Radical

by Sijal Aziz

  “Wait, we should check in the archives”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know, people keep on changing their webpages. News companies, gossip columnists, etc. they keep on updating news and taking down the past pages. On the web, if once something is opened a sort of screen shot of it can be available later to be viewed. So, we may be able to see something even if it was taken down”

  “Ok good, let’s do it”

  “We also need to search by changing our search words, I am going with ‘Alexander Cooper and Jasmine’ now”, Kate said.

  On the 18th page in archives they found a picture of man and woman kissing in a car and the caption read, “Young Love! Is this Jasmine Khalid Al Abdali and Alexander Cooper?”. The picture wasn’t very good and seemed to have been taken from a moving vehicle.

  As they went on, they found more pictures of the couple at the museums, Euphrates river bank and hotels. Kate copied the news and the pictures and turned to Derek who was looking at her instead of the computer screen.

  “Well we found what we were looking for. Now we know what Alexander Cooper was doing in those six months. He was falling in love with Jasmine and spending his time with her. Now we need to know whether he broke up with her before she was killed or were they still in love when she was killed. Maybe the motive was love?”

  “So, let’s just assume he fell in love with this woman while he was in Iraq and then she gets killed and he comes back a changed man and takes his business to new heights just to destroy everything. I don’t buy that”

  “Maybe he was radicalized. Or maybe it’s money or love. The only three motivations that have made people do terrible things in the past and now are religion, money and love”

  “Yes, but these are all assumptions. We are assuming that he is the culprit. What if there is someone else at Kent and Cooper who is the culprit?”, Derek said out loud. It came out more like a thought than a question.

  “Well, if it helps with your question, Alexander Cooper was the only one I talked with about the backdoor. I didn’t share my findings with anyone else. So, it has to be him. Also, the person who murdered Ian Richards, is a good coder and Alexander Cooper is one of the best coders in the world”

  “Yes, it makes sense. But we need proof. You said that Kent and Cooper got a contract from the government to compile the drone policing software for them, right. Maybe the government asked them to leave the backdoor to keep an eye on the controllers”

  “They don’t need to do that. The software already contains application usage segment that records everything a controller is doing, so no one would require a backdoor”

  “Ok”, Derek looked at his wrist watch. It was already 7. He couldn’t believe how time had flown by.

  “I need to be at the station by 8, I will leave now and try to be back by 5:30. Can I take this hard disk with me? I will print out the evidence you have already emailed me and share it with Jeff”

  “Sure”, Kate got up and handed Derek the hard drive.

  “Thank you. Please make sure that you don’t go out unnecessarily.

  But if you really have to go out and you see anything out of the ordinary, like a person or a car following you, or if you see the same person or car twice, please let me know immediately”

  “I will”

  Derek walked towards the door and opened it, he then stopped and turned around, “I really enjoyed working with you today. Detective work is usually quite dull, but working with a fugitive sure spices it up”

  Kate laughed a little bit at his dark humor. It was true that she was a fugitive, but she was innocent. If detective Derek had done his investigation before taking her down for questioning, she wouldn’t be in this predicament in the first place. But he was helping her now and that was important.

  “I will see you in the evening Derek”, Kate said out loud.

  Derek closed the door and headed out.

  Simon arrived early outside detective Derek’s apartment. He could not see his car anywhere. He was debating whether to head to the station when he saw detective Derek arrive. Simon wondered where the detective had returned from. This was the second time detective Derek had disappeared on Simon. Simon knew that something was going on. He needed to tail the detective all the time and never leave him out of his sight.

  Derek went into his department and changed into his formal clothes and headed to the station with Simon following him. Even with little sleep Derek was in a happy mood. Either it was sex with Emily or his late night seating with Kate. He decided it was the latter.

  Once he was seated in his chair, he saw Emily looking at him from the coffee room.

  She was giving him a lingering look. He smiled at her and went to work.

  He turned on his computer and logged into his email address. From the corner of his eye, he saw Jeff approaching. He quickly turned off his monitor.

  “Detective I cannot find the hard drive from the car”, Jeff said out of breath.

  “I have it, Jeff, I gave it to a friend of mine. She has sent me some information. No one should know about this. Give me five minutes then come to my desk again and I will share that information with you”

  Jeff breathed a sigh of relief and left.

  Derek liked Jeff. He didn’t ask any unnecessary questions and did what he was told.

  Derek turned his monitor on again and took two copies of Kate’s document. He put one copy in his murder file on Matt and put the other one on his desk.

  Then he logged out of his email address. After exactly five minutes, Jeff appeared by his side. He handed the technical part of the document to Jeff, “Here you read this, while I will read mine. You can sit here on my desk, bring that chair here so that we can exchange notes once we are done”

  Jeff took the chair and started going through the document that Kate had marked as technical.

