The Hunt for Truth

by Sury Patru Viswam

  “Whoa, whoa!” Arya almost jumped from her seat. “What do you mean by driving without a license? He had one.”

  “I meant to say that he didn’t have the license with him that night. The trooper said that Samir claimed that he must have accidentally left his license at his home.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense. Samir was at the airport that evening, and we know that you can’t fly without showing ID.”

  “You forget that he never intended to fly to LA that night.” Edgar reminded her that they did not find Samir Tariq’s name on the PNRs for any of the Philly flights for September 10th.

  After Arya gestured that Edgar might be right, she shifted her gaze towards the highway where a cop was standing at the passenger side of a car, possibly issuing a ticket. That visual prompted Arya to think something totally out of the box.

  “How did the trooper know it was Samir driving the van that night? What if it was not?” Arya raised both her eyebrows as she threw a curveball at Edgar.

  Edgar was genuinely surprised by Arya’s question. He had assumed Samir was driving the van; he never thought of this possibility. “Do you think he was carjacked?”

  Arya shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know, maybe. I was just throwing it up as one more thing for us to think.”

  Arya and Edgar agreed that they should keep an open mind about Samir. They have evidence that he had lied to Sania about his job, but nothing definitive that he was unfaithful and had plans of disappearing.

  “I think we need to get the trooper in with our sketch artist,” Edgar said.

  The trooper might not have seen Samir’s license, but he saw the face of the driver. They both agreed that having the state trooper sit with the sketch artist was the right move. It should confirm if it was indeed Samir driving the van that night.

  If it was not Samir driving the van, it would open a new can of worms, Arya thought to herself.

  “Enterprise Rental might not be able to confirm if Samir was driving the van, but they should be able to confirm who rented it,” Arya added.

  “I know.” Edgar smiled as the car came to a stop in front of Enterprise Rental.

  22

  “What can I do for you, Detectives?” A young man behind the counter greeted Edgar and Arya.

  “We are here about one of your rentals,” Edgar announced.

  “Sorry to hear that you had a bad experience. My name is Jeff, and I will have it taken care of,” Jeff rambled on.

  “Slow down, what did you say your name was…? Jeff?” Edgar asked as he raised his right hand to gesture Jeff to stop talking.

  Something about the tone of Edgar’s voice made Jeff stop cold and not utter another word until Edgar finished with his question.

  “We are not here because we rented from here, genius.” Edgar rolled his eyes. “We are here to inquire about a van that was rented from here.”

  “Oh!” That was the only word Jeff could squeak through his mouth.

  Seeing Jeff’s discomfort, Arya stepped in to ease Jeff’s nervousness caused by Edgar’s high-handed approach.

  “Jeff, my name is Arya Martins.” Arya smiled. “Can you look up and tell us who rented this van?” Arya went on to read the plate number of the van, which was stopped by the state trooper.

  It was clear that Jeff was so much more at ease with Arya than Edgar. He began to breathe again.

  “Let me look it up,” Jeff said with a half-smile. Jeff’s fingers danced over the keyboard effortlessly as he pulled up the rental record of the van.

  “Got it,” he announced. “It was rented about a week ago by a man named Samir Tariq.”

  Edgar and Arya exchanged glances that relayed that this outcome was expected by them.

  Jeff raised one of his fingers to gesture that he found something more. “This van was reported as stolen.”

  Arya leaned towards the counter. “When was it reported?”

  “Yesterday, September 13th. It was supposed to be returned on September 11th, but I guess it wasn’t returned by this guy, Samir Tariq.” Jeff just butchered Samir’s last name, Tariq.

  “Is that why you are here?” Jeff asked.

  Arya ignored Jeff’s question and asked, “Did you take Samir Tariq’s ID when the van was rented?”

  Arya wanted to confirm that it was indeed Samir who had rented the van.

  “I assume so. I was not here, but let me check.” Jeff went on to hit a couple more strokes on the keyboard to navigate further. “Here it is,” he said, proceeding to turn the monitor towards Arya and Edgar.

