by Dan Kelly
“I’m sorry, Sally, but I keep weird hours and can’t take proper care of a pet. But thanks for giving me first dibs. How many kittens are in the litter?”
“Five. The mail man said he’d take one if his wife gave him the okay. My mom promised two of them to her friends, but they are always changing their minds so I don’t know what will happen with them. The lady at the cleaners says she’d like one to help her keep the gophers in her backyard from digging up her lawn, but she’s allergic to cats so that rules her out. We’re keeping all the kittens until they’re weaned. That means Abby will stop feeding them with her milk and they’ll start eating solid food.”
“Well, I wish you luck, Sally, with finding homes for the kittens. Good night now.”
Closing the door he murmurs, “That’s what life should be all about, not worrying about some fruitcakes throwing their weight around and making other folks’ lives miserable.”
The rest of his evening is spent watching reruns of NCIS and Matlock and has him hoping the outcome of his skullduggery is the same as what always happens on these shows, the good guys collar the bad guys without any of the good guys getting hurt. Around eleven he hits the hay with Champ lying at the foot of his bed and the two are soon a softly snoring duet.
Chapter 51
When Derrick and Julie arrive at the station the next morning, there’s a cacophony of ringing phones and people shouting to be heard and things go downhill from there when the Governor calls to give Derrick a dressing down for scaring the hell of everybody with his comments on the news last night.
“What are you trying to do, make the Napa Valley a war zone? I might wind up having to call out the National Guard to keep the peace. That was a very dumb move.”
Derrick has had it with the political paranoia exuding form every pore of people like Baldwin and the Governor, so he doesn’t hold back when he responds to the Governor’s comments.
“Not as dumb as someone at the top of the totem pole sitting on his hands and doing nothing but criticizing the efforts of others, offering no assistance to people who are trying to deal with the situation.”
“Who the hell do you think you are to talk to me like that?”
“I’m the man who holds your political balls in my hand. If I fail in my attempt to bring a screeching halt to what’s been happening here in Napa Valley, your chances of getting re-elected are slim to none and forget about running for any national office.
“Let me read you something I came across on the internet when I first started to do my homework on the winery industry here in California to better equip me for trying to deal with what has been happening.” Quickly rustling through the detritus spread all over his desk, he finds what he’s looking for and begins reading it to the Governor.
"California wine is a signature industry for the state, creating 875,000 jobs in the U.S. and billions in economic activity, while generating significant tourism, trade, taxes and revenue.
“The California wine industry has an annual impact of $51.8 billion on the state's economy, and an economic impact of $125.3 billion on the U.S. economy, according to a 25-page report released by the Wine Institute and California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG) at the Fort Mason Conference Center in San Francisco. Governor, this study was done in 2006. I’m sure the impact of our wine industry on the state’s and national economies has grown in the ensuing years. So get off your political high horse and try to help us out with our problem or get the hell out of our way.”
There is total silence at the other end of the line and then a distinct click as the Governor hangs up.
Julie is sitting at her desk listening to what Derrick is saying and is dumbfounded that he’s saying it. When Derrick hangs up his phone she says, “Wow! If there is such a thing as telephonic Hara-Kiri, I think I just witnessed it. If you aren’t thinking of pulling a Bill Bemis, scuttling everything you’ve accomplished with the county and moving on down the road, you’d better prepare yourself from some serious backlash when the Governor picks himself off the floor. You just figuratively knocked him on his ass.”
“The worst he can do is get me fired. If I can be fired for speaking my mind and telling the truth at least as I see it, then I don’t want the job. I’ll find something else to do.”
Derrick heads for the coffee pot; leaving Julie to wonder how her dad dealt with the politicians he came across. He was a laid back guy when it came to family and friends, but on the job he was always wound up tight and ready to spring if anyone put their personal interests ahead of the best interests of the department or the community he served. It’s times like this that she misses him the most. She would never hesitate to go to him for advice when she had doubts about what she should do and he never let her down.
Her thoughts are interrupted by Derrick returning with two cups of coffee, some creamers and artificial sweeteners. Thanking him, she is drawn away by her phone ringing and that’s the last time they have a chance to talk with each other until close to quitting time.
Over the course of the day the phone calls have dwindled down from constant to sporadic to the usual routine. As Derrick is clearing his desk and thinking about how hungry he is because he’s had no chance to grab some lunch his phone rings for the umpteenth time. Before answering he says, “Julie, I think I’ve stumbled on a new guaranteed way to lose weight. I think I’ll call it the Alexander Graham Bell diet. All you need is a compelling reason for a lot of people to call you on a daily basis and your hands, ears and mouth will do the rest.”
