Chapter 2

Chuck

There was a noise in the room. I couldn’t place it right away, but I finally realized it was my cell phone that was still in my pants pocket. I moved over Tiani and Lena and hopped to my pants. I pulled the phone from the pocket, flipped it open, and said, “Johnson.”

The voice was very dry, very curt, “We have a job for you. You need to be in DC in four hours.”

I said, “Who are you?”

The voice once again with a very curt response, “We have a job for you. Get in your plane and get here. You have four hours to do it.”

While I was listening to this, I slipped on my leg and went to the kitchen. I responded to the caller, “I don’t know who you are or why you are even calling me. I’m on vacation, leave of absence, possibly not working for you any longer, that is if you are one of my employers. Who are you?”

The same voice said, “This is an order. You must comply.”

Now I was pissed, “When you find someone who knows who they work for and has a name, call me.”

I pushed the end button and closed the phone. I needed to pee so I was standing over the commode when my phone rang again, the caller ID showed ‘Restricted.’ I answered again, “Johnson.”

The same voice began all over again, “This is an order. You are to be at Andrews within four hours and the clock has been ticking.”

I said into the phone, “Hang on a second.”

From the bathroom I went down the hall and into my office. I found my tiny recorder and plugged it into my cell phone. As I pushed the power button on my PC, I spoke to the voice on the phone.

I told the voice, “You know what; I don’t work for anyone any longer. You can’t order me to do anything. I’ve given you a choice and I will repeat it so you can write it down or push the button for your recorder. If you want to talk to me, you will identify yourself, who you work for, and who you are calling for. I don’t recognize your voice and for all I know, no one knows I’m even back in the states yet.”

Continuing, I said, “I’m going to hang up now and probably go back to bed. Have a nice day.”

“Wait, wait, you don’t understand, I cannot talk over an unsecured line. You must do as you’re ordered. I’m in charge now, John Scott is no longer here and I am in charge of missions. You are the appropriate person for what is needed. Now get your ass in gear and get here in about three hours and forty minutes.”

Now I was really pissed, “Or what? You’re going to dock my pay? You’re going to take my office away from me? If you’ve taken John Scott’s place, you have a long way to go to fill his shoes.”

The voice was now pissy. “I’ll have you know I have almost fifteen years in federal law enforcement. I have been an FBI agent and head of offices for over five years. I know my job and will probably exceed anything your John Scott ever did because I was FBI. Now I’m ordering you, get in one your airplanes and get here.”

I said, “I didn’t want to do this, but it looks like it is necessary. Don’t call me, I’ll call you. I’ll make arrangements with the local station chief to turn in any equipment that is checked out to me. Goodbye whoever you are, I am no longer a deputy.”

“You can’t quit, you are sworn to uphold the law and sworn to follow the commands of this office.”

“You know, you’d better talk to my Marshal. I know he is only head of my area and not necessarily over all of the areas I used to oversee, but he can help you understand my position.”

The guy wasn’t going to quit, “Your position has already been slated to be eliminated. I should have authorization to close your office and transfer you to DC within the week.”

“You don’t listen, do you? I don’t work for you any longer. As of a few minutes ago I am no longer a U.S. Deputy Marshal. I will go to my local PC and send you my resignation right now. I’ll send it to you and the Marshal over my specific area. That should just about cover it. Now goodbye and go take a Dale Carnegie course. You need it.”

The voice was still sputtering as I closed my phone. It rang again, but still showed ‘Restricted’ so I just pushed the button for the call to go to voicemail.

Just to be sure, I played what I had recorded back before hooking up the USB cable to the PC, transferred, and saved the call as an MP3 file.

It only took a minute to compose my resignation letter and to send it off. Oh yeah, I didn’t get his e-mail address. That’s okay; I’ll send one to John’s address, the general office mailbox, and a copy to the Marshal.

I included the MP3 file in the e-mail so anyone who saw the message would be curious enough to listen to it. On the cc: of the e-mail to the Marshal, I included the note, “Listen to this and be sure to send the man to Dale Carnegie.” I figured he would get a laugh out of that.

