Jennella Ch. 03

We walked through the warehouse; it was brightly lighted and had no partitions or dark corners. I noticed an area fenced off from the rest of the room. We walked to it. Inside were forklifts and a scissors lift and some scaffolds of different sizes.

I stepped inside the fenced off area and looked carefully at the scissors lift. It had a sign painted on it that said 'For Maintenance Department Use Only'. There were Arabic words under the English words. I assumed they said the same thing.

I looked at the Sergeant and asked if he could operate the scissors lift. He said he could. I asked if he could see how high it would lift. He tried the controls, nothing happened. He looked in the side compartment. There was a bank of batteries in there. He moved something in there and tried the controls again. This time they worked. The platform on the lift rose slowly toward the roof of the building. At its full extension it was still ten or twelve feet below the ceiling above it.

"Lower it back down, please. Jen said, "I had the same thought, the air conditioning ducts. But it won't reach."

"Don't be too sure about that. Sergeant see if that short piece of scaffold will not fit on the top of the platform."

"You are right Colonel, look the legs fit right in these sockets on the platform and latch in." Jen walked up carrying a long telescoping aluminum pole.

"It looks as if this would let you control the lift from up on the platform."

The Sergeant took the pole and fitted it into some brackets on the scaffold. He grinned at Jen, "Now that is real smart Ma'am. I moved that thing out of the way and I didn't recognize what it was but you did. Real smart." He climbed up on the platform and told one of his men to bring his toolbox and join him. Before raising the lift he looked at Jen, "Where do you think Ma'am?" Jen and I looked at the air conditioning ducts hanging below the ceiling. I said, "Look at that branch of the duct. It doesn't have an outlet anywhere on it and it goes nowhere."

Jen said, "Come over here, there is a door on this side of it." The door in the duct was directly over one of the aisles marked on the floor."

The scissors lift inched its way along the floor until it was directly under the door. The lift started its slow climb toward the ceiling. It stopped just below the duct and slowly inched its way to the far side. Jen and I walked along the aisle until we had a better view of the action above near the ceiling. The soldiers were working at the fastenings to the door. At last we saw the hatch or door lifted off. We saw a flashlight in the hands of the Sergeant. He looked inside to the right and then to the left. He pulled back and looked at the outside of the duct. Then he looked back inside. He moved the scissors lift back away from the duct a few inches. Then it raise afoot or so more. He climbed inside the duct. After what seemed an hour his feet appeared in the hatch. He eased himself down on to the platform.

He leaned back into the door and pulled an aluminum case out after him. He looked down, "There are seven more of these up here. Shall I bring them all down?" I looked at the staff Colonel, he nodded his head. I asked how much he thought it weighed. The Sergeant said he estimated 200 pounds.

I called back to bring three down with them. I held Jen's hand as the platform dropped down. When it reached bottom they handed the cases down to the other soldiers. It looked like an aluminum foot locker. It did not appear to be locked. I whispered to Jen and she took out her little digital camera. I unfastened the lever type clasps and lifted the lid. As it opened I thought to my self, this is pretty stupid and prayed it wasn't booby-trapped. It wasn't. It was half full of American money. I closed and latched the lid. I had the next one placed on top of the first. It was locked with a padlock. A soldier stepped forward with a pair of bolt cutters and snipped the lock off. It was crammed to the top with wrapped bundles of money. The rest were the same, six were full and one was half full.

The colonel called someone on his radio and in twenty minutes a team from Military Intelligence was there videoing everything. They dusted everything for fingerprints. The staff Colonel said he was taking custody of the cases and handed me a signed document stating he took custody of them and released me of all responsibility for the cases. I reached in my pocked and took out a bundle of evidence seals from the Marion County Sheriff's Department and sealed one latch on all the cases. I gave the seal tabs to the Colonel. I sealed the other latches with another set and put those tabs in my pocket. We bid everyone good-bye and were returned to the Commanding General's office. He greeted us with a huge grin. He hugged Jen and then looked at me as he shook my hand, "Did she find it?"

"Yes Sir, she sure did. She told us where to look anyway."

"I am not surprised, I just got off the phone from reporting your find directly to Mr. Rumsfeld. He told me how your lovely wife wowed them with her memory skills. How much money do you figure was recovered?"' "General, at a rough guess it should be $37,500,000.00. I think a local worker in the warehouse took 2.5 million out of the first case a few bills at a time."

