Touched By Blood

by Craig Buckhout

  “What now; I’ll tell you what now. First, I’m going to take a short vacation and relax a little bit. I’ve earned it. After that, I’m coming back and kill you and your partner.”

  “Hey Al, he says he’s going to kill you.”

  “You tried that, asshole! Remember? It didn’t work.” Al replied.

  “Al said you already tried and couldn’t do it. He also called you a bad name,” Nick said into the phone.

  “All right funnyman, we’ll see who laughs. I’ll be keeping in touch just so you know I’m still thinking of you. Ta-ta,” and then Moby hung-up.

  “So, what else did he say?” Al asked.

  Nick started punching numbers into his cell phone.

  “He imagines himself as Hannibal Lecter and says he’s going to eat your liver cooked with fava beans and wash it down with a nice Chianti. He also acknowledged personal disappointment for not killing you the other night.”

  “He’ll be disappointed in my liver, too.”

  “Yeah, this is Zajac. I need to talk with the Watch Commander. … … Yeah, I’ll hold.”

  Nick’s phone clicked indicating someone was calling in. He let it go to voicemail.

  The Watch Commander came on the phone. Nick asked that a second car be sent to Ellen’s location and explained why. He then checked his voicemail.

  “I just wanted to make sure I had your correct cell number. From time to time I’ll be calling you,” Moby said in his message.

  Nick called Ellen.

  “Everything okay?” he asked.

  “Perfect. I’m just getting ready for that job this week end. …Why? Whenever you ask that question something’s gone wrong.”

  “That guy Roger Templeton, the event planner, he turned out to be someone named Nathanial Moby. He’s the one who killed everyone starting with St. Claire.”

  “Why? Why would he do something like that?”

  “The real reason is that he’s insane.”

  “But to kill all those people; you don’t just start killing people.”

  “You’re right, it was more than that. He was also facing some serious time for drug trafficking and impersonating a federal agent. So if during our investigation of your sister’s murder we found out who he really was, he would have gone to jail for a long, long time. Because of that, in his mind he had no choice but to kill St. Claire and that led to the others.”

  “So, are you going to get him?”

  “That’s why I’m calling. He knows we know and he’s on the run. He also knows about you and me. It’s complicated but he may now try to get to you, to get to me. So I want you to be even more cautious. We just need some time to pick him up. I’ve got another car coming out to your house.”

  “Just a second, I hear something,” Ellen said.

  “What do you mean you hear something? What something?”

  “Ellen?”

  She came back on the phone, “Another police car just pulled up,” Ellen said.

  Don’t scare me like that, he thought.

  “Good, it’s just until we can get things sorted out,” Nick replied. “I’ll see you at the regular time.”

  “Okay, but be careful, Nick, I just found you. I don’t want to lose you, now.”

  “I will.”

  Al walked out of the bedroom holding a brown loafer at the same time two men dressed in jeans and tee shirts walked in the front door.

  “Looks like a match for the sole pattern left near Emerson’s body and at Ellen’s place,” Al said turning the bottom-side up.

  “Who’s Sergeant Zajac?” one of the two men asked.

  “Me, who are you guys?” Nick asked.

  Nick’s phone rang, but he ignored it.

  “DEA; Nesbit sent us down here.” One of them pulled out a badge that was under his shirt and hung on a chain around his neck.

  “Okay, hang–on a second,” Nick said. Then to Al, “Maybe we’ll find the guns, too. I’ll give Fran a call to process this place.”

  Al turned and went back into the bedroom.

  Nick then addressed the two DEA Agents. “You guys may have wasted your time coming down here. Moby’s disappeared. We last saw him this morning when he walked into a downtown hotel.”

  “Ah, shit. We better give Nesbit a call,” the same one said.

  Nick heard another cell phone toning an incoming call, then heard Al talking.

  “Yeah? Before you get to that, I heard that place has the best buffet; all you can eat lobster for $19.99, or something like that. …No kidding? Definately, I’ll take as many coupons as you can get. That might be a good place to go to recuperate from my wounds, if you know what I mean, especially if I have coupons. …Okay, now, how about Blaine, what’d he have to say?”

