The Covert Element (35 page)

"He’s in the Office."

At that moment, gunshots sounded from inside the Elevator
Office. Two shots. The policemen all took cover, waiting for orders.

A few seconds after the shots, the door to the Office opened
and an arm dangling a pistol by one finger reached out.

"No shoot. Please no shoot!"

The finger dropped the gun. Now Fuentes emerged from the
office with hands behind his head.

"On the ground. Now!" The voice came through a police
bullhorn.

Fuentes complied. First kneeling, then lying face down on the
concrete stair apron.

A group of a dozen or so men in black SWAT uniforms
converged on the spot where Fuentes lay. Their shields and
weapons were held at the ready, in case any further armed
criminals might be present. Two of the SWAT guys cuffed Fuentes,
then pulled him to his feet, rushing him out of the potential line of
fire and beyond the police perimeter.

Seeing no immediate armed resistance, the BCA commander
ordered all of his SWAT Teams into the Elevator to round up
everyone inside.

As it turned out, most of the employees hadn’t even realized
anything was amiss. Such was the noise level inside the Elevator.
The SWAT teams had no difficulties assembling the employees in
the parking lot. The Hispanic work force lined up before the officers
as though they’d had experience in the maneuver.

I turned to comment to Bull. He had vanished. I glanced over
at the grain truck. An officer of some sort was ordering Beth out of
the grain box at gun point. She flashed an angry look my way. I
grabbed Gunner.

"C’mon. We gotta save Beth."

Gunner and I ran to Beth’s aid.

After Gunner had flashed his creds to the officer and vouched
for Beth’s upstanding nature and outstanding character, she was
released into our custody. I climbed the ladder to help her down.

"Remind me sometime why I stay married to you." She wasn’t
smiling. But I think she was relieved that this whole cartel fiasco
appeared to be over.

Not surprisingly, a crowd had begun to gather around the
epicenter of the police presence. Fuentes/Santos was now standing
in the midst of suited detectives, agents, and the like. He had
already begun to plead his case.

"I have information. Information about the
Los Cinco
drug
cartel that will allow you to seize its assets, capture its business
partners, destroy its weapons caches, and arrest its leaders. I will
give you all of this information in exchange for your protection.

"In my right pants pocket is a computer drive that contains
information on all cartel bank accounts and how to access them. By
this you will know that I am speaking truth. When we have an
arrangement, I will give you their lands, their dummy corporations,
their secret codes, and everything you will need to partner with
Mexico to bring
Los Cinco
to its knees."

An agent withdrew the thumb drive from Fuentes’/Santos’
pocket.

"We’ll see what’s on here," he said. "Then maybe we’ll let you
talk to the lawyers about a deal.

"Put him in a car and take him to central booking."

As the agents ushered Fuentes/Santos to an unmarked car,
gunshots rang from the crowd. The prisoner slumped to the ground.
Police crouched, searching for the source of the shots. Bystanders
scattered.

When the street had cleared sufficiently, we could all see that
there were still two women fighting in the dust. One of them was
Beth . . . the other, a Latina in a white dress. The latter held a large
revolver beyond Beth’s reach.

I was on my way to assist when Beth head-butted the woman
and shook the gun free. Before anyone could intervene, Beth had
rolled the woman onto her stomach in the street, locking one arm
high between her shoulder blades.

"Both of you, down on the ground." It was the bull horn again.

Beth wasn’t about to release her captive.

"No way. You’re gonna have to shoot me. I’m not letting this
bitch go now. Come and get her."

Having recognized Beth, Gunner once again vouched for her
virtue. While others waited to see whether Beth would comply with
their orders, Gunner moved in to handcuff the cursing woman.

Her face was in the dirt. But she kept screaming in Spanish.

"You pig. You cheat. I hope you are dead, you bastard."

Gunner turned to me.

"Has Santos got a wife?"

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

Pending further investigation of possible crimes, immigration
status, etc., the FBI took all of Bellechester Organic’s employees
into custody. The detainees would be parceled out to the
appropriate agencies once their crimes, if any, had been
determined. There were also three dead bodies to be transported to
the Ottawa County Medical Examiner’s Office.

In addition to Santos, the corpses included the two corporate
types who had arrived in the Mercedes just before all the
excitement began.

Gunner had been shoved aside by the big boys as they
concluded the initial inspection of the site.

Beth and I joined him under an elm tree. He greeted us.

"What a day! Shootin’ and killin’ and women fightin’ in the
streets."

He looked at Beth. She looked about the way you’d expect
someone to look after a fist fight on a dusty avenue.

"Sorry, Beth. I don’t mean to lump you in with everything else.
You doing okay?"

