Square Snapper (Detective Inspector Burgess) (29 page)

If Gonzalez had been impressed by the glossy Forensic Computer Lab, Archie was positively overwhelmed. He could barely contain his awe.

“Looks like a film set,” he gushed to Hofstein. “Look at all that equipment. How can you
not
catch a perp with all this hardware.”

“And you haven’t seen the software or met some of the brains in this department. They make our lives so much easier. Detective work is still a hard slog, but nothing to what it used to be.” Hofstein led Archie over to where Jacobs was immersed in his computer programs. “Any luck yet?”

“No, not yet but I’m still hopeful.” He looked across at the dark friendly face of Archie.

“Aaron, this is Detective Sergeant Archie Carmichael from Serious Crimes in Bermuda. He’s been working on another angle of the case over there.”

“It’s the cell phone we found in Cujo’s possession. He got a call from someone from the Shining Light Ministries in Dallas. Can you find out who else he knows?”

“Sure, I can. I’ll be happy to download all the information and get that to you. Give me an hour?”

“Sure.”

“C’mon, Archie. Let me show you a great Cuban restaurant that Gonzalez used to love. We can go and drink a few beers in his name. Tomorrow, I’m off to interview a certain Reverend William Wylie in Dallas, Texas.”

They both said their goodbyes to Jacobs and went out into the darkening evening oblivious to the beauty of the pink sky as the sun set behind the palm trees.

Chapter 62

The Reverend had been glued to his desk all afternoon waiting for a reply from Cujo Menendez. Now he was certain something had gone badly wrong. In his zeal to remain anonymous, he now found himself with nobody else to call. At the time he had felt that it was for his own good. Now he was not so sure. Menendez only knew him as “Jefe” and, in all the time they had been in business together, had probably actually spoken to him twice. They had communicated by encrypted e-mails using the book “The House of Spirits” as the key. Menendez would then communicate to his Colombian contacts in Spanish using “La Casa de los Espiritus”. It had been a system that had worked well but now, with no e-mail or telephone contact from Menendez, he was totally isolated and had no way of knowing what had transpired. He knew there was a shipment due in from Colombia. He had bankrolled it himself yet he had no idea who would organize its pick up, once it had reached Miami. He suddenly realized that this set-up was very flawed. Was it time to pull the plug or lay low for a while? Why hadn’t Menendez contacted him? He was beside himself with frustration.

Early the next morning Hofstein was on his way to Dallas. Instinctively, he felt that he was on to something. Why would anybody in the Shining Light Ministries call a drug dealer? This was no accident. He had called his counterpart in the Dallas Police who would pick him up at the airport and together they would go over to visit the Reverend William Wylie and his employees. He was looking forward to meeting the charismatic preacher. He had caught him on television a couple of times when surfing channels and had always stopped for a few minutes to catch his “act”. Not for one moment was he taken in by the smooth talking, urbane manner of the lynx-like TV evangelist. He had interviewed too many con men not to recognize one, no matter how sophisticated he might appear on the outside. They were all greedy low-lives to him.

Aaron Jacobs was busy back at his computer terminals desperately tweaking programs for a break in the case. Now that they had the lead to Shining Light Ministries, he renewed his efforts on the English version of the book. He doubted the communications would have come through in Spanish since the speaker on the telephone had spoken to the Evidence Officer in unaccented English. He felt reinvigorated and applied his considerable skills with new-found energy and optimism. Had the Reverend realized how much excitement he had caused in Miami, he would have been packing his bags for a quick getaway. Instead, he was blissfully unaware of the flurry of activity his mistake had unleashed.

Archie had arrived back in Bermuda and sat in the murder room reporting back to the team on events in Miami. He could sense their excitement as he recounted the progress made and the potentially case-breaking mistake of the person in the Shining Light Ministries. All hoped that Hofstein would be able to make a significant arrest and avenge the death of his partner.

After Archie had given his formal report, they sat around the conference table and began discussing events in Bermuda. The thing that most gratified them all was the uproar in which the drugs community found itself without Frenchie at the helm. It seemed as if his being captured had left a vacuum at the top that several others were falling over each other to fill. Inspector Dill’s informants had kept him apprised of developments and the Narcotics Department was enjoying observing the fall-out as each dealer tried to assert himself as the new leader. In their haste to fill Frenchie’s shoes they had provided a great deal of information that would ensure he would remain in prison for several years. What they had not yet learned was how he had smuggled his weapons into the island and that was something that the police would have to follow up and break wide open in order to prevent from re-occurring. The capture of the cache of weaponry had been kept as low profile as possible. The politicians were calling for discretion after so much negative press. They had leaned on the commissioner who had, in turn, leaned on the superintendent who had then made it perfectly clear to Burgess that there were to be no more leaks from his department, either to the press or to the criminal element – a not so vague dig at him with regard to the issue of Furbert. Had not Burgess become such a hero to the Bermuda public, he was convinced the Furbert “problem” would have severely jeopardized his career. So far, the papers were still having a field day with the arrests of Frenchie and Captain and had not picked up on anything further. Burgess fervently hoped that they would remain fixated on those news items and leave him alone. It was time to get to the bottom of everything without it all being played out on the seven o’clock news or on the People’s Corner. He was weary of all the hysteria.

“Any further news on Captain?” Archie was keen to hear more about that line of inquiry.

“Not much. Dill’s team is frustrated as hell because he’s just clammed up.” Burgess did not look much happier himself.

