What's Left is Right: Book two of The Detective Bill Ross Crime Series (12 page)

“The advantage you have with a jigsaw is that when you dump all of the parts on the table you know for sure that somehow they all fit. Every single part on the table fits together into an overall picture. In our world we don’t have that luxury. We need to find the parts that absolutely don’t fit, that don’t belong, and when we find these parts we eliminate them—throw them away so they don’t distort the overall picture that we are trying to see. It’s what Sherlock Homes said:

“’When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable,
must be the truth!’

“There are perhaps items on this list that don’t help us find the truth and they don’t belong in the overall big picture. We need to investigate them, recognize them for what they are—dead ends or deliberate attempts to deceive—and throw them away. To say what Holmes said a different way, what we will have left after we eliminate the items that don’t belong will be the right answer - what’s left
is
right!”

“Interesting, Dad. We are pretty sure now that one part that doesn’t fit in all of this is that Mike Muguara was killed for racial reasons. The
kill the wetbacks
message was an attempt to deceive, it doesn’t belong and we need to throw it out,” said Tommy.

“Correct! Now if he was not killed for racial reasons, why was he killed? We still have no motive, and although we suspect that the limo driver was involved in some way and that Jimmy Rodriguez might also be involved, we have no motive. If we show our hand too soon and use the leather jacket connection to sweat the limo driver, they could just lawyer up and they would argue that we have no connection to the dead man and no motive.

“The key to this case is to start at the beginning and follow the road that Mike Muguara walked. While walking that road he uncovered something that caused him to change. Claudette saw the change in him and so did Joe Nichol. Why did Mike ask Joe to get this entire ordnance for him—guns, ammo, explosives and very sophisticated surveillance equipment? Something he discovered scared him!”

Tommy was digesting everything his father was describing and trying to put himself in Mike Muguara’s shoes. Mike was a trained fighter, Marine Corps and Special Forces, perhaps one of the best in the world at what he did. Why would he ask his trusted colleague to get him weapons?

“There are two main reasons that you obtain this type of weapons stash: offensive or defensive. If it had been for offensive purposes, being the good soldier he was, he wouldn’t have taken on whatever scared him on his own, he would have asked Joe Nichol to join him in the fight and Joe would have been there in an instant, standing shoulder to shoulder with him. No, this stash was for defensive reasons.

“The other clue here is the surveillance equipment. That was real high-end stuff and designed for medium to long-range surveillance, not up close and personal. I think that he was scared of what he had
possibly
stumbled upon and was still collecting intelligence. The weapons were not for immediate use, they were for future use, once he had a complete picture.”

Tommy could see that his father was nodding in violent agreement.

“Right on, Tommy. Mike made the discovery when searching for his birth parents. We need to get on that trail. We need to get to Oklahoma and meet with the attorneys Mike entrusted with the disposition of his assets after his death. They may be able to shed some light on this. We get on the right path and follow in his footsteps.”

~

It was almost eight and they had been in the storage locker for six hours. They needed to get on their way back to Austin.

With Tommy driving, Bill Ross sat back in the passenger seat and closed his eyes.

For some reason, he thought of Little Red Riding Hood. He imagined Mike Muguara walking a path through a deep and dark forest looking for his mommy and daddy. The entrance to the forest was a place called Houston, and he walked and walked and looked for clues, and then he came by a clearing called Austin where he met a woodsman who suggested that he try walking down the path by the river. He saw signs that he was not alone in this deep dark wood and that there might be a big bad wolf watching him and ready to gobble him up. He got really frightened.

Bill Ross woke up with a start. He had nodded off.

“Why Austin?” said Bill out loud. “Does the big bad wolf live in Austin?”

“The big bad wolf, Dad? I think you need some Glenmorangie and then bed!”

“I think you’re right, son. I think you’re right.”

The following morning Marie was in the office early. She had laid everything out on the conference room table and had charts on the walls. All of this was the work in progress for the research into Venture Point Holdings. She had arranged that Latisha and Julian to be on standby to link into the videoconference facilities in the room. She planned to have them be part of a briefing with Tommy and Bill when they arrived in the office later that morning.

Tommy arrived first and Bill a few minutes later. It was now gone nine and they had each slept late after their long day in Houston. Before they could get settled in at their desks Marie ambushed them.

