Mob Princess - Tess DiRosa's Story
Copyright© 2025 by Argon
Chapter 25: New Start
It was a week after Tess’s arrival in Philadelphia. She was bunking with Joey and his family, and Ted had come up from DC by train to spend the weekend with her, but now he was back to teaching Math, and Tess had to report at the field office.
It would be good to meet Brenda Hogget, the SAC, again. She had been fair to Tess and helpful. This being her first day and not knowing what lay ahead, Tess took the car and brought along a travel bag. In the service, you just never knew where you’d sleep the next night.
In the morning, when she did her morning ablutions, she had looked into the mirror, and the face looking back at her was not that of the Tess who had left Philly some five years ago. She had even discovered two or three grey hairs at her temples — the horror! There were some wrinkles, too, showing the wear and tear in her job.
At the gate to the parking structure, she showed the attendant her service badge and was directed to the correct parking spaces, where she left the travel bag in the car and headed for the offices, aiming to catch Hoggett before the woman was too busy.
Approaching the reception desk, Tess did a double take.
“Lucille?” she asked incredulously.
“Hey, Tess! Here you are! Welcome!”
“What are you ... why are you here?”
“Well, when Harry took the job here, he called and asked if I might want to come and work for him again. Since the new SAC in Spokane is a USDA Grade A Horse’s Ass, I didn’t need much convincing.”
“Harry? Harry Gorman is the SAC?”
“Smart girl! Why’d you think you were requested by us? Harry wants to reap where he sowed.”
“I thought Willard wanted to get me out of the White House.”
“Ruffled some feathers, didn’t you? Nope. Harry wants to rebuild this office. Hogget let a few things slide for too long, and the numbers coming out of this place were not good.”
“Is he ... healthy again?”
“You’ll see for yourself. He dropped over twenty pounds once chemo was over. He’s in full remission.”
“That’s great! I didn’t have a chance to talk to him when I got my medal. So he’s the boss around here? That’s swell!”
“You betcha! He’s out and about with his new probie already, but he’ll be back by noon. In the meantime, let me settle you in.”
“Jeez, this is really like coming home.”
Lucille Maynard was still as efficient as she had been in the Spokane office. She also had two staffers now to assist her, and she made liberal use of them to get things done before Gorman was scheduled back. Then she showed Tess her very first own office and arranged with the IT girl to have her logged into the local network and database. This was followed by a round through the office, first meeting SSA Jeff Daniels, another team leader like Tess, only vastly more senior. Nevertheless, Daniels was welcoming, felicitating Tess on her quick rise in the service, and giving her a peek at the current case load they had. It was a bit daunting at first glance, but Tess realized that with prioritizing and filtering, it would be doable. The large backlog also appeared to be one reason for Daniels to welcome her, because his own load was halved in one fell swoop upon her arrival. She left his office with a stack of files which she deposited on her own, so far virginal desk.
She then set out to meet the other agents as they were present. Most of them were older than Tess, with some of them quite obviously looking forward to their pension, but there was some fresh blood, too, agents recently transferred to replace losses in the recent months due to retirement or transfers. The older, journeyman SAs were rather indifferent to Tess’s relative youth. She was just another new hotshot to them. Those agents barely older than her did their best to hide their envy, sometimes not quite successfully. It was something to which Tess had grown accustomed ever since joining DC headquarters, and she shrugged them off.
Shortly before lunch time, Gorman returned to the office, a green probie in his wake, who scooted towards the break room as soon as feasible. Gorman shrugged and grinned at Tess.
“He’s still a bit of a putz, but at least he’s willing to learn. How are you doing, Tess?”
“I’m doing great, Sir.”
“Not disappointed over leaving the glory of protection behind?”
“Not in the least, Sir. The Spokane FO is still the highlight in my career.”
“Yeah, those were great years and a great team, for the most part. It went a little downhill since then. That’s why I could snare Lucille.”
“She’s still amazing, now even more so.”
