WASHINGTON DC: The Sadir Affair (The Puppets of Washington Book 1)

by Lavina Giamusso

  “Top of the morning to you, Mr. Van Dams. Billycan here.”

  “I’m on it, Billycan,” Van Dams answered gruffly.

  “On what?”

  “I gathered you’ve seen this morning’s paper and the photo of your alarmist—and that’s what you’re calling about. Right?”

  “Right. When will you get an answer for me?”

  “In a couple of hours—if he’s still in town.”

  “Not good enough, Van Dams. Make that 9:00AM, before I get into court. And I’m not interested in who he is as much as I want to know where he comes from—what’s his relationship with Mossad, if he’s got any. You understand what I’m saying?”

  “How do you know he’s Mossad?”

  “Long story, Van Dams. I just do, and that’s all you need to know.”

  “Okay, I’ll call you back before 9:00—if I’ve got your answer. If not I’ll leave a message.”

  “Good enough. Oh, and before I forget; you should send me those communication records you’ve got between Lypsick and Sadir, which you seemed to have omitted to transfer to my office before the trial started.”

  Not waiting for an answer, Billycan hung up and went back to eating his breakfast.

  Chapter 66

  The first thing Billycan noticed when he entered the Judge’s chamber that morning was the paper lying on top of the desk. Silverman pointed at the headline. “Could you tell me what this is all about, Mr. Billycan?” He had dispensed with the usual greetings. “But more importantly, what is the jury to understand by this warning? It says the man told you to watch your back. Sit down!” he ordered. Billycan did. “Who’s this Agent Lypsick they mention in the article? Has he got much to do with this case? I thought I read something about him in the briefs you’ve submitted, so please, give me a quick rundown before Mr. Simmons gets here, will you?”

  Billycan nodded and crossed his legs. “All I can tell you is that Agent Lypsick is a CIA agent, but I’ve discovered last night when I interviewed Agent Meshullam that he’s pulling strings for Mossad as well.”

  Silverman didn’t move an inch. His eyes were fixed on the US Attorney. “Are you telling me we’re looking at a threat from Mossad?”

  Billycan shook his head and uncrossed his legs nervously. “No, Your Honour, I don’t believe that’s what the message meant. Agent Meshullam, who’s been with the agency for many years as you know, contends that Mossad is actually trying to protect my office from making a mistake and that we should set our sights on Agent Lypsick to avoid a disaster.”

  “And what does that mean for this trial? That’s what concerns me.”

  “It means nothing at this point, Your Honour. The jury will simply read that someone is warning me against a man named Lypsick. And since the name has not been brought to their attention yet, they shouldn’t be able to connect this incident with the trial.”

  “I hope for your sake they don’t, Counsel, otherwise, we’ll be looking at a motion for a mistrial from Mr. Simmons. We can’t have another suspect running around while we’re trying Mr. Sadir. I urge you to think of the possibility…”

  At these words, the two men heard a knock at the door. “Come in,” Silverman said, putting the paper face down.

  “Good morning, Your Honour. Mr. Billycan,” Simmons said, entering the judge’s chamber hesitantly, the paper folded under his arm.

  “The reason I called you both in chamber this morning, gentlemen, is simple.” Silverman got up, took his robe from the hook behind the door, and put it on, leaving no time for Simmons to open a discussion on the subject of the newspaper article. “I have reviewed the evidence you presented yesterday, Mr. Billycan, and there seems to be a question as to where Agent Meshullam was located at the time of the accident.” He sat down at his desk again. “We have a set of conflicting evidence and we need to clarify for the jury whether Agent Meshullam was in Mr. Assor’s SUV at the time of the accident or if he was in the house across the street.” He rested his eyes on the US Attorney. “Have you been able to make some headway in elucidating this mystery, Mr. Billycan? Sit down, Mr. Simmons.”

  The defence attorney did and put the paper in his lap.

