MemoryMen

by Michael Binkley

  “Why?”

  “Khahil was a shit too. He figured if he had the cash and traveled in the right circles, pretty little American girls would fall all over him. Working at the prison didn’t provide enough cash so he freelanced for Langella.”

  “Freelanced?”

  “Fraud. Illegal adoptions. Unreported gunshot wounds. Anything that required a doctor’s signature or talents with no questions asked. Or maybe some quickie medical care on the QT, insurance fraud kind of things as well. Hasan did it all. Langella kept him in cash, drugs or girls, whatever turned him on.”

  “What about you? Why didn’t you divorce him when the time came?”

  “I thought it would be handy to have a doctor in the family. It’s sort of nice to tell people I am separated from my husband, the physician. Besides he treated me pretty well. I got my share of the proceeds so to speak. Then he set me up with the packages so I felt some strange loyalty to him. He liked having a wife as well, even if it was bogus. It made him feel he had a slice of the ‘America Dream’ for real, if you know what I mean.”

  “Yeah, I know. Everybody wants to say they have somebody,” Carly sighed as his own situation came bubbling into his consciousness painfully. “What about the boy? Is Hasan the father?”

  “No!” she laughed. It was the first sign the tension was melting within her since he had sprung the surprise on her. “No, not Khahil. Jason’s daddy was a nice graduate student from UNLV. It was planned on my part. I wanted somebody in my life too, just not a husband necessarily. Hasan was the closest I came to making that mistake and he was just for show. Anyway I dated the guy, checked him out very well, got pregnant and that was that. He never knew anything about it. He graduated and went back to Maine or some such place. He has a nice memory of a slightly older woman he dated, and I have my son. A pretty fair trade in my eyes.”

  A warmth crept into Carly’s eyes, “The best kind. Now let’s see to it Jason and his mom get to live happily ever after.”

  “How are we going to do that?” You said if you could find me, someone else could too. If I don’t have a package to deliver no one will believe me, then my son and I wind up dead. If I have a package, we still end up dead.”

  The realization of her position hit her abruptly and with great anger, “That son of a bitch Hasan. He set me up with a no-win situation. The only way I would ever be safe would be if he was safe. Once someone gets to him, they will eventually get to me, unless I go public in a big way and right away.” She whistled under her breath, “The little shit, he set me up and all for a lousy five thousand bucks.”

  “Then that’s what we need to do, get them out. Not to the press but to the police.”

  “Why the police? You aren’t a cop are you? You said you weren’t! It’s illegal to lie about that you know.”

  Reassuring her, “No, I’m not a cop. I was years ago. I’m just a freelancer myself doing some work with the Denver P.D. on this prisoner swap case. You turn those packages over to the press and you don’t know what happens. Some jerk somewhere will link it back to you and you are still on the ‘hunt list’. There is no anonymity anymore. A shit storm of media will be camped out in front of your house, your son’s school or your mother’s book club. Or worse, a reporter or blogger sells your information to the wrong people and they come after you to finish off the remaining witnesses.”

  “What do I do? I’ve hated this thing ever since Khahil gave it to me, now the reality of it hits home…right into my home!”

  “You’ve got four packages. We send one to my secretary in Colorado, she’ll keep it for me as insurance. We send one to the police Captain in Denver who is heading up this investigation. Another copy can go to a police inspector in Los Angeles who’s a friend of mine, just for safe keeping,” he lied. Finishing, he added, “The last one I’ll take with me. Between the four options, one has to make it to the light of day.

  She looked at him as if he were not real, “You are expecting trouble aren’t you?”

  “I told you Hasan was shot. They tried to shoot me, but I got away. The people responsible will stop at nothing to get their hands on the evidence you have. If Hasan dies, the only thing between them and a jail sentence or worse are the four packages you have. Like I said, if I found you, they will too.”

  Nervously Karla glanced over her shoulder with a furtive look, almost whispering in reply, she said, “So what happens to me. You take off with all the info and leave me sitting for the thugs? They come looking for something I don’t have and they will beat me senseless thinking I am lying when I say I don’t have anything. Then they kill me.”

