Chapter 8

When he was finished sending his men out, Howard told me, "I have to call the FBI in. They are the ones who really have jurisdiction. We have a relationship with your agency because of people that go through the unemployment process, and it is our responsibility to protect federal employees and property. Some of them could be people we are looking for. Did you see the posters down by the counter? We have a stack of posters near each counter for your people to look at. It's surprising how many people are on the run and figure out how to collect unemployment."

Howard made his call to the FBI and I heard him say to come on up to his offices. When he hung up, he took me out to a lady and said to her, "Deputize this man. Take down his info. I'm making him a deputy Marshal for a while. He's dumb enough to work with us on the Q.T."

Howard said to me, "This is Sarah, don't ask her out for a date, she'll go with you and you'll never get rid of her." He left with Sarah throwing a pencil at his back.

Sarah was about forty, not bad looking, but too old for me anyway. "I'm not that bad. Don't believe what that jerk tells you. The only reason I'm still single is that I haven't caught one of these guys yet. We have a bunch of single Marshals in the department right now, so the odds are in my favor. You're a little young, Honey, so let me deputize you and put some years on you."

"Let's see," as she flipped through a file, "you're the Charles Johnson that Howard wrote up in his report. You're the new rising star over at the Federal Employment Office. I see you have one hell of a service record. You're just the kind of young man our service and this office need. Like I said, you're a little young, but I think we can age you a little."

The lady swore me in, opened a drawer, and pulled out a leather wallet. She flipped it open and copied down the number on a badge inside the wallet. She quickly typed up a card, had me hold still while she photographed me. She glued the photo on the card and laminated the whole thing. "There you go, Honey, you're now an official federal Deputy Marshal. We only go after federal criminals, but we can act as peace officers at any time. If you run into a bad guy and don't know what to do with him, call the FBI. Give the agent who answers this badge number and they'll listen to you."

I put the wallet in my coat pocket and was going to go back in where Howard was. "Honey, the kitchen is right through there," she was pointing in another direction. "Get some coffee in there and be sure to take a donut or two. Now that you're sort of a cop, you have to eat donuts." Sarah laughed as I made my way in the direction she was pointing. "Oh and you can get back into Howard's area by going through the other door there. And I forgot, be sure to hold your badge up when you go through the metal detectors down stairs. Make sure they check your badge and log your badge number. That's their job."

The coffee was fresh and the donuts were still warm. No wonder policemen like donuts. I went into the other office and saw Howard sitting in an office with glass walls. He was on the phone and had someone across from him in a chair. He saw me and waved for me to come in.

I went in the door of the office and set my two donuts and the coffee down on an end table next to a couch. Howard got off the phone and said, "Give the coffee and donuts to agent Barnstead. Go get you and me some coffee too and bring back a hand full of donuts, any kind."

I shook hands with agent Barnstead and headed back to the kitchen. I poured two more cups of coffee and picked up a hand full of donuts. They had carriers, so I put everything in one, along with a handful of napkins and went back to Howard's office.

Howard said, "Mike, this is Chuck Johnson, the guy who started this mess. I've deputized him so you can brutalize and use him if you need. He's an ex-marine that needs a cane to get around because of a fake leg, but I think he left his cane where he had breakfast."

I realized that I had done just that. Hopefully someone saw it and they are keeping it at the hotel desk.

Howard said, "One of the guys picked it up for you when we pulled all the glasses off the table for fingerprints. We wanted to run those guys real fast to see who they were before we started questioning them. They are a real trio. All three were up for manslaughter up in New York and one did some time out in Nevada for planting a bomb in some mobster's car. You were lucky last night. I heard about the tin can alarm you had set up. Pretty slick. It saved your ass, that's for sure."

Mike Barnstead asked, "How long since you've been out?"

When I answered that it was a week ago this past Monday he asked, "How in the hell have you stirred up all this mess in just over a week?"

I gave him a brief synopsis of what had transpired and he said to Howard, "So that's who that chick is you have in quiet custody. You want these guys put away the same? We can hold them for crimes against the government for thirty days without charging them, just like terrorists."

Howard said, "Please do, the more people we take out of the loop right now, the better. If Poppa don't know what happened to his contract people, he might get nervous and do something stupid. At least, that's my thinking right now."

One of Howard's men came in the door, "We have another songbird. It's the four eyed guy that likes to make things go boom. Do you know he had six more detonators in his pocket plus the impound guys found thirty pounds of C-4 in the trunk of their car. They could blow up all of downtown Tampa with thirty pounds."

He looked at me and said, "They didn't think it would take a lot for you, they only used a half pound. You know what a half pound will do?"

