Normally everything went off without a hitch. Most people were oblivious to what was happening around them. But crooks, cops, and people playing both sides, or playing an unknown side…they were the wild cards that got people caught, injured or killed. Shane was always prepared to make sure he was not one of these statistics.
Shane’s perfect case was one that he worked long enough to gather all that a department needed to solve a case and advance an investigation to the desired point, and then he disappeared, with no trace, leaving the target wondering what had happened. Then he would be off to the next department and a new assignment. He was a special contract operative, a unique professional with no permanent roots or baggage…and no real life.
He heard a screech of rubber, and suddenly another car left, and then another. Both drove out and stopped on the street, facing the correct way to the hospital. There should be one more car, and Shane was getting anxious. He was still thinking about the car that had left the wrong way, when he saw lights in his rear-view mirror. He was slumped down again, ready to go, backpack in hand, as the car drove slowly by him and he got a look at the driver and passenger. It was Franky’s personal bodyguards, Vick and Bobby, checking the neighborhood
Shane had assumed that, prior to leaving for something this important, these two would deviate from their normal M.O. (Method of Operation) of counter-surveillance neighborhood checks, as they had in the past. But this time, they had not deviated, and Shane promised himself he wouldn’t expect they might deviate from a standard routine again. As Vick drove close to the driveway, Franky’s limo pulled out in front, and all four cars drove out of sight toward the hospital in a small orderly caravan.
Shane believed that there were two guards left in the house now. This was not just guesswork, but the result of weeks of surveillance to identify the members of the family and organization who lived and worked on the grounds and in the houses, and their routines. He had also learned where the compound’s security surveillance cameras and motion detectors were located.
He had previously obtained the plans for the alarm system from Sheriff Roberts, who knew the contractor who installed the system before Franky purchased the property. Shane had carefully planned his entry. He had painstakingly rehearsed all the details of this night several times, all while patiently waiting for this one night of a planned major distraction.
Shane had even identified the nanny who had been hired to help with the new little Mafioso, and he had conducted a separate surveillance to learn about her life and connections. His hospital informant had recognized a photo he had taken of the nanny, and told him in her first phone call earlier, that the nanny had arrived at the hospital with Hector and Anna.
Shane had done all he could to prepare for his entry into the Magadinno compound. It was time to go. One last surveillance circuit check, a deep calming breath, and he was ready.
Shane opened the door of his car, but no interior lights came on, as he had removed the bulbs from the doors and overhead lamps in advance. He pressed the door firmly, but gently, and closed and latched it with just a click. He slung the large backpack over his shoulders as he slipped both arms through the straps. He then walked quickly to Franky’s west side neighbor’s yard. He effortlessly vaulted the six-foot fence into the neighbor’s yard. He turned completely around to check the grounds and the house. This neighbor had no dogs, but Franky had three.
Shane retrieved the baggie from his jacket inside pocket that contained the steak pieces laced with a tranquilizer. Once consumed, they would put the dogs to sleep for at least an hour. Even though he had spent many nights feeding the dogs, and making friends to avoid the possibility of barking, he was not about to take any chances. The dogs presented a problem, friends or not.
He had tested the tranquilizer on other dogs to prepare for other assignments, and he knew these dogs would recover normally, completely unharmed, so no one would be the wiser. He also had previously tested a quarter dose on these dogs, just to make sure the tranquilizer worked.
Shane vaulted the neighbor’s fence into the Magadinno compound side yard at a blind spot to the security surveillance cameras. In his few nights with the dogs, he had trained them to come to a cricket clicker he had purchased at a toy store. Three clicks and the nameless dogs were at his side, eating the specially prepared steak. He delayed a few minutes to stroke the last dog gently as he lay down to nap. Shane liked dogs a lot, and he was sure this one was just a crime family tool, and not the pet he deserved to be.
The west yard surveillance camera made its run to the front driveway, and with his canine friends asleep, Shane moved quickly and silently from the cover of the bushes near the fence to the tree growing just off the master bedroom balcony. He could hear the two remaining guards laughing loudly, as they watched a movie on the television in the kitchen downstairs. He delayed, as he listened for anything unusual and watched the dancing lights from the TV screen move around the room and ceiling.
Using a technique learned from a burglar he had surveilled in his earlier police years, Shane scampered up the tree and stepped up on to one of the two tree steps he had previously placed in the tree, a week earlier. They were both small camo steps, and easily concealed from view, once in the tree. He reached up and checked the second step, he had placed at a higher and offset position, to make sure it was still securely attached.
After the camera passed the location, he then moved to a large limb above the lower step and reset that step to a position higher than the top step. He then climbed from one step to the other, removing the lower step as he moved. He moved carefully and quietly up the steps and limbs. He repeated the process, until he finally stood on the upper step, at the final position. He had planned his ascent to avoid the lone tracking surveillance camera. His final destination was now above and in clear view of, the master bedroom balcony. He positioned himself for the jump.
Now, both he and the step were totally out of view of all the cameras. From the higher step he stepped out on to a solid limb, and in one motion, immediately leapt out and down, landing on the second story master bedroom balcony.
