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

I should have listened to Vaughn, and to you. You tried to warn me, maybe a bit too discreetly, but you tried.  Let’s seewhat we can pull out of this train wreck.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Good luck,” Matthew whispered in Agent Peters’ ear,  “andthe safe combination is 87-11-63-28.  Text me if you need any help.”

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It was two hours later, while Matthew and Emily werereviewing their term papers for Mr. Ward’s class, that Matthew got a text.

“Agent Peters?”

Matthew glanced at his phone.  “Yep.”  He opened his portalat Agent Peters.  “You called?”

“You wouldn’t happen to know where he hides the keys for hismailboxes?  We only got a couple of the numbers, and it would make it easier toget the warrants.”

“Sure.  I saw him putting them away once.  Master bathroom. There’s an access panel for the plumbing beside the toilet.  Behind it, you’llsee a black vertical pipe.  It has two couplings on it, they’re repaircouplings so no lip, you can slide them up or down.  The keys are attached to aplastic donut that’s jammed in on the lower section.  Just pull it out.  I’msure they smell a bit funky.”

“Do you know about anything else he has hidden?”

“Nope, but I could look.”

“It would help.  It’d save time and we don’t really haveenough to just start tearing out walls and stuff.”

“Okay.  I’ll look tonight and tomorrow evening.  I’ll let youknow if I come up with anything.”

“Thanks.  And thanks for the combination, these guys thinkI’m a genius.”

Matthew and Emily watched as Agent Peters further impressedher crew by telling them how to find the keys.  She said she overheard one ofthe kids saying that the key fob smelled funky and that’s what gave her theidea.

◆ ◆ ◆

At four o’clock, Agent Peters interviewed the two pilotstogether.

“Gentlemen, I’m Agent Peters, I’m now in charge of thisinvestigation.  I have a few questions that I would like you to answer.”

“We’d like a lawyer first.”

“That’s your right, but if you do, then we’ll need to putthis all on the record.  Right now, I’m just looking for some information.  Wealready have indisputable proof that you flew your plane from La Paz Mexico,changed its transponder code and identification markings, and landed it onCatalina Island in the U.S.  All of that implicates you in smuggling, but theviolations of aviation laws and border laws are enough to put you away forquite a while.  Right now, I assume you don’t know what you were smuggling.  Wecan prove that cocaine was delivered in Catalina, but as far as you would haveknown, it might have been a crate of coffee.  Now, if we bring your lawyer inhere, then I’m going to assume you knew you were smuggling drugs.”

Agent Peters paused and looked at the two pilots.  She raisedher eyebrows, “You still want your lawyer?”

The two guys looked at each other, then shrugged.  Jack, thepilot smiled, “We probably can answer a few questions.”

“Okay, when you picked the load up in La Paz, what was thestory?”

“We just loaded up, went through inspection.  No muss, nofuss.”

“Where were you supposed to go after Fallbrook?”

“It depended on where we had a load to pick up.  In this case,it was Santa Barbara.”

“How did Graham know that the pallets had been tamperedwith?”

“No clue, he just torched them.”

“Come on, you don’t expect me to believe that.  Grahamgrabbed three flares from the toolbox.  He tossed one to each of you.  Youdropped the flare down the second pallet, and you,” Agent Peters pointed at thecopilot, Jack, “dropped the flare down the third pallet.”

Sweat broke out again on the two men’s foreheads.  “How wouldyou know that?”

“Don’t you think we had the shed wired?”

“They didn’t, did they?” Emily asked Matthew.

“No, she’s bluffing, but we all know exactly what happened.”

“We didn’t see any cameras,” the pilot whispered.

“That’s because we’re good at our jobs.  Now, wasn’t theresome issue with the plastic wrap?”

“Okay, yeah, he told us that they injected a gel inside theplastic.  If the pallet was disassembled, the gel would spread out of thebubble.  The second pallet had the gel smeared.  That’s when he grabbed theflares.”

“Okay.  What was the normal routine after a delivery toFallbrook?”

“Besides the flares, we did everything the same as before. We offloaded the pallets, then we would board the plane and take off.  Grahamwould drive off in his truck as soon as we finished unloading.”

“So you don’t know who was responsible for getting the drugsout of the pallets?”

“We don’t know.  And Graham was always careful to have aslittle to do with the cargo as possible.  He just helped us unload in Fallbrookand left.  He always made a point of playacting that he was just beinghelpful.  We had to unlock the building and lock it up.”

“Okay, let’s go back to the beginning.  When did you firstmeet Mr. Graham?”

“Two and a half years ago.  He came to us with an offer tohelp us buy a second plane.  It had to be identical to the first one we had. We were already running a freight business.”

“How did he help?”

“He made sure we got the second plane for a song.  He was asilent partner.  We had a private agreement.  He didn’t want anything toconnect him to the company.”

“And how were you compensated?”

“We got the plane, expanded our business.  After six months,we started going to the Caymans.  He paid all of our expenses for that trip. We also got a little under-the-table money.”

“How much?”

“Twenty K a month.  But that had to cover all four of us. The other two pilots don’t know anything.  They know we’re swapping thetransponder codes, and they must suspect we’re smuggling, but they’ve don’treally know how Graham’s connected.”

“Anything else?”

“Not really.  Graham was pretty careful with theinformation.  He never told anyone anything but the minimum.  He minimized allinteractions.”

“Okay, we’ll be holding you on the other charges.  You shouldcall a lawyer and figure out how you’re going to deal with them.  I’ll let thefederal prosecutor figure out what they’re going to charge you with.  Thisconversation never happened.”

“Man, she’s good,” Matthew said as he closed his portal down.

◆ ◆ ◆

Matthew and Emily made a point of tuning in to the dailybriefing that Agent Peters had with her team, which