"Yeah. I’m all right, Doug. Thanks to you."

She looked at me as though I had been more baggage than I
was worth.

I tried for redemption.

"Beth. I said I was sorry. I didn’t mean for you to get caught up
in this mess. But I do have to say that you handled yourself pretty
darn well with that shooter. If it wasn’t for you, who knows how
many others she might have killed or wounded. Heck, you’re a
hero."

I took her hand.

"We’ll work out a proper apology for you later," she said. "Right
now, I’m just going to relish my triumph over the charming lady
with the gun. I know I shouldn’t feel this way, but it was kind of fun
taking her out."

Beth smiled. Gunner jumped in.

"Well . . . the State of Minnesota owes you a big thank you for
your heroism today, Beth. There aren’t many women I know woulda
jumped somebody while they’re shootin’ a gun. It was darn brave.
You should get a medal or something."

Beth gave Gunner a gentle hug.

"You’re so sweet. But now that my adrenaline is pumping, I’d
sure like to find out the details of all this. Do you think that might
be possible? In due time?"

"I’m pretty sure I can let you in on the straight dope once I find
it all out. You gotta keep it on the QT though."

"Geez, Gunner. She gives you one little hug and you’re bending
rules all over the place. How come I always get the company line?"

"You do plenty of rule bending on your own. Besides, you seem
to find out everything anyway."

Gunner had a point.

"It’s prob’ly gonna be a while before the Staties and the Feds
finish up here. They’re not gonna be makin’ any announcements
either. You two should head on home. You’ve both done real good
today . . . real good."

Gunner turned to me and pumped my hand.

"I can’t thank you enough for coming through with this bust. I
was sweatin’ bullets right up till your call came in. I hate to think
what woulda happened if I got everybody all worked up and there
wasn’t anything goin’ down here today. Nope. Don’t even wanna go
there. But thanks again for coming through."

"Least I could do after stirring the pot in the first place. And
thank you for gathering the troops and making the bust. Clint
Eastwood himself couldn’t have directed a better operation."

We released our grips.

"You get along now. I’ll be in touch when I know something
worth tellin’."

"So long, Gunner."

Beth and I retrieved the Pilot from its spot on the back street
and headed home.

Beth was pretty quiet on the road. And I didn’t feel like I
should be doing anything other than apologizing . . . but I’d already
done that. So I just said nothing.

As we drove down the last mile of the Highway 58 hill into Red
Wing, Beth spoke.

"You know . . . I haven’t enjoyed myself so much in a long time.
I can see why you’ve always got a bug in your bonnet about tagging
along with Doug."

"So you’re not going to kill me?"

Beth laughed.

"Not today. You’ve gotta know that if I’m not complaining
about the oats down my pants, life is okay."

"Bless you."

Beth laughed again.

"I’d be more than happy to let you off in the alley so you can
scoot right in and hit the shower. I’ll even vacuum the bathroom
floor when you’re done."

"Yes . . . please."

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

We had to wait three days for Gunner’s call. But I exercised
uncharacteristic patience and eventually it came. We decided that
meeting at our home would be as good a spot as any, especially
since Gunner’s office was cramped and cluttered.

We met at 7:00 p.m. It had been a hot day. The humidity was
still brutal outdoors. So we conferred in our air conditioned
livingroom.

"You’re sure you wouldn’t care for a drink, Doug?"

Beth was ever the perfect hostess.

"Well . . . maybe a glass of ice water, if it’s not too much
bother." He dabbed perspiration from his brow with his
government-issue handkerchief.

"Gunner, I’m on pins and needles. What’ve you got?"

"Just hold up a minute. We’ll wait for the little lady to get back
from the kitchen."

Beth returned with water for Gunner and Bud Lights (in
aluminum bottles) for herself and me. She set the perspiring water
glass on a cork coaster atop the wooden drum case that doubled as
our coffee table. Gunner downed half the glass before Beth could
sit.

"Okay, Gunner. We’re all here now. What’ve you got?"

"This bust ranks right up there on my career hit list. So thank
you – both of you – for gettin’ me involved."

"Yeah. Yeah. Was there a drug lab? What about
Los Cinco
?
Who were the dead guys in the suits?"

"Just hold your horses. I’m gettin’ there."

Gunner knew he had a captive audience. He didn’t plan to
waste the advantage.

"Okay. The drug lab first.

"BCA went inside the Elevator and scoured the place looking
for drugs. At first they couldn’t find anything. Then they came upon
this secret door in the underground yogurt lab. The whole basement
level was built when they upgraded the Elevator a few years back.
Was s’posed to be good for storing cheese and milk and such."