by Jack Ford
Rosedale said, ‘Don’t play games with us. The problem you have, Senator, is I know different. We know different. I also know that you’re the number two, along with Chuck Harrison – the person with the other part of the HS code.’
The Senator replayed picking up the phone. ‘This is an outrage. I want you to get the hell out of here by the time I count to nine-one-one.’
Rosedale’s long arm reached across and clicked off the call. ‘Where were you on the seventeenth and eighteenth of this month?’
Rubins’ face flushed. Affronted and incensed by this intrusion, and wiping the sweat from the back of his neck with his pink spotted handkerchief, Rubins retorted, ‘I don’t have to answer any of your Goddamn questions! Though I will tell you something, y’all are in a whole kind of trouble.’
With his deep Texan drawl matching that of the Senator’s, Rosedale shook his head. ‘Now, what happened to good ole fashioned Southern hospitality? But if you want us to get out of here, Senator, I’d just answer the question… Where were you?’
From left to right and right to left the Senator looked at the Onyx trio. Deciding he was defeated, he conceded and glanced at the digital calendar on his desk, before pointing at them.
‘I want to put on record that the only reason I’m answering this is so you guys will head on out, but trust me when I say, I’ll be speaking to Jerry about this, Rosedale.’
‘Whatever you need to do Senator, just roll with it.’
Rubins cleared his throat, along with his attitude. ‘Well, those days were a Friday and Saturday which means I was here… In fact, I know I was. So now I’ve answered your question… get the hell out!’
It was Cooper’s turn to lean forward. ‘That’s what I thought you’d say and that’s why I brought these.’
He waved the white envelope he’d been carrying in the air which annoyed and perplexed Rubins in the same measure, as he sat back on his extra wide leather chair. ‘What are these?’
Cooper opened the envelope and threw the contents on the desk.
‘These, Senator, prove you’re lying.’
Glancing at Cooper, then down at the documents, Rubins began to flick through the three page print out. ‘Where the hell did you get these?’
‘Does it matter?’ Cooper said.
‘Oh it matters alright, and I don’t know what game you’re playing, but you’d better start talking.’
‘That’s our line, Senator… So how about you start again, and tell us exactly where you were on the seventeenth and eighteenth?’
‘I’ve already told you.’
Cooper pulled a face. ‘You did, but these bank statements say different. According to them, on the seventeenth, you withdrew five thousand dollars from the Bank of America in Citrus Park, Florida, and again on the eighteenth in Port Charlotte. That’s hardly here in Cottonwood, is it?’
The Senator stretched his weighty body across the desk, his stomach knocking over a pen pot as he grabbed the print out from Cooper. ‘Show me that.’
‘It’s right there in black and white. Look. I even highlighted it for you.’
Rubins glared at Cooper. ‘That’s impossible.’
‘Not according to your bank it isn’t.’
‘Bullshit. I haven’t been to Florida. Well, not for a while anyway. And I know I haven’t gone through my financial particulars for some time with my accountant, but this is clearly wrong. So wherever you managed to acquire my statement from – and God knows where it was and what you had to do to get it – it’s obvious my details have been mixed up with somebody else’s.’
‘You’ll have to do better than that, Senator. There’s no mistake on our side. I’d say the mistake is all yours by not admitting to being in Florida when the evidence is right there on the page,’ Maddie said.
‘Listen to me, lady, and listen good. I don’t like your insinuation that somehow I’m deceitful. when you were the one who walked into my house under false pretenses. I can’t believe that you think this is okay, or that you’re going to get away with marching in here and as good as holding me hostage.’
Rosedale smirked. ‘You invited us in, and eventually we’ll all walk on out of here, but when, and how long that will take, is down to you.’
Rubins looked at the trio. ‘Fine. I’ll prove it. Though this goes against my better judgment…’
The Senator stopped talking to grab the phone roughly and angrily out the cradle, and with a ferocity which made Maddie raise her eyebrows, he punched in a number. After a few moments he said, ‘This is Senator Rubin, I’d like you to put me through to my personal bank manager… Well, put me through to anybody then.’
