Moonlight Warriors: A Tale of Two Hit Men (8 page)

Chapter 13

Curiouser
and Curiouser

Two hours later, Jenny and Charlie sat in a booth at the front window of a coffee shop in Webster Groves. 

“It was a justifiable shooting.” Jenny said.  “We both saw what happened.  I feel very sorry for Jackie, but Sam was defending himself.”

“I don’t like the way that entire incident transpired.”  Charlie took another sip of his cappuccino.  “That man should not have died this afternoon.”

“What do you mean?” Jenny asked.

“Both of us have gone to the homes of hundreds of suspects and arrested them without having to shoot them.”

“But if Ali was the assassin, he was more dangerous than anyone that either of us has arrested.”

“I doubt that he is the assassin.  Did you see how he handled that gun?  He was slow and clumsy.   That guy at the counter who sold us these cappuccinos could probably have wielded that gun more efficiently.”

“Very true,” Jenny agreed.

For about a minute, they sat in companionable silence, enjoying their cappuccinos.  It occurred to Jenny how comfortable she was in the presence of this man, her longtime partner and friend.

Charlie and my father are the two persons in this world with whom I am most comfortable, Jenny reflected.  Does Charlie know how important he is to me?  I can’t imagine my life without him.

Then, out of the blue, she had a crystal clear vision of herself in a dazzling white wedding dress with Charlie at her side in a tuxedo.  He had never looked more handsome.

Charlie looked at her intently.  “Is something wrong?”

“Huh, oh, no, everything is fine.”  His question jolted her back to the present moment.  “In fact, everything is perfect here.”

“Everything is perfect here.” Charlie looked at her warmly.  “However, something is wrong with this case.  Something is very wrong.”

“Why do you say that?”  Jenny asked.

“A minute ago I had an epiphany.”

“Were you wearing a tuxedo?” she asked before she could stop herself.

“A tuxedo?
  What?”  He looked bewildered.

“Never mind.”
  Her face turned slightly red.  “What was your epiphany?”

Charlie noticed her blush, but he decided to make no comment about it.

“How did those terrorists know that Fatima was at your father’s house?   We checked the cars; there was no electronic tracking device.”

“Well, the only persons who knew where she was staying were David Hummel, Sam Troutman, you, me, my father, and our Chief of Detectives, Captain Perkins.  One of those persons could be an Al Qaeda operative.  Who do you think it is?”

“I’m betting it’s you,” Charlie said dryly.

“Charlie!” Jenny laughed in mock outrage.

“Okay, then your father must be the Al Qaeda agent.  Oh, wait, there was that whole gun battle thing.  Al Qaeda shooting at Al Qaeda.  That wouldn’t work.  As the biblical saying goes, ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.’  I guess that clears Walter.”

“Charlie, be serious.”

“If I must, I will.  Actually, I think there are more suspects available to us.  Our two FBI associates might have told their own supervisor or some other FBI agent that Fatima was at your father’s house.  Or the terrorists might have intercepted one of our cell phone calls.”

“We’ll need to check with David and Sam about whether they told anyone.”

“Let’s just ask David first.”

Jenny looked at him intently.  “Why?”

“Even before he killed Ali Aziz, I had a bad feeling about Sam Troutman.  There is something about that guy I don’t like.  This shooting just adds to my negative impression of him.”

“Charlie, Sam Troutman is an FBI agent.  Do you actually think that he could be helping Islamic terrorists?  What would be his motive?”

“There are lots of possibilities,” Charlie said. “Perhaps he is being forced to help them.  Islamic extremists might be blackmailing him.  Or terrorists might be holding one of his relatives hostage, either in this country or overseas.”

“Or it could be pure, simple greed,” Jenny added.  “The terrorists might be paying him for information.”

“Right.  Besides, it is not unheard of for an FBI agent to go bad.  Back in the 1990s, there was an FBI agent who was selling top-secret information to the Russians.”

