Counterfeit Road

by Kirk Russell

  ‘We don’t know how he will react,’ Raveneau said, ‘but maybe you can tell us more about him. What’s he like? What do facts mean to him?’

  ‘They mean everything to him, so do statistics and probability. That’s why he runs the gunnery range.’

  ‘Do you know anything about his politics?’

  ‘I can’t say that I do.’

  When they entered the room Raveneau carried the photo enhancements with the FBI stamp prominently displayed as planned. His guess was Shay as a career soldier was predisposed to respect law enforcement. He hoped that was so. He knew they would only get one chance and that the photos themselves carried probability numbers that a competent defense lawyer would tear in half.

  The lieutenant colonel also entered the room with him but remained standing. He wanted to be there and Raveneau seconded the idea as a reinforcement of authority. But his real hope lay with shock and he was glad to see the computer and monitor arranged so they faced Shay.

  ‘I think you know why we’re here,’ Raveneau said. ‘We’d like to start by showing you a videotape that arrived at our Homicide office two weeks ago. What we’re going to show you is a digitized version. It’s short and self-explanatory. It was shot in San Francisco January 11, 1989, the day of the killing of Alan Krueger.’

  Shay watched him as if from behind a scrim, his eyes flat and opaque as la Rosa slid in the CD and adjusted the monitor. The lieutenant colonel moved closer but kept his eyes on Shay. He saw him flinch and glanced at the screen long enough to know the flinch occurred as Krueger was shot.

  As the video finished he asked Shay, ‘Would you like to see it again?’

  ‘I don’t need to.’

  It was the first time he had spoken. Raveneau heard defeat in his tone and guessed he could probably question him with just the video but stayed with the plan of building on logic.

  ‘We sent the video to an FBI lab that specializes among other things in photo enhancement techniques. The results arrived yesterday and we booked a flight immediately. You may or may not be familiar with enhancement software, but generally speaking a computer program makes thousands of comparisons.’ He let a beat pass. ‘The computer says it’s you.’

  Because that claim was false Raveneau worried the lieutenant colonel would react and give it away, but Shay’s eyes stayed on the computer monitor. The best the FBI techs could do was put the odds at thirty-five percent that Shay was the shooter. Meaning he almost certainly wasn’t and Raveneau agreed.

  Shay now stared down at the table. ‘I was a stupid kid and they led me into helping. I didn’t shoot him.’

  ‘The FBI says you did.’

  ‘They’re wrong.’

  ‘We’re here to take you back. We’re prepared to charge you with murder. We have the gun used and you know the gun.’ Raveneau took a flyer. He took a chance here. ‘Your fingerprints were found on the gun.’

  ‘I’ve used it before, but they couldn’t still be there.’

  ‘Why not?’

  Shay just shook his head.

  ‘You used it to murder Alan Krueger.’

  ‘No, that’s not true. I might have picked it up last time I was at the house, but I didn’t kill him. If that’s the gun—’

  ‘You know it’s the gun.’

  ‘No sir, I don’t know that. It would surprise me.’

  ‘You just admitted you did.’

  ‘No, I wasn’t saying that but the gun got borrowed by people.’

  ‘You borrowed it. We know that.’

  ‘Other people, friends of the captain used it.’

  ‘It was used to kill Alan Krueger. It was used to kill other people. It’s over. We have a ballistics match and we have you in the video. Now we want to know who else it was used on.’

  ‘I didn’t kill Alan Krueger.’

  ‘Is the video wrong?’

  ‘That’s not me.’

  ‘Oh, the FBI specialists are wrong. It’s not you then who is it?’

  ‘Other people borrowed the gun.’

  ‘What do you mean borrowed?’

  ‘There were missions. They took the gun and brought it back.’

  ‘What missions did you go on?’

  Shay didn’t answer. He stared down at the table and Raveneau’s voice softened. He spoke slowly.

  ‘The FBI has the most sophisticated program in the world that enhances and compares facial profiles. We have the fact that you lied to me about knowing Alan Krueger. I have even more photos now and we just came from an interview with Aolani Ito who says you were there often and that you didn’t like Alan Krueger. Tell me why we shouldn’t charge you right now.’

