At 6 PM the door opened and one of the men in the dark suits came out. They repeated the procedure of checking the area and the car before their principle exited the building. They drove toward us and turned onto Clinton Street. Shelby and I decided to follow, we radioed Carl and told him to standby and keep an eye on the warehouse.
As we were about to follow another car pulled from behind an adjacent warehouse. The car waited until the Mercedes was two blocks ahead then followed. We watched the tailing car match the pace of the Mercedes. This was either a second protective car or a tail; I grabbed the binoculars and noted the license plate. The car was Ford Crown Victoria, my guess was a cop, but O’Shea told me that Lucio wasn’t being tailed.
I looked at Shelby and we both shook our heads, another complication. We decided not to follow; this would be way too obvious. I grabbed my cell phone and called O’Shea, he answered on the first ring, “What?”
“What, I though you said Lucio wasn’t being followed” I guess my tone wasn’t friendly.
O’Shea answered right away “He’s not, what are you talking about?”
“Well here’s a 411 for you, a White Crown Vic New Jersey license ACT-42D is following him right now.”
His voice registered surprise, “What, hold on a minute.” I could hear clicking in the background from his computer terminal. “Shit, that’s a Fed car, they must be shadowing him now; I had no idea.”
I believed him, if he was setting us up it would be for him to take us down, not the Feds. “That just made things more difficult, I don’t guess there is any way you could get them to back off.”
He chuckled, “Fuck no, the Feds do what the hell they want, us local yokels are a joke to them.”
I had to smile, what else could I do, “I said more difficult, not impossible, ok, talk to you later.”
He answered quickly, “Hey; I don’t like the Feds, but please don’t kill too many of them, ok.”
I laughed and hung up. I explained to Shelby what we had discussed and radioed Carl that we were coming to get him.
Chapter 25
Detectives Ryan Thibodeaux and Cheryl Manning were lying in bed, it was 6 AM but neither felt like getting up. Thibodeaux looked at Manning “You know I could get use to waking up like this.”
Manning smiled “Yes, I like it too, but boys being boys, you know we are already the hot topic at the office?”
Thibodeaux laughed; “Mine too, they are just jealous. You are quite a catch you know.”
Manning punched him on the shoulder, “Who says you caught me and I didn’t catch you?”
They both laughed. They lay there both with their own thoughts. Manning finally broke the silence. “So you want to get up and go to work or what?” Thibodeaux responded, “I kind of rather the or what part. He rolled over and they forgot all about the office for awhile.
A half hour later they were still lying in bed, again neither wanting to break the spell. Manning said “That was an awful nice way to start a day, come to think of it; it was a nice way to end it too.”
Thibodeaux sighed, “It sure was, but this damn Carr thing is bothering the hell out of me. I mean, I know this guy is dirty; I just can’t get anything to stick. Let me run this by your beautiful detective head. Carr’s wife if killed, a few months later Allen, who we now know killed her, turns up missing. Then Shuster, who was Allen’s lawyer and accomplice is found murdered. We have Buckle, who is Shuster’s partner meeting with Carr and another man, presumably Wilson, Carr’s buddy. Suddenly Buckle is murdered, killed by members of the Calliope gang. All of a sudden the Calliope Gang leadership is wiped out. We are ninety percent sure Carr and Wilson purchased the vehicles and practice grenades used in the Calliope murders. And by the way, they used a driver’s license from a drug dealer that was murdered; you following all of this?”
Manning shook her head “Yea, the common denominator in this whole thing is Carr; it all comes back to him, starting with his wife’s murder. So where do you go from there, I mean, his house turned up empty, the service records and local PD records are clean. We have to be missing something here, I don’t know what, and where is Carr now? He hasn’t been home at all.”
Thibodeaux lay and stared at the ceiling. He had no idea where to go with this, but he knew it was time to do something.”I need to shake this pot up a little, my boss will shit a brick but I need to put a BOLO out on this guy and his car. Somebody somewhere knows something.”
