Both Jimmy and Lyndsey looked like they were in their sixties. Both of them white, Jimmy had an old-man paunch, and Lyndsey looked fit for his age but had more grey hair. They both dressed in old-school detective suits, something the detectives would have worn in the Dragnet days. Arya would later learn that both of them joined the force at the same time and were a year out to get out with full pension. They had been partners for the previous thirty years, bursting doors and keeping the streets clean. With that kind of mileage between them, they are indeed an old couple who knows everything about each other.
The bickering lasted for another couple of minutes, and, when it finally stopped, Jimmy took out a case file in his hand and said, “I guess you are here for this.”
“Omar Raqqa’s case file,” Jimmy said, almost butchering the man’s last name. Jimmy leaned forward and extended the case file across the table.
Arya reached forward and accepted the case file from Jimmy.
“The case file looks pretty thin,” Arya said, as she flipped it open.
“There is a reason for it,” Lyndsey quickly chimed in.
“What do you mean?” Edgar was curious about the last statement.
“I mean, we don’t even know if there was a crime committed here,” Lyndsey said.
“You guys think Omar might have disappeared on his own?” Edgar asked, interpreting Lyndsey’s answer.
Jimmy and Lyndsey shrugged. “Can’t say either way definitively. We could not establish that he was kidnapped.”
Arya and Edgar looked on as Lyndsey continued, “Also, there is this whole thing about the jurisdiction.”
“Dubai?” Arya asked, remembering the conversation she had with Ashton, where he mentioned that Omar disappeared during a business trip there.
Lyndsey nodded.
“What about his family? What do they think?” Edgar asked.
“That is another thing. Raqqa’s family is not here; they are in Saudi Arabia,” Lyndsey started.
Jimmy jumped in, “At least that is what we think. We tried reaching out, but nada,” Jimmy shook his head, expressing that they ran into a wall reaching them. “Who the hell wouldn’t report or talk to the cops if your husband is missing?”
“You mean to say that Mrs. Raqqa never reported her husband was missing?”
“That is exactly what I am saying,” Jimmy said emphatically.
At that moment, a waitress walked to their table to get their orders. The waitress must have been a college student from one of the nearby colleges; she looked young and had a beautiful smile.
“Darling, I will go for a round of usual.” Jimmy gave a good-ole smile.
“Me too,” Lyndsey joined in.
“Of course, dear.” The waitress replied in a rather fond manner, implying Jimmy and Lyndsey were regulars at this joint.
“What about you, guys? Any drinks?” The waitress turned her attention towards Edgar and Arya.
“Do you have iced tea?” Edgar asked.
That question by Edgar got one of the wildest reactions he had ever seen. “Jeez, what are you, nine?” Jimmy laughed. “Get a proper drink, Jesus.”
Edgar was slightly taken back, but he calmly said, “No, thank you. On the job, I will have a regular iced tea.”
“I will have a Stella on the draft,” Arya ordered her drink.
“16 or 24?” the waitress asked about the pint-size.
“Always 24.”
The waitress and Arya exchanged a smile before the waitress walked away.
“That’s my girl.” Jimmy leaned forward to give a high-five to Arya.
“Iced tea, Jesus,” Lyndsey expressed his disbelief.
Arya saw the opportunity to mock Edgar and joined in on the fun. Edgar took it sportingly, nodding and smiling.
The waitress returned back to the table with drinks and placed them on the table. “You guys ready to order?” she asked, opening a pocketbook.
Arya hadn’t eaten a proper meal from the previous evening, and she was ready to hit the joint; the food smell was quite inviting. Arya and Edgar turned towards the old-timers for recommendations and went with them.
As the waitress left the table, Arya was engaged in a conversation with Jimmy about the history of this joint, and Edgar turned his attention towards Raqqa’s file.
As she was hearing Jimmy, Arya glanced casually at Edgar and spotted a photo in his hand. She immediately reached out and pulled the photo from Edgar. Her eyes narrowed as she examined it closely. It was a picture of a man, taken by a closed-circuit camera, who was standing next to a shipyard container and had his hand on the container lock keypad.
