Chapter 2 Villains Revealed
“Brick,” Keith greeted warmly as he approached the security desk. Keith moved behind the desk where Jeff was actively viewing the camera monitors. “To what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?”
“I got a missive from Jack. He said there was new information that Andy would send directly to you,” Brick replied then turned and looked back at the door. “Didn’t I just see Miss Carry run out of here?”
“You sure did,” Jeff confirmed. “I don’t think she was none too happy neither.”
“Jeff?” Keith enquired. “Carry ran out?”
“Not exactly run, more of a power walk, but yeah. She just left.”
“And she wasn’t happy?”
“Not that I could see, Keith. She seemed like she was trying not to cry. I was going to say something but I saw movement on Camera four again.”
“Alright, have Kenny go check it out. Brick, why don’t we go to my office, then we can see what Jack Martin has for us.”
“Sounds good, Keith. I’ll just follow you,” he said with a nod of his head. Keith moved out of the security desk and headed to his office with Brick in tow.
“What do you think he sent?”
“The only indication I got was one word,” Brick said as they strode along. “Lance.”
“The little weasel popping up again?” Keith asked through gritted teeth. “He’s becoming more than a nuisance.” He opened the door to his office. “Let’s find out what this little turd-bucket is up to now.”
“How fitting a description. The whole family is nothing but excrement as far as I’m concerned. I can’t wait to nail these cheats and swindlers to the wall. Hopefully this new evidence will give me what I need.”
“I don’t know. Even if we can get the goods on them, they are low on the totem pole. I tell you Brick, it’s that Jenny Easthaus we really want. I’m sure she’s running the show.”
“Maybe so, but we’ve got nothing tying her directly to any of this. Not unless we can get the goods on Millard Calput, her enforcer.” Brick took a seat as Keith searched his email.”
Keith leaned forward slightly, squinting at the screen as the message finally loaded.
“Okay, I’ve applied the algorithm that Andy gave me, but this is unintelligible.
” He kept scanning through the email. “Danny Blaine doesn’t make it this difficult.
What is this thing here?” Keith clicked a couple of keys and the algorithm worked over the email again. “There it is…” he muttered.
Brick shifted forward in his chair clearly intrigued. “Well? Don’t keep me in suspense.”
Keith didn’t answer right away. His eyes moved slowly left to right as he read, then stopped. Backed up. Read it again. “…You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Is it that good?” Brick asked, leaning farther forward now.
Keith turned the monitor slightly so Brick could see. “Jack wasn’t kidding. Andy pulled flight records. Here, just look at these.”
Brick’s expression tightened. “Are all those for Lance?”
“Not just for Lance,” Keith replied. “Look at the pattern. He’s using four different passports.”
Brick leaned in closer, scanning. “Houston… Long Beach…Monterrey…” He paused then his eyes went wide. “Singapore…Hong Kong…” Brick rubbed his eyes then his jaw dropped. “Tokyo?”
Keith nodded once. “Now scroll down. Look at his invoicing.”
Brick grabbed the mouse, dragging the screen. His jaw flexed. “No way…”
“Yeah,” Keith said quietly. “Osaka. Shanghai. Then back through Vancouver.”
Brick sat back slowly. “That’s not business travel. And those invoices, what could he be shipping from the Far East?”
“No, it’s not business travel considering he’s only allowed to import from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras,” Keith agreed. “That’s coordination with Asian Mafia.” A silence settled between them for a moment. “And what are these codes for the items on the invoices?”
“I’ve got a breakdown back at the station. I wish I’d brought it with me. I do recognized that one, though. J29G57 is a Fentanyl derivative that has a poison laced into it.”
Jeff’s voice crackled faintly over the intercom from the outer desk. “Keith? You’re gonna want to see this too.”
Keith didn’t take his eyes off the screen. “What is it I need to see Jeff?”
“Camera four,” Jeff replied. “Kenny just checked it. Nothing there now… but we pulled a still.”
Keith finally stood. “Print it.”
“Already did. You really need to come see it.”
Keith looked back at Brick. “We’ll be right there.” He motioned for him to follow as he pushed back from his desk. “Let’s go.”
“Right behind you,” Brick said, moving quickly to follow Keith back to the Security Station. “So, Jeff, what did you get.”
