After getting their order from the drive up window, Berry headed towards the park. He figured he could park his car under the trees along the parkway and they could eat while discussing the situation without being observed too closely. Berry told Dianne what he had discovered about the power broker, his plan to move college sports to a semi-armature/semi-pro status league, the gambling aspect, and all the high level political angles… he was careful to leave out his sources but he pretty much gave her most of what he knew… he figured since she was already involved to a level that could endanger her life she had the right to know all the truth… at least as much of it as he knew about himself.
When he had finished his briefing, Dianne turned to him with a look of a loving friend. You need to be careful too Berry… if he’s gone to all this trouble to keep an eye on the Law Enforcement Institute, he probably has people in the department… how many people know all you’ve told me?
Besides Dave and me… and now you… that makes only the three of us that have all the facts as far as we know them… we haven’t even told the Chief about the power broker angle and all the politics involved.
You may still be out of the radar scope on this one Berry… my suspensions were first aroused when I discovered that the think tank liaison had requested a copy of our records on all the law enforcement officials who are involved in our programs and all the paid staff working for the institute. And that’s when I realized that you name was never given to him… although your help has been invaluable, you are not a paid staff member and don’t have an official position at the institute… so the information the liaison received never mentions you as being involved… that could be a plus for you… you still have the element of surprise going for you.
Well, there are a couple of things that could have put me on the radar beside my involvement with the institute… he was thinking not only about his involvement in the department but about his friendship with Muffin and Muffin’s sources… but Muffin was always careful not to involve Berry in that part of it so maybe he was still off the screen.
Either way we need to proceed very cautiously and try not to get too emotional about all this… we need to keep a level head and give a show to anyone who might be watching… we want to tell them that nothing is wrong and we are just going about our normal business as usual… if we arouse any suspensions, it could be bad for both of us… oh and don’t mention any of this to ANYONE no matter how much you trust them… I want to keep this close… I still don’t know who we can trust… better to trust no one than trust the wrong person and… well you know what I mean. He avoided being graphic so as not to disturb her more than he felt was necessary… he wanted her to feel safe.
When they returned to the deli lot where she had parked he pulled into the empty space next to her car. I’ll keep an eye on things and see what I can find out about this liaison… I’m right here if you need me… don’t hesitate to call if you get spooked… I’ve got your back side… she smiled a big grin and winked at him…
I didn’t mean it THAT way… well maybe I did … either way you know what I mean… he winked back. He felt it was better to keep a light note on the situation in order to help her feel more comfortable and not worry too much.
She planted a kiss on his cheek and got out … she smiled back at him… somehow she DID feel safer knowing Berry was watching out for her.
…
Dave was just about to call Berry when he walked through the door of Dave’s office. There’s been a development you need to know about.
There’s been a couple of developments here at the department too… but you go first.
Berry closed the door before speaking. It seems that our power broker has infiltrated the Law Enforcement Institute… Dianne has come up with some information that indicated he has people in place there to keep an eye on things… and maybe here in the department too…
You need to know that after she told me about what she had found out, I filled her in on most all of the details… I felt she needed to know so she could steer a solid course and keep from gaining too much attention… I didn’t want her to get involved, but she is already, and I don’t want her to get hurt Dave…
So now that she knows that only make the three of us who have most all the pieces… it looks like it’s a good thing we have keep some of these detail to ourselves…there are people working for whoever is behind this whole mess and it could get back to them… if too many people found out what we know… that could put a number of people’s lives in danger… Dave nodded telling Berry he understood his motive for telling Dianne what they knew.
So what have you got Dave?
The bad news first… what I have is that it appears this guy IS a magician… the cell phone traced back to what they call a throw away… a pay as you go type… and it looks like the purchaser’s information is bogus… the address went to a location that would be the center of the coliseum parking lot… if there actually were houses still there… my guess is that all the rest of the info including the name is also fictitious… and although we could determine which cell tower the call was being transmitted from, that only limits it to a five or six mile radius of the tower… he could have been just passing by at the time…
In addition to all that, Benny did an analysis on the voice… bad news there too… looks as if the caller was using some kind of synthesizer to disguise his voice… Benny said that the voice’s wave form was electronically produced… something about the peaks being clipped… I didn’t understand it all but suffice to say it looks like a dead end as far as tracing the phone’s user or the exact call location at this point.
The good news is that we have our deal in writing from the DA…. You’re not gonna believe this but he is offering Vincent Balboa immunity from the murder of Charles Loften and his involvement with the organized crime families in exchange for information he can give us that will bring a conviction of Sophia Grendandino, the supposed current crime family boss… along with her counter parts… and put an end to her bid to reconstitute the crime families and their businesses.
Total immunity?
I know… that’s not fair, but we need his information, and it could put an end to all this mess…we do have a trump card to play… seems the DA has been in conference with the FBI and they are willing to provide witness protection and relocation if Vinnie’s info leads to the conviction of major figures they are interested in. I’m willing to deal with it if you are.
Berry could feel his sense of justice slipping a little… deep down inside he want to see Vinnie punished, but his misgivings about the prison system told him otherwise… I guess if it puts an end to all this mayhem then I’m for it.
Good, we have a little time… about an hour… before the FBI arrives to take custody… that’s what the chief was talking to FBI officials about… he didn’t want to give up custody but had to… so he bought us some time to talk to Vinnie first… let’s go question the suspect… by the way, I asked Benny set up the recording equipment for our session… he’s gonna use a voice analyzer and several special pieces of equipment he has during the session… I figured we couldn’t be too prepared… anything we can get will need to be recorded since we only get one chance… after that he’s off with the Feds.
