Agent Burrows interrupted him. “Does that mean he’s pardoned?” She didn’t know why she asked that question when there were a dozen more important ones she was waiting to ask.
“No.” Frank could see this as a chance to lure Joe in to catch him. “But, if he was to promise to serve this country, I’m sure we can work something out.”
“Sorry, sir.” Burrows felt her face flushing: “I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”
“That’s all right, it was a valid point. Make sure Mrs. Timberlake tells Joe these details; I want you to be open with them both about what went on here today. After all, if they say no, then we haven’t got a special task force. Joe Mann and Partner are going to be the basis of this team. Without Joe’s gift of getting information out of people’s dreams, we’ve got nothing.”
Brubaker stood. “Agent Burrows, I would suggest you spend some time on the shooting range, and work on your fitness level. You will be working with Agent Campbell in the field, which is something you haven’t regularly been doing.” With that, Frank Brubaker dismissed them both with thanks for coming in on such short notice.
Brubaker was glad to see Burrows and Campbell leave. He hoped the Magic Man agreed to work with them; if he did, it would only be a matter of time before there’d be no Magic Man. He was pleased with himself––his plan to catch the Magic Man was working.
But Frank was not alone; Joe had jumped into Agent Burrows’ mind before she went into Frank’s office, and as soon as he shook her hand, Joe had jumped into Frank Brubaker’s mind. He popped back and forth, and it was he who had prompted Burrows into asking about the pardon. He was in Frank’s mind when Frank was thinking about how he might be able to trap the Magic Man. Frank Brubaker might be feeling pleased with himself, but Joe Mann was over the moon. He now had inside information about every move Homeland Security made in their attempts to lure him out. He’d return to Brubaker’s mind for a daily update. There was no doubt it was going to make staying ahead of Homeland that much easier.
Chapter43
Frank Brubaker had called Special Agent Mike Jones in, as well. Although Mike was an agent for the DEA, Frank Brubaker had the authority to use any agent from any
source he wanted. Mike had been there in the morning, before Agents Campbell and Burrows, and was more or less given the same rundown. He was to work with the Magic Man, through Alice Timberlake, and if he or any of his team members came into physical contact with Joe, they were to be downgraded and reassigned. They couldn’t take the chance of Joe getting into their minds. Also, from now on, they were to refer to the Magic Man as Joe Mann, a government adviser. Mike was told he was to help Alice and Joe, and try to protect them the best way he could. However, Mike’s team was to take all the credit for their busts, like Campbell’s team for theirs—even though most of the information the teams would be working off would come from Joe’s gift. Mike and his team were to keep Joe and Alice secret from the public and media—no one was to even know about Joe Mann and Partner. It annoyed Mike that Frank Brubaker could summon him to drop what he was doing in L.A. and have him fly to Washington, D.C. to attend a meeting—all at the taxpayer’s expense. He was sure a phone call would have sufficed. However, Mike could see the importance of keeping the Magic Man’s gift and identity a secret. Joe Mann and Partner were classified Top Secret.
Mike knew Alice and Joe were amateurs, and Alice would take some watching. He was glad to hear that Special Agent Rosemary Burrows would be looking after Alice, inspecting and clearing what she could report to the media about future cases. Mike could see the good in having Joe Mann’s help, as long as Alice was the only one he had to deal with. Joe had already proved to Mike that he could get more information in one night than his surveillance team could get in months.
~
Joe had finally put together a simple plan of how Alice should meet Ronald Rodriguez. It was to be at the golf club’s parking lot on Sunday morning. Rodriguez was due to tee off at 10:00 a.m. All Alice had to do was get Rodriguez’s attention for a couple of seconds so Joe could jump into his mind.
Alice knew Joe wanted the Feds to think he was also in the vicinity. Alice told Mike she’d be in San Francisco for the meeting, as well, and asked if that would interfere with the surveillance they were doing on Rodriguez. Mike told her it wouldn’t be an issue—he’d be up there overseeing the set-up, and she was to call his cell phone for help or advice, if needed. He told her his men would have her in sight at all times, and he would have men in the golf club’s CCTV room watching the parking lot and the area around the clubhouse.
