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

In quick order, the three men dropped a flare down the centerof each pallet.  “Time to go.  Expect there to be police outside.  Don’t doanything stupid or say anything.  They probably don’t have a thing on us.”

The three men left the shed and Mr. Graham locked it behindhim.  “Thanks for the lift.  I’ll see you guys in a couple of weeks,” he calledout as he headed toward his pickup pulling his suitcase.

“Federal Agents!  Freeze!”

“Ah, . . . sure officers.  What seems to be the problem?” Mr.Graham asked.

“We have a warrant to search you, the plane, and the storageshed,” Agent Whitehead said as he stepped forward.

“Be my guest.  I can’t imagine what you’re looking for.”

“I’m sure you can.”  Agent Whitehead nodded to another agentholding a crowbar.

“I’d be happy to unlock the shed for you.”  Mr. Graham’soffer was ignored as the agent pried the hasp off the door to the shed.  Whenhe opened the door, smoke started pouring out.

“What the heck!” Mr. Graham shouted.  He stepped back andstood and watched as the agents fumbled around looking for a fire extinguisher. When they found one, it was totally inadequate to put the pallets out, but theydid manage to keep the fire from spreading to the building.

“Well, that’s a complete cockup,” Agent Peters said.  Aminute later her phone rang.  “That’s probably my boss.”

She answered the phone with “Peters” and then listened for aminute.  “Yes, sir.  . . . Yes, I believe the Mexican Federales will besearching the factory in La Paz now.  . . . Yes, hopefully, they can find evidencewe can trace to Graham.  . . .  Yes, sir, I can be there in twenty minutesdepending on traffic.  . . .  No, I’m in Rancho Santa Fe returning the car Iborrowed.  . . . I’m sure I can borrow it for another day, or I’ll take a cab. On my way.”

She closed her phone and looked at Matthew.

“The guys in Mexico aren’t going to find anything.  As soonas Graham left that warehouse, they busted up the pill machine and flushed theFentanyl down the drain.”

“But how would they know, Whitehead had the cell signalsjammed?”

“I’d bet he had a failsafe in place.  If he didn’t text by acertain time, they were to flush everything.”

“That makes sense.  Thanks for the info.  . . .”

“Yes, you can keep the car.”

“No, take the Porsche,” Emily said.  “That will tweak the jackass’snose some more.”  Emily pulled her keys out of her purse and passed them toAgent Peters.

“Thanks.  And, Matt, it might be a good time for that moneyto disappear.”

“Already on it,” Matthew said.  He was typing on the tablelike there was a keyboard there.

“What?!”

“Probably better not to ask,” Emily said as she showed AgentPeters to the door.

“I’ll be in touch.”

Emily waited patiently while Matthew continued to type.  Whenhe was finished she gave him a smile.  “Now, what were you doing?”

“I was using a computer in the Miami City Library.  I didn’twant anything to be able to trace back to me.”

“That’s clever.  Can you have them run programs and send youalerts?”

“No, but I think I should do something so I have somecomputers around to do things like that.  I’m guessing you’re going to keepdragging me into things like this.”

“Don’t blame me, but you’re right.  Now, are we going to beable to watch what goes on with Agent Peters?”

“We can, but I thought I’d just monitor it a bit.  I don’treally want to hear her get into trouble.”

“Maybe she’s not in trouble; maybe, it’s Whitehead who’s introuble.”

“One can hope.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Emily convinced Matthew to watch Agent Peters’ encounter withher boss.  Matthew was glad that they did.

Agent Peters met Agent Whitehead in the hallway outside theoffice their boss was using at the FBI building.  Agent Whitehead was glaringdaggers at Agent Peters.  He almost shoved her out of the way as he grabbed thedoorknob and forced his way into the office first.

“Sir, I told you she had screwed it up!”

“Shut up and sit down, both of you.  Now, I have it onreliable authority that it is you that screwed it up.  Detective Vaughn sent mea message saying that he thought you were letting your ego get in the way ofthe case.  I ignored it and let you handle things the way you wanted to.”

“And I did, but she . . .”

“I said shut up!  Now, I’ve just been on the phone with DetectiveVaughn and he tells me that he’s convinced, based on what happened, that theproblem occurred when you entered the plane on Catalina, something Agent Petersexpressly suggested you not do for exactly this reason.”

“How can he know that?”

The boss glared at Agent Whitehead’s interruption.  “Becauseif the problem had occurred before, the plane would have never landed onCatalina.  If something had alerted Graham in Catalina or before the planelanded in Fallbrook, it would have dumped the cargo over the ocean.  So it hadto be something he learned when he examined the cargo.”

“But he could have examined the cargo in Catalina.”

“He could have.  But nothing tipped him off to do so, so hedidn’t.  Detective Vaughn also tells me that you made the call not to put anysurveillance cameras in the shed at the Fallbrook airport.  Now, I can’t findmuch fault in that, but everything you did, played into Graham’s hands.  Wecannot clearly connect him with the drugs.  We’re still waiting to hear fromthe Mexican Federales.”

“I suspect they won’t find anything,” Agent Peters said.

“Why?”

“Given Graham’s pattern, I would expect that he would have afailsafe set up.  If he didn’t give them the all-clear after landing inFallbrook, they’d flush the whole mess.”

“Aw, give me a break!” Whitehead moaned.

“She’s right,” an agent who was sitting in the back of theroom said.  “I just got word that they found bupkis.”

The boss glared at Whitehead.  “Agent Peters, I want you tolead the search of his home and offices.  Agent Whitehead, I want you to find adesk and write down everything about this case.”

“But . . .”

“I haven’t asked for your resignation yet, so shut up and getafter it.”

After Agent Whitehead fled the office, the boss apologized toAgent Peters.  “Sorry Peters,