"What happened?"
"Snitch wanted immunity before he or she talked. Terry talked to Gallagher, Gallagher took it upstairs."
"I'm guessing it wasn't an automatic yes."
"You guess right. Deputy Chief James Galecki said he needed details before he could promise anything. Said he wanted to meet the whistleblower."
"That was the end of it?"
"It ended when Terry was found dead. We don't know whether he even got to deliver the message to the snitch."
"And this Deputy Chief Galecki is also the one who shut down your investigation into Terry's murder?"
"Captain said Galecki didn't want any publicity about dirty politics the year before an election. We don't have any way to prove that the whistleblower even exists or whether any of the allegations are true."
Chapter 22
Councillor Tim Wilson was feeling pretty good about himself when he left the rally. He'd had them eating out of his hand the entire time.
He left the community hall and walked south a couple of blocks to where he'd left his car at a car park. Wilson was outgoing and never missed a chance to shake a hand and make a connection with a potential voter. He shook several hands on his way to the car park.
Wilson couldn't remember where it was he'd parked his car. He pulled out his key fob and hit the button that unlocked the driver's door and made the lights blink and the horn blare.
He spotted his car blinking and honking for his attention from the far end of the lot. Another driver who was apparently looking for his car too smiled at him and said, "Now there's an idea. I spend more time looking for my car in parking lots."
Wilson said "I don't know how I got by before they came out with these new key fobs."
The man stepped a bit closer, "You're Tim Wilson aren't you. That was you back there at the hall."
Wilson's ego puffed up a bit, "Yes, I am. Were you there?"
"Yes I was." He pumped Wilson's right hand a few times. "You really think you can stop them from redeveloping St. James Town?"
Wilson answered as if he were recording a campaign video, "This project doesn't have a chance in hell of going through. It will come in over my dead body."
The man stepped closer putting his left hand on the politician's shoulder. Tim Wilson didn't see it coming. The knife drove up cleanly under the ribs, straight into his heart. His vision started to blur and he felt himself getting faint.
The killer pulled the knife out a bit and drove it in a second time with an upward twisting motion. Tim Wilson felt a general numbness as shock set in. He thought he heard the killer say "if you insist" just before he lost consciousness.
The assassin guided his victim's body down to a seated position by the front wheel. He looked around to make sure no one was watching before he removed the politician's watch and wallet. He stuffed the items in his pockets and straightened his jacket as he casually moved away from the body.
Chapter 23
The evening programming on all the local stations was interrupted by a late-breaking news story. As usual, the large red banner with the words Breaking Story were prominently displayed behind Joe Fontana and Sue Hardy.
Joe: "In the fourth stabbing death of the year, Toronto city Councillor Tim Wilson was found dead tonight in a parking lot at the corner of Sherbourne and Wellesley streets."
Sue: "What a loss for the community Joe. I'm sure our viewers will remember Councillor Wilson for all the fine work he did for the city."
Joe: "Absolutely. Councillor Wilson was known as the working person's representative on Toronto city council. Most recently, he stood in opposition to a redevelopment project that would have displaced low income people from their homes."
Sue: "Do we have any details of the murder yet Joe?"
Joe: "Details are still sketchy at this point, but it appears to be another robbery gone bad. That's all we know for now. Stay tuned to City News for new information as and when it comes in over the next couple of days."
Chapter 24
Heads turned as Alina Buzhinsky made her way across the lobby of the Executive Suites Hotel. She had the air of a fashion model or a TV personality and the looks to match. Alina had been turning heads all her life and she had long ago developed the ability to pretend she didn't notice the long stares coming from both men and women.
Alina came to the hotel quite often. She had worked as a real estate agent in the past and that is how they met. The chemistry was immediate and powerful; it didn't take long before she became Sergei's mistress.
Her long, silky, dark brown hair, blue/gray eyes and her full lips filled Sergei with lust and a passion that he found irresistible. There weren't many things that could make Sergei forget about business and money, but Alina was one of them.
Mark Fenton's desk was positioned to allow him to see the door to the waiting area outside of his and Sergei's offices, so he couldn't help but notice Alina as she walked in. Alina loved to flirt with men and as she walked into the waiting room she could feel Fenton's eyes before she looked at him. "Hi Mark. How are you today?"
"Hi Alina. I'm fine, how are you?"
She noticed Fenton quickly slip one of two ledgers that were sitting on his desk into a drawer. She recognized the remaining ledger; it was the one Sergei kept locked in the safe in his office. She had never seen the contents but she knew it was different from the usual business ledgers - they were kept in locked cabinets, not in a safe.
