Family Can Be Murder

by Karen Singer

  “Not a clue. They’re not from around here.”

  “How about a last name.”

  “Don’t know. I only remember their first names because we spent a little while relaxing and drinking the last time they were here.”

  “What can you tell me about that?”

  “Not much. As I said, we were drinking. I spent the night somewhere on someone’s floor.”

  “So you don’t know how I can find out more about them?”

  “Like I said, not a clue.”

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  “Um…I’m not sure,” the young man said as he looked at the picture on Robbie’s phone. “I think…his name is Pasha, but don’t ask me any more than that. I remember meeting and talking with him a few times at one or two of our events, but that’s about it.”

  Robbie flipped to the next picture. “How about this one?”

  The guy shook his head. “I’ve seen him. I got the impression that he was Pasha’s brother, but that’s all I know. I’m not sure I ever got his name. Sorry.”

  “Thanks,” Robbie replied gratefully. “That’s still a big help.”

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  Robbie waited until they were all sitting down in the restaurant and had ordered their breakfast before he pulled out his cellphone. He pushed a few buttons and had to wait. Finally, someone answered. “Philly. It’s Robbie. We got semi-lucky this morning canvasing outside the mosques.”

  “You did? What did you find?”

  “Not a lot, but the one you killed, his name is evidently Bijan. We weren’t able to come up with any last names. And the one who’s still running around trying to kill us is his brother Pasha.”

  “Bijan and Pasha. And where can we find them?”

  “We weren’t able to find out, except that they’re from somewhere outside of the city.”

  “That doesn’t help much.”

  “No. Not directly. We’re going to check a few more mosques around the time of their evening prayers tonight. See if we can come up with more information.”

  “Sounds good Robbie. We’re pretty swamped here right now. Gonzo and I got called into another homicide this morning, and since it’s not a regular case for us, there’s a limited amount of time we can spend on it.”

  “I know,” Robbie replied. “Listen, I was wondering if you could check with that agent we talked with from the FBI and find out if they’ve got a list of all the terrorist cells in and around the city that we can get.”

  “Can do. I’ll let you know. And Robbie, thanks for staying on this for us.”

  “Hey, it’s my life on the line here. Me, and Shirley, and Jenni. They seem to want all three of us dead. What choice do I have?”

  “Yeah. Exactly! Stay safe buddy. I’ll be in touch.”

  Philly ended the call. He sorted through the various numbers in his phone and finally found the one he was looking for, the number for Special Agent Conifer. He pushed the required buttons and waited until someone answered. “Agent Conifer? This is Detective Pierce. It’s not much, but Robbie Bosch was able to pull a couple of names out of his hat for some of those possible terrorists that seem to be after him.”

  “Names?” Conifer asked anxiously. He grabbed a pen and pulled a pad of paper closer so he could write. “What do you have?”

  “Just two first names so far. The one who I killed is called Bijan. The one still running around with a gun is his brother Pasha. The only other thing Bosch was able to find out is that they’re from somewhere outside of the city. He’s going to try to dig up more about them today.”

  It wasn’t much. Barely nothing. But as much as he hated to admit it, it was more than he and his people had been able to dig up so far. “Good. If Bosch was able to dig up that much, maybe he can find more. I had one of my people do a back-check on him. He’s got a hell of a record at your police department.

  “Hell yeah! Robbie was one of the best.”

  “Why did he leave the police department?”

  “That’s what everyone wants to know. But I was his partner for a few years. And the plain simple truth is, nothing more than politics. He couldn’t take the constant change in department policies…half of which have been tossed aside now since he left.”

  Conifer grunted. “Do you know how many times I’ve been tempted to throw my entire career away for the same reason?”

  “You and me both!” Philly replied. “Hey listen. Robbie had a request he wanted me to pass on to you.”

  “What’s that?”

  “He wants to know if you’ve got a list of local terrorist cells that he can get his hands on.”

  Conifer thought about that. “That’s classified information.”

  “I suspect it is. And I have no doubt that Bosch probably knows that too.”

  Conifer thought about it. His eyes noticed the two simple names on his pad. “Listen. I won’t promise anything, but I need to head down that way later today. If I stop in around…say…eleven o’clock, do you think you can get Bosch there at the same time so I can talk to him?”

  “Huh! That’s a slam dunk!” Philly replied. “I’m sure I can.”

  “Good,” Conifer replied. “See you at eleven.” He hung up his phone. Two names. Bijan and Pasha. But they were two important names.

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  “Bijan and Pasha,” the voice on the phone said right away, the moment Vahram answered.

  “What about them?”

  “Those are the two names that I heard Bosch called the police with early this morning.”

  “The private eye?”

  “Yes!”

  “What else did he know?” Vahram asked anxiously.

  “Only that they’re brothers and they live outside the city somewhere. That’s all I heard.”

  Vahram felt like there was a noose tightening around his neck.

