“What else can you tell me?” Mislan ignores Hubble’s sarcasm.
“I think I know who the programmer is. You see, people like us, we like to think of ourselves as painters, artists or sculptors. Like all great works of art, ours have the creators’ signatures on them,” Hubble smiles, winking at Di. “The sleeper’s programmer, too, has signed his work of art, and I think I have seen it before. I don’t know who the dude is, but we have chatted online a few times. He goes by the handle ‘Deepseeder’.”
“A guy? Where? When?”
“A guy, a girl, I don’t know. Hackerchat.com chat room. This was a few months ago, though I can’t remember exactly. There was this dude asking for help with a program he was working on, and Deepseeder put up his program as a sample. A real show-off, he was.” He asks Di, “Do you have another computer I can use?”
Di nods and leaves the room.
“Hubble, are you sure the sleeper programs can only be planted directly into the ECUs.”
“Yes, on these suckers. The immobiliser is designed to receive command signals, not for downloading programs. For uploads and downloads, you’ll need the diagnostic system and the ECUs.”
“Great job.”
34
Mislan signals his assistant who is working the phone at one of the workstations to join him, as he walks towards Chew’s office. Lighting a cigarette he takes a long drag, letting out the smoke slowly. Chew raises his brows but does not say anything. He sees a big ‘no smoking’ sign on the glass pane in clear view. He flicks the ash into the waste-paper basket, kills his cigarette, and then smiles apologetically at Chew, “Sorry, old habit.” Johan comes in, saying he managed to speak to the Chief Security Officer of the hotel, an ex-police officer, and that he needs a request letter before he can release the recording. Hotel procedures.
“I think it would be better for us to pay him a visit later. We will view the recording and pick out what we want. You got his number?”
“Yep.” He gives him a piece of paper.
“I want you to call the station and ask for two MPVs with on-call backup duty. Don’t give them the address. I’m not taking any chances. You go down to Pro Care and organise the stakeout team. Break them into two groups, one to cover all escape routes and one for the raid. Tell the blockers to get into position soon as you finish briefing them, and the raiding team to move in when they see my car at the main gate.”
“And the MPV back up?”
“Call them only after we have entered the building. I don’t expect any resistance, but remind the boys to be careful. Especially the blockers.”
“Okay, what time will you be there?”
“I’ll leave as soon as I finish this call to the hotel security chief. You’re riding a bike, right? You’ll have enough time. Jo, no one slips off.”
“Right.”
He dials the number and waits. “Rajan here,” says the person answering it.
“Hi, I’m Inspector Mislan, Major Crimes. I believe Sergeant Johan, my assistant, spoke to you.”
“Yes. I told him I need a letter from the police. It’s procedure, you know,” Rajan apologises.
“Sure, no problem. I’m thinking there must be hours of recording, and we don’t want all of it. So I’m wondering if we can view the recordings first. Tonight. One of your staff can help us. If there is something we need I’ll send you the letter; otherwise, there’ll be no reason to.”
“That sounds okay. Sure, I’ll make the arrangements. What time will you be here?”
“I’ve some errands to run now; let’s make it at nine. I’ll call you if there is any change in the time.”
“I’ll inform the shift super. His name is Kamil. But, I’ll try to swing by when you’re here.”
“Great. Looking forward to meeting you, thanks.”
He picks up his backpack, thanks Chew, pops his head into the discussion room where Hubble and Di are still working the notebook computers with their occasional yelps of ‘there!’, ‘run baby!’, ‘shit!’, ‘damn!’ He thanks them and tells them he is leaving and to call him should they learn anything about Deepseeder.
The road is busy with the evening rush hour. He turns off at Salak South and goes towards Sungai Besi. It has been thirty-seven minutes since his assistant left, and he is sure everything would be organised by now. He calls Johan, “All set?”
“Yup, waiting for you.”
“See you in three.”
