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“The Pellegrinos collect drug profits from various criminals in the States, then reimburse them with profits from their off-shore gambling operation.”
“Oh, that theory.”
“My question is, what do the Pellegrinos do with the money they collect inside the United States? It doesn’t make any sense to just warehouse it in a vault at Blood Orchid; they have to do something with it.”
“Like what?”
“Like buy up large chunks of real estate in Florida and, maybe, in other places. I mean, where did Ed Shine get the sixty million bucks to buy the place from the GSA?”
“He’s a rich guy.”
“Did the Bureau run financial checks as well as background checks on Ed?”
“I don’t know.”
“Grant, when you checked out Ed, how did you go about it?”
“I called the Bureau, and they did the legwork.”
“Who did you call?”
“Harry Crisp.”
“Why?”
“He’s my boss; I’m assigned to the Miami field office, and he’s the agent in charge. Harry also runs me, personally.”
“Do you have any other way of running a check on somebody, without going through Harry?”
“Sure, I could call somebody I know in D.C. and get a check done, but why would I want to do that?”
“Did you ever ask Harry to run a check on the Pellegrinos?”
“Yes, I did.”
“And what answer did you get?”
“The first time, no criminal record.”
“And the second time you found out who they really were?”
“Yes.”
“And what period of time passed between your first request and when you found out who they really were?”
Grant thought about it. “Two, three weeks, I guess.”
“Did it ever occur to you that Harry might have known who they were all along?”
“Why are you asking me this?”
“Because quite a lot of time passed between when I asked Harry to check out the Pellegrinos and when I learned who they were. And I didn’t learn it from Harry, I learned it from you. Harry has never told me that the Pellegrinos were the Falcones.”
“Yeah, but you’re not Bureau; I am.”
“But what did Harry have to gain by keeping me in the dark about the Pellegrinos?”
“Nothing, probably. I’ve told you that the Bureau likes to keep information to itself.”
