Read Online Death of a Bankster by David Bishop - Free Book Online Page B

If we’re right about that, with Crawford dead, for the time being Norbert has no way to receive his booty. He’ll have to replace Crawford or begin making the D.C. runs himself.”
    “I’ll make it a priority to help Norbert choose the right man to replace Crawford.”
    “Okay, Ryan. Keep me posted. Anything you need from this end?”
    “Absolutely, sir. Gene, the man heading up the surveillance team on Sam Crawford’s home, and the one who went to the Crawford home right after the shooting, presented himself to be SAIC Dennis Powell. The woman accompanying him used the name Agent Ann Withers. As Dennis Powell, he told the widow, Paige Crawford, the bureau had been keeping her husband under surveillance for money laundering. It might have been better had he not referred to the laundering, but time was of the essence. As you know, under such conditions the use of as much truth as possible reduces the amount of improvisation which must be formulated on the run. It was absolutely essential he take control of the situation to get the widow out of the house, take possession of Crawford’s computer and smart phone, search the house, and remove the body to give us time to plan the best course of action. A third man who was part of my team played the local medical examiner and took the body from the scene.”
    “This was necessary?”
    “My man on the ground made a snap decision of yes. I won’t second guess him. If he hadn’t done anything, the local cops would have had to come out to collect Crawford’s body. That would have put them in the middle of the scene. The locals would have ended up with the dead Crawford’s laptop and smart phone, and likely our operation would have been shut down. We saw keeping open our window into the movement of this money inside the U.S. as priority one.”
    “Why did he take the body? Couldn’t he have gotten the devices without removing the body?”
    “The way he did it, sir, the widow and a second witness agreed to remain quiet about the event for the rest of the weekend so, as they represented it, agents could approach neighbors and the employees at the bank without them having prior knowledge that Sam Crawford was dead. They promised to return on Sunday to bring the widow current on the initial work of the investigation. They promised to inform the local cops on her behalf, saving her from contacting the Phoenix PD. Gene promised her she would hear from them on Sunday. Our first objective was to scrub the scene of any reference to the terrorists and money laundering so as to keep the murder disconnected from our operation. On Monday, the widow, wondering why she hadn’t heard from the bureau or the locals, went to the Phoenix PD.”
    “What happened then?”
    “The widow told the local cops about the FBI being there, also gave them the card my man gave her showing him to be FBI working out of the D.C. office. The cops will want to talk to Agents Powell and Withers. When they contact the bureau they’ll learn there are no such agents. At that point, the bureau will and may already be dispatching a team to find those who falsely claimed to be agents of the FBI. That will put them in the middle of a local homicide case which has occurred right in the middle of our sting. They’ll hear money laundering and head for the bank where Crawford worked. The police will assume those imposters were the killers. The imposters were my team protecting our operation and securing the scene to remove Crawford’s electronic devices, not the killers as the locals will assume. I need you to shut down any such inquiry by the FBI. Keep them out of this matter entirely.”
    “I’ll take care of that. The bureau will truthfully report to Phoenix that we have no agents by those names. The rest of it I’ll control through the CT division.” [counterterrorism] “Don’t worry. The FBI will make no inquiry whatsoever. However, I’ll need you to send back a detailed report as to what happened and