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

it.  You’ll have to make the same steps to get a warrant.”

“You mean there’s a real trail?”

“Yes, especially if you know what to look for.”  Matthew gaveher a big smile.  Matthew pulled his laptop out of his backpack and booted itup.  He browsed to his folder on the drug deal and brought up a video.  “Watchthis.”  He handed the laptop to Agent Peters.  “Just click the play button.”

“What is it?”

“Just watch.”

Agent Peters watched the video.  It was the one from theStarbucks that Matthew had gotten.  When she got to the part where thedetectives tried to bust Frankie, she paused it.

“So, this is the video where those cops harassed that kid. He sued them, right?”

“Right, but did you notice anything else?”

Agent Peters gave Matthew a skeptical look but started thevideo over from the beginning.

“Okay, it looks like he might have gotten some other payoffs,but the cops didn’t find the money on him.”

“Right.  He was slipping it into a box he had taped to theunderside of the counter.  Did you notice anything else?”

“The kid with the skateboard?”

“Right.  And?”

“They had identical backpacks.  They could have switchedthem.”

“Exactly.  The kid is the end of the piece of yarn you’regoing to unravel.  His name is Caleb Merced.  He goes to San Diego High, he’s afreshman.  The first guy, Frankie Sutton, ran off to Florida as soon as he gotthe settlement.  He was pretty scared when Ms. Frye was killed.”

“Wait, wait.  Okay, I remember now.  They mentioned her inone of our briefings.  So, you think she was murdered?  Any proof?”

“Yes, I think she was murdered.  But I don’t have any proof,just seems a big coincidence.”

“Before you two get started again, where are we putting AgentPeters up, your house?”

Matthew laughed.  “Very funny.  Why not the Sheraton onAero.  All the action is in the Clairemont area and that’s a reasonably nicehotel that’s close to there.  If that’s not good enough, there’s the MissionBay Resort.”

“How long do you think it’ll take to untangle this rat’snest?”

“Five weeks, six if you want to get him moving the moneyoffshore.”

“Crap, how am I going to get around?”

“I can lend you a car,” Emily said.

“I think she should borrow mine.  Yours are a bitconspicuous.”

“What are you going to tell your mom?”

“Mom.  Wait, just how old are the two of you?”

“Sixteen, last week.”

“I’m seventeen, I’ll be eighteen in February.”

“Crap, crap, crap!”

“What’s the problem?”

“You’re both minors.”

“So.  We’re not planning to testify or have anything to dowith this publicly.”

“Still.”

“Let’s just move on,” Emily said.  “If you’re going to be atthis a month, then I say you should stay at the resort.”

“I’m not sure my boss will agree.”

“Once you break this case, is he really going to quibble overwhere you stayed?”

“I guess not.  Now let’s get back to Caleb.  I’ll have inquiriesmade at a few schools.  I can’t be showing up with all the answers.  Now goon.”

“Well, the new dealer follows the same pattern.  I suspectthat all the dealers in the network do.  So if you follow the kid on anyweekday morning, he’ll take the bus from where his school is to whichever fastfood place they’re going to use for the drug exchanges.  Then the kid swapsbackpacks with Emilio, so he’s the one that handles the drugs.  After that he dropsa foil package under the wipers of the buyer’s car whenever they come outcarrying a bag of candy.”

“So I can bust them after the kid drops the foil package.”

“Not if you want to trace it back up to Graham.  You’ll haveto gather the evidence and follow the food chain up to the top.  The dealer is EmilioFields, he’s a student at Mesa College.  The same college the Frankie went to.”

“Right, I knew that.  Anyway, who’s next?”

“The distributor.  Emilio’s is Dante Cruz; he’s an accountantwho works for a company downtown.”

“An accountant.”

“That’s the beauty of this scheme.  Mr. Graham uses peoplethat are totally legitimate.  I suspect that he and they are in it on afive-year plan or something like that.  Just stash the money for a few yearsthen retire and move on to a total legit life with a boatload of money.”

“Okay, so how does our string of yarn pull in thedistributor?”

“Dante drops their drugs off every week.  He has another kidput them in a location in the local library that corresponds to an ISBN numberfor a book.  He posts that number on Facebook where the dealer can find it. Once the dealer drops his money off with Dante, he goes to the library andgrabs the box of pills that the kid tapes on the bottom of the bookshelf abovethe book.”

“What’s Facebook?”

“A social media site for college students.  You’ve probablyheard about MySpace?”

“Yeah, I think I’ve heard it mentioned.  I don’t have kids,especially college-age ones.  But how do these guys use it?”

"They use it to post all the messages between eachother.  That way there is no direct contact.”

“Okay, so I’ll need to follow the kid around to get this allon the record.  How long will that take?”

“Two days.  One to follow the kid after you see him pick upthe drugs from Dante.  Then once he’s stashed them in the library, you can takea peek, or whatever you do.  The next day, you can follow Dante.  He takes thetrolley south to San Ysidro.  On the way, each dealer drops a package of moneyoff for him as they move through his car.”

“Lots of separation between parties isn’t there.  How did youtrace it out?”

“Same way you’re going to, but I could use my portal tofollow everyone around.  A few of the pieces just dropped into place when wewere on the boat.”

“Okay, go on.”

“Wait. We’re here,” Emily said as they drove into the parkinglot of the resort.

“Okay, Emily are you going to check in?”

“No, we’re going to check in while Barb waits here inthe car.”

“Why do I need to go?”

“Because I don’t want you sharing any more of the story whenI’m not here.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Once Emily got the room, they signaled Agent Peters to followthem.

“Nice room.”

“It needs to be; you’re going to be living in it for amonth.”

“I’ve lived in worse.  You know, you two work well together.

“Matt