BA Hammer Blue Flu Ch. 03

We convened at the conference room beside my office the next morning. We laid everything in the folder out on the table. There were official reports of ten police shootings and five large unsolved robberies. There were two missing persons reports. These boys have been busy. The seventeen reports only went back three years. He hadn't pulled anything before that. That might be important.

There were notes. One was about the police union, and several about the cases listed. There were several references we couldn't connect to anything at this time. We had a lot more questions than answers. Where to begin?

"I think we need to move quietly for as long as we can. Let's get as much as we can before anyone finds out what we are doing." Ike agreed.

"I am going to start with Zorro. I need him to crack a couple of places. I want to see the real video of the last shooting."

"I am going to gather the information about every officer in these shootings. Let's see if there are any connections." Ike headed out the door. "I don't have to say be careful, do I?"

I shook my head. "Not a chance. We will have to be church mice for as long as we can."

I called Zorro's burner phone. He was going to be pissed. I only bother him when I need the pre-eminent hacker in the country. He owes me and he knows I only call when it's important.

My burner phone rang a few minutes later. "What the fuck? Why do you keep bothering me?"

"I must when I must. When you see, it might be tough."

"Oh, stop jerking my chain. You know I haven't seen anything too tough. I will send you an address. Then I must move again." He hung up. I had an address a couple of minutes later. I have become convinced that he holds these places for just such a need. This place won't be where he actually is, just a convenient place to meet. That's okay with me. He is the most secretive person I have ever met. Of course, when the entire US government is looking for you, you tend to be careful.

I arrived at the address to find a small video store. I said what I was told to say, and the clerk pointed to a door in the back. Once through the door, there was another door. Behind that door was a very big, angry looking man with a very large gun. He frisked me and asked for all my phones. I've been through this before and had brought none except the burner phone. I handed it to him, and he pointed to another door.

Zorro was sitting in front a row of computers. They were humming, working on God knows what.

"Well, what is it now?"

"The police commissioner's car bombing. A bunch of rogue cops. He had the goods on some of them and they needed to gather up everything he had and make him go away."

"Any you know this, how? Wait, I don't care. What do you want?"

I have a list of 17 suspicious police reports. I need the real files. The real video. Whatever the police don't want us to know."

"That's all? Why don't you ask about the Police Commissioner's mistress? I can get you her name and address."

"That's not all. I need you to crack the police union's files. I need their financials. I need the names of any cops that have a connection to them. I think there is a slush fund somewhere. I need to find it, and the cops that run it."

"This is going to take a while. And this is going to cost you."

"What do you want? Have you figured the Grey Ghost out yet?"

"Yes, and I am improving it."

"I think you will make enough off that to make us even."

"Get the fuck out of here. Here is a new phone. When I have something, I will text you an address where you can pick your materials up."

I nodded and left through a different door. I went back to my office.

Sitting in the conference room looking at the files, I realized there were no names there. Westminster had said he had witnesses. I am sure he didn't tell anyone who they were, and their names died with him. We would have to start fresh.

Ike came in with the report on each of the seventeen police files. He had the names of the officers involved. There were three that appeared more than once. We could start with them.

Sargent Luigi Carmine, Theodore Ames, and Thomas Simpson. I didn't want Liz working on this case, so I called Homer. He was the hacker that had trained Liz and still did work for us. I asked him to check on these names but be careful. He agreed.

Everything was in motion. We just had to wait for the hackers to do their jobs to give us a place to start.

I got a text on my burner phone from Zorro the next morning. He asked me to meet him at another address. That is very unusual. To want to see me twice he must be worried. I hurried to the address and went through the normal routine until I was in his different lair.

"Hammer, you can certainly pick'em. These people are serious about security. I've gotten into the Pentagon easier than this. They really don't want people looking over their shoulders."

"Well, when you do what they are doing, you know there are people like me wanting to take them down."

"I printed off copies of all their files. Most as just standard business files. They do have a few interesting ones, however. They have a file for a large charitable foundation they support, and I mean SUPPORT. They have run millions through it. They have dozens of projects they are funding. Even so, there is a lot of money unaccounted for. My guess is this is where they are laundering money." He handed me the printout of the charity. He was right. A lot of money is coming and going.

"Can I get a list of the officers and anyone else mentioned?" He looked hurt.

