Michael McGarrity - The big gamble

Clayton asked a few more questions and learned that an electronic gate with a speaker box controlled access to the ranch road, and the headquarters were about five miles beyond the gate. There were no neighbors within a ten-mile radius, and Rickland dealt with Norvell's live-in manager when he needed to make a tax assessment inspection. Rickland had never seen any of Norvell's friends or clients during his visits, but there were usually cars parked at the guest houses and a plane or two on the landing strip.

Clayton thanked Rickland and went looking for the sheriff, who was due back in the office. His secretary told him Hewitt was running late and wouldn't be in until around two. He went to his hallway desk and started writing out his chronological report so he could have it ready when the sheriff arrived.

Until the Indian cop arrived at the county courthouse, Fidel was bored and restless. He'd left his motel room early, thinking it would be maybe an hour before the cop showed at work, and he'd wound up waiting almost all morning. Fidel didn't know why Rojas wanted him watched, but it would be fun to follow the cop around for a while, sneaky like. Of course, it would be way more cool to kill him.

He wondered why Rojas was worried about Istee. Did it have something to do with the hit at Casey's Cozy Cabins? That had been a bitching cool kill, and taking out Staggs had also been kick-ass. He'd made Staggs beg before blowing him away. The old man pissed in his pants and cried like a baby.

The thirty grand Fidel had taken off Staggs's body made it his most profitable hit yet, better than the Ulibarri job. He bet a cop would go for even more. Fidel smiled at the possibility.

Time passed and Fidel started getting bored again. Too bad Debbie Shea wasn't with him. It would be a kick to have her go down on him, parked fifty feet outside of the sheriff's office.

He slipped his semiautomatic out of the shoulder holster and checked the magazine. He'd always wanted to put a couple of caps in a cop. Maybe Rojas would change his mind.

He put the handgun away. A vehicle pulled into the parking space reserved for the sheriff, and a big guy dressed like a cowboy got out and went inside.

Cowboys and Indians, Fidel thought. Carrizozo was total fucking hicksville.

From his time with the state police Kerney knew that the state government telephone system was unique in certain ways. A computer recorded all the calls made from each individual phone, and a monthly report was distributed to supervisory personnel so that they could track personal calls made by employees at work and request reimbursement for any toll charges.

In his office Kerney compared the faxed telephone record of calls made from Senator Norvell's private legislative office phone against the information in the Montoya case file. Norvell had made an eight-minute call to Anna Marie's work number on the day her appointment with the senator had been canceled.

The case against Norvell was building, but Kerney still needed more.

Sal Molina had left updated information on his desk, and Kerney read the hurried notes Detective Pino had prepared from the interview she and the APD sergeant had conducted with a woman named Stacy Fowler. Along with what Kerney had learned from Helen Pearson and Molina's late-night briefing, it suggested that something more than a small team of detectives would be required to conduct the investigation from this point on. It would take a task force to get the job done right.

He told Helen Muiz to push the meeting back by two hours, and started making phone calls. Once he explained his agenda, it didn't take much cajoling to get everyone on his list he could reach to agree to attend the meeting.

Kerney failed in his attempt to reach Paul Hewitt and secure his participation on the task force. He considered calling Clayton and dismissed the idea. As sheriff, only Hewitt had the authority to commit his department to Kerney's plan. Most likely, Paul would agree to come onboard, so Kerney decided to proceed under that assumption and talk to him after the meeting.

A little after two, he walked into the packed conference room, where the original team had been bolstered by his second-in-command, Larry Otero, two of Molina's detectives, the district attorney, the resident FBI agent, the APD deputy chief of police, a lawyer from the U.S. Attorney's office, an agent for the Internal Revenue Service, a supervising DEA special agent, and the commander of the state police criminal investigation bureau.

With Helen Muiz at his side taking notes, he got the meeting rolling with quick introductions, and then asked Molina, Pino, and Vialpando to make brief presentations highlighting their investigative findings to date. He wound up the overview with his own report, got a buy-in from everyone present to participate on the task force, and opened it up for discussion.

The IRS agent would coordinate a team to look at the partners' personal and corporate tax records. DEA would handle the drug-trafficking end of it in all known cities where the partners operated. The FBI would do the same on the out-of-state prostitution rackets, and seek wiretap warrants on all partner communications including Internet E-mail. State police agents would dig into money laundering. Their first targets would be State Senator Gene Barrett's CPA firm and Representative Leo Silva's law practice.

Additionally, agents from the state police district headquarters in Alamogordo and Roswell would be pulled into Lincoln County to target Tyler Norvell. APD vice, with Detective Pino as lead investigator, would go after Bedlow, Tully, and Deacon. The FBI would use El Paso special agents to nail down Rojas.

The DA agreed to supply a prosecutor full-time to work with detectives on the arrest and search warrant affidavits. He'd coordinate the effort with the U.S. attorney and other state DAs to get necessary judicial sign-offs. SFPD would be the lead agency, with Deputy Chief Larry Otero in charge. Molina and his two detectives would run the task-force casebooks and assemble and coordinate all documentation.

"Stay focused, people," Kerney said. "We're going for racketeering, drug trafficking, tax evasion, prostitution, money laundering, and related federal charges right now."

"What about the Montoya homicide?" Sal Molina asked, "and that murder Greer talked about in Ruidoso?"

"At present, Montoya is our weakest case," the DA said. "I doubt you could convince a judge to approve an arrest warrant based on what you have, although it's close."

"Agreed," Kerney said. "We need something that will connect Norvell to the crime scene where Montoya's body was found."

"That would do it for probable cause," the DA said.

"I'll handle the Montoya homicide follow-up," Kerney said. "I'm going down to Lincoln County tonight. I'll ask the sheriff and his investigator to join the task force and find out where they are with the Ulibarri homicide investigation."

Kerney closed his file and gave it to Helen. "Mrs. Muiz and her staff will prepare comprehensive task-force packets on everything we've got so far and distribute them to you ASAP. We have to move fast but carefully, ladies and gentlemen. Let's set a target date of one month from now to make our initial arrests. After that, we'll continue to file charges as the facts roll in. IRS and the state police will probably need more time to nail down the tax-evasion and money-laundering parts of it."

Kerney pushed back his chair and stood. "Everybody stay tight-lipped, and maintain a low profile. We don't want to telegraph our intentions to our targets. Do whatever is necessary within the scope of your authority to keep them off guard. From now on, need-to-know communication is limited to task-force members only and their immediate superiors. If any word about the task force leaks out we'll be facing a media circus and an army of defense attorneys. Good hunting, everyone."