The time on the PC said six thirty. Oh boy, less than three hours sleep. I can see this is going to be a tough day. I went back to my closet to put on some shorts and my sport leg. I was going to get back into the habit of exercising.

I had just begun to walk before running, when my cell rang again. The caller ID said, ‘Jeff Davis.”

Flipping the phone open I said “This is Johnson, how are you, Marshal?”

“Not worth a shit, you asshole. That sanctimonious prick that was hired in John’s position just called me to tell me you refused a direct order. He wants to prosecute you.”

“Marshal, take it easy. He can’t prosecute me for anything. First, even if I was still a Deputy Marshal, you can’t prosecute someone for refusing a mission that could have dangerous risks beyond what the deputy is willing to take. Since the man wouldn’t tell me what he wanted, I have to assume it is dangerous. Second, if you will turn on your PC and check your e-mail, my letter of resignation is there. He can’t prosecute a civilian. There is no federal law that says a citizen has to do something for the feds except pay taxes. I do that, I do that a lot.”

The Marshal said, “Wait a minute while my PC boots up. Didn’t he tell you what was up?”

“No Sir, he called and gave me four hours to be in DC. He didn’t even tell me his name, and in the beginning, would not tell me what agency he worked for or any details about what he wanted of me.”

“Okay, here it is. What’s this MP3 file?” The Marshal asked, not knowing what it was.

“Click on it and make sure your speakers are on. You’ll hear the second call he made to me. Listen to his tone of voice and his manner. It definitely isn’t very likeable.”

I could hear the Marshal listening to the recording. When it was over he asked, “Did you tell him you were recording him?”

“No Sir, the man was threatening me, and I had a need to protect myself, so I recorded the offending conversation.”

“Oh, Johnson, why didn’t you take the job instead of letting the DOJ hire someone? I did like your suggestion for him to take a Dale Carnegie course. He sure could use it. That’s not the whole problem, though. He is lobbying Justice to get rid of a few Marshals, me included. He thinks that we should be put out of the service as we are too old and not up to his standards. I’m not sure, but he may have his head up someone’s rear end. Oh, you’re not recording this, are you?”

“No Sir, you talk straight, I know who you are, and your name came up on my caller ID.”

The Marshal said, “Oh yes, another big deal with him. He has all of our calls being listed as restricted because he doesn’t want anyone to caller ID him or us. I like to let people know I’m calling. I get a lot more respect that way.”

“So when was anyone going to tell me the man is closing the office here. What about Wanda and the girls?”

Marshal Davis said, “He did say that, didn’t he? He can’t close your office without the consent of all of the Marshals, and I only know of one who might side with him. That’s the northern Midwest Marshal whose regional you put in jail. He might not be over that yet. He knows it was necessary, but he feels he should have been the one to catch him.”

I said, “You guys are the politicians. It’s your job to get us funding, equipment, and give us some support and guidance when we need it, or at least when I used to need it.”

He said, “Don’t go off half-cocked. Our nemesis may have overstepped his authority. You’re still on leave of absence, right?”

“Yes Sir, I have at least another thirty days of injury leave I haven’t used. Do they pay me for that?”

Jeff Davis said, “You get that, your vacation that you haven’t taken, and any other expenses that we might still owe you. Your Wanda keeps a tight reign on your expense vouchers. She splits them between agencies very well. That’s another thing Ronald was bitching about. He doesn’t think you should work for two separate agencies, even though you are paid only one check. He hasn’t been told what agency, only that you are a covert agent when needed.”

“So the man’s name is Ronald, huh? What’s Ronnie’s last name?”

The Marshal chuckled, “Oh yeah, he didn’t ever give you his name, did he? His name is Ronald Evans and you may be right, he could be a Ronnie but that’s no excuse for his actions ... I think the DOJ person that put him in place may also be a flamer. Just what we need, you guys will have to learn to give good blowjobs for promotions.”

“That is still no excuse to talk to me the way he did. As far as anything else, don’t include me, Marshal, I’m no longer a deputy. I still have my Secret Service card, but I can get rid of that too, if necessary.”

