Part 18 (1/2)
Charlie laughed a deep belly laugh. ”Hey, that'll be three-fifty plus tax, Mr. FBI agent, sir,” Charlie chuckled as Edwards leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest.
”What the f.u.c.k is this?” Big Tony yelled, stepping through the doorway.
Edwards quickly crossed the floor. At roughly the same size, Edwards stood eye to eye with the big man. He grinned at Big Tony. ”We have a warrant to search the premises, and Tony, if you interfere, I'll arrest you for obstruction.”
Big Tony took a menacing step toward Edwards, but Sonny jumped in between them. He placed his hands on Big Tony's chest and pushed him backward.
Edwards continued to bait him. ”What, Tony? What'cha gonna do? Huh? You wanna piece of me? Go ahead.” Edwards winked at him. He couldn't resist egging him on. ”Give me one good reason!”
Big Tony eyed him curiously. Edwards could tell that he was weighing his options.
Sonny grabbed Big Tony by the arm and pulled him toward the door. ”Come on, Tony, let's get outta here. We're clean, nothing to worry about.”
”You'll be hearing from my attorney!” Big Tony yelled over his shoulder.
”And you'll be hearing from me again real soon. I promise!” Edwards yelled back as he watched the two men get in the limo. Edwards turned to Stevens.
Stevens shook his head. ”Nothing, it's clean.”
Edwards clenched his fists in frustration. Something in his gut was telling him that Castrucci knew they were coming.
Stevens raised his eyebrows questioningly. ”What'ya wanna do?”
”I don't know. I need to think,” Edwards said. He walked out the door and climbed into his sedan. ”Have Laura go over the tapes,” he said to Stevens through the open window. He put the car in drive and started to pull out of the parking lot and stopped. ”Tell her to look for anything that might indicate they were tipped.”
Rheyna pushed the pieces of grilled salmon around on her plate. Her nerves were too jumpy to eat. She thought about Baysh.o.r.e and silently prayed that Edwards and Stevens were finding what they needed, but somehow, she knew they wouldn't. Laura was right. They had a big, big problem from the internal side of the bureau. The mole in the department had been feeding Castrucci information-information that might jeopardize her life. She had a gut feeling that it was only a matter of time before things would come to a head. It was inevitable.
Terasa jarred Rheyna back to reality. ”So have you girls decided what movies you're going to watch?”
”Well, if I leave it to Caroline, it will be a marathon of chick flicks,” Rheyna teased.
”And what's wrong with chick flicks?” Terasa asked, stopping in mid-bite.
”Yeah, Rheyna, what's wrong with chick flicks?” Caroline piped in, a smile forming on her lips.
Rheyna laid her fork down on the plate, feigning disappointment. ”Oh no, Terasa, please don't tell me you, too?”
Terasa shrugged. ”I'll have you know, Sweet Home Alabama is my very favorite movie.”
They laughed as Rheyna pretended to beat her head on the table. The sc.r.a.ping of a chair on the other side of the pool caused them to look up.
Vincent stood up and threw his cards down on the table. ”You're cheating,” he spat at Joey.
”No, I'm not. I won fair and square.”
Vincent walked over to where the women were sitting. He looked at Terasa. ”Ma'am, if you don't need anything else, I'm going to turn in now.”
She dismissed him with a wave of her hand. ”No, Vincent. I'll see you tomorrow.”
”I'll turn in, too.” Joey said, looking at Caroline.
”Good night, Joey,” Caroline said.
They watched the two men turn to go inside the house.
Rheyna smiled when Joey playfully pushed Vincent through the door. ”You're just a poor sport, Vincent.”
”Am not,” he replied and shoved Joey back.
Edwards was silent as he watched Laura heave the aluminum case on the table. At first glance, it looked like an ordinary propane tabletop grill. She snapped open the lock and raised the lid. Taking up the entire inside of the case was the ICS RoadMa.s.ster II Portable Forensic Evidence a.n.a.lysis System. It was the counterpart to the one that Rheyna had programmed earlier, except on a larger scale.
She pressed a switch on the side and waited as the machine went through its power-up cycling modes. The machine beeped and the bright blue screen lit up like a Christmas tree. After a few seconds, the menu for the biometrics security option popped up and asked her for a fingerprint authorization. She pressed her index finger to the screen, just as Rheyna had done.
”How long before we receive the data?” Edwards asked.
”If everything goes as planned, we should see it within a few seconds.” She typed in several more commands. ”It also depends on the size of the hard drive,” she added and then turned in her seat to look at him. ”Once Rheyna has access, she'll upload our disk. After that, we'll be able to watch in real time any transactions he makes without detection.”
Edwards laughed as she took a drink of coffee and then spit the cold liquid back into the cup.
”That's not funny,” she said, turning back to the machine. ”The best part about this little doohickey is that I'll be able to see everything on his computer, just as if I was sitting there.” She made a few adjustments to the machine and turned her chair around to look at him. She thought that he looked as if he had aged ten years since they began the operation.
”If she gets caught, they'll kill her,” he said, frowning as the reality of his words sunk in.
Laura had those same thoughts herself more times than she wanted to admit. ”She knows the risks, and she will be extra careful.” She said the words as a way to help rea.s.sure him, but she said them more to calm her own nerves and the unease that had begun to settle in her stomach.
He walked over to the window. ”I know Rheyna will do her job. Castrucci's unpredictability is what worries me, and if by chance he knows about Rheyna, she could be walking into a trap. If that's the case, he'll kill her. I also know that if she can pull this off, we might find enough evidence to bring him down. The way I see it, we have a fifty-fifty shot and I think I increased our odds greatly by limiting those with knowledge of tonight's operation.”
”Who else knows?” she asked.
”Just you, me and Stevens,” he said, lighting a cigarette.
”So Artie doesn't know about tonight?” she asked.
He shook his head. ”Not unless Carl said something to him, and under the circ.u.mstances, I don't see him doing that.”
”Where is he, anyway?”
”He went for coffee,” he said, glancing over toward Pal Joey's restaurant. ”If Rheyna's cover's blown tonight, we have a very serious problem,” he said as he walked over and pulled out a chair next to Laura. He sat down, stubbed his cigarette out in the ashtray, and buried his face in the palms of his hands. When he lifted his head, she could see that he was troubled. She could see it in his eyes. She had known him too long to mistake the look.
He raised his head to look at her. ”They knew we were coming today,” he said matter-of-factly.
”How can you be so sure?” she asked.
He leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs at the ankle. ”You should have seen him, Laura; he was so smug, so sure that we wouldn't find anything.” He laced his hands behind his head. ”I could tell by the look on their faces. I knew we wouldn't find anything.”
”Who else knew about the raid?”