He rolled out of bed and took Manning’s hand, “But first, let’s take a shower.” She smiled and they headed for the bath.
Chapter 26
It was 10 AM and Thibodeaux and his partner Greyfield were sitting in the Homicide Squad Room. Greyfield looked at Thibodeaux, “You know, Tommy’s gonna shit if you spend resources on Carr, we got nothing on him. I mean, we need more that what we got Ryan, we got squat man. The fact that we think he bought stuff used in the murder and being seen with Buckle don’t amount to anything. But I got no idea.”
Thibodeaux scratched his head “Fuck Tommy, he’ll get over it, we got to find this guy and have a talk with him, what else can we do?”
Tommy was Lieutenant Thomas Strong, head of the Homicide Division of NOPD.
Thibodeaux though it over, “You’re right, ain’t gonna help anyway, no sense pissing Tommy off any more than he is. Our clearance rate sucks. We need to catch a couple of slam dunks.”
Greyfield couldn’t pass it up, “Speaking of slam dunks, how’s Detective Manning doing these days.”
Thibodeaux shook his head and laughed. “She is one sexy woman; I could really get use to spending time with her. Smart, sexy, and a cop, what more could a man ask for? You know, I just might be getting serious about that woman, neither one of my ex wives looked near as good as her.”
They both laughed until Lieutenant Thomas Strong walked in. ”Hope I’m not interrupting this social gathering. I have a request, well, make it an order. Since none of our upstanding citizens have decided to kill each other for the past three days we need to do some cold case work. You guys got five outstanding going back two years, let’s get on them and see if we can reinterview some witnesses and do some real police work around here for a change.”
They both told Strong they would get on it right away and began pulling case files.
Two hours later they had reviewed their notes and made several calls to witnesses and were no closer to closing anything than they had been. Greyfield threw a folder on the desk and said; “Shit; we had no luck when these were cases were only a few hours old, now they are as cold as ice.” He looked at his partner, “You come up with anything?”
Shaking his head Thibodeaux said “Fuck no, I don’t see anything we missed, I went back as far as the Sugar Bear case, you remember, one of the first ones we caught together. Stabbed and had his throat cut in the quarter. Nothing then, nothing now, I can’t find any new info. The only thing that bothers me is the girl, that hooker, Simone, never turned up again. We questioned a load of whores, pimps, bartenders, nobody saw her again. Poor girl probably ended up in a shallow grave somewhere.”
Greyfield sighed “Man that sucks, no one knows where she came from or who she was. Nobody cared that Sugar got wacked, but it’s her I feel sorry for. Hey, I can think of worse ways to spend an afternoon, why don’t we go look up some hookers and see if she might have turned up?”
Thibodeaux agreed “Sounds like a plan; I got the folder right here, that joint, The Nest, probably take a run at it. Lots of the girls gather there, one stop shopping so to speak.” They gathered their gear and headed for the French Quarter.
Chapter 27
Carl, Shelby, and I were sitting in our hotel room trying to figure out a way to get to Lucio without being nabbed by the Feds. Carl scratched his head, “You know, I think I figured out a way into the warehouse, I just ain’t figured a way out.”
Shelby and I laughed; “That’s great Carl, maybe we could just give up our hotel rooms and move in. Sorry, I couldn’t pa
ss that up. Ok, you get us in; let me figure a way out, what you got?”
Carl explained. “The place is surrounded by cameras, so anything at ground level will be spotted. That puts the roof as the only logical entrance. I was watching the trains passing the back of the warehouse and the top of the freight cars is just about even with the roof, probably about ten feet apart. So I figure, if one of us gets on the roof of a freight car and as it’s passing the warehouse, we jump over the gap to the roof; that should work, right?”
Shelby looked at Carl like he had lost his mind. “Wait Carl, you mean one of us old men, if we could actually climb up on one of those cars, get on the top of the car, while it’s moving, and then jump across a ten foot gap to the roof of the warehouse. Have you completely gone insane, we can’t do that, shit, twenty years ago I couldn’t do that. Good lord man, we ain’t superman no more.”