  “Yes, I have, Your Honour,” Billycan replied. “I have interviewed Agent Meshullam last night and he assured me that he was in the house across the street taking aim at the time of the accident.”

  “No, Your Honour, he wasn’t,” Simmons burst out to the judge’s utmost surprise. “I have a witness that saw Agent Meshullam exit the car just after it rammed into the tree.”

  “It can’t be…”

  The judge raised a hand to stop Billycan. “And who might that be, Mr. Simmons? Will you produce this witness during your defence?”

  “Yes, Your Honour.”

  “Then I repeat, who is this witness?”

  “He is a neighbour who witnessed the accident.”

  “And did he recognize Agent Meshullam?”

  “Yes, he did, Your Honour.”

  “Did the investigative officers have an opportunity to put Agent Meshullam in a line-up for the witness to make an admissible identification?”

  Billycan smiled inwardly. Samuel never travelled to Flint to be interrogated. He was never in a line-up.

  “No, Your Honour, Agent Meshullam was not available at the time of the investigation.”

  “Then how can you be sure this witness is reliable, Mr. Simmons?”

  “Because he saw Agent Meshullam and Mr. Assor together the day before.”

  “I see.” Silverman rose from the chair and so did the lawyers. “I’m not going to tell you how to do your job, Mr. Billycan, but if I were you, I would want the rifle identified along with any prints left on it as soon as possible.” He took a few steps toward the door. “And, I want the handprints evidence clarified. We can’t have unfinished business, if you get my meaning.” The attorneys nodded and walked out with the judge.

  Simmons rushed down the corridor and into the courtroom. He needed to talk to his second-chair before this morning’s proceedings started. “Gill, get on the line with the District Attorney in Flint,” he said, panting and sitting down. He leafed through his witnesses’ list and pointed at a name on it. “And tell him to bring this guy in.” Gill was already on his feet when the judge entered the courtroom. Simmons grabbed Gill by the sleeve. “And when they locate him, fly him down here today.”

  The lawyer exited the courtroom as the bailiff declared the court in session.

  “Your next witness, Mr. Billycan,” Silverman said amiably.

  “I’d like to recall Mr. Lieberman to the stand, Your Honour.”

  “Is Mr. Lieberman available to take the stand this morning?”

  “Yes, Your Honour, he is. He’s in the hallway.”

  “Very well then... Bailiff, would you bring Mr. Lieberman in, please.” Silverman shot a thin smile in Billycan’s direction. The US Attorney returned the smile with a nod while the witness made his way to the witness stand.

  “Thank you for coming back, Mr. Lieberman.”

  “You’re welcome, Judge,” the forensic expert said as he took a seat.

  “You’ve been sworn in already, so we’ll proceed directly... Mr. Billycan, please.”

  Billycan got up and went to the evidence table. He picked up the handprints plastic pocket and took a few steps toward Lieberman. “I am showing you Exhibit 3, which you identified yesterday as the handprints of Agent Meshullam, is that correct?”

  “Yes, those were made by Agent Meshullam, yes.”

  “I think we all agreed that these handprints were made by Agent Meshullam at some point in time...” Billycan paused meaningfully. “But what you could not determine for us was when the prints were made, isn’t that right, sir?”

  “Yes, that’s right.” Lieberman looked up at the judge. “May I make a comment here, Your Honour?”

  “Is the comment relevant and will it clarify the matter to which you are testifying, Mr. Lieberman?”

  “Yes, Your Hono
ur, it is.”

  “Any objection, Mr. Billycan?”

  “No, Your Honour, none at this time.”

  “Very well then. Go ahead, sir.”

  “Thank you, Judge.” Lieberman turned to the jury. “The handprints that we lifted from the SUV were made by Agent Meshullam—they matched this person’s prints on file—but they may have been made elsewhere and transferred to the dashboard. However, to transfer prints of any sort requires great care. If we were talking about a finger print or a thumb print that would be an easy task, but two whole handprints would be very difficult and practically impossible to transfer.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Lieberman. Mr. Billycan?”