  Trying to keep her calm and assuage her fears, Carly smiled, “You are right. Until we get these things out into the open, you are at risk.” Thinking quickly, he had a sudden idea, “Listen, if you want you can go to Colorado and stay at my ex-wife’s place. No one would look for you there. Joy’s a great hostess, you would be safe and sound until this whole thing blows over. Besides it’s summer time, your son would love the mountains.”

  “But what about you?”

  “Once I get these packages out and you and Jason are on a plane, I am off to Los Angeles.”

  Feeling better, or at least more secure, Karla smiled warmly at Carly, “You sure you have to go to L.A.? After all we never had our date, you could use some time up in the mountains too…”

  He smiled back, he was flattered and told her so. He had to be in Los Angeles. Joy was a great hostess, the best ex-wife a man ever had, but the limits of her hospitality and patience would come to a grinding halt just about the time Carly started showing up with an attractive woman.

  Despite the ever-increasing fatigue he felt set in, he managed to get Karla back to her apartment, meet her son, get the two of them packed, calm her mother down, and get the boy and his mom safely on a plane to Denver. Calling from the airport he mercifully got Joy’s phone message, so telling her about the guests arriving on the afternoon flight into Denver was quite easy. Much easier than telling her in person, he told himself. By the time Karla and Jason’s plane was airborne, Carly was on his way to a storage business to retrieve the four packages Karla had cached in a locker there.

  In the middle of the small storage unit sat a medium sized cardboard box. He opened it and found four small mailer boxes inside. He ripped one open and was pleased to see a small hard drive. A quick trip to an express mail service had three of the drives off to their respective destinations in California and Colorado. The fourth drive, Carly cradled in his hands as if it were the Holy Grail. Unable to control himself, he checked into a cheap motel which proudly featured on their sign, ‘Free WiFI. Clean towels’. While designed for various insipid forms of pornography, the room proved to be no less captivating for the Professor as he plugged the drive into the USB port of the large TV display.

  There in the desert Mecca of gamblers, Carly hit the jackpot. Hasan in his pathetic nervousness had exercised some uncanny shrewdness. With a hidden camera he had managed to capture Merriwhether and Oona making the arrangements with him to steal Petr Dombrowski from the State of Colorado, and a date with death.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The flight to L.A. seemed indeterminate in length. Like a kid before Christmas, Carly's impatience mocked him throughout the flight. He left a message for Dave Ramirez telling him to reach him at Diane's office. The next call he made got through to a rather irate Joy. She was none too pleased about his willingness to use her for a board and care home for wayward cocktail waitresses. As always though she trusted his 'police' instincts when he told her it was a life and death situation. She agreed to keep an eye out for the express package and secure it in a safe place. “Something other than your sock drawer,” he chided her laughingly, knowing it had been her repository for all things valuable during their marriage. By the time he disconnected the call, her anger had become what it really was, mild annoyance at his predictable un-predictability.

  He also tried to call Diane from the plane, but to no
avail. He left messages for her at the precinct and on her home answering machine, asking her to meet him at the airport. He hoped the drive nestled in his jacket pocket would prove to be the cathartic release she needed to overcome the grief of her sister's death. He also hoped the information would be his measure of redemption for the humiliation he experienced the last time he was in Los Angeles. Ultimately his true hope laying in the fact the video file would bring an end to the macabre science being practiced by Merriwhether and Oona. Unable to sleep, he spent the flight restlessly adjusting his long frame to the tiny seats, much to the annoyance of his traveling companion next to him. By the time he landed he was a nervous wreck. As he disembarked, the sight of Diane standing tall and beautiful at the end of the jet way pacified him almost immediately.

  They met with a silent hug, borne from feelings of many origins. The tears in her eyes saddened him, knowing the depth of her pain. “Diane, I'm so sorry.” She quietly nodded acknowledgement afraid to respond lest the emotions of the last few days overwhelm her. Without words she linked her arm in his as they turned to leave.