  ‘I carried the gun over and brought it back, that’s all. I didn’t know what it was for. It was unregistered and I was carrying it as a favor because it was easy for me on a military transport. I took it to the mainland on one ride and brought it back months later on another trip. They were always moving stuff. Captain Frank carried something every trip.’

  ‘What did he carry?’

  ‘You name it. Mangoes, coffee, fish, he didn’t like to deal with the California agriculture laws and he liked to bring presents to his friends.’

  ‘You’re admitting you transported illegally the gun used to kill Alan Krueger, but you’re still claiming you didn’t kill him. Then who did? Who did you give the gun to?’

  Shay closed his eyes. He said, ‘To one of the guys Krueger brought to Jim’s house.’

  ‘What’s his name?’

  ‘I don’t know. I didn’t see him. I just know he knew Krueger and Jim. I left the gun for him.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘In San Francisco where he told me to in this mail drop at a business.’

  ‘You’re trying to tell us this man you can’t identify shot Alan Krueger and not you.’

  Shay looked up suddenly.

  ‘He must have set me up. He left the gun for me to pick up again and I brought it back to Hawaii.’

  ‘You went on a mission with it. Tell us who else you killed.’

  ‘I didn’t kill Krueger.’

  ‘Who did you kill?’

  ‘I was just stupid and young. I wanted them to like me. I did a lot of errands for them and they used me, but I never shot anybody.’

  Raveneau looked at la Rosa. He was inclined to believe him.

  FIFTY-FIVE

  Without being asked, the lieutenant colonel said he would keep Shay confined to base and order him not to speak to Thomas Casey or Matt Frank.

  ‘Will that be enough?’

  Raveneau didn’t know but he and la Rosa were glad to get the cooperation and he thanked him several times. After they left, Raveneau gave Coe the heads-up call he wanted and they began the long descent from the high plain.

  ‘I keep getting the feeling there’s more here,’ la Rosa said, ‘like the FBI has a different interest in Casey and they aren’t telling us. Is that possible? Would Coe do that?’

  ‘I think he’s telling us what he can, but you may be right.’

  ‘Look.’

  La Rosa touched his arm and pointed at the gray pickup truck rounding a curve ahead in the opposite lane and accelerating toward them.

  ‘Yeah, that’s Matt Frank.’

  Frank didn’t recognize them until he was alongside them. He braked hard and made a tire-screeching U-turn.

  ‘Coming after us,’ la Rosa said. ‘He’s gaining fast.’

  ‘I see him.’

  ‘I don’t like this.’ She opened her purse and took out her gun. ‘How’s our car?’

  ‘Not great. Let’s see what he does. We’re about fifteen miles from Waikoloa Village and there’s nothing in between and that’s just a shopping center. I don’t know if we’ll get any backup out of any of the nearest towns but see what you can do in case this escalates into something.’

  Raveneau checked his rear view mirror again. He saw Frank’s face, the mirrored sunglasses. Frank’s jaw was set. Frank closed to within ten yards and Raveneau was gradual
ly speeding up.

  ‘What’s in the water over here?’ la Rosa asked. ‘What happened between when we met him this morning and now?’

  ‘Uncle Casey talked to him and Frank hasn’t been straight with us, though we haven’t exactly been straight with him either. Either way, I’m starting to get the picture. Hang on, it’s about to get a little rough.’

  Raveneau didn’t want Frank to think they were running from him or had any fear, and in truth, Raveneau wouldn’t run either way. But he didn’t doubt Frank was armed. Behind them, Frank swept over the line into the opposite lane and sliced the curve. He was right on their bumper now. Raveneau listened as la Rosa got through to somebody, and then lowered the phone abruptly, saying, ‘He’s got a gun out.’

