B.A. Hammer Returns Ch. 06

B.A. Hammer Returns Ch 6

Ahmad was arraigned that Friday. It was a HUGE circus. Reporters were everywhere. Brick plead "not guilty", and the judge named a preliminary trial date of two weeks from the following Monday.

Brick met with his friend, Senator Minton the next week. He called me and I met him in his office.

"I spoke to Mark. He is on the appropriations committee. He was approached once by someone, but he rebuffed them, and he was not bothered again. He did tell me what started him questioning Carrington. He saw him with one of the lobbyists from Redthorne that had approached him. This was after he had told them to fly a kite. He began to wonder if they were going around him."

"I guess we have the answer to that question. I have a question for you, Brick."

"Okay, shoot."

"Is there any way to determine which bullet killed Carrington? Is there any way to determine how much later the second bullet was fired?"

"To answer your first question, yes, the coroner can usually determine which bullet killed him. As to the second question, it depends. If there was little bleeding around the entry wound of the second bullet, it could suggest that it was fired after his heart had stopped pumping. At least, that will be my point."

I went home to see Mary. This is the last week she is in the musical. Friday will be her last day. She is six months pregnant now, and she needs to be at home at night. She is starting to show, so it is time to hand it over to her understudy. I went to her last four shows. Friday was a big deal. They threw her a combination send off party and baby shower on the following Saturday. It was wonderful. Ester told me she was happy for us, and for her to not be in a hurry to come back to Broadway. She assured us something would be there when she was ready.

We spent all day Sunday resting, trying to recover from the party. Me because I was hungover again, and her because she is six months pregnant.

I asked Brick to see if Minton could remember the name of the man Carrington met with. He said he would call and let me know.

Liz came in on Tuesday to tell me about her work on Redthorne's books. "Homer and I have seen enough of their books. Homer is pretty good at this, too. William analyzed them for us. They are bleeding cash. They have a leak somewhere, and they will need the cash infusion. I don't know how they will explain this to SDS." I thanked her and sat down to think.

I need to check on our old friend Donald. I called Ike to check on the surveillance.

"My men have been on him two deep ever since the night Carrington died. I am using a revolving two-man teams that cover him all day and night. This had better get us something because it is very expensive."

"Could you have their reports sent over to me? I want to see what he has been up to." He agreed.

The reports were there in two hours. I sat and read through them. He had not left his office or home in the last month. Except for once. He met a man late one night. Ned Knowles got a good picture of him. It was included. I would ask Homer to try the face recognition programs he was working on to see if we can determine who he is. I got a call from Brick to tell me Minton does have the name of the man who he saw with Carrington. Apparently, he keeps good notes. The man's name was Sam Jones.

I went into Liz's office and asked her to run Sam Jones. Try to find a picture of him, and what he does as a lobbyist for Redthorne.

By the next day we didn't need any work on the man who met with Donald. It was Sam Jones. Why did Jones risk connecting with the people in this case? Why would Donald risk meeting with him? Redthorne must know I am following him. Do they want us to start running Sam Jones down? I decided to let Liz and Homer work on him, but no one else for now.

I got a text from Zorro with one word, "sun". He has moved the money. Let's see how this shakes them up.

Brick called me to tell me he needed to meet with me by the end of the week to give him whatever I had to help Ahmad. I agreed and asked to see the witness list for the prosecution and whatever they had to turn over to him. He will call when he gets everything.

I settled into my "thinking" chair. I need to lay out all the different threads.