  Anxious to relieve her grief and buoy her hopes, he spoke cautiously trying to assure privacy in the crowded airport, “I've got answers, I can prove this.”

  Her eyes widened as Diane responded with a zest she hadn't felt in weeks, “You have? My God Carly, tell me how!”

  “Not here. Let's get outside. I've got a pretty good basis for my paranoia.”

  Hurrying their pace, they were to her curbside car in moments. Safe inside the Inspector's official car, he wove her the tale of his activity since leaving Los Angeles. She interrupted but once, asking him how he could prove such an unbelievable accounting. His response was to hold out the drive.

  “It's all here. I watched it. Hasan's quiet little proof of Merriwhether and Oona's plot to steal Dombrowski. There are three other copies, one to my ex-wife, one to Dave Ramirez in Denver, and one to you. There's enough here to bring Merriwhether and Oona in on charges. No sense playing cat and mouse with them, we can book them. If Hasan lives, then we've got them coming and going. Between the video file and a live cohort ready to tell it all, they don’t have a chance.”

  “Oh Carly, for the first time since Le's death I've got some hope. You don't know how bad it hurts. I'm the one responsible for catching the bad guy, and in essence he catches me. I lose a loved one and a career all at the same time. They haven't taken me off the case, but that damn Chief Michaels has had one of his lackeys from Headquarters bird-dogging me ever since you left. Officially he's acting as a liaison to the Chief but he's nothing but a snitch. He's confusing my men, replicating volumes of paper, and in general slowing everything down with the air of suspicion he's created. I think they would have replaced me, but with Le's death they didn't want to be viewed as insensitive. Can you imagine, despite everything going on they still are worried about their political image?”

  Her eyes alive with the potentials, she asked Carly, “I’ve got Oona coming in as we speak. Sully and a couple of others are bringing her in with her attorney.”

  “What about Merriwhether?”

  “We can’t find him,” she said to his great dismay.

  Disappointed, Carly knew Oona would be surprised. Whatever Oona thought was going on; she couldn’t possibly know what Carly had as evidence. “I don't know what she knows, if she knows anything yet. The authorities in Colorado seemed to think they could keep Brother Damien on ice for a day or two. Once he gets his chance to make a phone call, you can bet it will be to Merriwhether. It’s his only hope to keep in the doctor's good graces. Merriwhether will disappear, with or without Oona.”

  “We’ve kept this all very quiet. I prayed Oona’s attorney wouldn’t go straight to the Mayor, but he didn’t. So only a handful of people within the department know she is coming in today. With Deputy Chief Chapman on my tail, he'd might get wind of it somehow and mess it up. I don't think he has my phone bugged, but he knows everything that comes through my office.”

  With tears welling, she confided, “I wasn't able to take your call because we buried Le today. I was at the funeral. When I checked my messages, your coming was the only respite I could have possibly accepted or wanted today. But now I think we ought to do a little police work.”

  “How can you get an ABP out on Merriwhether without alerting this Chapman guy?”

  “I’ve got friends,” came the answer. “Chapman will get distracted. We can get it out right away. Do you think Merriwhether is still in town?”

  “He and Oona have their corporate headquarters here, so it's possible we might find him. I can’t foresee him leaving his grand work. I would imagine he will try to snag Dombrowski so we don’t get our hands on him. If he does leave, between LAPD and the Denver PD we can get a national manhunt going pretty fast. When Dave Ramirez sees that drive, Colorado will want a piece of him too. Hell when it comes to jurisdiction and determining the crimes, the two states will have a field day sorting it all out. In the mean time we know who the killer is in L.A., it’s a matter of finding him first. I would imagine if Oona wants any leniency, she'll cooperate with the manhunt. Who knows, she might know where he is.”

  Reaching the station, they agreed Carly should keep a low profile until Diane could get Oona settled in, lest Deputy Chapman found out and told the Chief. The last thing they needed at this point in time was hours, if not days of pointless delays while they convinced the Chief that Carly had been right all along. The video file notwithstanding, the Chief hadn't gotten over the embarrassment of the first press conference, and he would remain a very hard sell for a long time to come. They set up shop in a vacant interrogation room, while Diane set off in search for Sully.