I nodded and said, "It would have leveled every apartment in the front there. That's enough to blow a bridge, a big bridge."

"You know it. The guy is in there doing a regular talk show thing. We gave him his rights and told him to talk to a camera we brought in so he knows he's being recorded. I think we've found who blew up the office up in Atlanta last year. This guy has been working for a lot of bad guys all over the country. We need to put his M.O. on the wire and see what kind of unsolved "booms" are out there and question him on them."

Howard looked at Barnstead, "What do you think, should we go pick up Poppa or let him stew? I'm a little apprehensive about letting him hang out. You know he could be out of the country in a heartbeat. He's got a couple of airplanes out on Davis Island. If you don't pick him up, you need to put the airport under surveillance."

Mike Barnstead said, "Let's watch him and the airport. Make sure he doesn't have any other planes around the area, and let's just watch him to see what he does."

Howard jumped up and shut the blinds on his office. Jordan Hawkins was being taken to an interrogation room. Howard said to me, "I don't want him to see you. He may know you were a target and I don't want him to know you're around. We'll try to get some answers from him first."

Mike asked, "You still using that suicide ruse to get guys to talk?"

"Damn right, Mike," Howard said, "It's the best persuader I have. We leave the window open hoping they'll jump. It saves the taxpayers a bunch. Next time you have someone you're trying to break, bring 'em up here and let us talk to them a bit. We won't let them jump, but we know how to scare them."

The four of us in Howard's office went to the observation room for the room where Jordan Hawkins was taken. While one guy read Jordan his rights, the other guy opened a window and looked out. He brought his head back in and said, "Listen, if you decide to save us the money and jump, push out from the building when you jump. There's a lot of foot traffic today."

Jordan had a smug look on his face. The Marshal at the table asked Jordan, "Would you be more comfortable without those cuffs?"

Jordan said, "Yes I would, and I wish to call my attorney."

Before we call your attorney, we want to talk to you for a while. As you know now that you've asked for an attorney anything you say can't be used in court so you're not worth a lot to us. Perhaps you should be recorded as being a jumper."

The other Marshal said, "We have it on tape that you have business, illegal business, theft of government funds using Poppa Nardelli as your contact. We also have it that you were directly involved in hiring some men to get rid of poor Mr. Johnson."

Jordan said, "That honky son of a bitch wanted the special job that I'm saving for a brother, if one can ever graduate from school. As it is, he's the cocksucker that got my Lorna fired. Did you guys take Lorna? Lorna Williams? She's been missing since that Johnson asshole came to find a job."

"So what did you contract Poppa to do to Mr. Johnson?"

Jordan laughed, "You're too much. You know you can't use any of this. I can sing a loud and long song that's worthless to you. I wanted that fucker in a million pieces. Poppa knew just the people to get the job done. I even talked to them. They said it would be taken care of post haste. I should have had them do the White cunt while they were at it. Her rich old man can't even keep her at home. I would be doing him a favor."

The first Marshal said, "You know he's right, we can't use any of this, let's just throw him out the window now. That'll make Nardelli think that he killed himself rather than divulge his deal." The Marshal grabbed Jordan by the collar and began dragging him toward the window.

"Wait, wait, you can't do that. You can't just throw someone out a window, what about your camera you have in here?"

"Christ, are you that dumb? We just get rid of the tape for this camera and say we didn't get a chance to turn it on yet. Get real, man. Come on, Jacob, let's do this guy. I'll bet his head splatters all over."

You could see that Jordan was panicking. "Wait, wait, don't please, I'll talk, I'll tell you what you want."

"Okay then, what kind of deal did you have with Nardelli?"

Jordan fidgeted around a minute then said, "He set up a bunch of fake companies that we pay to supposedly find jobs for returning vets. The companies also provide training for returning vets that were supposedly hired by other fake companies. He got money for training, finding them jobs, and then he had companies that received a subsidy that pays up to half the salary of the men they hired. There weren't any men hired though. We found out the military didn't check on social security numbers or names that we sent in. They just automatically paid the fees we requested, smf paid the other companies as they submitted invoices."

"How much was your take?"

"I only got about a million and a half. Poppa's companies had to spend a lot of money to set up his companies. He made about thirty-five million last year."

Howard waved me out the door. When Barnstead was clear of the door, Howard said to Mike, "Go get Nardelli. We'll be able to track down any corporations that he has quickly. Go get him before he tries to run. Don't use the Tampa police force yet though. They have some ears in there and could warn him. If you want, we can go pick him up. I think we should lock up his restaurant and his offices and keep it shuttered while we investigate."

