Chapter Thirty-three
Luke tailed Zed’s taxi, staying many car lengths behind. He watched as they pulled into a mansion-like property on the outskirts of the city. The rural setting gave a sprawling background to a huge colonial-style house where only a rich person could afford to live.
He watched the taxi pull over in the driveway close to the wrought-iron gate. Sounds of Zed getting out of the car were plainly heard. Then he watched as he walked to the wall where he searched for the lighted buttons on the sheltered pad next to the fancy scrolled entrance and unoccupied small gatehouse.
Once Luke turned off his own headlights and parked across the wide street, he saw Zed hold the intercom button and then heard the words, “I need to see the boss.”
A harsh voice replied. “Are you crazy, dude? What the fuck you doing here? You go through me when you want a meet.”
“Yeah, well, if you’d answer your phone I would have. But I tried for the last two days, and you’re ghosting me. I need a big shipment. I’m talking a huge order. Lots of money.”
“Okay, okay. Stay where you are. I’ll come to you.”
Luke hadn’t heard every word, but the gist was clear. He had to get closer to be able to see the man. First, he reached up and turned off the inside lights. Then he slid over and left the truck from the opposite side of where the others were. Once he stepped onto the grass, he ran along the cars parked in front of him until he was a few houses ahead and then he slipped to the other side of the street.
The bushes along there gave him cover, and he traveled slow, careful to stay hidden. Closer now, he peered around a large tree and watched a side gate open.
He held his phone up and started taking photos, his finger working continuously.
A large man approached Zed; his bodyguard appearance expected. “Zed, you loser, I should just shoot you here and now. You been followed? Who’s that in the car?”
“Followed? Hell no. We was careful. The taxi driver don’t even speak English. He don’t know nothing.” Whiny, his voice beseeching, Zed’s form seemed to shrink as Luke watched.
“Still. You forget this place, you hear me?”
“Yeah. Yeah… I’m sorry. I needed to contact you. I have an order for a party, hundreds of people. It’s a huge deal, man. My biggest yet. You know Wendi, one of my customers, she’s onto something big. Planning a party for a lot of rich folks.”
“Wendi? The bitch used to run with Jay Nelson?”
“Yeah. Her. She’s planning a bash for a bigwig movie star. Needs lots of pills, cocaine, ecstasy, heroin… the good stuff. You hear me? No bad shit.”
“Yeah. I got it. But you still don’t come ‘ere. Look, we got a shipment from Mexico arriving tomorrow. Meet me at the warehouse when you get word. We’ll figure it out then. Now fuck off.”
Zed almost bowed his way back to the taxi. The chump had presented Luke with a hell of a lot more than he’d expected. Giving the car enough time to turn the corner, Luke carefully made his way back to his truck and again followed behind.
As he drove, he passed on the information he’d gathered to his liaison at headquarters. They knew enough not to move on any of it until he gave the word. “Hey Dale, I just sent you some photos of a house I want you to look up. I need to know the owner, his background, any visitors… you know the drill. Also, check into the identity of the fat man at the gate and get on any security cameras in the neighborhood to watch when he leaves the place. He mentioned a warehouse they were going to meet at. I’ll be tailing Zed, the guy I followed here. Put a trace on me now for the location. I’ll get back to you once I have more.”
Luke followed the taxi back to town and saw him drop Zed near the river where he’d picked him up. Would the idiot go directly to the so-called warehouse now or follow the instructions to wait? That part of the conversation had been hard to hear.
After the sneers Zed recently swallowed from the goon at the gate, he’d likely choose another ride. Taxi drivers could be discreet but better to play it safe.
Luke waited, hunched over the wheel, watching for Zed’s next move. The dude settled himself on a riverside bench next to the road and pulled his trusty bottle from his pocket. While he sipped, his phone rang only once. A short call that ended quickly. All Luke heard was Zed giving his whereabouts as if he expected to be picked up. Time passed, and he still sat.
