Low men, p.25
Low Men, page 25
"I did some research on this one. You know she's British, right?" Shanda said.
"I suppose you think the old Dankworth charm won't work on her, then?" he replied.
"Maybe you could tee me up?" Shanda asked.
"Alright, little good cop, bad cop, little tit for tat," he said as he gathered his things. "A bit of the old quid pro quo..." He continued as they left the office.
"Oh, great," Shanda said as they left the room. "The cliché-meister is back in action today."
"Well, love, you know what they say about clichés..."
Slade chuckled after them, then turned to Kim. But she was focused on her screens and Slade knew better than to try and press her. With Janey out, she had enough to do.
Mark headed out to the men's room.
❖
Standing in the deserted upper-floor men's room examining his unshaven face in the mirror, Mark's phone broke the silence. Caller ID read Adrienne Nesser. He looked around to be sure he was alone then answered. "Billie Joe here."
"Billie Joe. The only contact in this phone. Very clever," Helen said. "But I always considered myself a bit different from Billie Joe's wife."
"You're right about that," Mark replied. "I have a place nearby. Can you get free?"
Helen hesitated. "I don't know about this, Mark."
"I thought for sure I heard a plea for help under that attitude today," Mark replied.
Silence on the line. Mark thought he heard a sniff.
"You remember so much from when we were close." Helen said.
"How could I forget?" Mark replied. "I meant what I said Saturday."
"So did I," Helen said.
"But I'm not assuming anything. Okay?" Mark said. "Just looking for a chance to sort through this, go from there."
"That sounds reasonable," Helen replied. "Everything at my foundation has been put on hold while Frank and his team work through this mess. I proved myself to them during our little meeting today in the conference room. I should be able to break free for a short time."
Proved yourself? Break free? What the...
"Mark? I don't have much time."
"Yes. I can see you later today. Just text me when you are free, and I'll take it from there."
"Okay," Helen said, then ended the call.
❖
Mark stepped back into the lab to find Kim on the phone. She hung up and turned to Mark. "Selina Berry."
"Yeah?" Slade replied.
"She has a criminal record, did some time," Kim replied. "Burglary and fraud. There is also a drug related crime, possession. She did a stint in rehab as part of her plea deal."
"Let's have a closer look at her, phone records, anything else you can think of or dig into," Slade said. "I have her number. I'll reach out and set a time to meet and talk."
Before he could, his phone rang. It was Zeus.
"They found my orangutan."
"Where?" Slade asked.
"Out in the sticks, floating in the swamps out past west Orlando," Zeus replied. "Backs up to some sort of wilderness preserve, near the Withlacooche river."
"Have you left yet?" Slade asked.
"Not yet," Zeus replied. "Wanna come with?"
"Be down in a second," Slade replied and ended the call.
"They found the orangutan carcass. Near where Kook McGee lives. Can you let Shanda know?" Slade said. "Also... just a hunch but..."
"Spit it out.” Kim demanded.
"Maybe we should check the zoo's purchase orders. See if they bought any gorilla urine concentrate recently and if so, match up inventory to amount purchased."
"Good idea. I'll let you know," Kim replied.
On the way out, Slade called Selina again but got her voicemail. He left a message requesting a time to meet.
Zeus offered to drive. They skipped lunch and Zeus made quick time on the I-4 and up the 98, cutting more than a few minutes off the 90-minute drive. They arrived to find the Florida Wildlife Commission already there, pulling the carcass from the swamp.
"Found it partially eaten. Looks like it had been sunk out here, tied to something heavy. The gators chewed through enough rope to free it. Then it floated," the FWC officer said.
"Can we take a look?" Slade replied.
"Uh, if you need to." The officer walked them back to where they were working. "Tell me, why are homicide detectives concerned with a stolen orangutan carcass?"
"We don't just do homicide," Zeus said. "But this carcass is relevant to a murder investigation."
"We found orangutan hairs at the crime scene," Slade replied.
