CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Sally Stillwell parked in a space marked ‘Visitor’ to the left of the entrance to Mesquite Manufacturing, Inc. She and Kincaid got out of the car and walked through the double doors that led into an unpretentious reception area. A young woman who looked to be about eighteen years old dressed in blue jeans and a gray sweatshirt with ‘Cowboys’ stenciled in bright orange was seated at the desk.
Kincaid approached the desk. The young woman looked up, smiled and said, “Hello. Welcome to Mesquite Manufacturing. How can I help y’all today?”
“We’re here to see Mr. Decker,” Kincaid replied.
She picked up the phone that was in front of her on the desk. “Yes, sir. He’s in. Who can I tell him is here?” she asked.
“Harry Kincaid and Sally Stillwell. General Hastings sent us.” Harry watched closely to see if the mention of Hastings’ name brought any reaction. It didn’t.
“Yes, sir. One second,” she said. She pushed a button on the phone, paused, then said, “There’s a Mr. Kincaid and Ms. Stillwell here to see you, Sluggo.” Another pause. “Okay, I’ll tell them.” She looked up at Kincaid as she hung up the phone. “He’ll be out here in just a moment.”
In less than a minute the door on the left wall that led from the reception area opened. Harry and Sally turned toward the door in time to see Sluggo Decker coming through it.
“Geez,” gasped Sally, under her breath.
John ‘Sluggo’ Decker had to lower his head to keep from scrapping the door frame when he passed through it. He was a mountain of a man, standing six feet nine inches and weighing just over three hundred pounds. He was wearing khakis, a denim work shirt and a pleasant smile on his face.
“Hello, Kincaid,” he said. “Lawson told me I might be seeing you out here.” Sluggo offered his hand. “Have we met before?”
Harry shook Decker’s hand, noticing that it completely enfolded his. “I’m sure we have not, Sluggo. I definitely would have remembered you. But I do know that you procured some .45 caliber ammunition for me once over in Injun Country. You wouldn’t remember it.” Harry placed his arm behind Sally gently moving her forward. “Say hello to Sally Stillwell. She’s your boss’s attorney.”
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Decker,” Sally said.
“Ah, please,” he replied, “everyone calls me ‘Sluggo.’ “Got tagged with that name when I was a kid and it stuck like flypaper. Come on back to my office.” He turned and held the door for Sally, then Harry to go through. He ducked, and followed them. “End of the hall, down there,” he said.
The plastic engraved sign on the wall beside the door read, ‘J. Decker.’ Inside, there was an inexpensive wood paneling running halfway up the wall to a chair rail. The beige paint above it was home to a number of product posters featuring several firearms that were made by the company. A rectangular conference table occupied the area in front of the door and a large white board hung on the wall facing the table. There were several drawings on the board that appeared to be designs of a hand gun. A steel desk with a laminate top occupied the other end of the room and was backed by a single bookcase that held a number of loose leaf binders. The desk was piled high with various papers, catalogs, and unopened mail. There were also two hand guns perched on one of the piles of papers. If it is true that an empty desk is the sign of an empty mind, then Sluggo Decker’s mind was Grand Central Station at rush hour.
“Please,” he motioned toward the conference table, “have a seat.”
“We just left Hastings down in Oklahoma City,” Harry said. “We’ve got some work to do and it needs to be done quickly, Sluggo.”
“Let’s roll,” he replied. “I’m all ears.”
“Okay,” Harry said. “First, let me say that our firm has been pulled into this by the Director of Central Intelligence because the shipment of guns that you guys shipped to Mexico seems to have fallen into the wrong hands. We’ve been tasked to locate them, and find out how they got where they are.”
“Well, as far as we are concerned, the units were shipped to the Sonora Militia. That was approved by the Feds and that’s where we shipped them,” Sluggo replied.
“No question about that,” Harry said. “You guys did nothing wrong. But you might know that the guy who concluded the deal for you, Pete Von Karmenn, supposedly got fire bombed in the middle of the night in his hotel room. Then when the guns arrived, they got diverted to the Sinaloa Cartel.”