"Who the fuck do you think I am, some junior hacker? Of course, I have that." He handed me a list of people connected to the charity. "I have also listed every expenditure of the charity. There are some interesting companies there, too." His printouts included the addresses and phone numbers of everyone, and every company listed. He also gave me officers of some of the companies listed. It was very thorough.

"This is amazing, as always. I think I will have to leave you alone for a while."

"One other thing. I wouldn't have anyone else go looking through any of these companies. They have tracking programs to see anyone looking at them. I had to constantly divert them to keep them from discovering I was in there. Someone else would be noticed immediately."

I couldn't wait to get back to my office. I am sure I have the heart of Blue Brotherhood on these pages. I just need to ferret them out.

After hearing Zorro's warning, I called Homer to see if he had done what I asked.

"Sure, Mr. Hammer. I sent everything to Liz this morning."

"Okay, I am afraid I have put you in a bad spot. These people have tracking devices to see whenever anyone is looking at them."

"I know. I think I blocked them, but I can't know for sure."

"We can't take the chance. Any way you can take a little vacation for a couple of weeks? I'll pay for it. You can take your wife to Disney World, or whatever."

"Sure, I take it I should leave tomorrow."

"How about tonight? I'll have Liz send you $10,000 extra when she pays your bill today. Try to stay offline as much as possible."

"Will do. I'll call my wife and be off to destinations unknown within the hour."

I got to the office and spread everything out on the table. I called Ike and he joined me. It told Liz about the money, and we hunkered down.

The first thing we talked about was security.

"Ike, I think we need to assume they will catch on to us quickly. Homer's work will do it. The question is, what do they try first to scare us off?"

Ike was silent for a few minutes. "I think they will start with threats. If it follows the traditional methods of bullies, it will be in uniform. We should get some form of warning."

"Let's tell everyone to be careful. They will stop someone. I hope it's you or me."

Time to look at what Zorro gave us. The name of their charity is Blue Heaven. They certainly are confident. That is obvious. The man who heads the charity is a cop. His name is Emanuel Gonzales, and he is a Captain in the NYPD. There are five other names listed on the board. All are police officers with the NYPD except one, the treasurer, Robert Hamilton. Included is my old friend, Lt. Homer Baker. The others are Rhonda Ferguson, the Vice-President of the charity, and a surprise. Luigi Carmine. He is one of the officers involved in multiple shootings in the last three years.

If I needed any confirmation this was the jackpot, his name here was it. Now for each individually.

Captain Emanuel Gonzales. He is a twenty-five-year veteran of the NYPD. His financials show a lot of money, but you must know where to look. Thank God for Zorro. Gonzales' regular accounts appear to be in order. There is even an account for his dog, Gonzo. In that account are the normal things you'd find in a pet account. There is also one small item listed as "pedigree". It is here Zorro found his secret account. It was double encrypted, but Zorro broke it. It is only a number.

The pattern was the same for each. Everything looked normal until Zorro looked behind the numbers. Each one has a private account that is only a number.

That's the officers. How are they paying the soldiers? There had to be many of them. Zorro had found that too. They have an investment in an offshore charity in Puerto Rico. It is "helping rebuild the infrastructure of Puerto Rico", according to the brochures. However, it happens to be in the Cayman Islands, a known tax shelter. The name of that shelter is Blue Water Puerto Rico. At least these guys are consistent. The books of that charity show nearly one hundred accounts. They are numbered accounts.

That must be the soldiers' accounts. Ninety-one accounts in all. With the five officers that is ninety-six accounts. But there were three more accounts in the charity's files. Who could those be?

"I'm stumped. Who are the three other accounts?"

Ike smiled. "My guess is at least one of them is top of the police union. Someone had to get this started, and he has the clout to do it." Of course. Retired Assistant Police Chief Marcos Daley. He has been the head of the union for nearly twenty years. Some say he really runs the NYPD. Every shooting investigation runs through him, and he is notorious for fighting any attempt to punish a police officer for anything. His right-hand man, Mike Green, is his enforcer. I am certain that is two of them. That leaves one.

I had been curious about one envelope Zorro had given me. It was marked "Open last."

"I guess it's time to open this." I cut it open. Inside were the details of the bank in the Cayman Islands. It detailed what was needed to get into each of the numbered accounts. Each had the standard passwords. They had one unique feature. These people wanted this to be almost foolproof. You needed an eye scan to access each account. That meant each individual had to go to the Cayman Islands to make a withdrawal. This was the ultimate retirement account. There would be no cops running around spending extra money in the city. How were we going to identify them?