In a Cold Sweat (24 page)

Kirk had found a cigarette butt in the laundry room at Black’s house. They were able to pull a partial print off of it. It came back that Bartowski was United States Army, Special Forces. He was reported killed in a training accident on October twenty-seventh nineteen ninety eight. His helicopter went down and the body was never recovered. “How a dead man could smoke a cigarette at a crime scene?” Kirk remembered asking Vinnelli during their investigation.

Even though he didn’t say it, Kirk felt Black knew that Vinnelli was involved in the murder of his wife. So he had a decision to make.

Not my problem,
Kirk decided.
If Vinnelli is murdered, it would be a Federal matter. No one will ask me for my help. I been trying to get Black for murders I know for a fact that he committed and couldn’t. Let’s see if they can do any better. If they ask me, I’ll tell them what I know, but they won’t ask.
That he was sure of. But he did enjoy harassing Vinnelli, now more than ever.

While waiting almost a half-hour for Vinnelli, Richards occupied the time by flirting with the receptionist and pumping her for information about Vinnelli. He and Kirk had been there so many times over the last few months that the agent didn’t bother coming to the lobby to greet them.

“Send them back. They know the way,” Vinnelli told the receptionist.
 
When the detectives were seated before him, Vinnelli got right to it. “What can I do for you?” he asked, not bothering to hide his contempt.

“We’re investigating the deaths of two suspected dealers,” Kirk began with a look that showed his contempt. “We were hoping that you had something on them.”

“Who we talkin’ about?” Vinnelli asked.

Richards pulled out the crime scene photos. “A Steven
Blake,
goes by the name Cash Money. And the other one is Kevin Murdock,” he said.

“Jesus,” Vinnelli said, caught off guard by the bloody drive-by images. “What do they call him?”

“K Murder,” Kirk spit out.

“Fitting, under the circumstances,” Vinnelli laughed and Richards joined in. “I haven’t heard of them, but give me a day or two to make some inquiries; you know, see if they come up on somebody else’s radar and I’ll get back to you.”

“We would really appreciate that, Vinnelli,” Richards said.

“Not a problem. Glad to help out. What's the deal with these clowns?”

Kirk was hoping he’d ask that question. “Those two and two others had formed what they called The Commission. They billed it as a buying co-op, but their real purpose was to protect themselves against Mike Black. I know you guys once considered him a person of interest, despite his lack of involvement in drugs.”

“Don’t tell me that fuck’s involved?” Vinnelli asked.

“He’s a suspect,” Kirk said. “So any info you have to share may be helpful.”

“I’ll get right on it,” Vinnelli promised.

“As always, we’ve taken up more than enough of your time,” Kirk said and stood up. “Don’t bother getting up, we know the way out.”

Once the detectives were out of sight, Vinnelli got up and closed his door. He returned to his desk, picked up his phone and dialed a number.

“Agent Masters,” he answered the phone.

“Vinnelli. Detectives Kirk and Richards were just here.”

“What did they want?” Masters asked.

“They’re investigating the deaths of two drug dealers and they shared with me that Mike Black is a suspect.”

“Really?”

“Kirk let that slip before he left.” Vinnelli laughed a bit. “You heard anything about that?”

“No, but I do need to make you aware of something though.”

“What’s that?”

“Agent Harris has not been able to reacquire the other two subjects. If he can’t resolve that situation soon, we may have to move up the time table,” Masters said.

“Keep me posted,” Vinnelli said and hung up the phone.

With a little help from Monika, a lot of help actually, Jackie now had high-tech surveillance up and running on Mylo. After listening to the crude surveillance that Jackie had running, the first thing Monika wanted was to see the place. “All of it,” she told Jackie when she came begging Monika to help her. “Gettin’ up on his cell phone frequency is easy. I need to see the house.”

“That’s no problem,” Jackie said. “Just come with me tonight.”

“Don’t you think that’ll look a little suspicious?
 
If I show up there and start wandering around?”

“Yeah, you’re right. I didn’t think of that,” Jackie admitted.

“No, girlfriend, you're the one on the inside. You're the one who’s gonna map the whole thing out, and you’re the one who’s gonna plant your devices. I’ll be right back,” Monika said and left Jackie alone in the living room.

While she waited, Jackie thought that whatever Monika had in mind wasn’t helping her. She had already done her best work, and it was poor.
That’s why I came to her in the first place
, Jackie thought. This was important to her. Black asked her to watch Mylo and she wanted to do a good job. She understood that it could turn into better things for her. If Black trusted her, maybe he’d put her in a spot where she wouldn’t have to hustle every night.

When Monika returned, she was wearing sunglasses, had a headset on and was carrying a laptop. Jackie stood up.

“Where you goin’?” Monika said and sat down.

“I thought we were goin’ somewhere.” Jackie reclaimed her seat.

