Fashionably Late (For My Funeral) Pt. 05

Guess what? My information was better than theirs. I watched the driver and the instant his hand started to swing the wheel I stood on the brakes. Tortured rubber would have been left on the road but for the ABS braking system standard on these cars. Instead it was the sound of my engine speeding up. This in turn was followed by the sound of the impact. I grasped the wheel with both hands and despite the pain managed to hold it on the road. It didn't feel all that much from where I was but the result was outstanding. The other vehicle slewed across the road and through the guard rail before sailing slowly, it seemed, into a steep ravine.

Half way down the hill was a large tree, the biggest one of several that was in the path of the car. The impact was devastating for both the tree and the car. The tree shook violently, startled birds fled in all directions and clouds of leaves drifted to the ground. The car burst into flames. I didn't stay long at the scene. I figured that there was little that I could do to help the men inside and my car wasn't fitted with a cell phone so that I couldn't contact the authorities and I wasn't going to use mine. I also figured that I would be better off if I didn't report it at all because my name would be on the report and someone that I didn't want to find me might be able to access the information and track me down, especially if the two recently deceased men were in the employ of that someone. I also figured that I would be implicated in some way if I was still at the scene when and if another vehicle arrived.

I had other places to be and other things to do.

I was nowhere near the scene when the next vehicle, a Volvo driven by an elderly former school teacher and his equally elderly wife arrived. They saw the gap in the railing and the smoke from the fire. "What do we do Henry?"

"Elizabeth, sometimes I think that you ask the stupidest questions. You use that car phone to contact a 911 operator and get help while I go down there to see if I can do anything."

"But I don't like using this newfangled contraption."

"You will have to use it whether you like it or not." He got out of the car. "Stupid bloody woman." He mumbled un-necessarily under his breath because she was as deaf as a door post, and scrambled down the slope as his wife took the phone in her hand and dialed the number.

"Hello." Her voice was tremulous.

"911 can I help you madam?"

"There has been an accident."

"Where are you madam?"

"In our car."

"Where is your car?"

"On the road."

"Which road?" The operator was getting a little impatient and trying hard not to allow that impatience show.

"The road from Danforth to Exeter."

"Where on that road?"

"We left Danforth half an hour ago."

"We'll send a crash crew as soon as possible." A fire truck and ambulance were dispatched from Danforth arriving within fifteen minutes of the call. There was little for the crew to do other than remove the charred bodies from the wreckage and arrange for a salvage truck to come and retrieve the wreck.

At the hospital the bodies were examined and when the identification was removed from their inside pockets the examiners were surprised to find that the men were both CIA agents. They were even more surprised at the short expletive laced response that the news brought from Griffin.

Three men in suits walked into Guido's bar. They all gave the impression that they wouldn't let anyone stand in the way of the job that they had been sent to do. As they walked through the bar the barman reached under the bar for the phone. He never got to speak into it as a hand reached out and grabbed him by the throat, fingers pressing hard against the carotid artery and windpipe effectively preventing blood flow to the head and air flow to the lungs. Realizing the futility of struggle he relaxed as much as was possible under the circumstance.

"Why don't you drop the phone." The voice was full of menace. The phone was dropped. "How many people in the office?"

"Only one."

"You sure about that?" The nodded response was enough for two of the men to walk through the back door to the stairway. The third man handcuffed the barman to the handy metal pipe that was frequently used by young ladies, and followed his friends. He followed them as far as the passageway to the stairs, instead of climbing the stairs he proceeded down the passage, kicking in doors and causing chaos among the clientele. Naked men and women screamed, naked men grabbed clothes and left, naked women hurled abuse at the man and scrambled to cover the earnings from their enterprise.

In Guido's office things were looking no better. "You have fucked up, my friend." The tone of the voice cast doubts on the term 'friend'.

"Who are you? What do you want from me?"

"Who we are is of no concern. What we want is an explanation as to how the 'safe' venture into which we invested so much money happens to be no longer safe."

"I don't know what you are talking about. What money have you invested with me?"

"We have invested several million dollars on behalf of an organization that it would be safer you didn't know about, but we'll tell you anyway because we happen to know that you aren't about to mention it to anyone."

"What are you talking about?"

"Does the name Triangle Importing mean anything to you?"

"Fuck! You guys are from the CIA!"

"What did you go and say that for? Now we are going to have to kill you."

"No. I know nothing, I've never heard of you and I've never seen you."

"Too late. I'm really sorry about this but you've left us with no alternative." He took a large pistol made even larger by the silencer attached to the barrel and pointing it at the centre of Guido's forehead, pulled the trigger. Guido was dead before his body reached the floor.

The two men conducted a quick search through the office but found little of interest. "Where does he keep his records?"

"Not here. Even someone as dumb as him wouldn't be that stupid."

"Then where could it be?"

"Maybe his accountant has them."

"If that's the case then we are too late. We'll have to see what sort of pressure we can bring to bear on the police for the return of the records."