  Nick called Carla to check on the status of the search warrant being served on Moby’s business. She told him that there hadn’t been any problems and that she was driving Moby’s receptionist to the office to get a recorded statement from her.

  Al walked out of the bedroom into the living room with the phone still to his ear.

  “So when you coming back?” Al asked. …“Since the city’s paying for it why not, I would. …Okay, I’ll fill Nick in.”

  After Al hung up he said, “That was Fauncchi. He said he tried to reach you but got your voicemail.”

  “Blaine give a statement?” Nick asked.

  “Sounds like he gave the whole thing up. Apparently Moby, some months ago, set Edna up with Blaine and his wife. It wasn’t exactly a threesome, though. Apparently Blaine gets off on watching his wife with other women; likes to be the master of ceremony so to speak. But what this little three ring circus didn’t know was that Moby was filming the whole thing. Anyway, about a week after, Moby shows up in Blaine’s office with a set of living colors and a choice, but not much of one. Either Blaine agrees to give him all his business and all his sexually active, rich clients, or the photos go public. So that’s how St. Claire and Molly end up in the hotel together. Blaine makes the referral.”

  “Was Moby blackmailing these client friends of Blaine’s?”

  “That’s a yes. How Blaine knows that is that one of these friends, some guy named Gertz, …”

  “That’ll be Wendell Gertz,” said Nick.

  “Okay, Wendell Gertz, calls Blaine up one day, madder than hell, and says how someone is putting the bite on him for an extra marital. He wanted to know if Blaine had anything to do with it because Blaine was the one who hooked him up with the guy who hooked him up with the hooker. The cash demand was accompanied by a photograph of him going into a hotel room with said sex worker. Blaine didn’t know how much Gertz had to pay but did know that Gertz had to pay in cash and never saw the person he was paying.”

  “So that’s the scam, then. Moby operates a prostitution ring as part of his event planning business. He meets rich, important people that way and compromises a few of them, such as Blaine, (he can’t be the only one) and gets them to make other referrals. He gets paid as an event planner, as a pimp, and as a blackmailer. Not only does he make lots of money, but he also gets to manipulate a lot of rich, successful, power brokers, which is as good as money to him, better even.”

  “Yeah, then St. Claire wigs out and kills Ellen’s sister. So Moby has to kill St. Claire because he knows St. Claire will get caught and rat him out. When he kills St. Claire, everything is good until oops, along comes Emerson, and he kills him, too. After that he starts killing the others based upon where we go with our investigation.”

  “That’s about it,” Nick said. “Now how about Blaine’s wife; did he say anything about her?”

  “Yeah, I guess she called him Friday and left a voicemail saying that Moby demanded a meeting with her. He told her that if she didn’t show, the photos would pop-up on Blaine’s company computer system. Also, that whatever he wanted her for, it would end their relationship once and for all. Blaine never heard from his wife after that. And so when he learned that two women had been killed at a Los Gatos hotel
and he couldn’t get in touch with his wife, he figured she was dead, and he was next, so took off.”

  “Now there’s a guy you can count on,” Nick said.

  “Yeah, like a hemorrhoid. Well, other than a little more follow-up and about a hundred hours of report writing, I’d say Moby’s about wrapped up.”

  “Except now we have to find him.”

  “How about if we eat first?” Al suggested.

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

  The little girl in the Pooh top stood stock still, staring at the giant. He was huge. She’d never seen such a big man before. He made the restaurant owner look like little people.

  “They here yet?” Al asked.

  “Oh yeah, they got here about five minutes ago,” Ben said. “Hey, that Ellen …”

  “I know. I know. I’ll tell you what, as soon as she dumps him I’m moving-in,” Al said as the two men started toward one of Borys’ two back rooms.

  They both laughed. The little girl slid behind her mother’s leg and stared after Al.

  When they arrived at the table, the waitress was just taking the drink orders.

  “The house chardonnay,” Ellen said.

  “A Wojak Mocne for me and the bottle is fine,” Nick added.