“Don’t do that, Chuck. You already have them nervous about you and Lisa dancing over staying in or not. They need you, both of you, and I’m going to make sure you receive no more CIA backed missions so you don’t have to work with them.”

There was a pause before he said, “Let me get this voice file around to the other Marshals and we will confront DOJ about the guy you’re calling Ronnie.”

As soon as I closed my phone, it rang again. It was the voice. “I am going to prosecute you for taping my call to you earlier. I’ve already applied for a warrant for your arrest. I’m also blocking the Marshal from any e-mail transmissions from his residence. I’ll show you, you homophobic asshole. I’m going to bury you.”

I answered him, “Hey, I even defended what may or may not be your life style. You’re out of line Evans.

I heard him exclaim, “Fuck you,” as he hung up on me. Now he was acting like John Scott.

I pushed the off button to my recorder and transferred the file to my PC. I put both of the files on two separate memory sticks then recorded three DVDs of the two conversations.

The man was obviously monitoring my cell phone, so I went up to Wanda’s apartment and knocked on the door. John answered it and said, “Need some coffee? I have some made but you’re going to have to put up with Wanda in her nighty.”

I followed John into his kitchen, and found Wanda sitting at the counter that divides the kitchen from their living room. John poured me some coffee, and I was going to ask Wanda to use her cell phone, but I had a better idea. “John, can I borrow your cell phone for a minute?”

He shrugged his shoulders and picked it up from the countertop by a wall outlet. He unplugged the charger and handed it to me. I handed Wanda a memory stick and said, “Hang on to this, it could become important.”

I dialed the Marshal’s home number instead of his cell phone. He answered, “Davis.”

“Marshal, this call is probably being monitored and recorded by Ronald Evans. He monitored our last conversation and said he has applied for an arrest warrant for the unauthorized recording of a federal conversation. I think the threat thing still applies, so I’m not that worried other than the harassment. I have a few important things happening right now. The man said he has cut off your e-mail access so you can’t advise any of the other Marshals. I do think you should find a pay phone somewhere and make a few telephone calls. If Evans is listening, he may try to stop you, so be careful. I’m going to be very careful of my actions until this is resolved. You are or were my reporting official and I have notified you of my resignation. I am not recording this call so be careful, Sir, and find a phone.”

Wanda was setting there with her hand over her mouth. She asked, “What in the world started this?”

I told her, “Go listen to the recordings and you’ll have an idea. Don’t get too pissed, just listen. We both need to go into the office real quick to get a few things and our telephone directory. Before you turn on your computer at the office, unplug your data cable so it doesn’t show on the server tracking. Go listen to the recording and get dressed; we need to get going.”

It took me fifteen minutes to SS&S. While I was dressing, Lisa came in, “What’s going on? I heard you talking on the phone and you didn’t sound very happy.”

“There are some CDs and a memory stick on my desk. Listen to the two files so you have an idea of what’s going on. You might even want to make several more copies to be on the safe side. Scatter them so they can’t take them all. Wanda and I have to get to the office right away to handle some stuff. You can call our Secret Service contact and advise him of what’s happening and see what they can do. Meanwhile, I gotta go.”

Lisa asked, “Shouldn’t I go with you?”

“No, you probably should get dressed and be ready, but don’t come into the station right now. Go listen to the phone conversations and get dressed.” I gave her a kiss and met Wanda as we were going out to the cars. Instead of using Wanda’s or my car, I used the girl’s Expedition and left the area by going out the trailer park entrance. I was watching to make sure I wasn’t followed, but I did see a car watching the business park drive.

Wanda asked, “Do you think they have my phone tapped too?”

“They might, Wanda, so let’s do ourselves a favor.” I pulled into a big gas station and bought four cell phones with the minimum minutes each along with a regular charger and a car charger. I was almost laughing as I used one of my American Express debit cards to pay for it. Totally untraceable and the card would not trigger anything anywhere.

I plugged in one of the phones into the car charger and handed Wanda the phone, the regular charger and told her, “Put this on a charger as soon as you can and don’t call John as they have his number now, and if they have a court order, they can listen to his phone now too.”

