Page 60 of Letting Go
“Have a good night, Special Agent Man.”
“Good night, Sugar. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“I would like that, I think a lot actually,” she replies.
“That’s good because I would too,” I admit as I take another step closer to that frustrating professional line I’m already toeing down to the very last centimeter.
We hang up, and there’s a big smile on my face as I think about this incredible woman. Not only did I legitimately enjoy our conversation tonight, I felt like Vivian actually wanted to hear what I had to say. When I dated Gretchen, I always felt like our conversations were only based on what she wanted to talk about or what she thought about something. When I was talking, Gretchen wasn’t listening to me, not really, she was just waiting for her turn to say what she wanted.
But I’m discovering more and more that Vivian is definitely not Gretchen.
Vivian is smart, kind, and makes me laugh like very few people are able to do. She is soft and sweet, but also remarkably strong and brave at the same time. The timing may not be ideal, nor is how we came into each other’s lives, but I think something bigger is developing between us.
It may even be something epic.
Chapter thirty-four
Walker
“Let me get this straight. This man and his wife take in their orphaned nephew to raise as their own, and in return, the uncle gets killed to spook the nephew?” Kelly sneers in disgust.
Mason pulls up the extensive file of the O’Malley family on the large monitor on the far wall for everyone at the conference table to see. “Carter O’Malley has been an active member of the Boston McCarthy crime family since his teenage years, but just prior to Jim O’Malley’s murder, Carter started dating the niece of a rival family.”
“But why wasn’t he killed instead of his uncle?” Kelly asks.
“They probably would have, but my colleague that’s a technology specialist out of Quantico helped confirm Carter is somewhat of a technology savant for the McCarthy family and is too valuable to kill. His coding skills are impressive, and neither my colleague nor I are easily dazzled,” Mason said. “In the eighteen months prior to his uncle’s death, Carter also racked up over two hundred thousand dollars in gambling debts to the McCarthy’s bookies. While his interview was less than helpful, the texts on his cell phone that were recovered from his home indicate his uncle’s murder was unfortunately a severe message and direct threat to Carter.”
“So, the uncle is killed because he was connected to someone involved in organized crime, similar to our seventh victim in Philadelphia,” I comment. Miss Nicole Robins had a longstanding, ongoing affair with a married man in Philadelphia by the nameof Rocco Rossi. Rossi is a member of the Bianchi crime family and married to the sister of Giovanni “Gio” Bruno, the family’s underboss. Sources confirmed that Bruno’s sister was devastated when Rossi’s affair came to light and her brother was livid to see his sister so distraught. Rossi is a made man, so Bruno couldn’t make a move against him, but it’s believed that Ms. Robins’ murder was committed in retribution for his affair. “Murder for retaliation isn’t a novel concept. Kelly, did anything else come up regarding our Miami victim’s property sales?”
Kelly pushes back from the table and balls up a piece of paper. “His niece had no knowledge of the group that purchased the property. She’s a second-grade teacher so the twenty percent premium felt like a gift to her. I didn’t get the feeling she had any nefarious intent.” He turns and shoots his paper ball into the trashcan by the door. “I still don’t know why the hell the Bianchi family has slowly been expanding into Miami over the last two years or so. They’re based out of New York, and I should know, I’ve arrested members of that family.”
“The motive of his death would match our theory that works for eight of the nine sniper cases.” I stand and pace the room before continuing, “Kimberly Nguyen is another victim that wasn’t directly involved with organized crime, but there could be a case that she wasn’t completely innocent either. She had to have known what her on-again, off-again boyfriend Van Tran did for a living.”
“I reviewed the video footage of the brawl her boyfriend was in with his former business associate. Tran bragged about how much money he was making with his illegal gambling ring without his former partner, Mr. Nam Smith, and that really set the guy off. Smith responded with direct threats to anything and everyone Tran loved. And I think this guy may have made good on those threats.” Tara points to a mugshot of Nam Smith. “Smith is married to the niece of the head of the Vietnamese Syndicate in NorthAmerica. Ms. Nguyen’s death was less than one week after those threats were made.”
