by Dan Kelly
“I just want to give you a briefing on the Arlinghaus visit and get any input you might have regarding where I should go from here.
“So give.”
Derrick unloads and then says, “Bill, if you can think of anything I’ve overlooked I’m all ears. If not, I’m in a holding pattern waiting for something new to happen.”
“I know you’re frustrated, Derrick. Join the club, but sometimes the only option we have is to do what you’re doing, wait for something to happen so you can pounce on it. Now get out of here. I still have some more fuming to do.”
When he gets back to his desk Julie walks over and says, “I just got off a call with the tails on the Paganelli brothers and they’ve had an interesting morning.”
“It couldn’t have been more interesting than ours was.”
“They followed the twins to San Francisco where they met with a Benjamin Cordell who’s the owner of a trucking company, Acme Transport. They didn’t conduct their business in the company’s office, but in a park down the street a couple of blocks. They appeared to have a very serious conversation for the better part of an hour. There was something odd about the encounter. The three of them walked together from the trucking company’s office to the park, but they didn’t walk back to the office together. Cordell left first and walked back to his office and then about ten minutes later the twins walked back to their car in the company parking lot and drove back to their offices.
“Other than that road trip, the twins haven’t gone anywhere out of the ordinary. According to the tails, these guys lead pretty boring lives.”
“Let’s see what we can learn about this Cordell fellow. Run him through our data base and see if he has a record. I hope you have better luck than I did with Nick Petrillo. I came up with zip on him. While you’re doing that, I’ll ask Maury Hoagland to run both these names through his system and network to see if he can come up with anything. I’ve held off asking him to check out Petrillo for me because I’ve been bugging him a lot lately and I don’t want to wear out my welcome. Now that I have two names to work with, I feel I can at least show him I’ve been doing some legwork on my own and am not taking advantage of a good thing by asking him to do my work for me.”
While Julie’s running the record check, Derrick calls Maury and enlists his assistance once again and then busies himself with doodling and linking and unlinking the loose paperclips on his desk while racking his brain for something else to do that will lead him to the folks he’s after. His brain gets a rest when his phone rings. It’s one of his informants, Richie Delaney, whose Irish brogue is so thick he sounds like he’s choking on something whenever he speaks. He has some scuttlebutt for him if he’ll stop by O’Shaughnessy’s Dinner Club at around eight tonight. The guy doesn’t want to talk on the phone.
“Okay, Richie, I’ll be there, but this better be good and not an underhanded way to get a nice dinner on me.”
“Hey, garda, why would you have such unkind thoughts about me? Haven’t I always played fair?”
“Okay, I’ll grant you that. Now, are you going to leave me hanging here thinking you just called me a bad name, which I wouldn’t put past you, or are you going to tell me what a garda is?”
Laughing he answers with, “It’s what a policeman, constable, flat foot, pig, copper, etc. is called in Ireland. No insult was intended.”
“Okay, you got yourself a dinner, but forget about ordering any Bushmills 21 year old single malt.”
Laughing he says, “You English have numbed your taste buds with all of that tea you drink and your purses have shrunk to the size of a chicklet from lack of use. Get a life.” and then hangs up.
When Julie finishes running a check on Cordell and comes up with a goose egg, she dejectedly passes the bad news on to Derrick who smiles and says, “Cheer up. I think we’re finally going to get on the scoreboard.” He tells her about Richie’s call and asks, “If your free tonight, how about joining me for dinner with Richie. It will be good experience for you in interacting with informants and we might even get Bill to let us expense the evening if we get something helpful to the investigation. Besides, we can look out for one another and give the dogs a rest.”
“I’d like that. I’ve got nothing going and I’ve never been to O’ Shaughnessy’s which I hear is quite nice. How do I dress?”
“Dressed up in a casual kind of way, I guess.”
“Oh, that’s a big help.”
“Hey, the few times I’ve been there were on my parents’ anniversary and my sister’s birthday and I didn’t think it would be very suave and debonair to be checking out the other women diners while these lovely ladies were at my table. My dad would have been fine with it, but my mom and sister would have thought it quite rude and rather chauvinistic. Besides, those two are masters at giving tongue lashings.”
Chuckling Julie says, “Wow! Both suave and debonair. How gallant of you.”
Laughing he comes back with, “I have my moments. I’ll pick you up at your place at seven-thirty. I’ll be driving my Lexus. Richie is paranoid about being seen with anyone that remotely resembles a cop and our unmarked cars are a dead giveaway to anybody with any street smarts.”
“Well, from what I hear about O’Shaughnessy’s Dinner Club your Lexus will be in good company.”
