The Borman Factor

by Robert Lalonde

  Galecki listened for the most part, only asking the odd question, mostly about who it was on the police force that was a part of the conspiracy. Finally, he got up and walked toward the door. He turned halfway and said, "What you've got here is an interesting theory, but that's all it is. You're going to need a lot more than this before we could go after a prominent businessman and the mayor."

  "So you think we're onto something here Chief?" Stan asked.

  "I think you're crazy, is what I think. Christ Novak, you've even got the Mayor as a prime suspect in this ridiculous conspiracy theory. We told you a month ago to drop this and take a vacation. I'm about ready to put you on forced leave after hearing this."

  I jumped in "But you agree that if this mole, this person on the force that's helping make all of this possible were to come forward and be willing to testify we could move on this?"

  "If you had a witness and if that witness were reliable beyond any doubt. Maybe. And you're still missing proof of any kind."

  "Well that's good" I said. Because we have an idea who that person is. In fact we have a pretty good idea."

  "Really" Galecki started walking back. "Who?"

  I had to play this right "Well, we're just not sure whether that person is willing to lose everything to protect their friends. Even though this person is nearing retirement and would lose their pension and face public humiliation, we're not sure they would do the right thing."

  "You've had me sit and listen to this whole thing and you've been holding out! Who is it? I want a name!" Galecki was furious.

  I walked over to the table and picked up my phone, dialed a number "We're ready for you."

  Galecki said "He's here. He's coming now?"

  "We're going to have to offer this person something to get them to talk. Immunity, maybe allow him to keep his pension."

  "I'll see what I can do. We'll have to work out the details." Galecki was looking a bit anxious at this point. I could just imagine what was going through his head. He was probably thinking he'd been a bit naive thinking he was the only one on the payroll.

  I answered the knock at the door. Police Chief Ted Williams walked in.

  Galecki's face was a picture for a moment, but he recovered quickly. He knew the Chief was an honest cop. "Don't tell me they've dragged you into this too?"

  Chief Williams was a Scotsman. He had a well trimmed gray beard and receding gray hair. You could tell within a minute of meeting him he was a no bullshit kind of guy.

  "They tell me one of our boys got himself mixed up in this mess. I'm here to see if we can get this sorted out without making it an even bigger disaster."

  Galecki had recovered by now, "So who is it?"

  I filled in a few of the details. "I think he's basically a good cop. A good cop with a bad habit. A bad habit that got him in a mess he didn't know how to get out of."

  Galecki's patience was wearing thin "Go on."

  "We think he'll do the right thing if we can promise to make it as painless for him as we can. That's why the Chief is here."

  Galecki looked at the Chief, then back to me. "Is this mystery person going to show at some point? I've been here for over an hour and you haven't shown me one thing that would make me believe any of this."

  I figured it was time to let the genie out of the bottle. "We have Sergei's ledger. It's got dates, names and dollar amounts of payments that were made. It's over James. Time to clean up this mess and make things right as best you can."

  Galecki got up. "Are you accusing me of being a part of this? You have a lot of nerve trying to drag me into this conspiracy of yours. I've wasted enough time listening to this drivel."

  Chief Williams spoke up "Sit down James." Galecki went back to his chair and sat. He was livid.

  "I've always worried that this gambling habit of yours was going to get you into trouble."

  Galecki looked at the Chief, "You're not buying into this are you?"

  It was time for me to nail it down. "Your name is in that ledger more than once and Mark Fenton is willing to talk about the payments. He tried to come forward once before, remember?"

  Galecki wasn't going down so easily "I don't care what Fenton wrote in some ledger. Mr. Mogilevich is considering laying charges on him for misappropriating funds. That ledger is probably how he was planning to cover his tracks."

  I got up and started putting pictures back on my boards. "These are photos of you going to the Brass Ring for an after hours card game. We've got a witness from the hotel who is willing to testify that you're a regular player. You lost over $100,000 last Thursday night alone."

  Chief Williams got up. "I want to see you back at the station this afternoon James. I'll have some papers drawn up. You're going to take an early retirement with a reduced pension after you sign a statement telling us what you know about Mogilevich and Mayor Corbett."

  Galecki wasn't saying yes just yet so Williams added "If you don't go along James, you're going to face charges. Maybe do some jail time and lose your pension. I'll see to it personally."

  I walked chief Williams to the door. Williams turned and said "Pack this stuff up and bring it to the station Novak. I want to talk to you this afternoon as well. I think you're long overdue for a promotion."

  Chapter 71

  Sergei was in a bad mood as he drove into work this morning. Things had been going well until that reporter got in the way. It had gone from bad to worse since then.

  He drove into the underground parking at his hotel and was pulling into his reserved parking spot when he noticed something tacked on the wall, right below his reserved parking sign.

  This sort of thing really pissed him off. He didn't allow notices of any kind anywhere in the building. Somebody was about to get reamed out and he just happened to be in the mood for it.

  He turned off the ignition to the Mercedes S500 stretch coupe, grabbed his briefcase and went to see what the notice was about. The lighting in the underground parking wasn't the best and it wasn't till he yanked the paper off the wall and took a good look at it before he could read the print.

  "Sonofabitch!" He recognized the handwriting right away. It was Fenton's. Someone had tacked a page from his ledger on the wall!

  He opened his briefcase on the hood of the car and stuck the paper in it. What the fuck. He took the elevator up to his penthouse office, unlocked the door and walked in.

  There was another page from the ledger on the floor! He picked it up, unlocked the inner door to his office and went straight to the safe to check on the contents. His ledger was still there.

