Fortunes Obsession (29 page)

     " Oh no, Mr. Romero." she laughed, " You've got it all wrong.  He didn't kidnap me and he didn't rape me and I'm not sure what sedition is."

     It was Romero's turn to laugh. " I'm sorry, Ms. Bonda, this has nothing to do with his relationship with you."  He then proceeded to fill her in on Fahd's activities.

     Sarita felt guilty that her first thought was of the possible loss of this dream life she had stumbled into.

     "  I find it so hard to believe.  He's such a lovely , thoughtful man.  His manners are impeccable.  You must surely have the wrong man."

     Romero felt that if he could get her on his side, she could possibly furnish valuable information.  He filled her in on the many mistresses that had received the same gifts and the same apartment and car.  He told her of the whores and the beatings , elaborating in an almost frightening manner.  He could see her recoil in shock.  She was speechless.  He noticed a strand of beads around her neck and took a copy of the inventory of things taken from Dara's apartment out of his pocket.  " You see those beautiful beads around your neck.......look at this.  This is an inventory of things he took back from his last mistress and your beads are on it."  She looked at the piece of paper and then at her beads and

began to weep.

     Romero put his arm around her and could smell the coconut oil she had rubbed into her body.  He was embarrassed when he felt stirrings of desire and backed off immediately.

     "  How could I be so stupid.  How could I be so incredibly stupid.  I've behaved like a slut.  The man literally bought me.  I know that now."

     " Don't be so hard on yourself.  You didn't do anything that any other girl wouldn't do.

We would like you to cooperate with us as best you can.  You can call an attorney or you can probably call on your diplomatic immunity but I'm sure you would like to help us."

     " Of course," she said, "  I want revenge on this charlatan so badly, I can taste it.  What do you want me to do?"

     Romero mentally patted himself on the back for the way he was handling this.  " We want you to tell us everything you know and we want to search the house."

     " I really don't know if I am the person to give you permission to search the house but I'm sure that with the warrant you have , you can do it anyway."

     Romero wondered how an intelligent, beautiful girl like this could fall in love with this creep.  " You're right, I can, but I want you to calm the maids down and explain everything to them so they don't make a holy fuss."

     Sarita called the maids together and spoke to them softly in Spanish.  Romero was relieved to see that the maids were frightened rather than angry.  He walked to the phone and called the forensics team in San Juan to come out to the house.

                     *****************************************************

     Peter awakened from a drugged sleep and saw Dara sitting in a chair near his bed.

She was wearing jeans and a red tee shirt.  Her face was bruised and swollen still, even though it was four days past the incident.  He had seen her several times before and they had gone over the frightening events of Saturday, over and over again. 

     " The doctor told me I'll never play tennis again but that I can play golf.  The rotator cuff injury and the scar tissue around it would impede me when I serve or hit an overhead."

     She made light of it.  " You're not impeded in anything done horizontally, are you?"

" No," he said, " But you might have to reach up to adjust the shower head."

She walked over and kissed him lightly on the lips. " My pleasure, big boy.  Wow, it sure hurts to kiss....but you're definitely worth it."

     She pulled her chair next to the bed and they got down to more serious business.

They decided that it was no longer necessary for her to hide, therefore precluding another trip to Pittsburgh.  She reflexively broke into a big grin, which caused her great pain.

"  I never knew the meaning of, it only hurts when I laugh, before."

      Peter took her hand. " I think that from here on in, you and I will retire from the detective business and put this case behind us."

     " No such luck," said Dara, " We have to give depositions in the case against Fahd and I'll have to testify at his trial."  She was nervous at what she had to tell Peter.

     " A lot of disgusting and embarrassing stuff is going to come out in court and it will probably be in the papers.  It's going to be very embarrassing to both of us.  I'm going to offer you the chance for me to get out of your life right now.  I can't hurt you darling.  You don't deserve this.  You're too good a person to have your good name dragged through the

mud."  She started to cry.

     Peter stared into space for a long time.  " This isn't easy for me.  I know I can't let you go but I know what I went through before. "  He looked at Dara, softly weeping, her face looking like a defeated boxer and knew that he had deep feelings for her.

" I'm going to tough it out," he said, " But if I have periods of anger or disgust while this is going on, please bear with me and ignore me.  I don't want us apart , ever.  I'm even willing to move to another city with you and start over.  I love you."

     They sat quietly with their arms around each other for a long time.

                     ***************************************************

     Bey, Collins, Mahdi and the five terrorist commandos sat around a dusty table in their, "factory".

        " I always knew that stupid bastard would get himself killed one day.  I think we're well rid of him.  Collins here tells me that all of the hardware is ready. "  Bey had sent Collins, accompanied by one of the commandos to pose as a tourist and look over the lay of the land.  He was satisfied that security was lax enough in the non secure areas to gain him access to the secure areas, once he wore the proper disguise and flashed the proper I.D.

" We are two weeks away from the project.  We are coordinating it simultaneously with the launch, so that we can take advantage of the crowds and confusion but once we establish a date, that day will stand whether the launch is scrubbed or not.  Any questions?

     Each of the men around the table asked questions germane to the operation and

Bey and Collins wrote everything down on scratch pads.

