When the FBI intercepted the drug shipment and shut down Atronen, Melbourne would need a high level of disarray at the Bureau while he jockeyed for position with the cartel. What better diversion could there be than the exposure of the traitor in their ranks, especially one with unimpeachable credentials?
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Alex Norbett, the owner/operator of Investigative Findings, had a busy schedule. It started with a call from his new client, Marco Vennuti.
“How’s the surveillance of Ms. Farrell coming along?”
“Nothing out of the ordinary. She pretty much sticks to a daily routine.”
“I’m glad to hear that. We’ve got some important business going down later in the week, so if she changes her routine at all, meets with somebody outside of her office, anything different at all, give me a heads up right away.”
“You bet.”
An hour later, Mel Tarkington, aka Walter Simmons, showed up at Investigative Findings.
“Ed said you would be expecting me.”
“Yes, come on in Mister Simmons. I have been expecting you. Can I get you something?”
“Sure, a gin and tonic would be fine.”
“Great, I’ll have the same.”
They sat down on a sofa in the corner of Norbett’s office.
“Let me start by saying what a great job you did finding Mark Matthews. I was very impressed.”
“Well, thank you Walter. I have a complete file on Mark Matthews that Ed asked me to put together for you. It has his home and office address, land and cell phone numbers, recent pictures and his itinerary for the past week. He seems to be pretty much a creature of habit.”
Mel took the file and spent a few minutes checking through the contents. “This looks very thorough. Your agency did a great job getting this much detail.”
“Well, that’s what we do. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
“As a matter of fact, there is. I’m looking to pick up a rifle and some ammo.”
“Do you have anything particular in mind?”
“Yes, a Panther Mark 12.”
“Whoa! That’s a powerful piece. You really know your weapons.”
“I’ll also need four 30-round mags, a Hi-Lux medium-close range scope and a nylon sling. Can you get it all?”
“I’m sure I can get everything, but it’ll run you ten grand.”
“Ten grand? That’s five times more than it costs at a gun store.”
“Take it or leave it, Walter. I’m not buying from a federal firearms dealer, you know. If you want to go that route, be my guest. Fill out forms and wait a few weeks. It doesn’t bother me any what you do, but if you want the stuff tonight, then show me the money.”
“Okay, okay.” Mel counted out ten thousand dollars and handed the bills to Norbett.
“Come back here at ten tonight. I’ll have everything ready for you. I’ll reserve some after-hours time for you at a local range if you feel that you need practice. That’ll be on me.”
“That’s a good idea. I’ve used the Panther before, but it’s been awhile. See you at ten.”
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
“Get in here right away,” Dennis barked into the phone. He disconnected the call then made three similar calls. He sat back and waited for them to arrive.
Chuck Wesson slammed down his phone and ran down the hall to his boss’s office. Elsewhere in the building, three others did the same.
“What’s the matter?” Chuck asked.
“Wait until the others arrive.”
Milt was second, followed quickly by Wendy and Mark.
“Close that door,” he said excitedly. “I just got an anonymous phone call that the cartel is making a huge shipment from Atronen on Friday night.”
Chuck offered, “That jives with information we received about an hour ago from Paul Snyder that the regular production crew was being sent home early this Friday. We better get cracking on setting up our response. This sounds like the break we’ve been waiting for.” He rose as if to leave.
“Slow down, Chuck. We have to handle this carefully. Milt, have you heard back from Washington about any investigation that they may be conducting involving Antronen?”
“I got a green light from them. We’re good to go as of this morning.”
“Wendy, let’s make sure our surveillance team is alerted to the possibility of a big shipment this Friday evening, but try to be as vague as you can with them. I don’t want anyone jumping the gun or having a chance to warn Vennuti or anyone else. To be safe, we’ll hold the specifics until the last minute. I’ll ask Chief Jacobsen to do the same.
“Chuck, we’ll need airtight warrants to serve on Atronen the minute we’ve checked those trucks. We’ll stop them on the way to, or at their destination, whichever will work best for us. If they’re carrying illegal drugs, we’ll have cause to shut down Atronen immediately.”
He stopped long enough to take a swig of water from a bottle. “Do you all realize what this means, guys? We’ve finally arrived at the point where our years of investigating are going to pay off. The fall of Atronen will be a big blow to the cartel. The flow of counterfeit pharmaceuticals in this area should dry up almost immediately. We’re bound to get enough on Vennuti to bring him to justice for all the killings he’s connected with. I’m hoping that in the process I will find out who in this office has been leaking information. Putting him or her behind bars will give me the most pleasure.”
“I’m with you on that, sir,” Chuck answered. We all want to see the traitor brought to justice. What do you want us to do now?”
“To start, keep this to yourself. We have a few days yet to put our plan together. Any information about this has to be on a strict ‘need to know’ basis.”
Wendy asked, “How much do I tell Vennuti?” The words no sooner left her mouth than she realized what she had said.
Mark looked at her. “What do you mean, tell Vennuti?”
Dennis looked at Milt and sighed.
A remorseful Wendy looked at Dennis; her face reddened. “I’m so sorry, sir.”
