Chapter 11
“How we lookin’?”, Tobin asked as she walked up to Abby, Lauren, Shannon and the SWAT team at the stakeout spot down the street from Carli’s house. Dawn was just breaking. After last night’s surfing excursion Tobin and Alex had made love on the beach and then had fallen asleep in each others' arms. The sound of a seagull cawing had woken Tobin up just thirty minutes ago. For a moment she hadn’t remembered where she was. Then she jumped up, eyes wide open. She put on her clothes in a hurry and kissed Alex goodbye, telling her that she had to run and that she would call her later. Then she had gotten into her car and hauled ass as fast as she could, swerving in and out of traffic until she had parked down the street from Carli’s house.
“We’re ready”, Abby said, then looked at Tobin. “Are those the same clothes you wore yesterday?”
“Yeah”, Tobin said as she checked her clip. She saw Abby staring at her and said, “It was a long night.”
“Are you okay?” Abby asked warily.
“Yeah, I’m fine”, Tobin said. “Ready to do this.”
“Okay then”, Abby said. “Here’s the plan. Boxxy, Lauren – you guys go in through the back door. Tobin – you cover the side door. I’ll go through the front with SWAT backing me up.” She paused for a moment and then said, “Everybody good?” Everyone nodded, and Abby said, “Let’s go.”
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“Freeze!” Abby said as she kicked down the front door. “FBI!” Gunfire came from the hallway. Julie fired and took down a SWAT team member. Two other SWAT team members fired back, and Julie dropped to the floor. Carli came out from a bedroom, guns blazing. Abby took aim and fired, putting her down. Kelley tried to make it out the back door but Shannon and Lauren were on their way in, and they kicked the door right into Kelley’s face. Kelley went down, screaming, blood gushing out of her nose, and Lauren held her down while Shannon slapped on the cuffs. Another woman, punky-looking with short-ish blonde hair was in the kitchen. She put her hands up as SWAT came in, but they knocked her into the ground and put her in cuffs. Hope tried to go out the side door, but Tobin tackled her, taking her to the ground. She landed on top of Hope and tried to turn her over to put on the cuffs, but Hope was stronger, and she flipped Tobin over and tried to apply a chokehold. Tobin started to wheeze, but she managed to secure Hope’s arm with her legs and, using leverage over strength, broke Hope’s chokehold and parlayed it into a side arm bar. Hope flipped over and then screamed as Tobin applied the pressure and popped Hope’s shoulder out of its socket. Then Tobin flipped Hope over and slapped on the cuffs. She hauled Hope up and took her out to the front yard, where Kelley was being shoved into a squad car. Carli’s body and Julie’s body were being covered in black tarps.
“Heath!” A voice yelled. Tobin looked over to see Jill in the front door of the house. “Get your ass in here right now!” Tobin walked into the house to see Abby and the punky woman with short-ish blonde hair standing in the living room. Abby had her head down and eyes to the ground. The punky woman was holding what looked like two white bricks, each the size of a small shoebox. She looked extremely pissed off.
“Special Agent Heath, I’d like you to meet Special Agent Megan Rapinoe of the DEA”, Jill said. Tobin cursed under her breath and closed her eyes.
“Do you know what this is?” Megan asked, eyes ablaze with anger as she held up what was in her hand. “Two kilos of uncut crystal meth.”
“Special Agent Rapinoe was working deep undercover, looking for the pipeline”, Jill informed Tobin.
“I’ve been working undercover for six fucking months, trying to get to whoever is supplying product to these scumbags. Two weeks ago, I finally got them to play wheel of fortune with me and take me on their next supply run. We were set to leave next week. And now you assholes show up. And you fucking ruined everything!” Megan screamed. Tobin just stared at her, in disbelief. These were drug dealers. Not bank robbers. Megan stared at Tobin for a moment and then started up again. “Six months I’ve been staying in this house with these scumbags. You think I like it here? My wife wants me to stay here and not come back.” She glared at Tobin and then said, “Tell me something, hot shot: how did these assholes rob the Wells Fargo in Venice Beach two weeks ago on August 7th when they were on the other side of the fucking country in Fort Lauderdale that day? Huh!?” Tobin remained silent, and then Megan threw the two bricks of meth at her. “Fuck you guys”, she said and stormed out. Jill raised her eyebrows and then said, “The next time you have me push a warrant through, it better be for the right scumbags.” She glared at Tobin and Abby and then walked out the front door.
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“Hey, you okay?” Alex asked. She and Tobin were laying in Tobin’s bed. After the raid Tobin had gone back to the office to fill out some paperwork and endure some more yelling from Jill. She had left around 4pm, grabbed her surfboard and paddled out for some waves at Palos Beach, then came back to her apartment and had dinner with Alex. Now it was around 10pm, and they had just finished making love. Tobin was laying on her back, and Alex was curled into her, her head resting on Tobin’s shoulder.
“Yeah, I’m okay”, Tobin said. “Just…had a bad day at work.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” Alex asked.
“No, it’s fine. And…I mean…I can’t really”, Tobin said. Alex looked up at her and Tobin said, “You know – like, confidential lawyer stuff.”
“Hmmmm…” Alex said as she laid her head back down on Tobin’s shoulder. “Well, I’m here for you, so let me know if you want to talk. And, I understand there are things about your job you can’t talk about, but remember baby – no secrets is best”, she said and lightly touched her finger to Tobin’s lips.
“I know, Lex”, Tobin said and smiled slightly, as she registered that Alex had just called her 'baby'. She tilted her head down and kissed Alex on her forehead and then closed her eyes. Dammit, she thought. She had been sure that she’d had the right crew. Now it’s back to square one. Tobin closed her eyes, thinking, as she heard Alex’s breathing go steady and watched as she slipped into a light slumber.