“Buying a bank,” Arya teased.
“Aries Financials?” Edgar pulled up Arya’s location using the GPS locator tagged to Arya’s Crown Vic.
“Yup, that’s it. Do you want in on the buy?” Arya asked playfully.
“Arya, today is not a time to goof around.” Edgar paused before adding in a hushed tone, “LT is asking for you.”
“Why?”
“We have a briefing in thirty minutes.”
“From whom?” Arya asked, entering the swiveling front doors of Aries Financials.
“Not sure, but the rumor on the floor is FBI,” Edgar said, stressing each syllable.
“Is it about 9/11?” Arya said, motioning her hand towards the Aries Financials’ security guard to hold on for a minute.
“No clue. LT just popped into the squad room and asked us to get our asses in the conference room.”
“I think it should be about the 9/11 investigation. Why would the Feds come to our meager grounds?” Arya wondered out aloud.
“You might be right. You better come here. LT specifically asked about your whereabouts.”
“What did you say?”
“You stepped out for a coffee run.”
“Good cover; he knows I hate that shitty squad room coffee.”
“He asked me to haul you in; get your ass here,” Edgar said with urgency.
“I am on my way.”
Before Edgar could breathe a sigh of relief, Arya added, “This pit stop shouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes. Cover me, I might be slightly late.” Arya ended the call, leaving Edgar stunned.
Given Arya’s current location, Edgar knew it would be difficult for her to make it to the station on time, even if she left straightaway. With whatever she was doing in Center City, it would be impossible for her to make it to the station before the briefing started. He wasn’t surprised Arya asked him to cover for her; it has become quite frequent nowadays. All officers do it for their partners; it is an unwritten code among the brethren. However, the surprising element was how Arya asked; there was no hint of nervousness in her voice.
“It is good to be rich,” Edgar said, shaking his head with a smile on his face.
“Philly PD,” Arya announced, holding her badge.
The Aries Financials security personnel nodded approvingly and asked, “What can I do for you, Detective?”
“I am here to talk to Omar Raqqa; he works in the trading desk,” Arya said authoritatively.
“One-minute Detective, let me get him.” The security personnel addressed Arya with respect and asked her to wait in the spacious lounge as he went inside to get Omar.
In a rush this morning, Arya uncharacteristically skipped her second coffee before leaving her home. Arya eyed the waiting lounge on her right and decided to take advantage of the opportunity to fuel up with coffee to get her through the morning. It had been a standing bet between Arya and her partner, Edgar James, on who could hold out longer without going over the five-a-day coffee limit. The score then stood lopsided in favor of Edgar.
When Arya stepped into the expansive lounge and did a 360-degree survey of the place, the memories from her past flooded her mind – specifically, the visits to her dad’s office building in Manhattan. The lounge was modern in style and luxurious in substance. The walls were adorned with artwork depicting the historical progression of the marketplace from Greeks to Wall Street bankers. The historic artwork was in contrast with the room design: furniture in the room and the amenities provided in the place. Arya was a person who usually doesn’t get impressed that easily. However, when she spotted a futuristic coffee maker that could make every type of coffee anyone had ever desired, a smile washed over her face. After a moment of deliberation, she decided to pour herself a cup of Kopi Luwak coffee. Kopi Luwak was not only one of the most exotic coffees in the world, but it was also one of the most expensive coffees. The word on the street is that a couple of pounds of Kopi Luwak retails at a whopping seven hundred dollars on the market.
Arya glanced at the morning edition of the Wall Street Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer, and The New York Times as she sipped her morning juice. All the articles on the front page had coverage related to one news story, the 9/11 attacks; After the Attacks: The Investigation; Bin Laden cited. The word ‘Investigation’ spiked Arya’s curiosity, and she flipped open the Times to devour the frontpage article.
