Chapter 12 #2
“Yeah, we know the drugs are in those boxes, but we don’t know who’s running this operation.
Pablo Hernandez or someone else?” She wasn’t going to give up on their plan to stake out the warehouse.
She was convinced they’d find the answers they needed by watching the place.
“We also don’t know for sure Pablo is the one who put a hit out on me.
We need answers, Jarek. And even if this guy here wanted to make a deal, he won’t be talking anytime soon. ”
Jarek looked resigned as red and blue flashing lights brightened the sky. Oddly, seeing the lights didn’t make her want to cut and run the way they used to. Somehow, she’d gotten used to working with Jarek and his fellow law enforcement officers.
“I’ll head up to meet them.” Jarek rose to his feet and turned away. She watched him go, then turned her attention back to the assailant.
“You need to seriously consider cooperating with the authorities,” she told him. “I saved your life despite how you attacked me with a lethal weapon. It’s your turn to help us figure out who’s trying to kill me.”
The guy stared at her but still didn’t attempt to talk or respond in any other way. She ground her teeth together in frustration.
“Nod or shake your head. Did Pablo Hernandez send you after me?”
The assailant closed his eyes and turned his head away. She sighed. So much for being grateful to be kept alive.
She glanced up at the starry sky. Had God been watching over her tonight? Had he guided her hand to help save this guy’s life? Jarek believed that, so maybe.
If so, she found herself hoping He’d continue to do guide her until they uncovered the truth. She was more than ready for this nightmare to be over.
Jarek flagged down the squad, not surprised to see Calvin Wynn and Tyler Parker, the same two officers who’d responded to his shooting Stewey. “This way,” he said, gesturing toward the open gate. “Di has the assailant down and is holding open his airway.”
“What were you and Dina doing here?” Wynn asked.
He hated lying to his fellow officers. Hiding the truth about what they’d found could cost him his career.
Swallowing hard, he did his best to sound believable.
“Taking a shortcut to the river. Realizing we were entering the port authority, we turned around to head back, but that’s when the assailant attacked Di. ”
Wynn and Parker exchanged a look. “A walk along the river at this hour? While knowing she’s in danger?”
He shrugged and quickened his pace. He wouldn’t buy his story either. “We need to hurry. This guy needs help. When he attacked Di with a knife, she fought him off but ended up crushing his windpipe.”
That distracted them from pressing the issue of his so-called riverfront stroll.
He didn’t think Wynn or Parker were dirty, which made it hard to keep the drugs they’d found a secret.
First, he’d have to admit to trespassing on purpose, then the officers would have to report the find to narcotics, which would no doubt loop in Ray Bond and Jeff Schnor.
And he didn’t want that. At least, not yet.
He liked the idea of going directly to the DEA.
He’d met one of the agents last year, a guy by the name of Greg Yost. He didn’t have easy access to Yost’s contact information, it was in his old phone, but he knew he could probably find it using the computer.
The ambulance arrived a minute later. Jarek gestured for the EMTs to follow him to the scene.
Di was explaining about the cricothyroidotomy that she’d performed to save the assailant’s life. “I watched Doc do one when we were in Afghanistan.” She glanced over as the EMTs joined them. “I can’t lie, I wasn’t sure it would work.”
“Wow, a cricothyroidotomy.” The taller EMT looked at Di with admiration. “Hang on, I need to grab a trach tube.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Di said dryly.
The EMTs inserted an airway, then looped a tie around the assailant’s neck to keep the tube in place. One of the EMTs offered wipes to Di, who used them to clean the blood from her fingers. The other connected the knife guy to a heart monitor.
“He had a gun,” Di said to Wynn. “I kicked it out of his hands.” She gestured to the field. “It’s over there. After I disarmed him, he pulled the knife. I was able to disarm him a second time, but he jumped on top of me. I had no choice but to defend myself by striking his windpipe.”
Wynn and Parker eyed her with a mixture of admiration and apprehension. “You’re sure you had to use lethal force?”
“Absolutely.” Di lifted her chin. “Don’t forget, I saved his life by using the knife he attempted to stab me with.”
“She’s right.” Jarek stepped forward. “As you can see, he’s bigger than she is. I saw him jump her. Despite being attacked from behind, Di was able to fend him off and save his life. All without pulling her own weapon.”
“What’s your theory about the attack?” Wynn asked. “Do we need to inform Detective Andrews about this?”
“Probably.” Jarek shrugged. “I assume he was following us and decided to make his move.”
“Following you, but then somehow got behind you?” Parker sounded skeptical.
And this was why Jarek didn’t like lying. He wasn’t very good at it.
“I tried to ask him a few questions that only required a yes or no answer, but he refused to cooperate,” Di said. “He won’t be able to talk with that tube in his throat, but he should be able to write answers. Maybe you’ll have better luck getting him to cooperate.”
“Yeah. Sure.” Wynn turned away, giving an update to dispatch on the need to inform Detective Andrews about the arrest. Parker walked around until he found the guy’s weapon. Using an evidence bag as a glove, he picked it up and brought it back.
“Is this his weapon?” Parker asked Di.
“I think so.” She stared at the weapon. “I’m sorry to say I can’t say for sure. I didn’t get a good look before I kicked it out of his hands.”
“Hopefully, we’ll find his prints and DNA on it.” Parker turned toward Jarek. “Anything else you can tell us?”
He shook his head, expecting the cops to press the issue of their statement. “Afraid not. We were shocked by this unexpected attack.”
Again, Wynn and Parker exchanged a glance. It was nice of them to hold back from calling him a liar. After a long moment, they turned toward the assailant who was being placed on the gurney. “Okay. We’ll place him under arrest pending the outcome of the investigation.”
