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

and I have been through a few scrapes together,” Emilysaid.

“Matt, what’s your last name?”

“Brandt.”

“New York?”

“The Sackler Gallery.”

“That was you?”

“What?”

“The thing with the Crown Prince.”

“We were there to see the show.”

“Yeah, right.  That whole thing never rang true.  Carutherstalking about some Ranger-0 who clued her into a terrorist attack.  Then somekid knocks the assassin on his ass.”

“That’s what happened.”

“Yeah, but now that I know a few more things, I’m thinkingthat you’re not only the kid, but you’re Ranger 0.  Caruthers has never livedthat night down.”

“How do you know about it?  You’re DEA, she’s FBI.”

“Something like that makes the rounds.  Especially with her. She can be an ass when you’re working a joint assignment with her.  So everyoneenjoyed her moment of shame.”

“Speaking of all that, are you going to keep Matt’s secret?”

“What else am I going to do?  Become the laughing stock offederal agents by coming up with a story about a kid with magic powers.  I kindof like my job.”

“Thanks,” Matthew said.

“No problem.  Now let’s get back to figuring out how to bustthis case without magic powers.”

“Okay.  I can tell you which day Emilio is supposed to get onthe trolley, it’ll save you a day of following him around.”

“How do you know what day he’ll be making his drop?”

“It’s all coordinated through Facebook.”

“Explain that again?”

“They have a list of accounts they use.  The users know whichaccount to look at to find out where they’re supposed to get their drugs.  Thedealer knows which account to look at to find out when they’re supposed to dropoff their money and get their box of pills.”

“Can I use that?”

“I don’t see how.  I found out about it by watching Dante makingposts for Frankie’s users that had to turn around when they saw the cops atStarbucks.  I was able to figure out the system, but I’d guess you’d call thatan illegal search.”

“Okay, we’ll skip the Facebook thing, but I’ll be happy toget your help when we get one of them to spill.”

“Right. So this next part is a bit of conjecture, but I’m prettysure.  The distributor sends the cash to Mr. Graham on Mondays.  He just mailsa few paperback books with money inside.”

“You can’t get that much money in a paperback.”

“You can if you cut the paper out.”  Matthew drew abook-shaped rectangle.  Then he drew another rectangle which turned the bookinto a square U.  “I think they cut the paper out like this.  Then you would beable to fit two stacks of money inside.  With a paperback that’s a bit overhalf an inch thick, you’ve got thirty thousand.”

“What?”

“I haven’t seen it, but if he puts two stacks into a book,then two books into an envelope and ships it, that’s two envelopes, and you’vejust shipped one hundred and twenty grand.”

“How did you figure this out?”

“Well, Dante has a weird paper cutter in his apartment and hehas the covers for paperbacks, with no pages in them.  When I looked at somepackages Mr. Graham picked up it looked like they had books in them.  Then theshoeboxes on the plane had what seemed like book covers.  Then I did the math,the money will fit inside the covers.  U.S. currency is six and a quarterinches long and two and six-tenths of an inch wide.  So two stacks would fitneatly inside.”

“And you know this how?”

“I looked it up when I was trying to figure out where themoney was going.”

“He has an eidetic memory,” Emily added.  “It drives menuts.”

“Okay, so who picks up the package?”

“Mr. Graham drives to twelve stores on Tuesday and anotherten on Wednesday.  He picks up a load of ten or so packages from each, but heactually has some local kids get them while he talks on his phone.  I suspecthe’s only actually been inside each of the stores once, if ever.”

“And how does he ship the drugs?”

“I’m not sure, but I’m guessing he ships them through a fewof the mail stores on Monday or Tuesday.  He probably has kids do it too.  Hepays them to get his mail, so why not have them ship the boxes.”

“How many distributors does he have?”

“Using Facebook to count, I get fifty-four, the same numberof packages I counted in the pallets.”

“So how many dealers does that make?”

“Eight hundred fifty or so.”

“That’s a lot of dealers to try and roll up.”

“Do you really care about them that much?  If you get Graham,then the system just collapses.  Like I said, he recruits people who have alegitimate life.  I don’t think they’re going to go looking for anothersource.  They’ll probably just take the money and call themselves lucky.”

“I’ll have to think about it.”  Agent Peters wrote a few morenotes on the pad she’d grabbed from the desk in the room.  “You two should gohome, we’ll talk tomorrow.”

“Barb, the room is paid for and my card is on file so you cancharge things to the room.  Here’s five hundred, we’ll bring more when we cometomorrow.  Matt will bring his car so you can get around.”

“Okay, why don’t we plan to meet around four?  That will letme buy some new clothes and study this whole thing.”

“Four it is.  We’ll see you.  Come on Matt, you’ve got tocome up with a story to tell your mom about the car.”

◆ ◆ ◆

“What are you going to tell your mom?” Emily asked as shedrove Matthew home.

“I’m going to tell her that Ms. Peters’ car got wrecked and Itold her I’d let her borrow mine.  That she’s an adult with her own insurance.”

“And she’s going to think that Ms. Peters is from your KungFu class.”

“Right.”

“And you think that’s going to fly?”

“I hope it does.”

Chapter 14Ski Break

“I thought you were going to play tennis,” Matthew said.

“I didn’t make the draw,” Brianna explained.  “Do you mind ifI come on the ski trip with you guys?

“It’s fine.  We’re still friends.”

“Thanks.  I hope it’s not too awkward.”

“Hey, Matt, did her highness tell you that she’s coming withus next week?”

“Jason, can it,” Brea yelled at her brother.

“It’ll be fun,” Matthew said.  “That is, if you can keep upwith us.”

“Not going to be a problem.  Brea’s ski muscles are allmessed