Chapter 7

TUESDAY MORNING

I stopped at a store on the way to work and picked up a large coffee. I don’t usually drink coffee because it wires me, but I needed it this morning. Nobody was there when I got to the airport, so I started working on a plane that was in for repairs.

The plane is a twin, and it belongs to Mr. Simms, the guy whose planes Sam and I brought back from Bakersfield. It was in for a complete interior. My job was to strip the old interior out of it and take the pieces over to an upholstery shop. I noticed that there was a peculiar, strong smell when I started to work on it yesterday.

I was having trouble removing a side panel at the rear of the plane.

It seemed to be caught by an edge of the floor, so I loosened some screws and pulled a section up. The smell got stronger when I did, and I looked inside.

The entire underfloor area was filled with plastic wrapped bundles.

I knew that something was wrong, and I was trying to figure out what to do, when JJ and Sam drove up.

JJ stuck his head in the plane and said, “What the heck are you doing here so early.”

“I couldn’t sleep, but look here,” and I pointed to the floor.

He looked in, his eyes got big, and he said, “Damn,” He thought for a minute, and said, “Put it back together and come into the office.”

I replaced the floor section and when I went inside, he was on the phone.

He hung up and said; “Don’t do anything else. The FBI is on the way.”

We worked around the place for a while, with one eye on the plane and the other waiting to see if Simms would show up.

A helicopter landed a short while later, and two men in mechanic’s uniforms carrying tool bags, got out and came over to us.

One of the men introduced himself as Agent Delano from the FBI.

He said that he was in charge, and asked what we found. JJ explained that I was the one who found it, and he told me to tell him exactly what I found and how I found it.

I explained everything to him while the other man took notes.

Delano asked me to take him to the plane and show him what I found. Everyone started to go to the plane, and he stopped us.

“Just he and I in case the owner show’s up.”

I took him to the plane and lifted the floor section up. He took a pocketknife, made a small slit in one of the bags, and lifted out a small bit of powder. He touched it to his tongue and put the rest in a small plastic bag, then he had me replace the floor section. We went inside office and he made some phone calls, then he asked me to explain why I was at the airport so early in the morning. I told him that I couldn’t sleep.

He stared at me, and in a very sober tone, said, “Why can’t a healthy looking young guy like you sleep? What did you do last night that kept you awake Are you involved with this business?

I panicked inside. I had a mind’s eye picture of having to tell everyone what went on last night. But suddenly Sam stood up. “Hey! What’s going on here? He’s the one who found it and reported it!”

Delano thinly smiled, and said, “Just covering all the bases.”

JJ said, “So what happens now?”

Delano said, “I’m waiting for instructions. Please go about your business. We’ll hang around and stay out of the way.”

He came to me around noon, and said, “Are your folks home?”

“Yes.”

“Get them on the phone.”

I called the house and asked for Dad. I handed the phone to Delano when he answered. He told Dad who he was and not to alarm anyone, but to come to the field right away.

Dad was there in record time.

We all sat down. Delano looked at Amy, then at JJ.

“Send the girl home.”

Before JJ had a chance to answer, Sam said, “Not a chance!”

Delano frowned and said, “OK, here’s the deal. We’ve been on to this guy for a long time. He’s a drug dealer, but we haven’t been able to catch him with enough product to make a big enough case. He ordinarily keeps this plane in Palmdale, and we’ve had dope dogs check it out, but he puts something in the plane that fools the dog’s sense of smell, so we haven’t had probable cause to search the plane. He filed a flight plan for Denver last Thursday, but he stayed under the Palmdale Radar after he took off, and cancelled his flight plan from the air. So we lost him.”

JJ said, “Yeah, he got here Thursday afternoon, but why did he come here?”

“I was just getting to that. He knows that we’ve been watching him.”

We know that he uses this plane to make runs to Mexico to pick up the drugs, and we think that he brought the plane here to have some work done and to stash it out of sight for a while. Our problem is that we need to catch him in ‘Knowing Possession’ of the drugs. He’ll claim that he didn’t know they were there otherwise.”

He looked at Dad. “Here is what we propose. I want your son to call him and say that the upholstery was caught by the floorboard and that he had to pull it up to release it, and in doing so, he found a set of keys, and would like to know what to do with them.”

He’s going to panic and rush down here, and he’ll probably take the drugs to another location. We’ll let him get away from the field and we’ll have a Highway Patrol unit stop him for a traffic violation. Our guy will ‘Find’ the drugs and we’ll have him. Simms won’t suspect your son of anything by doing it this way.”

Dad said, “I see a lot of holes in this. What if he doesn’t believe Pete’s story? What if he comes here with some guns? What if he somehow avoids the patrol car?”

This is a bad guy, Mr. Baker. We need him brought to justice and we need to do it quickly. This is the best opportunity that we’ve ever had. There is several million dollars worth of heroin in that plane. Both my partner and I are armed. That helicopter you saw will be overhead. We have a van full of armed Agents sitting at the edge of the airport right now, and we have two other cars with Agents in them. One’s a mile from the airport; the other is sitting near his home. We even have a jet waiting at Palmdale airport in case he tries to leave from here.”

Dad was looking pensive. The Agent said, “Oh, and one other thing” He leaned over and whispered something in Dad’s ear.

Dad shook his head and said, “I don’t care about that, I’m just concerned about my son.”

Dad looked at me, “Are you up for this, Pete?”

“Sure, Dad, it sounds like they have all the bases covered.”

The Agent was on the extension when I got Mr. Simms on the phone.

“Hi, Mr. Simms, this is Pete at the Airport. I was removing your upholstery and I had to lift the edge of the floorboard to do it, and I found a set of keys. Do you need them?”

“You what!” he screamed, “Who authorized you to touch...”

