Just prior to Christmas I published my second novel. It is available on Kindle. In order to generate interest, I am offering a taste, in the form of the first chapter.
Sam Hendrick’s Last Ride, The UNIT is the second of the series about a narcotics task force operating in Central Texas, in the 90’s. I think it can stand alone. The first novel is called and can be found here, The Unit, Into the Briar Patch – Kindle edition by Battaglia, Paul. Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.
However, for those that insist, a little back story. Amy Hopkins is sitting in the federal lock-up awaiting trial. She doesn’t like it there. Amy has a history with the narcs in the UNIT. She was a co-conspirator with Sam Hendricks before it turned out that he was Chris Gentry undercover cop. Amy was the recipient of the first search warrant executed by the UNIT. A year later the guys from the UNIT were back. She was amazed at how much they had learned in the interim. Now she is looking at ten years in a federal prison.
Escape is not likely. All she can do is in the parlance of the United States Attorney, accept responsibility for her actions and provide substantial assistance to the government. This in hopes, that the government will depart (downward) from the sentencing guidelines and give her a break. Amy has a secret that she is willing to share with her old buddy Sam Hendricks.
So, begins an investigative journey into Chris Gentry’s past into the present day. Amy’s revelations aren’t the only game in town. EWayne and his crew are after crack dealers that are, in effect, terrorizing the African American community. Pete and Doug are busy following Chief Thorpe’s orders. Can you say C-130? Buck is playing social secretary for Gentry: How does a week from Friday sound for a hit?
It’s just another day at the office.
The Girl, the Ecstasy, and the Magical Mystery Tour
Hopkins, Saenz, Sepulveda and Gideon you’re all on the court chain tomorrow, shower at five A.M.” The corrections officer (CO) checked her clipboard and decided she didn’t have anything to add.
Amy went back to her magazine. That’s okay she thought. She was a little concerned about how the authorities engineered a meeting. The inmates had nothing better to do, than gossip. When it came to gossip some of the CO’s were the worst. The CO just announced to all that cared to listen that the four named individuals were being transferred to the courthouse the next morning. They would be given extra time to shower and do their hair. With three District Courts and two magistrate courts in operation, it would be easy to explain why the four didn’t stay together once they hit the United States Marshal’s holding cells in the courthouse.
The problem facing Amy is she knew she didn’t have court. She did have a meeting with Chris Gentry, the United States Attorney and probably some of Chris’s investigators. She intended to give up whatever information she could. She wanted to get out from under her current charges. If not free and clear, she would at least get her time down to something she could do. She really didn’t want her “pod mates” to learn of her hobby. Snitch was not a socially acceptable occupation.
Gentry and his investigators were from a narcotics task force known as the Undercover Narcotics Interdiction Team, shortened to the UNIT. It was an inside joke; team members said the name demonstrated the ignorance of police bureaucrats. Undercover was an investigative technique, not a job description. Many of the illegal substances they chased were not narcotics, but controlled substances and dangerous drugs. Team was the ultimate irony. Most of them were relegated to the UNIT because they were perceived as not being team players. Their attitude was call us anything, just get out of the way.
Five A.M. and the four were in the showers. Not only was there institutional soap but travel size packets of shampoo and separate packets of conditioner, a luxury they weren’t allowed on normal bath days. Everybody got fresh jail outfits. These resembled surgical scrubs only with no tailoring and of a cheaper material. The wearer did a pretty good imitation of a sack of potatoes.
Then it was down to transport. A thorough search, a quick perusal of court paperwork and a check of leg irons, with a chain run up to the belly chains and finally handcuffs. They were loaded into a fifteen-passenger van for the five-minute drive to the courthouse.
At the Marshal’s office two of the girls got “going to court clothes.” If their attorneys were on the ball, there might even be makeup. Sepulveda got going to court clothes and makeup to go with it. She shared some blush with Amy so at least she had a little color in her cheeks. Pasty white is what comes with the jail diet and two weeks without the sun. Pretty soon the three others were on their way to District Court.
