by Bob Blink
“Further, let’s assume that person is in a position to link what he or she has learned to the Kerns event. Maybe they even have access and locate that errant file I mentioned. They realize that Stan Mathews is the person who knew about and thwarted the attempt on the Senator. Finally, this information somehow finds its way, I can’t speculate how, to the very people who wanted the Senator killed.”
“Over time they start to think about what I might be able to do. They don’t really know how I do it or what my capabilities are, but the way they learn about me offers some suggestions. They don’t get it completely right, as shown by the way I was able to overcome their attempts to hide what they are doing. But it also seems that as time progressed, they learned more. The attempts to block me are less careful now than they are four months from now. That suggests they have had more time to think about the issue, have witnessed more, or somehow learned more about me.”
“I can’t imagine how they linked the Ray death to the attempt on the Senator, but we’ll have to accept for the moment that they did. They see that has a greater chance of success. Sending me off to murder someone would be expected to meet more resistance than sending me off to save someone. That’s what I’ve done many times before.”
“I don’t see how having you save the Ray woman ends up with the Senator dead?” Laney asked.
“That’s where they are being tricky. They know something they shouldn’t have been able to have learned.” Jake explains about the night before the killing, Janna, and his absolute unwillingness to bridge that time.
“I couldn’t reach Susan after learning about the killing of the Senator,” Jake reminds them.
“I was out of the country on a special assignment,” Carlson says.
“I didn’t have any other contacts at the time,” Jake reminds them. “Laney didn’t know about me. Even though we’d worked together before, those memories had been looped around. So contacting him wasn’t going to work. Past experience suggested that I’d be dismissed as a crank, and a call would only make my own attempts impossible.”
“What does that have to do with saving the Ray woman?” Laney asked.
“He can’t do both,” Carlson said softly. “If he saves Pati Ray to remove the threat to his family, then he has to let the Senator die.”
Jake nodded. “I think that is their reasoning. The Senator had died, and I had interfered. Lots of people die, and I believe they hoped they could place me in a situation where I’d elect to forego any action to save my own family. They could always fall back on direct threat if I failed to follow through.”
“How would they know?” Laney asked. “They can’t do what you do.”
“If I let the Senator die, then none of this would be necessary or ever happen. If I didn’t do as they asked, then four or five months from now when the Senator hadn’t been killed, they would decide their initial attempt hadn’t born fruit, and try something else.”
“How would they know about Janna and your artificial time barrier?” Carlson asked. “Even I had never thought about that. Without that restriction, you could work a solution to the problem they presented, and probably save both the girl and the Senator.”
“The same way they learned more about me, what I’ll do and what I won’t, and what my ability allows me to attempt,” Jake said. “They have my house bugged.”
“What?” Laney said.
“It’s the only answer that fits,” Jake explained. “Karin and I have talked about that a couple of times, but neither of us can recall mentioning it outside the house. It also makes sense if they planned to attempt something like this. It would take them time to put things in place, and during that time they would want to know more about me. I’ll bet some of the things they learned caused them to make modifications to their approach, which was one of the reasons it has taken them so long to trigger this whole thing.”
“Do you believe they know about our conversations?” Carlson asked.
“I don’t know for certain, but I don’t think so. I spent a few hours making a careful check of this room, and I haven’t found anything. We’ll need to get a complete sweep of the house performed. If we find something in here, then I’ll have to back-track and we’ll handle this whole conversation differently.”
“I’ll have a team over there in an hour or two,” Carlson promised. “Based on all you’ve told us, I want Jim to get on a plane and head out there right away. He can lead the teams that arrest the two men who attempt to dispose of Ray’s body. I have to admit, I’m a little uncomfortable allowing that killing to go forward. That’s just the opposite of what we normally have been doing.”
“It’s temporary. Once this is all sorted out, we can decide what course of action is proper.”
“In the meantime, I’ll see what we can learn about the people you have identified.”
“If you could, see what you can dig up on the Kerns attempt. There is something there that links to all of this. If we can find that link, we’ll be closer to breaking this case.”
“The whole affair is one that people don’t like to talk about,” Carlson said. “It’s a black eye for the FBI. We didn’t see it coming, we don’t know who the sniper was that saved the Senator, at least the Bureau doesn’t other than Jim and myself, and we never learned who was behind the attack. I don’t know how willing people will be to talk about it.”
“See what you can find,” Jake asked. “I really think it is important.”
“I’ll have the technicians there in an hour or two. If they give the room clearance, we’ll be talking tonight while Jim is en route. Otherwise, this will all happen differently I suppose.”
Jake disconnected from the secure link and stood stiffly. He headed back into the kitchen to talk with Karin. Both felt uncomfortable with the possibility they were being monitored, but at least they would know shortly.
