Wrecked (Josie Gray Mysteries #3)(67)

“Have they made contact with you?”

“Yes.”

It felt as if the air were being sucked out of the room with a vacuum. The room was completely still. Josie was afraid to speak, afraid someone might spook Hec before he shared what else he knew.

“Will you tell us what happened?” Otto asked.

Hec took a deep breath and kept his attention fixed on Otto. “They came to my house. To the trailer. One guy knocked on the door and said he wanted to see one of the cars. That was before I knew anyone was down by the river. I walked outside and they put a gun to my head.” Hec pointed to his temple as if he was holding a gun. “Then two guys got on each arm and walked me down to the river. They beat me up pretty good and threw me in a boat. Took me over to Mexico for a week.”

“This was before Dillon was kidnapped?” Otto asked.

He nodded.

“They kept you for a week?” Josie asked, trying to keep the shock from her voice.

Hec nodded. “Five days. Nobody even knew. When they brought me back home, nobody knew I was gone. Buck almost died. I keep a five-gallon bucket full of water for him. It’s a good thing, too. It was all gone. He had no food for five days. He almost starved to death.”

Josie looked at Otto, certain he felt the same gut-wrenching guilt she felt, as if they should have known. They should have done something earlier. Legally, Hec was an adult, able to care for himself, but emotionally, after what he had been through? Josie knew many adults who would have already cracked after that kind of pressure.

“Why did they take you?” Otto asked.

He shrugged. “They want my dad. They kept asking me about him, but when Dad left he wouldn’t tell me anything. He said if I knew they would beat it out of me. And he was right. That’s why they let me go. ’Cause I didn’t know anything.”

Josie saw Nick shift in his seat, and she could tell he had a problem with that last statement.

“Why else, Hec?” Nick asked. “Why else did they let you go?”

Hec looked down and ran his hands back and forth over his blue jeans, his body rigid as he relived the details of his captivity. “When they shoved me out of the boat, back at the yard, they said I wasn’t allowed to leave until my dad came back. They think he’ll come back for me. I’m in prison, is what they called it.”

“And if you leave the yard, like you did tonight?” Nick asked.

Hec frowned, confirming what they all knew. “They said they’d kill me.”

“This has to stop, Hec. You can’t go back to the trailer. You can’t live like this,” Josie said, trying in vain to keep the emotion from her voice.

His eyes widened. “I have to go back. They’ll kill my dad. If I don’t follow the rules, they’ll kill him.”

“Do they know where he is now?” she asked.

He gave her a frustrated look. “No. But if they find him they’ll kill him!”

Otto changed tactics. “Okay, it’s obvious your dad had a business relationship with the Medranos. Is that correct?”

He nodded.

“Is that who took you to Mexico and kept you for a week?”

“Yes.”

“You have to help us understand here, Hec. A woman is dead. Dillon Reese has been missing for several days, and they won’t ship him back like they did you. They want nine million dollars before they’ll return him home.”

Hec nodded again, his hands clasped between his thighs again.

“So far, the only thing that connects Dillon Reese to the Medrano cartel is your dad,” Josie said. “Help us understand what’s going on here. You can help us save his life.”

He nodded again and licked his lips, clearly nervous.

“Hec,” Otto said. “You aren’t going to get into trouble for what you tell us. I give you my word. And, it can’t hurt your dad. At this point, the only hope he has is if the police intervene. If the Medranos get to him first, what do you think will happen?”

“Okay. I know. I see what you’re saying. I’ll tell you. Everything, I swear it.”

Josie watched Nick slide his cell phone from his pants pocket as if checking for a text. He then looked up and caught Josie’s eye. He’s taping, she thought. They wouldn’t be able to use it as evidence, but at least they’d catch the details.

“So, you know Medrano has drug rings in Houston and Atlanta?” Hec said.

Hec made eye contact with the three officers, who just stared back at him, shocked that he would know that kind of detail. The location of a particular cartel’s drug rings wasn’t common knowledge. What a way to begin, thought Josie.

“They have a lot of cash to ship across the border, from the U.S. to Mexico. Like, bills I mean. Fives and tens and twenty-dollar bills.” Hec looked at them as if they ought to be catching on at this point. “Because the people that buy the drugs pay with small bills, right? So they’re making millions of dollars selling drugs, but the money is coming in small bills. See what I mean?” Hec blinked and glanced around the room as if to communicate that was the revelation.

They nodded again, and Josie noticed a grin forming on Nick’s face.

“I should have seen this coming,” Nick said. “It’s a lucrative business in Mexico. Cartels can’t take suitcases full of cash into banks and deposit the money. Not like back in the eighties, in the Miami Vice days.”