  “Thank you for the update. I will have to think about this.”

  “How about thinking about my money while you’re at it!”

  “You’ll get your money!”

  “You keep saying that, and I haven’t seen a dime yet.”

  “Are you coming to prayer tonight?”

  “As far as I know. You know it depends on what’s going on sometimes.”

  “Of course. Your job. I’ll be at the restaurant after prayers. I’ll have your money then.”

  “I look forward to it very much.”

  “Just keep passing me information!”

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  “Agent Conifer,” Bosch said as he shook the FBI agent’s hand. He sat down at the police conference table with Philly, Gonzo, Conifer, and Captain Glacier.

  Conifer started the conversation. “The two names you dug up don’t help much,” he said to Robbie, “but they’re more than we’ve been able to find.”

  “We’re going back out this evening to do some more looking,” Robbie told him. “Hopefully, we can find someone who knows a bit more about them.”

  “How did you come up with their names?”

  “We showed their pictures around before and after the morning prayer meetings at a couple of the bigger mosques in the city this morning.”

  Conifer nodded. “That was good thinking. And…you got lucky.”

  “Not lucky enough.”

  “But it’s more than we had before.”

  “A little. But I know it’s not much.”

  “Still, it was good work, and we appreciate you keeping the police and us in the loop.”

  “Someone is bound and determined to kill us. Me, my wife Shirley, and my employee Jenni. They went way out of their way to try and kill her down in the keys. And since we know that the attempts on me and my wife were related, I’m betting that it’s not the last we’ve seen of them. I’d like to keep anything else from happening before things get worse.”

  Conifer thought about that. “I’m afraid that it is possible they could come back at you again,” he admitted. “We’ll give you
all the help we can. Just let me know what you need.”

  “Can I see your list of local terrorist cells?”

  “Suspected cells,” Conifer corrected him.

  “Of course. But let’s not mince words. You know exactly what I’m talking about. I know you keep a list of every potential trouble group in the country. I’d like to see that list.”

  “That list is highly classified. If the wrong people saw any of that, they could get the wrong idea, or possibly jeopardize a lot of work the government has been doing to protect the safety of everyone else. Those groups included.”

  “Understood. So can I see the list now?”

  Conifer shook his head. “I’m sorry. As I said, it’s classified.” He stood up. “Thank you for your time gentlemen. I have other pressing business to get to.” He walked out.

  “Well that was a lot of nothing,” Glacier complained.

  “For sure,” Philly replied as he shook his head.

  Gonzo turned to Bosch. “That was good thinking to check the mosques,” he said. “How’d you come up with that idea?”

  Bosch chuckled. “You know the girl that works for me? Jenni? Actually, it was her idea to show the pictures around like that. The problem is, I should have thought about it. I think I’m so worried about what might happen, that it’s keeping me from thinking clearly.”

  “We didn’t think of it either,” Philly told him.

  Bosch’s cellphone dinged that a text message had come in. He glanced at the phone and was surprised to see that it was from Conifer. There was no message, just an attachment. He casually stuck his phone back in his pocket, purposely not replying. Five minutes later, he was alone in his car. There was no message with the text, just a few pictures. He opened the first one. It was a picture of a piece of paper. The paper appeared to hold a list. He realized right away that it was the FBI’s watch list for the local area. He also realized that Conifer didn’t want anyone to know that he had given it to him. Robbie smiled. He could work with that. He could definitely work with that.

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  “The agent from the FBI was here again.”

  “And?” Vahram asked.

  “And I understand that Bosch asked to see their list of suspected terrorist groups.”

  Vahram sucked in his breath. “And?”

  “And I heard that the agent refused to give it to him. Turned him down flat.”

  Vahram breathed a bit easier. “I’m hoping that I’m not on that list. As far as I know, I shouldn’t be.”

  “I have no way of knowing.”

  “I haven’t done anything yet that they could possibly know about.”

  “Let’s hope it stays that way. Hey, you want to know something else?”

  “What?”

  “You know how interested you were in Bosch’s employee?”

  “The Jennifer woman?”

  “Right. Well from the rumor I heard, she was the one who came up with the idea to show the pictures of Bijan and Pasha around to all the mosques. That’s how they came up with their names.”

  “The Jennifer woman again. She’s been nothing but trouble to us!”

  “I think you could safely say that. And once again, don’t tell me anything about what you’re going to do about it.”

  “Of course not. I’ll see you after prayers.”

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  Jenni opened one of the three pictures Mr. B had sent her. It was a picture of a piece of paper. She had to zoom in quite a bit to read it, but when she did, she found some kind of list that contained the names of some kind of organizations or groups. Below each name was a short paragraph about that group. In some cases, there was an address listed.

  She opened the second picture and found it contained the second page to the previous picture. She opened the last picture and found a list of individual names. Again, there was a short paragraph about each person and a few of the names including their addresses.