“Okay, let’s contact David.”  Jenny took out her cell phone.  “I have his number in my list of contacts.”  She made the call,
then waited for several seconds.  Just when she thought that she was going to have to leave a message on voice mail, he answered.

“Hello, Lieutenant Halloran.”

“Hello, Agent Hummel.  What’s new?”

“Not much.  I’m troubled about that shooting earlier today.”

“Actually my partner and I have been discussing the shooting, and we have some concerns that we’d like to discuss with you,” Jenny said.

“Do you want me to bring Sam with me?” David asked.

“No.  We’d like to speak with you alone.  In fact, it would be better if you didn’t even tell Sam that you are meeting with us.”

“I understand.  Where would you like to meet?”

“Charlie and I can come to your location.  Where are you?”

“When you called, I was just pulling into the parking lot of a Steak and Shake on South Lindbergh Boulevard.  I was planning to go inside, but I can eat later.”

“No, go ahead and get something to eat there.  I know exactly where that Steak and Shake is.  There’s a Walgreens next door.  Charlie and I are just a few miles from where you are.  We can be there in about ten minutes.”

“Okay, I’ll see you then.”

“Bye.”  Jenny hung up.  “He just arrived at the Steak and Shake on Lindbergh Boulevard near Tesson Ferry Road.”

Charlie stood up.  “Good, let’s go.”

“Curiouser and curiouser,” she said as they walked toward their car.  “That Alice was a smart young lady.  Life is filled with curious things.”

“What?” Charlie looked at her.

“I was quoting from
Alice in Wonderland
,” Jenny said. “The complete sentence is ‘Curiouser and curiouser!’ cried Alice (she was so much surprised that, for the moment, she quite forgot how to speak good English).’ ”

“What?”

“We seem to be saying ‘what’ a lot lately,” Jenny remarked.

“What are we saying a lot lately?”

“What.”

“What are we saying a lot lately?” Charlie repeated.

“The word ‘what!’ ” she declared.

“Who’s on first?” he said with a grin.

“Charlie, you’re going to get it!”  Jenny realized that he had understood all along; he had merely been playing a variation of an old comedy routine.

“Getting back to the subject at hand, you mentioned that you found something to be curious.  What was curious?”

“David did not ask why we wanted to meet with him without Sam and not tell Sam about the meeting.”

“David probably assumes that we are more comfortable discussing the shooting without Sam being present,” Charlie said as they got into his blue Chevy.

“I suppose so.”  Jenny got into the car, and they drove away.

About ten minutes later they pulled into the parking lot of the Steak and Shake restaurant.  

When they entered the restaurant, they immediately spotted David, who was seated comfortably in a booth in the far corner.

“I always like to sit with my back against the wall,” he told them jokingly as they slid into the booth with him.  “It makes it impossible for my enemies to sneak up behind me.”

“This is your first visit to St. Louis,” Charlie said with a smile.  “You can’t have made too many enemies here.”

“You might be surprised.”

“Jenny and I have been cops for years.  We have a whole busload of enemies here.  We are the ones who need the corner seats.”

“I have your back. 
Don‘t worry.”

A waitress approached their table and gave menus to Charlie and Jenny.

“This lovely young lady is Ana,” David introduced her.  “She was also my waitress yesterday, and we had a nice conversation.  Ana mentioned that she is a vegetarian, so I told her that I would be an honorary vegetarian for the day.  I’m having a grilled cheese sandwich.”

“Actually a grilled cheese sandwich sounds good to me,” Charlie said.  “I’ll also be a vegetarian for the day.  I would also like a vanilla shake.” 

“A vegetarian waitress at Steak and Shake,” Jenny remarked.  “That’s rather ironic.”  She glanced at the waitress’s name tag.  “And you spell ‘Ana’ with one ‘n.’  I don’t think that I have seen that previously.”

