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Pride, Admiration and Respect
Chapter Seven
They arrived at HQ thirty minutes or so after Chin and Kono had gotten there. While Danny headed to the kitchen for a cup of coffee, Steve and Annie headed to the smart table where Chin and Kono were going through files.
"So," Steve said, "it looks like the NYPD files arrived as promised."
"Yup," Kono replied. "We're just going through it all now, boss."
"Ok... fill me in."
"Emilio Cordoba," Chin started as he swiped the only picture of Cordoba they had, the one from TSA, onto the overhead screen. "Aged forty-five. Spent his youth working for various small-time hoods in the drug trade in and around Cartagena. Eventually he concentrated more in Cartagena proper, taking advantage of the booming tourist trade. Tourists with money to spend, looking for more kicks than margaritas. From what NYPD could gather from various US Customs, DEA and other agency files and from local informants, he moved up the ranks quickly. His good looks and likeable personality served him well. A "smile and handshake" temperament which conveniently hid the knife he was more than willing to plunge into anyone's back."
As Danny returned from the kitchen, Kono took over. "Which he did repeatedly as he moved up the ranks. Which is also why, at the age of thirty-five, he became the youngest head of the cartel in decades. That was ten years ago. At that time word was spreading that a possible joint DEA/US Customs raid was imminent. Cordoba, then acting lieutenant to cartel head Diego Andres, came up with a plan to protect Andres, the cocaine and the cash. But Cordoba set him up. While Andres sat in a safe house Cordoba had arranged for him and several of his top men, Cordoba moved a majority of the drugs and cash to an undisclosed location, leaving only a small amount of each behind along with instructions on where to find Andres. By the time Andres figured out what Cordoba had done it was too late."
Chin continued. "Of course, Andres and his men weren't going down without a fight. It was a bloodbath. When the dust cleared and the bodies taken away, Cordoba stepped right in. With the drugs and cash he'd managed to hide away, what was left of Andres' organization was ripe for the picking. Cordoba walked right in and was set."
Danny looked over to Annie. "Is there anything in there that's new to you?"
"No. That's the evidence jacket off my desk back home. Nothing new there, unfortunately. Where's the rest?"
"Rest?"
"Yeah, there were several files Tony and I hadn't gotten to review yet when we were called to join the raid. By the time I got back to our desks all the case files had been turned over to the lead investigating team. My continuing on the case was deemed a "conflict of interest."
"Because of your closeness with Tony," Steve remarked.
Annie sadly nodded her head.
"This is all we got from NYPD," Kono added. "Maybe the other files ended up being unimportant so they didn't bother to include them in the transfer."
"You're probably right, Annie said. "My Captain is a good guy. If the files were pertinent, he'd have sent them."
"What about that flash drive, Chin?" Steve asked. "We get anywhere with that?"
"I'm sorry to say I haven't been able to crack the damn thing."
"What?" Danny squawked. "You? You couldn't crack it?"
Chin ducked his head a notch and smiled at Danny. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, brah, but unfortunately, whoever encoded it knew what he was doing. It has 1024-bit encryption which means the password is 309 numbers long which also means there is no way to crack the damn thing without the code. I've got Toast holed up in an office downstairs working on it as we speak. He thinks he'll be able to crack it eventually with his software, but it's going to take time."
Just then Steve's phone buzzed. Checking the caller ID first, he put the call on speaker and answered. "Go ahead Duke…. you're on speaker."
"Steve... a body has been found in Kualoa Regional Park. I think you better come and take a look at this. I'm sending you the coordinates now."
"Coordinates?" Danny asked
"Yeah… It's definitely off the beaten path."
"Ok Duke, we'll be there as soon as we can," Steve replied as he ended the call. "Danny, you, Annie and I will check this out. You two keep digging. We'll be back as soon as we see whatever it is Duke finds so fascinating."
Forty-five minutes later, they arrived at Kualoa Ranch where they were met by Duke at the parking area. Sitting off to the side were several ATVs. Taking one look at them Danny shook his head.