“I’d like to bring you both up to speed on the work we have done on Venture Point Holdings. Why don’t you each get a refill on your coffee and join me in the conference room. I want to link in Latisha and Julian as they have both helped immensely on what we have found out up until now,” said Marie, heading off in the direction of the room.

When Bill and Tommy walked into the room a few minutes later, Latisha and Julian were already online via Go To Meeting and their images were being displayed on the pull-down screen via the projector linked to the laptop.

“Good morning, Latisha, good morning, Julian,” said Tommy as he walked in.

“So, Marie, kick this off and tell us what you got.”

“I believe that y’all already know some of this, but to help with context let me go over it again.

“Venture Point Holdings, VPH, was formed in 2008. VPH consists of several components: The Venture Point Investment Fund, Deng Tang Corporation, Robertson Richards and Rodriguez Holdings. The chairman and largest stockholder of VPH is Garrison McMullen and the vice-chairman and second largest stockholder is Enrique Escobar Rodriguez.

“Let’s start with the Venture Point Investment Fund. An investment fund is a financial vehicle that’s designed to provide those who invest in the fund a high return on their money, far higher than they might otherwise enjoy with other, somewhat safer forms of investment. The risk might be higher, but the returns are very much higher. For example, a bank savings account today might offer one percent interest if you are lucky. Depending upon the investment portfolio and the risk, an investment fund might return eighty percent or more.

“An investment fund will raise the fund by pitching their portfolio to prospective investors. The portfolio is what the fund plans to invest in. Again, as an example, some investment funds might only invest in early-stage technology startup companies. The risk of failure here is very large, as only one in ten of these startups ever succeed. However, if one of them is a Facebook or a Google, then the return on investment could be huge.

“Investors who invest in funds like the Venture Point Fund are what are called qualified investors. They go through a pre-qualification to ensure that they understand the risk and have done this before. They are typically referred to as the
Limiteds
. They are large investors with limited liability on their investment. They could be pension funds or large blocks of investors who have formed a trust together.

“After the recent banking collapse and its impact on the global economy, federal government legislators have been using forensic accounting techniques to try to track down and close illegal offshore investment trusts, many of which were being used to launder drug money for the large South American cartels.

“One of the limited investors in the Venture Point Fund is Texas State Retirement (TSR). TSR has an investment portfolio of more than $25 billion and they have hundreds of investments designed to balance risk and reward. TSR is a legitimate investor.

“We have also determined that there are several large offshore trusts that also have large positions in the Venture Point Fund, and it will take us a long time to be able to track down the investors in these trusts. It is likely that some of these offshore trusts will be crooked.

“In conclusion, the Venture Point Investment Fund only invests in construction and regional development through Venture Point Holdings, and VPH focuses exclusively on development of the land that was originally the McMullen Ranch.

“Any questions so far?”

“This is already way above my head,” said Bill.

“Mine too,” said Tommy, “But carry on, Marie, I’m sure that you, Julian and Latisha will help us make sense of all of this!”

Julian chimed in, “It does sound complicated, guys, but it’s relatively straightforward, believe me. I can help y’all put this in layman’s language when we have the full picture. The real issue is to find out if there is anything illegal in all of this that ties back to Mike’s killing, and we haven’t found anything for sure yet.

“Just as you guys have a sixth sense for what you do, I have a sixth sense for financial vehicles, and this one smells.”

“Thanks, Julian, carry on, Marie,” said Tommy.

Marie continued. “Let’s now talk about Robertson Richards.”

“Robertson Richards is a huge design and construction firm headquartered in Houston. For example, they designed and built the Travis Tower in downtown Austin, the building where Garrison McMullen has his residence. Robertson Richards had its roots in the oil boom in Texas.

“Oil was first drilled out of Spindletop Hill south of Beaumont in Jefferson County in 1900. In its first year Spindletop produced more than 3.5 million barrels of oil; in its second, production rose to 17.4 million. Spindletop ushered in a new era in Texas-based industry and was enormously influential in the state’s future development. New oil companies were formed along with the refining and support organizations needed to make the fledgling oil industry successful. Robertson Richards was one of these support organizations, designing and building much of the infrastructure: roads, bridges, warehouses and the like.”

“They later branched out and created a residential and commercial division building new planned communities of homes and commercial buildings to meet the needs of the burgeoning Texas immigrant population that flocked to the state in search of jobs created by the ‘Black Gold.’

