Chapter 18 - The List
Ottawa, Fri May 14th
Jim skipped his coffee with Ben the next day so that he could be at his desk at 8:00am. As soon as he got to his desk he began working on his CCRA project, determined to get a working prototype to Alistair MacEwan by the end of the month. At 9:30am a courier envelope was dropped on his desk by the department’s mail delivery clerk. Jim looked at the waybill attached to the plastic courier envelope and saw that the return address was Toronto. He then grabbed the envelope and ran with it to the washroom. Relieved to see that the washroom was empty, he walked to the back and locked himself in the last stall. Sitting on the toilet, he pulled out a manila inner envelope marked “Personal and Confidential”, ripped it apart, and pulled out the contents.
Inside the envelope were three bank drafts and a letter. Hand written on linen bond, the letter read,
“Mr Kincaid –
Terrific job! This envelope contains half of your bonus. The other half is this – I have forgiven your loan. I hope we can do each other many more favours in the future.
Cordially,
Giuseppe Verde”
“Yes!” yelled Jim out loud. Then he caught himself. He would have to control himself, he thought. And he would have to wipe the silly grin off his face.
The value of the bank drafts which had been included with the letter totalled $25,000 and were for different amounts under $10,000 made out to Bearer. Jim held the drafts in his hands and squeezed them. His financial difficulties were over and now, with the loan forgiven, he was finished with Verde. And, Jim thought to himself, he had not been forced to do anything so very terrible. What had he been worrying about?
Jim folded the cheques and the letter and put them in his shirt pocket. He then returned to his desk and once again resumed working on his CCRA project. He had not been working long when his phone rang.
“Kincaid,” said Jim.
“Ah, Mr. Kincaid,” said the voice. “Did you receive the envelope?”
“Yes, Mr. Verde,” said Jim. Then, with much enthusiasm he added, “And thank you very much.”
“That’s fine,” said Verde, slowly and quietly as if to calm Jim down. “You did me two big favours and you did a very good job. Everyone here is very happy with the results.”
“Thank you,” said Jim.
Sitting on his patio, Verde looked down at an array of newspapers spread out on the table before him. On one of the papers was the banner headline “MI-5 enlisted to help with terrorists.” Verde smiled at the headline and then took a deep breath. The British would not be able to get anywhere either, he thought.
“Now Mr. Kincaid,” said Verde, returning to his telephone conversation. “I have a new list of work for you.” Jim started to protest but Verde ignored him. “Write these names down,” he ordered and then proceeded to give Jim a list of prominent politicians, lawyers, doctors, businessmen and clergy. “I need to know if any of these people are doing things they shouldn’t be doing. Just like you did for me last time.”
When Jim had written down the names and after Verde finished talking, Jim was speechless. He had thought his financial problems were over and that he was finished with Verde. Had he not done what he had been asked? Where was he now? This was not finished. This was escalating.
“Mr. Kincaid?” asked Verde. “Are you there?”
Jim did not know what to say so he just blurted out what he was thinking. “But, but I thought we were done,” he said frantically.
Verde laughed. “Done? Done? We will never be done Mr. Kincaid. You and I will continue to do favours for one another. This is a good business arrangement.”
“But I just wanted a loan. That’s all. I didn’t want a job.”
“This is business,” said Verde. “And in business you don’t let an opportunity get away.”
“But I want out!” yelled Jim.
“I’m afraid that is just not possible,” said Verde.
After the phone call Jim looked at the list of names he had written down. He recognised several and the rest all seemed somehow familiar. Verde was clearly giving Jim a shopping list for his next extortion round. Jim folded the list and shoved it into his pant pocket. He then sat staring at his monitor, thinking about this setback. This was big trouble, thought Jim. This was permanent trouble, he thought. There was no way out of this one. He was …
“Hey, what’s up?”
Jim looked around to see Ben.
“Ready for break?” asked Ben.
“Sure,” said Jim half heartedly.
“You look like shit,” said Ben.
“Thanks.”
At break time Jim was too distracted to notice the same man in the overcoat sitting at the back of the coffee shop. Jim was just too consumed by his predicament, without any idea how to get out of it. Ben and Jim sat down with their coffees.
“Did you hear?” asked Ben.
“Hear what?”
“NAT got another huge contract. It was in the paper this morning.”
“Where?”
“A steel company called CRS in Pennsylvania.”
“Cool,” said Jim, trying to sound upbeat. “Job security for us.”
“Exactly,” said Ben. Ben looked at Jim. “So?” he asked. “What’s up?”
“You’re not going to believe it,” said Jim, looking down at his coffee.
“Believe what?”
“Ben,” began Jim. “I’m in so much shit I don’t think there’s any way out of it.” Jim took a sip of his coffee.
“Not the loan shark again?” asked Ben.
Jim nodded. He could admit it out loud.
“I knew I was right when I told you to call the police.”
“Fine,” said Jim. “You were right. Now what?”
“First, tell me the latest.”
Jim pulled the folded letter and bank drafts from his shirt pocket. “Here you go. Here’s some of the latest,” he said, shoving the papers at Ben.
