CHAPTER 4 - FRANCO STAVOS
1719 Words
Los Angeles, California
The radio crackling to life, siren wailing, an officer’s voice amplified through the PA system, the officer on the front seat was sipping her coffee, while the officer of the wheels slammed the door as they reached the crime scene.
‘What do we have here?’ CIA Special Agent, Dave Martin turned away from the dead man’s stare.
‘We have dollars, drugs and Franco Stavos, officer.’ One police officer answered him.
Agent Dave Martin sighed deeply as he began to observed his surroundings. Drugs, money, bottle of wine, dead women, bodies everywhere – has not been official reported yet. He turned to the hotel room, where the odor of the dead bodies had started to drift across his nose. His partner Carla Reyes, a beautiful Mexican lady, soft looking but this lady will knock anyone who will cross their way, brushed a wisp of her hair from her face as she entered the crime scene.
‘Whew, someone had blasted this place, huh?’ Carla eyed the room as she chewed her pen. Whatever happened in this hotel room, Agent Martin and Agent Reyes knew they will be having a long haul in this case.
Franco Stavos had a long criminal history. Drugs, money laundering, human trafficking and kidnapping was just few of his crimes. Recently he was caught with prescription pain killers that the U.S marshals says, Franco come back to L.A. to hide. He was armed and dangerous. They contacted the C.I.A for tracking down Stavos and to catch him. But who would have thought that they will catch Stavos in this state?
The Key West County Sherriff’s department head, Mr. Raul Beard, approached Dave and immediately Carla stood behind Dave’s back. ‘Crank, cash, and Franco Stavos, quiet a catch, huh?’ he was grinning.
‘Agent, all you have to do is to put pieces together, and the rest of the puzzle, ahhh… you can solve it, in just a click!’ The Sherriff suggested crankily showing his one missing front tooth.
Agent Reyes rolled her eyes and thought for a while; ‘Agent Martin, I’m gonna find out, where’d he gets it, I mean the cash, where was he going with it and who were his contacts? And yes, who offended him?’
Agent Martin, prodded the leather duffel bag on the floor, containing thousands of dollars and neatly filed weeds, heroin and LSD, bagged and ready for the streets.
Putting his hands in his pocket, he inhaled deeply, ‘What had Stavos been doing in this hotel and why didn’t he escape this time?’ Stavos is known for keeping out from the police clutches precisely to avoid missteps like this.
Maybe Stavos had been planning on a long vacation somewhere or maybe going out on the country for some time based on the cash that he’d been carrying. Agent Martin smoothed his gloves over the file or money and drugs stashed in the other three duffel bags.
‘Hold on, Sheriff, are your guys the first one here in this room?’ Agent Martin frowned as he threw a cold gazed at the old sheriff.
‘Do you seriously think, Agent Martin, that my boys touch those money and drugs?!’ he annoyingly barked at the agents’ face.
‘I’m not accusing of anything, what I mean is, did they move it around? Or just count the money? Or reposition the things inside this bag?’ Martin widened his stance as he held up his own hands.
The Old Sheriff’s puffed-up chest deflated. “Nah boy, don’t even think so. Why’d you ask, huh?’
Agent Martin, went to the drapes and curtain, he saw the cars and the hustles going on below from the window, he felt suffocated of the odor of the decomposing flesh.
‘What a view!’ He exhaled.
Agent Reyes traced the uneven grid of money stacks in her fingertip. ‘I think, someone touch the money. Look, these bills are stuffed into the bag in tight rows, but these rows are messed up at the top.’ Agent Reyes stood up and went to checked Stavos’ side pockets.
‘Hummmm… nothing.’ She continued to searched; ‘A rose pendant, a flower key chain, and a few hundred bills in his dark brown wallet.’ Agent Reyes eyed Agent Martin.
‘Sir? I think we need to…’ Agent Reyes was still thinking when Agent Martin interrupted her.
‘Hold on…’ He sniffed the air and got a whiff of some flowery scent – probably belonged to Stavos’ woman or maybe, his killer?
Martin’s jaw tightened and he clicked his tongue. ‘Tsskkk… women.’
‘We’re ready to take him if your done with him, Sir’ The Coroner informed the agent as they placed the gurney beside the dead body.
‘Please send me a copy of the autopsy and toxicology reports. Thanks.’ Agent Reyes informed the examiner.