1. Redthorne is being purchased by a very private company with deep ties to the US military.
2. SDS wants no disturbances.
3. Redthorne is knee-deep in setting up their next profit stream to hedge against Afghanistan going away.
4. Ahmad accidentally sees a political agent of Senator Minton meeting with Redthorne.
5. Redthorne knows he came straight to me.
6. They must now deal with this direct threat to their very existence.
7. They move fast to plant money in Ahmad's name in First National Bank and set up the murder frame.
8. They must find a way to silence Ahmad without causing a sensation. This trial has national attention because of its connection to Senator Minton. If anything happens to Ahmad now, they know I will blow the lid off this entire story. They must have him convicted and drift away quietly, somehow.
9. This will require them to find his family. Muhammad is confident he can handle them, but they are a large and powerful military force. I decided to call Ike and have someone watching Muhammad. They will come for him.
10. What do I have to give Brick to help Ahmad? I need to prove the card at the bank is not Ahmad's handwriting. If it looks like a match, I need to find out how they did it, and fast.
11. We are pretty sure of what Donald will say on the stand, but why do they want to trust he won't crack?
12. Why did Sam Jones get involved at this stage? What is his involvement?

I called Ike and asked him to put a couple of men on Muhammad and his office. "Okay, but this is getting expensive. I hope this pays off."

"There are some payments beside money. I see a battle coming. You might want to start recruiting a few more good men, but do it quietly. We don't want AID to know."

"You got it. How many do you think we will need?"

"More than we can get, unfortunately."

"Understood."

I went home to see Mary. I was surprised to see Kitty there. "Kitty, this is an unexpected pleasure."

"The boss thought Mary might need a "maid" right now."

"You thank him for me, will ya?" I will have to call Fat Tony and thank him for the thought.

"You know it."

Mary was not pleased. "So, you see I have company. What the hell is going on?" I sat down and told Mary the entire story. She sat quietly, listening until I was finished. "Why can't you have regular cases like normal private investigators?"

"I have plenty of them too. It's just that I owe Ahmad. I would not have survived Afghanistan without him. I must protect his family."

"Of course, I wouldn't expect you to do anything else, but, damn, we have a baby coming in a few months."

"It will be okay. You can stay inside for a while. Kitty is here and Ike has someone watching outside. By the way, Kitty, I will get you a picture of her so the two of you don't shoot each other."

"Might be a good idea." Kitty went to the window and looked outside.

I called Ike to tell him about Kitty and asked for a picture of his person outside. He promised to send it to me.

I spent the rest of the evening trying to console Mary.

The next morning, I got the second text from Zorro, "moon". Redthorne knows the money is moved. I wonder if they will figure out we put it in one of Donald's accounts?

Liz came in with Homer. "Our handwriting expert says Ahmad didn't sign the card, but it's a damn good forgery."

"Do we have a way to cut into the bank's security camera's to look at the tape of the day this account was opened? If we can see who it was it would help."

Homer spoke up. "I can get in."

"Okay, the date is on the card. Get Spook to cut into their system. If he can't do it, I may have to get Zorro to do it, but he isn't going to be happy about it." Spook is Ike's man that is a wizard with security systems. He did great things for us in Afghanistan. Some was Afghans, some was military, but,,, that is a different story.

Ike called to say his men saw Sam Jones going into the Redthorne' offices. I told him to have them follow him when he left.

Stevie came into the office to tell me the delayed shipment was leaving that night. They must want to clean up the loose ends. I asked Ike to come by.

He was there shortly. "What do you need?"

"Do we know anyone in Romania?" Ike sat for a few minutes, thinking.

"Maybe. Do you remember the NATO men in Kabul?"

"Vaguely."

"You needed to socialize more."

"You mean drink with them more."

"Whatever you call it, they could drink any of us under the table. There was one Romanian. I'm not sure which country's army he really was with, but he told me one night about it. We got "friendly", and he told me he was from Romania but wanted to fight in Afghanistan."

"Friendly. You mean bombed out of your mind."

"Exactly. But I think he said he was going back to Romania."

"Do you remember his name?"

"I've been trying. It was Andrei something. Iona or something like that. Give me a minute, I'll think of it."

"Okay when you do, have Liz or Homer try and locate him. Maybe, Facebook, anything."

"Ionescu. That was it. Andrei Ionescu. I'll give it to Liz." He popped up and was gone.

