Karel and I were standing in the shadows, on the gravel of the Johnsons' one car parking
area off to the side of their driveway. It was quite the party the Johnsons were holding tonight,
though they didn't live as well as the Linders lived. I would have loved to have the chance to see
the Linders host a party. The Linders house was easily 1,000 square feet larger than this house, so
it was the largest suburban house I had ever visited and easily the largest we had ever killed
people in. Our previous killing, nine months ago, took place in a 30 story office building in
Miami. That was a challenge. We caught the bastard in the elevator shaft between the 23rd and
24th floors.
That bastard was Bruce Lick and it brought an end to a crazy assignment the Viola family
asked me to do. In 2001, Julio Viola asked us to babysit Bruce and Jim Lick of Miami Beach who
owned a south Florida real estate company that had bought a piece of beachfront land along
Miami Beach in 2000.
We always took orders from Julio Viola directly, which we found to be weird given that
Julio was way too high up in the organization to be dealing with two security monkeys like us.
Plus, the guy had a funny nasal whistle that made it very hard not to laugh when talking with him
- laughing at this guy could easily get a guy shot in the head.
As was told to us by Julio, the brothers planned to build a luxury condo building but
needed a bank to help with the money. This was how the Viola family bank got involved, but how
the Lick brothers got to know of the Viola family, Karel and I never heard. Drugs had to be part
of the deal because the Licks partied on their yacht several times a week, bringing in flame
throwing dancers, stilt walkers, and women for all of the men.
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Once we started following the Licks around Miami Beach, it was clear to us that they had
no clue who they were in bed with. When we got there, the condo was about halfway done. The
model unit we saw was amazing because all you saw was ocean when you walked in. Wall to
wall glass, black marble floors and a balcony that wrapped around each corner of the building.
All for a nifty price of $3.8 million for each unit.
We had spent enough time in the Viola compound to know quality when we saw it, and
this condo was quality. Of course, no drug lord in his right mind would base his compound right
on the ocean.
About a month into our assignment, we heard that the Lick Brothers had found a different
bank to pay for the condo. We quickly got notice from the Viola family to take them out. Bruce
and Jim must have gotten advance warning that we were coming after them because they were
already trying to escape when we attacked. Though we did end up finding Bruce and shooting
him in the head a few times, his brother Jim got away.
It was colder out here than I had planned due to the wind. Johnson son, Tom, had been
coming out for more ice and wine. He seemed like a happy kid – it was gonna be too bad.
Dr. Johnson stepped out of the house and examined the ice and wine supply.
“Stay here,” I whispered to Karel.
I walked up within fifteen feet of Dr. Johnson.
“Hello, Dr. Johnson,” I said.
He stood up, turned to face me, then walked quickly up to me with his finger waving
madly.
“What are you doing? You stopped by here last night and talked to my wife.”
“Now, calm down, Dr. Johnson.” I told myself to stay level headed.
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I reached inside my jacket to turn the tape recorder on - after the Linder incident, the
decision was made that we should tape all conversations with our targets – thinking that the
recorder should have been turned on already. I had been trying to think about our talks with Dr.
Linder to see if he said anything that would have tipped us off to his scheme. A tape of those
conversations would surely have made life easier.
Dr. Johnson had put his finger down and seemed a little more settled.
“I didn't stop by here last night,” I stated. “And if you do as we have told you, I will
never talk with your wife.”
Dr. Johnson took a step back.
“Well, somebody with a European accent came here last night asking for me,” he told
me. “But I promise that I will turn everything I know about the Zyptorin trial over to you guys.”
I took a step closer. “Is that all they said?”
“No, he told my wife that it concerned the Zyptorin trial, and I just assumed it was you.”
I turned around and yelled for Karel, who came running up.
“Did Mihail set us up?” I shouted at him. “I think he has another team coming after this
guy.”
“What are you talking about? Mihail doesn't have another team.” Karel threw his arms in
the air.
