Counterfeit Road

by Kirk Russell

  ‘I know him.’

  ‘I know you do. He’s the one. OK, I’m going to get Coe. This is it, man. Don’t blow your one last chance.’

  FORTY-SEVEN

  The FBI flew Raveneau home late that night and the next morning he nursed a coffee in his early morning meeting with Lieutenant Becker. Becker held up an invoice from the film expert, Kelso. He shook it and the paper rattled.

  ‘I don’t get this invoice. You went outside. You hired Kelso. I thought the combination of our video unit and the crime lab had this case covered. Why did we need to go to an outside consultant, especially one I thought we all agreed not to use any more? Why him and what about the FBI? I thought they looked at the videotape.’

  ‘They’ve looked at photos and some old Kodachrome slides. They’ll take a look at the videotape when they can but they’re backed up with other film analysis.’

  ‘How can Kelso charge this much?’

  Kelso probably put in twice as many hours, Raveneau thought. But Kelso would negotiate. Kelso was film-obsessed. He didn’t care about anything else. He wore the same oversized T-shirt, shorts, sandals, and faded Giants baseball cap, rain or shine. He was overweight with a Santa Claus beard and a personal hygiene regimen that guaranteed him a private seat on a crowded bus. But he was a trove of information.

  ‘What did he do that we couldn’t do here?’

  ‘He validated that the videotape wasn’t a fake and that it was a copy made at the time. Without any information from me he came back with dates of 1987 to 1990 for when it was made and a lot more.’

  ‘Get his number down and I don’t want to see him in here yelling about getting paid faster. In fact, I don’t want to see him at all.’

  Now Becker shifted to Raveneau’s most recent request and Raveneau had a hard time reading him. Becker had quit the police department abruptly after the murder of his brother last year, but enough people, Raveneau included, wanted him back and he was reinstated after a leave of absence. He was different now though, more introspective, quieter.

  ‘I can’t recommend sending you back to Hawaii without more compelling reasons. Write up your request but don’t submit it. I told the captain what you told me, so he knows there’s a complaint coming. If it arrives as this Candel says it will it won’t sit on my desk more than a day before it goes to the captain. That’s the deal he and I have, and I’m not forwarding any other requests for travel until that’s resolved.’

  ‘Consider la Rosa going on her own.’

  ‘You’ve been working the case so I don’t like that idea, and you don’t like it either so don’t waste our time here.’

  They left it there and Raveneau’s cell rang as he left Becker’s office.

  ‘Inspector Raveneau, it’s Barb Haney. I’m sorry to bother you, but I think you might want to know this. My ex-husband, Larry Benhaime, is in San Francisco at the Four Seasons. He’s flying out later this morning and he doesn’t know I’m calling you. He’s in room 417. I just talked to him. He’s planning to stay in his room until a car takes him to the airport. You should catch him before he leaves.’

  ‘What should I ask him?’

  When Raveneau interviewed her in Truckee he knew she had something to tell him, and now maybe it was going to come out. The fluttery hesitancy with which Barbara Haney moved from topic to topic and room to room in the big house in the Martis Valley he read first as nervousness, later as something else.

  Raveneau was at the Four Seasons within an hour. He asked the desk to call Benhaime and now watched him step out of the elevator. They shook hands and Benhaime looked more curious than surprised.

  ‘Inspector, can we talk over breakfast? I’m starving and I can’t come to your police station. I’d miss my flight. What do you say we get some breakfast here and talk?’

  Benhaime ordered eggs and toast and coffee, Raveneau coffee. As soon as the waiter walked off with the order Benhaime started talking.

  ‘First thing is we lied to your inspectors, not something we normally did but this was at the request of your government. Barbara and I worked for the RCMP, Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the branch that preceded CAP, the Counterfeit Analysis Program. We weren’t newly-weds, but we were soon to be married so as a cover it worked. We had the honeymoon in reverse. For Barbara, that was the last undercover op. She had wanted out for awhile and when we married she quit.’