I can't be so lucky as to have him in Constanta. But, if he has contacts in Romania, maybe he can help us.

Brick called to ask me to come to his office. When I got there, he told me he had the witness list and list of evidence. "Let's go over this one at a time."

1. Nicholas Donald. No need to spend any time on him.
2. Officers Wanda Wilson and Burt Cameo. Probably the cops who arrested Ahmad.
3. coroner
4. Homicide detective William Ligeti.
5. Mary Thomas. Who the hell is she?
6. Wilbur Knapp. no Idea.
7. Sam Jones. Why is his name here?
8. Arnold Canary. That name sounds familiar.

"Brick spoke up. "Canary is a handwriting expert." Okay, we will have to break him.

Evidence List.

1. bank card and statements
2. fingerprints
3. gunpowder residue test results.
4. two photos

Brick spoke up. "It looks like most of this case is built on testimony of the witnesses and Ahmad's physical presence at the crime scene. They have opportunity and a motive. They will have to prove something happened to upset their little scheme. I would guess that is Jones' part in this. He will have to show a strain in Carrington and Ahmad's partnership. What do you have for me?"

"I am having the bank card checked to see if it really is Ahmad's signature. It must have been forged. I am checking the bank cameras to see the man who signed up for this account. If we blow up the money, they will have no motive. They won't be able to prove Ahmad was in league with them. That is a good start."

"IF it isn't his signature. We need to know as soon as we can."

"I'll let you know as soon as possible." I hurried back to my office. I called Liz in and asked about the card.

"You have good timing. I have Sammy Sommers in my office." Sammy is a document forger I know.

"Let's go see him." We headed to her office. Sammy was sitting in a chair waiting for us.

"Hey, Sammy. How you been? I haven't talked to you in a long while."

"Yeah, it is a long time. This card is a work of art. It would fool most experts. You may have a hard time proving this isn't genuine."

"What if I can get you a picture of the man who signed it?"

"IF you give me a picture, and IF I recognize him, MAYBE."

"Could you testify about this?"

Sammy laughed, and I knew why. "Are you kidding? If I go anywhere near a courtroom, the cops will smell a rat. They will assume I have something to do with this."

Of course, he's right. "Do you know an expert they would accept that might do it?"

"Maybe. Get the picture first." He stood up to leave. "Look Hammer, I'd like to help you, but I can't jam myself up with the cops. They keep a close eye on me."

"I know. I'll be careful with your involvement in this. By the way, do you know Arnold Canary?"

"Yeah, I guess he's their expert. He's good, but rather traditional. He would miss this." He left.

I stayed in Liz's office. "I have a couple of names I need you to research. Wilbur Knapp and Mary Thomas. I know her name is very common, but they are on the witness list for the trial. They must be involved somehow."

"I'll get on it. I'll call Spook to see how he is coming on the picture."

Late that night, I was awakened by Ike.

"BA, we have a problem. It appears AID hit Muhammad's house. I had two men outside. They reported six armed men slithered by them around two am. They followed and took out the guards they left behind. The other four moved into the house. Before my men could get inside, the house exploded in gunfire. By the time they got inside, they found the four AID men dead. They had to identify themselves before the half dozen masked men in the house took them out too. They told the men inside they had taken out the two guards outside. The masked men sent men out to drag the two guards inside. Within a few minutes the bodies were gone out the back and they were cleaning up the scene by the time the police arrived. Muhammad went outside and assured the police there was no problem here. They asked him to come inside, and he let them. Everything appeared normal. All our men were hidden. It was just Muhammad and his butler. He told them his TV was a little too loud and he was sorry for the disturbance. They didn't believe him, but had no choice, and left."

"I guess he really was able to take care of himself. Remind me not to threaten him in the future. Have your men's report sent over to my office in the morning."

"Sure, good night."

Well, it's almost four in the morning, and I'm not going back to sleep. I just lay there until dawn thinking about the next step.