She smiles, he smiles and then he tiredly answers the phone.
“Chandler.”
“It’s Forrester here, Sergeant. We’ve arrived and are at the rental. Where do you want to meet?”
“Where you are will suit me just fine. Give me the address and order in some pizza. We’re famished as we haven’t eaten anything since breakfast.”
“I gather your appearance on TV had a lot to do with that.”
“You gather correctly. I’ll give you a complete rundown when we arrive.”
Forrester gives him the address and his cell phone number in case he and Julie are delayed for some reason and Derrick does likewise in case there’s any trouble at Forrester’s location.
Derrick ends the call with, “We’ll be on our way in about f ive minutes. Where you are is about a twenty minute drive from here at this time of day. Bye.”
“That was the G men leader, Agent Forrester. They’re settled in at their temporary digs and he wants to meet with us. If you can survive starvation for another twenty minutes, there will be sustenance waiting to relieve your hunger pains. If not, we can stop somewhere along the way for something to eat.”
“I’m good for twenty minutes. For twenty one, I’ll probably pass out.”
“Okay then, let’s get the wheels turning.”
Chapter 52
When Derrick and Julie get to the rental, there are three SUVs parked in the driveway and three on the street in front of the house. The only vacant spot on the street is by a fire hydrant. If they were in uniform and in a patrol car, Derrick wouldn’t think twice about parking next to the hydrant since they are on police business. However, since they’re in civvies and have driven here in Derrick’s car, they’re fair game for a ticket. It would just be their luck to get one and have the car towed away by the city police.
As Derrick momentarily wrestles with the park/no park dilemma, good fortune shines down on them when a parking spot is vacated on the other side of the street. Derrick does a quick U turn, cutting off a lady heading for the same spot, and pulls in with aplomb. When the lady opens her window, she quickly demonstrates that she’s no lady as she laces into him with some four letter words he hasn’t heard since his military days.
“Smiling at her Derrick says, “It’s a beautiful day for cussing isn’t it?”
This gets him the middle finger salute and she peels rubber as she takes off down the street.
Smiling at how Derrick handled t
he situation Julie says, “You made her day. Now she has something unusual to share with the women at her bridge club and she’ll have them hanging on every word.”
Smiling he says, “I aim to please.”
When Derrick knocks on the front door, it’s opened by a well-built guy about six feet tall, bald as a billiard ball, with a full, deep red, neatly trimmed red beard and bushy mustache which distracts the eye from the vacant dome.
Realizing that no one on the small task force knows what they look like, Derrick has his badge in his hand and shows it to the man.
“Sergeant Chandler, you made good time. The pizza hasn’t arrived yet. I’m Jim Forrester.”
Introductions are made, hands are shaken, and then they all settle down in the living room and get down to business.
Derrick starts out by saying, “Agent Forrester has been briefed on what I’m about to tell you and since I don’t know what’s been passed along to the rest of you I’m going to assume he hasn’t had the time to tell you much and give you the same briefing I gave him.
Derrick fills everybody in on the newscast, why he did what he did and the reaction of the viewing public. “I’m banking on the people we’re after to have been part of that viewing public and it made them angry enough to let me know personally they didn’t like what I had to say.
“Two of the people who want me to be pushing up daises are home grown egomaniacs, the Paganelli brothers. They are identical twins and identical in their willingness to do whatever it takes to get what they want, anything. We believe they’re the root cause of the winery troubles we’ve been dealing with these past months.”
Julie reaches into an envelope she’s been holding, takes out copies of the Paganellis driver license photos and distributes them saying, “They still look like these photos. They haven’t changed their hair style, grown facial hair or started wearing glasses."
Derrick adds, “Deputy Styversant also has copies of their automobile registrations, pictures of their cars, addresses for their residences and business and a list of some of the places they like to hang out when they’ve got nothing better to do. This information should help you get a decent lay of the land and give you some idea of what you might be dealing with.
"There is also one other Californian that might show up on the scene, a Benjamin Cordell. We have reason to believe the Paganellis hired him to take out two earlier players in the game, a Nicolas Petrillo and a Mafia don, Nofri Nuzzoli. We don’t know if he’s still in the picture or not. He might have balked and backed away when he realized he might be asking for more trouble than he bargained for by taking on the mafia and the County Sheriff department. We have pictures and particulars on him as well.