At 9:05 a.m. Saturday morning, John and Alice sat in their car in the parking lot of the golf club in San Francisco. Alice was excited, and nervous. “Alice love, you are going to have to get used to this,” John said, trying to make small talk while they waited. “Agent Burrows told you that you’ll be on cases all over the U.S., so you should try to make it easier for us. I didn’t mind driving up,” John could see she wasn’t listening to him, “but it would have been quicker and more convenient to just hop on a plane. I am almost positive the Bureau would have paid for the hotel and flight for us.”
Alice’s cell phone buzzed. “Yeah … right … thanks.” She turned to John. “Rodriguez is coming through the main gates.” Alice got out of her car and straightened her skirt. She was wearing a navy-blue two-piece suit with a frilly white blouse. Alice had been told exactly where he would park. She stood by the front of her car and smiled at Rodriguez as his chauffeur drove past slowly, then took a deep breath and walked toward Rodriguez’s vehicle. As she did, she spoke to Joe through her thoughts. “Here we go, Joe.”
Joe had been in Alice’s mind for the last half hour. He had to listen to John going on, while trying to keep Alice focused on her task. “Just smile and relax—everything will be okay.”
The chauffeur, who also doubled as Rodriguez’s bodyguard, was the first out of the car. He had eyed Alice and John as he drove up. He held one hand out and put the other on his gun. “Hold it there, lady,” he was looking from what she was holding, to her driver: “What do you have in your hand?”
“It’s a DVD.” Alice smiled at Rodriguez as he got out of the car and turned to face her. “Good morning, Mr. Rodriguez, I have a DVD and a message for you.”
“Who are you?” Rodriguez asked, raising his eyebrows. “I’m just a messenger; I’m to tell you that before you put any more money into the Blue Water project, you should have a look at this DVD.” Alice waved the envelope.
The chauffeur started to walk toward her: “Open it up and show me!”
Alice pulled out the DVD with a note wrapped around it, held by an elastic band. She handed it to the chauffeur. “I’m also to tell you to look up at the security camera and say, thank you, Joe.” She pointed toward the camera, without taking her eyes off Rodriguez. Alice knew Joe had made contact.
The chauffeur snatched the DVD and note from her, and looked up at the camera mounted on a pole overlooking the parking lot. “Who’s Joe?”
“Yes,” repeated Rodriguez, “who’s Joe, and what does he know about Blue Water?”
“I’m sure the DVD will explain it,” Alice turned quickly and made her way back to her car: “I’m only the messenger,” she threw back at them before joining John in the vehicle.
The chauffeur handed the DVD to Rodriguez, who pulled off the elastic band and read the title, An Inconvenient Truth – A Documentary by Al Gore. He looked up and watched John and Alice drive away. He shouted after her: “Is this some kind of fucking joke?”
“What do you want me to do, boss?”
“Nothing!” He looked up at the camera, and then opened the note and read it out loud. “Think twice before you spend your money. It’s signed, Friends of the Earth.” He looked at the DVD again. “What do they mean by an inconvenient truth?” He shrugged. “Fucking hippies.”
“Friends of the Earth?––why didn’t they just mail it to you? Do you think she’s one of them?”
&nb
sp; “No, she was eye-candy to get my attention,” he said as he handed the DVD to the chauffeur. “You’d better look at that, just in case there is a message on it. And see if you can make sense of that note while I go and play some golf.”
Alice had done some research on Ronald Rodriguez’s companies, and found out he was one of the directors for a company involved in a project called Blue Water. Alice and Joe had thought it would be a good idea to give him a DVD on how to save the planet as an excuse to contact him.
Alice sighed with relief as she and John drove away. “Well, I think that went well.”
John was confused. With the Feds being up there to keep an eye on Alice, he had thought it would be more of a cloak-anddagger operation—like in the films—not Alice acting like a parcel boy. “So that’s it? You hand over a package, and now Joe can get into his dreams?”