Amy waited an hour before she saw Jesse standing in the bullpen outside the lockup. He was standing with a guy in a suit and a haircut only a Marine could love. The Deputy Marshall called her name. Jesse and the Marine met her outside the lockup. She was introduced to Assistant United States Attorney Jacobs. They walked to a bank of elevators, passed up one that had passengers and took the next empty elevator. The men stepped aside to let the lady board first. This was not courtesy, once inside she was directed to walk to the back of the car and place her nose in the corner. She found out that this was the only acceptable way for a prisoner to ride an elevator. The trip was short, one floor; they ended up in a large room with two long tables.
The room was used on the third Thursday of every month as the Grand Jury meeting room. The rest of the time it was vacant. This made it ideal as a meeting place for cops, prosecutors, defendants, and their attorneys. The room was a windowless space located in a central portion of the courthouse. There was a running joke about the room.
The Federal Courthouse in San Antonio is a round building, the outer walls are glass. Behind the glass walls are offices. The air conditioning was cranked up to maximum to keep the offices habitable. The result is that the temperature in the Grand Jury room approximated the environment found in an average meat locker.
Her attorney Homer Gaston, Chris Gentry and Robert were already seated and chatting amicably. The Deputy Marshal removed the shackles and belly chain but left the handcuffs in place. He also elicited a promise that nobody would feed the prisoner, although water was acceptable. With that, he was gone.
Gaston asked for a few moments with his client. So, the narcs and AUSA left the room but kept the door open so they could truthfully say the prisoner was never left unsupervised. After several minutes Gaston waived everybody back into the room.
Gaston started off jockeying for position, “I’ve advised my client that I’m ready for trial and there are one or two issues where we may prevail, but even if we did there is no guarantee that she would be acquitted. I also told her that the government has a strong case, and it is just as likely that it will prevail. I explained the damned guidelines to her and the consequences. If she goes to trial and loses, she will be sentenced based on a guideline score. It is entirely unreasonable. But she would probably be looking at a sentence of more than 240 months. If she were to agree to cooperate with the government and provide information, she would be sentenced based on a guideline score probably calculated at less than half of the upper score. In that case, she might be looking at 120 months. It could be even less at your discretion. Mr. Jacobs, I told Amy you could be unreasonable, but I would trust my life to you, based on your word. Ms. Hopkins apparently holds the same high opinion of Commander Gentry. With that I’m done, I believe I’ll take a nap. Young fellas,” Gaston looked over at Robert, “If I start to snore just give me a rap on the forearm.” Gaston sank back in his chair and motioned to Amy.
Amy started off by addressing Robert and Jesse, “Robert, Jesse I didn’t mean to cut you out or imply you can’t handle anything that comes your way when I insisted on Chris being here. In fact, I’m not sure he’s got the stroke to pull this off, but I figured he’d know who would.”
Robert Gamez and Jesse Rodriquez were the case agents responsible for Amy’s predicament. They busted her for running an indoor marijuana grow, located in a convent. Amy was part leader organizer of five marijuana grow operations and part mad scientist. She was responsible for the new and exotic strains of marijuana being grown. Chris Gentry the Commander of the UNIT and the boss of Jesse and Robert knew Amy at another time and place.
Amy continued, “I can order half a million hits of ecstasy, delivery in forty-eight to seventy-two hours, upfront costs are first class airfare from Amsterdam and $10,000.”
“What’s the unit price?” asked Chris.
“I don’t know, it changes daily. I can get a quote and commitment, by Internet. In fact, the whole transaction can be done on the computer. The manufacturer is in the Netherlands and distribution is controlled by Israelis. There are competing organizations based in Viet Nam and Thailand. I get the feeling that competing is not the right term because they cooperate but are independent of one another. I have dealt with both, but mostly the Israelis,” said Amy.
“Start at the beginning,” said Chris, “How you got hooked up, how many times you’ve dealt with them, how each deal went down.”
