you later.”

  I owed Verity a call, too. However, I was stalling badly. I didn’t know what to say without her getting worried or making too big of a deal out of what I was doing. So, I bit the bullet and dialed her cell. She picked up after a few rings, and her voice was all too cheerful for me to handle, considering what I needed to tell her. It was going to be more difficult than I’d originally thought.

  “Jake!” she exclaimed. “Oh, I’m so glad that you called! Things are getting ludicrous around here. Weir has a new gallery opening, and we have to set it all up in mere hours! You wouldn’t be available to help out, would you?”