Another hour elapsed. Zed took his last sip and never saw the shooter drive by. Bullets from an automatic rifle sticking out through the driver’s open window mowed him down. The sound of squealing tires, bullets thudding into the body, and screams from the early morning partiers were the only sounds.
By the time Luke got to him, open-eyed Zed was lying in a pool of blood with a handful of bullet holes spread over his neck and chest. Passersby ran up to him, yelling for a call to be placed to 911.
It had happened so fast; Luke hadn’t had time to follow the speeding car heading in the opposite direction. Nor did he get a good look at the license plate numbers.
All he knew was that the one solid human lead he had to finding the fentanyl producers had just been killed. Pissed, he drove back to the underground parking at his old apartment and changed vehicles. He’d bought this run-down banger and planted it here for him to use anytime he needed to go into headquarters without being detected.
Soon, he strolled into the area they’d set up as the main office for those working the case. His liaison who worked with him on night shift, Dale, strode up to meet him and they shook hands. “Figured you’d be in after we heard about the drive-by.”
“I wanted to see what you found on the house owner and the asshole at the gate. I make him for one of the killers. He was really pissed that Zed had the audacity to come to the house. Guess he did his homework and found out that Wendi was dead and put two and two together.”
“Yet we held back that information.”
“Yeah. So? They have moles everywhere. Word gets out.”
“True dat. You reckon they’re thinking Zed was set up by the police?”
“Maybe. Although, it’s just as likely they figure Zed to be buying for their competition. Product is limited now in Nashville with Jay Nelson’s operation shut down. And… you guys took down a big haul in Memphis a few days ago. Word on the street is that suddenly the shit is harder to buy.”
“Right on. Look, I could drop a few hints to our canaries, so the story catches on.”
“Yeah. Do that. I don’t want anyone looking too closely at Zed’s recent activities. I doubt I’d be recognized but one never knows.” He threw the mic on the table he’d retrieved from Zed’s pants. “By the way, here’s your device back.”
Dale smiled. “Figured you’d be on that. Okay here’s what we have for the address you gave us. The woman who lives there is a young widow. She’s the daughter of an old man, Juan Marzola, who we can tie into a racketeering group that used to be big in California… called themselves El En.”
“He headed the gang?”
“Pretty much. But he’s out of the picture now.”
“You mean dead.”
“Yeah, shot in a drive-by ten years ago. His daughter married a well-known lawyer, Harry Jackson, and they moved here. Story is they wanted to get away from that life. Then Harry died under rather suspect circumstances, and now she’s on her own. Name of Mrs. Lori Jackson.”
“Any ongoing relationships with her father’s gang?”
“Nope. None that we can find. But she’s built an empire of her own… even worse.”
“So the widow is shadowing her father’s footsteps.”
“From the looks of it, she’s one-upped the old man. He’d only begun trafficking drugs but had a thing about keeping his products safe… no dirty shit. Guess the old guy had some morals. This woman doesn’t seem to give a hot damn where she gets her inventory.”
“Ahh… from China.”
“Looks like.”
“Jesus. All for the fucking almighty dollar. Okay, continue digging into her background and keep me apprised of what you find. First priority is any traffic leaving that house. I want to know where each vehicle goes, and who’s in it if possible.”
“Right. For now, I have a van parked there to keep watch. But we’ll also get a hydro crew there tomorrow and set up camera surveillance across the street on both sides facing the driveway. We’ll see them coming and going.”
Luke took the iPad Dale passed over and scrolled through the series of images they’d already collected on Lori Jackson. Surely attractive, but as the saying goes… beauty is skin deep, especially in her case. If even half of the buzz they’d found on her was true, the princess of the underworld needed to make one wrong move, and they’d be on her like dust in a windstorm.
Luke nodded. “Okay. One day, and hopefully soon, I’ll have a face-to-face with this pretty bitch.”
Little did he know it would be sooner than he imagined.