by Irving Munro
It took Bill Ross a week to get these permissions in place and to coordinate with the Karlsruhe and Heidelberg police and to make arrangements to meet with Claudette Weiss in Heidelberg. It was made clear that Miss Weiss was not a suspect and that the reason for the trip was simply to gather as much background as possible on Mike Muguara and his company, Geist Reiter GmbH.
With all the needed authorizations and paperwork in place, Bill flew out of Houston to Frankfurt on United Airlines flight UA8867. Julian Hernandez had approved a business class ticket, so Bill was able to stretch out on the sleeper seat and get some shuteye for the ten-hour flight.
The Airbus touched down in Frankfurt thirty minutes ahead of schedule at 8 a.m. local time. Bill could see the snow being blown across the runway as the wide-body jet negotiated its way to Gate16A at terminal one. He shivered in anticipation of the cold weather he knew he would have to endure in his few days in Germany, but also with the excitement of the chase. What mysteries would he uncover about the life of Mike Muguara, and would it bring him any closer to finding his killers? Only time would tell.
For even the most seasoned traveler, a ten-hour overnight international flight is exhausting. Bill navigated his way through the river of humanity in the airport terminal as multiple wide-bodies disgorged their contents in the early hours of the morning. It got worse when he hit the lines for immigration control. What appeared to be thousands of people were moving through the control barriers left and then right, single file, weaving their way ever closer to the uniformed border control agent to present their paperwork and hopefully gain entry to the country without further delay.
Bill had some advantage over most others that morning; he was a business class traveler and could therefore access the shorter lines for preferred travelers. He looked on with genuine pity at the families with young children enduring the economy class lines. He guessed that they could be in line for hours, their kids tired and hungry, with no understanding or appreciation for the delay.
And then it was over. He emerged from the customs hall with his luggage and he saw the sign immediately: “HERR ROSS,” held high by a young police officer in his light blue uniform and white-topped hat. He had obviously drawn the short straw to be the one to drive to Frankfurt that cold December morning to pick up a Texas police officer. Who knows what this young man expected to see, and Bill was tempted to joke about needing to pick up his horse and saddle from the oversized luggage area, but thought better of it.
“Herr Ross, my name is Officer Hartmann, pleased to meet you. Is this all of your luggage? We have a short walk to the car. Would you like to take a coffee and perhaps a croissant to enjoy on the drive to Heidelberg? It should only take 30-40 minutes,” said the young, nervous officer.
Bill declined the kind offer of coffee and climbed into the back of the Mercedes police car with its light blue and silver livery. A few minutes later on the 5 Autobahn South to Heidelberg, Bill was glad he had made the decision to pass on the coffee. The young officer was in the fast lane doing 160 kilometers per hour. Bill’s knuckles were the color of the falling snow as he hung on for dear life in the backseat, squeezing his eyes closed for extended periods, almost terrified to open them again.
~
They made it safely to Heidelberg and Officer Hartmann helped Bill get checked into the Crown Plaza in the center of the city. Bill’s legs were still shaking from the terror of the high-speed drive as he provided the young desk clerk with his identification. On completion of the check-in process, Officer Hartmann considered his duties to be successfully completed. He shook Bill’s hand, wished him a pleasant stay and clicked his heels. He then saluted and was gone in an instant.
The Crown Plaza is the best “American” hotel in the center of Heidelberg. The Old Town is a short walk away as is the main bridge over the river Neckar to the Neuenheim area of the city. Bill would need to take that bridge to get to Ladenburger Strasse where the offices of Geist Reiter GbmH were located and where he had scheduled to meet Claudette Weiss the following morning.
He had a short nap to recover from his travels. Around three in the afternoon he got up, showered and wrapped himself up in coat, scarf and hat and went out for a walk to the old city. He walked along Bismarkplatz and then turned onto Hauptstrasse toward the old town.
