picked up a piece of paper and handed it to Rita. “This is supposedly Kayle, but it doesn’t show much of his face.”
Rita studied the grainy image of a tall looking slender man in a light colored suit. His hair slicked back. Dark glasses. Sharp features. She thought he looked like a mobster in his early forties perhaps. This wasn’t a very good picture. She placed it on the desk.
“Good work, Trooper. We’ll just sit on this for now.”
By the end of the day, Rita was satisfied she’d done all she could for the time being. Captain Yates was tailing the colonel. Patsy, the other trooper, was all set to video the lieutenant tonight. Maybe later tonight or tomorrow the colonel would contact Mamoud. Nothing to do but wait.
Rita rode her motorcycle home, decided to barbecue tonight. Alex was still not home but Rita visited with a trooper named Andrea Forsythe, who was now staying in the house with Sergeant Verity Moore, the other woman watching over Alex. All was quiet on the home front.
Just after six Alex walked into the house splattered with several flavors of paint.
“Hi Rita.”
She grinned. “You’re a mess.”
“I know. I finished though. He even paid me a hundred and fifty dollars.”
“I’m sure you earned every penny too. What are you going to do with all your money?”
“I want to pay you back for buying me all the nice clothes.”
She shook her head. “No, I don’t want any money. You save it for a rainy day. Are you going to see Dianne in the morning?”
“I’ll see what she wants me to paint, but I may wait until Wednesday to paint her place. Amanda is off tomorrow. We were going to hang out. Maybe draw stuff.”
“Go have a shower and I’ll put on the burgers and hot dogs. I’ll bet you’re hungry.”
He nodded. “Starved.” He looked at her. “I was thinking today. Thinking about my mother and dad and things like that. Would you mind if I called you my mom?”
Rita was deeply touched. “You have a mom, Picasso.”
“I know, but you’re more of a mom than she ever was.”
Rita’s eyes filled with tears. She touched his face. “Okay, Picasso. You can call me mom.”
He smiled, kissed her cheek and went to clean up. Rita stood in the kitchen, tears streaming down her cheeks. Never in her life had she had this feeling she had now. A mom? She liked it.
About nine o’clock that evening, Trooper Patsy called Rita. She had everything on disk and was certain Lieutenant Sweet hadn’t suspected a thing. She said he carried two heavy looking bags to a van, then drove to an old warehouse. Rita thanked her for a job well done.
At midnight, Captain Yates called Rita. She told Rita the colonel had carried two bags from a warehouse and put them in his car after the lieutenant had dropped them off. The colonel had made two stops, dropping a bag at each stop, then going home to bed. Rita thanked the captain and told her to get some sleep.
Rita stayed awake trying to put the pieces together. She guessed Mamoud sold the drugs to the colonel, who in turn sold them to people in the other two houses, making his profit. He then paid the lieutenant for bringing the drugs from the boat. He had also hired Kayle. But that still didn’t explain who the three guys at the school were. She had heard no mention of them at all. Could it be they were a separate bunch altogether and had nothing to do with the drugs? But what was their motive? And how did the colonel even meet Mamoud in the first place? When did he convert to Islam? Rita finally dozed off after three o’clock.
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