Pro Care Service Centre is one of the many stand-alone two-storey light industry buildings along Sungai Besi. As he approaches, he sees two luxury cars on the shop floor with hoods lifted and five others parked in the compound. Business must be slow, he thinks. He drives up and parks his car across the gate, blocking it. The raid team appears from both sides of the entrance before he is out of the car. They walk in together, with him leading.
“Polis, semua berhenti kerja,” the announcement sounds. Heads peek out from under the hoods, and there are sounds of tools dropping. The mata gelap start rounding them up, all five mechanics, before searching the toilets and the backyard. Once satisfied there are no others, one of the gelap barks for them to produce their identity cards.
A Chinese woman comes down the stairs to ask what is going on. The inspector introduces himself and tells her that it is a police raid. She immediately calls someone on her mobile and talks rapidly in Chinese, to the owner of the workshop, he presumes. He hears his sergeant calling the blocker team and the MPV backup. He then walks towards the Chinese woman who is still frantically speaking on the phone. She stops speaking and gives the phone to him, saying, “My boss.”
He says, “Inspector Mislan here, who is this?”
“Inspector, hi, I’m Lai. What’s going on there?”
“Mr Lai, are you the owner of this workshop?”
“Yes. Why are you raiding my workshop and stopping my workers?”
“I have reasons to believe that your workshop was involved in a case I’m investigating. I’m taking your workers in for questioning.”
“Are you crazy? What case? I know Tuan Henry, D7. You want me to call him?” Lai threatens.
“You can call anyone you wish,” he says, handing the phone back to the woman. She says something in Chinese, nods several times and rings off.
“Your name is?”
“Ms Winnie.”
“Okay, Winnie. I need you to get me the records on the Cayenne that belonged to Mr Robert Tham.”
“Cannot loh; my boss said not to do anything. He’ll be angry with me,” she says nervously.
“You can make thing easy and do what I ask, or difficult. Which is it?”
“I don’t know; my boss say wait, I wait loh,” she says, sounding even more nervous.
“Look, Winnie, I’ll wait until the patrol cars arrive, that’s all. If you do not produce the file, I will go up to the office and take the entire cabinet,” he says, pointing upstairs.
His mobile phone rings. “Mislan here,” he answers.
“Mislan, this is Henry. I just got a call from a friend saying you’re raiding his workshop. What’s going on?”
“Doing my job, that’s what’s going on. Nothing to do with D7.”
“Look, he has friends. They are not going to like what you’re doing,” Supt Henry says menacingly.
“It that a threat?”
“Take it any way you wish.”
He instructs Winnie to follow him to the office where he asks for the file again. She hesitates. He walks towards the filing cabinets lining the wall and pulls one of the steel drawers. He takes out a few files and deposits them on the nearest table. Winnie says something in Chinese that he cannot understand. She then takes a file with the Cayenne registration number from one of the cabinets and hands it to him. “That wasn’t hard, was it?” Winnie gathers the files on the table and starts putting them back, mumbling continously, probably swearing at him.
He had noticed several CCTV cameras trained at the entrance and the shop-floor when he cam
e in. He scans the office for the camera monitors. Failing to spot any, he asks Winnie. She points to a desktop computer at the corner. He calls Chew to ask for a video technician to be dispatched to the location. He tells him that he needs copies of CCTV recordings made. Chew promises to send Nathan over asap. He tells Johan to get the mechanics to lock up the garage and take them back to the station. He will wait for Nathan from Forensics and join him once the technician is done here.
His mobile phone rings. It is his boss, “Puan.”
“Just received a call from OCCI,” she says. “What’s going on?”
“Tuan Henry just called me. We’re at Pro Care picking them up for questioning. Jo is about to take them back, but I’ve to wait here for Forensics to make copies of the CCTV recording.”
“You want to fill me in?”
“Hubble has confirmed that there are sleeper programs in the ECUs. He also confirmed the only way to install the sleepers is into the ECUs directly. That makes Pro Care a prime suspect.”
“Good. You need any help?”
