THE HAPPY HAT (19 page)

Chapter 32

LT Dina Sparrow

Robert Dempsey had been working closely with Adam Stokely in a manner that the DEA and FBI always aligned their resources for a combined operation. The military was tricky to coordinate as within Washington a Joint Chiefs of Staff had each branch of the service competing for government funding, favoritism and banner publicity.

“Dempsey, this is Stokely.”

“Yeah Adam, is everything positioned and ready at Queens Naval Hospital?”

“It’s taken a lot of movement and strategizing at the local police department levels but we have every military hospital including Queens Naval for a go the Friday after next.” Bob Dempsey’s DEA Agents would take possession of the drugs on the civilian side of the operation while Stokely’s FBI teams would manage the government institutions.

“How are we going to keep collateral damage to a minimum?” Dempsey asked.

“The one good thing about the heroin-plaster disposal procedure was consolidating the removed casts into a single orthopedic depot per hospital. So we’ll only have one orthopedic ward per hospital to contain in terms of the drug.” Stokely looked at the operational map for the Army, Air Force and the Navy hospitals throughout the country.

Dempsey persisted, “So what about the civilians during visiting hours and other cartel members in other areas of the facilities?”

“There’s going to be no visiting hours for that one orthopedic ward on Friday Afternoon when the plaster disposal contractors are scheduled to arrive.” Stokely looked at his notes for Queens Naval. “We only have three other wards to lock down–F-1, F-2 and G-3. That’s where we have the other cartel operatives. One will be a visitor, one a patient and the other two are Navy corpsmen.”

“Okay. My DEA staff will be ready for those waste contractors both inside and outside the hospitals. When’s the best time and place to get them?” Dempsey was not that familiar with military hospital operations.

“Unlike civilian hospitals, the military has MPs at all entrances and exits. It’s a normal presence and shouldn’t arouse suspicion. The local police will be in the area and will swarm to block the outside areas just adjacent to the hospital gate entrances when we give the signal. DEA will have to be anywhere there is a heroin presence so we need a few of your guys in the hospital, on the grounds, and DEA takes the plaster contractors plus the heroin-plaster.”

“We have to assume all perpetrators will be armed.” Dempsey added.

“Affirmative. Even our inside military undercovers will go tactical on Friday. Let’s meet two days before at our usual rendezvous.” Stokely hoped they could pull it off without any major cluster fuck. A big operation was complicated enough within the FBI Agency but in a combined mission like this anything that could go wrong might happen.

‡

LT Dina Sparrow was recruited into the organized cartel long before she had to repay the Navy for her nurse’s training. Her father, Dominic Sparrow, was a long time member of the Chicago organized crime syndicate. The family patriarch had long ago changed the last name from Sparro to Sparrow as an attempt to hide Italian visibility. Italians being Italians they still favored ethnic first names like Sabatino, Julio and Dominic. His oldest daughter Dina grew up accepting her father’s way of livelihood and came to embrace it. She was by nature a shy and easily intimidated bully target. She once complained to her dad that a boy threatened to slander her family for gangsterism unless she had sex with him. She was terrified. Dominic made an example of the boy by getting him laid with a known gonorrhea carrier and then making the situation public fodder. Sparrow went to her father for any crisis, imagined or otherwise, and relished the power of the mob and her dad.

Her decision to enter a nursing career was driven by her knowledge of the underground network of mob-connected medical healthcare businesses which included hospitals, nursing homes, drug-store chains and insurance companies. She wanted to be a part of it but getting into nursing school for a daughter of a well-known gangster was prohibitive. The US Navy came to her rescue at a high school job and career fair. She found the Navy to be an equal opportunity employer for anyone with a clean slate even if their father was John Gotti.

“The Navy is a good choice. I’m a proud, patriotic Italian-American. This is a good country. You go into the Navy and we look after you there too.” Dominic gave her a kiss and a hug.