  ‘Are you still with the Mounties?’

  ‘Hmm, should have done this straightaway this morning.’

  He showed a badge. He showed ID.

  ‘Different group now, I’m with the Revenue Service, mostly in Asia, mostly in Hong Kong. Copy the numbers if you like. We were to meet Mr Krueger in front of the Ferry Building and we got there well ahead of time. We had him in sight. We were going to buy some counterfeit bills. He was approaching and then was intercepted by another man and headed off with him. We wondered later if the other man impersonated me.

  ‘We watched a bit and then followed, but far enough back so no one would pick up on us. It’s why we found his body. At that point, the best decision was to walk away, but Barbara wouldn’t have it. So we phoned it in and all the mess that followed came from that decision.’

  ‘Why didn’t you tell the inspectors?’

  ‘Your Secret Service asked us not to. They didn’t want to compromise their operation and given that we had already done all we could to help the police it seemed to make sense. But we weren’t as good on our feet as we thought and the one inspector in particular suspected we knew more. Don’t ask me how he knew, but he did. When he flew to Calgary looking to re-interview us we checked with your people first.’

  ‘The Secret Service?’

  ‘Yes, they were conducting their own investigation into the killing and on hold with their operation until they learned more. They didn’t come out and say don’t talk with the homicide inspector, but they did strongly imply they wanted us to wait. So we stonewalled him and he all but told us we were lying. He was close to correct but didn’t seem to have facts to back it up.’

  ‘Inspector Govich?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Who in the local Secret Service office knew about this?’

  ‘A fellow by the name of John Pagen.’

  ‘What were you going to get out of the meeting with Krueger?’

  ‘A batch of counterfeit one hundred dollar US bills. People Krueger was working with were doing test runs, exchanging hundred dollar bills for Canadian in Vancouver.’

  ‘Test runs?’

  ‘Yes, checking out the bills and the response they got, or more to the point, eh, the response they didn’t get. The bills passed easily. They were a remarkable step up. We were working with your Secret Service on this one and looking for the city of origin, looking for where these bills were bubbling out of. We couldn’t figure out where they were coming from. First ones showed up in Hong Kong, then the Philippines, and the Yanks said North Korea and pinned it on them, but we were never sure that was true of all the supernotes. Other makes, we thought.’

  ‘What do you think now? Where was the city of origin?’

  ‘I won’t say, but I will say we thought the work was too sophisticated for the North Koreans, yet the only people who could have helped them would have been Yanks.’

  ‘The North Koreans have built nuclear weapons and missiles. Why would money be hard?’

  ‘Look at the quality of their money, but there were other reasons. You asked and what I think is someone sold the right printing equipment and taught them how to use it. In other words I think your Secret Service was set-up by another agency in your government who wanted the Koreans for cover. Korean diplomats went out across the world with the counterfeit bills and muddied things up. That allowed those who thought up the scheme to start printing their own money. That money didn’t come from any Congressional appropriation. It didn’t have any oversight. It was money they could do anything they wanted with.’

  Benhaime’s eggs arrived and he took tim
e to pepper them before continuing.

  ‘Krueger wasn’t direct with your service any more. He was what gets called now non operational cover. He was in-between, feeding information home while making deals with the counterfeiters to get bills out and tested. Dangerous work. They were the very first of a run of extraordinary notes. Krueger was selling for them bills at a strong discount and taking some money and paying the counterfeiter, but we thought he was pocketing some too. He was dealing with criminal elements in Vancouver. We thought he got hit because they figured out he was stepping on the price and ripping them off. Are you with me?’

  ‘What were you going to pay for the counterfeit bills?’

  ‘We were hagglers. Thirty-five cents on the dollar, forty if we had to.’

  Raveneau returned to his earlier question. It was a true test since the Secret Service wasn’t contacted at the time.

  ‘How many bills were you going to buy in the meeting with Krueger that afternoon?’