Chapter 31
Derrick and Julie show up at the dinner club a few minutes before eight and Derrick explains to the receptionist that they are meeting with someone else for dinner and don’t know if he made reservations or not.
“What is the gentleman’s name?”
“Delaney.”
Checking her list of reservations she says, “Yes, Mr. Delaney has reserved a table for two but it will be too small for three.”
“How about one of those banquettes? Are any of those available?”
Checking her available seating she says, “There are a couple still open, one in the corner and one in the middle of the far wall facing the entrance.”
“The one facing the entrance will be fine.”
She motions to one of the hostesses to escort them to their banquette and five minutes later they’re seated sipping on some house chardonnay which isn’t half bad. A few minutes later Derrick spots Richie entering the club and approaching the receptionist.
“Our dinner guest has just arrived.”
When Julie looks over towards the reception area she sees a man who is average in every way, height, weight, face, the way he carries himself, with two exceptions; his jet black hair which is so wavy he probably only has to comb it with his fingers and his dark blue eyes which are so dark they’re almost indigo. When he looks over at them, she feels like he’s looking right through her his stare is so intense.
Approaching the banquette Delaney says, “Good evening, Derrick.” Looking at Julie he adds with a smile, “I thought we would be dining alone. This beautiful lady is definitely going to be a delightful distraction but one which will deter me from talking about some matters of which we have a mutual interest.”
“Julie, this extremely cautious and silver tongued fellow who talks funny is Richie Delaney. He functions in the world of sport as an intermediary between folks who have the desire to increase their net worth through the efforts of others. In other words, he’s a bookie. Richie, my dinner companion is Julie Styversant and she functions as a deputy sheriff and is my partner in this winery investigation I’m conducting. If I didn’t think I could trust her she wouldn’t be here, and despite her appearance, you don’t want to get on her bad side.”
Taking a long look at Julie he finally nods, sits down and says, “Okay, if you vouch for her that’s good enough for me.”
Julie feels like she’s just had an MRI.
After the waiter comes over and takes Delaney’s drink order, a double Knappogue Castle 12 year single malt on the rocks, he looks slyly at Derrick and says, “Hey, you just took Bushmills off the table.”
Derrick doesn’t respond, but he’s hoping Bemis won’t give
him any static when he submits his expense statement.
“Okay, Richie, what do you have for me?”
“Hey, give a guy a chance to lubricate his pipes before you ask him to sing for you. Besides, what I have to tell you will definitely whet your appetite. It’ll beat anything on the menu.”
As if on cue, the waiter returns with Richie’s drink and after a couple of sips he breaks into song and all of it is on key.
“Last night I was in Bernie’s Bistro conducting business as usual when I overhear a regular talking to one of the bartenders. He’s talking about how he overheard a conversation between a customer and a couple of guys in the booth behind him several months back. Apparently, the customer is a computer geek, a programmer, who works for a research firm here in Napa. The regular didn’t remember the name of the company. The two guys he’s with are propositioning him about hacking into other companies computers to get information that will give them a competitive edge. They offered him twenty grand to hack into ten systems and retrieve specific information with the proviso that his hacking goes undetected. Evidently, the two guys somehow knew the geek was hurting for money and they played that card several times during their conversation. The customer finally agreed to do it and when they left the regular, to hear him tell it, almost spilled his drink when he saw who the two guys were. Drum roll please. Hold on to your britches…… It was the Paganelli twins. He didn’t think too much of it at the time. It was none of his business and he forgot all about it until what’s been happening at some of the wineries began to appear on the TV. He was asking the bartender what he thought he should do, go to the cops or keep his mouth shut. The bartender who has been around the block a few times and paid the price gave him some sage advice. ‘People are getting killed. If you keep your mouth shut, chances are you won’t be one of them. If you go to the cops, all bets are off.”
“Richie, that tune just hit the number one slot on my hit parade. What do you do for an encore?”
“Those two guys you’re looking for, Elroy Timothy Mueller and Mario DiMaggio, they’re still in the neighborhood. They were seen having dinner last night at one of the restaurants in the Westin Verasa Napa Hotel. They are not, however, guests of the hotel. My source is the concierge at the hotel.”
“Do you have any names?”
Looking at his empty glass he says, “My pipes are still a little dry. Another glass of this wonderful elixir should moisten them sufficiently for me to burst forth with an engaging little jingle.”
Raising his hand to get the attention of the waiter Derrick says, “Don’t push your luck, old son, or the next time you’re picked up for making book I might not be there to intercede on behalf of your Irish butt and you just might be singing your next ditty in a cell.”
