by Marvin Wolf
“This is all we have,” he said.
“Do you have a flatbed scanner?”
“Sure.”
Will said, “Here’s what I’d like you to do. Scan both sides of the bill at 6400 dpi. Wear gloves. Then print me out the part of the bill with the clock tower on a sheet of letter-size paper. Can you do that, Officer?”
“Ten minutes,” said the cop.
Will turned back to Ash. “Go on.”
“Steve Foosler booted up Katrina’s computer, to see if her abductors had downloaded anything. Didn’t see any sign of that, but he noticed that her trash was full. He recovered several email and attachments, and one of them was the return of Katrina’s application for a security clearance.”
Will said, “Oh shit. I think I’ve seen this movie.”
Ash nodded. “No such person as Katrina Sawyer with that Social Security number. The number is real but belongs to someone who died years ago. No prints on file at any US agency or local police. No Katrina Sawyer won a Phi Beta Kappa pin. Near as I can tell, Katrina Sawyer doesn’t exist.”
Chapter 84
The Ozark cop beckoned to Will and handed him a sheet of paper: The clock tower image on a hundred dollar note. Will peered intently at the tower, focusing on the vertical lines denoting three o’clock on the clock.
There were three lines.
“Wait a minute, officer,” Will said. “Do you still have the image on the computer?”
“This way,” the cop said, and Will followed him to a desk upon which sat a large monitor that displayed the center portion of the century note.
“Make it bigger,” Will said, and the cop sat down, fiddled with a few keys, and the image zoomed in closer on the clock tower.
Will looked again, counted again.
Three vertical lines.
“Have YOU lifted any prints from this note?” he said.
“Running them now.”
Will walked back the way he’d come and found Ash.
“The bill from the kid’s wallet is genuine.”
Ash said, “What does that mean?”
Will said, “I’m going to have another go at Jason.”
Will ducked back into the interview room and sat down. “Mr. Peters, as I told you, your son is not under arrest and we don’t suspect him of a crime. But I’d like word with him in private.”
“It’s okay, Dad,” said Jason.
The elder Peters put on his overcoat and with a glance at Jason left the room.
Will leaned across the table. “Tell me again about the man who gave you the hundred,” he said.
“Like I said, he was a little older than you, AND from the fort.”
“I don’t think so,” Will said. “Try again.”
Jason shook his head. “I told you everything I know. Can I go home now?”
Will shook his head. “Do you know what ‘obstruction of justice means?”
Jason paled. “Not exactly.”
“Lying to the police. Interfering with a criminal investigation.”
“But I told you all I know!”
Will smiled. “I think I understand, You needed your girlfriend’s help to drop the car. You didn’t want to tell her that a woman, a very beautiful woman, a sexy woman, gave you the hundred.”
Jason turned bright red.
“That’s what happened, right?”
Jason blinked away tears. “You don’t understand, Agent. Girls don’t like guys like me. Nerds. Nerds that don’t have much money. If I told Lara that I was even talking to a woman—a woman like Mary Connors—she’d drop me. I’d never find another girlfriend.”
“Tell me about Mary,” Will said. “What color is her hair?”
“Red, really bright red, until yesterday. Then it was brown.”
“How long have you known Mary Connors,” Will said.
“About a month. She used to have coffee in the food court—that’s my after-school job, at the food court. And she came in a couple of times a week. Sometimes bought me a sandwich. A few times.”
“So you were kind of friends?”
“Sure. She was very sweet. I couldn’t believe that someone that beautiful wanted to hang with me, but she did.”
“Tell me about when her hair was brown, Jason.”
“Yesterday. She came in and I didn’t recognize her. No makeup. She said she was being followed, and needed my help.”
“Being followed? By whom? Why?”
“She didn’t say, exactly. She told me it was better if I didn’t know much. All she said was that she worked at the fort and that men were following her everywhere. So she was gonna like quit her job, or take vacation time, and go someplace where she’d be safe.”
