Chapter 15
CHAPTER 15
Minchin woke the next morning to his phone ringing. He answered with a yawn. “Hello?”
“Sorry to have woken you. It’s Dan. You said to call when I got out of my rehab and you’d put me in touch with Mr. Warshafsky again,” he said.
“Right. Right,” Minchin said, sitting up on the sofa. It was late morning and he had slept longer than he had intended, but there wasn’t a sound from the bedroom, so the girls had to still be out because of that drug.
“Let me put you on hold and see if I can call him and connect the calls. If I lose you, call me back,” Minchin said before putting Dan on hold and calling his boss.
“Is there a problem?” Leland barked.
“No, boss, Dan O’Shea says he is out of rehab,” Minchin quickly explained. “He in on the line and I wanted to do a three-way call with him if you are still open to him coming back to work with you.”
“I see,” Leland said. “Tell him to meet me at 1 p.m. at the Old Steamer bar. I’ll be at a booth in the back.”
“Okay, boss. I’ll do that,” Minchin said. “And the girls are fine. Still out. Whatever you gave them must have been powerful.”
“Good. Good,” Leland said, before hanging up.
Minchin took Dan off hold. “Dan, you still there?”
“I am.”
“He wants you to meet him at the Old Steamer bar at one today. You know where that is?”
“Sure. I can do that,” Dan said. “You gonna be there?”
“Afraid not. I have something else I’m doing for him today. But you should be fine for this meeting. I’m sure our paths will cross again soon,” Minchin said. “Great to have you back.”
When he hung up, he went to check on the girls to make sure they were still alive. They were asleep, their breathing was still shallow, and sweat was beaded across their foreheads. He checked the bindings at their wrists, but it didn’t appear too tight to cut off circulation. He went back into the front of the RV and adjusted the thermostat to make it a little cooler. Then he went to find himself something to eat.
He’d just sat down to eat when a gunshot fired, and the door of the RV swung open. Three men with pistols drawn entered before he had time to react.
“Where’s Chaney and Justus?” a dark headed man with a neatly trimmed beard along his jawline asked.
“Bedroom. They were drugged when brought here,” Minchin said. “I don’t know what Warshafsky gave them, but the girls are still asleep. There’re four more syringes on the table there with the same stuff if I needed to use them, but I haven’t.”
“Where is Warshafsky?” the older man of the trio asked.
“Not sure, but he’ll be at the Old Steamer bar at one today meeting with a crew member that’s rejoining us,” Minchin said. “Dan O’Shea.”
“Dan?” the thinner brown-haired guy asked. “Yeah, he shot me in June.”
“He did?” Minchin said. “Wait. Are you Brotherhood Protectors?”
“Yeah, we are,” the same guy said.
“Shit. How did you find this place? The boss thought he was so smart hiding out here,” Minchin said.
“He probably was, but they forgot to take the girls cellphones from them before they left here,” the older man informed him. “And that led us and the police right to this RV park.”
“The police!” Minchin felt like he was about to wet his pants. He recalled what his boss had said about not bailing anyone else out if they got arrested. And he hadn’t even done anything wrong this time, just followed orders. He didn’t even think he’d lawyer up at the precinct then. There would be no need to. “Holy crap are they outside too?”
Asher stepped to the door and motioned for a police officer to come inside and within minutes the man was mirandized, handcuffed, and led out of the RV. Other officers and detectives came inside and started collecting evidence.
Rawlins headed to the bedroom where he found Chaney and Justus. He went to Chaney and kissed her forehead but didn’t disturb her for fear of tampering with evidence as two EMTs entered. A police officer with a camera snapped several shots of the room before he allowed them to start working. Then the EMTs worked with the girls, bringing them around before Asher and Rawlins were asked to carry them out of the RV to waiting stretchers and they were loaded into the ambulance.
“Well, it looks like I should be able to reschedule my flight to Montana for later today,” Kenneally said. “If you don’t need me for anything else? This really wrapped up faster than expected.”
“It really did,” Rawlins said. “If Liberty hadn’t suggested checking their cell numbers and those guys hadn’t overlooked the girls’ phones being on them instead of in their purses that they tossed, we wouldn’t have found them.”
“I hate to say it, but it was pure luck,” Asher said.
