“Before you answer, why is Akin’s name on there?” she interjected, setting a hand on her stomach, hoping the pressure would ease the acid burning there.
“Drugs are coming in from South Asia through Sundaram,” Scipio said. “We don’t believe they are distributed from there, but that is the point of delivery. Akin, as your chef, is in charge of ordering the food. It’s possible it’s not him. It could be your kitchen manager, Greg, but there are reasons we’ve settled on Akin. I can get into those now or as we walk through this,” he said, gesturing to the whiteboard.
She wasn’t ready to contemplate Akin’s potential betrayal of Sundaram. Maybe that made her a coward, but she didn’t care. “Start at the top, please.”
Scipio nodded. “Johnny Haines is an American-born man of Chinese descent. Like Pena, he served in the military but then moved to Hong Kong after he discharged to run his uncle’s export business. In addition to English, Cantonese, and Mandarin, he also speaks Thai, Vietnamese, Pashto, and Urdu.”
“He speaks more languages than you do, babe,” Viper commented.
“He sounds like a spook,” Lina agreed with a nod.
“The CIA did try to recruit him, as did the Chinese government, but Johnny had other plans,” Scipio continued. “Why get a shitty paycheck risking your life for a government who’d leave you high and dry at the blink of an eye when you can make millions trafficking drugs?”
“Well, when put like that,” Callie said.
“Did Pena and Haines meet while serving?” Helia asked, her head spinning.
Scipio nodded. “Same unit. Deployed together. They’ve kept in touch.”
“We have records of phone calls,” Leo said, looking up.
“And a couple of social media posts of them together,” Kendall added. Helia’s gaze lingered on the preteen, but she chose not to revisit the question as to whether it was a good idea to keep her so involved. That horse had left the barn.
“Okay, so that’s the link between Haines and Pena and presumably Trish. Where do we go from there?” she asked.
“We suspect Pena’s the boss of the US operations of the DKZ, but the DEA would need to confirm that,” Scipio continued. “Trish is, for lack of a better term, his lieutenant, in addition to being his wife.”
“Which means?” Joey asked.
“She manages the people. She keeps everyone in line, organizes the logistics, that sort of thing,” Leo answered.
“Basically, runs the show but doesn’t get to claim the title of ‘boss,’” Kendall said. Helia chuckled at the round of comments from the women in the room. Apparently, no matter the profession, women were still getting shafted in the workplace.
“Pena manages up while Trish manages down,” Leo said. “Not that I disagree with Kendall’s take, just telling you the organizational structure.”
Stone crossed his arms, his gaze fixed on the whiteboard, Sherman lying on his feet. “Pena handles the relationship with Haines?—”
“And Haines’s inner circle,” Leo interjected.
Stone nodded. “And Trish manages the downstream distributors. Based on your chart, that means she worked with Roger, who then worked with Akin, Kelly, and Flannery.”
Scipio nodded.
“But the shipments come into Sundaram,” Helia said. “Oh god, I think I’m going to be sick.” Collin’s big, warm hand settled on her back. Everyone else in the room sent her supportive but commiserating looks.
Scipio hesitated.
She took a deep breath and waved for him to continue.
A beat passed, then Scipio did as asked. “Last night, we realized that the police reports included no mention of Roger’s cell phone. He had to have had one. No way was he making deals and running a business—even tangentially—without a phone. And there’s only one landline in the building, and that goes to Gretchen’s office and the tasting room.”
“So we went on a treasure hunt,” Leo jumped in. “Turns out, you all missed a place yesterday. The toilet tanks.”
“The hell?” Collin said, his hand pausing in its strokes.
“Another great idea from the youngest member of our crew,” Leo said. Kendall didn’t look up but she smiled.
Scipio nodded. “Roger Wilde was a paranoid bastard. Had reasons to be even without being targeted for murder. We found his cell phone in a plastic bag in the tank of his toilet, and in two others, we found drugs. We’ve left the drugs where they are, but Leo and Kendall went through his phone last night.”
