The Borman Factor

by Robert Lalonde

  "I'm thinking it's not smart to gamble with something you can't afford to lose."

  Corbett thought for a moment. He preferred political solutions, but he knew from experience that you can't solve every problem through compromise.

  "Yeah. I agree, especially when it comes to the bartender. But a private investigator looking into the murder of a prominent citizen could be a big risk."

  "Not if there aren't any similarities. If the guy had an accident, what's to tie the deaths together?"

  "Well, if the guy had an accident. An accident can happen to anybody at any time. That's why they're called accidents, isn't it?" Corbett smiled.

  Sergei nodded agreement. "Our biggest projects are still in the pipe. We can't afford to let anything jeopardize the plan."

  "Lets make sure we don't have any other surprises jump out at us OK. I don't buy Logan's story about two guys at the bar. There's a leak someplace and we can't afford that."

  "I don't buy that story either. I'm still trying to figure out how it happened."

  "Like you said Serge. We can't afford to let anything jeopardize the plan. That means anything or anyone. You'd best find out how it happened and deal with it. If in doubt, cut it out."

  Serge was nodding his head slowly, "I'll take care of it."

  Chapter 44

  Sergei didn't know how he'd let things get so far out of hand. He ran a tight ship and had a reputation for being someone you didn't want to cross. Yet someone close to him was letting sensitive information get into the wrong hands.

  There were only two people who had access to the ledger: himself and Mark Fenton. But the information in the ledger didn't exist in a vacuum. Several people knew about and were involved in any entry that ended up in that log.

  His lawyer and bagman James Turkell knew about a good number of the bribes and payoffs that were entered in the ledger. Sasha and a couple of his closest men also knew about some of the payoffs, especially the ones that were of a less political nature.

  Alina's final confession was that she had snapped a photo of a page while the ledger was sitting open on Fenton's desk. She said Fenton had not seen her take the photo. Still, it was the careless handling by Fenton that had made it possible for Alina to snap the picture and get involved with a blackmail scheme with Jimmy Logan.

  Sergei had never doubted Mark Fenton's loyalty. He was a hard worker and he had been with Sergei for many years. However, the fact that he had allowed someone to access the corporation's most sensitive record book, for however brief a period, was something that could not be overlooked.

  Sergei decided he would sleep on it overnight and make his decision in the morning.

  When Sergei woke up Tuesday morning he knew what needed to be done. He showered, got dressed and drove to the hotel where he had coffee and a light breakfast. Back in his office, the first call he made was to Sasha.

  "I've got something I need you to take care of this weekend. Meet me in the gym in about one hour."

  Chapter 45

  I knew I'd hit a nerve with Sergei. The ledger contained tons of evidence that he was dirty, but it didn't prove he was a murderer. There's a big difference between bribing a city official for favors and killing someone that happens to be in your way.

  If only I could find a way to get Fenton to open up. I had a feeling that Fenton knew a lot more than he was letting on. His office was right next to Sergei's so he must have overheard the odd conversation.

  The thing that kept nagging at me was where did all the cash come from. Very few businesses deal with a lot of cash these days. It's mostly debit cards and credit cards. Where did Sergei get the tens of thousands of dollars for the cash payoffs he made so often?

  That was something else Fenton should be able to answer but likely wouldn't. Something to do with a code for accountants. Someone working in vice might be able to shed some light on the matter.

  Stan Novak suggested I should talk to detectives Chan and Brady. They worked in vice and their names were not in the ledger. Not exactly a guarantee they were clean cops; Sergei was only one businessman. How many others were greasing the wheels of the city's administration to better their odds?

  I arranged to meet Chan and Brady at a nearby Fran's Diner for a morning coffee. After the usual small talk, I got to the point. "I'm following up on a lead that might help us find who killed Terry Reynolds and I need help sorting a few things out."

  Detective Chan was a pretty Asian cop. She stood about 5'2" and had a very intelligent look in her eyes. The other cops nicknamed her 'lucky loo'. Lucky made it clear they wanted to help, "Stan told us what you're working on. What can Tom and I do to help?"

  "I'm trying to figure out where a guy like Sergei Mogilevich would get access to tens of thousands of dollars of cash on a weekly basis. I know he owns the Executive Suites Hotel in Markham and he's also the developer who is behind the St. James Town redevelopment project. A source tells me he pays out a lot of cash to grease the wheels of progress. My question is: where would he get his hands on so much cash?"

  "He owns a lot of other businesses" Brady offered. "His son Sasha runs the Brass Ring strip club on Yonge St. It has a cash bar and there's a lot of drugs and prostitution on the premises. Talk is the old man owns it, but I don't know for sure."

  "What do we know about his son?"

