The Line - Part III

[Robbie C.]

A little bit shorter this time, but it's a natural break and a bit slower...a bit of a breather for everyone.

 

Martin Castillo hadn’t been in his office more than half an hour before Stan came barreling in. “Just got this off one of the taps connected with that file, lieu…sorry, I mean captain. That still feels strange, though not as strange as Sergeant Switek.” He ginned. “Anyhow, we got a hit. Two male voices. One said the money didn’t come through as planned and they need to meet to do an exchange.”

“How did it sound?”

“Normal but strange. I don’t know how to…” His voice trailed off, and he scratched at the thick stubble on his chin. “Wait…got it. It sounded kina like they were reading a script. The right words but flat.”

“Let me listen.”

“Figured you’d ask for that. Lester’s got it cued up on machine three over in the lair.”

Getting up from his desk, Castillo followed the burley detective through to the tech room. Lester looked up from his consoles and pointed to the machine closest to the door. “Headphones are hooked up and ready to go, captain. Just hit play when you’re ready.”

Castillo nodded, settling the headphones over his ears. He listened to the voices hit rewind, and then played it again before slipping the headset off and turning to Stan. “I agree. Something’s not right about it. What number did they call?”

“A payphone. Directory shows it’s about a block from the meeting location.” Stan shook his head. “Someone’s planning well if it’s another lure.”

“We’ll assume it is. Get that tape ready to play on a portable unit in the conference room if you could.” Turning, he headed back to his office, pausing in the conference room to announce “Team meeting in five minutes” in a voice louder than usual. He wanted to get some other ideas before moving forward, even though he figured there was only one way to play the hand someone was dealing them. And he had to make a quick call first.

Sonny looked over at Castillo and nodded after the call played the second time. “It’s a setup sure as hell. The question is why.”

“And what the hell do we do about it.” Rico’s voice had the bite Castillo expected from him.

Trudy shook her head. “Too bad we can’t just walk away from it. But I know we can’t. Not if we want to find out who’s behind this.”

Randy nodded. “And it goes back years. Someone put a hell of a lot of effort into this, and was using official channels to do it. That makes me nervous.”

Mindy cleared her throat. “Me, too. I confirmed Trudy’s findings with my own contact over at Justice. Whoever planted those original reports did a damned good job of it, and covered their tracks in the bargain.”

Trudy looked at Castillo. “Could this be Joe Dalva again?”

“No. I looked into that. He’s still in prison. And he never had the clearance to do what we’re looking at.”

“Then who?” Mindy shook her head, the motion tossing her thick red hair.

“We don’t know. And that’s why we can’t drop it. I’ll read Chief Deputy Washington in and get his ideas, but we don’t have much time.”

“Yeah. Those chumps said the meeting was in two days.” Rico grinned at Dave and Randy. “At least we have good intel on the area.”

“That’s YA 24, isn’t it?” Randy shot Dave a look.

Rico nodded. “Yeah. The one you warned me about the other day. I don’t have any CIs in that zone.”

Sonny shook his head. “I did, but the bozo got busted trying to steal a Gremlin. Of all the damned cars to steal he picks one of those rattletraps! Anyhow, he’s cooling his heels in county and I’m blind in YA 24.”

“Remind me about this activity.” Castillo remembered the report, but he wanted the rest to know.

“Nothing we could pin down. It was only for a night, and then we got shifted per the normal rotation. But there some people moving around we hadn’t seen before. Could be a new crew of dealers trying to move in, since that used to be on the edge of the 8-Ball Kings’ turf. We didn’t get a good enough look at ‘em to tell.”

“It could be a coincidence,” Castillo allowed. “But assume it isn’t. Someone might have been preparing the ground for…what?”

“The actual meeting? Maybe we’re wrong and there is some chump out there behind all this. Maybe an informant for the Feds or someone they want to keep hidden. Or maybe there is some Mob hit man hiding out in Greater Miami.”

Trudy nodded. “Rico’s right. If we’re looking at everything, we have to include the file being legit and the guy’s just good.”

Castillo nodded. “I agree. But we also plan for the worst. If we have no informant coverage, I’m shifting Blair and Mather back to overwatch on YA 24, at least for the night before the meeting.”

Randy nodded. “It’s too damned open in that grid for us to do much during the day without drawing a crowd. But at night we can get in and out no sweat.”

Dave nodded. “But it don’t help us a hell of a lot if the meeting’s going down during the day.”

Sonny looked at the map. “But we still have a question. Who are we going to send to cover that meeting? If the location’s right it’s right out in the open, and damned close to Overton. That means if we want to stay low profile it’s gotta be Tubbs. And I don’t want him going in alone.”

Trudy smiled. “I’ll go. We’ll draw less attention in that part of town than a mixed race couple would, and if one of you palefaces go with him we might as well carry signs that say we’re cops.” She turned to Mindy. “I grew up near there.”