“What was the deal with the car?”
“Mary said that she had to leave Alabama. Somebody she knew, a friend, was gonna leave a car parked near my house, and I was supposed to bring it to Walmart and park it and leave the keys in the wheel well, but it had to be between 2:00 and 4:00. And then someone would pick the car up and take it to where she was hiding and she’d drive to Florida, I think, and hide down there until it was safe to come back. She seemed pretty scared, so I said okay.”
Will got to his feet. “One more question, Jason. How was she dressed? Close your eyes and try to remember.”
Jason closed his eyes. “Dark blue sweater. Black jeans. Brown jacket with a fur collar.”
Will dug out his wallet and counted out five $20 bills. “You’ve been a big help, Jason.”
“You’re not gonna tell my father?”
Will shook his head. “This is need-to-know stuff. If you see Mary again, call me,” he said and handed the boy his card. “But stay away from her. She’s dangerous.”
Chapter 85
Will climbed in next to Ash and locked the door.
“Ash, do you remember when Katrina came to work in the CID office?
“Last year, right after Labor Day.”
“Who did she replace?”
“A sweet, nice lady named Mary Connors. She was about sixty, I think. She went on vacation in August, and then got sick and died.”
“Where was that?” Will said.
“Pensacola, I think. Mary had a daughter and two grandchildren down there.”
“And then Katrina applied for the vacancy?”
“First day it was announced.”
“Any other applicants?”
“Oh, maybe twenty or so. Nick made the choice. Why do you want to know?
“One more question and I’ll explain. Did Katrina have access to the evidence safe?”
“I think so. I can remember times when Nick asked her to put something in the safe or bring him something. Now, what’s going on?”
In a few sentences, Will summarized what Jason had told him about Katrina. He finished with noting that the hundred that Katrina gave him was genuine.
Ash shook her head. “You think that she killed Mary, applied for her job under an alias, and then shot those two MPs? But why? If she was connected to the counterfeiters, wouldn’t she have given Jason a phony note?”
Will shook his head. “It’s late. It’s a lot to think about. Let’s get some sleep and go at it fresh in the morning.”
Ash started the engine, then turned her head to look at Will. “I’d like to crash at your place. Is that a problem?”
“I’ve only got one bed, Ash. I could use the couch, I guess.”
“We both need our rest, Will. Let’s share the bed.”
“I might not be able to sleep in the same bed with you.”
“Because…?”
“Because I’d probably be, um…uh…”
“Sexually aroused?”
“Uh, yes. Very much so.”
“Is that a problem?”
It wasn’t.
Chapter 86
Light flooded the room. Will opened one eye.
Ash. Naked. Deliciously naked. Bending over him.
“Wake up,” Ash said. “We’re late for work.”
Will opened his other eye.
“Can I just look at you for a few minutes before I get up?” he said. “Maybe an hour or so?”
“Thirty seconds, and then I’m in the shower.”
“Thirty-five, and I’m in the shower too.”
Ten minutes later, Will watched Ash climb into her Santa Fe and drive off. Even though he knew that he would see her in the office in a few minutes, he felt as if something had just been torn from his soul.
“Pull yourself together,” he mumbled. “It was one night.”
Feeling no better, he got into his pickup and headed for work.
§
As she drove away, Ash caught a glimpse of Will staring after her. Replaying the previous night’s encounter in her mind, Ash had to swerve to avoid a car coming straight at her. Only after it had screamed by, horn honking madly, did she realize that she had strayed into the oncoming lane.
Ash had never spent the night, even an abbreviated night, in bed with a man before. Or a woman, for that matter. She had never really had a boyfriend, a regular sex partner. Nor, until a few hours earlier, had she experienced an orgasm. At least she thought it was an orgasm. All she knew for certain was that it made her feel indescribably good. She still felt good, a warm feeling of self-worth and a wonderful release from all the stress of a murder investigation.
