The Body Mafia (17 page)

Michael took a long, deep breath. “You know I was investigating both families,” he began. I nodded. “We were receiving information daily about LifeTech Industries’ connection to the mob, only we weren’t sure which family it was, or what they were involved in. About a month before things got really heated, I followed one of the trucks to the Iaccona warehouse in Youngstown. It was then I figured out what was going on, but I couldn’t prove it. These guys were carrying medical coolers out, and it didn’t take a genius to know that it wasn’t a skin graft inside, but something else. We started pulling their financial accounts, records, licenses, and everything we could think of, but they were clean as a whistle.”

“But you had tape recordings of—”

He held his hand up. “We’ll get to that. Keep in mind, LifeTech Industries is a legitimate tissue-donor corporation, but also a front for organ trade.” I stayed quiet while he continued. “Only when I heard, by chance, of a homeless man missing a liver in Detroit did I start to understand the depth of what they were doing. But we had hit a brick wall. Until Niccolo Filaci came to see me.” Michael had a blank stare directed at the fire, as if remembering it all. “I knew
he was pissed off because they wouldn’t let him in, but he was willing to talk, so why would I care? He gave me a lot of information, including where Sal’s secret office was.” He loudly sighed. “It was shortly after I first met with Niccolo that he began to tell me about threats toward me from the Iacconas. Niccolo even gave up his own family, but I could never figure out how either family knew who I was. Until now.”

“Justin Brown.” I already knew.

“That’s right. He knew enough about you, that your husband was an FBI agent in Cleveland. The family knew there was heat on them. He followed me one night to the warehouse. He was taking a wild guess that I was the agent in charge of the investigation. Of course, I didn’t know about it until later, but obviously, when he saw me park in front of the warehouse, it was confirmed. I was the agent trying to destroy everything. That’s when the real threats began.”

“He killed them, you know.”

“Who?”

“The homeless murders. It was Justin. He confessed on the way to the funeral home.”

“I figured that out while you were sleeping in the hospital.”

“How long does it take for someone to die when they’re getting a major organ cut from their body?” An image of the funeral home, specifically the image of Donovan Esposito cutting out my liver, flashed through my head. I got immediate chills.

“A liver or both kidneys would cause death, but only one kidney wouldn’t. That’s why some of your victims were strangled and some tortured. Your first
victim must’ve made them angry, angry enough they cut off his hand.”

“I know the feeling.” Half giggling out of sheer nervousness, I raised the white glove that covered my own hand.

“It was easy for them. They would find some poor homeless person and tell them they could make big money. They’d arrange a meeting somewhere, and that’s where Justin would kill them.”

“But isn’t there some type of time element to getting these organs into the recipients?”

“Absolutely. For the most part, they would get the organ, courtesy of Dr. Esposito, throw them in the cooler, and leave on a chartered jet from the Mansfield airport. They’d switch planes in Chicago or Atlanta, and head mainly to the Philippines. They would have only about a day to get the organ there. In the Philippines, the doctors would be literally waiting with the recipient on the table when Frank Trapini would bring the cooler in.”

I had a thought. “I had a victim, a female. Her last name was Cross. Michael, she wasn’t homeless!”

“They were getting desperate, Cee. We think their boss in the Philipines upped the orders. Troy Cross was up to his ass in LifeTech Industries stock.”

“I knew it!”

“He owed them a lot of money and wasn’t paying, so they took his wife. We found out that Troy Cross told this to a detective at Richland Metro, but I couldn’t figure out why they didn’t do anything about it, until I realized he had told Justin.”

“He lied to me,” I thought aloud. “He told me Troy Cross wouldn’t give anything up.”

“Justin didn’t know where you were when you
had that conversation. He knew you had left Florida by then, but didn’t know where you’d gone. He needed to be careful.”

I had another epiphany. “Oh my God! This entire time I couldn’t figure out how the Iacconas knew I’d gone to Cleveland. Now I know.” I began shaking my head. “The day I had the conversation with Justin about Troy Cross, I was in Cleveland but told him I was still in Florida. I remember they announced the score to the Cleveland Browns game as I stood right in front of the stadium. He must’ve heard it.”

