Chapter 27
My meeting with Vida was important—she handed over everything she'd found on Creta. From there, I head to meet the others at club five.
Before I get to the club, my phone rings. It's Paolo. I answer and put it on speaker.
“Hey, Paolo.”
“Lorenzo, the liquor shipment got hit today,” he says, his voice stressed and nervous.
“What the hell?” I pull over at the first spot I can find. “Where are you?”
“I'm on my way to the driver now. They tied him up and left him there, but they took the liquor,” Paolo says.
“Send me the location. I'll meet you there.”
“Okay.”
Paolo sends me the location and I head out. When I arrive, I spot Paolo and one of our drivers and walk over to them.
“Paolo, what's up?” I look at the driver and put my hand on his shoulder. “You okay? Did they hurt you?”
“No, Don Lorenzo, they tied me up and took everything.” He looks scared, eyes wide, voice barely above a whisper.
“Did you hear anything? A name?” I sit down next to him.
“I only caught that their boss seems to be a woman,” he says.
“A woman? I don't know any woman it could be,” Paolo says. “Can you think of anyone, Lorenzo?”
“Me neither. We need to find out if this woman has anything to do with the other case.”
Paolo motions to the driver and takes him along. I follow. After dropping the driver off at home, we head to the club. Marco and Giovanni are already waiting for us.
We sit in the office. I light a cigar. Paolo stands by the window where he always likes to be.
“What's going on? Did everyone suddenly decide to turn against the Tropical Wolves?” Giovanni asks.
“Let's go over the evidence we already have.” I clear a space on the table. Everyone gathers around.
“Marco, lay out what you found out,” I say.
“Well, according to our trusted drivers, Creta, who's been our supplier for about two months, has been sending a guy along with the drivers. Something we knew nothing about.”
“I went to check Takamura's shipment, and three of the new guns were missing, plus two of the regular ones,” Paolo explains.
“Which means Creta's taking the guns beforehand, or somewhere along the way. Since he changed the truck's route on his own,” Giovanni reasons.
“That's why I asked Officer Vida to get me his file. Let's see what we've got here.” I open the envelope she gave me earlier.
I scan it quickly. Giovanni gets impatient.
“Come on, Lorenzo, what's in there?”
“He was part of a Russian mafia organization outside Brazil.
Came here on the run. He's been arrested for theft, robbery, embezzlement, receiving stolen goods and weapons.” I stub out the cigar and set it in the ashtray.
“Apparently, his old organization either doesn't know where he is or thinks he's dead. In other words, we handed ammunition to the enemy.”
“And today's robbery—could he be involved?” Paolo lights a cigar.
“The driver said he heard them talking—they implied their boss was a woman,” I tell them. “So either it's someone working with him, or we've got another enemy.”
“What are we going to do now?” Marco looks at me, worried, his forehead creased. “We still have to protect the girls. We can't forget that someone's still trying to get to one of them.”
“Marco, you and Giovanni make sure one of the guards is always with them, especially when you're not home,” I say with authority.
“You got it. We're taking good care of them,” Giovanni affirms.
“Alright, let's head home and think over everything we've discovered. In two days max, we meet again to put together a plan to catch this son of a bitch Creta,” I order.
Everyone agrees, and we leave.