WASHINGTON DC: The Sadir Affair (The Puppets of Washington Book 1) (38 page)
Read WASHINGTON DC: The Sadir Affair (The Puppets of Washington Book 1) Online
Authors: Lavina Giamusso
“Agent Lypsick wanted to extract information from Mr. Sadir. He knew that Prince Khalid was a friend of Mr. Sadir and I guess he thought Mr. Sadir would trust him to reveal some information about his dealings with Mossad or his involvement in the killing of Agent Assor or the shooting of Ms. Kartz.”
“And what was your role in the interview?”
“I was posing as a European drug lord with connections in the West African underground who could plausibly re-open the CIA’s operation in that part of the world.”
“I see. And so, did you obtain any information such as you hoped from Mr. Sadir?”
“Yes, we did. Mr. Sadir confirmed his involvement in a
clean-up operation
conducted apparently by the CIA that was designed to eliminate most, if not all, of the parties involved in the original drug and arms’ dealing trade.”
“Thank you, Agent Gilford.” Billycan paused for a moment before going to his next question. “This court has been informed yesterday that you made a recording of that interview. Do you have that recording on you today?”
“Yes, I do.” Mark pulled out a small tape out of his jacket pocket. He handed it to Billycan.
Simmons was on his feet. “Objection, Your Honour! The court has only heard of the existence of this item yesterday. Now Mr. Billycan wants to produce it…! We need time to examine the recording in question. We demand a continuance on the grounds that we need time to review the evidence in question.”
“Overruled, Counsel. Mr. Billycan has not introduced this tape recording into evidence yet. You will have your chance at reviewing the evidence once introduced to this court.”
“I renew my objection, Your Honour. I will introduce a motion to have this evidence suppressed…”
“You will be allowed to do that, Mr. Simmons, once the evidence becomes available to Mr. Billycan, of course. If the prosecution then fails to release the typewritten copy of the tape to you in due course, or if you should deem the recording improperly acquired or its content subject to question for some reason, then the court will be prepared to hear a motion to suppress. But for now, I suggest you refrain from taking any more of this court’s time.”
A deflated Simmons sat down without a word. Sadir shrugged.
“Thank you, Your Honour,” Billycan said. “I would like to ask the court to have this tape recording transcribed and the hard copies then introduced into evidence.”
“So ordered, Mr. Billycan.” Silverman waved at the bailiff. “Clark, would you mind taking this tape to the clerk, have the content transcribed and return the hard copies to the court, please?” Clark nodded, took the tape and walked out. “Go on, Mr. Billycan,” Silverman said, focusing again on the US Attorney.
The latter nodded. “Now, Agent Gilford, why didn’t you make mention of this interview to anyone and why did you keep this evidence—the tape recording of it—until today?”
“First, it was because I thought any knowledge of Mr. Sadir’s admission could have been dangerous for the parties involved. Then, I was told that since the recording had been made without Mr. Sadir’s knowledge it probably wouldn’t be admissible in court.”
“I see.” Billycan paused. “Did it ever occur to you that keeping that information a secret would in fact have the opposite effect?”
“I don’t know what you mean, sir.”
“Let me clarify then. Did you ever think that by keeping this interview from becoming public knowledge could in fact be dangerous for the people involved?”
“No, sir. Prince Khalid and I thought it would be better to give the tape to my agency in Ottawa and let Chief Gibson decide what should be done with it.”
“Was Agent Lypsick aware of the existence of the recording?”
“No, we didn’t tell anyone we had taped the interview.”
“But did you inform Agent Lypsick of the information you obtained from Mr. Sadir?”
“Yes, I did tell him, yes.”
“Do you know if Agent Lypsick did anything with this information?”
“No, sir, I don’t. Agent Lypsick was recalled to Washington soon after that and I don’t know what happened after he left Vancouver.”
“Thank you, Agent Gilford.” Billycan then looked up at the judge. “I have no more questions for this witness, Your Honour.”
“Very well then. Mr. Simmons, your witness.”
“Thank you, Your Honour,” Simmons said as he walked to the witness stand to face Mark. “Agent Gilford; you said that you had no idea who the man who hitchhiked on the road in Georgia really was, is that correct?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well then, why did you plant your gun in this man’s ribs as soon as you stepped out of the van—if you didn’t know this man at all?”
“It was a reflex action, I suppose...”
“A ‘reflex action’? Do you always plant your weapon in someone’s ribs when you meet the person for the first time?”
That did it. The audience, as under nervous tension as it was, exploded in a roar of laughter to Mark’s visible embarrassment. Judge Silverman again didn’t hesitate. He pounded his gavel again and again, demanding silence, which he got in a matter of minutes.
“I am sorry, Agent Gilford, and if you don’t mind, please answer Mr. Simmons’s question now.”
“Yes, Your Honour.” Mark moved uncomfortably in the chair. “Well…, no, Mr. Simmons, I don’t usually plant my gun in anyone’s ribs when I meet them. But this was different…”
“How was it different, Agent Gilford?”
“I knew we had been followed for two days by then, and I knew the people who followed us had no good intentions toward any of us, so when we stopped to pick-up the hitchhiker, I jumped to the conclusion that maybe this person was tailing us as well…”
“On foot…?” Simmons guffawed. “Come on, Agent Gilford, how could you, a seasoned intelligence agent, deduce that a man on foot was tailing a van going down the road?”
