I’m back in the writing groove again so here are the first few scenes which open up Chapter 25. I hope to be able to finish this project before the next Nanowrimo begins on November 1. But we’ll see (By the way, you’ll be able to read excerpts from that project here when the time comes. Enjoy!
Darin Frost sat in the office of Assistant District attorney J.J. Levine. This was a delicate investigation and the Campinieri family had its criminal paws intertwined in every aspect of the legal system. Trying to get something past them was going to be a tricky task. Darin was up for the job though.
The Assistant District Attorney was squeaky clean. Darin didn’t have to worry about any complications or criminal ties from his office. Darin knew. He checked him and his staff out himself. This was the man who would probably end up with Darin’s life in his hands, so Darin had to make sure he could be trusted. This was also the man who, when all of this was over, would probably be elevated the District Attorney’s position. With the evidence given by Lenny Cartelli, the DA was about to crash and burn.
Darin sat in the plush brown chair, reclining a little. This had been a long ordeal and the end was near. The Assistant DA sat behind a large mahogany desk. Papers and files were strewn across the desk, on the floor and all over the rest of the office. How he found anything, Darin was not quite sure, but he appeared to be a fairly organized guy.
“So, exactly how do you want to play this, Frost? The ball’s in your court.” Said Levine
“Well,” said Darin, “What I would really like to do, now that we have cross referenced our lists and we know, for the most part, who is on the take, we should leak some misinformation about the case assignment. You can assign the case to someone who you can trust, but we will leak information that it has been assigned to one of Campinieri’s people. Let him get his hopes up. Let “the family” make all of its inside moves and then we can let the real judge begin handling the case. Issue subpoenas and the whole nine yards and drag Mikey and company downtown to answer for the charges. Let him enter his plea and make sure that he gets really good exposure. By this time Campinieri will be fuming, but we’ll get a message across to him…..We’re playing our game, not his. He thinks he’s going to be able to shut things down quickly. Not this time.”
“Shrewd, Frost, very shrewd” said J.J. Levine I think I’m going to like working with you again. I still like your style.
J.J. Levine began to reached into his jacket to get a cigar. He knew he needed to kick this cigar smoking habit that he had, but he failed every time he tried. Max, was not too keen on the Assist. DA reaching into his pocket. It looked like he might be reaching for a concealed weapon. Max sprang into action and put himself between Darin and the perceived threat. Growling and snarling, Max, in his own way, warned J.J. Levine against making any other sudden moves. Normally J.J. Levine didn’t cause any alarm, but Max has been on a heightened sense of alert lately, as if he could sense things building up. There weren’t many people who he trusted.
“Easy Max, settle down boy. He’s OK.” said Darin.
Max settled down, but kept a careful eye on the Assistant DA. When Max saw that all he pulled out of his pocket was a cigar he relaxed his posture some more, but still kept a watchful eye on him.
“Max seems overly protective today, Frost.” said Levine
“Yeah, he would kind of hate it if something happened to me, so he makes sure that it doesn’t. He’s very good at his job too! Max has saved my life countless numbers of times.”
J.J. and Darin talked for a while longer until they had the plan completely fleshed out and then started to put the wheels in motion….
“Loretta!” J.J. called to his Administrative Assistant.
Loretta Taylor came walking in the door. She was a short girl, but a force to be reckoned with. Loretta was no pushover. Loretta stood 5 feet tall and not one inch over. She weighed 106 pounds — some say that was probably right after a shower while she was still dripping wet. She had bushy brown hair to compliment her grey eyes and spotless complexion. She was what many men would refer to as drop dead gorgeous. Had it not been for her height, surely she would have gone into modeling and gone a long, long way. But in this day and age, short was out and tall was in. Most people stayed out of Loretta’s way. If she wanted something, she got it. If you got in her way… shame on you.
Loretta answered as she walked in… “Yes, Mr. Levine?”
“I want you to get on the horn and make it known that we have an indictment coming down for Mikey Campinieri–that’s already old news. Then I want you to spread the word that the case has been assigned to judge montgomery’s docket. Make sure it is known that everything is being expedited and that Montgomery is probably not even going to require an appearance from Campinieri.”
“Okie Dokie,” said Loretta, “Sounds easy enough.” As she left the office, she pet Max on the head and said, “Hey Maxie boy. Want a treat?”
Max started shaking his tail and back and forth at a speed that made it dangerous to be near. Loretta disappeared for just a second and threw a dog treat in for Max. They had become good friends and Loretta made sure she always kept some treats on hand.