Pamela leaned forward in her chair. “Do you think it’s just a good legal tactic or that he could be covering up for someone else?”

“Good question,” said Burgess. “Archie asked me the same thing. I’m not so sure that he
is
the so-called “Drug Baron” everyone talks about. He just doesn’t seem to possess the leadership qualities, or the money, according to Dill, to be heading up drug trafficking in Bermuda. Frenchie was obviously dealing with Captain but I doubt anybody high up the chain of command would be dealing first hand with the likes of Frenchie.”

“I agree,” chimed in Archie.

“Sure does make a lot of sense,” added Pamela. “A big fish would keep a layer or two of insulation between him and types like Frenchie. I bet Captain knows exactly who he is but is either scared - or has been bribed - to keep quiet.”

“My thoughts exactly which leads us all back to the question: who is heading up this business and will we ever get to the bottom of it?” Burgess looked inquiringly at them both.

Archie shrugged his shoulders. “Well, with us and Narcotics on the job, surely we’ll eventually get to the truth.”

Pamela looked across at them both. “Who knows, this is Bermuda after all. Changing the subject, has anyone seen Mr. Furbert? He did not come in for work today and hasn’t called in sick.”

“Ah yes.” Burgess shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “There’s been a development and I have had to take action. In fact, let’s call in Mrs. Ming as well and I can explain to you all what has happened.”

Archie smiled reassuringly. “You don’t have to tell them about our little ‘sting’ operation. Just say a confidential informant told you… and I’ll pretend that I didn’t know either, otherwise Pamela will not be very happy.”

“Good thinking. That’s exactly how we’ll handle it.” Burgess unconsciously braced himself as Pamela and Mrs. Ming came into the room.

Chapter 63

The Dallas police had lost no time in obtaining a search warrant for Shining Light Ministries. A Texas Ranger, complete with white Stetson, boots and pistol belt, accompanied Hofstein to the headquarters of the Church. The Ranger had explained to him that back in 1823 a colonizer by the name of Stephen Austin had called for men to “range” the frontier. Even though they still wore the uniform of that era, the modern day Rangers, who are an investigative division of the Texas Department of Public Safety, now worked with tools of the 21
^st
century: networked computers, forensic analysis and cell phones. Hofstein was suitably impressed.

He looked up at the large steel and glass building located on a busy street in an obviously expensive part of the city. “Religion obviously pays.”

“Just like crime, if you do it right,” chuckled the Ranger in a thick southern drawl.

“My partner, Gonzalez - the one who was shot - he always said you had to look out for the ones in the suits. They were the ones who scared him the most. At least with the low-lives, they kind of advertise what they’re capable of. You know what I mean? These guys are in camouflage and have a whole lot more brains.”

“Well,
(he pronounced it
“
wayell
”
)
your partner was one helluva a smart guy.”

“That he was... That he certainly was.”

The friendly Texan and Hofstein took the elevator to the top floor where the Reverend Wylie had his office. They walked right past the receptionist through the door which bore his name.

Startled, the television evangelist looked up from his desk, eyes blazing.

“Who the hell are you and what are you doing barging in here like this?” He stood up theatrically, desk between him and the two police men, and shouted for the receptionist to call the police.

“We are the police,” said Hofstein calmly.

The Ranger showed the Reverend the search warrant. “We’re the advance party. We have several men outside going through your offices and here come two more to assist us in doing some spring cleaning here.”

The Reverend’s face drained of all colour and he remained silent as the Ranger, now fully on guard, began to read him his rights. He then cuffed him and beckoned to Hofstein to follow him out of the office.

Chapter 64

Jacobs was ecstatic. He had finally managed to crack the longest coded message.

“How did you do that?” Hofstein was intrigued and not a little impressed. “I thought the NSA guy said it would be impossible in your lifetime!”

“Well, I decided to do some lateral thinking. I figured if there was a message from Colombia to advise this Cujo guy about picking up the drugs, they must be coming either by land, air or sea. In that case, most probably the information would be about planes or ships schedules, container numbers, trucking companies, dates and so forth. I rewrote some of my Spanish programs and bingo, up came a name that matched a ship that is due in on Monday. It was simple after that to figure out the date and container number.”

“You’re a genius.”

“I know,” smiled Jacobs. “I had to think of something. My reputation as the FCL genius was at stake!”

“Well, this is fantastic. We will need to alert the DEA about this shipment. I imagine they will want to spearhead its take down. Are you positive it’s this Monday?”

“No question about it. I can even give them the container number. I am double-checking to see what the ship’s manifesto contains so that we know what to expect in that container.”

“Once you have all of that, can you please send it over to my lieutenant. He’ll want to be up to speed on all of this.”

“Absolutely. Will you be there at the take down?”

“I’d like to be, but I think the lieutenant will call in the DEA to take care of it from now on. I have a lot of work to do back at the precinct and a new partner to break in. I am only glad that we can get this stuff off the streets. I am pretty certain we can connect the dots now. The famous, or should I say ‘infamous’ Reverend Wylie was bankrolling the show, Cujo Menendez was importing, cutting and distributing through his network; seems like he was supplying the Bermuda market too. We’re not exactly sure who decided to cut the heroin with strychnine. That will probably come out, once the Reverend is interviewed. I can’t wait to hear what he has to say. I wish Sebas were here to see this. He always hated the ones in suits and, by God, was he right.”