Worth Dying For (24 page)

“All right, but next time, you have to let me in on the joke.” He looked directly at Rheyna and winked before turning away.

Phil slowly peered over his menu. “Ooh, Rheyna. I think he likes you,” he teased.

She found the mere thought disturbing. “I think not,” she said, and then turned to Jesse. “So Jesse, have you been working out?” she asked.

“Oh no, Rheyna, of all the things you could have asked him and you had to ask that!” Phil said, shaking his head. He and Caroline both buried their face in their hands.

Rheyna looked at them. “What? What did I say?”

Caroline busted out laughing.

Jesse ignored them both, turned to look at Rheyna, and said, “As a matter of fact, I have. Did I ever mention that physical fitness runs in my family?” He ignored the laughter coming from Phil and Caroline. “I mean it. It runs all the way back to my great grandfather. He started jogging ten-miles a day five-years ago when he was eighty-five and we haven’t seen him since.”

Caroline was practically rolling out of her seat from laughing so hard.

Rheyna tried to look at him with her most serious expression. “Jesse, I can honestly say that I have never met anyone like you in my life.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” he asked.

“It’s definitely a good thing,” Rheyna laughed.

Phil cleared his throat and held up the menu. “I guess we better order before they decide to kick us out.”

The rest of the evening went smoothly. They ate their dinner and chitchatted about Phil and Jesse’s party. Before Rheyna knew it, they said their goodbyes and made plans to take a trip together up the coast on Phil and Jesse’s boat.

The drive back to Caroline’s house had gone by too quickly. She watched Caroline disappear inside the house. The only redeeming feature was the knowledge that she would be seeing her again tomorrow.

###

Edwards spread the stack of surveillance photos out in front of Laura and Stevens. He picked up the ones that had a large red ‘X’ marked across the face and slung them across the table. He looked back and forth at the two agents. He slammed his fist down on the table, causing Laura to jump. She reached out to grab the cup of coffee, but not in time to keep it from spilling on the photos.

“This son-of-a-bitch has killed at least four people since we began, and we don’t have shit. We can’t tie him to any of them.” He turned and directed his anger at Stevens. “What are we getting from the restaurant?”

“Nothing we can use. It’s all babble. They never talk about business and if they do, it’s pretty well coded.”

“This is bullshit. That’s what this is.” Edwards was just plain pissed off. He looked at Stevens and shook his head in disbelief. “Pretty well coded? Are you fucking kidding me? A rookie could have figured out that they ordered a hit on Paul and George, and you should have known that!” he yelled.

It was totally out of character for Edwards to dress down one of his agents in front of another agent, but he had reached his limit. He pointed his finger at Stevens. “You’re the Sr. agent on this god damn operation and it was your responsibility to warn the agents in L.A.”

Stevens’ face flushed red as his own temper flared. “How the hell was I supposed to know that having dinner meant that it was a fucking hit order? We’ve never had a case like that before.”

“Okay, you guys,” Laura intervened. “This isn’t solving anything. All of us are stressed, but you two fighting doesn’t get us answers.”

Edwards paced back and forth in front of the window. He stopped to look out across the street at Pal Joey’s. “You’re right, Laura, it doesn’t. Castrucci knows we’re onto him.” He turned and looked at Laura and Stevens. “He’s been too careful and I know he’s not that smart.”

Stevens massaged the side of his temples with his index fingers. “Maybe we can rattle his cage,” he said.

Laura leaned back in her chair. “Let’s go after Bayshore. We know for a fact that they’re funneling money through the Cayman’s and Rheyna’s pretty confident that he’s using the computer in his office to make the transactions.”

Stevens nodded his head in agreement. “It would make sense to use the one operation that appears to be the cleanest and we all know from past experience that they’re usually the ones that turn out to be the dirtiest. Unfortunately, we’ve failed at all attempts to get any information from his office. He doesn’t do much talking in there. In the past, we’ve tried to upload a remote tracker, but failed. It’s obvious that he has some sort of security measure on his end that runs interference.”

Edwards considered the information and nodded his head. “Okay then, well, I guess it’s up to Rheyna. Since we need to get around his security devices, she’ll have to do the upload directly at his computer,” he said, turning to Laura. “Laura, you find out what Rheyna needs and get it to her.”

Laura nodded, absentmindedly tapping her pencil on the edge of the table. “I think Rheyna’s right about this one. We know that Castrucci’s into gems and he’s getting them from Sierra Leone. I’d be willing to bet that he’s using Bayshore as the main front company.”
 

Edwards took a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it. “Okay, I’m convinced. Let’s apply some heat and go after Bayshore. I’ll set it up and get the warrant.” He blew a puff of smoke in the air. “Carl, you’ll lead on the raid.”

Stevens got out of the chair and grabbed a set of keys from the table. “I’m gonna go grab us something to eat, you guys want anything in particular?”

Edwards shook his head.

Laura pulled a couple bucks from her pocket and handed it to him. “I’ll have whatever you’re having,” she said.

