by Dan Kelly
“Do you know who this guy is?”
“I’ve seen him around, but I’ve never talked to the guy. I remember his name tag says he’s Paul Fuller.”
“Okay, Tony, keep this to yourself. I’ll fill you in on what’s going on when I can and thanks.”
On his way to his car, Mickey called Clancy and passed Tony’s observations on to him and he’s sure Clancy will do likewise to Internal Affairs. “I think the net just got a little tighter around you bastards.”
When Mickey gets home it’s after seven in the evening and he’s bushed, but too wound up to try to get some sleep. He hasn’t eaten much during the day and he’s hungry. He doesn’t have the energy to cook something up for himself, but he’s not too tired to order something in. Before he calls the local pizza joint around the corner, he thinks it might be a good idea to invite his sister over to join him and at the same time enlist her aid in taking a second look at everything that has gone down since Memorial Day weekend which is only four months ago but it seems like four years.
“Hi, Cheryl, it’s me. You doing anything special tonight?”
“No, why?”
“I just got in from work and was about to order in a pizza and thought it would be nice to spend some quality time with my kid sister over some quality Italian food. Have you eaten yet?”
“No, but my ulterior motive meter is buzzing like crazy. Are you looking for a sounding board big brother?”
“Yeah, I need a fresh pair of eyes to take a peek at what has gone down since the American Museum of Natural History robbery. Things are starting to happen. These guys are starting to make mistakes and I’m trying to figure out the best way to use this information against them. Are you game?”
“I’ll be there in a half hour with a bottle of Estancia Meritage cabernet to assist us in our palaver. Please no anchovies or pineapple on the pizza.”
“Thanks, Cheryl.”
Thirty minutes later the pizza delivery guy and Cheryl are both at his door. One minute after that Mickey and Cheryl have reverted to the kids they used to be, trying to fill their bellies before the other one ate everything in sight. The deep dish pizza with pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, black olives and lots of mozzarella cheese accompanied by the cab was just what the doctor ordered. It is proving to be an ideal panacea for the frustration Mickey has been wrestling with for the past four months and their laughter is the icing on the cake.
Forty-five minute later they have devoured the entire pizza, consumed half of the bottle of wine and migrated from the kitchen to the living room, bringing along the half full bottle of wine just in case they get thirsty. Mickey has his laptop sitting on the coffee table with a pile of notes resting on top of it.
Sitting down on the couch where he will have easy access to his laptop Mickey says, “Boy we haven’t done that in a long time. It’s a shame life can’t be as simple and carefree as it is when you’re growing up and wishing you were grown up.”
“Okay, what did you do with my brother? He never looks back, always ahead.”
Laughing he said, “I have my moments of reminiscence. I just prefer to spend most of my time making new memories to reminisce about in my dotage.”
“That’s my bro. Okay, let’s get to it. How can I help you?”
“Let me start with a summary of events up to now and we can go from there. Including the Memorial Day robbery of the American Museum of Natural History, there have been 16 precious gem robberies that we are attributing to the same people. The total dollar value of the gems stolen based on the victims figures and those provided by the insurance companies involved is close to two hundred and twenty million dollars and when the uncut stones are cut that figure will probably be closer to a quarter of a billion dollars.
“The locations of these robberies are in the United States, Europe and South Africa, more specifically, New York City, Greenwich, Boston, Palm Beach, Kennilworth, Nashville, Johannesburg, Paris and Antwerp and I’m probably forgetting some.
“These people are well organized, have detailed knowledge of the precious gems market and have access to the most sophisticated electronic safe/vault cracking equipment and security equipment available and possess the knowledge and skill to use it. All of these robberies have been well-planned and we assume they have accomplices working in some of the places hit who have provided them with information regarding location of the gems, security guard location, types of access security in place, etc.
“Based on the number of robberies committed simultaneously or within a short time of each other and the fact that they have taken place in different locations in three different continents, we believe it’s safe to assume that the people at the helm of this operation have others in their employ to help bring these heists off, in other words ground troops to do the dirty work.
“They don’t hesitate to kill if the need arises and are well armed for the task. We just learned from the Antwerp hit that these people are armed with machine pistols, weapons that are sanctioned for use only by military personnel.
