Chapter 19 - Tipping Point
Looking into everything is impossible. Any investigation by default has to be thought of as what you see looking through a low power camera lens. Only what you look at goes into your world view of things. You can try to look at everything, but its too much and you miss almost everything. You can zoom in on every last detail, but again you now understand only a limited set of things very well. My mentor told me that's part of the art. Knowing or learning or feeling it. When to pull back and scan everything, and when to zoom in like a microscope.
The investigator, while doing without the resources of the police force? Does have access to things the ordinary person doesn't have access to. Its more shocking how little extra by law investigators get. But, they get their precious anonymity. They also get to rub elbows in the law enforcement community. And any investigator, no matter what color and style of badge they proffer... deep down is the same. They want to solve puzzles, and it bugs them when the puzzle goes unsolved.
I ended up out and about with my investigator. He practically kidnapped me to go out with him, and my lawyer had her signature smile about the whole affair. I got the hint I was clearly meant to go.
He smiled and winked, and had his low key quiet mode of operation going on. My cue that he was working. He dragged me to a truck stop, and his patented I know something you don't know smile had me wondering. He ended up waving to some guy that came in, looking around. The guy wandered over to our corner booth.
He stood over the table, looking us over.
"Kind of busy in here."
My investigator looked up.
"Does it bother you that its busy?"
The newcomer looked around.
"I can live with it. If you can."
My guy looked around.
"A smart guy, now... a smart guy would have something, you know. All college educated to say about the whole situation. I think. Like. Some of that there Shakespeare."
The new guy grinned.
"Thou shalt rule, until Birnham wood to Castle Dunsinane comes."
My table mate nodded.
"Lay on, MacDuff. And damned be he that first cries... hold, enough."
The new guy grinned.
"We good?"
Mine nodded. He gestured which side of the booth he might want to sit on. He picked mine, and I edged over and in to allow him to sit down. I started to be polite and introduce myself. I held my hand out.
Hi. I---"
The new guy looked almost shocked at my investigator, who grinned back.
"New guy. Smart. Still not litter trained. Hey, buddy. I forgot to mention. This is an informal meet and greet. No names. My oversight."
I held my hands up in surrender.
"What do I call you, then."
"Call me Tom. It works."
My investigator picked Harry and smiled at me. Took me a second to get it. I was now the Dick. I let them both start and carry the conversation. My buddy started it.
"So. How long did you work it all. As one big case."
"Couple years. You want generic background the case comes out of?"
"Sure."
"Southwestern Pennsylvania. Has a long standing reputation? The small town corruption is something else."
"That's how it started."
The new guy nodded.
"Feds set up a little satellite office, in a number of little towns across the area. It was figured on paper, to be a couple year program. Local corruption. Small but coordinated investigations. Want to guess how many years ago that was? Its 20 years later. Its still in place. No one has ever seen anything like it."
My investigator winked at me.
"Educate me."
"What it really is? Its big city corruption, but... in a small town setting. And? Its pervasive. Its so entrenched of a system? Its normal to the locals."
My guy shrugged.
"Sounds like low hanging fruit, to me. Go look anywhere, you'll find what you're looking for."
The visitor sighed.
"That's just it. You have to target somewhere. No one knew where to begin. And for small town corruption? Everyone knows everyone. You can't get an outsider in."
"So. How did you go about it."
"In my area? We started out. Look around. See what you can see, that isn't on the up and up."
"What did you come up with."
He laughed.
"Speeding tickets."
We all had a chortle at that one.
"Yeah, good old speeding tickets. Younger kid where I worked. Would get tickets. He's asking around. You know, trying to get help on his latest speeding ticket."
My investigator shrugged.
"Sounds like a normal, small town thing to me. Who helped him out."
"He got told. By some older guy. Schedule a hearing. Magistrate. Plead stupidity, you need your license for work. You're a swell guy. Locals? Take care of their own, as long as you got friends."
