“No. It’s in a transfer truck parked at the bar. Looks just like a refrigerated truck meant for a big-name grocery supplier.” She could almost see the grin. “I’ll pick you up in five minutes.”
“I’ll be ready.”
She tried to call her boss. She even tried to get in touch with the sheriff on his burner phone. Nobody was answering. She cursed under her breath.
Raines pulled up in his car. She jumped in and he drove them quickly to the Percell bar to get the truck.
Just as they got out of the car, just as Raines opened the door to the passenger seat, sirens went off all around them.
Raines sighed, let out a few unprintable words in Spanish and raised his arms over his head. Josie did the same.
There were no federal agents. It was just Sheriff Marlowe and one of his deputies.
“And I believe I just told you recently to keep your nose clean, Miss Blake,” Marlowe said pleasantly as he cuffed her. “Too bad you didn’t listen.”
“We were just looking at the truck,” she said quickly.
“Yeah,” Raines said. “Just looking. You got nothing on us!”
“I’ll be sure to remember that you said that.” Marlowe drawled to two deputies, “Okay, let’s load ’em up and get them to the detention center!”
Josie sat in her cell quietly, just worrying about losing her case. With Raines in custody, to say nothing of herself, she’d be out of the loop when Velasquez moved his main load of fentanyl up this way to Dallas.
A couple of hours after Josie had been booked, Sheriff Marlowe unlocked her cell and moved her into an interrogation room. Sitting there nonchalantly was Tanner Everett. He grinned at her.
“I’ve blown my job,” she groaned. “Velasquez is moving two transfer trucks loaded with fentanyl very soon. This was just a feint, to check out the possible problems!”
“We know that,” Marlowe said. He sat down, tossing his hat into a chair. He propped his expensive boots on the table she was sitting at. “I have a pipeline of my own, near his main supply depot,” he told her. “My father has a big ranch right on the border outside El Paso. He has to employ a small army to keep drug dealers and militia away from his cattle—a matter I’m going to have to deal with very soon. But for now, we’re concentrating on Velasquez. You knew that he made an offer for the Big Spur?”
“I figured it was him,” Josie agreed. “John told me about it, but he didn’t know who made the offer. You can’t tell him about my role in this,” she added solemnly. “People have died for a slip of the tongue.”
“Including your partner, two years ago,” Marlowe said with quiet sympathy.
Josie grimaced. Paul Ramero had been a great guy, with a wife and a small son. It had hit Josie very hard. She hadn’t been with him due to another assignment that took priority. Everybody felt guilty, though, and Josie most of all. It was hard to lose a partner.
“We’ve all lost partners,” Tanner told her. “We go on, because we have to. But we don’t forget the lessons it taught us.”
“Truly,” she sighed.
“Velasquez has big plans. He needs a halfway hub, a place to store tons of drugs to be taken into Dallas and disseminatedfrom there,” Marlowe told her. “The Big Spur is rural and big and in an ideal location, halfway between El Paso and Dallas. He wants it. Bad.”
“Your father will never sell it,” Josie told Tanner.
“I know.” He sighed. “We’re adding people. You’re going to be invaluable as an insider. You’re the only pipeline we’ve got.”
“You said you had somebody,” she began, glancing at Marlowe.
“Had. Yes.” He sighed. “Undercover work is dangerous. It can be fatal. It just was,” he added quietly.
She grimaced. She took a breath. “Okay,” she said after a few seconds. “My agency has undercover people...”
“In Dallas,” Marlowe interrupted. “And here. But not with Velasquez, or any of his lower-level operatives. You have a direct line to Velasquez, through Raines. Raines is not suspicious of you and he likes you.”
She made an awful face. “You can’t be thinking what I think you’re thinking.”
Marlowe stretched. “I’d put on a dress and try my luck with him if I thought it would work,” he chuckled.
“Perish the thought!” Josie said, wrinkling her nose. “With all due respect, Sheriff, you aren’t woman material!”