“I’d say that’s a pretty safe assumption. We couldn’t figure that part out, either.”

“Why would they move the operation down here, to Mansfield, when they knew I worked here and was married to you?”

“Again, because of Justin. He was the insider we could never identify. After Niccolo told me that the Iacconas were making threats, I broke into Sal’s office and planted the bugs. Nothing was admissible, Cee, because the bugs were put in there illegally. At that point, I wasn’t worried about criminal charges. I was worried about the safety of my family, so I had to know everything.”

“Michael,” I said, my eyes brimming with tears, “why didn’t you ever tell me any of this before?”

“I didn’t want to worry you. I wanted to feel like I had it completely under control. Which I did, until Niccolo was murdered and the murders began here in Mansfield.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Niccolo was telling me he thought they were going to take him out, but I told him he was being paranoid. He had already put one of the bugs in his
father’s office for me, so he said I owed him some protection. I laughed at him…” He was quiet for a few moments. “When I saw his murder on the news, I felt like shit, but also, I knew these people weren’t fucking around. Your name began to come up more and more in their conversations. The insider—Justin—was telling them you were getting too close. That’s when they made the decision to have me, and possibly you, killed. Even more shocking, Leon Filaci ordered the same. You heard the tapes. Things began to boil, there were more homeless victims, more threats toward us, and there was nothing we, the FBI, could do, since we had no hard evidence. It was Alan Keane who suggested we fake my death.”

“But, why, for Christ’s sake? There
had
to have been another way!” I was beginning to feel a lot of anger toward Alan Keane.

He looked at me. “Cee, there wasn’t! Don’t you understand? We were backed into a corner! If they thought I was dead, they’d think the heat was off, so they’d go about their business and forget about you! We knew it would at the very least buy us some time, time to gather the evidence we needed to bring them all down.”

It was hard to absorb everything Michael was telling me. As scary as it had been for him at the time, I couldn’t help but think they were wrong for faking his death.

I was shaking my head. “All right, so things were bad. Tell me about the night of the explosion.”

“God, I almost backed out a thousand times. After we made love that night, I called Alan and told him I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t bear to go months and possibly forever without seeing you. Remember? I tried
to get you and the kids to go on vacation. If you had agreed, I would’ve told Alan the deal was off. I only needed a couple of weeks. And more than any of that, I couldn’t bear to see you go through the heartache of thinking you lost me.”

“What did he say?” I asked, regretting my decision to blow off Michael’s suggested vacation.

“He said, and I quote, ‘Okay, Michael. But how will you bear it if they kill her? How will she bear it if you really are dead?’ He was right.” Michael’s eyes began to water. “Never, ever in my life has anything been as hard as the night I walked out that door, knowing what was coming. I kept thinking it was wrong, so wrong.” He paused. “And when the blast…when the blast blew through the window, they had to hold me back. They weren’t supposed to use that many explosives. I was terrified that you had gotten hurt.”

“What I want to know is, who the hell was inside of the car?”

“A cadaver, courtesy of the University of Kentucky’s medical school.”

“Another part I don’t understand: Salvatore and Justin admitted to me that
they
killed you!”

“Did they actually say they did it, Cee? Salvatore thought the Filacis got to me first, but he wanted to take the credit anyway.”

It was all making sense. “So that’s why the FBI got here so quick and took over the crime scene. That’s why the hush-hush funeral. Alan said it was because he wanted the mob to think you were still alive, but in reality, he did it because it would be easier to bring you back if only a few people knew.”

Michael nodded. “They had to have three guys
put me in the car that night, I was so worried about you.”

“Where did you go?”

“At first, I went back to Washington, DC, for a large number of meetings with the FBI’s top supervisors. After that, I was put up in a safe house in Erie, Pennsylvania. That’s when it became pure hell for me.” He tilted his head back. “Those nights of lying there, staring at the ceiling, aching for you, were some of the worst in my life—”

“Don’t even talk to me about long nights and aching!” I interrupted. “Do you have any idea at all what I went through, Michael? My life literally stopped! Eric took custody of the girls, I quit my job, and basically quit living!” I began choking up. “I know it was hard for you, but at least you knew I was alive!”

