Red Tape (13 page)

“Sure, Rose, no one else has called me yet, so I’ll put you down. I’ll have everything the day before the election, just come in…”

I was interrupted by an ear-piercing squeal. Rose and I both stuck our fingers in our ears.

“That don’t sound good, honey,” Rose said.

“I know,” I said as we took a step back from the elevator.

The elevator rumbled, then crashed to the ground. The entire building shook. The crash was so loud, I thought a bomb had detonated. Dust flew up from the shaft and permeated the air. We covered our faces. I grabbed Rose’s arm and escorted her out of the building as fast as her arthritic old legs could go. Police officers hurried across the parking lot from headquarters and entered the municipal building. Sirens from the fire trucks blared in the distance. Employees ran out of the building, coughing.

It wasn’t until I was safely in the parking lot that I realized if Rose hadn’t stopped me, I might have been inside the elevator when it plummeted to the basement level. I felt choked up and I gave Rose a big hug.

“Rose, I think you just saved my life,” I told her.

“Now, now, sweetie, you’re okay. We’re both okay,” she said, patting me on the back.

There usually wasn’t anyone in the basement, but Rodney was outside taking a head count just in case. When he was sure all of the employees had made it out, he told us all to go home for the day. On my way to pick up Mandy, my paranoia set in. Several questions floated in my head:
Was the elevator tampered with? Was the accident meant for me? Was someone trying to have me killed?

Chapter 15

It was Columbus Day and I was thrilled to have a four-day work week and extra time to settle my nerves from the elevator incident. I was due to meet Bonnie for lunch. I lived a little closer to Jackson than Bonnie did, but since I had to drop off Mandy, I told Bonnie I would pick her up.

Bonnie’s house was powder blue. “You had your siding painted again?” I asked her.

“I get bored and now that I’m no longer employed, I have too much free time on my hands.”

“Your husband must want to kill you.”

“Just a little. I told him I did it for him since he hated the pink. He keeps telling me to find another job.”

“I’ll drive today since you drove last time.”

“Works for me! That means I can have a couple of drinks.”

We hopped into my car and I turned out of her driveway toward the causeway. My Honda Accord was quite a large step down from Bonnie’s fancy Mercedes. Bonnie turned and looked behind her.

“That’s strange,” she said.

“What’s strange?” I asked.

“That black sedan behind us. It had been sitting across the street from my house for the past hour and now it’s following us. All the windows are tinted.”

“You’re starting to be paranoid like me,” I told her. “It’s not surprising they are following us; this is basically the only route off the island.”

“I suppose.”

We continued driving off the island and through Madisen Township. I opted to take the back roads to Jackson to avoid traffic.

“Speaking of being paranoid, I have a story to tell you about the elevator at work…” I started to say when I was interrupted by the sound of a car revving its engine. The car sped up behind us. I glanced into my rearview mirror and could no longer see the bumper of the black sedan. Then
smack
! We were jolted forward upon the impact. The black car hit us. I slammed on the brakes and the sedan swerved to my left into the lane of oncoming traffic.

“What the hell?” Bonnie screamed as we felt a second impact in the side rear panel of the driver’s side. My car was pushed over into the right shoulder. I held tight to the steering wheel, trying to force it left. It was all I could do to keep the car on the road. The black car slammed on its brakes and shot behind us when a tractor-trailer was approaching it head-on. It then revved its engine again, coming for us from behind.

Bonnie yelled, “Speed up! They’re going to hit us again.”

I frantically pressed the pedal down like she said. I could barely think. I tried to reach over to my purse and grab my cell phone, when
whack
! We were hit again, thrusting us forward. My head hit the steering wheel. My purse and its contents went flying. I was afraid the airbags would go off and I wouldn’t be able to see. My heart was pounding. I was terrified.

“They’re trying to kill us,” I said in a panic to Bonnie.

“Well, they’re not going to be successful. See if you can get them to pull up alongside of you again.”

“What? Are you out of your freaking mind?” I shouted. “You want me to get next to them? They probably have guns!”

“Well, so do I,” Bonnie said as she reached into her purse and pulled out a small handgun.

“Where the heck did you get a gun?” I asked.

The sedan pulled into the left lane again and increased in speed in an attempt to get alongside of us. I crouched as low as I could behind the steering wheel, took a deep breath, held it, and tried my best to hold the car steady. My whole body was trembling.

Bonnie rolled down her window and climbed halfway out, aiming and shooting at the black car. “
Pop, pop, pop
.” She fired three times. I heard car tires screeching and I looked into my rearview mirror to see that the mystery car had veered off the road and was smoking. I started to breathe again.

