FortyFour — A Run for the Money

 

 

Solly was talking to Weisman, he nodded and went to talk to Jonas.

“Is your phone on?” he asked him.

“Yes.”

“It’s on!” Solly hollered.

“We have the signal.”

“What are they doing,” asked Mudd.

“They’re going to trace the cell signal when Jonas calls.” Solly said. “We’ll try to find her location.”

Weisman walked over to the rest of the group and showed a list of questions to Jonas.

“Make sure you ask where she is or how close to the chateau she is; make sure it sounds natural. Why don’t you start by telling her you won’t be back until late tomorrow morning?

“Maybe I should ask about her friend and how everything is with her husband,” Jonas suggested.

“Good lead in, don’t blurt it out while you’re talking about something else,” Solly added.

We’re ready on this end. You ready Jonas?” Weisman queried.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Make the call.”

Belle’s cell was ringing. She saw it was Jonas, “Let’s see what he wants, maybe I’ll learn something,” she thought.

“Hello,” she drawled.

“Hi, it’s Jonas, I won’t be home until late tomorrow morning. I didn’t want you to worry.”

“All right, “I stopped to eat on my way to the chateau, I’m going to do a little shopping before I go home.”

“Do you have far to go?” asked Jonas.

“Naw, a couple of miles,” she told him.

Weisman gave Jonas the signal to cut the call when you want, they had the information signal.

“Great, maybe I’ll see you in the morning,” Jonas said.

“All right then, see you tomorrow.”

Jonas had a look of frustration as he turned and said, “What does naw, mean”

“It means, no,” said Mudd.

“As far as I can remember Belle has never used the word, ever. She always said, no. Oh, and she also said, all right then. Never heard her say that either. I get more confused every time I talk to her.”

“You and Belle were separated for years. She may have picked up different slang expressions from her friends,” suggested, Mother.

“You’re right in assuming that,” Jonas said. “I’ve given some thought to the possibility of her trying her best to please me by talking as she did when we communicated. I just can’t get my head around the whole mess. Oh, what the hey, I may be completely wrong.”

“The cell tower which picked up her signal places her in the vicinity of Absecon.” Weisman said. “The first town you get to as you leave AC, using the White Horse Pike.”

“She told me she was a couple of miles from Chateau 54,” Jonas told him.

“We’ll double check,” Weisman said.

Jonas was now completely mystified. M&M couldn’t help. They only knew Belle for a short time.

Wait a minute Mother said. “Muddy, you and Belle hung around, went to dinner and other stuff. You didn’t notice anything about the way she talked?”

“She sounded normal to me,” Mudd quipped. “We joked around. She thought I talked funny so she would mimic me at times. She said she acted on Broadway for two seasons doing back up rolls and small parts in off Broadway shows.”

“She did what,” asked Jonas.

“She acted on Broadway,” Mudd repeated. “She told me being able to have different accents from foreign countries and able to sound southern, mid-western, New York and South Philly was part of her job.”

“Muddy, would you come with me?” Weisman said.

“Am I under arrest? Should I run?”

“If you run I’ll have to shoot you,” Solly interjected.

“You’re just kidding, aren’t you? Please say you’re not serious.”

“I’m not serious,” Solly said. “But Agent Weisman would like your learned assistance.”

“Mother keep an eye on me, I want to come back and spend some of my money.”

“You’ll be all right Muddy,” Solly assured him.

Weisman, Solly and the Muddman went to the far corner of the lobby and talked. Mother wondered what was up. Jonas just shook his head. The two agents stood motionless and watched the area. They waited for a good fifteen minutes when Muddy screamed. “Get outta my face.”

Solly took control of Muddy’s right arm and Weisman held on to his left. They picked his body up so his legs were dangling about six inches above the ground. Swiftly bringing him over to where Mother and Jonas were waiting. They gently put him down.

“Here you take him,” said Weisman. “He’s a babbling idiot.”

Weisman and Solly walked away.

“I fooled them, didn’t I?” said the Muddman. “I didn’t tell them anything.”

“Why didn’t you tell them anything,” asked Jonas.

“I didn’t know anything.”

“They should have asked me,” said Mother. “I already knew you didn’t know anything.”

“Thanks!”

Jonas had a good laugh. He said he felt better knowing he was not the only person who didn’t know anything.

Svetleva left her phone at the gas station while filling up. She removed the memory card and put the phone on top of the air pump as she was leaving. The secondary phone, the one she used to call Mickey, Jewel and other associates came into play. She was approaching Iowa Avenue in Atlantic City. There was a parking spot at the corner of Atlantic so she eased the car into the space and walked down Iowa toward the Boardwalk.

