Calling Card Capers

by Dan Kelly

  “Yes, boss.”

  “Good. Now, since you’ve already done the research, lay it on me, but first what’s in the bag?”

  “A couple of Starbucks and some pastries.”

  “What? You thought you might have to bribe me to save your job?”

  “I got them as kind of a mini-celebration for what you accomplished in Frederick yesterday.”

  “Well, that’s very nice of you. For future reference, I am bribable, but it would take at least a couple of chocolate éclairs to do the job.”

  Opening the bag she holds it so I can see inside the bag. Sitting on top of all the pastries are two chocolate éclairs.

  We laugh, she goes over to her desk to hang up her coat and get her notes on her research and when she returns we have at the goodies and get down to business.

  Felicity reads from her notes. “Henry ‘Hank’ Aldrich, 49 years old, born and raised in Perth Amboy, NJ, both parents deceased, has two siblings – an older brother Nathan age 51 and a younger sister Samantha age 47. Henry has a master degree in software engineering from Penn State University and graduated with honors. The address I found for him is the one you already have in Frederick. His brother is a civil engineer and lives in South Orange, NJ and his sister is a witch.

  “Huh?”

  “I just wanted to see if you were paying attention. His sister is a medical doctor, a surgeon, and resides in Hartford, CT. I have his brother’s and sister’s addresses if you need them.

  “Sub Rosa Electronics is an R & D firm and manufacturer of highly sophisticated electronic gear and developer of futuristic software. Their product is one of a kind requested by governments and business around the world. Whatever a customer requests, the end result is only made available to that customer. It’s not a mass production operation. Their services are very hush-hush and very expensive. They’ve been in business since 1970 and have a solid reputation.”

  “Okay, Felicity, thanks. Don Ericson is scouring the DMV data base to get a picture of Aldrich along with others to get financial info that will tells us where he banks, when and where he makes withdrawals, what credit cards he has and when he uses them, etc., etc. If we can get this information in a timely fashion, we may be able to zero in on him before he disappears into the woodwork again.”

  I tell her about what Janet wants to do and that Don is in the process of presenting her idea to the powers that be in the FBI and the Secret Service. “He should be calling me later today with their answer.”

  “Well, I agree with her assessment that the President is a prime target. The longer the Crusader goes on killing people and getting away with it, the more likely the Crusader is to figure he can get away with assassinating the President. Now that he knows that the law’s spotlight is shining on him, he might be even more inclined to go for the brass ring before he becomes a permanent resident of a prison or a cemetery plot.”

  “Janet feels the same way. I’m hoping something will break that will enable us to nail this guy before he builds up a head of steam sufficient to get him to make a move on the President.

  “However, if Ericson comes up with a picture of Aldrich we could broadcast it with a BOLO and our contact info on local TV and do the same with the newspapers. This could force him into hiding until he thinks it’s safe to come out and resume his vendetta, it might reinforce his lust for revenge and perhaps add new targets to his hit list, it could push him over the edge to take a shot at the president or have no impact whatsoever on his initial game plan. It’s a crap shoot. It’ll take someone a lot smarter than me to predict how he might react.”

  “Let me tell you about our new client and then I’ll leave you be.”

  Janet fills me in on the principals involved, the scope of our involvement and the impact on our cash flow. I ask, “How did they hear about us?”

  “Bill Beamis over at Stellar Solar recommended us.”

  “I’ll give him a call and thank him for that and tell him the next time we have a golf date it’s on me. Is there anything else that requires my attention, immediate or otherwise?”

  “Nope, you’ve got clear sailing for whatever you’re planning to do today.”

  “I wish that were the case. There are squalls galore on the horizon. I’m inundated with voicemail and email messages that I’ve got to handle personally. I can’t slough them off on you. I’ll be lucky to get through them all by two this afternoon.”

  “Well, have fun.”

  Five and a half hours later I’m hanging up from my last return phone call and my stomach is screaming at me to feed it. I’m about to head for the door when my phone rings. It’s Don Ericson with more bad news. “Chet, the Crusader has struck again. This time it’s Senator Tom Callaway of the House Armed Services Committee. He was found in his home less than an hour ago by his admin who became concerned when he didn’t show up for work this morning and he couldn’t be reached by phone. She drove out to his home in Fall Church, VA which as you know is only about a ten mile drive from D.C. Evidently, he has a history of high blood pressure and hasn’t been feeling well for the past week or so and the admin was worried he had a heart attack or a stroke. She found him lying on the floor in his garage with a hole in his forehead and the Crusader’s calling card in his shirt pocket. She called 911 and we were notified shortly thereafter.”

