WASHINGTON DC: The Sadir Affair (The Puppets of Washington Book 1) (36 page)

“Yes, Your Honour, I do. But could I have a glass of water, please?”

Billycan had stayed near Talya. “Right away, Ms. Kartz,” he said, going to his table. He poured some water into a glass and brought it to her. Talya drank its content empty. Lowering the glass, she smiled, “Thanks,” and handed it back to the U.S. Attorney.

While this was going on, Simmons and Sadir seemed to be in a very intense conversation. No one heard what they said, but the exchange quickly turned into what appeared to be a heated argument. Marcel observed them from his chair and wondered if it wouldn’t be a good idea to force Sadir’s hand. Yet, Lypsick was still at large and Sadir wouldn’t budge until he was apprehended, he thought. Besides, he didn’t know what Talya’s answer was going to be. As for Samuel, he had his eyes riveted on Talya—he wanted to take her place, to be at her side—while Khalid and Ashram were talking. Aziz and Darlene were also chatting quietly. There was yet a lot to say, many things hadn’t come to light and it promised to be a long day.

The bailiff returned moments later, rolling in front of him what appeared to be a comfortable desk chair. He lifted it to the stand, while Talya stood up to let him take the antique seat away.

A few minutes later, court was again in session—everyone waited with bated breath to hear Talya’s next statement.

“Is that better?” Billycan asked, talking about the chair.

“Yes, much…, thank you.”

“Okay then. I’ll ask the court reporter to read my last two questions back to you...”

Judge Silverman nodded.

Once the young lady had done so, Billycan resumed. “So, Ms. Kartz, would you now tell the court how you acquired this knowledge?”

“Yes. When Mr. Meshullam came to visit me on Bowen Island, we talked at some length about Mr. Sadir…”

“I’m sorry to interrupt again, Ms Kartz, but have you ever met the defendant before today?”

“No, sir, I have never laid eyes on this man before now.”

“Thank you, Ms Kartz, please go on.”

“Well…, as I said, we talked about Mr. Sadir and he being accused of pointing the finger at Mr. Assor and me, accusing us to have conspired against Israel. We could not reconcile the fact that Mr. Sadir being a Muslim person was able to persuade Mossad of our alleged misdeeds. Although there is much understanding between Muslims and Jews, especially among some of those residing in the Middle East, in this instance, Samuel and I could not believe that a Muslim man could influence Mossad to such an extent. So, and since I had a computer with internet access at my disposal, Samuel was able to contact Israel and reach someone in authority in Mossad. After exchanging quite a few emails, we received a possible identification of the man who sent the damaging messages to Mossad.”

“Is this man in this court today?”

“No, he isn’t.”

The silence that fell onto the audience then was nothing short of oppressive. Billycan knew the answer, yet there was still some ambivalence infiltrating his mind. He would not let his feelings show. “Are you telling this court that you think or can prove that Mr. Sadir, the defendant in this case, is innocent of the crimes for which he is on trial today?”

“No, Mr. Billycan, that’s not what I am saying.”

“Would you then clarify your statement for this court?”

“Yes. As I said, the person who could plausibly influence Mossad’s actions in any way would have to be Jewish. However, the initial accusation of conspiracy against Mr. Assor and me, originated from Mr. Sadir—according to the Director of Mossad.”

“Did you receive confirmation of this assertion at the time Mr. Meshullam was visiting you in Vancouver, or later?”

“We did not receive confirmation of the name of the person who sent the messages to Mossad or of Mr. Sadir’s involvement until two days ago when we were the guests of Ambassador Alasghar.”

“Why didn’t Mossad sent you and Mr. Meshullam confirmation of these allegations earlier, do you know?”

“Mossad told us they were waiting for us to be in a secure environment and waiting to hear from a person in power that had not been involved in the case at any time.”

“And you and Mr. Meshullam being guests at Ambassador Alasghar’s home was fortuitous then?”

“Absolutely. Yet, more than that, it provided an opportunity for Saudi Arabia to show the State of Israel their willingness to clear itself from any involvement with criminal Muslim parties.”

“Now then, would you divulge for this court the name of the party who forwarded Mr. Sadir’s messages to Mossad?”

“His name is Agent Jack Lypsick.”

The hush of relief that travelled through the audience reflected the audible breath that Sadir exhaled the moment Talya pronounced Lypsick’s name.

“Thank you, Ms. Kartz.”

Billycan looked up at Silverman and then turned to Simmons. “Your Honour, I’d like to thank my colleague, Mr. Simmons, at this time for his patience in making no objections to the fact the prosecution has not introduced any evidence thus far to support Ms. Kartz’s statements during direct examination.” Simmons nodded and returned to his notes. He looked disheartened. “Now, however, we will need to remedy this deferral and introduce to the court the evidence in question.” Billycan went to the evidence table, fetched yet another plastic pouch from it, and brought it to Talya. “Ms. Kartz, would you be able to tell the court if these are the bills of lading that you found aboard the Marianne?”

