Vindication- Ties That Bind

by Patricia Kasdan

  “The cloud, I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner. I had a long conversation with my father about cloud storage. He told me that he didn’t want his files floating about in cyberspace. He would check out new technology, but until he found it beneficial, he wouldn’t waste his time.”

  “So why would you think he had a cloud account?”

  “Something he had said to me, not long before the crash. It sounded so cryptic at the time, and I guess it was. He had just gotten home from dinner with my mother. She had to drive because he had been drinking. I remember thinking that I had never seen him that drunk before. He slid his arm around my shoulder and whispered in my ear, ‘My little blue fire, always remember, the clouds can produce rain that open floodgates to drown even the strongest of us, and you hold the key. You are the key.’ My mother wrapped her arms around his waist and took him to bed. I really hadn’t thought about it again, until you said what you did and then last night at dinner with my sister and brother, it came up again.”

  “Okay, so what are you thinking?”

  “Please don’t think I’m delusional, just give me a moment to explain.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “What if he meant that he had a cloud account and in it was the information to bring down whoever killed him?”

  “I don’t understand why you need my help.”

  “If I find an account and try to bring it to anyone, who’s going to believe me? Who’s going to think I didn’t make it all up?”

  “Everything in it - that’s if it exists, would be time stamped when it was entered into the cloud account.”

  “This is true; I would just feel better if I had someone I could trust, with me when, yes I said when I find it.”

  Travis let out a long breath. He doubted this account was even there, but if it helped Krista have some kind of closure, he would help.

  “Alright, you got my help, what are you thinking?”

  “I know its short notice, but can you get into Manhattan sometime today?”

  “I’m already here.”

  “You’re here, you’re in Manhattan?”

  “Yes, I actually have a couple of hours I can give you this afternoon. That’s if nothing jumps off in the meantime. What do you say about one thirty?”

  “That would be perfect. Can you meet me at my place?”

  “Oh, yes I can. I really do have a lot of work to do today.”

  “Seriously, I need your help with this, I don’t have a hidden agenda.”

  “But what if I do?”

  Krista’s body tingled at the thought. “Hummm, Then I guess you will be very disappointed.”

  “Sounds like you’ll be also.”

  “Maybe. I just have to keep focused. I honestly believe that I am getting closer. I’m going to call Dyadya and see if he is aware of any accounts my dad might have had.”

  “You think he would have told Jeff?”

  “They weren’t only business partners. They were friends.” Krista laughed, "He used to call him The Tramp because - “

  “What? What did you just say?”

  “My father use to call Jeff, The Tramp because- “

  Again Travis cut her off. “Do not call him. Do you hear me?”

  “What the hell Travis, what’s going on?”

  “Just promise me you won’t call him.”

  “Okay, I won’t. Just tell me what’s going on.”

  “I will, as soon as I know for sure, I’ll fill you in.”

  With that, the line went dead. Krista stood there staring at a blank screen.

  43

  Manhattan 2012

  As Anton sat behind his massive mahogany desk, looking out over Central Park his mind was reeling. The fact that Jeff was in his office down the hall sent him deeper into his sense of dread. He had been going back and forth in his mind arguing with himself on what to do. He knew he had only one option, but that didn’t make it any easier.

  He pulled his desk drawer open and took out the burner cell he had purchased days earlier. He didn’t want the call traced back to him. He could place the call and get everything started; if he changed his mind, no one would know it was him.

  He turned the phone over and over in his hand. Blowing out a long breath that puffed out his cheek, he punched in the number to the DEA’s office not far from his building.

  When the other end was picked up, he said, “I have some information about a drug trafficking and money laundering ring.”

  “Please hold sir.”

  Before anyone could get back on the phone, he snapped the phone shut. “What was I thinking? If I make this call, I’ll be putting my family in danger. If I don’t, they could be in the middle anyway.”

  He rubbed his forehead, closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose trying to stop the freight train running around his head.

  His eyes snapped open. There was only one way to deal with this; he knew what he needed to do. He had a plethora of proof to bring them down. Now he had to figure out a way to stash all the evidence he had collected in files that no one could find. Then if he ever needed them, he could use them. Where can I bury these files where no one will uncover them until I want them found?

  He wiped his brow with his hand as he stood up and paced the floor. In mid-step, he remembered the conversation he had with Krista in reference to The Cloud. She had said he should use it for backup purposes. He sat back down thinking; he could open an account, one that didn’t trace back to him. It would be the only way.

  He was so busy trying to figure out his next move; he never saw the light that was flashing under his desk lamp.

  “I just got an alert. Anton called the DEA.”

  “Son-of-a-bitch, I knew he was going to be trouble. We need to take care of him, and we need to do it fast.”

  “He hung up before they put him through to anyone.”

  “I don’t care, the fact that he made to call, speaks volumes. Set it up, and I’ll get the PI on it to track his movements. He’s going down.”