~
In December the old town of Heidelberg transforms into a winter wonderland of outdoor markets. It was getting dark and the snow was beginning to fall when Bill reached the main section of the market. There were traders as far as the eye could see lined up one after the other, selling their wares in stalls set up for the season. Each stall was festooned with Christmas lights twinkling in the night sky.
There was every conceivable Christmas ornament and traditional German gingerbread baked goods on sale. The food and drink stalls were packed to overflowing with market-goers having their fill of Gluhwien, a local hot-spiced wine, to keep out the cold and add to the Christmas cheer. Hot steam rose from the cooking and the air was heavy with the smell of grilled bratwurst, onions, hot chocolate and roasted nuts. Children were yelling and carolers were singing. Bill tried to take it all in and he let it engulf him like the warmth from a raging log fire on a cold winter’s night. It was perfect. Welcome to Germany, he muttered to himself as he smiled and sipped on his Gluhwien.
~
Bill slept well after his Christmas market experience, and he rose early to have breakfast with Erwin Gunst, whose title was Polizeioberkommissar, which roughly translated was a senior inspector role, and Markus Schweible, Kriminalkommissar, a plainclothes detective, similar in rank to Tommy.
After the initial exchange of pleasantries, the three got down to discussing the case and the planned meeting with Claudette Weiss later that morning. Markus was able to bring Bill up to speed on what he knew about Geist Reiter GbmH. Marcus had done considerable research since his preliminary telephone discussion with Bill the week before.
Mike Muguara had established Geist Reiter five years earlier after leaving the U.S. military. He had been stationed in Stuttgart and had fallen in love with Germany and decided to stay there. He formed a partnership with a German national, Saul Weiss, and his partner, Henri Hoffman. They were joint owners of a company that traded in diamonds. Mike provided security services to Saul and Henri and to other rich business executives who traveled internationally. Saul and Henri had both invested in Geist Reiter, giving Mike the working capital he needed to get his security business rolling. Claudette Weiss was Saul Weiss’s granddaughter.
As far as Markus could tell, Mike Muguara would do all the security work personally for executives traveling in Europe. For those traveling to the U.S. he would travel there with them or hand off the assignment to one of his three associates in the U.S. They would be able to find out more when they met with Claudette.
~
When they arrived at the office of Geist Reiter, they found that it shared the same building as the Weiss & Hoffman diamond business. Security to gain access to the building was only marginally easier than getting into the vault at Fort Knox.
It was a four story grey stone building in the oldest part of the town. Bill speculated that it probably had not changed much since WWII. Claudette greeted them as they exited the 1920s era elevator with its metal expanding safety door. She led them into a small conference room where coffee and water awaited their arrival, as did Saul Weiss.
They all shook hands and sat down. Bill felt the tension in the room. Saul Weiss was not a happy camper and it was obvious that he was uncomfortable that there were strangers in his inner sanctum, let alone German and U.S. law enforcement.
“Before we start, may I look at everyone’s official credentials. please,” said Saul Weiss with a fair degree of controlled aggression in his demeanor.
With their credentials reviewed. Saul continued on. “Do you have positive identification that the deceased is Mike Muguara?”
“We are not one hundred percent,” said Bill and it was obvious that
this answer did not sit well with Saul. Before Saul could further vent his obvious anger Bill continued, “However, we are better than ninety percent. I would say that only when we can match DNA will we be one hundred percent.” This seemed to calm Saul down a bit.
“So, you have come a long way, Officer Ross. How can we be of assistance?”
“We need to try to find out why Mike Muguara was in the USA and why he was using the name of a long-dead military colleague,” said Bill.
At that Claudette and Saul Weiss looked at each other, Claudette obviously waiting for her grandfather to give her the okay to talk. Before he did that, the old man looked at the two German police officers and made an opening statement.