Smiling broadly Delaney says, “Boy, you sure know how to take the fun out of things. Alright, I’ve got some names for you. The regular’s name is Brian Collins. I know him. He places bets with me. The customer’s name is Bob Sheldon. I know nothing about him. Collins mentioned the name when he was talking to the bartender. The Paganellis must have used it during their conversation with Sheldon.”
“Okay, Richie, you’ve earned your repast and libation.”
“Now who’s talking funny?”
“I’m just trying to make you feel at home.”
“I appreciate the effort, but the accent’s all wrong."
They all laugh and then the waiter comes over to take their orders and the rest of the evening is spent eating, swapping stories on a broad range of topics and laughing a lot more. Julie’s thinking, “It’s really true what they say about the Irish. They can find humor in just about anything. I wonder why he became a bookie. He’s certainly atypical. The few bookies I’ve come across were sullen, cynical and not much fun to be around.”
Glancing at his watch and seeing that it’s after ten Derrick says, “Well, Richie, it’s been a pleasant evening and thanks for the scuttlebutt.”
“I hope it helps.”
“I’ll let you know how things turn out. If you pick up on anything else, let me know ASAP.”
“I will and thanks for dinner.”
Richie splits and Derrick signals the waiter for the bill.
Julie says, “That’s one odd man.”
“Why do you say that?”
“He’s not like any bookie I’ve ever met. When I first saw him and when he first came over to us, he gave me the creeps. Those eyes are something else. However, as the evening wore on I got to like him. He’s funny.”
“Richie grows on you, somewhat like a wart. He’s harmless. He doesn’t go in for the rough stuff with deadbeats who don’t pay up when they lose, but he has a couple of big guys he uses to scare the daylights out of them and that usually provides sufficient incentive for the losers to come across with what they owe.”
“Talking about losing, today wasn’t a total loss. We now have some new names that might lead us someplace, Benjamin Cordell, Brian Collins and Bob Sheldon, and Mueller and DiMaggio might still be in the area.”
“The evening was kind of nice also.”
Picking up on the nuance Julie says, “Yeah, it was.”
Chapter 32
At eight-thirty the next morning, Derrick and Julie are sitting in Bill Bemis’s office giving him a summary of what they’d learned from Richie Delaney. Shaking his head Bill says, “This opens some doors for us, but it’s all hearsay and the word of a bookie isn’t going to fly very far if and when this case gets to court. We’re going to need a lot more to take these guys and whoever else is involved out of circulation.”
Derrick responds with, “Well, our next step is to walk through these new doors and see what’s on the other side. We just might find the proof we need. These guys aren’t infallible. If they keep doing what they’re doing, they’re bound to screw up somehow and when they do we’ll be there to open a new door for them, one to a cell.”
“Let’s hope you’re right and hope no one else gets killed while we’re waiting for them to screw up. By the way, how much did this information cost the citizens of Napa Valley?”
Derrick took the credit card receipt out of his wallet and handed it to Bemis. Seeing Bemis’s jaw drop open and his eyes blink rapidly, he grabs Julie’s arm, ushers her towards the door and says, “We’d better get a move on before those doors close on us.”
Before Bill can react, they’re out of there. Softly laughing Julie says, “I thought he was going to blow his stack when he saw that credit card receipt. I’ve never seen Bemis stunned before.”
Smiling Derrick says, “Oh, I’m going to hear about it before the day is over, but he’ll approve it. He may not be thrilled about it, but he’ll approve it.”
“If he doesn’t, I’ll split it with you.”
Looking at her with surprise in his eyes he says, “Thanks for the offer, but he’ll approve it. Don’t give it another thought. Let’s get to work on these names and see what we can shake loose.”
An hour later, they’ve come up with contact info on Collins and Sheldon and have determined that neither of them have a record. Maury has called back and has come up with nothing on Petrillo except a social security number, a passport and the information submitted by him to obtain it six years ago and a current Illinois Driver License with a Chicago address that may or may not be a current. However, what he dug up on Cordell was much more interesting. The man was a person of interest in the killing of the owners of an interstate trucking company based in Portland, Oregon ten years ago, but nothing but rumors could be substantiated. The case is still open.
With an expectant look on her face Julie asks, “Okay, what do we do first, have a talk with Collins then Sheldon to see what else we can learn, call the Chicago PD and the Portland PD with the hope of learning something new that might help us here or pay a visit to the concierge at the Westin Verasa Napa Hotel to see if he can gives us anything useful concerning Mueller and DiMaggio? You know, I’ve been thinking it might have been those two w
ho waylaid us on our way to the Arlinghaus Winery.”