  ‘When he called he said he had sixty-one, but was going to keep a bill, so sixty. Sixty bills for twenty-two hundred dollars, but we had planned to knock him down to a straight two thousand when we showed him our cash.’

  Raveneau nodded. He didn’t reveal it was exactly the right amount. But unless the Secret Service told Benhaime, how would he know? Goya and Govich said they never talked about the money with the Canadians, and Raveneau knew Benhaime’s credentials were going to check out.

  ‘Now Barbara wants it all to go away,’ Benhaime said, ‘and I’m with her. Enough time has passed. She was quite upset when you came back with more questions after all these years. Didn’t expect that.’

  ‘There’s a reason.’

  ‘Figured as much.’ He picked up his toast. ‘It’s why we’re having breakfast.’

  ‘How much of a look did you get of the man Krueger walked off with?’

  ‘Not much. He was at quite a distance.’

  ‘Have you got a laptop in that briefcase that will play a CD?’

  ‘It will, yes.’

  Raveneau pulled the CD from his pocket.

  ‘Change chairs with me so your back is to the wall and no one else will see it.’

  ‘Can I take my eggs?’

  ‘Sure, but it’s not very long.’

  ‘I don’t want them to get cold.’

  It took a minute to change chairs and for Benhaime’s laptop to boot up, and to reassure the waiter who came rushing over that nothing was wrong with their seating.

  ‘Just some porn to watch,’ Benhaime said, and showed the waiter the CD. He slid it in and the waiter lingered. Benhaime waited for him to leave then started it.

  ‘Tell me when you recognize Krueger.’

  ‘Ah, we’re there again. Was this filmed by your Secret Service?’

  ‘I don’t know who filmed it. Did they know you were meeting Krueger?’

  ‘They knew we were in San Francisco. They knew we were trying to set up a meeting with Krueger, but Barb and I didn’t tell them we had one arranged.’ He pointed at the screen. ‘There he is. Yes, that’s him.’

  ‘Who’s with him?’

  ‘I think it’s the man who intercepted him, can’t be positive but I think it is.’ Benhaime leaned over the computer. ‘You’ve got the whole thing.’ He watched the rest in silence and when he looked up he looked shocked. ‘He was actually quite likeable, even double-dealing. My God, this is hard to watch.’

  Raveneau reached over to Benhaime’s keyboard. He froze the frame.

  ‘Look at the face of the shooter. Is that who intercepted Krueger?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  When Raveneau turned they were eye to eye and not that far apart.

  ‘OK, you don’t know, so let me ask you about something you do know. Why did you strip his wallet?’

  FORTY-EIGHT

  Raveneau left Benhaime in the lobby of the Four Seasons and called Barbara Haney from his cell in his car. He wanted to reach her before Benhaime did.

  ‘That beep is him trying to get through,’ she said, and paused, possibly debating asking him to hold then deciding against it.

  ‘You had more communication with him than you told me.’

  ‘Did he tell you that?’ She didn’t wait for him to answer. ‘Yes, I’ve wanted to end this. He must have told you that I pushed for that. I’ve wanted that for a long time. Didn’t he say that?’

  ‘He did.’

  ‘But yes, Inspector, I did lie. I know that’s what you’re driving at. But I’m also the one trying to undo this whole thing. You understand that, right?’

  ‘Keep going, Barbara.’

  ‘But I need to know that you believe that.’

  ‘I do believe it.’

  ‘That matters. It’s really very, very important.’ He got it. He understood she wanted to undo some of what had already happened. ‘I’ve carried this. I’ve carried this like a weight for more than twenty years.’

  Without a pause she said, ‘We were waiting for him along the wharf between the Ferry Building and the pier just northwest of it.’

  ‘Alan Krueger?’

  ‘Yes, and he was with another man or he was intercepted by another man, I couldn’t tell. But he seemed to know him. I tried to tell who the other man was but they were far enough away and there was glare. I remember the sun off the glass on the building behind us. We didn’t really know what to do. In my purse was a small set of binoculars but it was awkward and there wasn’t much time to decide what we were going to do. Larry was adamant we meet him alone. We were dealing with Krueger only, so we backed up, we moved away, but it didn’t matter. Alan didn’t give any sign he was meeting with anyone.’