It didn’t take long to get to the office on a Saturday morning. Before pulling into the parking area, I drove past and looked for any out of place occupied vehicles that could be watching the lot. We let ourselves in the back door, opened the seldom used private elevator, and rode up to our floor. We were in our office in seconds and went to work. We both pulled our data cords to disconnect our PCs from the server. Both of us downloaded our phone books to DVDs, I printed a copy, then began gathering personal stuff.

I had my gym bag in the office, so I loaded it with the stuff from the safe, along with a couple of personal things I definitely wanted to keep. When I looked up, Wanda was standing at my office door, ready to leave. We retraced our steps going down the private elevator and out the back door. We were driving out of the back lot quickly and I said, “Let’s go home now. It might be best to make our calls before we get there though. Oh yeah, let’s go to the library so we can send these files to the other Marshals, and I want to send one to the Secret Service.”

Wanda said, “Good idea, those guys don’t put up with any shit from anyone.”

We were at the local library in a couple of minutes where I set up all of the Marshals e-mail addresses. I was hoping good ole’ Ronnie had not killed their e-mail as well. I hit send and began calling the Marshals. Wanda called the Eastern and Central time zone Marshals and I called the Mountain and Pacific as those guys would still be asleep, or at least should have been. They were awake because my Marshal had already called them. Each of them advised me to be available if a deputy came to exercise a warrant. They were all trying to get through to the DOJ in order to stop this. When I asked if they had received my e-mail, the first Marshal said, “My e-mail isn’t working for some reason.”

I asked, “Do you have another e-mail address like Yahoo or Gmail?”’

The man said, “MSN, the same as my regular, just MSN.com. I sent the e-mail and he was watching for it to come through. He said, “I got it. I have everyone else’s private e-mail and will send it now.”

When I told him that his phone and probably the other Marshal’s phones were probably tapped, there could be problems sending the e-mail. He said, “Don’t worry, I’ll get through and whoever authorized these actions had better have the ear of the AG (Attorney General). This is beyond anything I’ve ever heard of, and I am not aware of any current or hot national security threat.”

I tossed the brand new, or at least reconditioned, once used, cell phone into a trash can before we left for home with another phone on the car charger.

As we passed by the location where the car had been parked when we left the park, the original car was gone, but two more were sitting there. I stopped at the turn around by the trailer park office and used another of the temporary cell phones. When the old sounding voice came on the line I said, “Good morning, Judge; this is Deputy Johnson. Once again, I think something is going on and I’m being tracked by my own agency. I want to ask you to find me an attorney to help me. If I’m right, I will probably be in the federal lockup in an hour or less.”

The judge said, “Does this have anything to do with the new head of the deputies? The man had the local station chief try to apply for taps on a bunch of phones. The problem was he didn’t have probable cause, so I denied them.”

I told the judge, “That’s the man and he was able to get someone to sign an order and is getting a warrant out for my arrest right now. He threatened me over the phone, so I had him hold until I was able to plug in my recorder. He threatened me again and I have it recorded. I resigned as a deputy, but he is still going to attempt to prosecute me for disobeying a direct order. I called my Marshal to advise him of the problem and as soon as I hung up, Mr. Evans, the new head of deputies called me and again told me he was getting an additional arrest warrant for illegally recording the conversation. That’s how I found out my phone was tapped. He also has put a block on all of the Marshals’ e-mails. So, Judge, I don’t want you to get involved in this, but please find a good attorney and have him call, ah, hang on a second.” I picked up another of the cell phones. “Have the attorney call 813-485-3235. That is a temporary cell phone my office assistant will have. I think her personal cell phone is tapped too. Oh, another thing, the cell phone I have been using is not an agency phone. I had my own phone and have kept it, instead of using one provided by the Marshal Service.”

“Darn, Johnson, you get yourself in a lot of hot water. When are you going to settle down and lead a normal life? I thought you were on an extended rehabilitation leave right now. I know you took a sailing trip, but I didn’t know you were home.”

