Innocent Conspiracy_A Sam Prichard Mystery

by David Archer

  “You didn’t hesitate to aim one at my investigator,” Sam said. He glanced down at her right hand, with two fingers in splints. “I’m just glad he was quick enough to take it away from you.”

  “It wouldn’t have mattered,” she said. “I wasn’t going to shoot anybody. I was scared and hurt, but I just thought he might run away if I pointed the gun in his face.” She held up her hand and grinned. “Boy, was I wrong.”

  “You are lucky,” Karen said. “Anyone else would’ve shot you and finished you off. How did David receive his orders?”

  “His cell phone,” Kushner said. “Everything was by email, but David wouldn’t use a computer. He did everything on his cell phone, and never let me near it.”

  “How long have you been with David?” Sam asked.

  “About six months, I think,” she said. “I was with another guy before that, but he got killed. I got away, so they put me with David, instead.”

  “They?” Sam asked. “Who is ‘they?’ Who are you talking about?”

  Kushner grimaced. “You’re not going to believe me,” she said, “but I don’t know. Couple years ago, when I got out of the Army, I got offered a job to come to work for this security outfit in France. They took me over there for training and said we were special contract operatives for different governments. Our job was to eliminate people that the governments who hired them said were threats to their security, but it didn’t take long before I knew that was BS. The only problem is, once you’re in, you’re in. If you try to quit, they kill you.”

  “You must know the name of the security company,” Sam said. “What was it?”

  “Well, the name they gave me at first was Fawkes Security, but they never used that name after I got there. From that point, we were just called the organization. There were a lot of us there for training, about a dozen teams. One man, one woman, always. The idea was that we could always pose as a couple.”

  “Who was your first partner?” Sam asked her.

  “His name was Julio, but he was pretty crazy. I was with him for about a year, but he spent more time beating me up than going out on his assignments. He wouldn’t let me go out with him like I was supposed to, he’d leave me tied up wherever we were staying. When he got killed, I was tied up for two days, trying to get loose. I was gonna just run away, but they found me before I could get free. They took me back to their headquarters and put me with David.”

  “Where is the headquarters at?” Sam asked.

  “Here we go again,” Kushner said. “I don’t know. They put you inside a van with no windows, so you can’t see where you’re going. I can tell you it’s about a six-hour ride after you leave Paris, but I couldn’t even guess what direction.”

  “Wait a minute,” Karen said. “What you’re telling us is that you were recruited by some sort of international murder organization?”

  Kushner gave her a sheepish smile. “I guess that’s what I’m saying, yeah,” she said. “I can tell you they recruit people by promising them jobs as security personnel, but when you get there you find out the truth. If you don’t agree to do what they want, and if you’re not convincing about it when you do, they literally just shoot you in the head and toss your body in a ditch. They’ve got a tractor there with a front bucket on it, and they just throw dirt in over you.”

  Karen looked at Sam. “This is way over my pay grade,” she said.

  “Suzanne,” Sam said, “do you know any of the people in charge?”

  “We aren’t told any names,” Kushner said. “Everyone there goes by an animal name, like Bear or Rhino. None of us are allowed to use our own names until after we’re teamed up and sent out on assignment. After that, the guy is in charge and the woman is supposed to be his helper and camouflage. He’s always the important one, so us girls are usually expendable.”

  Sam looked at Karen and nodded. “That explains a couple things,” he said. He looked back at Kushner. “You and David Green are actually the second pair we’ve had to deal with. Did you know Juergen Schroeder and Bernadette Jones?”

  She shook her head, then winced. “Not by those names, I don’t. If I ever met them at all, it would have been with some other names.” She blinked several times. “Look, you’re probably going to think I’m crazy, but this is probably the best possible thing that could’ve happened to me. I couldn’t get out, but even spending the rest of my life in prison will be better than being stuck in that outfit. I’ll tell you anything you want to know, but they went to a lot of effort to make sure we didn’t know much.”

  Sam nodded, then motioned for Karen to follow him into the hall. When they were outside the room, he turned to her.

  “This is a lot bigger than just a local case,” he said. “I think we should turn her over to DHS. I doubt she knows anything that is really going to help us on this case, anyway, but she might be able to help figure out where that training camp is and who the organization behind it really could be.”

  Karen shrugged and rolled her eyes. “That’s fine with me,” she said. “I wouldn’t have a clue where to start with all this information.”

  Sam grinned and took out his phone, and walked further down the hall. He dialed a number and put the phone to his ear, and grinned when it was answered.

  “Sam, boy? Why are you calling an old man and interrupting his vacation?”

  “Oh, give it up, Harry,” Sam said. “You love it when I call, and you know it.”

  “There could be some truth in that, but don’t tell my wife. Ow. Never mind, she heard me. What can I do for you, Sam?”

  “Hey, I’ve stumbled across something and I’m not sure what to do with it. I’m working on a case here in Denver, but some of the players involved are apparently connected to an international hitman ring. Have you ever heard of Fawkes Security?”

  “I can’t say that I have. What else can you tell me about them?”

