Chapter 28

Some magical internal clock woke me up just before four. I saw that it was three fifty-eight and reached up to shut the alarm off. The other alarm was set for seven, so I knew the girls would get up to go to school. Didn’t they have Spring Break?

I slid from bed and went to the toilet and then into the shower. The water had just begun to warm up when Janet snuggled into me under the water. We kissed as she told me, “You’re the one. You make me feel so special every day and make me feel like everything we do is for our future. I would have thought that I’d be jealous of the girls, but we all seem to be special to each other. Be safe and come home for more loving from your special women.”

I was showered, shaved, and dressed before four thirty. Janet came out to the patio with me to wait for Chuck. Someone had set a small Mr. Coffee to turn on just before four, so I had a cup of coffee in hand when Chuck pulled up in the parking area. I kissed Janet and said that I’d see her as soon as we were done. I could tell that she was nervous, but I tried to tell her that this was going to be fine.

I took an extra travel cup out to Chuck’s Impala and buckled up. Chuck thanked me for the coffee. He said he had thought his coffeemaker was set to start, but was off by twelve hours. We stopped at McDonald’s to get some breakfast sandwiches on the way out of the park.

This was like I was in one of the training sessions here in the States when I had guys come by the barracks to pick me up for an early morning session.

We parked in the pilots’ parking area and walked to the charter office to pick up our logbooks and the book for the Citation X sitting out front. I began the exterior check while Chuck checked the weather and filed the flight plan. I was finishing when Chuck came out and said, “We’re going to be in some heavy weather from Tennessee through Kentucky and Indiana. Chicago is below minimums and should be clearing in an hour, so we should be okay. We’ll have to go to a distant alternate and wait it out if not.”

We were given a very low flight level that we kept trying to change, but were told there was military activity above thirty-thousand. The soup was boiling when we hit it. I’m surprised we didn’t get a compressor failure or something else from the way the plane was shaking and throbbing. Both Chuck and I had our hands on the yoke trying to anticipate what the plane was going to do. It began to clear and smooth out about two hundred miles out of Chicago. I was glad, because another hour of that and I would have either peed or barfed on myself. I could see relief on Chuck’s face as well. He said, “I sure hope whoever these people are, are worth us going through that. I’ll have to have the plane completely checked out when we get home. Watch all the gauges to make sure we don’t have something that’s shaken loose.”

We were able to get down at the business airport on the west side of the city. Chuck said, “You didn’t get a chance to read the notes for this, but it’s supposed to be some local bad guys trying to muscle in on some counterfeiters. We have the Treasury guys here to help, and the FBI is here because one of the men who is supposed to be here is responsible for wounding an agent. We’re here to make it all happen. The Marshal’s office team leader is supposed to be experienced, but I’ve never heard of him. I’m not sure where he came from, so we need to keep an eye on this guy.”

The car that was supposed to pick us up wasn’t there, so Chuck was checking his file for where the raid was supposed to be while I rented a car with GPS. We had an address, but nothing that was really good to use. I suggested, “Let’s go to where this is and watch for a few minutes. I’d almost bet there is an inside leak and these people know we’re coming. If we’re lucky they didn’t get the warning until late and are moving everything right now.”

Chuck grinned and said, “I like the way you think. Let’s be a thorn in their sides.”

We drove past the front of the house and saw a large U-Haul truck with a ramp pulled out the back. We didn’t pause and went around the block. We looked down the alley and saw at least four more big U-Haul delivery trucks being loaded. We parked on the next street over, and Chuck asked, “What do you think? There are too many of them to pick a fight.”

I suggested, “How about we sneak up close and shoot all the tires out. They will be caught unless they don’t want to leave their presses and printed product if we can disable the trucks. You said you have some tools. What do you have?”

Chuck told me, “I have two MP5s and a fifty caliber with a couple dozen explosive rounds.”

“That’s good stuff. How about each of us take an MP5 and kill the tires. Use the 50 to bottle them up if they try to do anything funny, especially back here. We should be able to collapse most of the trucks back here with a few rounds from that one.”

Chuck said, “You go around to the front, use the MP5 with the silencer and flatten all the tires of the truck up there. Text me when you’re done, and then come back here and do the same. Let’s load up. I grabbed the MP5 with the silencer already screwed on and three magazines. I ran between the buildings to get a visual on the truck. I plinked the tires as soon as I was within about a hundred feet and had a clear view of the house side. I crossed the street and punctured the tires on that side.

I was texting and running at the same time since I figured that Chuck could very quickly get into trouble in that alley. I began puncturing tires on the big trucks while the men were putting more and more equipment in them. There was a lot of hollering and swearing and a stocky guy came running out into the alley looking both ways while waving a pistol around. He was yelling, “Get them fucking trucks moving. Fuck the tires. Just get them out of here.”

