Counterfeit Road dbr-2

by Kirk Russell

  Brooks stepped back and looked away. He had a new suit and a different haircut that left him with a smooth hard clean look. He wasn’t suffering in the shadows. He led Raveneau to his computer and brought up a PDF file.

  ‘OK, there you go. Now you can read and chase ghosts. You were in Hawaii working a cold case when the bomb casings got lost and now you’re home focused on this murder that probably no one will ever solve. But, hey, working it fills the days and someone has to care for those lost souls. And that’s fine. There’s a place for it. But is there a need for it with all the other things going on right now? You have talent at investigating. You’ve got experience. You know this city. You shouldn’t be spending your days on Alan Krueger’s murder. He’s been dead for a long time and these missing bomb casings are an absolute priority.’

  ‘Slow down, Brooks.’

  ‘No, I’m going to say what I think. That surveillance got botched because we weren’t there and SFPD’s Criminal Investigation Unit was left sitting in the back seat on a critical, critical surveillance. Of course, ask the FBI and they’ll tell you about how they trained this team. They trained this city, that city, these state police, they’ll give you their whole big brother academy rap. But you and I know ninety-five percent of FBI agents can’t do surveillance. Half of them look alike. Doesn’t even matter what color their skin is, they still look like they came from the same factory and when they go anywhere they go in pairs, so pretty soon you’ve got a car parked down the street with two guys in it who look pretty much the same. What are you going to think when you see that?’

  ‘I’m reading, Brooks.’

  ‘Yeah, yeah, you read, you read, Raveneau, but you know what I’m saying. You know I’m right.’

  Raveneau read the usual federal forms. He read the notes on Krueger quitting, two paragraphs devoted to making clear the time, date, and moment Alan Krueger made the decision for ‘personal reasons’ to ‘resign’ from the Secret Service. It was recounted in plain language that Krueger did twice while on duty falsely report his whereabouts for which he was reprimanded later after the false representation was exposed. The facts of the reprimand included the name John Pagen, presumably Krueger’s supervisor. He went through each page again slowly, this time copying down some of Krueger’s background information including the years of his military service.

  When he finished he sat in the chair for a few minutes thinking about it. What he read was sanitized. There was really nothing there yet he did get a name, John Pagen. If Pagen was a supervisor then, he was retired now. He might be in the area still.

  Raveneau read and took notes, then left quietly. He preferred not to see Brooks on the way out. He would find Pagen. He’d stay focused on this case that mattered the same today as it did when the Canadians found Krueger’s body in 1989. From his car he called Secret Service headquarters in Washington, identified himself and said he was working a cold case from 1989 and trying to get in touch with a retired agent named John Pagen. He gave his name and cell number and knew the first call would be to the Homicide Detail to confirm he was who he said he was. If alive, Pagen would have a Fed pension and one way or another Raveneau would find him. He didn’t expect to find him that afternoon, but that’s what happened. Pagen called him later in the day.

  ‘I retired in 2002,’ Pagen said, ‘and I’ve been working harder ever since.’ He laughed. ‘I inherited my father’s ranch outside of Marysville. We grow pistachios and prunes.’

  ‘How do you like it?’

  ‘I love it. Maybe if my career had been something I’d feel differently, but I love growing things and being outside when I want to. I did know Alan. I knew him fairly well and liked him. He was quite talented and bright. He saw the world turning into a global mix long before the rest of us in that office. That’s how he ended up working the Asian end. You’re wondering what he was working on when he was killed?’

  ‘I am.’

  ‘I’m assuming you know he was there on his own by that point, three or four years.’

  ‘I read his resignation letter this morning.’

  ‘Right, the resignation, that was another thing again. He and another agent had a personal animosity. They couldn’t stand each other.’

  ‘I’d like to hear about that.’

  ‘Will talking about it get you closer to who killed him?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Well, I’ll meet you or you can come up here if you want.’ Raveneau jotted down directions. ‘If you pass Mariani plant number two, you’ve gone too far. But we can do this over the phone too. You can call me any time.’

  ‘You said you knew Alan fairly well. Did you know any of his friends?’

  ‘Are you asking about the boyfriend?’

  ‘I’m wondering about a Jim Frank and a Tom Casey.’

  ‘I know the names and I know he had a photo on his desk with the three of them in it. The boyfriend I never met and I don’t think Alan set foot in our office again after he resigned. I got him his first work in Hong Kong though. We had a lead, Alan spoke the language, and his counterfeiting work was very respected at headquarters.’

  ‘Was that a lead about counterfeit one hundred dollar bills?’

  ‘No, I think it was about twenties. We had a lot of twenties floating around for awhile.’

  ‘He had sixty-one hundred dollar bills on him when he was killed.’

  ‘I remember, and they were brought to our office. They weren’t counterfeit.’

  ‘A videotape of the murder was sent to us. Literally, the last few minutes of Alan’s life, and I’ll show it to you when we meet if you want to watch it. I wouldn’t watch it if I were you, but I’m telling you because it’s why our Cold Case Unit picked this one up again. I checked the bills out of evidence and the Secret Service took another look and came up with a different conclusion.’