Mike said, "It'll be done, Howard, you've done a good job on this so far. Maybe you should throw that guy out the window."

Howard laughed, saying, "We actually have a net beneath every window so they can't do away with themselves. It's a great ruse."

Howard stuck his head in the door of the interrogation room and said, "Shut that damn window before the idiot jumps and cuff him to the desk. Come out here a few minutes, we have something else on this guy."

While Howard was talking to his men, I was at another window looking across the street at the hotel that was there. It had one floor with a terrace right at our level. I could see two men carrying what looked like rifles over there.

I turned and yelled, "Howard, get those people away from windows quick. You have snipers on the hotel terrace."

The agents began running. They opened the door where Jordan was and was trying to unlock his cuffs from his chair when we all heard the breaking of glass and a groan. There was more glass breaking and the sound of a round hitting meat. I hopped toward the interrogation room to be pulled back by Howard. "It's too late, don't go in there."

Mike was on his cell phone and Marshals were running for the door. I said to Howard, "Let me go with those guys. I saw them, I might recognize them if they pass me."

Howard waved me out of the office and I joined six men on the way down in the elevator. They flipped their badges open and stuck them in their breast pockets showing that they were U.S. Marshals and one FBI agent. I put mine in my coat pocket as well.

Down in the lobby, several FBI agents were running for the door while more were already running across the street dodging traffic. I said I would take the front lobby while the others ran to the other exits. My cell phone rang as I entered the lobby. It was Howard saying, "For crying out loud, be careful. They got Hawkins and the driver, plus one of my guys is hit pretty badly. These guys are playing for keeps."

He paused for a second, "I've got to call the local cops so we can go floor to floor through the fucking hotel. Those guys can disappear if we don't."

"I'm fine here, you know I'm carrying and I won't do anything stupid or heroic. Just catch the assholes."

He hung up and I watched each person that came down to the lobby. I told the doorman that the building was sealed and no one could go out or come in. He didn't like it, but locked the outside door and went over to the desk. An FBI agent was already there talking to the desk person. He came to me and said, "You probably need to open the door in case of a fire. Only let the law in. Tampa is coming with probably a hundred men so they'll be here in minutes."

He was right, unmarked and marked cars began pulling to the curb in front of the hotel. The doorman had just opened the door when they began running inside. The FBI agent said, "Let's get organized and let's have a six man team hit every floor. I want to have two teams start at the top floor and work their way down. Have four men take the stairs and follow the people down floor by floor, now get."

My phone rang, when I answered it was Howard again, "A helicopter just took off from the roof of the hotel. I didn't know they had a heliport up there. Tell Mike about it as soon as he comes in the door. I have the city and county in the air looking for the bird."

Mike Barnstead walked in the door and I relayed the information to him. He immediately got on the phone and called someone, yelling at who he was talking to paint every target they had in the air and keep track of where they go. He called another number and said, "Come get me, land in the fucking street down by the federal building. I'll clear a spot, but get here now."

He rushed out the door yelling to get the street cleared of cars right then. Uniformed police began clearing the intersection. It was one of the few intersections in the area that didn't have wires crossing all over the street. In minutes, a helicopter landed and I could see Mike and Howard get in and take off.

A Tampa police detective said to me, "You want a break? I can watch the door."

I said, "I'll stay till one of the lead Marshals tell me to leave."

"A real dedicated fed, huh? You guys have soft jobs compared to us guys."

I was a little pissed at what the guy said, but only replied, "Tell that to the Marshal that just got shot how soft a job he has."

The guy shut up and went outside to stand there instead of inside. I noticed that there were three ambulances in front of the federal building. They shouldn't need ambulances for coroner cases. Soon, news media vans were pulling up down the street deploying a bunch of reporters and camera people. I stepped into the lobby a little. The doorman said, "Don't want to be on TV? The cop out there is primping, just waiting to get on the camera."

I just nodded and the doorman asked me, "You're the one who lost his cane this morning, aren't you? I recognize you as you were the one who pointed out the car that was out there. Want some coffee? I think they'll give us some since I can't do any doorman stuff."

I smiled and he went to the restaurant. He returned shortly with two cups of coffee. We drank our coffee before one of the Marshals came down and said, "They have the shooters that were on the helicopter. They forced it down just outside the city limits heading toward Vandenberg airport. The FBI found the rifles that they used, so we can let these people do their business. Christ, this has been a busy day. You started this shit last night or early this morning. How're you holding up?"

I just smiled and nodded, finishing my coffee. I asked, "How come three ambulances? I thought the targets were done."