Chapter 7 - The Mother with the Dish Towel
Four black cruisers from the Chicago Police Department’s Financial Crimes Task Force and two tactical vans from the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division screeched to a halt along the curb.
Senior Special Agent David Miller and Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Hayes stepped through the restaurant’s front doors, holding stamped federal seizure warrants.
“Harrison Sterling?” Agent Miller announced, unholstering a pair of steel handcuffs.
Sterling scrambled to his feet, trying to point at Vincent Kane. “Agent! Arrest this man! Vincent Kane is extorting me! He threatened my life in front of ninety witnesses!”
Agent Miller didn't even look at Kane. He walked straight up to Sterling, twisted his arms behind his back, and slammed the cold iron cuffs around his wrists with a resounding click.
“Harrison Sterling,” Agent Miller declared loudly. “You are under arrest for Aggravated Federal Wire Fraud, Interstate Money Laundering, Tax Evasion under Title 26 of the United States Code, and Systematic Labor Exploitation.”
Prosecutor Karen Hayes stepped forward, displaying an unsealed eighty-page federal indictment.
“Your digital servers were intercepted forty minutes ago under an emergency discovery petition,” Prosecutor Hayes informed him coldly. “You are facing up to twenty-five years in a federal penitentiary without the possibility of early parole.”
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Sterling let out a high, pathetic wail as two federal agents hauled him through the dining room.
The ninety patrons stood up from their tables, breaking into a thunderous, spontaneous round of applause as the disgraced restaurant owner was dragged out into the flashing red-and-blue lights of the street.
