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I felt her body stiffen at the mention of Garth’s name, and frowned. Before I could read any more into it, my cellphone began to buzz in my pocket, and I fished it out, Raul’s number flashing on the screen.
“Gotta take this,” I said, leaving the kitchen and walking all the way out the front door.
“Catch you at a bad time?” Raul asked when I answered.
“Nah, was just about to help with dinner,” I said. “What’s up?”
“For starters, I don’t know how you do it, but you hit a gold mine, man,” Raul said.
“What do you mean?”
“Hope Enterprises.”
I had completely forgotten I had asked Raul to look into that. “What did you find?”
“Their CEO, Alexis Hope, real pile of trouble that one.”
I leaned against the porch railing, glancing into the house to make sure I was out of earshot, and pressed Raul for more.
“Apparently, she’s on everybody’s radar. FBI, Interpol, even MI6 is interested in her,” Raul explained. “Hope Enterprises has its name associated with a bunch of crap all over the globe.”
“Really?” I asked. “Seemed pretty innocent.”
“That’s just it, no one’s proven anything yet,” Raul said. “I have a contact in the FBI that swears the company deals in everything from human trafficking to money laundry. It’s just, this woman’s so damn good, she really knows how to hide her tracks.”
I felt my stomach turn, suddenly feeling a lot worse about the company’s activities in Kent.
“And it doesn’t stop there,” Raul said. “Apparently, one of the big cash cows is drugs, cocaine specifically. Some say this Alexis woman has ties with some of the biggest drug lords in South America.”
“How the hell has this woman never popped up on our radar?”
“Because the business is so decentralized, it’s like she’s not even a part of it. You got layers upon layers of people. Crime families funded by her and giving her a cut, Big names scattered all over the country. In some cities, she’s supplying rival gangs as long as they keep the peace.”
“And no one’s been able to get anything to stick?”
“Not yet,” Raul replied. “A few have tried, and the ones who got closest usually ended up dead or missing. But listen, the fact that her company’s fooling around in Kent makes sense.”
“Why is that?”
“They invest in real estate, increase the population, and then set up their illegal activities using locals. I heard a community college is supposed to be opening up over there.”
“Yeah, they’re building one outside town, big money.”
“Sounds about right,” Raul said. “You want to know the kicker, though?”
“Shoot.”
“You obviously remember how you almost got us killed in that drug bust.”
“My leg doesn’t really let me forget,” I replied.
“That van we pulled in was registered to a local company here in Miami, right?”
“Small delivery store, I remember,” I said. “They had reported it stolen, didn’t they?”
“They did,” Raul chuckled. “I looked into them when I began to realize just how diluted Hope Enterprise’s operations is. Apparently, the delivery store is part of a group of delivery companies all owned by an Italian family. Ricci or Rossi, something like that.”
“So?”