Alina suspected the ledger contained details about off-the-book transactions like pay-offs and bribes. She wondered if Fenton was keeping a copy of the ledger for his own insurance - the rascal. She hadn't thought Fenton would be that daring and devious. "I'm great thanks. Is Serge in his office?"
"He had to go downstairs to meet with someone. He should be back in about a half hour or so."
"OK. I'll wait. Might as well take care of a few calls while I'm waiting."
Alina took a chair in the waiting area and went through the motion of making a few calls. What she was really doing was keeping an eye on Fenton to see whether or not he would go back to what he'd been doing before she came in.
Fenton finished making a few notes in Sergei's ledger. He'd regretted bringing in his copy the minute Alina walked in. Fenton wasn't in the habit of taking risks. He usually kept his copy of the ledger at home and updated it from memory.
He made a note not to do this again. It was too risky. Better to have the odd inaccuracy in the ledger than risk getting caught by Sergei for maintaining a copy. That would be bad news indeed.
Just his luck that Alina would waltz in here today and decide to wait for Sergei. She didn't normally do that. He wondered if she suspected that he was up to something.
Fenton decided he was probably just being paranoid. Too much going on lately with Terry Reynolds getting killed and detectives and private investigators snooping around. It was Wednesday. Sergei always spent Wednesday evening with Alina.
His internal dialog was interrupted by Sergei's return. "Alina! How are you my dear?"
"Just wonderful Serge, how are you darling?"
"Good, good. Let me take care of a few things with Mark and we can go get a little something to eat. Mark, let's finish up in my office."
Chapter 25
Midnight, Wednesday
Jimmy Logan didn't know why he didn't like 9 to 5 jobs. He just didn't. That's why he had settled on working in a bar; there were no early mornings and it didn't feel like work the way other jobs did.
Jimmy fancied himself a ladies' man and bartending fit his lifestyle. At 41, he still had a boyish charm about him. He was a fit 5'10", weighed 180lbs and in good health.
Jimmy got to meet lots of girls while bartending and the girls all seemed to like him. More importantly, he got to meet them when they were in the mood to let their hair down. Worse things could happen.
Jimmy reminded himself of this every time he walked into The Reservoir Lounge, which is where he happened to be working at the time. It was here he'd
met Alina Buzhinsky. Alina was tall and gorgeous and she walked like a model on a runway. The girl turned heads when she walked by.
He sometimes wondered what she saw in him. Girls like her were usually seen with guys that had lots of money. He sure wasn't one of them.
Not that Alina didn't know people with money. She was dating Sergei Mogilevich. The guy was a hotel owner and a big time land developer. How's that for a sugar daddy!
The two of them did have something in common though. It was a love of adventure and a love of the adrenaline rush that some of life's experiences provided. He was so lost in the memory of the look she had on her face when she was excited that he didn't notice her as she walked up.
"Happy thoughts today Jimmy?" Alina's face was lit up with a smile.
"Alina! I was just thinking about you actually." Alina didn't usually come in on Wednesday nights. That was her night with Sergei.
"Flattery will get you everywhere, but not without a drink. How about a glass of white wine bartender."
"If that's what it takes to get to a girl's heart. I have a French Chardonnay and a nice California Pinot Grigio opened. Which would you like?"
"The Pinot sounds pretty good right now. I've got a surprise for you today."
"I love surprises. What is it?"
"You remember that list I told you about?" Alina smiled as Jimmy's face lit up.
"You finally got your hands on the ledger? You're not putting me on are you?"
"Not the whole thing. I didn't have a lot of time but I managed to take a photo of one page." Alina already had her phone out. She pulled up the photo and passed the phone to Jimmy so he could have a closer look.
"There's only one or two here that are for large enough sums of money for what we have in mind. The $150,000 entry is for the city Treasurer. I know his name from newspaper articles."
"Bill Paxton?"
"Yes. He's been the city Treasurer for six or seven years now."
"So why would Sergei be paying this guy $150,000? That's a lot of money."
"Paxton probably helped him rig a bid for a land deal. We'll have to do a bit of homework and check the papers to see if the city sold any lands around the same date as this entry."
Jimmy was getting excited. "I'm off in a couple of hours. Why don't you come by the apartment and we'll put a plan together?"
Alina finished her drink. She flashed Jimmy one of her smiles. "It's been a long day. How 'bout tomorrow morning around ten."
Chapter 26
10am Thursday
It didn't take Alina and Jimmy long to match up the $150,000 payment to Bill Paxton with the sale of a small parkette in a prime downtown Toronto location. Within weeks of the sale local papers were flooded with ads announcing pre-construction units were available at a discount for early buyers.