Ben unfolded the papers, read the letter, and flipped through the bank drafts. “Holy shit,” said Ben.
“My sentiments exactly,” said Jim.
Ben handed the papers back to Jim. “You have to call the police,” said Ben. “You’re in way, way over your head.”
Jim nodded to himself.
“You said some of the latest?” asked Ben.
“You haven’t seen all of it,” said Jim.
“What do you mean?”
Jim fished in his pant pocket and retrieved the list of names Verde had given him. “Try this,” said Jim.
Ben unfolded the list and read the names. “What’s this?”
“Those are Verde’s next targets,” said Jim. “And I’m supposed to dig up the dirt.”
Ben handed the list back to Jim. “Did I say you were only in way, way over your head?”
“Yep.”
“Well, I was downplaying it. This is really bad and, Jim, you’re not going to sort this out yourself.”
“I know. I’ve got to give this some thought though.”
“Don’t take too long,” cautioned Ben. “These people you’re dealing with probably aren’t used to taking ‘no’ for an answer.”
Jim knew that only too well and so he decided to change the topic. “Say,” he began. “I have a date with Penny tomorrow night. Do you think I could borrow your car?”
“Another date?” asked Ben.
“Yep,” said Jim, smugly, rubbing his finger nails on his shirt. He was trying hard to portray himself as more upbeat than he actually felt.
“No problem,” said Ben. “Cily and I are just going down to the pub tomorrow night.”
When he returned to the office, Jim decided to ignore the Verde list for the rest of the day and concentrated on working on MacEwan’s problem. He worked right through without a break and did not leave the office until after seven o’clock.
When he got back to his apartment he decided that he had to know what, if anything, the people on Verde’s list had
done. He retreated to his server room and began to research the people on the list, hoping that the information may help him get out of this predicament.
The first person on the list was another politician. Jim was surprised that the list had so quickly taken him so far from Toronto. The first name was the Premier of Manitoba.
He opened his hacking program and the animated White Cell logo appeared at the top of the screen. He entered his password and then moved through the various sections of the program, eventually finding the Premier’s credit card transactions. He quickly found a large number of transactions in Las Vegas. As he began to work through the Premier’s finances it soon became clear that the Premier was a big gambler who was very much overextended. Jim wondered if the Premier was already loaning money from Verde. He thought that very likely.
Jim skipped down the list to the names that he believed were all clergy. He picked a name he did not know and soon discovered that he was a minister in the United Church. Just as he did for the Premier, he looked through the minister’s credit card transactions but could not find anything out of the ordinary. He switched to the minister’s bank accounts and, again, found nothing unusual. He then switched to the minister’s e-mail and struck out there as well. Jim leaned back in his high back chair and scratched his head. Everyone Verde had placed on the list would have been there for a reason. What was he missing? Jim switched to the Google Groups web site to search the newsgroups but neither could he find any information there.
This was very unusual for Jim to reach a dead end. What was he missing? Whatever it was the minister was doing had to be occurring anonymously. The minister had to be covering his tracks. What about anonymous e-mail accounts? What if the minister did not use his Church’s e-mail for his secret? Switching tactics, Jim began looking to see if the minister had any free e-mail accounts on services like Yahoo and MSN. He had success on his first attempt. Hacking into the accounting server of Yahoo Jim found that the minister had an anonymous e-mail account called [email protected] and he did have a secret.
The minister was gay, had an American friend dying of AIDS, and was trying to financially support his friend’s medical treatment. The bills were crippling. Even though Jim could not found evidence of the money trail in the minister’s finances, the minister had clearly loaned money from Verde.
After these first two, Jim stopped investigating people on Verde’s list. He had confirmed that Verde’s list was real and that he could get Verde what he wanted. But Jim wanted out and so the next step was to find a way out of this mess. He began to look for more information on Verde and the people he worked with. He also looked for information on Michael Campanelli. He looked through Verde’s and Campanelli’s bank and credit card records but he could not find anything unusual. He also could not find a financial connection between Verde and Campanelli. After two hours of exhaustive searching, Jim began to accept the fact that these people covered their tracks much better than their victims.
Jim stood up and started pacing around the server room. It was now just after ten o’clock and he felt out of options. He was now completely under Verde’s control. Unaware of the time, Jim picked up the phone and dialled Verde’s number.
“Verde.”
“Mr. Verde, this is Jim Kincaid.”
“It is a funny time to call, Mr. Kincaid. Do you have the information already?”
“No, sir.”
“Then to what do I owe the call?” asked Verde.
“I would like to return then bonus and I would like to repay the loan,” said Jim.
“Why?” asked Verde. “Why would you do that?”
“I need my life back,” said Jim. “I need us to stop working together. I am a wreck with all of this spying.”
“Mr. Kincaid,” implored Verde. “What you are suggestion is a mistake. Keep the money. Forget about the loan. Do me a few favours and I will make you a very wealthy young man.”
“I’m so nervous about what I am doing,” said Jim, his voice now shaking. “I don’t think I can keep doing it.”
