Free Gamma Blade by Tim Stevens Page B

Cautious, growing his business organically. He’s still considered small fry by the MPD. But I know this guy’s going to be massive. He’s smart. Ambitious. And he’s going to pull something off. A coup, that will catapult him into the top echelons of the Miami underworld.”
    “Why’d you guess he was the one I encountered?” said Venn.
    Estrada paused, her expression wary again.
    “Venn,” she said. “One last time. You’re who you say you are? A weekend tripper, here with your doctor girlfriend? You’re not here to dip your New York stick into our particular pot of shit and give it a stir?”
    “I’m not even going to answer that again.”
    “Okay.” She began gripping her hands together again, squeezing the fingers together. “For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been waiting for Brull to make a move. In what way, exactly, I don’t know. But the intelligence that’s been coming in - low-level informants, undercover cops, so forth - has suggested his area of interest concerns the waterfront. That isn’t exactly unusual, of course. Most of the gangs here have some connection with the sea. Drugs, mostly. Gunrunning, also. But Brull’s focus seems to be on the marina, specifically. The wealthier end of the spectrum.”
    “Drugs and guns involve rich people, too,” Venn pointed out.
    “Yeah. So that may be what Brull’s business is all about. Still, I’ve been watching the marina for a couple weeks now, like I said.” Estrada paused again. “Tonight, you saw those guys lined up along the pier. Then some stranger gets knocked out cold, and when you give chase, another guy pulls a gun on you and toys with you a little, before deciding not to kill you. You describe this guy as at least a little educated, and obviously smart enough not to shoot a cop. That fits Brull. Fits a lot of other guys, too, but still.”
    Venn thought about it. “That boat the men on the pier were watching,” he said.
    “The Merry May . I’ve checked it out. It belongs to an Irishman named Paul O’Reilly. He owns a small boat rental firm on the marina. The kind of business that caters to folks who aren’t really sailing enthusiasts but want to try their hand at it, just so they can say they’ve done it.”
    “Is he clean?” asked Venn.
    Estrada said, “Far as I can tell. No record, locally or with the Feds. This O’Reilly seems to be a fairly wealthy sailor who runs his business as a sideline, to keep his income topped up, but mostly because he just enjoys the whole marina atmosphere.”
    “You talk to him yet?” Venn suspected she hadn’t, because she wouldn’t have had time before coming to the hospital.
    Estrada shook her head. “He’s out of town. The patrol guys spoke to the staff on his yacht, and he’s gone up to Orlando. We’ve notified him, asked him to come back down so we can ask him a few questions.”
    A dead end , Venn thought. He said, “What about the guy who got his lights knocked out? The one here in hospital? Any idea who he is?”
    “No. Apart from his driving license, we have nothing on James Harris. But we’ll need to start on him the moment he wakes up, of course. And if he wasn’t just an innocent bystander, if he was watching the men watching the boat, then maybe he saw something important.”
    “Which means this Brull guy, if that’s who he was, will also be looking for him.”
    “Right,” said Estrada. “I’ve got two undercover cops on standby, to be near him on whichever  ward he’s admitted to. No uniforms. I don’t want a deterrent. I want to catch Brull’s people if they make a move on Harris.”
    Venn studied Estrada some more. He said, “You’re sharing a lot of information with me, Lieutenant. You want me in on this?”
    She said, “You want in on it, I’m assuming. The guy put a gun to your head.”
    “Yeah.” The memory played itself back through Venn’s mind, like a recollection of a bad dream. He realized his fists were clenched on his thighs, and he