A Body for McHugh by Jay Flynn

Author:Jay Flynn
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781789120691
Publisher: Muriwai Books
Published: 2018-03-09T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

ABOUT ALL I CAN SAY in favor of this case,” Foote growled, “is we are not likely to die of thirst.”

They sat in a back booth at The Door. The bar was not open for business yet, but he and Murrell and McHugh and Jensen, the Treasury man, were steadily lowering the level of beer in a keg.

“Or loneliness,” McHugh added as Chester brought another fat pitcher. “So far we have the FBI, the Pentagon, Treasury, Immigration and State involved. We are about standing on each other’s necks.”

“The striped-pants boys are worry warts,” Murrell said somberly. “They are sweating out an international incident. They are demanding to know everything we do that involves Mexico. They don’t even want us to ask questions without we clear them first. They are swinging enough weight to make it stick.”

“How about Girolamo?” McHugh asked.

“Nothing we can move on,” Foote said. “He’s a foxy one, and he doesn’t panic. Denies everything from bringing Dant in to knowing Leoni and Bomarito. We can’t tie him in so far with any woman who could have been the one we want. Which is about what we expected anyway.”

“No link to Gilbert either, of course,” McHugh said.

“Gilbert is a source of great woe and expense to us,” Jensen said. He was a youngish man with short blond hair and square features that testified to his Scandinavian ancestry. “The department has kept a full-time auditor on his operations for years. Nothing unusual in it-he’s just big money, and his books always check out. Now we’ve got a crew of nine checking on him. It happens he owns, controls or has a substantial interest in over a hundred corporations. They do business in about two dozen countries, a lot of it with each other. So far we’ve seen enough to make one educated guess. Gilbert is a front man for some big people.”

“The Outfit?” McHugh said.

Jensen shrugged. “FBI says he has no known contacts with the racket boys. Which, of course, he wouldn’t if he is really handling the take. We’d need months to check any specific deal all the way through. We don’t have months.”

“For sure, McHugh agreed. “Find any significant money transfers to Mexico lately? Something that could buy three million in Cuban pesos on the black market?”

“Nothing,” Jensen said. “Which is not significant. Gilbert lists sizable holdings in Mexico.”

McHugh carefully unwrapped a cigar and lit it. “So Gilbert wasn’t quick enough to dump what he had there. Which brings us to the lads who had some weak money to peddle. What about them?”

Foote scowled. “They got taken in a hotel room, just how we don’t know yet. There were three men and one woman. They put up a squeal, and when the authorities found out they were in Mexico for business without government permission, they slapped heavy fines on them and ran them out of the country. They were booted into the States at Brownsville, Texas. We’re working on the angles.”

“One thing we’re not short on,” McHugh said.

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