  “We must do shots,” Ben announced. “Just one.” He then turned to the waitress and said, “Wyborowa for everyone and bring the golabki and paluszki appetizers”.

  “Now we’re talking,” Al said.

  “Hope you’re waiting for us,” Carla announced as she neared the table with Fran in tow.

  Ben looked at the waitress as she started to go off and showed her two fingers. He then grabbed a chair from a nearby table along with a place setting.

  “You have to be Ellen,” Carla said touching her upper arm. “Don’t worry, the secret was out this morning.”

  “It was only a secret to Nick, I think,” she replied.

  Carla and Fran sat down with the others and Fran introduced herself as well.

  “You wanna hear what Moby’s secretary had to say?” Carla asked.

  “Better than talking up your ex,” Al said.

  Nick shook his head.

  “He’s not my ex …yet. Besides we’ve, ah, been kind of talking today. We might go to counseling.”

  “I thought he was history,” Al said.

  “Well, that was before he came to his senses. It’s just that …you wanna hear about the secretary or what?”

  “Ain’t love grand?”

  “Jeeze …Yeah, let’s hear about the secretary,” Nick said.

  “Okay, but first I got to pee.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Ellen said.

  “No way I’m going to stay behind with these two,” Fran chipped in as she got back out of her chair.

  “Hey, you can tell us what turned up in the search,” Nick said.

  “When we get back.”

  The waitress arrived with the shots as the women moved off.

  “Don’t start without us,” Carla tossed back over her shoulder.

  “The hell with that,” Al said and picked-up one of the shots.

  Nick slid one over in front of him just as his phone rang. He answered without looking at the read out.

  “So where are you, Zajac?” Moby asked. “I’ve been sitting around here waiting for you. Having a little trouble finding me?”

  “What do you want, Moby. I’m busy.”

  Al put his glass down.

  “Busy trying to find me no doubt. You’ll never do it.”

  “No, busy ordering dinner. Now why are you calling?”

  “Making sure you’re keeping your phone on, slick. I told you I’d stay in touch.”

  Nick hung-up on him and dialed Rene.

  “What’s he want?” Al asked.

  “I think the better question is what’s he up to.”

  Rene picked-up.

  “Hey, it’s Nick. Moby just called me. Can you do that thing to his cell phone; the same you did to Malone’s?”

  “If you have his number.”

  Nick read her the number from his calls received list.

  “Where are you now?” Rene asked.

  “At Borys’ on 4th St, you want to join us?”

  “Depends on how long it takes to set the trap up.”

  The waitress arrived with the appetizers. Behind her were the three women and Ben.

  “Think that phone trick will work again?” Al asked.

  “I think there isn’t a chance in hell. This guy is an ex-cop and was a narc on top of that. He’s got to know we’ll try to trace him through his cell.”

  “Yeah, but he just called you on it, didn’t he? Sometimes cocky little pricks like that miss the details.”

  Al picked up a golabki, a boiled cabbage leaf stuffed with meat and onion, took a bite and put what was left on a small plate.

  “Yeah, but Moby’s whole thing is manipulating people and making them look stupid. He prides himself on it. He’s up to something.”

  As Carla sat down she asked, “Who’s up to something?”

  “Moby, he just called Nick,” Al said.

  “He called you?” Ellen asked.

  “Yeah, he likes screwing with people. There’s this cop in Arizona he calls every so often just to give him a bad time.”

  “Don’t worry,” Carla said covering Ellen’s hand with hers. “Nick’ll get him.”

  “Hey,” Al objected.

  “I mean Nick and Al will get him.”

  Al popped the rest of the golabki in his mouth and Nick remarked to himself how one trip to the bathroom can bond women for life.

  Al reached for another appetizer but Carla stopped him with, “First, to Ellen’s sister, Molly, and all the other victims.” She raised her shot and drank half of it.

  “God bless,” Ben said downing his. “Another?”

  “Why not,” Al answered for everyone.

  Ben left for the bar.

  Nick noticed Ellen’s eyes were watery and took her hand under the table.

