I told Bev, she told the Coast Guard, the FBI and her Captain.
“I still think since the date changed, so did the drop location. If I were you, which I’m not, I’d put someone on Big Al and his slip in the Destin Beach Marina watching his fishing boat and this one in Panama City Beach,” I said. “Just a suggestion.”
Bev called it in to her Captain who sent a detective to sit on Big Al’s Fishing Boat and follow him if he goes out to it. I mentioned he might be staying at Ashley Westlake’s home right up the highway. Bev just looked at me and relayed Big Al’s possible whereabouts to her Captain.
“Uh huh, got it. Okay,” Bev said and hung up. “Gotta go, but you two stay put, as in, stay here, go to the pool or the beach but stay close to your phones. I’ll call you when we have something.”
The tech from Cyber Crime was arriving as Bev was leaving. I told him I thought we had it all resolved but if we didn’t I’d get in touch with him through Officer Bev.
Jiff and I headed to the pool. Nothing like a cool dip to clear your head of cobwebs from a night with little to no sleep.
Much later that day, after a nap, we went lounging in the pool on rafts working on our sunburns. We were having a very late lunch poolside when Officer Bev and Captain Duffy came looking for us. As much as I tried to avoid Wallace, he seemed to run into us every time we left the condo. I wasn’t sure he ever made the connection it was me at the All Male Review. He showed Bev and Duffy out to where we were eating.
“You two are quite the pair,” Captain Duffy said. “I don’t know how you put it together, but your willingness to stick around and offer your help while on vacation cracked this wide open. You want to tell us how you figured out what they were doing?”
“Rascal was the linchpin. I can only tell you what I saw after we found the flash drives,” I said. “I saw an entry DHM108. The night we went to Big Al’s World Famous Tiki Hut, we strolled along the piers and I saw that number on Big Al’s slip for his Fishing Boat in the Destin Harbor Marina. As soon as I saw it I thought, I know what all the codes mean now. I just didn’t know how they connected until I saw Daniel with Big Al at the All Male Review and Rod told me Al was meeting with the guy who moves his money.”
“You won’t guess who we caught at Big Al’s dock box picking up the drop?” Officer Bev said. “The initials MP belonged to…”
“Mike Perricone,” I said. “I wish I could say I’m surprised. I wish I had figured it would be him but it just came to me when you said his initials. I thought it would be one of those two guys who roughed up Daniel and who may have killed Ashley Westlake.”
“They worked for Perricone. Mike became disenchanted with law enforcement when the FBI booted him over to us so he went to the dark side,” Captain Duffy explained. “Mike made the arrangements, picked up the money drops, taking his cut for the crimes the other two did.”
“We’ve picked them all up, Abby, Al, Mike and Daniel. Seems they all want a deal except Daniel. He claims he was just a courier. I’m so disappointed in Perricone,” Bev said. “After he showed us those drives you gave him, I always had the feeling he was holding out, that maybe he doctored those drives before we saw them. I need to go back to see if his initials are on any of those entries.”
“We have a copy of what we gave him, if you want it,” Jiff said. “We opened them to see what they were, and I saved a copy for evidence in case it was ever needed.”
Captain Duffy handed Jiff her card and asked him to email all the files he had to her.
“We should have made the connection that Perricone was involved since he knew Daniel, knew Al, but we didn’t know if he knew Ashley and Abby,” Jiff said.
“He knew them,” Officer Bev said.
“Doesn’t matter. You gave us the time and place. We caught him red handed, on video. Mike Perricone picked up the money from Big Al’s dock box in the Panama City Marina around eleven this morning,” Captain Duffy said. “Before we could mirandize him he was asking for a deal.”
“What’s gonna happen to Daniel?” Jiff asked.
“That’s for the courts to decide but he is cooperating,” Area Director Steve Sorenson walked up to us adding. “He’s trying to say he had no part in anything illegal since he was only a courier and didn’t know what he was moving. He might do time on tax evasion or money laundering unless he can give us more on the big fish in NYC. That’s the very least the FBI will charge him on.”
“I’ll never forgive him for almost giving Rascal to those two thugs who showed up that night. It looked like he was going to until Jiff yelled at them, and those guys took off,” I said.
“Actually,” Officer Bev said, “I asked him about that. Daniel maintained he does not know those two, but he saw Perricone that morning at the West Marine boat supply store right after he picked up Rascal. Perricone didn’t mention the murder but asked him if he got a dog. Daniel said he found him. Perricone knew who the dog belonged to and never bothered contacting you. I’m sure he sent those men to the pier and to your condo.”
“He called Donnato Neglio and told him where Abby’s dog was,” Captain Duffy said and looked at Sorenson.