"Colonel Murphy I want to congratulate you and your wonderful wife on a splendid performance. When would you like to leave for home?" We looked at each other, and said, "in the morning after we get a nights sleep. We really don't know if it is day or night. But we do need the rest."

"Fine, if the two of you feel up to it, you are invited to the Ambassador's Quarters for dinner tonight. You may dress anyway you like. I look forward to seeing the two of you there. It is now two o'clock, may I pick you up at five thirty?" I looked at Jen. She smiled at everyone and said it would be fine.

We entered the Embassy at six that evening. It was very impressive having been one of Sadam's favorite palaces. I wore a civilian suite and Jen made me very proud in a black Chinese style cocktail dress with a red Mandarin style jacket with a high collar. The dress was knee length with a skirt slit to the hip on each side. She had on dark stay-up stockings and red strapped high heels. Her hair was pulled up in a high ponytail. She wore simple gold earrings. She looked positively regal on my arm.

The Ambassador, his wife, and the embassy staff greeted us. The ambassador greeted the General who introduced Jen to the Ambassador's wife. She pulled Jen and I off to the side. She looked Jen up and down. She said', "Damn girl, I'd give my left you-know-what to be able to wear a dress like that again, oh hell, I never could have worn that dress." She looked at me, "I don't like you at all for endangering this girls life. My husband is signaling me to shut up. I have said my piece."

"Ma'am, please forgive me. I wholly agree with you."

Jen said, "Mrs. Ambassador, please forgive my husband. You see I love him dearly and couldn't bear to be separated from him. I insisted I go with him. Let me explain, a little over a month ago I was kidnapped and was being held captive by a man who wanted to kill Mike, my husband. To make a long story short my husband jumped in front of a bullet meant for me. It took three open-heart surgeries and two weeks in intensive care to put him back together. I just couldn't let him come alone." The older woman pulled Jen into her arms and hugged her. She looked at me and said, "You are forgiven. Please forgive ME. I was told not to come here too. I told my husband I had no intention of being a widow and that I would rather die with him."

We had a lovely dinner with excellent company. I requested we be excused early. We did get a badly needed night of sleep.

We were required to make a report to Mr. Rumsfeld on our way home. Jen and I worked on it on the plane. We gave everyone involved a lot of credit for the success of the mission. We received a message from Military Intelligence in flight that confirmed the final count on the cash recovered 62,854,090.00; one of the cases held nothing but large denomination bills. The Iraqi thief had been captured and identified by his fingerprints.

We met with the Secretary of Defense and made our report. I'm no dummy; I made Jennella give the report wearing her best business suit. She had her hair pulled back in a bun and she looked great. The report praised everyone remotely involved, including the SecDef for brilliantly uncovering the theft and directing the recovery of the money. The Commanding General in Iraq and the Commander of the Engineer Battalion plus the Sergeant Major were praised. Then she presented the evidence tags to him.

When Jen sat down Mr. Rumsfeld said, "Mrs. Murphy that was a concise and direct to the point report. I wish we could hire you to write and give our reports. You praised everyone who had anything to do with the mission. That is, everyone but you and your husband. From that report no one would even know you were there. This will serve as a preliminary report; our final report will put the praise where it really belongs, with you and your husband. The two of you did an outstanding job and I am pleased to inform you that the two of you are invited to the White House for Luncheon with the President and the First Lady. That will be at 12:30; a car will pick you up in thirty minutes. Jen looked down and said, "But I have nothing to wear!"

Mr. Rumsfeld grinned and said, "Young Lady I would advise you to not change a thing, you are absolutely gorgeous now. Colonel Murphy, your uniform will be fine."

As we were shaking hands Mr. Rumsfeld smiled at Jen, "If I were you I would put your hair in a ponytail like you had it the first time you were here. It makes you look a little softer and younger."

Jen smiled sweetly at him. "Do you have a rest room I could use for a minute?" He pointed to a door. We stood and talked for a few minutes and Jen came out and had her hair in the ponytail. She went to Mr. Rumsfeld and kissed him on the cheek.

"Is that better?"

"Perfect my Dear, perfect."