I had noticed the inability to identify the target; also, the tight shot window left no margin for error. We could easily kill the wrong person, and that wasn’t acceptable. “Carl’s right, too much risk, a miss or worse a hit on the wrong person would cause a major problem, and with the Feds shadowing him we can’t take him in his car. Damn the car is probably bullet proof anyway, it don’t look like they take a lot of chances. Carl and I are going to have to make the jump, find a way in and wait for him to arrive. When we saw him enter yesterday there was already someone inside, somebody answered the door. So we gonna need to deal with that.”
Shelby still wasn’t convinced “Shit, he could take a vacation and not return to the warehouse for days, what’s to say he will even show up again.”
I though this over, damn, he was right we were basing this whole plan on the assumption he came there every day. “Crap, you’re right, we gonna need to watch the warehouse for a few days and see if we can establish a pattern. Damn, I wanted to get this done quickly. I don’t like hanging around here any longer than necessary. This just keeps getting way too complicated. I don’t like any of this.”
Shelby was reading some of his notes and suddenly looked up, “Wait a minute, did we really consider why we are after Lucio in the first place, I mean, what guarantee is there that taking him out will draw out Guzman? The research I have on Guzman is Lucio is married to Guzman’s father’s brother’s sister. Shit, Lucio ain’t even blood and theses bastards would sell out their mothers for a dollar. We’re doing this because O’Shea pointed us in that direction, so who is calling the shots here?”
Shelby was right, we had jumped at the information fed to us, “Shit, I never thought of that, I was just so surprised to get any help from O’Shea and I made a dangerous assumption, that he was really helping us and not himself. I think I need to have a little talk with our helpful detective.”
Chapter 30
Detective Thibodeaux and Greyfield had contacted the DA’s Office and had a warrant issued for Jessie Carr, it was a person of interest warrant, but would do for now. They also had enough to get another search warrant issued for Carr’s house, this time they would be looking for anything that could tie Carr to Sugar Bear or the hooker Simone. They weren’t optimistic they would find anything new, but had to try. Since Carr’s house was in Jefferson Parish they contacted the Sheriff’s Department to have a uniform unit meet them, Thibodeaux also called Detective Manning to see if she was interested in helping, she was.
It was 10 AM Thursday when they met at Carr’s home on Terry Parkway. Again no one was home, so they began their search. This time they were specifically looking for anything that might point to Sugar Bear or Simone, the hooker. Two different sets of women’s clothes were found but there was no way to tie any of these to Simone. Sugar Bear had been killed with a knife, so all kitchen knives were taken into evidence. Maybe, just maybe some blood trace evidence could be found on one of them.
The garage was not attached to the house, but the warrant allowed all buildings on the property to be searched. Thibodeaux and Manning took the office, they both assumed, if there was anything there, this would be the place. Again they went through every paper in every desk draw and came up empty. Greyfield climbed into the attic and found nothing. Their frustration was building, Thibodeaux found a folder on the top shelf in the locker. Inside were pictures apparently taken during Carr’s tours In Vietnam; some were men mugging for the camera, others were shots taken from the door of a helicopter, but some were of bodies stacked like cordwood in a field. Many of the shots were of Rome and Wilson apparently sharing a drink or simply talking. Thibodeaux looked at the corpuses in the photos and thought how de-sensitized this could make someone. In his profession he saw lots of dead, but these photos were death on a whole different scale. If Carr could witness this, than killing one pimp or four gang bangers would be nothing. He called Greyfield over and showed him the photos. One thing they both noticed, in all the pictures both Carr and Rome had large knives strapped to a harness on their chest. He pointed to the knife and asked “Rodney, what kind of knife is that?”
Greyfield looked “That’s a K-Bar fighting knife, usually carried by the Marines, that is one nasty weapon.”
Thibodeaux asked “Would you say that is the kind of knife Sugar might have been killed with?”
Shaking his head Greyfield responded “For sure, just about the right size and shape, unfortunately Carr never left one here for us to find.”
