Worth Dying For Part 17

"I thought you two might be hungry," Terasa said, placing the tray on the table between them.

Caroline nodded at the lounger. "Thanks, Mom. Have a seat and join us," she said.

Terasa sat down in the lounger. "Maybe for a few minutes," she said. "I can't stay long. I have my hair appointment today."

"Thank you, Terasa. I didn't realize how hungry I was," Rheyna said as she sunk her teeth into the sandwich.

"Well, if you ask me, the both of you could stand to put on a few extra pounds here and there," she teased.

Rheyna and Caroline looked at each other and then at Terasa. They both answered with a resounding, "No."

Terasa shook her head and laughed. "I think you two girls are incorrigible and an equally bad influence on each other."

"Ah, Mom, that's not fair," Caroline pretended to be hurt.

"So, do you two incorrigible girls have any plans tonight?"

"As a matter of fact, we do. I think I've pretty much talked Rheyna into staying for an all-night movie marathon-unless she decides she's not up to the challenge. She'll probably be asleep by ten anyhow."

Why does everyone who wants me to do what they want, always have a tendency to do it in a challenging manner? First, it was Laura, then Edwards and now Caroline. Rheyna shook her head at Caroline. "You'll definitely go down before I do, especially after a few gla.s.ses of wine," she teased back.

"Hey, that was a low blow," Caroline said.

Rheyna smiled. "Well, it serves you right. You're the one who started this. Besides, I already told you that I was up for this marathon of yours," Rheyna said. "And I knew you wouldn't have taken no for an answer, anyway."

Caroline nodded her head. "This is true. I usually get what I want." For emphasis, she ran her tongue over her lower lip, and it worked. Rheyna's eyes were glued to her mouth.

Caroline cleared her voice to get Rheyna's attention. When she looked up, she saw Caroline laughing at her. She has no shame. Caroline was flirting with her and she was doing it in front of her mother. Rheyna felt her face flush and quickly looked away. She was saved when Terasa stood up.

"Well, I need to get going. I don't want to be late," Terasa said.

Rheyna saw Vincent out of the corner of her eye, get up from the table where he and Joey had been playing cards. He followed Terasa into the house.

It was time for her to leave, too. She swung her legs off the lounger and stood to put on her robe. "I'm gonna take off. I need to get Annie and prepare myself for this movie marathon of yours."

"Okay. I'll see you in a couple hours," she said.

Rheyna said her goodbyes to Big Tony and the men at the table.

Edwards crammed his hands in his pockets and looked through the two-way window. He turned to Agent Bill Wilks. "How long's he been in there?" he asked as Artie got up from the chair to start pacing back and forth.

"Almost two hours."

"Did he say anything?"

Agent Wilks laughed. "He was fine until we took him to the interrogation room. He became a little hysterical and started yelling at us. For a minute or two, I thought he was gonna cry."

Edwards picked up the folder. "Well, I might as well get this over with," he said and then opened the door.

Artie stopped pacing and turned toward Edwards. "Oh, Kyle, thank G.o.d. I don't understand what's happening. Ron called and said to meet you here and then when I got here, they put me in this room."

"Sit down, Artie," Edwards said sternly, motioning toward the chair.

Artie reluctantly did as he was told.

Edwards sat down across from him and laid the folder on the table. "You have no idea why you're here?" he asked.

Artie nervously fidgeted in the chair and started picking at his nails. He shook his head. "No, I don't."

Edwards opened the file and pulled out the bank doc.u.ment. "Cut the s.h.i.+t, Artie. You know d.a.m.n well why you're here," he said calmly and then pushed the sheet across the table.

Artie picked up the paper. Edwards watched the color drain from Artie's face as he read the doc.u.ment.

"I, I can explain," he said, his voice shaking.

Edwards pushed his chair back and stood up. He rested his hands on the table and leaned forward. "Oh, yeah? Can you also explain these?" He threw the photos down on the table in front of Artie.

Artie's hand shook as he picked up the photos. He frowned. "How ... where did you get these?"

"It doesn't matter where I got them. I want you to explain to me why you were talking with Marco Mancini."

"Who?" Artie asked, frowning.

"Come on, Artie. Stop bulls.h.i.+tting me. It's over. Do you understand me? It's over."

"But, but I don't know who this man is. I swear. He ran into me on my way into the bank. He knocked the papers out of my hand and stopped to help me pick them up. I swear, Kyle. You have to believe me," he insisted.

Edwards raised his eyebrows. "Believe you? You must be f.u.c.king joking." He jabbed his finger at Artie's face. "You're the f.u.c.king leak. You've been on Castrucci's payroll for years. You're the reason several people have lost their lives and you want me to believe you. What about Rheyna, Artie, did you f.u.c.king tell Castrucci about her, too?"

