Fortunes Obsession (30 page)

 to pulling whatever it is they want to pull.  Mike, I want you to contact the Orlando office and work with them on this thing.   Eventually, some of us will have to go down and get on the case from up close.”

     Yamashita didn't know if he wanted to go or not,  Millard was the number two

man in the New York office and the number one man was on a long sick leave.  If Millard and Clark left, this would theoretically leave Yamashita as the boss.

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     Ruth Halloran rang the bell on the locked door of the electronics company.  No one was answering but she was aware of a face in an adjacent window, looking out furtively.  She continued to ring the bell.

     Bey looked out the window and saw the tall, attractive woman at the door.  He contemplated ignoring her but was determined not to arouse suspicion.  He decided to answer the door.

     " Mr. Berkowitz?", Ruth asked and Bey answered in the affirmative.

     "  I'm a secretary and I'm looking for a job.  Do you perhaps have any openings.?"

     " No", he said, " I'm sorry.  We're not hiring at this time."

     Ruth thanked him and left the building wondering what she would do next.

     Bey was thinking.  Where in the hell did she get the name Berkowitz from.  It wasn't on the door.  It wasn't written anywhere.  She could only have gotten it from  the County, the Real Estate Agent  or the landlord.  The only way she could get that was if she was investigating them.  Damn......she must me a cop.  He raced for the door.

     "  Young lady," he hollered , " Come back.....I think we do need someone after all."

     Halloran turned around.  She couldn't believe her luck as she was ushered into a small

 but neat office, sparsely furnished.  She looked around the office and spotted a computer

on a desk.  The truth of the matter is that Ruth Halloran couldn't type and she certainly hoped this man didn't try out her skills.

     The man bade her sit down and smiled as he spoke.  " How did you know my name, miss?"  She froze with horror.  Damn it!  She had to think fast.  " Oh, Mr. Brachmann in the real estate office is a good friend of mine and told me all about you.  I knew you weren't Mr. Epstein, because Mark told me that he was the heavy set one."

     Bey studied the girl intently.  Contina, the make up expert, was the only one who knew how to operate the  word processing program in the computer and she was out of the building.  He would love to try this girl out and see if she had secretarial skills at all.

He thought quickly.  If she were the police, would she come alone?  He knew he should get Collins out here to talk to her.  He probably knew everything about the computer and could tell if the girl was really looking for a job more easily than himself.  " May I see your resume, miss?" He said in his most charming manner.  Ruth could have kicked herself for coming into this place as unprepared as this.  Her superiors would be furious at the way she was handling this. " Oh, I was just talking to Mark and he suggested that I see you.  I thought if you were really interested, I could bring my resume back later."

     There was something Bey did not like about this whole thing.  He couldn't put his finger on it.  Maybe it was just a gut feeling.  He thought that if they killed the girl and got her out of the way, it might be the best way out.  On the other hand, at least one person, the real estate agent, knew she was coming here.  If she were suddenly missing, he would lead them here.  No, he had to let her go but before he did, he had to convince her that this was

 a  legitimate business.  He couldn't take her into the , " factory,"  That would blow the

whole thing.  " You know, miss, the reason I initially sent you away, is that our office manager is off today and I have no idea how to test you.  I'm so happy you came though, because we have been in chaos since moving our business here from Orlando and are so behind in paper work that it is appalling.  We manufacture semi-conductors and do our shipping from here.  We are besieged with shipments and deliveries that have not been recorded.  The paper work is choking us."  Ruth looked around the office and saw no trace of any pile of paper.  She was reasonably sure that this was a phony front.  The man looked more Arab than Israeli but in her experience, many middle eastern peoples looked alike.

She knew that she had been foolish to come in here alone but was also reasonably sure that she would get out of here alive.  She had to further convince this man she was legitimate.

She told him a lengthy story about moving here from Chicago and needing a job desperately.  She made Mark Brachmann her boyfriend and told him that Mark had been impressed with him and his partner.  She thought it would be a great opportunity to work for a new company.

     Bey felt more comfortable with the girl every minute.  " Why don't you come back tomorrow?  Contina, our office manager will be here then and will interview you."

She reached out and shook his hand, hoping he didn't notice that her palms were sweating profusely from nervousness.  She knew that when she called her office, they would be both furious at her for her procedure and happy that she had stumbled across a lead in this case.

She left the building and got in her car and decided to drive to Orlando and present her case to her immediate superior in person.  She noticed that as she drove, her hands were

trembling and her heart was racing.  This was her first big case and she felt on the verge

of cracking the big one.  She would coordinate with her own office, who in turn would coordinate with Millard in New York.  The excitement made her dizzy.

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 Bey hastily called a meeting of his entire group, except for Contina the make up artist.

     " There has been a change of plans.  We may or may not have been discovered by the police.  A woman came in looking for a job who, is as far as I'm concerned, highly suspicious.  I think they are just fishing but it could be a short time before they discover that they are on to us.  I don't know how they found out where we are but it must be that son of a bitch Fahd.  We are not going to blow up the entire complex.  We will concentrate on building thirty nine, the launch site.  Furthermore, we are not going to wait for the launch.  We are going to shoot for five days from now.  This means that when Contina comes in tomorrow, she will make up Commander Collins and photograph him for his identification papers.  The rest of you already have your papers, so you are set.  We will scout the area, test our papers and commence our final plans.  Any questions?

     Mahdi spoke.  " How do we know that Bokaar didn't tell them everything before he died?  It's very risky.  I think we ought to communicate with our superiors and discuss this with them."

