Chapter 7

Wasp

I was a bag of nerves waiting for that man to make his appearance. I'd already been hanging around for two hours expecting that he'd be up and out. I'd followed the van and watched as he'd pulled up in front of a cheap looking diner and made the call that I wasn't going to go inside. Maybe he was just buying some breakfast, but it would have been too obvious had I followed him inside, I'd have stood out and he might have noticed me.

His next stop was down on Stark street where he stopped to talk to a couple of men. Nothing exchanged hands and it didn't help me in trying to work what he was up to. When he'd disappeared inside a run-down apartment block, I was beginning to think this whole notion of following him was a bad idea. For a start I had no idea which apartment he'd gone into and couldn't exactly go inside and look around. Then I noticed a young kid was sat just inside the door so gaining access was a nonstarter.

Half an hour later he was back out on the street, smiling, which of course made me think that I was no good at this undercover work. He still didn't have anything in his hands making me wonder what the hell he was up to and whether or not today was not a day when he picked up drugs. When a first floor window opened and a large breasted blonde leant out, showing that she was only wearing some sort of black bra and shouted down at him, I realized that maybe she was a hooker, and that was his reason for being there.

At last, he went back to his van and this time drove down toward the river, parking up outside a dilapidated warehouse. My spirits rose when I began to wonder if this was where the drugs were being kept so driving past, I parked up the bike and returned by walking around an adjacent building. Stopping at the corner gave me the perfect view of his van that was now stood with the back doors wide open, with the man stood there. I was waiting for someone to bring out some boxes and was surprised when two men came out empty handed. So was the man because he was soon stepping away from them as they started to talk to him.

I couldn't hear what was being said but it seemed like the two me weren't very pleased with something. As my man slammed the back doors to the van closed and moved as though to get back into the driver's side that's when the two men grabbed hold of him.

They dragged him as he screamed at them, but to no avail Those men were bigger than him and certainly a lot stronger. As they all disappeared inside, I wasn't too sure of what would happen next and was very surprised when the two men came out carrying boxes and loaded up the van. One of them returned inside while the other drove the van away, making me wonder what had happened to the original man.

Seeing as the van seemed to be doing the other man's usual rounds that's when I decided that I needed to leave before someone saw me. That night as I looked through the photos for the day's events, I wasn't sure if I was making any progress. I still wasn't any closer to finding who was running the show.

It was after that day when I next visited the apartment that I was aware that things weren't right with the woman. She was more edgy than usual, and I had no chance of seeing the boy. In fact, she insisted I leave making me wonder what had changed.

I had a suitcase now of new clothes and lots of books for the boy in my apartment that I had bought over a period of time. I wasn't sure why I had continued to buy them but maybe my subconscious had already worked that one out. I couldn't see the woman changing her way of life and letting me help her and our son, so that was when I started to look for other places that maybe I could take the boy to without being found. I didn't know if the men she worked for knew about her son, so I suppose I was looking at kidnapping him without leaving any clues to follow me with.

Working in the real estate business had its perks and I was soon looking at somewhere that I could live in hiding. The purchase of a property was through lawyers and via email, which suited me fine. Who knew it would be so easy to use another person's identity, one that I had on my books from a transaction many years ago. I wasn't stupid enough to believe that the one sale was enough and ended up buying and selling various properties until I was sure that following the ownership would be impossible. How naïve I was as I later found out.

Back to the story though. To give you a time frame this was three and half months ago. I had lots of photos showing the distribution of what I was sure was drugs but only of the lower level of people involved. My visits to see my son and his mother were becoming tense and stressful with each successive visit. Her moods would swing from being angry over something that didn't seem to be there, to being tired, quiet and uncommunicative.

Something with her had changed but she wouldn't say what and I could only assume that maybe the pressure was coming from the men that she was working for. I had somewhere that I could move to, money that I could use, so when she started to return from her outings with bruises and cuts my decision was made. To be honest I wanted her to agree to me taking the boy to somewhere safe so changed the time of my visit to early one Sunday morning.

