Gumshoe. Part 3 (The Case). (648 hits)
Category: NoneLabels: Gumshoe
Rating: 2 on 19 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by <Davros> (View user info) at 2005-01-27 09:53:50 EST
Part 1 : http://www.ubersite.com/m/56564
Part 2 : http://www.ubersite.com/m/57067
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I was already at my desk when the Fed-Ex guy arrived at 8am, weighed down with two archive boxes and a slim envelope.
After pouring a cup of coffee and replenishing the percolator, I sat down and began the long arduous ask of sorting through the mountain of paper that had just arrived.
I have always hated the research side of both of my chosen professions, it was the reason I got out of the law firm where I started. They had a system of burying new recruits under paperwork, leaving them in the Library doing background work. If you ever came out of that black hole you might eventually get to handle a case of your own.
I could usually do my research on the hop in my current line of work, using it to break up the long periods of waiting.
Anyone that tells you that a PI's life is glamorous is wrong. The majority of it involves sitting and hoping that you can get what you need.
This case was going to be different. I knew from the outset that I would need to be fully briefed before I set out on the investigative process.
Having established that one box contained the background information that I needed, I set to work.
By the time the rap on the door came just before noon, I had skimmed through most of the first box and worked an outline of what lay ahead.
Opening the door I smiled as Jay walked in, loaded down with sandwiches and soda from the deli across the street.
"Hey Mack, I brought lunch".
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I had first come into contact with "Big Jay" about two years before I conspired to get myself disbarred.
He was just a kid really, not much past his 18th birthday.
I got a call from the local hospital where he was being treated. It turned out that he had tried to boost a car outside a bar down near the 13th precinct.
Unfortunately for him it wasn't the wisest move of his short life.
The bar was a hang out for off-duty cops, one of whom owned the car in question. He had been caught and had taken a serious beating from the cop and his buddies, then they had called in the uniforms and had him arrested.
He was cuffed to the bed when I walked in and looked like he had been in a train wreck.
After speaking to him and learning that he had spent a couple of spells in juvenile detention, for the same kind of rap, I asked him what he wanted from me.
Turned out he wanted to sue the Cop for the beating he had taken. I almost laughed in his face.
After some discussion I agreed to try and get him off the GTA charge, but explained to him that I wanted no part in suing cops, particularly given the situation. The cop could pull another 20of his brothers to act as witnesses, there would be no chance of winning this case.
Jay quickly came round to my way of thinking. That was the first time I realised that as well as being a big guy, he had a brain.
After some discussion with the Officer in question, who was as crooked as they come, you only had to look at the car he was driving to know he was on the take, there was no way a cop's salary paid for it, he agreed to drop the charges, agreeing that justice had been served.
It could also have had something to do with the fact that he had two previous assault charges on his record, another might have him busted off the force.
(I didn't give him much longer the way he was flashing his money around. I think he lasted about a year after our meeting).
As was often the case in my position of defending persons of dubious morals, Jay was unable to pay for my services.
I put him to work for me, running errands, delivering packages and occasionally driving for me when I needed to get around.
After his debt had been cleared, I kept him around. By the time I got busted, I had installed him as my head of security, through my offshore company of course.
It came in handy to have some muscle around, more so in the PI life than that of a lawyer.
Most importantly, I had come to trust him and his judgement and he was fiercely loyal to me, a very important attribute.
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While we ate lunch, I gave him a run down on the case, with information taken from the documents I had been given.
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Mr. Cilfone's briefcase had been stolen while he was travelling from his offices to his home.
It contained a "beta" version of his operating system, which would be very valuable to the right person, if they could manage to get into the case, which was highly protected.
The most important aspect was that it was the first time all the component parts had been combined and even if it didn't fall into the wrong hands, it's loss would set work back considerably.
The two main suspects had both dropped off his security radar, a short time prior to the theft of the case.
Rice was last known to be in Arizona and Mang was tailed on a flight to Los Angeles, but lost at the airport when it was suspected he took a limo.
