Under the Gun, page 5
part #5 of The Blackmore Agency Series
“Sure, boss. I know my job and I’m doing it. I’m just not sure if I want to do it long term. What would it take to buy me out of the club?”
“What?” Vince put his hands over his ears. “Please tell me you didn’t just say that.”
“I joined the club because Sam wanted me with him, but I’m not my brother.”
“Shut the fuck up, Bolivar. You’re next up for president and you can’t be talking like that. You made vows. You’re committed for life.”
“Uh huh. I know that.”
“If you know, then why are you tossing out crazy bullshit? You can’t walk away. It doesn’t happen.”
“What about ‘special circumstances?”
“Something you ain’t got.”
“I thought…” Linc stared down at his boots. “Never mind what I thought. Guess I was wrong.”
“If you thought you were leaving me, you were as wrong as you could fuckin be.” Vince pointed at the door to the meeting room. “Tonight, at church, I’m gonna put the expansion idea on the table, and no matter how tough you think it’s going to be, you fuckin well better vote with me.”
“Course I will, Vince. I always vote with you.”
Vince slammed out of the room and Linc headed into the grungy little bathroom off the office. He locked the door and texted Annie.
“I talked to Vince. I’m stuck for now.”
“I figured.”
“Can I see you when I come back to Austin?”
“Not a good idea.”
“I’ve never begged for anything, but I guess I’m doing it.”
AFTER DINNER, BLAINE called Lily while Farrell warmed up the flat screen for football. “How’s your vacay time going, Lil?”
“Boring as hell, boss. How many times can you go shopping and do your nails?”
“I don’t know the answer to that one. Don’t do either.”
“Tell me you need me to come to work.”
“I need you to come to work in the morning, Lil. We’ve got to go hard on something.” He gave her the lowdown on the murders.
“Did the punks have to wreck Misty’s house? She spent years decorating and fixing up that old jewel.”
“Haven’t told her how bad it is and probably won’t.”
“She’s at her new place?” asked Lily.
“Yep. Won’t tell me where it is.”
“Weird, boss. That’s weird.”
Blaine chuckled. “I could find out in twenty seconds, but I’m not doing it. I know how to pick em, Lil. Gravitate towards the weird.”
“Speaking of which, did Major Bristol come back yet, or is he still campaigning for stud of the Governor?”
“You sound pissy, Lil.” Blaine laughed. “He’s back to work in the morning. You can ask him why he returned when you see him.”
“Oh, my nerves,” said Lily. “That’s something I can’t wait to hear.”
CHAPTER FIVE
July 7th.
BLAINE DRAINED his third mug of coffee after breakfast and gave Lily a list of stuff that needed to be done. She took notes with her fine point Sharpie and filled half a page of her yellow pad.
Lexi barked once and ran for the door.
“Wonder who that could be?” Blaine wasn’t up for more Travis bullshit.
Farrell shoved his chair back from the table. “Maybe my partner is back from the fuckin dead.”
Lily smirked and kept her head down. She wasn’t happy with Travis either.
Travis strode into the kitchen wearing a big smile on his face with Lexi bouncing around his legs. She seemed to be the only one happy to see him.
“Buenos dias, senor Travis,” said Carmelita. She poured him a mug of coffee and set it on the table in front of him.
“Gracias, Carm.” Travis ignored the weighty silence and plunged in. “Believe it or not, I’m glad to be back. I’m no good at sitting around on my ass day after day—I found that out soon enough.”
“How are the polls?” asked Lily. “Is the good doctor holding at number one?”
Travis nodded. “For sure. Ginny will be elected in November and she’ll be a great governor for Texas. As soon as she settles in, she wants to talk to Blacky about a war on crime program she’s working on.”
Blaine nodded and didn’t respond to Travis. Instead, he pointed at the door. “Farrell, take your partner next door and walk him through the scene. He needs to catch up.”
“Yeah, boss. Doing that right now.”