“Understood.” Jarek tried to act normally. “I take it he doesn’t look familiar to either of you?”
“No.” Wynn turned away. “We’ll run his prints. I’m sure he’s in the system.”
Jarek nodded, knowing that was true. The crude tattoo was a clue, along with the vicious attack on Di. If she hadn’t been a trained soldier, the outcome would have been very different.
“How long do we need to stick around?” Di asked in a low voice. “Do you think Andrews will show up?”
“No clue.” He watched his fellow officers for a moment. “I don’t think they bought our story.”
“I know.” She grimaced. “I’m sorry I put you in this position.”
He shook his head. “Don’t say you’re sorry. You insisted on coming here, remember? But it’s fine. I’ll take the heat.”
She bit her lip. “If we need to amend our statements, I’ll say it was my idea to come here, and you tried to stop me.” She glanced at him, then quickly looked away. “I doubt they’ll arrest me for providing a false statement.”
“It’s fine. I’ll take the heat,” he repeated. “We’re in this together.”
She let out an exasperated sigh. “You need to save yourself, Jarek. Rex won’t fire me for lying to the police. I’m going to feel guilty if you lose your chance to become a detective over this.”
“I won’t.” At least, he hoped not. Regardless, he wasn’t going to cut her loose. He glanced at his watch, eyeing the time. It was going on 10:15. “We should head back to the safe house so I can call Greg Yost.” At her confused look, he added, “He’s with the DEA.”
“You know him personally?” She sounded surprised.
“We only met once and that was last year.” He kept an eye on Wynn and Parker, who were setting up a few evidence markers to take some photographs. “I don’t know that he’ll remember me, but it’s worth a try.”
“I like it. Hopefully, he’ll agree not to communicate with Bond and Schnor.” She gingerly put a hand to the back of her head. “I wouldn’t mind stopping for ibuprofen, but I think we should go to the warehouse prior to contacting your DEA pal. The more information we can provide, the better.”
He frowned. “I think we need to talk to him prior to that. He might already know about the warehouse and the Liquid Gold company.”
“If he knows, why isn’t anyone watching the place?” Di appeared skeptical. “Think it through, Jarek. If Bond and Schnor are dirty, they could be hiding the Liquid Gold source of drug trafficking from your department and the DEA.”
It was a good point. “Okay, we’ll hold off until later.” He turned toward her. “How bad is your headache?”
“I’ve had worse.” The corner of her mouth tipped up in a rueful smile. “Nothing a few ibuprofen can’t handle.”
“Tylenol is better for head injuries. It doesn’t cause internal bleeding.” He straightened as Wynn and Parker returned to where they were waiting. “What did Andrews say?”
“Other than lamenting the way the two of you seem to have a death wish?” Wynn asked sarcastically.
“Not much. He’s not coming to the scene, says he trusts us to document the evidence according to protocol.
He ordered us to send him copies of our reports and mentioned that he’ll review everything in the morning. ”
He shouldn’t have been surprised. Nothing like being a detective from the comfort of his bed. “Okay, then we’re going to get out of here. Di needs meds for her headache sustained when that guy slammed her head into the ground.”
“She still got the upper hand,” Parker said. “Pretty impressive.”
“I was trained by the United States Army.” Di crossed her arms over her chest. “If you don’t need anything else, we’d like to head out to find a drugstore.”
“There’s only one open this late,” Wynn said. “It’s up on Rogers Street.”
“Great. Thanks.” She turned away. Jarek gave his colleagues a nod and quickly followed her back to their rental car.
“We’ll get those meds.” He slid in behind the wheel. “Are you sure you want to check out the warehouse yet tonight? Getting some sleep would help your headache.”
“I’m fine.” She turned in her seat and rummaged for the laptop. “I was thinking about how that guy found us at the port authority dock. I know we weren’t followed, so I’m wondering if Liquid Gold has a contract with a trucking company.”
“A trucking company could be the true source of the drug trafficking,” he mused, following her train of thought. “I actually found a warehouse that’s owned by Davos Delivery Services. If they’re the one running drugs, the owners of the coffee company may be unaware of what’s going on.”
“Well, the drugs were lining the bottom of the crate of coffee so that’s hard to believe. But I guess it’s possible they were added during transit at some point. Davos Delivery Services is an angle we shouldn’t ignore.” She worked the computer, then frowned. “I can’t get a signal to search.”
“We can still stop at the rental house,” he said. “Just long enough for you to clean up and take those meds while we do a little digging. I didn’t pay as much attention to the location of the Davos warehouse.”
“Okay.” She didn’t look happy. “But I still want to check out that one and the one owned by Liquid Gold. It’s clear these attacks aren’t going to stop until we get the guy behind them.”
“Yeah, I know.” He hated to admit she was right. Even if the guy who’d assaulted her was in charge of making sure the drugs were transported according to plan, that responsibility hadn’t stopped him from going after Di.
Hernandez or someone else from the K2 Bloods gang must have placed a hefty price on her head. Offering enough cash that guys would risk going back to prison or worse being killed to do the job.
If Di had wanted to kill the assailant, she could have.
Instead, she’d saved his life.
He knew she’d been forced to kill Afghan soldiers during their deployment. He had no doubt she’d killed whoever attacked her, cutting her cheek with a knife. That was war, and he was impressed that she’d held back here as a civilian.
Yet there was something about the way she’d said those words, It wouldn’t be the first time, that made him wonder if there was more to her story. From their initial meeting during their deployment, she’d held herself aloof. Never getting too close, not even with Tegan.
Despite spending the past thirty-plus hours with him, she held parts of herself back. He glanced at her, wishing not for the first time that she’d trust him enough to tell him about her past.
Because without her trust, there was no hope for a future.