Chapter 17
Agent Jim Laney was still in the air on his way to San Francisco when Susan Carlson called from Washington, DC later in the afternoon. Laney was expected to arrive at the airport a couple of hours later, and depending on traffic and other possible delays, should show up at Jake’s place sometime after nine in the evening. They would call Carlson again the next morning.
The special team of technicians had finished checking Jake’s house several hours earlier. He’d already been given a preliminary summary, but Carlson was giving him the full report now. He’d been right. The house had been bugged.
“Whoever is behind all this, planted nine bugs we have been able to locate in your house,” Carlson said. “You were correct in your assumption that they have been monitoring you.”
“I got that idea from the man who was in charge of the search,” Jake said. “Karin is more than a little creeped out by the idea. They’ve been able to monitor our conversations since they’ve been installed I take it?”
“Not everywhere in the house. That’s the one bit of good news. Apparently the perpetrators are being careful. They never broke into your house. I guess the alarms you have in place and the fact you normally work at home dissuaded them of being completely thorough. The bugs were all installed through the outer walls of the house. They push through the stucco up against the inner walls, and are able to pick up conversations of the interior room. These are broadcast to transmitter units located in the trees around the perimeter of your property. The report tells me those units have to have their battery replaced periodically.”
“How long have they been in place?” Jake asked. “Is there anyway to tell?”
“Not really, but based on the timing for when we believe they could have learned about you, only a couple of months. Have you had any work done around the outside of your house in the past two months?”
Jake thought a moment. “Only the annual clean up,” he said. “We have a gardener service do a complete clean-up and trimming back of all the plants at the end of the season. That’s the only thing I can think of.”
“It could have been the
n,” Carlson agreed. “The cleanup crew would have been moving everywhere around the outside and could have easily installed the bugs at that time. Of course, they could have been bolder, and done it anytime you weren’t at home.”
“You’ve left them in place as agreed?” Jake asked.
“For now. We don’t want to alert them we have discovered their source of information. It could prove useful to us and you indicated you didn’t want to make any changes to events until we understand who is behind this. That means you and Karin will have to be careful what you discuss from now on.”
“Understood. From what you said, they can’t monitor anything upstairs, and the study area is secure.”
“That’s correct. None of the bugs were above the lower level, although they might use remote monitoring techniques to monitor your bedroom. There is no way to tell. It would be best to ensure you are in a room with the curtains drawn if you need to discuss anything critical. Better yet, don’t have such conversations at home. Your cars are currently clean, but that could change. They are often exposed, and could be fitted with something at anytime. The study is secure simply by luck. You designed the house with that room as an interior space, with no walls along the outside perimeter of the house. That has prevented them from monitoring what goes on inside. Our technicians took special care to confirm that. If it had been otherwise, we wouldn’t be having this conversation with you there.”
Jake nodded. His eyes also fell on the small unit that was activated on the corner of his desk. He didn’t know how it worked, but supposedly it would block any pickup device that might have been missed, making it appear the unit had malfunctioned. They felt they could do that with one bug, but it would have been suspicious to do so with all of them.
“Did you learn anything about the names I gave you?” Jake asked, satisfied he understood the monitoring situation. He had already been shown what the units looked like from the outside, the technician having shown a couple of them to him earlier in the day. They were discretely located, and only a hair appeared to extend beyond the stucco. One had to know exactly what to look for.
“Some,” Carlson replied. “I expect more information by tomorrow. Dennis Kennan is exactly what he implied. He is a small time actor who normally lives in New York. I’m certain when our agents do some checking we will discover he’s been away on a project for several months. I have his photograph here in front of me, and he does look somewhat similar to Henry Ray. It’s a wonder they were able to find such a close match. With a little judicious makeup to adjust hair coloring and the like, I can see how you were fooled.”
“The other one who pretended to be Ray for that single evening, is also an actor. This time out of Chicago. He doesn’t match as well, as only the fact he didn’t have to meet anyone who knew Ray would he be able to pass. Mr. Charles Watson also has a bit of a record. He’s been involved in a couple of B&E incidents, and also is believed to be involved in drug trafficking in Chicago.”
“That sort of fits,” Jake replied. “There is no way that Watson couldn’t have known that something bad had happened to Ray. He was in the restroom when Ray entered, and during the time before Nate and I came in as Watson left, Ray had to have been killed. Watson was clearly there when it happened. Whoever hired him for the temporary impersonation had to have informed him what was planned.”
“That might be something we can use against him to gather information later,” Carlson agreed.
“What about Jon Mallory?” Jake asked.
“Another low life,” Carlson replied. “He’s a local boy as you were told. He has ties to organized crime. He is into gambling and prostitution that we know of. Possibly other activities we haven’t learned about just yet. He works for the largest Mafia family operating out of San Francisco. They are smaller than the Asian gangsters these days, but they still are a significant presence there. Apparently there have been run-ins with both the Asian and Mexican gangs that Mallory has been involved in. He’s thought to have been involved in the disappearance of one of the gang leaders for a local Mexican gang, but nothing has been proven.”