“Will somebody please tell me what is going on?” Mark asked as he looked around the room for answers.
Reluctantly, Dennis replied, “I guess there is no reason, now, that all of you shouldn’t know about this.”
“Know about what?” Mark asked. This time his demeanor was agitated.
“Okay, Mark, simmer down and give me a moment to put this in the correct order. You listen up too, Chuck.”
“I’m all ears.”
Dennis began, “It all started with Joan Paschal’s death and certain evidence that Milt dug up in his investigation. We know, without a doubt that Joan was being blackmailed into tipping off Vennuti about our activities. From her position here at the Bureau, she had limited access, but through her friendships with agents and staffers, she apparently gathered enough information to become invaluable to him.
“Milt got the idea about making one of our agents available to Vennuti to cover his loss of Joan. I don’t want to go into all the details, but Vennuti was persuaded that Agent Farrell was a prime candidate. He tested her with a phony drug run and apparently he was happy with the results.”
Mark looked at Wendy his eyes asking, How could you do that and not tell me?
Wendy averted his eyes and concentrated on what Dennis was saying.
Dennis continued. He looked at Mark, and then at Chuck. “I made the decision that Agent Farrell would work on this special assignment. She and Milt were sworn to secrecy, so I don’t want anyone else getting upset because you were not in on it. That was entirely my doing. Needless to say, I expect the same secrecy from you both.”
Chuck and Mark reluctantly nodded their heads in agreement.
“Now we need to decide, among us, how much information we want to disseminate to our friend Marco Vennuti. Milt and I will coordinate everything else with Chief Jacobsen. The only exposure we will have is if this shipment doesn’t pan out.”
Chuck offered, “Well, I don’t see how we can tell him anything about what we know without blowing our chances of catching them red-handed.”
“I agree with Chuck,” Mark said. “The less he knows the more likely things will proceed according to tip we got.” Turning to Dennis he asked, “Do you have any inkling whatsoever where the tip came from?”
“None at all. The voice was garbled and the message was finished before I could get a tracer on it. It was probably from an employee of Atronen, though”
Wendy chimed in, “What if we go the other direction? What if we tell him that the Bureau has cut back on funds for surveillance and that Dennis cut the after-hours crew because they’ve gone six months without anything concrete to report?”
Milton agreed, “That’s an interesting approach. It might even make them overconfident and make our job that much easier.”
Dennis looked around the room. “Are we in agreement then, to go this route?”
Every head affirmed the decision.
“Okay, then. Wendy and Milt please stay behind and we’ll work out the details. The rest of you can get back to work. Let’s make it look like business as usual.”
Dennis, Wendy and Milt discussed the plan for a half hour, after which Wendy called Vennuti to give him the news. She made the call from Dennis’s office
* * *
Marco was in bed with Sarah when he received the call. He was skeptical at first, but came around to accepting the idea. “It’s about time the Feds stopped harassing us. This is good news, especially coming at this time. Keep your eyes and ears open the rest of this week, anyway. Call me if you hear anything at all about Atronen or me.”
Marco turned to Sarah to tell her the good news. “That was my new informer at the FBI. She tells me that they have some personnel cuts on the crew that has been conducting surveillance on us. I love it when budget cuts hit the FBI and the Police Departments. What do they call it; austerity, or something like that? It couldn’t happen at a better time.”
“How reliable is this new snitch. Is she pretty?”
“I put her through a test and she came through for us. Besides, she has an awful lot to lose if she crosses me. As for her looks, she can’t hold a candle to you, baby.” They resumed their lovemaking.
* * *
Wendy returned to her cubicle to find Mark waiting for her. “What’s up?” she asked, knowing full well what he wanted to discuss.
“How could you keep something that important from me? We’re not talking about a low key operation, here. You’re dealing with a psychopath.”
“You heard Dennis. I was sworn to secrecy.”
“That’s bull and you know it. You didn’t have to accept the assignment in the first place. You must have had a chance to decline it.”
“I did, but given what I know about Atronen and Vennuti and my involvement with the PDS, I could hardly say no. Under the same circumstances, you wouldn’t have, would you?”
“That’s beside the point. I’m a man.” He realized the minute he uttered the words that he had made a huge mistake.
“I beg your pardon. Would you please run that by me again?”
“I’m sorry, that just came out. I didn’t mean to imply that I could do better in this instance. I realize that it’s better for a woman to be dealing with Vennuti. It’s just that I wish it wasn’t you.”
“That’s very sweet of you, but I was the best choice on such short notice. Vennuti knows that I’m on the PDS and that my specialty is distribution and logistics. Over time he would have sought me out and most likely under less desirable circumstances.”
“Okay, okay, I get it, but for god’s sake be careful with that man.”
“Don’t worry, I will be. Actually, I haven’t even had any personal contact with him. Everything’s been by phone. I hope that when I do meet up with him it’ll be to read him his rights and slap a pair of cuffs on him.
Down the hall, a Special Agent made a call to his nameless boss.
“Somebody made an anonymous call to Dennis Petersen’s office telling him about the special shipment this Friday night at ten-thirty. They’re making plans to intercept the shipment.”
“Do they have any idea who made the call?”
