One Night In Bangkok Ch. 02

"Stop that!" yelled the M.E. "You're tainting the evidence!"

"Hardly." I said. "All right, I'm done here. Anyone want to see anything?" No one did.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Going back upstairs, I saw Jack Muscone talking to Lt. Garnett, but I put that aside at the moment as I saw the employees on the other side of the bar. I walked over, and the girl that had been our waitress the night before, with her 'Egyptian' eyeliner tattoo, came over and buried her face in my chest.

"It was so awful!" she sobbed loudly. "He was laying right there, on the floor!"

"I know, I know." I said soothingly, putting my arms around her and hugging her. "Let's go over here." I led her towards the tables in the back, away from the others, and sat her down, our backs to everyone. As we did, I felt her slip something into my trenchcoat pocket.

"So," I said, "what's your name?"

"I used to call myself 'Isis', Queen of the Nile." she said. "Then those bastard Muslim terrorists called themselves 'Isis', so now I go by 'Pharah', like the Cosplay character."

"What's your real name?" I asked.

"Christy." said the young woman.

"That's a lot prettier than the other ones." I said. "So what happened?"

"I... I found him, I was the first to find him." Christy said, sobbing. "He looked mean, but he was really nice to me, to all of us, really. And he'd fuck up anyone trying to mess with any of the girls that worked here."

"Did he have problems with anyone?" I asked. "Mitt, maybe?"

"Mitt." Christy said derisively. "He wasn't a Punk, he was just a wimp. Tried to act all big-shot, but Butch would put him in his place, and fast. No, they didn't like each other at all, from what I could tell."

"Okay, I appreciate you talking to me." I said "Here's my card, and a little something extra." My card had come with a $100 bill. "If you think of anything else that can help us, let me know." Then I whispered a lot more quietly "And you might want to get out of town before what happened to Butch happens to you."

Christy nodded, then dried up her tears as I stood up and walked back to the group.

"Big brother comforting little sister?" E.J. said, teasing me. "She went right to you like she knew you or something."

"What can I say?" I said. "Women find me comforting."

"Hoo boy." said Sapper Warren, rolling his eyes. I was saved from more ribbing by Muscone coming up.

"Manager over there, guy named Jones." he said. "Won't let us have the tapes from last night. Says they've been erased already."

"Probably true, and he probably did it the minute the alarm went up that Harmony was killed." I said. I went over with Muscone to where the manager was.

"I just told your butt-buddy that murder is a City crime, not a Federal one." the manager said. "He has no warrant, he has no jurisdiction here."

"It's also a State crime, and I've got jurisdiction there." I said, exhibiting my SBI Reserve Badge. "And don't give me shit about the City being autonomous from the State. Until the U.S. Congress says otherwise, the City is part of my State."

"Whatever." said the manager. "You still need a warrant to get any tapes, and I told this Federal monkey that they were erased after we closed. And I'm sure as not hell giving him faces to get the names of my clients of and go harass them."

"I hear you. I understand." I said. "I just want two things... to see the proof the tapes are destroyed, and to examine Butch Harmony's locker."

"Where's your warrant?" the manager asked.

"This will do," I said, poking him in the chest with the red crowbar, "until the paper one arrives."

"Ah shit, it's you, ain't it? The Iron Crowbar." the manager snarled.

"And if you have any idea of my reputation, you'll cooperate." I said. "Just to get me out of here just as fast as you can..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

An examination of Harmony's locker bore nothing of interest. No jump drives or anything that might have last night's video on them.

Martin Nash came in. "The tapes were erased. Apparently its standard procedure that if nothing happened during business hours, they erase the tapes to protect the identities of their clients, and Butch Harmony is the guy that would've done that."

"No biggie." I said, surprising Muscone.

"The other thing I came in to tell you." said Nash. "They need to depose you, Commander."

We went to the main room, where Lt. Garnett came up to me. "Commander Troy," he said, "we have no equivalent for your rank and position available. So with your consent, I'd like to ask you some questions. You have the right to a Union Rep and an attorney, if you wish."

"That's okay." I said. "But I do want Detective O'Brady, these City Detectives, and these Federal Agents to listen in."

"That's fine." said Lt. Garnett. We sat down and he said "You and Detective O'Brady came in here last night?" I explained about the investigation of Paul Cash's murder, and meeting McGinty here, and giving Harmony the c-note for protection and some answers.