  The screen showed the license of the person who rented the van, and, without a doubt, it was Samir Tariq who rented the Ford Transit on September 4th, 2001.

  “Did you guys call Samir before filing the complaint?” Edgar asked. It would have been unusual to file a complaint without first calling the phone number.

  It looked like Jeff’s nervousness had evaded, and he was more at ease. After reading through the notes left on the system, Jeff answered, “It seems they tried to contact the guy, but it seemed to be disconnected or out of service.”

  “Do you have the phone number?” Arya asked.

  When Jeff relayed the phone number, Arya and Edgar exchanged glances as they both didn’t recognize the phone number. It was a different number than the one Sania had provided earlier.

  “Did this help?” Jeff asked enthusiastically.

  “It did. Thanks,” Arya smiled, making Jeff feel better about himself.

  As Arya and Edgar walked out of the Enterprise with the printouts of Samir’s rental record, one more lie and deceit of Samir became known to them. Samir’s second cell phone.

  “You know what it means?” Edgar asked, referring to Samir’s secret cell phone.

  “I know,” Arya sighed, feeling bad for Sania. A secret cell phone, more often than not, meant that the husband was having an affair.

  Their conversation came to a halt when Edgar’s phone started to ring.

  Edgar answered the phone but didn’t stay on the call for long. Whatever said on the call was brief.

  “It was Ray,” Edgar gestured towards the phone. Ray Irvin, a fellow detective in their squad, was inching towards his retirement and had a way of getting his paperwork done by taking advantage of young detectives in the squad, and Edgar was his favorite go-to guy because he can’t seem to say no.

  “What did he want now?” Arya sighed.

  “It is not like that; he did a solid for me.”

  “What?” Arya couldn’t believe that Ray did a solid for someone else.

  Edgar started laughing. “Give him a break. You know you might like him if you give him a chance.”

  “No, thanks.” Arya gestured to Edgar that he could keep Ray for himself.

  “Now, I am actually curious. What did Ray do that qualified as a solid?” Arya arched her eyebrows, expressing her keen interest.

  “Samir’s financials.”

  “Don’t tell me he ran the financials for our guy?” Arya asked, expressing disbelief.

  Ray going out of the way to help Edgar was not the only reason for Arya’s exaggerated expression. It was also the timeframe by which Ray was able to pull it off. It would typically take a week to work with agencies to run the financials, and Ray being able to do it in a day was a complete shocker.

  Edgar nodded. “That is exactly what I am saying; he has them all nicely laid out for us.”

  Arya shook her head in disbelief. “Maybe you are right. I might have misjudged the man.”

  “Amen to that,” Edgar jested. It was not common for Arya to admit that she misjudged someone. It was even rarer for her to admit Edgar was right in any of their disagreements.

  23

  Arya and Edgar had decided earlier to stop by Sania’s house to find more information from Sania about Samir’s past. From their investigation so far, it had become apparent that Samir had been living a double life from the moment he had gotten married to Sania. However, Arya was not sure if Samir was che
ating on Sania, in the traditional sense, with a woman.

  Arya felt in her gut that there was something more significant in play than the run-of-the-mill philandering husband story. The scale of lying by Samir was astounding. He had lied about where he worked before Aries Financials, his position in Aries, his resignation from Aries, and his new business for Aether Solutions. Those lies were just the ones he had said regarding his work. Then you have the odd coincidences that occurred in Aries Financials at the time of his resignation, like Omar Raqqa’s disappearance, the suicide of the other Samir Tariq, and the break-in to steal a package from Marisomo’s secure facility. To add to the intrigue, Omar Raqqa’s access codes were used during the break-in.

  Was there some kind of connection between those odd criminal coincidences and Samir’s disappearance? Arya couldn’t tell so far, but she was determined to find out. She was never a big fan of coincidences, happy or unfortunate.