  They squealed through the next curve and when he didn’t see any oncoming traffic Raveneau straddled the middle of the road blocking Frank from passing. And that’s what Frank wanted to do. The passenger window was down. Frank was right-handed. Unless he could pass in the opposite lane he was going to be shooting with his left hand, but that’s what he did now. It took him several rounds before he put two through their rear window and now a bullet slapped into the dash to the right of Raveneau and la Rosa started firing.

  La Rosa started at Homicide with something to prove and made more of the required range days shooting practice than any other inspector. She was also the best shot with or without the practice regardless of the claims of Deming and a couple of the other inspectors once they had a couple of drinks in them. No one could shoot with her.

  ‘Hold a straight line,’ she yelled and as he did, she got off four quick shots. Frank backed off. He backed off and then he slowed and his truck started to drift left. It straightened and then veered left again, though now he wasn’t traveling more than twenty miles an hour. He went off the embankment even slower than that as if he didn’t have quite enough strength to hold the brake pedal down.

  The truck hung in the air before tipping forward, landing with a metal wrenching tear then tumbling end over end down the steep lava-strewn slope. They heard more than they saw, but Raveneau saw the end. He saw the truck come to rest on its side, the passenger door gone, roof crushed. There was a silence and then a whoosh as the gas tank ignited. Raveneau skidded and slid as he ran down. Heat washed up the slope as the cab interior burned. Ammunition started cooking off and Raveneau backed away. There was nothing he could do. So much ammo was popping it sounded like popcorn.

  From above he watched the truck burn. He couldn’t think of a way to have gotten Frank out, yet felt as if he should have. He turned to look at la Rosa sitting in the car, passenger door open with her shoes on the pavement, stunned as she stared down the slope. He knew he needed to get her out of the car and talk to her before the locals arrived. But he pulled out his phone instead and called Coe.

  ‘He came after you?’

  ‘Elizabeth returned fire and must have hit him. He went off a steep embankment. His truck is down the slope burning with him inside. You better check on Casey. Is an agent still on the road in front of his house?’

  ‘I’ll call you back.’

  ‘We’re headed to his house when we leave here, but we’re going to be here awhile.’

  Two cars pulled over and people spilled out to check out where the column of black smoke was coming from. A man hustled over.

  ‘What happened? Did you call for help?’

  Raveneau nodded and far in the distance were sirens. He stepped away. He got Elizabeth out of the car and walked with her fifty yards down the road away from the smoke into the sunlight and warm breeze blowing upslope. He talked with her. He called Becker before the locals showed and a detective about an hour later. The detective wanted la Rosa’s statement without Raveneau listening in. He asked for her gun. As Raveneau waited he took a call from Coe.

  ‘We’re having trouble reaching our agent out of the Kona office.’

  ‘I thought he was getting backup hours ago.’

  ‘They got delayed.’

  ‘Casey will have an escape hatch. He’s not going to wait. I think he sent Frank after us. It’s why he gave us Ito’s name. He knew we’d come back on the Saddle Road.’

  ‘Our agents are going to go ahead and search the house.’

  ‘I figured you would. We’ll see you there.’

  FIFTY-SIX

  Casey’s ranch house was fully lit when Raveneau and la Rosa arrived and there was nowhere to park near the house or in the clearing in front of the barn. Raveneau backed up to the fork leading to Jim Frank’s house. He parked their car between the trees and they walked the broken asphalt road back down to the ranch house.

  The FBI special agent in charge of the search was out of Oahu and had flown over in the late afternoon. His name was Carl Norris. He sat out on the porch with them and directed his questions at Raveneau as la Rosa listened. Special Agent Han and his vehicle were missing. So was Casey. Raveneau listened then said, ‘We got rough directions today from a woman we interviewed to a large former sugar plantation that Casey owns. It may be under a corporate name and he may be there.’

  ‘We’re pretty sure he’s off the island.’

  ‘How do you know that?’

  ‘It’s an ongoing investigation.’

  ‘How long has that been going on?’

  ‘I can’t say.’

  ‘All right, well, the plantation still needs to be checked.’ Raveneau glanced at la Rosa, adding, ‘We’ll go there.’

  ‘I want agents to go with you.’