“Somebody else is harassing Dr. Johnson over the Zyptorin trial.”
“Wait a minute…who was that Johnny guy Mihail kept talking about?” Karel asked me.
I turned back to the doctor. “Dr. Johnson, we know who these guys are and we will take
care of it.” We didn't really but I felt the need to keep him focused on us.
Dr. Johnson rubbed his eye like he had something in it. “Are these guys in competition
with you?” he asked.
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“When they talk to you, just tell them you will do as they say.” I produced a weak laugh.
I turned back to Karel. “Alright, let's get Mihail on the phone – tell him we want to meet
this Johnny character.”
“He's not going to do that for us,” Karel snapped back.
“What does that mean?” I asked. “You don't think Mihail listens to me?”
Dr. Johnson started talking. “Excuse me! Hey, I need to get back to the party.”
This guy was really pissed about all of this, but I thought at first, when he spun around to
us, that he was gonna talk about his dog. We should have been watching his house last night.
Then we would have seen who talked with his wife, Susan.
“Go back inside, Dr. Johnson,” I said. “We'll be in touch soon.”
He grabbed an ice bag and a wine bottle and headed back inside.
“Go start the car – I'm going to give Mihail a ring.”
Karel ran off to start the car. I took my glove off to found my cell phone inside my jacket.
Mihail was our cleaner. He was not a cleaner in the traditional crime scene sense – he
didn't specialize in the removal of murdered bodies and the general mess left at a crime scene –
he cleaned our mess, before the cops arrived. Specifically, he was excellent at removing any
traces of us at a crime scene like hair, blood and clothing fibers mainly, some fingerprint removal
if we were careless. At the Linder's house, Karel got bloodied by the bullet and there was plenty
of him lying on the kitchen floor as well as on the body of the security guy the Linders had hired.
Mihail was at the house when the Linder son arrived drunk out of his mind around 3am
that morning. He was able to get out through the front door before the son was able to open the
back door leading into the kitchen. He was sure the son would notice the three bodies in the
kitchen so he high tailed it out of there and didn't look back because the place was about to be
swarming with cops.
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He didn't get the chance to complete the job, most notably the cleaning of Mrs. Linder's
fingernails – they looked pretty bloody. If I was ever captured by the police and connected to the
Linder's, they'd have plenty of evidence against me from the fingernails alone.
Mihail blamed us for a messy job and general lack of preparedness because he expected
us to know about the security guy. I saw his point there, but I didn't think we should have been
able to warn him about the young Linder's surprise arrival at 3 am. That kid appeared out of
nowhere, not living at the house the past month. Plus, we thought it was Fred's job to find out
about the Linder kid.
We knew Mihail from the Lick Brother job in Miami Beach. That was how Fred ended
up hiring him. Mihail must have thought he was allowed to complain about us all he damn well
wanted, still, I was surprised that Fred never told us of Mihail's complaints. Or, more important,
warned us to improve our act. When our fee cleared through the bank, I knew he was still cool
with us. Our call to him shortly thereafter about another target, Dr. Nick Johnson, certainly didn't hurt our standing.
I dialed Mihail and was told by the wireless carrier that the number had been
disconnected, which was not too surprising given that we were handed new cell phones every two
weeks. I just thought I had his latest number. I looked up Fred's number – I knew he didn't keep
changing his cell phone number.
“Hey, Fred, we need to talk,” I told my boss. “We just spoke with Nick Johnson and he
told us about somebody trying to threaten him the way we've been doing.”
I heard a loud sigh. “Oleg, why are you bothering me with this?” Fred finally asks. “You
are perfectly able to handle a possible competitor. Find out who it is and eliminate them.”
The way Fred sounded completely annoyed by this conversation made me reasonably
sure that Mihail had gone behind Fred's back as well.
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“And let me remind you, Oleg, that our network has deep pockets,” Fred continued. “Any
competing network would have to find a similar cash source to fund the effort.”