“Here now,” Gaston roused himself.
“Before we get too involved, this might be a good time for a word from our sponsor,” said Jacobs. “This is the opening session where Ms. Amy Hopkins, a defendant in the Western District of Texas, San Antonio Division has voiced her desire to cooperate with the government by pleading guilty to select charges against her and accepting responsibility for her actions. This saves the government the expense of a trial. In exchange, Ms. Hopkins is in hopes that this will lead to a reduction in her sentence. It sounds like to me you intend to cooperate and provide new information, is that true? No promises are made at the outset and the final decision is up to the judge, with input from the United States Attorney.”
“Yes, sir I will take or if you prefer, I do take full responsibility for the marijuana growing operation for which I was arrested. I will also detail my knowledge of an entirely different organization, unknown to the government,” said Amy.
“Additionally, Ms. Hopkins is aware that a criminal defendant who supplies “substantial assistance” to the government leading to the arrest and conviction of additional defendants may be eligible for an additional downward departure at the government discretion. The government rewards truthful information. It also punishes when information provided proves to be less than truthful, misleading, or self-serving. If you don’t lie or abrogate your agreement with the government in other ways, anything you say will not be used against you,” said Jacobs.
“That’s better,” Gaston settled down.
“It’s obvious this is going to take more than one session. Is any of what you got to say critical because of time constraints?” Asked Gentry.
“No, I control the pace,” said Amy.
“Let’s nail down the marijuana business. That way you get a feel for how we operate, what we need and like that. It may help later when we get further afield,” said Chris.
“Chris, you know some of this already so I’m not going to dwell on it,” said Amy. “I got involved in the marijuana grow business about six years ago with my husband, now deceased, the Devils Scalawags, and a guy I knew as Sam Hendricks, who is here today as Chris Gentry. Between Terry Gibbons my husband, Chris and myself we turned marijuana growing around. We improved the methods and the quality of the dope. This was done either by turning out Sinsemilla which is basically a growing technique or by genetically manipulating the plants. That is by breeding in desirable qualities and breeding out undesirable qualities. Chris was interested in production, setting up the perfect environment. My husband and I along with a third person were interested in the genetics. As far as I know, Chris was unaware that this third person existed.
“The third person, named Eugene “Gene” Weiss lived in Austin, attended UT and maintained his own grow there. Gene is from a wealthy family. His dad is a Dentist who owned a chain of dental clinics. He also was successful in real estate speculation. Gene thought he spotted police surveillance near his grow operation. He walked away from the location and never went back. He lost his equipment, and the grow. He decided to leave Austin. At the end of the semester, he enrolled and went off to Israel.
“Gene finished college and graduated. Since he is Jewish, he had the right of return. He applied for Israeli citizenship. He miscalculated in one respect because he was immediately drafted. This cut into his dope research. Gene discovered that things are a little looser in Europe and the Middle East.
“He started cooking speed when he was in the military. There were no restrictions on precursor chemicals and soon he was churning out two pounds of crank a weekend and working one weekend a month. He then discovered that if the speed profit was outrageous, the profit on Ecstasy was indescribable.
“Gene has never been interested in the distribution end of things, at least from the standpoint of lining up buyers and maintaining a distribution network. He didn’t want to meet people. He reasoned that he was most vulnerable when entering the marketplace. So, from that standpoint, he regarded “dope” as a liability the moment it was cooked. It was a way to get cash and sitting on the shelf waiting for the ideal price wasn’t making money.
“Gene moved the manufacturing operation to the Netherlands so that he was closer to the marketplace. I suspect the nucleus of his distribution group came from Israel. I have always wondered about the diamond markets and cutting centers located in Holland. On two occasions I have purchased raw diamonds from merchants in Holland as payment for an Ecstasy order.” Amy paused, shook her head and said, “That’s just my opinion. When I purchased the diamonds there was never any indication from anybody that I was doing anything other than putting together a diamond transaction between importer, cutter, and wholesaler.”
