Goliath

by E. A. Briginshaw

  “I’ve already told everything I know to Detective Benedetti and his partner,” Henry said.

  “We’re aware of Detective Benedetti’s ongoing investigation about the missing plane,” Officer McKee said. “We’re investigating a separate matter. We’d like to talk to you about some suspicious activities of your brother discovered by CSIS. Could we come inside to ask you a few questions?”

  Henry knew that CSIS was the Canadian Security Intelligence Service but something about these officers didn’t seem right. Before Henry could respond, they both stepped through the door and walked over to sit on the couch. Office McKee pulled a folder out of a briefcase he was carrying and put it on the coffee table, opened the cover and turned it so that Henry could see it. It showed a series of about a dozen pictures.

  “Do you know any of these people and are you aware of any relationship between them and your brother?” Officer McKee asked.

  Henry felt like he was being grilled and thought about asking them to leave, but relented and looked at the photos on the page. “Of course I know who some of these people are,” Henry said. “Some of them are quite famous. That’s Edward Bronson, and that’s Frenchie Bouchard from the sports channel. I know my brother sold them some suits.”

  Henry scanned the rest of the pictures. All of them looked familiar to him, but he couldn’t place exactly who they were. He thought one of the pictures looked like Donald McTavish, the managing partner from the Chicago firm, but Henry wasn’t sure so didn’t say anything. “Oh, that’s David Suzuki,” Henry said when he recognized another face. “He’s the guy who used to host the science show on TV. I don’t think my brother knows him at all.”

  Officer McKee turned the page to reveal another page of pictures. These were less familiar faces, but one picture almost jumped off the page. “That’s Greg Blackwood,” Henry said. “He works at the same law firm that I do. What’s this all about?”

  “We have some information that some or all of these people, including your brother, have been involved in some kind of secret network,” Officer McKee said.

  “You think they’re spies?” Henry asked, incredulously.

  “We didn’t say they were spies,” Officer Wilson said, speaking for the first time. “We’re not sure what they’re involved in but we’ve had a request from a foreign government to investigate suspects within our jurisdiction. We’re not aware of any solid evidence that Mr. Bronson and your brother were killed in a plane crash, just that they’ve gone missing.”

  “We understand you have a computer that belonged to your brother,” Officer McKee said, continuing to press. “We’d like to take a look at it if we could.”

  Henry was growing more and more suspicious of these officers and began to worry they were trying to build a case against Alan to indicate that he was some sort of a spy. “Do you have a warrant?” Henry asked.

  “We were hoping that you would be more cooperative,” Office McKee said, “and that we wouldn’t require one. But we can get one if required.”

  “Dad,” said a voice from the hallway. “We really have to get going if I’m going to get to the tryouts in time.” Henry had been so focused on the two officers that he had forgotten all about David and his soccer tryout. He wondered how much of the conversation David had overheard.

  “I’m sorry gentlemen,” Henry said, “but I’m going to have to ask you to leave. I have to take my son to a soccer tryout and he can’t be late.” Henry had said it with such authority that the officers knew that there was no point in trying to convince him otherwise.

  “One last question,” Officer McKee said. “Have you ever heard of anyone by the name of Goliath?”

  Henry thought back to the night when he had the strange conversation with his brother. “I’ve never heard that name before,” Henry said, rising to show the officers to the door. He waited until he saw the officers back out of the driveway.

  “OK, David,” Henry shouted. “Get your stuff and I’ll meet you at the car.” As he said it, Henry went to the closet in David’s room, pulled out the laptop and placed it on the kitchen table. When he started up the laptop, a familiar prompt appeared.

  “Please enter your password:”

  Henry hit the keys slowly. G-o-l-i-a-t-h and then hit the “Enter” key.

  “Invalid password*” displayed on the screen.

  “Damn!!!” Henry said in frustration. “Only one more chance,” he thought to himself.

  “What are you doing?” David asked, looking concerned.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Henry said as he closed the laptop. “Let’s go.”

  When they got to the car, David jumped into the passenger-side seat with his soccer bag on his lap and was checking to make sure he had everything. “Shit,” David said. “I forgot my soccer ball.” David raced back into the house, worried that he was going to be late.

  As Henry waited in the car, he decided to call Greg Blackwood at the office to tell him what had happened. He wasn’t surprised at all when Greg answered, even though it was early on a Saturday morning.

  “Hi Greg, its Henry. I’ve got a bit of a situation.”

  “Hi Henry,” Greg replied. “What’s going on?”

  Henry explained the situation about the two RCMP officers and the questions they had asked. “Did I do the right thing in asking them to get a warrant?” Henry asked.

  “Absolutely,” Greg replied. “They’re not allowed to go on a fishing expedition without having some kind of evidence. Since it’s the weekend, they probably won’t be able to get a warrant until Monday at the earliest, and I’m not sure they’ll even get it then. Do you have any idea what they think is on the laptop?”

  “I have no idea,” Henry said. “They talked about a secret network and had pictures of about twenty people they’re investigating including Edward Bronson, Frenchie Bouchard and David Suzuki. Your picture was one of them.”