He continued, “Donnato figured he could use the dog as leverage but never got the chance. Some rookie gave Abby the info on where the dog was but the dog was moved to New Orleans before Mike could give Donnato an update. Since we thought it was Ashley acting on Abby’s behalf, we told Perricone and he relayed the wrong info back to NYC. He told them they fulfilled the contract on Abby Westlake, Donnato’s ex-wife. Matter closed. Money owed.”
“No one knew about the new flash drive yet, least of all Neglio, Perricone and Big Al. I think that kept Abby alive,” Officer Bev added.
“Well, I feel better knowing Daniel is absolved of trying to hurt the dog, but he knew what he was doing. He knew it was in no way legit,” Jiff added. “Business—real business moves money via bank transfers and wires. Who moves cash around on cigarette boats in waterproof duffle bags and makes deposits in lock boxes or gym lockers? This guy went to law school and he should be held accountable at a higher standard.”
“He’ll be answering questions for a while on money laundering,” Sorenson said. He thanked us and made his goodbyes.
“What’s going to happen with Abby and Big Al?” I asked Bev and Duffy. “You know if Abby never made copies of those flash drives, this would have kept going until one of them made a mistake and you may never have caught them. She’s the reason all this came to an end.”
“According to Jess, Abby came to visit at least once sometimes twice a month. She always went to Big Al’s… for the music,” Officer Bev said. “On occasion she would drag Ashley along who stayed for one drink with her sister and then left because Big Al would start hanging around Abby. Jess says it was because Abby was still in love with Al and he was still in love with her.”
Captain Duffy let out an uh, uh, uh of disapproval over the Abby, NYC, Big Al love triangle. “She told us during her interrogation that she and Al planned to disappear together. When Donnato wanted a divorce, she saw it as a way out for her, but not for Al. She made copies of the flash drives thinking they could use them to get him out. Or at the very least, get them mailed to the FBI to give Donnato more to worry about than finding her. They received a copy today from the attorney those two went to see last week since everyone, including me, thought Abby was the one murdered.”
“Abby said Donnato didn’t know about her and Al. Donnato liked his operation running smoothly and Al did that for him. He’d kill her before he’d kill Al,” Officer Bev added.
“When are you two leaving? I’m sorry if this took over your entire vacation here,” Captain Duffy said.
Jiff and I looked at each other. “We called back home and are staying another two days. We’ll be leaving Thursday.”
“Really? I have another case I’d like to run by you to see…” Captain Duffy tried to say before Jiff cut her off.
“No, no, no,” Jiff said pulling me into
the pool.
“How do you know we won’t want to help?” I asked him.
“I want at least two days’ vacation with you before we help solve anymore crimes!”
The End
About the Author
Colleen Mooney was born and raised in New Orleans along with everyone else in her family. She is a Wall Street Journal Best Selling Author and writes a cozy mystery series set in New Orleans called The New Orleans Go Cup Chronicles and the fifth book, Dog Gone and Dead is released in July 2018 in the boxed set Summer Snoops and Cozy Crimes: 12 Cozy Mysteries for the Dog Days of Summer. She and the eleven other authors are donating all proceeds from the sale of this boxed set to two no kill animal shelters.
In January 2017 Colleen organized a Sisters in Crime chapter in New Orleans, has been elected President and has a planned a Mystery Writers’ Conference for June. She is currently working on her 6th book in the Brandy Alexander series, Politicians, Potholes and Pralines!
Colleen worked in corporate America for twenty-one years before retiring and has lived in Birmingham, Atlanta, New Jersey and New York. She moved back to New Orleans every time before another corporate reorganization would transfer her to another city. She says, “New Orleanians are a lot like boomerangs or homing pigeons. The minute we move away, we start trying to move back.”
In New Orleans, she’s been a member and active in many Mardi Gras Krewes, Super Krewes, and organizations. Colleen says she has never met a parade she didn’t like.
She’s an ardent animal lover and the Director for a breed rescue, Schnauzer Rescue of Louisiana for the last fifteen years. She has rescued and placed over 350 abandoned or surrendered Schnauzers. Find her rescue on Facebook facebook.com/NOLASchnauzerRescue or the rescue Website www.nolaschnauzer.com. She loves to write, and writes about what she loves. Colleen says, “New Orleans is where it all happens for me.”
Keep in touch with Colleen here:
My website:
www.colleenmooney.com
Amazon Colleen Mooney books:
amazon.com/Colleen-Mooney/e/B00N9I5DMK
Facebook:
facebook.com/colleen.mooney.716
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twitter.com/mooney_colleen
Goodreads Author Profile:
goodreads.com/author/show/8548635.Colleen_Mooney
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