Why Me?

"I'm not sure, but something might leap out at us when we look at them."

"Kathy, did Rick seem to have more money than his salary would indicate?"

"I'm not aware of it, our combined wages were ample for our needs and we were able to save towards a home of our own."

"He didn't have any accounts that you weren't aware of?"

"I can check for you, but he never mentioned anything to me about having another account."

Over the next week, the case moved in several different directions before returning to a central direction.

Kathy found that Rick did have an account that he had not told her of. It had regular payments going into it from an offshore bank. The balance was considerable. What she also discovered was that the reason that he hadn't told her of it was that he probably didn't know of its existence. The account was established using money deposited from the offshore account. While the details of the account holder were consistent with Rick's, it was established without his signature as the account holder.

"Why would someone go to all the trouble to set up this account if they didn't tell him about it?" Kathy asked.

"For future leverage." Deeadra said.

"What do you mean? Ted asked.

"If, in the future, he decides that he was not going to follow orders they will threaten to reveal the existence of the account and tell him, that if he doesn't follow orders they would reveal its existence and accuse him of corruption."

"What if that has already happened?" Kathy asked. "What if he still refused and told whoever it was that was running this scheme to do his damnedest?"

"If that is what happened they would hardly allow him to live," I said. "Something that I have learnt over the years is that you don't play hard-ball with guys like this because they play harder than you. They are not afraid to kill someone and they already have the machine in place."

"Holy crap! Are you suggesting that they would use a cop to kill a cop?"

"It's something that we should investigate."

It was very late and Kathy suggested that Deeadra should stay over.

"Where would I sleep?" Deeadra asked, knowing that my apartment only had two bedrooms and both were occupied.

"You could always sleep with Dad."

"What!" both Deeadra and I replied.

"Let's face it, I've watched the two of you move closer and closer together. There is an attraction between the two of you and you don't have to give in to temptation if you don't want to."

It was obvious from the way that she spoke that she was certain that we would give in. With an overacted show of reluctance, we agreed.

"I hope that this is not included in your billable hours." I said to her sometime after we had given in to the inevitable.

"What billable hours? I am officially on leave and you will not be charged for anything other than the initial consultation."

"How did you manage that?"

"I was told not to expend too much time on a case that had no chance of success. I was to drag it out as much as possible but not so far that you would challenge the account."

"For that Kathy and I thank you. I had visions of my pension disappearing into the coffers of an extremely wealthy Law firm."

"So did I, that's why I took the leave that was owing. I'm getting close to the end of what leave I had accrued so I am soon going to have to make a decision."

"We will pay you to continue with the case."

"I can't ask you to do that."

"What choice do we have?"

"I could always leave my job and start my own Law firm."

"What, and have your first clients not able to pay you? You'll never get rich on pro-Bono clients."

It was mid-morning when Kate stopped reading the page she was on. "Fuck." Her gaze was focused on the page.

"What is it?" Deeadra asked.

"This, I can't believe that this murder for hire business would move from your bread and butter criminals to the white-collar sector."

"What have you found?"

"One of the victims was killed because he was attempting to blow the whistle on some financial shenanigans. The big money boys were playing fast and loose and this guy had provided evidence to the Fraud Squad that would result in custodial sentences for some highly respected money market operators."

"What is the evidence?"

"The major banks have found themselves over-exposed to the mortgage market and are looking for a way out of the shit."

"How could they get into that situation, I would have thought that particular market was bullet-proof." Ted said.

"It's all about fiscal accountability and the use of forward income projections as current income, driving the share prices and the cost of borrowing money up, to the point that they are no longer able to service their borrowings. When you factor in executive salary packages that include share options, they have created a two-way spiral. On the one hand, with the share values going up through the roof the CEO s will benefit immensely when they sell off their portfolio just before they sell the mortgages to a third party. The third party is not under the same constraints on interest rates and repayments that that is specified in the original contract. These secondary mortgagors, seeking a quick return on their investment will raise the repayments to the point that the mortgagees will not be able to service the loans This creates the secondary spiral in which both the mortgagors and mortgagees are finding cash-flow decreasing until it will eventually disappear up its corporate asshole." Kate said.

