Chapter 2: Thursday

Steve had finished his breakfast by six and was sipping his coffee when Dale and the others arrived. There wasn’t much talking going on this morning, so breakfast was a quick affair.

Steve had left his Wrangler on site and cadged a lift in with the FBI crew. The rest of Steve’s crew was there and ready to finish up today.

The day passed normally for Steve and his crew. By two, only rubble and waist high walls surrounding a stairwell leading down to the basement was visible.

Steve paid off the four man crew and sent them on their way. Before they left, Earle said, “I might have a buyer for the slab we cut up, and we made them the right size for a marina development in Jacksonville. That’s why they’re all about the same size.”

Steve said, “Whatever you can get for them, split it with the other three, ok?”

Earle smiled and said, “Ok boss, I’ll be in touch.”

That left him sitting out front of the gatehouse. The rest of the site appeared deserted. The FBI technical support group had set up a generator outside the stairwell and run cable and lights into the basement area. Every now and then, one of the FBI agents would come up and make a call then disappear back underground.

Steve had been told to wait on the final clean up. He pulled out the plans for the gatehouse. Taking the keys, he walked around the back of the building There was an attached three bay garage. There were no external locks on the doors and no personal door, Steve paced the garage length. It was forty feet deep and each bay was twelve feet wide and twelve feet high.

He thought that there must be either a remote control to open the doors or a switch in the gatehouse.

Steve went back inside the gatehouse and tried the phone. It had no dial tone, so using his smart phone he found a glazier that would come out tomorrow with glass for the windows. He asked Steve if he had the building plans. Steve had them in his hand at the time. According to the plans all the windows were the same stock size. The glazier said he had precut glass in stock and would see Steve first thing in the morning.

While Steve was on the phone, Dale was looking for him, he waited till Steve finished on the phone, then said to him, “Were bringing in an eight ton box truck. Can you clear a space by the stairwell for it?”

Steve said, “Sure”, climbed on the loader and did a quick clean up so that the trucks could drive up to the stairs, load and drive off.

The truck arrived and three suburbans full of federal agents, they descended into the basement while Steve and Dale watched, Steve asked, “What did you find?”

Dale said “Coke, meth and heroin, tons of it. We have two more trucks to load. We’ve been sampling every bag and brick then loading it. The National Guard is going to escort it straight to the incinerator.” He smiled and said, “and you have a problem.”

Steve looked at Dale and asked, “What problem?”

Dale, “There’s a room full of weapons down there. We’re taking the illegal ones but leaving the rest.”

Steve, “How many is a room full?”

Dale, “Two to three thousand hand guns, rifles, shotguns and the ammunition to go with them.”

Steve said, “Can’t you take the lot?”

Dale laughed and said, “We’ve taken the stingers, RPGs, M24s, M25s, bricks of C4 and the detonators.”

Steve knew Dale would take them. He said, “Well I suppose I could hold a swap meet here and sell them cheap.”

For a second Dale looked strickened, then he laughed and said, “After the drugs are moved we’ll let you in and you can have a look and put aside what you want to keep. You should also have a look down there.”

Steve said, “Call me when I can. On another subject, did you recover any cars that are normally here?”

Dale, “Yes, four of them. Why.”

Steve said, “The garage at the rear of the gatehouse has no external locks or entry doors, I was wondering if there were remotes in them that I could try here.”

Dale pulled out his cell phone, called impound and asked about the cars from the site. When he hung up he said, “They’ll have a look and call me back.”

The first truck had left and the next appeared as loading continued. “Dale said, “You’ve been cleared in the shooting. You’ll be notified by the investigating agent.”

That was a relief to Steve. He couldn’t help himself and asked, “So do I get to keep the boat?”

Dale smiled and said, “They tried to trace the owner. It was paid for in cash, two days ago. It’s a dead end. There are no prints on the boat at all and the intruder wore gloves. The consensus is it’s yours.”

Steve, “Boat ride Saturday afternoon?”

Dale replied, “Why not, you will need to clean that boat though.”

Steve said, “Can I do it now? The last time I looked there was tape all over the boathouse.”

Dale said, “We’ll do it after you have a look downstairs.”

The last truck had arrived, Steve was looking at it and comparing it to the one being loaded, he asked, “Where do these trucks come from?”

Dale turned to look at Steve then back at the trucks, he asked, “Why?”

Steve, “I think the first and the second trucks were 2010 models, you can tell by the LED lights. The last one is a 2002 model. Also the other trucks had one in the cab and this one has two.”

Dale used his cell and made a call to his supervisor, querying the whereabouts of the second truck. He was told it had been in an accident and would be delayed.

Dale told his supervisor, “We have a bogus truck here waiting to load. We’ll take care of it.”

Dale called the on-site deputy marshal and told him what was going on. He came over to visit with Steve and Dale.

Dale filled in the deputy, then asked if Steve could pick up the rear of the truck to stop them getting away.

Steve smiled and said, “Sure, why don’t the two of you follow behind me and when I pick up the back end you can be ready to catch these guys?”

That’s how it almost went, except that both occupants of the truck jumped out of the truck with Kalashnikovs and both were shot dead.

At the sound of gun fire the agents loading the drugs raced out of the stairwell to confront the intruders, but it was all over. Once Dale was sure that there was no further problem, he walked back to Steve and had him lower the back of the truck to the ground.

Steve backed the loader up and shut it down out of the way. While the agents went back to loading the drugs, Steve walked up to Dale and asked, “Do I get to keep the truck too.”

This caused them both to laugh. Just as they were recovering, the deputy marshal said, “If we swear you in maybe you can keep it.”

This set them off again, now all three were laughing. Eventually they all calmed down and went to the command post and wrote out their statements and had them ready for the investigating team.

Steve was able to slip away then and head down to the boathouse. He went in and turned on the lights and had a quick look at the boat. It was a Chris Craft Corsair 36 footer, and it just fit inside the boat house.

He climbed aboard and had a look at the cockpit area, someone had already cleaned up. Steve turned on the electronics and checked the fuel state. Both tanks were nearly full. He turned the boat off and went below. The interior was still wrapped in plastic. On the table was the owner’s manual and the welcome guide.

Steve picked up both and exited the cabin locking it with the key from the ignition.

As he climbed off the boat he saw that there were water side doors that should be closed. He eventually found the controls and closed them.

He found log books for five other boats. He noted the types and put the log books back where they came from.

He kept looking and eventually found the stairway behind a corner door. He cautiously climbed the stairs, and found two large bedrooms, a bathroom and a combined kitchen and lounge, but it appeared it had never been used.

Steve had had enough exploring, so he turned off the lights and headed back to the command post taking the owner’s manual and keys for the Chris Craft with him.

They were finishing up loading the third truck when Steve passed on his way to see Dale. He stopped at his Wrangler and left the manual there, then went to the command post.

When he stuck his head in, he was surprised to see two older men talking with Dale including Ross from the Marshal’s airport compound.

He tried to duck back out but Dale saw him and called him back. He was introduced to the Special Agent-in-Charge (SAC) Dan Roberts and the Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge (ASAC) Jeremy Brown for the Florida region.

Dan said, “Steve, Dale tells me you’ve agreed to help us for the next year. We think that’s a good start but we would like you to join our Tactical Support group.” Dan paused then said, “The Tactical Support group, provides technology or specialist skills not normally found in the Law enforcement environment, for example finding someone to operate a crane, bulldozer, excavator, truck or such with a high level of proficiency.”