“Do we know where Nam Smith is now?” I ask.
“He moves around the Midwest but is based out of Kansas City,” Mason replies.
“So, we can connect the first three victims to a criminal organization, and the victim in Detroit, Mark Fisher, isn’t hard to add to the list. He owed over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in gambling debt to a group of Italian American made families throughout the Midwest, also known as the Famiglia Syndicate. It’s not a stretch to come up with a motive when the victim owed serious cash to the mob.” I tap my pen on the table. “Mason, what happened with that lead you were chasing regarding the bar ownership where Cynthia Vega bartended in Milwaukee?”
“The shell company led back to none other than the Famiglia Syndicate. This case may have been an incident of mistaken identity. The week before her death, multiple high-level members of the Famiglia Syndicate were arrested after someone turned state evidence to reduce potential criminal charges they were facing. Ms. Vega made an unfortunate and poorly timed comment to a coworker after those arrests, which led some Famiglia Syndicate members to assume it was her. Ms. Vega was innocent though; the source was actually the son of an underboss.”
“No shit?” Kelly always speaks so eloquently in our team meetings. “Tara and I found the victim in Kansas City may have had bad timing as well. Three months after Ms. Vega’s murder, Kenneth ‘Kenny’ Scott was tattooing two of his regulars, who were drunk and high out of their minds at the time.”
“Those clients were members of the Vietnamese Syndicate.” Tara transferred to the Nashville offices from Kansas City and had plenty of assistance getting the case details. “Unnamed sources confirmed that while very intoxicated, Mr. Pham and Mr. Hoangovershared sensitive information about recent violent crimes committed on behalf of their boss in front of our victim, Mr. Scott. There was no evidence of Mr. Scott reporting these crimes to the authorities, however in an interesting twist, both Mr. Pham and Mr. Hoang were killed in a suspicious car explosion two days after Mr. Scott was shot.”
“At least in that case, it’s not a leap to make a connection to organized crime,” Kelly chimes in. “With Peter Hopkins’ client list a cesspool for leaders of the Bianchi, Petrov, and McCarthy crime families up and down the East Coast, there are really too many suspects.”
“I think anyone would be pissed if they lost millions on an investment. I don’t even like to play dollar scratch off lotto games,” Tara adds. “But how dumb was this guy? He convinced clients to invest in a commercial development in Hoboken that went bankrupt. If you’re doing business with members of the mafia, pretty sure you should know better than to screw them over.”
“But what about the Chicago case? What’s the motive to kill a heart surgeon?” Kelly asks what we all have been wondering.
Eight of the nine sniper cases had victims who either directly or indirectly angered a known high-ranking mob associate in some way. The pieces don’t fit with the Chicago case. What are we missing? If the eight cases all have organized crime connections, and we know it’s the same sniper and gun, then there must be something in Dr. Stone’s life to somehow tie him to one of these families involved. When we investigated his patient list, there was no overlap of known mafia associates of the involved crime syndicates. The most severe crime we could find connected to any of his patients was a habitual drunk driver with a history of multiple charges of driving under the influence, and another patient that was a trust fund baby who had a cocaine problem when he wasyounger but had been clean for over twenty years, long before Dr. Stone operated on his heart.
“My gut says if we can identify the motive in Dr. Stone’s case, that’s going to help us identify the person or people behind these kills.” I check my watch and realize we have been going over these cases for almost two hours. “Let’s hit pause and stretch our legs, get a reset. I need more coffee and judging by the multiple stacks of files I contributed to the organized chaos spread across Christine’s desk today, I probably owe her something from the coffee shop.” I grab my phone, leaving my computer and notes spread out on the table. “Let’s break and meet back here in thirty minutes, alright? Thanks guys.”
I stroll down the hall as my phone vibrates with a text message. I pause to open it before turning the corner to check in with Christine.
