Payback

by Morgan St. James

  Director Kincaid said the trackers were on our cars from the day Kim first met with him. They also used sophisticated surveillance equipment to monitor what we were planning to do. I had to wonder if they heard us talking about Nathan and Milt. Some of our conversation had gotten a little steamy.

  That meant if they knew I’d gone to the office that night, they could verify my time frames. A fact that effectively removed me from McCrary’s radar. With Ramon saying how long I was in my office, no way would I have had the time to kill Tyler. Considering our last day on earth could have been spent at Gorilla Sportswear, I was extremely grateful that we were followed by no less than FBI agents. Still, it was like a punch to the gut to realize if the agents hadn’t seen me go to my office the night of the murder and come out only a few minutes later, although we escaped being killed McCrary could have arrested me on suspicion of murder.

  As the facts unfolded, we listened in awe. One glance at McCrary told me he was as stunned as we were.

  Nathan spoke first. “Cami, I think you will be the most shocked by what I’m about to say. Simply put, the man you have known as Jonathan Reid for so many years is not who you think he is.”

  I interrupted. “Of course he isn’t. He’s also Kenneth Monnigan, master crook. That’s not news so it doesn’t shock me. Remember there are so many other parts to this. What about the auditor Marjory Newfield, the woman who contacted Kate because of FraudBusters? Your people could not have anticipated that. God rest her soul, she was the first one Kate came in contact with in this whole merry-go-round of events, and she had suspicions about Kenneth Monnigan. Would I, or for that matter any of us, ever really think the bank acquisition, the money laundering and my old boss Jonathan Reid were all connected? Oh yeah, we did, but did we believe it? Not in a million years. Still, there it was. All part of the same thing.”

  Nathan held up his hands in a stop sign. “Whoa. You only know part of it. Our Mr. Reid, or Monnigan, or God knows how many other names, had one name that literally no one but a very few knew about. His real name.”

  McCrary leaned forward, interest all over his face. “Excuse me, Sir. What do you mean his real one? According to our murder investigation, Reid was in business as a partner in Reid/Cunningham for several years. Everything about him checked out. He managed to fly under the radar as Kenneth Monnigan, but are you saying neither of those are his real names?”

  “Spot on! As you know, the Fashion District ring we have been monitoring launders hundreds of millions of drug trafficking dollars every year for the Rojas Cartel. What if I were to tell you a member of the Rojas family was the brains behind the Fashion District operation, and a very big player.”

  The room grew dead silent.

  Then McCrary said, “You mean someone above Monnigan, or Reid or whatever his name is?”

  He looked over at Director Kincaid as if verifying that it was okay to go into detail with McCrary present. Kincaid nodded.

  Nathan instinctively lowered his voice and looked directly at me. “You actually worked for that person, Cami.”

  What a dumb idea. “Nonsense,” I blurted out. “Come on, Nathan. I couldn’t have worked for such a person. You know I went to work for Reid/Cunningham a few years out of college. Then FACR and then founded my own company. When could I possibly have worked for—?” I stopped dead. “Are you saying what I think you are?”

  Director Kincaid took over. “Yes, exactly what you are probably thinking. In addition to the name Monnigan, Jonathan Reid’s birth name is Juan Rojas. He is the half-brother of the Rojas Cartel kingpin, Domingo Rojas, and has been a very valuable asset to them for many years as long as nobody knew who he really was.”

  Things were moving too fast for me. How could Reid be Mexican and a member of one of the most powerful crime families in the Mexican state of Michoacán? I had known the man since I was in my early twenties and, as far as I knew, he was born into a wealthy San Diego family. This was crazy. Had the agency been his cover for all of these years? I knew the man was a clever, wealthy playboy who loved the notoriety of appearing in the tabloids with one beautiful woman after another right out in the open. Unlike his partner who was pretty much a homebody and workaholic, Reid was well known as a man who enjoyed a jet set lifestyle. Wouldn’t a criminal have strived not to be in the public eye? Or was that a clever diversion from who he really was?