"Well, that would explain why the thing was shaved," the officer said. "Looks like someone took a set of clippers with a close guard to it."
The smell of the carcass hit them before they saw it. One quick glance was all they needed, then they both stepped back out of range. The officer chuckled and followed them back out.
"Anything else you can tell us?" Zeus asked.
"The only other strange thing was that we found several young gators floating dead near the carcass. The bite marks on the carcass look consistent with smaller gators."
"Why would there be dead gators?" Zeus asked.
"Poison. This tells us that the carcass was contaminated with it. Either it's how the orangutan died, or someone spiked the carcass before dumping it," the officer replied.
"Why would someone do that?" Zeus asked.
"Meanness, I guess," the officer replied. "No good reason I can see, just plain meanness."
"Are you going to test to see what poison was used?" Zeus asked.
"We can, if you think it might be relevant," the officer said.
"It may help lead us to the suspect or confirm who poisoned the orangutan," Slade said.
"Okay. Before we have it cremated, I'll get the carcass to a vet for testing," the officer said.
"Make sure to tell them we need it ASAP," Slade said. "Trying to catch a killer."
"It's always ASAP," the officer said. "But we'll do our best." With that, he tipped his hat and left them.
"Remember I mentioned that we talked to that expert out here?" Slade said to Zeus as they walked back to the car.
"Yeah. That Kook on TV," Zeus said.
"His house is nearby. Let's drop in," Slade said.
A few minutes later, they pulled up to Kook McGee's house to find him sitting on the porch. His foot was bouncing up and down. He looked nervous.
"Thought ya'll might show up," Kook said. "I saw all them helicopters and FWC trucks over there. I went and checked it out, but they wouldn't tell me what it was they found."
"Just got a few questions," Slade said. "This is Detective Jesus Lovato."
"Detective," Kook replied.
"There was an orangutan stolen from the zoo recently," Zeus said.
"The zoo just down the road from here?" Kook asked.
"Yeah," Zeus said. "The carcass was found just over there along with a buncha dead gators."
Kook seemed to process this for a minute. "That don't make no damn sense," he finally said.
"Do you have any gator problems out here?" Slade asked.
"No more than anyone else. Why?" Kook replied.
"How do you handle them when they get out of hand and start hanging around?" Zeus asked.
"Fuck you talkin 'bout? Gators don't hang around my property. Might pass through, but water's over there." He pointed, like that explained it.
"You ever had to set poison out, like pest control?" Slade asked.
"I'd never do such a thing." Kook replied, more agitated now. "First thought comes to mind is that you couldn't be sure it were a gator that'd eat the poison. Could kill anything." Kook was rocking in his chair, shaking his head, no. "I got too much respect for the wild to do sumthin like that."
"Have you seen anything out of the ordinary? Like someone dumping a carcass?" Zeus asked.
Kook began to rock more, biting his lip. He shook his head violently, then shot up. "Dammit, I can't say nuthin. Won't say nuthin. Ain't worth the risk." With that, he stomped into his house and slammed the door.
"We just want—" Slade tried.
He screamed at them from inside. "Ya'll can git off my property!"
Chapter 23
On the way back to the precinct, Mark's phone rang. It was Sparkman. He glanced over at Zeus, who was weaving through traffic, then answered. "Detective Slade."
"Hey, Mark." Sparkman knew that when he answered the phone with ‘detective’ in front of his name, that meant Mark wasn't alone. "Just listen and I'll fill you in, if now is a good time."
"Yeah, go ahead," Slade replied.
"You say this Vasiliy is on the board of that company?" Sparkman asked. "And is handling cybersecurity?"
"Right," Slade replied.
"Then Frank Dionisi is keeping some bad company," Sparkman said.
"How so?" Slade asked.
"Look, this name, Kuznetsov, is an alias linked to a Russian mercenary known as The Menk."
"What is that?" Slade asked. Wait, VK-Menk.
"Menk has many translations, but in Mansi it translates to Yeti," Sparkman replied.
"What is Mansi?" Slade asked.
