“I’m going to use it as Exhibit A when I rip my LA people a new one.”
“You can’t do that without the footage or a manifest?”
“I could,” Roe agreed. “But a picture is worth a thousand words. Besides, something doesn’t feel right about this whole thing. I don’t know what it is, but I want to see that footage for myself. Maybe there’ll be another face I recognize.”
“Give me forty-five minutes and I’ll email you what I can. Okay?”
Roe smiled. “Thank you, detective. I really appreciate it.”
The minute they hung up, she called her LAPD colleague.
Nancy Vargas answered on the third ring. “Vargas,” she said, rolling the r and pronouncing her last name with a Spanish accent, despite being a fourth-generation Angelino.
“Nancy, it’s Heidi.”
“Hey. How’s Houston?”
“Cloudy with a big chance of pissed off. What happened with Tommy Wong?”
“What do you mean?” Vargas asked.
“What happened at LAX?”
“Hold on a second. Let me find out.”
Roe could tell that Vargas had taken the phone away from her ear and was holding it against her chest in order to mute her conversation. Though the sound was muffled, Roe could tell she was having a rather heated discussion with someone in her office.
When she came back on the line, Vargas said, “My officers confirm that they tailed Wong all the way to the airport and one of them watched him go through the security checkpoint. What happened?”
“What happened is that your people were supposed to confirm that Wong actually got on the plane.”
“I know, but we’re shorthanded and they got called out on another case. We figured if he made it through security, everything was good.”
“Apparently, everything is not good. Our team in Nashville says he never got off the plane.”
“Shit,” Vargas replied. “He must have come back through after my officers left. I’m really sorry, Heidi.”
Roe felt a migraine coming on.
“You guys were right. Wong’s definitely up to something,” said Vargas. “That was a hell of a ruse just to slip surveillance.”
“A hell of an expensive ruse,” Roe stated. “Why not just buy a cheap Southwest flight up to Oakland?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. In the meantime, you’re in Houston, we’re back in LA, and my guys dropped the ball. What can I do to fix this?”
Roe was about to respond when her other line beeped. Pulling the phone away from her ear, she looked at the caller ID, then said, “Nancy, I’m going to have to call you back.”
She didn’t wait for Vargas to respond. Clicking over to the other line she said, “Special Agent Roe.”
A woman’s voice on the other end said, “Agent Roe, this is FBI headquarters in Washington. Please hold for the Director.”
Moments later, FBI Director Erickson came on the line. “Agent Roe, this is Director Erickson.”
Roe had met the Director only once, and then only long enough to shake his hand. She had never spoken with him personally. “Yes, Director,” she replied. “What can I do for you, sir?”
“You and your partner have been working on building the Tommy Wong case out of the LA field office?”
Roe was stunned. Why would such a small-time case rise to the Director’s attention? And why now? She was tumbling all the pieces in her mind, trying to make them all fit. Walking quickly back to the conference-room door, she tapped on the glass to get her partner’s attention and wave him out into the hall.
“Agent Roe?” the Director repeated.
“Sorry, sir,” she replied. “Yes, we’re the ones who have been building the Tommy Wong case. May I ask why you’re interested, sir?”
“I’ll tell you in person. We’re sending a plane for you now. In the meantime, I want to know everything you know about Wong.”
“Does this mean we’re off the Al Ain Six search?”
“No,” replied Erickson. “In fact, we think you may be able to help speed it up.”
CHAPTER 28
* * *
* * *
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
China had found its criminal organizations, particularly the triads, to be quite useful, especially as proxies abroad. No one had been more adept at leveraging them from an operational perspective than Cheng. They fulfilled a very important role within his U.S. network and he made sure they were well compensated—both financially and with favors back in China. They couldn’t move the kinds of drugs, weapons, and human cargo that they did without very powerful political figures agreeing to look the other way.
Stepping off the plane in Nashville, Cheng wheeled his bag downstairs and purchased a shuttle ticket to the Opryland Resort and Convention Center. The buses