Chuck smiled and shoved a magazine of explosive rounds into his fifty and laid it across a trash can. The first truck on the far side exploded. Within seconds each of the trucks in the alley didn’t have a cab on them any longer. I pointed at a balcony above the back door and suggested a round there would discourage anyone looking for us. Chuck put another magazine into his rifle and the balcony disintegrated. I told Chuck, “I’m going back up front in case they try to run from there.”

Men were edging from the front door, trying to see if they would be stopped. I put a couple of rounds in the doorway area with the MP5, and watched them retreat into the house.

That’s when the hair on the back of my neck stood up and I flattened to the ground. Several rounds went over my head and into the house behind me. I rolled into a shallow depression that had been an old driveway and tried to see where the rounds were coming from. The way they had dug into the house made me think that the shooter was higher than the street. I checked the houses and then went back to take a closer look at the porches. There he was. He was on a porch searching for me through a scope. He would have been better off without the scope until he knew where I was.

I leveled at the guy and squeezed. The man’s head exploded. I waited and watched, and then law enforcement cars were screaming their way down the street. All those sirens are going to warn any criminal within a mile to run like hell.

I watched as men came from the vehicles and stood together pointing at the house. There was no organization and no leadership. I wanted to holler for them to just go in and get the bad guys. Chuck was hopefully staying down back in the alley because this was looking to be totally uncoordinated.

I kept edging back until I had the front of one house covering me so that I could duck walk to the back to see if Chuck was okay. I saw him where I left him, but there were no other people from the raiding group. I ran to Chuck and said, “Let’s get the car and drive up on these guys. We’ll let them think that some maverick person decided to do his civic duty.”

Chuck said, “That won’t work. The explosive 50 rounds are military only, so they’ll know we might have been around. Let’s drive to the front and direct getting this mess cleaned up. We probably should get the fire department to put the fuel tank fires out on those trucks.”

We drove around the block and came up to where the men were still wondering what to do. All the men were digging for their weapons as soon as Chuck and I stepped out of the car with our MP5s. Chuck hollered, “Stand down, we have our badges displayed. I want four groups of four with enough cuffs and chains to hold at least a hundred. We’ll invite them out first, and then clear the place the way it’s supposed to be done.”

A dapper looking man in a very nice suit came forward, and said, “I’m in charge here. The men will only take orders from me.”

Chuck looked at me, and said, “How would you handle this?”

“Whoever you are, Sir, this man is Chuck Johnson, the Senior Deputy U.S. Marshal for Operations. You requested him and then didn’t have anyone at the airport to give us a ride. There were no team leader contact numbers for us to call, so we came to where the operation was supposed to take place. They have several trucks in the back of the house and this one up here. The only thing we could do is to disable the trucks so that they couldn’t haul the evidence away. So let’s start over. What’s your name?”

The man sputtered before getting out, “Morris Singletary.” He puffed up and said, “I’m the Deputy U.S. Marshal in charge of the Chicago office.”

“That’s good, Deputy Singletary, but what we need to do now is to clean up this crime scene. We need the fire department to put out some fuel fires in the alley and we should have one of the groups of four back there to cuff those that try to run. Direct your men to announce that a capture is in progress and all the men out here are armed.”

A Deputy came running from the back of the house yelling there was a fire back there that looked to be spreading. I used my cell phone and dialed 911 while everyone was looking at each other. I told the operator that there was a fire behind the house at 7204 Melrose that could be reached by the alley. I also suggested we could probably use some patrol cars to haul prisoners.

No one wanted to announce to the men in the house that they could come out peacefully or we would be coming in to get them. There was so much confusion that I began yelling “I’m a crazy Federal Agent and want to kill me some bad guys. Come out now or die.”

I flipped the selector switch to full auto when there wasn’t any movement, and emptied a magazine into the ceiling of the front room. I hollered again as I switched magazines and five men came running out with their arms up high this time. That started it, and men kept coming out one after another. I pulled the stocky guy who had been in the alley aside when he came by, and said, “Let’s keep you separate. You might have more information.”

Morris was complaining, “We don’t have vehicles to haul all these men. How are we supposed to get them to the Federal Building?”

“Good point, Morris. Call your motor pool and have them bring two prisoner buses. That should do it. Now have your men do a room by room search of the place to gather weapons and other contraband. Come on, you went through the training. Do it by the numbers. Get Treasury in there to see what they can salvage for evidence. I’d like to be out of here by lunch time.”

Chuck was sitting in the car with the door open, grinning at me. He said, “This really is a clusterfuck. I’m calling Tom to find out about Morris as soon as it gets to be nine in DC. I didn’t know that we changed Deputies in charge up here. I wonder if Wanda even knows about this.”