Agent Martin held up the water bottle that had been on the floor, and shook it. ‘Smells like bitter almonds. And he whistled. ‘Cyanide.’
The old sheriff poked his head in the door and yelled, ‘Do you still think that he was poisoned?’
‘That’s just Agent Martin’s guess, based on the color of his mouth and skin, well, we still have a lot of tests to run.’ Agent Reyes stated as-a-matter of fact stance.
‘A woman and a poison.’ Agent Martin drummed his fingers against his chin. ‘The murder weapon of choice is poison. There would be a woman involved in here. But the front desk said that Stavos checked in as single. Agent Reyes, run through with the CCTV. See if they have left any crumbs for us.’
The old sheriff laughed and started walking inside the suite. ‘I should start sniffing my drinks every time my wife is around.’
‘You are overthinking, sheriff.’ Agent Reyes hissed.
Hearing a commotion outside, Agent Martin strode to the door of the hotel’s suite room. A short fat bellied deputy had stopped three women outside the yellow tape. One of them, a petite, curly haired Spanish, kept pointing in her cellphone, a picture of a dead body in the trunk.
Agent Reyes, joined in the knot of people. ‘Con permiso, what’s going on, Officer?’
The officer motioned his hand to silence the three women. ‘This one is saying that she took picture of the dead body in an open car trunk when she was about to time in the hotel. And this other woman here, insisted that she saw a lady about 5’7 tall, coming out from this room, staggering, but she didn’t saw her face.’ The officer pointed the other Spanish woman around 50 plus something years old.
‘And this third woman, also said that, it was also a lady who placed that dead body in the trunk at the basement parking lot around 2 in the morning.’ The officer added as he jerked his thumb between the three women.
‘Wait, espera, habla ingles, senyora? Agent Martin raised his hand through the air as he looked at the petite, curly haired Spanish woman.
‘Si, I speak English.’
‘What were you doing at the parking area and what time did you take photo of that dead man?’
‘Sir, I didn’t saw anybody when I took this photo. Si, trabaho, senyor, I work here, our entrance is at the basement, I am a cleaning staff and I have to time in very early for my shift.’
Agent Martin, faced the 50 plus something lady who silently stared at her boots.
‘What time when you saw the lady coming out from this suite?’
‘Around for in the morning, senyor, I have overtime shift, too.’
‘A what time did you took the photo of the dead man in the basement?’ Agent Martin ask back the first woman he questioned.
‘Two in the morning, senyor.’
Agent Martin faced the third woman. He might find some answers to this third witness. ‘Where did you see this lady? What did she look like?’
‘Sir, I was about to time out from my shift, around 12 midnight, but a lady customer asked me to help her get her medicine in her car at the basement parking area. As I was about to find the customer’s car, I saw a lady carrying a body bag where she hurriedly placed the body in the truck. I was so shock because the body bag looks heavy and she just carried it lightly. And then I accidentally drop the car key. The lady saw me and... shheeee… runnn annndddd…. I covered my mouth to avoid making noise... annndd I ran back in our quarter.’ The third lady stammered and started to shake. Agent Reyes held the third woman and patted her back.
‘Did you see what she looked like?’
‘Not really senyor, half of her face was covered…but her eyes, she has pretty eyes, green eyes, senyor. She was tall, ivory skin and I think she was very beautiful. She was wearing jeans, and a black jacket.’
This woman was very observant, Agent Martin thought of.
‘Hair?’
‘Lo siento, sorry,’ she shook her head. ‘She was in a black hoody.
Agent Martin’s heartbeat ratcheted up a notch. ‘So, this green eye lady, whoever you are, is trying to disguise yourself, huh?’ He blew his hot breath and trying to figure out his next steps.
Agent Martin thank the three women after getting their contact information.
‘Did you find any other fingerprints besides Stavos?’ Martin turned to the old Sheriff.
‘Nah, wiped clean, we barely found any fingerprints, not even Stavos.’
‘Phone?’ Did you search for it? there’s no way a man like him in this kind of business would be without a phone.’ Agent Reyes impatiently reasoned out.
‘We’ll keep you updated, we’ll try to track his number, asked for searched orders to the networks providers and see if we can trace his call histories.’ Sheriff Raul Beard patted Martin’s back and winked at Agent Carla.
‘Don’t worry guys, we’ll keep you in the loop. We’ll give a ring as soon as we found out who flag the mighty Franco Stavos.’
- Writer