Another pause before the Senator gave the details to get through banking security.
‘Okay? Good… Right, well, I need to check transactions on certain dates… seventeenth and eighteenth of this month… Yes… Okay… On a couple of withdrawals which shouldn’t be there… Florida… Okay… Yeah… okay… No… Five thousand dollars… What? Are you sure?… No… Positive… Thanks, that would be good. How long will that take? Alright. Appreciate that. Y’all take care.’
Rubins put the phone down and stared at Cooper with a look of shock on his face. ‘I don’t know what to say, but apparently you’re right. However not only are you right, but she said…’
The senator stopped.
‘She said what, senator?’ Cooper asked.
‘Their ATM machines are linked to their CCTV system to prevent fraud. So basically you’re taped, and then within a few seconds of the transaction finishing the footage is uploaded onto your personal bank files, for exactly this kind of reason… What’s so disturbing is when she logged into the computer system on her end, according to the computer not only did the money get withdrawn as you said it did…’ Rubins paused again and took a deep breath, stared at Cooper as if searching for answers before continuing. ‘But apparently I was the one who withdrew it. She crossed matched my bank photo ID with the recorded footage…But I have no recollection of it. None whatsoever… They’re sending a copy of the CCTV over now.’
FIVE MILES OUTSIDE GOROM-GOROM,
BURKINA FASO, WEST AFRICA
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‘You’ve done well.’
Abdul-Aziz Bin Hamad gazed past Ismet as they stood in the middle of a barren stretch of land. The African skies, like blue wash paint, held burning rays of sun which beat down on the tops of the sand colored canvas tents dotted around as far as the eye could see.
‘Where’s the Commandant?’ he asked.
‘Down at the training camp,’ Ismet said.
‘And how are we getting on? Are we ready?’
‘Perhaps, though I’m worried some of them may not be capable. Their credence to our cause is held not by their hearts but by their fear. And our vision of a state, a longed for caliphate, is not theirs.’
Bin Hamad turned to stare at Ismet, his dark, tired eyes intense. ‘It is not for us to worry, my brother, it is for us to trust and know that we’ve been guided and will wage war on the unbelievers, and that the tools we have acquired will be adequate. Remember, we do not question. Our job is to continue on the journey that has been set out for us. We need to finish it. Our group has been decimated by the Kafirs. But the jihad will expand once more, and in the following of Bin Laden, and one of our founding leaders, Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, as they planned to destroy us we now we plan to destroy them. It is our turn to rise up and wage a holy war without borders. Allah will not be merciful to those who are not merciful. Fight them as they fight you.’
ALABAMA, USA
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Four coffees and three bottles of water and two biscuits and one trip to the bathroom later, Senator Rubins clicked the wireless mouse. ‘I think this must be it.’
‘May we?’ Maddie gestured, getting permission to come round and look at the screen. They watched the grainy CCTV image the bank had sent through. Watching the Senator getting out of a small car a
nd walking up to the ATM to withdraw money, and then walking back and getting into the car, before it drove away.
‘Are you still trying to tell us that you didn’t go down to Florida, Senator?’ Cooper said.
Looking genuinely shocked, Rubins replayed the few seconds of footage. Then looked up, visibly upset, and stared at Cooper. At Rosedale. At Maddie. Hoping they’d give him answers. ‘I don’t understand. Like I say, I have no recollection at all. None… I don’t know what to say. That’s me. I mean of course it is, but…’ He trailed off whilst Rosedale gently took the mouse from him. Re-clicked. Restarted the recording.
Three seconds in, he paused it. Zoomed in. ‘Senator, do you recognize him?’
Rubins leant and stared and glared intently at the screen, looking at the man sitting in the driver’s seat. Light blond hair. Stubble to match. ‘No. I haven’t ever seen him in my life. Though obviously I have because I’m driven to the bank by him and driven away, but I have no idea who he is, Rosedale.’
‘You said you went to a bar that night.’