Lily grinned as the boys left the kitchen. “That was fun. I’ll get started on my list. Can Jesse do anything yet?”
“Yep, he’s reviewing all the police reports and putting something together for us.”
“I know he hates being away from the action.”
“We almost lost him this time, Lil. He wasn’t breathing when Ty found him.”
“Such a good person,” Lil said in a whisper.
Blaine’s cell rang as Lily headed for her office at the rear of the house. “Detective Ortiz, Farrell mentioned he talked to you yesterday.”
“Yep, and we’re happy y’all are on our turf, at least for a while. We need all the help we can get just to maintain.”
“I checked this morning and your numbers are up a little,” said Blaine. “Could be the heat.”
“Always the heat, but something else is going on as well, just like Deputy Donovan hinted. One of my street crew told me, the Latino Princes have a new asshole at the head of the table and he’s trying to make a name for himself.”
“Haven’t heard much about them. Not tier one are they?”
“Nope, but they’re strong and building. I’d say they have about two hundred and fifty members.”
“Any of your crew inside?”
“Nope, not in that one. Their members are mostly young, under twenty. A lot of family connections—brothers, cousins. Tight and cliquey. A few older guys calling the shots. I heard one of the main players was an uncle.”
“Got a name for the new leader?”
“Yep. He’s twenty-four. Calls himself Prince Coronado. Rumor has it, he grew up in Panama. Too bad he didn’t stay there. Now he’s here raising hell.”
“Good information. Thanks for helping. I needed a place to start.”
“Let me know if you need manpower for any takedowns. I can help you out.”
“Thanks, Detective. Will do.”
While he was talking to Ortiz, Blaine missed a call from the lab. He called back and talked to Sue.
“Sorry, Sue, I was talking to the gang squad. What have you got?”
“Prints in one of the bathrooms showed up in the system. A guy named Charlie Ziffler. Nineteen years old. Been arrested dozens of times. I sent you an email.”
“Thanks, anything else?”
“Yep, and this is an educated guess, but only a guess. It might be worth checking out.”
“Sure, I’m open for any suggestions you have.”
“Too many blood types in both rooms. At least one other person is in rough shape out there somewhere. A second one lost enough blood to need a hospital and a third—possibly a stab wound.”
“But one, might have died already?”
“Yeah, huge blood loss. We think he couldn’t possibly make it.”
“I’ll get on the hospitals right away.”
“We put the word out from here but haven’t heard a thing.”
FARRELL RETURNED from next door with Travis, and Blaine gave them the new information Ortiz had supplied. “I want a location for the Latino Princes, and I want Travis to find a way to get ears on them. See if Ortiz knows where they hang—I should have asked him. As soon as you get a locate, I want surveillance on them round the clock. Call Jack and get shifts set up. Tell him to bring the junk truck.”
Travis nodded. “We got any names?”
“Prints showed up for a guy named Charlie Ziffler. We can place him next door. Sue is sending information.” Blaine pointed, “Farrell, grab my laptop and I’ll see if he has a mug shot.”
Farrell grabbed it from the sideboard. It was never far from its owner. Blaine opened the email and downloaded the photo.
“Grab it off the printer and make a couple of copies. I want a warrant out on him right away.”
Farrell was running back and forth from Blaine’s office and he was out of breath. “Here’s the asshole’s picture.”
“Jesus,” said Blaine, “he looks older than nineteen.”
THE BOYS LEFT, and Blaine needed more coffee. He felt they had made a tiny bit of progress and wanted to keep the momentum going. His leg was feeling better the more he stayed off it, although he felt like a dork having people running all over fetching shit for him.
Dork or not. “Carm, mi Corazon, would you get Lily for me?”
“Lilita? Si.”
“Boss?” Lily sat down opposite him at the table. “Get a coffee, Lil. Carm made a fresh pot.”
“We making headway?”
“Sort of. More bleeders at the scene and we need to track them down. Sue said one might be dead already.”
“I’ll do the hospitals and clinics and see what I can find.”