Shane’s soft sole shoes didn’t make enough noise on the landing to alert the guards over the TV and their own laughter. All his equipment held silently, fast in place, due to his diligent packing. He had practiced the jump from a tree onto his own apartment balcony and knew the equipment would not betray him with noise or movement.
Shane had packed the oversized backpack with all the surveillance equipment he needed and had wrapped all individual parts in dish towels to muffle any noise of movement. The various components were stacked in the exact order he would need them as he moved through the house.
Shane entered through the unlocked master bedroom sliding glass door. Once inside, he began to make his way through the house, placing miniature wireless bugs and video cameras in places they would never be detected. First, he finished the master suite and adjoining office. Then he began his work in the other upstairs bedrooms, before heading downstairs. These devices could be turned on and off by a remote master.
Turning the remote master off, would allow Shane to make all devices silent, and even more difficult to find if a “sweeper” or bug detector was employed. The remote master itself, was already in place, located on a telephone pole near the compound, with a direct line of sight to the master bedroom primary unit. The master bedroom primary unit would send signals to all other bugs and cameras in the house.
Shane had programmed the remote master, so it could be activated and controlled by his cell phone, using a 13-digit code. At the first hint of a check for devices, he would turn off all his bugs and cameras. Only the most sophisticated equipment and personnel could then find any of his devices.
The best part of the system was that Shane could monitor conversations and video digitally from his remote computer, linked by phone to the remote master. In addition, all the conversations and video feeds from different rooms could be selected and recorded, and late
r separated and viewed individually.
Both remaining guards sat in the kitchen, drinking and laughing loudly at the movie during Shane’s movements in the house, making his task much easier. The last downstairs bug Shane planted in the dining area off the kitchen had an extra directional microphone that would pick up all kitchen conversation.
But Shane missed no opportunity and had one more ace in the hole. Earlier in the week, he had watched Franky buy a new “smart” cell phone at a local store. The phone would be a gift to Hector to celebrate the birth of his son.
Now, as he went through the house setting up his devices, he looked for the phone to switch it out with a “special” replacement phone of the same model and color he had pre-programmed and brought with him. He didn’t find the phone until he entered the offset upstairs room he had saved for last. It was in the maid’s room, still in the box, sitting on wrapping paper on a night stand, next to a card addressed from Franky to Hector.
“The gift for Hector isn’t even wrapped!” Shane thought, “This couldn’t have gotten much better.” He quickly checked the phone to see if there were any contacts inputted, and seeing none, switched the phones and placed the programmed gift phone in the box. When Hector used the phone Shane had provided, Shane would be able to receive a computer print-out identifying all incoming and outgoing calls, and he would be able to monitor all the conversations remotely, as if on a conference call. The software installed in Shane’s computer would also record all this information automatically in his absence.
Shane was just about to leave the room when he heard voices and steps coming quickly up the staircase not far down the hall. Shane was trapped in the maid’s room near the top of the stairs, and one of the voices was female. Shane felt another quick adrenaline rush. There were no open windows, and there was only one door to the room. Shane had little time, and he had no way out!
2
“These things gotta happen every five years or so. It helps to get rid of the bad blood.”
(Peter Clemenza, in the movie, The Godfather)
Shane froze only briefly while he chose his path of retreat. He had read the room on entry, and once again scanned the room to confirm his choice to hide in a closet next to the small window. In a moment, he was inside, the door closed, and safely concealed between some very large, long dresses and the wall. A few seconds later, two subjects entered the room. Shane recognized the voices, and knew immediately it was the new nanny, April, and Franky’s Chief of Security, Big John Galliano.
If Shane’s guess was right, April was rooming with the live-in maid, Lucinda. When he placed his bug in the room, he had seen suitcases on one of the beds and clothes laid out on both beds, in two very different sizes. Lucinda was a good-sized girl, while April was 5-foot nothing and maybe broke 100 pounds soaking wet.
The light flicked on and Big John ushered April into the room, chastising her for forgetting the bag of baby accessories that included a handmade blanket from the baby’s paternal grandmother. April searched around frantically, and finally found at least part of what she was searching for, a small tote with a baby’s blanket protruding out the top. She then opened one of the closet doors, reached in and grabbed a raincoat (fortunately placed on the far side of the closet), and closed the door. April walked out of the room first, but Big John’s footsteps did not follow.
Shane’s Glock .45 was already pointed at the door. As seconds seemed like minutes, Shane heard movement in front of the closet. He then heard a rubbing sound on the carpet, coming closer to the closet door, and he prepared for the worst.
“This could be the shortest assignment I ever worked,” thought Shane, as he prepared to pump a round into Big John if he was discovered. Sweat began to form on his brow as Shane focused on recalling details from Big John’s police profile.