I began to sob, and Michael pulled me close and held me tight. Remembering those nights not so long ago was an extremely difficult task.

He rocked me back and forth. “I know, I know…I’m so sorry. I knew what you were going through, believe me.” He pulled away and looked at me. “The house was wired, Cee—by the FBI and by the Iacconas.”

I was shocked and looked around. “What? Are the wires still here?”

“No, no. They were taken out when you left for Florida. I’m just telling you that so you’ll know I was kept informed of everything, down to the times you stayed in bed and cried for days. There was video, video of you crying, sobbing, drinking, and screaming. I thought I would go out of my mind! Every time Alan sent one to me, I began to get scared to watch it. We also had agents watching you.”

“The guy in the park! The day I was there with the girls!” I exclaimed, remembering. “You also had one pretending to be a vending-machine guy. I saw him in the department parking lot one day.”

He nodded. “And the hang-up phone calls. I needed to hear your voice or I wouldn’t have made it.”

“Those were you?” A part of me felt incredibly naive—not that anyone on earth would’ve thought their dead husband was crank-calling.

He caressed my cheek. “There was one night when I couldn’t take it anymore, and I snuck back here.”

“You did? When?”

He looked at me for a long time. It was then I knew the exact night he had returned, and how I regretted it.

“I had been watching how you were progressively getting worse, and that night…that night I found you on the kitchen floor with the gun in your hand, and I knew, I knew what you were thinking about.” His face looked slightly angry. “How could you even think about doing something like that, CeeCee? What about Selina and Isabelle? What about you?”

I stood up, on the defensive. “Wait just one minute! Don’t you dare put yourself in my shoes, because you have no fucking idea what I went through! None! I had been drinking a lot, and things…they just caught up with me. But as you can see, I’m fine!”

“I’m sorry. Please, sit down.” He patted the couch. “I took the bullets out of the gun that night. I don’t know if you ever realized it.”

“You touched me, didn’t you?” I asked, vividly remembering the dream I’d had, where he caressed my face.

“Barely, but you started to wake up, so I had to go.”

“Next, please.”

“It was Alan that gambled on you. I had no idea he was hoping you would go out on your own and get the evidence. He never let me in on it until you left for Florida. They didn’t know about the tapes I had until you found them. Salvatore knew you found them the same time we did. That’s when I got more worried. When Alan told me what he was counting on, I told him the entire thing was off and that I was going home. As far as I was concerned, he was putting you in more danger than I’d ever imagined.”

“But he didn’t, Michael. I’m the one who decided to risk it all. It wasn’t like he put the idea in my head or anything.”

“I know, but I didn’t like it just the same. When you resigned, he deemed it a stroke of brilliance on your part. I came unglued. And when they lost track of you in Florida, I finally grew a pair of balls and told him it was over. I flew into Cleveland that night on the verge of a breakdown, because I thought Tommy Miglia had gotten to you.”

The mention of Tommy’s name made my hair stand up on end. I braced myself, waiting for Michael to bring up the murder, but he never did.

“When I found out you were still alive, I was thrilled. Until Alan told me you had hooked up with Joseph Filaci.” Michael’s eyes locked on mine.

I felt a twinge of guilt, but also a bout of sadness, when I thought of him.

“Michael, before you ask, you need to know something. Joseph saved my life, literally. And no, nothing, and I repeat, nothing, happened between us. He helped me. I couldn’t have done it all without him. Joseph died trying to help me.”

Michael’s eyes shifted away for a brief second. “I know. But, as you can imagine, I couldn’t help but wonder…” He looked away. “Not that I could blame you, but it terrified me that you would find someone before this was all cleared up. It was a possibility that I had to seriously consider.”

“If you think I could jump into bed with someone so soon after your death, then all I can say is, you don’t give me much credit, or respect.” I didn’t want to be angry, but I wanted Michael to know the truth.