“Don’t worry about it,” said Verde. “You won’t have any problems. Trust me.”
“Please, sir,” implored Jim. “Please, I need things to go back to the way they were.”
“Enough!” Verde quickly turned from an understanding employer to an irate animal. “This is the way it is. You will do this work and we will pay you well. It is an equitable arrangement. Do not call me again about this.” Verde slammed the receiver down.
“Shit,” said Jim quietly as he hung up his receiver. Jim did not even have a way to pay back the loan and still Verde turned down repayment. More than frustrated, Jim felt isolated and very alone. He had nowhere to turn. Jim thought about what else he could do but came up blank.
Then he knew what he wanted to do. Lately it had always made him feel better. Jim dialled the number.
“Hello?”
“Hi Penny. It’s Jim.” And, with these words, Jim again felt relief in talking to Penny. And, for the third time since their first date and for the second night in a row Jim had a very long and animated telephone conversation with Penny. And this time they talked even longer, well into the wee hours of the morning. Jim, being Jim, did not realize it, but Penny had clearly become as interested in him as he was in her.
Chapter 19 - Date #2
Sat May 15th
Having been up very late the night before, Jim slept in, waking up after noon. As he got up, he decided to push Giuseppe Verde out of his mind for the day. Nothing good could come from worrying about the mess he had gotten himself into. He had a date with Penny tonight and he was not going to ruin it by worrying about something he could not fix.
Stumbling out of bed, Jim opened up the blinds, and was immediately blinded by the bright sunshine streaming into the room. With one hand over his eyes he retreated to the bathroom to shower and get dressed. When he was done, he picked up the newspaper outside his front door and glanced at the headline referring to the airport kidnapping: “Two weeks and Still No Progress”. Ignoring the rest of the paper, he spent the afternoon eating reheated pizza, drinking diet coke and watching a Steven Segal marathon on television. After watching two movies in the marathon he decided to shower again and get dressed.
Before leaving the office on Friday, Ben had given Jim his car keys, allowing Jim to go directly to the parking garage at Ben’s apartment building. As he drove to pick up Penny at her apartment Jim was contemplative. He had been looking forward to this date and yet, now that the day was here, he felt distracted. Though he had tried to put Verde out of his mind, he kept thinking about the mobster and his demands. He pulled up to Penny’s apartment building and found her waiting out front. She wore blue jeans and a pink top with thin navy lines running both horizontally and vertically through it. He thought she looked great. She opened the car door, sat down beside Jim and closed the door.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi,” he said. “Nice shirt.”
On the fifteen minutes ride to the restaurant they talked the whole time, talking about more intimate things than they had on their previous date or on their previous phone calls. Penny told Jim about old boyfriends and Jim told Penny how little he had dated because he found most girls so superficial.
“I agree,” said Penny. “A lot of girls are airheads. But it’s not just girls that are superficial you know?” She looked at Jim and gave him a big smile. Taking a quick look at her as he drove the car, he beamed when he saw that she was smiling at him.
The parking lot at Lone Star was so packed that cars had to circle looking for parking spaces to come free. Jim let Penny off at the front door to get a table. Ten minutes later, after circling the parking lot four times, Jim finally caught up to Penny in the restaurant. It took another ten minutes to get a table. As they sat down, a waiter approached them.
“Good service, isn’t it?” whispered Penny.
“Seems to be,” said Jim.
“Something to drink?” asked the wai
ter.
“I’m starving,” said Jim looking at Penny. “Do you mind if we order our food now too?”
“Not at all”, said Penny.
They both ordered draft beer. Then Jim ordered chicken fajitas and Penny ordered pork ribs. Jim just looked at her when the waiter left.
“What?” asked Penny, not knowing why Jim was staring at her.
“What’s with the pork ribs?” asked Jim. “You’re Jewish.”
“I think I know that,” said Penny indignantly. “What’s your problem?”
“Well, pork’s not kosher.”
“That’s okay,” said Penny. “I’m not kosher.” She was clearly annoyed but then she softened her attitude. “Look,” she continued. “You should know I spoke to Cily about you. I know you are Catholic and that you are kosher but I’m Jewish and I’m not kosher. It’s that simple. If anything, we cancel each other out. Between the two of us there is one Jewish, kosher person. Can we leave it at that?”
“I guess,” said Jim. “You’re just like Ben.”
“What do you mean?”
“He also doesn’t want to talk about it.”
“Instead of talking about Ben, why don’t you tell me why you’re a kosher? A kosher Catholic is kind of unusual, isn’t it?”
“It’s not unprecedented,” said Jim. “I found out recently that Seventh Day Adventists also keep many of the laws from the Old Testament. But my kosherness …” Jim stopped. “Is that a word?” he asked, and then he started again. “Anyhow, my parents felt that the rules from the Old Testament were just as valid as the rules from the New Testament so we followed both.”
“Interesting,” said Penny. “I always wondered why, if Christians were basically Jews who believed Jesus was the Messiah, they didn’t follow the Jewish rules.”
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