Worth Dying For Part 18

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?"

"You, me, Stevens, two Sr. field office agents from L.A, and the Deputy Director," he answered as he chewed on a piece of skin at the edge of his lower lip.

"Did Artie know?"

He shook his head. "And that's what bothers me."

She looked over at him. "I'm glad to hear you say that. I have an uneasy feeling that I just can't seem to shake."

She had been wracking her brains about the mole for quite awhile and it just didn't add up. Something was wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on what that ait' was. Deep down, she knew that Edwards was also thinking along the same lines. She had tried to talk herself out of it, but the nagging in her gut was persistent, and she was starting to regret their decision to allow Rheyna to continue with her mission.

No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't make herself believe that Artie was the leak. It just didn't fit his personality, and it was all too clean-the way it had all been tied up in a nice little bundle and talk about timing-how perfect was that? Ron had verified with Cecil about the missing money from the evidence room. Exactly fifteen thousand dollars was missing from an evidence bag that had been recovered in a drug raid six months ago. For the first time in her career, she was unsure of herself, unsure of how to approach the subject with Kyle. She needed to say something.

"When will Ron get the surveillance tapes from the bank?" she asked.

"He's supposed to get it sometime in the morning and give me a call as soon as he's had a chance to review it."

"You do know that Aldrich Ames was a thirty-year man." She finally said what she had been thinking all along.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She knew that he understood what she was getting at.

He shook his head vehemently. "No way, I don't believe that for a moment."

Even if he didn't like her implication, she was glad that she had spoken her mind. It needed to be said, if for nothing else than to lay everything out on the table.

"I don't like the idea, either, but a good agent once told me to always expect the unexpected, even if it leads you down a road you'd rather not take. That same agent also taught me that instead of looking at the big picture, as most suggest, that I should try concentrating on what's going on inside the frame, because nine times out of ten, the real answer can be found in the details. He also said that those small, little, minute facts tend to be the ones dismissed first, because they seem to go nowhere, but in the grand scheme of things, can be tied together relatively easily."

His features softened as he looked at her. "Let me guess, I'm the guy who said those things."

"You got it. You told me that not long after I became an agent." She smiled at him and focused her attention back on the IMS.

The guesthouse was as nice as Rheyna thought it would be. It was roughly the size and layout of her beach house. The only difference was the amount of bedrooms. Hers had three and this had two. She sat on the couch, staring at the white snow on the TV screen. A glance at her watch told her that Caroline had been asleep for about an hour. She moved Annie's front paw off of the overnight bag lying at her feet, took a deep breath, reached in, and rifled through the clothes for the IMS device.

She took the CD out and tucked it in the front pocket of her sweat jacket. She walked over to the bedroom where Caroline was sleeping. She put her finger to her mouth to tell Annie to be quiet. She could hear Caroline snoring softly and quietly pulled the bedroom door closed.

She quietly made her way over to the front window and peered out from behind the curtain. Everything looked quiet. She waited for the last light to go out in the main house. She was breathing heavy, a roaring sensation echoing in her ears as adrenaline rushed through her veins.

She watched the crisscrossing pattern of a flashlight scoot back and forth across the pavement. The guard was near the kitchen and slowly making his way toward the front of the house. As soon as he disappeared from sight, she slid the patio door open and stepped outside.

She ducked behind a large hedge bush near the edge of the sidewalk that led directly to the back of the house. Her senses were reeling with nervous energy. Every nerve ending in her body felt as if it were standing on end. She inhaled deeply through her nose and exhaled slowly through her mouth. She had to try to get her heart rate down. She was a little too pumped up and felt lightheaded. It never changed. It was always the same. She often wondered if it was anything like how a junkie felt when the rush of drugs. .h.i.t their system.

A low growling sound from somewhere over her shoulder caused her to jerk her head. She felt the muscles constrict in her neck and felt a rush of heat. A very large Doberman was standing behind the fence. He snarled and bared his teeth at her. d.a.m.n-she hadn't counted on the neighbor's dog being out. What if he woke up Caroline? What if she got up and found that Rheyna wasn't there, or what if the guard heard the dog? There was no doubt that he would.

In a matter of seconds, a million what if's raced through her mind. She had to make a decision and make one fast. She knew she only had a few seconds before the guard returned to see what was upsetting the dog.

She looked out across the yard. It was now or never. She took off like a banshee and quickly made her way across the gra.s.s toward the house, while mentally reciting the alarm code she saw Caroline enter three days earlier. She flipped up the security box, quickly punched in the code to turn off the alarm, and waited for the lock on the door to slide. When it clicked, she slid open the door and entered the kitchen.

Leaning against the wall, she took a few minutes to catch her breath. Her heart was throbbing painfully in her chest. She rubbed her hand against it while she waited for her eyes to adjust to the dark. She replayed the house layout in her head. She knew exactly how many steps it would take for her to get to Castrucci's office.