“Isn’t she? Well, let’s go and have an early lunch together, so I can give you the scoop.”
“Lead the way, Sir!”
In the cafeteria, they had a table to themselves, and Gorman gave Tess an overview over their cases. It was largely like in Spokane, only more concentrated in a much smaller geographical radius. The office was larger with more staff, due to the bigger caseload, and with her joining it, the available agents would be split into two, temporary teams. Gorman envisioned regular rotation between the teams to further cohesion. The younger agents in particular would rotate between Daniels’s and Tess’s teams.
“Are we currently at strength?” Tess asked.
“We need two more seasoned agents, and two more rookies wouldn’t hurt, but to be frank, I wouldn’t mind getting rid of a few of the journeymen. The age distribution is a bit top-heavy. Experience is fine, but we need a good mixture of experience and youthful agility.”
“Well, obviously, I have no impressions of anybody so far.”
“You will get that as you work with them. Right now, we need you to get going on our backlog. Let’s sit with Daniels after lunch and figure out how we can divvy up the warm bodies between you two.”
“I’m not yet a Supervisory Special Agent.”
“But I can give you an acting assignment. Jeff is on board with this. He’s buried in cases, and he’s as happy over your arrival as I am.”
“Yeah, I got good vibes from him.”
“See? Okay, enough of that for now. Have you found a place to live yet?”
“I have my old room in our family home in Powelton Village. My brother and I own it, and he lives there with his family, but I still have my room. Come the fall, my fiancé and I will look for a house of our own. He has to finish the school year in Bethesda, but he’s already looking for a position here in Philadelphia.”
“Fiancé?”
“He’s a few years older, an Army vet. He’s teaching Math and Physics in High School.”
“Sounds solid. He’s willing to move to follow you?”
“Yes. He can see that I make more money, and he’s happy just teaching. He’ll have my back and I’ll have his.”
“Good for you. You’ll have more regular hours here than around the White House; that should help.”
“My thinking, Sir.”
After lunch, she spent over two hours going over the personnel files of the agents together with Gorman and Daniels, and they haggled out a scheme by which Tess’s initial team would consist of four field agents, one extra to fill in as needed, a G13, step 10 special agent to hold the fort and relay information to the field agents, and a rookie coming in from Laurel by late June. Daniels would have more agents and also more cases, but they agreed that it would be better if Tess learned the ropes with a smaller team. A year from then, they could sit again and haggle.
Since the five agents that would form her team were available, Tess spent another two hours with them to get a feeling of their personalities and their experience, and she was a little exhausted when she finally called it a day.
On the drive ‘home’, she reflected on the day. Gorman wanted performance from his agents; that much was clear. Tess would have to bring her A game to fulfill the expectations, but she would also have her own small team, Special Agents Jamal Jefferson, Trudy Willcroft, Alan Barrington, Christina Horten, Max Doerfler, and Simone Clare, in decreasing order of seniority. Jefferson had seemed a little worn, but the prospect of staying mostly at his desk and being Tess’s right hand man had sat well with him. Willcroft and Barrington formed one partnership, and Horten and Doerfler the other, with Clare filling in where needed. Maybe instituting some rotation in the partnerships would further cohesion within the team, Tess mused. It was something to think about.
When she arrived at the house, the others were already there. Deirdre had spent the day in home office anyway, working her workstation and teleconferencing in between, while Joey had spent the day in the lab. Eileen was still upstairs, cramming for her finals.
“How was the first day?” Joey asked.
“A little bit of everything. This won’t be a sinecure for me. I’ll have to buckle down and get moving.”
“Poor you, making 160k and having to work for it,” Joey grinned.
“Ha-ha! The good thing is, the office has a new SAC. He’s my former SAC from Spokane, Harry Gorman. He even brought Lucille with him, his assistant. She’s great, but Gorman has this ambition to turn the field office into some elite force, so I better get cracking.”
“Oh, before I forget: you remember the Giorginis, down the street?”
“She of the many male visitors and illegitimate children?” Tess asked with raised eyebrows.
