Worth Dying For (26 page)

Edwards was in shock. He expected to get a confession, but not this.

“I went down to the evidence room after our meeting. You can check with Cecil. He’ll confirm that I was there.”

Edwards sighed as he tried to digest the information. He looked at Artie and shook his head. “I have no choice but to place you under arrest.”

“You have to believe me, Kyle,” Artie begged.

“I need time to verify what you’ve told me, and right now, I don’t know what to believe,” Edwards said honestly. As he picked up the folder and turned to leave. He stopped and looked back at Artie. “You should have come to me first. If you were in trouble, you should have come to me first.”

###

Annie greeted Rheyna as soon as she opened the front door, nearly knocking her down. “Hi, sweetie,” she said as Annie jumped up and threw her paws against her leg. “How was your day?” she asked, bending down to Annie’s level. She nuzzled Annie’s happy face and planted a kiss on top of her head. “Let’s you and me go for a walk.”

Annie could barely contain herself as Rheyna slipped the leash on her harness and slid open the patio door. She pulled Rheyna down the steps two at a time, and there wasn’t much Rheyna could do about it. Annie had grown so big, that she no longer walked her—Annie was the one who walked Rheyna. She had never known what people meant by the term, being walked by your dog, until recently. It was an everyday occurrence for Annie to take Rheyna for a walk. She loved having Annie around—it was good for her sanity.

After a few minutes, she let Annie off her leash and laughed. Without fail, Annie headed straight for the white caps and bit at them. It had become a game to her. She would growl, then bite at them, and then jump back when the water hit her paws.

An hour later, she and Annie arrived back at the house. After feeding Annie her supper, she made her call to Laura. She was caught by surprise when Laura told her that Artie had been arrested. She filled Rheyna in on the details, and Laura was as shocked as she was. Never in a million years would she have suspected Artie. He just didn’t seem the type. Laura and Edwards had left the decision up to her as to whether she felt comfortable enough to go forward with her mission. After discussing it at great length with Laura, she had made her mind up—she would go through with it.

After Rheyna made her decision, Laura’s persona immediately turned to business. She and Laura both knew what was at stake. It would be a big night for all of them if Rheyna gained access to Castrucci’s office—or more importantly, his computer.

“Do you need anything else?” Laura asked.

“No, it looks like you have everything covered.”

Rheyna had picked up the package marked ‘photo supplies’ from the post office earlier in the week. She now had the contents spread out across the counter.

“How’s the rest of the surveillance going?” she asked.

Laura let out a dejected sigh. “Not too good. We have hundreds and hundreds of hours of tapes, but nothing to link Castrucci to the killings.”

Rheyna listened as Laura continued to brief her.

“The closest we’ve come so far, is hearing his regrets for not taking out Massino when he wanted to.”

“Well, whatever you guys are doing, it’s working. He was so pissed off today, he could have spit nails.”

“If you think that’s bad, he’s really gonna love what’s going down in a couple hours. Edwards and Stevens are going after Bayshore.”

Rheyna couldn’t help but laugh. Seeing Castrucci squirm would be a sight in and of itself. “Couldn’t happen to a nicer person, but you’re right, he’ll be in rare form tomorrow,” she said.

“I think Edwards is right. He’s much smarter than we gave him credit for,” Laura said in response.

Rheyna was beginning to agree with her. “He had a sweeper go through the house yesterday and I thought for sure he’d find the pen.”

“Must not been too good of a sweeper. An idiot wouldn’t miss the signal coming from that baby.”

“No shit,” Rheyna agreed.

“I want you to be real careful tonight, Rheyna. Don’t take any unnecessary risks..”

“I promise I’ll be very careful and I’ll be sure to check in with you later.” Rheyna hung up the phone and went back inside.

She pulled out the chair and slid the laptop over in front of her. She waited for it to power up and unpacked the small, handheld Image Master Solo III Forensic unit, also known as IMS. She took one end of the USB cable and plugged it into the IMS port and the other into the laptop. Just like her photo equipment, the bureau hadn’t spared any expense on her new gadgets.

The equipment was top of the line and the best that money could buy. She flipped on the power switch and watched the screen come to life. She had used this machine before on other undercover operations, but never in a case like this. She hoped it would work. Annie’s ears twitched in time with the beeping. She stood up on her hind legs with her front paws on the counter and leaned in to sniff the machines.

The IMS made a loud beep. Annie jumped back and knelt down with her rear end sticking up in the air. She growled at the machine.

“It’s okay, girl. See? It won’t hurt you.” Rheyna held the IMS up so Annie could smell it. Each time it beeped, she cocked her head. As quickly as her interest began, it was over, and Annie took her usual position down at Rheyna’s feet.

The screen on the IMS popped up and asked for a fingerprint authorization. Rheyna touched her index finger to the screen and waited for it to log her in. It took her several minutes to type in the commands to prepare the machines for wireless transmissions. It was imperative that she set everything up right; otherwise, the computer on Laura’s end would be useless if it couldn’t read Castrucci’s files.

Within seconds, the machines beeped simultaneously, affording her a huge sigh of relief. The two desktop menus were identical and that meant she had done everything right. The IMS was ready to go and so was she. She shut the machines down and went back to the bedroom to pack an overnight bag. She buried the IMS in between her clothes and slid the tracking CD into the outside zipper pocket.

