Even

by Andrew Grant

  EIGHTEEN

  My friend Jeremy was a born victim.

  I first met him two weeks after I started at high school. He’d missed the beginning of term because he was still recovering from a recent kicking. He appeared in the corner of the classroom one morning and I remember thinking he might as well have BULLY ME tattooed on his forehead, the way he behaved. The local thugs just gravitated toward him. I had to step in and save him on several occasions over the years, when people were taking too much from him or it looked like he was going to get seriously hurt again. I could have stopped the trouble altogether without too much effort, but I didn’t think that would be right. I wasn’t going to be around for the rest of his life and he needed to learn how to stand up for himself. The problem was, he had no instinct for it. No idea how to spot danger coming or stop it in its tracks.

  Most of the skirmishes he got into were fairly low level until one day I overheard a couple of kids threatening to beat him up after school if he didn’t give them money. So, straightaway, he emptied his pockets. It was as if he were hearing their words but not understanding what they meant. It was such an obvious mistake. I could hardly believe what I was seeing. And after he’d sent out a message like that I knew there was nothing for it. I was going to have to take the long way home.

  I left the school gates at the same time as Jeremy then hung back, drifting between the various groups who walked the same way as him. The journey started uneventfully. Nothing happened until we came to an alley, half a mile from his house. Then my heart sank. He walked straight into it without even looking. I turned the corner and saw the two kids who must have been waiting there. They’d already caught him, about twenty feet away. One was holding him, the other was standing with his fist pulled back, ready to strike. He was too far away to grab so I picked up a rock—a big chunk of flint with sharp, shiny edges—and hurled it at the kid’s head. He looked around at the last second and it connected with the middle of his forehead. He tumbled backward, blood already oozing from the wound, and the other kid turned to run. But the passage wasn’t long enough. I reached him with ten yards to spare.

  Jeremy was so happy to get his lunch money back I don’t think he really understood the point I was trying to make. I told him threats are like smoke. They’re like the first wisps that appear before a fire really catches hold. And there’s only one way to deal with them. Stamp them out before they grow into something bigger.

  That method worked for me when I was a kid, and I’ve stuck with it ever since.

  So you can imagine how I felt that afternoon, locked in an FBI debriefing while Lesley was left to slink away unopposed . . .

  The rickety typist’s chair I’d sat on yesterday had been relegated to the far corner of the boardroom and was now half hidden under a tangle of navy blue overcoats. But that wasn’t a problem. Eight more chairs had been brought up and shared out along each side of the big granite table. I headed to the right, where two empty seats separated Tanya from a plump forty-something in a gray suit. The backrest of the one nearer her was stained, so I went to swap it with its neighbor.

  “Hey,” the plump guy said. “Someone’s using that.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Me.”

  The double doors opened again and a guy hurried in with four large coffees wedged into a cardboard tray. He left one in the place to my right and took another round to Varley, who was sitting on his own at the center of the long side of the table. Then the new guy came back and flopped into the seat next to me, leaving two cups unclaimed.

  “Which one of those was for Rosser?” I said.

  “Why would one be for him?” he said.

  “Come on, which one?”

  “That one. Why?”

  “I’m guessing black, no sugar?”

  “Right. But what’s that to you?”

  “That’s just how I like it,” I said, taking the cup and passing the other one to Tanya.

  “Hey,” the new guy said. “That’s . . .”

  “Yes?” I said, turning to look at him.

  “Hot. Maybe. Still.”

  “Gentlemen,” Varley said. “And lady. Time to get under way. I guess you don’t all know our English friends, so let’s start with a quick round of introductions. We’ll go clockwise. Ivan?”

  “Ivan Sproule,” the plump guy said. “FBI Special Operations, working for Mitchell out of New York.”

  “Brian Schmidt,” the guy with the coffee said. “Also FBI Special Ops.”

  “David Trevellyan,” I said. “Yesterday, in league with the devil. Today, innocent bystander slash tour guide.”

