His thoughts were hauled back to the present when his Nokia phone started to buzz.
“Carter,” he announced his name on the phone.
“Where are you? I thought you ran away with the money.” A woman’s raised voice rung out loudly.
“Ma’am, it’s good to know how highly you think of me,” he sarcastically expressed his point.
“First, don’t call me ma’am. It makes me sound old. Call me Julia Berg,” she declared firmly.
“Ms. Berg, having met you, you would be the last person I would call old. You are one of the most beautiful people I have seen in my life.”
“Are you hitting on me?” Julia asked in an ‘I can’t believe you just did that’ tone.
“Ma’am….” Carter paused to correct himself. “Ms. Berg, it was just an innocent compliment from an elderly man. Nothing more, nothing less,” he cleared the air.
“What else would I think? You have been a no-show from the moment you took the money.”
Carter, with all the years of his service, has seen many people react the same way as Ms. Berg. It’s not new to him. He let her rant for a couple of minutes until she was ready to listen to his side.
“Ms. Berg, what did I say when I took the job?” he asked flatly.
“I don’t remember,” Julia replied flippantly.
“I remember it very well. I flatly refused to take this job.”
“So, what are you trying to say?” Julia argued.
“I am just trying to make a point. I accepted this job for one and one reason only – your father. We are having this conversation only because he intervened and asked me to take this job.”
He paused for his point to land firmly.
“I also remember very well that I made it clear that I won’t be checking in with you every day to give you updates. You will hear from me only when I have something concrete.”
“Yeah, yeah, you said that. But that was before Eli disappeared. Now I am going nuts here.” Julia started to choke up.
“I can’t wait anymore.” She paused, trying to rein in her emotions. “You know he hasn’t come home in three days.”
Carter remained silent, knowing that if he shared what he had learned about Eli Berg, it would end up upsetting her even further.
Julia, clearing her throat, said, “This whole thing is my mistake. I should have never listened to my friends and suspected him of cheating. Maybe he figured out that I hired you and got terribly upset.”
“I am certain that was not the case. He has no clue about me,” Carter confidently said.
“What then? I hired you, and a few days later, poof! Eli is gone.” Julia directed her anger inwards and chided herself for suspecting Eli of cheating.
“Julia, you are a bit harsh on yourself.” He deliberated for a moment on what to say next.
In the last week of him following Eli, he became confident of one thing. He was not sure if Eli was sleeping with Sania, but he was certain that Eli was in love with her. You could lie with your words and actions, but your eyes would never lie. During all of the years he had spent interrogating suspects, it was their eyes that separated the truth from the lies.
The pictures he took of Eli with Sania were mostly taken at the same place and at the same time. They always met at the same secluded spot by the Schuylkill River Trail and at eight o’clock. The only exception was the night of September 10th.
Carter knew that pictures by themselves could be explained away as circumstantial. Before going to Julia, he wanted to get a picture of them being intimate. However, the situation had changed in more ways than anticipated. After the night of September 10th, he hadn’t seen Eli Berg; he seems to have disappeared into thin air. From September 12th, he started following Sania with the hope that she would lead him to Eli. How wrong did he turn out to be in his thinking? It was not just Eli who has gone missing; Sania’s husband, Samir Tariq, had also disappeared. It seems both of them vanished on the same night.
To make matters more complicated, he now believes that Sania herself might be in the dark with their disappearances. She had been filing police reports to find her missing husband and religiously visiting the river trail like before to meet up with Eli. Carter was puzzled by the way things had turned out. He had never been this wrong in his long career as a cop and later as a PI. The case that started out to be a straightforward one, a wife suspecting her husband of cheating, had turned topsy-turvy.
“You still there?” Julia’s voice jerked Carter back to the present.
Carter, in his heart, knew that the time had come for Julia to hear the truth. If he was in her position, he would want to know what he had learned.
“I think it is time for us to meet,” Carter calmly said, lighting up a cigarette.
20
“Thanks, George,” Edgar flashed a thumbs-up sign to the bellman as he brought the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper to him.
The bellman tipped his hat, signaling his appreciation towards Edgar for being a policeman and standing on the front lines to protect the community.
This was one of the remarkable changes Edgar noticed in the way people treated him after 9/11. In the past, he had seen people showing reverence towards his line of work, but not at this magnitude. 9/11 has undoubtedly changed the perspective of many ordinary citizens towards the police and firefighters. When the first responders rushed towards the burning towers, being considered heroes was the last thing in their minds. They were not driven by glory or fame but by duty and sacrifice. They are now rightfully being celebrated as heroes of the community.