“What?” Edgar asked. As Arya pulled the picture from Edgar before he got a good look, he was not sure what or who was on the photo.
Arya placed the photo on the table for everyone to see. “What is this?” she asked, shifting her gaze across the table at Jimmy and Lyndsey.
“This is the reason why we even started the investigation,” Lyndsey said, shifting his eyes from the picture to Arya.
“Is this Raqqa?” Edgar asked. It was hard to make out the face of the man; it was dark, and his back was to the camera.
“No, we don’t think so.” Jimmy shook his head.
“What did you mean when you said this started the investigation?” Arya asked, trying to flush out details.
“Do you want me to explain?” Jimmy looked at Lyndsey, and Lyndsey nodded to express his agreement.
“I assume you guys know that Omar Raqqa sent out a resignation letter to his supervisor – Landon?” Jimmy’s gaze landed squarely on Arya.
Arya nodded. “Yes, we do. I met with Ashton, Raqqa’s replacement, and he filled me in with the details – Raqqa missing an important meeting in Dubai and his resignation letter to Landon.”
“Did you read the resignation letter?” Lyndsey asked.
“Yes, it looked vanilla – nothing out of the ordinary.”
Jimmy and Lyndsey nodded, expressing that was also their judgment on the resignation letter.
“But…. Ashton said something that didn’t make sense. He said that Landon reached out to the authorities to start the investigation after receiving the resignation letter,” Arya stated.
Jimmy shook his head rapidly. “He is wrong. That was not the reason.”
Lyndsey continued, “Do you guys know Raqqa was leading a merger between two shipping companies?”
Arya and Edgar exchanged glances and shook their heads to express their lack of knowledge about the merger.
“At the time of the disappearance, he was overseeing a merger between two shipping companies – one based out of the Middle East and another here in the U.S.”
Arya began to wonder how it was relevant to Landon filing the missing person complaint.
“As part of the merger, complete forensic auditing was conducted. In the audit, Aries Financials discovered someone used the special access code assigned to Raqqa to access this shipping container.”
“How can you be sure that this was not Raqqa? It is so dark!” Edgar asked, wondering how the detectives decided it was not Raqqa on the picture.
“Good question, son,” Jimmy said, pointing his index finger at Edgar. “Do you see the timestamp?”
“May 31st,” Edgar read the timestamp on the bottom corner of the picture.
“Raqqa disappeared on May 27th in Dubai. Do you see the gap?” Jimmy asked.
“When did he send the resignation letter?” Edgar asked.
“June 1st,” Lyndsey said quickly.
“I don’t see a gap here. It seems Raqqa came back to the country sometime after May 27th, accessed the container on May 31st, and resigned on June 1st,” Edgar connected the timeline.
“Very good, son,” Jimmy beamed. “I wish my son is as smart as you,” he said in almost a patronizing way.
Arya was examining the photo when the exchange was happening between Jimmy and Edgar. Her eyes raised when she realized that the man on the picture couldn’t be Omar Raqqa. “This is not Raqqa
,” Arya declared, looking up from the photo.
“Are you guessing?” Edgar asked, turning his attention to Arya.
“No, I am certain.” Arya placed the photo on the table and tapped the man shown on the picture. “This can’t be Raqqa.”
Edgar was shocked to hear Arya declare it with absolute conviction.
Jimmy exchanged glances at Lyndsey. “You are the smart one,” he said with a grin, looking at Arya.
“Why don’t you explain?” he asked, knowing Arya had cracked the code.
“Looking at the man standing right next to the container, it is quite obvious that he is tall. I would say that he is close to six feet.”
Jimmy nodded, inviting her to continue.
“From the employment records, we know that Raqqa is far from being tall. He is listed as only five feet and two inches.”
“Bingo!” Jimmy flashed a grin. “Mark my words; this girl is going places.”
The sudden flattery made Arya blush. “Not such a big deal,” she muttered, trying to be humble.
