Chapter 22
That night a dream about Brad Thornton’s murder woke Stan up with a start. It frustrated him that Carlos Morales seemed to be untouchable, off in Mexico where the feds had no jurisdiction. He thought about it as he drifted in and out of sleep until he had an epiphany. Suddenly, he realized how he could find Carlos Morales and turn him over to the FBI. The thought of bringing down Morales made Stan so excited he didn’t sleep a wink the rest of the night. He couldn’t wait for daybreak to come so he could set his plan in motion.
What he realized was that the Silver Springs Ventures was but one of many of the Burilo Cartel’s money laundering operations. This meant that Carlos Morales was sure to be visiting the United States on a regular basis to monitor the cartel’s various operations. If that were true, all he’d have to do is identify one or more of the other operations and then wait for Morales to appear. He thought that would be a good project for his criminal law class.
The next morning, Stan went to see Greg Wolford to gather information for his quest. He didn’t have any money left to hire Wolford to do more work, but he figured he owed him what information he’d already gathered. Wolford seemed surprised to see him.
“Why are you still interested in the Burilo cartel? I thought your investigation was over.”
“I don’t like people committing murder with impunity. He had Rob and his family killed, then Brad. Who’s going to be next? Carlos Morales needs to be stopped.”
“Why don’t you let the FBI do it?”
“I’m not stopping them from doing anything. I just have an idea of how I might help them.”
“Do they know about this?”
“No. They probably don’t want to know. They’d have to tell me not to do it even though secretly they’d love any help they can get. You see, I don’t have to follow their strict rules. I can do things that they couldn’t dream of doing for fear of tainting the evidence or entrapment. ”
“Hmm. I doubt Morales will be doing much traveling in the US with the FBI looking for him. I’m sure they have alerted the Border Patrol to be on the lookout for him.”
“Oh, he doesn’t cross through any legal ports of entry. I’m sure he crosses in the night at one of the cartel’s entry points they use to bring in their drugs, illegal immigrants, and cash that needs laundering.”
“Perhaps, but aren’t you worried that if Morales finds out you’re looking for him, he’ll kill you and your family?”
“He’s not going to find out I’m looking for him. Don’t mention to anyone that I came by today, okay? This is going to be a low-key, off-the-radar investigation. I only told you about it because I know I can trust you and I need whatever intel you have on the cartel.”
“Alright. What do you want to know?”
“First of all. I need a photo of Morales so that I’ll recognize him if I find him.”
“No problem. I’ve got that.”
“I also need any information you have on the cartel’s business organizations. I’ve got a lot of information already, but I’m sure you’ve got more.”
“You can look through the file and make copies of what you need.”
“Good. Finally, I need to know where Morales has stayed in the US in the past. People are creatures of habit, so I might accidently find him in one of his old stomping grounds.”
“One of our men followed him for a while. I’ll give you those notes.”
“Good. Thanks, Greg.”
“You sure you don’t want us to help you out on this? I could assign a man to help you.”
“No. I don’t have any money to hire you, and like I said, I’m trying to keep this low profile so the cartel won’t know I’m even looking for them.”
“I understand, but this is dangerous work you’re doing, low profile or not. Why don’t you let me talk to Melissa Thornton? I’m sure she’d spring for our fee. After all, you’re searching for her husband’s killer.”
“No, thanks. Maybe I’ll take you up on that later if I’m not making any progress. Melissa’s liable to tell someone I’m working on the case, and then I’ll end up dead.”
“That’s probably true. Okay. Good luck.”
After Stan had gathered the information he needed from Wolford, he went to class. Paula was already seated in the classroom, so Stan sat down beside her. Her eyes lit up when she saw him. She gave him a hard look.
“Hi. You look tired.”
“I am a little tired. I didn’t sleep well. I was trying to figure out how we can find Morales and turn him over to the FBI.”
Paula laughed. “You never give up, do you?”
Stan smiled. “No. I guess not. I don’t take failure well.”
“Me neither. So, what do you have in mind?”
“You know your research on the Burilo cartel?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, as brilliant as it was, we’ve got to do much more. What you’ve uncovered is only the tip of the iceberg. If we can identify other money laundering operations, I’m sure we’ll be able to find Carlos Morales while he’s in the US. Then we can tip off the FBI so they can arrest him.”
“You think he’d dare set foot in the United States with the FBI looking for him?”
“I don’t think he has much respect for our law enforcement agencies. He thinks he can outsmart them, and so far he has.”
