Silent Sanction: A Novel

by Joseph D'Antoni

  Jake thought, Obviously an inside chemist joke.

  Bob went on to explain that the key to the compound was its durability. “We’ve had disappearing ink since as far back as the early 1800’s. The problem with those chemicals was that they wouldn’t stand up on multiple surfaces or survive the elements. Our compound is stable and durable and has been tested to stand up to sub-zero cold and high heat. That’s because our compound uses a state-of-the art polymer reflective materials.”

  Pisano, as usual, had questions. “Have you tested the product in the field?”

  Bob answered, “Yes, we used it in both a kidnapping and in a money laundering case.”

  “How did it hold up as evidence?”

  “It held up fine. We just had to explain to the court how it worked and how you are able to take pictures of the compound under the light with Tungsten film and a special filter.”

  “Is it paint or what?”

  “It’s really more like a dye or stain. It actually goes into the pores of the surface instead of sitting on top.”

  Pisano wasn’t done asking questions. “Is there a name for this stuff?”

  “I’m sure the FBI will eventually come out with an official name for it, but around here we just call it Blue Dye Seven or BD-7 for short.”

  “Where did the ‘seven’ come from?”

  “It was the seventh chemical experiment in a series. The one where we finally got the formulas right to make the final compound.”

  “How do you apply the stuff?” Pisano’s thoughts had taken a turn in the direction of practical interest.

  “Let’s go into the lab, and I’ll give you a demonstration. To answer your question though, we have large and small hand-held applicators with sponge tips. We also have marking pens where the solution is in the cylinder for marking small items. We have the compound in aerosol spray cans and we have it in regular paint cans so that it can also be applied with a brush or roller. We usually use the paint cans or rollers for large objects on building rooftops to aid in helicopter surveillance.”

  Pisano said, “I like the pen applicators.”

  The three men went into the laboratory, and Bob demonstrated the application process using all three methods. Bob let Jake and Jeff each do their own application and explained, “It takes from 12 to 30 seconds to dry, typically, depending on temperature and humidity.”

  Bob further explained, “We also have a companion chemical that we can use to bring out or enhance the underlying compound if it has degraded. It works like a catalyst, bolstering any reflective chemical residue of the main compound.”

  The men discussed various applications and uses for the next hour. Pisano liked what he heard. It was no surprise when he asked Jeff, “Can we get some of this for the operation? I have some ideas about how we can use it.”

  “Sure, just let me know what you need.”

  Jeff and Jake thanked Bob, and they left the FBI facility and headed back to the airport and their flight home. On the way, Pisano said, “I’m going to keep the BD-7 information close to the vest and just let a few of my operatives know about it. I can see some application to tracing parts from various locations, including out-of-state facilities where we can work together on this thing.”

  Jeff said “I agree.”

  Jake replied, “I think we’re going to need some kind of coded inventory system to keep track of everything, though. It could get complicated with all the different parts.”

  “I know some of our forensic accountants in the D.C. office. Let me see if I can get one of those guys to design a system for you.”

  “That would be great, but it has to be simple enough for my guys to understand.”

  Jeff agreed to follow up when they got back to New Orleans.

  Within a few weeks, Pisano had a coding system and supplies of Blue Dye Seven in his hands and began applying it on a test basis. He had operatives working in several of Coletta’s yards and repair shops. They would mark a part, then follow it as it travelled through the crime distribution system. Early results were good, and Pisano was ready to expand the parts marking system.

  During these tests, Pisano was surprised to find that many of the dyed parts ended up being sold to the service departments of licensed retail auto dealers trying to make an extra buck on the side. Pisano saw the auto dealers as another avenue he would pursue in the future, but for now he wanted to keep his eye on the ball.

