Fashionably Late (For My Funeral) Pt. 02

"Who are you?" Again there was a look of incredulity.

"My name is of no importance to you. My organization has invested a significant amount of capital in your venture and we have a vested interest in making sure that we get a just return on our investment."

If James had pressed the point the man would have given him a name that wasn't his. His boss, Marshall Griffin was the Area Director of the CIA and was heavily involved in finance and procurement. To this end he had continued the work established during the Vietnam War (read Police Action) and used to finance, covertly, the operations of the Covert Operations Group (COG). Apart from several brief periods when operations were curtailed due to increased breast beating by the Administration in Washington about the drug problem, the operation had run smoothly and profitably.

Griffin had overseen the expansion of the operation into the trade in cocaine from Colombia. They had negotiated with the important people in Medellin to ensure that a consistent supply would always be available. They had established a processing plant in the Colombian jungle where the coca leaf was converted into pure cocaine. They had established a coffee processing and packing plant to process the cocaine for shipment. They had pressured the Colombian government to ensure that the necessary customs clearances were expedited. They had gained the assistance of key personnel in both the US Customs Service and the DEA to ensure the unhindered arrival of the shipments into the US.

Griffin had enlisted the services of the Costanzo organization to arrange the financial side of the venture. He had, rightly, assumed that the additional finances necessary for such an operation would not have been as readily forthcoming if the potential investors were aware of the CIA involvement. He also assumed, rightly again, that the CIA would not have been able to cover such a large amount of money if they had to finance the venture on their own.

For this reason he had dispatched his most trusted lieutenant, Frank Mumford, to speak to Craigmore. The last thing that he wanted was for his plans to be placed in jeopardy.

James' brain was travelling at a previously unheard of speed as he tried to come to terms with this development. He had no knowledge of this man so he presumed that he had worked through an intermediary, but which one, there were several large investors. His mind raced through the list before settling on the likeliest suspect. "You are connected in some way with the government, aren't you?"

"The brain works. Yes, but you don't need to know just how. Any information you get from me will be strictly on a need to know basis."

"What do you want?"

"We have been led to understand that one of your investors wants out of the operation. What we want to know is how much he is in for and how will this affect the overall operation."

"His potential return is five million but that won't affect the project much because we can find other people to invest if he pulls it all out."

"How much does he know?"

"He suspects more than he knows."

"Okay then, what does he suspect?"

"He suspects that this is a huge operation and it involves the importation of cocaine. He doesn't know how big or who else is involved. I get the impression that he wants only to cut his ties with the operation and won't be going to the authorities with his theories."

"You realize that if he can prove any of this and does go to the authorities your ass will be well and truly in a sling. We will use whatever it takes to get out of it but don't expect us to save you, because we won't."

"Don't worry, everything is under control. He won't be going anywhere with his money."

"I hope you aren't planning anything stupid."

"No, I'm not planning anything stupid. His money will remain in the equation but it will no longer be his."

"You aren't planning to kill him are you?"

"No, I just want to ensure that he is relieved of his money before he can do anything with it."

"Be warned that we will be watching over you to make doubly sure that this thing doesn't get out of hand."

Mumford left, leaving James deep in thought. This was a major new development, he was indirectly working for the government and the ramifications of a foul-up were enormous.

At eleven-thirty, some five minutes after Mumford left, his buzzer sounded waking him from his trance. Walking to the door he pressed the intercom to hear his waitress friend's voice from below. "Hi lover, its Phoebe can I come up." James pushed the button that opened the door and she let herself in.

"What's the matter?" They were lying in bed, their passions un-relieved.

"Oh it's just some business problems that I'm having."

"Forget them! We're here to have a good time, and I'm here to help you forget." She moved to him once more, her hands stroking his body. James lay back with his eyes closed trying to take his mind off his problems but the more that he tried the more that he thought about it, and the more he thought about it the less co-operative his penis became. "I give up!" Phoebe moved to get out of the bed.

"No don't go. I know that I haven't been very good tonight but I just need you here with me. I need your company more than I need your body right now. Please, stay with me."

"All right I'll stay." She moved back into the bed and snuggled against him.

The men watching from the apartment building across the road hoping to see through their night vision glasses an evening of unbridled passion were bitterly disappointed. They were even more disappointed by the lack of information that came from the conversation. It had taken Phoebe Travers almost two months to win James' confidence and become his lover. It was a part of her job that she had found distasteful when it was first proposed to her but she had, once the first contact had been made, rationalized her role in the apprehension of criminals.

The next morning brought with it sex for Phoebe and James and nothing else. It brought some moments of voyeuristic pleasure for the watchers across the road and nothing else.

For me and Melissa it brought a few problems.

They started for Melissa when James rang her. He sounded agitated. "Why does Jason want his money back?"

"What do you mean?"

"We had a meeting yesterday and he wants all his money back."

"I don't know anything about this, he certainly hasn't mentioned it to me."

She rang me straight away. "Darling could you come down to my office, I need to talk to you."

I arrived at her office to find James there. "Now Darling, what is this James tells me about you wanting your money back?"