I found her sat on the floor when I entered, crying hysterically. For the first time in nearly a year she opened up to me, her words tumbling from her like a torrent. For the first time she was admitting how scared she was. Scared because her insulin was being reduced, scared of whatever drug was being mixed in with it, scared with how violent the men she worked for were becoming. When I asked what had changed, she said that somehow, they knew that she had a son and were pushing her to do more pickups. They were accusing her of not being careful and that she was attracting unnecessary attention and for that they would often hit her.

That day I walked out of the building with my son, feeling so guilty for leaving her there to fend for herself. She'd begged me to take him with me but refused to come herself, for fear of the men finding us all. When I'd asked her what his name was, I was totally surprised when she told me that she hadn't wanted to name him because he'd ruined her life.

SPOV

I looked up from the book over to the little boy sat opposite me and wondered just how much he knew or understood. To have lived as he had with his mother and how she had treated him and then to suddenly find out that you have a father who actually wants you must have been so hard for him. I wondered what had gone through his head and what was going through his head right now, especially having to put up with me being with him. Being with me wasn't the best person to be with especially now.

I had no idea what I was doing, where I was going or who I could trust. I was pretty sure that trying to get in touch with any friends wouldn't be a wise thing to do. Anyone looking for me would be watching them and probably be listening in on their phones. The fact that Ranger was at that warehouse was totally confusing me and I wasn't sure that trying to reach him was a good idea. Joe was out of the question because to be honest I couldn't quite trust him. Long story.

I picked up the rucksack to put the camera back inside and decided to take a better look for what Charlie might have left us. As I did that I looked up to Ed, did he even know if he had a name? Surely though Charlie would have called him by a name, wouldn't he?

"What name did your father call you?"

I realized my mistake as soon as I'd said it and shook my head as I said "Sorry", but it seemed that I was going to be outsmarted yet again. He turned the book that he was reading and carefully pointed to the letter M, followed by Y spelling out "Mylo"

"Mylo, I like that name. It suits you"

It was certainly better than Ed, and that's when my brain put together where that damn name Ed had come from. His mother had always shouted "Bed" at him so the poor kid probably associated that as something someone would call him.

"Mylo, was there somewhere else that Charlie showed you how to get to?"

It didn't take a genius to understand the shake of his head or how he looked down at the table. I suppose Charlie had reckoned that once he'd fed my curiosity and had Mylo get me outside then he'd assume I'd have the resources of my friends and be able to carry on finding the solution that he couldn't.

I felt isolated sat here and knew that I had to find somewhere safer for us to stay. The problem was where? I was sure that the police would be keeping surveillance on Rangeman and to be honest I didn't want to compromise whatever it was that Ranger was doing. Motels were too public, and friends were out of the question, no doubt anyone looking for me would be watching them for me to turn up. It needed to be the last place that anyone would look for us.

While I was thinking what to do next, I continued to look through the rucksack, hoping maybe Charlie had put something inside that might be of some help. There were some gloves and some candy, that I passed over to Mylo, a library card. Maybe there was a hidden message in leaving the card in there but walking into the library wasn't something that I could do right now. Searching further didn't reveal anything else which actually made me a little mad at Charlie. He could have at least packed some money or even a phone.

An hour later I had made my decision, it may not be the best one that I'd ever made but it certainly wouldn't be one that anyone who knew me, or didn't, would expect. I thought that travelling at night to get there would be better, that we could hide in the shadows, which might have been a good idea if I knew how the hell to get there. I'd normally drive, because getting there by any other way was a nightmare. Trains and buses went up to New York before a connection. There were too many places that we could be seen, too many cameras that would pick us up. I needed a car.

The only person that I knew who might have a vehicle that might get us there was Dougie. I had visions of that damn VW that he'd sold to me but having no alterative ideas then I'd have to hope for the best. I could get us to Dougie's through back streets, keeping to the shadows so with that now planned, I turned to Mylo.

"We're leaving here when it's dark. I'll make us something to eat and then we both need to catch some sleep, okay?"