On the verge of tears, Artie shook his head vehemently. "I swear to G.o.d, Kyle, I have nothing to do with Castrucci. I don't even know who Marco Mancini is."

Edwards couldn't believe this. Even with the proof in front of his face, Artie continued to deny his involvement. Edwards slammed his fist down on the table. "Mancini is a foot soldier for the Ma.s.sino crime family and this proves you took a payoff!" Edwards yelled. He picked up the bank doc.u.ment and slung it at Artie. "You also had direct access to the Vinci and Pisano files."

Artie frowned. "Who's Vinci and Pisano?" he asked, his mind moving a mile a minute as he tried to place the names.

"Yes, Vinci and Pisano. You were one of the case agents a.s.signed to them."

"But that was over ten years ago," Artie said as his mind finally registered the names.

Edwards nodded. "And that shows just how d.a.m.n long you've been at this, doesn't it?"

Artie shook his head. "They died."

Edwards' eyebrows shot up. "So you admit that you had a hand in their deaths?"

"No, no. I mean they both died in accidents. One in a car crash and the other was a botched burglary."

"Bulls.h.i.+t, Artie. You pa.s.sed the information to Castrucci and he had them killed."

Artie was becoming hysterical. "I swear ... I swear with G.o.d as my witness, Kyle-"

"Just shut up, Artie. Just shut the h.e.l.l up and how dare you bring G.o.d into this!"

Artie shrunk back in his chair. "I, I ... I only stole the money," he said finally.

The statement stopped Edwards cold. "You what?"

"I stole the money. I stole the money from the evidence room." Artie laid his head down across his arms on the table and cried. He looked up at Edwards with puffy cheeks and bloodshot eyes.

"But why, Artie?"

Artie took his gla.s.ses off and laid them on the table. "I didn't know what else to do. I'm $250,000 in debt. Alice maxed out our credit cards and the bank was foreclosing on our house."

Edwards was in shock. He expected to get a confession, but not this.

"I went down to the evidence room after our meeting. You can check with Cecil. He'll confirm that I was there."

Edwards sighed as he tried to digest the information. He looked at Artie and shook his head. "I have no choice but to place you under arrest."

"You have to believe me, Kyle," Artie begged.

"I need time to verify what you've told me, and right now, I don't know what to believe," Edwards said honestly. As he picked up the folder and turned to leave. He stopped and looked back at Artie. "You should have come to me first. If you were in trouble, you should have come to me first."

Annie greeted Rheyna as soon as she opened the front door, nearly knocking her down. "Hi, sweetie," she said as Annie jumped up and threw her paws against her leg. "How was your day?" she asked, bending down to Annie's level. She nuzzled Annie's happy face and planted a kiss on top of her head. "Let's you and me go for a walk."

Annie could barely contain herself as Rheyna slipped the leash on her harness and slid open the patio door. She pulled Rheyna down the steps two at a time, and there wasn't much Rheyna could do about it. Annie had grown so big, that she no longer walked her-Annie was the one who walked Rheyna. She had never known what people meant by the term, being walked by your dog, until recently. It was an everyday occurrence for Annie to take Rheyna for a walk. She loved having Annie around-it was good for her sanity.

After a few minutes, she let Annie off her leash and laughed. Without fail, Annie headed straight for the white caps and bit at them. It had become a game to her. She would growl, then bite at them, and then jump back when the water hit her paws.

An hour later, she and Annie arrived back at the house. After feeding Annie her supper, she made her call to Laura. She was caught by surprise when Laura told her that Artie had been arrested. She filled Rheyna in on the details, and Laura was as shocked as she was. Never in a million years would she have suspected Artie. He just didn't seem the type. Laura and Edwards had left the decision up to her as to whether she felt comfortable enough to go forward with her mission. After discussing it at great length with Laura, she had made her mind up-she would go through with it.

After Rheyna made her decision, Laura's persona immediately turned to business. She and Laura both knew what was at stake. It would be a big night for all of them if Rheyna gained access to Castrucci's office-or more importantly, his computer.

"Do you need anything else?" Laura asked.

"No, it looks like you have everything covered."

Rheyna had picked up the package marked aphoto supplies' from the post office earlier in the week. She now had the contents spread out across the counter.

"How's the rest of the surveillance going?" she asked.

Laura let out a dejected sigh. "Not too good. We have hundreds and hundreds of hours of tapes, but nothing to link Castrucci to the killings."

Rheyna listened as Laura continued to brief her.

"The closest we've come so far, is hearing his regrets for not taking out Ma.s.sino when he wanted to."

"Well, whatever you guys are doing, it's working. He was so p.i.s.sed off today, he could have spit nails."

