My brain jumped into overdrive. "How the hell did I get myself into this and how am I going to get out of it?" The night started innocent enough, just like so many nights before.
I look around as I pull up to the dirty concrete building. One entrance door and no windows. The dirt lot is filled with vehicles. A few I recognize, most I don't. What a freaking dump. Oh well another night. This is my life, the life of a nickel and dime drug dealer trying to work his way up to bigger and better things. It's the night life. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it. I can hear the music from the jukebox through the thick concrete walls. I get out of the car and look around. There's a couple over at the end of the lot climbing all over each other. Hell, they probably just met a couple of hours ago. Too many drinks, too much music and now looking to each other for an end to the loneliness in their lives, even if only for tonight. There are a couple of guys at the corner of the building smoking a joint and talking, oblivious to everything around them. Another couple are sitting in a car arguing. Too many drinks have taken control of their night also. In their case it went the wrong way. I'm sure it started as a fun night on the town. Now they'll go home disappointed. Everyone here is looking for, or trying to forget, something.
I lean back against the fender of the car, cross my arms, and close my eyes as I lower my head. To anyone looking I'm just another drunk in the parking lot who's had one too many. My head is spinning but not from too much to drink. I'm just trying to put into perspective who I really am and what I'm doing here. This life gets a little too fast sometimes. I was here the night before last and then last night it was a biker bar on the other side of the county, now here I am again. "Lord you brought me here, now help me get through it. Show me what I need to do and walk with me."
I look up to a beautiful full moon. A sky full of stars. The night is much brighter now than it seemed a few seconds ago and I know what I've got to do. First I've got to get into my own head and make a rapid change. I've got to lose the normally quiet, reserved, and somewhat shy Tony Taylor and become my alter ego, Anthony Lee "Tony" Dixon. He's my Mr. Hyde. The hard charging, loud, boisterous, "life of the party" guy. Sex, drugs, rock and roll. At least that's the persona.
I throw open the door and walk through like I own the place. "Okay people let's get this party started," I shout over the noise. The handshakes and high-fives start as I make my way to the bar. "Carol set it up and get ready for a hell-of-a night," I yell at the bartender as she hands me the first one and I take a drink. I see Big John at the pool table and put my money up for the next game, "Confident and cocky", I tell him as I slap him on the back and head toward the restroom. "Don't get too confident, I'm on a roll," he tells me with a laugh.
This is the strangest of strange friendships between John and I. John, a former Marine and ex high roller coke dealer and me, a former Navy Combat Corpsman and now undercover narcotics cop. Our friendship is a story for another day. Let's just say he knows who I am and what I do and I know he'll always have my back and he knows I'll always have his. We never served together but there is a connection there you would not know unless you were there. Our lives after the military took totally different directions and yet, here we are, best of friends. It's been 26 years since the night I'm writing about and we both know that all either of us has to do is call, the other will be there.
I go to the restroom and, thankfully, I'm alone. I pour the remainder of my beer down the toilet, flush it, and refill it with water from the tap. I can't step over that line. I have to keep my senses sharp. All it would take is one small slip of the tongue, a wrong move or anything that would "out me" and I end up dead. The people I deal with have too much to lose. Most would never stoop to that level, but a few would not think twice about killing a cop. Especially a narcotics cop. To them I am the lowest creature crawling around the face of this earth. To me they are the same.
As I walk back into the barroom John is finishing his pool game. I grab one girl after another and dance my way back to the table where he's waiting. He's sent another challenger back to the bar with his tail tucked between his legs. That's okay. Tomorrow night he'll have his confidence back and try again, and lose again. I rack the balls and John breaks. As far as John and I playing we're about 50-50 on wins and losses with each other. That's been my ace in the hole that normally gets me into these places. I grew up with a pool table in the rec room at home. I'm not great but for the most part I can hold my own against most players. John and I team up in tournaments around the county and again this gets me into places where normally they would treat me as an outsider and not deal with me. As we're laughing, talking, and playing I'm approached by a regular in the bar, Joe. He comes over and whispers to me, "Hey man, you still looking for a good score?" "Always, what you got?" "As much pot as you need," he replies. I can't seem too anxious so I tell him to let me finish this game and we'll talk. John beats me and I tell him I'll be back as I head over to the bar with Joe. I turn my beer bottle up and finish the last of the water in there and tell the bartender to get me and Joe another one. He tells me he has a friend who has a "quantity" he needs to move. I tell him I'll buy an ounce to check it out and if it's any good I'll see about doing more and ask him when he can set it up. "Give me a few minutes and I'll let you know."