“Yeah, the same thing would happen if you went into South Boston with one of us.” She smiled. “Camouflage. With Rico all dolled up he’d just look like another pimp out with one of his girls for an afternoon drive.”

Trudy laughed. “Something like that.”

Castillo rubbed his temples with his thumb and index finger. The old headache was back, and he could feel scar tissue from his last bullet wound pull as he shifted in his chair. “It’s practical. But I want backup close by.”

“No problem, captain.” Stan spoke up. “Lester and I will have the roach coach on hand to run comms, and we can fit a couple of bodies in the back no sweat.”

Something still didn’t feel right, but Castillo didn’t see any alternatives. “Do it. But I want you to think about alternatives and bring any that make sense to me.”

Back in his office he washed down two aspirin with a cup of lukewarm coffee and stared out his wide window. Was he only worried because Trudy had volunteered to go with Rico? He searched his heart and knew that wasn’t the case. It did play in, he was always that honest with himself, but it was the way the whole thing felt that didn’t sit right.

“Head bothering you?” Trudy walked behind his desk chair and started rubbing his shoulders with her pianist’s strong fingers.

“Some. First in a while, though.” He smiled and worked his neck. “That’s a good thing.”

“You don’t like me going in with Rico.”

“I don’t like either of you going in. But I also know we have no choice.” He looked out the window, seeing her ghost-like reflection in the glass. “This doesn’t feel right.”

“I’ll be careful, Marty. And Rico will be right there with me.” She smiled, running her finger along his cheek. “If you think I’m going to miss my own wedding you’re crazy.”

 

One office over Rico looked at Sonny. “I don’t like it.”

“Neither do I, partner. And neither does Marty. But hell, what choice do we have? We gotta hang something out there and see what’s up. I’d go, but then Overton would explode. We don’t need to start a damned race riot. I wish we could put Randy and Dave out there to give you cover, but they’re right. There’s no damned place in that grid they could set up without drawing too much attention. Someone picked this spot damned well.” Sonny stared at the wall. “Maybe that’s it. What the hell’s so special about the meeting spot?”

“How do you mean?”

“Look at the first one. It was set up just to see if we’d go to it. Nothing special, right? Except someone knew that damned building would be pretty much empty and that we’d hit the door hard. So what is it about this one?”

“It’s a burned-out park on the edge of a district that’s one thrown bottle away from a race riot.” Rico looked at Sonny, his eyes thoughtful. “But I get where you’re goin’, partner. Maybe that’s why it’s special. Someone knows we can’t send the full squad in.”

“But why? Why care?” Sonny rubbed his eyes. He was tired of thinking about it, but he knew it would chew on him the rest of the day and into the night. “I’ll let it turn around and see if anything floats up.” He shook his head and changed the subject. “Got any plans tonight?”

“I’m gonna see if I can get Mindy to Downbeat.” Rico smiled. “Try to make up for the other night. What about you?”

“I might see if Jenny wants to go out.” Sonny chuckled. “You know, we’re pretty much living together now, but we’ve never really been on a date. Just the Task Force bashes at Robbie’s.”

“Then you’d better go show the lady a good time.” Rico laughed and then turned serious. “We don’t know how this one’s gonna go. Any time you can spend with her is time to the good.”

“I know.” Sonny chuckled. “Ya know, this job’s easier when you’re single. Harder, but easier.” He looked down at his notes from the meeting, knowing Rico was right. Now that she’d stopped smuggling stolen art, Jenny would need to find something else to do. He knew it even if she didn’t yet. And she was safe now…her ex shut down and gone. He was looking forward to hearing what she had in mind.

 

The sun was just dying the waves red when Trudy Joplin idled her Challenger into the parking space outside Castillo’s house and shut off the engine. She sat for a few moments, listening to the big V-8 tick as it cooled from the drive. Even now she couldn’t believe he’d bought her the car. If only her brother could see it. She looked over and saw his plain, unmarked Ford. It was so like him to avoid drawing attention to himself.

Stepping out, she crunched through the gravel parking pad, her high heels sinking in just enough to make footing an adventure. But it was a walk she knew by heart now, including the more solid patches and spots to avoid. She let herself in, knowing he’d be in the kitchen. “Sorry I’m late,” she said as she locked the door behind her. “Mindy had to get ready for a date, so I finished the activity report for her.”

He met her in the entryway with a steaming cup of green tea. It was their little ritual; whoever got in first had to make the tea. “I’m sure she appreciated it.”

“Thanks.” She took the tea and kissed him on the cheek. His thick mustache tickled her nose like it always did, and she smiled. “You aren’t mad, are you?”

“Of course not. You helped out a team mate. I could never be angry about that.” He gave her one of his rare warm smiles and turned toward the deck. “I was just watching for Jess.”

