“Thanks, Aaric. We really appreciate it. You’re a great brother-in-law.”
A gawky smile came over Aaric’s face as his cheeks became flushed. “Thanks, Whitney. Some might have gotten the impression that you didn’t like me.” He laughed.
“I know, I know. I’m protective of my little sister, but now that I know you’re alright, I’ll let you slide. And as for you, mister, are you about ready for bed?”
Trent said, “Yes, warden, I mean misses.”
“Don’t get smart with me. Look at you trying to act tough in front of Aaric. Now let’s go get those teeth of yours brushed.”
Aaric said, “You better listen, dude. I wouldn’t mess with her. If you guys need anything else, you know where our room is.”
“Thanks again, Aaric.”
They got to their room and Whitney had to run to the bathroom. By the time she got back, Trent was face down in the bed, snoring. She pushed him over on the soft mattress and lay down next to him. She was tempted to shove a breath mint into Trent’s mouth. She pulled the blanket over both of them and tried to go to sleep, but the case kept creeping back into her head.
12
Whitney paced around the small house as she waited for a special guest. She and Trent had only been home for a few days and they were highly motivated to kick this investigation into overdrive. The agents had collected an extraordinary amount of evidence that implicated sixty people in total. The only problem was that the guilty players in the conspiracy seemed to have an invisible force field around them, shielding them from the law.
Whitney heard the engine of a car and ran to the window. She looked out and saw a familiar face get out of his pickup truck and come to the door. She let him in and led him to the meeting table.
“Hi, can’t wait to talk.”
“Me too,” he said and removed his hat.
“Trent, Chief is here.”
Trent came out and said, “Mr. McTalbot, it’s a pleasure to see you again.”
The former Chief of the Bureau said, “The pleasure is mine. The Bull Party would love to silence us but it won’t happen. I’ve been talking to Nedhurst and he told me that there is enough evidence to move forward with interviews.”
“Except that the current Chief, ew, I hate to even call him that, but he would never let that happen. Ellerbee will block anything like that from ever going down.”
John McTalbot said, “That’s why we need to act quick. Every year, the Chief of the Bureau has to go out to the West Coast Branch to give a speech about the new training methods. It’s actually pretty boring, but it’s a three-day event and at first I didn’t think he would attend.”
Trent said, “I’m sure he cancelled it so he could ruin some more people’s lives instead. He seems pretty dedicated to that.”
John shook his finger in the air and said, “I would have bet the same thing but I still have some loyal sources in the game that tell me he is going on the trip. He leaves tomorrow so we have to come up with a plan to strike while he is gone.”
“I can’t believe it. If he’s going to be gone, the agents have the authority to start dragging in all the bad guys. Get out the paddy wagon and load them up.”
Trent said, “I agree to a certain extent. If we started to bring people in, word would get out to the Chief and he would be able to put the kibosh on it.”
The former Chief agreed, “Exactly. This is going to need to be done with a well-constructed plan executed to perfection. I think what we need to do first is to identify all the suspects and what we know about them. We focus on the people with the most offenses and try to figure out how we can exploit them.”
“That will be easy. Some of these guys are in so deep with so many different crimes, I hope we have enough paper.”
The three ex-employees of the Bureau started to match up all the charges for each person who was involved. They found twenty-five men who carried a host of improprieties the agents could use against them. They still hadn’t figured out how to carry out the plan.
The former Chief said, “We can focus on these twenty-five here and put one agent on each suspect. We need to have them study these charges for leverage in the interrogation procedure. We still don’t have a great way to execute the overall plan though.”
“What if we had the twenty-five agents each take a suspect and pick them up at the same time? That way there won’t be enough time for the Chief to react and alert the suspects that he can take care of everything. We have the agents say that they are acting on Ellerbee’s authority and that he has turned on them for a reduced sentence.”
Trent said, “That’s brilliant. If we provide enough solid evidence it might scare them enough and the dominoes will start to fall. We better add the financial crimes to the profiles and make sure our agents let these guys know that we have the paper trail. We could even provide a few pieces of paper to back up our point.”
John McTalbot said, “If we start laying down some documents, I think we can cue up the proverbial fat lady for a song or two. A criminal’s worst fear is concrete evidence. Most don’t even care if twenty people witnessed them killing someone in the middle of the street. They know that eye-witness and third party testimony can be twisted and turned into something that it’s not. You can’t twist a document or trail of money.”
Later that evening, Trent and Whitney sat at the same table with Barrett Nedhurst. The strong smell of coffee filled the air as they went over the plan.
“So as you can see there is a mountain of evidence on each person involved here. And this is just the top twenty-five. Give each agent one file and have them study it and bring any paperwork, especially of financials into the interrogation.”
Barrett said, “I know straight off the bat that some of these men are going to refuse to talk. I know Immons and Riley never say anything without going through their lawyer, but we also have some fresh fish in the water. If we scare some of these guys, they might fold and tell us the truth.”