“Good shot,” I said as I sped off down the road as fast as my demolished Honda would go, trying to get away as quickly as possible.

“Thanks. My husband and I go to the shooting range on occasion. It’s a hobby of ours. We went this Saturday. I had forgotten to take the gun out of my purse. Good thing!”

My heart was in my throat. My hands were shaking uncontrollably and I was still in a frenzy. I had gone into survival mode and the adrenaline was starting wearing off. I was probably going into shock. “Are they following us? Where do you think the nearest police station is? Are you going to get in trouble for shooting a gun? Would you call 9-1-1 from your cell phone?”

“I’m already dialing. I don’t think they are following us, but keep driving just in case. Make a bunch of turns so they don’t know where we went. And no, I don’t think I’ll get in trouble for shooting a gun. I have a permit, and it was self-defense.
And
, if I do get in trouble, it’s better than being dead. Plus, I have enough money for a good attorney.”

I found an old diner and parked behind it, where my car couldn’t have been easily spotted. I wasn’t sure where we were. Bonnie gave our location to the police, then the two of us went inside and sat in the back, near the kitchen, so we could make a discreet exit out of the service entrance if we so needed.

We both ordered coffee. I had lost my appetite. “Too bad we didn’t find a bar instead of a diner. I could use a stiff martini,” Bonnie said.

“I could use a whole lot more than one martini,” I said. “A bottle of them would be nice.”

“Did you get a license plate on that car, by chance?”

“Heck no, I was too busy trying to stay on the road. I guess you didn’t either?”

Bonnie shook her head.

“Do you know what the make or model was?” I asked her.

“Not a clue. I know what you are thinking; you are thinking Mayor O’Donnell put a hit out on us,” Bonnie said half jokingly.

“What other scenario makes sense?”

“Who knew where you would be today?”

“Only my parents, unless one of our phone lines are tapped. Do you have any enemies you aren’t telling me about?” I asked Bonnie.

“Lorraine hates me and the mayor fired me.”

“Lorraine!”

“What?”

“Lorraine may have overheard my conversation with you earlier in the week.
She
would have known I was meeting you for lunch today.”

“Maybe you’re not off your rocker after all. You better call those FBI guys and let them know.”

“I will.”

The local police arrived and took a report. They said I shouldn’t be driving my car, so they had it towed for me. The damage was extensive. Bonnie called her husband to give us a ride home.

“So much for Bratz,” Bonnie said.

“That’s the least of my worries,” I said as I pulled out my phone. I called Agent Romeo and gave him the scoop on what happened. Jayce dropped me off at my parents’ house and I had to explain to them why I didn’t have a car.

“That’s it!” my father exclaimed. “You are not going back to that evil place you call work. There are more important things than that hellhole. You go home and get your things, and you are staying with us. You have a daughter to worry about and you are not safe living there alone.”

I felt like a five-year-old child being scolded. I knew he was right. I wasn’t safe and this wasn’t worth me taking my life into my hands. I could probably go out on stress leave; I certainly had enough stress! I borrowed their car and drove back to my place to gather what I needed for a long while.

Packing for an eight-month-old was not a quick and easy task. It was good that my parents babysat Mandy, because the big items were at their house already, like a swing, highchair, and crib. As I was running around the house throwing necessitates into a bag, the phone rang.

“Hello? Hello?”

No one was there. I shrugged it off and kept going. I had a lot of things to gather. I took out a suitcase and started packing up my clothes. A few moments later, I heard a noise outside. I froze. I could hear my heart beating. I was terrified it was the people from the black car coming to kill me again. I reached under my bed for the baseball bat I kept there for emergencies. If someone was there, I wasn’t going down without a fight. I turned off the bedroom light and stayed there, hidden in the dark. I saw a shadow of a person outside the bedroom window and heard the doorbell ring.

I ran to the phone in the hallway, dialed 9-1-1, and told them someone was trying to get in. I heard the window in my bedroom shatter. Without thinking, I ran toward the window with my bat and swung as hard as I could at the hand that was trying to lift open the window. I made contact. There was a yelp from a man’s voice. I screamed out, “I called the police five minutes ago; you’d better get running.” I could hear sirens in the distance, which made me feel reassured that I would be safe.

An extremely nice female police officer from Madisen Township named Patricia took my statement, while others collected evidence. She stayed with me while I packed my things. The premises were searched, but no traces of the perpetrators were found. I asked Patricia if she could call Agent Romeo and tell him about the incident. When I told her about the situation that occurred earlier in the day, she provided me with a police escort back to my parents’ house.