"If you think that's bad, he's really gonna love what's going down in a couple hours. Edwards and Stevens are going after Baysh.o.r.e."

Rheyna couldn't help but laugh. Seeing Castrucci squirm would be a sight in and of itself. "Couldn't happen to a nicer person, but you're right, he'll be in rare form tomorrow," she said.

"I think Edwards is right. He's much smarter than we gave him credit for," Laura said in response.

Rheyna was beginning to agree with her. "He had a sweeper go through the house yesterday and I thought for sure he'd find the pen."

"Must not been too good of a sweeper. An idiot wouldn't miss the signal coming from that baby."

"No s.h.i.+t," Rheyna agreed.

"I want you to be real careful tonight, Rheyna. Don't take any unnecessary risks.."

"I promise I'll be very careful and I'll be sure to check in with you later." Rheyna hung up the phone and went back inside.

She pulled out the chair and slid the laptop over in front of her. She waited for it to power up and unpacked the small, handheld Image Master Solo III Forensic unit, also known as IMS. She took one end of the USB cable and plugged it into the IMS port and the other into the laptop. Just like her photo equipment, the bureau hadn't spared any expense on her new gadgets.

The equipment was top of the line and the best that money could buy. She flipped on the power switch and watched the screen come to life. She had used this machine before on other undercover operations, but never in a case like this. She hoped it would work. Annie's ears twitched in time with the beeping. She stood up on her hind legs with her front paws on the counter and leaned in to sniff the machines.

The IMS made a loud beep. Annie jumped back and knelt down with her rear end sticking up in the air. She growled at the machine.

"It's okay, girl. See? It won't hurt you." Rheyna held the IMS up so Annie could smell it. Each time it beeped, she c.o.c.ked her head. As quickly as her interest began, it was over, and Annie took her usual position down at Rheyna's feet.

The screen on the IMS popped up and asked for a fingerprint authorization. Rheyna touched her index finger to the screen and waited for it to log her in. It took her several minutes to type in the commands to prepare the machines for wireless transmissions. It was imperative that she set everything up right; otherwise, the computer on Laura's end would be useless if it couldn't read Castrucci's files.

Within seconds, the machines beeped simultaneously, affording her a huge sigh of relief. The two desktop menus were identical and that meant she had done everything right. The IMS was ready to go and so was she. She shut the machines down and went back to the bedroom to pack an overnight bag. She buried the IMS in between her clothes and slid the tracking CD into the outside zipper pocket.

A glance at the clock confirmed that she still had plenty of time to get to Caroline's. She could feel her pulse rate quickening, a definite sign that she was psyched for the job at hand. This was what she lived for and this was one of the main reasons she had joined the FBI. This would be, by far, the largest risk yet. If she got caught, especially inside his house, Anthony Castrucci would kill her. She had no doubt about that whatsoever. She downed a gla.s.s of wine and then poured another. She was definitely pumped. She didn't know if she was more scared of what she was about to do, or more scared of spending the night alone with Caroline. She decided it was a little of both.

Charlie stood in the doorway with a s.h.i.+t-eating grin on his face. He watched in amus.e.m.e.nt as federal agents rounded up his warehouse workers. Several of them now stood up against the wall with their hands spread out above their heads, being searched. Agents were everywhere and he was helpless to stop them from carrying the computer equipment out of his office. He really didn't care one way or the other. He knew something they didn't, and he also knew he had better make a good show of it to be convincing.

"Who the h.e.l.l do yous' think you are? Yous' can't take those!" he yelled as the boxes on the tables were being opened one by one.

Edwards shoved a set of papers in his face. "These say we can, and in case you can't read, it's a search warrant for this facility, Mr. DeAmotto."

Charlie s.n.a.t.c.hed the papers from Edwards' hand. "This is f.u.c.kin' hara.s.sment, that's what this is." He pretended to read them and smiled as Edwards walked over to the table where several ceramic owls sat. "I don't know what you're lookin' for. We run a legitimate business here!" he yelled to make sure his voice was loud enough for everyone to hear.

Stevens walked over to Charlie and leaned forward, bringing his face mere inches from his. "And I've got some swampland in Ohio to sell you, Charlie," Stevens said with a grin.

Charlie threw his hands up in the air in resignation. "Fine. Be my guest, acause yous' ain't findin' s.h.i.+t."

Edwards picked up one of the owls and tossed it over to Stevens. He turned it over in his hand to inspect it. It looked every bit the tacky knickknack it was, complete with gla.s.s-colored eyes-the diamonds were gone. Edwards shook his head in disgust. He slammed the owl into the concrete, shattering it to pieces. "Tear this f.u.c.king place apart!" he yelled at the agents near the table.