by Levi, Steve;
“Everybody’s venting. It’s to be expected.”
“You don’t seem to be too concerned. I mean, the bad guys won this one.”
Noonan smiled. “Not yet. You’ve got a lot to learn about human nature.”
Ayanna looked at him with questions in her eyes. “Is this going somewhere?”
“Sure. Do you want to catch the bad guys?”
“We all do.”
“No,” Noonan said. “What I said was do you want to catch the bad guys?” He emphasized the word you.
“Hey, I’m not very high up on the food chain around here.”
Noonan shook his head. “These guys,” he indicted the AIC and Harrison, “are political animals. They aren’t detectives. They couldn’t find chopsticks in a Chinese restaurant. Now, do you want to catch the bad guys?”
“Well, sure. How do we do that?”
“Logic,” said Noonan. “Very quietly get four or five people. At least one has to be a cop. You’ll need the cop to make the bust legal. Can you do that?”
Chapter 75
When the door to 457 Fleishacker Drive opened, Ayanna found herself looking at a man who was easily in his 90s. He moved slowly and smiled when he saw her.
“Hello there, young lady. What can I do for you?”
“Are you Jonathan Powers? Dr. Jonathan Powers?”
“That’s right. I’m retired now but I’m still a doctor.”
“I have delivery for you. I’m sorry it’s so late but it came in on Unicorn 739 and the cargo could not be released until. . .”
“Oh, yes. I’ve been watching the television. Terrible what this world is coming to.”
“This would have been delivered earlier but all of the cargo onboard was detained. Now the crisis is over we’re delivering the cargo.” She handed Powers a small box with one hand and a receipt pad with the other. “If you’ll just sign here.”
“No problem at all. I’ve been waiting for this.”
Powers signed the receipt pad and handed it back to her. “Would you like to come in for some tea? I get so few visitors.”
“Oh, no,” replied Ayanna. “I’ll be on my way.”
As soon as the door closed Ayanna waved the receipt. Which was when the Anchorage Police officer hit the front door. He was too late. Dr. Powers was already out the back door and struggling to break free of the two Airport Security officers who had him pinned against the back fence.
“Going somewhere?” Ayanna asked as she pulled his wig off. Dr. Powers now had jet black hair. When she pulled off his bulbous nose of putty, he didn’t look nearly 90 years old. Fifty was closer.
Chapter 76
“I would have loved to have been in the Command Center when the news of the arrest came over the television.” Noonan was chuckling as Ayanna drove him across town. “I am sure everyone is fighting for time in front of the cameras.”
“Better them than me,” Ayanna said. “I hope you can salvage some of your vacation.”
“Here, yes. But I don’t see my Commissioner giving me comp time in Sandersonville. That’s the way Homeland Security operates, Ayanna. If you did it on your own time it was for the good of the nation.”
“Well, I’m happy this turned out so well. We didn’t get them all. But there is a silver lining. Airport Security upstaged Homeland Security and the FBI. It doesn’t happen very often but when it does it feels great!”
“Well, at least we got one guy and $10 million.”
“How did you figure it out, by the way?”
“Logic, Ayanna, logic. Once I understood what was happening all the pieces fell into place.”
“How so?”
“Well, take the airplane. Getting passengers to board early was no problem. Everyone wants to get on board so someone pretending to be the pilot – someone who had credentials and said they were new to Unicorn Airlines – said the passengers could load early. The gate attendants said fine. Loading early was no problem for them. The attendant had the authority to load passengers early. After all, they thought she was the Captain. So no one told her no.”
“Wouldn’t the crew have seen her face?”
“Sure. So what? The passengers and crew were going to be hostages. They would be held until the $25 million in diamonds were transferred. Then she’d leave the country. Live in some place where it’s impossible to get anyone extradited back to the United States. She could have cared less who saw her face.”
“Then they faked a bomb threat or something like that?”
“Yeah, something like that. After all the passengers were on the plane she directed them to a couple of buses. No one on board would have thought anything about it. They got into airport buses and left. No one at the airport would have been too concerned about airport buses at the airport. Once the buses started up no one could get off. The drivers were probably in security boxes so none of the passengers could get to them. I’ll bet they drove right to where they were being held hostage. You’ll probably find the buses there. All passenger cell phones and lap tops were confiscated and then Air Streaked to Juneau and Nome and wherever else they ended up. It was just more confusion.”
“Just like the plane flying under the radar.”
“Correct. Just confusion.”
“So the hostages just sat in a warehouse for two days.”
“They just sat. They were a bargaining chip. As long as the hostages were being held, the Police and Homeland Security was not going to be spending a lot of time looking for the perps. They were going to be spending their time getting the diamonds.”