  “Tanya Wilson,” Tanya said. “British Consulate.”

  “Lieutenant Byron McBride,” the guy opposite Tanya said. “NYPD intelligence task force. I’m pulling together a citywide response to the spate of homicides involving elderly and vagrant victims.”

  “Detective Rosenior,” the next guy said. “NYPD intell, working for Lieutenant McBride.”

  “That just leaves me,” Weston said from his seat opposite the plump guy. “And our English friends certainly know who I am.”

  Varley stayed with Weston for his first set of questions, which involved asking for a full account of the raid on Lesley’s house and then picking it to shreds. How had they entered? Where had they searched? How long had they taken? What had they found? How had they documented the scene? Could they have missed anything? How could he be sure? Had they taken photos? Had forensics unearthed anything later? Varley was relentless, firing his queries and driving Weston over and over the same ground for a full twenty minutes.

  The police officers were next to come under the microscope, but Varley came at them from a different angle. This time he wasn’t interested in one specific case, but pushed them for detailed breakdowns of the previous year’s crime figures. How many vagrants had been murdered, precinct by precinct? What were their age groups? Gender? Religion? Previous occupations? Cause of death? How many had made it into the press? State or country of birth? How many had been cleared? The barrage was exhausting, and Varley tired of it first. McBride was still going strong, wading through his endless reservoir of statistics when Varley cut him off and turned to me.

  “Mr. Trevellyan, you recently infiltrated the criminal organization of the woman known to us, but not exactly loved, as Lesley?” he said. “Is that correct?”

  “Yes,” I said. “She tried to recruit me.”

  “And she raised the subject of Agent Raab’s death with you?”

  “She did.”

  “What did she say about it?”

  “That one of her operatives had killed him.”

  “The individual you brought here this morning?”

  “You heard him say that for himself.”

  “Did she say why they targeted an FBI agent?”

  “She said they didn’t. They had intended to kill an ordinary vagrant, but her operative failed to establish Raab’s true identity before pulling the trigger. Which I guess you could take as a testimony to Raab’s skill in working undercover.”

  “Why did they want to kill a vagrant? How was her operation linked to Raab’s case?”

  “I don’t believe it was. I think she was involved with identity theft. It had nothing to do with the railroad killings.”

  “Why do you think that?”

  “Because Agent Raab had a stolen Social Security card in his wallet when he was found, and I saw a similar card in someone’s possession at Lesley’s house. That can’t be a coincidence.”

  “Maybe not. It’s an interesting angle. We should follow up on it. Make absolutely sure there’s no connection.”

  “I’ll get right on it,” Schmidt said.

  “Good,” Varley said. “Now, let’s recap. Based on Lesley’s conversation with Commander Trevellyan and the confession from her operative that I heard myself, we can be confident we know who killed Mike Raab. Anyone unhappy with that?”

  No one responded.

  “Agent Weston searched Lesle
y’s premises and found no evidence that Raab was deliberately targeted, or that the gang had been acting on information received from within the bureau. Anyone disagree?”

  Silence.

  “Lieutenant McBride has thoroughly analyzed all the available data, and has identified no pattern or trend consistent with the targeting of federal agents in New York. Anyone disagree?”

  Silence.

  “OK. That being the case, I conclude that Agent Raab simply fell victim to an unrelated criminal act perpetrated by Lesley’s organization, which we know to be both extensive and vicious. As, in a sense, did Commander Trevellyan. Anyone disagree, now’s the time.”

  Again, no one spoke. Everyone was still except for Weston, who looked down at the floor.

  “All right then. This is what we’re going to do. Kyle, now we know that Lesley’s involvement was only coincidental, I want you to get moving with the train thing again. Pick up where Raab left off. I don’t want any more bodies.”

  “Sir,” Weston said.

  “Ivan, work with Commander Trevellyan. Get an up-to-date description of Lesley and all her known associates. I want it with every field office and every PD nationwide before the end of the day. I don’t care that Mike was only caught in her crossfire. She’s still going to pay.”

