by Thomas Bloom
“This is the way our life should work,” Amanda said while they waited on the top of the hill. “If we can just get this mess behind us there’s no reason why it can’t be so.”
“We’ve got to find Mr. X,” Dusty said. “I have a feeling he’s behind all this. We’re missing something obvious. He’s right under our nose and we’re not seeing him. We’ve had three extraordinary events in the last several months. First, the triple murders of the women, second the arms deal between the Mexicans and the Arabs and then the shootout between them. Not to mention an attack on the two of us plus two attacks on the FBI plus the murder of Mr. Housmann. He has to be connected with one of our departments. That would explain the bug in my office, it would also explain how he knew about the FBI stakeout and the operation at the motel and it would explain how he seems to be one step ahead of us at every turn.”
“But that means that one of us is employing a total madman. How could we not be aware of this? And what possible connection would there be between the three murders and the other stuff?”
“The key has to be in your description of him as a ‘madman.’ Madmen do totally illogical and unexpected things. At the same time they can be cunning and intelligent. If these things are not connected then we’ve got two different madmen on our hands at the same time. Possible, but what are the odds? Let’s go through our rosters as soon as possible. Look at every employee. What do we know about them, their history and their private lives? Have they done anything out of the ordinary lately? No one’s perfect. He has to have left us some small clue or some indication that he’s not normal. But remember Tamourini’s warning. As soon as our staffs know we’re investigating them it could cause a huge moral problem. ”
“Let’s start the day after tomorrow and be as circumspect as possible. I have to have a day to catch up at the office and I’m sure you do too. But we need to look at every employee who has access to your office or mine, not just the sworn officers. This means everyone down to the janitors who, incidentally, are not our employees. They’re on contract with a service.”
Amanda’s sons were in the process of learning the hard way that racing down a 250 foot sand hill is one thing but climbing back up is altogether different. When they finally dragged themselves over the top they were exhausted, sweaty and covered with sand.
“Okay,” Amanda said as she tried to brush as much of the sand off them as possible, “that’s it for the day. Let’s head for home. We can have some leftovers, hot chocolate and catch the last half of the Rose Bowl.”
Chapter Sixty Seven
Dusty was at Tom Cassidy’s office at 8:30 the next morning. He explained to the District Attorney the events of the past few days and the status of the Mexicans. “We can get these guys back here but Illinois wants a writ of extradition.”
“Do we really want these guys?” Cassidy asked. “Holding them and trying them is going to be a very expensive proposition. Plus, we’re not on the mob’s radar now but we will be if we put these guys on trial here. Do you really want a bunch of Mexican cartel guys hanging around town for weeks or months?”
“Look,” Dusty said. “They’ve committed two serious crimes here. One was a major gun running deal and the other was a full blown shoot out within the city limits. As a result one FBI agent is dead, two are injured and there may have been casualties on the other side. Not to mention a yacht destroyed and a building burned to the ground.”
“Okay,” Cassidy said. “I have to get a trial started and then let me hunt up a sympathetic judge. I’ll call you later this afternoon.”
Dusty was half way through the paper on his desk when they got their second break. The on duty desk officer came in and told Dusty there was a postal carrier in the lobby who wanted to see him. A bell went off in Dusty’s head. “Send him in.”
“What can I do for you?”
“Yes sir, thanks for seeing me. I’m Leonard Walters. I handle one of the rural routes in western Washington County. I heard about the meeting you had with the delivery people in this county a couple of weeks ago. Anyhow, I didn’t think much about it until I was out doing a special delivery on New Year’s Eve. It was late in the afternoon and I see this caravan of cars pull into this old boarded up barn on Forest Drive. I slowed down to watch and saw that they had a key to the door. There were two black SUV’s and two four door sedans. A few minutes after they drove in they come back out with totally different vehicles. I couldn’t really see any of the people in the cars. I thought that was odd but it was New Year’s Eve and I was on my way to a party and didn’t think much about it again until this morning. Anyway, this sounded like the kind of thing you were looking for so I thought I’d come over and share it with you. I get today and tomorrow off in return for working New Year’s Eve.”
“Mr. Walters, this could be invaluable information. I can’t thank you enough for doing your civic duty. Can you give me an address for the building?”
“Well, it doesn’t have an address. No one lives there and we don’t deliver. But I can give you driving directions.”
“That will do sir, thank you again.”
Dusty immediately called Amanda. “I’m sure you’re buried but we have to see Tamourini at once. Meet me at the hospital. I’ll fill you in there.”
Tamourini still looked weak and pale but the IV drip was gone and she was alert.
“What’s up? I thought I was going to get a day to get back on my feet, as least figuratively. They tell me I’ll be on crutches for a week or so. By the way, thanks for getting me out of the building when you did. The doctor said another half hour and I could have bled out.”
Dusty relayed to both of them the content of his conversation with Mr. Walters. Tamourini immediately sat up and became animated. “I want to get our best CSI team down here as soon as possible. In the meantime no one should go into the building but we need a round the clock watch on it just in case someone shows up. This could be the break we’ve been waiting for. I don’t have a phone in here. Loan me one of yours.”
