The Death Box

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“Look closer. A lot of them have little logos: Better Business Bureau, Business Alliance of Florida, American Association of Concrete Haulers, that sort of thing.”

I nodded. “True. What I don’t see is a listing of the criminal backgrounds of the employees, which is what we’ve got to get working on.”

“Check out the Redi-flow company, lower right.”

A half-page ad featuring a drawing of a truck dispensing concrete into a foundation as workers looked on. The ad had the usual listing of professional-organization logos plus an outline of a fish holding the letters CPP. “It’s all the same except for the fish logo,” I said. “You know what it means?”

“It stands for the Christian Prison Project, religious businesspeople who mainstream ex-cons back into civilian life, get them starter jobs. I figured that’s what Redi-flow does, and if so, they have ex-cons on the payroll, right?”

I’d thought the kid was joking, but he’d combined brains and observation and come up with gold.

“So we’re going to the Parole Board next, Gershwin?”

He waved a sheaf of pages. “Nope. They just faxed me a list of company hires. The business is owned by a dude named George Kazankis. Turns out Kazankis has hired twenty-six ex-cons in twelve years in business.”

I felt my pulse quickening. “Light-timers or hardcore?”

“Anyone’s fodder for Kazankis’s personal ministry. He’s also got a good record for keeping them straight: most have managed to stay out of the joint.”

I shot a thumbs up. “Sounds like we pay a visit to Mr Kazankis. But first we stop by the motor pool.”

12 (#ulink_35537414-0270-5b99-94ba-f46bbdfb9a60)

“Son of a bitch,” Gershwin said, staring at yards of gleaming black metal and chrome. “That’s yours?”

I looked to the guy who just handed me the keys, a label on his stained blue work shirt embroidered with the name Julio. He nodded. “All yours, Detective Ryder. Captain McDermott said you were senior status. That means the Tahoe.”

I climbed inside. After my pickup, the thing felt like I was in the pilot house of a destroyer. The instrumentation appeared to have been pulled from a Cessna. The new-vehicle smell made my head light. I jumped out.

“Got anything smaller, Julio?”

Julio stared at me like I’d asked a waiter to return a prime filet and bring a can of tuna instead. “But this is what all senior personnel drive, Detective.”

“Dude,” Gershwin said. “I mean Detective Ryder, this is hot wheels deluxe.”

“What else you got, Julio?”

“All the others are standard cruisers.”

I saw a line of cars and trucks across the lot. “What are those?”

“Seized contraband, vehicles taken from criminals. When someone gets caught the state can take away—”

“I know how it works, bud,” I said, not mentioning my house was in the same condition. “Anything available over there?”

“All are, I suppose. They get taken out for surveillance because they don’t look like police vehicles.”

We followed Gershwin to the line-up, a dozen cars and trucks, some looking new, most in obviously used condition. I was immediately drawn to a beige Land Rover Defender, fully outfitted with heavy black grille guard, full roof racking, and a high-sprung body with more right angles than curves.

“Tell me about the Rover, Julio.”

“That?” Gershwin wrinkled his nose. “It’s left over from an Indiana Jones movie.”

“You don’t want the Rover, Detective,” Julio argued. “It’s sprung like a tank.”

“And built like one, too,” I said, admiringly. “Where’d it come from?”

“A Lauderdale dope dealer who had it custom-outfitted in South Africa for a month-long safari, but cut the trek short after three days. When he had the monster shipped over here, he liked how it looked a lot better than how it rode, probably why it’s only got two thousand miles on it. I also don’t think he much liked a manual transmission after the novelty wore off.”

“The Tahoe,” Gershwin pleaded.

“How long would it take to outfit the Rover with a siren, flashers, and an on-board computer hookup, Julio?” I asked. “Given that y’all don’t look too busy around here.”

Gershwin moaned.

Thirty minutes later, feeling better than I had all day, I aimed the revamped Rover for Redi-flow. It was southwest of Miami, down toward Homestead. Once off the highway we wove through streets that turned from storefront businesses to small and brightly painted houses clustered on miniscule lots festooned with tropical foliage. The houses soon grew sparse, the land as much sand as dirt, errant terns pecking at prickly pears for insects. I smelled swampland nearby but never saw water.

Within minutes we banged past a lot holding smaller dozers and graders, cranes, trucks, and machinery of indecipherable usage, and a small abandoned building beneath a faded sign showing a crane and proclaiming OLYMPIA EQUIPMENT RENTAL – SINCE 1975.

Gershwin pointed. “Think they’d rent us a crane, sahib? You could shoot at lions from above.”

“The Rover is fine. And it’s Detective Ryder.”

We passed over rail tracks into a complex dominated by piles of gravel and sand, metal towers hovering in the air, one large silo emblazoned with a tall cross, below it the words REDI-FLOW CONCRETE, INC … A MIX FOR EVERY NEED. A half-dozen mixing trucks sat on the lot and two were pulled to one of the towers, workers standing beside them. In a far corner of the lot was a jumble of metal boxes and round tanks. I’d seen them at construction sites: portable mixing units conveyed on semis and set up where needed.

We pulled beside a squat building marked ‘Office’ as a helicopter blew by overhead, low enough to read the word EVERGLADES AIR TOURSon the fuselage.

Kazankis was in his early fifties, tall and square-built and in a blue uniform dusted with cement. He was ruggedly good looking, wavy silver hair pomaded and combed back from his high and sun-brown forehead. His voice was deep and resonant and had Kazankis stood with a Bible in his hand and started preaching about salvation it wouldn’t have been much of a shock.

I showed my new ID. “Why we’re here, Mr Kazankis, is we’re investigating a crime involving an amount of poured concrete that probably took a mixer.”

“You came to us because of who we hire?” he said quietly, meaning ex-cons. “I feel it’s my calling to help the fallen back to their feet.”

“I’m not questioning your calling, sir. I may wish to question some of your employees.”

“Our employees are no longer criminals. When first from prison, I employ them here. Some stay, others move to new careers. The record speaks for itself.”

“An exemplary record, indeed,” I said, credit due. “But you’ve had failures, Mr Kazankis. It goes with the territory.”

“True. I’ll be the first to admit cases of recidivism. Not, thankfully, very many. But given that the possibility exists … what may I do for you, Detective?”

“First, sir, what can you tell me about this sample?” I opened my briefcase and handed over a bone-free chunk of concrete. Kazankis flicked a thumbnail over its surface.

“Low aggregate. Mainly sand and cement with a dye, one of the umbers. Is this part of the crime you’re investigating?”

I nodded. “Have you ever had a loaded truck stolen?”

“A truckload is mixed, then goes directly to the site. A person might steal a truck at night, but it would be empty.”

“Maybe I’m looking for concrete diverted to another usage. This would have been around a year ago.”

Kazankis frowned. “I’m sorry, Detective, but I can’t recall details that far back.”

“Would it be possible to get a printout of all employees from that period?” I asked. “It would save us a trip to the Parole Board.”

“Certainly.” Mr Kazankis sat by a computer, made some taps on the keyboard, and a printer behind the desk began humming. Our next move would be cross-checking employee names against violent crimes. Records in hand, we turned to the door.

Gershwin halted. “One more question, Mr Kazankis. Do your employees ever take concrete home or anything like that? For use later?”

“Like for next-day delivery? It would harden in the truck.”

“I guess I mean their own projects. Like fixing a sidewalk or whatnot.”