  “Sir,” the plump guy said.

  “Brian, you’re on this new ID theft theory. I can’t see how it could be connected to Mike’s case, but it could still be significant. It should be followed up in its own right. Cooperate fully with D.C. And get help from Commander Trevellyan if you need more detail.”

  “Yes, sir,” the coffee guy said.

  “David, are you happy with that?”

  “Not entirely,” I said. “I know it didn’t cause Agent Raab to be targeted, but you do still have a leak. So does the NYPD. People have been passing all kinds of information about me to Lesley, for example. Who knows what else they’re giving her?”

  “You’re right. But don’t worry. We’re on it. Standard procedure is to bring in a team from another office to do a deep-dive investigation. They’re on their way. It’ll be a pain in the ass, but they’ll probably want to talk to you, if that’s OK?”

  “Of course,” I said.

  “Excellent. So, Ms. Wilson, Lieutenant, Detective, thank you for your time this afternoon. I appreciate your input and—”

  Lieutenant McBride’s cell phone began to ring. He excused himself and answered the call.

  “Sorry, guys,” he said, closing his phone after ninety seconds. “I asked my office to let me know if anything came up that might be related.”

  “And was it?” Varley said.

  “Don’t think so. Just another vagrant found dead this morning.”

  “Not missing any more agents, I hope?” I said.

  “Better not be,” Varley said.

  “Well, if you are, remember I’ve been with you all day.”

  “Don’t say that. You’re making me nervous. McBride, what do we know about this guy?”

  “Don’t worry, you’re pretty safe,” McBride said. “The vic was seventy-six. Born in Brooklyn. Name of Charles Bromley. Died of blunt force trauma. Found by a jogger in Central Park. Oh, and he only had one arm.”

  “Thank goodness,” Varley said. “All my guys have a full set.”

  “What was his middle name?” I said. “The victim. Was it Paul?”

  “Does it matter?” McBride said.

  “It might.”

  “Hold on then. I’ll check.”

  “His middle name was, in fact, Paul,” McBride said after a moment on the phone. “How did you know?”

  “And his Social Security number?” I said. “Was it 812–67–7478?”

  McBride shrugged and made another call.

  “You’ve got some explaining to do,” he said when he hung up.

  “That’s the name and number I saw on the card at Lesley’s house, yesterday,” I said. “One of her thugs had it.”

  “Not possible,” McBride said. “The ME was clear. Time of death was after midnight.”

  “They must have already snatched the guy,” Weston said. “Took his card, and kept him holed up somewhere, like a room you never went in. Then brought him back to the city and killed him during the night.”

  “That just about works,” Varley said.

  “No,” the plump guy said. “It doesn’t. That’s not it at all.”

  “Explain it, then,” Weston said.

  “Something’s been bothering me ever since I heard a card was found on Raab’s body,” he said. “It didn’t make sense, killing him and leaving the card behind. But now I understand. They’re doing the opposite of what Mr. Trevellyan thought. They’re not stealing identities. They’re creating them.”

  “You know, he might be right,” I said. “I’ve heard of something like this before. In Africa, or somewhere. It’s clever.”

  “What is?” Varley said.

  “It’s a Social Security scam,” the plump guy said. “Lesley must have a guy inside the department. What he does is create hundreds, maybe even thousands of dummy accounts. Then they skim off the payments for a bunch of people who don’t exist.”

  “Thousands?” the coffee guy said. “Could be big money. How much do retired people get?”

  “Don’t know,” the plump guy said, unclipping a PDA from a holster on his belt. “But I can find out. I’ll Google it, now. OK. Here we go. It’s taking me to the Social Security Administration Web site. It says the maximum payment for a retired worker is $2,185 per month, and the average is $1,079.”

  “They’d stick somewhere around the average,” the coffee guy said. “To avoid attention. But how many fake accounts do they have? That’s the key.”

  “Sorry,” the plump guy said. “Dead end. There’s no way to tell.”