  ‘Is that right?’

  ‘I have to take them at their word.’

  ‘They aren’t going to lie to you.’

  ‘Of course not.’

  ‘We made mistakes like everyone else.’

  It happened very fast. The hale, good natured sounding man who had answered the phone and seemed more than willing to do what he could to help, now lost spirit and said quietly, ‘I’m afraid of where this is going. There was talk at the time, but Alan was killed before the first supernotes were found. That was in the Philippines. It was a banker who picked up on them. If Alan had been alive we might have asked him to go there and work with the agents we sent.’

  ‘You do know where this is going.’

  ‘Alan was carrying supernotes?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I have to think about that. Why don’t you give me a few days? Can you do that?’

  ‘I can.’

  ‘And I’ll make some calls too. Some of us are still around. Tell you what, I’ll call you. If I call Homicide do I ask for the Cold Case Unit?’

  ‘Just ask for me.’

  ‘You’ll hear from me soon.’

  FORTY-TWO

  ‘ Inspector, did I catch you at a bad time? If so, I’m sorry. I don’t always think about mainland time.’

  ‘I planned to call you anyway.’

  ‘Then I’m glad I beat you to it.’ Casey coughed heavily. As he recovered he said, ‘I’ve caught some damn cold. I apologize how things ended. I read too much into you going out to the air base after leaving here. I figured you’d call him. I didn’t mean to focus any suspicion on my friend and he was upset you followed him. He told me you trailed him all the way to the restaurant.’

  ‘I called ahead and he was fine to meet at the base, but not when I got there and I’m like you, I’m getting more ornery as I get older.’

  Casey chuckled, coughed because of it.

  ‘That’s because I told him you’d gone into Jim’s house without permission. I let him know that I wasn’t sure about you. But now that I’ve had some people check up on you I feel better. You’ve got a reputation for getting the job done.
Anyway, as we got to talking I suggested he come into town and told him I’d buy him dinner. Blue Dragon is where we usually meet, so that’s what we did. It was a chance to catch up with Victor. Life hasn’t been fair or easy for him. He had some bad luck early.

  ‘When you showed up at the Blue Dragon I thought, well, he’s flown all the way here and now he’s trying to make something happen, trying to connect dots that don’t connect. I know that’s not what you’re doing, and really I’m impressed that San Francisco still cares about what happened to Alan to spend time and money on trying to solve the murder. So I’m calling to see what I can do to help. Were those photos any value and did you give the boy his?’

  ‘I did.’

  ‘Did it mean anything to him?’

  ‘Much more than I would have thought.’

  ‘That means something to me.’

  Raveneau thought it might. He wasn’t quite sure why Casey was calling though. But he was fine with talking to him.

  ‘You know Alan’s boyfriend had more problems than I mentioned. Thames did eighteen months in prison in Florida for ripping off twenty-two cotton tops who thought they were buying their sunny retirement homes. He owed the IRS about one hundred and ten thousand as Howard Wright and they were looking for him. The Marlin Thames social security number he bought in Los Angeles.’

  The first part Raveneau knew about, but not the rest. He couldn’t help but wonder how much Alan Krueger knew.

  ‘One agent there figured him out and went after him, and I know you and I already talked about that. But I remembered his last name. It’s Pagen and he was probably the best friend AK had there. If he’s still around, he’ll remember what happened. I heard about him for years and met him at the service for Alan. He’s someone you should talk to.’

  ‘I just talked to him.’

  ‘See, there you’re ahead of me. Maybe we’re on the same wave length. I’m also calling about someone else I remember and please don’t think worse of me for not remembering this name until you flew home. There was a young Hawaiian woman Jim lived with for several years. She was from the other end of the island down near the volcanoes. Her family is probably still there. She was half Japanese and around when AK was coming through on his Hong Kong runs. She was an artist, beautiful water color artist, very detailed drawings. Beautiful body, too, graceful, gentle, a bright young woman, and I’m surprised I can’t remember her name. But I will soon and I’ll call you. She would have heard a lot of the conversation in that period of time. She might remember something that helps you. Are you making any progress?’

  ‘Some progress and thank you for calling about this woman whose name you can’t remember.’

  ‘You’re worse than me, you know that.’

  ‘No, I appreciate the call but let’s talk more about Victor Shay. What did you mean about his bad luck?’

  ‘He wasn’t always a gunnery officer. He was once a young hotshot pilot. He started having vision problems and they found a brain tumor. When they operated it turned out to be benign but the operation caused swelling that they didn’t know how to deal with as well as they do now. He was bright and then he wasn’t so bright. Still smart enough, but not quite the same. I saw guys get ruined by war but this was sadder in a lot of ways. Eventually he got restored to active duty but the tumor clocked his flying career. That’s why he’s a forty-five year old with a low rank. That’s probably why I jumped you so hard. I’m protective of him.’

  He coughed again.

  ‘I’ll remember her name and I’ll call you.’

  ‘Before you go, let me ask you something.’

  ‘It wouldn’t be a complete conversation with you without it ending with a question. Go ahead.’

  ‘When was the last time you were in San Francisco?’

  ‘It’s been awhile.’

