Starting Over Pt. 07 Ch. 04

---------------------- Friday, May 27, 2022, Surveillance, Chicago, IL -----------

The next day, George went to the building across the street from a barber that Alex used. Yvonne had already arranged for them to rent office space on the second floor where the windows could be opened. George went in and got all the electronics set up for what they wanted. John, Marty, and Carl packed up the rest of the stuff, including breaking down the rifles to fit into rucksacks, and then made their way to the office an hour apart. They brought plenty of food, although that would not last as long as some surveillance operations.

John had picked this location because of a couple of interesting things. Evidently, Alex came here every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for a shave. John was wondering about coming here that often, but the FBI intel said that he was not in there too long, just long enough to get a shave and, every once in a while, a haircut. There was no indication that any of the other subjects of interest were meeting him here. But John couldn't shake the feeling that something was off, so they came here first. From here, they could set up in another location to watch as he came and went from his home. There was a side street that had a great hiding place to conduct an ambush, if it came to that.

They settled in for the weekend and made as few trips as possible outside of the office, always utilizing one of the disguises.

---------------------- Monday, May 30, 2022, Surveillance, Chicago, IL -----------

On Monday, Alex came to the barber shop at about 9:30, driven by a driver and one other bodyguard. He was in there for about 45 minutes and then came out, got picked up by the same two, and left. Everyone watched it and then reviewed the video that they had taken.

They all watched the video and then George, who was the savviest one with surveillance equipment watched it a second time, stopped, zoomed in, and turned to the others. "That's not Alex coming out."

Everyone gathered around while George explained what he saw. When Alex went into the shop, there was a clear shot of his right hand. On his middle finger was a large, flat-faced ring. Then George zoomed in on Alex when he came out. He had reached up with his right hand to grab the door as he got in, and there was no ring. There was no mark of a ring, no indication of a tan around it, and no ring. Then George continued.

"Also, look at his hand and his nails."

"His nails?" Marty asked the question they all had.

"In the earlier photo," George switched to it, "you can see that he gets a manicure. This guy," he switched back to the supposed double, "does not. No sign of one. Terrible hands."

Everyone now studied the most minute detail and determined that it was impossible to actually tell Alex going in or out because of the angle, and the fact that he wore a long coat and a fedora hat. It could have been anyone wearing the same coat and hat with a similar build and body tone.

"Okay," John finally said as the reviewed the video, "If that's not Alex, then where is he. He obviously came from home and arranged for a double to come out. So, where did he go? How long? How did he get home? Let's look at some of the intel that Allison got for us from the FBI monitoring Alex."

From the information that Allision had gotten from their surveillance of Alex, it was clear that nobody ever questioned whether that was Alex coming out. It was a major failure. The FBI usually made no assumptions about that, but in this case, they did, and they missed it -- or someone made sure that it was missed. It was not out of the question for Alex to have someone inside the FBI. But it was damn hard to do that in real life.

John and the others sat down and made another plan. It was decided that Marty would get a rental car with a fake ID and follow Alex's car once it left the barber shop, and then stay with it for the rest of the day. John and Carl were going to break into the barber shop through the back door and see if there was anything to discern in the shop. George would stay and monitor everything and keep in touch with everyone on a burner phone. The problem was, they would have to wait for Wednesday to do so.

---------------------- Wednesday, June 1, 2022, Surveillance, Chicago, IL -----------

After another couple of days of takeout, exercising a little in an office to stay fit, and really boring conversations and books, Wednesday morning came. They all waited and at 9:30am, Alex's car arrived. The driver got out to open the door and Alex went inside. Marty had gotten the rental car the day before and found street parking that night so that it would be close. He went down to the car to wait.

At 10:07, Alex's double came out. They verified that it was the double again, and then phoned Marty for him to follow the car.

Marty called only about 45 minutes later to say that it had pulled into Alex's mini-mansion and into the garage. The door closed before anyone got out. That was fishy, too.

The rest of them watched the barber shop and never saw Alex.

