by Dan Kelly
Derrick says to Julie, “Go home and catch up on your sleep. I’m going to do the same. I’ll see you at the station at eleven. I’ll call Bemis and leave a message on his voice mail, telling him where we are and why.”
“Okay. Did you leave your dog at home like I did? I figured there’d be so many cops around nobody would be stupid enough to try anything.”
“Yeah, I figured the same thing.”
“Well, what’s happened here tonight has me thinking that that kind of figuring is inviting disaster. These people aren’t your run of the mill thugs. They’re smart, ruthless and determined and shouldn’t be underestimated. We shouldn’t be taking chances like this. The K-9s, especially Duke and Champ, are worth their weight in gold. They’ve proved themselves to me. I wonder if we could get Duke and Champ permanently assigned to us until these guys are caught.”
“You’re making a lot of sense, Julie, and from now I’m heeding your advice. I’ll see what I can do about Duke and Champ.”
As they both drive off into the rising sun, Derrick is wondering what the chances are of the guy who was taken to the hospital seeing another rising sun, regaining consciousness, being lucid and able to speak.
“The way our luck has been running lately, he’ll either remain alive and breathing but in a comatose state or he’ll croak without uttering a word.
“Damn! This case is really getting to me. I need an attitude adjustment. There’s no place for pessimism in a cop’s mental repertoire. It only gets in the way of getting things done. Put a sock in it Chandler.
“Okay, now that you’ve properly admonished yourself, where are you going from here if the arsonist dies without spilling any beans?”
As he dwells on this he quickly realizes that he doesn’t have a clue.
Chapter 40
The first thing Derrick does when he gets to the station later that morning is call the hospital to get the status on the arsonist. There’s no change. He’s still unconscious, but his vitals are strong and steady. He’s under guard and Derrick will be notified immediately if there’s any change in the patient’s condition.
The next thing on his agenda is to check in with forensics to see where they are with the security guards’ car. Unfortunately, it’s another dead end. The car has been gone over with a fine tooth comb and nothing useful has been found. Their one conclusion is it’s more than likely the security guards were stopped or parked on the dirt road with the windows open when they were shot as there was no broken glass at the scene.
He then calls the K-9 unit to request Duke and Champ be permanently assigned to them for night duty until further notice, praising them for their intelligence and courage and stating that he and Julie have managed to established strong bonds with the animals and believe this bond will go a long way toward keeping him and Julie from joining the ranks of the deceased in the winery confrontations. He gratefully gets no static from the commander of the unit and the dogs are assigned to them as requested with no qualifications.
Most people don’t know it, but dogs in the K-9 unit are considered police officers and hold that rank. If someone kills one of them, that person suffers the same consequences as if he shot a human police officer. Derrick is surprised at how smart and brave the dogs are.
The next thing on his agenda is to latch on to a hot cup of coffee and twiddle his thumbs while trying to come up with some plausible ideas on how to proceed with the investigation.
Julie has been busy preparing for a civil court appearance regarding a drunk driver incident she responded to six months ago where a pedestrian was seriously injured. The driver has already been tried and convicted in criminal court, losing her license, receiving a hefty fine and getting hit with 500 hours of community service. The driver, a woman in her late forties whose husband is a wealthy importer/exporter, is now being sued by the victim. As a result of being hit by the woman’s SUV, the victim is paralyzed from the waist down and has lost partial movement in his right arm. He was a physical therapist before the accident, but now can no longer do that kind of work or much else for that matter. He’s been classified as fully disabled which will be the only source of income the man will have unless he wins the lawsuit which is for megabucks.
Looking over at Julie he calls out, “Julie, we lucked out and got Duke and Champ assigned to us on a permanent basis until further notice.”
“I’m glad. I like having Duke roaming around the house. When he’s not on alert it’s like having a pet. He likes to be petted and given treats and he, believe it or not, likes to watch television, especially the cartoons.
“I feel the same way about Champ. He also likes the boob tube, but his favorites are the football and hockey games. He barks a lot when a football player is tackled or a hockey player is checked hard against the boards. Basketball seems to bore him though.”
As they’re laughing at the dogs’ antics, Bemis comes storming out of his office and he appears to be building up a good head of steam as he heads their way. They’re both thinking he’s ticked off at them for some reason, but, surprisingly, he whizzes right on by them without a nod, a knock it off and get back to work or any other form of acknowledgement and disappears out the door to the parking lot.