Zeus glanced over, a confused look on his face, then swerved hard when a driver in front tapped their brakes.
"Not what, but who," Sparkman replied. "They are a people within an autonomous okrug or territory in the West Central region of Siberia. Not that it is relevant, but we think he is from that region."
"Let me guess, they call him this because of his size?" Slade asked.
"That and his brutality. This is no one to mess with. He did time in a Russian prison because he supported an oligarch in a failed coup attempt against Yeltsin. He is credited with multiple high-level assassinations throughout Eastern Europe but was never brought to justice. His history is sketchy from there, but I talked to a CIA contact who basically said this guy is a beast. Someone you don't want to tangle with unless you know you have him."
Slade processed this for a moment. This meant Helen was close to this man, too. But he had to dismiss that and focus on this conversation, ask the right questions so as not to demonstrate what he knew.
"Okay, copy that," Slade said. "What about the other?"
"Helen Dionisi had her name changed. She is, or was, an Eastern Ukrainian national. She is a US citizen now. Anyway, her name was Helena Navratolozia." Sparkman paused. "This woman is kind of infamous. I mean, she has really been through it. As a child, she lost her family in a Russian border skirmish. She was orphaned, disappeared, then found on the streets of Luhansk begging, out of her wits, dressed in rags. She was picked up and hospitalized. A child abuse counselor made notes on a story she recounted about being in a trafficking ring involved with prostitution. She had to fight her way out, stabbing several guards. She was pretty beat up but managed to walk out of the hospital a couple days later, accompanied by an unknown male. The only information on him was that he was tall."
Slade tensed his jaws and twisted his head to the side in reaction to this. Sparkman had confirmed Janey's findings. Helen lied to me back in college, or at least withheld.
"That's not all. It looks like her escort was Vasiliy. We have evidence that I can't share, indicating he and Helen came into this country together. He may have gaslit and trafficked her, or maybe they were together in some capacity, it is hard to say. She was just a teenager. But they both just appear in the States at around the same time with identities and jobs."
Slade sat, stunned. Speechless.
"This inquiry carried with it what we call a trigger or a tag, like when your credit is pulled the inquiry is recorded."
"Is that normal?" Slade asked.
"No. It was pretty well hidden, too. An unknown party was notified of the fact we were pulling the data. We didn't figure this out until afterwards. But they don't know we can detect it. Finally, we don't know who it goes to unless we reveal ourselves in the process."
"I see," Slade said.
"These are big league people, Mark, probably East European or Russian organized crime. That trigger alone means that they have some serious juice. You may want to take a beat here. This goes way beyond the case we discussed. We originally had reason to believe your acquaintance from college, Helen, had ties to a localized trafficking operation down there, not an international crime syndicate. I want to know what you have so far." Sparkman made the request with a no-nonsense tone.
"Nothing but a hunch. That's why I called you," Slade said. "But when I do, if I find out more, I'll reach out."
"Okay, do that," Sparkman said. "We originally didn't look deeply enough into Helen's background to find out she was Helena Navratolozia. That's on us and heads are gonna roll for that oversight. But do not try to tangle with Vasiliy or Helen. They are way out of your league."
"Understood," Slade said, then ended the call. Thankfully, Zeus didn't ask any questions.
❖
Slade and Zeus finished the drive in silence. It gave him some time to digest the phone call. He couldn't figure out what to make of this apparent deep connection Helen had with Vasiliy and why she had concealed it. Although it did explain why Vasiliy felt he had the right to barge into her personal residence after he climbed down off the balcony. Maybe he's a relative or something...
The ride went by quickly.
"When you hear from the FWC officer, let me know," Slade told Zeus as he walked into the precinct.
Zeus made a kissing sound, flipped him the bird, and walked the other way to his office.
Back in the lab, he found Kim at her desk, headphones on. She pulled them off and nodded to Slade. "Hey."
"Hey, Kim. Whatcha got for me?"
"Looks like fuck-all, but I'll just run through it," Kim replied.
