Page 165 of Maddy's Justice

“We got wind of it by a Stafford, Hughes lawyer in San Antonio with a conscience, if you can believe that.”

“There are a few,” Marc said. “The bar exam usually weeds them out. One slips through the net every now and then.”

“Go figure,” Boies said with a smile. “Anyway, we also spotted an insider trading and a money laundering operation in Chicago and Minneapolis. I went undercover and about six months ago we were ready to move.

“Then we got wind of a sex slave trading ring that might have ties to what we had. Unfortunately, you guys really messed us up. Especially Ms. O’Rourke here.

“Ms. Rivers abduction…”

“I thought you were undercover,” Marc said to Maddy and Carvelli.

“Oh, that. Well, um, I got confused,” Carvelli said.

“Uh, huh,” Marc replied.

“Because of that and their rescue efforts…”

“We rescued the guys up North from Maddy just in time,” Carvelli said.

“Because of that,” Boies said again, “we had to accelerate everything. That’s why we were able to move so quickly the other day.”

“This is going to be a big case. A huge case. A lot of important people are going to prison,” Paxton said.

“And we know where the island is. That was one of the things we were waiting for. We had heard whispers about it but couldn’t confirm it. Once I took Labelle into custody the other night, he sang like the proverbial canary. A C-130 filled with our guys landed there about an hour ago. We’re going to get it all.”

That evening, finally alone in their hotel room, Maddy slipped into the bedroom. When she came out, she was wearing very little except a very seductive, black lingerie outfit that she had purchased the day before. She climbed on Marc’s lap and gently chewed on Marc’s left ear.

“This is all very nice,” Marc said. “But there’s something I have to ask you about.”

“Hmmm?” Maddy purred.

He pulled away, looked her in the eyes and seriously asked, “What’s with the cigar smoking?”

Maddy gave him a stern look and said, “Really? That’s what you want to know about right now?”

EPILOGUE

It took a couple of months, but with the disappearance of Wade MacAlister, the inside-the-beltway class of Washington slowly began to sleep more peacefully. There were literally dozens of politicians, high-level bureaucrats and lobbyists breathing easier and no longer looking over their shoulder.

When the news broke about a playground island in the Gulf of Mexico, a lot of people made themselves scarce. Flights to nonextradition countries became quite popular. To be fair, most of them had never done any “hunting” on the island. They were as appalled as everyone else. Of course, in the court of public opinion, if your name was even peripherally mentioned with this grotesque development, you would be finished.

It also seemed clear that MacAlister left no evidence behind. A few people, eventually the entire city, knew MacAlister was dead. Gone to try to con, hustle and lobby his way into heaven. Knowing that, the city went back to its normal business of living well by soaking the taxpayers.

The RICO case against the principals would drag on for over two years. The time it took to gather all the evidence and go through it took almost that long even with so many cooperative defendants.

Initially, James Labelle and Troy McGovern were the two main singing canaries. Between the two of them, they knew just about all of it. Fortunately, their cooperation did not keep them completely out of prison. Troy McGovern got eight years; James Labelle, six. Both would serve every minute in a medium security prison. Medium security does not mean country club. These are very real prisons few people would want to live in for any length of time.

The twenty-odd partners of Stafford, Hughes law firm were tripping over each other trying to make deals. The only one the Feds could prove for sure visited Zane’s island was Brandon Stafford. He tried to claim he knew nothing about the sex slave trafficking or hunting. On the island itself, the Feds had confiscated computer data that proved otherwise. They hung a death penalty over Brandon’s head, and he wept like a child. Once he recovered from his nervous breakdown, he took the life without parole deal. The arrogance, entitlement and hubris were all gone.

The other lawyers all accepted deals. None of them wanted to be dragged through a trial. Their sentences ranged from five to fifteen years, depending on their cooperation and involvement. A carved in stone stipulation for every one of them was full disclosure of where the money was. Surrendering their ill-gotten gains was at the top of the list with the only exception being those investments they could prove were done before the conspiracy. That they were allowed to keep minus substantial fines to be paid.

Two weeks after the raids in Minneapolis, Wisconsin and Chicago, Cliff Spenser turned up. He was spotted by an alert U.S. Marshall trying to board a flight out of Miami. Around his padded waist was a money belt with a half a million dollars in cash. It was a little traveling money until he could get out of the country. Cliff also ended up surrendering access to his overseas funds. On top of that, he received a fifteen-year sentence because he tried to run.

The extremely bad news for all the partners going to prison was the cost of divorce. Every one of them was married. As soon as the pleas were taken, divorce proceedings were filed. Several of them were served while still in court taking their plea.

Cosa Nostra boss Don Sam Costa came out of it all without a scratch. Labelle knew Sam’s reach extended into every prison in America. Labelle did not even need to be warned. In fact, he insisted Sam was a small investor in Labelle Commodities and knew nothing of any criminal activities. Sam even eventually got all of his principal investment returned to him. Minus any gains.

Melanie Stewart came out of it best of all. It was a somewhat controversial appointment, but an opening on the Hennepin County bench became available. The governor, who was not running again anyway, appointed her. Within three years she would be voted chief judge by her peers. She even managed to find time for a social life and became happily married to a cardiologist. Marc, Maddy et. al. were all invited.

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