“I’ve made another reasonable assumption. One night a while back I overheard a conversation between three men at Antonelli’s. While I was eavesdropping I learned that they are jewelers, their first names are Jacob, Felix and Amos and that Jacob has a bad temper. I also learned that they have a relationship with someone named Pierre and have had to buy or shoot their way out trouble. I’m thinking, jewelers, they know a guy named Pierre, perhaps it’s Pierre Lavelle, and they’ve been involved in shootouts, this is too much to just be a coincidence.
“I went to the restroom to call for backup and was gone only a few minutes, but when I returned they had beat it. I asked Tony what had happened to cause the men to leave without finishing their meals and he told me that they had seen me go to the restroom and one of them thought he knew me and asked who I was. Tony told them and started to walk away, but not before he spotted one of the men throw a wad of bills on the table and then they all took off.
“As you know, Chuck Ferguson, the PI, has been helping me with my investigation and he’s currently in Paris with one of the victims, Victoria Valance, and they have met Pierre Lavelle at an auction and dined with him and Chuck has a tail on him 24/7 and a tracking device on his car. Through a contact of Chuck’s they’ve come across a potential buyer of some of the loot, an Arab royal by the name of Alim Bukhari, and Chuck has put a 24/7 tail on him as well and his people are looking for an opportunity to put a tracking device on his limo.
“Another interesting observation is that these robberies appear to be taking place to fill some kind of orders. Some valuable gems are taken and other equally valuable stones aren’t touched. At the moment, Pierre Lavelle is the guy we think is the primary sales channel for the stolen gems because of what we’ve heard about him and the access his family background affords him when it comes to people who have the money to buy such items or to find out where potential scores might be located.
“In the clue or evidence department, we’re starting to make some headway but it’s been slow going. We’ve managed to find some shoe prints, a blood sample, a crushed contact lens, we have a victim’s account of the kind of weapons being used and we now have a concrete lead on who the department leak is. We know that some new kind of gas is being used to put the guards to sleep, but we don’t have the means or the manpower to pursue purchases or thefts of new kinds of sleeping gas.
“Gathering information that could help us identify these people has been a frustrating experience. There have been no witnesses who have seen anything helpful and those who have been critically wounded never regained consciousness to give us any leads. Security cameras have been disabled or provided nothing to assist us in our investigation. We haven’t been able to identify any employees, recent, former or other current employees that might have been in cahoots with the thieves. The one really good lead we had, Ralph Reid, was killed before our department artist could work with him to get sketches we could distribute with the hope of f
inding someone who could ID the people who approached him at the American Museum of Natural History.
“Tomorrow I plan to contact the Israeli Consulate to see if they can find out if there have been any thefts of military machine pistols from their armories or elsewhere and, if so, ask if they have any information that could help us with our investigation. If our department computers are up and running, I’ll also continue my search of our gun owners’ data base for gun owners who are jewelers with the first name of Jacob, Felix or Amos.
“That’s it, sis. Pretty meager progress for a four month investigation isn’t it?”
Cheryl doesn’t respond at first. She just holds up her hand to indicate that he should be quiet so she can finish processing the information he has just laid on her. After several minutes of being deeply engrossed in analyzing everything Mickey has summarized for her she finally breaks the silence with, “I think you’ve made significant progress considering what you’ve had to work with and you’ve made some good decisions along the way.
“I agree with the assumptions you’ve made and I think you did a real smart thing making Chuck Ferguson a party to your investigation. The evidence you’ve found at the scenes of the robberies could prove to be critical in convicting these people when you bring them in and you also have a four pronged attack in place to close in on these scoundrels. Chuck has two people under surveillance that could bring to light a lot of things that would be helpful in bringing these people to justice and you have the data base to tap and the possible department leak to exploit. I don’t see why you’re being so hard on yourself. You’re building up a head of steam that’s going to mow these skunks down before they know what’s hit them.
“From what you’ve told me, these people don’t have a clue that you’re closing in on them, so the element of surprise is on your side. Two, the pressure from law enforcement here in the U.S. and in Europe must be putting an enormous amount of pressure on these guys which could cause them to cool it as far as future robberies are concerned and give you more time to concentrate on what has already gone down. If they’re not scared off, the pressure could very well cause them to get careless and make some serious mistakes that will lead to their capture. As you’ve told me before, these guys are cocky, over-confident, and that also often leads to carelessness and mistakes. I think the tide is beginning to turn against these jerks and I’m hoping it will wash them right into prison. Unfortunately, none of the states where people have been killed during the robberies have the death penalty, but I can do my damndest to see that they wind up in the worst prison in the states involved.”
