Stone Investigations (Stone Series Book 4) by Bob Blanton (open ebook txt) 📗

contract put out on them for stealing.”

“So, how does he get the money?”

“He takes the trolley from downtown to San Ysidro.  Every fewstops a guy gets on, drops a package in his lap, and continues on to anothercar.  They get off a few stops later.  I counted eight last Saturday.  I couldn’tmanage to count them all on Sunday, but I’m pretty sure the kid put out eightpackages this morning; I should be able to check again tomorrow.”

“So, seventeen dealers.”

“Seventeen?”

“Counting himself.  He’s handling Frankie’s clients.”

“No, I think he’s got someone to take that over now. Thursday and Friday there was a guy sitting in the restaurant with him watchinghim do the handoff.”

“He used the same restaurant?”

“No, Burger King on Thursday and Carl’s Jr’s on Friday.”

“So sixteen dealers.  How many clients does each dealerhave?”

“A lot.  Dante handled eight people every day last week thatI watched, so that would be forty.”

“Whoa!  That’s a lot of money.”

“Yep.  Assume each one takes two pills per day, that would be80 pills times seven days, so 560 pills a week per dealer.  So with eightdealers, we’re talking about 4500, at fifteen dollars a pill, that would be oversixty-seven thousand dollars a week.

“That’s a lot of money.”

“Yes, and that’s assuming they’re just taking the doctorrecommended dosage.  If some of them up the dose to three pills a day, thenyou’re talking over one hundred thousand per week.”

“And that assumes they stop at three.  They’re going tobecome resistant, so they’ll be wanting more.”

“Right.”

“So where do the pills come from?”

“I don’t know.  I haven’t seen how Cruz is getting the pills.”

“What about the money?”

“I don’t know that either, but it’s a lot of money.  He can’tbe keeping it, but I have no idea how he’s sending it on.”

“What’s his cut?”

“Must be pretty good.  He makes six thousand a month, drivesa new BMW, lives in a nice apartment by himself.  He went out on Friday andSaturday nights last week and turned down a couple of dinner offers during theweek, so he has an active social life.”

“That’s not unusual for someone his age.”

“No, but his friends seemed disappointed when he turned themdown.  Sounded like he was good for buying rounds for the table.”

“So he throws his money around.”

“Sounded like it.”

“You have to stay on him.  You need to figure out where themoney goes and how he gets the drugs.”

“Yes, Chief,” Matthew said, making it obvious that he wasfeeling put upon.

“Hey, I can’t surveil him.  You have to do it.  Besides,you’d think he’d do something to get rid of the money early in the week if hegets it all on the weekend.”

“I know, I know.  But Brea’s back, and this surveillance takesa lot of time.”

“Just do the best you can.  I bet he does something Mondaymorning.  Check him out.  What are you and Brea up to tonight?”

“We’re going to see a movie.”  Matthew let out a deep sigh. “Emily, have you noticed that Brea is acting kind of weird?”

“What do you mean by weird?”

“She seems stressed out.  She’s standoffish, I don’t feellike we’re very close right now.”

“Probably just still the effects of losing the tournament.  Ithink she was really counting on it to boost her standings.”

“Yeah, I guess.  I hope she starts relaxing.  It’s kind ofhard to be around her right now.”

“Just hang in there.  She needs a rock like you to lean on whileshe figures it all out.”

◆ ◆ ◆

On Wednesday, Matthew biked over to the Winthrops.  Their litclass had been assigned to write a short play and he and Jason were teamingup.  Mrs. Winthrop had insisted that Jason partner with someone else besidesAlex, since she didn’t think much homework got done when Alex and Jason weretogether.

Bouncing down the stairs he heard the voice of a woman yell. “Right there, you could have wrong-footed her!”

Matthew slowed and eased his way down the rest of thestairs.  Brianna, Mrs. Winthrop, and another woman were sitting togetherwatching the TV.  Matthew was pretty sure it was Brianna’s final match at theU.S. Open.

“And see here.  She could have returned that volley behindyou for a winner, but she intentionally kept it in play.”  The woman had pausedthe video.

“Why?”

“To wear you out.”

“What?”

“Tell me.  How many points did you score off of her serve inthe match?”

“Thirteen.”

“How many did she score off of you?”

“Four.”

“So, who was working harder, you or her?”

“We both were.”

“Come on.  You know full well, that when you’ve got theserve, it’s the other player working their ass off to score a point.”

“So, you think she was wearing me down?”

“Yes, after your first service game, she knew you would betough to break.  So she took a few chances on her serve so you would have torun around more.  It paid off in the tiebreakers.  And she didn’t try all thathard on your serves except in the tiebreakers.”

“That’s cheating!”

“That’s strategy.”

“Ahem,” Matthew announced himself as he made his way into theroom.

“Oh, hi, Matt.  This is Karina, my new tennis coach.  Karina,I’ve told you about Matt.”

“Hi, Matt,” Karina said extending her hand.

Matthew took it and started to shake it.  Karina immediatelybore down on it, demonstrating a crushing grip.  Matthew was glad he worked onhand strength for his martial arts class, otherwise, he’d need splints for hisfingers.  Karina smiled, her white teeth glistening against her dark skin.

“Brianna told me that you do martial arts.  You must be apretty serious student.”

Matthew smiled back.  “Yes.  You never know when you mightneed to rely on your training.”

“Karina, you didn’t try to crush his hand, did you?”

“She has a pretty strong grip,” Matthew said.

Karina laughed.  “You should show Brea some of yourexercises.  She could use a little more strength in her grip.”

“I will.  When did you start coaching Brea?”

“Just last week.  We discussed it at the Open, I guess that wasan interview.”

Matthew looked at Mrs. Winthrop.

“I can’t travel with Brea to the tournaments.  It wouldn’t befair to Hanna.  And she really needs a coach there to keep her tuned up.”

“Oh, so you’re going to do more tournaments?”

“If I get invited.”

“I’m sure you will.  Where’s Jason?”

“He’s set up outside on the veranda,” Mrs. Winthrop said. “Are you going to stay for dinner?”

“Should I?”

“Definitely,”