“This!” he said, pointing to the print out.
Jeff didn’t say another word. He didn’t have to.
Keith stepped up beside him, Brick closing in on his right.
The printout sat on the desk—black and white, slightly grainy—but clear enough.
Keith reached for it first. His eyes locked in and then… they hardened.
“Well I’ll be damned…” he muttered under his breath. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Brick leaned in closer, one hand bracing against the desk as he looked over Keith’s shoulder.
“What am I looking at here—” The words cut off mid-sentence.
His posture stiffened instantly. “…That’s him.
” He leaned back and slapped himself in the forehead.
“I’ve gotta call this one in!” He stepped back and pulled out his cell, making a call back to the station.
Keith ignored Brick. He was still staring at the image, processing it piece by piece.
Camera four—angled down the far end of the garage access corridor.
Timestamped. Recent. Two figures. One of them stood slightly turned, like he didn’t care if he was seen.
Tall. Broad shoulders. Clean lines. No attempt to hide his face.
‘Millard Calput. ‘The Enforcer,’ here?’ ran through Keith’s mind. “How did that guy get near our camera?”
Brick straightened slowly, exhaling through his nose. “That son of a—” he was starting to elevate his voice.
“Yeah,” Keith cut in quietly. “No more ‘maybe’ now.”
Jeff tapped the page with a finger. “But take a look who he’s with.”
Keith’s eyes shifted. The second figure stood just off Millard’s shoulder—slimmer build, posture straight, composed. Suit cut sharp. Face partially angled away, but not enough. Keith leaned in closer, narrowing his eyes. “…That’s not cartel.”
“Get patrols down here now. He’s just been seen in this area!” Brick insisted, then shook his head once. ”Good! Thanks Marvin.” Brick leaned back in. “No. That’s something else.”
Jeff reached over and flipped to a second still. “I had Kenny enhance this one.” Keith picked it up. This one was cleaner. Closer. Just enough light hitting the man’s face to catch the details. Sharp features. Calm expression. Eyes that didn’t look like they missed anything.
Keith’s jaw tightened. “Japanese,” he said flatly. “Has to be.”
Brick crossed his arms firmly; his gaze still locked on the image. “Taito-San connection?”
Keith didn’t answer immediately. His mind was already moving—fast, connecting dots. “Not just connection,” he said finally. “Coordination. I’d almost swear that’s Taito-San, just a lot younger. That’s too coincidental.”
Jeff leaned back slightly. “They were down there for almost four minutes. No vehicles logged in or out during that window.”
Brick looked over. “So what were they doing there?”
“No idea,” Keith said, stroking his chin. “That was an intense conversation they were having. Can you pull up camera seventeen?”
Jeff nodded. “I’ll get that,” he said, toggling a button to bring up the picture from camera seventeen. “And whatever they were talking about… definitely wasn’t casual.”
A heavy silence settled over the three of them.
Keith set the photo down slowly on the desk.
He looked at the footage from the view of camera seventeen.
“There,” he said pointing into the corner.
“It shows that same area. Get the video up to Andy and process it quickly. Brick, I think we’ve found that missing connection.
” He looked at Brick intently. “Thinking about those invoices and that coding you deciphered, it all points to one conclusion.” He pointed back to the still.
“That’s the enforcer! Here. That’s no coincidence.
Given what we know, and what we got from Roberto Manuel, we can start tying things together now.
” He took a deep breath. “Lance is moving product across borders he’s got no business touching,” he said.
“Fentanyl derivatives laced with poison… tied to Asian routes…”
Brick finished the thought. “…and now we’ve got his enforcer meeting face-to-face with foreign players inside our perimeter.”
Keith nodded once. Slow. Certain. “This just got bigger.”
Jeff glanced between them. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”
Keith didn’t hesitate this time. “Yeah,” he said. “This isn’t just the Marsdens.”
Brick’s eyes darkened slightly. “You’re thinking Easthaus?” Keith looked back down at the photo—Millard standing there like he owned the place. “We need more than this. I hope that video will show something. I’d love to tie this all the way back to Jenny Easthaus.”
“…I want that too,” Keith said quietly. “We just don’t have enough to prove it yet.” He tapped the image once with his finger. “But this…” he added, voice tightening just a notch, “this gets us closer.”