It seemed that Mylo knew exactly what he wanted to eat because he went straight to one of the boxes and pulled out a packet of crackers followed by a jar of peanut butter and some olives. I almost laughed that he loved my favorite food and together we made sandwiches with peanut butter and olives between the crackers. I have to admit that they tasted amazing.

It was midnight when we set off to walk, taking the back streets past houses and shops. Most places were closed, locked up for the night. I avoided streets where there were bars knowing that people would be out on the streets and taxis would be prowling around for that late night fare. It took us an hour and a half to reach Dougie's, all the time Mylo's little hand kept a tight grip on mine.

As we approached the street where Dougie's house was, I stopped and waited, making sure that there was no one hanging around. The biggest worry that I had was that Dougie was throwing an all night party, something that he often did.

It seemed quiet at the house as we came to it, with no lights being on. Maybe Dougie was away collecting god knows what from somewhere. Yeah, if you wanted to buy something, then Dougie was your go to man. As long you appreciated that whatever you were buying was a knock off or it had fallen off the back of a lorry. I'd bought some good stuff from Dougie in the past.

Walking around to the side of the house, where I knew he normally kept a few cars, I was disappointed that there was only one parked there.

Okay, maybe the panels were different colors, but at least the front looked like a match to the rear. I think it was a Plymouth Voyager, though any badges had been removed. It had maybe started off green, but someone had decided to cover the bonnet with grey undercoat and forgotten to finish the paint job. On the positive side the tires looked okay, at least they had air in them, and it had seats in the front. I watched as Mylo tried to open the passenger door, cringing at the groaning sound that it made. The driver's door wouldn't open, maybe that was why the window was down, so I used it to climb inside, much to Mylo's amusement. I was really surprised that there was a key in the ignition, knowing my luck there was probably no engine to start.

I closed my eyes as I turned the key, held my foot to the floor on the accelerator and started to shout at the car.

"Come on, you can do it"

The starter motor was doing its best but what had me jumping was the loud noise that erupted from the back, followed by a plume of dark grey smoke. I ended up laughing at the face that Mylo made but was so pleased as the engine caught and continued running. Once in gear I reversed the car out of the alley, turned on the lights and we were on our way.

RPOV

I handed the file in my hands to Tank, the file on Jackson, and watched as he nodded his head at me. I knew I didn't need to say anything to him, we knew each other too well to question each other's judgement. I needed to get caught up with individual men seeing as I had missed the morning meeting so went down to where Hector's office was. At least when I opened the door, he didn't shake his head, which meant that hopefully he had something new. I sat down in the seat and waited as Hector finished what he was typing watching with interest as a screen was flashing through camera footage. I presumed that this was the program looking for Steph on the streets where cameras were.

"Nothing from those"

I turned as Hector told me what I already knew.

"What did you find out Hector?"

"That there's more medication out on the streets than you realize. No one admitted to having seen the woman but one of the dealers, he knew her, I could tell from his eyes. I had a good conversation with him"

I didn't doubt that and was sure that the conversation probably included Hector showing him his knives.

"She was one of the women that would deliver a package to him and in return he provided the insulin. Seems though the man who provided the insulin disappeared and the new one wasn't as keen to supply it. Dando, he isn't that smart, but he felt sorry for her, so he got the insulin from somewhere else"

"Did he know why she was killed?"

"He said after a few times she went crazy. Said the stuff he was giving her was no good. He thinks she confronted some of the other men"

"And threatened them"

"Maybe, he doesn't know what happened to her, only that he never saw her again"

I sat back as I went through what Hector had told me. Okay, we knew she was diabetic and needed insulin, but that she was also taking cocaine. The only reason why she might have been annoyed at Dando was because he was only providing the insulin and she needed the other drug as well. I wondered if she knew there was cocaine mixed in with the insulin.

"Jeffe. Dando's worried. He doesn't like the men he's doing business with"

I raised an eyebrow at that, hell buying and selling drugs never involved people that were nice.

"No. They keep changing the rules, changing the suppliers. No one knows who else is involved and it isn't very long before they disappear"

Which meant that no one could identify anyone else and it also provided a very strong protective layer to the ones running it.

