Page 62 of Letting Go
It’s no secret Chicago has a long history of crime families, but were there any involved in Dr. Stone’s life? I initially wondered if his mistress’ husband was involved, but that was quickly disputed as he clearly did not care what his wife was doing outside of their marriage bed. The guy sounded like a slimeball from what Tara said after speaking with him, but there weren’t any red flags and, unfortunately, being a douche is not a crime. I wonder if Dr. Stone had other associates in Boston that somehow connected him to someone we are overlooking. Maybe the mistress would know more about that, although I would rather one of my team members speak with her because of my growing feelings with Vivian. I pull my cell out to call Mason as I enter the stairway to walk back up to my office.
“Walker!” Tara’s head peaks over the railing from the fourth floor and her voice bounces off the walls of the stairwell.
I pocket my phone as I respond, “What’s up?”
“You’re going to want to haul ass, sir,” she tells me with a wide grin. “We’ve got something, and it’s good. It’s really, really good.” I jog up the stairs and yank open the door to our office floor. I briskly follow Tara down the hall, and there is a palpable buzz of energy. Christine waits for me outside the conference room, handing me my tablet with one hand, while accepting her iced tea delivery with the other. I take a quick drink of my coffee, which somehow tastes better than it did a few moments ago.
“What do we have?” I ask the entire team, as I’m not sure who had a break while I stepped out. Task force members sit around the conference table, a few chose to lean against the wall. Mason acknowledges me with a nod as I sit, setting my things at the head of the table.
“Fifteen minutes ago, I received a phone call from a former colleague of mine in Kansas City,” Tara says as she walks to the front of the room. “Nikki told me they arrested a young woman by the name of Luna Star, and yes, that’s her legal name. Ms. Star is an exotic dancer at a gentlemen’s club. She was arrested yesterday after being pulled over for speeding, at which point two point five kilos of cocaine was discovered in a gym bag in her vehicle, which has a street value of just under two hundred thousand dollars. When they started interrogating Ms. Star, she wasn’t cooperative, but after spending the night in lockup, she was a wealth of information earlier today. She is facing level one felony charges of drug trafficking and is very motivated to do whatever is necessary to plead down her charges. When Nikki searched a few keywords in the database, our task force popped up and Nikki thought our team might want to hear this,” Tara nods toward the overhead screen where Mason had a secure link to a video file ready and presses play.
The video feed is of a standard interrogation room, without any windows, and a simple metal table with two chairs on each side.On one side of the table sits an individual wearing a dark suit across from a young, distraught woman with vivid purple hair piled in a messy bun on the top of her head. The young woman fidgets in her seat and taps her long, neon pink nails impatiently on the table. Next to the woman is a baby-faced young man in a wrinkled beige suit, preoccupied with shuffling through pages of paper sitting on the table.
“Luna, listen, we can help you if you can help us. That’s the only way this is going to work,” a thick New Jersey accent booms over the speakers as the woman speaking steps into view. She’s a shorter woman with her long dark hair pulled into a no-nonsense ponytail. She has curves, but her bulging traps and sculpted biceps are proof she clearly works out regularly.
“That’s my former colleague, Special Agent Nikki Patel. She’s good shit,” Tara points out to the room.
“But if you don’t give us anything to go on, I don’t have any way to help you, Luna,” Nikki continues. “You don’t seem like someone that should be carrying around drugs, let alone such a large amount. And honey, let’s be honest, you’re too pretty to schlep someone else’s drugs around. Whose cocaine is it, Luna? Whoever they are, are they really worth wasting away the prime of your life by serving time in a federal penitentiary?”
“I can’t. I don’t know anything, I swear,” the young woman rambles and shakes her head. Her eyes frantically bounce around the room as she swipes away tears that have further smudged her day-old eye makeup.
“There isn’t an escape from this room or this problem, Luna. But, if we work together, maybe we can find a way to help you. In order for me to be able to do that, you have to help us,” Nikki says as she sits down at the table next to the other agent across from Luna. Luna looks at the baby-faced lawyer, but the guy fidgets in his seat, oozing nerves. I’m not sure if this guy is experiencedenough to even help her out of a speeding ticket. Did he pass the bar yesterday? He pulls on his tie to loosen it slightly before leaning over to speak to his client. Leaning back, he nods at her, gesturing with his hand toward the agents for her to continue.