“How did you know where to look for the perp’s address?”
“You mean their phony address? Another 30 seconds and your Dr. Powers would have been long gone.”
“How did you find the address?”
“Simple. When I looked at the cargo manifest there were only a handful of specialty clients. There was nothing suspicious about any of them at first. Then we found the weight-losing igloo. It was clearly meant as a diversion. The perps wanted us to find the discrepancy. It was their way of distracting us from the real purpose of the cargo. Once I had eliminated the igloo I was left with the motorcycle and a lot of little boxes. I didn’t know how the motorcycle was going to fit in so I took some preventative measures.”
“Preventative measures?”
“I got some cocaine from the Crime Lab here in Anchorage. You see, I had a secret weapon.”
“Do tell.”
“The drug dog. I got to know the dog and his handler. When I first visited the plane the handler said he’d been through the plane twice and didn’t find anything. No pilot and no cocaine. Then the plane was locked down. I knew there was no cocaine on the plane. Remember when I picked up the pouch when you were looking at the diamonds?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I dropped some cocaine into the pouch. I was pretty sure whoever was going to get the diamonds was not going to take them along.”
“Why not?”
“Because there would be no way to get out of Anchorage with the stones. The perps have been very good at blending with crowds because they were part of the crowd. They dressed like airport people and had the run of the place. My bet was they were airport people. You’ve had a spy in your department the whole time. You have, what, maybe 200 employees. Look for the smallest woman. She will be your pilot.”
“We didn’t see anyone get off the plane! How did she do it?”
“You didn’t see anyone get off the plane because you were looking for someone who didn’t fit in. Everyone I talked with said they had looked over the tapes and had not seen anyone who was not supposed to be there. The pilot was a small woman who have crawled out of the plane and blended in with the security personnel. She was recognized as someone who should have been there so she was eliminated as a suspect.”
“Hiding in plain sight, eh?”
“You got it. She probably had the previous day off. If you check your flights I’m sure you’ll find her name on a fligh
t to Seattle. I’ll also bet she’s got a military background. One person can fly one of the big planes but they’ve got to be very good. She was very good. If she had commendations and those can be traced.”
“She’s been working with the perps since the beginning.”
“For months. She’s been jiggling the paperwork for a long time. How do you think they got the window to the terminal out? They just faked some repair paperwork and took the window out. Then they moved the glass truck into the right spot for the motorcycle. I’ll bet you’ll find they had a fake work order for the window job. Oh, they had the airport security down perfectly.”
“Was she the one on the motorcycle?”
“I’m betting yes. Somehow the person on the motorcycle had to get onto the plane without being suspected. On one of the security sweeps she probably just hid in the plane. Or just walked on as if she part of a security sweep. There were so many security people running around no one person was going to missed. Airport Security was expected to make sweeps of the plane and they did. She just walked onboard and hid.”
“What about the diamonds?”
“Ah, the diamonds. Yes. The last shipment had to be delivered in town. There was no way the perps could leave the airport with the diamonds. Everyone everywhere was going to be searched. They could not take the diamonds and hide them in Kincaid Park because there would be too many people looking for them. You saw how many people there were at the airport as the plane was being refueled. So the diamonds had to be delivered in some other way. The motorcycle was a ruse.”
“Well, it worked.”
“Not really. You got those diamonds. The best way to get diamonds out of a secure area is to have them delivered to you. So that was the plan. The diamonds were put in a package which had just come up from Seattle. All it took was a pen knife and some tape. The box was split open, the pouch slipped inside and the box taped shut. It would have taken all of about five seconds.”
“Right. And as soon as we cleared the walkway, she came blasting out of the plane,” Ayanna shook her head sadly. “I should have seen that. We were waiting for a pilot to come walking in so he could take off. We weren’t expecting someone to come riding out of the airplane on a motorcycle from the opposite direction.”
“That could have been a flaw in their plan. I mean, how did they know the motorcycle could make it all the way down the concourse and not hit someone or slide onto its side?”
“Unlikely,” said Noonan. “Everyone knew the plane was going to take off so everyone was looking out the window. They weren’t walking around the terminal, they were glued to the bank of windows. As far as sliding, not a chance. The gosh-awful carpet on the floor runs all the way through the terminal. It gave plenty of traction. Or at least enough to get through the plastic sheet and onto the top of the glass truck.”
“That must have been tricky.”
“Maybe, but she did it.” Noonan smiled.
“The fake diamonds were a good distraction.”
“Absolutely. All she needed was a few seconds to make her leap perfect. If everyone who was chasing her was too close, she might not have been able to escape. The fake diamonds stopped everyone cold.”
“You can say that again.”
