Chapter 71: A Pause for the Cause

Early August, 1985

[“Possibly. The Mobs lawyers already know way too much about what happened. We’ve got to clean up the WHOLE ‘pig sty’ first thing tomorrow, before it’s too late. Here’s the plan... “]

Blake started, “I’ve got TJ, Janet and 3 of your new friends from the Jacksonville FBI office flying in later tonight. Everyone in on the bust of the Omaha FBI headquarters are meeting in a church parking lot a couple miles from the headquarters building, which is in downtown Omaha. I’m going to make sure Charlie, Bob and Greg ALL shake hands with everybody.

“Charlie, you need to make sure NO ONE on the raid is involved in the corruption. Even Moe and Ed. What we’re planning to do could go sideways in a heartbeat if we’re not sure of our team.”

“Can we help?” Mary asked, pointing to the rest of the girls.

“I’d prefer if you ladies weren’t in the way of any flying bullets if this goes badly,” Lane stated matter of factly.

Jamie blustered, “We’re NOT defenseless you know!”

Before I could say anything, she picked Lane up and put him up on the roof of the RV. The guy’s eyes were bulging out of his head, “Whoa! Did you do that little lady?”

“Yes sir and my sisters can too! Only Sarah doesn’t have that ability.”

Linda giggled, “You want down?”

Lane was nodding furiously as Linda picked him up and set him back on the ground. Even Blake was speechless.

“What they’re trying to say is they don’t want to be dismissed just because they’re women.” I said, adding, “I think they realize you didn’t include them out of concerns for their safety. I know you’ve probably already got a plan, but just know they could help if you need them to.”

“I take it they can all communicate with you guys, you know, mentally?” Blake asked.

Everyone was nodding their heads.

Lane smiled, “Maybe you ladies CAN help. Tomorrow, dress in casual business attire so you look like secretaries or legal aides. Nobody will pay any attention to you that way. You can make sure nobody tries slipping out once we begin. Do you ladies think you could do that?”

Mary nodded sweetly, “Now you’re talking! Yes, we can do that, can we hurt anyone who has a gun?”

“Damn straight. You DO need to defend yourselves. Anyone trying to escape DESERVES to feel some pain”, Lane chuckled, “Just try not to kill them if you can avoid it.”

Lane and Blake laid out the plan and we were set to meet them at the church promptly at 6:00 in the morning.

That was a full hour before the FBI Chief was usually in his office. If this worked, ALL of the crooked Agents would be behind bars by 7:30 am.

They left after handshakes all around. I could tell they were still leery of using our girls, but accepted it as inevitable just the same.

We had one more drink to chill out, while watching our campfire wind down to softly glowing embers. By 10:30 the fire was all but out, so we poured a bucket of water on it so we could go to bed.

We were glad we still had over a week to get to Arizona. Since tomorrow was Tuesday, we had 10 days to get there.

Something told me we’d need it.

We set the alarm for 5:00 am and fell into an uneasy sleep.

We were awakened to the theme from “Rocky” blaring at us from the clock-radio. Bob immediately flashed, “I felt we needed to get psyched up, OK?” He was laughing as we all threw pillows at him.

We scrambled to share the small bathroom and get ready. The bathroom situation was the one major drawback of the seven of us all living in the RV for any extended period of time.

By 5:30 we had our travel mugs filled and we squeezed into the truck to go to our rendezvous area. It was a good thing Linda and Sarah were both small!

We were introduced to everyone and I made it a point to first shake hands with the FBI agents I pretty much knew were clean.

I wasn’t disappointed.

Jacksonville, Florida’s FBI Section Chief Jim Wilson, Agent Mitch Milner, Agent Carol Lambert and Agent Steve Appleby all shook my hand warmly, saying they were glad to see Greg and I again. Carol expressed disappointment that Melody wasn’t here.

I introduced them to the rest of my Family and Carol giggled, “Now I know why Melody said what she did!”

I was then introduced by Lane to his Deputies. Deputy Shane Adams, who wasn’t in the office yesterday during the arrest, gave me some VERY bad vibes.

I frowned and stared at Lane.

Big Ed and Moe picked up on it and slowly moved behind him. I wanted to check the rest of the Marshals before doing anything obtuse.

The other three, who’d paid-off the bets yesterday were all good. I went back to Shane and grabbed his hand roughly and really squeezed, (both mentally AND physically.) “Why have you been leaking information to Chief Benedict?” I yelled at him.

