The Watchman of Ephraim (Book Club Edition) (30 page)

“
We use the same … A1’s
²⁵
,” replied De May.

“
We’ve never had a need to go fully auto,” Ahiga replied.

Santappia broke in.

“
Okay, I’ll have our people fly our equipment down and I’ll tell our boss that we may be here awhile. I’d like you to suggest a hotel for us, if you would and after we check in, I’d like to go see your wounded coyote. I’m not expecting much from that, but we’ll leave no stone unturned.”

Ahiga smiled.

“
You better be careful what stones you turn down here, Charley, that’s where the rattlesnakes hide from the afternoon sun.”

All the men laughed while Santappia raised his beer bottle. The rest of them did the same as he proposed a toast.

“
Here’s to … not needing to go fully auto … and to the Shadow Wolves!”

Bryan Ahiga appreciated the sentiment.

Chapter 27

Security Office

The Foster Lafayette Hotel

Washington, D.C.

7:55a.m., Sunday, August 07, 2011

Mugsy Ricci and Michelle Wang sat at the desk of Ron Fryar, the Director of Security and Loss Prevention for the Foster Lafayette Hotel. Michelle and her staff were successful in tracking the last phone calls Pastak made with his cell phone. One was to a local Mercedes dealership, but before that, another was to an executive recruiter that apparently sent Pastak to an interview at the Foster Lafayette, just over a month before. The recruiter was reluctant to even admit that much until Michelle promised him that he would be The Watchman’s first phone call the next time they were looking for executive talent. Once she did, he was more than happy to share the name of the firm that hired him – which turned out to be phony – and more importantly, he mentioned that the man who contacted him spoke with a British accent,
with a hint of Middle Eastern in it
, as he put it. That was enough to prompt their dropping by the hotel to investigate.

Fryar handed Michelle a folder opened to a specific spot.

“
That’s the report that housekeeping submitted and the page behind it is the report submitted by the security official on duty, who investigated.”

Michelle scanned both reports then handed the folder to Ricci as she queried the Director.

“
Mr. Fryar, both reports mentioned broken items including a tea cup and what appeared to be parts of a cell phone and blood on a sofa and chair. Why weren’t the police called?”

“
Ms. Wang, the person occupying the suite was the one who called housekeeping. He explained that he entertained a clumsy guest who he hinted might have been intoxicated. Apparently his guest inadvertently broke a teacup, cutting himself and dropping and damaging his phone when he attempted to pick up the sharp pieces of the cup. His explanation was deemed plausible by our security official.”

“
What about the report of a man being chased by men on the same floor as the suite and at the same time as the alleged accident?” Ricci asked.

“
Yes, that account was given by members of a wedding party. Also noted in that report, was that our security official considered the members of that party to be intoxicated at the time.”

Mugsy looked at Michelle and shook his head disapprovingly.

“
Mr. Ricci, there was no reason to connect the two incidents and no cause to question the veracity of our guest’s statement … a gentleman who has been a regular guest of this hotel, by the way.”

“
What’s the name of this guest?”

“
You can understand our need to keep the names of our guests confidential.”

Michelle shot Ricci a look of frustration that didn’t go unnoticed by the Director.

“
Mr. Fryar, would you allow us to the view security tapes from that day and time?”

The Director smirked but with a look of impatience.

“
Mr. Ricci, as I understand it, you do not represent a government or law enforcement agency. You work for a private company. There has been no crime reported and even if there were, I would only be able to interact with an authorized member of law enforcement. Now, out of courtesy, I have shared with you all that I am prepared to share but unfortunately I will not—“

As the Director was speaking, Michelle was calling someone on her cell. After a moment of talking to the person on the other side of the line, she handed her phone to the Director.

“
Mr. Fryar, the Secretary of Homeland Security would like to speak to you.”

The Director put her phone to his ear with a look of disbelief on his face. Ricci kept his facial features frozen but looked with questioning eyes at his beautiful oriental partner in crime. She replied with a subtle wink.

“
This is Director Fryar … sir?! Yes, Mr. Secretary … yes sir. Mr. Secretary I was only following … no sir, not a problem at all. Yes sir, at once. Thank you Mr. Secretary, I will!”

Director Fryar handed Michelle back her phone, his face blushed with embarrassment. He hesitated a moment as if unsure what to do then used his intercom and stood up.

“
If you would both follow me, I’ll take you to our video room. I just called down for them to pull the video records from that day.”

The Director led them into a room with banks of monitors and rack-mounted drives used to store the video feeds from every floor of the hotel. He motioned for them to take seats in front of one bank of monitors and showed them how to operate the replay.

“
The feeds from that day and time and from that floor and the lobby will appear on these two monitors. If you need anything else, just ask my people in the next room.”

“
Thank you, Mr. Fryar,” replied Ricci.

The Director walked to the door then stopped, “You know, all you two had to tell me was that this was a matter of national security. I would have happily obliged. Of course, The Homeland Director only requested that I show you the security footage. He said nothing about divulging the name of our guest.”