"Small towns. Gotta love them. How did the ticket go."
"He takes a day off work to do his ticket hearing. He's all excited. He gets it dropped down to no points, a couple miles over the limit. He's told, he has to pay his fine today. In cash. He gets two fines written out, to go with the speeding ticket. Generic fines. I remember the one, too. Actor was engaged in an action, which served the actor no legitimate purpose. They were both written out like that. Generic as hell. One was disturbing the peace, other was disorderly conduct. See what went on?"
My guy rubbed his chin. Nodding.
"Said it had to be paid today, huh?"
New guy nodded.
"Yeah. Before close of business, today. Kid had to scramble to make the bank and back, pay the fines in cash."
"Who helped the kid out? It worked."
"That's the thing. Kid's asking everyone for help. No one can help him. He sure gets helped out, though. Someone that knew someone, helped him out with the right word in the right ear. I mean, that much is obvious."
"It is. Who though. You tracked that down?"
"No. That's what I realized. It was... everywhere. There was no one place to look. It was... everywhere. But it started with that ticket I heard about."
"You followed it."
He nodded.
"Here's how it works. Small towns, small area. Lot of young guys, like to drive fast. They mostly all got jobs and cars. I got a bad ticket, poor me. You hear from someone else what to do. The magistrate here? Great guy. Just ask for a hearing, be polite, plead you're sorry. He might be nice to you."
We both nodded.
"See? Here's the kicker. I was following that ticket. Its in the system. What I had trouble locating? Those two fines."
My investigator was following.
"Those two generic fines. That had had to be paid in cash. Today."
"Yeah. They? Just disappear. Now, there's the investigation starting."
"Where does it take you."
"Everywhere? Nowhere. Sure, I know what I got. Phantom fines are being written out? And not entered into the system. Pay cash, today only? Right from the magistrate's bench. Right there, that's a dirty magistrate. Problem is, though. The old ladies that work for him? Like they don't know something's up. The cops, bringing in tickets? They have to know. Everyone? Is in on it, whether they know it or not. To the locals? This is all normal, they grew up with it like this."
"You went for the magistrate's office."
"We held back."
"There was more."
"More? It was an iceberg. Only one percent of it was above the water. Now, this was one town, one little area. Not like this is the only thing cropping up. There's scams and bullshit left and right. The politicians, the scams they pull on everyone? They're in all actuality, probably worse on the population, than the criminal structure itself is. The organized criminal element? Makes it a point to not bother Joe Six-pack."
I added to it.
"Help the little guy. Reminds me of... old time Chicago. The local crooks were also local heroes."
"There you go. You? Got the right idea. That's how it works. Like... gangster Chicago? But in a small town."
"What other operations were going on around yours? Any knowledge."
"We had too much knowledge, is what we had. You know how normally you need more intelligence? We had too much. Everywhere we looked? More. You can't go, say... ten miles from where I'm talking about the ticket fixing scheme? You run into the next operation. Another, even smaller town. Mainly gambling there. Two more mostly gambling towns, every ten miles or so up the river. Like I said. What was envisioned as a couple years project, five at the outside? Its over 20 years later, and still humming."
"Keep educating us."
"Remember. Its Chicago gangland, just in a small town. Honestly? That's the best way to understand it. We proceeded in my grid, concentrating on that magistrate and whatever was around him."
"You get much?"
"Drugs, gambling, hookers. Your basic small town racketeering thing. Pretty common, actually."
"The magistrate was running it?"
"He was. He had a number of scams going. The widespread ticket fixing scam? Was but one of them. In the end, his case linked up with those other cases going on. In the other grids around me."
"What ended up happening to him, I wonder."
"He went down, and there was a line of people around him. One interesting side note? It'll help illustrate a point I'm trying to make, that I might not be making. This, should hammer that point home. This all went down, before the second gambling revolution, across Pennsylvania."
I chuckled.
"What was the first one."