  “Bizarre,” Greg said. “Let me make some calls to see if I can figure out what they’re up to and I’ll get back to you. Is this the number I can reach you at?”

  “Yes, but I’m just about to drive my son to his soccer tryout so just leave a message if I don’t answer and I’ll call you back.”

  Henry hung up the phone and glanced at his watch. They were going to have to hurry to have any chance of making the tryout on time. As he waited, Henry noticed a car with two men in it parked about two hundred yards down the street. He suspected it was the RCMP officers keeping an eye on him. Well they were going to be in for a real treat if they tried to follow him as he raced to David’s soccer tryout. They were probably going to think he was trying to lose them.

  “Sorry I took so long Dad,” David said as he came running out of the house. “It took me a while to find it. It must have rolled under my bed.”

  David clutched his soccer bag on his lap as Henry threw the car into reverse and quickly backed out of the driveway. There was a sound of rubber as he accelerated down the street. Henry looked in his rear view mirror to see if the two men in the car were following. The car hadn’t moved.

  Henry drove quickly to try to get David to his soccer tryout in time. He tried to keep his speed about fifteen kilometres over the speed limit, hoping to make good time but not be fast enough for him to get pulled over by the police. He also sped through a few yellow lights that were more red than yellow. As he drove, he was constantly checking his rear-view mirror.

  “It’s OK Dad,” David said. “I haven’t seen any police yet.” Henry didn’t tell David that he was also checking to see if anyone was following them.

  As they got closer to the soccer field in Vaughan, Henry determined that they were probably going to make it in time, so he slowed down a bit. They had been fortunate that traffic had been light. As they pulled into the parking lot, they were pleased to see a group of players standing outside chatting. The last thing David wanted was to be noticed as arriving late, so he quickly joined the group as if he had been there all along.

  “I wa
s starting to get worried about you,” Alex said as he saw David approaching.

  “Yeah, we were running a little late, but we made it on time,” David said. David didn’t elaborate on the reasons.

  As they headed into the building, one of the coaches asked each player for their binder and ticked their name off on a list. David knew that his trainer had been making regular notations in his binder describing the progress he had been making in his strength conditioning sessions over the last few weeks.

  Henry parked the car and was walking back toward the building when his cell phone rang. He could see from the call display that it was Greg. “Hi Greg. What did you find out?”

  “Not much,” Greg replied. “This is not my area of practice but I spoke to Ray Peterson from our criminal law division. Based on what we know so far, he doesn’t think they’ll get their warrant. He said you should call him if they come back to question you again. Sometimes just having a lawyer present forces them to behave themselves because they try to take advantage of people who don’t know their rights.” Before he hung up, Greg gave Henry the number for Ray Peterson’s cell phone.

  Henry headed into the building and sat with the other parents who were watching the soccer tryouts. Henry wasn’t really paying attention to what was going on out on the field. His mind was racing. The questioning had really spooked him, particularly the part about Goliath. Henry felt guilty about lying to the officers. He never told lies, not even little white lies. Although he felt guilty about doing it, his gut feeling told him he had been correct in withholding that information, although he had no idea why.

  “Your son’s looking pretty good out there,” said one of the parents who was sitting a few seats over from Henry. Henry didn’t realize that the man was talking to him. “Your son’s number 14 in the red jersey, right?” the man continued.

  “Uh, yes that’s my son David,” Henry said, being pulled from his thoughts. “I’m Henry Shaw,” he said, moving over a few seats to shake the man’s hand.

  “Bob Richardson,” the man said. “That’s my son Robbie, number 11 in white. Your son’s got a lot of speed. Robbie’s pretty fast himself but he said your son blew him away at the first tryout.”

  For the first time since he had arrived, Henry started to pay attention to what was going on out on the field. This was a lot different than the first tryout session and looked more like a regular soccer practice. There were still a lot of coaches out there, but this time they seemed to be focusing on teaching the skills of the game rather than just measuring everything through a series of tests.

  Although he was biased, Henry agreed that David was looking pretty good. David had always been very coachable and keen to learn new skills. He noticed that the coaches tended to use him when doing their demonstrations. One of the coaches made David fall down while demonstrating one of the skills and had made him look rather foolish. They could hear some of the other players laugh, even from the stands.

  “Ouch,” Bob said. “That’s not fair. That coach used to play pro ball over in Europe. Kids are not going to see moves like that at this level.”

  They watched as the coach demonstrated what David had done wrong and showed him the correct footwork. David fell again the second time, but stole the ball from the coach on the third attempt. The coach grinned and gave David a high-five.

  “Good for him,” Bob said.

  “David’s not the type to give up,” Henry said, puffing his chest out a little.

  As they watched the rest of the practice, it became apparent that the skills being taught were at a much higher level than anything David had ever experienced previously. David had a huge smile as he came off the field at the end of the practice.

  “You were looking pretty good out there,” Henry said as David came towards the stands.

  “Those guys are so good,” David said. “I’ve got a bunch of stuff to work on over the next few weeks.”