“I’m going to call Rafferty and let him know we found them,” Rawlins said. He walked to a quieter spot away from so much of the commotion in the RV park because there was a crowd of people gathered around the storage area trying to see what was going on. Yellow crime scene tape had already been corded off making a perimeter to keep the people back, but that didn’t keep them from trying to get through to get a closer look.
Rawlins pressed send as he walked and heard Rafferty come on the line. He sounded out of breath. “Are you exercising?”
“No, just been walking on crutches down the hallway and back. They had to make sure I could do it a few times before I could go home,” Rafferty explained. “Any updates on the case?”
“Yeah,” Rawlins said. “That’s why I’m calling. We got the girls.”
Rafferty let out a big sigh. “Wonderful.”
Rawlins filled him in on all the details. “Can you believe those guys were dumb enough to toss their purses, not realizing the girls had their cellphones in their back pockets.”
“You should celebrate their so-called stupidity,” Rafferty said. “It’s how you found the girls so fast. What about Warshafsky?”
“Apparently, he’s meeting with someone named Dan at one o’clock today at some bar. The guy that was watching over the girls told us. I can only hope that means he’ll be taken down.”
“That would be ideal,” Rafferty said.
“Let me know when you are getting out and I’ll come get you,” Rawlins said.
Leland was waiting in the back booth at precisely one o’clock when Dan O’Shea came into the bar using a cane and walking slow. Minchin had said he’d been paralyzed on one side after the shooting. And it looked like even after two months of physical therapy at that rehabilitation center, he was still showing signs of not being fully recovered, but he had been released and was supposed to be able to return to work. Leland wasn’t sure what he could have Dan do if he was still using a cane to walk.
Leland got out of the booth to greet him. “Dan, it’s good to see you again. I wasn’t aware you were using a cane.”
“Only a few more days,” he said. “Out of precaution, especially if I’m in unfamiliar areas.”
“I see.” Leland slid back into the booth.
Dan slowly sat on the opposite side and scooted in. “I want to thank you for taking the time to meet and for giving me the opportunity to potentially work with you again.”
“Potentially? Don’t you believe it’s a done deal?” Leland said.
“I know what your man told me when he visited the rehab center and told me to give him a call when I was released,” Dan said. “I also saw the look on your face when you saw me with my cane. I can assure you I am one hundred percent back to normal. It’s been a rough road, but I’ve worked hard to get here. If you feel I am not up to the task, I understand. And if you feel there isn’t anything I can do for you, I understand that as well.”
“I do need a man who understands my business and thankfully, you do that. When I lost Nuchols, Polaski, and Bidle in the raid I lost three good men,” Leland said. “Minchin, even with his faults, is still reliable. You could be that for me I think even though you weren’t with me that long. Because I am having to regroup, bring in more new men. Move my organization from one point in Colorado to another.”
“I’ll do what I can,” Dan said. “As much as I can.”
“I like to hear that,” Leland motioned to the waitress, and she came over. “Bring us…what can you have, Dan?”
“Tea? Do you serve that.”
“I’m afraid not,” she said. “Soft drinks or booze.”
“A coke then. I have to avoid the alcohol still because of medication.”
“I’ll have white wine,” Leland said.
He explained what he wanted Dan to do and was getting ready to tell him about the new location when the waitress returned with their drinks. She set the wine glass down and then the soft drink in front of Dan. But before she turned to leave several of the patrons in the bar appeared behind her and they all pulled guns on them.
“What is going on here?” Leland said looking at all the guns and then at Dan who also had a gun pointed at him.
“Leland Warshafsky, you are under arrest for Human Trafficking, kidnapping, and possession of controlled substances.”
Leland laughed, shaking his head. He’d been played and he’d been played well. An FBI agent with a vest proclaiming the agency logo came forward and cuffed him.
“Let me guess. You were never shot or needed to be in the rehab facility?” Leland asked, looking over at Dan.
“I was shot, but I was wearing a Kevlar vest,” Dan explained. “And no, I didn’t need to be in that facility. But we needed to make you believe that is where I was all this time.”
“Good one,” Leland said. “But you’ll never find those girls.”
“You’re wrong there. They were found this morning,” Dan told him. “Your man Minchin sang like a canary on where you’d be today.”