by Bob Blanton
“What a mess!” the first detective said.
“Yeah, and bouncing his head on the counter didn’t make it any better.”
“He’s just some punk. Don’t worry about it. Let’s go.”
◆ ◆ ◆
Matthew kept tabs on Malcom as he waited for the bus. Finally, it came and he got on. He walked to the back and sat down next to an empty seat. He set his backpack on the seat next to him, discouraging anyone from sitting there. Matthew decided to at least watch him until he knew where he lived or worked.
At the next stop, a kid with a skateboard and backpack boarded the bus. He made his way back to where Malcom was seated. He pushed Malcom’s backpack toward him and sat next to him. “What did the cops want?”
“Don’t know, they must have been watching her,” Malcom said as he put his backpack on the floor. “You got school?”
“Yeah.”
The kid got off at the next stop and started riding his skateboard down the hill toward the school. Malcom stayed on the bus for three more stops before getting out at an apartment complex. He walked up the stairs to the second floor. When he reached 209, he unzipped the pocket of the backpack and took out a set of keys. He opened the door and went into the apartment.
“Very interesting,” Matthew thought. “There weren’t any keys when the cop searched it.”
Once in the apartment, Malcom opened the backpack and dumped the contents on the table: A book, some flyers, and a windbreaker. He opened the book, it had been hollowed out. He counted out five foil packages that were inside it. The packages were each in a small snack baggie; he looked at each, then put them back into the book and closed it.
Malcom went into his bathroom and pulled a steel access panel off the wall. Matthew was expecting to see plumbing but there wasn’t any. Then Malcom picked up a screw from the bottom of the space. He used it to scratch along the wall a bit, then he stuck it into a hole, turned it a few times, and pulled a second panel out. Behind it were plumbing pipes, Matthew assumed for the next-door apartment. Malcolm grabbed a black coupler on the vertical pipe and twisted it until it slid up. Then he grabbed a second coupler that was four inches below the first and twisted it until it slid down. With that done, it was easy to remove the four-inch section of pipe between the two. He then grabbed a ring that was sitting on the lip of the bottom pipe and pulled it up. Four bags followed, each attached to the other by a string. He tossed them into the sink and then reached up and grabbed another ring hanging from the top pipe. He pulled it down and five bags slid out of the pipe. To Matthew, it was obvious that they contained money and had been wedged up into the pipe.
When he had the bags out, Malcom replaced the piece of pipe and twisted the couplers back into place. Then he grabbed a tube of toothpaste from the cabinet before he put the second panel back in. He used his finger to squeeze the paste into the gap until it was impossible to tell there was a panel there. He replaced the steel panel and grabbed the bags of money off of the floor.
He washed the bags, then pulled the contents out and laid them on the counter. The first set of bags contained loose pills. Three of the bags were sealed, while the fourth was a baggie, it held fewer pills than the sealed bag. Malcom took his shaving mirror and spilled the bag onto it. He counted the pills out and put them back in the baggie. Then he counted the money from the other five bags, it added up to eleven thousand two hundred dollars. Malcom added four hundred dollars from the envelope he’d gotten from Ms. Frye. He went back to the living room and put the baggies in the bottom of the pack and stuck a cell phone into the side pocket. Then he put the book and windbreaker back into the pack and zipped it up.
He sat on the couch and grabbed a phone that was charging on the end table, looked up a number, and dialed it.
“Hey, I was told to call you guys, this is Frankie Sutton. I was just harassed by the cops.
“Huh, huh.”
“At the Starbucks on Clairemont Mesa.” …
“No, the other one.” Matthew laughed as he was forced to listen to only half the conversation, but Malcolm was doing a good job of hinting at the other side.
“Yep. I bet they have the whole thing on tape.” …
“Yeah, okay. I’ll wait here.”
“Bye.” Malcom hung up the phone. Matthew wondered if his name was Malcom or Frankie. He was guessing Frankie since it made sense that he’d given the cops a fake name.
