Chapter 24 #2
He looked over at him, fear evident in his expression. “They shouldn’t go after her anymore.”
“Maybe, but how do they feel about you double-crossing them?” Anderson watched myriad expressions slide across Tim’s face.
“I wasn’t double-crossing them,” he snapped.
Detective Colt snorted. “You’ll have to work harder trying to convince them of that. I’m not sure anyone will listen to what you have to say, but you could always tell me,” he suggested hopefully.
“The cartel might listen to you.” Anderson shrugged, as the detective gave him a sideways glance.
“Why would they listen to me?” Tim asked in astonishment. “It wasn’t supposed to be drug-running,” he wailed. “They just needed me to bring in a parcel.”
“So, you didn’t know?” Anderson asked.
“It was supposed to be simple, nothing dangerous, nothing bad.”
“But you were supposed to pick up drugs and bring them into this country?”
“Sure, it was drugs, but I was just a mule. I mean, people do it all the time. It’s supposed to be just once and never again.”
“So, what went wrong?” He knew perfectly well he was lying about the one time. Shit like this was never once.
“I don’t know,” Tim exclaimed. “I really don’t.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know?” Anderson asked, staring at him. “Didn’t you keep the stash, just to sell the drugs, maybe use a little too?”
“I didn’t mean to, but I was just looking at it, thinking about how much money was involved and how little they needed that money compared to how much I needed that cash,” he explained, resentfully looking at him. “And I didn’t even think about it.”
“So, you kept the drugs? Sold them? Instead of dropping off the drugs as agreed?”
“One minute the shipment was in, and, the next thing I knew, I hadn’t dropped off the drugs, and I was heading to a completely different part of the airport,” he shared with a groan, casting a hopeful gaze at Anderson. “So, I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Wow,” Detective Colt muttered. “So, you screwed over Dingo, the head of a notorious drug cartel, with whom you made a deal, who happens to be one of the most dangerous drug runners in the world. Yet here you are, trying to tell us that you didn’t really mean to steal drugs from Dingo and that it obviously wasn’t very bad and, therefore, you really aren’t even guilty. ”
“And where are all these drugs that you didn’t deliver?” Anderson asked.
“I sold them,” Tim confessed.
Detective Colt jerked viscerally at that. “You sold them?” he repeated, staring at him. “So, you took Dingo’s drugs and then you sold them to some other drug dealer? Wow, now Dingo and the first buyer will both be after your ass.” Colt laughed at Tim. “What the hell did you tell Dingo?”
Timothy frowned and didn’t say anything, his gaze going nervously to Anderson.
That’s when Anderson got the first inkling of what he might have done. “Jesus fucking Christ, Tim, what the hell …”
“What?” Detective Colt asked, his gaze switching between Anderson and Tim.
“Did you tell them that your wife had the drugs or that she stole them or ditched them?” Anderson got up, and the chair dropped with a clank.
Tim shrugged. “I said that she must have found them, and she, … she got rid of them.”
They both just stared at him in shock. Anderson couldn’t believe it, yet it rang true. “You worthless moron, you literally just signed her death warrant. Your wife, the mother of your children, my sister, … you spinless little punk.”
“See why I needed the money to get out of here?” Timothy hollered. “Those bloody kids, they don’t do anything but scream and cry. I can’t handle it. Those bloodsuckers …”
“So taking drugs from a cartel was your answer, setting Talia up for death? What about the babies?”
Tim shuddered. “Maybe sell them too?”
The detective stared at him, his jaw dropping. “Good God.” He looked over at Anderson, who was pacing at the opposite wall, as if he didn’t trust himself to come any closer to the despicable man.
Anderson was unable to process the amount of hate building in him over what this weak and callous man had just admitted to.
“Easy does it, Anderson,” Detective Colt said.
Anderson gave him the briefest of looks and then pinned his brother-in-law with his gaze and asked, “What exactly did you tell them about her?”
Tim shrugged. “I told them how she was pissed off when she found them and how she was really upset at me and did something with the drugs.”
“And you couldn’t just say she flushed them down the toilet to let them know they were gone?”
“No, I didn’t think of that. Why?” he asked.
“Because, you bloody fool, … now they’re looking at her and thinking she may have still stashed them somewhere.”
“I don’t know what they’re thinking,” he yelled, hanging his head. “I just know you have to protect me from them.”
“No, no I don’t,” Detective Colt stated, staring at him. “I really don’t have to do that at all. I’m wondering why you’re even here. I’ll just release you, and they’ll find you in two seconds flat, and then you’re nobody’s problem.”
Timothy paled, as if he couldn’t decide if he should laugh or cry.
“The thing is,” Anderson added, “we found a video of you leaving the airport.” He nodded at the shocked look on his brother-in-law’s face. “And, if we can find it, Dingo most certainly found it.”
“No, that’s not possible,” he muttered, the color draining from his face. “I mean, they can’t have security cameras outside like that.”
“That’s exactly what they do,” Colt declared.
“They install security cameras, and people pay to keep it all hush-hush, as criminal types keep pulling shit deals like this, moving illegal drugs through the country all the damn time. So you better believe Dingo and his cartel know,” the detective explained, staring at Tim with fury building in his gaze.
“Drugs cause so many problems, but these cartels know how to run them. Did you relapse?”
“Yeah. … I know the drugs are ruthless. I’m an addict, so I needed something to calm my nerves. Now that I’ve been in here long enough, I need some more.”
“Can’t help you there,” Colt stated.
“Why not? You have to charge me or let me go.”
“It’s very tempting to consider letting you go,” the detective shared, studying the papers in his hands. “Very tempting actually. Can’t say I’ve ever had somebody like you here with quite so many reasons for me to let them go.”
