Fatal Dose (19 page)

Within ten minutes the street was crowded by dozens of emergency responders. Blocks away children scampered after the ten and twenty dollar bills that were blowing around. It took three hours to rescue the few survivors and to extricate the bodies of the victims from the rubble. When the tally was completed, the pharmacist, four clerks and two customers were among the dead in addition to the two Cleveland Detectives, two FBI agents and two unidentified perps. Two clerks and three customers were taken to the hospital with broken bones and injuries from the flying debris that penetrated their bodies. Three were in such serious condition that they were not expected to live through the night.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

When Mark heard about the explosion he headed directly for Dennis’s office. The door was closed, but he could see through the half-open blinds that Dennis was meeting with his three ASAC’s, Police Chief Walt Peterson, Brock Pennington and another man. He returned to his cubicle and called Wendy. “Have you heard about the explosion at the Lucky Food Mart? Who would do such a thing?”

“This is just awful,” she said. “I knew both of the agents; Joan was single, but Nancy had two young children. Dennis must be taking this very hard.”

“I tried to see Dennis, but he’s behind closed doors with Brock, Chief Peterson and someone I didn’t recognize. They all looked very somber.”

“I feel for Dennis. This fight against the cartel is turning very ugly. The death of a federal agent is so rare. Now in just a few months’ three agents in his jurisdiction have been killed. It’s almost as if someone is targeting us. Dennis told me that the Director has started an inquiry. He thought that apprehending the two men at the market would be our big break; instead he’s lost two more agents and some important witnesses.”

“Do they know if the device was a booby trap or set off remotely?”

“As far as I know, not yet, but it happened so close to their visit that I doubt that it was a booby trap. That would have been too risky for the guys delivering the drugs. Any delay in their arrival at the store would have ruined their plan.” Wendy’s voice faded as she spoke to someone.

“I’m sorry for that, someone just delivered a courier-pak and I had to sign for it. Getting back to the suspects, they might have had a confederate nearby that considered them expendable. With friends like that, who needs enemies?”

“Maybe the cartel knew about the sting and decided to get rid of all the evidence. I think Dennis is right. There has to be a leak here at the Bureau. He sent out feelers to the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility. They’ve already begun an inquiry. That should take some pressure off Dennis. It’s kind of eerie not knowing for sure whom to trust.”

“If there is a spy in our midst, that would mean that Atronen probably knows our every move. That’s kind of scary, especially with our plans for Paul Snyder tomorrow,” she said.

“That depends on where the spy is positioned. He, or she, wouldn’t have to be too high up to get access to information about many of our cases. Anyone providing us with administrative support knows a lot about what we’re working on. This thing with the druggist is a good example. It was commonly known that he came in on his own. Anyone at the Bureau could have heard about our sting. The Cleveland Police Department is another potential leak source, although they didn’t have as many details about what we were planning.

“I know that all agents and employees are vetted when they join up, but it’s still possible that someone got into trouble since then and may be being blackmailed into providing information. After all, that’s basically what we’re going to be doing with Paul Snyder. Or it could be that somebody just needs money badly enough to betray the Bureau’s trust.”

“You’re right. Do you think we should be vetting everyone again?” she asked.

“That’s always an option. It would probably tick a lot of people off if we suddenly started snooping into their personal lives. Morale would really go down the tubes then. I think many agents would try to transfer-out rather than work under a SAC that doesn’t trust them. We will just have to wait and see what DOJ wants to do.”

“I guess you’re right, Mark, but the toll is starting to rise. We’ve lost three agents. When you add the toll from the Lucky Food Mart, the Bennett family and those in serious condition at the hospital, the causality list may grow into the low teens. Under the circumstances, I wonder if Dennis will want to call off our meeting with Paul Snyder tomorrow. He may look at this latest setback as a warning from whoever is out there for us to back off. He might even become concerned about the meeting itself becoming a target.”

“I sure hope not. Snyder’s looking more promising than ever now that we lost our opportunity to get valuable information from those two thugs. Anyway, I don’t see Dennis as the type that would let the mob scare him off and nobody else other than the three of us knows anything about the meeting. If anything, Dennis will probably want to step up our actions against Atronen.”

“Well, I better get back to work. Buzz me if you hear anything.”

“Wait, before you go. I saw a new face in Dennis’s office before. Do you have any idea who it might be?”

“Not a clue. It could be someone from DOJ. We’ll just have to wait until Dennis is ready to tell us.”

“Oh, okay. I was just wondering. I’ll let you know if I hear anything about tomorrow.”

An hour later Dennis called Mark to confirm that the meeting at Paradigm was still on. He also told Mark about an emergency meeting of the PDS scheduled for three o’clock that afternoon.

Dennis sounded very weary to Mark. The Atronen investigation was taking its toll on everyone.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Five members of the Pharmaceutical Drug Squad were settled into the Major Case Room when Dennis arrived with his three ASAC’s. They were accompanied by the man Mark saw earlier that day in Dennis’s office. While his four companions were seating themselves, Dennis went to the front of the room.

“I forgot that Chuck is attending a seminar in San Francisco for the next two weeks. I’ll call him later to update him.” He hesitated for a moment, “I have some really devastating news to share with you. Agent Paschal, who you all know was killed in the explosion at the Lucky Food Mart was leaking information about our activities to an executive at Atronen.” He paused for a minute to let his announcement sink in.

“I want to introduce Inspector Milton Bagnold, Special Investigator from the Justice Department, Office of Professional Responsibility,” he said with a gesture. “He’s here from Washington to investigate our information leak. I’ll let him tell you about his findings. Milt?”

