Bombshell

“Then about a week ago we got word from an informant in Baltimore that the MS-13 gang there was expectin’ a large shipment from this area. With the federal warrant, we were set to move, so Arnie was sent in to set up surveillance in Salazar’s house. He took a job with the Golden Goose Catering Company in Henderson because we knew Salazar would call them for the party Friday night. It gave him the opportunity to set up during the party.”

“You never saw him after that,” he said. It wasn’t a question.

She shook her head, misery shining out of her eyes. “Someone got onto him, I don’t know who. It’s the only thing that makes sense.” She swallowed. “When I didn’t hear from Arnie Saturday morning, I called him on his throwaway cell phone several times, but there was no answer. I called the Golden Goose, and they told me he hadn’t helped with the clean-up at the party; they were really angry about it. That’s when I knew for sure somethin’ had happened to him. I went to his apartment house in Henderson and waited for Mrs. Simpson to go out so she wouldn’t see me. I went to his apartment and cleaned it out before someone else did. I took his files and his computer but left his clothes.”

Griffin said, “And that’s why there were only the basics there by the time Dix’s people arrived at his apartment. At least you got the stuff out before the drug dealers did.”

“A good thing, since I was in those files. They would have found me.”

Monk meowed, pressed his face against her leg. She reached down and picked him up. He was a behemoth, at least twenty pounds, and she had to brace herself. Then she stood rocking the cat, shifting from one foot to the other. He could hear Monk’s manic purrs from six feet. She pressed her face against his thick black fur.

“What do you think happened Friday night?”

“Arnie called me that night, about six o’clock, as usual, told me he’d arrived with the other caterers at Salazar’s house. I remember he told me how easy it would be, said since he was one of the crew he’d be able to move easily around the house without bein’ noticed. He said the house would soon be filled with people, so he’d have all the cover he needed.

“I remember when I told him to be careful, I swear I could see his smile over the phone. He told me it was a bummer I’d had to be here for six months with nothing more to do than serve hamburgers and play my fiddle. I could tell from his voice how wired he was.” She swallowed, looked at the wisp of smoke drifting out of the fireplace. “But it didn’t work out that way.” She paused. “I never spoke to him again.”

“But even if Salazar or someone who works for him caught Arnie wiring the place,” Griffin said, “why would Salazar have a federal officer killed? They had to know it would bring the wrath of God down on them. How was that worth it?”

“If Mac Brannon had thought Arnie’s life was at risk, he’d have never sent him in there. The gang—MS-13—most of them are anything but smart; they’re street thugs. One of them might have panicked, or gone into a rage. Or Arnie might have seen something or someone that was too threatening to let him go. We don’t know yet.”

“So why not pull the trigger? Bust in there, clap the handcuffs on Salazar, interview all the guests and caterers to see if someone saw something?”

“That’s what I wanted to do on Saturday as soon as I saw that sketch of Arnie,” she said. “Mr. Brannon was hot to do it, too, but he got orders to lay back and keep me undercover. We could have arrested Salazar and all the gang members within three counties, but we’d have had nothing firm to hold them on, and you can bet we’d never have found where they stashed the drugs. And since Arnie wasn’t killed in Salazar’s house, there wouldn’t be any trace evidence there, nothing to tie him to Arnie’s murder.

“I wanted to tell you everything I knew, but there was too much riding on taking down Salazar entirely. Mr. Brannon told me to lie low and wait. We all know there has to be panic, even chaos, behind that scene Salazar staged for you at his house on Saturday. They have to know we’ll be there at any minute, and people who are panicked make mistakes.

“Everyone in our local office is out in the field. If Salazar and the gang make the mistake of trying to move the drugs away too soon, the chances are good we’ll get them.”

“And what’s to keep Salazar from getting on a plane back to Madrid?”

“If either Salazar or Dr. Hayman, for that matter, buys a plane ticket or tries to leave the country, we’ll know, and we’ll arrest him.”