The Watchman of Ephraim (Book Club Edition) (21 page)

“
Mugs, look at the date and time stamp on the bottom of the first four photos. Those photos were taken from the digital backup of the security cameras located at the entrance and parking lot of the warehouse.”

Ricci read it out loud, “Tuesday night 11:50 hours …”

Francis jumped in, “That’s when the truck arrived at the guard shack, at the entrance. That would have been just minutes after Garcia entered his last log entry. The second photo, time stamped just a minute later, we’ve identified from the rental records as Garcia’s rental car.”

Ricci read from the bottom of the third photo, “Wednesday morning 0:25 hours …”

Francis got up and walked over to the screen, “That’s the same truck leaving.”

“
How can you tell it’s the same truck,” asked Santappia. “These photos are so grainy.”

Francis traced a square around a portion of the conference room’s big screen with his index finger and instantly the area inside the square was magnified and smoothed.

“
We analyzed this area of both photos of the truck. It’s an area in front of the trailer. Can everyone see the unit I’m pointing to? It’s a refrigeration unit. This truck is what is known as a “reefer,” a refrigerated trailer used to haul freight needing temperature control, like perishable goods.”

Francis returned to his seat. No one spoke, he had everyone’s attention.

“
That unit combined with the lack of traffic, at that time of night gave us the ability to track the truck …at least until it got onto the Nacional, the National Highway.”

Francis saw the curious looks on everyone’s face and decided to answer their question before they asked it.

“
Let’s just say that if someone like me, who does so much covert, highly-technical work for the U.S. government asked for a favor from an old friend of mine, who I did MANY FAVORS FOR, over at Langley—“

Ricci held up his hand, “John, don’t say another thing about it … please … before men in black burst through the conference door and haul us all away!”

Everyone laughed which lightened the mood a little and eased some of the tension between Ricci and Francis.

“
Okay, so anyway, using satellite stills, my people were able to verify with above 90% accuracy that this truck did, in fact get on the Federal Highway 52 heading south out of Monterrey. We lost coverage on it then.”

“
What about Garcia’s car,” De Niro asked. “Did it leave when the truck left?”

“
The car left right after the truck did, but I’m not convinced Garcia was driving it.”

Everyone focused on the overhead photo of the car passing the guard shack leaving the warehouse facility. Ricci asked the question for everyone, “What makes you think he wasn’t driving it? We can’t see the driver from this photo.”

Francis smiled a bit smugly.

“
Not from the photo, but I have a hunch and it makes sense. Remember I told you that one way to block GPS transmission is by shielding the transponder? Well, I was hired awhile back by a local law enforcement agency to help them figure out how a number of Cadillac Escalades were being stolen. The SUV’s all had GPS transponders in them, yet all of the transponders appeared to stop working just after they were stolen. Well, I was stumped too, so I called a friend of mine from the old neighborhood, Cris, you remember Fat Freddy?”

De Niro had to chuckle.

“
How could anyone forget Freddy?”

“
Yeah, exactly, well Freddy knows everything there is about stealing cars. Back before he was known as Fat Freddy he was known as Fast Freddy …’cause of how fast he could hot wire a car. I remember one time—“

“
John, can you get to the point?!” Ricci suggested.

“
I was, Mugs! Well, Freddy told me that car thieves nowadays transport stolen cars fitted with GPS tracking units inside REEFERS to block the GPS signal!”

To his delight, Francis could see the light bulbs going off in everyone’s head as he continued, “Guys and ladies, what if the reason we lost Garcia’s GPS signal is because he, or at least his phone, is still on that truck!”

Ricci thought about it for a moment then walked over and extended his hand to Francis who shook it.

“
We still need to talk about procedures … but … you did good Johnny-F!”

Despite orders from Ricci, Michelle Wang looked like she hadn’t slept in days. Johnny-F’s hunch gave her new vigor though, as she turned to Karla Matthews.

“
Karla, were you able to turn anything up from our friends at Homeland Security?”

Matthews passed around copies of a sheet.

“
Cris, I emailed to you what I just passed around.”

“
Got it,” De Niro replied.

“
I was able to get a complete list of businesses, real estate and other holdings suspected to be wholly or partially owned by the Pacifico cartel in Mexico. My contact at HSA asked me if I could tell him the reason for the request so he could narrow the parameters, but I declined, so as you can see, it’s quite a big list. I’m not sure how much it’ll help you prepare a rescue mission though, Charley. They seem to own just about every type of business and they also own everything from mansions to apartment buildings to farms located from one side of Mexico to the other!”

Ricci handed his sheet to Debbie Lynch and asked her to project it onto the screen.

“
Well, we may be able to narrow it down at least a little, if we take Johnny-F’s hunch as fact. If Agent Garcia is on that reefer and if that reefer got on the National Highway heading south let’s identify any of these holdings that are north, due east or due west and cross them out. Debbie, leave the sheet on the screen and begin to cross out the ones that we know aren’t south.”

Santappia leaned back in his chair, “Mugs that’ll still probably leave too many to be of any help to me and my people.”

“
I know Charley, but I’ll leave it up to you and Michelle to try and use your instincts to narrow the list down even more. Think of places they would either want to hold Garcia hostage at … or dispose of his body.”

“
That could possibly allow us to omit any buildings with too many people around, like the apartment buildings and stores,” Wang added.

