Daniel Ganninger - Icarus Investigations 02 - Peeking Duck

by Daniel Ganninger

  “I’m not seeing anything that is glaringly wrong for the most part, but did you notice this?” Hopkins asked, tapping his finger on one of the faxed sheets that had been sent from Hong Kong. “It’s about the only problem I see. There are four containers that have no cargo listed, and there are four GPS tracked shipments. The GPS tracked containers are yours, right?”

  “Yes. My containers have highly sensitive scientific equipment. That is why we had them tracked. Their value is around $800,000,” she lied. The containers were hers, but she did not want Hopkins to know their true value.

  “I’m curious about containers that don’t have any cargo listed,” Hopkins said.

  “They’re probably empty and relocating them to the port of L.A. It isn’t common, but it happens,” Maddie deduced as Hopkins nodded his head in agreement, taking the statement at face value.

  “We do get some strange things shoved in those containers. It’s no wonder we can charge such high premiums on this type of insurance. I have to admit, this one’s bothering me.”

  “Why so?” Jenkins asked thoughtfully.

  “Why wasn’t I able to calculate a higher money value for the cargo?” Hopkins lowered his voice and leaned in to Jenkins. “I mean, if this was a hijacking, and it sure is beginning to seem that way, why would pirates go to such trouble for televisions and clothes to take over a ship in such close proximity to the U.S.? The repercussions and the costs involved are way too high to take on a job for these everyday items. There isn’t a port they can just travel into or flee to. I mean, we’re not talking about the coast of Somalia where there isn’t any law.”

  “I know what you mean, but I don’t know what to tell you. Some things just don’t make sense. Why would an art thief steal millions of dollars worth of Rembrandts and Degauss realizing they would never be able to sell them without getting caught? There has to be some sort of profit in it, or the thieves are just plain stupid.” Maddie figured she knew the reason, but tried to placate Hopkins with her best rational explanation.

  “You can’t be that stupid to pull off something like this.”

  “I know. I can’t see how they would make enough money off it to justify going to all that trouble to steal a ship. It’s not like you can just sell a container ship,” Maddie stopped talking and furrowed her brow. “What if the pirates aren’t after a profit? What if this is some sort of political statement, or worse, some terroristic threat?” She dangled the carrot of impossibility just to gauge Hopkin’s response.

  “It’s about the weakest threat I’ve heard of. What are they going to do, ransom the clothes? There are only three American citizens aboard. It wouldn’t be much of a statement based on the risk,” Hopkins retorted. “I’m beginning to think we’re not getting the full story here, but there’s nothing I see with the cargo that raises any suspicion. There aren’t weapons, nuclear material, money, or diamonds. There is nothing that would justify a hijacking.”

  “I think we may need to press Mr. Saller to find out what else might be on that boat.” Maddie needed to know the extent of Saller’s knowledge on the cargo.

  Jenkins didn‘t want to make Saller angry, he had been very forthcoming with any information they needed, but she knew items of information were always left out, intentionally or not. Saller had a well paying job to protect, and he wasn’t about to freely divulge information that he felt might hurt Regentex’s chances of getting a claims payment. Jenkins had to know if a crucial piece of the story had been eliminated.

  Saller needed McDonnell in every way right now, but he was going to be surprised when he read through the contract his company had with OceanLogic. It was a trickledown effect in the greatest of terms. If Regentex couldn’t pay their penalties to the people that entrusted them to ship their products, and those companies couldn’t get their products to the merchants, then the costs would snowball. An initial insurance payout to cover the loss of twenty million dollars would end up tripling or quadrupling if that payment wasn’t received in the beginning. The cost would simply be passed down from one company to another, compounding as it went. The ripple effect was the dirty little secret no one wanted to talk about, and it would have a profound impact on all the parties involved in the disappearance of the Trusian. From the clothing manufacturer to the company that supplied the diesel, everyone would be affected in some way.

