by Frank Perry
company and give good service, or clients go away. There are lotsa freight companies around the airport.”
Angela did not know how to be delicate asking, “Mr. Curran, from our preliminary investigation, Eric has been traveling to Newark, almost every weekend. Did Eric have any problems with gambling?”
Angela started to continue, but Luke interjected, “Particularly high-stakes gambling that might have led to credit problems?”
“I don’t think so. He was away most weekends, but we thought he might have a secret girlfriend. He was usually happy on Mondays, but his mother and I didn’t know for sure where he was going. Maybe, I should have asked.”
Luke said, “Was Eric in financial difficulty?”
Curran responded, “No, not that I know about. He only had to come to me if he was. If he had gotten into some kind of loan shark deal, he gave no indication.”
Angela blurted, “Mr. Curran, do you object to us asking questions to others in the office? We’ll need some place private.”
“I guess not. You can use Eric’s office; I don’t want to go in there.”
Luke responded, “That would be fine. We’ll need a list of your employees, identifying any that were disciplined or terminated in the past six months. Also, we would like to go through Eric’s office and computer for possible leads. We brought a warrant, standard procedure, but I hope you will cooperate with us without the formality.”
Curran said, “Sure, okay, if it will help find out why this happened.”
For the rest of the day they questioned other people in the office. They filled boxes with desk files and put them in the trunk of the car along with Eric’s computer. He did not have a printer in his office and nothing in his trashcan. They also got copies of the company phone records, employee roster and Eric’s expense reports. They thanked Mr. Curran and said they might need to come back. Curran agreed to cooperate.
On the way back to the office, they agreed to work late and stopped by the Panda House for take-out oriental food.
Evidence
After parking in the federal building, Luke went up to the office to get something to help move the evidence. He returned with a handcart that allowed them to stack the boxes and the computer about four feet high. At the fifth floor, the materials were taken to a small conference room.
Food was the next order of the day. Luke was also able to find two bottled waters in their office refrigerator. They ate, and began organizing information. Angela reviewed the updated report from Ruiz, while Luke started looking through financial records.
As the evening progressed, they did not speak ten words. At about nine o’clock, Luke suggested that they quit and put a note on the door not to disturb the evidence. They discussed their findings and planned activities for the next day. When Angela mentioned that Ruiz had interviewed some of the neighbors of the Victim, she noted that he wasn’t seen, and his vehicles never moved on weekends lately. His boats had not been used for weeks. No one noticed him at all. They would compare flight schedules with phone records in the morning. Angela offered to drop him at the METRA station.
The Puzzle
On the morning of the third day following Curran’s murder, both agents were in the office early, continuing to look at the evidence. This was the stage Luke enjoyed the most, piecing the puzzle together. Angela was pouring through records too. They were able to see a pattern of communications linked to air travel. Within a few minutes of landing from his weekend excursions, Eric always called the same number, which Luke called from his desk phone.
Someone answered, “Hello, H&S limousine service, how can I help you?” The voice was using broken English, and had an eastern European accent.
Luke identified himself. “This is Agent Luke Gallagher at the FBI, who am I speaking to?”
After a pause, the English got a little poorer. “My name is Boris.”
Luke said, “Okay Boris, we are investigating phone numbers dialed by someone, and would like to know what records you keep?”
“We record travel reservations,” was the reply.
Luke inquired, “How long do you keep the records?”
“We delete record each day.”
Luke inquired, “Do you keep other records of the passengers or fares collected?”
“We record fares, yes, not passenger.”
Luke said, “I need to verify that a passenger was transported by your service very late last Sunday night from O’Hare to Cary Illinois.”
Boris sounded edgy, “I cannot give such information, which is not kept.”
“Look, I can get a warrant and seize all your records and computers, if necessary. If you don’t have the information, we’ll confirm that when we examine everything.”