As they were about to leave the office a shot rang out. The two men ducked behind the desk as the third man entered holding a bleeding hand and followed by two other men who introduced themselves as detectives from the Drug Squad. "Who are you and why are you here in this office with the man that we have just come to interview? The man who just happens to look to be very dead."

"We are CIA."

"Is that supposed to impress me? Sorry if I'm not tugging my forelock at this news. You are in our jurisdiction and it appears as if you have just committed the crime of murder. Now this murder just might have jeopardized the case that we are working on and if that is the case then our boss is going to be pissed."

"You can't touch us."

"Oh can't we. Come in gentlemen." Three more men entered the office. "You have it all on tape do you?"

"You betcha. Video and audio evidence that implicates these men and probably the whole organization in drug importation. Now all we need is to find that the FBI has been in on this scam as well and we'll have a trifecta."

"You'll never get away with this. This operation has been sanctioned at the highest level."

"Really? Now I suppose that you are going to have us believe that the President of the United States knew about your involvement in this."

"Yes."

"Tell that to the judge. Come on."

The men left the office and walked through the shambles that was once a thriving bar and brothel.

The phone rang in the office of the Managing Editor of the New York Times. "This is hot." The Managing Editor recognized the voice of the policeman who regularly, and profitably, fed them information that they would not otherwise be able to gain. "We have just arrested and charged with murder three men who claim that they are CIA working under direct orders from Washington. The Captain has called Washington and is waiting for a response but he's not really interested in what they have to say because the murders were committed on some of the prime suspects in this drug racket that we've just broken wide open."

The order was short and to the point. The police rounds person was dispatched to the precinct to get as much information about and, if possible some photos of, the CIA agents. Both the Managing Editor and the Police Rounds person had good reason to make sure that this got the maximum exposure. It would go out on the wire services as soon as the information was confirmed.

Washington was trying at the same time to place a total media blanket on the incident. The CIA Director was called to the White House. "Tell me that this isn't true."

"If you want to hear it, it isn't true."

"Now that statement isn't true is it?"

"Now that you ask, no."

"What the hell are you playing at? I know that I'm supposed to be ultimately responsible for the actions of those working under me but this has to be some kind of major snafu and I can't see me getting out of it unscathed. How did you manage to get yourself into such a mess?"

"It came about because of some money that we had invested in a certain enterprise."

"Presumably illegal."

"The return warranted the risk."

"I suppose that you are about to tell me that it is somehow involved with the importation of cocaine from Colombia."

"Yes."

"This is getting worse! Did you stop to think of the repercussions that this decision would have on my administration if it came unstuck? It would make Watergate look like a kids' tea party."

"It seemed a safe plan."

"What was it that Robert Burns said about the best laid plans of mice and men?"

"We've been actively involved in the drug trade since Vietnam and this seemed to be safer than that."

"So what went wrong?"

"An author named Jason Feldham somehow found out that the money that he had invested in what he had been told were legitimate ventures was in fact a small part of money being used to import coke. When he found out he went ballistic and demanded his money back. We of course weren't told of this until it was too late. Our financial broker, one James Craigmore took it on himself to solve the problem, only in the process he managed to fuck the whole thing up. We tried to fix the problem but it was too late."

"This Jason Feldham, has he been removed from the equation?"

"We thought that we had that covered but he's proving to be one smart person. You may have read of his funeral, well I'm afraid that the ceremony was a little premature. He was seen by our agents at his own funeral and was followed. He somehow managed to elude our people, the result of which was the death of an innocent person, but was later spotted again and followed once more. We are having another crack at him as we speak."

"And if this other crack proves to be as unsuccessful as the first, what then?"

"It won't."

"Just say for example that it does."

"We have another attempt."

"No you won't! We cut our losses. I have been copping a huge amount of flack from Congress about our efforts to date and the message that I've been getting loud and clear is that if we haven't fixed the problem now we go into damage control and cut our losses. If the shit hits the fan we deny and deny again and we keep on denying until the story eventually disappears."

In one of those coincidences that crop up in movies the phone rang. "This had better be good news."

"Sir, Mr. Griffin on the line, I think you should talk to him." The receptionist patched the call through.

"Shelby here."

"Director, I have just been speaking to the Sheriff at Danforth who has told me that his men attended the scene of a motor vehicle accident on the Danforth to Exeter road and the victims carried identification that linked them with our organization. I have been asked to arrange for someone to go up and carry out a formal identification. It must have been messy because we have been asked if it would be possible for who ever goes up to bring a copy of the men's dental records, you see there is very little left, not even fingerprints."

"How did it happen?"

"As far as their preliminary investigations go it would appear that the car was travelling at high speed and lost control on a bend in the road. They crashed through a barrier and down a steep ravine and hit a large tree. The vehicle caught fire and was totally destroyed before the first passer-by reached it."

"There was no evidence of another vehicle at the scene?"

"Not that we can make out. What are you suggesting?"

"Nothing. Thank you for letting us know. You have someone down there first thing in the morning to identify the bodies and make arrangements to have the bodies shipped back here for the funerals." He hung up.

"Let me guess. You have failed once more to catch this Feldham?"