  Arya felt that there were too many blanks that they couldn’t fill regarding Samir’s past. However, they could turn to Sania to fill some of the blanks about his background. Arya wanted to start by learning about Samir’s education, work history, and family history. Once the basic profile was created, Arya wanted to build Samir’s profile by learning about his relationship with Sania. How did they meet? How did their relationship lead to marriage? Did they experience any marital issues in the past? And finally, did Sania ever suspect any abnormal behavior by Samir?

  As Samir was a foreign national, Arya had earlier requested similar information from the State Department. Based on what they had learned during the investigation regarding Samir’s lying, she was glad that she had reached out to the State Department. Arya desperately wanted to compare the accounts and see if there were discrepancies regarding Samir’s background. Based on what she had learned so far in the investigation, she would bet that they would definitely find differences between both those two accounts. The places where the accounts differ would help paint the real Samir and not the one he chose to reveal. Arya, in her gut, knew that would break open the case.

  “What exit did you say?” Edgar asked, trying to remember the exit for Sania’s house.

  “Change of plans. We are going to the precinct,” Arya declared.

  Edgar glanced towards Arya with a quizzical look.

  “Samir’s financials,” Arya said, with her gaze squarely on Edgar. “You are right. Samir’s financials would give us a better understanding of the true Samir. He has certainly been living a duplicitous life, and nothing would cast a light better than his financials.”

  “Also, his motives to lie,” Edgar added. “If he was having an affair, we should be able to find that out. Affairs are usually expensive.”

  At every turn, Edgar seemed to be holding on his theory that Samir was having an affair. Arya, however, didn’t think that was the reason for Samir to be missing.

  “How far did you go on the financials?” Arya asked, switching the conversation back to the financials.

  “I asked for the past year. I thought we can dig in deeper if we needed,” Edgar said evenly.

  Arya gestured that she agreed with Edgar. In her gut, she knew that Samir’s activity during the last five months, starting from May, when Omar disappeared, would be the key to this whole case.

  For the previous hour, Edgar and Arya had locked themselves in one of the interview rooms to sift through Samir’s financials. In their experience, Interview Room One, on the far side of the cafeteria, was the place to hunker down if you wanted to be left alone. Being the furthest room from the cafeteria meant one thing; it was the room that was least frequented by detectives. Whenever they find themselves submerged in a mountain of documents, they always find themselves in that room.

  Arya was pleasantly surprised by Ray’s work; he was able to get more of Samir’s financials in a short amount of time than expected. When Edgar informed her about Ray’s help with Samir’s financials, she thought that Ray would, at most, get Samir’s bank statements and his credit report. She had never imagined that he would be able to get all of Samir’s bank and credit card transactional data for the previous year. Having access to Samir’s credit report is one thing, but having access to Samir’s credit card transactions is a game-changer. With that level of detail, they would now be able to get a snapshot of Samir’s everyday life. She was extremely curious to find out if Samir’s lifestyle changed after he resigned from Aries Financials.

  Arya made a mental note that she should thank Ray and put in a good word with the LT.

  With the trove of data in front of them, they decided to take the ‘divide and conquer’ approach. Edgar took over documents related to Samir’s bank, house, investments, business filings, and taxes. If Samir started a small business, he would have had to register with the state and file taxes for it.

  On the other hand, Arya focused her analysis on Samir’s credit card transactions. Arya knew the best way to find a person’s secret would be to follow the trail of their credit card transactions. In this day and age, it was almost impossible to lead a portion of your life, even the one you want to hide, without ever using a credit card.

  As she sat in the room analyzing the transactions, it reminded Arya of the case that she and Edgar had worked on last year – the Tracy Handler case. It was a case that started off as a missing person case and ended up as a double homicide. Tracy Handler was a young woman in her late twenties when she disappeared in the middle of the day. The tragedy was that the day of her disappearance was one of the happiest days in her life. She had just called her husband and left a voicemail about the most joyous news in her life. She was becoming a mom. Unfortunately, the news that brought her the most happiness also ended up being the reason for her murder.

