Catch Me If You Can (The Mancini Way) (4 page)

"We spoke to her neighbors and friends no one told us this."

"It's all in the approach boys."

"You're full of crap, over a thousand man hours can't be wrong; you tell her director, there's no way this guy did those things."

Are you kidding me? This guy was seriously testing to become an agent and this was his thought process? He sounded like a petulant two year old that didn’t get his way and was about to throw himself to the floor and have a tantrum. I held my tongue because quite frankly there was nothing to say, I’d given it my best and even with all my drive that’s all I ever asked of myself.

"And you base your premise on what Agent Thompson?" The director who had been studying us finally broke his silence.

"He doesn't fit the profile; first of all he's at least twenty years older than the target age, he's an upstanding member of the community and he's married."

"So was the Green River killer."

Agent Thompson hung his head and threw up his hands in defeat. "I just don't see it, do any of you guys?"

Ross, Gervais and Kowalski kept their mouths shut and looked pensive; that's the way they've played it all throughout our time working this case not wanting to stick their necks out less they were wrong. Me I gave it my best and my all and if at the end of the day I was wrong then I sucked it up and combed through the case until I came to the right conclusion. It was more important to me to get it right than to get it fast or first.

"So your argument agent Thompson is that he doesn't fit the profile; well now that's why we're here isn't it? It's a new day boys and girls now we have to profile the profile; let's not forget there was a time in our history when it was believed that the shape of a man's head decided his guilt or innocence, we’ve come a long way since those green days but we still have far yet to go." He exited his chair and with hands clasped behind his back walked to the lone window overlooking the training fields.

"So what're you saying director?"

"I'm saying agent Thompson that once again agent Stone has proven why she's our shining new star; not only is she correct but her prognosis is spot on, what she did different to the rest of you is look beneath the surface. She didn't just follow the textbook on this one she used her skills of elimination otherwise known as commonsense plain and simple. Good job agent Stone, now as for the rest of you we have work to do." I got the official nod and without waiting around for the fallout I gathered my things and exited the room. No doubt I will hear about this later as the fact that I hadn’t shared my findings will be blamed for their failure, tough.

I'm glad that was over; that had been one of the toughest exercises so far in spite of the crumbs that were placed in our way to direct us to our conclusion which turns out was the wrong one. My fellow agents had proven how easy it is to accuse and convict the wrong person based on our need to believe that the more normal seeming upstanding citizen was always innocent while the society reject was always the guilty party. The fact that Frank Connell is a fat, balding middle-aged recluse painted him as guilty in their eyes; it was a sad fact that this kind of thinking had put many innocents behind bars and worse yet sent them to their deaths. I was willing to do everything I could to put a stop to such behaviors, one case at a time.

I left the building and headed to the cafeteria for some much-needed tea, yes I know, what federal agent or law enforcement officer worth their salt preferred tea instead of coffee? I couldn’t stomach the stuff it tasted like lead paint in my mouth. There was a lot of activity on the base this time of day, cadets going through their rigorous paces; the echo of gunfire could be heard off in the distance breaking that feeling of the serene one could sometimes get when walking these grounds. Surrounded by hundreds of acres of wooded land the Farm was a thing of beauty, it looked like any college campus in the country’s Midwest and in the fall rivaled it’s neighbors in beauty. I’d been here six months instead of the usual four because my case was a special one. I had been recruited into an accelerated special agent training program, which meant hundreds of hours of training. It wasn’t all physical training and firearms though they too were essential, but I had to study all aspects of crime and law enforcement, which had been my field of study at the University. It had been a grueling few months each day starting early and going on nonstop for twelve hours or sometimes more. I will miss it when I left, it was one of the only places that had felt like home in a very long time, I didn’t want to know what that said about me.