“What the thieves did not know was the one mistake they made – and all it takes is one. It wasn’t a fatal one but it was telling. Remember when you were told to have the tail gate closed?”
“Yeah.”
“It was their way of hinting they were going to be flying out. They could not fly with an open tail gate. So, to complete the deception, the tail gate had to be closed.”
“So?”
“Well, if the tail gate had been left open, it would not have been difficult for someone to walk up the stairway, go through the bulkhead and pick up the diamonds from their hiding spot and walk out of the plane. No one was watching the plane; they were chasing the motorcycle rider.”
“No one was watching the plane?”
“Well, I was. I didn’t believe the motorcycle rider had the gems. So I didn’t chase her.”
“Which is where the drug dog comes in, right?”
“Right you are. The Dog Man and I just walked into the plane and dog found the drugs on the first pass. They were in a package to a Dr. Jonathan Powers at 457 Fleishacker Drive. I’m betting it’s a lease. The perps needed a legitimate residence.”
“Well, we got Powers. How many do you think there were?”
“Six or seven. As you pull the pieces together you’ll get their names. That’s when police work pays off. These guys – and at least one gal – gambled they could be in and out with the diamonds fairly quickly. They’d get the diamonds and be gone. After the clock stopped ticking they didn’t care who knew who they were. They’d be in foreign country. No one got killed. No one got hurt. The diamonds are insured and they’d be set for life.”
“Flubbed it.”
“Sure did. I can’t believe they blew the largest delivery. On the other hand they did get away with $15 million.”
“Less one.”
“Less one split, right.”
“Did your office ever identify the perp, the one who said you had sent his brother up on a robbery charge?”
“Sort of. There were three possibles, none with Alaska connections we could find. The one I’m betting on had an older brother who was a Green Beret.”
“Sounds like a fit.”
“Except the brother was MIA in Vietnam.”
“Good enough fit for me.”
Ayanna pulled up to Noonan’s in-laws. It was apparent to Heinz the twins, Otto and Fritz, were not there: his father-in-law’s truck was not there.
But his mother-in-law was.
“Oh dear,” he said turning to Ayanna, “do you know the difference between in-laws and outlaws?”
“No.”
“In-laws aren’t wanted.”
Ayanna was still snickering when Noonan shut the door. Noonan reached in the open window and extended his hand to Ayanna. “You did a good job, girl. A very good job. Better than the law enforcement people.”
“I had help.”
“We all have help.” He smiled and then suddenly reached into his pocket. “One last thing. Remember the business Harrison was looking for?”
“Anaktuvik? Yeah.”
“I got a response from the Eskimo who works for the Seattle Police Department. He is an Eskimo, by the way, an Inupiaq. He said Anaktuvik Pass translates as the pass where caribou poop.”
“Pass where the caribou poop?”
“Right. He said it’s kind of an Inupiaq joke. Eskimos don’t have horses. The closest thing they have are caribou so ‘horse poop’ to us is ‘caribou poop’ to them.”
“So our perp was telling Harrison he was horse poop to his face?”
“Must have been. Kind of appropriate, if you know what I mean.”
“Sure do.”
Noonan pulled out of the open window and turned to face his approaching mother-in-law.
Ayanna started to pull out and then stopped. She took the car out of gear and opened the driver side door. Standing up she shouted at the Detective.
“Captain, er Heinz!”
Noonan turned around.
“Do you think we’ll get the rest of them, the perps?”
“Ever gone fishing?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Can’t get them all.”
And with that the Detective was reluctantly engaged in listening to his mother-in-law begin another long story of her latest medical emergency.
Chapter 77
“Gerry, dahling, I’ve missed you.”
“Hey, everybody in the world is looking for you.”
“I’m not an easy man to catch.”
“No kidding. Where are you?”
“Far away. Where the Margaritas are cold and the senioritas are hot.”
“Why are you calling me?”
“To congratulate you on your journalism prize. Very impre
ssive. National award for a television reporter in America’s Gulag.”
“We don’t call it a Gulag. We call it home.”
“It would have been impressive in New York.”
“Well, I had inside help.”
“Speaking of which. I just wanted to let know we’ll be doing business again soon.”
“Things are pretty hot for you right now.”
“Ah, don’t be so sure. I’ve still got my people. Lost one but he can be replaced. Just an out-of-work actor. Not one of my core people. We still walked away with $15 million. Not bad for two days work.”
“So you will try again?”
“Of course. Ours is not a job; it’s an adventure!”
“You will let me know when you plan on doing something illegal, right?”
“Of course. As long as you keep the same cell number so I know where to reach you.”
“Will it happen soon?’
There was no answer because the line had gone dead.
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