"So if the word got out it would cause the market to collapse. That explains the need to silence this guy, to buy time so that they can bullet-proof their involvement. Let the little guy take the fall and rely on the government to bail the industry out. With a bit of luck, they could even benefit from it." Ted said.

"What is different from the others that caught your attention?" Deeadra asked.

"In this case, there was no murder weapon found, no-one has been fitted up for it. It looks as if they are branching out into new fields, contract killings as a warning to others not to rock the boat."

"That's all well and good, but it doesn't help your cause much, does it?" I said.

"What if, and this is a gut feeling only at this stage, having used the Mayor's Zero Tolerance to get rid of the traditional organised crime, they are now using it to protect the financial empires of those wealthy contributors to his political machine, a case of 'I give you money if you look after me'."

"What we need to focus on at this stage is to be able to prove that the forensic evidence that the DA will use to convict you has been falsified. If we can't actually prove it we can at least cast doubts on its veracity." Deeadra said.

"How do we do that?" Kate asked.

"If Rick had this hidden account, then maybe others also have hidden accounts. Maybe we can reverse engineer Rick's account to the source and then look to see if there are other similar accounts out there that we can trace to other police officers."

"How can we do that? Banks have all of their transactions encrypted to prevent tracing." Ted said.

"I think I might be able to get around that." Deeadra said, "Don't ask me how I know this, just let me ask someone that I have used in the past for IT-type cases."

"She picked up her phone. "Simon, Deeadra, let me run something by you. If I give you an account number in a foreign bank that is used for money laundering, would it be possible to use that bank's software to access other similar accounts?" There was a pause while she listened to Simon. "There is something unusual about this. The holder of this account was unaware of its existence and had not accessed it. The other account holders might also be unaware of the accounts. We believe that the guys that set up these accounts are using them as a form of leverage in case the holders want to make waves. In this case, the holder's wife has been set up to take the fall for his death and the DA will probably use her access to this account as a motive for the murder. It will not surprise me if they transfer money from this account to her personal account as evidence that she was aware that it exists and provide them with a motive for the murder." She paused for some time, concentrating on the information from her friend. "If you can do that it will be even better. Keep in touch."

"What was he suggesting?" Kathy asked.

"He is going to block any money transfers into your account and back-trace the attempts. If it comes from Rick's account that will work in our favour."

"In the meantime, we should see if we can gain access to the CCTV from the locker room to see if anyone other than you accessed your locker."

It took some doing involving calling in of favours and applying subtle pressure before we managed to gain access to the video recording. Our first run-through didn't look good for us, A woman who looked amazingly like Kathy approached her locker and used a key to unlock it. She took the jacket out and put it on before removing the pistol from the locker. Locking it she left.

"Tell me that's not you." I asked her.

"Even I'm not sure that it's not me but it isn't, I swear."

"Look at the time stamp. This was recorded at ten-o-seven. Where were you at that time?" Deeadra asked.

"I was picking up a pizza for dinner. Don't worry Dad, it wasn't a big one and Mike would have finished it off when he got home. We did this often, I would reheat it for him, although I would have to admit that reheated pizza doesn't look all that appetising to me, but him being hungry had no problems eating it."

"Do you have the receipt still? I asked.

"I will have, I haven't thrown anything out, I didn't have time."

"We'll need to get that, it's proof that it wasn't you that took the gun and jacket."

"There's something else that I noticed, whoever it was didn't take the clip, it was in my top drawer. I never leave the clip in the pistol."

"This is looking better and better. I think that the three of us make a very good team, what do you think Ted?"