“Chill out a minute,” Monika said, and opened her laptop. She handed Jackie an ear piece. “Put that in your ear and tell me if you can hear me.” Jackie put the small device in her ear. “Can you hear me?”

“In my ear,” Jackie replied.

Once Monika was set up, she handed the sunglasses to Jackie. “Put these on.”

Jackie put the glasses on and Monika turned the laptop so she could see it. “Those are photosensitive sunglasses with a micro-miniature camera.”

“Cool. It’s just like I’m looking through sunglasses.”

“What you see is recorded using a standard video recorder that is fed into a video transmitter in the lap. You go in wearin’ those glasses and that ear piece. When I say pan right, you turn your head slowly to the right,” Monika instructed and demonstrated how she wanted Jackie to do it. “When I say pan left, you turn your head slowly to the left. This way I can see the whole place and know where the best places to set your cameras and microphones.”

That night, Monika guided Jackie as she walked through the gambling house. The next night she told her where and how to set the devices. The only one that was difficult was the one in Mylo’s office. Jackie came up with a reason to have to talk to Mylo alone in his office. Halfway through the conversation, Jackie said she wanted a drink. When Mylo went to get it, Jackie quickly did her work and was sitting pretty when he came back.

After a week of watching and listening to nothing even remotely important, both in the house and on his cell phone, Monika caught a break.

“Mylo.”

“Who’s this?” Mylo asked.

“You know who this is.”

“What’s up? Where you at?”

“Where I am ain’t important. We need to talk, man. Shit has got real fucked up. That nigga Black’s been lookin’ all over the city for me.”

“Calm down, nigga, I got you. We can talk, just not over the phone. Where you at?” Mylo asked again.

“Don’t worry about where I am. You just meet me at the Shrine Bar.”

“I’ll be there in an hour.”

Monika had a feeling that if they were talking about Black, it might be something. She immediately called Jackie. “Fold and get out here,” Monika said in Jackie’s ear. She cursed and folded the king high straight she was working on and joined Monika in the car.

“What’s up?” Jackie asked.

“We need to follow your boy,” Monika said and explained what she heard. “He should be coming out that door right about now.” Just as she spoke the words, Mylo came out of the house and walked quickly to his car. Monika closed the laptop and started the car. “Finally, a little action.”

Mylo got in his car and headed downtown, with Monika trailing him. Since she knew where he was going and had a tracking device on his car, Monika was able to hang back so Mylo wouldn’t notice them. On the way, Monika told Jackie where they were going.

Shrine Bar Restaurant was located in Harlem, on 7th Avenue between 133
^rd
and 134
^th
Streets. It was a showcase for live music and boasted of having the best sound system in town. Mylo went inside and Monika waited a while and went in after him. By the time she got inside, Mylo was at the bar talking to a man she had never seen before. Since Monika was wearing her photosensitive glasses, Jackie was able to see what she was seeing. “I’ve never seen him before,” Jackie confirmed.

The music was so loud that Monika knew even if she could get close enough to them, she wouldn’t be able to hear what they were saying. And wouldn’t be able to filter out all the background noise if she could plant a listening device. She was able to get pictures of the two of them talking and went back to the car.

The conversation lasted about fifteen minutes, after which Mylo left the Shrine and walked back to his car. Before long, they picked up Mylo on his cell phone. A male voice answered the call on the second ring. “How long?”

 
“One hour,” Mylo replied and ended the call.

The ladies followed Mylo back uptown to the Baychester Diner on Boston Road. Once again they waited as Mylo went inside. “Take pictures of everybody who goes in,” Monika told Jackie.

“Where are you goin’?” Jackie asked.

“Inside,” Monika said and got out.

Monika spotted Mylo sitting at a table in the back near the restrooms. She quickly grabbed her mouth and rushed up to the waitress. “Where’s your restroom?”

When the waitress pointed toward the back, Monika walked quickly, still holding her mouth. More so to hide her face at this point. Mylo didn’t look up when Monika passed his table. She brushed up against it and was able to place a listening device under the table.

Monika got back in the car with Jackie. “Are we live?” she asked.

“He just ordered coffee,” Jackie told her and the two made themselves comfortable taking pictures and waited to see who Mylo was meeting.

Exactly one hour after Mylo made his call, a black Cadillac CTS pulled into the parking lot.

Mylo sat in his booth at the Baychester Diner sipping his coffee. He looked at his watch and knew that he wouldn’t have to wait too much longer. He had just left the Shrine Bar where he had met Bruce Stark, the so-called chairman of The Commission. Stark called him, frantically demanding that Mylo meet him to talk about Mike Black.

“’Bout time you got here,” Stark said when Mylo approached him at the bar.

“I’m here now, so what’s the problem?” Mylo asked and marveled at how well his plan was going.

“I told you, fuckin’ Black is the problem. That nigga is out to get me.”

“What you expect, you sent somebody to kill him. What you think he was gonna
do
; throw you a party? Run out of town?”