When he had been hired for this assignment, Sheriff Roberts had provided him all the intelligence files he could gather from the combined resources of several agencies, including the FBI, DEA, Reno PD, Washoe County Sheriff’s Office, and Carson City Sheriff’s Office, just to name a few. Shane had spent his first week just reading intelligence from these cases that had been gathered over decades, by dozens of agents and officers. It seemed every law enforcement agency in a five-hundred mile radius knew about the Magadinno Family Crime Syndicate, in one way or another. Even so, none of them had been able to prosecute a case against Franky successfully, or against Franky’s father before him.
Franky had initially been linked to drugs, prostitution, gambling and extortion, typical for an organized crime boss. But his resume had grown through the years and was now much more impressive. In time, Franky had diversified into robbery, theft, international transportation of stolen property, kidnapping, murder-for-hire and, of course, plain murder. The totality of all the intelligence left Shane amazed that he was working this assignment alone. But he had initially accepted the reasons and the risk.
At this very second he wondered again why he hadn’t been hired to augment a 20-man interagency task force. But, by the time he had a feel for whom and what he was dealing with, Shane had been on the job a week, and it was too late to reconsider. He was no longer sure he could put a major case together against the Magadinno Family, working alone. Right now he wasn’t even sure he could survive a solo investigation.
The one thing Shane was sure of was that he could not allow himself to be discovered or captured by the Magadinnos, or life, as he knew it, would be over. Shane took all this intelligence he had digested very seriously, and he knew that if he were discovered and captured, he would likely be tortured, slowly and painfully for information first, and then killed. He would “simply disappear,” as Franky would say.
But, what was worse, was that Shane had learned that Franky and Big John approached the violent side of their business with equal fervor. The reports he read gave Shane a window into the souls of these two dirt-bags, and the scene wasn’t pretty. It appeared that Franky and Big John often competed to see who could be more violent, brutal and fearsome. Informants, over the years, had reported almost unbelievable tales of tortures and killings that took on a party-like atmosphere for these two maniacs.
While these thoughts raced through his head, Shane strained over the surging adrenaline and ringing in his ears to hear more, and wondered what Big John was doing on the other side of the door. Shane’s stomach growled, and he was sure Big John must have heard the rumble. Beads of sweat began to trickle down Shane’s forehead to his nose and eyebrows, and, for the first time, he noticed how warm it was in the closet. While the adrenaline raced through his body a rhythmic beating pulse now played drums in his ears to keep time for the ringing. He focused on controlling his breathing as he strained to hear.
Shane said a quick and silent prayer, speaking from his heart directly to God, something he now did more often, the older he got, and the more jobs like this he worked. The silence elevated Shane’s fear that Big John knew he was there. He could feel his pulse surge harder and thought Big John might even hear his heart pounding. He heard a brushing near the door, and pressed a little harder on the trigger, as he aimed at where the big man should be on the other side of the door.
As he did, Shane placed his ear gently on the closet door, and tried to decipher every little sound from the other side. Suddenly, Big John cursed loudly at April, just inches from Shane’s head on the other side of the door, and Shane jerked back, hitting his head on the hanger rod. Fortunately, it seemed that Big John had covered the resulting “clunk” with his own loud rant. April’s quick steps came back into the room, and she apologized profusely to John.
Shane listened as April explained how she must have knocked over the coffee she had been drinking when she placed it on the floor next to the tote, as she grabbed her raincoat. Big John had mopped up the stain with a towel, but made it known he didn’t appreciate having been left the task by a lowly nanny.
Within seconds, the pair’s footsteps told Shane they were both out of the room an
d trudging back downstairs. As they hit the landing, Big John complained loudly and eloquently to April leaving no doubt about how irritated he was by the disruption to his meal and movie.
Shane was left alone, still controlling his silent breathing, and listening to his stomach growl. He thanked God for another prayer answered, and promised both himself and God that, next time he had to come this close to danger, he would eat something more bland and predictable beforehand. Shane chuckled silently as he asked himself, “Did I almost die for two tacos and a spicy tamale?”
By the time April left the house, slamming the kitchen door, Shane was already out of the room, down the hallway to the master bedroom, and headed out on to the balcony. He had placed the downstairs bugs and camera before April had arrived back at the house. After a quick check for anything out of place, Shane prepared for the most difficult part of the evening, the jump from the balcony wrought iron railing back into the tree.
To make the jump easier, Shane had placed the highest camouflaged step on the tree trunk, next to a branch located left of, and several feet lower than, the one he had used before on the entry. The stand had been out of sight of the compound’s security surveillance camera when placed there, and was now only partially visible to a keen eye if a person was closely looking for it.
Shane knew the jump would be difficult. The stand was small, measuring about 2 feet by 2 feet, and now, the coated aluminum was wet with rain, and bound to be slippery. As Shane was just about to jump, he checked his surroundings while waiting for the surveillance camera to pass, below his location.
He noticed a figure running down the street toward his car. The body movement was familiar to him, agile and quiet, and Shane knew that he should know the person’s identity even though he could not possibly see their face. The figure, dressed in black from head to toe, stayed in the shadows as much as possible. He tried to recall ever seeing any of the crime family running. He could not.
The Case Page 4
