I'm in a bad mood. My dad is in the hospital and not doing well, my husband was in a car accident today (he is fine; our car is not), and my muse has left me in writing Tamper 32. I'm posting an extra chapter to cheer myself up – please leave reviews…they always make me smile. Thanks,
~ Sarah ~
I sipped my coffee as I looked through the research that I had done the night before. Luigi and Lorenzo themselves were fairly clean. A few speeding tickets over the years, an arrest for hiring a prostitute, nothing outstanding as being unusual. I filled in their previous charges under the section entitled "Previous Criminal History". I looked through their financials and detailed them under "Financial Overview", then looked through the people in their lives that they had been linked to and detailed their family and friends under the section entitled "Social Connections". Neither Luigi nor Lorenzo had gotten married or had children, but their sister had married a Robert Bianchi. They had one niece out of that union and, to all intents and purposes, they appeared to be quite close to their niece. I stopped my analysis of Luigi's and Lorenzo's lives and did a social network search for Rebecca Bianchi. I turned up her Facebook site and found several pictures of her with her uncles. There were additional photos of her with her parents and a bereavement notice from when her mother died three months before. I thought that living through her mother's death would be hard. I may have had my run-ins with my mother over the years, but I would be devastated when my mother eventually passed away. I made a note of the connection to Luigi and Lorenzo, and I copied the pictures of Rebecca with the two men into the report.
I did some more reading. Robert Bianchi was the third owner of the three companies. I made note of that and decided that I would analyze his life as well.
By the time I had finished my analysis of Luigi and Lorenzo, it was dinnertime. I still had to finish investigating Robert Bianchi's life and I thought I'd look more into their niece's life, but I thought I might be able to complete it that evening. I headed into the break room to see the offerings for dinner, and had helped myself to a bowl of chili and a bun and had found myself a seat at the table when Tank walked into the room. "How's it going?" he said.
"Good. The research should be completed by noon tomorrow. I did most of the research yesterday, the analysis today, and I just have a few other leads to follow before I finalize my report."
Tank helped himself to a bowl of chili, two sandwiches, a large salad, and a container of fruit for his dinner. I guessed, at well over six feet, that it would take a lot of food to keep Tank going.
"How about we eat dinner together in my office and go over your research results?" said Tank. He juggled his food in his hands and led me down to his office. I sat in the guest chair as he sat behind his desk. "What did you find out?" he said.
"There are three people who own Garbrec Incorporated, Papyrus Fibers, and Gastron Foods. Garbrec operates a material recovery facility and offers waste and recycling collection services. Papyrus is a paper manufacturing company, and Gastron makes bagels and pretzels. Those three people are Luigi and Lorenzo Vistonni, and Robert Bianchi. Robert is their brother-in-law and is the Chief Financial Officer for the three companies while Luigi is the CEO and Lorenzo is the CAO. All three of the owners moved to Trenton just two years ago. The waste management company opened their doors at the same time, but both the paper manufacturing plant and the bakery didn't open until a year ago. They submit their taxes on time, are operating in the black, and pay its employees well. The three companies offer both a benefit and a pension plan. Garbrec employs thirty-eight people, Papyrus employs sixty-three people and Gastron employs fifty-six people. They each only have one location, all here in Trenton. Their three facilities are located beside one another. Hours of operation for both are from eight in the morning until four-thirty at night, and they are closed on weekends. They got the money to open their facilities through a combination of an inheritance as well as the sale of similar facilities in Newark. It was unclear as to where their parents got their money.