     Bey strode across the room and slapped Mahdi across his face with all of his strength.

      " You stupid bastard.  They will kill us if they think we have screwed this up.  Letting Bokaar go to New York was a stupid decision on our parts.  No my friend, we are going through with it as we promised we would.  As a matter of fact, I'm going to make a call to

make sure that Fahd doesn't screw us up anymore."

     All through this tirade, Collins kept quiet.  If only he had gone out when the young lady was applying for the job.  He thought it out carefully.  What were the consequences either way?  If he confessed and turned them in, he might get at the very least, a reduced prison term.  There was, however , a remote chance of a suspended sentence and entry into the Witness Protection Program, if he turned state's evidence.  If he stayed with this bunch, they may or may not kill him when it was all over.  If he did a good job, maybe they would make him a very rich man.  Tomorrow or the day after, when he was to go on his scouting mission, he could probably find a way to confess and implicate the commandos.  His mind was boggled to the extent that he had no idea which of the two roads he would take.  He decided to take it one day at a time.

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     Fahd felt imprisoned in his own home.  He was literally under house arrest.  He knew that there was a twenty four hour surveillance on him and that  he was trapped.  He knew that the Immigration and Naturalization Service watched his every move.  Thank God they let him have women up here.  Each day, he would buy a delicious whore from one of his favorite madams around New York and spend the day or night with her.  Today, he told his supplier to send him something exotic.  Something that would be different for him.

     His doorbell rang and he was fraught with anticipation.  He opened the door and saw a six foot, one inch, gorgeous black woman and he was charged with erotic stimulation.

     " Hi, sweetheart," the girl said, " Why don't you take off your clothes and get in bed.  You just show me where the bathroom is, so I can freshen up.

     Fahd dutifully stripped himself naked and lay on the bed, dreaming delicious dreams of

the pleasures he would take on this amazon.  It was the last thought he ever had.  He never saw the bathroom door open and never heard or saw the  bullet that was fired from the silenced pistol, that cleanly pierced his forehead, right between his eyes.

     The black, " Woman," took off her wig and female attire and changed into shorts and a tee shirt.  The man exited the apartment, threw the women's clothes into the incinerator and took the elevator to the garage floor.  He was back in the Dominican Republic, when Fahd's body was discovered two days later.

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

     Bey received the news that Fahd was dead with great relief.  He knew from communications with his wife that no one had come after him, so he felt safe.  He issued orders that no one was to be allowed into the building through the front door.  All of his crew would always enter and leave through the back.  He also decided that no one would answer the telephone.  As far as anyone coming to the building would know, it was not occupied at this time.

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

     Ruth's superior was not impressed.  " Let's see. What you've got is a guy that looks like he might be middle eastern, that appears suspicious to you.  How the hell am I supposed to get a warrant from a judge based on that.  What else have you got?"

     Ruth flushed.  " I've got a gut feeling, that's all.  I think we should at least call Millard and tell him about this."

     George Brophy, her superior, was from a time where women were not FBI agents.  

He kept it to himself but he despised having to work with them.  He was, however, two months short of retirement and wasn' t about to get into a sexual harassment thing.

He decided to think on this for a while and maybe get in touch with New York in a few days.  He did not believe that anyone could pierce the security of the launching pad and wasn't particularly worried.

     " Sure, Halloran, I'll get in touch with Millard.  Meanwhile, you get your backlog of paperwork cleaned up and I'll let you know what happens."

     Ruth kept her anger to herself  and retired to her cubicle.

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

     Millard pondered the situation.  He wanted to break this case badly.  First of all, he was a conscientious policeman and second of all, as the AAC or Assistant Agent in Charge of the New York office, he was first in line for the job of AC or Agent in Charge, when his immediate superior retired at the end of the year.  Cracking this case would insure the promotion for him.  He turned to Yamashita and Clark and shook his head.

     " Damn it, every time we get on to someone involved in this case, he ends up dead.  Immigration had someone watching Fahd and so did we but his killer slips right through our fingers.  We knew he had whores every day and stupidly let them in.  Evidently, one of them popped him and got right past us,   Let"s go over what we have.  We're sure that there is a plot to blow up some part of the space program.  Hell, we found a detonator in the fat man's rented car.  We've traced correspondence found in Fahd's office to Farley Collins, who was an astronaut in the program and we can't find him.  We've got a line on this guy Bey, who lives in Dearborn, Michigan  but can't pin him  down.  So where are we?

I've been to the Cape and talked to their security people.  They assure me that they have everything well protected.  Our Orlando office assures me that they are taking care of the investigation and are making no progress.    Do you guys have any ideas?"

     Yamashita spoke.  " I thought we might get some ideas when we questioned the Indian girl.  She was very cooperative but said Fahd never discussed business with her and I believe her.  I think we should have our Detroit people take everything we've got and try to get a wiretap on Bey's house again.  Maybe we'll get a different judge this time and get lucky."

     Clark shook his head. " What good is that going to do us.  If he's smart, he'll use a cellular or a pay phone and we already know he's got to be somewhere in the area of the Cape."

     " You guys are both right," said Millard.  You know what I'm going to do?  I'm going to call Washington and get permission for us to go down there and participate in the investigation.  I'm getting damn sick of sitting here on our butts and running into dead ends.   It's our case, so I don't anticipate any trouble.  Besides, Brophy in Orlando, seems reluctant to get involved in it.  He's a couple of months from the golden parachute and doesn't want to fuck up if he can help it." Yamashita felt excited at the progress. The hell with being the boss for a few days!