“He’s certainly outsmarted us,” Paula noted.
“Yes, he has, and that’s why we can’t give up. We’ve got to bring him down.”
“Alright, I’m in. What’s next?”
“Are you free late this afternoon?”
“Yes. I usually study in the afternoons.”
“Good. I’ll meet you in one of the private study rooms in the library. We can spread out all our intel and figure out a research strategy.”
“Okay. Maybe I’ll round up some of kids from class to help out.”
“No, let’s keep this to ourselves. If we get too many people involved our covert operation may be compromised. I know I can trust you, but I really don’t know the others that well.”
“Right.”
“I had to tell Greg Wolford we were working on the case since I needed what was in his files, but I didn’t tell him our plans exactly, so it’s gonna be just you and me, okay?”
“Fine. I won’t tell a soul.”
“Good. I knew I could count on you.”
After he left Paula, Stan had lunch with Lamar Jones. He wanted to find out how his dinner with Kristina had gone. Stan took him to the Highland Park Cafeteria, not too far from campus. They both loaded their plates like they didn’t expect to have time for dinner.
“So, how was your dinner with Kristina?”
“It was fun. She was so keyed up over your little bombshell she could hardly sit still. I think now she’s starting to believe she can win.”
“Good. I think she will. Wells has already admitted he made the investment. I doubt the voters will believe he knew nothing about it.”
“Yes, it may be true, but the public won’t buy it. He’s still responsible for what his agents do.”
“That’s right. You’ve got to be careful who you hire. I wonder if the Burilo cartel has someone on his staff.”
Lamar’s eyes widened. “You think so?”
“Well, if he claims not to know about it, it makes sense. They either have a man on the staff or bribed someone already there to make the investment. Then when a critical vote comes up, they let Wells know how they want him to vote, and if he refuses, they threaten to go public with his illegal investment.”
“Holy crap!” Lamar exclaimed. “I had no idea they’d go to such lengths.”
“Yeah, well, it’s just a theory, but a definite possibility. There’s a lot of corruption in politics, but it’s often so subtle it’s overlooked.”
“Are you going to tell the FBI about your theory?” Lamar asked.
“No. I’m done with my investigation,” Stan lied. “I’ve clear
ed Rob’s name, and that’s enough, don’t you think?”
“Of course,” Lamar agreed.
“So, are you and Kristina going to go out again?”
Lamar smiled. “Maybe. She’s pretty busy now, but after the election is over I plan to ask her out. She invited me to the victory party.”
“Oh, good. I’ll see you Tuesday night then.”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Lamar replied.
At three o’clock, Stan had spread out all his information in one of the study rooms in the library. Paula showed up shortly thereafter, and they began sorting through the stacks of reports.
“Okay. This isn’t going to be easy,” Stan noted. “What we have to do is identify another one of the cartel’s money laundering organizations. It will probably be very similar to the Silver Springs structure. If we do that, we can figure out where Carlos Morales is likely to show up.”
“Where do we start?” Paula asked.
“We’re looking for business names. You go through your research and make a list of any business name you come across. I’ll go through Wolford’s report.”
“What do we do with the list?”
“Well, since this is a money laundering business, the dirty cash has to end up in legitimate businesses. That means these businesses will be legally organized corporations, partnerships, or business trusts. These legitimate businesses must file tax returns and file periodic reports with the Secretary of State, Comptroller, and SEC. A lot of these reports are public records, so we can access them. Some of these reports require disclosure of ownership, which could lead us to other cartel businesses. If we find a cartel business name, we may be able to identify its owners and affiliated entities by searching these records.”
“Don’t you think the cartel will be careful not to leave a trail?”
“Probably, but when you’re dealing with something as complicated as this, it’s easy to make mistakes. Ordinary people are often careless, and criminals even more so.”
“It sounds like a long shot.”
“It may be, but I say we give it a try.”
“Okay,” Paula said. “So, I’m supposed to make a list?”
“Right. For each company, list the name, address, incorporator, officers, registered agent and address, shareholders, partners, assumed names, and affiliated entities. I’ll do the same. Tomorrow we’ll go to Austin and research all of the new entity filings for the last year.”
“How do we do that?”
“We look at each new entity formed during the year, looking for any common names, addresses, shareholders, incorporators, etc. If we find a match, there is a good chance it’s a cartel business.”