---------------------- Thursday, June 2, 2022, Surveillance, Chicago, IL -----------

At 1:00am, John and Carl approached the rear of the shop. Carl was wearing a light backpack with some key items and John was carrying his Glock in a shoulder holster. There was a back door with one of those security doors that were pulled down from above that was like a thick screen over the entrance. They had already checked and determined that there was no alarm. Carl was an expert at locks and had the security screen unlocked in about 45 seconds. It was tough, but doable. He rolled it up and then worked on the back door. That came open in about 30 seconds.

The two of them crept inside, letting their eyes adjust to the light from late night signs and streetlights. They carried small flashlights, but would not use them unless totally screened from any windows.

The search began. They looked all around the shop and found four doors. One door each for men's and women's bathrooms, a storage closet, and a basement entrance. They searched the bathrooms first, knocking on the wood and looking for false walls. Nothing. The same was true of the storage closet. Now it was time for the basement.

They slowly made their way down the stairs and turned on their flashlights. The basement had a water heater, a small a/c-heater unit, and some larger items that wouldn't fit in the storage closet upstairs. There was an extra barber chair and some other large items. They were searching everywhere when they found a strange item. Mounted in the corner of the one wooden wall (the others were concrete blocks), was a coat hook. It was all by itself, and when they knocked on the wall, it sounded hollow.

John pulled on the coat hook and nothing happened. He then tried twisting it and there was a click and the wall popped open about an inch. He and Carl grinned at each other. Bingo!

They went through the door and found a small passage about 30 feet long that led to another door. They went through that without any problem and found a set of stairs heading up. They slowly went up the stairs to another door. They tried the door to find it unlocked. They slowly swung it open and peeked behind it. It was another closet?

John and Carl stepped into the closet, which turned out to be a changing room. Hanging on a hook there was a nice suit, expensive, looking like something that Alex would wear, and a set of more common street clothes. It was jeans, a long sleeve shirt, a Cubs jacket, and a Cubs baseball cap.

John turned to the opening to the changing room and opened it. He saw that it was the back of a dry-cleaning shop. He turned to Carl. "So, Alex comes in here, changes clothes, and then exits this shop to grab some other ride. But, why? And to where?"

He and Carl discussed it and then Carl pulled out a small tracker from the backpack he was wearing. He walked into the dry-cleaning establishment and found a thread puller thingy, or whatever it was called. It was used to remove stitching. He came back, closed the door, and handed John his flashlight. "Turn on both the lights. I'm going to do some quick sewing."

Carl took the jacket and pulled out some of the stitches in the back along the bottom of where there was some bunching so that the jacket would close around a person's waist. He put the tracker in there and, finding the right color thread, very carefully sewed it back up. He held it up.

"Except for a very close examination, he won't find this."

John nodded. "Good enough. Let's get out of here."

They made their way back, closing everything behind them. When they exited the barber shop back door, Carl had some minor problems re-locking everything, but after a couple of minutes, got it done. They were back in the office by 3am, and were ecstatic at figuring this out.

Marty told them that he stayed until midnight and never saw the car move again and didn't see Alex return. John and Carl relayed their information about the night raid, and everyone was feeling better. They seemed to be making progress.

---------------------- Friday, June 3, 2022, Surveillance, Chicago, IL -----------

On Friday, Marty manned the rental car again, with John riding shotgun. George and Carl stayed in the room. At almost exactly 0900, Alex arrived and went inside.

John and Carl were monitoring the tracking device on their phones and after about 15 minutes, they saw movement. Marty and John watched as Alex came out, keeping his head down and his face under the Cubs cap, and then get into an Uber. They didn't have to follow close, so they stayed out of sight, but close enough to make a move, if they had to.

After about 45 minutes, the Uber pulled up to an older Victorian style place that needed paint. They waited until they saw the tracker head toward the house before they pulled by to just catch the back of Alex as he went into the place. What the hell was this? They were in an area that was not too bad, but some of the houses needed work. It looked like it used to be a well-to-do area, but was now a little run down.