Matthew grabbed his stuff and headed off to school. He had to hurry or he’d be late. He’d keep checking in on Malcom/Frankie, whoever, throughout the day.
◆ ◆ ◆
Matthew barely made it to class on time. He snuck in the back door and grabbed the seat Emily was saving for him just as the bell rang.
"C'est gentil à vous de vous joindre à nous," Ms. Duquesne said, ‘it’s nice of you to join us.’
“Je suis désolé, mais j'ai battu la cloche,” Matthew replied. ‘Sorry, but I did beat the bell.’
Ms. Duquesne ignored his apology and dove right into the lesson.
◆ ◆ ◆
“What happened?” Emily asked once class was finally over. “Did they make a bust?”
“No, they tried to but it was a total hash. I’ll tell you about it at lunch.”
“Come on, we’ve got a couple of minutes.”
“It’s complicated, but I have a lead. I need to keep checking on it, so we’ll have to see.”
◆ ◆ ◆
It was in the middle of Political Science that the next step in the drama played out. Matthew was checking in on Malcom. He was holding his backpack and standing at the bus stop.
When the bus showed up, Malcom boarded, walked toward the back of the bus, and found a seat with an empty seat next to it. Matthew had seen this play before.
Two stops later a short Hispanic looking man boarded the bus and took the seat next to Malcom. He seemed to be about the same age as Malcom and was carrying a black backpack just like Malcom’s.
“Bad day, huh?”
“You could say that.”
“You okay?”
“Fine. The phone’s in the pocket; code is 8-5-2-9.”
“By 3s, got it. Which one was it?”
“Frye, you should try to take care of her, I got her money but didn’t make delivery.”
“No way, she’s burned. I’m not getting anywhere close to her.”
“You’ll need to go back to the Starbucks. Anyway, I guess I won’t be seeing you anymore.”
“Probably not. You going to be okay?”
“Sure. I’ve got some money set aside. I’ll just finish school, maybe I’ll be able to get back with you guys in a year or so down the road.”
“Maybe. This your stop?”
“Yeah,” Frankie said. He pushed his bag across the floor of the bus and slid out past the new guy. Matthew couldn’t be sure, but he’d bet a dinner that they just exchanged backpacks. “Hey, you might want to try Emilio.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Bye, Malcom.”
The guy grabbed the backpack from the floor and held it in his lap. Matthew kept his portal on him, making sure he would be able to open it at his location later.
◆ ◆ ◆
“Matt,” Emily whispered.
Matthew closed his portal and looked up. Mr. Ward was looking at him expectantly. He opened a portal over Emily’s desk. ‘What was the Smith Act?’ was written in her notebook.
“Sorry, I was just gathering my thoughts. The Smith Act was passed in 1940 and it outlawed advocating for the overthrow of the government. Its passage was spurred by the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany.”
“Very good, Mr. Brandt.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Thanks,” Matthew said after class was over. “I was following up on my lead.”
“I could tell. So what happened?”
“I’m not sure, we’ll talk later.”
“Hey, Matt, Emily. Where are we going for lunch today?” Jason asked.
“Hey, we’re working on our parts. I told you this morning we’d go to lunch today,” Alex said.
“Oh, right. I forgot. Well, how about the burger place on El Camino Real?”
“Okay, we’ll follow you.”
Matthew followed Emily to her car. Jason and Alex were right behind them since Jason had parked next to Emily.
“Okay, you got three minutes to fill me in,” Emily said once she and Matthew were in the car.
“Okay. The cops busted the woman at the Starbucks when she gave a guy nine hundred bucks and got a bag of M&Ms. But when they opened the bag it just had M&Ms in it. They roughed the guy up a bit, searched him, and found nothing so they let them go. The guy told the cops his name was Malcom.
“I followed the guy. He took a bus back to his apartment. He checked his backpack out. It had a book that was hollowed out with some foil packets in it. Then he grabbed some money and a box and put them in his backpack.”
“Why didn’t the cops find that stuff when they searched him?”
