“Is this Jeannie Carnes?”
Blinking in surprise, she hesitated once again. “Um…”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I’m Rachel, LSI-WC’s receptionist. I’m able to tell that this call is coming from your phone, and I know who you are. If it’s personal, you can certainly wait and talk to him later, otherwise, you can certainly leave a message with me. Or, if you prefer, I can put you through to his private line and you can leave a message for him to hear when he returns.”
“Oh, all right. And yes, of course, you know I’m Jeannie. I think I’d like to have you put me through to his private line, please.”
“I’ll be more than happy to. And let me just say that I hope to have the opportunity to meet you soon, Ms. Carnes.”
“I’m not sure that will happen but, um… thank you just the same.”
“Well, you never know. I’m of the opinion that it takes a strong woman to be with a man because, quite frankly, men are difficult. Keepers, even more so. But I’m also of the opinion that Keepers are worth it. Now, I’ll put you through to his private voicemail.”
Her mind swirling, she jumped when she heard Carson’s recording. You’ve reached the voicemail box of Carson Dyer. Blunt, to the point, no-frills. Why am I not surprised? Shaking her head to dislodge the mix of emotions just hearing his voicemail brought to mind, she drew herself up and began. “Carson, please don’t hang up when you hear it’s me. I know you don’t want to talk to me, and quite frankly, I have no desire to talk to you either, but I need to let you know of something that happened today. Quite by accident, I discovered a bug in Maggie’s cane. I had no idea it was there, but that’s how information must have gotten out. I still contend that I did nothing wrong, but I thought it was important for you to know. There’s no need to call back… in fact, don’t. Goodbye.” She started to hang up, then, almost as an afterthought, whispered, “Stay safe.”
Rolling her eyes at her rambling explanation, she tossed her phone onto the sofa cushion next to her and flopped back, her stomach clenching as her mind swirled with everything going on around her. I lost Carson before I ever really had him. Maggie will soon be independent again and won’t need me. And I’ll go back to the exhaustion of the ER. My life will go on as before. As soon as that thought hit her, a tear rolled down her cheek. No… I’ll never be the same again.
23
The four Keepers moved casually amongst the townspeople and tourists in Tecate. Still on the California side of the border, they focused their attention on several buildings that were only a mile from the Garza warehouse in Tecate, Mexico. Hop had been assigned air surveillance of Vincent’s winery and had backtracked several of the trucks that entered the country through Tecate. Most came through customs, and a few had been inspected by DEA. But, occasionally, a truck arrived at Vincent’s winery and had originated from one of these buildings not officially associated with the Garzas’ businesses.
With his suspicions aroused, Carson and the Keepers, along with Dave, surmised that somehow, the drugs were getting into the country and trafficked from that point. “If the drugs aren’t coming in by air, land, or water, that only leaves underground,” Carson concluded. Dave agreed but didn’t have the manpower or the authority to check it out without more to go on.
Hence the reason Carson, Leo, Hop, and Bennett were on the ground, dressed casually with hidden surveillance equipment, checking out the area. Dusk was falling, and welcoming the darkness, they could search more easily.
“It’s gotta be that building right there,” Hop said, inclining his head toward the building to the right. “This is the one that had trucks going in and out, and just like in Vincent’s winery warehouse, license tags and wording on the sides don’t always match up.”
Carson nodded, checking his watch. “As soon as we get the all-clear from Jeb, we’ll slip around the back. All we have to do is find evidence of a tunnel. That’s it. We do that, we turn that over to the DEA.”
For the next hour, they continued to meander around, getting something to eat from a street vendor and waiting until the sun passed over the horizon and the shadows deepened.
“My man Josh came through for us,” Rick radioed. “Jeb is fuckin’ beside himself.”
“Copy that,” Carson said, grinning. Using Mace’s computer guru Keeper, Rick and Jeb were learning a new program. “Ready when you are.”
Knowing Jeb had his eye on one of the white-paneled trucks that was approaching, the traffic light signal turned red, then began flashing. Hop stealthily climbed to the back of the truck while it was stopped and planted a surveillance camera on the top of the back corner. As the light finally changed, he leaped down, moving back to the others in the shadows.
It only took a moment for the camera surveillance to show up on Carson’s phone, and he knew the others back at the compound were viewing it, as well.
“Busy as fuck to be a vegetable carrier,” Leo said, staring down at his phone with Bennett looking over his shoulder at the screen.
Carson held his phone so Hop could watch as well, and it didn’t take long to see that amidst the vegetable baskets being loaded onto the trucks, a door to the side occasionally opened and a man walked through. His hands held boxes. To the casual observer, they wouldn’t notice a difference.
Carson grinned. “Look at where that door is placed. It backs to nothing, so it can only go down.”
“What do you want to figure there are bricks of cocaine hidden in those baskets coming from the tunnel?” Leo asked.
“We going in?” Bennett asked, excitement lacing his words.
Carson glanced over at him, used to the calm specter in Bennett’s expression that belied the eagerness in his voice. “Not this time. We report to Dave and see what the DEA wants. Plus, we need to continue our surveillance. We’re not going in blind.”
They concluded their surveillance and made their way back to the plane. Once in the air, he pulled out his phone to check his messages. Nothing from Jeannie. Trying not to let the disappointment show, he sighed and leaned his head back, staring out into the dark night at the dots of lights below. He wondered if she had gotten his message. Did she get it and ignore it? Did she get it and will wait for me to contact her again? Will she talk to me? Will she keep ignoring me? The questions rolled in his head on replay, making the trip seem to last forever. Serves me right.
By the time they landed and made it back to the compound, he’d checked his phone messages numerous times, each time feeling more frustrated with a large dose of guilt dumped on top. The group checked in their equipment, and he was no longer surprised to see Teddy and Rachel still there at midnight.
“I’m going to send off our information to Dave before shutting everything down,” he said. “See you tomorrow.” Moving over to his desk, he quickly typed up the mission’s findings, telling Dave that they’d talk the following day to determine the next step.
As he finished, he looked up, surprised to see Rachel walking toward him, a smile playing about her lips. “What’s up?”
“We had an interesting phone call earlier. She didn’t want to leave a message with me, so I put her through to your work voicemail. Since I assume you haven’t checked it, I thought I’d let you know.” She patted his shoulder and turned to follow Teddy out for the door, calling, “Have a nice night, Carson.”