“Yeah, it’s weird isn’t it? But Joe wants the Feds to think he jumped into Rodriguez’s mind when he touched the DVD.” Alice gave a nervous laugh; she didn’t like lying to John. “He’s more than likely bumped into him last night or this morning.”
John was shaking his head, trying to make sense out of it all, as he had done when Jessica touched the plaque in the shopping centre. “No wonder the Feds want to keep Joe under wraps.” He glanced at Alice. “And all he told you to do was hand over that package?” John was still shaking his head. “That is weird.”
“It’s creepy how he does it.” Alice had a big grin on her face. “Who am I to argue with the government if they are willing to pay me so well for being a messenger girl and a go-between for Joe and them? And, if Joe wants to play silly games so the Feds can’t catch him, it’s no skin off my nose.”
John’s smile was as big as Alice’s by the time she finished speaking. “As long as the money keeps rolling in, you won’t have any complaints from me.”
Alice started singing: “Who wants to be millionaires?”
John couldn’t help but join in: “We do!”
Joe let them enjoy their moment before he whispered to Alice: “Good job, girl. I got into his mind and I’ll see what I can find out tonight. I’ll leave you two songbirds to it. Oh, do you really think I’m weird and creepy?”
“Yeah, but only when you pop into my head when I’m singing with my husband.” Alice joked, as she carried on singing. However, it did get weird when Joe joined in.
“Who wants to be millionaires? We do!”
~
Frank Brubaker’s men reported that Mrs. Timberlake handed over a package to Rodriguez and that Rodriguez had looked up at the camera and asked, “Who’s Joe?” They hadn’t seen anyone else around. That’s all they had; Rodriguez made no contact with anyone else all day, aside from his golfing buddies.
~
Joe had a busy night as he picked away at Ronald Rodriguez’s mind while he slept. It was the first time Joe could write down what someone was dreaming. When he was in prison he had had no pen and paper, he had to remember it all. It took Joe most of the night and when he finished, he had about four pages of Rodriguez’s past life written down. Joe went back the following night to clear up a few issues and make sure he had all the names right.
Tuesday morning, Joe reported in to Alice: “Ding-dong … anyone home?”
“There you are! I’ve been expecting you; why didn’t you call yesterday?”
“I didn’t get much sleep the night before so I slept most of the day; then, I wanted to double check a few things last night. But I’m ready to make my report now.” Joe was in a cheerful mood. “Girl, you‘d better get on that computer of yours, have I got a story to tell.”
Alice shot up and went straight to her computer. “So, is Rodriguez mixed up in the drug ring?”
“Up to his neck in it! I don’t even know where to start.”
“Well, go ahead Joe, I’m all ears,” Alice said impatiently.
That week Alice did a lot of writing. She phoned Mike to tell him she had Joe’s report on Ronald Rodriguez, but she was too afraid to email it, just in case it fell into the wrong hands. Mike sent someone to pick it up. She had also done another follow-up story on the rape case about how the boys had used chloroform they had stolen from one of their father’s dental practices. The newspaper was pleased with her coverage, and paid her well for it; Alice had never been so well off, and it was only the beginning. She had already written the story about Agent Mike Jones busting one of the biggest drug rings in California; now, she was writing a follow-up story about Jimmy Murphy using one of his restaurants to smuggle illegal child labor in from Asia. All Alice was waiting for was Mike to say when and where they were going to make their bust; she was ready for Mike or Burrows to give the okay to release the stories to the media.
Chapter44
Mike and his team were in the office waiting to hear what Joe Mann, their new team member, had found out. When the report came in, Mike couldn’t believe what
Joe had obtained for them. There were forty-five betting places alone that were just like Gerald Lomas’. The ring included kebab shops, taxicab offices, topless bars, and pizza parlors throughout California. Joe had all their addresses and most of the names Rodriguez could remember. He also had the names of the businesses that Rodriguez owned or was a partner in, from shipping to construction firms, from California to Dubai. And, just like Lomas, all forty-five business owners had at least half a dozen guys buying from them—and it all traced right back to Rodriguez.