  ‘Where did you move?’

  ‘We continued down the waterfront in the direction of the bridge and they were coming toward us and then crossed and went among the cars parked under the freeway. There was a lot there. Well, you know that of course. We assumed the man either arrived unanticipated and Krueger continued with him toward our meeting place so we would see he wasn’t alone. Or he planned all along to introduce us to him. But our instructions were to meet Krueger alone, so for us the meeting ended when this other man showed up.’

  She drew a deep breath. Raveneau heard it. What was coming was still emotional for her.

  ‘So we followed. Larry wanted to know who the other man was but it was more difficult now because their backs were to us as they moved through the cars into more shadowy light. It was a winter afternoon.’

  ‘But it was sunny.’

  ‘Yes, yes, there was light reflecting off the windows while we waited for him, but it didn’t last long or there were clouds. I don’t know. It just got darker and they moved past the cars and toward two support pillars for the roadway above. We lost sight of them and we waited for them to come back into view, but they didn’t. You have to understand our view was blocked by a pillar.’

  ‘The man with him?’

  ‘I don’t know where he went. He just sort of melted away and yes, I did hear something. I heard a pop, pop, pop, and thought it was a car backfiring, but now I’m sure it was something else. Oh, that’s a lie, that’s a lie, I’m doing it again. Oh, God, why can’t I just do this, what is the matter with me?’

  He heard her gasp. He heard something close to a sob.

  ‘I heard shots. I heard them and when I saw him on the ground I knew that’s what they had been, but I told your inspectors I didn’t hear anything. Our orders were to be truthful to a point but to disengage.’

  ‘Those were your instructions?’

  ‘Yes, we called in before reporting the murder. It was presumed your Secret Service would be involved in the investigation.’

  ‘Where did he go?’

  ‘The other man?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I wondered if he had a car parked in that lot or someone waiting in a van or something and he stayed low and got to his ride. He must have driven off somehow.’

  ‘How long did you wait?’
/>   ‘We were cautious. We proceeded toward the pillars and saw him lying there. When we didn’t see the other man we moved in. You want to know how long, don’t you? It was less than five minutes.’

  ‘Did you see anyone else watching?’

  She hesitated and Raveneau knew he was giving her an opening.

  ‘Possibly.’

  ‘Possibly you saw someone else?’

  ‘Yes, and we were watching everyone of course. We assumed the man meeting with Krueger might have backup or accomplices.’

  ‘Backup? Did you think he was with the Secret Service?’

  ‘Until we saw him lying there we thought it possible. There was another man who seemed to be lurking in the car lot. He was taking too long and making too much of a fuss about rearranging things in his car, but he was there before they crossed the street.’

  ‘You were able to make out his face.’

  ‘Somewhat. Not well.’

  ‘You had your binoculars out now.’

  Again, she hesitated.

  ‘Yes, but that man left before we passed through the cars. He backed out and left and we went forward and found Krueger. We checked to see if he was alive. No, Larry checked. I didn’t check. I saw his skull. I saw he was dead. It was obvious he was dead.’

  ‘Was Larry looking for the counterfeit bills?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Let’s talk about the wallet.’

  ‘Yes, I lied to you last time we met. We left the passports but we wanted the rest of the ID, credit cards, driver’s licenses, and we wanted the counterfeit money. Larry didn’t find the money. It wasn’t in the wallet and we thought the man who shot him took it.’

  ‘You knew San Francisco police would investigate.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘So why did you strip his wallet?’

  ‘We had our own investigation and we turned the effects over. Your Secret Service got them. We didn’t leave the country with any of it, just copies. The actual documents we mailed to your Secret Service office in San Francisco and we confirmed they got them. It was understood they would turn them over to the homicide inspectors.’