Trent added, “At this point, even if just one or two confessed, they wouldn’t be able to bury this any longer. We need to find a way that they can’t keep this out of the spotlight.”
“Barrett, the Chief will be out of the office from tomorrow to Thursday so we have to act fast. Make sure the men go over the briefs and know the facts inside and out. I’ve even taken the time to lay down some quotes that each person had made in a shady meeting. I think those should hammer home the fact that we have the goods on them.”
Barrett said, “I’ll distribute these as soon as I get out of here, but if nobody talks, we could lose a good portion of the top agents in the Bureau. I might be moving in here with you guys if this doesn’t work out.”
Trent said, “I’m feeling pretty good about this one. If everyone hits around the same time, word might start to go around and actually help our cause. If I got picked up and then found out that all the people that were in on it had gotten picked up too, I know someone would be looking for a deal.”
Barrett said, “Hopefully, we can get some coffer offers to find out what they really know and how bad they want to avoid jail. The President is pretty well protected so sending him to jail will be difficult. Best hope would be to have him impeached, but his successor will more than likely pardon him.”
“What if he pardons all the people involved before he gets impeached?”
Barrett responded, “Depends how fast the impeachment came down. We could delay their trials so he can’t pardon anyone before he gets booted.”
Trent said, “He could try a preemptive pardon, but no President has ever done that before. He can’t apply that to himself though. President Gergen is holding some of the chips, but not all of them. We also are holding a better hand than him right now.”
“That’s why we don’t have the President or the Vice President on that list of twenty-five. We don’t need them to talk considering everyone under them can give them up. We will only go to them if this plan works out and they know they need
to talk.”
Trent said, “I hope we can find out who beat the shit out of us too. Wouldn’t mind a few extra minutes in the interrogation room with them. My jaw still hurts from that night.”
“Obviously, it had something to do with Daryl Hopkins I would think. Hours after we pick him up, everything happens. I believe in coincidences but this all seems too convenient. I don’t know who he sent to do it, but it had to be him.”
Trent argued, “I don’t know. I’m starting to think that it might have been Chief Ellerbee’s crew. That’s probably the first person Hopkins called when he left the office. The guy has four Es in his name, he has to be evil.”
Barrett laughed. “You won’t get an argument out of any agents I know on that one. I guess I should start making my rounds and get these into the right hands. I’ll talk to you two tomorrow about the exact time we should make the pickup. I’ll also have the agents check to see if their target will be in town that day.”
“Good point. We just assumed they would be in the Capitol for the beginning of the week.”
Trent said, “I wish I was in the real battle with you all. I feel like a cheerleader from the sidelines right now. Don’t waver on the path of righteousness, my friend.”
Barrett said, “Keep your pompoms ready to celebrate this victory and stay safe. We’ll talk soon.”
13
Whitney jumped up from the couch again. She bounced around the room trying to harness her nervousness. She kept looking at her phone to see if she had missed a message. The other agents should have put the plan into action a few hours ago.
Trent sat calmly on the couch and said, “Stop worrying. You know it’s a great sign that we haven’t heard from Barrett yet. Come over here and sit down.” He patted his thigh.
Whitney went over and sat on Trent’s lap. She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek. She started to calm down.
“I say as soon as this is over we get out of this country and go on our honeymoon. Flight tickets might cost a little more because of the short notice, but I could never put a price on our love,” he told her.
Whitney kissed her fiancé. “I think we should go to the Tortoise Islands. You sold me with that last set of pictures. What do you think?”
Trent looked at her with a smile and said, “I knew if I planted the seed in your head, it would work. That’s where I want to go too. You’ll get to see me drink for the first time.”
“Wow, you must’ve been wasted that night at my sister’s house. You don’t even remember drinking and smoking cigars. I can almost taste those drinks right now.”
Both of their phones started buzzing on the table in the other room. Whitney jumped up only to slip and fall down and bang her knee. She shook off the pain and tried to get to the phones that hadn’t stopped buzzing since they started.
Whitney grabbed her phone and saw three missed text messages. She quickly went through them and a huge smile appeared on her face. At least seven of the suspects were willing to talk for immunity or for a reduced sentence. She ran over and hugged Trent.
“We did it.”
“You did it…again. Jeez, you’re starting to get pretty good at this stuff,” Trent said.
A heavy knock on the door startled the couple and caused them to break the embrace. Whitney grabbed her gun from the table and Trent retrieved his pistol from the coffee table. He walked toward the door and Whitney followed carefully.
Trent yelled, “Who is it?”
A male voice said, “It’s the red hurricane.”
Trent opened the door and let Barret inside. The two men shared a hug before the field agent moved over to Whitney. She looked at the huge smile on her colleague’s face as they separated.