Carl pulled over about a block away on a street that was perpendicular to the one the Victorian was on and waited. They waited about 4 hours, until another Uber pulled up. Alex came out, much less protective of his face so they knew it was him, and got in.

John called Yvonne and asked if she could help. He told her about the dry cleaner's and gave her the address to the Victorian. She said she would find out whatever she could.

"What the hell is going on here?" John turned to Carl.

"I don't know. Do you want to wait to see if anyone else comes out before we follow him?"

"Yeah, let's do that. We have the tracker, which is working fine, and we'll see if he was meeting anyone in particular here."

They waited for about 10 minutes, watching the tracker, which seemed to indicate that Alex was heading home. Finally, they saw another man come out, and he was bid good-bye by a woman in a diaphanous nightie, short and very shear. John had his phone up and took a couple of pictures. Then he looked at Carl.

"What the hell? Is Alex sneaking out to a whore house? He goes to all that trouble to get a little something on the side? What is this?"

Carl shook his head. "I can't imagine what else might be going on, based on what we just saw. But let's wait a little longer."

They watched as the tracker led to Alex's house, so he was home. It was another 10 minutes before another Uber pulled up and another man came out and headed down to his ride. He was also bid good-bye by another scantily dressed woman, this one in what looked like bikini panties and a shelf bra. John took more pictures.

Carl shook his head. "Is that all this is, just a whore house? You got pictures of those guys, right?"

"Yeah, I got pictures. We'll have to see if we can get an identity."

John sent the pictures to his throw-away cell and then forwarded them to Yvonne for research. She was pretty good at finding out just about anything.

Carl and John waited another 30 minutes, but nothing else happened, so they left.

When they returned to the makeshift office, they passed along what they had seen to George and Marty. Everyone was a little confused. It just seemed like a lot of subterfuge for a daytime tryst.

---------------------- Saturday, June 4, 2022, Surveillance, Chicago, IL -----------

Yvonne sent a text back on Saturday morning, along with a wink and an amount for her work. John knew he would pay what he could and she wasn't worried.

John read the text to everyone. Apparently, the second man out the door was a Russian mobster who worked for someone in New York. The final guy out was a key member of one of the Mexican cartels. They all thought about that and then John came up with a plausible explanation.

"Okay, we have a Russian mobster and a cartel member meeting with Alex, in his home town. I think he is working to bolster his business by collaborating with them on drug smuggling and selling. I can't see any other real reason for these three to be meeting. I think the girls are just a little side reward for when they get together."

Everyone agreed that that seemed like the most plausible explanation.

For a while, everyone discussed options, but John continued to ruminate on what to do. He wanted this Alex guy dead. He had tried to kill his wife. He had sent people to kill him and Maggie and in doing so killed and wounded many more at the Bradford's and the hospital. The guy needed to die. But what about all the other things that were going on. Could he just kill this guy and let the cartel and Russians continue to work through Alex's people to continue to decimate Chicago? He wanted the guy dead, but maybe, in this case, he should see if the feds could handle it.

John finally addressed the entire group. "What we need to be worried about now is how long before they finalize the agreement and stop meeting. I think if Alex does his normal routine on Monday and meets with the others, that we call the feds in, and let them figure out the rest."

"Call them in for what? What crime are they committing by just meeting?" George asked.

"Well, I would bet there is some sort of warrant out on at least one of the two from out of town. We can call on Monday when we are watching the place and find out. I don't want to give them too much heads up. Besides, if they are not going to take care of it, I can't let Alex continue to threaten me and my family. Maggie barely made it and they killed and wounded too many others."

Everyone looked at John. Slowly they all nodded. They knew he meant that he would kill Alex. They all felt that it was the only way to be safe. The guy should die.

---------------------- Monday, June 6, 2022, Surveillance, Chicago, IL -----------

Everyone was getting ready to take their positions Monday morning when John spoke up. "Is it ironic that today is the celebration of D-Day?"

They all nodded and grinned. George said, "The only question is who will be invading that house?"