"Well. When gambling was legalized, casinos and other stuff? That was called the gambling revolution in Pennsylvania, naturally. The second gambling revolution? Comes years later, after that one. The state took over gambling machines, and legitimized them. Before that? Grandma went and spent her pension check on scratch-off tickets and under the table gambling machines at the doughnut shop. The damn things were everywhere. They took a serious chunk out of the casino profits. The state was planning on... bus rides for old people, to the casinos and back. There were more gambling machines, than cigarette machines."
I nodded.
"Okay. So, this was after the casinos were legalized, but before the gambling machines were taken care of."
"Yeah. A local police chief, thought he was going to own and operate a couple of under the table gambling machines. So? He did."
"How did that end up."
"Well. That? Ruffled feathers. Apparently, only one place is allowed to put all these gambling machines out. If your machine don't come from there? You get raided."
My investigator perked up. He sniffed something coming.
"Ruffled feathers, huh. And what happens exactly, when feathers get ruffled."
The newcomer shrugged.
"All kinds of things. Now, in this case? The chief, thinks he can own his own video gambling machines. Apparently, the magistrate and everyone else knows who is supposed to run those things. This, is friction. And they can't come straight at the chief for owning and operating gambling machines. Because they all do."
I was curious now.
"So, what do they get him on."
"Everything but, basically. Allegations in the newspapers, that he was putting his hands inappropriately on young ladies that worked at this one place, that he used like a headquarters. Never any charges or lawsuits though. All just... noise. That got attention, even though it went nowhere. But, they got him drinking a beer on the job. Hanging out, playing his own machines. They got testimony that those were his machines, and they paid out and profits went to him."
"The chief goes down."
The guy nodded.
"He did. But, see the power structure, behind everything? Even the chief of police, doesn't have the juice to stand up to these people. Whoever they are."
My investigator wanted more.
"Fallout from chief's fall?"
"Aha. It comes out, that the aforementioned magistrate? Signed paper on the chief. On all the little stuff. He was the stereotypical sign anything friendly judge, in this case. So? With his signature all over the case against the chief, the chief knows who put the screws to him. Like he has anything to lose now. He rolls back on the magistrate, who signed for him to be rolled on."
Me and my investigator chuckled.
"The plot thickens."
"Okay. All us grid by grid investigators, saturating this area, right? We're looking at this, like now we got somewhere. Might crack into whoever really pulls the strings now, you know?"
"What happened, though."
"When you have two criminals before you. One is small time and new, the other is big time and well entrenched? You take the gift. You turn the little criminal on the big one. The magistrate? Lost that battle. Him and everyone close to him, went down."
My investigator mused out loud.
"So, the chief got back out of trouble, then."
"No. He rolled on the magistrate and his crew. He got two years probation out of it, which was nothing. No longer a cop, let alone a chief anymore. He goes into a side business. Buying and selling gold."
"Some probation, a retirement job. Not bad."
"Wonder what happened to the same chief in the end, though?"
We both looked at each other and back to him, nodding.
"Strangest thing. Some young monkey spanks were stealing family and neighbor's pawn items. Gold and solver coins a favorite target of theirs. If you'll sell gold privately, below the spot price? Gold dealers make cash off the difference. Chief had the stolen shit brought to him and he bought it at a discount. Here's where it gets weird. The local cops? Were already in touch with the chief and his gold buying company he runs out of his house. Kids were already in trouble. But the kids? On drugs, naturally. Thought they could eliminate all the evidence, by killing the chief. So? They home invasion robbed, the chief and his wife. Executed both."
We were not shocked? But, we were surprised. My investigator commented on it.
"Just, damn kids? On drugs. Crackheads, take out the former chief and his wife. Sounds weird. The former police chief, not protecting himself, dealing with crackheads selling stolen gold."
The new guy grinned.