Talya took the envelope, looked at it, seemed to read the forms within it and then returned the pouch to Billycan. “Yes, these are the bills of lading I found aboard the Marianne.”

“Thank you, Ms. Kartz. Your Honour; the Prosecution introduces these bills of lading, marked Exhibit 12, and tender to opposing counsel.”

“Very well, Mr. Billycan, so noted. Mr. Simmons?”

“No objection, Your Honour.”

Billycan walked back to the table again, replaced the pouch on it and now took the knife, which he brought to Talya. She quickly recognized the weapon as being hers, and Billycan went to put it back on the table. He then turned again to Talya and asked, “Ms Kartz, do you have evidence or a copy of the emails and correspondence you and Mr. Meshullam transmitted and received from Mossad?”

“Yes, Mr. Billycan, I have.” Talya slid a hand in her jacket pocket and extracted a flash-drive that she handed to Billycan. “Every correspondence Samuel and I exchanged during his brief stay on Bowen Island has been recorded on this drive.”

Billycan took the flash-drive and handed it to the Judge. “Your Honour, this is the first time we have seen this evidence and since it is not on paper, nor can we verify its provenance readily, I would like to set this evidence aside until we can determine content and provenance.”

“So ordered, Mr. Billycan. Bailiff?”

“Yes, Your Honour.”

Silverman handed him the flash-drive and told him to have the court secretary print its content, record it and bring back the hard copies to court as soon as it was done.

“Please continue, Mr. Billycan.”

“Thank you, Your Honour. Now, Ms Kartz, would you be able to produce evidence of receipt and transmission of correspondence between yourselves and the Director of Mossad?”

“Not me, Mr. Billycan, but his Excellency, Ambassador Alasghar, can. He brought the file with him to court, I believe.”

Billycan raised an eyebrow. This was a little too theatrical or dramatic for his liking. He wondered immediately what His Honour was going to do or suggest. He had to think quickly on his feet—he could feel Simmons’s eyes burning holes in his back. If not properly introduced or admitted, this evidence could destroy all of his hard work. Ultimately, he feared that Simmons would introduce a motion to have the evidence suppressed in such circumstances.

Simmons rose from his seat slowly.
This is it; he’s going to make trouble...
“Your Honour, this is most unusual. We have not been advised that such evidence existed. We will need time to review these documents. In the least, we ask the court for a continuance so that Mr. Billycan could receive the evidence in question, giving the defence time to review it properly before being introduced to the court.”

Silverman frowned. “Yes, Mr. Simmons, this is most unusual as you say, however, since this court is ready to receive this new evidence, I suggest we do so now. Mr. Billycan will then be able to examine the documents in question, introduce them in evidence at the appropriate time and you will have all the time then to object to admitting such evidence. Would that be acceptable, Mr. Simmons?”

Simmons hung his head, visibly dismayed. “Yes, Your Honour. We accept the court’s decision.”

“Very well then. Mr. Billycan, please proceed.”

“Thank you, Your Honour.”

Seeing Billycan’s hesitancy and as the U.S. Attorney turned to face him, the Ambassador rose to his feet. “If Your Honour doesn’t mind the interruption, I would like to address the court at this time.”

“Yes, Ambassador Alasghar, if the defence or the prosecution has no objection, the court would like to hear what you have to say. Gentlemen?”

Both Billycan and Simmons didn’t offer any objection.

“Thank you, Your Honour.” The Ambassador bowed to the court. “I shall preface this by saying that I realize that I am not under oath nor have I been invited to be a witness during these proceedings. However, I have been asked by both His Highness, Prince Abdullah Saif Al-Fadir and the Director of Mossad himself on behalf of the State of Israel to carry these documents, remit them in your hands in the hope that this affair could be concluded judicially once and for all.”

Judge Silverman then replied, “Mr. Ambassador, on behalf of this court and in the interest of justice, I will accept the evidence that you have in your custody. Please transmit our sincere thanks to the parties who have endeavoured to shed light onto the case in hand.”

Ashram went to the bench and gave Silverman the port-document. “Thank you, Your Honour.” He then turned toward the door of the courtroom and walked out, bowing as he passed Khalid in the front row. The latter returned the bow discreetly and then looked at Talya who had been looking at him all this time. She wanted to run to him, scratch his eyes out and kiss him all at once. He had done it again. He hadn’t told her that he had asked for Uncle Abdullah’s support—but neither had she told him about the contact she and Samuel had established with Mossad. She finally smiled at him.

Simmons was perhaps disheartened about the fact that Sadir’s name had been confirmed as the name of the person who had sent messages to Lypsick, but there were a few items that hadn’t been discussed, and the defence attorney saw his chance at turning the tables on Talya approach rapidly.

