Horns of the Devil - Jeff Trask [02] (21 page)

The crime scene tech with the camera nodded. “Yeah, you can move him now.”

Wilkes stepped around the desk, and using hands covered in latex gloves, gently pulled the corpse back into the swivel chair. Trask saw two entry wounds in the man’s torso, one in the center of the chest, one below the left ribs about an inch inside the edge of the body.

Wilkes looked up. “Want to take a stab at this?”

“Three-shot burst, fully automatic AK clone,” Trask said. “The first round hits the victim dead center, and is either still in the vic or in the chair back. The second shot is a through-and-through, causing the wound in the side and then following on into the wall, with the splatter around it. It might have caught the chair back, too, except the victim wasn’t sitting straight when hit…probably starting to stand up, or trying to run. The third round of the burst missed the vic and is in or somewhere behind the wall.”

“One hundred percent, so far,” Wilkes said, nodding with approval. “Here’s the hard part, gangbanger shooters or pros?”

“Pros. I’m sure of it,” Trask said.

“I agree,” Wilkes nodded again, “but tell me why.”

“I’ve fired a Norinco before,” Trask said. “ATF invites us to their little shooting demos once in a while. If you’re not well trained on an automatic weapon like the AK—or one of the Chinese knock-offs—and you’re righthanded, you’ll always pull it up and to the right when you’re firing fully automatic. You’ll also probably crank off six or seven rounds in the burst. This was a three-shot, controlled burst by someone who knew how to keep the barrel down while firing the weapon.”

“And why wouldn’t a gang member be that proficient with the weapon?” Wilkes asked.

“He could be, professor,” Trask smiled at him, “but it’s not as likely, since they don’t usually have the time or place to practice. These fully automatic weapons are illegal, and you can’t just take them to your friendly local firing range to mow down cinder blocks or cut targets in half, emptying banana-clip magazines in three seconds. I’ve seen gang drive-by scenes before, and it’s always the same. Seven or eight round bursts pulling up and to the right.”

“Excellent,” Wilkes said. “May I assume that this eliminates the need for a trial prep interview on the subject?”

“Yeah, for now,” Trask said. “That is, if we ever have a trial. You have to identify defendants and arrest them to have a trial.”

“Speaking of defendants, Bear,” Lynn asked, “is one of these dead guys Ortega?”

“No. Tim said he’d left for the day before the fireworks started.”

“Then,” she said, “I’d suggest we find him. Whoever did this may be still looking for him.”

“Good point,” Doroz replied, sarcastically. “Got any ideas where we might find him tonight?”

She shook her head. “No. Sorry.”

“Wherever he is, if he’s heard about this, he’s got his head down. He won’t be easy to find,” Trask observed. “No point in chasing ghosts if we don’t know where to look.”

“Agreed,” Doroz said. “We’ve got this, Jeff. You two go home. We’ll see you in the office tomorrow.”

Ortega was sitting in the basement by a tool bench, waiting for the ringtones to stop. The party on the other end of his call would wait for him to speak first.

“El Gato Grande, por favor.”

“Momento.”

A different, but familiar voice replaced the one who had answered the call. They spoke in the Salvadoran dialect of
voseo
Spanish.

“Esteban?”

“Yes, Jaguar.”

“I heard about the raid on your car wash. Very sad.”

“We lost four good men, and all of the product as well.”

“So I heard. Any idea who is responsible?”

“Mario was on his cell phone with me when he was killed. He said, ‘
La
sombra
.’”

“It is true, then. You are being hunted. I will send help. I would come myself, but I have seven more months to spend behind these stinking walls. La Esperanza never changes.” There was a short pause. “Did you say Mario called you on his cell?”

“Yes.”

“Did he call
your
cell?”

“Yes. The phone I’m using now.”

“Throw it away as soon as you hang up. In a river, preferably. You must assume that
La Sombra
has Mario’s phone and that they are looking for the person he was talking with when they killed him. They have your number now and can track you through the GPS in your phone, Esteban. Pull the battery out and get rid of it immediately.”

The line went dead. Ortega reached for a hammer hanging on a pegboard and smashed the phone. He had only been on the line for a few seconds.

Surely that would not have been enough time…

A noise from outside startled him. He was out the rear door of the basement and into the alley in seconds.

.

Chapter Twenty

Tuesday, September 12, 9:05 a.m.

T
he mood in the squad conference room had returned to a somber confusion.

“Now I’m beginning to hate this room as much as my office,” Doroz quipped. “Just when we think we’re getting a handle on this, somebody blows away the only location we’ve got a read on and scraps a bug it took everything we knew to get authorized.” He looked down the table at his squad. “Any ideas?”

“Are we prepared for another retaliation raid by our MS-13 targets?” Carter asked.