“Well, her oldest, Sandra, landed in the clover, it seems. Felix got her started after the business with those tabloid sleaze balls, you know, doing the commercials for the Certus drug stores. She was picked up by a big agency last year, and now she’s moving her mother and siblings to a bigger house out in Bryn Mawr. Now, that’s not exciting in itself, but Mister Morton, their landlord, was left with a rather run-down house, and he wants to sell. I met him this morning. He hasn’t even spoken to a realtor.”
“The house must be in a lousy shape.”
“Yes, it definitely needs a major renovation, but the lot is rather spacious, and it’s a solid brick structure with concrete ceilings.”
“You think it might be something for Ted and me?”
“Definitely. I’ll have to buy you out here, or you take this house and buy me out, but half the value of our house will already pay for Morton’s house, with the shape it’s in. Then it’s just what Felix will charge us for the rebuild.”
“Jeez, you’re a nerd. How come you’re so business-savvy?”
“You haven’t been to any family events recently. Half the family is involved in one of Uncle Vince’s businesses. It’s like The Apprentice sitting with the cousins these days.”
Tess chuckled. “Yeah, Uncle Vince and Felix are really doing well, and they’re letting everybody wet their beaks. Just like the bad old times, only legal.”
“I can give you Morten’s number. You wanna call him?”
“Oh, give it to me already! You wouldn’t mind me living that close?”
“Tess, you’re my sister. Deirdre and I love you. We’ll be there for you come what may. Capiche?”
“Capiche,” Tess acknowledged and then gave Joey a crushing hug.
“Uncle Vince spilled the beans about the deal you made with him. At first, I wanted to strangle you,” he whispered into her ear.
“You and what two dozen nerds?” she laughed, but then turned serious. “Joey, you saved my life back then. You’re just a bookish nerd, but you threw yourself between me and the bullets. In a way, you soured any guy I met for me; they all couldn’t live up to my big brother. It was only when I met Ted that I realized I couldn’t find a guy like you. You’re unique. I found Ted, though. He’s able to take me with my baggage. He accepts me as his equal, too.”
“Nobody’s your equal, Tess.”
“Yeah, there is that, but then again, he’s rock solid and he’ll have my back, and I realized that this is what I need in a man.”
“He’s a swell guy, and I’ll give you my blessing,” Joey grinned, but Tess just nodded.
“That’s important for us.”
After dinner, Tess called Ted. They talked about their days, with Ted claiming that he missed her, and Tess concurring that being separated sucked. At school, Ted had been in a confrontation with one of the coaches who had lobbied for one of his students whose Math grades had made him ineligible for playing on his team, claiming that he needed the youngster. Ted did not budge, of course, and the coach took it to the acting principal, who also tried to persuade Ted to ‘give the boy a break’. Ted’s smart-ass answer that he was already giving the boy a break, only from varsity play, was not well received. Tess laughed brightly hearing that, relating that Benjamin Franklin Preparatory Academy had treated high school sports as an aside, meant to give the students an opportunity to get physical exercise and develop team spirit. Ted, still exasperated over the acting principal’s meddling, agreed that a private prep school was likely a better environment for science and math teachers.
Tess then pitched Joey’s idea to buy the Morton house and have it fixed by DiRosa Construction, also mentioning Joey’s off-the-cuff cost calculations.
“So we’d live down the street from your brother and his family?” Ted asked.
“Yes, it’s four houses down the street, same side. The house has no garage, but a drive way on one side. We can have a carport built there.”
“Why is it a fixer?”
“Old Morton let it to a single mother. She’s got a brood of four children, likely all from different Johns. She used to entertain visitors for a living. At least, that was the word in the neighborhood. She lucked out with her eldest. Sandra is a little beauty and not as dumb as her mother. She helped out the DiRosas at one point, a few years ago, and Felix saw to it that she was tutored and finished high school. Now, she’s got a modeling contract with a reputable agency, and she moved her whole family to the burbs. The house is in a poor shape because Morton never invested a dime in the upkeep. Sarah Giorgini was in no place to complain, seeing that she probably made her rent payments in ‘services rendered’ to Morton. She had a place for herself and her children, and he had a very cheap mistress, probably claiming the rent losses in his tax returns.”