“Let’s get back to the marijuana growing,” said Gentry.
“One more side trip and then I’m there,” said Hopkins. “My husband was killed, my house burned down, and I lost everything in a war between factions of the Devils Scalawags. Shortly afterward, Chris busted out on his undercover operation against the Devils Scalawags. He really did a number on the organization. I should have been one of those indicted, but it didn’t happen. Those Devils Scalawags still on the ground were doing damage control and looking for snitches. I could see it was only a matter of time before they settled on me. I called Gene, and three days later I was in Europe.
“I came back from Europe and moved to Solms County about a year before you popped me, the first time. I bought the house on the hill and just hung out and tried to figure out, what next. I was bored, and all anybody had to sell was Mexican weed. I got some good seed stock and figured to play around for myself, maybe teach a couple of folks so I would have a source of supply. But I wasn’t going back into the business, right.
“You know the pretrial people want to sign me up for drug treatment, they’re pretty insistent. I keep telling them I don’t need treatment. I might smoke half a joint by myself in a week. Maybe twice a month I’d turn on with a couple of old friends after dinner. I don’t do ecstasy, cocaine, speed or anything else on the abuse hit parade. I like a glass of good wine at dinner, but that’s it.
“Like anybody else I like my ego stroked. It’s nice to be acknowledged for my brains and achievements. The only thing I’m good at is growing weed, researching different types, and developing new strains via a variety of methods and then nurturing the seedling to maturity. Four out of five new strains of marijuana I reject, but then one comes along and wow. People can’t get enough, and they speculate and wonder who did this, where did this come from? And I’m the only one that knows. That’s quite an ego boost. How do you treat that?
“Next thing you know I have four or five strains of marijuana. I have created a demand that I can’t fill on my own, and that’s the start of your basic conspiracy. It wasn’t hard to find some old heads back in the cedar breaks. I had to teach them and help them set up for indoor grows. We were going to go with an indoor nursery, outdoor growth and then back under the lights for the final few weeks. I heard about Delbert and Gardner. I looked at them in action as they prowled the bars at happy hour, both of them made a run at me separately and together, but they weren’t talking dope deal. I told Josh Brown to make a run at Delbert about the electricity, but I never talked to them. As to the nuns, well we can blame that on Jesse. He’s the one that got me hooked up,” said Amy.
Amy was watching her opponents as she spoke. Jacobs sat back in his chair a leather encased legal pad in front of him accompanied by a Mount Blanc pen. It had not seen any action. Gentry was directly in front of her. Of course, some of her history was his. He didn’t need to take notes. Robert sat to Gentry’s right, he too was equipped with a steno notebook and a pen. Finally, Jesse was just outside her normal vision; he was on the same side of the table as Amy but hidden by the bulk of her attorney. Every time she glanced in Jesse’s direction his head was down, and he was writing. Even when she wasn’t looking, she could hear him flipping pages.
“I needed to come up with some community service and got set up with the hospice program run by the Sisters. Wasn’t long before I heard they were playing with weed. I had a couple of conversations with the boss, Sister Mary Margret. I laid out what I could do and what I wanted for doing it. She knew damn well how the division of product and profit was going to fall out and went into it with her eyes wide open. The other nuns were basically slave labor. They did what they were told to do. I’ve pretty much covered the marijuana grows. I was the leader, organizer.”
“Do you have any assets that we don’t know about?” asked Jacobs.
“Yup, one you’re gonna hear about and the other you’re out of luck.” Amy looked down drew her hands into her lap and drew into herself. She hadn’t come into this meeting with the belief that they would let her get out on bond, but the longer she talked, the more she started to think it was possible. Her audience was attentive but had done nothing to encourage that belief. Maybe it was the hope of a quid pro quo. She had dumped out a whole range of secrets, gone against her naturally secretive nature with nothing but the most nebulous of promises in return. At the same time, she knew this was just the ante, the price to get into the game.