“I’ll get right on those calls,” Loretta called out as she disappeared.
When Loretta stepped out of the office and shut the door, J.J. Levine took out his secure cell phone and placed a call judge Wilder….
“Hello, Steve. J.J. here. Yeah, I got a case for you.”
Mikey Campinieri was elated as he listened in on the bugged phone in the Assistant DA’s office……
“Hello, Gladys? Yeah Loretta here.”
“Hey Lo! What ya got?” said Gladys, Judge Montgomery’s secretary
“‘The Boss’ says he has a case for Montgomery, in Re: Mikey Campinieri, et. al. Can you add it to the docket?” asked Loretta.
“Yeah, I can do that. Montgomery has taken Campinieri’s cases before. They never seem to amount to much of anything. Any chance that we’ll get something this time?” asked Gladys
“No idea Gladys, but what I do know is that this one is really, really big. Afraid I can’t say much more. I’ll get the files over to you as soon as ‘The Boss’ releases them.” said Loretta.
“OK, Lo. Thanks. Lets do lunch tomorrow. Its been a while. We need to catch up.”
“Sure thing Gladys. Silver Diner at 11:30 sound OK?”
“Sounds just fab! See you then. I’ll be looking for those files. Ciao”
“Wonderful! Wonderful!” said Mikey Campinieri. “We couldn’t wander into better luck! We’ve owned Montgomery for years. Tell the legal team to stand down, we won’t need to do anything except make a nice showing.”
“Mikey,” said Luigi, his new right hand man, “I recommend that we, at the very least, make a nice showing. Remember, this is Darin Frost that we’re dealing with here. He has a way of turning the tide on us.”
“Not this time, said Mikey, “Not this time. We’re home free. Give Montgomery a nice little raise and he’ll find some creative grounds to kick out the Cartelli — God rest his soul —confession too! You just hang around Mikey for a while and I’ll show you how things are done!”
“J.J! Good to hear from you. Seems I only get a call from you these days when you have a ‘hot one’ for me. These other piddly little cases I’ve been getting are for the birds. So what do you have? Wish I could have that Campinieri case. I ‘d like to blow that guy out of the water, but I’m glancing at the schedule here and see that you already gave that baby to that slime Montgomery.”
“Well just between you and me Steve, that what the docket says and that’s what we want the docket to say until showtime.” said Levine
“What do you mean,” asked Judge Wilder, you mean I get the Campinieri case?”
“That’s exactly right, Steve. But we need to keep this on the QT. It has to stay under wraps. That’s why I’m calling your cell and not the office phone. I’ll be delivering the files to your office myself. We’ll have a courier bring some dummy files over to Montgomery’s office. Easy enough to do because we know he’ll never open them past the first couple of pages anyway.”
“Gotcha. I’ll book my courtroom for the same time as Montgomery has his scheduled but I’ll leave the case name blank. Nobody will be the wiser. I’ll nail his tail the wall!”
“Well, lets just make sure we stay within the confines of the law, hmmmm?” mused J.J.
“Always, J. J. Always.”
As J.J. closed and re-sheathed his secure cell phone, Loretta came back into to the office to update him on the status…”OK Boss, called Montgomery’s and Gladys put the case on the docket. Made all of the other calls. The news should be on the streets in 5 minutes. Now, what in the world is going on?” asked Loretta.
J.J. putting on his best sad puppy dog face said, “Loretta, whatever do you mean?”
“Look, Mr. Levine, I’ve been working for you for a long time. Doing a god job too or I’d be outta here for sure. You, the detective, Max and I know that Montgomery is the scum of the earth. There is no way this side of eternity he’s getting a Campinieri case….unless you and the detective here are now on the take. And I’d be willing to bet my salvation against that one.” said Loretta
“Good call Loretta,” said Darin, speaking before J.J. could start again. “We know that these phones are probably bugged and we just want to lead Mikey down his desired path. He won’t even be able to imagine how wrong he is until its too late. Can you make up a dummy copy of the files? Make the first 5 or 10 pages authentic. The rest can just be paper. They’ll never read them anyway. Then have the courier deliver the fake set to Montgomery’s office. We’ll handle the rest. For now, the less you know the better. But by this time tomorrow, you and the rest of New York will know it all.”
“You got it detective. I think I’m going to quite enjoy this. I just can’t wait to see what you have planned.”
With that Loretta went to her task as she thought…..”Oh what at tangled web we weave!”