Boris hesitated before saying, “I don’ want no trouble. What is your name again? Do you have badge number?” Luke gave Boris his identification information.
Boris seemed to be cooperating; “When you say was time and destination?”
Luke responded, “Sunday night, United Airlines terminal, flight 695. It was scheduled to arrive at 9:35PM, but was delayed. It arrived at the gate around 11:45PM. A passenger, Mr. Curran, called your number around that time.”
“What do you want to know?”
Luke asked, “Did you pick up Mr. Curran and drive him home?”
The answer was, “We pick up passenger.”
“Was it Curran and did you drive him home?”
Boris answered, “We don’t have record of name, but we do pick up at United for this flight.”
“I thought you erased all records each day?” Luke retorted.
Boris was sounding weary when he said, “We do! Sunday night is different.”
“Please, tell me about it.”
“Sunday, our driver Rustoff Libo is taking passenger from airport. We have no contact from him after that. We have no driver and no car.”
“Have you reported this to the police?” Luke anticipated the answer. Eastern Europeans, especially Russians, were skeptical of law officers in general and preferred to handle such matters through other means. The FBI had evidence that the Russian mafia had infiltrated many of the livery services in several US cities, including Chicago. With the city’s history of corruption, it was relatively easy for organized crime to exist under the veil of legitimate business licenses.
“No, we think Rustoff took trip away.”
Luke asked for the vehicle identification and license number. He would report it to the Chicago and Cary police.
He concluded, “Thank you Boris, you have been helpful,” and hung up.
When he returned to the conference room, he told Angela all the details of his discussion with Boris, if that was his real name.
They would need the current cell phone records to confirm Curran had called H&S Sunday night. The ability to prove anything was hampered without current cell phone records, or the car.
According to the eyewitness report, there were two assailants. At least there were two individuals present with only one of them doing the shooting. Since limo drivers dressed in business suits, it was beginning to seem that the driver was, at least, present at the murder. Since the killing occurred on the only desolate stretch of the road heading toward Curran’s home, he might have felt relaxed until the last moments of his life. The time of the shooting was about right for the travel time from O’Hare, given the late flight. The answer seemed to swirl back again to a preplanned event.
Angela listened patiently while Luke went through his mental exercises. She had graduated from the academy only recently, and was conditioned against speculation and was relieved to hear a more senior agent using his creative powers. She decided to insert some speculation of her own. “Something stands out in the evidence that we should discuss. The tabular listings on his cell phone records go back for at least twelve months. Without electronic records, it’s hard to do any statistics, but I was looking for anything that stood out as a pattern, or
unusual. Curran’s business requires frequent overseas calls, so that’s not unusual; there are a lot of country codes and city codes common to all the records. But a little over two months ago, a new number started showing up frequently. It caught my attention because the numbers were so different. The number’s always the same 011-995-32-334-9931, it’s in T’bilisi, Georgia.”
He said, “Okay, that’s interesting. Georgia is part of what we used to call the Soviet Union. It’s a center for Russian mafia activity. It’s also on the Black Sea, which is a smuggling route through the Bosporus Strait in Istanbul. It’s well known; the FBI tries to monitor traffic that might end up in the US.”
He continued, “Of course most of the stuff is legit.”
Angela said, “Yeah, but it does seem to have some sort of correlation with his weekend patterns.”
Luke replied that it was time to call Michael Curran to clear up the matter.
He dialed MLC. After being told that Curran had gone home, he dialed Curran’s home phone number taken during their earlier interview. After four rings, “Hello” a woman said in a faltering voice.
Luke said, “Is Michael Curran there please ma’am?”
“Who’s calling?”
“Agent Luke Gallagher of the FBI.”
Her voice trailed away saying, “Just a minute.”
Curran’s voice was familiar, “Hello, this is Mike Curran.”
“Mr. Curran, this is Luke Gallagher. I’m sorry to bother you again, but we’ve got a question about Eric’s agenda in the past few months