  Maddie was well acquainted with these facts and would use them to her advantage. She knew Regentex desperately needed the investigation by Hopkins to go smoothly, because they needed to get their big, fat check.

  -Chapter 12-

  Hopkins and Jenkins retired to their respective hotel rooms just after 4:00 A.M. Hopkins had ample information to complete his work, but Maddie needed to discuss her company’s contract with Saller. She called Saller at his hotel and arranged an early meeting before breakfast.

  After only a miniscule three hours of sleep, the courtesy call woke Maddie at 7:00 A.M. sharp, giving her just enough time for the meeting at eight.

  Maddie arrived in the lobby of Saller‘s hotel looking as good as a person could after running on nothing but caffeine and a small amount of rest. Maddie needed to confront Saller about their contract. It was just that simple.

  Maddie Jenkins was a beautiful woman and intimidating with her confidence. She often didn‘t, or even need to, use her looks to get what she wanted. Maddie could get the same things accomplished just by using her words and her brain. She readily admitted using her womanly charms on occasion with the—and this was her description—“slow, dumb ones”; or those men who were easily manipulated. Maddie didn’t feel Saller was this type of man. He would need to be dealt with forcefully, if it came down to that.

  She found a vacant table in the back corner of the lobby bar, sat down, and pulled out stacks of paper she had accumulated the night before.

  Saller arrived right on time in a finely pressed suit and looking well rested. He obviously hadn’t had much of a rough night. He was accompanied by two other men in suits with bright ties and quaffed hair. They looked like they had just stepped from a tanning bed.

  “Weasels,” Jenkins quietly said to herself, looking toward Saller and the two men. “I was wondering when they would show up.” The “weasels” was her term for “lawyers”. “Things just got a little more interesting,” she thought to herself, examining the situation materializing before her.

  The three men approached and Saller was first to shove out his hand.

  “Good morning. I hope you were able to get some rest,” he said jovially with a big toothed smile. “I’d like to introduce you to Mr. Totam and Mr. Sawyer, from the company’s legal department.”

  Jenkins reluctantly shook their hands as the lawyers greeted her with conceit, oblivious to whom they were really dealing with.

  “Sad act of intimidation,” Jenkins thought. This tactic was so overused but eventually surfaced in every negotiation she had been involved in. She had dealt with companies who would march out their lawyers to pose as some sort of henchman. It only angered Jenkins when she saw them.

  Maddie graciously motioned for the men to sit down, and they seemed to do it in unison.

  “I checked on your company with my people, and we have quite an interesting contract set up, don’t we? I didn’t realize who I was dealing with,” Saller started with a touch of smugness, as if surprised.

  “Yes, both the contract and dealing with me will prove to be quite interesting,” Maddie retorted giving a semi-evil chuckle. “Why don’t we get started. I’m going to give you the information I have gathered. Some of it will match what Mr. Hopkins will tell you later. Then I’ll answer any questions you may have.”

  “Excellent,” Saller announced rather uneasily, “we’re ready to listen.”

  “Thank you,” Maddie Jenkins said politely.

  She carefully laid out the sequence of events involved with the loss of the Trusian, bit by bit, just so everyone was on the same page. After she finished with the basic facts about the
loss of the vessel, she delved into the nitty-gritty of why they were meeting—money.

  Maddie felt a bit of remorse discussing her container values when she knew there were men lost, detained, or possibly dead at sea, but she had a job to do, and that job was to force Saller and his company into an awkward financial position.

  Maddie Jenkins pulled a notebook from her attache case and placed it on the table in front of the men. It was the contract between Regentex and OceanLogic.

  “Per the contract, my company’s containers are valued at $3 million and loss of time for delivery is $200,000. Since your policy with McDonnell will not cover the cost of this lost cargo, your company is required to pay those amounts, plus the stated penalty of $10 million.” She let the monetary values sink in before proceeding.

