Chapter 9

When Kevin Carlisle told Sheriff Jumbo Jones that after three strikes, he was out, he was unknowingly prescient.

It was in November when Kevin broke with precedent and went to Jumbo's office. Previously, virtually all contact had been by telephone, but that day was different. And Kevin wasted no time on pleasantries before unloading.

"Jumbo, you're in deep shit. Your empire is collapsing."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jumbo growled.

"There was a coordinated series of raids across the county last night. Amazing what the raiding officers found: There were several stills, a number of major gambling games, and one that's really going to hurt: several whorehouses with most of the girls underage, and some as young as 12!

"Oh, yeah ... And it seems like a number of people picked up in the raids are singing like canaries."

Jumbo was stunned. "That can't be!" he protested. "If ever there would be a raid, I'd be warned."

"Oh... ?" Kevin replied with a raised eyebrow. "Well ... maybe a bunch of rubber checks might have been the problem. Rumor has it that a number of state reps and even a few senators are pissed off, bigtime." With his eyes wide, he asked rhetorically, "I wonder how that could have happened?"

Initially Jumbo had been pissed but by then he was scared. So scared, in fact, that he did something he had never done before: He fired up his private computer with someone in the office with him. The computer was powerful and was connected to a high-speed T-1 data line. His first target was his primary local bank.

Logging in, he checked his balance ... and almost fell off his chair. He had expected to see a balance of somewhere north of two million dollars. What he saw was a balance of $126.50. Then he asked for all activity in the account subsequent to the last statement date. When he got it, he almost died. He found that ten days earlier his account had been virtually emptied thus explaining the subsequent bouncing checks. But the real shocker was the location to which his money had been transferred: It was to his own numbered account in the Cayman Islands. And because it was an account to which money often moved back and forth with his local bank, nothing had been said.

Now in a state of rising panic, he logged in to his Cayman account. When it came up and he saw his balance, he felt that the ground had dropped away beneath him and he was in free fall. It showed a balance of a little more than $500.

"My God!" he murmured. "There was more than $60 million there! What happened?" Checking the activity there, he found that the day following the transfer from his local bank, his Cayman account had been virtually emptied into an account in Luxembourg. The problem was that, like his Cayman account, the Luxembourg account was numbered so he had no way of knowing to whom his money had gone.

The reality came back to Kevin's earlier remark about being out after three strikes. That is exactly what had happened. The Corcorans had moved decisively against him using the good offices of Christina Miller Harrington [Tina Miller Harrington first appears in Kristin.]

Because of their friendship with the Harris family, Caitie Corcoran had met Tina, the girl who could make a computer do almost anything. It had taken some time to get things in place, but once set it all happened quickly.

The first thing Tina did — and the most time-consuming — was to monitor Jumbo's computer, waiting for it to be activated. Because it had high-speed communications, it also had a static IP address. When Jumbo activated his computer some weeks earlier, Tina moved and Jumbo was toast. She had inserted a small worm that had no adverse effect on Jumbo's computer or its operation. What it did do was cause it to stay active even when Jumbo switched it off; although all its indicator lights indicated a normal shutdown, his computer was still running. Once the worm was active, she could access Jumbo's machine any time she cared to.

At that point, she was able to relax. She did, and slowly shook her head in utter amazement. "This is utterly ridiculous!" she grumped. "My three-year-old son could crack this machine ... Hmm ... Maybe I should let him do it just for the practice?" Then she shook her head and answered her own rhetorical question. "Naah. Jimmy would think it's so much fun, he would be raiding accounts all over the world."

The reason for her comments was that Jumbo had not used the most rudimentary security measures. It was, she felt, a reflection of the fact that he considered himself to be omnipotent as well as being above the law, so any security measure would only slow him down.

The result was the first transfer order to Jumbo's local bank, then the transfer from the Cayman Islands to Luxembourg, and at that point Jumbo was cooked. What he, of course, couldn't know was that the money moved with the speed of light from the Luxembourg bank through four other banks around the world to end up back in the Cayman Islands again, but this time at the bank directly across the street from Jumbo's.

Tina was amused at the thought: Jumbo's money had traveled tens of thousands of miles to end up only a dozen yards or so from where it had started. Only now it was in an account controlled by the Corcorans. Since the Corcoran problem was getting rid of money not getting it, Jumbo's money was earmarked for the rehabilitation and education of the underage girls who had been sold or forced into prostitution.

Jumbo was in a state of shock. He was staring at his computer screen transfixed by the shocking development.

When Kevin Carlisle estimated that the worst of Jumbo's financial shocks had worn off a bit, he dropped another bomb: "That's not all, Jumbo," he said quietly. "Early this morning a special grand jury was empaneled. Even though they've only been at it for a few hours, the rumor at the courthouse is they're already about to hand down a whole bunch of indictments ... against you.

"Frankly, I expect you to be arrested before the day is out."

Slowly Jumbo turned in his chair. Kevin was shocked to see that Jumbo had apparently aged years in just the previous few minutes. His face was ashen and suddenly lined.

"It ... it can't be," Jumbo said as if talking to himself. "They couldn't. I ... I own this county."

Kevin just stood there silently.

Suddenly Jumbo's eyes flared. "But ... I'm a law-enforcement officer! Do you know what happens to policemen in prison?"

Then he said softly, "Kevin, would you leave me alone for a couple of minutes?"