The young woman’s smile was thin and faked. She got settled as quickly as possible after placing the infant into a baby bed that hung from the cabin wall. The baby started to cry as soon she sat down.
“I need to go to a casino when we land in Kigali,” Joe thought. “My ESP is really working great today.” Joe’s circumstances ended up just as he had expected.
Charlene, on the other hand, was sipping champagne and reading the Wall Street Journal up in the front of the plane. Her stocks had done well so far this year. She wore thick socks provided by the airline to keep her feet warm.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Agent Simms sat looking over the latest reports on the coming court case with Chad and his family.
Chad was leaving the country for a short vacation. He would be under surveillance and out of reach of his family. His father was not aware of the investigation into him and his firm, yet. He thought that he had waylaid that investigation the last time he had talked with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
He had agreed to pay restitution to those clients that had complained without admitting any criminal guilt. The brokers involved would be sanctioned or fired as needed after an internal audit of those involved. This agency and two others were looking into possible criminal actions, the family’s tax returns and their extensive travels. There was some concern about over seas bank accounts.
Chad’s father had traveled to Europe often and to Switzerland several times in particular, over the last year. There were millions of dollars passing through his accounts to an account in Switzerland and some islands much closer to the United States in the Southern Atlantic.
This whole investigation had started with complaints of churning the accounts and slow redemptions when stock sales had occurred. It had started with one complaint and then two and then several.
The youngest Williams son had been approacehed to tell all to escape a tough sentence. The meeting had been held in secret for obvious reasons. Bryan, the younger brother, was the person approached. His lawyer wasn’t sure the governments case was that strong in the beginning. But over the months as more clients came forweard, his thoughts changed.
“Who knew what the father knew about what had been going on? Had the sons taken it upon themselves to run this scheme? Or was the father the master mind,” the lawyer had wondered.
The youngest son had been told clearly by his attorney that if he talked to his father or brother, about the deal, the offer was off the table and he would “go up the river with the entire family.”
Bryan was rightfully scared to death. A young man in prison stands little chance of survival against hardened criminals. That had been mentioned to him more than once. Agent Simms was enjoying the scenario when he was interrupted by Jane Thomas.
“Everything is under control at the airport. Everyone is in place and we have an hour before the plane leaves. Boarding is underway as we speak.
“Great. Tomorrow when Chad and his wife are in Africa, I’m going to drop in on his father and explain his options to him. He has little to no idea that we are targeting him for prosecution. When I mention that his whole family will go down as well, perhaps he’ll take an offer and plead guilty. If he doesn’t will go to work on Bryan.
I don’t see him pleading out but its a chance we’ll take. Miss Thompson sat quietly, listening. She almost felt sorry for the kid, Bryan.
Once Bryan sees the time he is facing, he’ll come around. Can you make sure Jesup has that offer all written out to clearly for me to show to Mr. Williams, tomorrow?”
“Sure, I’ll check on that when I leave here today. How are things in Rwanda?”
“I’ve talked top our counter part there. He will see that at least three men will be inserted into the the gorilla trek and more will be added as needed along the way. Chad and his new wife will be under their watchful eyes most of the time.
The time change is the most difficult part of this operation. Rwanda is six hours ahead of us here in New York so any communication needed to be done in the morning must be done early in the morning here, like two am our time.
Make sure everyone is aware of that even if I am the only one making the calls. That means I need to know of any new information early in the morning, the day before. How’s Johnson doing with the tech?”
“Wed have a truck down the street from the younger brother Bryan and a wire tap on his home phone. The tech guys can hear everything on his cell phone now. He hasn’t talked to his brother in a few days. Not since the wedding. That seems normal enough, I guess.”
“Well in a day or two, Chad and Suzan will be out in the bush and away from any cell towers. That’s when well talk to Bryan. He won’t be able to contact his brother for a week or so.”
As you know, I”m writing this off the cuff.
There is no outline or grand plan.
I write it as it comes to me each day. I am not the comma guy. I’m the big picture guy.
There’s plenty of time latter to correct all my missed punctuation and misspelled words.
I leave tonight, the 22nd of September, for a month in Southern India.
I won’t be adding to this until November 1.
I will be posting items and photos on TikTok at r.c. hand and working on this novel as I travel.
I am at cowboyproductions52@gmail.com
I have three books on Audible.
If you are an Audible person, send me your info and I will send out a coupon to you when I return.
As always, thanks for stopping by.