  Only a very few members of Pisano team were ever told about Blue Dye Seven. Ed Langer and Wade Hanna were never told anything about the dye. Unfortunately as the dye’s use expanded, Coletta’s organization somehow got wind of it. In a parts undercover buying operation, one of Pisano’s operatives heard Blue Dye mentioned. To make matters worse, he heard it mentioned in connection with Ed Langer’s name.

  18

  Luke was the Pisano operative who heard Ed Langer’s name mentioned in connection with the Blue Dye Seven marker. A meeting had been held between Luke and a Coletta underboss by the name of Sam. The two men had met before in another parts purchase. The purpose of this meeting was for Luke to take delivery of parts he’d ordered from Sam’s division for cash. They met in a large chain link fenced yard just outside the city. The yard’s surface was covered with crushed oyster shells. The yard had a covered, open shed in one corner, where Sam kept the forklift.

  Sam had arrived first in a silver-gray sedan and had parked his car over by the forklift shed and waited for his truck and for Luke to arrive. The driver of Luke’s truck pulled in first, turned around at the far end of the yard, and then backed up so the end could be easily loaded by the fork lift. Sam’s truck arrived with the parts and parked parallel to Luke’s truck, about 30 feet away.

  In this parking configuration, the forklift had easy access to both trucks. The two drivers unlocked and rolled up their rear doors. Luke soon arrived in a dark blue sedan and parks between the two trucks. Luke and Sam began walking toward the center of the big yard. Luke held a gym bag in one hand. The two men greeted each other behind the trucks and shook hands.

  Pisano didn’t like his men being wired for sound, except in very specialized and controlled circumstances. It was just too dangerous. For capturing evidence of transactions, Pisano preferred cameras.

  The truck Luke had brought in had a 24-foot, dual axel body, with double rear wheels on each axle for carrying heavy loads. The truck, like all of Pisano’s parts trucks, came from the NOPD seized vehicle pool, modified to his specifications. Each truck had a false ceiling with a 5" gap between the actual truck roof and the interior ceiling. The interior ceiling was covered in distressed three-eighths inch plywood scraped and beat up to match the side walls and floor. Installed in the false ceiling space were three cameras.

  Two cameras were mounted at the top of the truck, facing the rear, and a third camera was mounted just above the cab, facing forward. The rear camera lenses were mounted behind small holes alongside the running light fixtures. There were five hidden switches at various locations along the underside of the truck body and inside the cab, so the cameras could be easily activated without calling attention to the flipping of the on-off switch. The cameras and film or video recording devices were long-running and set to automatically shut off when the recording reached the end of the reel. Most tapes ran three to four hours, depending on the cassette.

  Unloading and loading of the trucks was accomplished through the rear roll-up doors, which provided easy access to a forklift. Each camera came with a wide-angle lens and, being mounted fourteen feet above the ground, gave a good birds-eye view of all activity taking place at the rear of the truck. The two cameras at the back overlapped images so that a full 180 degrees of activity could be recorded. The camera in the front covered meetings and sometimes money exchanges that occurred at night when headlights were used to light the area in remote locations. The truck camera setup was ideal for Pisano, and his men were very good at moving the suspect and activities into the right position to be captured by the
cameras. By this time, Pisano had hundreds of hours of recorded Coletta transactions which would eventually be reduced to evidence stills and tape or film for trial.

  Luke’s driver, another undercover operative, stood in the empty cavity of his truck, waiting for the forklift to start loading Sam’s parts.

  Pisano’s male undercover agents, unlike his female operatives, were not a pretty lot. Luke was barrel-chested, just over six feet tall, with large biceps and a slender waist. He had a ten-day beard and medium length hair. He wore a black undershirt under a faded green, plaid, long-sleeved shirt, which was unbuttoned and hanging outside his pants. He wore denim jeans and worn work boots. He also wore a black watch cap and carried a .45 caliber automatic in a back holster with an extra clip under his plaid over-shirt.