"Yes, and it has cost us two good men. I want him."

"Somehow I don't think that would be appropriate under the circumstances. I want this whole mess left right alone, do I make myself understood?"

"But Feldham isn't the only person. There's a cop involved as well."

"I seem to recall something in the briefing notes, something about some greaser of a cop by the name of Ruiz, what about him?"

"He's gone to ground somewhere along with his wife who's also a cop and involved in this. We can dig up some incriminating evidence that will discredit them and anything that they might say about this."

"No. If you do that the police will close ranks around them. The word that I have from the NYPD is that both of them are squeaky clean. They are very competent officers and are popular with other members of the force. I can't find anyone from the Station Commander down to the Janitor to say a bad word against either of them. Somewhere out there are three people who could potentially blow the lid off this administration. Now I don't ask much, just fix this mess and fast."

The fast fix required in this case wasn't fast enough. By the time the message had left Griffin's office the shit had already hit the fan. Three of his operatives were in custody and, while he was pulling all of the strings that he could, it looked as if they were there to stay, at least for the time being.

Griffin was on the phone talking to the DA's office. "I believe that the police have arrested three of my men. What do I have to do to see that they don't get to trial?"

"There is nothing that you can do." The Assistant DA was also in damage control mode. "We are in the shit big time and if we are in the shit over this then anyone, no matter how peripherally they are involved in this, that we can lay charges against, will have no way of wriggling out of this."

"The Agency is under a lot of pressure from Washington to ensure that a very tight lid is kept on this whole mess to ensure that the administration suffers no electoral damage from the fallout."

"I don't give a rat's arse about the pressure that you're under, we are looking after our own, and if that means that you and your operatives cop the flack then so be it."

"Can't we reach some sort of compromise?"

"No deals."

"If we can't do a deal then we will just have to dig into the background of anyone involved in this in your department and use that to discredit this entire enquiry."

"I take it that that is meant to be some sort of threat?"

"It's not so much a threat as a promise."

"You know what I think of your promise don't you. I wouldn't even wipe my arse on the paper that it was written on."

The next news to hit the streets was no better. It was reported that a car driven by two CIA personnel had been found at the bottom of a ravine and both occupants were dead. It appeared that they had failed to negotiate a bend in the road and had smashed through the guard rail and crashed down the ravine. The appeared to be no evidence of a second vehicle involved.

Griffin was furious. "This man is supposed to be some sort of wimp and he has killed two of my best men and sent three others into a remand cell. How can this be happening?"

To make matters worse the headlines in the evening tabloids screamed to the world that the CIA had been caught doing the very thing that it was supposed to stamp out.

The District Attorney's office was quoted as saying that, in order that it could recover some of the credibility it lost with the arrest and suicide of the DA, was pulling out all stops to tell the world that it wasn't the only organization that was involved. Any person arrested in relation to the charges arising from their involvement, however small, was charged with as many offences as possible, and if none were forthcoming they were invented (this was implied rather than stated). The DA's office was pressing for the maximum jail time.

The evening television news bulletin contained an interview with the Assistant DA. The news anchor sat stern faced in her chair. "Mr. Fitzgerald, your office has been implicated in the scheme to import a large amount of cocaine into this country. While we appreciate that it might just have been the work of your former boss and does not involve other members of your department, what guarantees do we have that this situation will never recur?"

"I'm glad you asked that. We have acted swiftly and decisively to ascertain how widespread this situation was and I can state with a great deal of confidence that our preliminary inquiries have shown that Mr. Markham was working alone and that no other member of our office was involved."

"What about members of the police force and other government agencies. It would appear to us that for this operation to succeed officials must have been coerced by financial or other inducements to allow the shipment to enter the country and be distributed."

"We have asked for the police Internal Affairs branch to investigate all members of the force who have had any involvement, no matter how minute with anything remotely connected with this. As for other departments and agencies, I have had meetings with the heads of the DEA, Customs and Coast Guard and they have assured me that there will be a full investigation into their personnel. We have also agreed on a full and candid exchange of any information that each of us gains that could assist the others in their investigation. One way or another we will get to the bottom of this."

"We also understand that three men, all alleged members of the CIA have been implicated in this, can you tell us more?"

"No. As this is part of our ongoing investigation we do not want to pre-empt or jeopardize the outcome of that investigation by releasing any information prematurely. I can confirm that three men arrested on an associated matter have identified that they are members of another agency working under direct orders, more than that I am not at liberty to disclose. Suffice it to say that questions are being asked and we are waiting for a response."

"What steps will you take to ensure that this situation doesn't arise in future?"

"We will look at tightening our screening of applicants for positions within our department and the police force. We will also institute regular and random evaluations of all operational procedures and personnel. In the case of personnel this will include their immediate families and their financial status."

The DEA was conducting its own witch hunt and several high ranking officers were under suspension and house arrest pending the outcome of the internal inquiry.

The Customs Service and the Coast Guard had each issued statements to the effect that neither organization was directly involved in the incident. I for one didn't believe them. I was heartened to hear later that public opinion supported my viewpoint.