19. Walker
Chapter nineteen
Walker
Mason jumps up from the conference table to help Christine as she arrives with multiple bags of food while balancing a tray of beverages. My fabulous assistant introduced us to the local spot with the best street tacos, and now we order lunch from there multiple times a week. If it weren’t for Christine ensuring we order food at the appropriate times of the day, I don’t know that most of us would remember to eat. We barely leave the office as it is unless we’re chasing down a lead.
“Have I told you lately how wonderful you are, Christine?” I sincerely ask my assistant.
“Not in the last day or so, but it’s always nice to hear, boss.” She grins with a small laugh. “Can I get anything else?” she asks the room, and she means it. I know she’s my assistant, but she really is the right hand to our entire team and will do whatever she can to help, almost always with a genuine smile on her face too.
“Christine, I want to say I love you, but if I keep eating these delicious tacos, I’m going to make you come shopping with me when I need a new wardrobe,” Harlow jokes as she grabs her own favorite Birria tacos.
“Oh no, a shopping trip! The horror!” Christine laughs.
“Did you get any of their pico de gallo?” one of the agents asks and Christine nods before she ducks out to grab the condiments and salsas still on her desk. “Sorry about that, I didn’t want to risk spilling any of the sauces and my hands were pretty full,” Christine says as she sets the containers on the table.
“We appreciate your dedication and support of our taco addictions,” Harlow says as she lifts a taco in cheers to Christine. We all dig into our respective tacos, and the first bite of my carne asada taco is just as good as the last time I had it. “Did anyone else try this strawberry lemonade? It’s so good!” Harlow rolls her eyes back with an exaggerated groan of delight.
I bet Vivian would love that lemonade too, if she really does love everything strawberry flavored. I wonder if she loves tacos too, I mean, who doesn’t love tacos? I’ll have to ask her about her favorite foods the next time we talk. Shaking my head to focus on the task at hand, I clear my throat and address my team. “Does everyone have what they need?” My team nods in response, everyone too busy eating to talk. “Great, does anyone have an update on Peter Hopkins’ condition?” I ask the room.
Agent Tara White clears her throat and takes a drink of water before speaking. “Yes sir, I do. I spoke to Mr. Hopkins’ daughter this morning and Mr. Hopkins is only being kept alive right now by medical means. His family will be moving forward with removing him from life support in the next day or two. They are waiting for family members to say goodbye, but the last tests confirmed the seizures he had while in the ICU were too much for his body and his brain had too much swelling.”
“Once they remove life support, our sniper or sniper team will officially have a ninth victim,” I tell the team. “I know we all want to do everything we can to make sure there isn’t a tenth one. Mason, why don’t you update us on that lead you were chasing this morning?”
Mason shoves the rest of his taco in his mouth and pulls his tablet up as he finishes chewing. He takes a big drink of his soda before addressing everyone at the table. “A few of us were looking into secondary and tertiary contacts outside of the victims’ primary network, which is mostly made up of immediate family members. The local police officers of the respective cities all investigated any immediate family members for potential suspects, but we wanted to expand the scope of the investigation to see if there was anyone with any red flags and of course if there were any overlaps with our sniper cases.”
“And did you find any red flags or overlap?” I ask.
“Initially there was a potential connection, but it appears to be weak, although I think we might have a lead worth exploring further that just popped up before lunch,” Mason tells me.
“Please tell us about both of those leads, even if one of them seems weaker than the other. The only way we will catch a break in this case is if we continue to consider any and every lead. I really think if we can connect two of these cases, it’s going to be the key to the other cases all coming together,” I remind Mason and my entire team, before nodding for him to continue.
“Our Cleveland victim Kimberly Nguyen’s murder was considered to be a random casualty by local police due to the ongoing war between two local Cleveland gangs in the neighborhood where Miss Nguyen lived and worked.”
“Do gangs in Cleveland have a lot of snipers hanging out in their crews?” Agent Kelly Shannon asks.
“Exactly what struck me as odd, Kelly,” I noted. “To my knowledge, a typical street gang would not have a single trained sniper, let alone an incredibly accurate one. None of the suspected gang members in the area appear to have the necessary background and sniper training to make an impressive long-distance shot.”
“So, I dove deeper into Miss Nguyen’s personal life. She was single at the time of her death according to her eighteen-year-old daughter but had an on-again, off-again relationship for approximately the last seven years with a man by the name of Van Tran. He’s an interesting person, especially when you look at his arrest history. Tran has been arrested thirteen times for a variety of alleged crimes, including but not limited to money laundering, loan sharking, fraud, racketeering, and illegal gambling without a license.”
“Thirteen times? Why is this the first time we are hearing of this person and how many convictions does he have from those arrests?” I ask Mason.
“Sir, that’s where it gets even more interesting. Of the thirteen arrests, two were pled out as misdemeanors, and eleven of the charges were dismissed without prejudice.” My eyebrows shoot up at that fact; how did this guy walk eleven times? The odds of him being guilty of only fifteen percent of those charges seems questionable at best.
Mason continues, “He paid minor fines for the two misdemeanors, but that’s all. I’m not sure why his information was not included in Miss Nguyen’s file, but according to her daughter, her mother and Tran broke up a month prior to the murder. It’s possible the Cleveland detectives didn’t consider Tran since they were not involved at the time of her death.”
“And what else did the daughter tell you, Mason?” I ask.
“She said she asked the detectives to look into Tran and they were dismissive of her suggestions. The daughter told me she thought Tran was, and I quote, a slimeball who would betray his own mother if it meant making him more money.”
“Seven years is a significant relationship, and it likely means that Tran’s relationship with Miss Nguyen would have been known by those in his social and criminal circles,” I say thinking out loud.