He tried to pull away, but was held by Moe and Big Ed. I squeezed harder and caught his eyes, “You WILL tell us why, RIGHT NOW!”

He shuddered, then slowly said, “I didn’t have any choice. About six months ago, he invited me to their Friday night poker games and I lost a lot of money to them. The next week, they let me go double or nothing and I lost over $1,500 more and couldn’t pay. They gave me a list of names and told me that if I would call him when anyone on the list was ever going to be apprehended, they’d let me slide on the debt. By the time I realized that the list was all Mob guys, I was in too deep. I tried to tell them I didn’t want to do that anymore, but they threatened to kill my family!”

“You could have come to me, Shane. Now you might lose everything.” Lane took a deep breath, “What did you tell Benedict, spill it, I need to know everything.”

Lane didn’t know that Shane had no choice but answer truthfully. I was still holding Shanes hand.

“Yesterday I told him you arrested Dewey Mountebank and 6 of his men. He was furious that I wasn’t with you when you took him where ever it was that you did. He knows we’re meeting this morning and he suspects we’re going to move him. I’m supposed to tell him when we leave and where we were taking him.”

Lane continued, “Did you tell him about our out of town ‘brethren’ being here?”

“Yes, he knows that Chief Bryant, Ed and Moe flew in for the bust. He wants me to call him as soon as I know why they flew in for the bust, since he wasn’t notified by the Deputy Director that out of town Agents were being used in his territory. I think he’s nervous about that.”

Lane told me to put Shane to sleep while we figured out a slightly different plan.

TJ got on his cell phone and called the Deputy Director of the FBI. He talked for a few minutes, then hung up, grinning. “We’re going to ‘divide and conquer’. The Director himself is calling Chief Benedict right now. He’s going to be told that Janet and I and several other Special Agents are going to form a joint task force with his ‘best Agents’ to apprehend several Mob bosses in the area.

“I want Shane to call him right after that and inform him that the Marshals have Dewey and his cohorts in a transport bus, headed for the State Pen in Lincoln.

“Benedict will be between a rock and a hard place. He won’t know what to do first. He’ll need to contact his friends with the Mob and warn them, but he’ll also have to try and rescue Dewey. He’s bound to panic and may get stupid if we’re lucky.

“He doesn’t know that all of his phones have been tapped and we’ll get ID’s on everyone he contacts. I’m guessing he’ll send his accomplices or most of them to intercept the transport bus. He can’t take a chance on a clean Agent interfering in the rescue. Whoever he sends won’t know that Dewey WON’T be on the bus. Bob, Greg, Blake and his crew WILL be! Lane, I’d like at least two of your men to be with them in case it gets crazy. You will accompany Janet and me, along with our Jacksonville crew to retake control of the Omaha office. Charlie and his girls will do exactly what we planned to do last night. Does anybody have a problem with that?”

Everyone flashed a thumbs-up and I ‘instructed’ our boy, Shane to call Benedict with the story.

It was obvious Benedict was in full panic mode.

He kept telling Shane to stop the transport bus himself. I had Shane whisper that he wasn’t going to be left alone and couldn’t do it by himself. We could hear Benedict cursing about his being a wimp and hung up.

The bait had been swallowed!

The bus was loaded with Bob, Ed, Moe and one of the Deputies, while Greg, Blake and the other Deputy were in a nondescript Ford conversion van, following at a distance. Their plan was to let whoever might intercept the bus get between them.

I wished Greg was with me, but I just had to ‘Man-up’ and do what had to be done. I understood TJ’s concern with the danger our decoys might face. The transport bus had blacked out windows that were supposed to be bullet proof. Lane explained that high-power armor piercing bullets COULD get through them.

Using Greg’s truck, the girls and I went to the FBI office first, so we could get into position unnoticed. The office was on the fifth floor of the Federal Courthouse building.

Lane had given us a floorplan, showing where the girls should hang out, to stop anyone from leaving. TJ and the rest were just minutes behind. We’d all been shown pictures of Benedict and some of his alleged conspirators, so we’d be able to recognize them. It was a picture of his ‘card-shark’ buddies and him.

I waited just outside the office door until TJ and crew showed up. He’d positioned a couple of the Jacksonville Agents to be in strategic locations, should our girls see someone trying to escape.