Chapter 4

Mancini

My meet with Jason Laramie went smoothly; we finalized our dealings no doubt under the watchful eye of law enforcement from afar of course, which we had a good laugh over. The details of our little meeting if revealed could cause quite an uproar; Jace is one of my best friends outside of my two brothers and my family; he got pretty much the same rap as I did and it made us close. In our line of work trust was hard to come by but we've known each other since we were young men, in fact we'd become part of the same organization at about the same time though Jace had beaten me to the punch by a few months; another scion from yet another wealthy family. Our organization was kind of a secret society if you will that the public had no knowledge of what so ever. It was best that it was kept that way for all intents and purposes though it made our lives a bit difficult. That was the price we paid for who we were, it gave us the freedom to move in the shadows, as we will. Had we applied our special skills to a law enforcement badge we would’ve been more hindered than the criminals we sought to eradicate which would’ve been not only a shame but also a waste.

"So Hank you all set for your meet with these guys later?"

"Yeah that’s set for another hour or so." I sat back in my chair a little more relaxed now that the hard part was over, planning for an Op was always grueling work, there was so much to cover, so much that could go wrong and the consequences if we failed, which for me was never an option.

"Alright dude I guess I'll leave so that you can get yourself together I know how it is having to deal with them on an empty stomach; I don't begrudge you this part of the operation dude seriously I think if I had to carry your load I would've burnt out by now."

"I doubt it Jace; we do this because we have to, because it needs to be done and most of all because we don't trust anyone else to do it."

"This is true, and on that note are you planning on settling down anytime soon brother?" We always ended our conversations the same.

"No bro I don't think so; I don't think that it'll be fair to anyone you know what I mean? This lifestyle, she'd have to be one special woman." For some unknown reason one Cierra Stone popped into my mind at that precise moment but I brushed it aside. I wasn't in the market for hearth and home, but something about her kept tugging at me which was unacceptable; it was one thing to want to get her between the sheets and quite another to start down that road of make believe. There was no room in my life for permanence, not now anyway and maybe not ever. The little I’d garnered about her so far had rung true for me, it was almost as if she was my equal, that could be the reason for my fascination I wasn’t sure, I’ll have to dig a little deeper into Ms. Stone’s background at a later date.

“What about you, found anyone willing to put up with your shit yet?” If I was a hard ass Jace was the poster boy, he was tough as nails though his down home Louisiana boy next door charm could easily fool the unsuspecting into believing different.

“Nope not in the cards brother.” He had a wistful look there for a moment but it was too fleeting to be sure. Jace for all his tough outer shell needed family, he’d lost his at a young age and was for all intents and purposes pretty much alone in the world, that’s why I shared mine with him, Juliet Mancini could melt even the iciest of hearts and over the years her gentle understanding had helped to mellow out my friend.

"So I'll get back to you after I meet with these guys and let you know the particulars, everything’s pretty much set already though unless they throw me a curve ball today, so we’re a go."

"Can't wait to be done with this one this one's left a really bad taste in my fucking mouth these fucks are really sick; sicker than the usual pricks we deal with and we've dealt with some sick shit before haven't we?" Jace stood to leave.

"I know what you mean brother, it takes all kinds, the fact that this bunch dresses up in suits and holds high positions in our society is what makes it so distasteful but we knew going in that it wasn't always going to be the so called dregs of society that we were going to have to deal with; we knew going in that it was going to be some of the world's best sometimes that we'd have to bring down; doesn't matter to me guilty is guilty I don't care if you're wearing a thousand dollar suit or you’re a fucking  bum on the corner.”

“I wonder that our government doesn’t have the first clue that they’re harboring these assholes, so much for national security, the shit is sickening.”

"I know that’s why we’re here doesn't make it any easier though; so tell me before you go how're you doing with the CIA they still on your ass for that last run?"

"Brother please they're always going to be in my shadow doesn't phase me none our boys have us covered; what about you?"

"I think I have a new shadow coming soon I'm not sure about this one though."

"Yeah why is that?"

"This one's a girl."

"Sheeiit they putting a female on you what are they up to this time?"

"I don't know have to wait and see I'll keep you posted brother."

"You do that, keep your head down and your ass covered bro?"