Small loft units featuring high ceilings and a two-storey layout were being offered for $500,000. Two bedroom units were $850,000. Both were being advertised as being 20 percent less than current market value.
Alina did a bit of math and concluded that the 350 units were worth an average of $700,000 each. That meant the building had a pre-construction value of 245 million dollars!
Jimmy was so excited he forgot he had already asked the question, "So what exactly would Bill Paxton have done to earn his $150,000?" That was a large chunk of change in Jimmy's mind.
"A whole bunch of stuff ranging from making sure Sergei won the bidding to helping fast-track the approval process by the engineering department. Then there'd be permits and building inspections at various stages of completion. Inspectors can be picky and make a lot of extra work for builders or they can look the other way and make life very easy for them."
Jimmy's head was reeling from the sheer size of the numbers. A 245 million dollar project gets fast tracked by a $150,000 bribe. "Anybody else getting greased on this project or just Bill Paxton?"
"I would imagine some of these other ten to twenty thousand dollar entries are related. There isn't enough money in them for us to bother with though Jimmy."
"I guess not. How much do you think we can squeeze out of Paxton?" Jimmy was thinking a one-third cut would be fair.
"I don't think it's wise to get too greedy Jimmy. He should be willing to pay fifteen to twenty thousand to keep this quiet."
"I was thinking fifty thousand." Jimmy offered. "His career should be worth that much to him."
"Fifty thousand is a lot of money Jimmy. Paxton has probably spent most of the money already. We want to keep the demand low enough that he'll decide it's not worth taking a chance by not paying."
Alina knew the ledger contained many more names that could be persuaded to cough up a bit of the graft. She also knew that if you squeezed people too hard, they might resist and things could get unpredictable very quickly.
"How do we contact him? Phone call or a note?" Jimmy already knew he would choose the direct approach. Pick up the phone and make a call.
"We should piece a note together with letters that have been cut out of different newspapers and magazines. We want to leave as few trails as possible."
Jimmy was impressed with the way Alina's mind worked. He was getting pumped. "A note sounds good. We can spell out how much we want and tell him when and where to put the money."
Alina was thinking about the note. "He's going to want some proof that we actually have something on him. He'll probably want us to give him the evidence we have to make sure we don't put him through this again." Alina was thinking that's what she would want if she were getting blackmailed.
"Jesus. I hadn't thought of that. We could give him a printout of the picture you took and tell him that is the only copy we have."
Alina shook her head. "We can give him the picture, but the bottom line is, he's just going to have to trust us. He doesn't have any other choice."
Alina took another sip of her coffee. I'll run down to the corner store to pick up a few magazines and papers so we can put a note together. Why don't you make us one of your famous grilled cheese sandwiches.
By the time Alina came back from the store, Jimmy had brewed a fresh pot of coffee and whipped up a couple of grilled cheese and onion sandwiches. Over lunch they worked up different versions and finally decided how the message should read.
Chapter 27
Bill Paxton was in a good mood as he drove in to work. It was Friday and he was looking forward to a relaxing weekend at home. Bill liked his job and more importantly, he liked the money that came with it.
His $150,000 a year salary was nothing to scoff at and like many others in a position of power, Bill wasn't opposed to accepting a bit of graft. No harm done and a guy makes a few extra bucks on the side. Why should he be a boy scout?
Directly or indirectly, Paxton was connected with anything that involved money coming in or out of the city coffers.
A city the size of Toronto goes through a lot of money in any given year. The budget in 2015 was 11.4 billion dollars and roughly 3 billion of that was for capital improvements like roads and infrastructure.
Bill's department was responsible for providing many services including revenue, accounting, payroll and employee benefits for the 38,000 city employees. Last but not least, they were in charge of the purchase and sale of city assets.
Influence and power did have it's perks and issuing permits and approvals for multi-million dollar projects presented many opportunities to form those special relationships that allowed envelopes full of cash to change hands.
Bill always made sure his Fridays weren't too busy. Today, he had a few appointments followed by a luncheon meeting with a small group of businessmen from the downtown business association.
After lunch, Bill returned to his office looking forward to an uneventful Friday afternoon.
As he walked up to his office he could see through the glass door that a small package had been placed on his desk. He went in and opened the bubble envelope. It contained only one piece of paper. Wondering what it could be, he unfolded th
e paper and saw it was a note that had been pieced together.
Bill Paxton's world changed in an instant. His blood pressure rocketed. His head flooded with emotions: anger, rage, confusion and frustration all ran through him at the same time. He stood there for a moment willing his pulse and breathing to slow down.
He tried to calm himself and act normal as he put the paper back in the envelope and walked over to his secretary's desk. "Hazel, did you see who put this package on my desk?"
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