  “Thank you, Your Honour. Okay…, Mr. Lieberman, let me ask you this then; could you tell when prints are actually made by someone or simply transferred onto a surface?”

  “Yes. There is often missing ridges or particles that are absent from any print that has been transferred from one surface to another.”

  “Have you performed any test to determine whether these prints were transferred onto the dashboard of the vehicle?”

  “No. We didn’t see the need to do so.”

  “Oh, I see.” Billycan appeared disappointed. “And who determines whether a test is needed or not?”

  “The investigating officer does in most cases.”

  “And in this instance, no one asked you to carry out any further test on this evidence, is that correct?”

  “That’s right. Once we identified the handprints to belong to Agent Meshullam, we didn’t go any further.”

  “Then would you say these prints could have been transferred onto the dashboard—is that possible?”

  “Yes, that’s a possibility.”

  “Okay. Now, I’d like you to turn your attention to the open car door of Mr. Assor’s vehicle, which you determined to have been opened after the accident occurred. Could you tell this court how you arrived at this conclusion?”

  “Yes…, well…, we introduce the speed of the vehicle on impact and the metal stress into several formulas and we then determine whether the door hinges have been affected or distorted during the accident. If, as in this case, the force of the vehicle ramming into the tree did not affect the hinges, then we concluded the door could have been opened after the accident occurred.”

  “Let’s see if I understand this correctly; you’re saying that according to your calculations and given that the door hinges were not affected by the accident, someone could have open the car door after the accident occurred—is that your testimony?”

  “Yes, sir, that’s what it amounts to, yes.”

  “Very good. Let me ask you this then; did you find any prints on the door itself that would indicate that someone opened the door after the accident?”

  “Well, again, sir, that’s difficult to say. We’ve found a few prints on the door, yes, but we cannot determine when these prints were made.”

  “I see, but did you determine who these prints belong to?”

  “No, sir. None of the prints belonged to anyone on file, no.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Lieberman. I have no further question for this witness at this time, Your Honour.”

  The judge nodded and looked down at Simmons. “Mr. Simmons?”

  “No question, Your Honour, thank you.”

  “Very well then... Mr. Lieberman, you may step down.”

  Chapter 67

  In the interim, Marcel had called Thomas Peterson and had asked that he be ready to take the stand later that morning. “It is about time we get these IM communications into evidence, as Samuel suggested,” Billycan had said.

  “The Prosecution calls Thomas Peterson to the stand,” the US Attorney said as soon as Lieberman had left the courtroom.

  His suit and tie looked awkward on him. The young man was not used to wear such restrictive attire and it showed. After being sworn in, he stepped up to the witness chair and sat down, a look of fear mixed with curiosity masking the line of his youthful face.

  “Thank you for coming in on such short notice, Agent Peterson,” Billycan said as he approached the witness. “But we needed to clear a few matters regarding your involvement in the surveillance of the exchange of correspondence between Mr. Sadir and other people in this case.” Thomas nodded, putting his folded hands between his legs shyly. “You have been employed by the CIA for how long now?”

  “About five years, sir.”

  “You were quite young when you joined the agency then, weren’t you?”

  “Right out of MIT, sir.”

  “When were you assigned to oversee the exchange of correspondence between the people involved in this case?”

  “I don’t rightly know when, sir. I was assigned to quite a few surveillance, transmissions, interceptions, interpretation at once and it’s difficult to say...”

  “I see. Would you then say it was about two years ago that your involvement began. Is that a fair estimate?”

  “Yeah, I’d say it would be around that time.”

  “And you have a supervisor, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, Camy, I mean Agent Cameron Sheffield is my supervisor.”

  “Is Agent Sheffield the only person giving you your assignments?”

  “Mostly yes, sir.”

  “There were other people who assigned such surveillance to you then?”

  “Yeah…, but see we’ve got a lot of agents working on all sorts of projects all over the place and I get asked to interpret coded or encrypted messages a lot. Camy only looks after the big operations.”

