WASHINGTON DC: The Sadir Affair (The Puppets of Washington Book 1) (34 page)

The news of Van Dams’s sudden death spread over all forms of media within minutes of the shooting. Within an hour, the CIA was on “lock-down alert” and all concerned parties were advised to stay put for at least twelve hours.

When Khalid heard the news, he took no time to make his way down to the hotel’s garage. He wanted to get to the ambassador’s house before anyone had an opportunity to tell Talya and Samuel what had happened. He found Mark already in his car, waiting for him. The backdoor was open.

“Where’s Uncle Abdullah?” Mark asked. “He should come as well.”

“He’s fine.” Khalid climbed in the back seat. “He’s taken a cab to the ambassador’s house already—less obvious.”

“Good.” Mark then told the driver where they wanted to go. He turned to Khalid. “Who do you think fired the shot?”

“I thought you could tell me,” Khalid replied.

“I’d say Lypsick did, but I’m not sure. Lypsick would have shot the man in the head, not in the chest. That was a sloppy job, if you ask me.”

“Do you think the bullet was meant for someone else?”

“I don’t know yet, but if they tailed Billycan, maybe it was meant for him.”

“Somehow, I don’t think so.”

Mark looked at Khalid, a question mark on his face. “What makes you say that?”

“The person who shot Van Dams must have been in court this afternoon and when he heard what I said about Sadir being a liaison officer in West Africa…”

Mark’s questioning expression receded into a stunned one. “You mean you told them about the meeting with Sadir in Vancouver and you contacting the CIA Director—why?”

“I had to do it, Mark. I didn’t want to let anyone know and that, until I was on the stand. The CIA Director himself asked me to keep the information quiet—for obvious reasons—and he was right. His deputy is now dead because of my divulging that someone was interfering with their operation before it fell apart.”

“So…, we’re back at the beginning, aren’t we?”

Khalid nodded. “Yes, Mark, we are. All of us have tripped one way or another on information regarding the CIA and Mossad’s operation, and now someone is definitely trying to shut our collective mouths.”

“But that means whoever it is, is after a dozen people. He won’t make it.”

“Maybe not, Mark, but he’ll surely try. I have no doubt of it.”

“But why? What purpose would that serve? I would think he would be better to make himself very scarce for a while, at least until the trial is over.”

“But, as you’ve said, the shooting was sloppy. Perhaps we’re dealing with an enraged killer. I really don’t know, Mark.”

If there was ever a busy night for the police force, the FBI and the CIA in the District of Columbia, this was it. Soon they determined that a sniper shot Van Dams from behind one of the trees that surrounded the CIA’s compound. The investigation promised to drag on for days, if not weeks, and Billycan had no intention to let the incident slow down his ferreting information out of Verduccio. The Florida police, with the FBI’s assistance apprehended the man and brought him back to D.C. within hours of Van Dams’s shooting taking place.

Billycan walked into the visitors’ room of the detaining centre at 6:00AM the next morning. The two officers who had participated in the investigation of the Marianne incident were already there. The older of the two detectives made the introduction. “I’m Jim Laslo, sir, and this is Craig Fisk.”

“Lucien Billycan.” The US Attorney shook hands with the officers. “Glad to see you in D.C., men. Let’s sit down for a minute before the witness is brought in. I’m not going to waste your time with lengthy explanations.” Sitting opposite each other, the US Attorney brought two folders out of his briefcase and put them on the table. “All I want from this Verduccio is the name of the person or persons who assigned him to the clean-up operation after the Marianne incident. Then we’ll go over the shooting incident that occurred the next day.” The two men looked at each other baffled. “I gather no one has explained anything about this to you two.”

“No, sir,” Laslo said, “we’ve only been involved with the Marianne Case.” He looked at his partner sitting beside him. “We know nothing about another shooting, sir.”

“Okay, let me give you a quick run-down of what happened the next day.”

In a few minutes, the officers knew as much as Billycan did about Mark being shot at the time Aziz, Talya and he were bringing back the launch to the boat rental shack at the Jacksonville marina.

“You two were supposed to go and interview the boat rentals’ owner, but given the circumstances, the Director of the CIA decided to bring Verduccio to D.C. immediately at my request.” Billycan then waved to the guard at the door for him to bring the witness to the room.

Verduccio came in, sat down, facing Billycan, and looked up at the two officers who had retreated to the back of the room. His hooked nose, ashen face, and sunk-in eyes wouldn’t inspire anyone’s confidence talking to him. Again, Billycan had no time to waste with physiological analysis of this witness.

“Agent Verduccio, I’ll come to the point. You were assigned on or about June of last year to a clean-up operation that occurred on and near a disused pier of the Jackson River in Florida, is that correct?”

Verduccio slid his lanky frame down in the chair and put his hands in his lap. He looked at the U.S. Attorney from over his brow. “Yes, that’s correct.”

“Who gave you the order to attend to the clean-up in question?”

“Special Agent Fillmore did.”

“And did Agent Fillmore give you any specific instructions regarding the clean-up and how you should handle the reporting afterwards?”

“Nothing specific, no. He said that I was to accompany the bodies to the morgue and make sure we got all evidences packed and tagged properly for the lab.”

“Did you return to the morgue once the M.E. had performed his autopsy of the victims?”

“Yes, I did.”

“What was the purpose of that second visit?”

“Special Agent Fillmore asked me to get two copies of the autopsy report and bring them back to the office.”

“Was that usual or according to FBI procedures?”

“Not to my knowledge, no, but I had never been involved in a similar operation before, so I didn’t think too much about it.”

“Okay, and then when you brought the reports to Agent Fillmore, what happened next?”

“Nothing. I mean nothing happened for months after that.”