  “Can’t you estimate?” Tanya said. “How many people receive Social Security over here?”

  “Give me a second,” the plump guy said. “Here we go. In New York, 1,996,230. And that was in 2005, so there’ll be even more now.”

  “OK,” Tanya said. “And how accurate is that data?”

  “Federal standard is 99.96 percent,” the plump guy said. “Which isn’t bad.”

  “Not bad,” Tanya said. “But even so, point-zero-four percent of almost two million is a fair few dummy accounts.”

  “Around eight hundred,” I said.

  “And if each one receives, say, thirteen thousand dollars a year?” Tanya said.

  “Wow,” the coffee guy said. “That’s well over ten million dollars, annually.”

  “If all your assumptions are right,” Weston said. “And if all the false accounts are fraudulent, not just mistakes. And if all the fraudulent ones are tied to Lesley.”

  “They will be,” Varley said. “Trust me. She doesn’t tolerate competitors.”

  “But even if it’s half that amount, it’s still huge,” the plump guy said. “And dead easy. Once it’s set up, the money will keep rolling in all on its own.”

  “I just don’t see it,” Weston said. “Surely they have auditors.”

  “Of course they do,” I said. “That’s why people are getting killed.”

  “If it’s like previous scams, the department will randomly check X-number of accounts every month,” the plump guy said. “The inside man will match the list against the dummy ones he set up. And any time he sees they’re investigating one of his, he’ll warn Lesley.”

  “So?” Weston said.

  “So Lesley will have a suitable homeless guy killed,” the plump guy said. “Plant a fake Social Security card on the body. The police find it, the victim’s new identity works its way back through the system, and the investigators take that as proof their records were legit all along.”

  “That’s why they moved Agent Raab’s body,” Tanya said. “Remember how it had been dragged to the front of the alley? David practically tripped over it. Lesley wanted it found in a hurry.”

  “Sounds almost foolproof,�
�� Varley said. “Lieutenant, can you tell how many victims’ records were being audited at the time they died?”

  “Not right now,” McBride said. “But give me a week. I’ll get the new parameters added to the database.”

  Give the guy a week. He’ll add the new parameters. Which is fine, from an admin point of view. But if you were Lesley, would you be scared?

  NINETEEN

  Some skills, the navy can teach you.

  Others, they can only develop. There has to be something already there, inside you, for them to work with. I first figured that out when we were learning about close-target reconnaissance. Surveillance, as most people think of it. The approach was that before we could try out any techniques for ourselves, we had to go on loan to the army for a week. We were told they needed untainted “volunteers” to be tracked by a group of trainee spooks who were taking their final assessments. It seemed like an easy enough assignment. All you had to do was walk around a different city center each day and carry out a number of mundane tasks like posting letters or buying groceries. Our brief was to keep our eyes and ears open, and every evening give a written report on how many tails we’d spotted and where. We were warned the spooks could be anywhere. In cars, on foot, riding bicycles, walking dogs, sitting in cafes. If they could observe us without being detected, they would pass their course. But as usual with the navy, there was something they weren’t telling us. Being stalked by the army guys wasn’t just the end of their evaluation. It was the start of our own. If you couldn’t pick up, instinctively, when you were being followed, you never made it to the next stage. Because there are a lot of things you had to know to make you effective in the field. But only one thing you had to have. A kind of sixth sense.

  Useful, if you wanted to pass your assessment.

  Vital, if you wanted to stay alive afterward.

  The table Tanya had booked for us turned out to be at Fong’s. That was the same restaurant I’d eaten at two nights ago, just before walking into the whole debacle over Raab’s body. And as good as the place was, choosing to go back so soon did seem a little strange. The feeling that I wasn’t getting the full picture was still gnawing at me when I arrived, exactly at nine-thirty, and I knew it wouldn’t go away until I’d asked Tanya what she’d been thinking of when she made the reservation. But as it happened, I couldn’t ask her anything. Because she didn’t turn up.