it as soon as they can. We think that the prime distributors will start coming by today. It’s likely that each of the prime guys will be cutting the heroin on his own, rather than somebody trying to cut it all at once, because they all know their own markets. Some will want to cut with fentanyl, some might cut with baking powder, some might move the pure stuff on to lower levels. We don’t know how they do it in this operation.”
“Here we go,” said one of the women looking at computers. “The hearse is making a move toward the car wash.”
Lucas looked over her shoulder, to what looked like a Google map; the map was actually following the tracker on the hearse. Lucas asked, “Where’s the car wash?”
She tapped the screen: “Here. He’s five blocks away.”
They watched as the hearse made another quick turn, and another, and then the woman said, “They’ll drive right past our truck.”
They watched the tracker, then switched to a new computer screen, with a male operator, as the hearse popped up on the camera view of the car wash. After pausing at the cross street, the hearse crossed it, pulled into the driveway at the car wash, and drove toward the garage, where an overhead door opened as it approached. As soon as the hearse was inside, the door came down.
“There are two people in the garage, besides the hearse drivers,” Orish said. “Neither one is a prime distributor. Those guys haven’t shown up yet.”
Nothing moved for a half hour, when an access door opened, and a man came out, followed by the two drivers who Lucas had seen in Hallandale. They walked across the driveway and into the main car wash building, and out of sight. “That’s our guys,” Lucas said. “They looked happy enough.”
“They’re probably looking for an envelope full of cash,” Kerry said. “I expect they’ll be filling out their income tax forms later today, reporting the payment.”
“Probably,” Devlin said. “Getting that Social Security deducted.”
* * *
Ten minutes later, the hearse drivers came out of the car wash building, walked back into the garage. The overhead door went up, the hearse backed out, and rolled out of the car wash. Lucas watched on the mapping computer as it headed south on the island, then east, and finally stopped. “Funeral home,” the computer operator said. “They’re dumping the body.”
“The heroin is in the garage,” Orish said. “This is good. This is good.”
Nothing was moving at the garage and a half hour after the hearse arrived at the funeral home, it set off again.
“You know what?” Orish said, after watching the tracker for a while. “I think they’re coming here. Either here or over at the Hampton Inn.”
“They’ll probably stay overnight and then head back to Florida,” Devlin said. “By the time they get back, they’ll have another load.”
“I’m hoping we’ll only do this once,” Orish said.
“We’re all hoping that. We’ve got a couple of people undercover, risking their necks with every load,” Lucas said.
Orish: “Then let’s get it right the first time.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR
Behan called Cattaneo and asked, “What do you think?”
“It’s still a little rough, but we’re going out. Willy’s okay with it—he wants the cash.”
“Talked to Dougie,” Behan said. “The hearse is in the garage.”
“Excellent,” Cattaneo said. “Though that sounds like a euphemism for a guy who has trouble getting it up, finally getting a hit of Viagra.”
“What?”
“Never mind,” Cattaneo said. Behan thought he had a good Irish sense of humor, but he didn’t. When he got off the phone, Cattaneo wandered into the living room where Belinda was looking at three different shades of blue acrylic paint and said, “That fuckin’ Behan can be a moron.”
“Don’t let him hear you saying that,” his wife said. “Are you going out for sure?”
“Almost for sure. I mean, we’re going out, but we actually have to get out there before we decide to dive.”
* * *
Cattaneo called Virgil and asked, “You all set?”
“How’s the water?”
“I’m looking out my window. I’m not seeing whitecaps, but it’s rolling some.”
“I don’t want to go over the side if the boat’s gonna come down on me and crack my head like a fuckin’ walnut,” Virgil said.
“We gotta be careful, but it’s not all that bad—we’ll know more when we get out there, and if you think it’s too rough, we’ll come back. It’s your call.”
“’Kay. I’ve made a couple changes in the rigging, nothing major. When do you pick us up?”
“Same time as last time?” Cattaneo said.
“See