"How do you know Butch Harmony?" asked Garnett.

"He used to work at a BDSM club in my Town & County." I said "Place called Whippet's."

"Who is this Shimoko woman in the email?" asked Lt. Garnett.

"Shimono." I said. "She was a customer at Whippet's, then became involved in one of my cases. As Special Agent in Charge Muscone here will tell you, a lot of that is classified by the Federal Government. She also became involved in a more recent case, so when I saw Harmony, who knew her, I asked if he'd seen her. He emailed me this morning that she'd been here, so we came over. But it was too late, Harmony was dead."

"Did you find the jump drive he mentioned?" Garnett asked.

"I was going to ask your guys the same question." I said. "I didn't find anything on his person or in his locker. Maybe one of your people found something."

"Nothing's been brought to my attention." said Sapper Warren. Everyone else quickly chimed in their agreement that nothing had been found.

"We'll keep looking for it." said Lt. Garnett.

"So will we." said Muscone. "In fact, I'm working on a Federal warrant now, and would like your cooperation to let the FBI take over that part of the case. If we find anything that can help you get Harmony's killer or killers, we'll get it right to you."

Lt. Garnett looked at me. "Might as well let them." I said. "It's some nasty business at the Federal levels, and the less you know, the less danger you're in of being murdered yourself."

"Wow." whispered Garnett. "Did these nasty Federal perps have anything to do with Harmony's murder?"

"Maybe." I said. "At this point, I honestly don't know and can't really give you anything."

"All right." said Garnett. "But yes, I have to have that warrant, to keep things tight an tidy. Get it to me fast; I can't keep this crime scene locked down forever..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

As we left and went to our cars, Jack Muscone said "I gotta go get that warrant. Meet you at the Federal Building later?"

"Jack, send Nash to handle that." I said. "Meet me and Shane at the Federal Building as fast as you can get there. I'll see you there."

"Okay." said Muscone. He fell back to talk to Nash.

"What about that guy Mitt?" asked O'Brady.

"I asked Garnett and Sapper to have the City Police hold him, and I hope they will." I said. "He is definitely a person of interest in this case."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Going into the Federal Building, we went to the FBI's offices. The reception I received from Team Lazarus was 'cool' at best, especially from Sandra Speer.

We went into Jack's old office. "Okay, there's a monitor in here." I said. I then took a jump drive out of my pocket.

"You have it?" Jack Muscone exclaimed.

"I sure do." I said. "And I did not lie to the City Police: I did not find it on Harmony's body nor in his locker."

"Ohhh... that girl must've slipped it into your pocket." said Shane O'Brady.

I made the finger over my mouth 'hush' sign. "Either Harmony gave it to her, or she found it when she found his body." I said. "Either way, she has risked her life to get it to me."

"Why didn't you arrest her, bring her in for questioning?" said O'Brady

"What?!" I queried him, my voice showing disbelief.

"I said 'why didn't you arrest her and bring her in for questioning?'.' O'Brady repeated.

"Are you kidding?" I all but shouted. "Did you not hear one fucking word I said? If I had done that, she'd be dead in 24 hours, just like Harmony is!"

"She's a material witness!" O'Brady said, getting his hackles up. "She may know more than just what's on that drive! And she's the one that found Harmony's body, which means she could've killed him herself!"

I'd had enough of this. "You are free to return to Pottsville at any time, and solve this case alone." I said. "I'll come to your funeral if you do. If you do try to find that girl, you'll probably end up getting her murdered, too." O'Brady finally and wisely shut his mouth, though I could see he was not convinced.

I brought out my laptop. "Okay, I'll test this for viruses..."

"We've got a new device that can do that." Lindy Linares said, having just come into the room. It was a small rectangular box that supposedly could check for viruses.

"No, I'd rather do it on my computer." I said, knowing that the FBI device could also copy or even erase the jump drive. I plugged it into my computer, and found it to be free of harmful malware. Then I began playing the video files on it.

"This is a camera watching people that are going into the BDSM room." I said. "They don't record in the room, as people are having sex in there, but this shows who went in... oh my goodness..."

An Asian woman had just walked by the camera. I backed up the tape, then forward until she was clearly in the picture.

"Tomoko Shimono." said Lindy.

"Keiko Shimono, to be accurate." I said. "Tomoko's twin sister. Last time I saw her, I was handcuffed to a dangerous device twenty minutes from exploding."