  "Sasha Mogilevich, real name Alexander. Hangs with some shady Russian mob types. We've been watching him for a long time but we've never been able to nail him to anything directly. We suspect he has his hand in all sorts of things from drugs to prostitution, both on and off the club premises. The Russians run a pretty tight group so it's hard to get inside info on them."

  "That's a big help guys. Sasha could be the missing link in this story."

  Chan piped in again, "Let us know if there's anything we can do to help. We don't like how they're sweeping Terry's murder under the rug any more than Stan does."

  "Thanks. You've been a great help already but I'll let you know."

  I tossed a ten on the table to pay for the coffees and headed back to my hotel room to do more research.

  I downloaded a couple of pictures of Sasha, printed them off and tacked them to my boards. I still had a lot of blank spots to fill in, especially when it came to Sasha's connection to the Russian mob.

  The puzzle was starting to tell a story. If Chan and Brady were right and it was Sergei who owned the strip joint, that would explain where all the cash came from. They also suspected that Sasha had ties to the Russian mob.

  I decided to go pay Sasha a visit at the club.

  Chapter 46

  The Brass Ring was part of a three storey building on Yonge Street just south of Bloor. The outside of the building was covered with posters featuring sexy looking dancing girls. One poster was much larger than the others, screaming out the message that this particular dancer was a past Howard Stern pick. If that little bit didn't justify double the price for a lap dance, I don't know what would.

  The Brass Ring had two sections: the downstairs catered to the regular patrons and the upstairs was reserved for the big spenders. The top floor featured a bunch of smaller stages and some private booths for the really big spenders who didn't like to share.

  I walked through the front doors around 8pm. Loud music and lots of neon lights set the mood. There was a large stage in the middle of the room with three brass poles so the patrons always had a dancing girl fairly close no matter where they sat.

  I went straight to the bar and introduced myself to the bartender - told him I'd like to have a word with Sasha Mogilevich. The bartender didn't take his eyes off me as he picked up the phone, hit a speed dial button and muttered something into the mouthpiece. He got his answer and pointed me to a set of stairs in the back of the room.

  The stairway to Sasha's office was steep and narrow. I walked down the hall to the door with the 'manager' sign on it and knocked. At 6'2" and 200lbs, not too many guys made me look small. The guy who opened the door did.


  He had to be 6'8" and over 300lbs. He opened the door and motioned me in with a backwards nod of his head.

  Sasha spoke from behind the desk where he was seated, "Good evening Mr. Borman. How can I help you? Did one of our girls catch your fancy?"

  "I'm not here for the girls Mr. Mogilevich. I'd like to ask you a few questions if that's alright."

  "I'm always glad to help if I can. Please have a seat."

  I sat in a leather chair across the desk from Sasha. "Do you happen to know a bartender named Jimmy Logan?"

  Sasha thought for a few seconds, "Can't say I do. Are you looking for a bartender?"

  "No. His name came up in an investigation and we're checking his references."

  "He said I know him?"

  "Not exactly. He said he had worked here a few years back."

  "Most of our bartenders have been with us for quite some time. I don't recall ever hiring someone named Logan. You Bear?" The big guy shook his head sideways a few times.

  "You're sure about that. You don't recall anyone named Jimmy Logan?"

  "I'm quite sure. I personally hire all the staff. This Mr. Logan was never one of them."

  "Well, I guess that takes care of that. It's not often someone lies about their references."

  "You might want to check the rest of his story then. Probably not much truth there either."

  "You're probably right. Well, thanks for your time Mr. Mogilevich."

  I could see by the look in Sasha's eyes he didn't buy my story about checking out a bartender. He was trying hard to look uninterested but his eyes told a different story. That was exactly what I wanted.

  Chapter 47

  It wasn't long after I left that Sasha and Bear were thinking they had made a mistake letting Jimmy Logan go. Bear was the first to speak up, "We should get rid of Logan boss."

  "Maybe. One thing's for sure. This Borman guy isn't checking into Jimmy Logan's work history."

  "I no like him. He bring trouble."

  "That makes two of us Bear. He's sniffing around for something and I want to know what it is."

  Sasha hit a speed dial number. He got voicemail, so he left a message, "It's me. I need you to do a background search on a private investigator named Nick Borman. Get back to me as soon as you get anything."

  "You want I take care of Logan boss?"

  "Not just yet Bear. Let's just lie low for a bit and see what's going on. Go check the floor for a while, I need to think for a minute."

  Sasha's phone rang about a half hour later, "Sam Patrick. Why are you interested in the spook?"

  "Spook?"

  "Yeah. He ain't no private investigator, he's a corporate security expert. You know, high tech spy shit, corporate counter espionage, that sort of thing."

  "What the hell is he doing here?"