  “Apparently, they put out teams to handle hits, always a man and a woman. The man is the killer, the woman is his helper and is considered expendable. One of the pairs that we dealt with put that to the ultimate test, because the man went out a window and left the woman to try to fight off the police. She died, and luckily we got him, as well, but I had to shoot him. The second pair wasn’t quite as easy; they took a shot at someone we were protecting, and our security guard managed to hit them both. The man died instantly, and we found the woman hiding on top of an elevator. She is in custody, in the hospital. She’s the one who’s been telling us about this organization. They seem to be based in France, or at least that’s where she believes the training camp was.”

  “Do you have any principals? Any names?”

  “One possible. Have you ever heard of Pierre Reynard?”

  Harry was silent for several seconds. “Now you’re making a little bit of sense. Pierre Reynard is known as the French Fox. You said this outfit was called Fawkes, right? That’s just an alternative spelling of the word Fox, so that would make sense if he’s involved. But, whatever you do, don’t underestimate Reynard if you end up dealing with him. He was originally a French-Canadian named Armand Tredeau, who immigrated to the United States. Sam, there was a time when he was one of the best wet work men the CIA ever had. He turned his back on America about fifteen years ago, and he’s been independent ever since.”

  “Well, that’s just wonderful,” Sam said. “Harry, I think I’m going to turn this woman over to DHS. She doesn’t seem to have any information is going to help me on my case, so maybe she can do something for them.”

  “Sam, do me a favor,” Harry said. “Can you just sit on her for a little while? Let me make a couple of calls, and I’ll have somebody get in touch with you.”

  “Sure, Harry,” Sam said. “I’ll talk to you later.”

  Sam hung up the phone, then stood and looked at it for a long minute. Karen stayed quiet, waiting for him to be ready to say whatever was on his mind. She knew him, and knew that he would; he always shared his thoughts with her when he was ready.r />
  “That was Harry Winslow,” Sam said. “He’s retired, but he still has more contacts than anyone else I know. He’s going to make a few calls and get back to me, or have somebody else call me. I think he just wants to make sure she goes to the right department.”

  “That’s fine with me, like I said. I wouldn’t know what to do with her, that’s for sure.”

  “Harry seems to think Pierre Reynard may be more of a problem than we anticipated. Apparently, he was some sort of CIA assassin back in the day."

  Karen’s eyebrows went up. "So, he thinks you should be careful?"

  “Yeah. He says not to underestimate Reynard if I end up having to deal with him.”

  “In that case, the sooner you get her turned over to somebody bigger than us, the better I’m going to like it. I know you dealt with international assassins before, but that’s definitely not in the job description at the Denver PD.”

  Sam nodded. “Believe me,” he said, “I understand that completely. Keep your people watching over her, because I wouldn’t put it past this Reynard to try to silence her.”

  Five minutes later, Sam’s phone rang.

  “Sam Prichard,” he said.

  “Mr. Prichard? This is Hunter Grayson, with the CIA. I understand you have a package for me.”

  “I believe I do,” Sam said.

  18

  Sam headed toward his office, leaving Karen to see to security over Kushner. Thinking about the things Harry had told him about Reynard was only getting Sam riled up, and he needed to get himself focused back on the case.

  He was fairly certain they were on the right track, and that someone had anticipated the beneficial effect the shooting would have on Web Wide Awards. The company had experienced significant growth in the last week, and that would only translate to greater value to the independent video industry players who received the award. The greater the company’s following, the more the awards would promote the individual shows and artists who won them.

  The big problem was that he hadn’t figured out the motive behind it. The only people who really stood to gain from a greater financial value of the company would be the two people who owned the vast majority of the stock, which was John Morton and Annie Porter. From what Jade had told him, no one else owned enough stock to ever see any true benefit, because the stock was not publicly traded. While it was possible to sell the stock privately, it would probably be difficult to sell to anyone outside the company itself.

  A sudden thought struck him, and he picked up his phone. He dialed John Morton, who answered on the second ring.

  “John, this is Sam Prichard,” he said. “I’m still trying to get to the bottom of this thing, and there are couple of things that are confusing.”

  “Yeah, I’m pretty confused, myself,” Morton said. “I got the news yesterday afternoon, when you were talking about someone inside the company possibly being involved. I thought we had already settled that.”

  “Well, to be honest, I’m not sure of that anymore. John, I understand that you and Annie own ninety percent of the stock in your company. Who owns the rest?”

  “The rest of the stock? We gave some to some of our executives, like bonuses. They get dividends on it every year, so it’s basically just a way of rewarding them for all the extra stuff they do beyond their jobs.”

  “Okay, I can understand that,” Sam said. “Have any of them ever tried to sell the stock?”

  “Well, no,” Morton said. “There’s a clause in their contracts that says they can only sell the stock back to the company, and they have to sell it back if they decide to leave the company. Why? What brought all this up?”

  “John, somebody anticipated the beneficial effect your company received after Max Petrelli was shot. I’m trying to figure out what could motivate anybody to want to see your company grow and suddenly be worth more money, and the only thing that would make any sense was if they had some way to benefit financially from it. Have you made any plans to go public?”