“They haven’t a clue, but what’s more important is that Special Agent Wendy Farrell was contacted by Vennuti and he recruited her as a spy to replace Agent Paschal. She’s going to feed him some line about the FBI cancelling their surveillance of Atronen, but I can’t believe that he would fall for that. What are we going to do about this?”
“You are not going to do anything. Let me handle it. I find this very disturbing. The time may have come for our friend Marco Vennuti to be dealt with. You just go back to your work. I don’t want you to be involved in any of this. Thanks for the update. It’s been very helpful, as usual.”
“Glad to be of help, Sir.”
Melbourne smiled and thought to himself, So, not only did Marco have his own informer in the FBI, but when she got killed he found a replacement right away. He’s a lot more resourceful than I’ve given him credit for. I wonder why he felt he needed to keep all that from me. What’s his agenda, anyway? Well, no matter. It looks like the end is near at hand for him anyway. Just a few more days to Atronen Armageddon, the demise of Marco Vennuti, the exposure of Special Agent Chuck Wesson and the downfall of John Pierce. What a glorious time that will be.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Mark headed up the street away from 1501 Lakeside Avenue, FBI headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio. His destination, the newsstand next to O’Sheas where he picked up a Cleveland Plain Dealer every morning before work whenever he’s in town.
“Good morning, Mario.”
“Oh, good morning, Agent Matthews. I have that sporting goods catalog you ordered.” He bent down to get it from beneath the counter.
As he did, a man pushed Mark aside, grabbed a paper and tossed three quarters on the counter. Mark moved aside and turned to look at the man, and as he did he heard a pop and the back of the man’s head blew away. Blood and brain matter splattered all over the girlie magazines displayed across the top of the newsstand and onto Mark’s jacket. He heard more pops and thuds as the shooter kept firing.
Instinctively Mark dove for cover and drew his gun. He knew there was nothing he could do for the stranger who just had his head blown away. He saw other people on the street. He motioned to them to take cover behind cars or in doorways. He ducked down behind a car, rose slowly, just enough to scan the buildings across the street. As he did, he spotted the silhouette of the sniper and puffs of smoke as bullets continued to spray the area. Mark stood up and took careful aim. He fired until his gun was empty.
Usually, when a sniper plans his shots he takes into account a multitude of variable conditions. Before his finger squeezes tight on the trigger, he considers wind speed and direction, the mobility of his target, the range, lighting conditions and a myriad of other lesser but oftentimes important conditions. Mel Tarkington was playing assassin from a rooftop that was slippery with pigeon crap that had been moistened by an early morning rain. He arrived early to assure sufficient time to assemble the Panther and lock in his scope. From his vantage point Mel was confident that he would blend into the skyline of chimneys and A/C units that populated the rooftops. He hadn’t counted on the pigeon crap, though. Normally he would kneel and use the roof ledge as an elbow support, but he had no intention of kneeling in the slippery mess. Instead, he opted to stand and lean against a chimney for support. He wrapped his hand around the nylon sling and waited for his prey to appear. He didn’t have to wait long. Mark Matthews was standing in front of the newsstand as he did every morning, presenting a perfect target.
As Mel slowly squeezed the trigger, a stranger pushed his way into the target area and Mel didn’t have time to make a correction. The recoil of the first few shots caused his feet to slip and he found himself firing wildly in the vicinity of his target, on the off chance that maybe a stra
y bullet would find its mark.
Mel didn’t see Mark rise up from behind a car. He didn’t know that he had been shot in the throat, chest and forehead. He did not feel himself toppling off the roof of the building, still maintaining his grip on the rifle sling and stock. Mel Tarkington was dead before his body made its spectacular splash onto the sidewalk below.
Mark quickly slipped a new cartridge into his gun and ran over to the body. He loosened the Panther from the man’s grip and kicked it aside, holstering his own gun as he did. He felt for a pulse that he really didn’t expect to find. He was not disappointed. He was, however, disappointed when he saw that the shooter was no one he recognized. He was expecting that the man would be Marco Vennuti, although he had no reason to expect that Vennuti even knew who he was. He considered for the first time that maybe the stranger who brushed him aside and was now dead in front of the newsstand, was really the intended target.
The Cleveland Police Department was quickly on the scene and blocked off the street. Mark returned to the newsstand to find a terrified Mario huddled under a shelf of his stand.
“What was that, Agent Matthews? What happened?”
“I’m not really sure, Mario, but it’s over now. Are you all right?”
“I’m okay, but one of those bullets missed me by about an inch. I could hear it as it went past my ear.”
“Well, you’re a lot luckier than the poor guy lying over there.”
“Thanks to you, Agent Matthews. God bless you.”
“I’m just doing my job, Mario. The EMT’s will be here in a few minutes. Make sure that they check you out thoroughly.”
“I will.”
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Dennis placed the phone in its cradle and turned to Mark. “You’re never going to believe this.”
“What is it?’
“That was the ME. The sniper you killed was Mel Tarkington. He changed his appearance somewhat from the last picture we had of him. No wonder you didn’t recognized him.”
“Are they certain?”
“The DNA doesn’t lie.”
Fatal Dose Page 21