“Venture Point Holdings has agreements in place with Robertson Richards to be the prime contractor for all design and building work. They designed the new marina and the rail link to Cedar Park, and they are currently awaiting approval from city and state planning authorities, including the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, CAMPO.

“There is also a contract in place between Robertson Richards and JR Construction Services. JR provides all of the construction workers to Robertson Richards. Jimmy Rodriguez owns JR Construction.”

“Can you go back, please, to the slide you just shared on JR Construction?” asked Tommy. “Yes, that’s it! The JR logo is red and blue on a white background, and I saw a photograph you presented earlier showing a construction site and there were white pickup trucks with the red and blue logo on the door. The manager at Gold’s Gym said that Mike Muguara had an altercation in the parking lot with guys who drove a white truck with a red and blue logo,” concluded Tommy.

“Okay we need to follow up on Jimmy Rodriguez as we discussed, but first let’s get to another part-owner of Venture Point Holdings - Enrique Escobar Rodriguez.

“Enrique Rodriguez owns the huge Colinas Verde Ranch, the third largest ranch in Texas, with close to 500,000 acres. The ranch is located south of Pecos, in Brewster County and Presidio County, and the south side of the ranch runs along the Mexican border. Enrique Rodriguez is the elder brother of Jimmy Rodriguez, the owner of JR Construction Services.

“Enrique Rodriquez and Garrison McMullen go back a long way and have common business interests. They both own huge ranches, breed cattle and horses, and each has significant oil drilling operations on their land. Enrique launched a transportation business in the ‘60s to transport cattle and feed. Garrison McMullen helped him do that by taking a twenty-five percent stake, and the trucking company is now one the largest in the U.S., providing trucking services to every industry. Rodriquez Trucking is headquartered in El Paso.

“Rodriguez Trucking has a contract with Venture Point Holdings to provide all haulage and storage services.

“Finally, there is Deng Tang Corporation.

“Eddie Tang is a Chinese billionaire. He amassed his fortune after he inherited Deng Shipping Lines from his father. He diversified into manufacturing, primarily high-end consumer package goods, and then he branched out into construction and operation of casinos in Hong Kong and Macau.

“Deng Tang companies have contracts with Venture Point Holdings for the supply of domestic appliances and fixtures and fittings. They also plan to operate casinos in the marina vicinity if VPH manages to secure the necessary planning approvals. There is also a contract in place between Deng Tang and Rodriguez Trucking for the transportation of all Deng Tang products for the VPH development from the Port of Long Beach, California, to Texas.

“That’s the full extent of our research to date,” said Marie. “We are continuing to work on this, but suffice to say this is a huge operation and their master plan goes a lot further than a simple marina and a few upscale homes. They plan several hotels, a conference center and at least one casino. There will be a heliport that will bring high rollers from the airport and from the Circuit of the Americas. The rail link is primarily to bring in workers to run the hotels and casinos. The revenue to Travis County from taxes will be immense, so they have full-time lobbyists working the state legislators in the state capitol to ensure they have support for their plans.”

~

“This is fantastic work!” said Tommy.

“I agree,” said Bill. “However, as Julian has said, there is nothing yet to suggest that this is in any way linked to the killing of Mike Muguara. Having said that, if Mike got in the middle of this in some way and had begun to rock the boat, I could see why he felt he needed weapons.”

“We need to keep at it,” said Tommy. “Marie, I would also like to give you the additional task of finding out all you can about Jimmy Rodriguez’s limo driver. When Bill and I visited with Martha and Jacob Goldman in Houston, we discovered a piece of information that we could potentially leverage to put the squeeze on him. We need to know his background and his connection to Jimmy Rodriguez, but we need to do it without spooking him.”

“Okay, boss, I can do that,” said Marie.

The meeting ended and Bill and Tommy left Marie to wrap up with Latisha and Julian.

~

“So what do you think, Dad?”

“Marie and the team have done great work but, as we discussed, we need to get back on the road that Mike traveled. We need to see if along that road there is a detour he took that put him in the middle of this nest of vipers. I suspect there is, and when we find it the pieces will start to fall into place. Our first step on the road is to get up to Oklahoma. I will set that up and get back to you.”

Bill went off to call the Corbin, Clayton and Anderson law firm in Lawton.