No More Tears In The End

“I’ll do that. But I think I may already have that.”

“What’s that?”

“I found a draft of a leaked memo written by a Justice Department attorney named Ken Thomas. In the memo, Thomas alleges that DEA agents in Peru are in league with traffickers and are implicated in money laundering and murder. Thomas’s allegations centered on an undercover operation called Peru-Man, which targeted traffickers in Peru and was overseen by DeFrancisco. At the time he was a DEA group supervisor in Miami. As part of that operation, DeFrancisco and the agents working under him, one of which was Vinnelli, had uncovered evidence that DEA agents in Peru appeared to be assisting traffickers in Peru.”

“How does that relate to Marshall and how does it work for us?”

“I’m getting to that. But later that same year there were charges raised that led to DeFrancisco’s operation being shut down.”

“What was that?”

“There was an operation called white-light that was setup to specifically target Diego Estaban and a Peruvian National Police colonel named Gonzalez.”

“Diego, my old friend,” I laughed.

“Estaban and Gonzalez were widely recognized to be involved in trafficking and arms dealing at the highest levels. Working with various sectors of the Peruvian military, they have fielded death squads responsible for murdering thousands of Peruvians.”

“Now were gettin’ somewhere.”

“See, I told you. It all comes down to a meeting in Panama between Gonzalez and Vinnelli that was not coordinated properly with the Peru office. Vinnelli was instructed to contact the Peru office before finalizing a meeting with Gonzalez. Vinnelli had met with Gonzalez for two days in Panama without notifying the Peru office. DeFrancisco and Vinnelli offered different accounts of the meeting in Panama with Gonzalez.”

“How so?”

“Vinnelli claims the meeting was unplanned. DeFrancisco told investigators that the meeting was not planned in advanced. DeFrancisco said he recalled Vinnelli calling from Panama to report his interview of a big player; however, DeFrancisco could not remember if Vinnelli identified the player as Gonzalez. That put in motion a major criminal investigation targeting DeFrancisco and Vinnelli. DeFrancisco and Estaban were involved in a scheme with an informant named Isabelle Vega. She was going to testify about Diego’s operation and that DeFrancisco and Vinnelli were extorting money from traffickers in exchange for promises of lenient jail sentences. But the report disappeared and Vega turned up dead. Vinnelli got a reprimand for the meeting and that squashed it.”

“What does that have to do with Marshall?”

“It doesn’t necessarily link Marshall to them, but it does link the two of them to Diego.”

“Marshall and Diego were partners. So you would have to connect Marshall to Diego to link it to DeFrancisco and Vinnelli.”

“Exactly. Then you add this conversation between Marshall and Diego.” Monika made a few clicks on her laptop that I couldn’t follow if I had to. “Listen to this.”

The first voice I heard was Martin Marshall’s. “I don’t want there to be any way this can come back and bite me.”

“You worry too much, my friend.” That was Diego Estaban. “Once the word begins to spread about his involvement in this business, his political allies will run for cover and you will have no need to fear him.”

“But if you can’t find that package or it becomes public, it will put me and a lot of our friends in an extremely compromised position.”

“If that happens, which it won’t, because I assure you that the package will be recovered, we have set these things in motion so the spotlight will be on Mike Black and-” Diego laughed. I hated the way he laughed. I’m glad I killed him. “-others, who I will make known to you when the time is right.”

“There is one other thing that concerns me.”

“What is that, my friend?”

“DeFrancisco. He’s shaky. I am not sure we can trust him to keep his mouth shut if anything goes wrong.”

“How much does he really know? What have you told him?”

“I only told him what he needed to know to put the operation in motion. Still, he has me, and I don’t need any more heat.” That’s Martin, always looking out for himself. “I just got somebody else’s stink off me.”

“He is your man. When he has outlived his usefulness you will have to insure his silence.” I took care of that for him.

When the recording was over I smiled at Monika. “Where did you get that?”

“Travis recorded it while we were running surveillance on Marshall.”

“I knew I liked that kid.”

“He does impress sometimes.”

“That’s exactly what I need,” I said to Monika and somebody knocked on her door.

“Excuse me a minute,” she said and went to answer the door.

When she came back Monika said that it was Kevon knocking. “He said that Bobby called and needs to talk to you. He said it was important.”

I stood up. “Let me go see what Bobby wants. You stay on this and talk to Travis about doing that other thing. We’ll talk more about that after you talk to him.”

Monika walked me to the door. “I’ll call you if I get anything else I think you can use. Do you want me to take a look at Marshall?”

I thought about Marshall knowing that she was looking at Vinnelli. “Yes-and no.” I took a step closer to Monika and leaned in close to her ear. “It was Marshall that gave me that name. When I talked to him, he told that he knew you were looking at Vinnelli; said you were very talented.”

“I’m flattered by the compliment, but that is not good. I’ll try to cover my tracks a little better,” Monika assured me. Then she thought for a second. Monika put her hands on my chest and I stepped closer as she whispered. “There might be another explanation. Other than me being sloppy, I mean. Felix and General Peterson used to work for Diego.”

“Felix is the guy you and Nick used to work for, right?”

Nick told me about him. They used to call him Uncle Felix, I don’t know why. After the rest of their unit was killed, they were flown back to Fort Brag, debriefed, and processed out. Uncle Felix approached them the next day. He told them that General Peterson, their former commanding officer, had recommended that he talk to them. He recruited them to do jobs for him that required their skills. It was Felix that set them up in a front business as private investigators.

“Right. Marshall was partners with Diego, so he had to know what we were doing in South America.”

“And that you, Nick and Jett survived,” I whispered in her ear.

“He would know what skills we had, and he knows Nick works for you now.”

“Which means he knows who you are-”

“And probably has somebody shadowing my on-line movements. It won’t happen again.”

“For the time bein’, you stay on Vinnelli.”

“Does that mean I can’t, say, ask an old friend, say, in Israel, to stick his nose in?”

“No, it doesn’t it mean that at all. I like the way you think. We’ll talk soon,” I said and left.

When I got in the car Kevon handed me the phone; it was already ringing. “Where you at?” Bobby asked as soon as he answered.

“Just leaving Monika’s apartment.”

“Did you fuck sexy one eye?”

“No, I got her workin’ on that thing for me.”

“That don’t mean you ain’t fuckin’ her.”

“What you want, Bobby?”

“Did I miss a meeting today?”