Edwards walked over to the window and leaned his hands against the sill. He watched Stevens get in the car and pull away from the curb. His cell beeped, indicating he had a voicemail waiting. He dialed in and listened to the message, and then immediately called Ron.

“I was just about to call you again,” Ron said through the phone.

“I just got your message. Have you talked to the bank manager yet?” Edwards asked.

“Yeah, he was very cooperative. He said it would take a couple of days, but he’d get the info together and give me a call as soon as he’s done.”

“Okay, Ron. As soon as you hear back from him, let me know and I’ll have someone swing by and pick it up.”

“You got it.”

“Where is he now?” Edwards asked.

“I told him to meet you down at the L.A. bureau office.”

“Did you fax the documents?”

“Yeah, you should be getting them any minute now.”

“All right, I’ll give you a call later.” Edwards hung up the phone and walked over to the fax machine. Within seconds, it started humming and then beeped as it spit out the fax. Edwards pulled the document off the tray. He looked at it and then handed it to Laura. She glanced at the circled areas and shook her head.

Edwards picked up the next sheet and looked at the grainy photo. He still couldn’t believe it. He waited for the fax machine to spit out the last document and pulled out a chair next to Laura. He laid the photos on the table. If he hadn’t just seen the pictures himself, he still wouldn’t have believed it. He was not shocked easily, but this downright surprised the hell out of him.

Laura picked up the photo of Artie standing outside the bank with a dark-haired young man. She looked at the next photo, showing the young man handing documents to Artie. She instantly recognized the man. She flipped through the rest of the photos and tossed them back on the table.

She was the first to break the silence. “You know who that is, don’t you?” she asked.

Edwards nodded. “Marco Mancini, one of Castrucci’s foot soldiers.”

Laura shook her head. “I still can’t believe this—Artie, of all people.”

“It just goes to show that when you think you know someone, you realize that you really don’t know them at all.”

“But Artie?” Laura was dumbfounded. She picked up the bank document and looked at it again. “This shows a deposit of fifteen grand. Surely he’s received a lot more than that.”

“My thoughts exactly, and that’s one of the questions I’m going to ask him.”

“It doesn’t make sense, Kyle. If he’s the mole, why would he get so careless after all these years?”

“I’ve been asking myself the same question, and the only thing I can come up with is that he didn’t know about Ron’s program until it was too late.”

“But Rheyna said Sonny specifically mentioned the program. Is there any way he could have figured it out?”

Kyle shrugged. “I guess anything’s possible. Hell, he’s gone undetected for more than ten years, so he’s obviously resourceful.”

“What about Rheyna?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think Castrucci knows about her.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“For two reasons—If Castrucci knew, he would’ve already taken steps to eliminate her, and Artie, if he is the mole, would’ve known that outing Rheyna …” he stopped and smiled, “pardon the pun, but outing Rheyna would’ve pointed directly to someone on the team and he knows this.”

“Do you think we should go ahead with the plan?”

He stood up and grabbed his jacket off the back of the chair. “Yeah, he doesn’t know that we’ve decided to have Rheyna try and access Castrucci’s system, but run it by Rheyna first. If she’s okay with it, then we’ll proceed. If not, we’ll pull the plug ASAP.”

“All right, I’ll give her a call and fill her in on what we got so far.”

“I’ll call you as soon as I’m done talking to Artie.” Edwards gathered up the photos and went out the door.

Laura turned at the sound of voices and reached over to turn the volume up on the receiver. She was listening in to the conversation going on inside Castrucci’s office. A few minutes later, she glanced up as the door opened.

“I just saw Kyle drive away. Where’s he going?” Stevens asked as he set the bag on the table.

She held up her hand to silence him. “Hold on, I’ll tell you in a minute.”

###

Big Tony glared at Sonny and Henry.

Sonny tried to calm him down. “They haven’t got shit, Tony and that’s why they’re doing this. Trying to shake us up, that’s all.”

Big Tony wasn’t buying it. He vehemently shook his head at Sonny. “Carlos is behind this. He has to be.”

“It don’t make no sense, Tony.”

“Paulie and Georgie, that’s why!” he yelled.

Sonny shook his head. “Carlos don’t know shit, either.”

Henry’s cell phone rang, interrupting their conversation. “Yeah? How long ago … He down there now … Yeah … Okay … Call me when they’re released.” Henry flipped the phone shut.

Big Tony looked at him.

“That was Louie. Marco and Connie just got pinched in front of Pal Joey’s.”

“What the hell for?” Big Tony asked.

“Some bullshit about consorting with known criminals and Connie was packing.”

Big Tony looked as if his head was going to explode. “See? What’d I tell you, Sonny? Last week, they got Richie for no reason.”

Sonny sat calmly, taking it all in as he lit a cigarette. “Has Ramono been called?” he asked Henry.

Henry nodded. “He was there waitin’ when they brought ‘em in.”

###