“Pete?” Sluggo moved his chair closer to the table. “I heard that Hastings had hired Pete at his consulting company. I didn’t know he was involved in this deal though. I served with Pete in Afghanistan. Great guy.” Sluggo shook his head as if trying to erase the story. “I hate to hear that.”
“Well, the good news is that Pete had swapped rooms. He’s been laying low down there trying to find out who tried to kill him. He’s close to an answer, too,” Harry explained.
“Oh, wow,” said Sluggo. “That’s good.”
Harry continued. “Now, there is something more pressing. And this is where we need to move quickly. Hastings got a call yesterday from a Rafael Carmello. Carmello is with Sinaloa. He as much as told Hastings that they killed that woman… Hastings’ mistress.” Harry watched for a reaction from Sluggo.
Sluggo shook his head and mumbled, “Damn. Stupid.”
“Carmello threatened Mrs. Hastings,” Harry said. “Said the same thing could happen to her if Hastings refused to sell him more of your MX21s. Hastings was to call this Captain Lopez in Sonora today. He’s the corrupt S.O.B. who deals with this Carmello. He’s also the same guy that you, Mesquite, that is, dealt with on that last sale. Von Karmenn worked with another guy once he got there. He never met Lopez. But, what this boils down to is, we need to set up a deal with these guys… today. I’ll pose as Hastings’ rep and arrange a meet down there.” Harry paused to look over at Sally. She was looking at Harry with eyes that betrayed her astonishment at what she was hearing. Harry said to her, “You aren’t hearing any of this, Sally.”
She looked back and blinking her eyes, shook her head ‘yes,’ then, more vigorously, ‘no.’
Harry looked back at Sluggo. “Once I get down there, I’m going to try and figure out what this is all about… where these guns are going. I’m also going to try and deal the guns for the name of whoever killed the woman last week.”
Sluggo looked back at Harry. After a long minute he said, “That woman’s name was Diana Ricci. Hastings brought her up here a couple of times. He made up some cock and bull story about who she was, but it was pretty clear what was going on. She was a nice gal.” Again he shook his head, “I hated to hear about her death. She didn’t buy into this.”
Harry nodded. He watched Sluggo get up and go over to his desk. He picked up the two hand guns and returned to the table and set them down in front of his two guests.
“This is the MX21,” he said.
Kincaid picked up one, and Sally picked up the other. Harry watched with a surprised look as Sally slid the action open and checked to ensure it wasn’t loaded. She pressed the release to eject the magazine. Clearly, she was not new to hand guns.”
“You look pretty adept with that, there, Mrs. Stillwell,” Sluggo said.
“I am,” she admitted. “My father taught my sister and me how to shoot as soon as we were strong enough to hold a gun. Hand guns, rifles, shot guns… you name it. He made sure his girls were comfortable with firearms.” She winked at Kincaid, “It’s the American way,” she said.
Harry looked back at Sluggo. “It’s lighter than I expected. Very nice,” he said.
Sluggo held out his hand and Harry placed the weapon in it. Sluggo broke it down in pieces. Within seconds, he had it completely torn apart, field stripped, the components spread across the table top.” He picked up the firing mechanism and held it up between his finger and thumb. “This,” he said, is what makes this weapon unique.
Harry took the piece from him. “Is this the ceramic that I’ve heard about?”
> “Yup. Stronger than steel,” Decker said. “But, it is completely invisible to x-ray or any of the other known detectors. The rest of the body is composite, and it is too. The real attraction to this weapon, Harry, is that it can easily be smuggled onto an airplane, or through security screeners at most any checkpoint.”
“You know what our fear is don’t you, Sluggo?” Harry asked.
“I’m afraid I do,” he answered.
“Well I don’t,” Sally said.
Harry looked at her. “Sinaloa has been known to work closely with Islamic extremists. We know that they have used their channels to smuggle some of the jihadists across our southern border.”
“And you think they may be selling them these weapons?” she asked.
“Bingo,” he said.
“You mentioned that you need to make a call?” asked Sluggo.