“But something did happen to have you suspended from your functions at the Bureau, what was that?”

“It was when Fillmore got a call from somebody—I don’t know who—saying that the knife that killed one of the CIA men had been recovered and that I had tried to cover up the fact that Agent Nadir had not been killed with a knife.”

“So you were accused of falsifying the M.E. report, is that it?”

“Yeah, that’s what Fillmore said.”

“Did you do anything about it?”

“Yeah. I went to see Dr. Helldish and asked him for a copy of the autopsy he’d done on the two men and brought the report to Officer Laslo here.” Verduccio pointed to him. “He wasn’t at his desk when I got to the precinct, so I put the file with another that was tagged with the Marianne’s name on it. I figured these guys would find it and prove that I didn’t fudge the report.”

“And did you leave any other reports on Officer Laslo’s desk at the time?”

“No, but I noticed that the report Dr Helldish had given me also contained a lab report.”

“What was important about the lab report, do you think?”

“I don’t readily know, sir, but there was a forensic report that said they analyzed the blood found on some rags near the transom and determined the blood belonged to Salaman Abib.”

“And that confirmed what you found when you arrived on the scene?”

“Yes, sir. The forensic guys and I found these rags and we’d seen the two bodies when they were fished out and we knew one of them had been knifed and the other had been strangled in a choke-hold.”

Laslo approached the table, planted his hands on it. Verduccio looked up at him. Billycan was about to tell the officer to back off when Laslo asked, “Why did you tell me Al Nadir had been stabbed by Ms Kartz?”

“Because that’s what I was told to say…”

“Who told you to say that and when?” Billycan cut-in.

“As soon as I got to the pier, I got a call from Special Agent Fillmore giving me the names of the victims and that the stabbing had been done by a woman named Kartz.”

“I see, but did Agent Fillmore actually identify the stabbed victim by name?”

“Yes, he said, “CIA Agent Nadir has been stabbed by Ms Kartz.” Those were his words, as I remember.”

Laslo huffed and shrugged his shoulders as he retraced his steps to the back of the room and joined his colleague.

“Thank you, Agent Verduccio.” Billycan opened the second folder. “Now, I’d like to go over something with you that needs clarification before I go into court this morning. So, please bear with me and try to answer my questions as quickly and as truthfully as you can, otherwise, I’ll have to leave you in the hands of the officers behind me, who will have all the time in the world to get the truth out of you. Is that understood?”

“Yes, sir. Go ahead.”

“The incident in question occurred the morning after the Marianne incident. Of course, at the time you were busy cleaning up at Jackson pier and nowhere near the scene of the second event. Yet, we believe that the FBI knew or was aware of a second trawler being sent to chase after Ms Kartz down the inlet while she and her companions were bringing back their launch to the boat rental shack. In the course of these events, Agent Gilford of CSIS was shot. So my question is this; do you have any knowledge of anyone being ordered to chase after Ms. Kartz’s launch while you were doing the clean-up of the Marianne?”

“No, not specifically about that day, no.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well…, we’d been on Ms. Kartz’s tail for weeks then, ever since she landed in Florida. Fillmore had received a call for assistance from the CIA—as you know these guys can’t operate in the States—they were asking that we tail her until she’d lead us to one of their agents, a guy by the name of Ben Slimane.”

“Did you personally participate or were involved in the following of Ms. Kartz’s movements?”

“Only once—me and another agent got to follow her to Atlanta, yes.”

“But that was after the Marianne’s incident was it not?”

“Yes, it was.”

“And did you locate her then?”

“No we didn’t—only the car Dr. Hendrix had rented in Jacksonville. Her trail ran cold after that.”

“Thank you again. I’ve just got one more question—did you at any time while you were cleaning up the Marianne scene fished out a vacuum-packed crate of cocaine?”

“No sir. All we got out of the water were the two victims, that’s all.”

“Were you aware that such a crate had been found near the two bodies?”

“No sir, and if it was I would have signed for it when we tagged the evidence.”

“Did anyone ever accuse you of planting such evidence at or near the scene of the crime?”

Verduccio hesitated. It was the first time Billycan noticed his reluctance to answer a question. He pulled his body up in the chair. “Yes…, sir. Special Agent Fillmore mentioned something about this crate when he interrogated me before I got suspended.”

“Was that the reason for you being suspended?”

“That and my being accused of falsifying the autopsy report, yes.”

“Would you say then that someone is trying to pin these felonies on you?”

“It appears that way, I guess.”

“Okay, Agent Verduccio, I have no more questions for you at this time. You’re now going to remain in protective custody for a while. We’ve got an assassin on the loose at the moment, and from your answers, I would have to conclude that you’re on his list of targets. I must point out that you’re not accused of any crimes at the moment and that your remaining in custody is for your protection only.”

“Yes, sir, I understand. Thank you.”

When Verduccio left the visitors’ room, Billycan looked up at the two officers who had come to join him at the table once again. “I’m sorry that you had to travel all this way for nothing, men, but now that you’re free to return to Florida, Ms Glenda Blake, your ADA, and your captain will make sure that you open a case file on the second incident.” The officers nodded in unison. “Keep me informed, okay?” Billycan got up.

“We’ll do, sir.”

As soon as the US Attorney left the detaining centre, he called Marcel.

“Okay, Verduccio was made a scapegoat,” he told him when Marcel was on the line. “Get in touch with the Bureau and get Special Agent Fillmore in my office tonight.”

“Okay, sir. No problem. I’ll see you in a half-an-hour then?”

“Yes. Oh…, have you got a police escort for Talya and Samuel to accompany them to court this morning?”

“Yes, it’s all arranged. They should be on their way right now.”

“Good.”