May I be thunderstruck! Almost two years ago the Pondit added a post to this blog on the subject of his frustration with a fickle aberration of nature, the trumpet vine. In that post (http://dickersonpondit.blogspot.com/2008/08/strumpet-vines.html ) I lamented that it had been five years since I planted two of the vines near my patio area and was still waiting for the first flower to appear on these rapidly growing plants. I vowed to burn the vines in the fall of 2008 if they did not yield a flower that summer. Alas, it was just a paper threat. I waited all summer of 2009 and now have given up hope for 2010 since I have seen other trumpet vines in the area with flowers from the end of June. What do I do? I feel as badly as Patty Finnegan: see chapter 89 below.
Lo and behold!
Here is a link to the first chapter of The Briefcase posted on my blog:
Chapter 89
Patty Finnegan was devastated. It was now an hour and a half after his call with Janet Grissom and Bob Walsh. Patty was sitting in a darkened bar about six blocks from the DEA office. He was staring into a shot of Jameson trying to unravel the events of the past several months. What was most baffling in this case were the number of leads the DEA had and the fact that almost all of them lead to nowhere. In fact, following what ended up as blind leads, consumed most to the energy expended on the case. Patty was not in all his faculties and he realized this. But in the back of his mind he wished he could take large model of the tracking transmitter and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine in the anatomy of the entire DEA technical team. How many hours did he and his team spend tracking that transmitter just to have it stop its signal just when it was most needed? It was like the devil himself was turning it on and off.
Patty ordered another shot of Irish whiskey and then let his mind drift off to Connecticut. What in the world did Anthony Costanzo and the Mafia have to do with this case? Sure there were marked bills found in Mystic and at the Foxwoods but did that trail actually lead back to Miguel Rivera? And he was totally perplexed by Ernesto and Pablo; all that time in the tomato fields of Immokalee and not a “marked” dollar to show for it? Why were they hiding from Miguel, if they did not have the money?
These were baffling events but not nearly as eerie as what happened in Santa Anita – one million dollars of DEA money winding up at the race track during the Breeder’s Cup. How did the money get there? Who brought the money there? And what was the purpose of wagering that money at the racetrack? Although still convinced that there was some inside hanky-panky going on at the track that day, the chances of uncovering that connection was getting slimmer and slimmer. What seems so obvious and neatly packaged had completely unraveled for Patty and his team. Life wasn’t fair and the Jameson was helping him confirm that observation.
Patty ordered another Jameson with a Smithwick’s chaser. He now had to make a career decision. He knew he could not let this case just drop. In fact, he could not even imagine how easily Janet Grissom was letting this go. That woman did not have a heart. No wonder she had earned the nickname, the Ice Queen. But Patty was very aware that Janet would be watching him. She knew as well as anyone that this case was under Patty’s skin. He had to be careful if he wanted to continue on the case. He did want to do that. He had no choice. He had to continue. He decided to dedicate his Saturday mornings to the case. He would not involve anyone else at the agency. He pushed away the last half of his ale. He realized he had only the rest of the day to work on the case in an official manner and knew he had to make some requests for information that would be consuming his next several Saturday mornings.
Turning to the bartender, Patty asked, “Sean, can you get me a cheese sandwich and a large mug of black coffee?”
Sean turned toward Patty, “It is about time. I thought you were going to drown in your whiskey. I guess I do not have to ask how things are going at work.” Sean chucked and walked off toward the kitchen area. In the morning, He was both bartender and cook.
Reaching inside his jacket pocket for his notebook and pen, Patty started yet another list:
- Copy of betting records at Santa Anita
- Copies of video of counting area in the betting pit
- Copies of videos of at least two of the betting windows at the track
- Log of all times the briefcase transmitter was active
- Copies of the videos with Anthony Costanzo at Foxwoods
If he could get these copies today, he will be able to review this evidence outside the prying eyes of Janet Grissom. They had to have missed something that was in these pieces of evidence. Patty was also considering some field trips he might take. One would be to the Grand Caymans to check out those private banks. Another trip might be to confront Miguel Rivera in Cali. Obviously this last idea was either desperation or the Jameson doing the talking. Visiting Cali would be a suicide mission and not a side trip! Whatever, but Patty knew that Miguel Rivera would know his name before long. No one kills one of Patty’s agents, steals his money and gets away with it.
Patty ate his sandwich and had two mugs of coffee. One long visit to the men’s room and he was headed back to his office with his list in his pocket.