  Luke also carried a small stub-nose .38 revolver in a calf holster strapped to the inside of his left leg. Pisano didn’t like his agents carrying government or departmental issued weapons for their own protection in case they were ever captured. Luke’s .45 was an older model that had been modified. Most of the bluing on the weapon was gone and bare metal showed through in several places. The serial number had been ground off, and the handles were old, inexpensive, plastic, aftermarket replacements. One handle had a crack and was held together with white medical tape. The appearance of Luke’s weapon might have given the wrong impression to anyone who happened to see it. Luke was one of the top ranked marksmen in the force and held the highest shooting score with this weapon at the police academy training facility.

  The transfer that afternoon was to include three complete engines, four transmissions, two rear and front-end axel assemblies, and two fenders.

  Luke asked “Do you have everything we discussed?”

  Sam answered, “Of course — you got the cash?”

  Luke opened his gym bag and showed Sam the large stacks of small bills, Coletta’s preferred form of payment. Sam motioned his forklift driver to start transferring parts from his truck to Luke’s truck. The forklift truck positioned itself at the back of Sam’s truck and started lifting the first palette of parts.

  The complete engines were on wooden engine skids, and the skids were secured to the pallets wrapped with metal strapping. They were the heaviest of the parts and would be loaded last over the rear wheels of Luke’s truck.

  As the two men watched the unloading, Luke wanted to get Sam closer to the back of his truck and at the right angle for the cameras. As the two men were talking, Luke started slowly walking towards the back of the trucks. Luke didn’t want Sam thinking about his moving closer, so he distracted him. Luke walked over to a pot hole a few feet away, and started kicking the dirt around the pot hole with his shoe. He asked about the surface of the lot, “Sam is this stuff oyster shells?” Luke continued kicking a larger pot hole a few feet closer to the truck.

  Sam answered, “Yeah.”

  As Luke walked to another pot hole and kicked around its edge, he said to Sam, “You guys gotta fix these pot holes. You need to resurface the yard. Someone’s going to break their neck or an axel.”

  Sam replied, “Not our yard. We just use it as a favor from the owner.”

  By the time they finished this pothole discussion, Luke had managed to position Sam right where he wanted him in front of the cameras.

  “Where’s this load going?” Sam asked.

  Luke replied, “It’s going to Mississippi. It takes a while to get there. We only travel on the highway part of the time. Our guys know where the highway cops have their stakeouts and where the weigh-in stations are. We get off the highway and go down surface roads to get around those places.”

  When the loading was almost complete, Sam surprised Luke by asking, “Are you guys going to check for that hidden blue paint the feds are using?”

  “What blue paint? I don’t know anything about it.”

  “You ought to check with your guy Ed Langer about that paint.”

  “Who is Ed Langer? Never heard of him.”

  Nothing more was said. The parts were loaded, and Luke took out each stack of eleven pre-wrapped bills and handed them to Sam, one at a time, counting each stack as he handed it over.

  The counting of the cash was perfectly in line with the cameras. Luke dug around in his bag and handed Sam a brown plastic bag to put the money in. Luke said “I’ve got to keep my gym bag in case I start working out again.” Each stack of bills handed to Sam was marked in code on the lower left corner with Blue Dye Seven.

  Luke reported the entire incident with Sam and the reference to Langer and blue paint to Pisano. Pisano called Langer and asked if he knew anything about the blue dye. Langer confirmed he knew nothing about the blue dye.

  Pisano believed Ed Langer and thought something else was going on. It was possible that the Coletta mob heard of the blue paint from a sting operation being conducted by the FBI. Pisano called his FBI counterpart and was told they didn’t think so but would do more checking.

  Several days after this parts transaction, one of Langer’s bosses was ordered to follow Ed Langer. The day Ed was being followed, he was going to Hanna’s garage to deliver a part and help Wade get ready for the weekend race. Langer was also planning to go to the race and help Wade at the track.