“I think Mihail is behind all of this,” I asserted.
“The cleaner? That guy can barely tie his own shoes!”
“Okay, Fred, we'll talk later.” I couldn't ask Fred for Mihail's number after what he just
said. I would come off too weak.
We were back to square one and it felt like crap. I glanced over to Karel who was sitting
in the car. He looked pissed, but he'd better not be pissed at me. What I really wanted to do at that moment was to barge into that fancy holiday party at the Johnson house and have a little talk with
Susan. Scare a few folks…get a description of the guy she spoke with. One problem with that: I
was pretty sure Nick had not told his wife about me and we learned our lesson with the Linders -
don't get the wife involved, they only confuse the situation.
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Sunday, December 15th
Miami Beach, Florida
Jim Lick's cell phone buzzed just after teeing off on the 8th hole at the Miami Beach
Dunes Club.
“Jim, it's Mihail, I used to work with your brother,” Mihail blurted.
A long agonizing pause followed as Jim worked his brain and Mihail grew even more
uncertain that his plan could get off the ground.
“Uh, vaguely, Mihail…where are you calling from?”
“What if I told you that Oleg and Karel are in New Jersey working a scam?”
“I'd say keep talking,” Jim said, putting his 3 wood back in his bag.
Jim Lick took a deep breath, and could almost feel his connection with this Mihail guy
blossom right then over the bad wireless connection.
“Well, I hear you're now in Boca, building Condos,” Mihail asserted.
Jim coughed. “That's right, an outfit from Moscow is financing me this time around, and
the Violas won't come after me with the Russian Mob protecting me. Now you say that those
assholes are in New Jersey?”
Jim and Bruce Lick were sitting in their conference room of their corporate headquarters
in June, 2000, when they received a phone call from a woman telling them to get out of the
building immediately. The Violas had ordered a hit and the attackers were on their way.
Jim and Bruce agreed to split up, with Bruce heading to the west wing of the building and
Jim racing over to the east wing. As fate would have it, Karel and Oleg entered through the west
wing of the building. Jim thought he heard faint gun shots behind him as he ran out of the
servicing entrance. He hung out in Costa Rica until he was able to make contact with his Russian
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sponsors, who required Jim to give up 90% of the equity in the luxury condos they planned to
build in Boca Raton, Florida.
“They are threatening doctors to give them inside information on drug trials that these
doctors are working on,” Mihail declared. “Then they work the stocks of the pharmaceutical
companies running these trials to profit from the inside information.”
Jim laughed. “Clever insider trading scam!” Jim shouted. “Can I get in on it?”
Mihail knew he needed a money man with muscle if he was going to take out Oleg and
the Viola operations and proceed with the scam. He wasn't seriously thinking about doing this
until he learned that Oleg was pissed at him and he realized that he had better get on the
offensive. A pissed off Oleg usually ended up with somebody dying, but going on the offensive
without a financial backer was just suicide.
Mihail had heard Oleg was convinced he was trying to compete with Fred's network, yet
he had also heard that Oleg was pissed at him for complaining to Fred over the Linder mess. So,
in Mihail's mind, this competition story was most likely being made up to get Fred's okay with
the whacking of good „ole Mihail.
“Can you back me financially and with some men to take over this scam and to take care
of Oleg and Karel?” Mihail asked.
“I can put up $10 million to fund the stock manipulation side of things but I could also
send a couple of guys, sure,” Jim said excitedly. “Are they currently targeting any doctors?”
“Yeah, there pretty far along with one doctor, so we'll need to move pretty quickly.”
“Right, well, let me make a few phone calls, but I'm pretty certain I can send two guys to
New Jersey in a week or two.”
“Sounds good, let's talk tomorrow,” Mihail said.
“Okay, my man!”
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Jim Lick put the phone back in his pocket and rejoined Boris Yakovlev and his cousins
on the 8th fairway.
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Saturday, December 21st