Chief O'Hara stood calmly as the Charlestons left and glanced slightly to Agent Baoman and privately calculating the possible responses that the FBI agent would have. So far as Moon Lake's Chief of Police knew, Agent Baoman had been coordinating the efforts in trying to catch and get things that would bring down the Gamboni crime family for years, but particularly after the younger brother, Marcus began taken an interest in Karen Charleston. This had to have meant that the agent had at least had some periodic contact with the Charlestons over the period in which they'd been running from the Gambonis, and it would be possible that Agent Baoman had to have noticed some of Karen's recent changes.
O'Hara couldn't be certain on when it had happened, though likely while they were out at Officer Strange's cabin, but Karen Charleston had become a were, a weretiger. In a personal sense, Chief O'Hara had no problem with that and it would fit in line with Moon Lake's Mandatory Were Law, though there was the bigger issue that related to dealing with the Gambonis. If it had taken longer to catch and convict the collection of mobsters the changes in Karen that would also affect her human form could be written off as a growth spurt quite easily. But things had ultimately progressed quite quickly and that was enough to put O'Hara on edge for a moment, at least to make sure that a Federal agent wasn't getting too curious about things related to Moon Lake. For the moment though, Baoman looked rather distant, and the man didn't speak for a few moments after the door shut.
"Well... I'd think from here we can set about moving them and put a lot of this to rest," Agent Baoman said calmly, "or at least with regard to the Gambonis presently in your cells."
"You'd want to move them?" Chief O'Hara asked after a moment, hoping that the statement that Baoman had just given was an indication of not recognizing any changes in Karen Charleston.
"We'll have to," Agent Baoman answered, "a lot of what went on here was just the tail end of a much larger case that goes across several states. I don't need to tell you the list of crimes that the Gamboni crime family is at least suspected of committing."
Chief O'Hara nodded as he looked to the normal human FBI Agent. Baoman breathed deeply before continuing.
"And here in Moon Lake... about the worst that could be charged locally would be criminal trespass and assault on an officer with a deadly weapon... and there will be bigger jurisdictional issues that the State of Washington will want in relation to what has been done at Mount St. Helens... not to mention the fact that this group has been hacking people's bank accounts, according to what we've picked up on from Albert's laptop," Agent Baoman continued, "In this, for the moment it would be best to take them into our facility in Seattle while settling out which courts will get first jurisdictional rights to the trial on the three of them... such as here in Washington or taking them all the way back to New York/New Jersey. Right now, my best guess is that they will be kept in Washington as we have more hard evidence here."
Chief O'Hara nodded and understood that. There were lots of jurisdictional issues that would play into cases like this, and in theory Moon Lake could lay a claim of its own, given that Marcus and Vito came into the city, were monitored and made a clear threat against the Charleston family, fired on his officers in the course of a sting operation, and were arrested within Moon Lake's city limits. Chief O'Hara likely suspected that Agent Baoman would be expecting him to make that claim, and if Moon Lake didn't have the were secret to protect, Chief O'Hara might at least make the formal request for it. But with Halloween coming up and a good portion of the town on edge between the Harper-Jenkins wedding and what's gone on with the Gambonis coming into town, Chief O'Hara didn't really want to make that push.
"You're certain your men can handle these two?" Chief O'Hara asked.
"Pretty sure," Agent Baoman answered, "we've successfully been moving a lot of the extra evidence out... and we should have enough agents to keep two men under control... though I will still thank you for ALL the help your department has given us. The Gambonis have frustrated a lot of police departments as they've chased after the Charlestons and kept me far busier than I would prefer... but now... there is light at the end of the tunnel. We clean up our business here and handle some of the jurisdictional issues at Fort Wolfe and the Gambonis can move on to a long time behind bars."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The cells were relatively quiet, but mostly because Marcus Gamboni eventually ran out of breath trying to protest being caught in the night and laid down on the bench in his cell. They were more than large enough to house more than one person and there were multiple cells in the jail area in the Moon Lake Police Department's main area, but there were certain elements to them that looked as though the cell design was based around ideas that went out of date in the 1950s. The walls were a heavy brick or cinder block with heavy metal bars that formed the front wall of the cell. There were some pipes that came in through the wall, which Marcus guessed meant at one time they had a toilet in the cell for prisoners to use, but discontinued that later. That was ultimately confirmed when he had to make a morning bathroom visit and an officer escorted him to a small bathroom that was nearby and then escorted him back to the cell when he'd done his business.