The stocky guy was all chained up now and I had a lead chain to pull him around. I had him sit on the ground, but he said the ground was wet and asked if he could sit in the back seat of the car. I checked his chains and let him sit on the edge of the seat. Chuck said, “Search this guy if you haven’t done it yet. Do it now because these clowns have handcuff keys hidden all over them. See that chain around his neck? What do you want to bet what’s on it.” Chuck pulled the chain and broke it from the man’s neck catching the pair of keys that were on it. Chuck said, “Shoes are always a good place and some have belt buckles that can hide most anything.”

I looked at Chuck and said, “One man can’t do something like this. I need a couple of sidekicks to cover my ass if this is an example of how the Service is run.”

My boss said, “You’ve done everything you should so far. Keep it up and your report will be simple.” A fireman in a clean uniform came up to us, and asked, “What the hell did you blow those trucks up with? You destroyed the cabs of all of them. There isn’t any structural damage to the house other than the back balcony that came down.”

The Treasury people had two big semi-trucks come and park in the street. They began loading all the items in the trucks into their trailers.

Morris was trying to round his men up so that he could leave, but Chuck told him, “Send some men to the lockup to process these men. You need to stay on site until all of the other agencies are done. You personally don’t have to stay, but one of your senior men should be here.”

Morris said, “I didn’t ask any of my senior men to come on this petty raid. I’m only here because someone said you could show up. My office was told the house would be empty when we arrived, so there was no major rush.”

Chuck was really interested now, and asked, “Who told your office that the house would be empty?”

Morris said, “Some guy who said he was from Treasury. Bill or Phil, or something like that.”

Chuck asked, “Did you advise your Regional Deputy in charge that there might be a leak in the system?”

The man scoffed, “Come on, you know that it’s the way things are done. The criminals give us some bad guys and we lay off some others.”

The guy in the back seat said, “We were supposed to be clean all the way to nine o’clock, but these assholes showed up at seven-thirty. I even have a number to call if we were running late so that the raid could be delayed a couple of hours.”

I asked for the number. The man said it was in his shirt pocket. I pulled the piece of paper and didn’t even look at it before I put it in my pocket. Chuck told Morris, “Go make sure your men are thoroughly searching that building. Ask the FBI agent in charge to come see me if you see him.”

Chuck called Tom Crowfoot. “Hey, Tom, I’m at the party we were supposed to have in Chicago. Charles Miller is ready to handle most anything, but he’s going to need a backup. He pushes right in and gets things done, all by the numbers too. Tell me about the Deputy in charge switch here in Chicago. I’ve never heard of Morris Singletary.”

Chuck put his phone on speaker so that I could hear and Tom said, “Morris is the son-in-law of a Marshal and was stuck here in DC complaining. Nick in Chicago was sick, so we sent Morris to watch the store. He hasn’t done shit so far, and reports in even less. I heard the morale up there is about as bad as it could get. The Regional is having a fit because the Marshal who is the father-in-law is one of those absentee guys. I think we’ll transfer Morris back here or out to some station that won’t put up with his attitude.”

“There’s a directive that says all regular Deputies go through our training program, Tom. My Charles Miller just graduated and you were there. If he hasn’t been, Morris will have to go through the Academy before he can be on active duty. The Marshals made that rule and there isn’t any way out of it. My hire date is before that ruling, so I’m good.”

Tom said, “I’m looking his record up right now and see that he’s only been a Deputy for two years. I don’t even see any use of training materials. I can do this. Do you have someone to put in charge up there?”

“Nope, but I’ll find someone. Wanda has a few who she thinks may be ready. This will only be until Nick gets back, but then it could be for a very long time.”

A man with an FBI baseball cap and a lanyard with his badge came up and stuck his hand out. Chuck shook it and asked, “How have you been, Andy. Why are you out here? You should be having coffee and a croissant with your wife about now.”

“You know me better than that, Chuck. I’m out if my men are out. The new guy, Morris, said that this wasn’t supposed to be anything big, but we’ve identified three men on our most wanted list. I’ll bet you and your partner did the whole thing, and then just held them until everyone else showed up. See, you’re even grinning. Introduce me to this new guy with you.”

Chuck said, “Andy, meet Charles, or another Chuck, Miller. He’s supposed to be in Special Ops but he’s doing some grunt work with me for a couple of weeks. Chuck just got out of the Academy and was recently retired from the Marines before that. Chuck, this is Andy Presley, a guy who is crazier than either of us.”