  Carly got on the phone to Denver, as he sought an update on the situation with Hasan and Brother Damien. In moments he had his friend on the phone, the boisterous man was nearly yelling in the phone,

  “Amigo, you made it! I just got a package from you, what a show! I damn near thought it was a joke, but watching Hasan, Merriwhether, and Oona plot out their little scheme, I knew you had hit the mother lode.”

  “It's amazing, isn't it. They actually got away with it you know. We all thought for sure Dombrowski died, had he not resurrected in Los Angeles, who would have ever known?”

  Dave was quick with the comeback as he had time to think over the ramifications of Merriwhether’s handiwork. “We would have known, Carly. We would have known, because someday Merriwhether would have told us. I don't know what he had planned, but if it had worked, you can bet he would have told us all. He would have told the whole world.”

  Carly couldn't disagree, as the whole plot had to be linked to something Merriwhether could brag about and profit from. “But it didn't work. I'm surprised he hadn't gone underground as soon as the L.A. killings started. Maybe he figured no one would notice the similarities. Maybe he thought he could catch Dombrowski himself before the police did. He's a real piece of work, considering how much grief he gave me after the press conference. Hell, he should have been quaking in his boots.

  The son of a bitch must think he's unassailable,” Carly snarled, angry for the first time at how smug Merriwhether had really been. “Oh well, the last laugh is the kicker, and that one is going to be mine. Now tell me how are the good doctor and the mad monk?”

  “Good news and bad news my friend.”

  “The bad news first Dave, I think I can handle it.”

  “Hasan's dead.”

  “Damn, I would have like to have had him alive. An eyewitness to the whole Dombrowski snatching would have made a stronger statement in court. He'd have been credible support for his video. At any rate the file will still stand on its own.”

  “It won't have to. You still have an eye witness.”

  “What do mean?”

  “The good news...Brother Damien has rolled over on Merriwhether. He's singing like a rock and roll star. He's giving names, dates, places for all kinds of things. While he can't finger Merriwhether for
Dombrowski, he is admitting to Merriwhether ordering the hit on Hasan, as well as kidnapping you and trying to brain wash you. He's also talking about a number of wild experiments he's seen at Merriwhether's labs. Sounds like real Twilight Zone stuff.”

  “Such as?” Carly asked, finding it hard to believe anything could be more bizarre than Dombrowski roaming the streets of Los Angeles wreaking his demented vengeance on the rest of the population.

  “I won't even pretend to try and understand it, but it sounds like VR therapy…plus. You'd probably love it, you always were a sucker for that voodoo, psycho-techno crap.”

  “So how'd you get the Brother to talk? Rubber hoses, hot lights, water torture?”

  “I made him read your book,” Dave snickered. “Actually, I bluffed him. Told him we were bringing in Merriwhether for questioning. Then we'd make it look like Damien rolled on him. After it was all over and Merriwhether's high priced lawyers got the doctor out, we would just release Damien. Free and clear. He knew Merriwhether would have him dead within seconds of hitting the streets, so he changed sides. Must have figured the odds were better that we would catch Merriwhether, than if he tried to avoid him.”

  “Well my friend, you've done well. Keep Damien singing, and keep him alive. We are going to need him. In the meantime, Diane's trying to round up the lovely Oona now. LAPD can’t find Merriwhether yet, but Oona is the next best thing. This should make for a very interesting interrogation.”

  They hung up laughing at the thought of Merriwhether getting his own just desserts for once. By the time Carly had settled back in his chair, Diane came into the interrogation room. “Merriwhether isn’t in the office today from what we can tell. We’ve got people on the way to Merriwhether's home right now,” she said with the first grin Carly had seen all day. “We're keeping a low profile, so as to prevent spooking him, but Hernandez has the point on this and he has enough subtle back up support to assure there won't be any dramatic escapes...IF they can find him.”