He put the pictures back and realized that what Manning had said was right, these weren’t ordinary men, there was something different in their DNA and they were indeed, very dangerous.
Manning, Thibodeaux, and Greyfield walked downstairs and waited for the uniform officers to return from the garage. Greyfield spoke “I have a theory, anyone want to hear it?”
Thibodeaux smiled “I think I’m gonna hear it whether I want to or not.”
Greyfield laughing responded; “You’re right, so here it is. Carr, for whatever reason wants a hooker, he goes to The Nest because he knows some of the Decatur Street hookers hang out there. He meets up with Simone, I don’t know if she was his target or just a coincidence, but my guess is a coincidence. Anyway, he is hitting on her when Sugar comes in, that is what the bartender said. He was with Simone and then Sugar entered. He makes a deal with Sugar and takes Simone out of there with the guarantee of bringing her back the next morning. Well the next morning, she is either dead, or he wants to keep her, or whatever. You guys with me on this?”
Both Thibodeaux and Manning nod yes.
“Ok, so he has to do something, I mean Sugar has a nasty reputation and Carr knows Sugar will be looking for him. He decides to take care of Sugar, I don’t know if he planned on killing him or paying him off, but I think he went prepared for either. Remember something the ME said, there were blue nylon fibers in the stab wound in Sugar’s chest. Carr puts his K-Bar in a blue nylon gym bag. Then puts something to cover it up, probably cash. Remember in the bar he showed Sugar something in the bag. Sugar would have never gone into that alley with him had he seen a knife. They end up in the alley, something goes south; Carr stabs Sugar through the nylon bag, that’s how the fibers got in the wound. Sugar hits the ground, and to make sure, Carr removes the knife and slits Sugar’s throat, well?”
Thibodeaux was standing with his mouth open, “Damn, I like that; I just wish I could prove it. We got no knife, no money, no gym bag, and no Carr.”
Greyfield laughed “Well fuck, I never said my theory was perfect.”
Chapter 31
We all returned to the hotel pondering the question, why were we targeting Lucio? Suddenly the whole theory of smoking Guzman out of hiding with Lucio seemed absurd. We had been put on Lucio by O’Shea so I decided to find out.
I called O’Shea and he answered on the first ring. “What?”
I waited a few seconds and asked, “Tell me a little about your history with Lucio.”
O’Shea hesitated before answering “History, I don’t understand, what history are we talking about?”
The hesitation in his voice told me what I needed, we were right, there was some connection. “I’m talking about why you gave us Lucio; you even pulled the tail off him for us. This isn’t to draw Guzman out; this is personal, what gives?”
He went on the defensive right away “I don’t have any idea what you are getting at, you wanted Guzman, Lucio is the way to get to Guzman, that’s it.”
I wasn’t buying it “You’re a full of shit, Guzman could give a rats ass about Lucio, a fucking distant cousin. He would feed him to the sharks so fast. Guzman won’t stick his neck out for him, there’s something else.”
There was a long pause before O’Shea answered “I need to talk to you in person, not here. Alone, I promise; you and me.”
I felt I could believe him, even though it was risky, “Ok, I feel like some good meatloaf anyway, Whippany Diner, 7 PM; work for you?”
The tone of
O’Shea’s voice sound defeated, “Yes, I’ll be there.”
I drove to the Whippany alone; I parked my car about two blocks away and walked down the highway. I didn’t see anyone watching, but you never know.
At 7:03 PM O’Shea entered the diner; he had a really defeated look on his face. I had to ask “What gives, you look like you just lost your best friend?”
I had already ordered coffee and had it sitting at the table, he took a sip and nodding his head said “You said the last time we met that I was an honest cop, that was my problem, well, you were wrong. I’m not an honest cop; I turned you onto Lucio for my own reasons. That’s not something an honest cop would do.”
I sat and waited, I knew a story was coming.
He began “About eleven years ago, I was working homicide in the Bronx. Guzman was a big player even then and we had some information on a hit he was ordering on a rival dealer. At the time Lucio was new to the organization, had just married into the family and was trying to build a reputation.”