  “Okay, now let me tell you about Moby’s assistant, secretary, whatever she is, was. She says Moby was flat out weird; so weird she was looking for a new job. He was very secretive, always closing his door during phone conversations and coming in at odd hours, like late at night.”

  “Yeah, and we know why, but that’s not proof of anything,” Al interrupted.

  “Gimme a chance to finish, will ya? …Anyway, she went into his office one morning and saw a duffle bag under his desk, so she checked it out. Inside was a pretty large amount of cash, stacked and banded, and a pistol. That’s when she decided to find other employment.”

  “That helps,” Nick said.

  “Especially since when I showed her the gun photos, she picked out a .22 Beretta as the most likely match.”

  “That’s good,” Fran added. “I found a half box of .22 bullets in his house. That’s a type match to Emerson’s murder, Fontaine’s, and the Los Gatos case as well.”

  “Yeah, well, it sure didn’t feel like no prissy ass .22 to me. It felt more like a 12 gauge,” Al said.

  “What are you doing here anyway?” Fran asked. “Shouldn’t you be taking it easy or something?”

  “Well, you know, I’m just …,” he shrugged his shoulders.

  The waitress arrived with the second round of shots, Nick’s beer, and Ellen’s wine. “You folks ready to order?”

  “Absolutely,” Al said without even picking up the menu. “I’ll take Bigos and a house salad to go with it; the quacks say I gotta eat more greens.”

  The waitress looked at Ellen.

  “I can’t pronounce it, but the thin pancakes rolled with meat.”

  “The pork loin”, Nick said. “No salad.”

  Carla pointed at Nick, “The same as him.”

  “You know what, I think I’m going to try the Kotlet schabowy. Hope I pronounced that right. And if it doesn’t come with a salad, I’ll take one with oil and vinegar,” Fran said.

  When she left w
ith the orders Nick asked Fran, “You get anything else?”

  “Oh yeah, that’s right, we were talking business. Well we got the shoes, but you know about that, and then we found an empty rifle case, one of those soft ones, at his business. Then of course there is the computer, appointment book, rolodex, and so forth. And among the so forth is some stuff with his handwriting on it. I just took a quick look, but it seems a match for the phone number written on the back of Forney’s business card. He does this thing with his 4’s.”

  “All in all, we have a pretty good case,” Nick offered. “We have his statements to me, his lies, his flight, Blaine’s information, the shoes if they match, the rifle case, the bullets, the pistol and money discovered by his secretary, his connection to all the victims, and when we finish up with his prepaid cell phone records, we’ll probably have even more witnesses against him. We just need to get him in custody now.”

  “No shit,” Al said.

  “How we gonna do that?” Carla asked taking a sip from her shot glass at the same time.

  Nick saw Ben with an arm around Rene’s shoulders pointing her in their direction.

  “That’s a good question,” Nick said. “Rene,” he pointed her out, “is trying to trace his calls through the cell towers his phone uses when it’s on, but I don’t think he’s dumb enough to let himself get caught that way.”

  Rene arrived at the table and Al stood up, “Take my chair.”

  Nick had never known Al to be so polite.

  Rene wrapped her arms around him and kissed him on the cheek.

  “How you feeling? Shouldn’t you be at home?” she asked.

  “Nah, I’m okay.”

  Rene rubbed her hand across the back of his shoulders and said, “You ought to be in bed if you ask me,” and then sat in the chair.

  Al grabbed a chair from a nearby table and everyone scooted around to make room. Nick then introduced her to Ellen.

  “Ah, so this is who everyone is talking about? Nice to meet you.”

  Great, Nick thought.

  Ellen removed her hand from his and patted his knee under the table.

  “Well, I couldn’t get through to my contact about tracking the phone, so I left a message,” Rene continued. “He’s real good about calling me back, though. Besides, he’s taken a special interest in this one.” Then to Nick she said, “So when we get it set-up, if he calls again you probably ought to keep him on the line for as long as possible. You know the routine. And if it turns out he’s got GPS on his phone, it’ll be even easier to find him.”