1975, Federal Bureau of Investigation Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Special Director Michael Spiro had just hung up his telephone when his secretary buzzed him on the intercom.
“Yes?”
“Agent Pinelli is here to see you, sir.”
Director Spiro sighed and shook his head. “Send him in.”
He took a long draw on his cigarette and leaned back in his chair as the agent entered. Pinelli stood before his desk, hands gripping a folder, waiting.
“What can I do for you, Pinelli?”
Pinelli was the newest agent assigned to him. He was young but came with high references. Spiro had been impressed by the recommendations and thought that adding someone new might bring some fresh insight to the cases they were assigned.
Unfortunately, Pinelli wasn’t quite grasping the intricacy of the operations they dealt with. He wasn’t able to keep his personal feelings and emotions in check. Especially when it came to dealing with one operation in particular. He noticed it early on and immediately pulled him from that case. He quickly reassigned him to a legitimate FBI operation.
“Thought you might want to know this, sir,” Pinelli said, tossing a manila folder on the director’s desk. He took a seat and waited for Spiro to pick up the folder.
“I don’t have time to read a report. What do I need to know?”
“He’s at it again. Only this time, he’s gone too far.”
Spiro knew exactly who Pinelli was referring to.
“He’s kidnapped a girl,” Pinelli continued. “Well, he didn’t do it himself. He had someone else do it.”
“I know,” Spiro replied calmly. “Drop it and keep working on the Giamanni case.
“But, sir, she is fifteen. She’s only fifteen!” Pinelli answered, the bewilderment in his tone evident.
“I know who she is. I know she’s fifteen and I’m telling you to leave it alone. What the hell are you doing looking at it, anyway? You’re not running point on this one and you were specifically assigned to another operation. I can write you up for this, Pinelli. Shit, I can have you fired!”
Pinelli ignored the question and the reprimand. “He probably noticed her after he bought the house next to hers and put his guy there. I checked into her. Not really much of an investigation. Nothing remarkable about her. No gang connection. Her mother and stepfather are drunks. She’s a straight-A student. Babysits for spending money. Tried to report the father of one of the kids she was watching. She seems like a nice girl. I just don’t know why—”
This wasn’t news to Spiro. He’d already run a basic background check on the teenager and her family, and he had to agree with Pinelli. They’d found nothing special and didn’t feel she required further investigation. Pinelli jumped when Spiro slammed his fist hard on the desk. “I told you to fucking leave this alone and move on to the Giamanni case. You were directed to do that three months ago. Why are you disobeying a direct order, agent?”
“Because I have a fourteen-year-old sister, sir.” Pinelli sat up straighter in the low chair. “And while you may overlook his murdering and maiming tendencies, this one is too close to home for me. He has to be stopped.”
Pinelli wasn’t going to let this drop. Spiro had to play it right. He took a slow, centering breath and leaned back in his chair.
“You know what? I think you may be right on this one, Pinelli,” Spiro said, nodding his head as if in agreement. “I have a daughter and two granddaughters. Yes. Now that I think about it, you’ve made a good call here, agent. I’ll get some paperwork started. Get back over to the Giamanni case. I don’t want anything that we’re going to do linked back to you. Got it?”
Pinelli seemed satisfied. His posture changed as he stood up.
“Yes, sir,” Pinelli said. “And thank you for taking the time to listen to my recommendation.”
He reached for the file he had laid before the director. Before he could pick it up, Spiro grabbed it and pretended to look it over.
“Is this everything? Anything else in your files that I’ll need?”
“No, sir. Everything is in there” Pinelli replied, nodding at the folder.
“Good work, Pinelli.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Pinelli left the office.
Spiro looked at the cigarette that had burned itself out in his ashtray. He reached for another one and lit it, inhaling deeply. He picked up his phone and dialed a number.
“It’s me. Pinelli’s become a problem.” He paused while he listened to the other person on the phone. Without saying anything else, he hung up.
He took another drag on his cigarette. Stupid fucking kid. Trying to be a hero.
Spiro found little consolation in the fact that Pinelli wouldn’t be leaving a wife and child behind.
**********
Moe’s Diary, 1975
Dear Elizabeth,
I took Kit shopping yesterday. It wasn’t so bad. She really is a nice girl. I think I’m starting to see why Grizz seems to love her. She’s different than the women that he’s used to being around. She offered to buy me some clothes. Nobody has offered to buy me something since Grunt helped me get my car.
Seems like Grunt has forgotten about me. I thought it was school, but I know in my heart it’s her. I think I knew it the night he asked me to keep her wallet. I have it hidden in my room. I don’t care that Grizz told me to burn it. I hate him! She’s too good for him, anyway.
I took her to the post office. I forgot about the stupid Missing Persons poster. Back when my parents thought there was a sighting of me, they started putting their posters up again, but I could never go home. I wouldn’t be able to stand being around my sisters. I’m sure they’re beautiful and have everything I used to have. Including their tongues.