I could see he was struggling with this story, I didn’t expect a good ending. “Hey, we all have our ghosts; some of us deal with them differently.”
He nodded and took another sip of coffee. “Yea, well I had a partner back then, Rosie Santos, she and I had a thing going on. We both knew it was wrong, but. Anyway, we staked out the location where our snitch said the hit was going down, a restaurant on Wallace Avenue. Rosie was inside at the counter and I was across the street in the car. All of a sudden gunshots come from inside, by the time I get inside the target, this dealer named Raul, is dead, shot through the head. Rosie is hit bad in the chest, she was whispering and blood was coming out of her mouth, all she could say was Lucio, and then she died in my arms. Of course we brought him in and he had an ironclad alibi. Fucker even laughed when we mentioned the female cop that had been killed. I wanted to strangle his ass. He walked, cocksucker made his bones in the Guzman organization on my partners death, mother fucker.”
I sat there silent; there was really nothing I could say. I knew the feeling. He was a cop, and that code prevented him from doing what I had done many years ago. The waitress came and refilled our coffee cups; I didn’t think either of us felt like eating. “I’m sorry I brought that old pain back, but truthfully, it never goes away, I know.”
He looked at me and nodded. “I wanted that bastard so bad, so many times I tried to get the courage to just do it, but I couldn’t. Then when you showed up, I saw my opportunity, that was wrong. Lucio is nothing to you, it won’t bring Guzman out; that bastard don’t feel anything for anyone. You could hold a gun to his daughters head and he would let you shoot her.”
We sat for a long time, both of us with our own thoughts. I finally said, “You know, a few years ago, I lost someone I loved very much. I took the low road and did what I thought would make me feel better. Truthfully, I’m not sorry I did it, but I still have an empty spot inside. Nothing you can do will replace what you lost; revenge is a false god that we all worship.” He had tears in his eyes when I asked him; “You loved her?”
Nodding he answered “Very much, my wife knew it; she left me a year later, not her fault. I got three kids, they live with her. I miss her and Rosie, so really Lucio took them both away.”
I waited a long time before speaking “What do you know about the warehouse on Clinton, what goes on in there?”
He looked up and still had tears, I could tell he was hurting but I wanted to change the subject. “We’re not sure, we have never been able to get a warrant to enter. We don’t think it’s his drug warehouse though, to obvious. Probably just a secure meeting place to make plans or whatever, no way of knowing. The place is soundproof; we tried all kinds of listening devices, not a peep from inside.”
I answered, “I saw Lucio there yesterday; at least I think it was him. He don’t take any chances, two body guards and he moved from his car to the warehouse in a second. The place is surrounded by video cameras, probably alarmed, might even be manned twenty four hours. The fucking Feds were glued to his tail, I guess it has something to do with the dead undercover.”
He nodded, “You gonna find Guzman is the same way, cut from the same cloth. He travels in a convoy, always at least three cars, armored. His warehouse is pretty much the same over in Brooklyn, soundproof, monitored, and super-secure.”
I thought for a few minutes “I’ll make a deal with you. I add Lucio to my list and my friends walk, I don’t care if you figure out who they are, they walk.”
He looked surprised, “I just wanted you; they were going to walk anyway. So I got nothing to bargain with.”
I smiled, “Well let’s just say we doing it for old time sake and sometimes we do things, just because they need doin.” I winked at him, threw a twenty on the table and walked out.
Chapter 32
Back at the hotel I explained to Carl and Shelby what went on in the meeting. I also told them I wanted to hit Lucio. They both laughed, Shelby said “You a damn sucker for a sad story Jess.”
I guess all I could think about was how I felt when the law could do nothing about the man who had taken my wife’s life. “I can’t expect you two to be part of this, I’ll take roof; you two do the pickup.”
The both looked at me shaking their heads, Carl said, “Haven’t you figured it out yet Jess, we are team man, we work together. If you think Lucio should go, then he goes. Fuck him, might be kind of fun jumping from a train, I never been on a train before.”
