Unauthorized Affair (Unauthorized #1)(16)
“Ivy, you are the manager. Jen, you are a clerk. Ryker, you are both a clerk and security, but your most important position will be security. You’ll be a bit of a bouncer. People get irate inside pawn shops more often than you would imagine and your job is to make sure nobody gets a hand on either of them, ever.” He pointed to Jen and Ivy and hoped Ryker understood just how important his job was. “You can pitch people out in the street at your discretion. They always come back.”
Ryker nodded. “Got it, boss,” he said in that quiet way of his.
Hunter glanced at Jen. Her eyes were wide and pinned on him, sending a tiny thrill through him. He pushed it aside and went on.
“Open your binders to the third page. These three men are our mission. Study them. Know them well. The three of them run individual fencing rings here in Westwood Harbor. They have been responsible for 4 deaths, 38 assaults, and 17 commercial thefts and robberies that we know of in the last year and a half. And we can’t prove any of it. Not well enough that some hotshot lawyer won’t get them off. So that’s what we are doing here. A pawn shop can be a hotbed of information about operations like these. You will probably never see one of these men in the pawn shop, but you will see the people who work for them and try to sell crap to them. They come to sell something the fence wouldn’t take, or they bring in something from the latest robbery that they aren’t sure where else to sell. Maybe it’s impractical to ship so they can’t sell it on eBay. Maybe it’s something they don’t think can be traced to them and they want to turn a quick profit. Maybe it’s something they’ve brought in from an operation outside of Westwood Harbor. Sometimes they do that - pull a job and then trade the spoils with a fence from a different city, so the local cops don’t have anything to get suspicious about. Your job is to take everything, and to keep your ears on the ground. Sgt. Sadler and I will worry about analyzing the items you buy and making arrests, but you are the front line.”
He pulled in a deep breath and analyzed Jen, Ivy, and Ryker. They looked excited. Ready. Good. “This is the chief’s baby. He wants to at least spook these three men enough that they leave town. But my goal is different than that. I want each of these men behind bars, with enough evidence on them to put them away for at least 20 years. And if we can put them away in federal prison that’s even better. In federal prison there is no chance of parole. So they won’t be coming back in five years, looking to get the old gang back together.” Hunter started pacing back in forth in front of the table. He heard his voice get louder, deeper and was helpless to stop it. He’d called this the chief’s baby. And it was. But it was his baby too. It had been his idea. The amount of crimes connected to these three men disgusted him. Hunter wanted them gone. He turned back to the recruits, just barely stopping himself from banging his hands on the table for emphasis. Instead, he knocked it lightly. All of their eyes were focused on him. “And to do that, all we need is one, solid piece of evidence connecting them to something like a semi-truck robbery on the interstate. But again, you let us—” he gestured to himself and Sadler — “worry about that. Your job is to buy whatever they are selling, become friendly with everyone you can, and keep your ears open. Don’t ask questions for now. In a few weeks, you’ll have a better feel of the operation and we can talk about what kind of questions you might ask.”
Hunter looked at each of his recruits in turn. He turned to Jen last. Her nostrils flared slightly as she breathed deeply. Her color was up again. Those two red spots high on her cheekbones. To Hunter, she looked like a beautiful warrior ready for battle. Or for sex. He looked away quickly, before anyone read the thought in his eyes. The next few months were going to be the longest and shortest of his life.
Chapter 8
Fiore Savoy smoked his cigar and looked out over the ocean in his number 2 house. This was his favorite house, but he didn't get to stay here as often as he liked, so when he came he made sure to enjoy it. A dog barked faintly from the house to his left. A sweeping plantation with glass wraparound windows. He didn’t know the neighbors, and he didn’t care to, but if that dog kept disturbing his morning contemplation in his favorite house, he would have to have one of his men kill it. He made a note to tell Bruce to buy some rat poison, just in case.
He puffed his cigar and thought about his day. He hated to write things down, it was too dangerous. But sometimes it had to be done. And today was one of those days. The fencing operations had expanded to the point that he might need to bring in more operators from down south. Huey, Dewey, and Louie had done good. He laughed to himself. Huey, Dewey, and Louie. They weren't as incompetent as the nicknames made them sound; actually they had brought in a lot of profit over the last several months. Now if they could just keep the money rolling — his thoughts were interrupted by his private line ringing. Most people didn’t have this number. And because of that it was almost always bad news when it came in on this phone.
He picked it up but didn’t say a word.
“Boss, it’s me. I have news.”
“Go.”
“Your new guys, they are being investigated by undercover.” Fiore felt his blood rise at this simple statement. He grunted his displeasure. “Look I’m sorry, but I can’t put a roadblock up in front of everything. And this would have looked suspicious. They can just take the fall. They can’t be connected to you, right?”