"Will do you do the same, drinks after?"

“You know it, how’s my girl doing, I haven’t spoken to her in a few days at least been a bit busy trying to fine tune my part of the Op.”

“Be forewarned, she’s on the warpath again.”

“Uh oh what happened now?”

“Hell if I know apparently we’re not paying her enough attention, I know the spiel, she’s working her way up to the get Hank married campaign.” He laughed at that of course because everyone knew how shamelessly relentless mama was in her drive to see me married off.

We said our goodbyes on a lighter note granted that in a few days we’d both be in a much different place facing danger in our bid to free the world of scum one criminal at a time.

After Jace left I had a few minutes downtime before I had to be on the move again, always before walking into one of these things I cleared my head using an ancient technique an old master had taught me long ago. It called for total concentration and nothing more just focus on releasing everything from my thoughts one at a time until the mind and psyche was clear of all white noise. Then replacing each parcel piece by piece; it was almost like washing the brain before restoring it with clean Intel. I couldn't afford to fuck up in this meeting, these guys had to buy what I was selling hook line and sinker, anything goes wrong and months of hard work goes down the drain. Though it was pretty much in the bag and things had already started moving there was always that element of surprise. In this business things changed from one moment to the next without warning so it was never a good idea to take anything for granted.

Thoughts of Cierra flitted through my mind sporadically throughout the day but each time I steadfastly banked them down; what was going on there was not something I could deal with right now, that was another minefield that had to be treaded carefully. One thing that had me just a little worried though is the fact that she’s already occupying so much of my thoughts and we hadn’t even met as yet, what would meeting her in the flesh be like?

Jaxx had said she wasn’t here yet and what little spying I’d had time to do hadn’t shown exactly when she would be in my domain but for some strange reason that escaped me I felt strongly that if she was watching me right now I would know, I didn’t bother to study why I was so sure of that, I just sensed that I would be able to tell the difference if her eyes were on me.  When my business was done and before she showed up on my doorstep I’m going to have to sit down and analyze just what this all meant. This was no place for thoughts of the beauty though, not when I was about to meet with filth in a few hours, and that in itself was telling; I never gave a fuck before.

The Chinese delegates sat around the table as we discussed their next strategic move; the lying fuck interpreter rattled off his bullshit lies to me while I bobbed my head like the shit he was saying made all the sense in the world. I listened in with my keen understanding of their language as they gave orders to carry out their sadistic schemes and it took everything in me not to jump up from my chair and chop all their fucking heads off.

Instead I remained still with a look of unconcern on my face; these fucking demons were going to die but not yet.

In all my years of doing this, the thing that I hated most out of all the evil that I came into contact with was the harm to children; give me undeniable proof of an injustice done against a child, any child, and I will execute the perpetrator without a second thought, it was my only hard limit. Children are the innocents, to be protected and guarded against the darkness. What these fucks and others like them did to them was deserving of the harshest punishments imaginable.

The FBI and Interpol along with some of the world's other leading investigative agencies have been hunting me for over a decade; they suspect me of criminal dealings, if they only knew, those fucks only wish they could do what I do. I've done more to eradicate evil in the relatively short time in my career than they've all done collectively since their inception. That's because they're all headed by a den of serpents who has fooled the world for generations into believing that they're the protectors of mankind; that their only interest is in the betterment of the human condition; bullshit. Corruption reached to the highest echelons of every major player in the field, money that great divider made suckers out of the best of us. The leading law enforcement agencies were supposed to be protectors of our safety, people forgot that the men and women who headed said agencies were just human like them; prone to the same shortcomings as they were, just as capable of committing atrocities. Put them in a position of power and worse yet arm them and you not only had a criminal on your hand, you had one who was now protected by bureaucracy and sanctioned by their host governments. I should know I’ve dispatched enough of the scum to be aware that the evil that exists reaches higher than the average person would even think to look. The thing was though that you cut off one head and another grew back almost overnight it’s a vicious never-ending cycle.