"Aha. Chief? Was about to come off two years probation, and be allowed to both own a gun and carry one again. When this happens. I'm just saying, it was an awful convenient end, for the chief. What I'm pointing out, is that if you go against the grain? You get greased. This? Being only one such... convenient... grease job. So yeah, Chicago gangland? It has elements of it."
My investigator wagged his hand back and forth, indicting not level.
"You're saying. That the powers that be, and lurk in the darkness. Send, what. A couple local dimwit crackheads, to do the big job? Thin."
"Okay. Not, send. I think? Someone had to give them that idea. That they were in trouble, but if they killed the gold dealer? Their tracks were covered."
"And how well did it cover their tracks."
"Not at all. Chief gold dealer, had already shared freely with the local cops. Who had already contacted the gold dealing chief, in advance of the gold coins being sold, and by who. They were already? Dead to rights, and just hadn't been scooped up yet."
"Hmm. Your idea, is that slipping them... just the right disinformation... idea... how to solve a problem... makes it happen."
"I know, I know. I know how that sounds. But when you work this, for this long? You just keep having that happen. Over and over again. This chief, he thought he could run his own couple machines. Drink a beer for lunch, where he had one of his machines at. Look how he ended up. Slaughtered by idiots on drugs. Someone else, pretty much just like him... ten miles up the river? Hunting accident. A different one, fifteen miles the other way on the river? House blows up. Gas leak."
Now, me and my investigator got the idea where he was on this thing.
"I admit. You were starting to sound... a little paranoid there for a minute. But, how many of these can you document? Someone rolls. Years later? Something bad just happens to them."
He shrugged.
"Most of them. If you successfully roll onto the existing power structure. Whether you know it or not? You get the worst luck. DUI. Speeding tickets. Parking tickets. You get audited by the IRS, where you work gets a surprise inspection or two. The system just... nothing you can prove? The whole system, just... statistically goes haywire, and its like the system itself is out to get you, after that. And yeah, shot in some robbery? Is another popular way to end up, years later."
My investigator nudged his chin up in the air, in a gesture of seeing if something was possible to bring up.
"Any chance, of... some specifics."
The newcomer shrugged and left his hands up in the air.
"I told you. I can't bring a file. But? This is all old news, for me. Like I said. If I can help you out? I will. What specifics. I will if I can."
"Quality Coin."
The newcomer grinned and rolled his eyes.
"You really did just stumble into this whole ball of wax sideways, huh?"
My investigator looked at me and him, grinned and nodded.
"You said. Maybe some background, on what I was into."
The new guy looked off, out the window. At seemingly nothing.
"Specifics. Quality Coin. Specifically? Not a big player anymore. They're old news."
"Really. How fascinating. Can I get more specifics, from back when they were still newsworthy?"
"Sure. This story starts? With prohibition. People made lots of fast money, running illegal liquor. So before prohibition, there is no... Quality Coin. And the last name that ran it? Existed, but were normal citizens back then."
"More than one person made money off of prohibition. It was a disaster."
The new guy nodded.
"When prohibition ended? All those ordinary citizens, were suddenly criminals out of work. They spread out, and got into all kinds of shenanigans. Quality Coin? Was a coin operated business front. Cigarette and gumball machines were the normal thing when prohibition ended. Quality Coin? Had a sideline. Coin operated gambling machines. This went on, oh... say until the fifties."
"What happens then."
"Pinball happens. Snack machines. Coin operated business grows. Legitimately, I might add. Drugs were there all along? But it was a small thing. After world war two, the word was out. Shooting up? Felt good. Too many soldiers described getting shot with morphine. Quality Coin? Now has expanded coin operations, and still has the coin operated gambling machine for a sideline. Drugs, were another sideline. Somewhere along the line? The rough and tumble depression era family, that got into the coin machine business... turned into local players. When you look into these things, you see the same last names popping up, over and over again."
"Players."