Looking at the door to the parking lot as it slowly closes Derrick says, “The man is definitely not a happy camper. I wonder what set him off.”
The words are barely out of his mouth when his desk phone rings and he has his answer. It’s Bill’s admin.
“Derrick, Bill has just received a summons to come to George Baldwin’s office for a powwow with the Board of Supervisors and the mayor of Napa. It looks like what happened at the Arlinghaus Winery last night has rankled their feathers enough to motivate them to launch a full court press against our man to get him to develop a different strategy, seek outside help or maybe even to resign.
“When he left, the look on his face told me that he was prepared to go for the jugular of the first man who gave him any static about how the winery investigation is being conducted. These people have been on his back almost from the beginning of the investigation. If he gets too aggressive, they’ll use that as an excuse to do their damndest to get rid of him. Those people have never been his greatest fans because he won’t kiss their asses, but up until now they haven’t been able to find anything that has the slightest chance of getting him ousted from office. If he wasn’t an elected official, he would have been gone long ago. Can you think of anything that will calm him down before he gets there?”
Baldwin is the county’s Chief Administrator and a royal pain in the ass even when things are going smoothly. In his mind, he’s the star and everyone else is there to do his bidding.
“Try not to worry. I’ll come up with something.” “I hope.”
He hangs up and quickly tells Julie what the call was all about.
His mind kicks into overdrive trying to come up with something that will cool Bemis down. Winging it isn’t going to work with the frame of mind Bill’s in. A few minutes later he has some things to recommend to Bill to focus on which should help to put a damper on his temper.
Dialing Bemis’s cell, he thinks of one more thing he could recommend that might take some pressure off Bemis, at least for a while.
When Bemis answers he bellows, “What do you want?”
“To defuse that bomb that’s ticking inside that thick skull of yours. Don’t interrupt. Just listen to what I have to say and then sound off if you want to.
“There are things we have done that the Board of Supervisors knows nothing about. You should make them aware that we are not alone in our investigation. Namely, we have brought in the Feds by consulting with the NSA, we have also been working with the Portland, Chicago and San Francisco police departments along with the Direzione Investigativa Antimafia in Italy and all of these eyes and ears are backed up by the eyes and ears of a network of informants in Napa Valley who have a very good record of reliability.
“You should also tell them we have ze
roed in on four people that can very well lead us to the top decision makers in the onslaught against the Napa Valley wineries, Benjamin Cordell, the Paganelli twins and the arsonist who is in the hospital.
“You should emphasize that these are all very positive aspects of our investigation and we are in the process of gathering sufficient evidence that will lead to the arrest and conviction of everyone involved in what has been occurring at the Napa Valley wineries.
“Now I know you are fully cognizant of these things, but if you go into that meeting with a bellicose attitude you’ll probably forget all or most of them and wind up digging a cavernous hole for yourself.
“Lastly, if any or all of what I just said falls on deaf ears, tell them you will replace me with someone else. If nothing else, that should buy you some time.”
It only takes Bemis a second to react and his response only deals with Derrick’s last comment.
“I’m not the kind of !@#$%^& boss that throws his employees under the bus to save his own %@78^ hide!
Having said that he disconnects, leaving Derrick guessing as to what effect his little speech had on the man.
Julie says, “That sounded good to me. How did Bemis take it?”
Taking a deep breath and then slowly blowing it out he says, “I have no idea. After cussing me out for suggesting he was the kind of person that throws his employees under the bus to save his own hide, he hung up.”
They both remained silent for a while as they both pondered the possibility and the consequences of their section functioning without Bemis at the helm if he blew his stack and told the Board of Supervisors to shove it. Who would his likely replacement be and how would they get along with that person?
Snapping out of that train of thought Derrick says, “With Petrillo out of the picture, I wonder if Giuseppe Pelegrinno will still have a role to play in the attempts to acquire the designated wineries. It’s possible that the honchos in Italy will contact him directly without using a new go-between.
“If that happens and we can get Pelegrinno to work with us, we just might be able to find out who at Industrial Ventures International in Milan are the signal callers behind what has been going on at the wineries. If we can do that, we can give Inspector Antonio Bianchi at the Direzione Investigativa Antimafia those names and start collecting evidence via wire taps, surveillance and anything else we can dream up.”
Julie says, “Maria Conti has already given us one of the names, the name of her boss who read her the riot act for nosing around. It’s on the organization chart she gave you. From the way she described her last conversation with him, it sounded like he could be one of the folks in the inner circle over there in Milan.”