  “We talked about it from time to time,” said, “but that’s as far as it’s ever gone, just talk. An IPO would probably quadruple the value of the company, but it would also limit my control over it. It’s something I probably will do within a few years, but there are no plans in place to do so anytime soon.”

  “So, nobody who owns stock in your company right now could benefit from the value of the stock going up, am I right?”

  “Absolutely not. In fact, unless we go to IPO, the stock itself doesn’t really have any value. All it does is entitle the owner of the stock to receive the dividend when we declare one, which we usually do about every quarter. In fact, we haven’t missed a quarter in five years.”

  “Okay. Then let’s talk about the company’s revenue. Is there anyone who would benefit directly from the company making more money?”

  “Well, Sam, we are actually considered a pretty innovative company. One of those innovations is the fact that all of our employees receive a percentage of the company’s profits, rather than a conventional salary or hourly wage. What that does, of course, is turns every employee into a salesperson or ambassador for the company, because they all want to see the business grow.”

  Sam took the phone away from his ear and stared at it for a moment. When he put it back, he was shaking his head. “John, you just handed me more than two hundred possible suspects. If everyone gets a percentage, then everybody there stands to benefit if the company makes more money.”

  “Well, yes,” Morton said, “but bear in mind that the percentages are very small. We use what we call a points system, where each point is worth one one-thousandth of a percent. Our lowest level employees, which is about a hundred of them, get two point five points, which equals .0025 percent of the revenue. The revenue is calculated weekly, so that they get a pretty decent paycheck each week. Some of our top executives get as much as one hundred points. Everybody makes good money, but the amount of increase we’ve seen in revenue over this past week wouldn’t add more than a dollar or two to any of the smaller paychecks, and may be as much as fifty bucks to the bigger ones. I really don’t see that being worth whatever it would’ve cost to pull this off.”

  Sam sighed. “No, I guess not. This is just—I don’t know what to say. Unless we can figure out the motive behind this, John, we may never find the person who is actually responsible.”

  Morton was quiet for a few seconds. “The only ones who stand to benefit financially from the increase in revenue,” he said slowly, “are myself and Annie. The problem with that is that we didn’t do it.”

  “All right, then let’s look at competitors. We had originally thought someone was trying to run you out of business; is there anybody else who might benefit if you suddenly grew bigger?”

  “No, nobody I can think of. And realistically, Sam, I can’t even see how it makes any sense that somebody was trying to build us up, and here’s why. I’m going to be announcing something very soon, a whole new way to encode video that will make it so much faster that it’s going to be possible to stream high definition video online, even over the slowest connections. Now, this is proprietary new technology, and it’s probably worth five times what my company is worth today. The increase in revenues we’ve seen over this mess, even stretched out over a year, will probably be less than half of one percent of what we’ll make once I release that technology. Every video company out there will need to license it from us, just to stay competitive, but it’ll mean that even the smallest producer can stream high def video. Max Petrelli? He’ll be able to upload high definition video and know that everyone in the world can see it just the way he wants them to.”

  “Is there anyone else who will earn money off that technology? Any of your development people, maybe?”

  “Only in the sense that an increase in revenue will increase their paychecks. The company owns the technology outright, and I actually did some of the development work myself. I had to call in some programmers to work out the kinks, but we got it done
. This thing is going to be huge, and every video streaming network in the world is going to need it. If I wanted to make extra money, I could’ve announced this six months ago.”

  “John, we’ve already concluded that you and Annie are not suspects,” Sam said. “I’m not calling to sound accusatory, I’m just trying to figure out who else could possibly have a motive for making this happen.”

  “And I wish I knew what to say, Sam. Yes, we are making a bit more money, but not so much that it’s that big a deal. I mean, just to generate an extra million dollars a year, we have to increase our regular traffic by almost five hundred thousand people. That’s an awful lot of traffic hitting the website, which means we have to increase the number of backup servers we have online. It’s not all profit, not by a long shot.”

  “So, even though you’re making more money, it’s costing you more to be able to take care of all the new traffic?”

  “Oh, gosh, yes,” Martin said. “If things hold steady, our traffic should be up by about seventeen million people this year. Now, that sounds like an awful lot of money when you think about the ad revenue, but it’s going to cost me half of that just to maintain the site and the servers and everything else involved.”

  “Seventeen million people? That’s more than the populations of a lot of small countries.”

  Morton laughed. “Yes, that’s true. Our total traffic is actually much bigger than that, almost sixty million. That’s a pretty big accomplishment, and there’s not a lot of companies who can boast that they get that much traffic.”

  “That is a lot,” Sam said. “Sixty million people a year? I have trouble even imagining…”

  “Oh, Sam, no,” Morton said. “I’m talking about sixty million people a day.”

  Sam’s eyes got wide. “You got sixty million people a day looking at your website?”

  “Yeah,” Morton said. “Scary, isn’t it?”

  “John, that gives me a whole new list of suspects. How many of your advertisers are going to see serious increases in their own revenue over that?”