“Copy all our new info to Calhoun. Keep him in the loop.”
“Also,” he pushed the ugly picture across the table. “I need Mary. This guy was in the house and we need to find him.”
“Right, I’ll call her.”
Blaine’s cell rang, and he glanced at the caller. “Shit, Harrisons again.”
“Who?”
He let it ring. “People who bought the house from Misty. They’re ready to move and obviously they can’t.”
“Yeah, didn’t think about that. What are they going to do?”
“Umm…” The call went to message while he told Lily what he had done.
“You’re way too nice, boss. Shit happens, and it’s not your fault. Tell them to suck it up and rent a trailer.”
Blaine smiled and handed her the phone. “You tell them.”
Lily made a pouty face with her perfectly outlined lips and said, “Fuck.”
ANNIE SAT IN Doctor Taylor’s office with Jackson on one side, and Lucy on the other. Pyewacket, Race’s big black Persian meowed at the top of her range in the carrier at their feet.
“Pye doesn’t like it here,” said Jackson.
“She’s crying, Mommy.” Lucy had her tiny fingers through the slats on the front of the cage. “Can I open her door?”
Annie eyed the bulldog sitting next to the carrier, almost drooling on it, and said, “Better not, Punkin. Big doggie right there might scare her.”
“Does Daddy know we’re taking excellent care of his kitty?” asked Jackson. “I hope he does.”
Excellent was Jackson’s word of the week he’d added to his vocabulary on Neil’s recommendation. His foster brother, Neil Donovan, was his mentor and idol. Annie smiled.
“Of course, he does, honey. He can see you from heaven.”
Jackson looked at the ceiling of the vet’s office and pondered the concept.
“It’s too far,” said Lucy, popping Jackson’s bubble of hope. “He can’t see you, Jacks.”
“When you go to heaven you get super powers,” said Annie. The only thing she could think of on the spur of the moment. Race would never be in heaven anyway. Hell was a picnic for Race Ogilvie.
All we have left of him is this big fluffy cat. We got the best of the deal.
The vet’s assistant called for Pyewacket at the same instant her cell rang. Linc. “Hang on,” she said into the phone as she walked the kids down the hall and into the examination room. She plunked the carrier on the stainless-steel table and said to the vet, “I’ll be right back.”
She stepped into the hallway and spoke in a low voice. “Okay, go. I’m at the vet with the kids.”
“Kids? You have kids?”
I think I mentioned Jackson.
“See. Not a place for you, mister.”
“Jesus, girl, I love kids.”
Shit.
“How many do you have?”
“Dozens.” Annie giggled.
Linc laughed for a moment, then the humor left him. “The expansion vote went through and I’m flying in tonight. I want to see you.”
“How many with you?”
“I’ll be alone. The others are riding.”
“Do you have a reservation?”
“Yeah, Vince booked me into one near the airport. ‘Easy Rest’ it’s called.”
“Uh huh. What time are you landing?”
“Ten forty.”
“I’ll pick you up.”
“I love you, Annie Ogilvie.”
Shit, I even lied about my name.
BEFORE LEAVING BLACKY’S driveway, Farrell phoned Ortiz and got an address on the Latino Princes. It was the gang squad’s business to know where everyone was. He recited the location to Travis and pointed to the GPS.
“Let’s see where the murdering little fuckers are holed up.” The nav system took them to Bullock Drive, a street running east off Templeton.
“Think this is their turf, east of I-35 and south to the river?”
“No idea,” said Travis. “Some clubs are so small, they only control a few city blocks and have a tough time hanging onto that bit of real estate.”
“There’s the clubhouse,” said Farrell. “Just a run-down frame bungalow. Nobody around.”
“Maybe they’re inside sleeping off a party,” said Travis. “Just looks like they’re not home.”
“Okay, we know where they call home. We’ll come back tonight with the unit and see if any of the little pricks are breaking any laws.”
