by Jim Magwood
Three Supreme Court justices were shown to have booked rooms adjoining theirs during certain conventions they attended which had supposedly been occupied by certain staffers that were not supposed to be there. Bills attributable to those rooms, purportedly from the very expensive hotels, for huge meal, liquor and entertainment expenses were included with the messages that went to a pair of journalists hungrily looking for an exposé.
A message was received by another investigative journalism office from a “long ex-employee” of a medical firm in California laying out the details of a very senior military official’s breakdown and drug addiction from fifteen years before. The event had been carefully hushed and covered, said the message, and it had been “touch and go” as to whether the gentleman would survive his breakdown. He had been prescribed a certain heavy “narcotic” medicine to keep his life in control, and as far as the writer knew, he still had the “secret” prescription being filled. The writer “wasn’t sure if the gentleman should be as close to, and advising the activities of, the President of the United States in his ongoing condition.”
Jeff thought his primo attack, though, was an e-mail from the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee to a newswoman at the Washington Post. Attached was a short position paper, for publication, setting out the major points of the Democratic agenda regarding the latest concerns over air and water pollution.
Unfortunately, somehow a second draft-memo had also been attached setting out, in no uncertain terms, the marching orders for the Democratic troops in “destroying” the Republican leadership of the House and Senate. It had been marked “Private. Eyes Only,” and was noted to be hand delivered. It had instructions for the recipients to hand the message back to the courier after reading it.
The message detailed the making up and sending of documents that would destroy the credibility of the targets, with allusions to the very documents and messages that Jeff had just been sending. It also included several names of people in various branches of organized crime who could be used to assist in carrying out “activities” against the targets.
Jeff carefully watched the computer system of the newswoman and, within moments after seeing that she had picked up the message and opened it, he sent a “Cancel and Retrieve” action to try to bring the message back. Unfortunately, the action was a few seconds to late. The newswoman had it—and the two attachments. As Jeff continued to watch the newswoman’s system, he noted her quickly begin to send a blaze of e-mails, foremost of which were to her editor and legal officer and the owner of the news company.
Jeff sat back after a long day of constant activity and breathed out a long sigh. He had done it. He had several other actions he would put into place over the next days and weeks, but this was the big one for now. He had subscribed to all the blogs and RSS feeds for the news outfits and journalists he had sent messages to and he couldn’t wait for his messages to start coming in. And the explosions to start following. You’ve Got Mail. And what mail it would be.
CHAPTER 38
Ron Kincaide had made a call to a friend in Israel, Dr. Jacob Asch, a noted professor at Tel Aviv University. He was also, unknown to any but a very select circle of friends and associates, previously one of the most secretive of the Mossad deep-cover agents.
Jacob was now officially retired from the Mossad, but he still had his group of agents and contacts around the world and was on call to the Mossad to help with recruiting and training of new agents. He was also a personal friend of the Prime Minister of Israel, Eli David, and they often met together trying to sort out the latest problems their beloved country faced.
Ron and Jacob, along with a friend from Canada, Roger Evans, had worked together a few years back trying to unravel a massive plot by a group trying to take over control of the world. The plot had eventually been discovered and stopped and the plotters had all been captured.
However, in a joint effort by the men a year later to find a group of vigilantes that were trying to stop some of the purveyors of evil activities around the world, they had come to a dead end. The vigilantes had ceased their actions just before major computer searches by Jacob and Roger had found them, and the three men and several government agencies had been left hanging. No one but the three men themselves really knew of the involvement of the others in the investigations they were involved in.
Jacob had told Ron that he was too involved in university classes at the moment to get directly involved, but suggested he call Roger Evans. He said he would help if the affair dragged out and he became free, but didn’t see that coming for several weeks.
Ron then called Roger at his business in Vancouver and explained the need for more assistance, perhaps on an unofficial basis.
“I know you’ve got access to sources we can’t officially use. Of course, I don’t really know that or I’d likely have to issue a warrant for you. But…”
Roger chuckled. “Well, since you put it like that, I don’t know if I should admit anything or not.”
“Well, since we’re friends and all, I thought some little omissions between friends might be okay. And since I wouldn’t likely be able to find out what you were doing anyway…”
“Okay. Okay. You convinced me. I might be able to help a little. Don’t know if there’s anything I can really do that your systems can’t, but maybe.”
“My people aren’t involved in this yet, Roger. We’ve just made a couple of cursory searches to be sure something didn’t come up, but nothing more than that. The people doing the real searches are the D.C. police and this detective, Paul Corbin. I’ve talked to him without giving him any names, and he would sure like whatever assistance you could offer. He’d have to get approval from his end to share official data, but maybe you guys could work something out.”
“No problem, Ron. Should I call him or do you want to go between?”
“Let me call him and clear things, then I’ll have him call you. That way he’ll know for sure you are who you’re supposed to be.”