“He swapped backpacks with some kid on his way home. I’m guessing the kid was one of the skateboarders that were outside of Starbucks when the bust went down. Anyway, I’d just caught Malcom at the bus stop when we were in class. He rode the bus for a few stops, a guy got on, they traded backpacks and then Malcom got off.”
“Wow, that’s sure a lot of action with the backpacks. You’ll have to tell me more later. Are you still tracking them?”
“I’m focusing on the new guy. And get this, when he got off the bus, Malcom called the new guy Malcom. And I think Malcom’s real name is Frankie.”
“I hope you can keep it all straight. Well, here we are. Alex and Jason would decide to go to lunch with us when you have so much to tell me.” Emily parked her car and they got out to join Jason and Alex.
◆ ◆ ◆
Emily and Alex split a burger although Emily did get her own order of French fries.
“I’ll burn them off playing tennis,” Emily said when Alex teased her about the fries.
“Jason, what parts are you guys going for?”
“We’re doing You Can't Take It with You and I’m going for Tony Kirby, Alex is going for Alice Sycamore. Those are the parts that Jimmy Stewart and Jean Arthur played in the movie.
“Wasn’t Jimmy Stewart tall?”
Jason waved a fry at Matthew, “The part doesn’t have a height requirement, and you just wait; next time we play tennis, I’m going to show you how useless all that height is.” Jason, at 5’ 8”, usually didn’t react when Matthew, who was pushing six feet, would tease him about his height. Matthew wondered what had happened that he’d got such a strong reaction from him and daggers from Alex.
“Okay, down boys, save it for the court,” Emily said. “What brought that on?”
“Oh, one of the guys in drama keeps making a big deal about how he’s six feet tall and the perfect leading man. It’s gotten under Jason’s skin.”
“Well, did you beat him out for the part?” Matthew asked.
“Not yet. Final auditions are next week.”
“I’m sure you’ll nail it.”
Alex and Jason spent the rest of their lunch talking about their parts. Matthew could tell Emily wasn’t her normal self. She was barely paying attention. Obviously, she would rather be talking about Malcom.
◆ ◆ ◆
As they got into her car, Emily looked at Matthew. “Now, . . . oh, don’t tell me, you’re checking up on him again.” Matthew had a glazed look on his face, so Emily knew he was using his portal.
The entire way back to school, Matthew used his portal. Emily had to poke him when they were in the parking lot.
“Just a second, I’m almost through.”
“What’s he doing?”
“Posting on Facebook.”
“What’s Facebook?”
“It’s a new social media app, like MySpace, but easier to use.”
“Why haven’t I heard about it?”
“This is their first year; it’s only available to college students now. I’m sure they’ll expand soon. Probably in a few years, everyone will have a Facebook page.”
“Why, MySpace works just fine?”
“Facebook lets you do more, like posting these notes. I wonder if they started using MySpace and switched to Facebook.”
“Who cares? What is he posting?”
Matthew waved his hand at Emily while he watched Malcom II finish up a last post. Then he closed his portal and turned to Emily to explain. “I think he’s using Facebook to message his clients about when to come get their drugs. It’s in some kind of code. I’ll have to figure the code out.”
“No fair. We’ve got class now, so I’m still in the dark.”
◆ ◆ ◆
Matthew wrote down what he’d seen Malcom II post on the Facebook pages with his guess at what they meant.
Meeting: ‘Jess-MD@11:00.’ He made four, each with a different time and a different name.
Then he surreptitiously slipped the page to Emily.
Emily looked at it and wrote her suggestions below each line.
‘See you at McDonald’s at 11:00.’
◆ ◆ ◆
“How’d you get McDonald’s out of MD?” Matthew asked Emily as they left class and they headed toward their environmental science class.
“I’m guessing they like places like Starbucks, so MD, McDonald’s, same layout, lots of traffic and no one will notice if you hang out for an hour or so.”
