For the FBI agents tasked with scouting the various points of entry into Moon Lake for signs of the Gambonis, much of the night and early morning had fallen into a pretty standard pattern of action. Some could call it tedious, agents had shifts to go to their stations and leave them when the shift ended, but that was fairly typical of things that they would normally do. And as the morning began, some of that began to change, at least with regard to those monitoring the Gamboni's in Moon Lake. That was something that Agent Baoman was soon discussing with Moon Lake's police chief and with his main aide.
"So they did make it into Moon Lake last night..." Chief O'Hara surmised from what was reported.
"Late at night," Agent Baoman nodded, "after midnight at the earliest... if not after one AM."
"But they didn't trigger the sting," his aide reported, "they apparently drove past the house and returned to the hotel. And according to those there, their activity this morning has been limited to going to a small convenience store across the street and that's been about it."
"That's all?" Chief O'Hara asked slowly.
Agent Baoman slowly nodded, "That's about it. And it's for that reason why I'll be pulling the agents on monitoring duty at the town's edges toward the park and the motel. We know where they are and we know where they will go. As with the state wide arrest alert for them... the smart thing would be to stay out of sight and keep as low a profile as possible. Which means that when they make their move... we know they'll go to the Charleston house. Anything else, and your standard officers could probably handle them on a chance run in."
"Assuming that Marcus doesn't go off the wall, like you've said his psychology is bordering on," Chief O'Hara pointed out with narrowed eyes, as he didn't want his officers shot dead by a lunatic mobster with control issues.
Agent Baoman let out a heavy sigh as he felt the air escape his lungs. He knew that Marcus Gamboni was trouble had been fixated on Karen Charleston that went beyond the point of sanity and that had been a big part of the problems that Agent Baoman had wrestled with in the lengthy pursuit of the Gambonis as they chased the Charlestons. Outside of major cities, most police units were small and lacked specialized branches. In some cases it meant either having detectives from bigger cities and departments step in or that normal patrol officers would get some additional training that would go beyond what the standard patrol officer would get. This then made dealing with groups like the Gambonis all the more difficult. The fact that the operation was to try and avoid collateral damage to Moon Lake made that issue even tougher.
"His behavior may well be a risk," Agent Baoman admitted, "but I'd think for the moment, Vito might actually be restraining him. This could mean it could take time before they actually trigger the sting..."
"And if he doesn't?" Chief O'Hara asks.
"If he doesn't... Marcus likely offs his own brother and proceeds to trigger the sting," Agent Baoman said slowly, "his fixation on Karen Charleston is unnatural... but he hasn't been so wild that he would just gun someone down without provocation. That's what we think happened at Mount St. Helens. He thought the ranger had identified him and panicked. It's why I've urged giving him space until he triggers the sting, where we will control the situation."
"It might also do well to pull some of the officers at the edges of town back into it," his aide mused, "as we KNOW where they are now and we know where they will go when they make their move. And the park they have in the center of town here has enough bushes and trees that it wouldn't be too hard to have an agent on foot to monitor the moves that the Gambonis make while they're here."
"What about getting him at the hotel?" Chief O'Hara asked, "bring in enough agents and you could nab him..."
"That would have to wait until night at the earliest," Agent Baoman spoke, "at least in the hopes of avoiding a pitched gun battle. As we've been chasing these thugs for awhile. The last thing we want is to put a hole in their heads and have to pay for the damages and possible loss of agents."
Some of that struck Agent Baoman as trying to rush things with regard to capturing the Gambonis, which was also understandable. With issues as big and as potentially troubling as the Gambonis, having them finish was always a big desire. But it also wasn't something that always worked easily, particularly with organized crime where they also had bigger fish to fry as it were. And gaining the evidence would take time, and rushing to catch Marcus and Vito might mean an earlier arrest, but it would also mean the potential death of the two mobsters, weakening any case against Albert, already in custody, and the Gamboni family's patriarch who was only under observation in Seattle for the moment. It would also risk getting good agents killed, which Agent Baoman deeply wished to avoid, and he wouldn't let anyone rush him into a bad plan, regardless of their reasons.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
While there was some debate over the plan, and the changes to it the lower ranking agents went about their standard work. In the Wendy's on the western end of Moon Lake's main street one field agent sat along one window and sipping from disposable cup of coffee. It wasn't bad, but it was pretty typical fast food coffee, but thankfully it had helped keep him up through the night. The night hadn't been too active. The restaurant's night staff had been calm and courteous, which was good. A few were a bit more well built than he would have suspected, with males seeming to hold a lot more muscle tone and women being a bit more curvy than would be expected, especially with how uniform this was. There were one or two members of the staff that seemed a bit normal, but much of the staff seemed to be quite well built.
He'd wanted to ask over the course of the night, as he hadn't seen much that would be indicative of the Gambonis coming in from the west. But he didn't want to distract himself from his work or them from their work. It might be something weird, but then if one looked hard enough, one could find something weird in just about anything. In this it wasn't worth wasted time and effort messing with the issue. Even if the agent couldn't help but notice, it wouldn't do well to get too nosy into the issue. He'd been assured that the local staff at the Wendy's was aware of the FBI's assignment, but while the restaurant's business slowed over the course of the night, it didn't stop completely and as such, he didn't want to risk anything that might potentially blow his cover in case the Gambonis sent scouts on ahead of them.
"Hey, Joe," came a voice from behind him, "see anything?"
The agent, Joe, turned to the other agent that was taking over from him for the next shift. The newly arrived agent was also drinking coffee but had a small box of what Wendy's served for breakfast. Joe thought he could smell some egg and sausage in what the newly arrived agent was carrying. Joe guessed that the newly arrived agent had that to guess at.
"Nothing of note," Joe answered and then looked around the area making sure no one was close enough to hear and then continued quite softly, just case anyone might have been a scout, "If Gamboni came in last night, I don't think he came in from the west."
"I got some alerts from the guys that on the night shift at the motel... they did come in last night," the other agent answered, "they're on the first floor, letting the day shift agent keep a close watch on them."
"That'll be good," John commented.
"Yes," the other agent nodded, "it may make things easier for the scout teams. It may mean a smaller area to monitor to follow and more agents to observe that area. It may make the shift schedules easier and change where we're assigned to..."
"Since we now know where the Gambonis are," John surmised with a small yawn.
"Precisely," the other agent nodded, "though how all that will work out will be up to Agent Baoman. A lot of that may change depending on when and how the assignments are changed now that we know they're here and where they are."
"Will that change the sting?" John wondered.
"I don't think so," the other agent spoke, "from what it seems like, most of the reassignment for the scouting teams will either go into monitoring spots in the town's central park where we can monitor along what will be the most efficient path for Marcus and Vito from the motel on the south end of town to the Charleston home across from the town's high school. Of course, that could all depend on how long Marcus and Vito wait. If it gets to night again... maybe we get sent in... but I don't think the sting will change."
"I see..." John said slowly.
"See anything else?" the other agent inquired.
"Nothing worth causing trouble over," John spoke as he stood up, "there may be some things that could be odd... but then to someone in... say South Dakota, people in New York are weird. So... it's not worth getting to curious over."
"You mean to say you've seen how... healthy... people seem to be here, and you don't care," the other agent spoke with some disbelief.
"I might be curious... but it's not my place to get involved," John answered, "especially when we have a Gamboni to catch."