She felt so good that she began to wonder if that kind of sex was addictive. If she was now Will’s sex slave. If he had power over her in a way no man ever had. She had in her teens read about such things in novels, but believed that nothing that happened between a man and a woman could cause a woman to surrender her dignity and her body. Now she thought she understood how it could happen in real life.
That worried her. She would like to spend another night with Will, and soon, but first, they had to set some ground rules.
§
Assisted by Elliot, Chelmin hopped from behind his desk to a straight-back chair and sat down. Steve opened the long cardboard box covered with FedEx labels and pulled out an artificial leg. Both men watched, fascinated, as Chelmin strapped it on, then slid into his trousers before lacing a shoe over the bottom of the prosthesis.
“Show’s over,” said Chelmin, feeling like some sort of weird performer. It was the first time anyone except his wife or a nurse had watched him don his leg.
A moment later Will entered.
Chelmin glanced at the clock. “Big night, Will?”
Will flinched. “I’ll say,” he said. “Soon as Ash gets here, we’ll brief you on our stakeout.”
“Sheriff Taliaferro called about twenty minutes ago, wants to know what the kids the Ozark cops nabbed had to say.”
“I questioned the boy. Ash had the girl. We exchanged information last night, but unless you’re in a hurry, I’d as soon wait for my partner to brief you.”
Chelmin grinned. “Get some coffee. I understand it was almost 0400 by the time you guys left Ozark PD.”
Ten minutes later the team gathered in the conference room and Will, with Ash sitting at the far end of the table, shared what they had learned from Jason Peters. Everyone sat grim-faced until Will concluded his talk.
“Questions?” Will said.
Chelmin said, “We’ve got to talk to Nick. But he won’t be at Scotland Yard for at least another week.”
Will said, “Do you think he knew Katrina was a fake?”
“Hell no,” Chelmin said.
“Of course not,” Ash said.
“Impossible,” Elliot said.
Steve just shook his head.
Chelmin said, “But he might know something that isn’t in her employment file.”
Will said, “Elliot and Steve: Get started on a warrant for Katrina’s arrest, suspicion of homicide. Then go to Headquarters HR, explain the situation, and ask for the original of her employment application. Then get in touch with the Pensacola police and share our suspicions about Katrina and Mary Connors. Meanwhile, I’ll call Captain Johnstone and ask him to lean on the HR people to give us that paperwork.”
Steve and Elliot got up from the table.
Ash said, “I’ll go through our files and see what, if anything, we have on her.”
Will said, “Thanks. And I’ll go through her computer.”
Chelmin said, “I guess I get to brief Colonel Moffett.”
Will said, “Hang on, Steve and Elliot. I’ve got one more thing. I’ve got no idea who Katrina is or who she’s working for—or even if she’s working for someone at all. But she had access to the evidence safe when it had the $7,200 in hundreds that Alvie brought in. The Secret Service found one genuine bill in the bunch. I wondered then why they weren’t all counterfeits. And when Katrina paid young Jason to spot her car in the Walmart lot, she paid with a genuine hundred. If she was part of the counterfeiting gang, why did she have to arrange for her car to be left there? And why leave it at all, when she had to know that we’d run the plate and find that it was stolen? Why not just get in it and drive far away?”
Ash said, “So she isn’t part of the counterfeiting operation?”
Will shrugged. “Maybe not. She saw the email that shot down her security clearance and knew that she was blown. Being alone in the office with two MPs was a gift. She had one come into Chelmin’s office and shot him with a silenced gun. Then she went outside to her desk and shot the other one. Then she dug the bullets out of the wall. All that was to make us think she’d been abducted.”
Ash said, “But why not just leave her car in the lot, take a bus and leave the area? Why the extensive charade, the calculated way that she befriended Jason?”
Will said, “That suggests that she knew she would be found out and was preparing an escape.”
Steve said, “Maybe she used a real hundred to make us think that she wasn’t part of the gang? Maybe this whole charade was to have us looking everywhere else but here?”