“I never should have said that.” She touched his shoulder as he turned, a feeling of deep embarrassment sweeping over her. He’d never make fun of anything she did, and now she felt like she’d poked fun at something very important in his life. Even though she hadn’t meant it that way. “I know it means a lot to you.”

“No. It’s fine. You were right. It is what I do some nights.” He reached up and squeezed her hand, and she could feel every callous from his variety of martial arts and firearms trainings. His entire adult life could be read in the hard patches of skin on his hands. “Other nights I just try to imagine what he said the waves told him.”

“Sonny says Jenny does that, too. Listen to the waves, I mean.” She joined him in the cooling night air, looking out over the water that was starting to disappear in descending darkness. “I really did want her as my bridesmaid.”

“I know. But she was right about Gina.”

“I know.” Trudy sighed and hugged him from the back. She couldn’t explain how much an actual wedding meant to her, or more to the point what it would mean to her family. They didn’t talk much these days, but they were still close in an unspoken way. She didn’t quite understand it herself, but she knew they’d be disappointed if she didn’t have a wedding. They’d never say anything, but their eyes would speak volumes. Especially her grandmother.

And she still couldn’t believe Sonny was paying for it all. Angie had looked her up and down when she broke the news. “Girlfriend, you all be his family now. He got no one else. Oh, there’s blood kin somewhere, but they don’t mean squat to him. You all is his family, and he wants to do right by you. That’s one thing girl loved about that fool man.” Trudy could still hear the big woman’s voice in her head.

She realized with a start that Marty had been talking. “What was that, baby? I was thinking about what Angie said.”

“It’s fine. I just asked if you wanted to sit down. Listen to the waves.”

“I’d love that.” She let him pick one of the deck chairs and then settled into his lap with a contented sigh. “But I’d also like to sit with you.”

“I don’t mind.” His strong arms when around her, and she could feel his breath against her shoulder-blade through the thin silk of her tight blue dress. She’d worn it because she knew it was one of his favorites.

“This is nice. I wish…” She paused, looking up at the stars. “I wish this could last forever.”

“It can. Forever is eternity and a split second.”

“Where did you read that?”

“I didn’t.” He chuckled. “It’s my translation of what an old Montagnard told me once in Pleiku. Time matters if you think it does and you have ways to measure it. They didn’t, so an hour could be a second or a whole day. So we do have forever. It’s whatever we decide it will be. But with you I want it to be time with no ending.”

“My love.” She didn’t even try to say in in Vietnamese, but she knew he’d take it with that deeper meaning. They sat in each other’s arms until hunger drove them inside.

 

The drummer rattled off a last subdued riff on his cymbals before reaching up and muting the vibrating metal. Rico waited for the echo to bleed into the walls of Downbeat before clapping. It didn’t seem right to interrupt the song, even if it was ending. “April in Paris” was one of his favorites, and the house band and done it serious justice tonight.

Mindy smiled at him. They were sitting side-by-side so they could both see the band. “That kid does play a mean sax,” she whispered, nodding to the lean Hispanic musician.

“He could be Brazilian. The Sound is huge there, and he plays more like Getz than he does Parker.” He smiled back, still in awe that he could talk jazz with this beautiful woman. All too often his social life in Miami amounted to drinks, clubs, and then awkward dodging of phone calls. This was different, and he wanted to savor it as long as he could.

“What is it?”

“Nothin’, Mindy. I’m just glad to be out with someone who knows the difference between a sax and a tuba.”

“They aren’t that bad!”

“You’ve never seen Crockett’s tape collection, have you? Before he and Caitlin got married I think he ordered the whole damned thing from Sears. On sale. Or those late night shows Stan used to watch when Larry was still alive.”

“You guy have been together a long time, haven’t you?”

“I’ve been down here since ’86, and they were together before that. Castillo’s the only one newer than Lester, but you’d think he’d been here since Maimi washed up on the beach.”

“Longer than most marriages these days.” She smiled, but there was something in her eyes that made Rico wonder. It was gone before he could pin it down. “We don’t get that in the marshals much.”

“You normally don’t down here, either. But we turned out arrests, and I think Castillo used that to keep the brass away. At least until Sonny and I went all Lone Ranger and dropped our badges.” He told her a bit about the mess that had been Costa Morada and how they’d quit right afterwards. “It was the right thing to do, but for the wrong reasons. I needed to get my head in order, and you would have hated Sonny if you’d met him before that break. He’s a new cop now, and a better man.”

“What about you?”

“Me? I’m still stylin’ and profilin’. Ricardo Tubbs, man of mystery and high style.” He laughed. “Not really. Most of my changin’ came when I found out what happened to my son, but I guess I also figured out I ain’t cut out for much other than the Job. And now they’re all puttin’ down roots. I might have to open a damned day-care in the next couple of years. And I can tell you smellin’ of diapers will seriously cramp my style.”