“Jeez, you want us to move into a house of convenience?”
“It’s a house, and we may get it on the cheap.”
“I can take the train on Friday and have a look at it.”
Tess laughed. “Cheap is the buzzword? You’re really of Scots ancestry.”
“Not every family has ill-gotten riches to lead a life of extravagance.”
“Touché! Well, my father was an honest businessman, but he probably got jump-started by a loan from his father.”
“Oh shit, Tess, that was insensitive of me!”
“Don’t sweat it. My Scots stereotyping was, too. Well, I will certainly appreciate your visit, and not just for viewing that house.”
“Yes, I may want to view you first.”
“Keep that thought until Friday!”
“Oh, you bet! Can we Skype later?”
“Oh, you bet!” Tess laughed. “I don’t do naked Skyping though. That’s just too risky. I could lose my job.”
“Yeah, that’s too much risk. I’ll just console myself by watching internet smut.”
“I haff vays to search your browsing history!”
“Okay, okay, I’ll suffer withdrawal then.”
“You better save up for the weekend anyway, Lover!”
For the rest of the evening, Tess spent time with Joey’s family. Little Gianni was now three years old and warming up to his so far strange aunt. He insisted on sitting in Tess’s lap for the dinner, and then insisted that she’d read him a bedtime story. It was after 8:30 before Tess emerged from the sleeping boy’s room and rejoined the others.
Eileen joined them, professing total exhaustion, after spending all day at her desk and cramming. She lasted no longer than her first beer before she went back up to catch some sleep.
“Your friend Holly visited the weekend before last. Those two spent three days no further than two feet apart,” Deirdre told Tess. “She’s a great woman. She and Numi hit it off. She even visited Numi’s precinct on that Monday. Of course, Eileen didn’t let them go alone.”
“You think there may be more than just curiosity on Holly’s side?” Tess asked.
“Holly said that she’ll have to rotate out of the tactical team in the summer, and they want her to move to an admin job.”
“Oh, shit! So she’s looking at other options?”
“Might be. Numi says she’d fit in well with her qualifications.”
“That would be great. She’s a good friend, even though I haven’t met her all that often.”
“Well, let’s wait and see,” Joey closed the subject.
They talked some more about local politics and initiatives, but come 10 pm, Tess was beat, too, and after a Skype session with Ted, she got ready to sleep.
Over the rest of the work week, Tess went over their cases with the agents in her team. Those were a garden variety of routine felonies which could be handled by any qualified agent, and she let her team members off the leash to handle them. However, she pinched one case for herself and worked it with SA Clare, their jumper. A senior researcher at Penn State Cancer Institute was suspecting one of his graduate students of scientific fraud. Since his work was funded by a National Institutes of Health grant, this was a case for the Secret Service. Tess was interested for two reasons: First, a similar case in the 1990s had been presented to them during their secondary training at Laurel, and second, she could always pick Joey and Deirdre’s brains if something was beyond her understanding.
Hence, Wednesday morning saw Tess and Simone Clare on the road to Hershey, PA. Tess had arranged to meet the senior researcher, Dr. Keller, off campus for a first interview, and they spent two hours in a coffee shop listening to the man’s suspicions, brought forth in a Swiss-accented English. Having grown up with a certified life science nerd in the house, Tess was able to get the gist of Keller’s suspicions, namely that the student, Eric Warner, was manipulating data from a machine called Fluorescence-activated Cell Sorter or FACS, thus obtaining alleged proof for his major hypothesis. However, his data went against the results of other students and outside colleagues, who worked on related subjects, and Warner was keeping a very sloppy laboratory journal, making it impossible for Keller to assess the results. He also obtained the results working late in the night when he was alone in the lab.