Carl had a sad look on his face so Shelby explained “Sorry Carl, but that’s just not practical, I mean, let’s face it, we not as young as we once were.”
I was intrigued with the idea. “Let’s not be too hasty, I think that has some merit. I mean, Carl is right, there is no way at ground level we could get in undetected, so the roof is logical, we need to verify how far they are apart, but I like the concept.”
Shelby was still shaking his head, “Jesus Jess, you lost your mind too, that can’t work and even if it did, like Carl said, no way out.”
I said, “You know us Rangers, we got that can do attitude; of course if we jump and miss, we’re dead meat. But if it works, we can probably gain access through some kind of vent or skylight, assuming they have them, and they aren’t alarmed. Awful lot of assumptions there I guess, but it could work.”
We all sat for a few minutes then everyone started laughing. I had no idea what was so funny but we just couldn’t stop. Shelby said “Well I got nothing better to do that jump off a moving train, so what the fuck, let’s do it.” We continued to laugh till we were out of breath.
The more I thought about it the more I though it just might work “You know, getting out isn’t a problem. After we finished inside who is going to see us exit, I mean, the only reason we don’t want to be seen going in is so the people inside aren’t alerted. Shit, once we finish our job, we pull our hoods up, put a mask on, radio for pickup and run out. All the video is going to confirm is that we ran out, can’t identify us from hoods and masks.”
Shelby still wasn’t convinced, “We’re all crazy, this shit gonna get us killed. But I got no better idea, so who jumps and who drives.”
Carl and I already knew the answer.
Chapter 28
A pleasant Wednesday afternoon in the French Quarter visiting prostitutes, what could be more fun? That was the thought that Detective Thibodeaux had as he walked into The Nest. 2 PM and the joint was full, street people, druggies, whores, bankers, pimps, a cross section of society. Man what a job. Thibodeaux had interviewed the bartender and owner, Don Carter, after Sugar Bear had been murdered, and he was working today. `
Thibodeaux approached the bar and the bartender recognized him immediately, “Hey detective, how are you, long time no see.”
Thibodeaux shook hands with Carter, “Hey Don, good to see you again. Things are going like always in this business, they keep dying and I keep trying.”
Carter laughed at that “Yea, I know what you mean, so I know this isn’t a social visit, what can I do for you?”
Thibodeaux explained that they were taking another look at the Sugar Bear murder, and were still looking for the girl seen that night, Simone.
Carter thought about it, “You know, I haven’t seen her at all since that day, poor kid is probably dead by now, she looked like shit last time I saw her. Wasn’t long before another pimp showed up on the scene, he comes in here sometimes, little short ugly fart goes by the name Master G. Fucking idiot, don’t have any idea what he could be the master of, he picked up a couple of Sugar’s girls. None were really worth much, although it does look like he treats them better.”
Reaching into this pocket for his note pad Thibodeaux asked “You know this Master G’s real name?”
As he was pulling the pad from his inside coat pocket another paper caught on it and fell on the bar. Carter picked the paper up to hand it back to Thibodeaux and noticed it was a photo. “Hey, where you get this from, I know this guy, I seen him in here before.”
Thibodeaux took the photo from Carter and looked at it, it was the surveillance photo taken of Jessie Carr. The picture was of both Carr and Buckle taken during their meeting at Harry’s Hideaway by the Jefferson Parish Sherriff’s Office. “Which one of these guys you recognize Don.”
Carter pointed to the photo “This one here, guy on the right, I know I seen him in here before, just trying to remember when. Damn I’m good with faces.” Carter was scratching his head, “Oh shit, I know, this guy was with the Bear, this is the guy you was asking about.”
Thibodeaux was startled, “Wait a minute, you talking about Sugar and the whore. You remember that far back, Don that’s been over two years, you’re sure of that?”
