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Authors: Carl Douglass
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run out of options and am willing to talk to the police. I want you to be there when I do. I am about to make some terrible decisions; and I don’t want to make them based on lies, all right?”
“I’ll go out and give Detectives MacLeese and Redworth a call. My partner here will watch you while I’m gone. Don’t make the slightest attempt to communicate with anyone outside this room. If you do, all plea deals will be off. We have yet to determine if you are low enough in the criminal hierarchy to be worth granting immunity. We clear on that, Whitehead?”
“Perfectly.”
I call Mary Margaret and tell her what has transpired. She has been waiting in President Vestor’s office trying to get a grip on how much he knows about what has been going on in his bank and how much he is a dupe. She is not satisfied that she has gotten what she needs yet.
Her cell phone plays the iconic song Popular from Wicked . The ID shows McGee’s name and number.
“What do you have, McGee?”
“Another important link ready to cop a plea. You should come by the conference room and complete our chat with Whitehead. Bring Redworth, too. We will get farther faster if we gang up on this guy. He is in this up to his eyeballs.”
“For the murder, too?”
“Probably not directly, but he at least has guilty knowledge with malice aforethought.”
“I’m on my way.”
She smiles at President Vestor and tells him that he needs to stay in the bank where she can find him for the rest of the day.
Chapter Eight
T he two NYPD detectives walk briskly into the conference room to join me. Before she sits down, Mary Margaret hands Whitehead a yellow lined legal pad and a supply of pens. The effect is chilling in its presumptiveness.
“Now, Mr. Whitehead, Detective Redworth and I are very busy. Don’t waste our time.”
“What do you want? What do you expect from me?”
“A full allocution. Nothing left out; nothing shaded or exaggerated.”
“Hey, wait a minute—I don’t have a good basis for why I should do any kind of confessing. What’s the offer if I do?”
“We take the death penalty off the plate, for starters.” Whitehead winces and turns pale.
“That’s all?” he asks.
“Depends on what you have to tell us.”
“I could be killed if I mention anyone else who is involved. I would have to have protection or be put in the FBI’s Witness Protection Program, at the least.”
“If you are credible, we can whisk you off to Fort Meade where they are used to protecting important and endangered material witnesses awaiting their opportunity to testify against major targets. It is the ultimate safe house. After that, you might go to a federal penitentiary and be housed in protective custody. Or … you might go into WitSec like you said. Depends.”
“Before I say or write a thing, I have to know that RICO charges would be taken off the plate, too. I want my family left out of all of this. I don’t really even know what RICO is all about, anyway.”
Det. Redworth takes over for the moment, “The acronym RICO—I’m sure you know—is the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Its main provisions include hefty fines—as much as double the gross profits or proceeds from the criminal gains—and prison sentences of twenty-to-life. You lose any interest and any present or future rights to any property involved in the racketeering enterprise and forfeit any ill-gotten gains that came out of the enterprise, including money or any property or objects of value. You will have to post a satisfactory performance bond. You can’t transfer property to anyone to evade the penalties. Any property given to your wife or family resulting from the imposition of RICO penalties will be forfeited to the federal government. In very brief language—short of the death penalty—getting hung up by RICO is the ultimate bummer.”
Whitehead seems to be shrinking before the eyes of the police and private detectives who are
“I’ll go out and give Detectives MacLeese and Redworth a call. My partner here will watch you while I’m gone. Don’t make the slightest attempt to communicate with anyone outside this room. If you do, all plea deals will be off. We have yet to determine if you are low enough in the criminal hierarchy to be worth granting immunity. We clear on that, Whitehead?”
“Perfectly.”
I call Mary Margaret and tell her what has transpired. She has been waiting in President Vestor’s office trying to get a grip on how much he knows about what has been going on in his bank and how much he is a dupe. She is not satisfied that she has gotten what she needs yet.
Her cell phone plays the iconic song Popular from Wicked . The ID shows McGee’s name and number.
“What do you have, McGee?”
“Another important link ready to cop a plea. You should come by the conference room and complete our chat with Whitehead. Bring Redworth, too. We will get farther faster if we gang up on this guy. He is in this up to his eyeballs.”
“For the murder, too?”
“Probably not directly, but he at least has guilty knowledge with malice aforethought.”
“I’m on my way.”
She smiles at President Vestor and tells him that he needs to stay in the bank where she can find him for the rest of the day.
Chapter Eight
T he two NYPD detectives walk briskly into the conference room to join me. Before she sits down, Mary Margaret hands Whitehead a yellow lined legal pad and a supply of pens. The effect is chilling in its presumptiveness.
“Now, Mr. Whitehead, Detective Redworth and I are very busy. Don’t waste our time.”
“What do you want? What do you expect from me?”
“A full allocution. Nothing left out; nothing shaded or exaggerated.”
“Hey, wait a minute—I don’t have a good basis for why I should do any kind of confessing. What’s the offer if I do?”
“We take the death penalty off the plate, for starters.” Whitehead winces and turns pale.
“That’s all?” he asks.
“Depends on what you have to tell us.”
“I could be killed if I mention anyone else who is involved. I would have to have protection or be put in the FBI’s Witness Protection Program, at the least.”
“If you are credible, we can whisk you off to Fort Meade where they are used to protecting important and endangered material witnesses awaiting their opportunity to testify against major targets. It is the ultimate safe house. After that, you might go to a federal penitentiary and be housed in protective custody. Or … you might go into WitSec like you said. Depends.”
“Before I say or write a thing, I have to know that RICO charges would be taken off the plate, too. I want my family left out of all of this. I don’t really even know what RICO is all about, anyway.”
Det. Redworth takes over for the moment, “The acronym RICO—I’m sure you know—is the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Its main provisions include hefty fines—as much as double the gross profits or proceeds from the criminal gains—and prison sentences of twenty-to-life. You lose any interest and any present or future rights to any property involved in the racketeering enterprise and forfeit any ill-gotten gains that came out of the enterprise, including money or any property or objects of value. You will have to post a satisfactory performance bond. You can’t transfer property to anyone to evade the penalties. Any property given to your wife or family resulting from the imposition of RICO penalties will be forfeited to the federal government. In very brief language—short of the death penalty—getting hung up by RICO is the ultimate bummer.”
Whitehead seems to be shrinking before the eyes of the police and private detectives who are
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