My parents were alarmed to see the police vehicle with me. Patricia waited until I was settled inside. Mom cried when I told her someone tried to break-in. Dad took out his old hunting rifles and bullets. He wasn’t taking any chances.

* * *

Against my parents’ wishes, I went in to work the next morning. I wanted to clear out the personal items that I had in and on my desk, like my photos of Mandy. My plan was to find a psychologist to write me out of work on stress leave. If the mayor wanted me gone, I would be gone, but I was going to make darn sure that I was still getting paid.

I pulled out the personnel manual to refresh my memory on the policy for disability leaves of absence. Lorraine strolled into the office an hour late. She looked surprised to see me. “Oh, you’re here,” she said. “Why wouldn’t I be?” I retorted. She stuck her nose in the air and turned to walk out of my office. “Make sure your time sheet reflects that you were late again today,” I said to her. I figured I had nothing left to lose and that I wasn’t coming back to work anyway.

I finished reading the personnel policy manual when I heard someone ask for me at the window. It was a sheriff’s officer delivering another lawsuit. I signed for the document and chuckled to myself when I saw Bonnie’s name written as the plaintiff. Bonnie was suing for wrongful termination.

I scanned the court papers and was about to email them to Mr. Betts when Tex arrived in my office. He closed the door behind him.

“Your father called me and told me what was going on,” he said.

“Then you also know that this is going to be my last day of work for a while.”

“Don’t go out on leave just yet. Wait until after tomorrow.”

“Why would I want to do that?”

“Trust me; it will be worth your while. There is a staff meeting scheduled for tomorrow morning. You won’t want to miss it.”

“If you say so,” I said, leery of what he was saying.

Chapter
16

The day the FBI agents raided Town Hall for a second time was a day I wouldn’t forget. The date that was to be engraved in my mind was 10/10. All the department heads were in the morning staff meeting with the mayor, when we saw multiple vehicles descending upon the municipal complex. We all rushed to the windows to see what was going on.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty agents stormed into the building and blocked off each entrance. We all filed out into the hallway and toward the lobby to get a better look. It was surreal. The agents were dressed in black pants and ties. They each wore a blue windbreaker with FBI imprinted in bright yellow on the front and back. They were brandishing badges, weapons, and handcuffs. They rushed over to where we were standing and approached Mayor O’Donnell, who spoke up and said, “I demand to know the meaning of this!”

“Mayor O’Donnell?” one of the agents asked. She nodded. “You are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you…”

She interrupted them. “I know my rights. I want my lawyer!” she yelled as they cuffed her and dragged her out.

Another agent turned to me and asked, “Lorraine Paso?”

I pointed to Lorraine, who was standing in the doorway to the clerk’s office.

It was a pleasure watching them handcuff her, drag her out of the building, and shove her into the back of a vehicle.

A third agent handed me a subpoena for records. I pointed them in the direction of my office and said, “You are welcome to whatever you’d like.” Shortly thereafter, Tex came in and pulled me aside.

“I suppose you know what’s going on,” I said to him.

“Yes. I kept telling you to trust me.”

“Did you know this was going to happen when I was in jail and you told me to trust you?”

“Yeah, I knew this was going down. I have been working with the FBI for over a year. I just couldn’t tell you any details.”

“So, what
is
going on?”

“Well, the mayor was behind the missing safety paper in your office.”

“I suspected as much,” I told him.

“She was trafficking personal identifying information. When they initially raided Town Hall, they already knew that someone on the inside had been involved in issuing fake vital records. They planted bugs around the building in hopes they would get a lead. You led them to O’Donnell with your suspicions.”

“So, I guess Lorraine was involved, since she was just arrested?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“I wasn’t sure if she was involved or if she just knew the dirt.”

“She was the go-between for the people buying certificates. The buyers never knew the mayor was involved.”

“Who was buying the records?”

“A variety of people. Illegal aliens. Teenagers wanting to buy alcohol. People involved with identity theft. People collecting insurance money from deaths. There are lots of reasons people purchase fake IDs.”

“Were they caught?”

“A few of them were. That’s how the FBI got involved with the investigation in the first place. They discovered some of the fake documents when someone tried to apply for a passport with one. They alerted the Motor Vehicle Commission to be on the lookout for other suspicious documents issued by Sunshine Township. Lorraine had assumed an alias for use with her clients, so even though clients were being arrested for false documents, it took quite a while to figure out who was involved in the issuance. Initially, they covered their tracks very well.”

Tex continued, “Later on, they caught Officer Williams when he faked someone’s death and claimed the insurance money. He provided them with a death certificate from your office. He rolled on the mayor in order to get himself freed from the charges. The FBI was looking to fry a bigger fish.”