Then he added, almost speaking to himself, “Apparently, the Secretary of Homeland Defense is also a personal friend of our owner.”

Ricci waited for the Director to be safely out of earshot before questioning Michelle.

“…
Matter of national security? Michelle, I know you didn’t bother the Director of Homeland with this … who exactly did you put him on the line with?”

It was her turn to smirk.

“
Well, as Director Fryar was condescending to us, I texted Johnny-F and asked him if he could …pretend to be the DHS and tell Mr. Fryar to let us see the security footage. He replied, ‘NP!’”

She couldn’t help giggling.

“
I have to say, whatever he told Fryar was good … real good!”

Ricci rolled his eyes but he was really impressed with Michelle. In fact, he was starting to feel other things about her, things that he wasn’t prepared to deal with there and then.
Man, I want to lean over and put my lips to hers!

It took all his effort to refocus and concentrate on what he was doing as he fast-forwarded through the recording. After a few minutes he froze the footage on a figure stepping off of the elevator.

“
Michelle, who does that look like?”

Wang leaned in towards the monitor.

“
Les…!”

“
Okay, so he arrives on the floor at … 9:15p.m …” Ricci continues to fast-forward, “… there, he appears to be entering that suite … about an hour later … there he is running from the suite … and behind him is a man …” Ricci freezes the frame and zooms in, “… with a suppressed pistol?”

Wang squinted, “It’s hard to make out, he concealed it so fast … but it could’ve been!”

Ricci fast-forwards again, “Gunman returns to suite … a minute later … two men leave the suite in haste.”

Ricci hit a few buttons and brought up the feed from the lobby.

“
There’s Les running out of the hotel’s entrance … and there go the two men chasing him. He must have been delayed on the elevator. It looks like they took the stairs.”

Ricci asked someone in the next room to fetch Director Fryar who looked thoroughly annoyed when he walked back into the room.

“
Mr. Ricci, I thought I told you that you could ask my staff if you needed anything—“

“
Mr. Fryar, I only need two more things from you. Would you please access the video feed from the hotel’s entrance that evening and put it on the monitor?”

The Director of Security did as instructed but was obviously annoyed.

“
My staff could have done this for you!”

After a few minutes of fast-forwarding, Ricci saw what he needed to see. He replayed footage that showed both gunmen approaching Pastak and taking positions standing on each side of him. The three men appeared to wait for the valet to retrieve Pastak’s car and then they all drove away in it. Ricci froze it on a frame of Pastak getting into the back of his own car. Fryar was confused as to what it meant.

“
Mr. Fryar, this is why I called for you. What you’re seeing is one of our agents being forced by two gunmen …concealing their weapons no doubt, but two gunmen nevertheless, into his own car and be driven away. Ms. Wang and I would surmise that these men were actually terrorists driving our agent to a remote location where they would most probably murder him and dispose of his body. I don’t have to tell you how badly it would reflect on you and this hotel chain if our agent’s body is discovered and the events leading to his death are traced back to here. The Foster Lafayette would be known as ‘the hotel where terrorists stay.’”

Fryar blinked his eyes, wetting his lips as anxiety overtook him.

“
... Which brings me to my second request … the name of the guest in that suite?”

Fryar looked shell shocked as he walked over to a computer terminal. After typing into it, he handed Ricci a printout.

Ricci took the paper and smiled at him without looking at it.

“
Thank you for your help, Mr. Fryar.”

Once he left the room Ricci looked at the name then handed it to Michelle.

“
Bahman Fard ...?” Wang asked with a little disappointment in her tone, “I was hoping to see Zamani’s name.”

Ricci accessed Big Brother and after running a search on the unknown man’s name, flashed a Cheshire cat grin. He tossed his iPhone to Michelle who read aloud from what he left on the screen.

“
Bahman Fard … listed as a director of one of Zamani’s companies in one place and as his executive assistant in another!”

She started to think out loud.

“
So this guy Zamani invests $25 million into a company owned and/or controlled by the Pacifico drug cartel. Then he probably has his man Fard offer Les a bribe in return for information on our investigation into his transaction.”

Ricci took his phone back and added to her thoughts.

“
Who knows what they offered Les. We found out about his new “bling-mobile” he was looking to buy, so it was probably a heap of money.”

Michelle jumped in again.

“
Something went wrong though. The way Les acted when he found out that Garcia went missing … and remember … he looked like he had an ulcer when he heard that Garcia’s transponder started to transmit again…”

Michelle thought in silence for a moment then it hit her.

“
He wasn’t expecting either of those things to happen!”

Ricci nodded.

“
He panics … goes to meet with Fard again … right as we send a team down to find Garcia and the next thing we know, their operation was compromised—“

“…
and Les disappears with Fard’s two goons never to be seen or heard from again.” Michelle capped it.

Ricci headed for the door with Michelle at his side.