“And just who am I supposed to be?” Roger responded with another chuckle.
“Why, you’re this world famous computer expert that solves anything and everything that nobody knows about. Right?”
“Right. Just wanted to be sure we were on the same page. Have you by any chance contacted Jacob? Is he going to be involved? Should I call him?”
“We talked, but no, he’s wrapped up right now. Said he’d help in a few weeks if it went on that long, but not right now.”
“Okay. Then I’ll just wait for this detective to call. Talk to you later, maybe.”
“You got it. Take care.”
CHAPTER 39
Sylvia turned from her computer and asked Jake, “Have you been watching the news at all?”
“If you’re implying that an astute dee-tective must get his news from an electrical device, then No, I haven’t. If, as most really intelligent people know, real news comes from the printed page, then Yes, I have.”
“So which answer is it?”
“No.”
“By the way, isn’t a TV set an electrical device?”
“Yes, and the answer’s still No.”
“Okay. You might find it of interest, though, to know of several investigations of various government people that have just popped up. Seems like some people have been caught again with their hands in the cookie jars. Lot of stuff blowing up across the country. Some of it makes for fascinating true life adventure.”
“Especially when these so-called government people are supposed to be representing us?”
“Yeah, funny how that is. Most of the people I know don’t really want to cheat and steal, but how many of our representatives and leaders do—or don’t?”
Paul walked in right then and started, “Have you seen the news about the General on the Joint Chiefs? Somebody’s apparently digging into some background on him and finding some heavy dirt. Wonder how that could slip by when he got promoted up?”
“Yeah, we were just
talking about a couple of the things that have blown up. Seems that some news people have gotten their suspicions going at the same time and are laying them out. A couple of pretty nasty things going on. What did you hear on him?”
“Nothing much specific. I was just listening to the car radio. Remember, though, he isn’t really an elected official and doesn’t go through a lot of the investigations others do. Some military guy that just keeps getting promoted up ladders. We’ve seen lots of that in past years.”
“Yeah, but it always amazes me that these people, the ones who end up in trouble, actually think they can get away with this stuff. This guy’s supposed to have a long history of drugs and stuff, yet he thinks it’ll never come out? And doesn’t think that it can really hurt his bosses when it does? I don’t know.”
“Yeah, but remember he’s one of those power people who think nothing will ever stick to them. This president’s a pretty good guy, as far as I’ve seen these past few years. But, good stuff about him doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll come out in guys who work for him. And he’s one of the very few we’ve had in recent years who anyone would call decent and honest or that has the country’s best interests in mind.”
“Why, Ms. Shandon. I never thought a nice young lady like you would be a closet cynic. Don’t you look for the good in everyone?”
“Yes, and I don’t find much of it, Jake. Like this school arsonist. What could have driven someone over the edge to get him to burn schools? I could see someone doing something stupid and doing one, but somebody doing six or seven? Why? It just doesn’t make sense.”
“Yeah, there’s something weird about going after several schools. Then throw in the news office. You can see one, or even two in maybe your close neighborhood. Opportunity knocks, or maybe you hate all those kids tramping across your lawn. But, a bunch of them scattered all over a large city like this? There has to be something linking them. Otherwise why would he be chasing all over the city doing more?”
Paul chimed in. “I’ve been thinking…”
“Oh, that’s something new.”
“Okay, Jake, I’ve been thinking… We don’t have a single lead as to who this might be, so how about let’s maybe thinktank this again. See if any wild thoughts come out?”
“Okay. What question can we start with?”
“Maybe something blunt. A big one that’s really our overall question. Maybe it’ll trigger something. How about simply, Why? Why would someone go after a number of schools, or the kids, in this way? What would drive someone that way?”
“How about expanding that to include teachers, administrators, and so on? Not just the kids themselves.”
“Good thought, Sylvia. Why might this guy, supposedly a guy, go after someone attached to schools? Let’s not forget women completely, but let’s remember that guys do most of these things. And remember he also shot people at the school scenes.”
“Are you thinking the shots at the Speaker might not be related? Oops, but the slugs matched. Forgot about that.”
“Yeah, but maybe trying to focus on all of them at the same time is blinding us. Let’s just talk about the schools for now. Bring the others in later. Why would someone hate the schools, or people directly attached to them?”
They all sat quietly for several moments trying to pull out ideas. Finally, Sylvia said, “Something happened to his kid at a school and he’s taking it out on all of them.”
“Good. Hold on a minute and let me get some paper going here. I’ll try to scribe all this. Okay, go on. I’m ready.”
Jake replied, “That might be, but it would probably have to be something pretty serious, don’t you think, for him to torch schools. It wasn’t likely just some lunch money got stolen. Did a kid get killed? We had that item a couple years ago when some girls set another girl on fire ‘cause she was wearing the wrong colors. Something like that could trigger someone.”