And he was true to his word. However, Sparrow was terrified of going to Vietnam. She went to her dad who gave reassurance.

“Don’t you worry my Dina. I can get you into Great Lakes Naval Hospital, Orlando, San Diego–you just tell me where you want to be.” He gave her hand a little squeeze.

“I want to go to New York.” And so Queens Naval Hospital became Dina Sparrow’s only duty station after her Navy Nurse training and graduation.

Ensign Dina Sparrow loved the Navy as long as she was in a large hospital installation with close ties to her father’s protective tentacles. She had to rotate through all medical and surgical specialties during her first year at Queens Naval and loved managing post-op patients.

“Dina my girl I need you to be a leader in our heroin import business. With the war in Vietnam probably going on for years we are using the coffins of the unfortunate dead soldiers and the plaster casts of the wounded heroes to bring the drugs people want into the United States.” Dominic’s words were his graduation present to his daughter as she entered active military service.

“What will be my part in this daddy?” It was Dina’s ambition to become a member of the organization and reap financial benefits.

“In the military the Officers move freely throughout the hospital business. The heroin will come to the hospital in the plaster casts of the orthopedic patients. When the casts are taken off we will have a pathway for the heroin-plaster to reach our organization outside in our big cities. You will be the inside manager at Queens Naval Hospital.”

As Ensign Sparrow became LT (JG) Sparrow and now as LT (Senior Grade) Sparrow she had a small effective staff in the form of Corpsman Achilles Spinelli and Corpsman Amstel Perkins. Dominic Sparrow’s connections made the three Navy members a permanent team without fear or threat of transfer to any other duty station. Sparrow’s only changing team member was the transient cartel sleeper patient. Before Sebastian Remo there had been several others.

The problem with the patients is that they had a finite stay before they either moved out of the military to the VA system or were transferred to another duty station to complete their military obligation.

As G-1 head orthopedic nurse Sparrow kept a low profile outwardly performing her nursing duties. Only one potential thorn had been in her side–LCDR Philomena Skagan.

“LT Sparrow I am in complete charge of the movement of the infected Vietnam applied casts out of this facility and into a civilian biological disposal unit.” Skagan announced.

Sparrow ran to Daddy Dominic. “What should I do? She’s a witch.”

Dominic Sparrow had his New York contacts assess the situation. “Dina dearest, you should not worry. Keep an eye on this Skagan. If she becomes a threat she will get a transfer far away from New York. In the meantime Skagan is good for us. She is compulsive and keeps fastidious paperwork. You just let us know if any of our people become a problem.”

And now one of her small combine was a problem as Acky Spinelli related. She met with Spinelli in the heavily trafficked ramp corridor. “LT Sparrow, Sebastian Remo and our outside bosses have confirmed Amstel Perkins is falsifying air-evac triage data to show some plaster casts were applied outside of Vietnam when in fact they were not. He’s been harvesting our heroin product for himself.”

“What should I do?” She kept her voice low as patients, staff, vendors, janitors and others moved in both directions actively ignoring them and each other.

“Give him every opportunity to make his move to extract some G-1 Nam plaster for his own heroin extraction. Remo will be keeping an eye out but he’s going to have surgery shortly. The job is up to you. Just let me know when he steals some of the G-1 stuff. Call me immediately. That’s all.” Acky moved away from her and into the hall populace.

‡

LT Sparrow did her job well for the cartel. Prior to having the entire heroin plaster consolidated in her ward she relied on the mail delivery patient who was always a cartel member. They would have access to LCDR Skagan’s office and the monthly invoice summarizing the tally of all orthopedic ward specimens bagged and ready for the biodisposal pickup.