“I’m okay down here, but I can use some back in the office. We have five mechanics and one clerk to interview. It’ll be good if someone can do a prelim to screen them. Jo can coordinate. I’ll be stuck here awhile.”
“I’ll get the shift investigator and his assistant to do the prelim. I’ll be in late. Stop by my office when you’re done and, Lan, do it right.”
“Thanks, puan.”
Loud honking coming from the front of the building attracts his attention, and he walks to the window to check what is going on. A Chinese man is standing by a car parked next to his, looking into the shop-floor with his hands on his horn through the open car window. He sees Johan walking up to the man but the man’s hand remains on the horn. He is shouting angrily above the honking, attracting curious onlookers from the surrounding buildings. Mislan signals Winnie over to ask her who the man is. It is the owner, Lai. He speed dials his assistant, tells him to get Lai to stop pressing the horn and if he refuse, to arrest him for disturbing the peace, and obstructing the police from discharging their duties. The honking magically stops and he watches as Lai marches into the shop-floor.
The office door is flung open and Lai storms in, red faced, swearing in Chinese. He heads straight for his desk and throws himself into a chair, picks up the phone and calls someone. He does not understand what the owner of the workshop is saying in Chinese, but understands the tone and the expletives. He continues shouting at the person on the other end, makes a few more calls, and then calms, probably realising there is nothing his powerful friends can or are willing to do, and that it is best for him to cooperate.
“What’s your name, again?” Lai says arrogantly.
“Inspector Mislan, Major Crimes.”
“My lawyer asked if you’ve a warrant.”
“Who’s your lawyer? You may want to consider getting a new lawyer,” he answers smiling. “Look, the quicker we finish here, the sooner you can restart your operations. I’m sure your friends have told you to cooperate, right? You should listen to them.”
Lai fishes out a packet of cigarette and offers one to him, which the inspector refuses, politely. He lights one himself, and says, “Okay, what do you want?”
“Winnie has given me the file. I’m waiting for Forensics to make copies of your CCTV recording, so I don’t have to take your computer and shutdown your CCTV. After that, I’m out of here.”
“What about my mechanics?”
“They’ll be taken to headquarters for questioning and, if they’re clean, they’ll be released.”
“You said something about a case; what case?”
“Robert Tham,” Mislan says, watching for any giveaway sign from Lai or Winnie. He sees nothing; no expression of shock, neither at the mention of the victim’s name, nor that the workshop is being raided in connection with it.
“The papers said they were killed in their house, robbery or something. What has it got to do with my workshop?” Lai asks.
“Sorry, no can say. It’s an ongoing investigation.”
Johan appears at the doorway followed by Nathan, holding an evidence bag. “We’re ready to transfer,” he says.
“What’s that?” he asks Nathan, pointing to the evidence bag.
“It is the diagnostic system I took from downstairs. Where is the computer?” Nathan asks, placing the evidence bag on the table.
“Over there. Copy its entire memory; I don’t know how far back the storage goes.”
“No problem, I brought a terabyte disk, just in case,” Nathan says, already working on the computer.
35
He pulls into his office car park at seven-twenty and escorts Winnie up. He peeks into his boss’ office. It is empty. He logs Winnie in at the front desk and gives instructions for her to be kept there until he finds a more suitable place. He asks if the boss is still around, and the front desk officer tells him she is in interview room two. He finds her and the shift assistant interviewing one of the mechanics. Johan comes out from room one.
“Where are the rest?”
“One is in there with Tuan Krishnan,” pointing to the room he came from, “and the rest are in holding.”
“I’ve got the Pro Care clerk at the front desk. I’ll use the meeting room.”
Supt Samsiah steps out. “You got a minute?”
He nods, and she points to his desk. He and Johan follow her. He drops his backpack on the desk, pulls a chair for her and takes his seat while the sergeant remains standing.