“Sorry, Dix. I meant to welcome you back,” Doroz said sheepishly. “I called the cops on the Maryland side and gave ’em a heads-up. They tried to do the humane thing and warn the few 18ers they knew in the area. Couldn’t find any of them. Seems the word got out in the Salvadoran community, and none of the Barrio 18 boys wanted to be held accountable for this last mess.”

“Can’t say as I blame them,” Carter responded. “That guy the MS-13 dumped on your doorstep looked a bit worse for wear.”

“Not much flesh left on the bones,” Doroz agreed. He paused, looking around the table.

“So…anybody have any suggestions?”

“Just one,” Trask said from the other end of the table. “We need to redecorate.” He nodded at Crawford. “Puddin’ old pal, would you run down to the supply room and bring me about six boxes of pushpins, please? They’re easier on drywall than tape.” He pulled out a briefcase from under the table, and from that he retrieved a stack of typed pages.

“I’ll bite. What do you have there, Jeff?” Carter asked, speaking for the group.

“Jigsaw puzzle pieces. If two heads are better than one, then the collective wit and wisdom of this group ought to be a miracle-working marvel, and that may be what we need right now,” Trask replied. “Besides, everyone in here, with one exception of which I am very certain, is a male.” He nodded at Lynn, while the others laughed. “I am also very confident, being a male, that most of the minds in this room are sparked by visual aids.”

Crawford entered the conference room with the requested pushpins and slid the boxes across the table to Trask.

Trask opened a box of the pins and stabbed four into the corners of the first sheet of paper. “Puzzle piece number one,” he said.

Monday, August 8

Headless corpse of Armando Lopez-Mendez, son of Ambassador of El
Salvador, found in front of Embassy of El Salvador

Suspect: Diego Morales of MS-13 (now deceased)

(Freshly “beat-in” shortly after victim’s murder)

Victim had “18” tattoo

Cause of Death—Decapitation

Ligature marks on wrists and arms noted at autopsy

Place of death—Undetermined

QUESTIONS:

1. No proof victim killed by MS-13
   
2. Who else had motive?
   
3. Inconsistencies with other known local MS-13 homicides?
   
4. Who ordered murder?
   

Trask stepped back to give the others a view of the paper now pinned to the wall.

“That’s where Dix and I came in, but if that’s a puzzle piece, we’re screwed,” Wisniewski volunteered. “It’s got all kinds of holes of its own.”

“No doubt about that,” Trask responded. “But maybe there are answers to this piece in the other ones. That’s what this drill is all about. I won’t pretend for a minute that I’ve found many of the answers, but I want everyone’s best ideas. The next puzzle is really two.”

“Can’t hurt.” Doroz shrugged his shoulders. “Next piece of wallpaper.”

Early Morning Hours of Wednesday, August 10

Convenience Store (Managed by MS-13)

Langley Park, Maryland

Two MS-13 victims killed by high-quality rifle firing NATO rounds

1. Barrio 18 involved?
   
2. Ballistics indicate rounds probably fired by US-made sniper rifle.
   Who has those?
   
3. Motives?
   
4. Related to #1? How?
   

“And the next one,” Trask said.

Early Morning Hours of Thursday, August 11

Convenience Store (Managed by MS-13)

Langley Park, Maryland

Store burns down. Fire investigators say arson.

MS-13 (Esteban Ortega) uses insurance $ to buy car wash
QUESTIONS:

1. Barrio 18 again? Why?
   
2. Who else swould have a motive?
   
3. Related to #1 or #2?
   

“I’ll take both questions on that last one,” Lynn said. “Ortega loses troops in front of a business that’s indefensible if he’s in a street war. He’s got cover for an inside arson because somebody’s already killed two of his guys. He points the finger at his 18th Street bogeymen, cashes the insurance fraud check—which he already admitted on our short-lived bug—and buys the car wash—”

“Which is more defensible—if you’re not asleep or high—and is suitable for use
and
an ideal cover for that marijuana grow,” Carter chimed in. “I agree with our analyst on all of that.”

“Me too,” said Crawford. “And if I’m one of the outnumbered 18ers, I’m not going to see much point in revisiting the scene of my successful raid the night before just to chase my arch-rivals out of a bad location. Too much risk versus too little reward. The 18ers are not the ones who torched the store.”

“Bear?” Trask asked.

“Sounds like we’ve got Incident Three pegged,” Doroz said. “I haven’t heard a word about Incident Two yet.” He looked around the table and got only shrugs and shaking heads.

Trask grabbed some more pushpins. “Incident Four may definitely be related to Incident One,
if
…” he paused, “
if
we are correct in our deduction that Diego Morales bears some responsibility for the murder of the ambassador’s kid.”

“Do you think we’re wrong on that?” Lynn asked. There was a slight edge in her voice. “I don’t know,” Trask said. “Everything you’ve suggested on it makes sense that Morales
was
involved. The timing certainly fits, and that’s why I have him listed as a suspect in #1, but that’s all we have right now. Can’t afford to assume we’ve got it right, though.” He put the next paper on the wall.