“Let me say something to you straight. Don’t ever do that.” Jimmy looked straight at Arya. “Don’t underplay your talent or achievements. If you do that, people will climb on your back and take credit for what you did.”
Jimmy’s words struck a chord with Arya. It echoed almost word-by-word with what her father once said. Arya nodded respectfully, taking Jimmy’s words to heart.
Edgar’s face beamed with pride, hearing flattering words about Arya, his partner, and true friend.
“The food is here,” Jimmy announced, almost in a celebratory tone. “Hmm… It smells good,” he continued, as the waitress gently placed the plates in front of each of them.
“Can I get anything else for y’all?” the waitress asked in a southern accent.
Jimmy lifted his almost empty beer glass. “Refill, dear.”
“Of course, Jimmy.” The waitress walked over to the bar counter and returned to their table with a replenished glass of beer.
Another two minutes elapsed before the waitress left the table. She was engaged in a lively conversation about her boyfriend with Jimmy and Lyndsey. When she finally left, Arya jumped right back into the conversation about Omar to find out everything the detectives knew about the case.
“I assume Landon filed the case because he realized earlier what I just figured out,” Arya asked, taking a bite of the diner’s signature grilled sandwich.
“Yeah,” Lyndsey replied. Jimmy could just nod as his mouth was stuffed with food.
“Were you able to figure out who this person is?” Arya asked, pointing at the surveillance picture of the man opening the shipping container.
“No. But whoever it was, we think he knew the place pretty well. Could be an insider.” Lyndsey said.
“Insider?” Arya leaned forward, becoming more curious. “You mean he worked for the shipping company? What makes you say that?”
“Open the Marisomo section in the case file,” Jimmy said, motioning his hand to gesture Arya to keep flipping.
“Marisomo?” Arya asked, keeping an eye on the file as she skipped through sections.
“Marisomo is a shipping corporation based out of Egypt or Yemen. I am not too sure.” Lyndsey looked towards Jimmy for his input.
Jimmy shrugged and said, “I don’t remember either; one of the countries from the Middle East.”
When Arya landed on the section labeled Marisomo, a large brown-colored department issued envelope stared right back at her.
“Open it,” Edgar opined, as Arya exchanged a quick glance at him.
Arya lifted the envelope from the case file and opened it with an elevated sense of anticipation. She was not sure what to expect to see in the envelope. Given it had changed the direction of Omar’s investigation, she thought it had photos or documents revealing the identity of the mystery person.
She was half-right with her assumption. The envelope did contain a set of photos, but, as far as she could tell, it did not clearly show the mystery person’s face. The images were all taken by the closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras. The first photo showed a man wearing a hooded jacket exiting the shipping container. The pictures that followed captured the same man calmly walking towards the secured area’s exit. In all the photos, he seemed to be looking down or looking away. His face was not visible in any of the pictures. As he exited, he appeared to be holding onto a rectangular-shaped case, possibly made of aluminum, which was not in his possession when he entered.
“He seemed to know where the cameras are,” Edgar chimed.
“The kicker here is that some of the cameras in the secured area corridor is hidden,” Jimmy added.
“So, he knew where the cameras were placed. Now I see why you classified him as an insider,” Arya said, looking towards Jimmy and Lyndsey.
“One more thing here that would light you up. The Marisomo security team mentioned that the cameras were newly installed; it had been there only from March.”
“So, he must still be employed there,” Edgar opined.
“Might be or not,” Lyndsey said and took a long swig of his beer.
Arya and Edgar looked keenly at Lyndsey for him to continue.
“There was an independent security firm that installed the cameras. They sub-contracted the job to a smaller firm, and one of their employees could be our guy,” Lyndsey said and went back to his beer.
“When we looked into the firm, we got a kahuna-sized surprise.”
Arya’s eyes lit up.
“They never did the job. It seemed the whole paperwork was phony.”
“Shit. This is some elaborate scheme.” It was now Arya’s turn to take a swig of her beer.
“Yeah, no kidding. We tried looking into the person who awarded the contract, and he is nowhere to be found.”