  The men didn‘t flinch at the vast amount, but Sawyer wrote down the number. Saller, she noticed, was beginning to become uneasy and tapped his fingers on the table.

  “I’ll assume that you are familiar with the penalty portion of the contract?”

  The men nodded in unison like a group of trained dogs but continued to keep their air of smugness.

  “I’m afraid this is where we will have trouble,” she said looking at them directly.

  The men now changed their demeanor and gave questioning looks. Obviously they hadn’t read this particular section very closely.

  “Under our contract, we are required to receive payment from your company for the loss of the four GPS containers that were on board the Trusian, if the containers were not recovered in twenty-four hours. We are beyond the twenty-four hour window, and I am here for payment—now.”

  The three men tried to keep their emotions in check, but she could tell from the whiteness of their faces that this was a hard pill to swallow.

  Saller nodded agreement very slowly while the lawyers huddled together behind him, talking softly.

  Sawyer looked at Maddie Jenkins. “This company can’t pay that type of money,” he said, rather exasperated.

  “Then your company shouldn’t have taken on this contract in the first place. Your vessel has been hijacked, gentlemen, or has been lost at sea. Until we know otherwise from your company, the Coast Guard, or the Navy, I am keeping the Trusian’s status as an unlawful boarding. This is under my judgment.”

  “But you don’t have any proof that this is the case, do you,” Sawyer said condescendingly.

  “I don’t need more proof. I don’t see my containers sitting on the dock in L.A.” Jenkins answered quickly.

  “Have you consulted your legal team on this? Are you sure you want to take this position?” Sawyer retorted.

  Jenkins was insulted by the comment. She knew what he was implying. How could someone like her truly understand a portion of the contract that was over ten pages long written in legalese speech. Sawyer was an empty threat. Jenkins held her ground and her anger. She looked at Saller who stared back, knowing she had them over a barrel.

  Saller had been briefed by the lawyers before the meeting and knew Jenkins had her numbers right. Regentex had signed on the dotted line to deliver, and if they had, they would have received $10 million over 3 years, no questions asked. He knew it was an unscrupulous contract, but Regentex needed the cash flow. The piranhas had been circling for months ready to buy up the company because it was hemorrhaging money. Now it was only a matter of time before it would be chopped up in little pieces. The company had taken a gamble and lost.

  Jenkins noticed that Saller grew nervous, her words hitting at his core. Totam, the other lawyer, had not spoken, but Jenkins could tell he was forming his cross examination.

  “Your legal team should look again at this contract. I doubt your company would agree to the position you’re taking. Let’s just say this isn’t a road you want to go down,” Totam threatened.

  Jenkins was beginning to lose her cool. “Look,” she started, trying to calm her nerves, “you can contact our legal counsel or anyone else for that matter, but the contract is black and white.” Jenkins grabbed a pen and scribbled down a phone number. She pushed it disgustedly toward Totam.

  “You agree with this?” Totam said to Saller, as if he could magically change the proceedings. Saller said nothing and merely looked straight ahead, a blank stare on his face.

  “I’m sorry, but this is what Regentex signed on to.”

  Sawyer and Totam looked at each other and shook their heads. They figured this would be a slam dunk. Just intimidate the poor little lady from OceanLogic before they could charge Regentex for a high priced lunch.

  Saller sat motionless, appearing to not care what the discussion was about. He cleared his throat and in a calm voice addressed the two lawyers.

  “I think we’re done here,” Saller announced. “Thank you both for your work.” Sawyer and Totam tried to interject, but Saller cut them off quickly. “No. No more questions. If you have more questions then call me later, I need to talk to Ms. Jenkins—alone.”

  The lawyers look disgusted and gathered their briefcases. They got up slowly and were clearly agitated their ploy had backfired so badly. The lawyers figured they could have bought the company some time, but they hadn’t counted on dealing with Maddie Jenkins.

  Saller waited for the men to leave and addressed Maddie imploringly. “Is there anything we can do to have more time?”