I forgot about that poster. It was covered up with other stuff for a while. I know they stopped looking for me years ago. Next time I go there, I need to take it down.
I’m going to have spaghetti with Kit and Chowder. I’ll write more later…
Dinner was actually nice, Elizabeth. It was fun. I was laughing at Chowder. He doesn’t say a lot, but when he does, it’s funny. Then Grizz came home. He always ruins everything. He sat there and ate with us, and it didn’t seem as much fun.
I was right about Grunt having feelings for her. I was sitting in the pit when he came home. I think he’d spent the day with Sarah Jo at the beach. I know they’re just friends. You’d think that since we both care for Grunt, we’d be friends, too, but Sarah Jo doesn’t come around here practically ever, and when she does, she certainly doesn’t try to be my friend. Anyway, I saw Grunt walk to unit four, and when he noticed the outside light was off, which means Grizz doesn’t want company, he leaned against the door like he was trying to hear if something was going on inside
I have a feeling Grizz hasn’t slept with her yet, but I know he will tonight. After I had dinner with them and went back to my room, I realized later I was out of dog treats. When I went back to number four to get some, I heard music that wasn’t Grizz’s kind of music.
I knew what they were doing, and I think Grunt heard it and he knew, too.
**********
“You are not going to fucking believe this.”
Spiro looked up from his desk. Agent Marcus had walked in without being announced and closed the door behind him. His secretary must have been away from her desk, because she was very good about announcing that someone was there to see him. Spiro pinched the bridge of his nose. He had an excruciating headache.
“What is it, Marcus?” He looked at the agent resignedly. “What am I not going to believe?”
Marcus plopped himself down in front of Spiro. “He married her. He fucking married her.”
This caused Spiro to sit up straight. He knew Marcus was talking about Talbon.
“Has this been confirmed?”
“It has, sir. He married her. Under his alias, Rick O’Connell, of course, and the alias he created for her,” Marcus said, his tone incredulous. “He really fucked up this time.”
Spiro squinted in concentration and stared at his agent. “No. He doesn’t fuck up. He’s never fucked up. There must be a reason.”
“Maybe he loves her.”
“Loves her?” Spiro said as he leaned back in his chair. “He doesn’t love anybody. He is the most brutal bastard I’ve ever come across. No fucking way.”
“You see, though, sir. We have him. If he loves her we can rein him back in. Back where he belongs.”
“No, there has to be something else. Something we’re missing. He doesn’t do anything without a reason; and I can guaran-damn-tee you he didn’t marry her for love. You sure there’s nothing else on her?”
“There’s nothing there, sir. She’s just some girl. Other than reporting some child abuse incident—which went nowhere, by the way—she’s clean. Parents are drunks, but clean. Except the mom sells weed from a store she works at.”
“Could he be involved with that and we missed it?”
“No, sir. Small potatoes. No connection. We have him, sir. He’s vulnerable now. He has a wife to protect. His ass belongs to us. Like I said. Time to rein his sorry ass in.”
“He doesn’t do anything without a reason.” Spiro gritted his teeth. “And are you forgetting that he let a kid, who may or may not even be his, get stabbed? He is a first-class son-of-a-bitch who cares about nobody but himself. We sit on this for a while until we figure it out. And rein him in?” Spiro raised a brow. “Exactly who do you think he is? This fucker goes back almost twenty years and we’ve never been able to completely confirm his identity.”
“I was just saying, sir—”
“You were talking out your ass is what you were doing. Go fucking do your job, agent, and leave your sixth-grade excitement and speculations at the door.”
The agent left. Spiro’s head was really pounding now. This particular operation had been ongoing since the fifties. He was the second person assigned to this top-secret task force. The last one had retired. He had a feeling he would be retiring, too, before this operation came to fruition.
Of course, nobody, including his secretary, knew his real title or job. Nobody knew he and his operatives didn’t work for the FBI. They worked for the U.S. Government, and while Spiro did act as director for the other legitimate FBI agents on his team, he had been planted at the bureau to manage one case and one case only. He had two office agents, who he had to occasionally assign to real bureau cases to avoid notice, and one operative in the field. One operative who risked his life daily for the sake of this one assignment.
One he was no longer even sure of himself.
Spiro knew with perfect certainty this case was being overseen as high as the Oval Office. He didn’t know why; he just knew what he was assigned to do.
And he was having second thoughts about Marcus now. Too excitable and rambunctious. This was a waiting game and he knew it killed his agents to let this one man get away with so much. But they had to. Their hands were tied thanks to someone at the top.
If anyone needed reining in now, it was his own agent.
Dammit. He picked up his phone and dialed a number.
This was the most cryptic case he’d ever been assigned, and he was afraid it would be the death of him.