Joe left the bar, probably to use the phone and I start roaming through the bar talking with anyone and everyone. I am always amazed how many women hit on me in here. They think I have a pocket full of money and drugs. I do have a pocket full of money and I'm not afraid to let it be known. Only one small problem, Every dime of that money belongs to the Aiken County Sheriff's Office and I have to do a detailed report on, and account for, every penny at the end of the night. As I walk along the bar talking to different people, a very attractive women stops me and asks me to dance. "Oh well, I've got to keep my cover, take one for the team. It's tough, but someone has to do it." I take her hand and lead her to the dance floor. Having a beautiful woman on my arm will never hurt my cover story. She had played the song on the jukebox and is singing along. This particular song takes me back to another city, another bar, another dance floor and another beautiful lady and I know I shouldn't but for just a moment I close my eyes and let myself go back. "Stay sharp," I tell myself. That was a lifetime ago and much different circumstances.
"City girls just seem to find out early,
How to open doors with just a smile.
A rich old man and she won't have to worry.
She'll dress up all in lace and go in style."
Eagles, Lying Eyes.
No pretense here. To her I could very well be her way to the easy life. I'm not a doctor, lawyer, banker, but in her world I'm better. After all I'm an up and coming dealer. She is hot, and this blue, form fitting short dress is making it hard to concentrate. She's making no secret of the fact she's wanting me to take her home tonight. As we turned, I looked at John and he gave me a "thumbs up." I just smiled, "God I love this job." I will really have to use a lot of tact and diplomacy here. I don't want to make her mad or give her any reason to second guess who I really am. In my other life I'm married and have a family that I'll eventually go home to so I have to be careful.
Saved by the bell. Joe has just walked back in and is motioning me to come over to him. I tell her I've got business to take care of. "Can I come with you?" she asks. "Not tonight, baby. You've got way too much class for the people I'll be dealing with." Of course I had to throw in, "It could get dangerous. I'll be back." She says she understands. Still I leave her on the dance floor looking a little sad and disappointed. "I'll be here when you're done," she calls to me as I walk away. I look back at such a beautiful lady and for a moment I have to think, "Well, maybe....No, No, No." "God I hate this job."
I walk over to Joe who's still standing by the door. "He'll meet us at the Speedway gas station at I-20 in thirty minutes." "Let's go," I tell him.
As we get in my car he asks, "You're going to give me a cut out of the o-z, right?" Now I'm in one of those sticky situations. I'm a cop. I can't very well be selling dope. "I tell you what, here's forty bucks for helping me out. You buy whatever you want from him. If this turns out good and I do more business with him there will be more coming. You help me and I'll see you're taken care of, whether with him or anyone. Only thing is, it's got to be just between us and whatever I buy has got to be top of the line stuff, no garbage. Any deals you help me set up, whether I'm buying or selling, I'll take care of you."
"Hey man, thanks. That's cool, most people don't give a s*** that I'm going out of my way to do this," Joe replied.
"That's why one day soon everyone will be coming to me to get what they want. I take care of my people."
We pulled in the parking lot and talked for about an hour. No one showed. I looked at my watch and it's now 12:15 am. I tell Joe that it looks like he's not going to show.
"That's okay Dude, I know where he lives. We can just go over there."
"I don't know man, that don't sound too cool," I tell him.
"Oh, yeah. It'll be alright. Head up 25."
As we left and continued up US Highway 25 I realized we are probably going to end up out of my jurisdiction in Edgefield County. I gave Joe more money with the excuse that I didn't know this guy and it'd probably be better if he did the deal. I wouldn't take possession of it until we were back in Aiken County. That way I would still be okay. Poor Joe was setting himself up for a distribution charge and all I could do is go after his friend with warrants or indictments in another county for conspiracy.
We went a few miles into Edgefield County and turned off onto a side street where we went to a single wide mobile home. Seconds after Joe knocked on the door things went real bad real quick and now we're both seconds from being shot by a high drug dealer.
At this point my earlier prayer came to me, "I brought you to it and I'll bring you through it," I heard. I regained my calm and after a few seconds I was able to see past the .357 pointing at my face. I looked closer at the man holding it and realized I had made a deal with him about a month earlier. I can only hope he remembers. He was a car nut and I had showed him around my hot rod 79 Monte Carlo at that time. It was really the Aiken County Sheriff's Office's Monte Carlo but for all intents and purposes, it was mine, it was registered to Anthony Lee Dixon.
"Whoa man, you know me. Look at my car. You'll recognize it. I've bought from you before. If I was the man, you'd already be gone! Remember me?"
"Oh yeah Dude. You're cool. I remember your ride. I remember you. Sorry 'bout that brother, you never know these days. Y'all come on in." He sat the .357 on the kitchen table with the hammer still pulled back.
I reached toward the gun and asked, "You mind?" "Naw, go ahead." I picked it up and eased the hammer down. "Nice piece," I told him.
"Yeah. Dude owed me money and gave me that instead. How much you need?"
"Just an ounce. If it's good we'll go from there."
"Ain't no problem man. It's all good and I got all you need," he said as he got up and motioned for us to follow him. At least he left the gun behind.
When we got to the back bedroom he opened the door and on the floor were two black trash bags. He opened them and said each one contained eight pounds. "I got all you need," he bragged.
"Cool. I'll let you know after I see how good it is."
