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If this organization was dealing alone or joining forces to deal with two of the biggest forms of trafficking (drugs and people) to the point of the DEA asking for help, it could only mean they were bigger than their pay grade. And ours.
“That’s what I’m thinking. There’s someone,” she picked up a little soldier from Gabe’s toys scattered around her and placed it on the coffee table to visualize her line of thought, “who’s supplying both of that merchandise. Whoever they are, they’re big enough to do so. The DEA was sure Santiago Cruz is the middle man, the one taking the stuff from the supplier to their several destinations.
“We can’t fool ourselves, though. He’s more than a mule. I bet he’s the one closing the deals with local recipients. But why? Why aren’t the original dealers doing it?” She was mumbling more to herself than any of us. “And at what moment did Bryan Keyes,” she lifted a rocket toy, staring at it as if it had all the answers, “join Cruz in the dealing? Are they really working together?”
“We need to establish if they’re dealing with everything together or if each of them is focusing on one side of the business.” Zach dissected our next steps. “If it’s the latter, they’re probably trying to get a bigger reach of buyers.”
“We also need to go back to the origin and find out who’s supplying them, and why, separately,” I input.
“Dividing the ventures can be the double of work in supplying, security, manpower for the shipments,” Danny considered.
“But it also takes the heat off the main supplier. If you break the operation into several steps, it gets harder to connect them with its source,” Mia mused. “But what you said is true. Whoever is behind this must have lots of money and a lot of wiggles. Another thing we need to consider is: are they working on their own as the middlemen? Or are they now members of some cartel or whatever?”
As we considered what we brainstormed, we heard a light noise from Gabe’s room that made Zach jump off his seat and head to the kids’—and his momma’s—bedroom. “I’m gonna check on them.”
“I’m sure you will,” Mia muttered.
“What?”
“I’m updating my will,” she enunciated, waving her phone. “You know, in case I...die.” She made a face and focused on her phone for good measure. Her locked phone.
“Smooth.” Danny laughed.
As Zach checked on them, Mia ordered food for us. We were officially on board on The Train’s case.
“Who is the guy?” Mia closed her file and shifted to gaze at her brother.
“It’s Aaron. He said he tried calling your phone but you didn’t answer, so he called the Company.”
She pulled her phone from beneath the sea of files on the couch. “Huh, would you look at that? He did try calling.”
“Why do you have that thing if you won’t answer it?” It wasn’t the first time they had that conversation. I doubted it’d be the last.
“I answer it. Sometimes. I just didn’t hear it ringing.”
“Of course you didn’t,” he exclaimed. “It’s always on vibration mode, I bet you don’t even know your ringing tone.”
She rolled her eyes but didn’t deny him. “What’s the big deal? Aaron called the Company, we didn’t lose anything important.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about,” he stressed. “What if we have to alert you about something dangerous, something that might put you at risk? I need to know I can reach you and be sure you’re safe.”
She pursed her lips and scrunched her nose. “I hate when you’re sweet.”
I rubbed my hand over my face to conceal my chuckle—I needed to shave. “Is he coming to us, or will he call again?”
He placed the origami on my desk. “He said he was near Holy Water, so he’s coming.” We heard the scrunching of gravel outside the building. “That must be his car.”
We stood in a symphony of groans. I stretched my hands above my head to realign my spine, while Danny shifted his torso from side to side. Mia leaned against the head of the couch with her eyes closed, waiting for her dizziness to go away. What a sorry bunch. Zach was the only one who seemed presentable.
He went to the lobby to greet Aaron—Haley was enjoying her day off—then we headed to the conference room.
I hoped it wouldn’t take long. I planned on taking advantage of being in town to surprise Izzie. Although it probably couldn’t be called a surprise if I did that repeatedly.
We sat down as Aaron glared at Mia. “You need to answer your phone. What if I need to alert you—”
“Yeah, yeah.” She rolled her eyes. “The other daddy already scolded me.”
He frowned at her as Danny and I snorted, but he let it go. “First of all, the agency is very pleased with the work you’ve done so far.”