The article reported that the hijackers who commandeered the jetliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon were followers of Osama Bin Laden, an Islamic militant who headed a jihadi terrorist group named ‘Al-Qaeda.’ It explained that Bin Laden had attacked American interests before, in Yemen and in Africa, but this was the first time he was able to carry the attacks on the mainland. The article cited unconfirmed sources while reporting that four to six hijackers might have participated in hijacking the four planes. It was also reported that most of the hijackers entered the country through student or tourist visas, and some might have overstayed their stay. The investigators have executed warrants in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Florida, and they are now in the process of executing more warrants across the eastern seaboard.
Arya raised her brows when she read the line regarding cities across the eastern seaboard. Is Philly going to be one of them? Was the briefing this morning related to these warrants?
“Detective Martins.” Arya was hauled back to the present when she heard her name being called.
Arya turned around, and her gaze landed on a man dressed in a black suit.
“Jonathan Ashton.” The man extended his hand and introduced himself to Arya.
Arya reached forward and took the man’s hand. “Arya Martins, Philly PD.”
“What can we do for you?” Ashton asked formally and respectfully.
“It is about Omar Raqqa,” Arya said, holding her gaze at him.
“Oh, I see. Let us step into that room that would give us some privacy,” Ashton said, motioning his hand to point to a room that was adjacent to the coffeemaker.
Arya nodded and followed him to a long room, which looked like a visitor’s room. As they entered the room, the overhead lights in the room came to life.
“Can I offer you anything to drink?” Ashton politely asked.
“I am fine,” Arya replied, taking a seat opposite Ashton.
“Did you find out what happened to Omar Raqqa?” The question from Ashton surprised Arya.
Arya narrowed her eyes and asked, “What do you mean? Did something happen to Raqqa?”
Ashton’s expression changed to confusion. “I thought you said it was about Omar.”
Arya nodded, “Yes, it is. I wanted to talk to him.”
“I guess that is not possible,” Ashton said, leaning back in his chair. “He is missing.”
“Missing?” Arya asked rhetorically. “From when?”
“About three months back. I thought you were here about Raqqa’s case,” Ashton said with a puzzled expression on his face.
Arya ignored his remark and asked, “Did you report him missing?”
“Yes, we did, around the time he went missing.”
Arya queried more and learned that Aries Financials reported Omar Raqqa missing in the Norristown precinct in May. However, Ashton didn’t know the name of the investigating officer. He offered to find out from HR and share it with Arya by tomorrow.
“Who reported to HR that Mr. Raqqa was missing?”
“It was the VP of the trading desk – Mr. Trey Landon.”
Arya noted down the VP’s name and asked, “What made Landon suspect Raqqa was missing?”
“Raqqa missed reporting to work for a couple of days.”
“Is that it? I have missed work a couple of days, and my boss didn’t report me missing.” Arya probed to gather more details.
“True. You are not Raqqa; he has never missed work without calling it in.” Ashton paused for a moment and added, “And also the letter.” Ashton stressed the word ‘letter.’
“What lett
er?”
“Mr. Landon got a letter from Raqqa – it was a resignation letter. In that letter, Raqqa cited the reason he was resigning was that he was feeling burnt-out, and he needed a break desperately. He mentioned that he was planning to travel and clear his head.”
“Oh! Why is that suspicious? It seems Raqqa clearly spelled out his reasons.”
“It could be, but Mr. Landon thought something was amiss.”
“What?”
“I don’t know; I was not privy to that. You have to speak to Mr. Landon?”
“Is he here?”
“No, he is in Dubai. He should be here today, but his flight got canceled because of,” Ashton hesitated, and, in an emotional tone, said, “because of 9/11.”
A brief silence ensued between them; the room’s mood turned somber with the mention of 9/11.
Arya cleared her throat and said, “Can you ask him to give me a call when he gets here?” She then proceeded to give her phone number to Ashton.
“Sure, will do.”
“Is there anything else, Detective?” Ashton asked.
“Yes. Can you tell me where Samir Tariq stayed on his trip to Los Angeles on September 10th?”