Brick gave a slow nod. “Then we push.”
Keith turned toward the monitors again, already shifting into motion. “No,” he said. “We don’t push.”
Jeff frowned slightly. “Then what?”
Keith’s eyes flicked back to the photo one last time.
“We watch,” he said. “Because if Millard Calput is walking into our building like that…” His gaze hardened.
“…then something’s already in motion.” He looked from Jeff to Brick to the photo, then after a moment back up to Jeff.
“I want full ultra blue silent motion detection installed Now!”
“Who’s going to authorize that kind of expense?” Jeff complained.
“Greg will!” He looked at Brick. “Come on, we’ll go see him right now.”
Brick didn’t hesitate. “Let’s move,” he said, already turning toward the hallway.
Keith gave Jeff one last look. “Get Kenny, Will and Marty on that install. I want coverage expanded before the end of the hour.”
“You got it,” Jeff replied, already turning back to the monitors and grabbing his radio.
Keith and Brick moved quickly out of the security station and into the lobby transition space, their pace fast, purposeful. They headed directly to the elevator.
“Ultra blue?” Brick asked under his breath as they walked.
“Silent tracking, heat signature layering,” Keith replied. “If Millard steps foot in here again, I want to know before he finishes the step.”
Brick gave a short nod. “You really think he’ll come back?”
Keith didn’t break stride. “Men like that don’t show themselves unless they’ve already decided the risk is worth it.
” They arrived at the elevator right as it opened up with people exiting.
As soon as it was cleared, they got in and pressed the button for floor five.
It didn’t take long to get to the fifth floor.
They bolted out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened, turning the corner they nearly froze.
Something in the air had changed. The energy—wrong.
Brick’s eyes shifted first toward the PA desk in front of Greg’s office.
Empty. Folders scattered across the desk.
“That’s not good…” Brick muttered.
Keith’s gaze moved past it—into Greg’s office.
He stopped. Empty as well. He glanced down the hall; Molly’s desk was empty also.
He tapped Brick on the shoulder and motioned for him to follow.
He moved swiftly down the hallway to David’s office.
He saw the halfway open door and walked in cautiously.
Greg was sitting now. Head down. Shoulders collapsed inward.
The kind of posture Keith hadn’t seen on him since he missed that halftime three against west in the finals.
Janet stood nearby, one hand resting on the stroller, the other hanging at her side—still, tense.
Molly stood off to the side, arms slightly out like she’d been trying to get him to move—and failed. No one was talking.
Brick looked at Keith. “What the hell did we just walk into?”
Keith didn’t answer, choosing to get the lay of the land first. He stepped forward, slowly approaching the couch. “Greg?” he called, not loudly—but firm enough to cut through whatever silence had taken hold of the room.
Greg didn’t seem to respond at first. Then slowly… he lifted his head. Keith saw it instantly. Not anger. Not stress. Something worse. “…Not now, Keith,” Greg said quietly.
Brick frowned. “Not now? But your building is compromised—”
“Brick,” Keith cut in, low. Something wasn’t lining up. Keith stepped closer, eyes narrowing slightly as he took in the scene—the dropped papers… Molly’s expression… Janet’s posture…“…What happened?” he asked.
Silence that seemed to last forever filled the room, then finally Janet answered. Her voice shaky as the gravity of it all hit her hard. “Carry left.”
Keith blinked once. “Left… as in for the day?”
“No,” Molly said, shaking her head. “Left. Heading to Veronique.”
That landed. Keith’s eyes shifted back to Greg. Then down— To the ring box still in his hand. Everything clicked into place in an instant. “…Damn it,” Keith muttered under his breath.
Brick exhaled sharply. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Right now?”
Greg let out a hollow breath, not looking at either of them. “She accepted Veronica’s offer,” he said.
Brick ran a hand down his face. “Of all the—”
Keith cut in again, sharper this time. “Enough!” He stepped forward, tone shifting—focused now.
“Greg, I wouldn’t be in here if it wasn’t serious.
” Greg didn’t move, barely looking up. Keith pressed anyway.
“We just confirmed Millard Calput was inside OUR building.” That hit hard, making Greg’s head snap up.
Keith held his gaze. “And he wasn’t alone. ”