“I don’t know…, but that’s what made me react the way I did.”
“You say, you don’t know, but couldn’t it be due to the fact that Ms. Kartz recognized the man and told you that he might be involved somehow—and that’s why you stopped to pick Agent Meshullam in the first place?”
“No, sir. Ms. Kartz never told me anything about the man we picked up on the road.”
“Alright, Agent Gilford, thank you. Now, I’d like to return to the time you met Mr. Sadir in Vancouver.” Mark nodded. “Did Mr. Sadir reveal the name of the person or persons who gave him the orders regarding the so-called elimination of impeding parties in the CIA’s operations in West Africa?”
“No, sir. Mr. Sadir only inferred that Ms. Kartz had been seen as a disrupting individual and that her uncovering the CIA’s operation in West Africa had provoked a chain of events that had forced that agency to curtail all activities in the area.”
“As an intelligence agent, Agent Gilford, and an expert in the profession, would you consider the answer Mr. Sadir gave you at the time as truthful?”
“I don’t know about his answer being truthful, sir. During the interview, Mr. Sadir appeared to be scared of something or someone. He knew he was under surveillance, but that was more a fear of something else.”
“Thank you, Agent Gilford.” Simmons then looked at Silverman. “No more questions for this witness, Your Honour.”
“Thank you, Agent Gilford. You may step down,” Judge Silverman said, pounding his gavel and then declaring the court adjourned for the day.
“Marcel,” Billycan called after him in the hallway, “have you seen Samuel and Talya?”
“I think they’re gone back to the ambassador’s house already, why?”
“Was Agent Gilford with them?”
“I’d say so. I saw him go down the stairs a few minutes ago.”
“Good. I’m a little worried about these two. Now that we’ve met the burden of proof by showing that Sadir and Lypsick conspired to kill no less than four people—those that we know of—Lypsick needs to get rid of the only two remaining witnesses—apart from Sadir or Prince Khalid. Did you talk to Simmons yet?”
“Yeah, in the hallway at lunch, he had just been talking to Sadir.”
“And…?”
“Well, Sadir wants to take the stand apparently, as soon as the defence opens, because he thinks that since Lypsick has been “flagged”—to repeat Simmons’s exact word—he won’t have to worry about his family being in danger anymore.”
“That would be one way of getting Sadir to confess,” Billycan blurted. “Do you think Simmons will let him do that?”
“I don’t know yet. I think he wants his client to plead to a lesser charge, have him allocute the details of his receiving orders and from whom, rather than wasting any more time on going over the same things again.”
The US Attorney nodded slowly. “Besides…, Sadir would get a much better deal by revealing the name of the one who gave him these orders now than when he’s on the stand, and we can’t do anything to protect him. Billycan pondered for a moment. “You think Sadir wants something else?”
“I don’t know, sir. When we had no confirmation of Lypsick’s involvement, Sadir wanted to stay in prison and didn’t want to talk. Now that we’ve demonstrated that Lypsick was the messenger, Sadir wants to tell the world about it.”
“Let’s offer him felony manslaughter or even reckless endangerment and see if he’d be ready to give us the ‘Puppeteer’ in exchange.” Marcel frowned. “Look, when he was in Vancouver with him, Lypsick kept asking him the name of the ‘Puppeteer’ and Sadir wouldn’t budge, or pretended he didn’t know anything about it.”
“Yes, that’s right.” Marcel thought about this for a minute. “Maybe Lypsick wanted to know if Sadir knew who it was and if Sadir had told him anything, he would have had his family eliminated as he promised he would all along.”
“You’ve got it. And now that we can’t find Lypsick, and he’s been ‘flagged’, Sadir’s only way out is to tell us who the Puppeteer is.” Billycan paused. “We’ve got to find Lypsick, and have a talk with Sadir, Marcel,” he said, rushing toward the courthouse’s doors. “…if Lypsick’s still alive...”
“What’s happening with the investigation of Van Dams’s assassination, do we know?”
Billycan shook his head. “You know the CIA; they’ll keep the whole thing under wraps. It’s the FBI that bothers me right now. Why would they want to pin a murder rap on Talya and why tailing her across the countryside? Those are questions we haven’t got an answer for.” Billycan looked out the car window. “Anyway, we might get lucky when we interview this Special Agent Fillmore guy. Is he still coming for the appointment, do you know?”
“As far as I know, he should be in your office already, yes.”
It was nearly 6:30 when Carl parked the car in the garage. “I may need you later, so why don’t you go and have some dinner and be back here by 7:30,” Billycan said to him when he stepped out of the vehicle.
“Very well, sir. I’ll be here.”
As Marcel and Billycan came out of the elevators, Darlene was expecting them. “Darlene? What are you doing here?” Billycan asked.
The attorney didn’t answer.
Seeing her face pale and her lips tremble, Marcel couldn’t help but ask, “What’s wrong, Ms Stovall?”
Billycan looked into her worried face. “Come to my office right now,” he ordered. Then to Marcel, “Put Fillmore in the conference room and make sure he’s out of earshot.”
“Okay...” Marcel marched away quickly in the direction of the anteroom where Fillmore was waiting for the US Attorney.
“Now, Darlene…, what’s going on?” Billycan asked again as they made their way to his office.
“Talya and Samuel have disappeared!”
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