Berry followed Dave down the hall to the small interrogation room… finally they believed that they had their chance to break the case wide open, and they were both eager to hear what Vinnie was going to tell them…
…
This time both Dave and Berry sat opposite Vinnie across the table… no good cop bad cop act for them… no pressure treatment… no special tactics… just a simple question and answer period… and a hope that something Vinnie was going to tell them would give them what they needed.
Dave slid a folder across the table to Vinnie. Here’s what you wanted Vinnie. The DA has agreed not to change you in your involvement… IF you can tell us things that we need to know to press charges…so it really depen
ds on you Vinnie… and how far you are willing to go to give us what we need to prosecute those responsible.
Vinnie opened the folder and held his hand up as if to say no more talking until he had scanned through the contents. After he had been reading several of the pages for a few minutes, he looked up at them… ya know, I’ve been thinking about this, and I’m not sure if I want to say anything after all… I’d like to go on living if you know what I mean… I’m not saying I know anything… but if I did, then I would probably be worried about what could happen to me if I talked to the cops… there could be some people with a lot of connections that wouldn’t be happy… the kind that can get to you and make sure you never say anything again… if you get my drift.
Berry spoke up. Look Vinnie, we already know there are some very powerful people involved in this, and we want to protect you from any retribution they might want to take on you… the fact is we have information that indicates there are people planning to shut you up even now. The word is they really don’t care what you plan to do… you’re a threat, and they are going to remove that threat no matter what you say…
Ya ain’t gonna scare me into saying anything… I’ve been threatened a lot before… and I’m still here ain’t I?
Would you like to hear the phone recording we have… bet you’ll recognize Sophia Grendandino’s voice… it’s kind of distinctive you know… she was telling the caller that she would take care of killing you… and removing you as a threat from the situation… even being a long time member of the family, she seemed to have no regrets about having you killed… guess she doesn’t trust you Vinnie…
Vinnie looked up from the pages he had been studying. His face was somber… he was looking off in the distance as if someone was standing behind Dave and Berry. You could almost hear the cogs turning in his head… for the first time in all his crime laden years he realized that all his time… all his loyalty… all the work he had done form them… it had meant nothing… he was truly on his own.
Berry broke the silence. If you look at the pages toward the back you will see that along with immunity we are willing to put you into witness protection… along with any members of your immediate family.
Vinnie spoke slowly this time… missing the cockiness and self confidence he usually displayed. I ain’t got no immediate family… I never got married or had any kids… my family is THE family…
Well it looks as if THE family is getting ready to disown you permanently Vinnie and we can keep them from getting to you… but you need to give us ALL the details of what you know, seen, heard… everything stored away in that head of yours… if you do that we can take down the entire group and the power players with them… it could put this whole thing on an entirely different level… with the people behind this out of the way… you could breathe a lot easier.
Vinnie looked over at Berry and then back Dave… the witness protection thing? I’ve heard of a few rats that disappeared that way… but I ain’t no rat!
Of course you’re not Vinnie… you’re just a citizen that wants to see the streets cleaned up for other honest citizens… that’s an honorable goal… what you are doing is helping to make this country safe… I’d say that wasn’t being a rat. Dave’s words were calculated to make Vinnie feel better about giving them evidence that would put the people he had worked for most of his life behind bars. He was hoping Vinnie would recognize the real bind he was in and follow the only real way out of it he had.
I never thought it would come to this… all I’ve ever known since I was a kid was the family… things have changed… if the old man were still alive things would be different… tell the people recording this to pay close attention… I ain’t going through this twice…
There was no need for questions and answers… it was Vinnie all alone that provided all the details they had been wondering about. He started with the small stuff and worked his way up to the details on what he knew about a plot for the family to control organized gambling on amateur sports… after about a half hour he finally reach the point where he mentioned the real “boss”.
There’s this guy that’s the real power behind the family and most of Mrs. G’s plans… I never met the guy, but they call him the Magician… he contacts her when he wants her to do something for him… she’s usually the person pretty much in control of the family business, but I heard Mrs. G takes directions from him because he’s the person giving her the money to revive the family business…
Dave was getting anxious. Has she ever met with him in person? Does she know who he is and what he looks like?
I believe she has met him once or twice… they say he was a close friend of Mrs. G’s father… been involved with the family for a long time… rumor is he was behind the old man’s rise to the head of the family and helped him take control over all the business in this area… a real big spender with high power connections to match… also heard he was behind the hit on Senator Parks…
Dave turned to Berry… they both had a look surprise that gave away their thoughts… Dave turned back to Vinnie... you sayin that you know for sure the accident that killed Senator Park was actually a contract hit?
Like YOU guys didn’t know about that…
We had our suspicions… we are aware that there was a big power person behind all this… we just weren’t sure about the political implications… what can you tell us about this guy?
I thought you knew everything about this deal… well I can’t say I know about it personally… like most of the other stuff I told ya… it’s just something I heard… I heard that the big guy contacted an outside professional to do the job… that’s why it looked like an accident… hear he is one of the best… goes by the Doctor… hires out for big money… they say he’s completed over 75 contracts… and all of them were done to look like accidents.
Personally, I don’t know either of them… especially the big guy… you’d have to talk with Mrs. G about that… she’s the only one I know that actually met him… not sure she knows the pro though… she might have used him in the past, but as far as I know, she tends to stay within the family when she needs some special business like that taken care of.
Well, Vinnie, it appears that you have given us enough to bring Mrs. Grendandino in and ask her what she knows herself. Dave smiled feeling he had gotten what he wanted from Vinnie… maybe now they could get to the bottom of the entire case.
Berry wasn’t smiling, but inside he felt a certain satisfaction that he was getting all the information he needed to resolve his work for Gruter at the university and at the same time he was getting to the bottom of several other things that had been on his to do list.
They were all three a little surprised with the interrogation room door abruptly swung open…