"Our word for it. Here's as near as we got figured. See, during prohibition? People that ordinarily would never have broken the law? Did so. When prohibition ended, most of those people went back to normal. Except... in this area? It stuck, is the only way to describe it. You see this widespread... liquor turns into gambling and prostitution and drugs. Normal for the big cities? But in this area, somehow it caught on the same way."
My investigator nosed around.
"So. Its... Pittsburgh mafia?"
"No. Pittsburgh mafia, fairly well documented. Much lessened power structure over the years. The cocaine busts in the 90s, saw them get gutted."
"What is all this, then."
"Its... you get far enough out of the city, the Pittsburgh mafia has no influence, or isn't looking too hard? It creates a vacuum. This area, for some reason? Sucks that vacuum up."
"So. Quality Coin. Was once the clubhouse, for a player family."
"Every town just about? Has a family like this. Its whether they go full blown criminal or not. This one did. They... eroded into bit players again. Individual family members, all got their own scams and businesses running on their own. The one big family? Lost its hold."
"Small time again."
"Mm. Wherever the line is, between small time and big time? They went back to falling on the small time side."
My investigator tried to sum up.
"Which, puts them off the federal radar. Back onto the local and county and state sonar system."
"More or less. Yeah. This family? Gets gutted on more than one occasion. They took another beating, when the magistrate went down. The private video game gambling empire? And only a business that already knew how to run and work on video games, had a chance at that, when you think about it. He was a big client. That was the family's last big blow they absorbed, they go small time and split up. You wanted background on Quality Coin? There it is."
"This coin family, they have any political connections?"
"Criminals, making money. Wanting the system to work around them, and benefit them. Attracts politicians like flies. Of course. There was once no end to the number of politicians with their hand out. Again, small time now."
"So. For my end, now. They're long off the federal radar. They never had that much trouble with the locals and the state in general. Would it amaze you, that they got into anything."
"Ha. It would amaze me more, if they didn't get into something, somewhere along the line. Money looks to make money."
My investigator quipped back.
"True. But off the federal radar, left to their own devices after things calmed down. They do have the connections, the old relationships. If they wanted to try something? That have that ability."
The other investigator agreed.
"Yeah. When a criminal organization breaks up? The connections, well... that's the last thing to go. So yeah. Anything out of them? Its possible."
After a couple hour food and coffee and side dishes and finally a late dessert? Our little pow wow broke up, and we all shook hands and the stranger parted. I realized. I never would know his name. I focused back on my investigator.
"Before you ask. What we just did? Goes by different names. The grapevine. Meet and greet. A munch. Its all the same thing. Law enforcement has its own little corner of the internet? And... we can all get together and share ideas. These little meet and greets, are a byproduct. Of law enforcement having somewhere to hang out together, online."
I chuckled.
"I liked the cloak and dagger routine, to get things going."
"With no names, with no official beans spilled? You share information. Everything we just heard? Technically, just rumors. But, that said? Obviously good rumors."
"Well. Working that all in. Where are we now."
"Hard to say. I got a dirtier than normal governor. I got the remnants of a family that was once a player and on the map? And might like to get some of that back. Throw a dirty county drug cop into the mix. Anything's possible."
"What do we do now."
"Hmm. We wait. Let me stew on this. I'm still working another gambling angle, hoping that pays off. If it does? You'll be the first to know."
On a later meeting to touch base, he explained himself further.
"Okay. Out of all this? I'm trying to not get lost. I'm always looking for one thing. Friction, between your fiancee, and... the powers that be. You up to hearing where I'm at on that end of it all?"
I nodded.
"A lot of it, that I see? Centers round gambling. Legal and illegal, both. And if not centers round it? It pops up, and it keeps popping up. I'm friends with a guy in research, and... he can find me stuff."
"I think of you, the investigator? That's research."
"For some things? Dedicated research staff makes sense. For one, we're a legal firm. Legal research department, once you get to a certain size, and we're past that size. Since we're in a political climate? Legal research handles the political research. Who voted for and against what, who was on what side in a long standing fight over any piece of legislation."