“Ms Kartz,” Simmons said, bowing slightly, “I will not burden you with more questions than necessary, and I will thus come right to the point. You stated that you had known Mr. Meshullam while you lived in Australia, is that correct?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Were you romantically involved with Mr. Meshullam at that time?”

“
Relevance, Your Honour?
” everyone heard Billycan shout from his seat at the prosecution table.

Silverman was quick to answer. “There are two small issues that I’d like you to remember, Mr. Billycan—one: please don’t shout, and two: if you are objecting to Mr. Simmons’s line of questioning, please say so. Is that clear?”

“Perfectly, Your Honour. I’m sorry if I shouted, and, yes, I’d like to object to the fact that I don’t see the relevance in questioning Ms Kartz about her romantic involvement…”

“You’ve opened the door on that one, Mr. Billycan, I’m sorry. I’ll allow the question,” Silverman said, turning a furrowed brow to Simmons, “but although you’ve got some latitude here, Counsel, I wouldn’t abuse it if I were you.”

“Thank you, Your Honour.” Simmons looked at Talya again. She had resented the question and wasn’t looking forward to where this was going. “Now then, Ms Kartz, would you mind telling this court if you were romantically involved with Mr. Meshullam while you lived in Australia?”

“Yes, we were.”

“And then you said that you didn’t meet Mr. Meshullam again until he came to visit you in Vancouver... or Bowen Island, pardon me…, is that correct?”

“No, sir, not quite.”

“But isn’t it a fact that you testified that you didn’t see Mr. Meshullam after he left Australia and that until he came to Bowen Island, near Vancouver? Do you mean to tell this court you’ve perjured yourself?”

“No, sir—I didn’t. If I remember correctly, Mr. Billycan asked me if I had a chance to meet Mr. Meshullam again before today. He wasn’t precise as to the number of times or the timing of my meeting Agent Meshullam…”

“Let me stop you right there, Ms. Kartz. We are not in court to argue your testimony or Mr. Billycan’s questioning, but your answers to the questions we pose—nothing else.” Simmons paused and Talya pinched her lips in disapproval. “So, then, did you or did you not meet Agent Meshullam before he came to visit you on Bowen Island? Yes or no, Ms. Kartz.”

The stubbornness in Talya took over. “You’re right…, I saw a man who called himself Isaac Whittlestein when I was travelling with Agent Gilford and Dr Hendrix in Georgia.”

“But did you recognize him as Samuel Meshullam?”

“I recognized him, yes, but he didn’t seem to remember me or even acknowledge me, when we picked him up on the road to Chattanooga.”

“So you want this court to believe that after knowing—in the biblical sense—a man for nearly ten years and when you meet him again, he doesn’t even acknowledge your name or give you any sign of recognition? Come on, Ms Kartz, why don’t you tell us what is really going on between the two of you?”

“There is nothing ‘going on’ between us, Mr. Simmons. Agent Meshullam had his own reasons for not wanting to acknowledge me when we picked him up—I don’t know. I didn’t want to confront him at the time…”

“And why was that? Did you perhaps want to hide the fact that both you and Mr. Meshullam were involved, as presumed by Mossad, in a conspiracy against the State of Israel? Wouldn’t that be a fair assumption, Ms Kartz?”

“Objection, Your Honour; argumentative,” Billycan said as loudly as he felt the circumstances would allow.

“Overruled!” Without explanation for his ruling, Judge Silverman turned to the witness. “Please answer the question, Ms. Kartz.”

Billycan straightened to the back of the chair—he didn’t know how Talya was going to react.

However, Talya was not to let go of that bone. “Why would I then encourage Agent Meshullam to reach Israel and question the Director of Mossad? Wouldn’t that be a fair assumption, Mr. Simmons?” Tit-for-tat isn’t something you practice in court.

“Yes or no to my questions will suffice, Ms Kartz. So, let me repeat my question, wouldn’t it be a fair assumption were we to say that you didn’t acknowledge Agent Meshullam when you met him on the road to Chattanooga, because you two were conspiring against the State of Israel and you didn’t want anyone to know there was a link between the two of you?”

“No, Mr. Simmons.”

“I see. Would you then tell this court why you did not tell anybody, not even Agent Gilford, that you had recognized Agent Meshullam?”

“Because Agent Meshullam did not reveal who he really was—not even to me—and I thought I wasn’t going to be the one to say anything about something he apparently wanted kept quiet.”

“Did you have any opportunity to talk privately to Agent Meshullam when you travelled with him?”

“No, I did not.”

“Alright, but then didn’t you give him your phone number in Vancouver before he left you?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Why did you do that, Ms Kartz?”

“Because I was curious; I wanted him to call me if he was in Vancouver. I wanted to know what was going on and why he didn’t say who he was.”

