“Immigration and Customs Enforcement is the first line of defense. The boss is whipping us day and night, and since I’m second in command, you can imagine the shit I’m getting.” She squinted up at the menu, written in chalk on the wall. “They write too small to see from here. Maybe they should have fewer choices so they don’t have to squish everything on the board so tight.”
Paul smiled, knowing the real problem was that she was just a tad vain. “Wear your glasses. You look good in them.”
She huffed but dug in her purse for the glasses case. “Well … listen,” She glanced from right to left, “You gotta keep quiet about this case. If this ever gets back to the boss, I’m toast.”
In the background, Paul could hear someone grinding coffee beans. It smelled rich and heavy. “Same here. I think Conway hates everyone at ICE.”
“Screw him! Most of your agents think they’re on TV.” Joan bounced up and headed to the counter. She came back with a skim-milk latte. “Here’s the skinny. I told you El-Amin is connected.”
Paul nodded.
“Well, he’s part of a larger criminal network,” she said, her arms swinging wide. “We think he’s a ‘snakehead.’”
“A what?”
“Snakehead. It’s a term that means … like we used to call ’em coyotes … the ones who do the dirty work- recruiting, transporting-stuff like that. But, now, they’re a lot more sophisticated. A guy like El-Amin is trained and well-financed.”
“Who do you think he works for?”
Joan shrugged, and her tightly bound breasts rose and fell with her shoulders. She sipped her latte and licked a strip of foam off her upper lip, slowly from left to right. “Who the hell knows? These are international networks, kind of like on the Web. They plug-in people as they need ’em from all over. Like, let’s say you need financing to transport kidneys into the U.S. If you know where to look, you offer the deal to a select group of money guys. They bid on the job to see who gets it. Then, when you’ve got the money you’re looking for, you offer jobs to others for procurement, warehousing, labor, and bribes to get by customs in the countries you’ll take the stuff through.”
“How can they trust each other?”
“Shit! They don’t trust anyone. If you take a job and rip your boss off, everyone finds out, and you’ll never, ever get another job. Besides that, you might get killed by yet another web of hired muscle. It’s like the purest form of capitalism.”
“They didn’t teach
“You’re too old.” When Joan laughed, it crinkled the corners of her eyes. “I guess a better example is Facebook. Criminals anywhere in the world can invite ‘friends’ to join their network. Each of them has different skill sets.”
“Yeah, unlike the old criminal organizations, these guys can hook-up, do the crime, split, and disappear in a few days.” He leaned forward, smelled her musky perfume. “And from what I’ve seen, these guys are really smart.”
Joan raised her shoulders. “You do what you can.”
“How does El-Amin fit in?”
She paused and moved her eyes over him. “Like I said, he’s a snakehead-lower level labor. Today, its stolen kidneys a customer wants, maybe nuclear materials. Tomorrow, it’s young Somali men.” She sighed and looked at him closely. “I don’t know how much …”
“Okay, I get it.”
“We have to trade intel or this won’t work.”
Paul nodded. “But why’d he kill the boy?”
She took another sip of her latte. Another slow lick of her lips. “Don’t know. But here’s what concerns ICE: the network behind him must be bigger than we thought originally, highly organized, and full of loyal people. To pull-off ‘disappearing’ these young men … and getting away with it … is damn hard.”
“They’re sure drawing a lot of attention from law enforcement. Every agency in the local and federal government’s involved. Say, that reminds me, have you ever heard of something called the Army Medical Research agency?”
Joan shook her head. “No. Now what can you tell me?”
“The network you’re talking about’s recruiting here. To have these guys fight for the Al-Shabaab. That’s what everyone at the Bureau thinks.”
“I can get that from the news junkies. Give me more meat, Buddy.”
“Look Joan, I’m risking my career …”
“Bullshit. I’ve snitched to you. Give me something in return.”
“All right. El-Amin’s defense team has found an alibi witness.”
“How do you know that?”
Paul leaned closer. “I’m in tight with the defense lawyer. She can’t reveal anything confidential from her client, of course, but there’s always more.”
“Hey, ICE should check him out.”
“Sorry, Joan. If I have to, I’ll invoke the Patriot Act and get this guy off the radar.” Paul opened his palms toward her. “Best thing to happen for the Bureau.”
“Oh?”
“Patriot Act. Gave us new tools for investigation and interrogation like we’ve never had before.”
She looked closely at him. “I can’t imagine you water-boarding anyone.”
“No. These are advanced techniques. Now, we can also pick up suspects and hold ’em for questioning a lot easier than before. I can’t say more, but we’ve got places here where we work on these guys. National security is protected.”
“What else?”
“Uh … we got an asset in the Somali community. Guy works at a local deli. He’s given us good stuff in the past.”
“Who is he?”
Paul smiled and remained silent.
Joan sat back in her chair and crossed her arms over her stomach. She watched Paul. “So … you’re putting your neck on the line for this?”
“Well, at least my job.”
She leaned forward. Her eyes softened. “It’s because of the problem you had in Milwaukee? You wanna try to make up for that?”
Paul puffed out a small breath of air. “Could be.”
“I remember when we met at the training at Quantico. Remember the rifle training and, oh, don’t forget the self-defense course.” A smile squirreled its way across her mouth.
Paul laughed at the memory. “Your fingernails, they just about recycled you because you wouldn’t trim your nails.”
“They were worried I couldn’t get my finger into the trigger guard of the 9-mm fast enough. And then …” Her arms flew out to the side like an umbrella popping open. “The vest, the damn Kevlar vest. It was so bulky, I couldn’t fasten it over my boobs. I’m like, tryin’ to tell those old instructors with the crew-cuts.”
“I suppose they wanted you to demonstrate the problem.”
“No shit! I could almost hear ’em grunting while they drooled.”
They both laughed hard.
Joan wiped an eye. “That … that was before your case that …”
“Yeah. I was on a fast track then. Two years later, I got a career break and was ordered out on a case for investigation of a serial killer in Milwaukee. Young girls. Grabbed, raped, and killed. Really stinky case. I worked my ass off on that one. Felt sorry for the families.”
“Did you bust ’em?”
“Damn right. With the help from the Milwaukee PD, we got the son-of-a-bitch. I was told to hold him, don’t do anything until the big shots from Washington got there.”
“But …” she drew-out the word, “you didn’t.”
