Chiron Academy

Chapter 30: Dropping a Football Out of Plane

"How was your flight?" Lt. Davis said. "You look out of breath."

The man was leaning up against a car in the small parking lot behind the police station. Judging from the variety of models, Wyatt assume that this was where the officers' personal cars were parked. The lieutenant had the collar of his thick winter coat pulled up to block the wind that was blowing through. It was only a weaker version of the wind Wyatt had been fighting the whole trip over. His red cheeks could barely feel the wind as it was on the ground. It practically felt like a vacation.

Cold. Windy. Stressful, Wyatt thought to himself.

"Fine," he answered between gulps of air.

"I guess I forget how easy cars make it," Lt. Davis said. "You just hop in the car and crank the heater and might as well not even be winter anymore."

He reached out his hand and handed Wyatt a steaming mug. Judging from the smell, it was coffee.

Wyatt winced as he took a drink of the sludge from the mug. It was so acidic it felt like the contents were trying to digest him.

"No need to be stoic. It's awful, but it is free. And more importantly, it's hot. Thought you might need it."

Wyatt held the mug between his freezer-burned fingers and tried to soak up the warmth.

Still, why could no one make good coffee in this town?

"Why are we not meeting inside?" he asked, changing the subject.

"No offense, but costumed heroes walking around town make small-town cops nervous. I have the captain breathing down my neck about the whole investigation into Palmer Valdez. I think you walking might draw too many eyes to the little investigation we have going on."

"Haven't they changed their minds about the investigation now that we've found them all those drugs?"

Lt. Davis just shook his head and shrugged his shoulders in his big winter coat.

"If only, kid. I managed to get some patrol cars out there to that gas station before they were able to the whole shipment, but the owner made a fuss about a warrant, which they didn't have. By the time they had gotten one and finally got into the garage, Valdez's people had managed to whisk away a good chunk of it to somewhere. Our guys only saw a few pallets of the stuff. Still, it was a pretty substantial amount of product, just not an overwhelming amount of it."

Wyatt felt like he'd been punched in the gut. He'd been waiting by the phone for days for any news, ready at any moment to fly out here to kick the investigation into overdrive, only to find out that the case was practically dead on arrival.

"Sorry, I should have told you," the lieutenant said. "I've spent the last few days tearing my hair out calling any government agency I could think of that has any jurisdiction over Valdez. I didn't want to call you until I had something solid."

The last time Wyatt had spoken with the man, Lt. Davis had been in shock about the shipment of drugs they'd uncovered. And now it was being treated as if it was yesterday's news. 

"So, what?" Wyatt said, trying to follow along. "We catch them red-handed with trucks full of cocaine, and just because we don't have a warrant, it doesn't mean anything?"

"Eh, it happens," Lt. Davis said with a shrug. "It's not that it doesn't mean anything. It just bought the owner and Valdez's people some extra time to stash it somewhere else. That's what warrants are for. It's all that stops the police from raiding indiscriminately looking for signs of crime. People are entitled to some privacy. It's not great that we didn't get the full shipment, but it's not just about that shipment. Drugs come and go. It's about what it indicates. In this instance, it indicates that Valdez can move truckloads of drugs and who knows what else through here without anyone knowing. Who's to say he hasn't done this before? Who is to say he isn't running another through right now? How many shipments of this size or larger has Valdez been running through here with us none the wiser? The thing to worry about is the pipeline. Until you shut down the machinery that moves the drugs, big shipments like this are going to keep coming through.