Milton Bagnold was a career investigator with the Justice Department with two years to go before his retirement. The assignment came directly from the FBI Director’s office. He made a name for himself with high profile cases involving criminal cover-ups by agents and one involving a murder-for-hire. What made Milton Bagnold special was his way of thinking. He had a uniquely disciplined mind and a photographic memory. If anyone could uncover the spy in the Cleveland office, he would be the one.

“Hello, everyone! As Dennis said, I’ve been conducting an investigation for a few days. I hadn’t made much progress until today, when I got a big break. It’s normal practice for us to immediately seal the work area and home space when an agent is killed in the field. Today, when Special Agent Joan Paschal died in the explosion at the Lucky Food Mart, I gained access to her apartment and found enough evidence, including notes and bank records, to prove that for the past year she has been receiving money on a regular basis from a Marco Vennuti, Vice President of Security at Atronen Pharmaceuticals. This was not a part of any known undercover operation.”

Vennuti again
, Mark thought,
we’ve got to stop this guy. He seems to be behind everything.

Bagnold continued, “The last payment was several days ago. So far, Joan’s workspace is clean, but we will be checking her cell phone records to see if we can connect her directly to Vennuti. Dennis tells me that Agent Paschal was asked by her friend, Agent Nancy Walker, to accompany her when the two men at the Food Mart were arrested. It’s apparent, then, that she was unaware of the bomb, so it’s probable that the target was not the two agents. I can’t be sure who the target was. What I do know is that at least for now, Vennuti has lost a valuable informer from our ranks. I think that the PDS needs to take advantage of the temporary vacuum created by her untimely death and move as quickly as possible against Atronen and Vennuti before they can regroup.”

He leaned over and grabbed a bottle of water, twisted the cap off and took a large gulp. Then he scanned the room to see how the agents were reacting to the disclosure he had just made. He saw a room full of surprised faces.

“Are there any questions?”

Wendy raised her hand and he gestured toward her.

“Special Agent, Wendy Farrell. I knew Joan fairly well. I just don’t see her in the role of an informer. Are you absolutely certain that she was the one leaking information; that the evidence you found wasn’t planted or some other explanation?”

“I can understand your surprise, Agent Farrell. Dennis reacted the same way when I first presented my findings. Believe me when I say that there is no tougher job for me than to expose someone who has betrayed the Bureau and their country. It is something that I don’t do lightly. I can assure you that I’ve checked and double-checked everything as much as I could in the short time that I’ve had. The evidence speaks for itself. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Agent Paschal was working for this man Vennuti. We don’t know as yet what leverage he had over her, but I am sure that that will be uncovered as part of our ongoing investigation. Keep in mind that we don’t level charges like this lightly.”

Dennis rose and assumed control of the meeting.

“Milt will want to speak with each of you over the next few days. Mark, since you will be out of town later in the week, perhaps you can spare him a few minutes later today. He may also want to use your vetting programs.”

Looking directly at Milt, Mark said, “Sure. I’d be happy to work with you right after the meeting, if you’re free.”

“That’s great, Mark,” Milt replied. “I’ll see you then.”

Dennis looked solemnly at the group. “I hope you will understand what I’m about to tell you. I don’t want anyone getting their noses out of joint, but I haven’t exactly been straightforward with all of you, for what I think are rather obvious reasons. It’s been very apparent to me for some time that there was a leak in our office. We learned from the Hanssen case that people sell out their country for a myriad of reasons; some that make sense to us and others that have no credibility. I want to believe that Joan hadn’t connected the deaths of Brice Bennett and his family to Marco Vennuti. I want to believe that while she might have been motivated by greed or other reasons and that she would have drawn the line at working with a murderer, had she known.”

Mark glanced at Wendy and saw her head nod affirmatively. She was obviously tossed between her memories of Joan and the unforgivable conduct that she was being accused of.

Dennis continued, “On the supposition that Joan was the leak, I’ll try to be more open about what is going on. I’ve deliberately withheld some information from most of you for some time now. I’ve been disseminating information on a strict need-to-know basis. I can’t afford to do that any longer, nor do I really want to. I agree with Milt that the time is ripe for us to move forward boldly on every leg of our probe into Atronen. Vennuti will no doubt try to fill the vacancy caused by Joan’s untimely death. It will take him time, so we need to act quickly.”

He took a swig of water before continuing. “Right now I’m going to divulge some information about a special investigation that is in progress. I needed to keep this information close-to-the-vest because I didn’t want to expose the person involved or any of you to unnecessary risk. But, if we are going to accelerate our investigation, you will have to have a full picture about what is going on. It is essential that what I’m about to tell you not be discussed with anyone outside of this room. Is that understood?”

He quickly scanned the room and was satisfied with the affirmative nods from everyone. He continued, “The investigation I’m referring to resulted from Agent Matthew’s background checks. It turns out that one of Atronen’s employees is a bigamist. We’re betting that the person will not want to be exposed and will feed us information on the after-hour production runs that take place on some Fridays. Justice is willing to give this person immunity from prosecution in return for his full cooperation. We will be meeting with him this week. He thinks he’s meeting with a prospective employer. If all goes well, we will finally have some critical evidence of Atronen’s ‘thinning’ operation, including their distribution network. With any luck this information will not only lead us to the people responsible for the murders of the Bennett family, the victims at Lucky Food, but also give us the evidence we need to shut Atronen down. If anyone sees how this operation can be of help in their current assignments, or if you have something else to contribute, stop by my office.”

Mark noticed that Dennis didn’t use Paul’s name or say where or when they were going to meet Snyder. He couldn’t help but wonder if this was an oversight, or if Dennis was unsure of the squad members or his ASAC’s?

Wendy stopped Mark on the way out of the conference room. “I still can’t believe that Joan did those things. I won’t be surprised if they find out that she was part of a top secret sting operation by Washington, which they even kept from Dennis for some reason.”

“I don’t know what to say about it. I’ve never met her.”