Garvey's Revenge

Chapter 12

Two days later, Matt held a meeting in the conference room in the basement of the station with his deputies.

Matt only had five deputies. Normally, that would be fine for a small town with the occasional disturbances, but for a murder investigation - it was going to be tight.

"Okay, men, I have a strong lead in the Jetsen case." Matt pointed to a mug shot he had taped on the whiteboard. "This is Darren Josiah Jones, goes by the nickname D.J. This is a mug shot of him from two years ago. He was arrested for obstruction of justice. He got one year of community service. According to my sources, he was Joe's supplier." Matt moved his finger down to the mug shot under D.J.'s. "This is his cousin, Dexter Jones, goes by Dex. This mug shot was from an arrest a year ago. He was busted for running a dog fighting ring. Dex is the enforcer to D.J.'s business. Dex has been arrested twice before for assault and battery. Both times the judge found it to be self-defense, so Dex got off with a slap on the wrist. Rumor has it that he was such a good street fighter that a trainer took an interest in him and trained Dex to be a boxer. We have to be careful with him."

The men followed along with the files that had been passed out to them.

"These guys are considered suspects. We need to apprehend them in our town. I suspect that there are members of the Phoenix PD that are on the Joneses payroll, so I don't want to tip off any informants that we want them. We'll have to organize a sting in the town limits."

The men's eyes widened.

"I know. I don't want to bring in a bad element, but this is the only way to get them dead to rights. We'll lure them with the promise of a big drug buy at the old sawmill. The sawmill is far away from civilians and their homes. When their guards are down, we'll nail 'em. Any questions so far?"

One of the men raised their hand. "Carter," Matt said. Carter was a good kid. Matt had hired Carter right after he graduated from the police academy. He had thin blond hair and he was short and skinny.

"Do we have permission to organize a sting at the old sawmill? Who owns it?" Carter asked.

Matt smiled. "My great-grandfather owned it and it was passed down to family member to family member."

Deputy Goldman raised his hand.

"Go ahead, Goldman," Matt said.

"Sir, we're a good crew. I trust all the men in this room with my life. However, we don't have the big city experience that you and Williamson have to deal with drug dealers."

Matt scanned everyone's faces. It looked like they agreed with Goldman. They looked nervous. He gave them a reassuring smile. "I appreciate your candor, Goldman. All of you are good men. All of you are good shots and have excellent instincts. I have all the confidence in the world in your abilities. If I didn't, I wouldn't consider this plan."

"I'm happy you got confidence in us, sir, but let's face it. To the Joneses, we're going to appear to be goofy white guys. They're not going to take us seriously. We need an African American city type to make contact and make the buy. A black man who can relate to them. Otherwise, this might not work," Carter said.

Matt put his hand under his chin. He knew Carter was right, but the only African American who worked at the station was Patty, the switchboard operator. She was a smart and tough woman, but there was no way he was going to deputize a lady and put her in harm's way. Then, Matt thought of who he could get. "I think you got a point, Carter. I also think I know the perfect person to deputize. He's responsible, he can handle himself, and he's a hell of a man."