If it was a game of strip poker, she was sitting in front of them naked, and they had yet to throw a sock into the pot. She looked out at them; Jacobs acted like he had seen better, Chris gazed at her in frank appraisal, Robert appeared embarrassed for her situation and Jesse appeared to be doing an inventory. Her attorney was watching with eyes half closed, unconcerned and half asleep, but she got his message, it’s on you, I can’t help, you must close the deal yourself.
“I did very well when I was in Europe. I don’t have to work another day in my life. I don’t need to grow dope or sell ecstasy. I won’t give that money up. I’m an American, not a European. Been that route, I prefer the U.S. I am not going to live the rest of my life as a fugitive. I want to be free and clear of this situation, and I don’t want to have to look over my shoulder. Let me work this under the task force supervision. You get a major European distribution organization and to prove I’m serious, a safe deposit box containing substantial assets and documents dealing with the Devils Scalawags. Don’t say anything now, hit the safety deposit box”.
Gentry stirred, picked up a pen for the first time. “Whose box, is it?”
“You get right down to it, mine. I rented it. I’ve been paying the rent all these years. Remember, Denny Daniels, DD, the club Sergeant at Arms? He’s the one that I dealt with,” said Amy. “DD never had an original thought in his life. It was obvious that he was acting under instructions. He couldn’t answer questions about the contents. If he was acting for himself, he could have. The National Vice President, Lloyd, owned DD and that is who I’d figure he was acting for.”
“Makes sense, that’d be my choice,” said Chris.
“Except I made a veiled reference about the box to Lloyd, and he didn’t react. Didn’t know what I was talking about. When he started questioning me, I acted like I was talking about a cardboard box with stuff in it and he immediately lost interest.”
“So not Lloyd,” said Chris.
“My second place would be ‘Snake’ the Nomad, said Amy. Way back when, Snake and DD started in the same Chapter. They got patched on the same run. Snake went Nomad, and people forgot where he came from. Snake was supposedly tight with the President of the Atlanta Chapter. Nobody in the Atlanta Chapter ever had anything good to say about Lloyd. Shortly after you busted out, Snake fell off his scooter. The load of double 00 buck might have helped. If that didn’t do it, those two eighteen wheelers that ran over the body did. Everybody goes to prison, and the Atlanta Chapter President ends up being the national President. The guy that put the package together can’t find it because Snake is dead. The guy who hid the package, DD, doesn’t realize the significance of the package because Snake was a cutout. I’ve got it and had no use for it, until now. If I’m right and the contents become public and there is actionable information, then the last place I wanna be is underground. So, this is a no strings, last tag it’s yours. Jesse, did you take everything in the safe?”
“Yeah, still got it too,” Jesse said.
“In the safe, there was a receipt to an Elsa Jane Baumgard, from First National Bank of Thornton. There is no box number on the receipt, it was torn off. There is also a money order receipt to Elsa Jane Baumgard there are two numbers on the back of the receipt those are the box numbers. There are two, they are side by each in the vault, biggest boxes they had available. I don’t know what I put in there. One was the size of bound ledgers wrapped and taped in brown paper, a second wrapped the same way only it flexed in the middle. The third was thicker than the second. The fourth was about four inches and felt like paper, wrapped and taped. I can give you consent, but I’d prefer a search warrant for cover. That’s it, maybe next time we meet everybody will have a better idea of where we are going. Thanks for your time. I want to make this work.”
“Mr. Gaston, do you want a moment with your client?” asked Gentry.
As before the cops and Jacobs moved to the doorway to give them some privacy. As Gaston and Amy got up and walked to the door, he said, “I believe I’ll leave Ya’ll here, sounds like you got some talking to do. I’m in court in the morning, but I’ll be in the office all afternoon.”
Handshakes all around with an assurance from Jacobs that he would call the next afternoon, Jesse secured an elevator and Amy dutifully walked to the back corner. The Marshals were happy to get one of their charges back. The Narcs cleared the office without any lengthy goodbyes.