“That’s genius, Steve,” said Chelmin.
“So we find Katrina, we find the counterfeiters who murdered our pilots?” Elliot said.
“Could be,” Will said. “I just had another thought.”
Will sat back down and the others followed suit.
“We need to get the Secret Service back down here. Here’s what I’m thinking: This bunch of killers must be hiding something on this base. Something so valuable that they’ve killed at least six people: The Thompson brothers, Sharon Coe, and our three aviators. And if Katrina is one of them, then two more, our MPs. So what is it that they’re hiding?”
Ash said, “Either an underground printing operation or a gigantic stash of queer money.”
Chelmin said, “I can’t think how they could be operating a print shop on this base, even in an abandoned mine. Where do they get electric power? And why not just set up a real printing operation somewhere in the open and run their counterfeits when it’s closed?”
Will said, “Maybe they bring the fake bills here in large batches, then distribute it to outlets all over the region?”
The door to the conference room opened and tough-looking man in his forties entered.
“You’re on the right track, gentlemen, but there’s a third possibility,” he said.
Chapter 87
Will stood up. “This is Special Agent, uh, Lockwood, the assistant agent-in-charge of the Huntsville office,” he said.
“Call me Chuck,” said Lockwood.
“Have a seat,” said Chelmin. “Coffee?”
“Later, maybe,” said Lockwood. “Let me bring you up to date on the status of our investigation. We confiscated a little more than $150 million—that’s a final total—from regional banks. The CID’s role in this is on the record, and in due course, this office, and especially Special Agent Landon, will be up for formal recognition, and maybe even a cash reward.”
Ash said, “Special Agent Shapiro. Landon is in intensive care at the base hospital. Multiple broken bones, fractured skull. Not expected to recover.”
Lockwood looked shaken. �
��In connection with this investigation?”
Chelmin said, “You bet.”
Lockwood shook his head. “I’m terribly sorry to hear this. Is there anything the Secret Service can do?”
Ash shook her head. “If there is a reward, it should go to his husband.”
The room was quiet, as Lockwood let that sink in. Finally, he found his voice. “By all means,” he said. “Let me know the details. But I came here to brief you.
“First, because of the enormous sums of counterfeit notes that we have confiscated, we had to know why these bills were not detected. The answer is that the paper and its security features are identical to Treasury currency. The printing process and inks are identical as well. So the normal security measures at banks—security pens, ultra-violet scanners—don’t work. The only way to detect this bill is to inspect the clock tower, as we showed Agent Spaulding when he visited.
“Anyway, there is a bipartisan bill moving through the Congress that would make it possible for the affected banks to recover a large fraction of their counterfeit losses from the FDIC. Meanwhile, task forces in each Federal Reserve district are forming to audit all federally chartered banks. We’ll extend technical support, on request, to state banks.”
Chelmin said, “When you came in, you said there might be a third possibility about our local gang.”
Lockwood nodded. “Here’s what we know, or what we think we know: The paper, with its security features, is from a particular Swiss manufacturer. It was sold through European intermediates to a legitimate Iranian printing house that specializes in printing bonds. This firm is in Mashad, in the northeast corner of Iran, near its borders with Afghanistan and Turkmenistan.”
“Son of a bitch,” said Will, who then looked at Ash.
“Does that mean something to you?” Lockwood said.
“The people we suspect are behind this are a bunch of reengade Army aviators who were on a Blackhawk that went down on a flight to Herat, in far western Afghanistan, and near the Iranian border. Ten years ago. But go on, please.”
Lockwood said, “We believe that the plates came from Pyongyang, possibly in return for Iranian missile technology. We believe that the notes were somehow smuggled into the US, perhaps through Houston, New Orleans, or Miami—but these notes were in sheets and incomplete. Not ready to distribute. Genuine currency requires both an intaglio press and an offset press. The presses in the Bureau of Printing and Engraving are enormous. Iran has several presses like that.”