  ‘We want to see what you’ve found first. What’s in the boxes your agents are carrying out?’

  ‘Desktop computers, other documents, we’ll go through in the field office. We appreciate everything you’ve done, but we’ve got enough agents inside. If you want to drive roads and look for his vehicle we’d appreciate any effort you make.’

  Raveneau walked down the steps and moved away from the floodlights into darkness to call Coe.

  ‘I know what I’m looking for, they don’t.’

  ‘Put Norris on.’

  ‘Do you know him?’

  ‘Not really, but I know what he’s working on.’

  ‘OK, hold on.’

  Raveneau walked back and handed Norris his phone. After listening to Coe for a few moments Norris walked out of earshot. When he returned he handed the phone to Raveneau and said, ‘You can go in and you can watch, but we don’t need help with the search. It makes more sense for you to lead our agents to this sugar plantation you talked about.’

  ‘Show us what you’ve found.’

  ‘Most of it’s packed up. We’re almost done.’

  Raveneau went inside anyway. They were in the lanai when agents opened a locked waterproof cabinet in an out building near the barn. In it he’d found two laptops and four handguns.

  ‘What do you think?’ la Rosa asked quietly.

  ‘Let’s go see what they found in the cabinet and then try to find the sugar plantation.’

  He talked to Coe again as they waited outside the building where the laptops were found.

  ‘We’re going to move on,’ he told Coe. ‘We’ll help look for the missing special agent, but there are a couple more things we should talk about first. We interviewed a woman today who ID’ed Krueger’s killer from photos Matt Frank sent his half brother via Facebook. This woman lived with Jim Frank from 1987 to 1991. She saw this man a half dozen times. He was young. His connection was Alan Krueger. She gave me a name for him, but also said she’s bad with names. The name she gave me was Colin Gray. She’s sure of the first name but hazy about the Gray. She thought he was working with Krueger and that he worked for the government. Can you do anything with that?’

  ‘That’s sketchy.’

  ‘You aren’t hearing me. This is who shot Alan Krueger and she thinks he was working for our government. Casey pointed us toward her. If he hadn’t given us her name we wouldn’t have driven to the other end of the island.’

  ‘He sent you that directi
on so he could ambush you with Matt Frank.’

  ‘That’s what I think too but I don’t think that became a plan until after we met with him this morning. What’s going on with the FBI? Why is the FBI looking at Casey?’

  ‘Ben, I can’t keep up with this. You’re jumping around and I’m exhausted.’

  ‘OK, set that aside, and listen to this. Andrew Fine the blogger who broke the bomb story has a source in Washington, someone he’s known since college. I keep asking myself why it’s in the source’s interest to feed Fine the bomb casing story.’

  ‘Fine probably lied about his source. It’s more likely someone local.’

  ‘I don’t think he lied to us, but I think we need to know his source. We fly home tomorrow. I’ll go back to Fine but I might ask your help if I get more from him.’

  ‘I don’t know what you’re seeing, but I can’t follow you right now.’

  ‘Talk to you later.’

  Raveneau and la Rosa followed the laptops back to the main house and hovered as an agent powered them up and got stuck for lack of a password. He asked Norris if he could try to get in.

  ‘Why don’t you just give us what you think the password might be?’

  ‘Let me try.’

  The agents hovered over him and Raveneau remembered Casey preaching simplicity. Casey told him he used computers but sparingly. He believed they had weakened the character of the American people, dampening their independence and self-reliance.

  He typed in several passwords that didn’t work and as the agents gradually lost interest he signaled la Rosa. She started talking, asking questions of both agents, touching one on the sleeve as Raveneau pulled a sixteen gig memory stick from his pocket and slid it into the computer in front of him. He typed Jericho into the password box. The screen changed and he angled the computer away from the agent and found his way to the files. He copied. He pulled the memory stick. He moved to the next computer as la Rosa recounted the directions to the sugar plantation.

  Raveneau slipped the memory stick back into his pocket. It didn’t feel right to do that, but he knew it was their last chance. He stood then interrupted the conversation, saying, ‘I got in.’