"Too late," Hitch said. "There goes our Michael Bay factor. The two assholes in a chopper." He heaved a frustrated sigh. "Look what they did to my beautiful car!"
"Forget the car. You can fix it. We need to move fast. The shit just jumped off. They're gonna go back to that ranch in the Valley and tell Diego San Diego they missed us. He's gonna run. We got less than an hour to pull this together."
Chapter 50.
After the chopper left, we didn't stick around for the L. A. Sheriff's Department to arrive. I called in a Code Four as Hitch sped along Trancas Canyon toward the ocean.
We'd decided against going back up to find the shooter's nest and look for brass in favor of making a move on Diego's ranch.
"I hate what they did to this car. Can't see shit through this busted windshield," Hitch groused, squinting through shattered glass.
"Forget the car. I can't believe all this materialistic bullshit."
"It's not just the car that's got me so bummed. It's also the fact they got to Jamie," he said. "How could he have given me up? The guy was my tight."
"They didn't get to Jamie. Jamie doesn't even know about this unless you blabbed it to him, too."
Hitch looked over at me as he snap-shifted into third and simultaneously took a hairpin turn too fast. His eyes were off the road.
"Watch where you're fucking going!" I yelled.
He looked back, swerved, stayed on the road. "You're right. Of course Jamie's not involved. He couldn't be. Guy loves me. But then how did they know to call us and lure us up there?"
"I don't know. How much did you really tell your dumb-ass agents?"
"Nothing! Do I have to take a damn polygraph?"
I didn't answer, but when he looked over I was probably scowling.
"If we're gonna be partners, you've gotta develop a little trust," he said, sounding pissed.
I snapped my fingers. "Your plates. That security guard at Rancho San Diego. I bet he got your license plate when he followed you down the hill."
"That's gotta be it. Powerful guy like San Diego must have some police connections. He could have run it. My association with Jamie is all over the Internet. Once they knew who I was, one of San Diego's guys could have called me, pretending to be Jamie's assistant."
"Listen, Hitch. We're way behind here. We're chasing this. We need to get out in front."
"Gee, whatever gave you that idea? The five fucking bullets in my car?"
My mind was racing. "We've gotta get back to the PAB fast. We got no time, but we've gotta set up a takedown."
"I'm going as fast as I can," he said, roaring around some slow-moving traffic.
"We've got to hit that horse farm and bust San Diego this morning. That means judges, warrants, even SWAT."
"Exactly!"
We were now on the Coast Highway roaring past Moonshadows. Hitch started to downshift. "Forget my car. Leave it," I said, shouting over the slipstreaming wind.
I pulled out my cell phone and dialed the office. "This is Scully. Gimme Jeb," I told the probationer on our call desk.
A minute later I had the captain on the line. "Jeb, the Vulcuna case went hot. Hitch and I were just fired on, ambushed up in Trancas Canyon." Then I told him about Diego San Diego and explained what I needed.
"I think this guy is some kind of retired Colombian scumbag," I said. "You need to get Dahlia to start writing warrants."
"What kind of warrants?"
"Anything she can get a judge to sign. Search, arrest, evidence gathering. We need to lock that ranch of his down before he splits."
"Thats kinda vague for a warrant," Jeb said. "You need to give me some probable cause."
I looked at Hitch. "He says we need PC."
"Tell him what those assholes did to my car."
"They dumped six or eight rounds down on us from a hillside with a scoped rifle," I told Jeb. "That's attempted murder of two police officers. We've got some of the slugs with us in Hitch's car. That's gotta be good enough to get us paper. This has to happen now. These guys are shooters so you better notify SWAT. We'll need to use their warrant delivery team."
"I'm on it. Get in here," Jeb instructed. He'd been my boss for several years and I knew he trusted my instincts. I could hear nervous energy in his voice as I hung up.
We raced onto the freeway, made it to the interchange in a miraculous ten minutes.
Then I called Barrv Matthews in Financial Crimes. "We're out of time," I told him. "I'm about twenty blocks away. What have you got for me?"
"I'll meet you in your office in ten," he said. "You got something?"
"Yeah," he said. "Get ready to be very happy."
Chapter 51.
We got to the Police Administration Building in record time. The last few miles of the trip the Porsche had begun making loud growling sounds that didn't sound too healthy. Hitch pulled his bullet-riddled Carrera into an empty parking spot.
"Those assholes are gonna feel the Hitchmeister's full and complete wrath over what they did to my ride he said, slamming the drivers-side door in frustration. When he did that, most of the windshield glass fell into the front seat.
We hurried upstairs. Jeb, Dahlia, and Alexa were already there. Because she had been a primary responder on the original case, and because she really missed this stuff, Alexa was taking some time away from the department budget wars to help us sort it out.
Two or three other Homicide Special cops were already talking to a warrant delivery team, lining up tactical support.
"I think we re gonna want more than one SWAT," Hitch suggested. "These guys have already piled up five corpses. This morning they tried to make it seven. They're a bunch of trigger-happy assholes with long guns and helicopters. How much PC do we need before we can make a move?" The Hitchmeister on a rant.
"Slow down and talk me through it," Dahlia said.
She set a digital tape recorder on Jeb's desk between us. We gave them everything we had, including all of our suspicions. When we finished, Dahlia weighed in.
"You can't pin any of that on San Diego. You got nothing that sticks to him except the fact that Stender Sheedy ran out there after you braced him in his den, which is not a crime. No judge is going to write this."
"I didn't say we had it completely nailed down," I defended. "But these people have somehow tripped to our investigation. Sheedy went directly out to Skyline Drive after I started talking about gold contracts. My bet is he wanted to check that well house to be sure we hadn't found the truck. When he couldn't get on the property, he went straight to San Diego. That tells me they're all involved in that eighty-three bullion heist and the deaths of at least two guards."
"Circumstantial, nonbinding, probative, and inadmissible," Dahlia said, firing these legal concepts at us like clip-fed bullets.
"Maybe, but how 'bout this?" I said, switching tactics. "An hour ago we were both shot at. The slugs are in Hitchens s car. We search that ranch. If we find the long gun out there that fired those bullets and ballistics can make a match, that's physical evidence tying the gun licensee to an attempted double cop killing."
"It's upside down, Scully, and you know it," Dahlia said in frustration. "You need the gun and the ballistics match first, their you get the search warrant. I'm trying to help here, but it's all speculative. You need to give me more."
Of course she was right.
Just then, Barry Matthews from the Financial Crimes desk rode in on a white horse and saved us. There weren't enough chairs so everyone stood as he launched into his report.
"In eighty-one the DEA thought Diego San Diego was a silent partner in Eagle's Nest Studios," he began. "But it was never proven. There were also rumors he was funding that studio's bank overdrafts."
"Why would he do that?" Hitch asked.