“Now here is where things get kind of dicey. We know there is at least one new player in the game based in Milan who has a long reach here in the States. I’m pretty confident that the newscast got him boiling mad as well. He’s also a don and his name is Antonio Arrigoni. I can get a picture of him from my contact in Italy, but I doubt very much that he’ll do the dirty work himself. It’s more likely that he’ll send one of his people in Italy or hire local talent to do the job. Zeroing in on whomever or whoever he sends is strictly going to be a seat of the pants exercise. It wouldn’t surprise me if he sends more than one since, as far as he knows, there are two of us to be dealt with.”
Julie asks, “That reminds me, did you ever hear back from Inspector Bianchi about Remo’s fingerprints.”
Forrester asks, “Who’s Remo?”
Derrick answers, “An arsonist who got caught in the act at one of the wineries involved in this mess. He was shot in the head and got his brain scrambled. He claims he can only remember his first name, but he coughed up Antonio Arrigoni’s name. We had him printed and sent the prints to the Italian authorities to see if they had anything on him in their files. With everything else that has been going on I forgot all about them. Inspector Bianchi was supposed to call me with what he found. He’s been dealing with a potential gang war, so I’m sure this wasn’t number one on his priority list.”
“Julie says, “I was just thinking that if the Inspector could find out who he is and what relationship he has with organized crime over there, that info might help us with what we’re dealing with here.”
Derrick nods his head in agreement and says, “I’ll call him first thing in the morning and see what he has to say.
“Okay Agent Forrester, that’s what we brought to the party. What have you got for us?”
“First off, let’s stop using titles. We don’t want to risk tipping someone off that something is going down and that word getting back to the people we’re looking for.
“The SUVs out front are not rentals. They were waiting for us when we landed. They were supplied by the local FBI office and have bullet proof glass in all of the windows and are armor plated all around. They contain all the firepower we’ll need if things get ugly and all the horse power we’ll need if our quarry tries to hightail it to safer pastures. There will be two of us in each vehicle. The six vehicles should afford us sufficient flexibility to adapt to just about any scenario that might crop up, including monitoring the two of you, the Paganellis and anyone else that shows up.
“Early tomorrow morning we’ll check out the locations you’ve given us and familiarize ourselves with the highways and byways surrounding them so we’re not at a disadvantage should we find ourselves in pursuit mode. Since the Paganellis have dropped off the grid, our first priority is to find out where they went. There are various subterfuges we can use to make inquiries of their neighbors and the people at their winery office. Once we locate them, they won’t be able to pass gas without us knowing about it.
“Derrick, if you’ve lit anyone’s fire, things should start heating up pretty soon. Even with the likes of us here, the two of you are still at risk, so continue watching each other’s six and don’t stop using the dogs when you go home. It won’t hurt to have the extra protection.
“I also brought along some quite sophisticated wireless satellite communication gear to enable all of us to communicate with each other when the need arises. The channel is secure so we can talk freely. The equipment consists of a pin mike and a very small earbud.”
Before he can continue, the doorbell rings. It’s the pizza delivery guy. He’s holding a pile of pizza boxes in his arms and after Forrester relieves him of the load, the kid runs back to his car for the rest of the order which turns out to be boxes of chicken pieces and soda pop. By the time Forrester has signed the credit card slip, closed the door and returned to the living room all the boxes are open and everyone is digging in like they haven’t eaten in days.
Laughing Forrester says, “Gee, you guys are devouring this stuff like it was surf and turf and there isn’t enough to go around. If we run out of food before everyone is sated, we can order some more, so slow down and enjoy. You’re acting like a bunch of teenagers at a football rally.”
Everyone laughs along with him, but no one stops cramming food into their mouth, including Derrick and Julie.
Unbelievably, 45 minutes later there’s not a crumb left of anything. After the residue of containers has been tossed in the trash, their meeting resumes with the accompaniment of a variety of belches and burps.
An hour later, Derrick and Julie are headed back to the station’s parking lot so Julie can drive home.
Julie says, “I like those guys. They all seem laid back, but you can sense their alertness to everything that’s going on around them. They’re ready and probably impatient for something to happen.”
“I agree, but I don’t think they’re more impatient than I am for the show to start.”
“You know, I’m thinking that maybe I should be a little more scared about confronting these people, but I’m not scared much at all. I’m excited and eager to go head-to head with them. Is that normal?