"I was thinking that very thing. "If we can identify who is guilty of this crime and find the motive, we have a very solid defence." I paused, an idea was forming and I'd have to work through it before I articulated my thoughts. Both Kathy and Deeadra watched with puzzled expressions as I struggled with my thoughts. "What if money was behind all of this latest development?"

"Why do you ask that?" Deeadra asked.

"The use of that phoney bank account as leverage is what started me thinking. What if this is now all about money? Your friend who traced that account, could he dig deeper to see if any one financial institution jumps out."

Deeadra picked up her phone and placed the call and placed it on speaker. "Simon, when you were tracking those transactions was any one financial institution involved, or was it spread over several banks?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I'll get Ted to run his theory by you."

"Simon, I think the reason that Rick got killed was that he noticed a change in focus of the Mayor's zero-tolerance victims from gangs and pimps and drug dealers to white-collar crime. I have a feeling that the banking system is heading for a major shake-up and these guys are laundering money to cover their asses while distancing themselves from the action, a sort of deniability."

"How do you think it works?"

"One of their major donors is looking to cover his tracks so he contributes money to their campaign fund and eventually some of these funds find their way into the pockets of those carrying out the hit. The money is transferred into an offshore account from where it is moved around to deter investigation and the money is then used to pay the assassins. If the police ever crack this and find the money there is no direct connection between the person ordering the hit and the hit-men. In the meantime, those arranging the hit are skimming money from the legitimate campaign contributions. I think that, if we follow the trail it will eventually lead to the bad guys."

"I'll dig around and see what I can find." Simon said.

"If anyone can find it he can." Deeadra said after the call ended.

Kathy's phone rang. "Kathy here, speak to me."

"Is that Kathy Reichert?"

"Yes, who are you?"

"My name is Simon, you don't know me, but a month ago your husband approached me with a whole bunch of stuff. His instructions were to send them to you if anything happens to him. Further to this, he instructed me to advise you to arrange to meet a Lawyer who he said was the best there is. I know her, she's used me in the past She works for a big law firm, but don't hold that against her, she can be trusted. I have just finished speaking with her and she wants me to investigate things that are connected with your case."

"Her name wouldn't be Deeadra Jackson would it?"

"How..?"

"She's here with me, us now."

Kathy decided to go home after dinner and conduct a thorough search of her apartment. We assumed the police had already carried out an extensive search but she hoped that they may have missed something important.

Deeadra and I were just getting comfortable when my phone rang. "Pop, I found something but I'm scared about leaving the apartment because I think that I was followed and I'm scared that whoever it is will be waiting for me to leave."

"Wait there, we'll be right over." Deeadra and I left, but we didn't go straight to her apartment. I parked a block away and got out of the car. "Give me ten minutes to get into position and you drive around to her apartment. Get out of the car and walk straight up to the front door. I'll call Kathy and get her to buzz you in so it looks as if you are a resident. Hopefully, he'll be confused seeing my car roll up and you get out instead of me."

"Okay, you watch yourself, I don't want you getting hurt."

"I'll be fine, I'm a cop you know." I kissed her and she left.

Walking quickly I approached a car parked across from Kathy's apartment building. There was a man seated in the front seat pretending that he had every right to sit in a car across from an apartment building keeping an eye on that building.

Deeadra found a parking space within ten yards of the building, got out, locked the doors and walked briskly to the apartment building. Kathy had the door unlocked and Deeadra walked straight in. I was close enough to hear him on his phone. "Kenneally's car just pulled up but it wasn't him that got out. It was that Attorney of theirs. She was expected because she walked straight in without having to be buzzed in. What do you want me to do?" He was apparently told to sit and wait.

I walked up to the car, tapped on the window and held my shield for him to see. I beckoned him out of the car, taking his phone from him I opened the back, removed the SIM and memory cards and crushed the phone body under my heel. "I have called the police but I'm giving you a chance, if you're not here when they arrive they can't arrest you for stalking, can they?"

He didn't need a second warning and left as fast as he could. I went into the building and up to Kathy's apartment to be met, firstly by Deeadra closely followed by Kathy. "What did you find?" I asked.