“For the benefit of Detective Ross, I will continue to speak in English. Polizeioberkommissar Gunst, this is a murder enquiry, yes? To answer the questions that this U.S. officer may have, I need your assurances that anything we say about our business here today is private and only for the purposes of helping the officer find the killer or killers of my friend and colleague Mike Muguara. You have my assurance that there is nothing we are doing in our business operations that is illegal, but others could construe our processes as being so if they twisted the facts to fit their own ends. Do I have your word that what we discuss here today will be held private between us and not used to prosecute us in any way later?”
There was a long pregnant pause and Bill felt for a moment that no such agreement would be reached. He was both amazed and relieved when Ernie Gunst responded.
“You have my word.”
“Good, then let’s move on. Go ahead, Claudette, and answer Officer Ross’s question,” said Saul, now beginning to look a little less agitated.
“The answer to the first part of your question, Officer Ross, is that Mike used the name of Raul Hernandez for two reasons,” said Claudette. “One was to stay under the radar in the security work he undertook and the second was for tax purposes that we need not go into here. He would occasionally employ his friend Joe Nichol to help him in larger jobs in the U.S. and Joe would use the alias of Jimmy Martinelli.
“To the second part of your question, why was he in the U.S.? I am not completely sure, as I was not fully informed as to the details of each assignment. Earlier in 2013, after he completed another corporate assignment, Mike had taken a few days off to try to track down his birth parents. His grandparents in Oklahoma had raised him but he promised himself that after leaving the military he would try to find out who he really was.
He had made some progress in the search for his birth parents’ identity when he had to return to Germany for another European assignment. A couple of months later he went back to the U.S. to continue his search, and this time when he returned he became very secretive, very distant. Something had changed him. I could tell, Detective, because Mike was not just my employer, he was my lover.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry for your loss, Miss Weiss, condolences,” said Bill with respect, and his words were not lost on Saul Weiss, who silently nodded his thanks.
“He seemed to be carrying a lot of cash, Claudette, was that usual?”
Again Claudette glanced over at her grandfather and it was he who now spoke.
“He did this, of course, to avoid being traced through credit card transactions. He flew back and forth from here to the U.S. using his own identity and then once in the U.S. he became Raul Hernandez. His role in my business was not only security; he was also a courier for my diamonds, taking them to my brother’s operation in Houston. My brother would give him cash that he would then use for his expenses, allowing him to become Raul Hernandez,” said Saul.
Bill Ross shot a quick look at the two German policemen and they rolled their eyes, now realizing why Saul Weiss had asked them for the earlier commitment to secrecy.
“Would it be possible to get access to his apartment, Claudette? I’d like to take a look around and see if there is anything that might help with our investigation.”
“We lived together in the apartment upstairs, Detective Ross. There is nothing related to the business there. I keep personal items Mike and I bought together, but there is nothing related to the business in the apartment. We were very diligent in keeping the activities of the business out of our personal life.
“Everything related to the business is either on my laptop or his. We were very concerned about data security in our line of work. He used a laptop with a separate removable hard drive for external data storage. We kept nothing on the Cloud, everything on removable hard drives, so if someone stole the laptop there would be nothing on it of any significance. I am happy to take you through my files, but I dealt mostly with finance, not operational matters.”
“There is one place that you might want to check out, Officer Ross, and that’s a storage unit that Mike kept in Houston. I can give you the address and send an email to the management there that you are authorized for access.”
“That would be very helpful, Claudette. What did he keep there?”
“Not sure, I didn’t ask. I didn’t interfere with operational issues and that’s why even though I had not heard from him for almost a year, I didn’t get too alarmed. He had done this before, being gone without contact for over six months or more at a stretch, and then he would email to tell me he was coming home.”
“So what happens to Geist Reiter now?” asked Bill.
It was again Saul who provided the answer.
“The business will be closed down. Mike left very explicit written instructions with me in the event of his death. The business has a little over five million euro in cash and other assets. Twenty percent is to be given to Claudette and the balance is to be paid to a law firm in Oklahoma as a donation to the Penateka tribe. As you probably already know, Detective, Mike Muguara was Comanche Indian.