  ‘What about Matt?’

  ‘He travels with his coffee business. You’ll have to ask him.’

  ‘You don’t know.’

  ‘I got in trouble for speaking for Shay so I’ll let Matt speak for himself. He’s got a mind of his own. I guarantee you that. He took that gun of his up there to Jim’s house to confront you and I don’t like that. I told him not to.’

  ‘Whose idea was wearing the mike?’

  ‘Mine. But that comes from using walkie-talkies around here and because we did have a problem with squatters for a little while. It was a safety thing and maybe you don’t believe that, but it’s true.’

  ‘It’s hard to believe.’

  ‘It probably is but then I don’t give a damn whether you believe it or not. My only interest in you is that you solve AK’s murder. I’ll let you get back to it.’

  ‘Call me when you remember her name.’

  Casey didn’t hear him. He’d already hung up.

  FORTY-THREE

  Thomas Casey disturbed la Rosa. His calls were aimed at getting information, not offering it. But of course Raveneau knew that. Since returning from Hawaii Raveneau had taken calls three or four times a day from Casey. She watched his face as he talked to Casey. She saw the notes he wrote. The cryptic quality of those notes was a little bit of a running joke in the office, but the same inspectors came to him for help in solving cases. What he wrote after this conversation with Casey was the word ‘prunes.’ What did that mean?

  She questioned him as they got in the car. ‘Is he calling to remind you that you trespassed on his property and went into the house?’

  ‘He lets me know and you should know I’ve talked with the lieutenant and the captain about going into Jim Frank’s house. I also called the Hawaiian police. They thought I was crazy since no complaint was filed. But if it’s a crime it’s a local crime. They should know about it.’

  ‘What you did isn’t breaking and entering. He’s working it. He’s working you as he tries to make it into something.’

  ‘Of course he is, but we need him. He’s the best source on Alan Krueger we’re likely to ever have, so if he wants to call fifteen times a day that’s fine with me. He likes to talk and he fishes for what I’ve learned as he eases out more possible leads, so there’s some sort of game underway, but he did tell me today about a young woman who lived with Jim Frank during the years Krueger came through. On one of the next calls he’ll give me her name.’

  ‘He’s dropping bread crumbs for us. It’s time to confront him. You’re being played and you’re going along in part because he’s got this leverage over you for trespassing and going into the house.’

  That was going to make him angry and she didn’t really believe what she had just said, but she sensed he needed a push. He glared at her now.

  ‘So far he’s showed you his photo album and talked about what good friends the three of them were, yet he doesn’t really know what his good friend AK was doing with the counterfeit money. I don’t believe that. I don’t believe him. If Captain Frank was ferrying counterfeit money and whatever else in his luggage, then they all knew about Krueger’s operations. He gave you Victor Shay’s name then warned Shay. He can’t remember the name of a woman who lived with his good friend for years in the house up the slope. He remembers. You know he remembers. He’s doling out information.’

  Raveneau didn’t answer.

  ‘He’s controlling you and you’re going along with it because you’re worried about what you did.’

  ‘Do you really believe that?’

  ‘It’s what I just said.’ After a moment she added, ‘No, I don’t think that, but I do think you’re giving him too much room. He knows more and he should give it to us without the telephone dance.’

  ‘He feels some responsibility for Krueger’s death. I don’t know why. That’s what I’m working towards.’

  ‘I think you need to confront him.’

  Raveneau didn’t say any more until they got to the Embarcadero and parked. La Rosa thought this was going to be another look at where Krueger was videotaped and shot and where the Canadians crossed and how it all fit together. Raveneau liked to r
eturn to where the murders happened. He thought you could pick up a vibe from a place, an idea she entertained but didn’t believe in. Maybe if it ever once helped solve a case she would start believing. She didn’t see the point in driving here other than to talk away from the office. She rode with him today but she was agitated and less patient.

  ‘Brooks let me read the Secret Service’s personnel file on Krueger. He built it up as being something and it didn’t turn out to be much of anything. He made the offer, and then dodged me for a week and a half. I read it this morning and got one name out of it, a John Pagen, and it turns out he was the special agent in charge at the time. He’s the one who accepted Krueger’s resignation and helped him get the outside contracting work. I got a phone number for him and talked to him. I told him the bills Krueger was carrying were supernotes. He was surprised that the Secret Service now identifies them as the first supernotes. When I talked with Casey today he gave me one new name. What do you think that name was?’

  ‘Pagen.’

  ‘That’s right, John Pagen, now what do you make of that?’

  She didn’t know what to make of it and Raveneau gestured in front of them.

  ‘Brooks and I took a drive after the bomb casings were lost. That drive finished here or this was the goal. Brooks believes the President is the target and the bomb casings tie to the counterfeit bills.’

  ‘He’s said that several times, hasn’t he?’

  ‘He has and he knows this visit will get canceled, but what he’s trying to communicate is how worried and powerless he feels to protect the President. The explosive power these bombs could generate scared him to his core. We drove a route the President could take after giving a speech about the new subway system in Union Square. He’s supposed to come down here and ride the light rail with the mayor and a senator. That’s the part that Brooks worries about.’