  And the Monnigan cover. If he was engaged in all these criminal activities, Monnigan was the perfect cover. In that identity he kept such a reclusive profile, few ever saw him, few knew much about him except that he was wealthy and powerful.

  Kate said, “I get it. So he basically hid in plain sight while he pulled all the strings. Respected businessman, sophisticated man-about-town. Why, that’s absolutely incredible. You’ll have to tell us more about this and how he got away with it for all these years. And, of course, how you discovered who he was. I mean, according to Cameron the man was friends with government officials, powerful community leaders and all the while he was part of a drug cartel? Wow!”

  43

  WHAT FOLLOWED COULD have been a scene in a movie. But since it was real life, not a movie, the coffee and cake wasn’t going to hold us. By now it was after seven and I wasn’t sure about any of the others, but I was hungry.

  “Say, it seems like this is going to take a while. Is anyone else hungry? There’s a great pizza place on Washington, and I could order two large pizzas. They deliver.”

  Everyone was in agreement, so I left them sitting at the table and went into the kitchen to get the menu for Alfredo’s Pizza and ordered two large pies. One with mushrooms, onions and peppers and a Hawaiian with pineapple and Canadian bacon.”

  Like the others, I couldn’t wait to hear how Jonathan Reid was actually Juan Rojas.

  Nathan said, “Aaron, would you like to start, or should I?”

  “The floor is yours, Nate.”Kincaid held out his hands in a go-ahead gesture.

  “Well, the suspicion began a few years ago when one of our people heard some things that just didn’t gel. The investigation was very hush, hush, carried out by the main branch of Homeland Security. I’m not even sure it filtered down to you, Aaron, did it?”

  “Not then. But go on.”

  “We were able to find that Jonathan Reid was named Juan Rojas at birth. His mother was Madeline Reid, the daughter of a wealthy San Diego shipbuilder. That part about the wealthy San Diego family is accurate. His father, Manuel Rojas, already had another son with his former wife, a Mexican national. That son is Domingo Rojas, currently the head of the cartel. The family’s involvement in drug trafficking and crime is very long standing—through a few generations.”

  So, I thought, that’s how they were half-brothers. But how did they connect with each other? Were they raised together? I said out loud, “Did she and Jonathan, er, Juan, live in Mexico with Manuel and Domingo Rojas or what was the situation?”

  Nathan sped through some of the detail, but essentially Madeline’s marriage was very short-lived. She met Manual when he was in San Diego. A very handsome and charming man when he wanted to be. He swept her off her feet, and they stayed in San Diego for a few months after they were married. She had no idea that he spent that time lining up avenues of distribution in the United States.

  “When that was completed,” Nathan said, “he convinced her to move to his compound in Mexico. She became pregnant right away, and after the baby was born gave into the demand that Manuel’s son have the first name Juan. For a very brief time after he was born she lived with her husband in the walled Rojas compound in Michoacán.”

  Kim said, “Once she was in Mexico, didn’t she see what was going on? That she had married into a crime family?”

  That question was answered by Kincaid. “I don’t know whether she was naive or what, but it seems she hadn’t known or realized the extent of the family’s illegal activities. It was actually her father who went to Mexico to persuade his daughter to leave Rojas and return to the States with
his grandson. He didn’t like the idea that she moved to Mexico and he ordered an investigation of his new son-in-law. When he was given the report, the poor man was devastated. He knew he had to get her back, even if he had to have her kidnapped.”

  This whole thing was beginning to sound like a thriller. Wealthy American marries into drug cartel family, has son and escapes back to the U.S. with her son. I couldn’t wait to hear more when the doorbell rang. The pizzas had arrived.

  I opened the door to a short young man wearing a red baseball cap and red bowling-type shirt. The cap was embroidered with the word Alfredo’s arched above a slice of pizza with a grinning face. The upper left corner of his shirt also said Alfredo’s Pizza in bold yellow letters. He carried one of those insulated bags to keep the pizzas warm.