“I see. So once we identify a cartel business, we go check it out and hope to find Morales there.”
“Right.”
“Okay, but you’re going to owe me dinner after all this hard work.”
“No problem,” Stan said as he started working on his list. Several hours later, they finished, having identified sixteen separate entities, fifty-seven individual names, eleven lawyers who acted as incorporators, and seventy-seven separate addresses. When they were done reviewing the list, Stan took Paula to Dickey’s Barbecue for dinner and then went home. Rebekah wasn’t thrilled to hear Stan was going to Austin the next day.
“I thought you were done with this investigation?” Rebekah moaned.
“Well, I’ve got this idea of how we might find Carlos Morales. I really think it might work. If it does, we can let the FBI know where he is.”
Rebekah shook her head. “Go ahead. Do whatever you want. You’re not going to listen to me anyway.”
“Don’t you want Rob and Cindy’s murderers to be caught?”
“Yes, but I don’t want the father of my children killed.”
“I’m going to be very careful. Don’t worry. I’m not going to be in any danger.”
“That’s what you always say, and then you narrowly escape death.”
The next day, Stan picked up Paula early, and they drove to Austin. Going through the records was tedious work, as they had to compare each new filing with their lists, and there were thousands of new entities that had been filed during the year. In the first few hours, they’d gone through over 200 filings and hadn’t come up with a match. Then, Stan noticed something.
“Look! This company, Blue Bayou Condominiums, Ltd., has the same mailing address as Calidad Interests, Ltd.”
“Oh, my God!” Paula said. “Do you think we’ve found another cartel property?”
“Maybe. Let’s check it out. The general partner is Avalanche Marketing, Inc.”
“Cute name,” Paula remarked.
“It has a Longview address, and the incorporator is Simon Lansing.”
“What’s the business address?”
“It’s another Longview address,” Stan replied.
“So, now what?”
“Well, I’ll keep looking for more matches, and you go check out Blue Bayou and Avalanche Marketing with the Comptroller’s office. They’ll have current officer and director information. While you’re at it, call Longview information and see if they have a listing for the condos.”
“Alright,” Paula said, getting up to leave. “I’ll be back when I’m done.”
“Okay. I’ll be here.”
Stan continued comparing new filings with his list and almost immediately came up with another hit. The incorporator of a new company called Summit Leasing, Inc., was also the incorporator of a known cartel business, Matamoros Logistics, Inc. Stan was starting to get excited. Morales had been careful to create new entities to do his money laundering but careless in setting them up. He knew he’d find even more before the day was done.
When Paula came back from the Comptroller’s office, Stan had a new list of entities for her to check out, so she immediately left, as time was running out. When the state offices finally closed at five, Stan and Paula had identified eleven new cartel businesses. Unfortunately, there was no time to celebrate, as they had to get back to Dallas. Paula was concerned she was falling behind in classes, and Stan knew he’d been neglecting Rebekah and his family and wanted to spend the evening with them.
Rebekah was glad to see Stan and seemed to be in good spirits when he walked in the door. This greatly relieved him, as he’d been worried all the way back from Austin about her being angry with him. The source of Rebekah’s good spirits turned out to be a conversation she’d had with Reggie’s teacher. The teacher had gone out of her way to tell Rebekah what a wonderful student he was, a joy to teach.
“Way to go!” Stan said to Reggie. “Good man!”
Reggie shrugged. “I didn’t do anything really.”
“Look at that! He’s modest too,” Stan teased. “A chip off the old block.”
Rebekah feigned choking on her food. “Ah, I don’t think so. He takes after his mother obviously.”
Stan raised his eyebrows. “Uh huh.”
Rebekah slugged Stan playfully, and he grabbed her and wrestled her to the couch, laughing. Reggie shook his head at his crazy parents and left the room. Mark watched, eyes wide. Soon they were kissing passionately. Mark frowned and ran up the stairs.
“Get off me!” Rebekah ordered, sitting up. “Look. You’ve scared away the kids.”
“Good. Now we can get down to business.”
“In your dreams.”
“Come on!” Stan pleaded. “You’ve got me stirred up. You can’t quit now.”
Rebekah looked at Stan and laughed. “Too bad.”
At that, Stan swept her off her feet, carried her into the bedroom, and shut the door with his foot. He’d have to do something special for Reggie’s teacher, he thought, as he flung Rebekah on the bed and started undressing her. She looked up at him blissfully with her big brown eyes and then pulled him down upon her.