Ocean Prey (A Prey Novel #31) - John Sandford Page 0,128
task force, and he relayed the information to Orish. She said, “I think we go after them all—right now.”
“Where’s Sansone?”
“At his house,” she said. “We saw him go in, the lights are on . . . but we haven’t actually seen him since he went inside.”
“And you don’t have a hundred percent coverage, either.”
“Not in that neighborhood. It’s just not possible.”
“Okay. Listen, let’s not hit the car wash yet,” Lucas said. “Everything else, but let’s not go after the guys in the garage. They’ve had four dealers checking in with them this afternoon—that could be eighty or a hundred grand in cash. If Sansone’s in the wind, he might still try to get it. Could reel him in if he’s making a run for it.”
Orish nodded. “Good. We hit everything else.”
“Andres and I will go with the guys who hit his house . . .”
“Better hurry, then,” Orish said. “I’ve got a SWAT team ready to rock in a half an hour.”
“Slow them down until we get there . . .”
She looked skeptical and said, “You better hurry.”
* * *
They ran. Dillon Koch was waiting in the surveillance car and Lucas piled into the backseat while Devlin took the front passenger seat. “Gonna be close,” Koch said. “We’re probably a half hour, forty minutes away, this time of night.”
“Then go, go . . .”
* * *
Koch was an excellent driver and pushed his Chevrolet through the evening traffic like a slalom skier. Devlin said, “I love this shit.”
After a while, Lucas relaxed and said, “Yeah, it’s not bad, but it is too bad we can’t drive any faster. I could skate over there faster than this.”
“Christ, I’m doing ninety through New York traffic,” Koch said. “Okay, New Jersey traffic now. We’re lucky the state patrol isn’t all over us.”
“What’s that funny smell?” Devlin asked.
“It’s just Elizabeth.”
“Elizabeth?”
“New Jersey. You wanna stop and sniff?” Koch asked.
“Keep going. Faster,” Lucas said.
They were fast for the traffic, but the traffic was tough and they wove their way through a web of freeways between Staten Island and Sansone’s place in South Orange. They were still a few miles out when Orish called and said, “Two things. First, we’re seeing lights go on and off in the house, we’re seeing shadows on the window shades. Second, SWAT is nearly ready to move. They’re still doing some recon, but it’s gonna be soon.”
“We’re five minutes out. Maybe seven minutes. Tell them to hold on . . .”
* * *
The SWAT team was staging in the parking lot at the Orange Lawn Tennis Club, five or six minutes from Sansone’s home, because the parking lot wasn’t visible from the surrounding streets. Koch had the address plugged into his nav system, and as they got closer, Devlin said, looking out the windows at the stately homes and lush lawns, “Jeez, this isn’t exactly my idea of New Jersey.”
Koch said, “Hey, not all of New Jersey is Elizabeth. There are million-dollar houses back in here. More than that, some of them.”
“How do you know that?”
“Everybody in New York knows about real estate, even when it’s in Jersey,” Koch said. And he added, “We’re there. And on time. You’re welcome.”
He pulled into a lane off the main street, which they followed down to the parking lot. Though it was dark, the freezing parking lot was half full. Several people with tennis bags in their hands were standing around gawking at the feds, and Koch said, “Indoor tennis, I guess.”
“If there isn’t, somebody’s freezing his stones off,” Devlin said. “It’s twenty degrees out there. And windy.”
With all the other vehicles in the lot, five large black SUVs dominated. A few FBI agents, bundled in olive drab uniform coats against the cold, were standing around the trucks; one was even smoking a cigarette, not often seen with FBI agents, and there was testosterone in the air, despite the presence of female agents. One of the agents walked over to their car as Lucas and Devlin got out, and asked, “Davenport? Devlin?”
“That’s us,” Lucas said.
“We’ve been waiting.”
“How long?” Devlin asked.
“Maybe . . . thirty seconds? Maybe a full minute?” The guy smiled cheerfully and said, “Good to have you with us. One of you is in the four truck, the other in the five. You got armor?”
Lucas: “No.”
“Then stay back until things are quiet,” the fed said. “Shouldn’t take more than a minute or so. We’re taking the door down. People are moving inside. We want to get right on top of them.”