King of Swords

“Yeah, but population well over a million,” Cruz pointed out. “And fifty-eight years ago, the only thing that was going on in Culiacan was tomatoes and a little marijuana. So inconclusive at best if we’re looking to make him the handmaiden to the cartels.”

“Fair enough. I was just making an observation. It’s all just information,” Julio countered.

“Says he’s divorced, ten years. One daughter. Not exactly the profile I would expect for this line of work.” Briones was tapping away, and finished, sat back. “What do you think an agent for a hit man would make, per job?”

“Probably at least ten percent or more, if he’s getting the jobs. But in this case it would be the other way around. So maybe less. Why?” Cruz asked.

“And he’d probably deal with the payments for him, too, right?” Briones ignored the question, obviously driving at something.

“I’d imagine. Where are you going with this?” Cruz demanded.

“What’s he doing with all the money? Even if he passed most of it on to El Rey, if he’s dragging down, what, two to three million a pop, pardon the pun, Tortora should have millions lying around by now, or at least a couple of million, easy. But look at the neighborhood and the business. It’s a zero. And his house? Maybe worth a hundred thousand, maybe two. Very modest. Says here he has a grand total of eighteen thousand dollars in the bank across all his accounts, which is a lot by Mexican standards but nothing in the scale of what we’re looking at. So where’s he keeping the money?” Briones asked.

Cruz finished his coffee with a swallow. “I suppose if he’s sophisticated enough to be money laundering for El Rey, he probably has an offshore bank account, don’t you think? And that wouldn’t show up anywhere. So just treat this like a cartel financier, and you’ll be in the loop. All the money is underground, or in cash. So an absence of money proves nothing, unfortunately.”

They went round and round on Tortora, but in the end, the obvious course was just to meet him and see what he said. They wouldn’t wear a wire, because a pro would have detection equipment and they’d be instantly blown. So the plan, such as it was, involved meeting him, seeing how it played out, and then come down on him like a falling piano.

They finished their coffees and folded up shop, descending the escalators to the parking garage where Julio’s Humvee was parked. They’d agreed they would take two cars and drop Briones off to watch for anything suspicious while they found parking spots — probably one of the most difficult aspects of their foray into that neighborhood.

They drove across town and located Tortora’s street using the handheld GPS in the Humvee, and Cruz dropped Briones off a block away so he could meander over and keep an eye on the shop for the ten minutes it would probably take to park. Briones moved into position on the same side of the street as Tortora’s, and bought a churro from a sidewalk vendor, pretending to be engrossed in a text message conversation while eyeing the target. He felt a brief sensation of apprehension, given the stakes involved in this meeting, made worse by the double dose of caffeine over the morning’s briefing. He made a mental note never do that again before a field op.

Briones started, nearly jumping, when he felt a hand on his windbreaker. He spun around and found himself facing one of the city’s transient population — a filthy, disheveled woman, obviously high on something, grabbing at him while muttering a begging mantra incoherently. He shook her off and handed her a few pesos, eager to be rid of her. She didn’t even register the money as she continued down the sidewalk, hands outstretched to accost someone else.

Thankfully, there wasn’t much pedestrian traffic on the street, which made it easier for Briones to eye the pawn shop. If at all possible, he wanted to avoid having to stand conspicuously near Tortora’s to monitor things, preferring a discreet distance. He considered moving across the thoroughfare so he could keep watch on both the deserted alley and the storefront, and then he saw Julio and Cruz, walking together down the sidewalk from the opposite direction. It was game time.

Reassured by the weight of his Sig Sauer in his shoulder holster, he elected to stay on Tortora’s side of the road and move down the block before circling back and eventually taking up a position across from their objective. Briones strolled towards the shop, figuring he would glance down the alley and then jaywalk across to the opposite side when he was fifty yards past it, and almost collided with another vagrant — this time a man emerging from the squalid alley, wearing grubby brown slacks and a tattered sweater. He clutched a satchel that no doubt contained his few worldly possessions. Both men instinctively started when he rounded the corner, and the two haltingly mumbled apologies to each other as they continued on their separate ways.

Momentarily thrown by the near miss, Briones turned and followed the man with his eyes. Great. Now he was jumping at panhandlers and bums. He needed to rein in his caffeine-augmented imagination and focus on the task at hand, before Cruz and Julio reached the front door. Briones was going to be no use to them if he let his nerves distract him. He mentally shook himself and pulled his act together, concentrating on seeming nonchalant as he strolled at a measured pace. Crossing the alley, he took a hard look at the two dumpsters next to the emergency exit side doors, noting they were overflowing with trash uncollected for weeks. The alley was short, which he remembered from the satellite image, and dead-ended into a brick wall covered with graffiti, the filthy ground littered with stinking refuse around the battered receptacles.

Briones brushed past Cruz and Julio without revealing anything, and continued down the block fifty more yards before seeming to change his mind. Waiting for a break in traffic he jogged across the street, where he took up position with a good view of both the shop and the mouth of the alley.

Julio pushed the door open and heard a buzzer sound from the back of the building, behind the barred window that kept intruders at bay. After a few moments, hearing nothing, Julio called out.

“Senor Tortora? Hola. Senor Tortora. Buenos dias. Is there anybody there?”

Nothing.

Cruz studied the shabby merchandise in two tired display cases while they waited, having registered the mirrored half globe on the ceiling that was a surveillance camera.

“Maybe he’s in the bathroom?” Julio suggested.

Cruz pushed a button mounted by the window, and they heard a bell sound in the back, but no ensuing sounds of movement.

They exchanged troubled glances, and Cruz peered through the bars while Julio tried the handle of the heavy steel access door.

“It’s locked,” he said.

“That figures. What do you want to do?” Cruz asked. This was Julio’s show.

“I think we wait a few minutes. Maybe he stepped out to grab a snack or some coffee,” Julio said doubtfully.

Ten minutes later they were still standing in the shop, with no evidence that anyone was ever going to show up.

“All right. This is bullshit. I’m going to go around and try the other door, and if that’s locked, we fold this up and get someone who can open this. Either he’s made us and bolted, or something’s wrong,” Cruz said, moving to the door while withdrawing his cell phone from his pocket. He called Briones.

“There’s a problem. Nobody’s here. I’m going to go around and see if I can get in the back way. If not, I need a locksmith and a tactical team down here fast, so we can tear the place apart. Have you seen anyone exit the building — including the apartments?” Cruz asked.

“No, although I did…never mind,” Briones said, feeling stupid for even bringing it up.

“What?”

“I almost ran into a homeless guy. He was coming out of the alley you’re about to head down,” Briones explained.

“When? How old was he?”

“I don’t know. Younger than me…” Briones guessed.

“Then it wasn’t Tortora. He’s older. And he isn’t a vagrant, as far as we know.”

“Right.”

“Okay. Keep your eyes peeled. I’m walking out the front door right now, and I’m going to try the alley entrance. Stay on the line, but watch the surroundings,” Cruz instructed, moving down the grim little dead-end