"Oh man... this really is gonna be a body dump in the middle of nowhere, isn't it, if we're gonna need those to get there?" He looked over at Annie. "Definitely not an alley in Newark, eh, sis?"
"You can say that again. The crimes never change, bro, but at least the scenery is a lot better."
"Duke," Steve called as Sgt. Lukela moved away from the uniforms he'd been talking to and joined them. "What do we know so far?"
"Two hikers found the body late yesterday evening, around dusk. Because of where it's located it took them until this morning to report it. They hiked until it got dark, made camp for the night, then called it in first thing this morning when they made it back into cell phone range. They said they didn't see or hear anything out of the ordinary leading up to the discovery of the body."
"Ok... let's mount up and head up there and see what we have."
It took them almost an hour to arrive at the area where the body had been dumped. Annie couldn't help but marvel at the beauty of the area in which they traveled. The trees, the rising cliffs, babbling springs and brooks along the way. It was almost easy to forget they were headed to a possible murder scene. She made a mental note to add this place to her "things to see and do in Hawaii before I have to go home" list.
The body was a mess. Whoever dumped him made no attempt to bury him but he was none the less covered in dirt. That, mixed with the extremely large amount of blood made for a huge, smelly mess. It hadn't been there long enough for it to degrade or dry out.
"What it is... Max?" Danny said in greeting to the Medical Examiner, already crouched low over the body doing his preliminary exam. As Max stood Danny made the introductions.
"Max... this is my sister, Officer Annie Williams, NYPD… Annie…. Dr. Max Bergman... our ME and resident genius on all things... well…. Dead."
"Mahalo for that kind introduction, Detective Williams, and it is my sincere pleasure to make your acquaintance, Officer Williams."
"Detective Williams…. Officer Williams… sounds way too formal, Max, not to mention a bit confusing. Whatcha say to just calling me Annie?"
"Why, thank you very much Annie... it would be my pleasure."
"Ok... now that we have the pleasantries out of the way," Steve chuckled, "what can you tell us, Max?"
"Preliminary examination of the body determines cause of death will most likely be the GSW to the back of the head, but as you can see Commander, our victim was subjected to multiple blows around the head and chest area, as well as cuts, contusions and burns. Ligature marks to his wrists and ankles indicate he was forcibly restrained while being struck and the burns indicate torture. His facial injuries consist of a broken mandible and fracture to his left orbital bone, most likely caused by a blow with a heavy object of some sort."
"Someone wanted something from this guy and were willing to torture him to get it," Annie commented.
"An astute observation, Annie. I would estimate by the varying shades of coloration of many of the bruises that his, ummm, interrogation, lasted several hours. If he hadn't died from the GSW he would have succumbed to his other injuries in short order. He was not, in fact, killed elsewhere and dumped. The amount of damage to the victim's bare feet indicate he was forced to walk a significant distance. The amount of blood pooled beneath the body as well as the blood spatter patterns on the surrounding fauna and flora indicate the victim was indeed killed here. Liver temperature puts time of death at approximately 8pm yesterday and no attempt was made to bury the body, only a perfunctory covering of leaves and debris."
"Any idea who this guy is, Max?" Danny asked.
"Due to the amount of damage to his head and neck, facial recognition is quite out of the question. However, I was able to identify our victim by running his fingerprints through AFIS. His name is Alejandro Jiménez."
"Jiménez? How? He's supposed to be in lock up at HPD?" Steve directed his question to Duke.
"Jiménez walked early yesterday afternoon Steve. There wasn't enough evidence to hold him. The public defender assigned to him was able to convince the judge he wasn't a flight risk and HPD had no choice but to let him go", Duke replied
Steve stole a quick look towards Annie, which Danny did not miss. "We need to get back to HQ and re-group as quickly as possible," Steve said. "It's obvious Cordoba had Jiménez followed the moment he walked out of jail and wanted to know what, if anything, he told us about what went down at that warehouse yesterday morning."
Danny paled. "And since he was one of only two people to get out of there alive and both of them were taken to HPD that could mean….." he trailed off, looking at Annie.
"He's got someone following me as well," Annie finished. "Steve... he probably knows I'm staying at your place, too."
