Page 28 of Summer Heatwave
“I go talk to owner,” she said as she crawled over Dylan’s legs.
The lieutenant grabbed her by the wrists.“Tala, give us just a minute to figure out how we’re going to do this.”
“If we step out of this vehicle in immigration uniforms, everybody is going to scatter.”Jeremy was right.
“How about Tala and I go?”Dylan suggested.
Mike instantly said, “I don’t like you going without backup.Speaking of backup, what’s yours?”His gaze met Kam’s.
“To walk away,” Jeremy answered before she could.
“I’ll go with her,” Kam said as she pulled out a navy-blue windbreaker.“This will cover my uniform and my weapon.We should go to the back door.I don’t think the people in that line would be happy with us if we cut to the front.”
“Mike, do you want a jacket?”Jeremy asked as he held up a lightweight black jacket.“I’m staying with the vehicle.”
“That would be great.Thanks.”
The four of them sauntered casually around the block, checking out the area.They found a disgusting-smelling alley that led to the back door where they allowed Tala to take the lead in her original language, Dylan right beside her.Instinctively, Mike held back several feet, checking the alley constantly.They stood in the middle of a perfect killing zone and he felt like a target.
Kam practically mirrored his movements.She’d already shifted her body into a defensive position: knees bent, on the balls of her feet.
Mike stepped closer to her and whispered, “I’ll take this end of the alley and you get the other end.Dylan has this well-covered.”
At Kam’s silent nod, they both moved.
Even from his distance of twenty feet away, Mike picked up the name of the dish a couple times but that was all.A few minutes after they’d arrived, Tala’s hopeful face fell.
Back in the SUV, Dylan asked, “Exactly what did you tell them?”
Tala blushed.“I tell them truth.Mostly.I ask if they make inasal.Man say yes but no today.I ask if he make like in Bocolod.He say yes.I ask if anyone order lots of inasal and he ask me if I am with police and he point to Dylan.”
Tala lowered her head and only raised her eyes.“I tell him no police.Dylan my boyfriend in Navy.We look for my sister, Perlah, who got took by bad men, but if she is good, they get her inasal.”
The young girl’s dark eyes glistened as they filled with tears.“I sorry, Dylan.You not my boyfriend but I didn’t want man to know I was bad girl.”
Dylan smiled at her.“That was very good thinking, Tala.It’s okay for you to tell these people that I’m your boyfriend.I look dangerous.Maybe word will get back to the bad men that we’re looking for Perlah and I’m going to kick their ass when we find them.In the meantime, I’m going to protect you.”
The process repeated twice more before they struck pay dirt.A squat woman in the cleanest kitchen so far pulled Tala into a hug after only a few sentences.Both women were crying as a young boy rode up on a bicycle and pulled it through the kitchen door.Rapid words, unfamiliar to Mike, shot back and forth.Dylan got involved and the language changed to broken English.
“Wait here.I need to tell my…friend who is waiting outside.”Lieutenant Chaney was a pleasure to work with.The young man was smart, intuitive, and a damn good interrogator.
“Sir, this is the place.”Although Dylan controlled his excitement well, it was still there.“About once every three weeks, they get a call for a huge order of that food.It takes them a day to make it, but they prepay for the next order, in cash, each time they deliver.The kid on the bike takes it over to them.He said it’s only a few blocks away.The only way to get to the place where a bunch of Filipino girls answer the door is through a warehouse.He’s going to ride with us and show us where.”
“Hot damn.”Kam pumped her fist close to her body.“Let’s move.”
Johnny spoke perfect English as he directed Jeremy through the rectangular blocks of residential homes and apartments until they came to a more commercialized area.
“Turn here,” the child demanded.“Down the alley.”
The street seemed to end at the backside of what might have been some kind of large store decades ago.A few vehicles, mostly large SUVs and panel vans, were parked against a concrete wall that separated this building from the one behind it.A tiny electronic wire ran over the top of the solid block wall.Although Mike couldn’t see any cameras, he felt as though they were being watched.
“You can drive in there.”The boy pointed to what looked like a loading dock with a concrete ramp.“There are always some really cool cars inside there.BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Maserati, I’ve even seen a Lamborghini.”
“We just wanted to know where it is right now,” Jeremy explained as he did a U-turn and left the way they’d come in.“Can you tell us what it looks like inside there?”
“Sure.I’ve been in there lots of times.I ride my bike up the ramp.The door to the girls is off to the left.It’s really tall in there.Where they park the cars is like a warehouse, all black and tall.Where the girls live, it’s like they built this really fancy house inside the building.It looks like a huge Barbie house, all pink and frilly.There’s flowers in the boxes in front of the windows, but they’re all fake.Even though they look like girls are standing there, they aren’t really windows.”Johnny seemed to like the rapt attention of all the adults in the car.
Jeremy turned when he reached the main street.“Go on.”