“I see. Again, are we to assume that you wanted nothing else than obtaining an explanation about his presence in Georgia?”

“Yes; because that’s the simple truth.”

“Alright, Ms Kartz, but could you then tell this court if you had an opportunity to talk to Agent Meshullam when he came to Vancouver, supposedly to renew your…, shall we say... friendship?”

“Yes, I had an opportunity to talk to him, but I didn’t take it.”

Simmons stared. “And why would that be, Ms Kartz? Was it perhaps because you knew what Agent Meshullam was planning on doing, and you were trying to avoid him?”

“Objection, Your Honour, my colleague is leading the witness,” Billycan uttered.

“Sustained. Mr. Simmons, rephrase.”

Simmons shot a darted gaze in Billycan’s direction, but resumed, “All right, Ms Kartz, were you trying to avoid Agent Meshullam when he came to Vancouver?”

“Not quite.”

“Could you elaborate on what you mean by that?”

“Yes, Mr. Simmons. CSIS in Ottawa had informed me that I was targeted for elimination and that they suspected Agent Meshullam to be involved. So, I put my personal affairs in order and planned to meet with him at a neighbourhood restaurant that night.”

“When you say that you ‘put your personal affairs in order’, are we to understand that you knew you were going to be shot?”

“No, I didn’t know, and I couldn’t bring myself to believe that Agent Meshullam was the one who would pull the trigger.”

“Is that why you wanted to meet with him privately, and perhaps ask him the hard questions?”

“Yes, Mr. Simmons. I wanted to know if he was really the one who had killed Ben Slimane—I mean Mr. Assor—and if I was next on his list.”

“But, I gather you didn’t have a chance to do that?”

“No, I was on my way home when Samuel shot me.”

“If you knew who the perpetrator was, why didn’t you say so earlier, or divulge your acquaintance with Agent Meshullam before the investigation even started? Could it be that your conspiring against the State of Israel had been discovered and that you knew you had to pay the price for your treason?”

“NO! I am not a traitor, Mr. Simmons. And if I didn’t divulge who Agent Meshullam really was or why I supposed he shot both Mr. Assor and me, is simply because I could not believe the man I loved, would be capable of such acts.”

“And now that you know he is the one who pulled the trigger, why would you insist in accusing someone else of these crimes?”

“Because, Mr. Simmons, Agent Meshullam may have pulled the trigger but he is in no way responsible for ordering these crimes to be perpetrated.”

“Thank you, Ms Kartz,” Simmons concluded, turning to the judge. “I have no more questions for this witness, Your Honour.”

Over the lunch adjournment, Simmons went back to the detaining centre where he found Sadir waiting for him in the visitors’ room. The defence attorney had just finished cross-examining Talya and realized that, even though he had known it for a long time, his client was guilty as charged. The only way out of this mess was for Sadir to get on the witness stand and reveal in open court who was behind this affair—from the beginning. The prosecution had demonstrated that Lypsick was a messenger, and Billycan had now shown that Sadir was also near the issuer of these orders. Simmons was convinced Sadir had only been a link in the chain.

“Well, are you happy now?” was the defence attorney’s opening when he sat down across his client.

“I told you what would happen. Just take your medicine and shut up. I didn’t ask you to come down here to give me a lecture.”

“And I’m not here to give you one either. You had a chance to take a deal when this all started, and you didn’t take it—so, what else can I tell you?”

“You could tell me when I could take the stand, for one thing…”

“Ha! We’re finally getting to it. And you think it’s going to make a difference?” Simmons wanted to prod into Sadir’s reasons for taking the stand. Although, he was convinced it would be another way to introduce doubt in the jury’s mind, he wasn’t yet sure what Sadir planned on revealing. If he wasn’t going to give up the name of the ‘Puppeteer’, the only thing Simmons could do then was to instil further suspicion as to Ms Kartz and Agent Meshullam being traitors.

“Yes, I think so. I figured when you’re going to start your defence, you could put me on the stand. After that you won’t need anyone else to have me cleared of these charges.”

“And I suppose what you’re going to tell the jury is going to convince them that you’re not responsible for these series of felony murders—most of which you ordered personally.”

“Yes, that’s what I plan to tell them.”

“I see. And what about Lypsick? You don’t think he’ll take revenge against your family anymore? What happened to that?”

“Believe me, I haven’t forgotten the bastard. But since he’s been flagged, I don’t think I’ll have to worry about him for much longer.”

“So if you know who the man at the head is, why didn’t you speak sooner and have Lypsick arrested?”

“You know, you’re very good, Simmons, and as any good lawyer you know the answer to your questions before you ask them. And you know the answer to this one as well.”

“All right, I’m tired of playing twenty questions with you. I’m going to have you on the stand—if you want to make a fool of yourself, that’s your choice—but I’m not coming down here anymore. It’s a waste of time anyway.”