She smiles, “I hope you’re right on this,” jerking her head towards the interview rooms. “The brass are breathing fire, and Henry is in a trance with his lion dance.” She breaks into a genuine laugh. “It’s been a long; no let me rephrase that, it’s been too long since an inspector created such a storm for the brass. I can’t remember the last time my phone rang this much.”
“You are enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“In a way, I am. Okay, what have you got?”
“Hubble ran diagnostics on the ECUs and confirms that sleepers have been planted in them. According to him, it can only be done by direct access. So, whoever planted the sleeper had to have the ECUs. The Cayenne’s records taken from RT contain invoices from Pro Care from the last three years.”
“Could it have been done elsewhere?”
“It could have, but I’ve only Pro Care on record. If it was done elsewhere then I’m back to where I started. Nowhere. Nathan from Forensics has taken the diagnostic system from the workshop to dust for prints, and for Hubble to run some tests on it.”
“What are you expecting?”
“Don’t know, but I’m sure if there is anything, Hubble will find it.”
“The mechanic I interviewed, Tan, said Ricky and Ah Meng are the mechanics for Porsche. He and the other two don’t do Porsche. They repair other models: Mercs, BMWs, Audis, and Jags. He says he knows Robert Tham. He has seen him at the workshop many times, but Robert only talked to Ricky, Winnie, or the boss.”
“Let’s do them first then, and release them. We’ll keep Ricky and Ah Meng. I’ll do Winnie and let her go. Jo, why don’t you do one, let Krishnan and Ahmad do the other two. Puan, I’m going to the Grand Millennium to see the Chief Security Officer, an former police officer named Rajan. You know him?”
“Maybe. Why are you going there?”
“To view some CCTV recordings. I want to see if I can spot the vic with some people he ran with. I’m hoping to put a face on our mystery woman.”
“I’ll pass. Why the Millennium?”
“I see several heavy expenses on the vic’s credit card there. I figure it was more than a meal for one. As I said, I’m desperate,” he says.
“Good. Let’s go work on them,” she says.
Mislan calls the front desk and asks for Winnie to be sent to the meeting room. Once Winnie is seated, he switches on the recorder, lights a cigarette and starts flipping through the Cayenne’s records. Winnie shifts several tim
es in her chair, watching him, but does not say anything.
“Can you state you full name for the record?” he says, casually pushing the recorder closer to her.
“Winnie Wong Swee Ling.” Her voice is barely audible.
He reaches for the recorder, presses the rewind button, then ‘play’. He can hardly hear her on the recorder. “Can you speak louder, please” he says, pushing the recorder closer to her. “Please state your full name for the record.”
“Winnie Wong Swee Ling,” she says, a little louder.
“What’s your position at Pro Care Service Centre?”
“Finance and Admin, loh.”
“Okay, which mechanic was assigned to service or repair this Cayenne?” he asks, tapping the file.
“Licky. He takes care of Mr Tham’s car. You can see the service report, loh; it’s all Licky’s name and signature.”
He flips through the service reports and notes that it has been Ricky for the last twenty visits. “You mean Ricky.”
“That’s what I said loh, Licky,” Winnie says.
“Okay, Ricky; and what about Ah Meng?”
“Ah Meng also do Porsche, Mr Tham’s car only by Licky.”
“Why is that?”
“He knows the car well, loh. Licky started servicing the car since the first time Mr Tham sent to us.”
“What is this?” he asks, pushing the file towards her, pointing to a column in the service report.
“Outside work. Mrs Tham called, told me Porsche is sending people to check the electronic. The car engine keeps stalling and she has arranged for a Porsche technician to check it.”
“Do you know Mrs Tham?”
“Yes, she sends her BMW to us.”
“Did she call you, or the workshop?”
“The workshop, loh.”
“How did you know it was Mrs Tham?”
“She said she is Mrs Tham. So it’s Mrs Tham, loh.”
“Did she speak in English or Chinese?”
“Mixed. She’s not Mrs Tham, meh?”
21 Immortals Page 18
