Team Manager 1: SWISH!
Chapter 8
“THIS IS DEA AGENT BRISCO,” the voice answered the phone. “Who’s speaking?”
“Um… This is just someone who wants to report suspicious drug activity,” Amy whispered into her phone. She’d planned this carefully and was at Rosie’s house for the night.
The three freshmen girls planned to have an overnight together and then go to Natalie’s party. She’d been debating what to do with her information. She reviewed all the photos she’d taken and, while not always clear, they definitely showed a drug transaction taking place in her opinion.
“It’s helpful if I know who you are. We need to test the validity of your information,” Brisco said.
“I don’t want anyone to know that I’m a… What do they call them? …a narc.”
“I understand. You sound young. Are you reporting classmates for using weed?”
“No, sir. It’s my… a guy I know who is dealing drugs out of the back of the C-Store.”
“I see. That’s a lot more serious. How do you know about this?”
“I snuck up and watched them. I have pictures.”
“Can you send me your pictures?”
“Um… I’m going to have to tell you who I am, aren’t I?”
“Well, I could find out by tracing your phone anyway. I know already this call is coming from Bartley. Why don’t I give you my cell number and you can text me the photos? When I’ve looked at them, I’ll give you a call back.”
“Okay, Mr. Brisco. I’ll do it. It’s just that I think some of my friends might be hurt by this. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have called.”
“You’re a good friend,” he said kindly.
They disconnected and Amy began sending the photos from her phone. Then she sent a message that just said, “That’s it.” A few minutes later her phone buzzed.
“Hello?”
“This is Agent Brisco,” the man said. He sounded disappointed. “Amy, the pictures you sent certainly look suspicious but they aren’t clear enough to actually warrant an investigation. I’ll keep them on file and would like you to keep track of any suspicious activity. Don’t try to do anything about it yourself. If that is really a drug drop, these guys could be very dangerous. If you happen to get better pictures, send them to me right away.”
“Okay,” Amy said. She was definitely disappointed.
“You know, you could just report this activity to your County Sheriff. He would have more grounds for investigation than I have since it’s in his jurisdiction,” Brisco said.
“That’s a problem,” Amy said. “I think he’s in on it. He always stops in at the C-Store when my… when those guys are working. We think he’s on the take from the local moonshiner, too. A friend of mine was attacked by these guys on his way home from school a few weeks ago. The sheriff didn’t do anything about it at all.”
“That’s a very serious accusation, Amy. Call me if you see or hear anything that is more convincing. Okay?”
“Yes, sir.” Amy disconnected, wondering if the agent was in on it like the sheriff was and whether she’d just gotten herself into trouble.
Brisco sat at his desk and went through the pictures again. Kids with cellphones were an up-and-coming witness program. They recorded everything, always had their cellphones in hand. It was too bad Amy’s was such poor quality and that she had such lousy lighting conditions.
The pictures looked like a deal was going down. Or it could be a handicapped person coming to the back door to pick up groceries. No. He knew what it was, it just wasn’t good enough to use as evidence. He checked his calendar. This week, they’d be focused on a crack house in Ames, selling and distributing to students. But he’d try to work in some time to do his own surveillance out in Bartley. It was worth looking into.
“I’d like to have you attend an officials’ clinic,” Ardith said before practice Monday. “I think you have the stamina and even if you don’t ref actual games, we’re going to be scrimmaging shortly and I’m going to be watching players and plays, not rules violations. I need you to help with that.”
“Um… If you think so. When is it?” Dennis asked.
“This Friday afternoon in Ames. I’ll be going as well so, with your parents’ permission, I’ll drive you.”
“Isn’t it kind of late to become an official? How much does it cost?” Dennis was concerned. His father wouldn’t have an income until after snow flies and his mother’s job barely covered expenses.
“I registered you and paid the fee as soon as we started down this road. I wasn’t sure you’d need it, but it is a great way to review the rules and get ready for games. Here’s the web address for you to read the rules and take the test. You need to have it before the clinic,” Ardith said. She was thankful that Jim had recommended the process early on. The varsity used two other coaches to officiate their scrimmages, but girls’ basketball was still a redheaded stepchild as far as the rest of the department was concerned.
Dennis knew the rules pretty well, though he wasn’t familiar with the 35-point continuous clock rule. He needed to make sure his scorers and timekeeper were aware of it before their first home game. The clinic was mostly refs telling about their experiences, and rule changes to be aware of. Dennis enjoyed the time riding with Ardith and talking basketball. They planned to start scrimmages on Monday.
She dropped him at home and Dennis spent a quiet weekend entertaining his sister and reviewing the calls and hand signals for the game. As was usual, his dad wasn’t seen much when he was between jobs. He mostly watched TV in his bedroom and occasionally came out for meals.
This weekend, though, Dennis thought his Dad looked strange. Maybe more alert than usual when he was drinking.