As she made her way over to the doorway, she counted each step in her head. When she reached the doorway that led out into the hallway, she stopped to listen for any sounds that might indicate someone was still up. She continued to count steps-twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight-she was almost there. Twenty-nine, thirty, she was just a couple steps from the dining room, and then she hit it. She had forgotten about the little table. In an instant, she saw her life flash before her eyes as the angelic figurine toppled from the table.

Fueled by adrenaline and pure instinct, she dove downward and stretched her hands out, catching the figurine just before it shattered across the floor into a thousand pieces. Her hand trembled as she set the little statue back on the table.

She crouched down in a sitting position and leaned back against the wall. Slowly, she began to regain the feeling in her legs. Her nerves were already frayed to the point that she was not sure she could stand upright.

After a few seconds, she stood and quickly made her way toward the target room. She counted the steps in her head again, until her hand was firmly on the doork.n.o.b. She said a silent prayer as she turned the k.n.o.b, hoping that the door hinges wouldn't squeak.

Total relief was what she felt as closed the door behind her. She didn't waste any time, going straight for the desk, being extra careful not to knock into anything. She ran her hand along the edge of the desk until she found the computer and then felt for the ON b.u.t.ton.

While the computer powered up, she knelt down beside the desk and fished the penlight out of her jacket pocket. She held the end firmly in place by clenching it between her teeth. She pulled out the IMS unit and turned it on. It made a loud abeep' as the screen popped up.

"s.h.i.+t," she swore under her breath and quickly hit the mute b.u.t.ton. She cursed herself for not setting the mute feature ahead of time. That's the second slip up tonight, she thought. Forgetting about the dog was bad enough.

A noise from out in the hallway caused her to jerk her head up. She quickly turned off her flashlight and reached up to hit the power b.u.t.ton to the computer screen, putting the room in total darkness. There was nowhere for her to go but under the desk. She held her breath as the office door opened. Within seconds, the room was awash in light.

"I forgot something. I'll be right back!" Big Tony yelled from the doorway. He walked over to the desk and stood on the opposite side. From beneath the desk, she could see the tops of his slippers, and if he looked down, there was a good chance that he would see her.

He moved to the side and pulled out the lap drawer. His foot came within an inch of touching her leg. She was afraid to breathe, let alone move, out of fear that he would hear her. She held her breath and waited. She thought about what she would do if he caught her. What would she do? What was the plan? She didn't have an answer.

Her free hand instinctively felt for the 9mm tucked beneath her jacket. She would have no qualms at all about shooting Castrucci if it came to that. She listened as he rifled through the papers on top of the desk.

It felt like forever before he finally found what he wanted. She heard him walk away from the desk and then flip off the light before shutting the door behind him.

She let out the biggest sigh of her life. That was just too d.a.m.n close. She had a death grip on the IMS unit. She relaxed her hand and felt the blood start to circulate through her fingers. She rubbed her hands together to restore the feeling. She wiped the sweat off her face with the back of her sleeve and crawled out from beneath the desk.

It took her a few seconds to turn on the computer and plug the USB cable into the computer port. This time, she checked beforehand and made sure that the volume was off before pressing the enter b.u.t.ton. The menu popped up almost immediately with a adownload in progress' icon. She waited for it to complete the download cycle and inserted the CD into the computer disk drive. She typed in the upload command to run the program on the disk and waited for it to finish.

After doing a check to make sure everything was exactly as she had found it, she crammed the disk in her pocket, removed the USB cable, and made her way over to the door. She leaned her head up against the door to make sure there were no sounds coming from the hallway.

Okay, the easy part's over and now the hard part begins, she thought to herself. She had to get back to the guesthouse undetected. She took a deep breath, opened the door, and waited a few seconds before making her way to the kitchen.

She took special care in avoiding the little figurine on the table and glanced down at her watch. Not bad, she thought. It had taken her less than twenty minutes from the time she left the guesthouse to complete her mission. Oddly enough, it felt like hours.

She ducked away from the sliding door just in time as the guard's flashlight made contact. Jesus, can this be any more nerve wracking?

She waited a couple minutes to give him time to reach the front of the house and then slid the door open. With her back against the wall, she quickly made her way over to the corner of the house. She checked to make sure the guard was nowhere in sight.

She had to make her move now. From her deductions, she figured he was probably coming down the other side of the house and that meant she didn't have much time left. In her current position, she would be the first thing he saw when he came around the corner, and she didn't want that to happen.

She broke out into a sprint across the yard toward the guesthouse. She didn't have much further to go-almost there. She could hear whistling from over her shoulder.

Just a couple more feet and she would be at the large hedge bush.