◆ ◆ ◆
Matthew continued to monitor Malcom II for the rest of the afternoon. By three o’clock it was obvious that he was going out. He had the backpack out and had checked through its contents again.
At 4:30, Matthew had just finished riding his bike home when he saw Malcom II heading for the bus stop. He hoped whatever Malcom II was up to would be over by six when Jessie and his mother got home.
Malcom II rode the bus to a stop on Balboa, just four blocks from the Starbucks that the previous Malcom had been using to meet Ms. Frye. The stop was right in front of a McDonald’s. Malcom went in and ordered a burger and fries, then took his stuff over to the counter facing the windows. He put on an Atlanta Brave’s baseball hat, wearing it backward. Matthew remembered that Malcom, aka Frankie, had worn the same hat the same way.
The skateboarder from earlier came in and walked over to Malcom II. He dropped his pack at Malcom’s feet and gave him a casual “Watch my bag, will ya?” comment. The kid ordered fries and a Coke then walked back to Malcom and grabbed a backpack. Since Matthew had been watching for it, he had seen Malcom using his feet to switch the backpacks around. The kid left the McDonald’s carrying Malcom’s backpack. He joined a group of teens who were playing around on their skateboards doing tricks.
The kid pulled a bundle of flyers out of the backpack and made a show of sticking one on each of the cars in the parking lot. He did a few tricks between putting flyers on the various groups of cars. When he was finished, he skated back to his friends and sat down where he continued to eat his fries and drink his Coke.
A car pulled in and the kid set his Coke down and fiddled with the backpack. He watched as the driver went into the McDonald’s. Matthew could see he was keeping an eye on the driver while he ordered a Coke and fries. Then the driver walked away from the counter, stopping at Malcom’s place. He slipped an envelope to Malcom who handed him a bag of M&Ms. As soon as that happened, the kid skated over to the driver’s car and stuck a flyer under the windshield wiper blade. He then spun in place and hopped the curb and raced back to his friends.
Matthew watched the driver as he went back to his car. He made a show of starting to get in and then noticing the flyer. Instead of reaching from the driver’s door, he closed the door and went to the windshield to remove the flyer. Matthew just caught him picking up a small foil package
out of the gap between the windshield and the hood of the car.
The routine repeated itself three more times, about ten minutes apart. Each driver slipped an envelope to Malcom for a bag of M&Ms. And when they got to their car there was a flyer and a foil package from the skateboarder. The skateboarder also made sure to stick flyers on any other cars that came into the lot, but only put the foil packages on the ones that Malcom had handed M&Ms to. Most of the drivers made a show of opening the bag of M&Ms before they got to their car.
Chapter 5
Analysis of a Crime
That night Matthew set up a program to search Facebook for similar posts to the ones he saw Malcom reading and posting on. He also spent time looking at the profiles of the people whose pages Malcom was posting on. Of course, they were all college students since you had to have a college email to register. Since Matthew was a student at UCSD, he set up a Facebook profile and set his computer to searching all the various profiles that were available.
◆ ◆ ◆
Early Saturday morning, Matthew checked in on Malcom II. He was on his computer posting on some Facebook pages. He had a list he was working off of. It had eight entries; each had a name followed by a thirteen-digit number. The page he was working on had several similar entries on it. He put in his entry then moved to another page and there he entered the data from the next entry on his list. “Not very helpful,” Matthew thought. He filed it away hoping that he’d come across something that would help him make sense of the numbers.
The next day, Matthew and Emily met for lunch. Emily wanted a full update and was frustrated that she had to wait so long to get it. She’d had a tennis game at the country club that morning and Matthew had to attend group class, sparring class, and take his private lesson at the Golden Dragon, the martial arts studio where he trained.
They were meeting at Emily’s house so they would be able to have some privacy. Alex was out with Jason, and the girls were downstairs with the nanny.
“Okay, what have you learned?” Emily demanded.
“Not much more than what you already know. I checked the pages that Malcom posted on, they’re all over the map. Two are for students on the East Coast, one for a student in Florida, and another for a student in Texas.”