The other mail delivery patients, like Sebastian Remo, gave her an envelope every month. It contained the monthly plaster pick-up invoice and her direct monthly bank deposit by the cartel. And then Kaplan arrived from Vietnam with an air-evac patient. Sparrow admired the way the new senior Corpsman Isaac Kaplan took charge and even had the balls to stand up to the fearsome Skagan. For some reason she could not get him to come on to her. Kaplan had the bearing of someone above the timbre of the corpsman staff. She found out about his college background and was even more strongly attracted to him. Kaplan, however, refused to breach the officer-enlisted barrier and that-was-that.
Too bad. The available male Officers at Queens Naval Hospital drank too much and were poor performers in bed
.

“Your current assignment is to tell us when Amstel Perkins steals one of the heroin casts from going to G-1–nothing more,” Acky Spinelli had advised.

She knew Perkins’ routine well. It all centered on the air-evac arrival and the triage list he would get for Dr. Norman. She looked at the G-1 wall clock. Dr. Norman would be making rounds early because he was JMOOD today and would be working the ER as well as dispatching the air-evacs upon their arrival. She looked up at Norman as he came into the Nurses Station.

“Good morning Dr.  Norman.”

“Good morning Dina. I’m JMOOD today so I have to make quick rounds. Keep your eye out for Perkins so I can get a jump on triaging the air-evac arrivals.”

Sparrow felt her pulse quicken. “Absolutely Dr. Norman. Is there anything else?”

“No. I just need you to run G-1 like usual when I’m JMOOD. I never realized how much doctors relied on nurses until I met people like you and Minnie Zettler.” He threw her a smile.

“Does your assessment include LCDR Philomena Skagan?” She returned the smile.

“The world needs its share of Skagans and their obsessive compulsiveness in an administrative way. I can’t see her ever having a Florence Nightingale bedside manner with patients like you do.”

“I suppose,” She cooed. “Well I have a corpsman ready and the chart rack is at the recent post-op beds. Shall we begin?”

Rounds were efficient and all but one patient required more than a few minutes of their attention. Sparrow heard someone clearing their throat behind her.

“Ahem…Ahem. LT Sparrow…Dr. Norman. I have the air-evac list for today.” Perkins handed the papers to Norman.

Chapter 33

Amstel Perkins

Perkins handed the air-evac list with his doctored changes to Dr. Norman. He had again manipulated the indication of an incoming air-evac with a Vietnam applied cast as having had his most recent cast change in Yokosuka Japan. Norman accepted the list without looking at it.

“Thanks Perkins. I have four more patients on G-1 and then I’ll triage the list. I’ll see you later in the ER.” Norman went back to work with LT Sparrow and a G-1 corpsman.

Perkins walked toward G-1’s exit and looked back. Norman, Sparrow and the ward corpsman had their backs toward him. Perkins quickly went into the cast room and stared at the multiple wheeled laundry bins holding the plastic-wrapped heroin-impregnated cast segments. The laundry bins were labeled by ward and he quickly found the one with the G-1 tag. Perkins had been carrying a gym bag which he left at the Nurses Station and retrieved it on the way to the G-1 exit. He rummaged through the G-1 code numbers and found the one for Boomer Stiles. Within two minutes total time in the cast room he had replaced a long-leg Boomer segment with a non-heroin-saturated long leg cast section from his G-3 patient. He walked out the G-1 cast room and the ward back to G-3 where he locked up the gym bag in his G-3 locker.

No one had seen me
. Perkins was walking on a pink cloud of euphoria that did not feed on systemic opiates. This week he estimated he had enough cast material to net him 300,000 thousand dollars worth of pure processed heroin.
I did it again. I’ll leave the Navy rich beyond my wildest dreams. And no one knows anything.

‡

Perkins did not know how wrong he was. LT Sparrow had turned around to see Perkins disappear into the G-1 cast room with the gym bag he had brought in. Kaplan had taken a position in the sunroom unobserved by the staff making rounds. He saw Perkins go into G-1 and hoped his FBI Minox camera photos would be effective with the special long distance lens to record Perkins’ actions. But it didn’t matter. He also had a copy of the original air-evac list without Perkins’ alterations. They had him cold. Kaplan had one more person to catch-in-the-act or maybe two. The patient mail delivery person was due next–Sebastian Remo. Where would he go? Would he go into the cast room or would he do something with LT Sparrow like before. Sparrow was abnormally interested in Perkins today. She could definitely be the Queens Naval Hospital Officer cartel plant.