“Judge, I just got home yesterday. The call demanding I report to DC for an unspecified duty came at six thirty this morning. I have to get back to my house before these bozos come to arrest me. Thank you for helping.”

The judge said, “It’s my pleasure. You’ve always been a straight shooter with me and have helped the local station be one of the best. I know who you need and I’ll call right now.”

I gave Wanda the judge’s telephone number so she could report anything that might happen. I told her, “When we get home, there may be deputies there with a warrant. If I’m arrested, call the judge to let him know.” I dug through my wallet for another of the debit cards from the Riviera and thought I was getting the one with less money on it and handed it to Wanda. “There is more than enough money for you to pay my attorney, as well as take care of you in the event you are terminated. Take care of the two girls too, as they will probably be let go as well. Use the card to buy more cell phones and remember, use them once then give them away or better yet, turn them off and throw them into the trash. Go buy another dozen and charge them up just to make sure.”

When we drove around the corner of the street where the house was, there were three cars in front of the house and another in the driveway, blocking entry or exit. I leaned down so it would be difficult to recognize me. “Wanda, get down so they don’t see you.”

I drove past and straight to Steve’s patio. The place was full of people and they all wanted to know about the new babies. Steve recognized my troubled attitude and we stepped outside. I gave him a quick rundown on what was happening, handed him a DVD copy of the conversation, and he helped me unload the Expedition into Sue’s SUV. I told him Wanda would keep in touch and asked him if he would see that the girls in the hospital were taken care of.

“Damn, Chuck, you’re serious, aren’t you? Do you really think you can be arrested?”

I told Steve, “It’s easy to have someone arrested, but more difficult to make a charge stick. When whatever judge arraigns me, I should easily get bail, but it is Saturday, so I’ll probably be locked up until Monday.”

Steve said, “No way. I’m not letting you go to jail. Wait a second while I talk to Tiny and get my keys, we’re going to take a ride.”

I asked Wanda, “Call the house to see what’s going on. I know Lisa can handle anything there, but some of the others may be panicked. See if you can find Jan too. This may fall under her jurisdiction.”

When Steve came out, he told Wanda while she was still on the phone, “You should probably stay here to help the girls. Chuck is going to be gone for a couple of days.”

Wanda had an angry look on her face when she hung up. “There are a bunch of out of town, Chicago deputies searching the house and have carted off every computer there. Not just yours downstairs, but everyone’s. Even Jan’s, she is radically pissed and already on the phone to DC. She says she’s having difficulty dialing long distance though.”

I told Wanda, “They are blocking circuit access of any phone they might believe is associated with me. When you get home, have the girls go out and buy some more cheap pay you as go cell phones. Give them the rundown so they will know what’s going on. Stay in touch with Sue if you need help getting the girls home. Sue and Mercy will help. I’ll call you on this last cell phone as it hasn’t been used yet.”

After writing down the number, we left in Steve’s S&S truck going who knows where. Steve said, “I’d tell you to fly to Costa Rica, but they probably have someone watching the airpark. I have a better idea and it should be a place where no one knows about yet.”

We drove away from the park and stopped at a nearby Wal-Mart where I bought a couple of dozen pay as you go cell phones. I separated a dozen for Steve, telling him to give them to the girls. I know this was going to be overkill, but a knowledgeable fed can get access to lot of phone calls fast. We drove across the causeway to Clearwater, and across the bridge to the intercostal beach area. Steve turned north and went to what I figured must almost be the end of that intercostal island area, turning into a parking lot with construction equipment everywhere. There was a group of very nice docks with a couple of boats, including a big forty-five foot catamaran fishing cruiser. Steve said, “Want to take a little cruise? Tiny has the catamaran stocked for two couples for two weeks, so there has to be enough food for just you to last at least a month. It seems you know how to hide out in the Gulf and have done it before, so get near land every once in a while and call me.”

I asked, “Won’t people know this boat is missing and know what to look for?”