“They say we’re headed for an early snow according to the forecasts,” Will said at dinner. “Can’t come too soon to please me. I’ll need to be ready to head for the county depot at the first sign of it.”
“It’s neat that you’ll drive one of those big snowplows, Dad,” Dennis said. “Is that a safe job?”
“Well, any job can be dangerous if you don’t pay attention. But I’ll pretty much be the biggest thing on the road, so people generally make way for plows. I took all the training last spring, but there was no more snow after I was approved to drive. All I’ll need is a sandwich and a big thermos of coffee and I’ll be ready at any time.”
Dennis was proud of his Dad. That explained why he was looking more alert and had a better appetite than usual. He was drying out. Peg squealed about the big truck Daddy would drive and pretended to steer with her knife and fork. All in all, it was a pretty good evening at the Enders’ house.
Will wasn’t drying out to drive the snowplows, though. The story was plausible but no one had called him about a possible early snowfall. He’d been slipping out late at night to park in the darkness and watch the routine of the Smith boy. When he wasn’t guarding the alcohol, he was over at the C-store with his two cronies. Sometime Will would get his opportunity. He knew it was coming.
He took a couple of practice swings with the aluminum baseball bat he’d picked up at a Goodwill in Des Moines. The time was coming.
Amy decided she needed more and better pictures. She usually took any photos she wanted on her cellphone but she’d looked through all the photos and decided the agent was right. They just weren’t good enough or focused enough to be used as evidence. She’d have to go back the next time she heard her brother talking about deliveries being made. She’d figured out that it wasn’t bread that was being delivered at midnight on Saturday.
Her father was a Luddite and had only just upgraded his old flip phone to a smart phone. As a result, the pocket-size digital camera he’d been using was tossed in a drawer in the kitchen. Amy retrieved it and started experimenting with taking higher quality pictures, including pictures taken at night. The first thing she’d discovered was that she needed a memory card. When her mother announced she was going to the mall that Friday afternoon, Amy was quick to volunteer to ride along. That wasn’t unusual. A trip to the mall was always a treat since it was forty miles away.
Her mother talked about miscellaneous family things and Amy excitedly told her all about the basketball team and the planned scrimmages. Coach had said she’d try to get all the players into the game for a little playing time. Of course, that was going to be based on all the players showing they were competent with the ball, even if they weren’t at the level of the Armor sisters. She and Brenda were the smallest on the court and Amy watched carefully to see how Brenda handled herself against the bigger players. She was definitely getting better.
She found the right memory card for the camera at the drug store. She was satisfied that the card would hold a few hundred photos or more. She bought some extra batteries, too, and silently mourned that she’d spent most of her weekly allowance. She quickly went to the food court where she was to meet her mother and began practicing taking pictures. The camera had autofocus so she didn’t need to do much more than point and shoot, like with her phone. It zoomed with a little lever on top next to the shutter trigger. She found where to turn the automatic flash off and where there were other settings for the camera. By the time her mother reached her, she was confident that she could take better pictures with this camera than with her phone.
She slipped out of the house on Friday night after everyone was in bed and just wandered up and down the streets taking low-light pictures. There was a ‘candlelight’ setting for the camera and it did pretty well at picking out details when there wasn’t much light. She’d only been out an hour when she slipped back into the house and went to bed.
Saturday night, when everyone was asleep and it was getting close to midnight, she bundled up with a hoodie sweatshirt under her jeans jacket, pulled the stocking cap down over her ears and pulled the hood up, then snuck out of the house for her observation of the C-Store. She’d get the better photos tonight that Agent Brisco needed.
Will was lucky. He’d parked near the state highway in the grocery store lot. He was eating a sandwich and drinking coffee that he’d bought there just before it closed at eleven. He figured he still had a little while before the Smith kid came into town from the still. Saturday night could be a busy time for distributing moonshine. But Smith tore into town from the east and blasted past where Will was sitting. Will almost spilled his coffee in his haste to start the car and follow.
He saw the car turn on Second Street and sped up to close the distance. He casually looked down the street and saw the car pull to the side of the street and park just a few doors down. Will turned on Market Street and cruised past the C-Store. When he backtracked on Oak Street, he shut off his lights and turned in to park at the opposite end of the block from Smith. Maybe the kid had a girlfriend he planned to see in this area. Will tried to remember if any of the folks he knew in this vicinity had kids old enough to be of interest.
Then he saw the flash of a figure clothed in a dark hoodie and jacket darting across the street through the Johnsons’ yard toward the back of the C-Store. The light came on in Smith’s car as he got out of it and followed the girl. Will had made sure to turn the dome light off in his car. He opened his door and slid out of the car, holding the baseball bat. He followed after the girl and his quarry.