TJ was heading towards Benedict’s office when his secretary or assistant tried to stop him from going in. She’d been on the phone and looked harried and nervous. I took her hand and she looked at me angrily, “Will you let go of me!” I caught her eyes and her vitriol melted. I pushed her hard, “Write down everyone you called and were about to call with their names and numbers, please?”

“Umm, ... okay, anything else?” she asked meekly.

I got a vision. “Yes, who did Benedict send to intercept the transport bus?”

“Ummm, Mercer, Spurlock, Smith and Burleson. They were told nobody was to survive, including Dewey.”

“Good, now finish that list and DON’T make any more calls, do you understand? When you finish, go to sleep at your desk.”

She just nodded expressionlessly.

I flashed Bob and Greg to be super careful, as they might try something crazy. They said they heard and saw everything and that they were ready.

All four Agents were in the photo we all had.

This was going down just as planned until I heard gunshots coming from Benedict’s office.

Prepared for the worst, I ran to the door and peered in.

Benedict had been shot numerous times and Janet and Steve looked to have been hit.

“The stupid bastard tried to shoot his way out of this,” TJ screamed, “he must have thought the jig was up. He caught us with our pants down. We thought he was just following us out of here to go on the mission when he opened fire. Thank God we had our vests on!”

Benedict looked to be dead or about to die. He had at least 5 holes in him.

He must not have had HIS vest on.

“Do you want Linda and me to save him?” I asked, pointing at Benedict.

Linda flashed that she was almost there.

TJ scoffed, “Shit! It WOULD be nice to get some information out of him so yes, but just enough so he doesn’t die right away. This bastard doesn’t deserve any ‘happy endings’. The only ending he deserves is prison or the morgue!”

By now the entire office was flooded with local officers and other Agents. Mary and Carol had stopped two Agents who were trying to flee. Mary had picked each of them up when they refused to halt and slammed them up against the wall. Carol was laughing as she put cuffs on them. When Mary told her that Steve had been shot, she then had to stop Carol from shooting them both.

Mary assured her that Steve would be okay.

After TJ cleared the room of everyone except Benedict, Janet and Steve, Linda and I each took one of Benedict’s arms.

Linda made a point of letting go every few seconds as I flashed that I was getting a boatload of information. I knew I was going to need my hypnosis to recall it all. When I felt he had nothing more to tell us, we let go, to tend to Janet, then Steve.

They’d been shot almost point blank in the back. Luckily their vests stopped the bullets, although, they did probably have broken ribs.

Janet started giggling, trying to hide the happy ending she knew was coming. She would have been successful if not for the huge wet spot on her pants. She snickered and looked at Steve, “You might want to loosen your pants a bit before they touch you.”

“Nah, I’m good.”

He had NO idea what Janet meant.

Janet shook her head, “Just don’t say I didn’t warn ya!”

Steve seemed to get much warmer than Janet had. It also took much longer before he started panting and groaning into his happy ending. He now had a wet spot down one leg of his trousers.

“Holy shit! What the heck just happened? I ain’t creamed my jeans like that since I was a kid!”

I was chuckling when it struck me, “Um, Steve, are you a diabetic?”

He looked stunned. “Yes, I have been since I was little, why do you ask?”

Linda answered, “Do us a favor and DON’T take another insulin shot before you get checked out by your doctor. You might not be diabetic anymore.”

Janet whispered to him, “They don’t just heal ONE thing, they heal EVERYTHING. Seriously, just tell your doctor you’ve felt funny after your last couple shots, like you had to eat a candy bar or something. You CAN’T tell anyone what you may think really happened. Your cure was ‘Top Secret, okay?”

“Wow, okay thanks.”

We finally let the paramedics take Benedict away. I didn’t feel he was going to make it and with Linda continually letting go we didn’t effect much healing. When I went out front, the poor secretary, even amidst all of the chaos, was still sound asleep at her station.

Between TJ, Lane and Chief Wilson they secured Benedict’s office and got on the radio calling all Omaha FBI Agents and department personnel back to the station immediately for an emergency meeting.

They found the current roster and were checking it.

As the Agents filed in, they were all asked to surrender their weapons and were ushered into a secure meeting room. After repeated calls on both the radio and cell phones, the four Agents sent to intercept the transport bus were the only ones not accounted for. They weren’t answering and their phones appeared to have been turned off.

A statewide BOLO (Be On the Look Out) was issued for them and their vehicles.