"I don't like what he has been using it for, his instructions were that he was not to use it for illegal purposes, but he did, so I want out of his schemes."

"How do you know that he has been using it for illegal purposes?"

"I found some information that linked him with something pretty nasty and when I spoke to him about it yesterday he as much as admitted it."

Melissa didn't have to tell James that she thought his telling me about the operation was possibly the stupidest thing he could have done, the look she gave him said it all.

"Look, in a month or two this money will have grown to an amount that we will be able to invest in legitimate enterprises and live comfortably on the income from it (the investment). Why not wait a little longer before you pull your money out?"

"I never wanted to get involved in this in the first place, I was happy with my income from my writing and my savings. I invested this money with James to please you because you saw it as necessary for our future together. Our future is established. I want my money back."

"Look Jason," James leaned towards me, "Melissa and I were only doing what we thought was best for you. You have to admit that when it comes to the real world you didn't have much of a clue, did you?"

"I might not have had, as you put it, much of a clue, but I do know the difference between right and wrong. I resent being told that I don't know much about the real world by someone with as few scruples as you seem to have."

"Darling, please don't get angry." Melissa put her hand on my arm. I brushed it aside.

"I have every right to get angry. I gave explicit instructions to your friend here and he disobeyed those instructions. What would happen, just say, if something went wrong with this deal and we didn't get the return that we are expecting, what happens to our future then?"

"Nothing can go wrong."

"I find that hard to believe. If the police suspect your involvement and decide to act on that suspicion, everything could go wrong."

"The police can suspect as much as they like, proving it is another thing and without proof they can do nothing. They will never have any proof, at least none that will ever get to court."

"You seem sure of this."

"I'm very sure and for good reason. Part of this type of investment is to make sure that other strategic investments are made."

"Do you mean palms greased?"

"You're not wired are you?"

"Wired?"

"Don't you come the innocent with me; you as a crime writer are very much aware of the term 'wired'. You don't have a microphone and transmitter on you, do you?"

"Good heavens no. Hey, I write mystery novels, I have done a lot of research and I have a vivid imagination."

"Even if they confiscated the shipment we would have it back in no time."

"How?"

"You sure you aren't wired?"

"I'm sure." I wished right then that I was.

"We have friends in positions of power that can ensure that what is confiscated is returned and all records of its existence destroyed."

"Darling, would you think twice about pulling your money, at least leave it there for another couple of weeks, just until this deal is finalized?"

"No. James knows the terms of my demands and I expect him to live up to them."

"Please Darling, don't be unreasonable."

"What have you two got planned between you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why this sudden need to ensure that my money stays in the system for a little longer?"

"If you must know," James, it seemed, was about to become honest with me, probably for the first time. "I have made other investments in other areas that have not been successful and I need the extra money to cover my losses."

"What you are trying to tell me without telling me is that you have invested money in an equine Endeavour and the candidate for the knackers' yard let you down. Now your turf accountant is leaning on you for money. You are stalling him until this shipment arrives and then you'll be able to repay him. He is getting concerned at the lack of money and if I pull my funds from your investment you won't have enough to cover what you owe. Am I getting close?"

"Yes."

"Now if you can't cover what you owe your bookie he will send a couple of very large gentlemen around to your place to be less than gentle with you, right?"

"Yes."

"And rather than face that prospect you have invested everything in this one shipment?"

"Yes."

"You bloody fool!"

"Darling," Melissa started to intervene but the look that I gave her stopped her mid intervention.

I stood up, "Three o'clock this afternoon at the First National Bank down the road, with my money." I walked out of Melissa's office leaving them staring after me.

Chapter 6

I walked around the city looking in shops for nothing in particular and looking at people for no particular reason. If I was so inclined I could have done any number of things to while away the time but I thought that I should put it into good use. I found myself walking past the 5th Precinct. Then I found myself not walking past the 5th Precinct.

I went inside to speak to the duty officer, who I knew very well. Captain Ruiz is a Puerto Rican who was brought up in a cold water apartment in one of the less well to do areas of town. He had gotten into the usual scrapes as a juvenile but at the same time had managed to survive a high school system that couldn't have cared less if he had or not.

His progress in the police force was steady but not spectacular until the night that he had seen what appeared to be a normal mob hit going down. He stepped in and arrested the two hit men and won the admiration of the victim who just happened to be the friend of the brother of the cousin of the mayoral candidate and when that person was elected Ruiz found himself elevated up the ladder fairly smartly.

What upset his few detractors more than anything else was that they had to admit that he was one of the more competent officers on the force.

I sat in Ruiz's office with a cup of coffee in my hand. "I have come across something that might interest you. There is going to be a massive shipment of crack cocaine arriving in the next three or four weeks. It would not harm your career to set up the bust."

"How do you know this?"

"Let me say that I have become peripherally involved in this operation, without my knowledge."

"If we bust this shipment you could be caught up in the bust."

"I have asked for my money to be withdrawn from the operation. I am to get half this afternoon and the rest in two weeks. This leads me to believe that the shipment is due around then."