John and Carl again took the car. This time they were fully armed with their handguns and two semi-automatic weapons. They couldn't take the chance that Alex would get free once they acted. If he was missed, his vengeance would be terrible.

When they arrived near the old Victorian, it was well before Alex was going to arrive. George would notify them when Alex arrived at the barber shop.

It was about 9:15 when George called them. He said everything looked the same, so John and Carl waited for Alex's arrival. After a couple of minutes, John called Deputy Director Smothers about the situation.

He only waited a few seconds before he was transferred to Smothers desk. "Director, I have some very valuable information that we have discovered and I would like it if you could rope in the Chicago office. It concerns the Alex and his gang."

"I thought I told you to stay out of Chicago?"

"You did. Now I have extremely pertinent information that the FBI needs after surveilling this guy for a while. Interested or not?"

"It's that important?"

"Absolutely."

"Wait a few seconds." There was a click and silence for about a minute while they waited for Smothers to get the Chicago SAC on the line.

"John, you still there?" Smothers was back.

"Yes."

"I've got Special Agent Martin Banks on the line. Go ahead and tell us what you have."

"My guys and I have been investigating Alexandre Albescu." John could hear the exasperation from Banks without him saying a word. "I know you guys looked at him for a while, but didn't see anything that you could go after. Well, we found it. As you noted, he liked to go get a shave three times a week at his favorite barber shop. He goes in on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and comes out a while later."

"We know that." Banks broke in.

"Be patient." John was trying to do the same. "We were able to determine that the guy who came out a while later was a double. We found, in the barber shop, that there is a basement with a hidden door opened using a coat hook. Behind that is a corridor that leads to a changing room in the dry-cleaning shop at the end of that row of buildings. Alex changes clothes into some normal looking street clothes, comes out of the dry-cleaning shop, takes an Uber, and goes to an old Victorian house. It appears that there are women kept there for use by him and others. I say that, because we captured a couple of others on camera twice in a row. They were a Russian mobster out of New York and a drug cartel member. They joined Alex there, seemed to have a meeting of some kind, made use of the ladies and left a couple of hours later. We don't know what's going on in there, but figured you guys should know."

"What's the address?" Banks was interested and losing his patience again.

"Just a second, someone's arriving." John and Carl ducked down a little. "Okay, that was Alex. I will give you the address as long as you guys promise to nail this bastard. He's come after my family twice, and I will not allow him a third try. If you are not ready to take action, I will."

Smothers tried to speak, but Banks was louder. "Now hold on. You can't dictate anything to the FBI and what you just did was communicate that you were going to kill Alex."

"I didn't say that. But take it however you want. Oh, wait, more cars." When John and Carl looked up, they could see the cartel member. "The cartel guy is here."

"Give us the address, asshole."

"I think you'd better be nicer to me. I'd hate to discuss how easy it was for us to find out all this information and your so-called experts missed it. Pretty shoddy work, if you ask me."

"What do you want?" Banks was getting angrier now.

"The address is", John held up the piece of paper he wrote it down on, and read it to Banks.

"Got it. I'm sending some guys out now."

Smothers finally broke back in. "Great work, John. I'll be checking out the team that was on this."

"What's your number, Agent Banks?"

Banks read his cell number to John and John wrote it down. He looked at Carl. "Might come in handy."

They all hung up.

"Should we get out of here?" Carl asked after a couple of minutes.

"Not until the Russian arrives. I hope he arrives before the FBI."

They waited for about 10 minutes and then the Russian pulled up, with company.

"Shit!" John and Carl ducked again, then rose slowly. John pulled up his cell and called the number for Special Agent Banks.

"Banks."

"This is John. You'd better hurry. The Russian just showed up with another car. He's brought armed folks with him. I think we are about to see a hit."

"Teams are rolling," Banks chimed in. "Be there in 15 minutes."

"I don't know if you have that long, but make it quick."

John and Carl peeked over the dash as the Russian discussed something with the men, who had gathered just behind their car, which was partially hidden by a large oak tree. They didn't see any movement from the house, so they had to assume that the other two were not watching out any windows for the Russian to arrive.