  Kincaid called from the dining room, “Let me pay for those.”

  I shouted back, “It’s okay. I already gave them a credit card when I ordered.”

  The boy removed the boxes and handed them to me. I don’t know if ducks have a sense of smell or what, but the boxes were no sooner out of the bag than Maxi and Minnie and a few of their duck friends waddled across the patio behind him, quacking their heads off.

  Before closing the door, I reached into the bag of bread crumbs and tossed a treat to them. The quacking stopped.

  I brought two pitchers of water and glasses from the kitchen, then returned and put plates on the table while Kate opened the boxes and the mouthwatering aroma of freshly baked pizzas filled the room.

  It was time for the story to continue.

  Kim’s eyes grew wider and wider. “Did the father have her kidnapped?”

  “No. He was more clever than that. He pretended he’d come because her mother was very ill and had been calling for her daughter. They were quite close, and it would be unthinkable for his daughter to refuse or for Manuel to say she couldn’t go. The baby was still an infant so she wouldn’t leave him behind in Mexico. That night she, the baby and her father flew back to San Diego in a private plane.

  He paused to take a bite of pizza and a sip of water.

  “But, once she saw her mother wasn’t really sick, didn’t she want to go back to her husband?” Kate was always full of questions, and that was a good one.

  “She probably would have, but they showed her the investigator’s report that detailed not only the drugs and crime, but murder. She never returned even though Manuel threatened them. He wanted his son. She filed for divorce and took back her maiden name. She changed Juan’s name to Jonathan.”

  We all let that information penetrate. Nathan was right when he said I’d be shocked. The expressions on the faces of Kim, Kate and McCrary echoed mine.

  Nathan went on to say that apparently Jonathan knew nothing about his real father or their family until a few years after his mother died. Some of the Rojas genes had surfaced by then and he had a real wild streak, particularly for con games. His mother had never remarried. When he was eighteen, she died of lung cancer. She was only thirty-eight years old. In the course of interviews, relatives in the Reid family told our investigators Jonathan never believed the fantasy he’d been told about his father being a war hero.

  We listened in stunned silence. Kincaid took over. He related how the Rojas family was expanding their operation in the Western States by then. Domingo was ten years older than Jonathan and was in charge of that part and money laundering. He found his half-brother a few years after Jonathan graduated from UC San Diego with a degree in business. He was the perfect person to become a front for the Cartel in the States. At the time he had a sun-tanned surfer’s complexion, blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. Who would ever have suspected him of belonging by birth to the Rojas family? Tall, handsome, articulate, with larceny in his heart. He never let his grandfather know that Domingo Rojas had not only contacted him, but recruited him.

  One of the FBI agents got up from his seat. “Sorry to interrupt this, but may I use your bathroom Ma’am?”

  I directed him to the powder room and he took off at a fast pace.

  44

  IT WAS TIME FOR ALL of us to take a short break. I cleared the empty pizza boxes and suggested we go back into the living room where it would be more comfortable.

  During the break I called Milt so he wouldn’t worry. He does that. If he can’t reach me and I don’t call him, my sweet man worries about me. I told him everything was fine, the girls and I were having so much fun and they would be sure to see him before they went back home. If only he knew the “fun” involved being held hostage, almost getting killed and presently sitting in my living room with the U.S. Attorney General, the Director of the Homeland Security wiretapping operation in Los Angeles, two FBI agents and a homicide detective listening to the story of how my former boss was actually a member of one of the largest Mexican drug cartels. If he knew or suspected any of that, yes, Milt would have been worried—very worried.

  I needed something to calm my nerves and remembered a nice bottle of 2005 Chardonnay in my wine rack. It was from an excellent winery in the Russian River Valley. I didn’t know if the agents could drink wine because I guessed they were still technically on duty, but I offered it anyway. They opted for iced tea, as did Nathan and Director Kincaid. Between Kim, Kate and me we finished off the bottle. Let me tell you, we were a lot more relaxed while we listened to the rest of the incredible story.