However as sunlight came in through the windows on the south side of the cell area, Marcus increasingly began to get the sense that they wouldn't get of this one. He hadn't heard anything from Albert and his and Vito's father hadn't called him. He'd made his lone call for a lawyer, but that had also come with a bit of an "icy" reception that bordered on frustration. And while Marcus had a fair number of negative traits, he wasn't that stupid and knew full well that things would be tough going for them. He looked over to the wall that separated him from the cell that Vito was in and gave a sigh.
"What do we do, Vito?" Marcus asked weakly with a sigh, "I don't think we're going to get out of here..."
"Probably not," Vito answered, "Not without some major legal work..."
From his cell, Vito could hear his brother sigh and sound rather defeated in the process. A part of him was pleased at this, as he personally felt that Marcus's brash and uncontrollable rush to chase a high school crush was a big part of why the pair of them were now in a set of older designed police cells. A part of him also blamed his father, the Don of the Gamboni crime family, as Vito was fairly sure his father had had something of a soft spot for Marcus. However, his father had also known when to control his emotions and had often won at dodging legal attention, at least at any serious level, and had tried to caution Marcus at various stages of the present chase after the Charlestons. That was enough to show Marcus rush to action without thinking was the real problem, as seen before they even got to Moon Lake.
However, Vito wasn't fully that concerned about that or the effects of the chase. His phone call had gone through to the Don and he was privately sure that his involvement would be brought down to more of an accessory to what went on in Moon Lake specifically, which would be less that what Marcus would get if they included the murder of the park ranger at Mount St. Helens among the present charges. Vito didn't mention that to Marcus, though. Vito was thinking more on something else... something he'd stewed over for awhile, including through the night and the breakfast that the local police brought in. A lot of it related to the odd look of Moon Lake's residents and it was something that Vito couldn't easily explain.
Sure, he'd seen his fair share of voluptuous women, but most of them were in Playboy magazines and all of them lacked any sort of athletic ability. Moon Lake's women matched them while at the same time having good enough muscle tone to indicate a level of activity that would only be possible if Moon Lake was a city of health nuts and had a formal gym. But according to the local phone book, Moon Lake didn't have a gym of that sort, thus it made little sense for Moon Lake's women to be both as curvy and athletic as they were. Moon Lake's men seemed to take this even further. It left him with more questions than answers, though whether or not he got answers would be determined at the trial. If the pair of them ended up in prison for a long time, finding anything out would likely take awhile and by that time, it could be possible that Vito might lose the energy needed to figure things out.
His thoughts on that only paused as a door that went into the rest of the station opened. From it came two FBI agents in suits along with one Moon Lake police officer in a standard policeman's uniform. Vito watched as the officer came up to the door to the cell that Marcus was in.
"Step back," the Moon Lake officer ordered and got Marcus to step back.
This allowed him to then turn the latches that would unlock the cell door and he went in with both FBI Agents. Marcus didn't fight and was soon restrained with his arms behind his back and with another loose chain affixed to his ankles. It was loose enough to let him walk, but if he somehow got away from the officer or agents it would be unlikely that he would be able to run away. Thus he heard the metal clasps click shut and hold his hands behind his back and hang from his ankles and was soon being moved out. He was escorted by the Moon Lake officer and both FBI agents and was lead out through the garage and then to driveway outside the garage. There he found Agent Baoman standing quietly with a few other FBI agents by a black SUV with the FBI insignia on the license plate.
"You'll never get away with this!" Marcus gave one defiant growl as he was moved into the back seat of the SUV and finding that like the police cruisers it had no interior door handles and there was a heavy plastic shield between the second set of seats and the front seat.
"Crime never pays," Agent Baoman answered as he heard his agents buckle Marcus in, "and now you and your brother will go to face trial for yours."
The agents then shut the door and moved to follow the Moon Lake officer back into the station to get Vito. They arrived a few minutes later with Vito looking back at Agent Baoman and then at some of the others. Vito was silent as he was moved into the other side of the SUV and then was placed in beside his brother.
"We're ready to go, sir," one of the agents said to Agent Baoman who nodded.
"Get them on to our facility in Seattle," Agent Baoman spoke to him, "I'll be following you shortly." The two agents nodded while getting in the driver's seat of the SUV. Agent Baoman then turned to the Moon Lake officer who was there and looking to the agent. "Tell your chief thank you for all the help he's given. I... or the prosecuting attorneys... will give him a call when the trial is ready to go for all witnesses that will be needed... both with officers that helped with the sting and with the Charlestons."