The Last Line: A Short Story by Robert Dugoni

Author:Robert Dugoni [Dugoni, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-10-20T16:00:00+00:00

Back at his desk, Del called the Harbor Patrol and talked to the officer he’d spoken with previously. The officer had no record of the Egregious being impounded November eighteenth or nineteenth. Del then called the SPD evidence room. The detective on duty said no drugs had been catalogued into evidence the evening of the eighteenth or the following day. Del called the DEA and the FBI. Neither had any record of a raid at the marina. On the off chance the raid could have been by another drug ring wearing face coverings to protect their identities, Del asked both the DEA and the FBI if they were aware of any turf wars between rival Mexican cartels for distribution in the Pacific Northwest. They told Del they had nothing specific on their radar.

After some digging, Del found the Canadian agency responsible for registering boats and eventually found a seventy-five-foot purse seine fishing trawler named the Egregious with a home port in Vancouver. The boat was registered to a Jack Flynt. The information confirmed David Slocum was telling the truth, at least about the existence of the boat and the captain. Del called the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Vancouver and, again, after starts and stops, was put in touch with a drug unit. The sergeant he spoke with had no record of a Jack Flynt, nor had Canadian authorities ever impounded the Egregious for running drugs, though he thanked Del for the tip and said they’d check it out.

As Del worked the phone lines, Moss’s distinct voice rose over the rest of the bull pen chatter, as it usually did. A second later, Moss dropped a multipage document on Del’s desk.

“What’s this?” Del hung up the phone and picked up the document, skimming the first page.

“That right there is the names of your two Mexicans.”

Del looked up at his partner, then read the document. Ayax Florez Navarro and Juvenal Lucio Ibarra. “How’d you get this?”

“Played a hunch, rookie. Called the Border Patrol and sent them the photographs. They called me back and said they had a file on each man documenting multiple arrests and deportations to Mexico on drug-related offenses. Each is suspected to work for the Oaxaca cartel, one of the smaller drug cartels operating in Mexico but which has recently increased operations in the US, mostly on the West Coast. It’s led to a bloody turf war with other cartels.”

Which was exactly what Rick Tombs had suggested. Coincidence? Del didn’t think so. “Border Patrol told you this?”

“That’s right.”

“You get a name?”

Moss scoffed. “Of course I got a name. I’ll put it in my report. Something else?” Moss asked.

“No,” Del said, heeding Faz’s words of caution. “Just wondering where we go from here?”

“We go nowhere. This gets turned over to the DEA, and they run with it since it’s international and they know more about what’s going on down there. Close your file and send it to me. I’ll finalize my report and see it gets where it’s supposed to go.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.