  44

  The Cloud

  Krista decided she was going to get started without Travis; it could take eons to crack a password once she found the account. She might as well try now.

  She drove back to her apartment. When she walked through the door, she went directly to her computer and booted it up. She thought it was imperative to have an old school paper trail. She pulled out a new composition book from her collection. She liked writing in these type of books because you couldn’t lose sheets of paper in them unless you tore them out.

  She knew her father had a Gmail account because he said he liked using google docs, so that's where she started. She entered the web address for iCloud into her web browser. When it popped up, she tried signing into it using Alevell@gmail.com hitting the “forgot password” seeing if that address was even in the system. The screen flashed: email address not found. She went through a list of email addresses she thought he might have used, to no avail. She wrote every address she used down in her book and the outcome.

  She could feel the muscles in her shoulders tightening, and she had an ache radiating up her neck to the base of her skull. As she rolled her head around in a slow circle hoping to alleviate some of the tension, she remembered what her father said to her.

  ‘My little blue fire, always remember, the clouds can produce rain that open floodgates to drown even the strongest of us, and you hold the key.’

  I hold the key. I hold the key. I was my dad's little blue fire.

  Thinking she was crazy, she decided to give it a try. She typed in username: littlebluefire@gmail.com, and then hit the lost password. Retyping the username, she clicked send; her eyes widen in her face as she read the message: A password reset has been sent to your email, click on the link to reset.

  All she could do was stare at the screen. She was jarred out of her trance when a car horn blared from the street down below. Oh, Dad, I’ll figure this out. Knowing she didn’t have the email acco
unt password for the reset, she would have to try to think of what he may have used for the iCloud password.

  Turning the page in her book, she started to write down every combination she could imagine that might have meant something to her father. She tried her parent’s anniversary, her mother’s birthdate, her sisters, hers and her brothers. Nothing was working. Not wanting to get locked out of the account she stopped to think. He said, ‘I hold the key.'

  She heard her stomach talking to her and realized she hadn’t had anything except the Starbucks coffee all day. Pushing back from her desk, she got up and walked to the kitchen. She opened her refrigerator and looked in. I need to go to the grocery store. She decided on a Greek yogurt, hoping that it didn’t spoil while she was gone. Not being able to sit, she walked to her computer and back to the kitchen, several times. How do I hold the key? A key is like a password; a password unlocks a program. Think, I need to think. What was it he said to me? ’My little blue fire… You are the key.’

  She stopped in mid-step. Could it be that easy? She placed the yogurt container on the counter and sat back down staring at the screen, holding her hands above the keyboard. If I am wrong, the system will lock me out. But, if I’m right … I guess we’ll soon find out.

  She reentered the username, and for the password, she typed: blueFIRE2, adding the two because she was his second child. When she hit the enter key; this time she saw the page was working. Right there in front of her eyes, files started popping one after another. They were all the files her father had saved.

  Her breath caught in her throat and her hands started to tremble. Her father had been the last to see these files. They were all stamped with the same date and time, two days before he died.

  Her hands felt as though they were dipped into ice cold water and left there. Her breath came out in interrupted spurts. With a shaky hand, she clicked on the first file folder.

  What opened on her screen seemed to be an accounting spreadsheet. In the "total column"; sporadically across the page triangles appeared in the right corner of the cells.

  She knew that they denoted a comment about the cell they were above. She hovered the mouse over the first triangle, and a small rectangular appeared. It read, ’Filtered thru Doltz.’ The next tab she went to read, ‘Filtered thru Hendricks.’ The entire sheet read pretty much the same.

  A weight heavier than lead seemed to envelop her. This kind of proof wasn't the proof she was looking to find. It seems as though they were correct, and she was delusional. Her father was into money laundering. Her heart weighed heavy in her chest the sensation filled her entire being. She didn't want to look any further, but the agent in her couldn't help herself.

  She went to the file that was attached to the spreadsheet and clicked it open. There was an account of every transaction, where money was invested with times, dates, and, every step documented. The next row held the explanations of the sales. It explained each Real Estate transaction, breaking them down, listing, the purchase price as well as the client for whom ordered the purchase.

  The next row was the clincher. . .

  It stated the investor's initial investment and the return. The return was always ten percent less than the purchase price.

  She opened the next zip file and found notations of dates and times, dating back ten years before his death. In the column next to the dates, were ports that ran up and down the East coast.

  With trembling fingers, she clicked on the next tab of the file. Names ran down the page, some names she knew she heard before, others she didn’t have a clue about who they were. Under every name were various numbers, as she looked closer she could see they were kilograms. The numbers ranged from one hundred to six hundred and ten kilos. In parenthesis stood a capital H. Each name seemed to be a spider off to other names.

  The reality of what she was reading slammed her with a full body knock down.

  “These files must be what the DA had and wouldn’t let me go through. This account is his cloud account; this is his computer, they weren’t planted. How could I have been so wrong? How could I have not seen this? Did I even know who my father was? Was I that delusional?”