  After reaching the half of the first page, Jeff’s face lit up, “This is good. This is really good. Whoever your friend is, she is really good. This shows us the complete picture of how the car was hacked. It doesn’t just tell us it was hacked. It tells us the whole process. We can take this to detective Maurice Hammond at the Major Crash Investigation Unit. He will be obliged to you forever”

  “Not so soon Jeff. His investigation is linked to my investigation and I don’t want the suspect to know that we are onto him. So, detective Hammond will have to wait for some time”

  “Sure, you know better. I will go through the rest of the stuff and get back to you with my complete report”

  “Ok. But my friend also prepared a report for me. It doesn’t have the technical lingo like the one you have but it works for me”

  “Ok. I better read this further. This is really good stuff”, Jeff said waving the document in air to emphasize its importance.

  After reading the document Derek focused on his plan for the day. First order of the day was to pay a visit to Alexander Cooper. He picked up his coat and headed out of the station. He was at the elevator door when captain Todd sent for him.

  The door to captain Todd’s office was closed. Detective Derek knocked at the door, opened it and went inside.

  “This Hawkins case is taking very long. I need a timeline. When are you going to arrest her?”, Captain Todd almost spat out her name and it made detective Derek angry.

  “I am certain that we will have Ms. Hawkins in custody within the next few days. I am really close, and I have some really good leads”

  “You have one week to do this, otherwise I am assigning a new detective to this case”

  “I am on my way out to follow a really good lead. I cannot promise you that we will have her in custody in one week, but I promise you that I will try my best to do it in a week. I am very close captain. If you put someone else on the case, he will have to start from scratch, and I am at the end of this thing”

  Captain Todd looked at Derek more closely. There was almost a pleading note in detective Derek’s words. Detective Derek had always
had an aloof almost high headed attitude when he talked with Captain Todd. But there was something about the case that had changed him. Captain Todd liked it. He wanted everyone recognize his authority.

  “Ok. Detective, you have a week to fix this. After a week, I will assign a team of detectives to take over. I am done now”

  “Thank you, Captain”, Derek said with a sigh of relief.

  CHAPTER 26

  Detective Derek made his way out of the department and headed straight to Kent and Cooper. He was again greeted by Cooper’s secretaries. He had to wait in the waiting room for 30 minutes before he was ushered into his office.

  Alexander Cooper did not get up to shake detective Derek’s hand this time.

  “Don’t you work in pairs detective?”

  “We do, but at the moment I am the only one working on this case”

  “Detective, I am quite busy. Please go ahead with your questions so that I can get back to work”, Alexander Cooper said curtly.

  “Well that is what I am here for. Have you been able to get in touch with your HR department and inquire whether they did any background checks on Ms. Hawkins?”

  “Well yes, they have said that they did run background checks on everyone and that they must have made a mistake in Ms. Hawkins case. I have fired two members of the security team over this. I don’t want us to hire criminals”

  “Ok. As you know we are investigating everyone working with Ms. Hawkins, including you. Just so that we can get the whole picture on her whereabouts. I was making a timeline for everyone who was working with Ms. Hawkins and I cannot find any information of your whereabouts from July 2015 to October 2015. Were you in the country?”

  “What does that have to do with a fugitive on the run?”

  “It’s just that we think Ms. Hawkins cannot hide for this long on her own. There has to be someone who is helping her. We just need to do background checks on all the colleagues she worked with including you so that we can make sure someone from your office is not harboring her”

  “Detective Markus, I am a law-abiding citizen working closely with the government, why would I harbor a murderer?”

  “I know that, but I have to prove that you are not. That’s my job requirement. In order for me to take you off of our suspects’ list of those who could be harboring Ms. Hawkins I need that information”

  “In that case, I was in Iraq for some of that time and in United States for some”, Alexander Cooper almost spat out the words.

  May I ask what you were doing during that time because no one seems to know?”

  “You asked me where I was, and I told you. If you need more information, get int touch with my lawyer. Now I want you to leave”

  Detective Derek got up and left. His next step was getting in touch with the Iraqi Minister Khalid Al Abdali.

  Simon was following Derek everywhere he went. He knew that since the detective had gone to Kent and Cooper he must have talked with Alexander Cooper. He also knew that after the meeting Alexander Cooper will call him. He started his car and was about to turn it when he received the call.

  “Why in the fucking hell is it taking so long for you to find the bitch?”

  Simon did not like Alexander Cooper’s tone. But he was a big client who provided him with regular work, so it didn’t matter.

  “I am very close to finding her. Give me a couple of days and I will give you her body”

  “No, just find her. I will kill that bitch myself”

  “Ok. Mr. Cooper”

  Simon turned the car and started looking for detective Derek’s car, it could not be seen anywhere. He decided to head back to the police station hoping that he would see the detective’s car on the way. He saw Derek’s car parked outside the station when he arrived there.

  After reaching the station, detective Derek, googled the Iraqi minister’s phone. He was in luck. He didn’t just find Khalid Al Abadli’s office phone but also his cell number.

  He checked the current time in Iraq, it was 2 AM there. Detective Derek dialed his number and hoped that he would be up.