Ricci nodded, “Exactly. Keep me advised of your progress. Okay, if there’s nothing else, great work John and Karla. Thank you everyone.”

After everyone filed out, leaving only Ricci and Debbie Lynch in the conference room, De Niro was still on the screen and asked, “What do you think, Mugs?”

“
I think Johnny-F is gonna be a real trial when it comes to following procedures!”

De Niro laughed, “There never was a rule that boy couldn’t find a way to break, even when we were kids.”

“
I’ll say this though. He’s the smartest guy in the room, no doubt about that! He’s going to be an extremely valuable asset to us, Cris, going forward. You made a great call hiring him.”

“
He didn’t need the job or the money, Mugs. He accepted because he’s a patriot, something to keep in mind …the next time he doesn’t follow a procedure.”

De Niro saw his brother-in-law nod in agreement.

“
What about Garcia, Mugs, do you think we know enough now to find him?”

Ricci shook his head, “I don’t think so Cris, not yet anyway. Everything we’re going on is still supposition. We’re gonna need a break …or a miracle to find him.”

De Niro thought he knew his next answer, but he wanted to ask him anyway.

“
Do you think Garcia’s still alive?”

Ricci shot a look over at Debbie Lynch. She shook her head, in agreement.

“
No, I don’t Cris, but we may learn a lot from his death, if we can find his body.”

It made De Niro shutter with frustration.
I wanted The Watchman to save lives … and already we may have lost one! I didn’t even get a chance to meet him!

“
Mugs, was he married?”

Ricci saw Lynch bite her lip from sadness.

“
Yeah Cris, he was. He had two kids with one on the way. I won’t speak to his wife until we either find him, dead or alive, or I decide that we will never find him … and I’ll have to decide that soon.”

Two kids with one on the way … just like I was … he’s even about the same age I was when I lost Lisa! I’ll make sure his wife and kids are taken care of, it’s the least I can do, if he’s dead.

“
Well, if he’s alive, let’s get him back Mugs and if he’s not, let’s make sure his death was not in vain!”

“
Understood,” Ricci replied then De Niro disappeared from the screen.

Chapter 20

“Narcogranja de Pacifico” (Drug Farm owned by Pacifico Cartel)

20 miles northeast of the city

Iguala de la Independencia, Mexico

2:30p.m., Friday, July 15, 2011

Like all truckers, Pedro hated waiting around, but one thing he knew, when a man like Tuco Ramirez tells you to do something, you do it, no questions asked. Pedro still considered himself primarily a trucker, even though he was recruited by the cartel over a decade ago and had murdered for them many times since. Most of the people he had murdered up to then, he did so by shooting them in the back of their heads, with the victims wearing blindfolds. In order to live with the morality of his actions, he considered them executions, like those carried out by governments and after all, the drug cartels were like governments unto themselves - to him and most others, anyway. They were richer than many countries and they had bigger standing armies than some countries too. So in a way, he was just obeying orders from the government who controlled his ability to stay alive, but this last one was different. This man wasn’t kneeling in front of his own grave like the others, one they would have made him dig for himself. He wasn’t blindfolded, in fact he was looking right into Pedro’s eyes, when Pedro pulled the trigger; and the bullet didn’t enter the back of his head, he’d shot him right between his eyes. Pedro had had trouble sleeping since he did the deed, mostly because whenever he closed his eyes, he saw the shocked expression on Jesus’ face as the bullet entered his brain.

Pedro was ordered to drive over 600 kilometers south, to a large farm owned by the cartel. He had been there before to pick up loads of marijuana and other drugs that they grew and processed there, but this was the first time he was making a delivery. He had arrived there early Wednesday afternoon but Tuco himself told him that he had to wait, so he plugged his reefer into a portable generator to keep the trailer chilled to 34-degrees Fahrenheit and then spent most of his time sleeping in the sleeper unit of his cab. He didn’t like to mix much with any of the cartel’s soldiers, so he only popped out of his cab to get something to eat from their cantina.

He tried not to think too much about Jesus’ body wrapped in plastic, lying in that crate behind him but he knew he wouldn’t sleep much until he could get it off his truck. Finally, one of Tuco’s lieutenants knocked on the door of his cab and told him to get ready to follow a pickup truck that had pulled up in front of him. Tuco jumped out of his cab and unplugged his trailer from the generator, then jumped back up and started his rig. As soon as he shifted it into gear he waved that he was ready to go. The pickup led him down a dirt path about two kilometers and then turned onto an even narrower dirt path. Pedro tried his best not to let the overgrowth scratch his cab as he rolled slowly down the bumpy trail. Finally, the pickup stopped ahead of him and four men jumped out of it.

One of the men walked over to his cab and asked him to open his trailer. Pedro jumped down and could see that while the other three men had gotten shovels from the back of the pickup, the man that came over to his cab had a pistol tucked into his belt. Pedro unlocked and opened the trailer then the man with the gun jumped up into it. He walked over to the big crate and kicked it then turned to Pedro.

(In Spanish) “Is this the one?”

“
Yes.”

“
We don’t want the crate; open it so we can get him out.”

Pedro grabbed his crowbar and joined the man in the trailer. Once he pried the nails up, he stepped out of the way but the man with the gun told him to open the lid, so he did.

Pedro looked down and saw the man, Jesus, the man he was told was a government agent, lying wrapped in plastic, just as he had left him. He could see signs that blood from his head wound had leaked out creating sort of a red blob where the man’s face should have been.