Read Online M.I.A. Hunter: Miami War Zone by Stephen Mertz - Free Book Online Page A

cover up their objective. I'd bet everyone in that club had a record. The police will never figure out exactly who was being hit."
    "Not everyone had a record," Carol said, smiling.
    "Not the same kind, at least," Stone agreed.
    "And the hit team couldn't have known that you would be there. So that eliminates one target. If they had known they might not even have gone in."
    "Probably not, considering the outcome."
    "And what was it that Rodriguez said before he was killed?"
    "He asked if we were from the don. He said something like, 'We delivered, didn't we?'"
    "Delivered what?" Carol brushed her hair back with a hand.
    "Dope? Guns? Money?"
    "Or a hostage."
    Stone thought about it. "You could be right. That could be our connection. They delivered Jack to the don. I don't know how they spotted him, but they could have done it."
    Carol said, "Remember, they'd been bragging about being in solid with Don Vito earlier."
    "Then the don didn't have them hit."
    "Why not?" Carol wanted to know. "They were talking too much, letting the word get around about their 'good buddy,' the don. Loose talk like that can get you killed."
    Stone nodded in agreement, but he still wasn't satisfied. "It's possible, but I don't see it that way. It's more likely that someone else was behind it. Maybe it was a punishment for talking too much, or maybe it was a punishment for being on the wrong side."
    "The Cuban drug dealers?"
    "Right. Castillo and Rodriguez talked too much and to the wrong people. How long do you think it would take that information to get back to their leader? What was his name again?"
    "Enrique Feliz . Of course. If he found out that his own men had sold out to the don, he wouldn't hesitate to eliminate them."
    "It doesn't really matter," Stone told her. "Not now, at any rate. It would just strengthen what we already believe. So our next visit should be to Don Vito Lucci . What have you got on him?"
    Carol sat at a keyboard. "Miami Organized Crime should have plenty." Her fingers played over the keys.
    In only seconds, letters began to appear on the monitor screen. "Here's the address," Carol said. "It's in Coral Gables, one of the 'old Miami' neighborhoods. I'll bet his neighbors have no idea who's living next door to them."
    She punched more keys. A floor plan began to appear. "He lives in an old mansion that's been renovated. This plan hasn't been updated, and it doesn't say anything about the security systems, but you can see the arrangement of the house and grounds."
    "Print that out," Stone said.
    While they were waiting for the hard copy, another printer in the room began spewing dot-matrix letters onto paper. Carol got up to see what new intel was coming in.
    "My God," she said after reading a few lines.
    Stone looked over her shoulder. "Damn," he swore.
    The printer was telling them about a shooting war in progress, or just ending, with drug dealers dying all over the place on the other side of the city.
    "People dying by the truckload," Stone grunted. "First the shooting at the club, and now this. The police must be going nuts."
    "Almost like a war," Carol said.
    "There aren't any good guys or bad guys in this war, though," Stone told her. "Apparently a fight broke out at a drug deal, and both sides started firing. I don't much care if they kill each other off in a battle like that."
    "Of course not," Carol said. "But this is really going to put the pressure on. The press, the politicians, everybody will be on the backs of the police, demanding that something be done."
    "Which will restrict our freedom of movement even more," Stone said. "We've got to act now. Let me look at those plans."
    He moved to the printout of the house plan. "Bedrooms don't move around much. They stay next to baths, so whatever changes have been made, probably the master bedroom is still in the same place."
    He looked at the plan. "Second floor right. We can expect that the don will have pretty good security, but not as heavy as it might have been in