“Samir Tariq….” Ashton slowly repeated the name, like a person trying to jog his memory. “Hmm…. Sorry, I can’t place his name,” Ashton said apologetically. “Should I know him? Is this related to Raqqa?” Ashton asked, wondering about the nature of the question.
If Arya’s reaction was of a surprise, she didn’t show it. “Samir Tariq works here,” she said evenly.
“Here, you mean with us – Aries Financials?” Ashton sounded surprised.
“Yes. Samir Tariq works in the Trading Desk, and his boss is…,” Arya paused momentarily to correct her choice of tense, “His boss was Omar Raqqa.”
“That is not possible,” Ashton said confidently, leaning back in his chair.
The definitive words of Ashton bothered and surprised Arya. Arya raised her brows and asked, “How so?”
“Do you remember the timeline I mentioned regarding Raqqa’s disappearance?” Ashton asked rhetorically and continued without waiting for Arya’s reply. “That was three months back.”
Arya nodded. “So?”
“Do you know who took Raqqa’s position?” Ashton showed off his bombastic attitude with his rhetorical questions.
“Ashton, can we stop these show-and-tell games and cut to the chase?” Arya became frustrated with Ashton’s showy attitude.
“Sorry, Detective Martins.” Ashton raised both of his hands to his shoulders to gesture an apology. “Don’t take it the wrong way; I behave the same way with everyone.”
Arya thought that only in a jerk’s mind that statement could be construed as an apology. “What a jerk?” she thought to herself.
“Was it you who took Raqqa’s position?” Arya asked, connecting the puzzle.
“Bingo! That is why you are a detective,” Ashton said, making a recoil motion with his hand as if to suggest it was a bullseye shot.
Arya ignored Ashton’s dramatics and proceeded with her inquiry. “I presume you don’t have a Samir Tariq in your group?”
“Yes.”
“Is it possible he switched to a different group when you joined?”
“Yes, it is very much possible. I moved from the London division just after Raqqa disappeared. He might have switched.”
“Is there a way to confirm it?”
“Sure, I can do that easily.” Ashton flipped open a laptop resting on the table.
Arya’s eyes shifted towards the large white screen as it came to life. The laptop seemed to be hooked to a small white rectangular device, a projector, which displayed the details on the hundred-inch white screen.
Ashton pulled up a webpage and typed ‘Samir Tariq’ in the search box. The page in design looked very similar to Google’s search page, which Arya was quite familiar with. With every passing day, Google was becoming her go-to site, which she frequently depends on to find general information. She liked Google’s simplistic design way better than Yahoo’s design, which she considered to be cluttered.
“Okay, here it is…,” Ashton muttered as the screen refreshed to spit out two entries with the name ‘Samir Tariq.’
“Wow, that is strange. I thought the name was unique enough that we would get a single hit,” Ashton remarked.
“Can we click on the hyperlink?” Arya pushed Ashton to keep it moving.
“Wow! Hyperlink. Someone here is a techie,” Ashton said in a patronizing way.
Ashton’s obnoxious behavior was getting to Arya. “Ashton, I think anyone with a brain would know what a hyperlink is,” Arya snapped.
“I don’t think so. Trust me, I know some people who have no clue. Hello mother-in-law,” Ashton cackled, boisterously.
Arya felt sorry for Ashton’s wife. “It must be a pain to live with this asshole,” Arya thought to herself.
When Ashton clicked on the first ‘Samir Tariq’ entry, a new page appeared on the screen that looked like a Wikipedia page. It contained detailed information about the employee: biographical, work history, education, and comprehensive history about their time in Aries Financials.
Arya’s gaze immediately landed on the picture to the right, and she leaned forward to take a closer look. The image was a typical profile photo that we see every day in driving licenses or other forms of IDs. It showed a middle-aged man with a thinning hairline, smiling broadly, and he had facial features typical to people from the Middle East.
“Realty Funds,” Ashton read Samir’s group in Aries Financials aloud as he continued to swift through his employment history in Aries. “Oh, I see, you are right. He did work for Raqqa before….” He paused as he clicked on another hyperlink that showed more details. “It seems he switched from Trading to Realty the week before Raqqa disappeared.”