  She pushed her chair away from her desk. She had to stand; she wanted to run. Her head felt as if it was hit by a cinder block, dropped from above. She wrapped her arms around her body to try and stop it from trembling. She went to the kitchen; she needed something hot to drink. Her insides were arctic cold.

  As she looked back at her laptop, she knew she had to see what else was in the file. Deciding on a cup of peppermint tea, to try and relax her stomach, she went back to the files.

  When she opened the next file, her body jolted so hard she spilled her tea, burning herself. She jumped up and rubbed her thigh, trying to shake the pants away from her leg. Grabbing her laptop off the table, she went to the kitchen to get paper towels to clean up the mess. She threw the paper towel over the tea and set her laptop down on the counter.

  As she stood there, she couldn’t believe what she was looking at, with her own eyes. There were, one, two, three, four … ten different offshore accounts, with all of the routing information. Every one of them seemed to be attached to a separate business name. Quickly scanning the totals, she estimated over six billion dollars were either in the accounts or ran thru them.

  She blew out a long breath and ran her hand thru her hair. She knew she was going to have to turn all of this over to Kane. Her Director would have a field day with her if she didn’t.

  She was about to close her laptop when she realized there were audio files she hadn’t seen prior. She clicked on the first one.

  “They pushed the shipment up; it’s due in tomorrow.”

  “Our buyers aren’t lined up until Friday. What the hell are we supposed to do with it until then?”

  “We store it. We can put Delgoto’s crew on it until we can move it.”

  “You’re talking a hundred kilos of heroin, just sitting around for six days. Risky if you ask me.”

  “I’m not asking you, I’m telling you. Tell Delgoto to get his crew together. They’ll be babysitting for the next six days.”

  Krista knew the voices like she knew her name. Her eyes darted around her apartment as she shook her head. Her brows knitted together. She felt like someone proved the world was flat. She wasn’t about to believe it.

  She clicked on the next audio file and listened.

  “Anton is getting too close.”

  “He’s your problem, not mine. I told you years ago to get rid of him.”

  “And I told you, he’s got the brains. He’s been helping us run this operation and didn’t have a clue about what he’d been doing. He trusted me; I don’t know what changed.”

  “We need to do something before he gets any closer.”

  “I’ll work on it.”

  A chill ran up and back down Krista’s spine. “It wasn’t an accident; he didn’t know what was happening. Wait, he didn’t know. He was innocent. He didn’t have anything to do with it.”

  She took her laptop, wiped off her desk and sat back down. The next audio file tore out her heart.

  “I just got an alert. Anton called the DEA.”

  “Son-of-a-bitch, I knew he was going to be trouble. We need to take care of him, and we need to do it fast.”

  “He hung up before they put him thru to anyone.”

  “I don’t care, the fact that he made the call, speaks volumes. Set it up; I’ll get the PI on it to track his movements. He’s going down.”

  When she clicked on the next audio file, she listened and started to cry.

  “Hi, baby girl, my little blue fire. If you are listening to this something went very wrong. I knew you would be able to figure out my message to you. You were always a star that shown so bright.”

  “I started to try and make this right by placing a call to the DEA. I hung up before being connected to an agent. What you need to know is that I was trying to protect your mother, sister, brother and you. I felt
torn between two options. Call the DEA back and give them the information I have collected and risk the backlash that could hit our family or keep quiet. I hope beyond hope that I could figure out how to remove us as a family from the middle of an operation I think I inadvertently helped create.”

  “I plan to speak to your mother and get her advice. I don’t believe it would be fair to her if I were to make this decision myself. Our weekly dinners out have always been our time to share what we have going on separately in our lives.”

  “I cannot believe how blind I was. Know one thing for sure. My eyes are wide open now, and I don’t plan on being a part of this any longer.”

  “Take care of your mom, tell your sister and brother that I loved them more than life, you too, my little blue fire.”

  “I know you will take this to the authorities for me. I’m sorry I didn’t act faster.”

  “Love you more than you love me.”

  The sobs that escaped Krista's throat sounded like they were coming from somewhere in the distance. Her chest heaved as she tried to catch her breath and her head seemed to be floating somewhere above the light fixture that sat snugly against the ceiling.

  She bent her body over her desk, placing her hands on the top, as she willed herself to take slow deep breaths, releasing the air from her lungs slow and steady. After a couple of minutes, she had her bearing once again.

  Travis, she had to call Travis. The call went to voicemail. She left him a message explaining she had gotten into the cloud, which contained information that was imperative for him to hear. And who she was going to meet then ended the call.

  Her next call went through.

  “Can we meet?”

  “Why, what’s going on?”

  “I just need to talk to you.”

  “So talk.”

  “No, I want to do it in person. Can you come to my apartment?”

  “Damn it Krista; I have a lot going on.”

  “This won’t take long.”

  “I’m in Jersey, meet me down in Camden in two hours.”