  “And in this instance, did Mr. Sadir, at any time, ask you to do anything in particular?”

  “A couple times, yes, he did.”

  “And what did he ask you to do, do you recall?”

  “Well…, I think the first time was when the guys were trying to get a handle on Agent Slimane.”

  “You mean, Ishmael Assor?”

  “I only knew him as Agent Slimane. We’re not told of the agents’ aliases—for security.”

  “Okay…, but are you aware now that Agent Slimane’s real name was Ishmael Assor?”

  “Sure, the Deputy told us and then I read about him in the papers.”

  “Are you telling this court that you never came across any sort of communications mentioning the name of this agent before Mr. Van Dams told you who he was?” The witness shifted in the seat uneasily.

  “Objection, Your Honour, asked and answered,” Simmons blurted from his chair.

  “Overruled!” Silverman snapped. He wanted to get the truth out of the agent. “Go on, Mr. Billycan.”

  The US Attorney bowed and returned his attention to the witness. “Agent Peterson, are we to believe that you didn’t know Agent Slimane’s real name, when you are the one person who can access information of this kind at the tip of your fingers any time you choose? And please remember, you’re under oath.”

  Thomas raised his head, a pleading look on his face. “Well, I wasn’t supposed to know…, but I got curious when the guys were following Agent Slimane’s movements in Paris—before he was brought back to the States.”

  “So, you knew his name then, did you find out anything else about the man while you looked up his name?”

  Thomas nodded. Meanwhile, Judge Silverman had his eyes on the witness. “Yes. I found out that he was from Israel and that he had been trained by Mossad.”

  Billycan didn’t want to stare but he did. Regaining his composure quickly, he turned to the jury. “Are you telling this court that you knew who Agent Assor was and that you were aware of his background with Mossad?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Okay then, and what did you do with this information, if anything?”

  “I gave it to Agent Sadir here.”

  “And do you know what Mr. Sadir did with this information?”

  “No, sir—not for a fact, no.”

  “I see. Let me ask you this then; why did you give this information to Mr. Sadir and not to Agent Sheffield, yo
ur supervisor?”

  “It’s because Agent Sadir was the one following Agent Slimane’s movements in the first place, and then I didn’t actually know what else to do.”

  “Could it be that you would have been facing sanctions if you had revealed your findings to your supervisor?”

  “Yeah, I’d say so.”

  “Why was that?”

  “Well…, I’m not supposed to pull any intel on the agents I’ve got under surveillance.”

  “Okay…, we’ll get back to this a little later.” The witness nodded gratefully. “Let’s move on to something else you discovered.” Thomas nodded again while Billycan took a few steps to his table and grabbed a folder. “I have here a couple of “Instant Messaging” communications that have been exchanged between Mr. Sadir and Agent Lypsick.” He turned to Silverman. “Your Honour, at this time, if I may be permitted to introduce Agent Lypsick to the court…”

  “By all means, Mr. Billycan, go ahead.”

  Then to the jury, “Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, up to this point the name, Jack Lypsick, has not been mentioned during these proceedings. In order to remedy this lack of identification and provide you with appropriate background information, I will now tell you that Agent Lypsick is a CIA agent of long standing. He has overseen the activity of many important operations overseas on behalf of the agency and has a blameless record.” Billycan turned abruptly to Thomas. “Do you know Agent Lypsick, Mr. Peterson?”

  “Only by name. He’s never been in the office—not in my section anyway.”

  “Okay, and what does his name tell you?”

  “Well, he’s way up there—close to the Deputy—as far as I can tell.”

  “When you say ‘way up there’, do you mean he’s high up in the pecking order?”

  “I don’t really know, sir. I just assume he’s close to the top…, but he’s always in the field and we don’t see him around the departments.”

  “I see, but you’ve collected Instant Messaging and other form of communications between him and Mr. Sadir, have you not?”

  “Yes, sir, I did. The Deputy asked me a while ago to monitor their communications, yes.”