Greg’s turn.

I was just starting to think we were on a wild goose chase when Charlie flashed that four of the scumbags we were suspicious of had orders to terminate Dewey and everyone with him. They were undoubtedly coming after us. The shit had hit the fan at HQ and I was watching everything through my friend’s eyes. We heard the call go out for all Omaha Agents and personnel to return to base.

We were on I-80 about 30 miles outside of Omaha and about 20 miles away from Lincoln, Nebraska, where the State Penitentiary is located. The Marshall driving our van announced, “We’ve got two dark blue Chevy Suburban’s coming up fast with their lights on.”

I flashed the news to Bob as we weren’t using our radios for obvious reasons. We were following about a quarter of a mile behind the bus when the two Suburbans blew past us. The Marshall on the bus got on the radio, “This is the US Marshals Service. We are transporting prisoners are not prepared to stop until we reach our destination. Please confirm your intentions and state your business, over.”

We got a reply, “This is Special Agent Burleson of the FBI. We have orders to take the prisoners to an alternate location, pull over immediately.”

Then over the radio, came the big surprise.

“Agent Burleson, this is Deputy Director Hodgkins of the FBI, you are hereby ordered to cease and desist. Pull your vehicle over immediately and surrender yourself to the US Marshals Service. THAT is an order, do you copy?”

Something told me that he and his cohorts had no intention of complying.

Suddenly the back window of the lead suburban came down and I saw a grenade launcher.

With no time to think, I started lifting the Suburban in the air. Unfortunately for those in the Suburban, Bob had a slightly different idea.

He tried to make it stop.

Between the two of us doing our thing and the 70 plus MPH the lead Suburban was traveling, it instantly began doing cartwheels end over end down the middle of the Interstate.

Their sudden loss of momentum caused the trailing Suburban to swerve but still crash into it causing IT to roll over multiple times. The bus was now clear and in front of the chaos while our van slowed quickly to avoid the melee.

Suddenly, the trailing Suburban exploded and burst into flames.

I had a sneaking suspicion they might have ALSO had a grenade launcher and accidentally pulled the trigger.

Oooops!

Blake got on the radio, “Attention Nebraska State Police. This is Special Agent Blake Bryant of the FBI. We need an ambulance, fire truck, wrecker and traffic control at mile marker 425 on westbound I-80. There’s been a multiple vehicle accident and fire that is blocking the entire westbound side of the Interstate. Request immediate assistance, over.”

“Roger, Agent Bryant, assistance is 10 minutes out and headed your way. Is your situation with the hostile’s under control? Over.”

“Affirmative. All hostile action has ceased and all perpetrators appear to be neutralized. We appreciate your assistance. Out.”

We approached the lead Suburban that was upside down to see if anyone survived. Burleson was unconscious but alive, still seat belted in the driver’s seat.

The fool with the grenade launcher, Spurlock, was dead. He was wadded up against the back doors. I tried doing Charlie’s thing to Burleson, but the only view I got said his future was going to very short.

He wasn’t going to make it onto the ambulance alive.

That’s when I saw why. I yelled for everyone to take cover.

Big Ed was trying to extricate Burleson when some dripping fuel ignited. Moe was frantically searching for the grenade launcher when the undercarriage burst into flames. We all took cover behind the van just seconds before the flames found the grenade.

KABOOM.

Nobody seemed to feel very sorry for failing to extricate Burleson.

The only one I felt bad for was the poor ME (Medical Examiner) who was going to have to try and identify all of the charred remains.

We had no real reason for hanging around anymore, but out of courtesy to the State boys, we did.

It was a couple hours later before we made it back to FBI HQ. There was a big meeting in progress with several VERY unhappy looking people sitting in handcuffs awaiting their fate.

Charlie was busy in a different office with TJ and a stenographer they borrowed from the court on the first floor. She was typing a mile a minute on her little steno machine.

I’ll let Charlie explain.

Back to Charlie.

As the agents and other employees of the Omaha FBI headquarters filed into the break room area they were told to have a seat. TJ had me dressed up wearing a hat from a local caterer. I was passing out bottled water, coffee and doughnuts as they were taking their seats. What I was really doing was checking them out to see who were honest and who were crooked. I would flash my answers to TJ who was making notes on the roster. As soon as I finished ‘interviewing’ everyone they were told that they were moving into a secure meeting room for a briefing from the Deputy Director of the FBI.