“That’s not him,” Arya said flatly, looking at the picture on the screen. “This is not the Samir I am looking for.”
“Can you click on the other one?” Arya asked.
“Wait… this sucks,” Ashton said, showing emotion for the first time.
“What?”
“This guy is dead. He committed suicide; he cut his hand and was found dead in his bathtub.” Ashton slowly shook his head, showing empathy.
“When?”
Ashton went back to the screen to read through the timeline. “Hmm. It looks like June 5th. A week after Raqqa disappeared.”
Even though it was not the ‘Samir’ Arya was looking for, something felt odd to her. The close proximity between this Samir’s death and Omar’s disappearance troubled her. What are the odds of something terrible happening to three people in the same group in a short time? First, it was Omar’s disappearance, and then tragedy stuck both the Samir Tariqs – one by suicide, and the other disappearing into thin air. Also, how odd was it that there were two Samir Tariqs in that group. It was not like his name was Jason or John or James. The name Samir Tariq is as exotic as they come.
“This is odd,” Ashton said, gazing at his laptop screen.
Arya turned her attention to the projected screen, and her mouth dropped in shock.
Ashton had clicked on the second Samir Tariq from the search results, and the profile picture displayed on the screen was of Sania’s Samir. No doubt about that. However, that was not the cause of Arya’s shock. Instead, it was due to the employee status shown next to his name, Samir Tariq – Resigned on June 1st, 2001.
Ashton turned towards Arya and exchanged a puzzled glance. “Is this the Samir Tariq you were looking for?”
Arya nodded. “Yes.”
“Hmm… I thought you said his wife reported that he was still working here?” Ashton asked with a quizzical expression.
“Yes. I guess Samir must have kept Sania in the dark about his resignation. But why?” Arya thought in her mind.
At this moment, Arya had no clue. Even if she did, she had no interest sharing that with Ashton. “Sorry, I can’t get
into it. Active investigation,” Arya said flatly.
“Hmm… This is bonkers,” Ashton said, gazing fixedly at this laptop screen.
Arya shifted her eyes back to the large screen and found Ashton had navigated to Samir’s work history with Aries Financials. If Samir’s resignation caused her jaw to drop, then what she had just learned about his work history felt like a tremor. Samir had never worked in the Trading Division under Omar Raqqa. Instead, he worked as a service technician in the Environment Division.
“A class liar! I got to give it to this guy,” Ashton said, laughing as he read the file.
“This guy is a blue-collar guy. He came as close to the trading stocks like me qualifying for Augusta,” Ashton laughed at his own joke.
“How long did he work here?” Arya asked, still trying to make sense of what she just learned.
“Just four months, it looks like he started only in February of 2001.”
That was another lie. Based on her discussion with Sania, Samir had been working here since 1999. If not here, where did he work?
“Can you tell where he worked before Aries?”
Ashton’s fingers danced on the keyboard. “Yes, just one. He has listed a name – Rashid Al Iqbal – as his reference in SAEWA.”
“SAEWA?” Arya asked, as she had no clue what the abbreviation ‘SAEWA’ represented.
“Saudi Arabia Electrical and Water Authority. It states that he was working there from 1996 till the beginning of this year,” Ashton said evenly.
The surprises started to mount up for Arya. Samir had not only kept his resignation as a secret from Sania, but he also had blatantly lied about his overall work experience. From what she had gathered from Sania, Samir had been in the U.S. for the last two years working for Aries Financials. How could he have continued to work for SAEWA from the U.S. as a maintenance technician?
“If Samir had kept Sania in the dark about his work, what else did he lie about?” Arya wondered.
She made a mental note to find out about Samir’s life before he got married to Sania. One thing has become clear to Arya; Samir had been living a double life for at least two years. But the question is, why? What need did Samir have to lead a secret life? Arya knew that would be the answer to find out what really happened to Samir on September 11th.
The Hunt for Truth Page 6