“I’m sure that thing came up in the data search. We’ll need to be sure to look at it specifically.”
“Sammie’s been marking and matching any hate messages against schools, hasn’t he?”
“Yeah, I talked to him about watching that stuff close, Paul. A few have come up, but each one’s been cleared at this time. Maybe to look at again later, but not right now.”
“Okay. Sylvia, I see you being pretty deep right now?”
“Maybe just a crazy thought. What if it’s something to do with some out-of-towners? Have we looked at incidents like kids from Georgia visiting town, or maybe a school field trip from California or something?”
“Well, we’ve got all those things in the search, but wanna get specific?”
“I don’t know. Just thinking right now.”
“The only thing I can think of right now is some kids getting in trouble by going off on their own, away from the classes and teachers. We’ve probably had dozens of those incidents.”
“Yeah, and most of those ended up not being major incidents, nobody really getting hurt or anything.”
Jake said, “How about that one… maybe three years back, where that bus of kids got caught in that gang crossfire? Anybody remember that one?”
“Yeah, a little. But, as I remember it they were from Missouri or something, no relations to anyone here, the gangs got investigated and everything’s been quiet ever since. Not much to go on there.”
“Well, are we looking at anyone traveling here from out of the area? Maybe someone coming down to do these things, then heading back home?”
“Well, without any place to start, how would we zero in on anyone to trace? We’ve got millions of commuters going back and forth from New York and other places. Do we track all of them, too? If we ever get an actual lead on someone, or some place they could be coming from, we could start tracking. But until then… Pretty slim.”
“Yeah, maybe we should just limit our search to locals for now. Local events; local people; local criminals. We’ve got enough of them here to keep us busy forever.”
“Sylvia, why would you personally burn a school?”
“Because I hated science and they made me keep taking it. Didn’t get enough recess. Cold lunches.”
“So why don’t you burn a school today?”
“Grew up?”
“Hmm. Have we just eliminated kids?”
“I think with the links to the shootings and stuff that it’s not kids. Kids would do the schools once or twice, then quit, or get caught quick. Not enough moxie to hide well enough. This is an adult.”
They were silent.
“Paul,” Jake asked. “How would you go about burning a school? Physically. How would you plan and conduct it?”
“First thing I think about is how to do it without getting caught. And, the guy who called us, our probable arsonist, didn’t sound too intelligent. Could he have done it himself or is somebody controlling him?” He paused for a moment, then continued. “Just thought of another angle. What if the guy has some route or something that takes him past all the schools? Somebody delivering, maybe even to the schools themselves? Maybe picking up dry cleaning? Maybe a building inspector?”
“A sanitation inspector would be able to get access to those places without hesitation. Let’s put out a search for anyone doing that kind of stuff.”
“Okay, I’ll do that right now. Write down a list of all those kind of people you can think of and I’ll get it to the clerks to make calls. Probably thousands of them, but it’s a start. What else? How?”
“Back to a controller. I don’t get the feeling our caller was too smart. Didn’t talk like it, unless someone is really covering himself. Could this be a team? Some leader, or leaders, and some followers? How about—could one guy do all the stuff at the same time? Torch, wait around, shoot and so on?"
“Yeah, that’s a thought. Do you see anything in the events eliminating a single perp, or forcing more than one? Thinking back, I don’t think there are time restraints. Correct me if you feel different, but he could have done the torch jobs, the
n had lots of time to move away, set up with a weapon and done the shootings. The newsman was shot several minutes later and the squads and fire guys were already there. Same with the councilman. Several hours after the fire in that case.”
“Yeah, and the shooting at the Speaker’s event. All by itself. Nothing else happening.”
“Okay. Sylvia, back at you. Are these things completely random? Did he just pick up a phone book and start burning and shooting?”
“I think a strong No. Otherwise why do more than one thing at each event. He fired that school, then sat around long enough, with a rifle he thought to bring with him, and shot that newsman. Same with the councilman. Even a longer time span with that one. And random doesn’t keep the different events together. They’re all tied to something. School fires and the news office; political people and/or people at the fires. They’re tied together.”
“Yeah, I agree. That old couple shot in the market by that school likely saw something they shouldn’t and got put away. And, even with Senator Marks, the slugs are the same as the old couple. Shot a couple of people with a rifle at a distance, then the couple and Marks at close range with the pistol. This whole thing is tied together in some way. I’ll put money on it.”
“Back to your team of players, Paul. It’s pretty certain one guy could do all the events, and the combo events, but I think your thought about a team is good. I agree the phone caller didn’t sound like he had it all there. Could there be a couple of people doing different things, but being guided by somebody else? I like that thought.”
“Yeah, we had those two shooters a couple of years back. An older, leader-type guy, and that younger one. Maybe something like that?”