"What's Dando pushing for them?"

"White Demon, cocaine"

"Get some and get Ram to do an analysis"

"Ya hecho"

Leaving Hector, I went to find Ram eventually finding him in the conference room writing up a report. He looked up as I entered and started to talk before I'd even closed the door.

"Nothing in the apartment boss. No phones or computers and the internet had been cancelled. Bills had been paid for the next six months. It was neat and tidy with nothing that would tell us where he'd been. Hell, he'd even had all his clothes laundered and were still in the bags. Shoes were clean and no trash"

"Papers?"

"Only ones relating to his contract at work and the apartment"

I wasn't expecting Ram to find anything, but it was somewhere that we needed to look.

"Boss, I spoke with the building super and he said that the police had already been in and taken a look around"

Interesting when Watson was the victim and how the hell had they managed to get a warrant for that search?

"Did the super say who the police were?"

"Two from Hamilton Township, no names"

I suppose it would be logical to assume that they might be the two who had been here, Rosbourne and Jeffreys.

"Hector's going to be giving you some drugs being sold on the street, do a full analysis"

"Will do boss, I'll head down there now"

Santos was the only man now who still had to get back to me but looking through properties that Watson had dealt with and finding another place that he might have been staying at was going to take time, who knew what tricks Watson would know from working in the trade of real estate. I decided that seeing as I'd refused Jackson then maybe I needed to look at the other client that Tank was worried about. As I walked back to my office, I realized that I needed to change out of my suit which only reminded me of this morning and that uncanny feeling about Steph being somewhere close.

Once changed into cargos and T-shirt I went into the routines for the teams who would be doing the regular patrols and added the warehouse on Lamberton Road with a notation to be discreet. I also checked the cameras that had been left at Steph's apartment. The cameras were motion activated and had started recording while Tank and I were there with Morelli. I was interested to see what Morelli had done after we'd left. Surprisingly he'd left just after we had, which was what Zero and Manny had reported. There was only Manny entering and removing Rex from the counter with no recordings after that.

I was surprised because I would have expected the police to have checked the apartment in case Steph had gone back there, unless of course Morelli informed them that the place was empty, would he have been the one to tell the detectives that she often sought safety here at Rangeman? He had said that it would be better if she handed herself in so was he prepared to turn her in? There had been no obvious surveillance on the place, but I was sure there would be. It would be easy to set up a camera somewhere close by or even have someone watching from a nearby building, somewhere that would be impossible to find easily.

The file on my desk wasn't going away so I begrudgingly picked it up. To be honest I couldn't remember having anything to do with this request for security and noted that Tank had only agreed to consider the enquiry. As I started to read the search that had been run, I had to agree with Tank, it certainly wasn't the type of property or business that we had agreed to cover before. The building itself wasn't an issue being a large warehouse conversion down by the river, but the business itself could be. It was one of those up-and-coming enterprises that ran online gambling, something that I saw as an addiction that pulled people in and took their money with promises of large winnings. What had my attention, and maybe it was a coincidence, was the name of the new business, Anansi.

I sat back as I remembered that the name Anansi was the one that those two men had mentioned when I'd asked them about Watson's ex-girlfriend. It was the club that Katie had migrated toward after she left Watson. To me there was no such thing as coincidence, so I immediately ran a search on Anansi the night club. Interestingly the club hadn't been in business that long, only two years, and had to close after the DEA had raided the place and several of the people running the business had been charged with trafficking drugs. Finding the names of the original owners I compared the names to the ones that we had for this new company, not finding anyone in common. So, on an impulse I input each man's name into the search program.

Sitting back in my chair I contemplated what to do next. We definitely wouldn't be providing security for the place, but my instincts were telling me that somehow the man whose photo I was looking at, who was now living under a new name, might be up to his old tricks and maybe, just maybe, he was how Katie had been drawn into that world of organized crime. Yeah, it seemed that one of the owners of the Anansi night club was one of the owners of this new gambling business.

Was that where Katie Jerome had acquired the drugs that she was using? Then there was the fact that Watson had been arrested for possession with intent, was he also involved?