Carter nodded “Positive, I got a good memory for faces, not so hot on names, but yea positive. He bought a drink and asked me about the girl, this is the guy, I swear to it.”
Thibodeaux was shocked; somehow the Sugar Bear and Calliope murder cases were related. “Wow, so you are one hundred percent certain this is the guy that was with Sugar and Simone the day before Sugar was killed?”
Carter was nodding emphatically, “Absolutely, that’s him.”
Greyfield, who had been talking to a couple of street prostitutes on Decatur St., walked in. Thibodeaux was sitting on a stool at the bar. Thibodeaux turned and looked at Greyfield, “You not gonna believe this, Don is certain that Carr is the man who met with Sugar the night before Sugar was killed.”
Greyfield had a skeptical look on his face. “You’re shitting me, what does that have to do with Carr, I mean, those two events can’t be related, or can they?”
Thibodeaux thanked Carter and the two cops left the bar; “Holy shit that was totally an accident.” He explained how the picture had fallen from his pocket when he removed his note pad. “We needed a break on one cares and looks like we got it on both cases. I have no idea what this means, but I think it’s enough to make a stronger effort to find Carr.”
On the way back to the office Greyfield was reviewing the Sugar Bear case notes, “We found a little crack on Sugar’s body, maybe Carr was his dealer.” He thought about it for a minute then dismissed it, “Naw can’t be, if this guy is involved it’s at a higher level than a street dealer. We missing something here, there has to be a connection, maybe the hooker Simone is the connection. I’m grabbing at straws here, you come up with anything?”
Thibodeaux had been running possible connections through his head. “I got nothing man, I mean, a pimp, a whore, and four gang bangers, what the fuck. But now I believe we can put out that warrant on Mr. Carr and see what he has to say for himself.”
Greyfield chuckled, “Yea, all we got to do now is find this bastard.”
Chapter 29
Shelby, Carl, and I had gone shopping and acquired an optical range finder, digital camera, laptop computer, and color printer. We set up everything in my hotel room and headed back to the warehouse. It was 8 AM when we arrived. We began taking pictures from a distance using a telephoto lens. We used the range finder to measure the distance to the roof from a known point; then measured the distance from that point to the rail car. With these two measurements we were able to calculate the distance from the rail car to the roof. The distance turned out to be seven and one half feet.
We had enough information, at least I hoped we did, and headed back to our hotel. I started the discussion, “I think that is manageable distance. We will carry the minimum, pistols and maybe shotguns, a dozen rounds or so, and our vests. We just need to hope there is some way in from the roof and it isn’t alarmed, if we get up there and
find out there is no way in, we’re screwed.”
Shelby had been thinking; “There are eight identical warehouses on that wharf, presumably built from the same plans. Maybe one of them is open and we can walk in and get a look at any possible entrances.”
I answered “Damn Shelby, that’s a great idea. In the middle of the day one of them should be in use and if one of us accidently walked in to look around. Great idea, and thanks for being the one to volunteer to do that.” Shelby sighed; “Shit, just like the Army, no good idea goes unpunished.”
Carl laughed and added, “We gonna need a bolt cutter, in case there is a lock and probably a couple of small hand tools, we have no idea what we might find up there. Oh, almost forgot, we gonna need some rope, unless we want to jump down about twelve feet to the floor.”
I thought that over, “Right, a little extra weight, but probably come in handy. You know, I guess elbow and knee pads would be a good idea; might help in the landing. The main thing is we need to make sure Lucio is there, or we will come up dry and we probably won’t get another chance.”
We all agreed, but Shelby was still skeptical. “Man there is a lot of ifs involved in this. What about a long shot as he enters or leaves the building, we have that Remington 700 with us, either one of you guys could handle a one or two hundred yard shot.”
Carl answered “You know I thought about that, I watched Lucio yesterday and the problem is I’m not one hundred percent sure it was him. Another thing, I would have had about a two second window to identify him and make the shot, to tight a window. Unless he got careless and stayed in the open, that won’t work.”