“I don’t like where this appears to be headed,” Jake said.
“Me either,” Carlson said. “But if organized crime is involved, it would help explain the number of people that have been involved. They would have no problem pulling together the kind of resources you have encountered. It would also explain the reluctance of some of the participants to talk about their employer. That kind of reluctance is not easy for the average person to buy.”
Carlson sorted through some papers on her desk and placed something on the scanner so that it would appear on Jake’s second monitor.
“Here’s a picture of Jon Mallory from an arrest a year and a half ago. No beard then, but he’s the guy. Do you recognize him?”
Jake was transfixed by the picture on the monitor. Jake clearly recognized the face. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen it earlier. He had known the face was familiar under the beard, but hadn’t been able to strip away the concealing hair to make the connection.
“Fred Hickam,” Jake said softly.
“Who?” Carlson asked. “You’ve run into him somewhere else?”
Jake nodded. “He uses the name Fred Hickam when he works as a reporter at the San Francisco newspaper that Ray, or his imposter Kennan, works at starting next week. I’ve spoken with him a number of times when I started tracing Ray back. He’s almost certainly been either working with Kennan, or keeping a watch on him. Probably feeding him information along the way, possibly without Kennan realizing it was Hickam.”
“That might explain a little more about how Ray got tricked into the double date that resulted in his death,” Carlson suggested.
Jake agreed. Henry Ray probably had met Jon Mallory in his role as Fred Hickam when he’d accepted the job at the San Francisco newspaper. Hickam would have come across as his friend. Jake could see the double date as something that Mallory-Hickam had set up.
“Let’s celebrate,” Jake could imagine him calling Ray and suggesting. “I know a couple of girls.”
Henry Ray would probably have thought things were really looking up for him. He had a new job at a better newspaper across the Bay in the City that he’d be starting in a couple of days, and his new friend who worked there was already introducing him to a couple of willing ladies. That was probably the real reason he’d gone shopping for new clothes, not because he planned to disappear. Jake now knew that Ray had no such plans.
The girls were probably hookers that Mallory could supply. That would explain why they went along with the charade that night. Mallory would have made it clear that something was going to happen and they were to play along, and then go home and forget all about it. Hookers owned by the mob would know better than to ever speak of what might have happened to the original guy who had been the double date. Mallory and Watson with criminal backgrounds and ties to organized crime, with a couple of women with good reasons to never speak. It would work. Henry Ray had no idea what he’d gotten involved in.
“There has to be a tie in with the San Francisco newspaper,” Jake said. “Jon Mallory isn’t a reporter, but he worked there as one for months, at least part time. It’s unlikely that Henry Ray being offered the position is coincidental either. That had to be planned as part of the cover someone was creating for the fake Ray.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Carlson said. “I’ll put a couple of agents on it when we finish up here.”
“What about the Kerns affair? This somehow has to tie into that. With Ray out of the picture, it looks more like Karin might be right and the Senator is the real target. Someone, possibly someone in organized crime, wants to use me to correct the failure of the attempt on him.”
“If that is the case, you have a much bigger problem on your hands than you realized. They would have the resources and the people to pursue this more diligently than a single obsessed individual.”
Jake had similar thoughts and real
ized his family might be at greater risk than he’d realized.
“I’ve done some preliminary checking on what we did to investigate the attack on the Senator. Five different organizations within the FBI were involved in the task force that was set up at the Director’s insistence. There was also one shadowy character who claimed to be from the CIA, although I suspect the actual organization he represented was something else. Since there was belief the attack might have been from external terrorists, the State Department wanted the agencies represented.”
“From the FBI, I represented Domestic Terrorism. We also had senior people representing Counterintelligence, Corruption, Drugs, and finally Organized Crime. There were reason for each of these, but given what we have just uncovered I am especially interested in the Special Agent who represented the Organized Crime division. It is especially interesting that he has been unavailable to speak with me all day. I have spoken with three of the other four, and have a request into the CIA to try and pin down the man who attended under their direction. I have friends in the other agencies, but they can’t help with this.”
“When do you think you might be able to follow up with him?” Jake asked.
“I will go directly to the Director and demand a face to face. Tomorrow, you and Jim should hold off on the call. I’ll phone you as soon as I’m available, but it might not be before noon your time. I’ll have something by then.”
“The other big question remains is just how they learned about me,” Jake said.
“I’ve been trying to compile a list of those who know anything about you, or your alternate identity Bob Trask,” Carlson said. “Here’s what I have. Besides myself and Jim Laney who know exactly what you can do, your wife, and friends Nate, Zack, and Cheryl also know pretty much all about you. During the Washington affair a couple of months ago six FBI agents, three reporters, and two Washington policemen had extended contact with you, and might have learned more than we would like.” Carlson listed the names.