Tim frowned at him. “What are you talking about? I don’t even know what you mean.”
“I know. And that is pretty sad too.” He turned to Anderson, shaking his head. “I need to get back to my office, but I can’t leave you here with him.”
He stared at him and asked, “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” the detective declared, giving him a hard look. “As much as I know you would like that, even just five minutes alone with this dirtbag, I can’t let you do it.”
Timothy squawked. “Oh hell no. You definitely can’t leave me alone with him.” Timothy looked scared as hell, now a sheet of ice, with no color in his face. “You don’t understand. That man’s crazy.”
“Yeah, well, considering you set up his sister as somebody who stole drugs from Dingo’s cartel,” Colt pointed out, “I am not sure who you expect to defend you. Not to mention your performance as a father sucks.”
“None of this should have happened in the first place,” Tim cried out.
“Right. You shouldn’t have gotten involved with drugs. You shouldn’t have brought them into this country. You shouldn’t have sold them to a third party. You shouldn’t have set up your wife to take the fall. You shouldn’t have lied to us or to Dingo,” the detective stated, his tone hard.
Anderson shook his head. “Jesus, Tim. You’re a married man with three babies, so I don’t know whatever possessed you to get involved with drugs to begin with, but you should have been smart enough to refuse being a mule for these guys.
And you damn sure knew better than to use my sister as an excuse to save your own skin, you piece of shit.
” Anderson glared at Tim, fighting every urge inside not to pound him into the ground.
“Yet here you are, trying so hard to talk your way out of here, and you’re doing it so naturally that you don’t even appear to be bothered. ”
“I was leaving her anyway,” he muttered, shying back from Anderson. “It would have just made it easier if they took her out,” he said, his tone flat.
“Yeah? How do you figure that, asshole?”
“I can’t handle all those babies. God, even just the thought of going back in that house terrifies me.”
“Why? Because they might reach out for their father?”
“Maybe,” he muttered. “What do you know? You’re so self-righteous. Everything’s perfect in your world, and I hear you can handle anything. God knows I’ve heard that enough from your sister. Good for you. But I couldn’t handle them, and I couldn’t deal with it.”
“So, you found yourself another woman to help you get through the trauma of having children?”
“Yeah, I did. Happy to leave them to Talia,” he bellowed.
“Glad we got that on record too,” Anderson noted, calmer than Tim expected, judging from the expressions on his face earlier. “Once you go to prison, assuming you live that long, if you decide to change your mind, we’ll have this on file to help the courts give us full custody.”
“Jesus, I told you already. I don’t want anything to do with them,” he yelled. “How many times do I have to say that?”
“Probably a few more,” Anderson replied cheerfully, as he looked over at the detective. “You sure you can’t let him out, just long enough to make bail and take a short walk?”
The detective rolled his eyes and replied, “You and I both know I can’t do that.”
“Yeah, but it’s not on you to protect him.”
“Yeah, it actually is. No matter how much I loathe the piece of shit, I have to. But, in this case, it’s more about any information he might still have.”
“I have information,” Tim interjected eagerly, turning to him. “Not sure what you want, but I know a lot.”
“How can you know a lot when you’ve been on the run from them?”
“Yeah, sure, I’m on the run because somehow I made a stupid decision.”
“And did you tell them that?”
“No, of course not,” he admitted, with a haughty grin.
Anderson shook his head. “I wonder if you realize that, once you open that door, there is no closing it … ever.”
Tim shrugged. “I figured that, once I got out of the country, they wouldn’t care. Then I could just shut everything down and, you know, find another way to make a living. I made so much money selling the drugs that I probably wouldn’t even need a job,” he noted, as he stared off into the distance.
“Interesting, so where’s the money now?” Tim just shrugged. “You know we need the answer to that, right?”
“It doesn’t matter if you need the answer or not. I’m not telling you.” Tim stared at his brother-in-law in disgust, and Anderson glared right back. “I need that cash to disappear and to stay alive.”
“So, you’re prepared to have Dingo show up at the house and hurt Talia all over again, trying to get something she doesn’t have because you set her up?”
“She’s not there. She’s in the hospital.”
“And did you tell Dingo that?”
He closed his lips and shrugged.
“Shit,” Anderson roared, as he hopped to his feet and stepped outside, pulling out his phone.
He quickly got on the phone and texted Burton, then sent one to Leland as well, who was supposedly still with Pamela.
Then realizing he didn’t trust any of it, he phoned Pamela.
As soon as she answered, he felt something inside him calming down. “Thank God for that,” he whispered.
“Why? What’s the matter?”
He gave her a short explanation and asked, “Is Leland still there?”
“Yeah, he’s here. He went to lie down again.”
“Again,” he repeated, with a note of humor.
“Yeah, again.”
Then came a shout from Leland. “I’m right here.”
“Talk to Anderson,” she said to Leland, as she handed off her phone to him.
“What’s up?” Leland asked.
Anderson filled Leland in on what little he knew now and said, “Now it’s not just about missing drugs but a whole stash of cash from selling those drugs is hidden somewhere in the house.
He hasn’t told Dingo where the cash is, but he threw Talia under the bus, saying she found the drugs and did something with them.
Meanwhile, Tim sold them instead. We don’t know where the money is, and he’s not saying, but it doesn’t seem as if he has it. ”
“Great,” Leland muttered in a mild tone. “It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to kick some ass.”
“Get prepped and ready,” Anderson said, “because a big ass-kicking opportunity is coming up. Just make sure it’s not yours.”
Leland laughed. “It’s never mine, so don’t you worry about that.”
“And make sure those babies and Pamela don’t get kicked either,” Anderson added. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
And, with that, he ended the call.