  They continued to talk about the practice on the drive back home, which was done at a much more leisurely pace than the drive to the soccer field earlier that day. The stress from the events of that morning was gone, or was until they turned down the street to their house. Henry’s heart skipped a beat when he saw the police car in his driveway with its flashers on. He saw Robert standing outside talking with a uniformed police officer. A few neighbours had gathered on their lawns trying to see what was going on.

  Henry parked his car on the street and both Henry and David raced over to see what had happened. Robert looked relieved to see them. “What happened?” Henry asked as he approached.

  “Someone broke into our house,” Robert said. “I got home about twenty minutes ago and found the house ransacked. I went in through the back door and I think I heard them going out the front door when I was there. I called 9-1-1 and the police showed up a few minutes later.”

  “Are you OK?” Henry asked as he gave Robert a hug. It appeared that Henry needed the hug more than Robert.

  “Did you see the suspects leaving?” the officer asked.

  “No,” Robert said. “I didn’t see them at all, but I heard them running out the front door. They probably took off when they heard me come in the back door.”

  “What makes you think there was more than one person?” the officer asked.

  “Just the sound,” Robert said. “It sounded like two people, maybe three, running out the front door.”

  “Was there anyone else in the house at the time?” the officer asked.

  “No,” Henry interjected. “My mother’s been over at my sister’s place for the last few days. Robert was over at his friend Taylor’s place last night for an all-night gaming tournament and David and I left the house earlier this morning to go to his soccer tryouts.”

  “What time was that, sir?”

  “Probably a little after nine,” Henry said. Henry looked at David for help. “David, what time did the officers leave this morning?”

  “I think we left about ten after nine,” David said.

  “There were police officers here earlier this morning?” the policeman asked, squinting his eyes as he became more suspicious.

  “They were from the RCMP,” Henry said. “At least, they said they were from the RCMP. I didn’t get a real good look at their badges.”

  “Did you get their names?”

  “Officer McKee was one of them,” Henry said. “I can’t remember the other officer’s name right now, but it will come to me.”

  “It seems like you’ve had no shortage of police officers coming to see you lately,” said a voice from behind Henry. Henry turned to see that it was Detective Benedetti. He whispered something to the uniformed officer, who headed inside the house as Detective Benedetti came over to talk to Henry.

  “I heard this call come over the wire and thought I’d head over to see what all of the commotion was about. You said you were visited by a couple of RCMP officers this morning?”

  “Yes,” Henry said. “One of them identified himself as Officer McKee but I can’t remember the other officer’s name right now.”

  Detective Benedetti excused himself while he stepped away to make a call. “Officers McKee and Wilson” Detective Benedetti said when he returned. “They just confirmed that they visited you this morning, although they should have done me the courtesy of informing me they were coming to see you. They knew I had an ongoing investigation into your brother’s disappearance. They said they’re waiting for a warrant to get their hands on your brother’s laptop. What’s on the laptop, Henry?”

  “To be honest, I have no idea,” Henry said. “They were talking about some secret network or something. They showed me pictures of Edward Bronson, Frenchie Bouchard and even David Suzuki, and said CSIS thinks they were all part of some secret network.” Henry felt more trusting sharing information with Detective Benedetti than he had earlier with the two RCMP officers.

  “Ah, CSIS,” Detective Benedetti said. “They’re usually involved in anything that’s bizarre. I think they jus
t sit around watching old episodes of the X-files to come up with some of this stuff. But something weird is going on. Your brother and Edward Bronson seem to have fallen off the face of the earth without a trace.”

  “Mr. Shaw, there are no signs of forced entry,” the uniformed officer said as he came out of the house. “Do you normally lock your house when you leave?”

  “Yes, but we were racing to get to the soccer tryout,” Henry said. “David, do you remember whether you locked the house when you went back in to get your soccer ball?”

  The look on David’s face gave the answer. “Sorry Dad,” David said, looking down at the ground. “I don’t really remember, but I may have left it unlocked.”

  “Don’t worry about it son,” Henry said. “If they wanted in badly enough, they were going to get inside even if you did lock it.”

  “I was wondering if you could take a quick look around to see if anything is missing,” said the uniformed officer. “Please don’t touch anything because we still have to dust for fingerprints.”

  Henry stepped into the house along with Detective Benedetti and the uniformed police officer. “The laptop’s gone,” Henry said as soon as he stepped through the door. “I left it sitting on the kitchen table.” Henry walked through the rest of the house. It looked like every drawer and closet in the house had been opened and the contents thrown about the room. “What a mess,” Henry said, “but I don’t see anything missing except for the laptop.”

  “They didn’t touch any of the electronics,” the uniformed officer said, pointing to the big screen TV and stereo equipment. There was even a new Blu-ray DVD player still in the box that Henry hadn’t had time to set up yet.

  “Since it occurred in the middle of the day and there wasn’t much taken, I don’t think this was a typical burglary,” Detective Benedetti said. “They waited until they knew no one was here and were obviously looking for something specific.”

  “But why would they trash the place if all they were looking for was the laptop?” Henry asked, expressing his frustration at the mess they had created. “It was sitting out in the open on the kitchen table.”