Svetleva walked through the covered walkway which went from Pacific to the cobblestone throughway where the FBI cars were parked. She noticed the car Jewel was driving. She looked around but couldn’t see Jewel. The area was quiet. She made her way to the back driveway. This gave her a direct line of site to Jewel’s car. She would wait to see what came her way.

Jewel had stationed herself at a secondary entrance near the front door. She was watching the FBI, Jonas, M&M, as they were standing outside the front door of the casino. Jewel could see them from the door of the lady’s room where she was keeping out of sight. She noticed Weisman had been holding the case. He had put it down next to Jonas and walked away.

She wondered if Svetleva had decided to come for the diamonds or if she chickened out as usual. Well not as usual, she was pretty good when it came to making plans and getting the job done with the least effort. Jewel hated her for that but hoped she would show, she could use the help. Jewel would go for the diamonds even if Svetty didn’t show.

Weisman was still juggling things with the help of the Newark office. There had been some results as to the whereabouts of Jewel and Gerald. They still hadn’t made the ID of the second female or the three men working with her. They had an eyewitness who saw three people, a male and two females get into a car at the scene of the incident. A man who was mowing his lawn about a quarter mile east had seen most of what happened when he was turning his mower around. He stopped and watched. He came to the site when the Police arrived to give them the information.

Later an officer on duty at the Shore Mall noticed a man and a woman get out of a car which fit the description of the vehicle. A woman drove the car away as the other two got into a gray vehicle and drove out the backway. He was too far away to tell the make of the vehicle. It could have been a Ford or a Toyota, maybe a Nissan, the officer couldn’t say for sure. He had called it in as soon as he spotted the incident. For now, that was all the information they had.

Jewel waited and waited for a chance to grab the case. Not knowing the diamonds had been removed. There had been ample opportunity to take the case but she also needed time to escape. Jewel had paid the attendant fifty dollars to park her car next to the FBI vehicle.

Weisman got another call. The phone had been chirping regularly for the last half hour.

“Hello, Weisman here.”

“A phone has been found in Absecon, at a gas station. It was left on top of the air pump but has been cleared of all its data,” the policewoman on the phone told him.

“Can anyone there get into the phone and find out what its number is?”

“We have the make of the phone. There is a store less then a mile away, they should be able to get the number.”

“Thanks, let me know as soon as you know,” Weisman said to the officer on the other end of the call, “and thanks for your help.”

“What up boss?” asked Solly.

“Please don’t call me boss, I’m a fellow agent.”

“Yes sir, Agent Weisman.”

“We have some information. Not enough to act on yet…soon, I think we will.”

 

~

 

Gerald aka Mickey McGrath was a busy little beaver. He had taken care of the money. Breaking it into small piles and wrapping it in watertight packages. He would hide them in various places. Maybe one or two could be found but it would be very difficult to think like him. He had a marvelous mind, better, he thought, then just about any mind on the planet. He would be up early in the morning readying himself to become the retired Dutch diplomat, Karl Kreslow. He laughed himself to sleep.

Weisman called Solly over again. He relayed some new information.

“Don’t look over at Jonas,” he said. “The phone found at the gas station in Absecon belonged to Belle.

“What do you think it means?” asked Solly.

“Belle was not in the area of the chateau, but in Absecon.”

“What’s our next step?

“We need to put some questions to rest before we return to Newark. This is as good a place as any.”

“There’s no need to bother Jonas, is there?”

“No,” said Weisman, “none at all.”

“Do you want me to put the case in the car?”

“Good idea,” Weisman replied, “I’d like to get out of here as quickly as possible.”

Solly went to get the case. Jewel was watching; this was her chance. Everyone was busy looking somewhere else; she ran for the case before Solly could get at it. She pushed Muddy out of the way and ran across the cobblestone driveway to her car. When she arrived at her car she was surprised no one had followed her. She pulled her gun and told all concerned to stay put. Solly tried to tell her the case was empty but before he could get the words out of his mouth she screamed. “Shut your mouth!”

As she opened the door to get in the car an arm came out with a gun pointing at her head.

“Don’t move Jewel, if you want to see the light of day again!”

By this time Weisman had moved to the area where Solly and the rest of the stunned crew were. “What’s going on?” he asked. “I thought you were going to put the case in the car.”

“I’m not sure, but Jewel grabbed the case and ran to her car. When she opened the door to get in, an arm with a gun pointing at her head reached out from the car.”

“Who is the arm person?” Weisman asked.

“We don’t know”