“And it was public knowledge,” Mason follows my train of thought. “A quick search shows multiple photos of the couple over the years on both of their social media accounts. If someone wanted to know who Tran was close to, it wouldn’t be hard to figure out that Miss Nguyen was important to him.”
“If Tran screwed over the wrong person or pissed off the right person, Miss Nguyen could have been collateral damage not of a gang war but due to Tran’s business dealings,” I respond.
“Precisely, sir. However, we have not been able to identify a person or persons that would fit the criteria, but this lead is relatively new. I would still consider it a weak lead at this point until we can find more information to determine if it connects him and if it does, to what degree Tran’s illicit business dealings were involved in Miss Nguyen’s murder. Then if they were, exploring to see if there are connections to any of our other victims,” Mason explains.
“That was your weak lead, Mason? Well done. Tell us about the other one that just popped up and let’s see how we can help you dig into it.” I knock twice on the conference table before grabbing another one of my tacos.
“This one is related to our victim in Boston. Jim O’Malley was initially cleared as not having any enemies, but like the Cleveland detectives, the Boston detectives may have missed a lead that I think is pretty obvious. I didn’t have to dig far to find this one either, which raises other questions about the integrity of the people investigating this case in Boston, but I digress. Mr. O’Malley’s wife said in her statement that they did not have any enemies.” Mason pauses to pull up a photo of the couple on the projection screen on the conference room wall. “The couple also did not have any biological children, however the case files failed to mention they raised their nephew since he was orphaned at age six when his parents were killed in a drive by shooting.” Mason brings up two photos, one of our victim and his wife with a smiling little boy, the second one a mug shot of a man in his late twenties with a black eye and a large Celtic cross tattoo on his neck .
“The nephew is now twenty-six years old and unlike his uncle, Carter O’Malley has a significant rap sheet. His convictions also include reported ties to the McCarthy crime family out of Boston. It appears that Carter does something for the leaders of the McCarthy family, but I haven’t been able to firm up what his role or affiliation is. Carter has a history of a gambling problem with them and other outfits as well. He was convicted on charges of possession and intent to distribute multiple times, but his attorney, who is also on the payroll of the McCarthy family, significantly pled each of those charges down.” Mason finishes talking and takes a drink of his soda.
“So, our victim Jim O’Malley did not have any significant ties to possible suspects, but the man Mr. O’Malley raised as his own has ties to one of the largest crime families in Boston? And those ties are close enough that the McCarthy’s are willing to pay for an attorney and cover legal fees? How the hell did they overlook this?” I ask my team and can sense the frustration in the room. We all know that there’s a good chance this was intentionally overlooked by someone in the Boston PD that is on the case and also on the McCarthy family’s payroll.
“This is really good work, Mason; we are going to chase these two leads with everything we’ve got. I don’t consider the Cleveland lead weak either, it seems coincidental, and I do not believe in coincidences.”
“Organized Crime has not been notified yet of this possible connection,” Mason adds. I know we’re all thinking if Organized Crime gets involved, they will try to take over the entire task force, but we have all worked too hard to roll over and let them take it without a fight.
“That’s fine, Mason. I’ll circle back with Special Agent Chavez and let her determine if any communication needs to occur after they already dismissed our previous requests for assistance on this case. Let’s be frank, we don’t need them, we have a great team on this task force and we will be the ones to solve these murders. We have access to the same databases they do, so I don’t see a need to reach out again.” My team looks relieved at that statement.
“Sir, what are the odds of different crime families all using the same gun for hire, though?” Mason asks.
“Sometimes people only care about paying for the best, regardless of where their loyalties lie, or who their ancestors were, Mason,” I tell the young agent.
“I may have something but it’s not solid yet,” Tara addresses the team. “When Mason let me know what he was doing, I looked into the victim in Kansas City a little further. For those of you that don’t know, I used to be based out of Kansas City and still have plenty of connections in the area. According to a local source, Mr. Scott had multiple clients with extensive criminal backgrounds and associated to multiple crime organizations.”
Tara shares a photo of Mr. Scott to the screen, along with two other gentlemen I don’t recognize. “Mr. Scott had a reputation of being someone that people could trust to be discreet, and he was also known to take private appointments outside of typical business hours, even if it meant at 3 a.m. I don’t have much to confirm this theory yet as some of this information was still coming together even this morning, but I do know from the preliminary investigation into his client list that two of Mr. Scott’s somewhat regular clients were Hieu Pham and Duy Hoang. Those two men were also members of the Vietnamese Syndicate in Kansas City.”
“Well, fair to say that sounds interesting,” I tell Tara.
She nods before adding, “I also thought they were worth mentioning because two days after Mr. Scott’s death, Mr. Pham and Mr. Hoang were both killed.”
My head snaps up from my notes in surprise to look at Mason. “I take that back; this is now very interesting. ”
“Sir, may I suggest something?” Kelly asks.
“Of course, go ahead,” I respond.
“Mason and Tara had the right idea, I think we need to carry this through and expand the networks of the other victims as well. We have preliminary information but it’s quite clear that some information has been overlooked, whether intentional or not by the initial investigators.”
“I agree with Kelly,” Harlow adds. “We’ve been focused on the victims and who would want them dead, but there is a chance that the victims were not the primary focus, but rather the punishment for the primary focus. We need to expand our search to consider any known associates for each victim. I still think it’s odd that the victim in Chicago is the only victim that was not blue collar,” Harlow thinks out loud as she looks out the conference room windows.
“Let’s divide the other cases and deep dive into their social, romantic, professional, and familial connections. Mason and Tara, keep working the leads you have already uncovered, and if anyone finds a potential connection with multiple arrests, or suspected criminal activity we bring to the team, alright?” I ask my team as they agree and we all gather our stuff.
I can feel it, we are close to pulling on the thread that will unravel each and every one of these cases.