Rubins nodded at Rosedale. ‘I take it I did because every Friday when I’m at home that’s where I go, but I have no recollection of it… Oh my God…I don’t know why I didn’t think of it when you were talking before. I know exactly the Saturday it was.’
Cooper looked at Rubins questioningly, not knowing whether to trust the Senator or not.
‘How?’
‘When I woke on the Saturday it was late. Really late. And usually I get up and go for a run about eight but it was after three in the afternoon.’
‘Didn’t your staff wonder where you were?’ Maddie asked.
Rubins took the tiniest sip of water, to wet his lips rather than to quench his thirst.
‘No, because that’s their day off. It’s the one day I’m alone and can get on with paperwork undisturbed. Myself and a lot of people around these parts go to church on Sunday, so that’s always a busy day. Speaking to people or attending lunches takes up most of the day and obviously during the week I could be over in DC, so Saturday is a day of quiet when I do nothing.’
‘And everyone would know that?’
Frowning at Maddie, Rubins said, ‘It’s hardly a secret.’
‘Can I ask you something about when you woke up, Senator? And I apologize for being personal… but were you alone?’
‘I’m an openly single gay man, Maddie, and the bar in question I go to is also a gay bar, quite a rarity as you can imagine in these parts. I go there not because it’s the nicest bar in the area, but to show my support for the LGBT community and to continue the fight for openness and acceptance. There’s been a few petitions to get it closed, but it makes it harder to do that if I’m a regular. But I make it my business not to do the whole pick up thing, because whether it’s right or wrong I would surely get judged, and I don’t want anyone to have an excuse to try to close it down more than they do already.’
‘So you can’t think of anything that happened which was slightly out of the ordinary?’
‘I suppose…’ the Senator had a habit of trailing off…
‘You suppose what?’ asked Maddie.
‘Ok, look, I’d appreciate it if this didn’t go any further, Maddie.’
‘You have our word.’
‘Well, I was worried I’d been drinking again.’
Maddie, sounded surprised. ‘Again?’
‘I used to have a problem with alcohol. It got so bad I was at the stage where I was having blackouts. Couldn’t remember from one end of the day to another. What I’d done. Where I’d gone. Nothing.’
Cooper asked, ‘And is that common knowledge?’
‘Yes it is. But it’s a long time ago and I take my sobriety very seriously. I’ve been fifteen years sober, but on that Saturday, I woke up with an empty bottle of vodka next to me.’ The Senator paused, his lips pursed. Took a few breaths. Composed himself. ‘It was always my poison of choice. And to my shame it was obvious that I’d taken a drink and, like always, one drink led to another. I must’ve had a blackout. As I say, I can’t remember picking up the bottle of vodka or buying it, or wherever it was I got it from. But that’s how it always went. My last memory of the seventeenth is having a meeting about solar paneling, and then there’s nothing until the eighteenth when I woke up with the bottle of vodka next to me…’ The Senator trailed off again, staring into the distance. ‘I’m hoping to have got it in check… I’ve been to some AA meetings since, you see.’
Studying the tape once more, Rosedale shook his head. ‘There’s no sign that you’re drunk here, Senator, you take that straight line like a pro.’
The Senator leaned forward and studied the tape, and Maddie heard the tiniest hint of relief in his voice. ‘You’re right. Oh God, look. When I’m standing at the ATM I’m not dancing.’
‘Dancing?’
Rubins gave a half smile to Maddie. ‘Yeah, you know one of those guys who sway on the spot going backwards then forwards, a bit to the left and a bit to the right, as if they’re listening to music, and you wonder how they don’t fall over. Well that was me. The dancer. And on that footage I’m solid on the spot.’
Rosedale smiled, ‘Yes you are, sir.’
Rubins looked at Rosedale, his face lit up with hopeful alacrity, his voice almost childlike. ‘So you really think I wasn’t drunk?’
‘That’s right.’
The trio were taken aback as Senator Rubins suddenly slumped in his big wide chair and put his head in his hands and filled the air with loud sobs, and struggled and just about managed to get out the words. ‘I’m sorry… Oh my God, I’m sorry, but you have no idea what a relief that is… I thought I was heading to hell again. I was so scared and so angry with myself for allowing it to happen, after nearly destroying my family and all those around me before… Sorry, give me a minute… Addiction is a terrible disease.’
