Tara Strange ultimately thanked Melissa Stovall for her help in debugging Moe's phone and essentially removing the virus that the Gambonis had put on his phone. It had been far more time consuming than she'd originally thought and a bit more puzzling than she'd expected. Melissa Stovall's help was critical in that regard and did the Moon Lake Police Department a big favor in that, though mostly from the sense that Moe Charleston still needed the phone in order to work with his business contacts. Otherwise, the best idea would have simply been to toss the phone because the company's signal strength seemed to be rather weak in places like Moon Lake. But the job was done and Moe would be relatively safe for the time being.
In that, Tara made her way through the department's hallways until she came the door to the Police Chief's office. She calmly collected her breath and then knocked on the door, being fully prepared to make her report to Chief O'Hara that Moe's phone had been debugged and the tracer that had been put in it had been removed. It wasn't too long before she got an answer. She entered Chief O'Hara's office to find him seated at his desk sipping coffee as he looked to something on his computer as he did so. Tara remained still until the police chief looked up to her and acknowledged her presence.
"Yes, Officer Strange," Chief O'Hara said slowly as he looked up.
"Moe Charleston's phone is now clean, sir," Tara reported, "I had to call in Melissa Stovall... but the phone is clean. The virus that the Gambonis were using to set a trace on the phone's signal is gone."
O'Hara slowly nodded and seemed to give a sigh of relief. He'd heard about the report that Albert Gamboni being caught at Fort Wolfe elsewhere in the state and the search that the FBI and MPs had conducted with that arrest had discovered the trace. There'd been the benefit that Moon Lake was in a sort of dead zone for many cell phone signals, which gave him some way of avoiding a direct confrontation and battle with the Gambonis, and this was something that O'Hara hoped that Moon Lake could avoid for awhile. It wasn't that he was scared of the Gamboni crime family, as he and his officers were more than capable of dealing with some organized crime family, but for the moment, Moon Lake had a lot of other things going on. Halloween wasn't too far away and there was plenty of grumbling over issues with the coming Jenkins/Harper wedding. In this, the weredog Police Chief had some concern about stretching the limits of his police department.
"Well... that'll hopefully make sure that they can't track him down at all," O'Hara answered, "especially if Albert gets out on some technicality."
"I saw the press release from what happened at Fort Wolfe, sir," Tara commented, "I'd think the army and the FBI are pretty certain that they have the evidence to hold him."
"They have enough to try him, I'm sure," O'Hara answered, "the real question is whether or not they can fully prove him guilty enough to hold him for long. Though, thankfully it would seem that this would be something that would likely fall to the FBI as they seem to have been battling with the Gambonis longer than anyone in Washington State has."
O'Hara then returned his attention to his computer screen for a moment. He'd been going over his email, with much of it relating to potential interview requests, security requests for certain functions, evidence requests regarding various cases that other law enforcement agencies were focused on and so on when Tara knocked on his door. A lot of it was pretty normal and something that he really didn't have too much to worry about, however, as he went through them a new email popped up freshly with a state wide APB from the Seattle Field Office of the FBI and carried a marked code that had meant he could trust the email. Forgetting that Tara was even there, he clicked on the email and looked into it.
The news that came up with it wasn't that good. Some of it repeated information that he already knew and was prepared to defend against, but there was some new information that would complicate things. That made him frown heavily as he looked to the screen, which Tara noticed and responded to.
"Is something wrong, sir?" Tara asked.
"It would appear that the Gambonis have upped their actions," O'Hara answered, "And have been active all over the state. There has been a sighting near Mount St. Helens..."
"Reasonably far away from Moon Lake," Tara commented.
"It gets worse, though," O'Hara answered with a heavy sigh, "apparently the Gamboni that was spotted at St. Helens killed a Park Ranger there and stole one of their vehicles. By the time the vehicle was recovered... it'd been abandoned."
"I assume they are sending a call out to the entire state?" Tara asked.
Chief O'Hara nodded. It wasn't something that was completely unheard of that something like this could happen. And given the news reports on crimes that had been committed that had supposed mob connections to the Gambonis, which he had checked after Officer Brooks had essentially petitioned to bring the Charleston family too Moon Lake and offer them protection, O'Hara could actually expect the action. There were threats, bribes, assaults, and an occasional murder, though based around what Officer Brooks had commented with regard to the Charleston family's flight from the Gamboni crime family, that these actions happened after the Gambonis had caught up to the Charlestons and tried to essentially bully them into submission. In this, about the only good news for Moon Lake at the moment was that the arrest of Albert and this reported murder had occurred well away from Moon Lake. In this, it was likely that the Gambonis didn't know where the Charlestons were and were essentially hunting blind.
"Shall I report this to the Dispatch Officer, sir?" Tara asked, "let them know... that the Gambonis as a family are wanted?"
"And that they're active in the state at this present time," O'Hara nodded, "we're already on alert to be aware that the Gambonis could come here... but we weren't aware of them being in the state. Now the update is that they are IN the state and could also potentially come into Moon Lake, by dumb luck if by nothing else."
"Will they be a threat to the people in Moon Lake?" Tara asked, "as they likely will have guns..."
"Maybe at first... BUT I'd think they'd be suicidal to do so," O'Hara answered, "Organized crime generally tries hide from anything that would be obvious. When they do get obvious, it's because they think they either control the situation or that no one is even looking. In this, paying attention will probably be the best that we can do to make sure that the Gambonis don't accomplish anything... and with this the FBI putting out a state wide warrant for their arrest, we can arrest whoever comes in as soon as they're spotted."
"Meaning we'd have to move first," Tara warned, "and that they won't be cautious after having one arrested on an army base and another killing a Park Ranger."
"I'd think we can if we're paying attention," Chief O'Hara answered firmly, "now... let the Dispatch Officer know on the update so that arrest order can be relayed to all units presently on duty and left as a message for all those off duty as well."
"Yes, sir," Tara answered and quickly left.
Chief O'Hara glanced back to his computer screen and gave a heavy sigh. The fact that the Gambonis had hacked Moe Charleston's phone in the past reflected past run ins and pretty standard action that relied more on corruption than anything else. However, the discovery of the bug at Fort Wolfe, along with the arrest of Albert Gamboni presented greater concerns and risks and confirmed that what Officer Brooks had reported on the Gambonis being obsessed with the Charleston family. The fact that the Gambonis had taken it to the point where they'd killed a Park Ranger well away from Moon Lake as well only made it clear how serious and dangerous that they were. It presented some threat to Moon Lake, but the greatest danger was likely to the Charlestons themselves, and good cop that Chief O'Hara was, he would make sure that regardless how thin that the Moon Lake PD was spread at the moment, they would keep the town and its newest residents safe.