“That would be a good place to start and thanks for the input. I completely overlooked that possible connection. I attributed his attitude and veiled threat strictly to Maria violating their security protocol. I never connected him with the possibility of him being an insider.”
“Well at least now we have something to do besides sitting on our hands drinking horrible coffee and fretting over our lack of a clue about what to do next.”
“I’ll call Antonio Bianchi at the Direzione Investigativa Antimafia and ask him to take a closer look at him. I’ll also give him a heads up on our intention to try to use Pelegrinno if he’s contacted by anyone from Industrial Ventures International or Investors Anonymous and the part we’d like the Inspector to play if things start to happen that we want to happen.”
“Then we’ll pay a visit to Giuseppe Pelegrinno to recruit him into the fold?”
“It’s a nice day for a drive to San Francisco and they have some fabulous seafood restaurants there we can choose from to honor with our presence to put the feed bag on. My treat, none of this Dutch treat stuff.”
Grinning she says, “I can deal with that. How should I dress for the occasion, my personal pearl handled .45 or my regular .40 caliber Sig-Sauer issue?”
Laughing Derrick answers with, “If you flash that man-killer smile of yours, no one will notice your sidearm.”
“Wow. That’s definitely a comment to remember. Thank you. I just might get through the day without a frown.”
Chuckling he says, “I’m glad, now clear your desk and be ready to roll when I’m done talking with the inspector.”
“Derrick, it’s past ten in the evening in Milan.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot. Working in the international arena is going to take some getting used to. Well, I’ll leave him a voice mail message.”
After the phone rings six or seven times, Derrick is expecting to be forwarded to voice mail, but is surprised by the phone being answered by Inspector Bianchi.
“Bianchi.”
“Inspector, this is Sergeant Chandler from the Napa Valley County, California Sheriff Department calling. It’s comforting to know that we’re not the only police department on the planet that works all hours dealing with the local malcontents. I hope what has you working so late isn’t too serious.”
“Good evening Sergeant. It’s about as serious as things can get. One of the senior Mafioso you and I talked about during our last conversation was found garroted earlier tonight in his backyard. His body was discovered by a neighbor who had come over to return a ladder he had borrowed and he called the local police. When they saw who the victim was, we were notified.”
“Who was the victim?”
“Nofri Nuzzoli.”
“I’ll be damned. His murder might be related to what’s been going on here.”
“How?”
Derrick told him about the connection between Nuzzoli and the Paganelli brothers the Polizia di Stato had uncovered along with the killing of Petrillo. “Petrillo was taking orders directly from someone at Industrial Ventures International or those orders were relayed to him via their U. S. subsidiary Investors Anonymous. Nuzzoli was probably dealing directly with one of the owners who arranged for the transfer of funds to the Paganellis.”
“You’ve been working with the Polizia di Stato?”
“No I haven’t. Someone in one of our spook agencies has a connection there and he lent me a helping hand. That all I’m at liberty to say.”
“Okay, so why are you calling me now?”
Derrick tells him and Bianchi concurs with his game plan. “The sooner you can get information to us the better the chance we’ll have of putting it to good use. I’ll give you my cell number so you will have a couple of ways to get in touch with me.”
He gives Derrick the number and then says, “The killing of Nuzzoli could lead to a full out gang war here. He was a key player in organized crime here and his death is going to upset a lot of very dangerous people. I’ve got to put some kind of a plan together to deal with that eventuality, so caio.”
Chapter 41
The ride to San Francisco is uneventful as no one tries to run them off the road and over a cliff or shoot them. Pelegrinno is quite surprised to see them and probably remembering the nature of his last encounter with Derrick appears to be a little apprehensive judging from the way he keeps clicking his ball point pen.
“Sergeant, I told you everything I know about these winery offers and Maria Conti seems to have dropped off the grid. I haven’t heard from her in a while and when I called her to find out what the status was of her clients attempts to acquire some of the wineries in Napa Valley I was told she’s no longer with the company.”
“Mr. Pelegrinno, as I told you the last time I was here, the people at the helm of the Industrial Investors International/Investors Anonymous operation are definitely not the nicest folks on the planet and that you might be playing with fire and get severely burnt if you weren’t careful. Maria Conti resigned from the company because things got too hot for her and she was threatened with bodily harm if she didn’t toe the line and stop prying into things that didn’t concern her like trying to find out who owns the company.