Steve answered, “This is a boat Tiny just picked up at auction from Magellan before we got back from our sailing trip, and he was going to use it for a fun fishing trip for him, Henry, and their wives. I’ll tell him to use one of the other boats. He just had this boat gone over from bow to stern to make sure it was in as good a condition as it looks. He understands.”

“What is this place, what’s all of the construction?” I asked, looking around, waving at all of the construction in progress.

Steve said, “This is going to be our new yacht club. The other one has been successful enough that they want us to move most of our boats because of their size. We’ll keep a couple of fishing boats and day sailors up there, but this will be the place where all of our big charters will go out from and where we will dock all of our big boats. This should be done next month and we’ll move almost all of our boats over here. We already have about fifty yacht owners that want to dock here and join our club. It should be fun.” Steve was leading the way to the catamaran and said, “There are coveralls in the main cabin that should fit and there are always a bunch of swim suits. Use the washer and dryer to get the clothes you have on now clean so you will look fresh when you come back. You know you could hail me on our club frequency. That would bypass anyone monitoring what you’re doing. I have a handheld here in the truck. We’ll test it; now let me show you this beast.”

When I went onto the big boat, I couldn’t help but think about the big boat in Costa Rica. This wasn’t as big, but it was even more plush, and a lot better arranged. I wonder what kind of auction had a boat with this much class. Steve had keys and we entered the main salon through a heavy sliding glass or plexiglass door that had a bridge cockpit on a raised area in the front. There was great visibility all around, so whoever was handling the boat would be able to safely navigate around other boats.”

Steve began showing me all of the features on the boat, while turning on various items. He told me, “Since this is a motor cruiser only, you don’t need the standalone generator unless the engines are off and you will be using a lot of electricity. For most times at night, you can just use the batteries. The tanks are about half full so you have enough fuel to get you halfway to Costa Rica if you wanted to do that, so you can go anywhere on the Gulf without fear of running out of fuel. Here are all the charts for the Gulf, as well as the upper Caribbean. Let’s get the engines running so you can see how everything turns on and off.”

Steve had me throw switches, turning on the engine compartment fans, while he turned on the two radars and the weather monitor. When he had me start the engines individually, you could feel how powerful the engines were, even though they were well muffled and quiet. Steve said, “After your big sailboat, this should be a no-brainer. This is better than a sailboat for you right now because you can move faster. This thing will do almost thirty knots at seventy percent power. But if you’re going all out, you will cut your range in half. This has a second big tank, but it doesn’t have anything in it. If you fill it, you’ll have over a thousand mile range at near full throttle, more than triple that at sixty to seventy percent. You’ll like this thing.”

“You know Magellan was having trouble staying in business. They started to build more commercial boats such as this one but that didn’t even help. When Tiny found this at an auction, he investigated Magellan and we are working something out to keep them in business. You’ll hear more about it later.”

Steve showed me the locker on deck where the emergency supplies were. There was a couple of blowup rafts with sun covers, first aid kits, emergency rations, flare guns, and life jackets. He showed me the anchor set up and shore connection facilities. “That should do it, Chuck. Go out a ways and stay there. I’ll call you on the club frequency listed on the radio. It has the dual band receiver so you can monitor multiple channels at the same time. Ready? Let me help you with the lines. Oh yeah, all of the fishing equipment is in this rear locker. The whole side of the bulkhead let’s down to get at it.”

Steve tested his handheld with the onboard radio and the reception was a little fuzzy as we were right next to each other. Steve untied the three lines holding the boat and watched me coil them real quick. He waved as I stepped into the cockpit. I really didn’t want to run, but I really didn’t want to spend a weekend in jail either.

It took me a few minutes to become accustomed to handling the boat, but I was motoring due west in short order. As soon as I was about five miles out, I began checking the GPS to get an idea of where I might go. I thought, ‘Might as well go to Key West. I’ll bet John will have a fit over what is going on.’

After turning to head south, I angled back toward the coast so I could pick up better cell reception. Hopefully these cheap cell phones would work. Most of what I bought were older model reconditioned Motorola flip phones. Those always seem to work well. While just cruising at about twenty knots, I was looking through all of the manuals in the compartment next to the wheel controls.