  “Senator Callaway, isn’t he the one who was always harping on how the military takes too big a chunk of the nation’s revenue when some of those funds could be used for other more urgent and immediate needs? As I recall, he’s been getting a lot of bad press lately and has been tagged with the name Pork Barrel Tommy.”

  “That’s the man. I’m headed out there now. There’s no need for you to tag along. I’ll call you after I’ve had a look around and let you know if this Crusader has pushed his luck one too many times and left anything behind that might lead us to him. Yeah, I know, don’t hold my breath.”

  Don hangs up and I start swearing a blue streak. Damn! Damn!! Damn!!! This guy has got to be stopped. He’s out of control. He’s walking around killing people with impunity. We’ve got to take control and manipulate this nut into behaving more spontaneously, more carelessly. We’ve got to pressure him into making mistakes that will lead to his downfall. If we don’t end this guy’s rampage soon, our government is going to be literally shot to hell.

  After I calm down, I give Janet a call to tell her what’s happened and to see if she’d like to join me for a bite to eat.

  “Can I put this in my column today?”

  “Go for it. It won’t be long before the rest of media is going to have access to it. Are you hungry? My treat if you are. Besides, I have something I want to run by you.”

  “Okay, where?”

  “I’ll pick you up in front of your building in fifteen. You pick the place.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  And she was, with a couple of young men standing close by checking her out and trying to be cool about it. I can’t blame them. She’s definitely a looker. She’s close to six feet tall, has a thick head of dark wavy auburn hair worn down around her shoulders, dark blue eyes, a pert slightly upturned nose, a mouth that always appears to be ready to break out in a smile and all of this sets atop a lean athletic looking body which she maintains by watching what she eats and getting to the gym on a regular basis. That combination will get any man’s attention that is still on this side of the sod.

  Janet picks a Jewish kosher delicatessen/restaurant, Kaden’s Kitchen, and the food is delicious. I’m addicted to knishes, Jewish rye bread and Jewish dill pickles, not the sour ones, and would weigh three hundred pounds if a place like Kaden’s was in my neck of the woods.

  While we’re eating, I risk spoiling her appetite by telling her what’s on my mind.

  “Janet, I’m now convinced that waiting for the Crusader to screw up and leave a clue that will lead us to his front door is only going to lead to more dead bodies. The assassination of Senator Callaway was the last straw for m
e. I’m now thinking I should become more insistent, more adamant, more forceful than I have been with Don to convince him to do the same with his superiors regarding the bureau becoming more proactive in the Crusader investigation. One way the FBI can take control of the situation is by setting a trap like you’ve suggested and using the power of the press, the airwaves, billboards, whatever, to push the Crusader into it. If we can get the eyes and ears of the public involved and set up a response unit to handle the sightings, legitimate or otherwise, if we do a full disclosure on who the Crusader is, what he’s up to and why, if we plaster his picture and a list of his assassinations to date everywhere we can think of that will reach the maximum number of people, if we do all these things I think they will generate enough pressure on Aldrich to motivate him to have a go at the President before he’s taken down. If the FBI has a better idea to snare this nut, then they should get off their duffs and do it.

  “What I’d like to suggest to the FBI is that you take the lead in releasing the story and info in the newspapers and act as the go-to person when it comes to the broadcast media. Of course, if we don’t want to wind up being charged with interfering with an ongoing investigation, we’d better not got ahead without the FBI’s approval.”

  “I’m with you all the way. I don’t think my bosses will have any objections either.”

  “I know something like this is a journalist’s dream, but before you agree to anything I want you to consider the danger you’ll be putting yourself in. You and I have already been warned by the Crusader to back off. When he sees that you haven’t backed off, he’s going to consider you one of the bad guys and you’re going to move up on his hit list. You’ll need around the clock protection and I don’t know if that can be arranged.”

  “You’ll probably move up on his list too since he knows we’ve been working together and will probably assume you’re involved in what I’m doing.”

  “I’ve already considered that and am willing to take that risk. I just want you to be aware of what Aldrich is likely to do and consider it before you agree to anything.”

  Janet stares at me for a brief moment and then says, “Consider it considered. If I back off of a story because I’m afraid I’ll piss somebody off, I should find another line of work. Sometimes risks like this come with the investigative journalist’s territory. Start rattling some cages Dawson.”

  This last was said with a curious look on her face that had me wondering for a fleeting second if she somehow knew about my relationship with the President, but I quickly dismissed the thought as there was no way she could have stumbled onto that bit of very inside information. However, this is the second time this thought has crossed my mind and that fact is somewhat unsettling.

  After we finished eating, I dropped her off at work and headed back to my office figuring it was time I had another confab with the President.