The ring spread out across California, covering it like a spider’s web. Mike handed that part of the report to one of his team members so they could stick pins on the large wall map of California in the operation’s room, for the forty-five addresses Joe had given them. Mike knew they’d have to call in extra help—there weren’t enough DEA agents in California to cover the entire area. They would need surveillance on all the locations to build a solid legal case.
The best part was that Rodriguez had told Joe how he came into the money in the first place. Mike was so excited he had to read that part over to make sure he had read it right.
“Listen up guys…” most of Mike’s team was helping to find the addresses on the map and sticking pins in the locations. “If what Joe says in here is right,” he held up the report, “then we’ve got a connection linking Ronald Rodriguez to a drug baron in Columbia––the Mendez family. Rodriguez might have been born in Panama, and is now a U.S. citizen, but his mother was the daughter of the late Colonel Mendez, Rodriguez’s grandfather. That same Colonel Mendez paid for his education, sending Rodriguez to a California university to study law, and then he set him up in the property business. Later, he bought him a partnership in the firm he’s working for now. That was 30 years ago, and Mr. Rodriguez hasn’t even had a speeding ticket––he’s Mr. Clean. Now it all makes sense.”
There were a few cheers and the odd clap, and one officer said, “Well done, Joe!” Mike smiled and went back to reading the report that went on to say how Rodriguez stayed away from the drug business. However, it also said that nearly all the shops involved with the drugs were owned by a company that Rodriguez was a partner in. Rodriguez had also told Joe about a drug shipment that was coming into San Francisco on Saturday night. It was antique furniture from Europe, and the drugs weren’t inside the container, but in the steel framework of the container itself, sealed in the four corner pillars.
When Mike reached the last page of the report, he had to read it again to believe it. It gave all the numbers of Rodriguez’s bank accounts in the U.S., and all of his offshore account numbers. Mike studied the U.S. accounts. They were staggering and they were the only ones he had paid tax on. How the hell did Joe get him to confess to all this? Mike pictured Joe hypnotizing Rodriguez to go and get all the accounts out, and then read them to him. How else would he be able to get these numbers? The IRS will be all over these. Mike shook his head, and read the page again, then made a photocopy of it before taking it to his captain.
~
Alice and John had been
waiting for days for Mike to say when they were going to make the bust. By the Thursday after she had submitted their report, Alice couldn’t wait any longer. She phoned Mike, who told her it was a much bigger case than they had originally thought. Although they had a strong case against Rodriguez, they were afraid it wasn’t enough, and a good lawyer would get him off. He asked her if she thought Joe could get into Rodriguez’s head again, and get him to phone his tax accountant and ask him if he thought the IRS could trace the offshore accounts. Mike told her there was a tap on Rodriguez’s phones already, they had been hoping Rodriguez would slip up and say something incriminating.
Joe had been to see his old boss and asked him if there was any work available for him, and his boss had welcomed him back with open arms. They had been friends, as well as work colleagues. Joe could have hypnotized his boss into giving him a job; however, while in prison, he had decided to stay out of the minds of his parents, his old friends, and any new ones.
Now that he had a job, Joe went house hunting. Before returning home, he had looked at three houses, all in the Ventura area he loved so much. He more or less had made his mind up on which house he wanted—it was in Oxnard Shores, within walking distance of the beach. Then, like he had planned in prison, he could stroll up to the prettiest girl on the beach, and ask her the time. If she didn’t have a watch, he’d ask for directions. He’d go into her mind to get to know her, and then return at night and share a bed with her and her boyfriend––if she had one. If she didn’t, he’d take her on a fantasy trip and find her one. If she wanted to be a masseur to a football team, he’d have her bathing with the team—whatever was her fantasy.
Get Out Of My Dreams (Joe the Magic Man Series Book 1) Page 29
