December 5th, 2016
Las Vegas, Nevada
The tech guys were just finishing up when Mike appeared beside the door of the Jeep and all four of them got out. Sarge shook Mike’s hand and thanked him for the quick reaction.
Mike wore his normal jeans, T-shirt under a dark jacket, and tonight he had on a black stocking cap.
“Anything to do with Darling Black has to be dangerous,” Mike said.
“I’m starting to understand that,” Sarge said.
Sarge introduced Mike to Cavanaugh and explained that Cavanaugh was only months away from joining the gang, but for the moment was stuck as the lead detective on this case.
Mike laughed. “Paperwork hell.”
“Trying not to think about that,” Cavanaugh said, shaking his head. “Between the bomb squad and the tech folks, this will take me a week to cross the final ‘t’ on this mess.”
“Got a hunch we are a ways from the end of this yet,” Sarge said, laughing.
Cavanaugh just shook his head like a sad puppy and everyone laughed.
“I have this place surrounded by my team,” Mike said. “And two have clear sight on this unit there. I’m going to stick around for the night as well on this one. Where you thinking of moving all that?”
“Not sure yet,” Sarge said. “Got any suggestions?”
“I have a secure house on the north side,” Mike said. “Make it comfortable to work as well. And we can guard any chain of evidence clearly that way.”
Sarge noted that Cavanaugh was nodding.
“We got one issue,” Sarge said. “We have a big standing safe in there. We’re hoping to find the combo in the desk once we get to looking.”
“Can I take a look at it?” Mike asked.
Sarge glanced at Cavanaugh who shrugged.
They all went back over to the unit just as the last tech guy reported to Cavanaugh they were all done and the unit was clear. They would have preliminary results for him by noon tomorrow.
“Wow, that’s fast,” Pickett said.
“Finding an active bomb on site will tend to speed up things some,” Cavanaugh said.
Sarge sure understood that, especially in these modern times.
Mike went in and bent down and looked at the dial on the safe, then without touching anything, looked around the safe and under it, since it was on four metal legs about three inches off the concrete.
“We’ll open it before we move it,” Mike said. “And pull the contents. The safe itself can be secured nicely in the garage of the house I have.”
“You can open that safe without cutting into it?”
“Oh, sure,” Mike said. “I can get some equipment from my car and pop it for you in a few minutes.”
“Please?” Sarge said, not believing that the safe was going to be that easy.
“Be right back,” Mike said, striding off toward the main gate.
“So tell me again who this guy is exactly,” Cavanaugh said.
“Where Will’s company works out in the open and for big name stars and politicians,” Robin said. “Mike and his people work behind the scenes, sometimes just along the line of what is legal and what isn’t in some cases. Will calls him at times when he needs help on a case.”
Cavanaugh nodded.
“Right now there are four or five ex-special forces people guarding us,” Sarge said. “Mike was ex-special forces as well.”
“Damned good to know considering what has happened here so far,” Cavanaugh said.
“Also Mike is the best computer expert I have ever seen,” Robin said.
“That’s going some considering Will and his computer force,” Cavanaugh said.
Sarge could only agree with that.
They all stood just outside the doorway to the unit until Mike got back. No point at starting on anything until they had the safe cleared.
Mike had a small tool kit. He went right to the safe and tried the handle. It was secure and locked.
He spun the dial three or four times, then took out what looked like a small meter and locked it in place against the metal door just to the right of the dial.
Then slowly he moved the dial until something registered on it.
“Right three to twenty-six,” he said.
Sarge pulled out his notebook from his pocket and wrote that down.
Mike turned the dial back to the left slowly until something registered again on the dial that Sarge couldn’t see.
“Left two to twenty-one.”
Mike then turned the dial back to the right again very slowly.
When he stopped he said, “Right one to ten.”
Then he eased the dial back to the left until it stopped.
“Back to zero,” he said.
He took the device off the side of the safe, then pushed the handle down and pulled the door open.
“Holy shit,” Cavanaugh said.
Sarge could only agree. Inside the safe were stacks and stacks of bundles of hundreds of dollars.
They all stepped back and just stared at the vast amount of money in the safe. Sarge just couldn’t believe how much there was.
“I’ll get some folks out here to take custody of that paperwork nightmare,” Cavanaugh said, pulling out his phone and stepping away. “That’s going to take real protection to move that amount of money.”
“How much do you think is there?” Pickett asked.
Sarge had seen this kind of money a number of times in the past. Once he had helped guard the final cash prize at Binions for the World Series of Poker. That had been two million and it wasn’t even close to the amount in that safe.
“Fifteen million,” Sarge said. “More than likely more. Each of those bundles is ten thousand.”
“So how did a college girl end up with that kind of money in a safe?” Robin asked.
“I think a better question is who was her partner or partners,” Pickett said, “and how did they lose track of that kind of money?”
“And what are they going to do when they discover their money has been found?” Sarge said.
“I’m going to get a few more men out here,” Mike said, pulling out his phone. “At least until this can be taken by armored car to a secure impound center.”
“Thanks, Mike,” Sarge said.
“Don’t thank me. That money in there is like bait in front of a pack of rats and I don’t want my men outgunned.”
Sarge didn’t like the sound of that at all.