Tamourini spent twenty minutes on the phone with her supervisor and got a promise of a CSI team at ten the next morning.
“We’ll set up a watch schedule on the building as soon as we leave here,” Amanda said.
“One more thing” Dusty said and told her where they stood with the Mexicans.
“Here’s the thing, my DA doesn’t really want this. It’s going to take a lot of time and a lot of resources. Plus he’s afraid that having these guys incarcerated here will attract some of their friends from Chicago. The Chicago police don’t want them. They say that there has been no crime committed in Illinois. Between you and me I think they have a live and let live deal with the cartel. I should be able to get an extradition order before the day is over but I’m afraid that if we don’t act on it as soon as possible that they’re going to let these guys walk. My question is can the FBI take over this prosecution?”
“That’s a legal department question. I’m a field officer, not an attorney. I can tell you from previous experience that these guys do not move quickly. They will want a lot of information and then they will take their time with an answer. That means that if you don’t want them freed that you will have to pick them up and bring them here. Then we can wait for legal to make a decision.
“One more thing, I’m checking out tomorrow. I’m not sure where my people are staying but please get to them and tell them to pick me up at nine. Also, what about the deceased agent? Have they notified the next of kin? What about transporting his body back to his family? And how’s my other guy doing?”
“Your crew took care of all that. The family has been notified and we’ve arranged a courtesy transfer of the body back to Southfield where the family wanted it taken. Your other guy is fine but he’ll be out of action for a couple of months. As for tomorrow, I’ll contact your people but are you sure you’re ready?”
“There’s no way I’m not going to be there. I’ll see you then.”
Chapter Sixty
Eight
As they left the hospital Dusty said “how do we get the Mexicans back here? It all happened within the city limits which makes it your case but there are eight of them and the county has a van and you don’t.”
“Let’s do it this way. You pick one of your guys and I’ll pick one of mine. We’ll split the gas and any other expenses. I hate to tie up eight cells indefinitely. Let’s split them up—you take four and I’ll take four.”
“That’ll work. It will be interesting to see if the judge will offer them bail. Obviously, Cassidy will fight that. If they walk out of here they’ll probably be in Mexico in twenty-four hours.”
On returning to his office Dusty buzzed his Chief Deputy, Randall Croft. “I’ve got an assignment for you. He explained the situation with the Mexicans. “As soon as we have the writ of extradition I want you to drive to Chicago with the van and one of Chief Steven’s officers and pick these guys up.”
Croft got a strange look on his face. “Oh gosh Chief, I was just about to come in and ask for a day or two off. I just got a call that my aunt in Flint is on her death bed. I was going to drive over and pay my respects before it’s too late. She’s a nice lady and was very good to me when I was younger.”
“No problem,” Dusty replied. “I can get one of the other senior officers. Just be sure you update the roster so someone covers while you’re gone.”
A few minutes later, still buried in paper, he got a call from Cassidy. “Okay, you owe me. I’ve got your writ but it cost me a steak dinner and a round of golf. The judge doesn’t want this trial here either. ‘We’re going to be crawling with the kind of people that we’ve never had to deal with before’ he says. And I agree with him.”
“Look,” Dusty said. “I’m working on getting the FBI to take this over. But it has to go through their legal department and that will take time. In the meantime, if we don’t get these guys back here we risk Illinois just letting them walk. We can’t let them get away with what they’ve done. Work with me on this.”
“Okay, I hope I don’t have to say ‘I told you so’.”
Chapter Sixty Nine
The next morning they all converged on the old barn in Washington County. The CSI team from Detroit consisted of four agents who arrived in a Jeep Cherokee pulling a small trailer. Tamourini was in the passenger seat of one of her agent’s rented vehicles and the CSI team met around her open window. After a few minutes they all headed for the barn each wearing white coveralls and booties and carrying a tool kit. Tamourini called Dusty and Amanda over. “Look, this is going to take hours. These guys work one inch at a time. Why don’t you take care of your business and I’ll call you later when we have something to share with you. Incidentally, I called legal this morning. They want a complete summary of the events including copies of all your paperwork. Then they will get back to me. Don’t count on anything earlier than three or four weeks.”
“Jez,” Amanda said. “There was a time when all we had to worry about was B&E’s and speeding tickets.”
“Welcome to the fast lane,” Tamourini replied.
It was four in the afternoon when Dusty and Amanda got a call from Tamourini. “We’ve got results. As soon as you get here we’ll give you a briefing.”