I had to laugh, “You two fuckers are nuts, I don’t know what to say.”
Shelby added; “Than lets shut up, we got a train to catch.”
Just before sunrise the next morning Shelby dropped Carl and I off about three blocks from the warehouse near the train tracks. There were several sets of tracks so just by chance we climbed onto the roof of an empty freight car on the track nearest the warehouse, for all we knew me may have ended up going in the wrong direction. We had all the gear we had purchased and Shelby headed to the South where he could watch the dock entrance. Now we just had to hope the train actually went in the right direction.
About one hour later we felt a jarring and the train started moving in the direction of the warehouse. We looked at each other and smiled, hoping our luck would hold. The train gradually gained momentum; we prayed it wouldn’t be going too fast. As we approached the warehouse we were probably going around five miles per hour. That doesn’t sound fast until you are ready to jump, then it feels like you are flying. It was now or never, we would be passed the warehouse in thirty seconds.
We stood and made a diagonal run across the roof of the freight car giving us a little more distance and momentum. We jumped at the same time, I hit and rolled. The roof was loose gravel and the roll hurt like hell, but I was able to end up back on my feet. I looked for Carl and he was laying flat on his back, his feet had slipped out from under him when he hit. I ran to him as he was trying to get up. He had fallen backwards and hit his head on the roof; he was bleeding, but fortunately, not too badly. We had a first aid kit and I put a gauze compress and tied it around his forehead, I looked at him and burst out laughing. He looked ridiculous; he looked at me and started laughing also. At least we were alive, now time to hunt for a way in.
We tested or radios and Shelby acknowledged they were working; no cars were currently on the river dock. There were three skylights in the length of the warehouse and several large vents. We went to the skylight nearest to the North end. There was no way to see into the warehouse, the sun had caused the glass to become opaque. The skylight was approximately four feet long by two feet wide; it appeared to be hinged on one end and had a padlock through a hasp on the other. We had purchased a bolt cutter and the lock gave way easily. Now the question was, should we attempt entry now or wait till our target was inside?
We decided it would be better now since if and when our target arrived there would be more people to subdue. I tried the skylight and discovered it was very heavy, and the hinges were slightl
y noisy and stuck. We each had a canteen of water with us incase our wait was long so I took some water and poured it on the hinges. This helped and I was able to lift the skylight high enough for Carl to jam his shotgun in to help hold it up. I looked in and listened, I couldn’t hear anything. We waited about five minutes, no alarms and no one checking on the noise, so far so good.
I tied the end of our rope to a vent pipe and again waited at the open skylight, waiting to see if anyone would investigate. When we felt a sufficient time had passed I lowered the end of the rope though the hole; Carl and I opened the skylight the rest of the way and Carl removed his shotgun. We both made a move to grab the rope at the same time, I won, and I would be the first to enter. I slung my shotgun over my shoulder and with Carl covering from above I lowered myself to the floor.
The warehouse was empty and dark at this end, in the distance to the south I could see a wall but could make out nothing else. How I wished I had night vision goggles at that moment. I signaled Carl to enter and he was standing next to me within ten seconds. I tested our radios again to make sure the warehouse didn’t interfere, so far so good, now if only our target would arrive.
I switched the Maglight attached to my shotgun on and scanned around, this section was totally empty. Now the question was could we move from this section to the next. We headed for the wall separating the sections carefully watching not to trip over anything. The wall was floor to ceiling; we made our way along the wall searching for a door. At the very front of the section we found a door, hopefully it would lead to the next section. The door was metal with a simple knob on it, no lock, unless the lock was on the other side where we couldn’t see. There was also the possibility it was alarmed, but who alarms an interior door?
Standing to either side of the door, Carl slowly opened it. We had our Maglights off and I slowly crawled through the partially open door. This section was stacked to the ceiling with boxes, no marking on them. The only light came from above, the second skylight; it was quiet in here also. With me covering, Carl crawled to the front wall and stood, we covered each other using the leapfrog method to the next wall and door. Since there were three skylights I had to assume the other side of this door was the last section and the one probably manned.