  Maddie had him right where she wanted. He was now her switch that she could turn on and off at will. She held all the cards and planned her next move carefully.

  Maddie paused as if she were thinking of a way to help Saller and his company. Little did he know she cared nothing about it, she just needed to tie up the loose ends. She needed to know where those containers were. Unbeknownst to Saller, those four containers were just empty steel shells.

  “I will just cut to the chase, Mr. Saller,” Maddie started after her long pause of fake introspective thinking, “I’m willing to help your company out, but it comes with conditions.”

  Saller was elated. “Yes, anything,” he said sitting bolt upright in his chair.

  “First, I need all the information you have about the crew, your superiors, the ship, anything and everything. Second, no involvement with my company will be mentioned to anyone; the press, your superiors, no one. And you will make it clear to Mr. Hopkins that we are out of the picture and not to speak of our involvement. If I hear anything about our company, the deal is automatically off. If you agree to these conditions, I will give you more time to find this ship.”

  “I think I can agree to that, since I don’t have a choice in the matter,” Saller said, realizing he at least would be keeping his job.

  “My company has agreed to give you seven days to find this ship. We will be looking for it also, and if we find it first you will pay our fees of $3 million with no questions.”

  Maddie pushed a piece of paper toward him that contained all the details. She knew Saller had permission to take whatever steps necessary to delay a payment and would sign the document without question.

  “Remember, if one word gets out about this deal, even after everything has gone down, we will come after you and your company,” Maddie said seriously, the words veiled in a clear threat.

  Saller now had an idea who he was dealing with and signed the paper quickly.

  “I guess you can’t tell me what’s really in those containers,” Saller asked, knowing he wouldn’t get an answer.

  “I’m afraid I can’t. It is nothing exciting, but let’s just say that the people who own the contents of those containers really need them safe.”

  Maddie gave him a sly smile, knowing she had accomplished all the goals she had for the meeting. She now had a tremendous amount of work ahead of her in locating a huge ship that apparently had vanished.

  -Chapter 13-

  Maddie shook Saller’s hand as he left the bar of the hotel and waited for him to disappear from her view. She pulled out her phone and dialed. The line on the other end immediately picked up.

  “It’s
done. They’re out of the picture for the moment. I think the threats worked,” she said with a tired tone.

  “Very good. We need to get to the next phase, and we can’t have more people working on this case. It could get too hot too fast if the information gets out about our involvement. We’ve decided to use an outside company to find this ship and have narrowed it down to one near you. You need to make contact and get them on board,” the voice on the other end of the line said succinctly.

  “Who are they?” Maddie asked.

  “They’re a small firm out of San Diego. Only a couple of principals, and they have an interesting track record. They only do work by referrals. They’re also small enough that if something in the plan goes south we’ll be able to take care of them.”

  “So we’re going to destroy this company if everything doesn’t go according to plan, is that what you’re saying?” Maddie asked rather disgustedly.

  “Hey, that’s the way it is. The contingency is in place to cut off all loose ends. If these guys are in the crossfire, so be it.”

  “I don’t like it. It shouldn’t be like this,” Maddie replied.

  “We should have gotten the containers here then, but that didn’t happen, did it?” the voice scolded.

  “No, it did not. Well, what is the name of this company that we’re putting all our trust into?”

  “It is a pair of private investigators calling themselves Icarus Investigation. They have an unorthodox approach and should be easy to control. We also believe they have Alex Judokowski on their payroll. You’re going to need someone like that to find this ship.”

  Maddie perked up at the mention of the name. It was one she knew well. “Okay, I’ll make contact today and get a deal set up. How much time do we have?”

  “Maybe a week to nine days, beyond that we’ll be pushing the envelope. Offer them anything you need to get them on board and call me when you have a deal in place. You’re on your own on this Jenkins. I can’t afford to get anyone else involved,” the voice stated coldly.