Finishing up I looked to Jay for his opinion.
"Not a lot to work with, but for what it's worth I would go with an inside job".
I smiled, "Yeah that was pretty much my opinion, but lets work on the two names we got before we go down that route"
"Sure, what do you want me to do?"
"Get online and find out what you can about Rice and Cilfone. I want details about him as a person, the kind of stuff he is not going to give me in this lot".
"Ok" he said pouring a cup of coffee, "Mind if I Irish this up a little?"
"Sure" I said, handing him the bottle of Bushmills I kept in the bottom drawer of my desk, "knock yourself out".
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I settled back at my desk continuing to sort through the first box of documents, trying to find something that might make my job a little easier. The second box could stay where it was until we had worked through our current workload. A cursory glance had shown it to contain details on staff, contacts and other additional details I had requested. I suspected that it may be important in time, but these things have to be dealt with methodically.
Resisting the urge to add a shot to my coffee, I trudged on through the paperwork, my mind drifting as I thought about the long trek ahead.
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Was it all going to be worth the effort?
I was going to be searching for the proverbial "needle in a haystack" . The briefcase could be anywhere in the country, or even further.
It could be a fruitless effort and it certainly meant travelling.
I feel comfortable in New York, I know the town, the people and the places to go to get information. I don't have that luxury in other cities, a distinct disadvantage in this type of case.
If the Girl had still been around it would have been worth it, but without her, what would I do when I got out of the game?
There could be others, but she was the only one for me. The one I had dreamed the big dreams with. The one I thought was "The One".
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"Jesus, did the guy hire performing monkeys?"
"What you got Jay?"
"I think we can write off Rice as a suspect, he is serving a 3 - 5 stretch in a federal joint in Arizona"
I smiled and added that shot to my coffee, that deserved a drink.
"Keep going on Cilfone."
Going back to my paperwork I reopened the file on Mang.
The fact that the people Cilfone had hired had lost a guy who's name was spread over the Internet somehow didn't seem to ring true to the impression I had of the guy.
After reviewing the file again, I switched on my terminal and tried to find details on this Mang character, if I could eliminate him, then I could get on to the idea that still stuck in my head that it was an inside job.
Unfortunately he hadn't managed to be as obliging as Rice, by getting himself put in a place where he could remove himself from the investigation. To be honest there was very little about him that I could find.
There was one other thing that puzzled me.
It seemed that these two had been under surveillance for some time, suggesting that Cilfone thought they posed some sort of threat, but there was no details of why he had had them watched.
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After drawing a blank on Mang, I decided I should call in a favour. I needed to find something about him if I wanted to track him down.
I placed a call through to the Wolf, a cop who was straight, probably the only untarnished cop I knew. He worked in records and had access to the national database, which had recently been linked to the Canadian authorities system
I had got his brother, who was also a cop, off a shakedown charge some years back and although he was no longer on the force, the family name had been saved.
After a short conversation, the fax machine burst into life, details of Mang's record retrieved from Canada.
There was a surprisingly short list of crimes, mainly minor stuff, but I noticed an attempted blackmail charge (dropped) and an illegal weapons charge (suspended sentence) but nothing in the last couple of years.
I was resigning myself to a trip to California, his last known location.
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Returning to the documents, I tried to continue reviewing them but my heart was no longer in it.
"What you got for me Jay?" I shouted, pouring two large glasses of whiskey, "I think it's about time to call it a day."
He presented me with his findings, but then reviewed them for me as he took a long swallow of his drink.
"Cilfone is a pretty intense sort of guy. Almost paranoid about his security, which makes it seem weird that he lost track of Rice" I was glad he had picked up on that too.
"He makes all his staff work individually, so no one person knows the whole project. There isn't any disgruntled ex-employees that I can find, he pays them well enough to keep them loyal. Plenty of pictures of him floating around and news stories from every source you can imagine, most recently about his engagement in the rags. No photos of him and his girl together, none of her at all, she stays out of the limelight"
I sighed, "This case is making my head ache already. Lets go get a drink."