Ana laughed.
  “Well, my actual name is spelled ‘Anna,’ but I prefer to spell it with one ‘n.’  I suppose that I like to be unique.”

After Ana departed to get their food, the two police detectives and the FBI agent lowered their voices.

“While we were speaking on the phone a little while ago, I had the impression that you share some of our concerns about Sam,” Jenny said.

“I have always considered the guy to be very overrated.  He is supposed to be one of our best experts on the jihadist movement, yet almost every operation with which he has been involved has failed.  When he was stationed in Europe, he participated in several raids against terrorist groups, but something always went wrong, and someone besides Sam got the blame for the failure.  A few months ago his team raided a pub in Berlin, but they were ambushed and several German intelligence officers were killed by the terrorists, who then escaped. In five major raids led by Sam, only a few low-level operatives were arrested or killed.”

“Sacrificial lambs,” Charlie said, deep in thought.

“Sam also unsuccessfully led the FBI’s pursuit of an assassin named Saud Tariq.  Tariq
murdered numerous moderate Islamic leaders in Arab countries and in Europe.”

“Why was the FBI involved?”

“Saud Tariq killed a CIA agent in London.  The CIA agent had infiltrated an extremist group, but somehow his cover was blown.   He was stabbed to death when he entered his apartment in the Soho district in London.”

“That sounds familiar,” Jenny said.  “That computer programmer, Rebecca Wright, was stabbed to death when she entered her apartment.”

“It’s possible that Saud Tariq killed her,” David said.  “We think that he assassinated Douglas Neldt and arranged for his company to be bombed.”

“Why are we just hearing about Saud Tariq now?” Charlie asked.

“Sam did not want me to mention him to you.  We weren’t sure that Saud Tariq was involved, and Sam said that he didn’t want to tell you about him until we had more facts. He is big on the concept of need to know.  He said that he doesn’t believe Saud Tariq is in St. Louis, so there is no need for St. Louis police to know about him.  We aren’t even sure that Saud Tariq is in the United States.”

“But you think that he is here?” Jenny inquired.

“I would bet a year’s salary that he is.  You two are lucky to have each other as partners.  Working with Sam is a pain in the neck.  To tell you the truth, Sam doesn’t have much respect for the police.  He can be a snob sometimes.  Sam hasn’t said anything negative about either of you, though.”  He grinned slightly.  “In fact, you’re the first police detectives that he hasn’t made snide remarks about to me.  So, in a way, that’s kind of an indirect compliment to you.”

“Be still my heart,” Jenny said with a sardonic grin.

Ana arrived with the shakes and plates of food.

“Just before you arrived, Ana was telling me about her high school graduation,” David
said.  “She went barefoot beneath her gown.”

“Yes,” Ana said with a smile.  “I didn’t think anyone noticed that I was barefoot, but my grandmother asked me about it after the ceremony.  Apparently when I came down the steps from the stage, she noticed my feet.”

“The barefoot graduate,” Jenny laughed.  “That is hilarious, Ana!”

“Where are you going to college, Ana?” David asked.

“I’m going to Loyola University in New Orleans.  Last year I went with my sister, Linden, to visit both Loyola University of Chicago and Loyola University in New Orleans.  Both schools looked good, but I like the nice warm weather down south.” 

“Oh, that should be great, Ana,” Jenny said.  “New Orleans is a fascinating place.”

“And it is warm enough for you to go barefoot there,” Charlie grinned.

“Exactly,” Ana chucked.
  “I can’t wait to start school there.  But I will be back working here during Christmas break and summer vacation.”

“Good,” Charlie said.  “We will stop by here at Christmastime to hear about how college is going for you.”

Ana spotted some new customers entering the restaurant, so she excused herself and went to greet them.

Jenny glanced over at Charlie, who was looking out the window at the parking lot, apparently lost in thought. 
“Earth to Charlie.  Come in, Charlie.”

“I’m listening.”