A glance at the clock confirmed that she still had plenty of time to get to Caroline’s. She could feel her pulse rate quickening, a definite sign that she was psyched for the job at hand. This was what she lived for and this was one of the main reasons she had joined the FBI. This would be, by far, the largest risk yet. If she got caught, especially inside his house, Anthony Castrucci would kill her. She had no doubt about that whatsoever. She downed a glass of wine and then poured another. She was definitely pumped. She didn’t know if she was more scared of what she was about to do, or more scared of spending the night alone with Caroline. She decided it was a little of both.

###

Charlie stood in the doorway with a shit-eating grin on his face. He watched in amusement as federal agents rounded up his warehouse workers. Several of them now stood up against the wall with their hands spread out above their heads, being searched. Agents were everywhere and he was helpless to stop them from carrying the computer equipment out of his office. He really didn’t care one way or the other. He knew something they didn’t, and he also knew he had better make a good show of it to be convincing.

“Who the hell do yous’ think you are? Yous’ can’t take those!” he yelled as the boxes on the tables were being opened one by one.

Edwards shoved a set of papers in his face. “These say we can, and in case you can’t read, it’s a search warrant for this facility, Mr. DeAmotto.”

Charlie snatched the papers from Edwards’ hand. “This is fuckin’ harassment, that’s what this is.” He pretended to read them and smiled as Edwards walked over to the table where several ceramic owls sat. “I don’t know what you’re lookin’ for. We run a legitimate business here!” he yelled to make sure his voice was loud enough for everyone to hear.

Stevens walked over to Charlie and leaned forward, bringing his face mere inches from his. “And I’ve got some swampland in Ohio to sell you, Charlie,” Stevens said with a grin.

Charlie threw his hands up in the air in resignation. “Fine. Be my guest, ‘cause yous’ ain’t findin’ shit.”

Edwards picked up one of the owls and tossed it over to Stevens. He turned it over in his hand to inspect it. It looked every bit the tacky knickknack it was, complete with glass-colored eyes—the diamonds were gone. Edwards shook his head in disgust. He slammed the owl into the concrete, shattering it to pieces. “Tear this fucking place apart!” he yelled at the agents near the table.

Charlie laughed a deep belly laugh. “Hey, that’ll be three-fifty plus tax, Mr. FBI agent, sir,” Charlie chuckled as Edwards leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest.

“What the fuck is this?” Big Tony yelled, stepping through the doorway.

Edwards quickly crossed the floor. At roughly the same size, Edwards stood eye to eye with the big man. He grinned at Big Tony. “We have a warrant to search the premises, and Tony, if you interfere, I’ll arrest you for obstruction.”

Big Tony took a menacing step toward Edwards, but Sonny jumped in between them. He placed his hands on Big Tony’s chest and pushed him backward.

Edwards continued to bait him. “What, Tony? What’cha gonna do? Huh? You wanna piece of me? Go ahead.” Edwards winked at him. He couldn’t resist egging him on. “Give me one good reason!”

Big Tony eyed him curiously. Edwards could tell that he was weighing his options.

Sonny grabbed Big Tony by the arm and pulled him toward the door. “Come on, Tony, let’s get outta here. We’re clean, nothing to worry about.”

“You’ll be hearing from my attorney!” Big Tony yelled over his shoulder.

“And you’ll be hearing from me again real soon. I promise!” Edwards yelled back as he watched the two men get in the limo. Edwards turned to Stevens.

Stevens shook his head. “Nothing, it’s clean.”

Edwards clenched his fists in frustration. Something in his gut was telling him that Castrucci knew they were coming.

Stevens raised his eyebrows questioningly. “What’ya wanna do?”

“I don’t know. I need to think,” Edwards said. He walked out the door and climbed into his sedan. “Have Laura go over the tapes,” he said to Stevens through the open window. He put the car in drive and started to pull out of the parking lot and stopped. “Tell her to look for anything that might indicate they were tipped.”

###

Rheyna pushed the pieces of grilled salmon around on her plate. Her nerves were too jumpy to eat. She thought about Bayshore and silently prayed that Edwards and Stevens were finding what they needed, but somehow, she knew they wouldn’t. Laura was right. They had a big, big problem from the internal side of the bureau. The mole in the department had been feeding Castrucci information—information that might jeopardize her life. She had a gut feeling that it was only a matter of time before things would come to a head. It was inevitable.

Terasa jarred Rheyna back to reality. “So have you girls decided what movies you’re going to watch?”

“Well, if I leave it to Caroline, it will be a marathon of chick flicks,” Rheyna teased.

“And what’s wrong with chick flicks?” Terasa asked, stopping in mid-bite.

“Yeah, Rheyna, what’s wrong with chick flicks?” Caroline piped in, a smile forming on her lips.

Rheyna laid her fork down on the plate, feigning disappointment. “Oh no, Terasa, please don’t tell me you, too?”

Terasa shrugged. “I’ll have you know,
Sweet Home Alabama
is my very favorite movie.”

They laughed as Rheyna pretended to beat her head on the table. The scraping of a chair on the other side of the pool caused them to look up.

Vincent stood up and threw his cards down on the table. “You’re cheating,” he spat at Joey.