We shook hands and I listened to what the man was thinking. He was rapidly appraising me, and asked, “You look like a face that was on some bulletins about all that money that disappeared from the military a few years back. I know the ‘be on the lookout’ for you was canceled and no warrant was ever issued. I heard that you were living at your permanent home address, so I wondered why the issue.”

I told Andy, “The CID were a little rough and caused me some injuries that knocked me out for several months. I’ll always wonder how all that money could be stolen right under their noses. It’s a long story.”

Chuck asked Andy, “Are your agents going to lead the interrogation of these people? Ask Morris for some of his senior men to help out so that you can get some valuable information while it’s still worth anything. We’re going to be on our way home as soon as we have this place shipshape. Both of us have several things to do.”

All of a sudden, ‘Bang’, then a pause, and ‘Bang, Bang, Bang’. Andy and I were running toward the house, but I turned back and saw Chuck looking at us and then looking at the prisoner sitting in the car. I went back and said, “Go see what’s going on. This is my prisoner anyway.”

Chuck did his hobbled run following Andy into the house with their sidearms in their hands. A man came out of the house holding his shoulder that was obviously hit because of the blood on his hands. I hollered at a couple of Deputies who were standing there to go help the man. I dialed 911 again and said we needed an ambulance for a gunshot wound. I forgot to tell them that I was a Federal Agent. The operator took the address down and was gone. I took the chain that I had for the prisoner and told him to move with me. I went to some other men who were standing by cars and found out they were new FBI agents and were told to remain by the cars. Who knows how other agencies teach their men?

Chuck and Andy came from the house shaking their heads. Andy stopped to assist in doing some first aid on the Treasury Agent. I saw Chuck pull his cell phone and make a call. I heard him say into his cell phone as he approached me, “No, he didn’t have his weapon drawn, so he must have surprised the guy. He killed Morris and a young Deputy, and wounded a Treasury Agent. One of our men put one between his eyes. I sent him in to make sure that his men were being thorough so we could get out of here, Tom. I really thought he had more training than to be doing a structure search without backup. I’ll write it up, but it won’t smell good any way you want to look at it.”

Chuck hung up and immediately called Wanda. He described to Wanda what he wanted from her, and then told her to connect him to her voicemail so that he could dictate his report. It took Chuck fifteen minutes to dictate his report. He talked to Wanda again when he finished, and the two agreed on a name of a Deputy in San Francisco. Chuck told Wanda to hold off on calling the Deputy until he spoke to the Regional. He took the Regional’s cell phone number, hung up with Wanda, and called the Regional.

It was obvious that the Regional didn’t enjoy being disturbed, but this was important and Chuck was higher on the food chain. The Regional didn’t act like he cared that the Deputy in Charge was killed in the line of duty or that Chuck was ordering up the next man to be in charge of the office.

Chuck said, “That guy needs to retire yesterday. I’m going to make that happen,” when that call was ended.

Chuck called Wanda and told her to get the new man on his way, and to also create a retirement package for the Regional Deputy in Charge. I think Wanda was chuckling, because I could hear her say, “Who else are you going to replace?”

Three Senior Deputies showed up to get some direction going and to get some order back into the crime scene. The local coroner showed up, along with CSI people from Chicago, Cook County, and the Feds. It could have been very messy, except that the three Deputies knew how to control a mess like this. I filed a note in my head to interview these Senior Deputies to see if any wanted to be considered for a Deputy in Charge position.

I finally got rid of my prisoner, and Chuck said, “I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry and want to go home.”

“I’m with you, Boss.”

We drove back to the airport, turned the car in, and began the external preflight inspection. The left aileron didn’t seem to line up correctly while I was checking the edges. I let it go and was going to show it to Chuck. The man was anxious about getting home and wasn’t going to want to look at the problem.

He took hold of the big panel when he looked at it, and moved it up and down. The whole assembly came off into his hands. Chuck just said, “Ah shit.”

He called Jimmy in maintenance to tell him what had happened. Jimmy said that he didn’t trust the mechanics in Chicago to do a good job on his aircraft. The man was a mind reader and could tell that Chuck wanted to get home ASAP. Over the speakerphone, Jimmy said, “The crew for the PX-1 is in the simulator right now, so how about I send my crew up in the PX-1 and bring you two back. They’ll be there in an hour.” I think I heard ‘or less’ as the call disconnected. Chuck was smiling again. He locked the airplane up, and we went into operations to find something to eat. They had a first class restaurant, so we both had a small piece of meat with all the trimmings. We finished, went back out to the plane to get our equipment cases and luggage, and watched for the PX-1 to land. It had already landed and was taxiing up behind us. The aircraft didn’t even shut down. Four mechanics got off the plane and unloaded their gear. Chuck and I loaded ours into the luggage lockers and immediately got in the plane, shut the doors, and buckled up.