"What do they turn up."
"I don't believe in coincidence. I told you that, how many times. Here. Her short stint, on that committee? Where she disciplines judges."
"Okay."
"Guess who one of the disciplinary judges that comes through her committee is? None other, than our favorite kingpin magistrate. That's a direct contact, side versus side. Of... this semi-organized crime, and she represents the system's response, when its blown out into the open."
"She would be the kind of person in that job? That wouldn't realize threats or hints."
He nodded with a sour look on his face.
"About what I'm thinking. But like I said. Gambling? Keeps coming up. Along her way, working on different committees, and different things? She worked alongside... state gambling regulatory staff. More than once."
"Could be coincidence. The state gambling commission? Some of the only public meetings, to be allowed to be held in private. Too much free money at stake, I guess."
"How come I don't remember her working in gambling regulations."
"You wouldn't. But if her senator worked on anything that had to do with it? She would be there. I see here, she stood in for the one senator. She appeared in his place, at the gambling regulations meetings. She cast his votes for him there."
I thought back.
"Before she heads to the capitol? When she was still local, but out of law school. She used to go to the water authority and sewage authority meetings. In place of her boss. Sounds familiar."
"Then? On two different occasions, her senator is on one side or another. To the whole, small games of chance laws."
I shrugged.
"Which is?"
"Small games of chance. Even though gambling was illegal in this state, small games of chance were authorized for clubs and charity. When you buy a daily lottery ticket, for a dollar, to help out the local ladies auxiliary of the church? That's a small game of chance. That's gambling. But? For charity, not for profit? Its legal. Small drinking clubs operate on the same rules."
"What's the problem."
"The same rules? Governed the gambling machines, before the state put their own gambling machines out. It was popular political sport? To campaign against this. This, brought in guaranteed campaign donations. To keep the rules in place, just like they were. Specifically? The amusement only rule. You tape a sign to the gambling machine, it says for amusement only? Oh, wow. There you go. Its perfectly legal now. Until the state took over with its own gambling machines? That was how the state worked."
"Yet another of your... brushes up against gambling for her to have had."
"Yeah. And as we both know? She was the leading worker, for her newer senator that ended up with her. They saw the state get into the gambling machine segment, and its a big segment of gambling, believe me. And, that got the whole gambling machine industry across the state? Cleaned up. Like... regulating Las Vegas."
I mused out loud.
"Once again, gambling. Plus? Friction."
"More friction. She's already prosecuted the magistrate. This kills what's left of a profitable no taxes business. Now. Follow my logic, here. Some surprisingly big players? Use this video gambling for a long time. Right alongside the good old standbys, like drugs and prostitution. Her and her senator? Pull an underdog, out of nowhere, big win."
"But... this is all... years back..."
He reminded me.
"Remember what the federal investigator, said about the chief. It just happens. He shared, how the chief ended up. If I had shared back, how your fiancee ended up? I bet I know what he would say. There you go. It just happens."
"That's where you see this coming out of. Just... gambling."
He sighed.
"My best guess? Yes. She's squeaky clean, and isn't into anything. It has to be something she brushed up against. Here? She brushes up against it several times. There's an ongoing... friction. Before gambling is legalized and casinos are born here in this state? It was a seedy industry. The video gambling. Ran by the same people that ran whores and drugs. Its powerful enough of a shadow industry? It successfully lobbied itself somehow, and kept the state out of the lucrative gambling machine industry."
"Organized gambling, big enough to lobby itself a place in the state's scheme of things."
"Yeah. With ongoing friction, built in. First? Friction not to have legal gambling. Then? To keep the video gambling. Also along the way? Constant friction between legit gambling interests, and the illegal ones. They're both after the same customers. People who want to gamble."
"You think that my fiancee, was a kind of casualty of that friction."
"What else would she even be into. This is all I can dig up."