  Later that evening one of Ed’s bosses was ordered to follow him and showed up at his home. The two were having a heated discussion in the driveway. Ed’s parents could hear the noise but were not able to make out the words. Ed’s boss was asking Langer some very direct questions about certain parts and who purchased them. He was also asking who he knew in Coletta’s operation and about the names of certain large customers. He also asked Langer about people in the drag racing community who were his customers from the track and what and when they last bought from him.

  Finally, his boss asked him what he knew about blue dye or blue paint being used by the Feds. Langer answered all the questions honestly and convincingly. He insisted that he didn’t know anything about any Blue Dye. His boss actually began to calm down and seemed satisfied with Langer’s answer. Ed’s boss said he was going to do some checking and he would get back to him. Ed said “fine” and his boss returned to his car and drove off.

  Nothing else happened that evening but it scared the hell out of Langer. He was very agitated and called Pisano the next day. He and Pisano met alone at a remote location where Ed told him the story in detail.

  Pisano heard him out, and at the end of the story, he felt the mob was too close to Langer and his cover was probably blown. Pisano didn’t want Langer to know anything about Blue Dye Seven, so he didn’t say anything about it. He told Langer he was concerned and wanted him to back off of doing anything with Hanna for the time.

  Pisano’s street sense kicked into high gear. He didn’t know if they were setting up Langer to take a fall within the organization or if they were just throwing out bait to get a response and reaction to their general suspicions. Pisano didn’t know how they found out about the Blue Dye or why they were tying Langer to it. Pisano even thought they may be trying to set him up. He immediately put the word out with his street contacts and informants, looking for any information he could find.

  Because of Langer’s low level within the operation, Pisano didn’t know why the organization had focused on him or why they had questions about the race track and Blue Dye. He just didn’t feel Langer was safe and wanted him to back off and go low profile. He thought this might be the time to pull Langer completely out of the operation and was seriously considering that alternative.

  Another parts purchase was scheduled between Luke and Sam in two weeks. Pisano considered canceling that transaction depending on what his informants found.

  19

  Within a week of meeting Langer, after the Blue Dye transaction incident, Pisano was faced with another unsuspecting problem in Hanna’s operation at the salon. Wade Hanna had been appearing as scheduled, with intermittent visits to the beauty shop on Thursdays to see Jamie and Linda. On the week Hanna was not to show, Lin
da also didn’t show for her regular scheduled hair appointment with Jamie.

  Jamie called the number she had for Linda, but there was no answer. Jamie called Wade and told him the story and asked him what she should do.

  Wade said calmly, “I wouldn’t worry about it. She probably had a schedule conflict. See if she calls you next week.”

  Jamie replied, “She’s never done this. She’s never missed an appointment since I’ve known her. She called me one other time when she was going to be fifteen minutes late. It’s just not like her. I’m very worried about her.”

  “I understand,” Wade said. “You might try to reach her again. Let me know if anything changes.”

  Wade didn’t hear back from Jamie that day.

  The following day at about 5:00 in the afternoon, Linda came into the shop and was hardly recognizable. She was badly bruised and could hardly walk. Her sunglasses covered two black eyes. Her nose had been broken, her lip was split in two places, and her face was badly bruised and swollen. She looked horrible.

  Jamie saw her first and said, “Oh my God what happened to you?” They hugged each other and cried together. The other girls in the shop came over and all started crying.

  Linda, having partially gained her composure, said, “I’m so sorry I missed my appointment. I wanted to call but I couldn’t.”

  One of the girls asked, “Poor thing. Were you in a car wreck?”

  Linda shook her head no, and leaned on Jamie’s shoulder and started to cry again. Sobbing she said, “T.J. did this to me.” She continued between sobs, “It’s over between us – this time for real. I’m worried about Mindy.”

  The girls at the shop were aghast. One of them brought over a chair. Linda collapsed into it while still clinging to Jamie.

  Consoling Linda, Jamie asked, “Where’s Mindy?”