“One final question for Claudette, if I may,” said Bill.
“Do you have the contact details for Joe Nichol?”
“The only way they communicated was via text, email and instant messenger. I can give you that information. I have no phone numbers or a mailing address,” said Claudette.
“That will be good, Claudette. Oh, I almost forgot, could I have the name of the law firm in Oklahoma, please? I don’t know if it might help but it’s another piece of the jigsaw puzzle.”
Saul agreed and gave Bill the information he requested. They all shook hands and the meeting ended. Markus and Ernie drove Bill to the Holiday Inn at Frankfurt airport. The following morning Bill flew back to the U.S.
Chapter 20: Joe Nichol
Bill Ross was still suffering from jet lag the following morning when they all met again in the conference room to update the white board on what they now knew and to agree on next steps.
“Very successful trip to Heidelberg,” said Bill, kicking the meeting off and providing a written report on his trip to Germany.
“Some of the smoke is now clearing on this. We now know that Mike Muguara used the name Raul Hernandez when engaged in security assignments in the U.S. We can say with a fair degree of certainty that the person who bought the clothes from Martha Goldman was Mike Muguara and that he is our victim. We’ll not be able to be one hundred percent certain on this until we can match DNA.
“A storage unit was opened a couple of years ago in the name of Raul Hernandez at the U-Haul center by the Greenspoint Mall close by the Houston Airport. Claudette Weiss will contact them and get us clearance to open this unit. She has no idea what the contents might be, as she consistently stressed that she was never involved in operational matters. It will be interesting to see what that storage unit might contain.
“We also have new information that Mike employed his friend and ex-member of the Spirit Riders, Joe Nichol, to do occasional security work for him in the U.S. and that when Joe engaged in this work he used the alias of Jimmy Martinelli. We need to track down Joe Nichol and see what he knows, if anything. We have email info for him but nothing else.
“The final piece of information that I
found out in Germany and could be relevant is that upon his death he stipulated that most of his financial assets were to go to the Penateka Indian tribe. The financial transaction was to be managed by a law firm in Lawton, Oklahoma named Corbin, Clayton and Anderson. We need to talk with them.
“One other thing. We need to do more work on the BMW; it could still be helpful in providing clues if we could track its movements from the time it was rented from the George Bush Airport until the time it was discovered in a parking lot on Lamar Boulevard.
“That’s it from me,” said Bill.
“Marie and I met with Latisha Williams. We have her agreement to work with us in return for getting an exclusive to the story when we fit this all together,” said Tommy.
“I have contacted Julian Hernandez and he has agreed to help in the research on Venture Point Holdings, the conglomerate behind the development at Whispering Hollow and Venture Point,” continued Marie.
“Then there is Jimmy Rodriguez,” said Bill. “Let’s not forget that piece of work. We need to learn more about his activities and his limo driver, the guy with the Hugo Boss leather jacket.”
“I also need to get back to Chief Dunwoody. We still have nothing from Special Forces Command on the service records of Mike Muguara and Joe Nichol. Some of the information might not be needed now, but we still need to track down Joe. We have the email info you brought back from Germany, so I guess that’s where we should start.”
“Okay, action items,” said Tommy getting everyone’s attention.
“Dad, you take the Joe Nichol connection and the storage unit in Houston. You can stop by M & J Fine Clothing when you’re there and thank Martha from all of us as it was her clue about the shoes and the BMW that really got us rolling on this.
“Marie, you continue your work with Julian Hernandez and ensure that Latisha is focused and is not tempted to do anything dumb.
“I will see if I can get more information on the movements of the BMW and get back out to Whispering Hollow and meet with Jimmy Rodriguez and his driver. He doesn’t know me, and I can keep quiet on what we know based on your day of golf with him, Dad. I’ll use the ’routine inquiries’ mode to try to put him at ease.”