"Do you have any idea where and when it is coming in?"

"No I don't, at least not at this stage. I could possibly find out."

"No. I don't want you to take any chances. No, what I think we should do is to wait until you get the first half of your money and then lean on your person to see where that will take us. How much is involved?"

"He has invested a million dollars of my money and he has told me that I am not the biggest investor in this deal."

"Shit! They will need a convoy of trucks to bring that into town. How do they expect to get away with this?"

"I don't know. My contact is desperate for the money to come in because he owes his bookie a lot of money and unless he can clear the debt you will probably find him in the river."

"Who is your contact, off the record at this point."

"James Craigmore."

"I thought as much, I already have someone on his case, I'll talk to her to see if she can't find out more than he has let on up until now."

"Who have you got on him?"

"She is an undercover operative who works as an exotic dancer at the bar that he frequents. Her name is Phoebe, so if you run into her don't let on that you know of her real role in this."

"Is she the gorgeous blonde about twenty-five with legs up to here and the most amazing breasts imaginable?"

"I think that they are all like that but yes she is. Keep your hands to yourself, I'm married to her."

"Doesn't she get propositioned in that place?"

"All of the time. She manages to keep them away, but with James it is a different story, she has had to get involved in order to get close to him."

"And you don't mind this?"

"I wouldn't go that far. In this case it was her call. She has to play it the way that will get results and if that means going to bed with him then she is prepared to do it."

"Isn't she scared that if something goes wrong with this operation she will no longer be able to work under cover?"

"That's the risk that we all take in this job. She has decided that it is about time that she gave up that line of work and did something a little less stressful."

"Like what?"

"She talks about store security, but I think that she'll miss this and want to come back into the force."

"What can I do for you? What if I wear a wire and try to get him to admit his involvement in this operation?"

"You said that he has already admitted as much to you, if you try to dig deeper he will suspect something and you could blow the whole operation for us. No, you've done more than enough already, you've got him worried and worried men end up doing stupid things and men who do stupid things end up either getting caught or end up dead. Whichever happens we get them off the streets."

I made a statement to him outlining all that I knew of the operation and left it at that.

At a quarter to three I walked into the First National Bank for my rendezvous with James. He was five minutes late and I had used the time to arrange for a safety deposit box. I had completed my transaction when he walked in.

"Do you have all of the money?"

"Of course." He thrust a black leather attaché case onto the desk in front of me. "I suppose you want to count it?"

"Would you be disappointed if I did? I have never really trusted money men and you have done nothing to make me change my opinion. I have arranged with the bank for the use of a cubicle so that I can count it. After that I am going to take the money with me and place it in an account at my own bank."

"Then why did you ask me to bring it here?"

"Because this is the closest bank to your office and there would be less chance for some unscrupulous person to knock you on the head and steal my money. This way I walk out of here looking for all the world like a successful business person who is heading back to his office after transacting some business in the bank. Now who would suspect that I could be carrying as much money as all of this."

"How do I know you won't just transfer the money into your account from this bank?"

"Because large electronic transfers of funds like this will draw too much attention and is traceable. Now my bank is used to me depositing large sums of money into my account, sometimes in cash other times by bank draft, but the transactions are processed in such a way that the source of the funds don't cause any problems." I was sure that James had already found that out and was just fishing for confirmation.

James left, his mind was working overtime. I had given him the perfect opportunity to recoup his money.

As soon as he had left I walked down to the vault and took the money out of the attaché case and filled it with newspaper that I'd brought with me. I put the money into a large container and placed it into my safety deposit box. Taking the key and putting it into an envelope that I had already addressed to Sendi with a note asking her to keep the key safe, I left.

I walked to the nearest mail box and posted my letter and then caught a cab back to my apartment building. I never made it. A car swerved in front of the cab forcing it to stop. I pulled a ten dollar note from my pocket and threw it onto the seat beside the driver. "Call Captain Ruiz at the 5th Precinct and tell him that Jason Feldham is in trouble, give him a description of the car and get the hell out of here as soon as you can!" I yelled at him as the cab screeched to a halt.

Chapter 7

Three men jumped from the car and dragged me out. I was thrown unceremoniously into the back of their car and it took off in a cloud of tire smoke. It was all very dramatic.

I was taken to a warehouse where my wrist and ankles were tied and I was strung up by the wrists. The attaché case was thrown onto a table, pushing the pile of rubbish already there onto the floor. The locks gave up the ghost with nary a struggle and when the men looked inside they were confronted by newspaper, old and lots of it, and nothing much else.

"Where is the money?" His face was inches from mine and his breath was an unsavory combination of garlic and rotten teeth.

"What money?" I saw the fist coming but there was nothing I could do about it. My breath escaped as the fist hit me in the solar plexus.

"I'll ask you again, where is the money?"

"And I'll ask you once again, what money? The contents of the case is exactly as it was when it was given to me, I haven't even opened it. If you want to know where the money is then ask your friend who was supposed to give it to me." The fist arrived at roughly the same speed as before, my breath left me at roughly the same speed as before.