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After walking the two blocks to a local watering hole, we settled into a booth, glasses of beer and scotch competing to take away the winter chills.
"You have any contacts in LA Jay?"
"None that you could trust."
"Looks like I am gonna have to take a trip."
"I could think of worse places to be in January."
I allowed myself a smile, but the firearms charge on Mang's rap sheet had me worried.
I was going to need some help on this one.
Pulling my cell phone from my pocket, I began to dial.
"Who you calling Mack?"
"I think it is time to set up a meeting with The Greek."
TBC
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Disclaimer.
The characters portrayed here are by no means associated with persons living or dead, even though some of them may share familiar names.
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-Dave
User Reviews
Submitted by Crystle (user info) at 2006-03-21 19:42:11 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Nellypaal (user info) at 2006-03-21 09:43:17 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
There'a always a dodgy underworld character called The Greek or variations thereof.
This is going from strength to strength and I'm happy to be apathetic enough about my job to take the time to read the whole series in a one-er.
Submitted by redskieslookfake (user info) at 2006-03-21 08:15:11 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by bigbabylons (user info) at 2005-06-03 21:16:26 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Cilfone's new bird is going to be Mack's ex, i know it.
Good stuff
Submitted by nrduncan (user info) at 2005-04-06 15:46:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Spam (user info) at 2005-03-15 13:56:04 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I'm so glad I came back to this - I read part 1 the day you posted it and forgot about it, reading it in one go is so much better.
Submitted by creep_firebombing (user info) at 2005-02-22 14:23:27 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Davros (user info) at 2005-01-28 04:25:34 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-01-27 21:23:57 (#)
Ranking: 2
Great stuff.
Or it would be, if there was a character named LadyPlural as a sort of a femme fatale type. Just because.
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Keep reading LadyP.
There may be an opening for you.
-Dave
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-01-27 21:23:57 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Great stuff.
Or it would be, if there was a character named LadyPlural as a sort of a femme fatale type. Just because.
Submitted by Davros (user info) at 2005-01-27 14:45:27 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Thank you all for your kind words.
Just to let you know, this series will be taking a short break, while I compose further installments.
Writing this is killing me, actually editing this down to "Uber-length" installments is killing me, the writing isn't too bad.
The original draft of this episode ran to 11 pages in Word, slightly longer than would normally be acceptable for a post.
This finished piece ran to 4 pages. Even then I looked at it after I posted and though "WTF I'm not reading all that".
I need to work out a way of writing more directly and picking out the important points first off. I enjoy writing this, but it is really no fun spending twice as long removing long chunks to make it a readable length.
Thanks to you all for reading it.
Next one in about 2 weeks.
-Dave
Submitted by jgreening (user info) at 2005-01-27 12:46:11 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I'm a character and you're not.
Neener neener neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeener.
Submitted by Pentameter (user info) at 2005-01-27 12:43:30 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
So well written.
I really enjoy your stories. They're completely thought out and executed with precision.
Submitted by AshK (user info) at 2005-01-27 12:22:32 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Excellent again.
Submitted by munkeypants (user info) at 2005-01-27 12:08:59 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by DonkeyOnTheEdge (user info) at 2005-01-27 12:03:17 (#)
Ranking: 2
This and Snark's series are the best.
Submitted by DonkeyOnTheEdge (user info) at 2005-01-27 12:03:17 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This and Snark's series are the best.
Submitted by ess-arr (user info) at 2005-01-27 12:03:00 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
"Jesus, did the guy hire performing monkeys?"
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hehe, good stuff as always.
Submitted by Merlina (user info) at 2005-01-27 11:22:34 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by TigerLilly (user info) at 2005-01-27 10:14:47 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Yes!
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2005-01-27 10:04:46 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Go alcoholic PI's WOOO!!