Rounds finished and Norman disappeared to the ER for his JMOOD duty with the air-evacs. LT Sparrow went to the Nurses Station and made a phone call. Immediately a page number began flashing. He checked his list of persons of interest and their Queens naval page numbers. Number 333 was the patient mail carrier–Sebastian Remo.

Remo appeared within five minutes with his mail pouch. He took nothing from it as he spoke seemingly casually to Sparrow. Kaplan could not read their lips without exposing himself.

“Did Perkins go to the cast room? Do you have the air-evac list he gave to Dr. Norman?” Remo asked and opened his mail bag but didn’t remove or give Sparrow anything.

“Yes. He took a bag in there and left with it. The papers you need are in this envelope.” Sparrow gave Remo the envelope containing copies of the two air-evac lists she had made with the first floor G-wing Xerox machine.

‡

Kaplan had the missing links in the network. He waited for Sparrow to be relieved for a mid-morning coffee break and went into the cast room saying a “good morning” to the relief nurse. Kaplan dialed the secure outside line number from the cast room phone.

“Stokely. What do you have Ike?”

“LT Dina Sparrow is the Officer kingpin. Corpsman Amstel Perkins is the heroin cast skimmer and G-3 liaison to the cartel. There has to be someone over Perkins at his Navy staff classification but I don’t have him or her yet.”

“Ike, what about your LCDR Philomena Skagan? Have you placed her with any of those operatives?” Stokely wrote the names down and gave them to his admin-FBI agent for background checks.

“She’s not a part of whatever they’re doing. I still think she’s clean. What do you have on her?” Kaplan said a silent prayer.

“Nothing on her, her family, or anyone pre-navy or since her military service began.”

“She acts like a babe in the woods with all this. She seems to want Perkins as much as we do but only because she thinks it makes her look like she fouled up on her job.” Kaplan hoped this was true. “Adam, what are next steps?”

“We want all the perps to be present the Friday after next–D-day. Can you confirm they’ll be working that day?”

“I’ve already checked the workday schedule and the duty schedule. Everyone including Dr. Norman and LCDR Skagan will be here.” Kaplan looked at his notes. “Sebastian Remo, the patient mail delivery guy, will be having his colostomy closed on Wednesday of that week. Do you want me to have it postponed until after D-day?”

“Negative. Let him have his surgery. When he fully recovers from anesthesia and begins surgical convalescence we’ll have him covered and cuff him on Friday with the rest of them.” Stokely added Remo’s extra history to the plan. “I suggest you keep tabs on Skagan over the next weekend and try to keep her out of harm’s way next week.”

Kaplan smiled, “I’ll try to do that. But you know the Navy’s taboo of enlisted and officer fraternization.”

“Just try to keep objective until we sort things out next week. Did you get the package we sent you yesterday?”

“Yes. I’ll talk to you after the weekend or as needed.” Kaplan hung up.
Yes indeed, the package did arrive.
It was a box of low velocity .45 cartridges for his .45 automatic. The low velocity and the high mass of the .45 bullet would limit collateral damage and still immobilize any perpetrator.

‡

Perkins left the hospital with his gym bag and laundry bag per usual with visions of being up all Friday night homogenizing and processing his heroin. Saturday would be drying and purification of the extracted heroin. Sunday was meeting with his Brooklyn dealer connection who would be there with cash in hand. Perkins went over-and-over these thoughts as he drove to his apartment. He was unaware he was being followed. He was also unaware that his good friend Abe Linsky had been embalmed alive. And he was unaware that a fate worse than death was being planned for him.