Gabriella was seated in the small interview room with a female officer by the door. The officer left, so Ricardo pulled up the chair and sat opposite the girl. She had been crying.
“So, what do they have on you?” he asked.
She shrugged and shook her head.
“I don’t know. But I figure that they’ve been tapping my phone and watching me for some time.”
“Will that have given them anything?”
She nodded.
He made a few notes on his legal pad.
“Bank accounts?”
“I wasn’t paid. It was a debt.”
He nodded. “How about the angle of blackmail? Can we say you were under duress?”
She looked blankly at him.
“Luis Mendoza is dead, so we add another felony to a man who if found guilty would have faced many death sentences.”
“How?”
“We simply claim you were being blackmailed, and were unaware of the importance of the information you were passing. You can offer to do a deal, and tell them anything and everything you know.”
“But I don’t know anything. I simply called if I saw or heard anything about the island.”
“They don’t know that, and there is no one who will argue with you.”
She sat looking miserable.
“Tell me, did anyone go to the island recently, anyone new?”
She shrugged, “Not that I know of.”
“I will stay for your interview. We will let them disclose what they have, and then we will inform them that you were under duress, they told you that you were an accessory to the murder of the father of your baby, and that you were an accessory, so if you didn’t pass information, they would tell your employers.”
She stared at him in surprise.
“I know everything, my dear. I was Luis’s attorney, so I had to know everything.”
Unfortunately, as a story it had too many flaws, and the DEA had too much information on tape about her true willingness to serve. But she was small fry, so she was charged with various offences relating to abuse of privilege and breaking official secrets laws. There was also a conspiracy charge in relation to drug trafficking, and accessory to murder the DEA agents. However, as no one knew where they died, it would be hard to place in the jurisdiction of a US court.
Ricardo made his way to the US Naval detention centre and showed his ID to the guards on the gate.
A DEA agent was assigned to escort him to the cell block, where he was shown into a bleak interview room with a table and two chairs bolted to the floor.
So started a long day, each of the men was brought to him, and he simply took details from them and asked them about their job, and whether anyone new had arrived on the island within the last few weeks.
By the end, he had interviewed fifty four men, and Rocco had been the second from last. He had known Rocco since he had been arrested for robbery in Miami eight years ago. Rocco gave him the best information about the mysterious girl who had been Luis’s lover and companion for the last few weeks.
“She brought Nadia’s body back. They said she was the same as Nadia, but I didn’t believe it. She was very beautiful and all woman. I saw her in the pool, and there was nothing of a boy about her.”
“You saw her naked?”
“The amount of cover her bikini gave, I may as well have done. I have seen many she-males and I could always tell. If I didn’t know the boss, I would swear she was a real girl.”
“You said she was German?”
“Si. Renate Muller. She said she met Nadia in Germany years ago. They almost looked like sisters,” he grinned. “Or brothers, or whatever.”
“What happened when the DEA came?”
“I was in the control room. Someone had disabled the back-up generator, and then turned the power off. By the time I got everything back on line, the DEA were on the ground, and it was all over. I was being taken to the ship when this DEA agent ran past with Renate in his arms. There was blood everywhere, so she had been shot.”
Ricardo leafed through the list of dead and wounded personnel. The only female casualty was a fatality, Maria.
Why wasn’t she on it, unless she was a DEA agent?
“Describe her.”
“She was tall; with heels she was taller than me, so she must have been five ten or so. Blonde hair, long, very sexy and she had a beautiful figure. I should say a 38C or D. But legs of an athlete, she swam for a mile every day. I tell you, man, she was really beautiful. Her voice was a woman’s, but sexy and with that cool German accent. Everyone knew what Nadia was, but I swear we all thought the boss had gone straight,” Rocco said, grinning.
“Did she come into the control centre before the attack?”
“Yeah, she brought me a couple of beers at about 8 o’clock. She was a nice girl. But she left after a few minutes, and I never saw her again until I saw her being carried to the ship.”
“Was the power up when she left?”
“Sure, and she was never alone in the control room long enough to find the key to the power room, enter and switch it off.”
“She was alone?”
“Hell man, I had to pee.”
“Ah, the beers,” said Ricardo. “She was very smart.”
“You think it was her? No way man, no way,” Rocco said, quite adamantly.
“Okay, suggest an alternative?”
Rocco shook his head.
“She was nice, man. She was real nice.”
Ricardo finished up and left the base. He caught the news on the radio on the way home. There had been no press release up to now, the DEA were playing things very close to their chest.
“News is just in about a joint US Navy and DEA operation against a Columbian Drug Cartel located on an Island several miles outside US territorial waters. Agents landed on the island, and overcame armed resistance. However, they successfully took the island, making several arrests.
“Luis Mendoza, the notorious cartel leader, was shot when trying to open fire on DEA agents at the air strip. Several other members of the cartel were killed, including one female. A single DEA undercover agent was fatally shot. There were no other DEA casualties.
“Cocaine, money and arms were seized, no set value has been released to date, but it is estimated to be in excess of $50,000,000. The agent in charge of the operation gave a brief statement:
“DEA agents and US military personnel successfully closed down a prominent drug dealer, permanently, yesterday. Luis Mendoza has been on the US most wanted lists for sometime, and this operation is a landmark in our fight against the parasites who seek to bleed this nation dry from within.
“Unfortunately, there were fatalities and casualties, as they did not give up without a fight, and we lost a very courageous undercover agent who made it all possible. The sacrifice she gave will enable us to continue the fight, and has taken several years worth of poison from the streets of America.”
Ricardo grinned in his car. So, she died, poetic justice. But then he had another thought.
What if she didn’t die, but they wanted everyone to think she had?
He decided to ring a few of the hospitals, just to make sure. If an agent was in, then maybe they were not being honest.
It was late when he arrived home. He kissed his wife and sat down to dinner with her. The kids were not in evidence, which was not unusual with teenagers. They talked about his day, and he was as vague and non-committal as usual.
Nancy was an Anglo. They had met at law school, but split up after a brief fling. They had met again across the courtroom several years later, and she actually won that case. They got together some fifteen years ago, and married after a year’s engagement.
It was a good marriage. She had taken time from her work out to have the three children. By which time he was earning enough for her to consider giving up work altogether. She did a little legal work for the disadvantaged, and spent the rest of the time at the country club.