"So the rumors are true." said O'Brady, realizing what I was talking about.

"Say no more on that." said Muscone. "And you'll be signing paperwork before you leave." To me, Muscone said "What now?"

I closed down my computer and handed Jack the jump drive. "I'm turning that over to you as part of the continuing search for the perps." I said. "As to what's next? I don't know. It may have been sheer coincidence that Shimono was at 'Bangkok' at the same time I was. What I do know is that she must've seen me, or was alerted to my presence, and she bolted as fast as she could. She could be anywhere, now."

"Think Harmony told her you were there?" asked O'Brady.

"No." I said. "If he had warned her, he'd have never told me she was there. What I think happened is that someone realized that Harmony had emailed me, and then Harmony was murdered. That little twit Mitt is my prime suspect for now."

"How did they find out?" Lindy asked. "From the cyber-attack on you this morning?"

"Yeah, maybe." I said cooly... a bit too cooly. "But that was two attacks, one on top of the other, and neither really hit our email servers, so I'm told. It did delay me getting Harmony's email, but that was a lot of work to do just to delay me from getting the email from him."

"So it was a coincidence?" Muscone asked.

"Very possibly not." I said. "Jack, you really should get O'Brady up to speed on that nuclear device incident. I'm getting an idea in my head about all of this."

"Uh oh, what's that?" asked Jack.

"That this 'Birdie Edward' guy might also be the guy who was involved in that incident." I said.

"Who do you think 'Birdie Edward' is?" asked O'Brady.

"Edward... Blassingame, maybe?" I suggested.

"Blassingame?" O'Brady gasped.

"Middle aged." I replied. "Dresses well. First name Edward. Runs a shipping business. Recently named to be CEO of BigAgraFoods, and you know what I think of those Big Boy Elites... and what they think of me."

"It does start to fit." said Muscone. "But we never heard much of or from Blassingame, especially when the Consultant was alive."

"No, we didn't." I said. "And that's because he considered himself Mitt Willis's student, the 'Watson' to Willis's 'Sherlock', the 'Robin' to his 'Batman'. Blassingame only came out of the shadows after Superior Bloodlines was gutted and Mitt Willis shot dead after being arrested."

"So," I said, getting up, "why don't you take Shane to your office and get the paperwork done, and I'll go make a phone call..."

Part 10 - Mitt and McGinty

5:00pm, Tuesday, March 19th. Muscone, O'Brady and I went to the City Police Headquarters. City Detectives E.J. Jefferson, Tony Long, Sapper Warren, and Robin Ventura were waiting for us. Lt. Garnett joined us as we all went to an Interrogation Room, where Mitt from the 'Bangkok' bar was seated at the table, alone. We were in the anteroom, looking in.

"Has he invoked?" I asked. "Asked for a lawyer?"

"No." said Tony Long. "Hasn't said a word. We haven't asked him anything, either. We don't know what to ask, to be honest with you."

"Did you find his cellphone?" I asked. "Opened it by force using his fingers?"

"We have his cellphone." said Warren. "But it doesn't have the fingerprint technology. We have to have a code."

"If it's so old that it does't have the fingerprint technology," I said, "chances are it won't have the lockout technology, either, and you can make more than ten attempts to crack the code. But we'll deal with that later."

I continued: "Okay, there's two things I want to know about this guy. First, his involvement in Butch Harmony's death. Did he call in someone, or did he do it himself? The second thing is more at the Federal level, for Special Agent In Charge Muscone's benefit: his associations with one of the club's guests in the BDSM suite last night, a woman that is wanted for a host of Federal crimes."

"Let's do it." said Warren. "You want to go in alone, Commander?"

"Sure." I said. There was no direct route into the room; I had to go into the hallway and then into the Interrogation room, which I did. As I entered, I watched Mitt carefully. His eyes showed hatred when he saw me, but nothing else.

I sat down on the opposite side of the table, then read Mitt his considerable rights from the card. "Do you understand the rights?" I asked. Mitt did not answer; he just stared at me. I just held up the card so that those in the anteroom watching, and any cameras recording, could see that I'd mirandized the perp.

"How long have you worked at 'Bangkok', Mitt?" I asked. Mitt did not answer. He just stared at me. "Look, Mitt, you are in 'heap big' trouble, here. Assaulting a Police Officer lets us hold you, likely without bail, and that gives us enough time to dig farther up your sorry ass than Butch Harmony's dick could ever get. You're the prime suspect in his murder, you know."

