The Butterfly Forest

SEVENTY

I swerved to miss a fat raccoon that waddled across the narrow highway. Sandberg asked, “Are you still there?”

“Yeah, I‘m here. Okay, tell me more about Izzy and his Uncle Pablo.”

“The caller, a woman with a Hispanic accent, said Izzy is the only nephew to Pablo Gonzales. I asked where I might find Izzy and the caller said he can’t be found. But a good place to look would be in the Tampa Bay area. Then she hung up. You ever hear of Pablo Gonzales?”

“Doesn’t ring a bell.”

“I called an old pal with the DEA in the Tampa office and got a little more information. Gonzales is considered the smartest and most ruthless head of a big drug family out of Mexico, but he’s actually a transplanted Argentine who relocated to Mexico City nineteen years ago. He graduated from Harvard Business School, but that was after he received his masters in history from UCLA. He took over the family drug cartel biz after his older brother was shot and killed. Pablo Gonzales is fiercely loyal to eight men. He expects absolute loyalty in return. If he suspects otherwise, heads literally roll. His specialty is decapitation. He’s got hundreds of Mexican cops on the take. He owns jets, helicopters, an arsenal of weapons and even rocket launchers. The Mexican president has a five-million dollar bounty on Pablo. It’s rumored that Pablo put a ten-million dollar bounty on the president.”

“Does your DEA contact think Pablo and his nephew are in this country?”

“They don’t know for sure. Izzy has been seen here. Except for his connection to his uncle, there are no outstanding warrants for him. Pablo used to come in and out of the country. He speaks fluent English, as does Izzy. At one time, Pablo ran a legitimate exportation business. Sold all things Mexican: sombreros, blankets, original and fake Aztec trinkets. Then he began stuffing blow and heroin into his trinkets. He moved sales into Arizona, Texas and California. Now he’s tagged as supplying gangs with drugs, distributing to most of the states.”

“Frank Soto is suspected of being an enforcer for these gangs. Why would Izzy Gonzales be found growing pot in the Ocala National Forest?”

“It’s a lot easier for the Mexican drug families to grow it here in the states and sell it. They don’t have to worry about trying to sneak it across the border. They pay half-dozen low-level grunts, usually illegal aliens, to tend the farm. These growers often live out there in some woods, and their pot farms are rigged with booby traps. They cut, dry and harvest the pot. Someone higher in the chain negotiates with gang members who take the packed marijuana to places like New York, Detroit, Cleveland, Atlanta, Philly, any city.”

I said, “So the person higher, in this case, most likely is Izzy.”

“Probably. My contact says Pablo cuts no one any slack. Izzy will have to prove himself in order to earn higher positions within the family. However, because Izzy is Pablo’s only nephew, and his father was Pablo’s only brother before he was killed in a turf war, you can bet Uncle Pablo is going to be protective of his nephew.”

“Your contact said Izzy might be in Tampa. Maybe that’s where they do their packaging, storage and shipping. The city has a lot of the old cigar warehouses. It was the cigar rolling capital of America at one time, maybe still is.”

Sandberg said, “The Gonzales might do their pack and ship somewhere over there. And maybe the gang that buys it then drives the U-Haul truck to a warehouse door where the stuff is loaded.”

“Tampa’s about an eighty-minute drive from the forest. But all this is assuming they’ve cut and dried the marijuana and taken it out of the forest.”

“All we found were those twelve plants.”

“That’s all they wanted you to find. And judging from what you told me about the height of the plants, compared to the ones in the photo from Molly’s camera, I’d say harvest is any day now. Maybe a good way to meet Izzy is during the harvest.”

“What do you have in mind, O’Brien?”

“I’m taking a little hike into the forest.”

“You’re not going to find anything. We had twenty-four men in there.”

“Maybe they were looking in all the wrong places.”

“Call me if you uncover something under any rocks, but watch your ass. If Izzy Gonzales is connected to this, you can bet he’s got a machete-carrying team with him. It makes Pablo’s specialty easier.”

I hung up and drove to the hospital. I met the deputy outside Elizabeth’s room. He was reading a sports magazine. Under it was a clipboard with half dozen names on it, mine included. “I need to see some ID,” he said, standing. I showed him my driver’s license. “She might be sleeping, but you can go on in.”

“Thanks.”

I entered Elizabeth’s room. Her eyes were closed, breathing slow and steady. I looked over to the single window. The sun was setting and the soft light cast a warm radiance in the room and across Elizabeth’s face. I bent down and kissed her cheek. She stirred and opened her eyes. She saw me and smiled. “Tell me I’m not dreaming.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Better, now that you’re here. I’m a little woozy but thanking God I’m still alive. Sit down on the bed, Sean. That way I know you’re here because I can reach out and touch you. I’ve been having horrible dreams. Maybe it’s the drugs they’re giving me to get the arsenic out of my system.” She smiled and touched my hand. “Did you meet my young Beefeater guard out in the hall?”

“I did.”

“He doesn’t look much older than Molly. I miss her so much.”

I said nothing for a moment as a single tear rolled out of one eye and down her cheek. I held Elizabeth’s hand and told her about the Mexican drug family’s connection, and how Molly’s killer was most likely Izzy Gonzales or someone related to him. “That explains why Frank Soto was sent on his first mission to find Molly. Soto is a hired gun to protect Izzy, to protect the marijuana field. So, you can bet he’d get paid well for each day that both are still standing. I need to go back in the forest.”

She said, “This is like living someone else’s horrifying nightmare. What if something happens to you?”

“It won’t.”

“But you don’t really know that, you can’t.”