“I might know some info about something, but like I can’t just tell you people that without knowing how it’s going to help me, but I’m also not looking to go to jail for someone else either,” Luna tells the two agents across from her.
“Well Luna, it depends on what that information is and how helpful that information is to my team. If it’s about whose cocaine you had in your car, I am very interested in that. If it’s about other major criminal acts, that would also be interesting to us. But if it’s about some minor crime, that’s probably not going to help you out too much here,” Nikki tells her.
“Yeah, but what if it’s not small?” Luna quietly asks as she looks down at her and chews on her bottom lip.
“Define not small,” Nikki replies, leaning forward.
“Well, I guess I don’t know what kind of scale we’re talking about here, but I don’t think murder is small,” Luna says as she quickly looks to her attorney, who only nods for her to continue.
“No, Luna, I think we would agree with you that murder is definitely not small. Whose murder are we talking about here?” Nikki’s colleague chimes in.
“That’s Nikki’s partner, Agent David Wallace. I met him at the academy. He’s good at what he does,” Tara explains.
“One of my regular … clients pays well for me to be seen and not heard, if you know what I mean. One of his business associates owns the club I work at, so this client of mine is there pretty regularly.”
Luna pauses to take a deep breath, twisting her fingers together on the table. Whoever she is talking about has her scared for some reason. “And one night a little over a year ago, he made some callswhile he was … visiting me at work and I may have, like, overheard some things. He tends to forget I’m around, but that’s kind of what he pays me for you, you know? Like he wants my company, but I know my place.” Luna shifts her weight back and forth on her chair. She tugs on the tips of a few pieces of her purple hair that have fallen out of the bun and looks up at Nikki. “But if he finds out I said anything, I’m as good as dead. He will kill me or have someone else get rid of me without a second thought.”
“We can keep you safe, Luna. What did you hear?” Agent Wallace asks Luna.
She shakes her head. “No, forget it, I can’t, no, no, I can’t say anything. I’d rather be stuck in jail than dead.” Luna tries to push back from the table, but her attorney puts his hand on her arm before leaning in to speak to her privately. She pulls back and glares at her attorney before leaning back to listen to whatever he tells her, nodding. She looks across the table at Nikki and back to her lawyer. “Are you sure?” she asks him.
He nods before clearing his throat then addresses Nikki and her partner, “I’ve assured my client that you will do everything in your power, and the power of the FBI, to keep her safe if her testimony is significant in pursuant to substantial charges or cases that may arise from her witness testimony. Is that accurate, Agents?”
“Yes, of course. Luna, if you’re in danger, we will do the best we can to keep you safe, but you have to give us something in order to get our help,” Nikki’s colleague tells her. “Otherwise, you will face the full weight of the drug trafficking charges and anything else that we discover during the investigation.”
“Well, that’s bullshit. I’m not dealing with that or doing time for drugs that weren’t even mine. I’m not stupid. I know you look at me like I’m just trailer trash for being a stripper, but I don’t touch drugs. I didn’t even know they were in his gym bag, so when he asked me to drop the bag off at some house, it didn’t seem likea big deal. Ugh!” She huffs before pulling the sleeves of her sweatshirt down over her hands and crossing her arms. She slightly shakes her head, and a small, frustrated growl can faintly be heard over the speakers in the conference room.
“Fine. Whatever, this is bullshit and surprise, surprise, no one else is looking out for me, so I guess once again it’s up to me to save my own ass. Story of my fucking life.” Luna looks up at the ceiling as she takes another deep breath before continuing, “There were these two dumbass guys that worked for … my client’s organization and they had been running their mouths one night while getting tattoos about some alleged and maybe violent crimes that went down. My client found out they were talking about stuff that should have been kept private and he was extremely upset about the information during the phone call.”
I perk up at that statement. “Is she referring to Duy Pham and Hieu Hoang? Come on, Luna, drop the names.” My grip on my coffee tightens in anticipation and I hold my breath.Is this the break our team has been waiting for?
“Who is your client, Luna?” Nikki presses.
Luna pauses and takes a deep breath, before glancing again at her attorney, who nods in encouragement. “Nam Smith,” she quietly admits. My eyebrows shoot up as I wonder what are the odds that this Nam Smith is the same Nam Smith that was in the fight with Van Tran in Cleveland? It’s a common name, but the hair on my arms stands up in anticipation.