 Collins found himself wondering how he would get away from these people when the job

was over.  They were treating him lately like he was one of them.  They were promising him untold riches and a permanent place in their organization.  He wasn't fooled though.  Hadn't he studied the history of people such as these in intelligence orientation classes when he was coming up in the navy?  He was torn between excitement, revenge and a deep seated loyalty to his country that he found surfacing.  He realized that it wasn't about America but about the Navy and it's bureaucratic hierarchy.  While he enjoyed their admiration of his great expertise, he was realizing that he was sitting in the middle of the enemy camp and about to commit the most heinous treason against his country.  Maybe they were right.  Maybe he was crazy.  He had to get out of here.  But how?  The commandos were still following him everywhere and were to accompany him on his planning trip to the complex.  The cot where he slept was in the same room with the commandos, a makeshift barracks in the warehouse.  He had tested them at times by getting up in the middle of the night, ostensibly to use the toilet.  Each time, one of them would sit bolt upright, the minute he hit the floor.  Bey and Mahdi left each evening, probably to go to a comfortable hotel.  He felt as if he were going slowly mad.

                        *********************************************

     Special agent Ruth Halloran was hot and tired.  In addition, her feet ached.  When she had first joined the FBI, she had dreams of adventure and excitement.  So far, it was only plodding legwork and bottomless paperwork.  Her last investigation involved six months of going through financial figures in an office and this one was killing her feet.

     She was thirty years old and had a tall, athletic build.  She was proud of the fact that

 she could best men in unarmed combat classes and that she was a crack shot.  She could 

run faster than most men.  She was fairly  pretty and led a good social life.  She was almost happy that she had not found the right man to settle down with, not wanting to cut short her career with the Bureau.  She had no idea why they were not flooding the area with agents to find these alleged terrorists.  As far as she knew, she was the only agent assigned and she was just finding out how large the area was.

     When she entered Mark Brachmann's  real estate office, she expected another dead end.

She had missed this place on her first run through, because it was basically a law office with a sideline in real estate.  She had found Brachmann's name on a list of licensees.

Brachmann was more than delighted to receive this tall, attractive woman even before she flashed her identification.  He motioned her to a leather couch in his office and invited her to sit down.  "  What can I do for you.......what do I call you anyway?....is it agent or officer or what?"

     She smiled and exuded a kind of authoritative charm.  "  Just call me Ruth or Ms. Halloran or hey you or anything you want.  What I want from you is a list of people who have rented or bought property in the last month.  I can't tell you why at this moment but I would appreciate your cooperation."

     Brachmann went to his files and brought out three folders.  Two were in reference to families that had bought homes and the third was an electronics manufacturing firm that had rented space in a warehouse.  She opened the third folder.  It referred to a company called Aurora  Electronics and showed that it was a partnership owned by Sam Berkowitz and Morris Epstein.   Their addresses were a Post Office box in Orlando and the business

 was not incorporated.  The lease was paid for by a check from a local bank made out to the

landlord, Cocoplum Properties Inc. in Cocoa Beach.

     Halloran considered this the best lead yet.  The post office box address, the obviously Jewish names, everything about it.  She had a gut feeling.  She shook Brachmann's hand and turned down his offer to take her for a drink.  Maybe, when the case was over, she'd give him a call.  Sometimes this job was tough.

     Her next visit was to the office of Cocoplum Properties.  She was ushered into the office of Arthur Bennett, the  owner of the company.

     "  We try to product the confidentiality of our tenants, Ms. Halloran.  Sharing their financials and the other information  they have given us is something I won't do unless you come in with a warrant.  I'm truly sorry."

     Ruth Halloran remembered her training and spoke in even tones, trying very hard to be persuasive.

     " Mr. Bennett, we have reason to believe that the safety of our entire space program is being compromised and this is the only lead we have at this time.  I'm appealing to you as an American to let me see what you have.  Let me be frank with you.  I don't have the kind of information yet that would persuade a judge to issue a warrant to seize your papers or to search the warehouse.

     The landlord was adamant.  He  would not release any information about his tenants unless he saw a warrant.  Ruth remained calm.  " Mr. Bennett, I understand your reluctance but could you at least describe these two gentlemen for me.  It might help a bit."

     " Well,  I think that they are Israelis.  They have accents and they’re both kind of dark

 and short.  One of them, I think it's Mr. Berkowitz, is thin and kind of good looking and

the other guy, Epstein is fat and on the sloppy side.  I think that's all I'm going to tell you at this time.  I really want to check with my attorney before I tell you anything else.  I don't want these two guys suing me."

     Halloran left the offices, feeling like she was sitting on something but as yet unfulfilled.  She decided to do one more piece of investigation before she called Millard in New York

.                       ************************************************

     Millard was furious.  A federal judge had refused to remand Fahd to a grand jury and he had been released.  Not, however, before Millard had alerted the  Immigration and Naturalization  Service .  Just as he had suspected, Fahd turned out to be in the United States illegally and was  going through the process of being deported to Egypt.  He was released, however and was confined to his own home, wearing an ankle bracelet, alerting I.N.S. agents to his whereabouts should he attempt to escape.  Millard sat in a conference room at FBI headquarters and addressed his two young proteges.

     " Guys, I don't want you to get discouraged.  We're going to get these guys.  I really don't think that Fahd had any information that could help us any further.  He's the kind of guy who would have given it up if he did.  He sure didn't want us to turn him over to I.N.S.

I think the next step is to send some help to Ruth Halloran in Cocoa Beach.  We'll flood that town and the space complex with agents.  What I'm really afraid of is that they're close