“What?” Arya was surprised.
“He was a Yemeni national, and we found out that he had left the country.”
“Why?”
“He just said that his wife had a baby, and he is going there to see her.”
“And he never returned?” Arya asked, guessing that was the case.
“Bingo. He is gone.”
“This smells.” Edgar shook his head in disbelief.
“Nah, it stinks,” Arya added, referring to the way this case has turned out.
It seemed the moment weighed the same way to both Edgar and Arya. They took a deep breath, leaned back on the chair, and stayed silent for a minute, processing what they had just learned.
“Okay, let me see if I got this straight,” Arya started. “Raqqa was working on a merger involving Marisomo when he disappeared. A few days later, his supervisor, Landon, receives a resignation letter from Raqqa. A couple of days later, Landon finds out that Raqqa’s code was used to access Marisomo’s secured shipping warehouse.”
Jimmy and Lyndsey nodded to signal their agreement with Arya so far.
“By looking at the surveillance pictures, it has become obvious that whoever accessed the secured shipping container was not Raqqa. It was someone else using Raqqa’s code. Your investigation has also revealed that someone deliberately falsified orders to send the surveillance camera installation job to a non-existent company. Upon further digging, you guys found out that whoever awarded that contract is a foreign national, Yemeni, and he has now left the country for good.”
“Damn, you nailed it,” Jimmy said, lifting his beer.
“But why?” The picture of the mystery man carrying a rectangular aluminum case rushed back to her memory. “What was in that case? Marisomo should know what was missing from that container. It should be pretty easy; they should have an inventory of everything that was shipped.” Arya blurted out the questions in a rapid fashion.
“Slow down, tiger.” Jimmy gestured for Arya to be less loud. “We hit another dead-end there. Nothing was missing as per Marisomo’s shipping records. Whatever was in that rectangular case was not legally shipped; it was smuggled.”
Arya and
Edgar’s mouths dropped upon hearing that the case was smuggled.
“Were you or Marisomo able to find out more?”
“No. We all know that in that part of the world, anything goes for a price.” Lyndsey flicked his thumb to gesture money.
“This case is getting interesting,” Edgar sighed.
“This seems to be a well-coordinated plan. It seems Raqqa was kidnapped, possibly killed, to get to Marisomo’s shipping container,” Arya deduced the motive behind Raqqa’s case.
“I would agree,” Jimmy said.
“What else did you guys find?” Edgar asked.
“Not much, the investigation has gone cold. We are not the CIA to go poke our nose in Yemen or Dubai. We have no jurisdiction, or, for that matter, resources.”
“What about his house? Did you find anything?”
“Nada. Raqqa’s house was cleaned out; the place was clean as a whistle,” Lyndsey added.
“That confirms our working theory,” Arya said with conviction.
“The only personal belongings of Raqqa we have are what he had kept in his office. It was not much. A couple of photos of his family, gym bag and clothes, a membership card to a fitness center, and a rowing club. It is all in the evidence locker, and you can find pictures of it at the tail end of the file.”
“Thanks,” Arya nodded with a slight smile.
“Did you find anything from the fitness center or the rowing club?” Arya asked, hoping for something that could remotely help with the investigation.
“No. Raqqa seemed to be a regular in both places, but we didn’t find anything.” Jimmy shrugged his shoulders.
“Wow! I didn’t expect this when we came here,” Arya said, referring to what they had discovered. A highly planned and coordinated effort to disappear or most possibly murder Raqqa to access and retrieve the smuggled item from the shipping warehouse.
“Do you mind if we take the case file?” Edgar asked.
“It’s all yours,” Jimmy said, emptying his beer bottle with one last large gulp.
“You mean the case file?”
“No man, the case is yours,” Jimmy grinned.
“You must be kidding, right?” Arya asked, feeling puzzled with this new development.
“Nope. I got my marching orders from my LT; Raqqa is now Germantown’s case. Not ours,” he said, making a gesture to express that they have washed their hands off the case.
The Hunt for Truth Page 9