  Reading through a few of the paragraphs about the groups and the individuals was enough to let Jenni know why those individuals were being watched by the FBI. So now the question was, if the FBI had this list of people, and now Mr. Bosch had sent it to her, then what exactly was she supposed to do with it?

  Since the pictures were hard to work with, she began the laborious chore of copying the lists into documents she could more easily work from.

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  Pasha sat in his car staring up at the window where Bosch Investigating’s office was located. As he expected this late at night, the window was dark. The entire building was dark. He had driven his uncle to evening prayers, and then they had gone to dinner together with that man from the police department again. The words his uncle had quietly spoken to them during dinner had touched his heart. They had been stirring words. Truthful words. Words that couldn’t be denied by anyone.

  Only he and the policeman were left right now to hear his uncle’s words. There had been a few others before, but they were all gone now. Gone to other cities to live. Only he, Bijan, and the policeman remained. And Bijan was dead.

  He had seen his uncle pass the bag to the policeman. He knew the bag contained money, but he didn’t know how much. According to what his uncle had told him in the past, the policeman believed. He believed fervently. But he was still more interested in money than anything else.

  Tonight, as he was driving his uncle home afterwards, his uncle had cautioned him again about trusting the policeman. The man believed passionately, yet as his uncle had said, he was still ruled by money more than the needs of Allah.

  The dark window of the investigating office seemed to call to him. So many things could be solved by him going into that office and taking care of the business that needed to be handled. Handling that business would set his uncle’s great mind at ease. But more importantly, it would set his own mind at ease. He wanted to kill the private eye for Bijan. He needed to kill the Jennifer woman for his uncle.

  As his uncle had told him, they had all been out of the office, checking the mosques, for much of the day. He hadn’t even bothered going to their office. If they were making a nuisance of themselves around the sacred mosques in the city, then he didn’t want to be anywhere near them. Would they be visiting more mosques tomorrow? He didn’t know. His uncle and the policeman hadn’t known either.

  As he was dropping his uncle off at his home a little while earlier, his uncle had again brought up the Jennifer woman. His uncle seemed to be obsessed with her for some reason. He was personally more obsessed with the private eye. Either way, they both needed to die. They both needed to die – soon!

  He didn’t know where either of them lived. He only knew about the office. He couldn’t kill either of them tonight, but tomorrow was another day. Tomorrow would have to be soon enough. Tomorrow, one way or another, he needed to kill both of them…for his uncle…and for himself.

  Chapter 20

  No matter where he went now, Robbie constantly found himself looking over his shoulder. Knowing there was a murderer out there who was gunning for him and his wife kept him constantly on edge and constantly alert. The strain was beginning to wear on him. He rarely let Shirley go anywhere by herself anymore, opting instead to drive her himself and stay with her through everything she needed to do. His other big concern was Jenni. But there was no way he could protect Jenni like he tried to do with his wife. Still, he worried.

  It had been some days now since anyone had tried to kill any of them, but that didn’t mean that Pasha’s face didn’t hover constantly in his mind. The man had held a gun right to his face. His brother had stuck his gun right into his wife’s face, hurting her. Then later, Pasha had returned to try to kill him again. He wouldn’t feel safe until Pasha was behind bars…or dead. In fact, he’d much prefer it if he was dead. But he had been a cop far too long. Having Pasha behind bars would be the better option. Not only that, they would be able to question him and find out just how bad things out ther
e were for them. Until that could happen, Robbie didn’t dare let his guard down at all.

  In his mind, he saw Pasha sticking his gun out of the craziest places. Everywhere he went he watched the corners of the buildings and all the dark places where someone might hide. When he and Shirley got home every night, it was all he could do to not make Shirley stay in the car while he checked all through the house for an intruder. Of course, he would have worried about Shirley being left alone in the car as well. It was a no-win situation there. Still, it seemed like every night after he got home, he found an excuse to “wander” around the house, quietly checking everywhere. Pasha wasn’t a stranger to breaking into people’s houses, and he knew it.

  -- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  Shirley didn’t know if she could relax or not. How many days had it been now with no sign of that gunman? Since he hadn’t come back, did she dare try to relax? Did she dare go even further and leave the gun out of her purse? Watching her husband though, kept her on edge. Robbie was doing everything he could not to show it, but she had been married to him for a long time. She could read him like a book. Her husband was going mad with worry.

  She didn’t miss the fact that shortly after they got home every night, he seemed to check on this and check on that, and in the process, literally go into every single room of the house, including the attic. She also didn’t miss the fact that he was still carrying his gun as he did it. She appreciated though that he was trying his best not to upset her, but his actions and moods did just the opposite. In return, she did her best to remain calm and casual, and act like she wasn’t nearly as worried as she really was. Did he know she was only acting? Did he know just how worried she was? Did he know how exhausted it was making her?

  -- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  Jenni sat on her bed. The gun that had been in her purse was on the bed in front of her. She had checked to see that it was fully loaded at least six times in the last day alone.