  Kim sat on one of the sofas, as close as she could possibly get to her husband who nestled her into the protective arc of his arm. From the expression on her face, I could tell how glad she was it was over. Nathan held onto her like he couldn’t bear the thought of letting her go.

  “So how and when was the Kenneth Monnigan alias created,” Kate asked.

  “We are still getting the details on that. When he recognized Cami, the agents couldn’t really hear what was going on because the room is soundproof. The thing they did know was that your car was still there and the place was being locked up. That meant it was time to go into action.”

  “So, let me get this straight. From everything that was heard and the fact that we were tracked, you hoped Monnigan would show up at Gorilla Sportswear, but at that point didn’t know he was also Reid. Is that right?”

  “Absolutely. Had we known, we would have aborted everything and not let you go into harm’s way in case he did show up.”

  Kincaid added, “As for Reid’s involvement, we did know Domingo Rojas is a very crafty guy. Once he realized how valuable this newly found Anglo-appearing half-brother was, we learned through sources that Rojas counseled Jonathan to use his Reid money to buy into the advertising agency Tyler Cunningham owned. Cunningham was about eight years his senior. A successful, legitimate business in the upscale Century City area was the perfect cover for Jonathan Reid. Cunningham already had a track record in advertising, and the addition of a partner with talent and money was something he couldn’t resist.”

  “That explains how he got into the advertising business,” I said, “and I think I went to work for them shortly after that, but what about Monnigan?”

  “As I said, we thought Monnigan was a different person. He and his brother covered the tracks so well, if he hadn’t shown up precisely when you were there, we might never have had any idea they were the same person.”

  At that point I was really beginning to fade and so were my friends. Nathan and Kim decided to check into the nearby Marriott on Admiralty Way so they could have a little privacy. Director Kincaid and his FBI sidekicks got up to leave also.

  Kincaid said, “Nathan told me he will be here for another day or two. By then maybe we will know the whole Reid aka Monnigan story and, of course, will share whatever we know with you before anything is released to the media. Monnigan, or Reid, or whatever you want to call him, was pretty much the tool of the Cartel. He’s a clever guy, but his brother is treacherous. He is looking at some stiff time for the money laundering, and of course the fact that he ordered Marjory Newfield’s murder, but maybe he’ll be persuaded to
talk if it’s to his advantage. The guy is a wheeler-dealer, and I’ll bet he’ll jump at the chance to cut a deal for himself. Perhaps manslaughter instead of murder.”

  After everyone else left, it was just me, Kate and McCrary.

  He said, “Sorry I couldn’t have known the two of you under better circumstances.” The look he gave Kate said everything. She would have to be the one to make the move. And, she did.

  “Um, Detective McCrary, perhaps we can stay in touch. You know my business is FraudBusters, and I can always use a contact at the LAPD. Besides, I’m in talks for a movie based on my life, so I expect I’ll be coming back soon once everything is signed. What do you say?”

  The smile that lifted his lips lit his whole face. “I’d be delighted.” He took out a card and wrote both his cell and home number on the back. “Just let me know when. Maybe we can have dinner. By the way, how long are you staying this time?”

  There was no mistaking the attraction between those two. Kate looked like she won the big prize at a carnival. “Well, although Tyler Cunningham’s murder is still an open case, since Cami couldn’t have done it I’ll have no more involvement in that. I’ll be going back as soon as my agent wraps up the deal for the movie. A few days at most.”

  I made an excuse to leave the room so those two could work it out.

  McCrary said, “Before you go, I’m really sorry I was going to arrest you. I kept hoping something would point me in a different direction. I had no idea you were being followed by the FBI, but then as the saying goes, so often the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. It would be nice if departments communicated when it involves the same people.”