"Duke! I want 24-hour surveillance around my house but make sure they stay completely out of sight. No blue-and-white parked outside the front door, understand? We don't want Cordoba to know we're on to him. Let's head back. Max! Let us know the minute you find anything more."
"Understood Commander," Max replied as Steve, Danny and Annie made their way back to the ATVs.
Once they were all back in Steve's truck, he took off like a bat out of hell. "Jesus," Annie cried as she hung onto the grab handle over her head. "Cordoba can't kill me if I'm already dead in a car crash. Is he always like this?"
"Have you or have you not been listening to me every time I call? You think this is bad? You should see him driving the Camaro... my car! I'm telling you Nascar is safer than riding with this guy when he has a full head of steam going. He's determined to shave years off my life every time I get into a moving vehicle with him. I remember once…"
"Not the time, Danny!" Steve said through clenched teeth as he maneuvered the truck into the oncoming lane to get around a slow moving SUV, only to have to immediately swerve back to avoid a car heading straight for them.
"Not the time, he says. No, it's never the time, is it Steve? Slow down! HQ isn't going anywhere and I'd like to see my Gracie again!"
"That makes two of us," Annie agreed. She shook her head and looked at Danny. "I thought you were…. you know…. just being you with the bitching and complaining. This is…. this is….."
"What?!" Steve countered.
"Nothing… just… nothing. Just watch the road, will you?"
To Annie's amazement, they made it back to HQ in under thirty minutes. Steve literally propelling the truck into his parking spot with an impressive screeching of tires that made both Annie and Danny cross themselves in thankful prayer that they'd made it back alive and in one piece. They quickly piled out of the truck and headed inside so they could fill in Chin and Kono on the latest development.
"What could Cordoba want so badly from Jiménez?" Kono wondered. "He was a low level punk, muscle only. It's really unlikely he'd have any intel on what was going on."
"The flash drive," Annie answered. "It's the only explanation. You're right, Jiménez was a punk, no real value to the organization. There is no way he'd know anything about anything worthwhile enough to be tortured over. Whatever is on that flash drive is. Cordoba thought Jiménez either had it or knew where it was."
"Wait…" Danny interrupted, "that doesn't make sense. You said you found that flash drive back in New York months ago. Why would Cordoba torture anyone over it now instead of back when it first went missing?"
"That's a good question," Steve said. "Could he have only discovered it was gone recently?"
"Or it's a copy," Annie speculated.
"What do you mean?"
"Think about it for a second. If that flash drive is a copy, then obviously, there was an original. If something happened to the original, it was compromised or destroyed somehow, Cordoba would need the copy. Could be he only remembered there even was a copy when something happened to the original. Then he went to look for the copy and realized it was gone."
"What kind of idiot would just throw a copy of something that important into an office desk drawer and then forget about it?" Danny asked.
"The kind of man who trusts his people to do what they are supposed to do or pay the price with their lives if they don't. Obviously, someone screwed up badly and didn't protect that copy as he should have. I'm guessing the fish in the East River got a spectacular dinner surprise the night Cordoba discovered that copy was gone."
"And now he knows you have it." Steve interjected. "They trashed your room looking for it. Probably after they realized Jiménez was no use to them and took him on this death march, they went to the Hilton and searched your room. Tell me, Annie, was Jiménez part of the bust in New York when Tony was killed?"
"Now that you mention it, he did look very familiar to me when I saw him yesterday. Cordoba does not change his minions often; he likes familiar faces around him. It's entirely possible Jiménez was in that warehouse when the bust went wrong."
"So, that was the only piece of useful information Cordoba was able to get from him. That he recognized you as well from New York. That's how Cordoba knew you were here," Danny concluded.
"Any word from Toast on that flash drive yet Chin?"
"Not yet boss, but you know Toast is the best. If it's taking him this long, it must be harder to crack than even he thought," Chin replied.
"Damn... we need to know what's on that thing!"
"I know, Steve. I'll go check and see if I can get an update," Chin said as he left the bullpen and headed down to the office where Toast was holed up, determined to set a bit of a fire under his ass before Steve barged in there and rendered Toast completely useless with fear.