He stopped, covered the mouthpiece, said something to someone else, then he said, “I’ll be right there.”

The Agent repeated what he said into a handheld radio, then handed me a key ring with several keys on it, and told everybody try to act normally when he showed up.

Simms’s big car skidded to a stop a short while later, and he and two other men got out. He ran to me and said, “OK, what’s going on here?”

I was shaking inside, when I said, “Nothing Mr. Simms, I just found these keys” and I handed them to him.

He looked at the keys and said, “Come with me,” then took me by the arm and led me to the plane.

“Show me where you found them.”

“Under the floor there” and I pointed to the place.

“What else is in there?”

“I didn’t look, I just loosened the floor to release the upholstery and saw the keys and picked them up.”

“Oh ... are you through in here for now?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“OK, thanks. Leave us alone now, my men and I are going to check some things out in the plane.”

One man raised the engine cowl. He poked around inside, but he kept looking around. The other man went into the plane, and Simms pulled the car up next to it and raised the trunk.

A plane pulled up to the gas pump, so I went to service it. I was just finishing when I saw the guy under the cowl of Simms’s plane run around, point toward the entry road, and say something to him.

Sam walked up to the plane I was servicing just then,, and set some papers on the seat.

She started to say something to me, when Simms’s car pulled up.

The back door opened, and Simms said, “Get in, both of you.”

You could tell by his look, he meant business, so we got in, and he drove out the gate toward the road.

Simms said to me, “Whose is that,” as we passed the van.

I shrugged and said, “Gee, Mr. Simms, I don’t know, but where are you taking us?”

The guy in the back seat with us looked at Sam, and said, “OK, Bitch, tell us who’s in the van!”

Things then happened very quickly.

The man in back with us raised his arm like he was going to hit Sam.

I threw my arm in front of her to protect her. He jumped back when I did, and a gun fell from under his coat and landed on the seat next to me. I grabbed it, and I must have hit the trigger on something, because there was a loud noise, and the side window next to Simms’s head disappeared in a shower of glass.

He ducked and the car went off the road and slammed into a ditch.

Sam and I were thrown against the back of the front seat. The guy in back with us was thrown over the seat, on top of Simms and the other guy.

I grabbed Sam and we got out and ran.

The van and another car were there a split second later, and people were piling out with drawn guns.

Then JJ’s car with Dad and both Agents pulled up.

Dad and JJ grabbed us and asked how we were. We both said “Fine,” and there were hugs all around.

Delano said to me, “What happened?”

Sam said, “Wait a minute,” and she planted a big kiss on me before I had a chance to answer.

Then she turned to the four shocked people, and said, “He did it again. He saved me from getting hurt. He took the gun away from one guy, and pulled a ‘Lone Ranger’ on the others.”

I looked down and realized I still had the gun, and I dropped it.

Everybody jumped, but it didn’t go off.

I said, “Oops.”

The next few hours were a blur. We went back to the airport and gathered in the office. Delano shook both our hands, and said, “Good job, Kids. It didn’t go as planned, but I’m really that glad it turned out well. We not only have him for major drug charges, but we now have him for kidnapping and some other things. He’s going away for a long time.”

Then he said to everyone, “OK, listen closely. There will be a man here shortly to take your statements. I want you to tell him exactly what happened. He’s from our office, so don’t leave anything out.

I’m going to release a different story to the press.

I’m going to say that we’ve been planning to apprehend him, and we had our eyes on both him and his plane. We saw him pull into the airport and saw him unloading the plane. He spotted our van and grabbed you kids as hostages. We followed him, and every thing else is as it happened from that point on.

But here is the important part.

Don’t tell them you found the drugs, Pete. Tell everyone that you just found some keys and called him to come and get them. It’s going to take a while to prosecute him, and he’ll probably get out on bail, but he won’t think you had anything to do with him getting caught if you stick to your story.

I know that it gives us some credit that we don’t deserve, but it should keep him off your back.”

Then he looked at me. “You’re still going to be a hero when the story of how you disarmed the gunman and forced the car into the ditch hits the papers.”

He then stood up and said, “I have a lot of work to do. It’s been great meeting you all and thanks to everyone.”

He leaned over to me on the way out, and said, “Check with your dad, he has some news for you.”

The man came to take our statements. He took mine first and was very thorough. I fell asleep in my chair while he was taking the others.

Sam shook me awake after she was finished, and asked me to step out side. We walked a little way from the office and she stopped.

“I’m not going to surprise you this time. I want to kiss you.”

I took her in my arms and we had a very nice, long kiss, then she said, “Protecting me is getting to be a habit with you. Is there something you want to tell me?”

I was still groggy and half asleep, and I honestly didn’t know what she was implying. I was thinking about the kiss, and I meant to say, “I like you and I want you to be OK.” I said, “I like you and I want you, OK?” instead.

She abruptly turned and started to walk away, leaving me wondering what I said wrong. Then she turned and said, “Why didn’t you get to sleep last night by the way?”

I was trying to think of an answer when Dad came out and said that we should go home.

The phone was ringing by the time we got home. A reporter hanging around the local police station apparently picked up on the events and spread the word. Mom and Kate hadn’t known what it was all about, so we had to fill them in first. The result was many hugs and kisses.

Even Erin said that she was glad I was OK, but I could tell that she was a little peeved that I was getting all the attention. The phone calls came so often that Kate finally just let the machine pick them up.

I wandered out in the yard to relax and Dad came out, sat next to me, and put his arm around me.

“Pretty exciting today, eh?”

“Yeah, Dad, TOO exciting.”

“I was proud of you today.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“I’m always proud of you as a matter of fact. You’re a good young man and you’re going to be a good man when you’re grown.

Chapter 8 »