"According to the Garbrec promotional material, their location acts as a transfer station, where garbage is accumulated onsite for transport to the local landfill. It says that it also acts as a material recycling facility, and recyclables are sorted onsite and sold to the various end users. That is what they advertise. But like Ranger had found, there were records of sales of the recyclables but there are few weigh scale tickets for the landfill and the weigh scale receipts that are provided aren't for large loads – nothing more than would be typical for an office building with that many employees. According to the IRS, though, the company takes in several million dollars for their garbage services. Garbrec's waste management customers aren't identified, so I looked into the companies that are using their recycling services hoping that the companies contracted Garbrec for both services. However, by checking Garbrec client accounts I have determined that the companies using Garbrec's recycling service don't use them for their garbage collection service. While they use Garbrec for their recycling program, their garbage programs are provided by a variety of different companies. Their recycling fees that they have reported from Garbrec, though, are astronomical and I can't imagine that recycling programs are that expensive or no company would ever recycle their materials. It appears as though Garbrec is charging for a phantom service.
"I looked into the items that they buy, and it's true that they buy a vast quantity of caustic soda. It is, however, bought both for the bakery and for the paper manufacturing facility, and in both cases is something that would be used in their process. It is bought by the tanker-full. In both cases, there are one thousand-gallon tanks onsite for the containment of the chemical. The interesting thing is that, although purchasing lye for their bakery or their paper manufacturing facility makes sense, Garbrec used to buy barrels of lye before they had the bakery and, now that they have the bakery, they are no longer purchasing lye This could be explained by their practice of getting rid of road kill, but it is curious that they no longer purchase the chemical as they would still have road kill to get rid of. All other purchases made by either Garbrec or Papyrus or Gastron seem typical."
"So it appears as though Morelli should storm the company and test the quality of the lye", said Tank.
"Yes, but it will be hard to get a warrant for the search. Lye is a perfectly normal ingredient used in the manufacturing process for bagels or in the manufacturing of paper. Interestingly, the purchase of the bakery and the paper plant didn't happen until the pollution was identified in the paper." I sighed. "There isn't enough to hang a conviction on at the moment. To be able to charge the company for murder, which is what I think is happening, there would have to be more than circumstantial evidence. The lye is the key. Morelli needs to test to see if the lye in the two facilities is contaminated.
"I also looked into Luigi's, Lorenzo's and Robert's lives. Luigi and Lorenzo are both bachelors and have never been married. Robert, as I said, had been married. His wife died about three months ago and they have only one child, a daughter named Rebecca. According to Rebecca's Facebook page, she is quite close to her uncles and has several pictures of them on her site. Luigi and Lorenzo and Robert list their employment as executives for Garbrec, but Rebecca is a pharmaceutical sales rep and earns a good salary. She seems to be quite outgoing, loves people, and is very family-oriented."
"You seem to have focused your research on Rebecca."
"Not really. I have pages of analysis done on Luigi and Lorenzo and Robert. But instinct says that there is something there with Rebecca. I'm planning on looking into her more after dinner."
"What are you hoping to find?"
"I don't know, but something is telling me that something is there. I'll look into her this evening and hope for an eureka moment to happen."
"What are Luigi's and Lorenzo's habits? Vices? Loves? Anything we can capitalize on?"
"Luigi and Lorenzo are quiet men. They both like to drink, based on the vast quantity of alcohol that they buy each week, but they don't partake of any of the other vices. They love their family and seem to be ambitious. They drive regular cars and live in regular houses, but their bank accounts are well padded and are much healthier than their lifestyle would suggest."
"Does instinct say that they are the enforcers for the mob?"
"I don't know. Instinct says that there is something there, but what that something is, I don't know. We'd need to have someone working from within to give us more information. Perhaps Terry will be able to help Morelli piece it together." I was pleased that I could say her name without hissing.
Tank finished his chili and started eating his sandwiches. I finished my chili and dreamed about my dessert upstairs in the kitchen. Like with bacon, Ranger didn't believe that the nutrient to calorie ratio made it worth giving dessert to his staff. Like with bacon, I thought he was nuts. Sure, the nutrient to calorie ratio might not have been high, but the happiness to calorie ratio was and that, I thought, made it all worth it.