Mitt didn't bat an eyelash. So I said "And then there are the Federal charges. Conspiring with Tomoko Shimono to murder Butch... ahhhh, so you do know her!" I said, having seen Mitt visibly react when I mentioned her name. I sat back in my chair, a smug smile of victory on my face. "You might as well tell us what you know, Mitt. The Feds are going to take you... somewhere... and they will get the truth out of you. They're not playing games, and neither am I."

"I want a lawyer." Mitt said.

"Okay, then." I said, then added to keep things legally tidy: "At this point I'm no longer interrogating you, nor asking you any questions at all. As to a lawyer, you'll get one... after you've been transferred to Federal custody." I said as I got up.

"No, I want a lawyer now." said Mitt, trying to show bravado, but unable to hide the fear welling up in his eyes."

"So sorry, Mitt." I said. "All I'm obliged to do is provide a lawyer for any questioning. As I said, I've stopped questioning you. I'm turning you over to the Feds." I turned to go.

"Wait..." Mitt called out, his voice wobbly.

"No, you had your chance, and you blew it, pun intended." I said. I left the room as Federal Marshals came in to take Mitt into Federal custody...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Siam's gonna be the witness
To the ultimate test of cerebral fitness.
This grips me more than would a muddy old river or reclining Buddha.
Thank God I'm only watching the game, controlling it
I don't see you guys arranging the kind of mate I'm contemplating
I'd let you watch, I would invite you
But the queens we use would not excite you.
So, you better go back to your bars, your temples ...
your 'massage parlors'..."

--- Andersson, Ulvaeus, Rice, 'One Night In Bangkok'.

"He said come to his office." I said as O'Brady and I drove in my black SUV into a seedy section of the City, west of the Railyards area but still pretty grimy and run-down. "He said he had some information for us."

The sun had set and the light of day had been replaced by the lights of the City. While I loved the City at night, I had forebodings about our upcoming meeting with Bundy McGinty. Apparently O'Brady did, as well.

"I don't know if I trust him." said O'Brady. "Part of me thinks he's a bad seed, and treacherous. But he may be our only link to finding Cash's killers and solving this case.

Then he continued: "And by the way... what's this about you literally walking into that truck trailer with several perps and a nuclear weapon in it? You always walk into traps like that? Should I be worried?" I couldn't tell if he was serious or joking.

"I would never allow someone else to walk into a bad situation or a trap... that I can't walk into myself." I said with a grin. Then I brought him back to the lure as I said: "Seriously, I did what I had to do. Otherwise, it was a no-possible-win situation."

I parallel-parked my SUV in front of a three story brownstone on a side street. The glow of the streetlamps spaced at regular intervals did nothing to connote any sense of safety, but I saw literally no one on the streets as we got out of the vehicle.

"Second floor." said McGinty, pointing to the lettering painted onto a second-floor window above, which said 'McGinty Private Investigations'.

"That's interesting." I said. We went through a doorway and up the stairs to the second floor, then along a dimly lit corridor in the eerie quiet.

"Am I the only one getting the creeps, here?" asked O'Brady. "It's way too quiet."

"I had my people run a check of this area." I said, my voice almost a whisper. "This building is owned by a company called 'The Bain Trust'; it's a Nevada corporation wrapped inside a trust and hoops of legal red tape. That is also... interesting. Okay, here's McGinty's office."

*KNOCK* *KNOCK* *KNOCK* *KNOCK*

"Yeah?" called out a voice from within. I slowly opened the door, wary of what might be inside. Looking in, I saw McGinty at the far end of the threadbare room, behind a desk in front of the window that overlooked the front street. His hand had been in his desk drawer; he now slowly removed it.

"It's you." he said. "Come on in." We did so, closing the door behind us, then taking seats in the run-down chairs. I let Shane have the worn upholstered chair; the hardback chair I sat in was most very good for my aching back.

"What do you have for us?" asked O'Brady.

"Whaddya got for me?" McGinty replied. I understood what he meant.

"I've been looking at your situation with the City Police." I said. "I'm waiting for more from a contact in City Internal Affairs, but I have found out that the guy that snitched on you, Jeff Farley, had dealings with a dirty SBI Agent, and that the guy leading the FBI investigation, one Les Craig, was also later found to be dirty. So I have hopes that I might be able to get City I.A. to reconsider your case."