  Fenton. It had to be Fenton. Sergei was furious. He needed to cool down and think. He went down to the mezzanine restaurant for morning coffee and toast. With every bite of toast Sergei swore someone was going to pay for this.

  Sasha wasn't even buried yet and some fuck thought he would play games. He'd had a bad feeling yesterday when he heard about the kidnapping. That maniac had to go and complicate things. The evil genie was out of the bottle now and it was going to get ugly before it got any better.

  The front desk manager came over and handed him an envelope. "Someone left this with the night staff for you sir." Sergei nodded him away and waited a few seconds before opening the envelope.

  A newspaper clipping covering the death of reporter Terry Reynolds slipped out. The only other content was another page from the ledger. Sergei put the contents back in the envelope and went back up to his office.

  He emptied the contents of the envelope on his desk and took another look at the newspaper clipping.

  Chapter 72

  Stan Novak and detectives Brady and Chan were walking into the lobby of the Executive Suites hotel at about the same time Sergei was dumping out the contents of the envelope on his desk.

  He went quietly when they walked into his office with a warrant for his arrest. It was far from over. A guy like Sergei doesn't roll over even when he's facing incriminating evidence and two witnesses who are ready to testify against him.
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  Mayor John Corbett was picked up about a couple of hours after Sergei. They both faced a long list of charges from bid rigging, obstructing justice and conspiracy to commit murder. Corbett was forced to step down as a result of his involvement.

  I dropped by to see Julia Piermont before heading out to the airport for a flight back home. Bill was there. He was taking a bit of time off work and spending it with his family.

  The Piermont's were feeling better. Terry's case had been reviewed and Julia had been awarded a full widow's pension.

  Bill called me aside for a private conversation. "Do we know for sure who it was that killed Terry?"

  "His name was Vasily Orlov, the man who kidnapped Julia. Russian military background, turned mercenary for a while and then killer for hire."

  "And how did Terry get singled out by this guy?"

  I explained how Mark Fenton had approached Terry, looking for a way out. Terry talked to Captain Gallagher about getting immunity for a whistleblower. Because of the nature of the information, Gallagher checked with Galecki. Galecki warned Mogilevich and then obstructed the investigation into Terry's murder.

  "So Galecki was involved in all this?"

  "Galecki was a pawn. He was a poor card player with a gambling habit he couldn't afford on his salary. Sergei and Sasha let him play himself into so much debt he only had one way to pay it off.

  He made good in the end by helping us build a case against Sergei and Corbett. He didn't do it willingly, but he did the right thing in the end."

  Chapter 73

  My hotel room had become quite the mess during this investigation. Stan had taken a lot of it back to the station but I still had piles of paper, news clippings and pictures lying around. I put it all in boxes and had a paper-shredding service come by to reduce it to tiny bits and take it away.

  The morning news on all three local stations had been covering the arrest of Mayor John Corbett.

  Joe Fontana and Sue Hardy of the City News team were heading the big story:

  Joe: "In what is probably the biggest news story of the year, the mayor of the city of Toronto, John Corbett, was arrested today and charged with over a dozen criminal offenses ranging from bid rigging to conspiracy to obstruct justice."

  Sue: "It is hard to imagine another story getting bigger headlines than this one."

  Joe:"Absolutely. In fact, there's speculation that the Mayor will be stepping down in the face of all these charges."

  Sue Hardy: "Do we have any specific details about the charges yet Joe?"

  Joe: "Not yet Sue but we'll be covering it in detail as the information becomes available to us." Fontana flashed his best smile at the camera. "Stay tuned for for the latest coverage of Mayor Corbett's arrest right here at the City news. We'll be keeping you updated throughout the day as more details become available and as events unfold."

  What the news team didn't know yet was that Deputy Chief James Galecki had agreed to testify against the mayor. Fenton's ledger showed a huge paper trail of money going from Sergei Mogilevich to Galecki and the mayor's office.

  Vasily Orlov had died when we rescued Julia Reynolds. Psychopath that he was, he had admitted to Julia that it was him who had killed her husband and Councillor Wilson.

  The police never did manage to connect the mayor directly to Vasily, but the Deputy Chief's testimony along with Mark Fenton and the ledger were enough to implicate the mayor to the crimes.

  Sergei Mogilevich had been charged with accessory to the murder of Terry Reynolds and councillor Tim Wilson. His habit of keeping records turned out to be his undoing.

  Chapter 74

  I pulled into Onix Semiconductors and went straight to Bill Piermont's office. I could see that Bill was in much better spirits than he had been the day he asked me to take on the case.

  I had been reluctant to take on the assignment but in the end, I was glad I did. Even though it wasn't the sort of thing I usually worked on, the end result was the same. A happy customer who's life has been restored as much as possible.

  I was about to say my goodbyes and head back home when Bill's phone rang. He motioned for me to wait a moment while he dealt with the call. The call came from an overseas location and Bill engaged in an animated discussion in German.

  Whatever the call was about, Bill sure didn't seemed too pleased to get the news. The color had drained from his face and his tone of voice was strained. "Lock the place down. I'm sending someone over."

  "What's happened Bill?"

  "Our security has been breached in our European research facility. This could set us back five years."

  "What's at stake?"

  "Our newest technology. A chip we call Bliss."

  "And what does Bliss do?"

  "Bliss can turn a laptop into a supercomputer."

  From the author:

  If you enjoyed the Borman Factor, please leave a review and help promote the book to other readers. I invite you to drop by http://robtlalonde.com for the latest news on the Nick Borman series. Thank you for your support and stay tuned for the second book in the series, coming soon.

  Robert Lalonde