With the Inquirer in his hand, Edgar gave the room that he was standing in a 360-degree treatment. He was in an expansive waiting room of one of the high-rise buildings, near downtown, that housed ultra-luxury condos, which seemed to have sprung up recently along the river. In this building, the posh condos were one of the most sought-after properties for the ultra-rich, like ballers, investment bankers, celebrities, and people with deep pockets from other countries. Last year, when Arya mentioned that one of the luxury condos was sold for 7.2 million dollars, his head spun out of utter disbelief. When he later learned that some of these condos go unoccupied for months or even for a year, his first thought was that it went unsold because of the ridiculous sale prices. But how naïve he turned out to be when he learned that they were not only sold, but they were sold well above asking price to wealthy buyers from other countries. It seems these luxury condos attract considerable attention from foreign buyers because these transactions could be used to avoid paying taxes. He never understood how buying an ultra-luxury penthouse translates into tax write-offs, or, for that matter, how it was even legal.
No wonder Edgar didn’t take up investment banking or become a CPA. If he did, he would be terrible at it. If not for Arya, he would have never known much about this or have come here.
Edgar took a seat in the cigar-colored chesterfield leather sofa that was unoccupied and flipped open the Inquirer. Like every other newspaper in the country, the entire front page had news about only one topic – the 9/11 Attacks and Investigation. The top section of the front page was focused on the investigation into the attacks, and the bottom part had coverage about the rescue and recovery effort in New York. Sadly, whoever was still trapped in those rubbles would be dead by then. The article discussed the hundreds of family members who were still holding on to their hope of finding their loved one who had gone missing on that fateful day. As Edgar read that article, his mind drifted onto Samir’s case and how horrible Sania must be feeling at this time.
Hearing footsteps behind him, he turned to see if it was Arya, but it turned out to be someone else. He let out a deep sigh and turned his attention towards the top section of the newspaper. As he read the details about the investigation, his expression changed as he became deeply engrossed in the investigative elements. The article started with information about the hijackers: how many of them, how they entered the country, which part of the world they came from, how t
hey entered the country, and where they stayed. The article then veered into sensitive information, like where the hijackers possibly trained to fly the aircraft and how they managed to hijack the plane. The article was very well-written and had more information about what went into the planning of these attacks than Edgar had expected a newspaper to have at this moment. Edgar wondered how strange it was that the paper had more information than him, a law enforcement officer. He hoped that he would learn more about the investigation when LT Cooper returns from the JTTF meeting today.
“Hey, you.” Arya walked behind Edgar and tapped his shoulders.
Edgar jumped, hearing the words from Arya. “Jesus!”
Arya broke out into a burst of laughter. “Can’t believe you got scared like a little girl.”
George, the bellman, walked into the waiting room, hearing the noise.
“Hey George, can you believe what Edgar just did?” Arya turned towards the bellman.
Edgar made a gesture to express that it was not funny and started walking towards the exit.
“You got to admit it was a little bit funny,” Arya bumped her shoulder into him playfully.
Edgar smiled, shaking his head, and gave in to Arya.
The playful banter lasted until George walked back with a couple of go-cups.
“Coffee for you,” George handed a cup to Edgar and turned towards Arya, “Caramel macchiato for you, dear.”
“George!” Arya leaned in and gave him a loving hug.
“You know you are spoiling her,” Edgar commented with a good-humored intent.
“Don’t listen to him. You are the best,” Arya said, as she walked towards the front door.
“Be safe,” George called out, as both Arya and Edgar exited the building.
21
“How did the anniversary dinner go?” Edgar asked as he started the car.
“Surprisingly, well.” Arya went on for the next few minutes detailing the celebration in the luxurious Four Seasons Hotel. She explained her pleasant surprise to see her brother there; he had flown all the way from London just for the occasion.
“You know how much that meant for my dad,” Arya said, arching both her eyebrows.
Edgar nodded to signal that he understood her implication. How could he not remember? Arya must have gone over her family dynamics so many times.
“The chosen one returns!” Arya mimicked her father’s ecstatic reaction to seeing his son at the party. It seemed her brother had kept his visit as a surprise, and, as he had planned, it became the highlight of the party.
“Aren’t you a little harsh here?” Edgar reminded Arya that it was her decision to not be at the helm of their father’s empire, and not her parents’. They never showed favoritism towards her brother when choosing him to run their business alone.
Arya gestured with her hand to signal that she was just kidding and was not serious.
“How come you didn’t come upstairs?” Arya asked, checking her face in the vanity mirror as she applied lip gloss.
“I didn’t want to interrupt in case you got lucky last night,” Edgar smiled in a teasing way.
Arya’s love life seemed to be the go-to topic of conversation for Edgar and Simone since she broke up with her last boyfriend.
Arya gave him one of those looks that signaled him to knock it off.
“Okay, what did you find? You sounded giddy on the phone,” Arya turned the attention to the case. Edgar had called Arya earlier in the morning to let her know that he would pick her up from her condo.
Edgar nodded to signal that he had some news about the case. “We had a breakthrough in the case.”
The look on Arya’s face changed immediately; she became enthusiastic and curious.
“After you left, I got a call that was patched through to me from a state trooper. He claimed that he saw our man, Samir Tariq, on the wee hours of the morning of September 11th.”
“Where?” Arya hurriedly asked.
“On 95 South, near Linwood.”