Cooper said nothing.
Maddie said. ‘It’s okay, Senator, take your time. But what we have to figure out now is what exactly happened to you, and why you don’t remember.’
‘At least we have the car’s license plate number,’ said Rosedale. ‘It’s something to work with, I guess. Try to find out who that other guy was if we can.’
Cooper agreed. ‘I could give my friend Jeb a call. He’s a license plate recognition investigator. He’d be the perfect guy. And he’s discreet. What do you think, Maddie?
Seeing the Senator had begun to regain his composure, Maddie kept her attention firmly on Rubins. ‘I realize you’re in a difficult position, Senator, and I want to try to respect the fact you can’t talk about Bin Hamad, but if you would, could you nod your head to confirm to me that you have no knowledge of the fact that he’s been released.’
A pause.
A look.
A glance.
And then Senator Rubins nodded.
‘And would you make sure you don’t discuss this with anybody else until we get back to you?’
The Senator nodded.
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Two days later, on the outskirts of Storm Lake, Iowa, Cooper, Rosedale and Maddie stepped inside what’d once been a craft supplies warehouse, but had now been transformed into a state of the art living and workspace, spread over two floors.
‘Hey Jeb, thanks so much for turning this around so quickly… And you’ve done a great job here. Last time I saw it, all there was was a hell of a lot of dust!’
Jeb Anderson, a one-time off Broadway actor who’d spent most of his glory years resting, whilst working as a glass collector in various downtown bars, grinned and gave Cooper a hug. ‘I know, thought I’d never finish it off… Anyway, I’m glad you like it. It’s a great place to live, and I can run this business out of here.’
‘I’m forgetting my manners, Jeb. This is Maddie.’
‘Hey, Maddie. I’ve heard a lot about you.’
‘And you’ve met Rosedale before.’
Jeb gave a warm smile and a nod to them both. ‘Come on upstai
rs. I managed to track your car on the date you gave me. Pretty detailed actually… Take a seat, guys.’
Whilst the Onyx trio sat down on the purple velvet couch, Jeb sat in front of the computer monitors.
He glanced at his notes. ‘Okay, so the car you wanted information on, I first pick it up on the cameras leaving Cottonwood, Alabama, heading South on Route 53. It then went down through Grangeburg and over the state line into Florida. I lost the trail for a while but it must have headed East on Route 69, because I traced it again on interstate 10. Again, traveling east… Coop, I forgot to tell you I’ve got a casting for an infomercial. I’ve got a good feeling about this one.’
Cooper reached over and slapped Jeb on his back. ‘Good for you. I’m pleased for you, buddy. What’s it about?’
‘It’s for hair dye, but it’s the principal part. If I get it, my face will be everywhere.’
Cooper’s grin may have been slightly too wide. ‘Well, that’s swell. Real swell. And like I always say, if it doesn’t work out for you this time, at least you’ve got this business to fall back on.’
Absentmindedly, touching his fine, receding comb-over, Jeb smiled back at Cooper. ‘Oh it’ll work out alright, Coop. This time I know it. The Hollywood dream’s right there for my taking. It’s in touching distance. I can smell it.’
Maddie, having never met Jeb before, raised her eyebrows at Rosedale, who nodded thoughtfully. He spoke in a serious tone. ‘And I wish you the best with that, Jeb, but let me give you some advice – when you’re out there, just don’t go around lending Spielberg any money. You’ll never get it back. Guy still owes me fifty bucks, and now he thinks offering me a part in one of his movies will make it alright.’
Whereupon it was Cooper’s turn to raise his eyebrows, as he mouthed to Rosedale, What is wrong with you? Then, wanting to bring the subject back to something relevant, he turned his attention back to Jeb. ‘I really appreciate what you’ve done here, Jeb. Big Brother’s certainly watching your every move with all those cameras, isn’t he?’