  Tracy was white, blonde, and had one of those photogenic looks that made the case apt for TV. The increased attention meant a lot of calls about possible Tracy sightings in the town. It also drove up community participation, and a lot of volunteers signed up to look for her. The search parties went for days, and it stretched all across the town, from woods to the malls. The non-stop press coverage also brought out a lot of crazies, who came up with falsehoods to get their face splashed on the camera. Even with all the attention, they couldn’t find Tracy. With every passing day, the hope of cracking the case began to dwindle until they spotted an anomaly in the credit card transactions of Tracy’s husband – Will Handler. Will had used his credit card to buy a gift VISA card that allows a person to add funds and use it as a debit card. Following the trail of transactions on that card, they discovered that Will had made purchases such as women’s jewelry and watches after Tracy had disappeared. Digging deeper, they discovered that he was also using that card to make rental payments on a property. When Edgar and Arya visited the property, they were met by a young woman who happened to be Will’s secretary. When Arya confronted the secretary, she sang like a canary. She provided evidence that implicated Will for murdering his wife, Tracy. Will Handler was eventually convicted by a jury and was sentenced to the death penalty for killing his wife and his unborn child. The justice was served, and Arya remembered, very well, how crucial the role of credit card transactions was; they got the ball rolling in the right direction.

  The circumstances in Samir’s case were different than Tracy’s case, but she hoped that the trail of credit card transactions would give them a much-needed break.

  “You could hide a credit card from your wife, but you could never hide them from the mighty credit bureaus,” Edgar had earlier remarked.

  After reviewing credit reports, it became apparent that Samir was not the type who carried many credit cards, and he had only two. Arya began to rifle through the reports to look at the transactions on both of the cards, and she straightaway knew that something was fishy. One of the cards, a VISA, had transactions only from the beginning of May 2001, and the other card, a Mastercard, went back for years. The reason was staring right at Arya’s face: VISA card opening date – May 2nd, 2001. That defi
nitely piqued Arya’s curiosity. As she dug deeper into the nature of transactions on both the cards, her jaw dropped in surprise.

  All the transactions on the Mastercard seemed to be something you would expect from running a household – groceries, utility payments, insurance payments, wardrobe upkeep, and so on….

  However, the transactions on the VISA card painted a different picture. There were purchases related to travel – tickets for flights that zigzagged the country, rental car reservations in San Diego and Culver City, and foreign transactions in Kuala Lumpur. There were payments made to a rental apartment in Culver City, and to flight schools in Arizona and Florida. Finally, the last transactions on the card were related to van rental – reservations in Enterprise Rental and purchases in Home Depot, possibly for paint.

  “How did a service technician, who was out of a job, manage to pay for all of this?” Arya wondered. When Arya checked the payments made on the cards, she noticed that only the minimum payment was made for May, June, and July. The payment for August was pending.

  “Okay, that explains the ‘how’ part? He never paid those balances,” Arya thought to herself. “But why?” Arya leaned back on her chair, looked upwards towards the ceiling, and closed her eyes as she contemplated the answer to the question, “Why did Samir make all these transactions?”

  At the same time, across the table, Edgar was deeply engrossed in parsing his stack of Samir’s financials. He started off with the real estate, and it checked out. In essence, there were no other properties than the home in East Falls, and there were no credit checks for any rental properties. The investments came next. For a person pretending to be an investment banker, the investments seemed almost non-existent. It looked like he dabbled on investing in an S&P 500 index fund, which he liquidated by the end of August 2001. Taxes came next, and Samir seemed to have filed them on time. Edgar flipped through them to check for business disclosures, and he came up empty. The filed tax returns looked pretty straightforward; W2 from Aries Financials and no other income was declared. Samir also took the standard deduction every year, and there was no mention of any small business. A quick scan of the occupation section revealed that Samir was truthful; he declared himself as a Service Technician on those forms.