"This is dynamite." Deeadra was holding up a flash drive, "I've had a quick look and it fills in a lot of blanks that would have taken us weeks to find. We are all going to my apartment but on the way, I'll drop this off with Simon, he's waiting for it. He's going to go over it, highlight the important bits to make it easy to follow the electronic trail and hopefully fill in the blanks of our investigation. We are going to have to have a planning meeting to decide what we are going to reveal and what we will hold back."

"We should only reveal just enough to get Kathy off the charge, I have plans for the remainder."

"What plans?" Deeadra asked.

"It's all about the timing. A lot depends on the evidence, but we need to be able to arrest those responsible before they realise that we have the evidence and that means getting it all in order and presenting it to the proper authorities."

"Who are the proper authorities?" Kathy asked.

I could understand her scepticism given recent developments, "I know who I would trust with this and who are not getting anywhere near what we have."

"Wait a minute," Kathy said. She had dragged a case from the closet to put clothes in when she noticed an envelope, "Rick must have suspected that at some time this apartment would be searched. Who would think of looking in an empty wheelie bag for something small. She opened the envelope. "He has written a report and instructions on what to do with it. This could be dynamite and save us time."

There was a new car across the road and a new watcher. I walked across, tapped on the window. "I'll save you the bother of trying to keep up with us, I won't even try to get away from you, we're all going back to my apartment to get a good night's sleep, we have a big day ahead of us preparing for Kathy's trial the day after tomorrow. Feel free to follow, although you won't learn much, you already know where I live." We left and were followed. Having made sure that we were going home, he left. I fully expect him, or someone like him to be stationed across the road in the morning.

"You two are getting on well." Kathy said to Deeadra the next morning.

"We seem to be perfect for each other." Deeadra said.

"So, he's not too small then?"

"Not by a long shot. He may not be as big as some of those porn stars, but he knows how to use it and that's the important thing."

"A little too much information." I said as I walked in on the conversation.

I looked out the window to the street below. Sure enough, he was there, if not the same guy as last night but the same car. I waved to him to let him know that I had seen him.

Half an hour later a courier arrived and we let her in before he had a chance to stop her. She was from Simon with a ream of paper, half of which was covered with columns of figures literally festooned with different coloured highlighter.

"This is going to take some time." I commented.

"Then let's get to it." Kathy said.

"Slave-driver," I said. "I'm glad that he sent this over in hard copy because I have a problem reading computer screens and because there's only one computer it would take us ages, as it is we could be at it for hours."

We divided the stack of pages into roughly three piles and each set about reading the pages.

Somewhere around the fourth cup of coffee, Deeadra stopped reading. "Bingo! I knew Simon would come through for us. These are clever bastards. In the middle of all of these electronic transactions, there's a cut-out. Money is taken out of several accounts in cash, in amounts small enough not to set off any alarms. The money was used to purchase diamonds, not conflict diamonds, that could land them in trouble if caught, these were top-end stuff, Argyle Pinks. They were cut in Holland and sold in small lots to diamond wholesalers around the world so as not to flood the market, and in the process, they made a very tidy profit. And this is not only one account, there are dozens. The original money was placed back in the accounts and the profits skimmed off into three accounts. One third to the Mayor, a third to the DA and the final third to a financial management company that put this plan together."

"How much are we talking about?" I asked.

"We're talking serious money here, and he's barely scratched the surface. We're looking at upwards of ten million dollars, each."

"Okay, I said, "Let's separate these into individual accounts and see if we can attach an individual deposit to a murder. We need to find a murder that takes place around the time of the payments into an account."

By the end of the day, we had collated the accounts linking the deposit transactions to murders of people within the financial institutions. We searched the media and in most cases, the victim was making waves that could cost companies a large amount of money. Just when it appeared that the whistle-blower information was gaining traction, the person went quiet, no reason was given, nothing.