“Linwood? Isn’t it near the border of Delaware?”
Edgar nodded. “Yes. He made a traffic stop because of broken taillights.”
Arya looked up slightly like she was trying to remember something. “It doesn’t add up. When I stopped by their house, Sania showed me Samir’s car, a Toyota Camry, in the garage. I remember checking the car out, and, as far as I could recall, the taillights weren’t broken.”
“This is where it gets interesting. Samir wasn’t driving his Camry; he was driving a rental – a white Ford Transit van.”
Edgar paused to make his next statement sound more dramatic.
“Now hear this. Guess what was written on the side of the van? Aether Solutions.”
“Aether?”
“I looked it up. Aether Solutions act as a one-stop-shop to businesses for installation, design, and maintenance of their electrical systems. They service mainly New York City.”
The conversation with Ashton immediately flashed through in Arya’s head. She remembered finding out from Ashton that Samir Tariq worked as a service technician and not as an investment broker in Aries Financials. At first, Samir lied about his position in Aries Financials, and then he hid his resignation. Sania seemed to have no knowledge of both fronts. It had become quite evident to Arya that Samir was duplicitous, but what she hadn’t figured out is why.
“Did you hear what I just said?” Edgar asked, breaking the silence that befell between them.
“Yeah, yeah,” Arya responded, getting her senses back to the present moment. “I was just thinking, why?”
“What do you mean?” Edgar asked, keeping an eye on the road.
“We now know for sure that Samir had been lying to Sania for a long time…,” Arya began to lay out a laundry list of lies they had discovered so far. “…about his past work history, his position in Aries Financials, his resignation, his recent travel to Los Angeles, and his new employer.”
“When you put it that way, it does sound like he is a pathological liar,” Edgar concluded, adding his color about the psyche of Samir.
“But why? Was Samir ashamed of his true job? Did he lie to Sania to make himself look good?” Arya threw out questions which they both agreed that Sania would be the best person to have a definitive answer.
“This is going to break her heart,” Arya sighed, feeling worse about exposing Samir’s lies and shattering Sania’s view of him.
“I know. But you are doing it for her own good.” Edgar paused before adding, “Maybe she already suspected it. Based on my experience, wives always know when their husbands lie. This is especially so when the lies are this big.”
Arya nodded, looking down, agreeing with Edgar.
“Also, I think that was not the end of Samir’s lies.” Edgar held his gaze squarely on Arya and said, “I think Samir did not work for Aether Solutions either.”
Arya looked up at him in a way that demonstrated her state of mind – befuddled and utterly shocked. “What makes you say that?”
“The van.”
“The van that trooper stopped?”
Edgar nodded. “I ran the van’s plates that trooper gave me, and it was a rental.”
“Okay. Maybe Samir rented it – maybe he was a sub-contractor who worked on a job for Aether.” Arya alluded to the common practice where large companies, like Aether, hire sub-contractors to work on their behalf at a client location.
Edgar nodded, signaling that he was aware of that practice. “I know companies tend to demand the contractors to dress in their company’s uniform and paint their vehicles with their logo. This, unfortunately, gives the clients the wrong impression that the contractors were indeed employees.”
“Exactly. Aether might have done that here.”
This type of exchange was one of the reasons why Arya loved working with Edgar. She doesn’t have to mince her thoughts or sugarcoat her words around Edgar. He doesn’t mind her challenging and poking holes in his theory about the case. This might sound
like something that should be customary or typical, but, in reality, it was not, especially when it involves a female officer challenging a male officer.
They both decided that the best step would be to call Aether and confirm Samir’s employment status. They presumed the answer would be negative as Samir drove a rental and not a company-issued van. However, they hoped that Aether Solutions maintained records about the contractors who worked on their behalf. That would help them paint a picture of Samir’s employment and source of income after he resigned from Aries Financials.
“For now, let us assume Samir was a contractor, given the van was a rental. However, it doesn’t explain why Samir rented the van from Enterprise,” Edgar floated the question.
“Enterprise Rental?”
Edgar nodded.
“Okay, why is that odd? Don’t most people rent from Enterprise?”
“Yes, but they don’t spray-paint them,” Edgar explained that companies like Hertz or Enterprise do not allow customers to spray-paint their vehicles.
“I didn’t know that. Do you think Samir might not have known that?” Arya asked, thinking aloud why Samir might have painted the van.
“It is possible, but I doubt it, given he was not new to this line of work.” Edgar alluded to Samir having worked as a maintenance technician in Aries Financials and other places before that.
Arya slightly nodded her head, signaling to Edgar that he had a valid point.
“On a different note, what else did the state trooper say? The state trooper might have been the last person who saw Samir before he disappeared,” Arya switched the conversation to the traffic stop.
“You mean how Samir acted? Like his mental state?”
Arya nodded. “Yes.”
“He said everything was normal. The stop went by the book. He gave him a warning for taillights and wrote him a ticket for driving without a license.”
The Hunt for Truth Page 11