Ranger knew of my views concerning dessert and frequently bribed me with dessert to get me to do things like cardio exercises for fifteen minutes a day. It worked, even though I knew that Ranger would never deny me sweets. After all, he stocked a cupboard in his apartment with a variety of chocolate bars and cheez doodles and other forms of junk food especially for me. It certainly wasn't for him. If I ate something from that cupboard, I just had to leave the empty packaging on the counter and Ella automatically restocked the cupboard the next day. He had learned that sweets made me happy and, just because he didn't like them, didn't mean that he would stop me from having them myself.
Ella knew of my love of dessert, and she made me some from scratch every day. Sometimes it was a homemade cake. Sometimes it was pie – with a pie crust that was made from scratch rather than a frozen pie crust from the grocery store. Sometimes it was pudding or flan or trifle or ice cream or cookies or dessert squares. Whatever Ella chose to make, the results were always good and I always looked forward to eating it.
As was my usual practice with Ranger gone, Ella knew that I would eat dinner in the break room. However, she had told me in the past that eating dinner in the break room shouldn't have to mean that I went without dessert. Usually, when Ranger was gone she would pop a dessert into the fridge in the apartment for me to have as a bedtime snack. It was something I looked forward to every night. Ella had texted me that afternoon that there was a surprise waiting for me in the fridge, and I looked forward to seeing what it was. With Ranger gone, it was the little things that kept me going.
I said goodbye to Tank, debated about heading upstairs to see what Ella had made me, and then debated some more. After some mental tug-of-war, I decided that I needed more of a break than simply having dinner with Tank. It may have been the call of dessert that was guiding my choices, but I had never been good at self-denial, and having a shower to wake myself up, dressing in some of Ranger's clothes to make me more comfortable, and eating some of Ella's surprise, seemed like an excellent decision. I shut down my computer and closed up my office. As I walked past Tank's office, he called out to me. "Finished for the day?" he said in surprise. I could see why he was. I had just finished telling him of the work that I had been planning on doing that evening.
"No. I just think that I need a change of scene", I said. "I'm going to work in Ranger's home office for the evening. I think it's time to have a shower to wake up and change into my pajamas."
Tank smiled. "Sounds like a good idea. When you are finished your report for Morelli, send it to me and to Ranger as well, okay?"
"Does Ranger know that you asked me to help on the file?"
Tank smiled. "I let him know yesterday. I also promised him that you'd be careful, and I reminded him that you knew that we had your back if things went topsy-turvy. You do know that, don't you?"
I laughed. "Tank, Rangeman has saved me numerous times. If I didn't know that you have my back by now, I'd have to be particularly dense."
Tank smiled. "You're one of us, Steph, above and beyond your relationship with Ranger. There isn't one person on staff that wouldn't willingly give their life for you."
"That makes me feel icky."
"Why? You've proven that you would give your life for them." It was true. About six or seven months ago, I had a skip that threatened one of the Rangeman staff if I didn't give myself up and, against the commands by both Ranger and Morelli, I went in and protected Ralph. Ranger called the decision foolhardy but heroic. Morelli called it foolhardy and stupid, and it was his reaction and his anger at that decision that made me ultimately decide to break up with him. "That's what teammates do, Steph. And you are a valuable member of the Rangeman team." I yawned. "Leave the rest of the analysis for tonight. Go home, relax, and go to bed early. You look exhausted."
"I am tired." I had to admit, Tank's idea of going to bed early did sound appealing. I hadn't had my nap earlier as I had planned.
"Morelli has been spinning his wheels for a while. He first started working on this file about five weeks ago. He can wait another couple of days."
I smiled and changed my plans. Having a shower, changing into Ranger's clothes, eating dessert and going to bed early sounded like the best idea of all.
"Have you been working out with Ranger gone?" asked Tank.
My smile fell. I hadn't been working out. I also hadn't been at the gun range, and somehow I thought that Tank already knew the answer to that question. "I'll stretch before I have my shower", I said.
Tank laughed. "You'd be better off going for a run for fifteen minutes or half an hour to get the squirrellies out before your shower."
I laughed. Like that was going to happen. I didn't know how to tell him, but my squirrellies wanted to go to sleep and were disappointed because my nuts weren't there.