Barrett giddily said, “It worked. It worked like a friggin’ charm. There’s no way this will ever go away now. We have signed papers from at least five men who will provide a coffer next week. I heard Ellerbee is losing his mind right now, but eff that a-hole. See what I did there?”
“I did, I know letters. The substance though, I couldn’t agree more about Ellerbee. I’m surprised he didn’t sprout wings and fly back himself. This is too great. I wish I could see the look on his face right now, knowing the jig is up. I don’t understand how they walked around for so long like nothing had ever happened and they were just whistling into the wind. I’ll never understand the criminal mind.”
Trent smiled and said, “That’s a good thing. I’d be a little scared if you understood and sympathized with criminals. We still haven’t hit the top two people involved in this investigation. The President and Vice President are probably getting some pretty interesting phone calls right about now.”
Barrett stated, “I think we should interview most of these guys first to see if we can dig up any more dirt on the big boys to have as much ammunition on those two as possible.”
“Good plan. We need to start removing these jerks from government soon before they destroy our country.”
Trent said, “I wouldn’t expect this process to go too fast. This will get done and people will pay for their crimes, but it’s going to take a while. The scope of this thing is enormous. With all the international aspects, it’s going to take some time. Impeachment will only take place if the Bull Party makes it happen and it doesn’t really seem like it’s in their best interest to do that.”
“That’s for sure. They don’t want anyone to know what happened. The confessions will speed it up a bit if they all spilled the beans on our President.”
Barrett said, “Most of them confirmed that the plan had the blessing of the President but none of them were ever contacted directly by Gergen. Almost all of them had the VP or Ellerbee approach them with the plans.”
“They do seem to turn up everywhere we look in this investigation. Looks like they masterminded this whole operation to get Gergen elected and reap the benefits of power. We need to find out if the President was behind everything and just didn’t want to get directly involved.”
Barrett looked at his phone and said, “Everyone else is getting together at the Graffiti Garage if you guys want to meet up with them. Udanowitz says that Chief McTalbot is there.”
“Of course we’ll go to see everyone.”
14
Whitney stared across the table at the President of Adoxia. They sat in the dimly lit interrogation room. The man looked defeated as he shifted around in his chair. His thick red mustache and eyebrows matched his thinning hair in color. Several beads of sweat clung to the bottom of his jowl, waiting to fall to the ground. Whitney sensed he was nervous and for good reason.
“Mr. President, I want to thank you for sitting down with us today and just let me remind you that this is all on the record. I also want to remind you that the President of Adoxia is essentially protected against any criminal wrongdoing on the federal level. However, that doesn’t include crimes committed on the state or international level. The President isn’t even insulated against those kinds of charges.”
Alan Gergen took a drink from his water bottle and wiped his mouth. “Thank you for the friendly reminder.”
“I really hope you don’t think this is going to be a friendly chat. Do you know what’s been going on in the past week?” Trent asked.
The President answered, “You mean all those arrests by the Bureau. I am briefed every day by the Chief, you know?”
“We know. We know a lot more than you might think. We know about all the deals. We have intercepts, receipts and confessions. The ship is going down fast. Do you want to drown?”
The President said calmly, “I didn’t have anything to do with any of that business that everyone is talking about.”
Trent asked, “But you do admit that the basis of those accusations is true?”
The President shrugged his shoulders. “I wouldn’t know. I wasn’t involved with any of it.”
“Well, I can tell you from firsthand knowledge that most of these deals were made with the promise of your blessin
g. What do you say to that?”
Mr. Gergen shifted around a little more. “You could walk out on the street and tell someone that you have my blessing. It doesn’t make it so, does it? Did you ever hear me sanction any of this?”
Trent said, “No. Not directly from your lips. How close to the Vice President would you say you are?”
The President took a deep breath. “Frank Mooney was posed to me by my campaign manager. I immediately balked. I don’t like the guy, but sometimes you have to work with people you don’t like.”
“What do you think of his morals?”
Alan Gergen shook his head. “What is this? You think you’re going to get me to say something bad about him so you can run over to him and blab all about it. You’re going to have to do a lot better than that.”
Trent said, “Alright, let’s talk about some of your high appointees and how you chose those people for their roles. What factors did you take into account?”
The President said, “The Vice President took care of most of the appointees and I took care of the big picture stuff.”
“Big picture stuff? Nothing is more important than picking the people that are going to work for you for the next five years. What big picture stuff would that be?”
“Worldwide terrorism. The biggest threat to all of us. I’m trying to make sure both of you are safe so you can sit here like this and berate a sitting President. You people are despicable,” Alan Gergen chastised.
“With all due respect Mr. President, our country is only as strong as the laws that hold it up. If we lose sight of that, there’s nothing to fight for. We’d just be an empty egg shell. We can go back and forth all day if that’s what you want but we know about the deal with Olodomo. How does that fight terrorism?”
Whitney noticed a flash of nervousness come over the President’s face. He slid back in his seat and arched his back. She sensed he was close to the edge.
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