“No time like the present,” said Harry. “I just had to get up here and make sure we are on the same page. If this all works like I hope, you won’t be making any shipments. But, still, you clearly need to be in the loop.”
Harry removed his cell phone. He looked at Decker and said, “I need for you to pull your record on that last deal and give me the phone number for the Sonora Militia.”
“Sure,” said Sluggo. He got up from the table and walked over to his desk. After rifling around through the mountain of paper, he pulled one sheet and looked at it closely. He returned to the table and handed it to Harry. “Here’s the order. The phone number is there at the top.”
Harry took the paper and found the number. He motioned toward the telephone at the end of the table. “May I?” he asked.
“Help yourself,” said Sluggo.
Harry punched in the country code for Mexico followed by the number listed on the order form. When the call was answered, Harry spoke is perfect Spanish. “Captain Juan Luis Lopez, please,” he asked. After a short pause, he said, “Harry Kincaid. I am calling on behalf of General Jack Hastings from Mesquite Manufacturing.” He waited another moment. Then, “Captain Lopez, my name is Harry Kincaid. I work for General Jack Hastings. I have been asked by him to call you and set up a meeting with Rafael Carmello. I assume you know what this concerns.”
Sluggo and Sally sat transfixed, intent on Harry’s conversation.
“Yes,” Harry continued. “I am prepared to meet with him in Hermosillo, if necessary.” Again a pause. Then, “Yes, Thursday it is. I will call you to confirm a time and place that morning. Yes. Fine. I will see you then.” Harry hung up the phone and stood.
“Hmm,” said Sluggo. “That seemed easy.” Sluggo and Sally both stood.
“Mind if I take one of these along with me?” Harry said, picking up the pistol that was still intact.
Sluggo grinned, “I guess our sales rep needs a sample of our product, huh?”
“Thanks for your help, Sluggo,” Harry began moving toward the door. Sluggo escorted them out to the reception area.
“It was good to meet you, Kincaid,” Sluggo said. “I’ve heard a lot about you. I guess I’m about to find out if any of it was true.”
It was not until they turned onto I-35 heading south, back to Oklahoma City, that Sally said anything. She looked over at Harry and said, “I don’t know what I was expecting when I agreed to come up here with you. But that wasn’t it.”
“Just remember, Sally,” he said, “You didn’t hear a thing. I wanted you to know that a big part of this plan is to find out who it was the killed Diana Ricci. Hastings may have some shortcomings, but he’s not a murderer.” He paused. “Generals aren’t known to do any dirty work. Some aren’t known for any work at all,” he said with a wink.
“I agree,” she said. She was quiet for a moment then said. “Oceanic Import-Export. I guess this is what you guys do? Arrange buyers and sellers?”
Harry retreated into ‘ambiguous mode.’ “Well, yeah. This is kind of an oddity. We don’t normally deal with bad guys.”
She turned to look at him while keeping an eye on the road. “Somehow, I’m not sure I believe that,” she said.
“No. Really. This assignment just kind of fell in our lap.”
“And, Bobby? Does he do the same things that you do?” she asked.
Harry could see right through that question. Sally Stillwell wasn’t going to want her little sister falling in love with a man with a dangerous career. “Aw, no,” Harry answered. “Bobby is a paper pusher. I do most of the field work.”
“Oh,” she said. His answer seemed to satisfy her.
A moment later, his cell phone rang. He checked the caller I.D., then answered, “Speak.”
“Kincaid, it’s Pete.” Von Karmenn’s call was earlier than Harry had expected.
“Yeah, man,” Harry said. “What did you find out? Did your guy come through for you?”
“Yeah, he did,” Pete answered. “This guy el Lobo is a guy named Rafael Carmello. He’s a…”
“I know him, Pete. That checks out with what we’ve found out, too. Look, I’ve got a meet set up with him and this guy Lopez on Thursday. Can I hook up with you tomorrow? I think we need to develop a plan.”
“Yeah, good. Look, here’s my cell number. Just call me directly when you get here,” Pete rattled off his ten digit number.
“Got it. I look forward to seeing you, Pete.”
Harry smiled and looked over at Sally. “All set,” he said.