“It’s nice to have someone thinking along the same lines as I am. I guess I just needed to know that I haven’t been overlooking something that I can’t see because I’m too close to the action. Do you have any ideas about anything else I might be doing to move the investigation along at a faster pace?”
“Well, since no current or former employee at any of the businesses involved has aroused your suspicion, perhaps it would be a good idea to go back and talk with all of the employees at these businesses to find out if anyone spotted any strangers hanging around before the thefts took place. Granted, there still might be current employees in collusion with the robbers, but since your inquires along those lines haven’t produced anything, this might be a way to go to get something you can hang your hat on. One or more of the masterminds behind this string of robberies might be casing these locations and a helpful description might pop up. It’s a long shot and whoever is casing the targets might be sporting a disguise, but I think it’s worth a shot.
“Also, another thing you can add to the profiles of these people is they have got to be really well off financially to engage in so many of these activities in such a short period of time and across a broad geographical area both here and in Europe. Their payroll alone has to be substantial to say nothing of their travel expenses.
“I’m also thinking that the majority of the people involved in these robberies don’t know who is running the show. I’d be willing to bet there are layers of middle-men whose knowledge is limited to the people they must interact with directly. These people are just too smart to open themselves to blabbermouths or snitches who would sell their mothers if the price was right.”
“Thanks, Cheryl, for listening to my plight and for you input. I really appreciate your spending an evening listening to my troubles when you could be relaxing at home.”
“Well, I don’t know how much help I’ve been, but I’m always willing to put my two cents in when you bribe me with food.”
Giving her his best appreciative smile and his best imitation of Jethro on the old TV program, Beverly Hillbillies, he says, “Thems were good vittles weren’t they, Elly May?”
“Oh boy, I think that’s my cue to head on home. Don’t drink any more wine or you’ll next be trying to imitate Frank Sinatra and your neighbors will be banging on your door to strangle you.”
Laughing and giving each other a big hug Mickey says, “I mean it, sis, thanks for coming over and getting involved in my dilemma. You have been a big help.”
“Any time, bro.”
After his sister leaves, he cleans up the kitchen and straightens up the living room the bachelor way, with a lick and a promise, and heads for bed. He is pooped. He has just shed his clothes and flopped into bed when his cell phone rings. “Agh! Is there a new rule I don’t know about? Whenever Morretti hits the sack, phone him.”
It’s Captain Clancy. “Mickey, our bad luck streak is still alive and well. I just got a call from Internal Affairs. They went over to the IT department to talk with Paul Fuller and found out that he hadn’t reported for work tonight. When they tried to track him down, they found out through his sister that he was in an auto accident with a big semi that overturned on the Long Island Expressway. Neither the semi driver nor Fuller survived. I wanted to let you know ASAP so that you could scratch talking with IA off your to-do list. I’m sure it was near the top.”
“Thanks, Captain. It was. Damn! I was hoping he could and would open some doors for us.”
“You just keep pounding away, Mickey. If you pound hard enough and long enough, other doors are bound to open up for you. If I didn’t believe that, I never would have become a cop.”
“Yes sir, but my fists are starting to get damn sore.”
“Good night, Mickey.”
“Good night, Captain.”
Crawling back into bed Mickey’s thinking, “I’ve got to do more than pound on doors. I’ve got to draw these pigs to my door. I’ve got to come up with something so enticing that caution will be tossed aside and have them running into a trap where the only way out will be death or prison.”
Chapter 31
In early evening two days later, Jacob having returned to Manhattan without shoving or punching anybody else, the convoluted version of the three musketeers is in deep discussion about their future criminal endeavors in the world of precious gems.
Felix is saying, “We knew we would be stirring up a lot of hornets’ nests when we launched our game plan to commit a large number of high dollar value robberies quickly and all over the world. We knew it would bring in the best of the best in law enforcement and get the attention of the news media that is always lusting for a juicy story. We believed that the chaos created by our aggressiveness would be a big plus in our continued success.
“It’s now obvious that we underestimated the reaction to our activities. The publicity generated by our successes and the collateral damage that has been incurred has manifested into an historical coordinated effort by national and international law enforcement agencies and continual prime time coverage of the events. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for us to remain below the radar, insulating ourselves from the ground action with layers of go-betweens. The publicity is scaring off existing members of our operation as well as potential recruits to help us carry out these robberies.
“Also, the unanticipated amount and quality of the
resources that are being brought into play by law enforcement is going to be very difficult to deal with going forward.