  "He was at the club?"

  "Yeah. Came by about an hour ago asking if we had ever hired a bartender named Jimmy Logan."

  "Don't know why he'd be interested in Logan. Bad news havin a guy like that snooping around. We had nothin on him here. Had to call a friend over at CSIS; that's where I got the info on him. You want us to pay him a visit, see what he's up to?"

  "Not yet. I'll get back to you."

  "Alright. You best be careful. Spooks are dangerous motherfuckers."

  Sasha knew Sergei would want to know that a private investigator had dropped by so the old man was the second person he called. "A private investigator named Nick Borman just dropped by the bar. Wanted to know if a bartender named Jimmy Logan had ever worked here."

  "I'm guessing he's never worked there?"

  "No."

  "He say anything else?"

  "Said he was looking into the guy's references."

  "Interesting. He's snooping around for something. He was here earlier asking about my political contributions."

  "Your political contributions?"

  "He was just trying to see if he'd get a reaction. Just ignore him for now till we see what it is he's really up to."

  "OK. I had Patrick do a background check on the guy. No record with them but a friend of Patrick's at CSIS said the guy's a spook in corporate security."

  "He told me the Piermont family hired him to look into Terry Reynold's death. Said they don't buy the robbery story."

  "Patrick said the guy was bad news. You want me to do something?"

  "Let me look into this a bit. A guy like that should get some special attention."

  "OK."

  Chapter 48

  Captain John Gallagher was looking at a few photocopied sheets of paper that Stan Novak had just handed him. "Christ Stan, where did you get this?"

  "It's a copy of a ledger that shows payments made by Sergei Mogilevich."

  "$150,000, $200,000. Christ! That's more than a year's salary for most people."

  "I wanted you to see some of these so you know we need to be careful even in our department."

  "I've wondered about Galecki for some time. Now I see why he acts the way he does. They're really stuffing his pockets aren't they."

  "And that's only one developer!"

  "Unbelievable. Where's the ledger?"

  "I got this from a private investigator. I had to promise I wouldn't divulge the source just yet Captain. The owner's life would be in danger and we might lose a valuable witness if we're not careful. We've promised we would only use it to try to find Terry's killer."

  "You're not going to be able to keep that promise Stan. We need to take this up to the Chief so he can clean house."

  "We don't know who we can trust Captain. These records are from one corporation. How many others do you think there might be? Besides, without the witness, none of this means anything."

  "Point taken. What is it exactly that you intend to do?"

  "I'm working with the private investigator Bill Piermont hired. We've already started to shake things up to see how people react. We're going to find who killed Terry and make them pay and maybe clean up some of this mess in the process."

  "What can I do to help?"

  "I'd like to put The Brass Ring under surveillance for a few days and I could use a bit of help. Chan and Brady would be good if that's OK with you."

  "Chan and Brady are fine if they can spare the time. Keep this off the record until we see if it leads us anywhere."

  Chapter 49

  A few hours later, I was set up across the road from the Brass Ring. The business owner let us use an empty apartment above his store. He'd never been happy about having a strip club in the neighborhood, let alone right across the street.

  We had a clear view of the entire front of the club from across the street. Novak had set up a couple of cameras with high powered zoom lenses on tripods, ready to snap pictures of some of any interesting patrons that visited the club.

  He also had a directional mike that could pick up conversations, but that wouldn't be of any use except for quiet times after hours and only if someone was in the front of the building.

  Novak, Chan and Brady were helping me keep the place covered for a couple of days. Detective Chan came in at 7pm so I could go back to the hotel and get a bit of rest and a shower. I said I'd be back by 11. "You hoping to see anyone in particular Nick?"

  "Anyone we know or looks like they could be of interest. Sergei's been paying off a lot of people and I've got a feeling this club plays a bigger part in this story than we know."

  Chan settled in and I went back to the hotel to get some rest before the long night ahead. I wasn't sure what I expected to see over the next couple of days. Time would tell.

  I didn't get any real sleep but I did manage to rest up a bit. A cold shower helped clear the cobwebs and I went back to the stake out at 11pm.

  "Brought you a coffee. Any interesting guests so far?" I handed Chan a coffee and put the box of donuts on the table. I had picked up a small cooler and filled it with sandwiches and snacks I picked up at the hotel restaurant. It was going to be a long night.

  "Not really. I've snapped
some shots of the doorman and a couple of the other bouncers when they tossed someone out about an hour ago."

  "It's early yet as far as clubs go."

  Chan took a sip of coffee, "I've heard they have some interesting late night card games here."

  "Regularly or just on occasion?"

  "Don't know for sure. It would probably be after hours so Friday, Saturday and Sunday would probably be the most likely nights."