I was absolutely shocked by this news. I knew he was chummy with the mayor, but I wouldn’t have ever taken him for a criminal. Turned out that Bonnie was right when she said she there was something about him that she didn’t like.
And to think I wanted to date him!
Between him and my ex, I was terrible at choosing men. It must have been the bad guy thing that I was attracted to. I would have really liked to meet a good guy for a change.

“I would have never known he was involved. He seemed like a good guy. Why would he do all this?”

“Looks can be deceiving. He had financial troubles and desperately needed to get his hands on some money.”

“Why did Lorraine and Mayor O’Donnell do this?”

“Money? Power? Maybe a combination of both. What typically happens is that people do something criminal for a particular reason, like needing money. Then, when they realize they didn’t get caught, they get a God complex and think they can do whatever they want and not ever get caught.”

I asked him, “What did that have to do with me? Why did they have me falsely arrested? Did they know I suspected them?”

“Lorraine Paso was blackmailing Mayor O’Donnell. Lorraine wanted a cushy job in the town and was threatening to expose the mayor if she didn’t get one. The mayor feared you could be on to her, since you knew about the missing paper. She surmised you would figure it out eventually, so you were a good candidate to remove to make space for Lorraine. Basically, they wanted you out of the way for a while. Plus, they knew if they were charged with a crime, that you wouldn’t make a credible witness against them since you had an arrest record for theft yourself.”

“Assholes! Oops, sorry, I just couldn’t contain myself there for a minute,” I said.

“Was it the mayor who tried to have me killed?”

“Officer Williams admitted that after arresting you didn’t keep you out of their way, the mayor had decided to get rid of you permanently. He rigged the elevator to crash in exchange for a large payment from Mayor O’Donnell. When that plan didn’t work, she apparently hired another couple of goons to take you out.”

“Did you find the goons?”

“There are two suspects in custody regarding what happened to you this week, both with the car incident and the attempted break-in at your house. It’s only a matter of time before they substantiate Williams’ story.”

I was thankful that the mayor’s plan was foiled and I was still alive. I felt some satisfaction in knowing she would be going to jail for a very, very long time. I felt disgusted that Officer Williams was getting off scot-free, but I knew karma would take care of him in the end. At minimum, he would lose his job.

Tex went on to tell me the rest of the details. Back in March, Officer Williams was the one who had set the courtroom on fire. He had hoped the building would burn to the ground, so that there was no evidence of the safety paper missing. He hadn’t counted on anyone noticing the fire until it was too late.

Once Williams told that story, he offered up the rest of the details in exchange for immunity. He and the mayor had orchestrated the robbery at the clerk’s office. This was to cast doubt that they had taken the paper, hoping it would appear that an intruder took it. They messed up the HVAC system to try to destroy the paper so it would be assumed the paper had to be discarded instead of missing.

Tex said, “According to Williams, when the mayor knew you were about to contact the state registrar, she tampered with the computer server and cut the phone lines in hopes of postponing your correspondence with him until the goons she hired could get rid of him.”

“That’s insane,” I said. “Did they think the state registrar was the only person who worked in that office and that I would have no one else to contact if they killed him?”

“I guess she was desperate to cover her tracks. The mayor also concocted the bedbug story to try to create a defense for herself.”

“How would that be a defense?” I asked. “The paper was already missing when the exterminators came to the building.”

“She is going to try to put the idea of reasonable doubt into the minds of the jurors by showing evidence that multiple people were frequently in your office. That multiple people had the access and the ability to take the paper.”

“That’s a stretch.”

“Yeah, I know.”

I was sickened by the fact that I had blamed Mr. Triggers in my head for all the sabotage around the building. I would have sworn up and down that it was he who had caused the mayhem. He seemed nuts and Mayor O’Donnell and Officer Williams both seemed normal. I felt appalled that I was tricked into thinking the two of them were good people for a while. My first impressions of them both were incredibly wrong. I guess my impression of Mr. Triggers was off the mark as well. I should have known early on that the mayor was involved by the way she kept asking me about the safety paper. I should have learned to trust my instincts more than my brain.

“Why did they make the decision to arrest them today?” I asked Tex.

“Partly because they finally had enough evidence. Partly because they knew your life was in danger. Possibly because the mayor was up for election this year and some politician didn’t want her reelected.”

“So what kind of punishment will they get?”

“If they are found guilty, jail time and hefty fines for issuing over 50 false records. Attempted murder carries a large sentence.”

“I hope the judge throws the book at them. I was certainly fooled by them, I used to think the mayor and Officer Williams were good people, I guess I am a horrible judge of character.”

“It’s not you, Chelsey, they had us all fooled at one time.”