“We believe we have, Sheriff. It looks like a pretty big job. Several players involved.”
“Is that so? Well, it looks like all those years in the Bureau paid off. You boys work fast.”
Victor shifted in his seat, but kept his grin steady. “You know how it is, Sheriff. There’s always a little luck involved. You just gotta keep your ear to the ground and your eyes open, and sometimes they practically come to you.”
Mickey nodded and peered across the seat at Tom, who smiled back, looking thoroughly out of place in his obviously expensive silk shirt. “Well,” he said, “like I told you last night, our resources are pretty thin up here now, what with your employer practically shutting things down, so I can’t offer much in the way of help. In fact, things are heating up on our murder case.”
“You don’t say.” Victor feigned surprised. “Things falling in place for you, are they?”
“We’ve had some breaks. That’s why we really can’t spare anything to help you boys out until you’ve pretty much got your thing put to bed.”
“Well, we’re not too worried about that, Sheriff. It’s good to see things coming together.” Victor nodded. “Hell, we used to have a saying back in the Bureau about crime. We used to joke that it was all one case. You know, just one big crime out there, all interconnected.”
“Sounds a little paranoid,” Mickey chuckled. “Truth be told, I think it gives the criminals too much credit. Most of them I’ve ever met couldn’t find their pecker if it had a bell on it.”
Victor laughed and slapped at Tom with a light backhand. “You hear that, Tom? That’s a good one. I’ll have to remember that one.”
Mickey watched the performance and wanted to reach in and smack the pompous bastard. But instead, he let out a mild chuckle and tried to think of a way to end the conversation as soon as possible. “Well, anyway,” he leaned down and said, “we’ll be happy to make an arrest when you think you’ve got the proof you need.”
“We may have it sooner than you think.” Victor grinned. “Who knows, maybe the crimes are connected. Maybe our cases will finally prove that it’s all one big crime, in a cosmic sense, I mean.”
Mickey shook his head and kept smiling. “I’m not sure we could handle something like that around here.” Then he rapped on the top of the car a couple of times and said, “Well, keep me posted boys.”
Mickey turned and walked back to the idling Suburban. He slid into the air-conditioned interior and checked his watch again. Then he snatched the radio from the dash and hollered into the mouthpiece.
“Jimmy. You there?”
After a few seconds Jimmy answered. “Right here, Chief.”
“Anything from Kramer yet?”
“You’ll be the first to know, Chief.” Then there was a brief pause. “Hell, it ain’t been that long, Chief. You just left here an hour ago.”
Mickey checked his watch again. “I know. I just want to make sure you’re still there. I don’t want any delay when Kramer calls. I’ll be following Grimaldi around until I hear something from you. The sooner I hear, the better.”
“I know, Chief. Just relax. You’ll know something as soon as I do.”
XXXIII
The sun had nearly put Hank to sleep when he heard the oil truck pull up. He perked up and peered through the hole in the cinder block when the truck was halfway down the hill. He heard the rattle of the engine before he heard the crunch of the wheels in the gravel. He checked his watch. A little after three. Still a while to wait.
The truck idled in the lot for a few seconds, and then made a wide turn, jockeyed back and forth several times, and backed into the warehouse. Eli got out of the truck with a gun in his hand and stood there like he had no idea what to do with it. Hank watched him through the hole in the wall.
Eli tucked the gun in the front of his pants and tried to conceal it by pulling his shirt down over it. Unsatisfied, he moved it around to the small of his back. His movements were stiff, fidgety, and he paced around aimlessly like a grain of rice popping and jumping in a red hot frying pan. He was all nerves and energy. He was making Hank tense just watching him.