15. Chapter 15
It’s been a busy few months. I met Jake, and he seems like a nice guy.
We get along well, and he's pretty outgoing.
He started training with me in MMA to help his coordination.
He's a hard worker and getting stronger every week.
Watching him and Shortie is something else.
You can't deny their connection. Jake fits right in with us, like Shortie did when she moved here.
We went camping again on Labor Day at a different campground near Savannah. This time it was peaceful, and Shortie bought a new tent for Seb and E.
I’m working full time at Finn and getting my GED. I spend as much time as I can studying with Jake since we’re the only two left in high school.
Shortie, Alex, and Bay started college here, while Seb's at Columbia and E's at the local culinary school. Everyone is living at home except Seb. We finally convinced Troy to take the primary bedroom back before Seb left for Columbia.
It wasn't much of an adjustment coming back into my old life. Despite the guys and Shortie in college, we still hang out all the time. Not much has changed except where they go during the day.
The trial is ongoing in Tennessee. It’s a federal trial spanning charges in both Tennessee and South Carolina. It’s a huge case for the bureau and will be a career making win for Kinsley. They are holding a closed trial, which means my and Cash’s testimony will be anonymous.
Despite locking up or killing all the players, Mr. MacLeod insisted we remain anonymous. Not a bad idea.
I spent several days in a room with Mr. MacLeod and a court official, answering questions from the prosecution and defense. I identified dozens of people and businesses, outlining their involvement and what, specifically, I witnessed.
It turns out that the Tuesday night clients were from several surrounding states outside of Tennessee and included business tycoons, a senator, a governor, and some very prominent wealthy families.
Cash had it much worse. He’s been stuck working closely with the FBI for months.
He and Amy have remained in a long term hotel under FBI guard.
I visited them once, about a month after I came home, to make sure they were being taken care of.
Cash assured me they were fine, and I even got a small smile from Amy, although she didn’t speak to me.
I hope the girl can get the help she needs when this is all over.
The FBI mess has been harder to follow since our contact, Eddy, chose to line his pockets instead of doing his job, but Troy heard his former friend and his boss are serving time in a federal prison.
Troy and I are sitting in Mr. MacLeod’s office this morning to watch the trial proceedings from his conference room. I opted to skip the boring days leading up to the sentencing, but I wanted to watch Artur and Fitzgerald get their dues.
Both men tried to turn on each other when they realized they wouldn’t be getting rescued. Fortunately, there was plenty of evidence, so no deals were offered.
My suspicion about the human trafficking was correct.
That part of the business wasn’t as large as the drug trade, but it existed.
They collected and cleaned up homeless girls and offered them a roof and food.
Once they were comfortable, they had to pay back Fitzgerald by being escorts, and were killed if they didn’t comply.
I also learned that there were a few girlfriends and relatives of people in the drug trade who were put in the trafficking ring as payment, too.
As escorts, they could be bought by clients from the Tuesday night gatherings, and the girls usually ended up as sex slaves.
I requested that they find out about the young girl who attached herself to me with the ice in her eyes.
It took some digging, but she was rescued from the home of Natasha, the lady in the blue dress.
She was a niece of someone who owed a lot of money to Fitzgerald, and she's back home with her family now.
They kept Artur and Fitzgerald in separate, secure, undisclosed locations these past months. There was an attempt to break Fitzgerald out a few weeks after I returned home by a wealthy family who were heavily involved in his business, but they failed.
Most, if not all, of the high profile clients I met on Tuesday nights were approached by the FBI after the attempted breakout. Unless they were heavily involved, they were told to forget about Artur and Fitzgerald, and they wouldn’t be charged.
As the screen comes to life, I relax back in my chair and sip my coffee. Today I’ll watch Artur get sentenced. The polished bastard looks the same. He’s dressed in an impeccable suit, hair coiffed, but he looks nervous. Good.
It turns out he and Fitzgerald have been working together for over 20 years.
They knew each other as teenagers. Fitzgerald came from money, while Artur was a foster kid.
They started out small, selling drugs like marijuana, eventually killing their boss and building an empire that covered the entire state.
Fitzgerald designed the symbol I saw on the crates after they killed their boss, and it has been used by their organization ever since.
The judge enters and takes a seat. The list of charges against Artur is massive. Drug trafficking, human trafficking, illegal fighting, 15 counts of murder, and more. I’m sure he's killed more than that, but they could prove the 15 counts.
It turns out Cash was smart. He started digging into Artur’s past as soon as he gained their trust. His hard drives contained enough evidence to prove the murder charges.
The judge gives Artur the death penalty, and I watch him pale. The judge isn’t messing around, ordering it to be done immediately. Fucking yes. The world will be a much better place with him out of it.
We thank Mr. MacLeod and leave to grab lunch at the diner before going back to work.
The following week, we return for Mr. Fitzgerald’s sentencing.
This one should be interesting since Artur did most of his dirty work.
The murder of his original drug boss was by his hand, and he has had several underage girls as mistresses over the years, but there wasn’t as much evidence available for him.
There’s no doubt he was the boss and orchestrated everything, though.
I always pictured Fitzgerald as this old, fat, grey haired man in my mind, but he’s the same age as Artur, mid-forties. He has a full head of wavy brown hair and appears to be in shape. He looks polished and rich, and surprisingly unruffled.
The judge sentences him to life in prison without parole. No death penalty this time, but they'll send him to an undisclosed maximum security prison. Fitzgerald doesn’t seem ruffled, which worries me. What does he have planned?
A week later, the story breaks in the media. The FBI kept it under lock until the two major trials concluded. There are several smaller trials still to come, and it'll probably be a year before it’s all finished.
A few weeks later, we’re in Columbia for Seb’s first college basketball game at a hotel hanging out when I get a call from Mr. Macleod. Mr. Fitzgerald's dead, shot between the eyes by his lawyer the day after his trial.
The lawyer insisted the police take him to the Tennessee FBI office after he killed Fitzgerald, confessing everything.
Fitzgerald was being transferred to his forever home and was shot during the drive. Crazy. Guess that was his plan. The lawyer hasn’t said why he did it yet.
The rest of the trials make local but not national news, as they're held throughout the next year, and Mr. MacLeod keeps me updated as they conclude. There’s been no backlash from anyone towards me or Cash. My past is finally behind me forever.