Lee had to hurry back from the last pickup in order to get into place in time. Harry had called a meeting a couple of weeks ago and reported that he saw that little pussy Dennis spying on their delivery. So, the plan was simple. They’d just trap the cunt the next time he came to spy. They’d use him for a cum-dump and then give him to their contact from Chicago. What happened to him after that, they didn’t care. Probably get sold, used, and thrown away. Served him right. He hadn’t shown up last Saturday. Jerry overheard his bratty little sister say Dennis had been at the team party.
That little sister was a first class brat, but she was turning into a real cutie. The guys had discussed when they thought she’d be ripe to have her cherry plucked. Jerry figured he could slip her a roofie before bed one night when their parents weren’t home. They’d just slip into her room, all use her pristine little pussy, and be gone. She’d wake up in the morning full of cum and not knowing a thing about what happened. Lee chuckled at that. It was a good plan.
He pulled up to the curb about eleven-thirty and sat in his car smoking, watching the Johnsons’ place, which was the easiest access to the back of the C-Store. He only had to wait about fifteen minutes when he saw the kid cut across the street and through the Johnsons’ yard. Lee got out of his car and started jogging toward where he thought Dennis had disappeared. He went slowly when he got up next to the house so he wouldn’t spook his prey and make him run. He wanted to be right behind him when he sprang.
The punk wasn’t that difficult to spot from this angle but Lee could see that Harry wouldn’t be able to see the shed as well. The little freak was leaning out from behind the shed and snapping pictures.
“Got you!” Lee said as he reached out to grab the boy. There were no more words, but the ping of an aluminum bat as it hit the back of his head.
Will followed Lee through the yard as silently as possible, but the boy was hurrying too quickly to hear anything behind him. Will couldn’t see whatever it was Lee saw when he changed direction slightly and headed toward the Johnsons’ shed. Then, as they got closer, he saw the girl leaning out to take pictures of the C-Store. It took half a second for Will to realize the girl wasn’t there to give Lee a blowjob. Lee grabbed for her and said “Got you!” as Will swung the bat and connected with the back of Smith’s head. The boy lurched forward and fell face first in the grass.
The girl turned with the camera and looked back in panic. Will saw Harry moving from behind the C-Store and it looked like he had a gun.
“Run!” he whispered to the girl. She glanced back to see Harry and took off like a shot. Will saw Harry nearly halfway to them already and turned to run after the girl, cutting in front of the house to get out of Harry’s line of sight. He used one of the huge oaks the street was named for as shelter and spared a glimpse of Harry coming to stop at the sidewalk, looking up and down. Harry shoved his gun into his pants and returned to help his fallen co-conspirator. Will took off running again and got in his car.
His heart was thudding as he fought to get the keys in the ignition, not having planned right by leaving them there. He managed to get it started and pulled away from the curb on Second Street, nearly colliding with a blue van that came down the middle of the street from the opposite direction. A block away, Will turned on his headlights and drove back to the empty grocery store parking lot. He pulled around the back of the store and got out of the car, taking the bat with him. He carefully wiped it down with a disinfectant wipe and tossed it into one of the store dumpsters. It made a clang that caused Will to jump when it hit the bottom of the empty dumpster. It sounded loud to him, but there was no response from anywhere as far as he could hear. He got in his car and pulled away from the store as the blue van sped out of town. Will went back into town and drove straight home to put the car in the garage.
Before he went into the house, he tipped a bit of hooch from his bottle stowed in the garage into the remains of his cold coffee. He downed it and took another swallow straight from the bottle, nearly choking on it. It was having an effect already, though, calming Will’s nerves after his wild adventure. He wondered if he’d killed the kid. If it hadn’t been for the other kid headed his way, he’d have stayed and made sure of it.
And who was the girl? Up close, she looked like a little kid. Maybe if she got the shit scared out of her, she wouldn’t get up to any more dangerous stuff like sneaking out of her house at midnight to take pictures of gangsters.
Finally able to slow his breathing and steady himself, Will stumbled into the house and up to bed.
Amy slipped into her house and managed to silently get into bed as well. But under the covers, she quickly looked at the pictures she’d managed to take. They were clear, but she’d fled before any drug transactions started. Then she came to the picture she’d snapped as she spun around. It was a little blurry, but she could see it was Lee Smith who’d tried to grab her. A man was behind him holding a baseball bat. Amy didn’t know who the man was and the detail in the picture wasn’t clear. She didn’t know whether to be thankful or even more frightened because of his presence.
And the last picture she’d taken… She’d been about to cross Second Street when she saw the blue van coming toward her. She waited in the shadows until it passed and snapped a picture of the back, hoping to get the license plate. She couldn’t quite tell from the little screen on the camera but she thought if she looked at it on her computer, she’d be able to make out the license number. That would be something to send to Agent Brisco.
One thing was for sure: She wasn’t going back there again.
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