Girl Under Fire (A Sam Hemming FBI Thriller Prequel) by Julia Payne

Author:Julia Payne [Payne, Julia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-03-20T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 4

Upper Basement

As I reach the top of the stairs, I hear voices in the distance. This part of the building is lit but dimly so. I soon find out why. There are rows of racks—all holding bottles of liquor. As I reach for the frame right in front of me, I find that they are expensive bottles. None of them have a custom's seal indicating that they entered the country without paying the appropriate import taxes. Is there anything this guy does that falls within the letter of the law? I wonder. There must be a thousand racks, and each rack must have a hundred bottles. I look at the label of one, and it is a product of Italy. One is a product of Israel, and the other, a product of South Africa. As I make my way across, I find there are expensive bottles, each likely over a thousand dollars from almost every country in the world.

Then I look carefully, and I realize that this is not a custom's and excise tax issue; this is still part of the money laundering mechanism. Each bottle here was at least fifty years old. Worth over a hundred thousand dollars in most cases. A quick number-crunching exercise makes me realize that there are over ten billion dollars in liquor bottles here. This was not what they drank – this was how they laundered part of the money they brought in. I will come back to him later, and I promise myself as I move forward.

The voices in the distance are coming from the top of the stairs that leads to the street level. I hear the conversation loud and clear. They are discussing how easily they had taken down the SWAT team. There are three of them talking as they smoke their Cubans. I can smell the Cohibas from down here.

"You think more will come?" the American with the southern accent asks. I assume he means more FBI SWAT.

"No," the deeper voice answers. He has a regular accent. Sounds Hispanic, something that you would find on the south side of L.A. "We managed to cut them down without the rest of the Bureau knowing about it."

"That's crap," says a third guy. Now, this guy is Mediterranean. Probably Greek. Someone who had spent much of his time in Cyprus, judging by the confluence of his accent. "That's not why they won't come."

"Why do you say that?" the southern guy asks with his broken English. I can almost picture him to be buck-toothed and hideous-looking.

"Because," The Greek answers, "it's true. They won't come because Boos is paid up with the right people."

"In the FBI?" The Hispanic asks.

"Not just the FBI. It goes all the way to the Department of Justice. Boss knows a hit before it is even approved."

As they talk the comm radio comes alive." She's not here," an American says. His language is clear. He is from around here – the tristate area, I conclude. But the way he says what he says, blows my mind.

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