Full alert. “He’s indicating something under the bed,” she told the others.
“We checked there,” Stella said. “There’s nothing, not even a dust bunny.”
“Let’s move the bed,” McCoy said, crossing over to the far side of the footboard and trying to drag the heavy piece of furniture to one side. Mattie and Stella hurried to help, and soon they’d moved it away from its place.
“Looks like nothing but flooring,” Stella said, getting down on her hands and knees and smoothing her hand over the floor. Excited, Robo joined her, giving each board a sniff. He fixated on a small dent in the floorboard, gave it one scratch with his foot, and then sat and stared at Mattie as if to say he’d done all that he could.
“Thanks, Robo,” Stella said, probing the dent with her finger. “What are you trying to tell me about this divot right here?”
With a delicate whisper of well-maintained gears, a three-foot square section opened up by sliding down and then under the rest of the floor. Startled, both Stella and Robo jumped away from the widening hole while Mattie and McCoy moved closer.
Stella chortled. “Well, look what we have here!”
Mattie knelt beside Robo and hugged him close, taking her eyes off the glorious sight and burying her nose in the fur at his neck for a brief moment. Looking back at the stacks and stacks of plastic-wrapped bags that could only contain drugs, she watched Stella reach down with a latex-gloved hand to take out one of the wads of banded cash and rifle through it.
“All one hundred dollar bills.” Stella took a moment to count them. “Looks like it’s sorted into ten thousand dollar bundles. My God, there must be close to a million dollars here.”
McCoy stared into the vault, obviously thinking. “This organization reaches far beyond this one property in Timber Creek County. I need to call the CBI on this,” he said, referring to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. “And I’m sure they’ll bring in the Feds.”
“Mattie,” Stella said, looking up at her with a gleam in her eye. “That dog has one helluva nose.”
Chapter 32
Wednesday
The Timber Creek officers gathered for debriefing, all staring in glum silence at anything but each other. Disappointment and anger fueled the tension in the room.
Mattie glanced at the clock on the wall of the briefing room. Five thirty: the sun would rise soon. Yesterday had been the longest day of her life, and since she’d still not had any sleep, the endless day was stretching into a two-day marathon. Robo had curled up beside her chair and fallen asleep. He snored lightly.
McCoy spoke first. “So it’s out of our hands now. DEA agents are taking our prisoner to their Denver office. I’ll be informed of her disposition on a ‘need-to-know’ basis. There’s no guarantee we’ll be kept in the loop.”
Brody had chosen to sit beside Mattie and Robo, and she could feel him simmering. “Will Carmen Santiago be prosecuted for Adrienne’s murder?” he asked.
A pained look touched McCoy’s face. “I don’t know. I wish I could tell you she will, but . . .” He lifted his hands in a gesture of helplessness. He continued to explain. “They’ll use her as bait to get to her uncle, El Capo. They’ve been tracking his activities in the United States for months. This horse stable is believed to be a money-laundering scheme for proceeds from his prostitution and drug operation that extends from Juárez to Los Angeles. The thing is, it’s doubtful he’ll care enough about Carmen for them to use her for leverage against him in any way.”
“So she might get a plea bargain,” Brody said, spitting out the words with distaste.
“It’s possible,” Stella replied, looking grim. “But she won’t get away scot-free. She’ll serve time for Adrienne’s murder. And in her family, getting caught like this will mean a death sentence. I doubt she’ll last long in prison.”
Brody rolled his shoulders and pushed back from the table, his chair scraping against the tan linoleum. Mattie could tell that Stella’s answer held no satisfaction for him. He would want to take part in the woman’s prosecution and see justice served with a murder-one conviction. They all would. But they were enmeshed in the downside of federal jurisdiction pulling rank.
“I was able to access Adrienne’s computer prior to the Feds taking it for evidence,” Stella said. “I found a file that contained her notes regarding the horses. She documented the decline of a horse named Diablo and her concerns about a horse named Red. She suspected drug dosing of some kind.”
As she continued, Stella eyed Brody, whose face had turned stony. “Juan Fiero told me what he witnessed. He said the lady, meaning Adrienne, accused Santiago of making the horses sick. Carmen went to her office, came out with her crossbow, and told Adrienne to run. She did. Carmen shot her in the back, and the bolt went clear through her chest. Fiero said she died immediately.”
Brody pushed back from the table, bent forward, and placed his elbows on his knees. He stared at the floor, clenching his jaw.
Stella continued. “He said he thought Carmen killed Adrienne because she needed to prove to her uncle that she was committed. He said that compared to her uncle, her evil side is very small. He thinks she’s probably as afraid of him as he is.”
“How did he call into our tip line?” Mattie asked.
“Adrienne gave him the TracFone,” Stella said. “They talked while they worked on the horses. He told her he wasn’t allowed to use the phone, and Adrienne gave him an old one that still had some minutes on it. After Carmen forced him to bury her body, he felt so bad about it, he had to call.”
“The Feds have taken Fiero into custody and plan to transfer him to a hospital in Denver as soon as they can,” McCoy said. “Why did he hide the fact that he speaks English?”
“He said he wanted to hide it from Carmen and her uncle. He believed it gave him an edge in case he could ever make a move to escape,” Stella said.
“They’re pawns,” Brody growled.
Mattie related to his frustration and nodded her agreement. The group shared a moment of silence. Mattie felt like she needed to say something to Brody but didn’t know what that could be. Stella beat her to it.
“It pisses me off that we couldn’t mete out justice for Adrienne ourselves, Brody. But we have to hope the system will give her the punishment she deserves.”
Stella had summed up her own feelings in the best way possible. “I think so, too,” Mattie said. “The important thing is that we were able to shut her part of the operation down and bring her to justice, even if what happens next is out of our control. And we solved the homicide case and made an arrest.”
Brody shrugged. “Maybe so. But Adrienne’s gone no matter what we do about it.”
Purely out of reflex, Mattie reached out to comfort him and put her hand on Brody’s forearm. His tension was evident in the tight, ropy muscle beneath his khaki shirtsleeve. “I’m sorry, Brody. I wish things were different.” She withdrew her hand before it became awkward.
McCoy steepled his fingers at his chin and swept them with an all-inclusive glance. “I couldn’t be more proud of the way my officers performed out there last night. I don’t want you to lose sight of our accomplishment: it takes a well-trained team of professionals to break up an international crime organization and take down one of its primary players. You can be proud of the way you served our department, our state, and our country.” He paused for a moment, letting his words sink in. “I believe the local property owned by this crime organization will be appropriated by the federal government and eventually liquidated, and I can promise you that I’ll fight for our share of the asset forfeiture when the time comes.”