JESSE GOT THE baby settled for her afternoon nap and took the monitor with him downstairs to the office. He had printed off a pile of stuff Blaine and Lily had sent to him earlier in the day. He should have a free hour and a half to read through the case and see if anything came to light.
Blacky was sharper than he was, picking up tiny details, but the kid was injured and overworked, and it didn’t hurt to have an extra pair of eyes going over the facts. Besides, Jesse didn’t like missing out on what the team was up to.
There were a lot of things he missed.
TRAVIS stayed in the truck when Farrell stopped for gas on the way back to Blacky’s and while Farrell was inside the convenience store getting a couple of Cokes, Travis called Annie’s cell.
“Hey, Annie-girl, nice to hear your voice. We haven’t talked for a while.”
“Nope, we haven’t. I guess you were busy. I heard you were hot on the trail of Doctor Rodriguez. How’d that work out for you?”
“Jesus, girl, do you have to be so fuckin pissy?”
“I do, Travis. Where you’re concerned, it’s my protection mechanism cutting in. You always talk me around, and when I think things are good, you give me an army boot, excuse me—marine boot—to the crotch.”
“You make it sound like I treated you bad.”
“Didn’t you?”
“I said I was sorry.”
“No good. Why are you calling me?”
“While I was away I got behind on my rent for the apartment. I’ll drop the money downstairs to the store tomorrow.”
“Okay, thanks.”
Travis was staring at his cell when Farrell came out of the store. “Who you staring at?”
“Annie. She…”
Farrell jumped behind the wheel and pointed a finger at Travis. “You stay away from her or I’m gonna give you trouble. You’ve done her enough damage. Hear me?”
“Yeah, partner. I hear you.”
BLAINE HAD alerted Carm earlier in the day that the whole team would be there for a dinner meeting and she had come through as she always did with a fantastic meal.
Jack and Greg had shown up to lend a hand, Farrell and Travis were back from their scouting trip, Lily stayed late to work with Mary on the press release for the Statesman.
The girls had cleared the table and were about to serve the pecan pie that Carm had made when Blaine took a call from Austin Homicide. “Detective Lopez, been a while.”
“Has been. How’s the leg healing?”
“Slow. Hate the crutches. What’s up?”
“Miss Duke had phoned earlier and left me a message, so I was on the alert for this one. I’m hoping he belongs to you.”
“You found my bleeder?”
“Think so. He’s under the bleachers behind McNeil High School in the north end. We’ve secured the scene.”
“Fantastic, I’m leaving now.”
Blaine reached for his crutch and tried to stand. His face contorted in pain as he put too much weight on his leg and he let go a volley of cursing in Spanish. “Sitting too much today. Jack, you can drive me. I’ll take Greg and Mary. Travis, you get the unit ready for later, then you and Farrell sleep for a couple of hours before y’all leave.”
Blaine called Chief Calhoun as Jack drove the big diesel. “Sorry to bother you at home, sir. Austin PD found the bleeder.”
“Where?”
“North end, behind a school.”
“Do you need me?”
“Nope, I’ve got it. Just letting you know. I’ll send a report in the morning.”
“Thanks, Blacky.”
When they arrived, the two entrances to the school parking lot were blocked by squads. Jack had the strobes lit up on top of Blaine’s truck and the uniforms waved him through. Jack steered around the back of the spread-out brick building and bounced across the football field heading for the Klieg lights on the far side. School was out for the summer, so they wouldn’t notice a few tire tracks. “I’ll get you as close as I can, boss,” said Jack.
“Thanks. I’ll be so fuckin glad when I can walk on my leg.”
“When’s your next checkup?” asked Mary.
“Tomorrow, if I have time.”
“You can stay in the truck for now, Mary, and make notes,” said Greg. “They won’t let you come near the scene.”
“I’m good here. I can detail the location and write some background stuff. It gives me a better sense of the crime if I get closer to it.”
“Maybe you should write travel,” said Greg. “It would be more pleasant for you.”