"You wanna burn one?" he asked.
"Better not right now, I've really got to get back to the bar. I left a hot little number waiting when I came to meet you. You know how it is though, gotta take care of business."
"Don't I know it. Just let me know when you're ready. I know it's good stuff. I gotta move it fast."
Joe and I headed back to the bar where his car was parked. He had actually bought both bags of pot with the money I gave him and after we crossed the Aiken County line I kinda told him in a curt way to hand mine over. He did and we got back to the Tavern and parted ways. He got in his car and headed somewhere and I went back inside the club. The young lady I was dancing with earlier was gone. One part of me was relieved. I was a little disappointed at the same time. After what I had just been through I really did need a drink.
I eased up to the bar and sat down. Carol handed me a beer without me saying a thing and stated, "Your little floosie left about an hour ago. She couldn't have been much more obvious." Did I detect a note of jealousy? "You can't deny this package drives 'um crazy," I said standing up, turning around, and rubbing my right butt cheek.
"You lost your freakin' mind," I heard John say.
"Hey buddy, I didn't see you."
Well, Tell me about it. You seem a little pale."
John and I walked away to a table. Most of the people were already gone so I didn't have to worry about anyone overhearing us. I told him that was a first and he said I needed to get used to it if I'm going to stay in the business. I let him know that was the first, and hopefully last, time I let myself get into that kind of situation. I left and headed to the house. I knew tomorrow would be a busy day.
I was up before 7 the next morning and about 7:30 I called the Sheriff and told him about last night. I gave him a name and description of the house for a search warrant so that he could contact Edgefield County. I would meet with them at their convenience and sign the affidavit. I would meet my contact at our usual place to turn over the drugs I had bought along with an incident report. I set up a meet with my contact for 11:00 and just got in my car and rode around trying to clear my head. That was a close call. If he hadn't remembered me or if it would have been anyone else I might not be around to tell the story. Me and John are always talking about our pool games and having to be "confident and cocky." Well just maybe I've gotten a little too confident and cocky in my job. Maybe it's time to pull back. Only I have moved up pretty good in the local drug scene. Which way do I go? What should I do?
I called the Sheriff and he said that he was about to call me. I asked if I could come into the office and talk with him. When I got there he told me that the Sheriff in Edgefield had, in no uncertain terms, told him they had their own narcotics division and didn't need my help. He said the Sheriff told him that if I came back across the county line working he would find a reason to lock me up. (Kinda makes you wonder what was going on back then, doesn't it?) Any time I had ended up out of my jurisdiction before they welcomed the help and went as far as signing a mutual aid agreement so I didn't have to worry about jurisdictional boundaries.
We talked about what had happened the night before and I let him know that it had caused me to second guess myself. You have to have that confidence in order to do the job without reservation. He understood this. I told him I was thinking seriously about getting out of the undercover side of things and now what happened with the Edgefield Sheriff it made me even more unsure. Sometimes you can't help what happens or where you end up. I needed their support, not their threats. And yes, I was still mad about having a gun stuck in my face and now not being able to do anything about it. I wanted the SOB! The Sheriff told me that there were other ways to get the guy. He told me to take a few days off to think about what I wanted to do and if I felt the same way when I came back we would find something else for me to do.
Only one problem, there is no "taking days off" when you're undercover. You live that life 24/7/365. Anywhere you go you have to be in character. I can't even go grocery shopping or to the movies with the wife and kids. I can't take a chance on them being connected with me. It could blow my cover and put them in tremendous danger. If I took the wife and kids anywhere I had to leave town so no one would see us together. They had to live my lie, my life. Not good for the domestic front.
I did go home and relax. I went to Augusta and spoke with one of my brothers who knew what I was doing. He just said he was proud of what I was doing and knew I would make the right decision for me. After a few days I went back with a new sense of what I was doing and was back to being wide open.
We did arrest my suspect about 8 months later. I spent many days and nights doing surveillance and watching his every move until I could catch him dirty.
I also worked a deal with one of the Edgefield deputies who told me he was tired of drugs and dealers moving freely through the "his" county and he became an informant for me. He knew about things happening in Edgefield so he would keep me advised of dealers in his county who were entering Aiken County with dope to sell. I made quite a few cases this way and together we took a lot of drugs off the street.
After that night I did start easing out of the undercover side of things and went more into the investigation side with the Sheriff's blessing. I still did quite a bit of undercover work and assisted other agencies including several local agencies and began to work alot with BATF, DEA and FBI. I was also given a partner and although we were very seldom together, we knew what each other was doing and had each others backs. We ended up making over a hundred and twenty cases against 70 people coming in and out of that one club. We were recognized by the Govenor's Task force in 1989 after increasing narcotics arrests in Aiken County by 4700% in the first year with a 98% conviction rate. Our arrest and conviction rate was number one in the state. After the undercover operation shut down at the Tavern and we made the arrests people were afraid to come back and within a short amount of time it shut the doors.
God, I loved my job!