  Chapter 14

  When I arrive back at the office, the only one there is Felicity and when she sees me she says, “Your timing is perfect. If you’re going to be here a while, I’ll run out to get some Fed Ex envelopes and some supplies for the break room. We’re running low.”

  “Okay, I’ll be here for the rest of the day.”

  I normally don’t call the President from my office because of the lack of privacy. I don’t have a private office. All four of us sit out in the open and although we’re not sitting in each other’s laps we’re still close enough to each other to overhear snatches of conversations if we listen carefully. Eavesdropping has never been a problem because none of us has the time or inclination to do it, but even so I’m very careful when I touch base with the White house. I usually call him from my land line at home as cell phone signals can disappear without any warning.

  Now that Felicity is going to be out for a while, I don’t have to wait until I get home. The President answers on the second ring. Without any preamble he demands, “Chet, what in Sam Hill is going on with this Crusader creep? He’s killed a lot of people and so far I’m not hearing anything from anybody that gives me reason to believe that we’re making any headway in putting a stop to this one man crime wave.”

  “Hasn’t the FBI been keeping you informed?”

  “I don’t consider cover your ass verbose obfuscation being kept informed. From where I’m sitting, it looks like they haven’t a clue about who this guy is or how to find him.”

  “Who’s been giving you briefings?”

  “The Section Chief in Violent Crimes.”

  “Well, I don’t know why things are being held so close to the vest over there and you’re not being given the full skinny. I can take a guess though. Significant progress has been made by Agent Ericson, yours truly and Janet Vanderhill, but what we have could and probably would be construed as being largely circumstantial. The top brass in that section are most likely concerned about winding up with egg on their faces if they can’t come up with sufficient hard evidence to successfully prosecute the man we’ve zeroed in on. Allow me to bring you up to date with the latest developments and then I want to get your opinion on a possible way to stop this guy dead in his tracks.”

  “Fire away.”

  After I give the President the lowdown on what Janet, Don and I have been up to and what we’ve learned he immediately responds with, “I’m going to have a serious talk with the Director and he better listen very carefully if he knows what’s good for him. Who the hell do those people think they are over there? I don’t give a hoot what they get on their faces. They should be more concerned about what they’ll be getting on their feet by keeping me in the dark about anything. They’ve stepped in a deep pile of shit and it’s not going to be a piece of cake for them to clean themselves up.

  “What do you want my opinion on?”

  I tell him and he’s not as quick with a response to this as he was to my update. After a minute or so he says, “It’s loaded with risk, Chet. Who else have you talked to about this?”

  “Janet, I and Don hashed it around and then Don agreed to present it to his bosses and we’re now waiting to see if we’re going to get their okay. I’m surprised you haven’t been kept in the loop because sooner or later you were going to have to be clued in for our trap to have any chance of working. I assumed you have been well-informed about what was going on and my main reason for calling you now was to urge you to get on the backs of the higher ups at the FBI and pressure them to get off the dime and go along with our recommendation.”

  “Let me think about this for a minute, Chet.”

  Another couple of minutes go by while the President is thinking about the pros and cons of what we’re suggesting.

  “Chet, since we’re dealing with a man whose eggs are definitely scrambled, whatever course of action we take is going to be loaded with risk. How he’ll react to the kind of pressure you’re suggesting is anybody’s guess, but we’ve got to do something and quick so we can put an end to all of this killing. Doing nothing is no longer an option. You have my approval and I’ll see that the FBI gets the word and gets onboard.”

  “How will you do that without jeopardizing our relationship? They’re going to wonder who spilled the beans to you and probably come right out and ask you who your source is.”

  “They can wonder all they like. If they ask, I’ll say something ominous like ‘I haven’t lasted in politics all of these years because of my movie star looks. I’ve survived because I have eyes and ears everywhere.’ That should have them thinking twice before they get it in their heads to stonewall me again. When I have to, Chet, I can bullshit with the best of them.”

  “Bullshit should be a required course in every Political Science curriculum. Without that skill you’re fighting your battles with one arm tied behind your back.”

  “You’re learning, Chet, you’re learning.”

  The President hangs up which is his normal way of saying good bye, leaving me with mixed feelings about getting his support for what we want to do. Janet and I will be painting targets on ou
r foreheads when our scheme is implemented and I’m really worried about Janet being added to the Crusader’s scorecard. I don’t have a death wish, so I’m also concerned about my well-being, but I know how to take care of myself and know what to look for if I think someone might be stalking me. I know how I’ll react under fire because I’ve been there and done that in the military and as a PI. Janet is a gutsy lady, but she’s a babe in the woods when it comes to stuff like this. I’m thinking it might be a good idea to get Don to arrange for some protection to accompany us until Aldrich’s crusade is brought to an end.