  The Iraqi minister picked up the phone on the 8th ring and barked something into the phone that Derek didn’t understand.

  “Mr. Abdali, this is Detective Derek Markus from the Washington Police Department. I have to ask you something very important and lives depend upon it. Are you free to talk right now?”

  Khalid Al Abdali took a few deep breaths and replied in a more sober tone, “Detective do you know it is 2AM here? Now what is so important that it could not have waited till morning?”

  “It’s about your daughter sir. I …..”

  Khalid Al Abdali didn’t let Derek finish his question, “What about her?”

  “Sir, I just need to ask you about her relationship with Alexander Cooper”

  “How can lives depend upon this stupid question. You are wasting my time. I am hanging up the phone and don’t call me until 9:00AM in the morning”

  He was about to hang up, when Derek added quickly, “It’s about her death sir”

  “What about her death?”

  “Sir, I am investigating a case and her death is closely linked to her. Please if you could just answer my questions, you could save thousands”

  “Well she was killed by one of your American drones. And this Alexander Cooper, he married her and didn’t have the courtesy to attend her funeral.

  She was going to have his child for god’s sake. That is what you Americans are good for”, Derek could hear the anger in Khalid Al Abdali’s voice. He hoped he didn’t hang up on him.

  “Sir, you said that Alexander Cooper married your daughter. Is there a proof for that, like a marriage certificate?”

  “Of course, there is, why would I make up such a thing. I belong to a respectable family”

  “I understand that, sir and I have great deal of respect for you. If it’s not too much to ask, can you please fax me the marriage certificate. I assure you that, if you do that you will save thousands of lives and I will make sure you are credited for your role in all of this”

  Khalid Al Abdali didn’t give a shit about saving lives, but if there was news coverage, it could mean he would become more popular than before not just in Iraq but also in United States. He calmed his voice down, “Ok. I have your word on this. I will be credited with having helped the Washington Police Department for saving lives?”

  “Yes, sir, you have my word on that”

  “Ok, in that case let me know the fax number and I will send you the marriage certificate right now”

  Derek gave him the fax number, thanked him and started pacing around the room waiting for the fax to arrive. It arrived after 5 minutes. It was just a piece of paper, but it was a magical paper that gave Derek, Alexander Cooper’s motive. He was a man in love, whose pregnant wife was taken away from him by an American drone and he wanted vengeance and what better way to get vengeance than by killing Americans with drones.

  Detective Derek finished working on his report but before taking it to his captain, he wanted to tell Kate the good news. He took out his car and headed to Kate’s apartment closely followed by Simon. He hoped Kate was in the apartment.

  Simon made sure that he kept a distance of at least 8 cars between him and the detective. But once they reached the outskirts of the city, there weren’t many cars around, so he kept a distance of at least 100 feet between his and the detective’s car hoping that detective Derek wouldn’t check his back-view mirror. Simon knew he would get his hands on Kate soon, and also his 3 million dollars.

  Kate was pacing around her room excitedly. She had just found out about Alexander Cooper’s motive. She had done hours long research on the internet and found what she was looking for.

  She had found a picture of Alexander Cooper’s marriage with Jasmine Abdali with a caption, “Minister’s daughter weds American IT Tycoon”. The picture and the news were on Google’s 130th page. It was as if someone had deleted all the other news linked to it but had overlo
oked this one. One of the reasons someone could have missed it was because there were no names mentioned in the caption. She was debating whether to call him or not.

  Derek parked his car in front of Kate’s motel and almost ran out of the car. Simon drove further on. Once detective Derek was inside the motel, Simon turned around and parked the truck at the back of the motel. He waited until he was sure detective Markus was not around and then went inside. The entrance hall was small with a small room on the left with a small glass window built into it. Simon was wondering whether the detective was in the motel to have sex with a whore or on something else. He didn’t mind waiting and investigating. He walked over to the boy behind the window.

  He took out a picture of Kate from his wallet and turned on all his charm, “Hi, is Ms. Katherine Hawkins staying with you?”

  The boy looked at the picture and responded in a disinterested mood, “No, I have not seen her here”

  “Are you sure? This is important, we have found her kid and we are working to rejoin her with him”

  The boy looked more closely again and responded, “No”

  “Mind if I look around”, Simon asked.

  “Sure, go ahead. We don’t run a tight ship here”

  Simon thought of something, “Come to think of it, has any single lady reserved a room here in the past week?”

  The boy didn’t like Simon. Something about him didn’t look right.

  “Mister a number of women check in and check out every day. Look around you, it’s a dump. We don’t keep a record of who checks in and who checks out as long as they pay the money”

  It was clear the boy was trying to hide something. If the detective wasn’t around, he could have shown him how to cooperate but right now Simon needed to focus on what detective Markus was doing here. So, he turned around and headed off in the direction of the stairs.

  Derek knocked on Kate’s door. She checked through the peep hole and opened the door.

  “I found something”, both of them said together.