She laughed and touched his arm. “I know how you feel. My last office was like that. The Miami office? Not so much. They’re good guys, if you like the gym, gunpowder, and sharing them with three other girls and their wives. Except for Dave and Randy and most of the guys on the warrant teams. But they’re…”

“All about the Job.” Rico smiled. “I get it. You can see it when they’re talkin’ and how they walk.” He smiled as the band came back from its break and launched into a Charlie Parker standard. “And I sure as hell wouldn’t bring any of ‘em here.”

“Good. This can be our place.” He felt her slim hand slide over his. “I didn’t even know this was here.”

“Gina worked a case in The Blue Note a few years back, but it went under not too long afterwards.” Rico smiled. “Something about bullet holes cutting down on customer traffic. But the same crew just moved to a different place, got a better house band, and opened Downbeat. They don’t advertise like Rumours or some of those other places, but that’s why I like it. And they get good traveling acts from New York, Chicago, and even Kansas City.” He looked over at her, almost losing himself in those deep blue eyes. “And I’d love it if it were our place.” Turning his hand palm-up, he raised her fingers to his lips and kissed them.

She giggled. “Do they have a menu around here?”

Rico thought of a million cheesy club responses to that question, but stopped himself. Mindy was a special lady, and he was going to treat her like one. “Yeah. Nothing big, but it’s all good.”

“Good.” She smiled at him again, and he saw something else in her eyes. A promise and an invitation rolled into one. “I didn’t have much lunch, and I think I might need my strength later.”

 

Jenny looked up from the menu. “Can we afford this?”

“Sure.” Sonny smiled, having absorbed and hidden his own shock at the prices. He knew he could afford it, and he didn’t want Jenny to worry. This was her night. “Order whatever sounds good, darlin’.” Sitting in the dim light, he was just enjoying looking at her. She’d picked out a sapphire blue dress for the occasion, one that matched her eyes to perfection. He wore his Burnett black suit, tailored by someone with an unpronounceable name and indeterminate gender preferences, but it marked them as dangerous people with money.

She smiled. “You pick.”

He waved the waiter over and ordered for them both. “We’ll start with the shrimp, then the filet mignon for two with grilled asparagus and the pepper brown sauce, and end the evening with blueberry cheesecake. And we’ll need a bottle of your best merlot.”

“Excellent choice, sir.”

As soon as he vanished, Jenny giggled. “I never knew you could order like that.”

“Neither did I.” Sonny grinned. “I’m more of a burger and fries guy, with bacon on the burger if I’m feeling adventurous. But you picked Le Mason, so I figure we should go with the best they have.”

Her foot found his under the table. “Like I did with you?”

“Or like I did with you.” He smiled, watching her eyes sparkle in the gloom. In some ways it reminded him of the dinner with Caitlin when they’d ended up in each other’s arms, but only very generally. In fact, he’d been thinking of her less and less lately, but it wasn’t like she was slipping away. More like she was letting him go, with her blessing. He knew she’d aways be a part of him, but now she was sharing that part with other people.

“You’re thinking about her, aren’t you?” There was no bitterness in her voice, and not a shred of jealously. It was one of the things he loved about her.

“Yeah. Kind of, I guess. It’s funny. I don’t dream about her like I used to.”

“She’s telling you it’s ok.” She reached out and took his hand. “She was a very wonderful woman, Sonny. I could never be jealous of her. I wish I could have met her. You were lucky to have the time with her you did.”

“And now I’m lucky to be with you.” He smiled, watching her eyes glow. “To be honest, Jenny, I never thought I’d fall in love again. I was ready to marry the Job and stick with it until the bitter end. Then you came along.”

She smiled. “And here comes our shrimp It smells fantastic!”

They worked their way through each course of the meal with appreciation, and Sonny even found himself enjoying the wine. She just giggled again when he mentioned it, dipping a piece of her steak in the rich brown sauce dotted with green peppercorns. They lingered over dessert, and he fed her blueberries from the cheesecake’s sauce using one of the small spoons. It was a memory he’d hold for the rest of his life, right beside the one he had of Catilin the first time she looked at him from the back of the boat with those eyes and when he’d held his son in his arms for the first time. And from the look in her eyes and the way she was walking as they headed for the car he knew there would be other memories soon to come.

[mjcmmv]

Nice job. Loving the characters and their stories! 

I am worried, though. Lot's of foreshadowing and it's not looking pretty!!! 

[vicegirl85]

29 minutes ago, mjcmmv said:

Nice job. Loving the characters and their stories! 

I am worried, though. Lot's of foreshadowing and it's not looking pretty!!! 

What she said!

 

[Robbie C.]

Things are certainly afoot....