The FBI crew had set up a small tent in the yard with a port-a-potty next to it. The front flaps of the tent were open and Tamourini set in a lawn chair inside with her right leg propped up on another chair. She was wearing a heavy coat and a wool cap. The temperature was in the low twenties and a light snow was falling. A pair of crutches lay next to her chair and a blood spot marred her right pants leg. “Yeah, I know. My stitches must have broken but I want to finish here before I go back to the hospital for a refit. Here’s the deal. We’ve hit pay dirt. These guys must have been in such a hurry to get out of the county that they didn’t bother to clean out or wipe down these vehicles before they left. Their first mistake. We’ve got six distinct sets of prints. But, more important, one of them left a back pack in one of the vehicles. Most of it was snacks—water bottles, apples, potato chip bags—but at the bottom of the bag we found a crumpled up utility bill. It’s an electric bill for an apartment in Lansing, Michigan. That’s why we couldn’t find any hint of them in Dearborn, they were never there. So why Lansing? I’m betting that by the time we get to that apartment they will be gone. These guys are smart and they have to know they left loose ends. The other thing is what the hell was in that box that they risked everything to recover? It couldn’t have been arms or munitions. We know they already have all of those they need. It must be something far more volatile and the only thing I can think of is something radioactive. With a dirty bomb they could do far more damage. So, two questions, who delivered it to them and what do they plan to do with it?”
“This is tied up with the Mexicans,” Amanda said. “Why the hell did they show up at the same place at the same time? Someone is orchestrating this whole thing and Dusty and I think it’s Mr. X. It’s that or we have two simultaneous madmen on our hands.”
“Then that someone wanted a firefight,” Tamourini said. “But why? What’s to gain? We have to think outside the box. A firefight doesn’t gain either the Mexicans or the Arabs anything. I don’t see how it gains the person we’re after anything unless his purpose was something totally different. The bad guy knows we’re after him and maybe we’re closer than we think. So he sets up a scenario where all the people who are after him are all in the line of fire at the same time—specifically the two of you and the FBI. Where did that bomb come from? The Arabs had no reason to set it up. The Mexicans had no opportunity. So the only logical conclusion is that our suspect put it there with the intention of taking us all out at the same time. And he partially succeeded. He got me and two of my agents and could have got you two if you had went in with us.”
“Thank you for that,” Amanda said. “This only confirms what Dusty and I have been saying to each other, this guy is local, he has to be right under our noses and we are not seeing him. And the other thing we can’t figure out is this. If we are dealing with only one madman here how did the psychotic murder of three females lead to an arms deal and the shootout? What’s the connection?”
“Only one,” Tamourini said. “Psychotic criminals know no limits and will take advantage of any situation. Let’s go to the basics, which is money. If he set up the arms deal then he made money off it. Whatever was in that box, the Arabs wanted it real bad and I assume he made money off that too. Then he ratted out the Arabs to the Mexicans and made money off that too. I can only assume that he fell into contact with the Arabs somehow, found out that they wanted weapons and then he managed to orchestrate a deal using the Mexicans. We know the rest except what did he tell the Arabs Is in that box? One problem with our theory that he is local is that it doesn’t fit with him having contacts with these cartel guys in Chicago. Maybe he’s even more capable than we’ve been giving him credit for.
“So he sets up the shootout to get everyone at the same place at the same time. The explosion was his insurance. If the crossfire from the firefight didn’t do it then the explosion would. He came very close except he didn’t count on you two not being in the building when it went off and it wasn’t quite powerful enough. A little more powder and he could have taken out my whole team. Which reminds me, before the CSI unit leaves I have to have them see if they can figure out what was in that bomb and how it was made. Also, how was it set off? The bad thing is that with today’s technology you could do it from anyplace in the world with a cellphone.”
“What about Lansing,” Dusty asked. “Don’t you need to get there immediately?”
“Do you think the FBI is just me? As soon as I called in the CSI report we had two teams on their way. Like I said, I assume the bad guys will not be there when we knock on the door but if they left in a hurry there may be more evidence they left behind. Which brings us back to that box. What the hell do they think is in it and how do they expect to use it? As I said, my theory is they
think it’s radioactive. Whether it is or not is another question but if that’s what they think what will they do with it? Either way a whole bunch of people are going to get hurt if we don’t find them first.”
“Like you said,” Amanda replied. “Put yourself in their shoes. Where is the biggest conglomeration of people going to be in the immediate future in Lansing? Or the most important conglomeration of people? Football’s over. Basketball and hockey crowds are not that big. Same with a mall. But what’s happening in Lansing? The new Governor is scheduled to give an inauguration speech later this month in Lansing. Virtually the entire house, senate and cabinet will be there plus hundreds of people in the galleries, most of them government employees. They could wipe out the state government and the state capitol with an armed attack combined with a dirty bomb explosion. We can assume they’re prepared to martyr themselves so it doesn’t matter to them if they get caught up in it or not.”
“That wasn’t on our radar,” Tamourini said. “We were looking for generic scenarios like malls, hockey games and basketball games. But you’re right. That would be ideal. Take out a governor and his government and the whole city—what could be better? I’ll plug that into the system at once.
“One more thing, how are you going to handle the Mexicans when you get them back here? I told you it would be weeks before our legal department decides whether to take over the prosecution or not. In the meantime you have to hold them and charge them. You may have to actually try them. You are going to attract a bunch of their guys from Chicago in the meantime. If you want FBI help with that, let me know. We can put a team in here and both observe them and harass them until they decide it isn’t worth it.”