"Shoot," Slade said.
Kim gave him a weird look and mimed a pistol with her hand before starting. "Phone records for Jonathan Dolion didn't give us anything we can use. His personal cell didn't have anything unusual as far as calls, texts, or emails. In fact, he was kind of a loner."
"How about the burner?" Slade asked.
"No texts. Several calls to one number over the period of a couple weeks, working back from today," Kim said.
"Can we ID the number?"
"Looks like another burner phone," Kim replied. "That's it for him. For now."
"Were you able to give Shanda anything useful on Beth Hindley before the interview?"
"Well, it was kinda tricky," Kim said. "Owen could have warned me about this, too."
"What?" Slade said.
"She's a British citizen here on a visa. Since she's been here, I couldn't find any issues like arrests or traffic violations. As far as her history in Britain goes, that's a different matter. If she had a serious criminal record, then yeah, it would have been flagged, then transferred into our system, and I could access it. But for small stuff, probably not. It's a gray area, inconsistent."
"So, we can say what? She has nothing serious on record?" Slade asked.
"That's probably right," Kim said. "She does have a phone with a local number. Activity isn't unusual."
"We'll see what Shanda has to say when they get back. How about Faston?" Slade asked. "Anything in his background or phone records?"
"Nothing outside of the ordinary," Kim said. "I think Owen is right. Faston is a puppy dog who is overcompensating for a little dick with a big attitude. He doesn't even have a speeding ticket. No wife. No life. Just works. All his calls seem work related."
"Either he hid his crimes pretty well, or he's being framed," Slade said.
"I'd guess the latter," Kim replied. "But the blood from the implements found in his home do match that of the victim."
"Still, I'm not convinced," Slade said.
"Well, you know what the captain said about gift horses," Kim said.
Not in the mood to joke, Slade moved along. "Selina?"
"She had a lot of calls with a number that tracked back to Vasiliy, which seemed strange," Kim said.
Mark made the split-second decision not to share that Vasiliy had been at Helen's office the day he showed up there, and that Vasiliy and Selina had shared a knowing glance; or any of the other information he'd gathered on the man.
"That does seem strange. Why would Helen's assistant need to speak with the head of cybersecurity so much?"
"Maybe they were, you know..." Kim joked. "Otherwise, I couldn't find anything on her."
Just then, Owen and Shanda returned. "That woman is a right bitch," Owen said. "A testament to the haughty British superiority complex."
"She gave us nothing," Shanda added.
"Yeah, and Shanda pressed her pretty good. Gave her a good verbal roughing up, if you know what I mean," Owen said.
"I pressed her with everything we knew about Lee and Faston. She had a lot of phone calls with them, but she waved it off as board business," Shanda said. "Said she had no idea of Faston's crimes."
"Other than phone calls and meetings, we don't have any other links between them," Owen said.
"She did seem a bit rattled when I hit her with the stock rebellion theory," Shanda said.
"Yeah, I saw that too," Owen said. "She seemed ruffled when we brought that up, but refused to comment on it. It was the only red flag."
"Did you question her about Lee and his decision to contact outside security?" Slade asked.
"Yep, said she had no clue and offered no logic for the decision," Owen replied. "We worked her over pretty good. Sorry mate, nothing of use there... for now."
"Were you able to stop by the costume creator's shop?" Slade asked.
"Yeah. Aside from a very upset staff mulling about, I didn't see anything of note. We might find something useful if we do a full forensic sweep, but..." Owen trailed off.
"Well, that'll take time we don't have right now. We'll swing back around to it. Besides, we needed the costume shop owner to talk, which won't be possible now," Slade said.
"I could try to find a medium," Owen offered. "Conjure him back from the spirit world."
Thinking back to a case he had assisted with in San Antonio, Slade shuddered. That is nothing to joke about. The wisecrack fell flat with the others as well.
"I did find evidence of a short stock position on VRTact," Kim said. "Right now, someone is poised to make tens of millions of dollars because the stock is tumbling."
