What's Left is Right: Book two of The Detective Bill Ross Crime Series (8 page)

The Thanksgiving holiday season was getting into full swing; most of the people the team needed to talk to were already off to spend time with family or using the holiday to get in a mini-vacation before the madness of Christmas.

Julian and Yolanda were off in the Caribbean somewhere. Governor Shaw was unavailable, although his aides would not share where he was exactly and the Special Forces Command were awaiting confirmation from the governor that the request for personal details of former Special Forces members being made by the Travis County Police Department was indeed crucial to a murder investigation.

Bill and Elaine were looking forward to having Tommy and Claire for Thanksgiving dinner. They had extended an invitation to Marie and Shelly, but they had made previous plans to spend the holiday with Shelly’s folks in Corpus Christi. Shelly’s mother was still quite frail following her illness earlier in the year, so Shelly decided that the best plan was that she and Marie would travel to Corpus and cook Thanksgiving dinner for Shelly’s parents.

~

It was the night before Thanksgiving and Bill had the Thanksgiving turkey all prepared, ready to be smoked in the Green Egg the following day. He had it in a brine mixture ready for its overnight soaking. He would dry it off in the morning and give it a dry rub of spice mixture before smoking it with pecan chips. He had tried different types of wood for smoking the turkey over the years, cherry, apple, mesquite and oak—but he had settled on pecan as the sweetness of the pecan gave the turkey such a great flavor.

With everything prepared, he sat at his home office desk, which was covered with the paperwork from his research on the BMW. He had determined that there were fourteen car rental companies that served the needs of the travelers coming into George Bush International Airport. He had talked with all of them, including Sindhur at Hertz, and had come up empty. Maybe his hunch was wrong and Mike Muguara aka Raul Hernandez had not flown into George Bush and had not rented a BMW from there.

The last rental company he spoke with was SIXT. SIXT is a huge rental car company headquartered in Germany and has been in business since 1911. It’s not that well known in the U.S. and expanded into the U.S. market fairly recently, in 2011 to be exact. Their operation in the U.S. is conducted through regional franchises, so when Bill spoke with the management at the George Bush airport location they said they would have to get back to the corporate office in Germany before they could release specific rental contract details.

~

Bill’s cell phone rang at seven-thirty on Thanksgiving morning.

“Hello?” said Bill, trying focus and clear his mind from a deep sleep. Who could this possibly be this early?

“Am I speaking with Bill Ross of the Travis County Police Department?” said the man on the line.

Bill detected immediately from the heavily accented but impeccable English that the caller was German, and he put two-and-two together.

“Yes, this is Special Officer Bill Ross.”

“Yes, good morning, Officer Ross. Sorry for not addressing you in the proper manner, my error. I am Wolfgang Meier, director in charge of U.S. operations for SIXT Car Rental Company. I am calling you today from our Pullach headquarters in Munich. Is this a good time to talk? I hope it’s not too early for you.”

Bill wanted to strangle Herr Meier for calling so early on a holiday and also for the little dig at the end
I hope it’s not too early for you.
This German knew exactly what time it was. He respected German efficiency, but sometimes they could be a right pain in the ass!

“This is a perfect time, Herr Meier, I am already well into my work for the day. Even if it
is
a holiday
here police work must still get done!” Bill lied for effect and wanted to gain some kind of control of the conversation.

“Great, but do please call me Wolfgang, and may I call you Bill? I find it much easier to dispense with these types of formalities and get to the subject at hand.”

“That would be fine, Wolfgang. I take it that your employees at the George Bush Airport briefed you on our investigation?”

“They are not our employees, Bill, they are employees of the franchise there. They did brief me, yes, but unfortunately, due to our corporate governance procedure, I need your request in writing and on Travis County Police Department letterhead. In the written document you must have the following information:

1. Your name and rank.

2. The name and rank of your immediate superior.

3. The nature of your investigation, including relevant case number identifiers.

4. The level of urgency of your request.

5. The name of the person you believed rented our vehicle.

6. The date you believe that the rental was made - the date of pickup.

7. You must sign the document.

8. Your superior must countersign the document.

“You can fax this to my attention. I will give you my contact details at the end of the call. Or you can send the document as an email attachment. Either way you must mail the original to me and I will countersign and send it back to you for your records and I will retain a copy for our records. I will provide you with a written response that will detail the results of our search. I will be happy to email that as an attachment, but we must exchange originals in the same manner as we have just discussed. Is this satisfactory to you, Bill?”

Bill could see a mental picture of Wolfgang Meier sitting back in his chair with a smile, fully expecting that Bill was impressed by his efficiency. It
was
efficient and Bill
was
impressed but he was always frustrated by the lack of flexibility in process when dealing with the Germans. They always got the job done and it was always done well, it just took
so
long.

“Yes, that’s satisfactory, Wolfgang, I will get right on it and get you the document you need. Thanks so much for your help!”

They exchanged contact details and the conversation ended.

~

Well, that was an interesting wake-up call
, thought Bill as he brewed a fresh pot of coffee and looked out his kitchen window over the greenbelt.

He sat down at the breakfast table and started to surf the web to see what was going on in the world. The CNN, Fox News and USA Today websites were still dominated by the immigration discussion. The battle lines were now clearly drawn between the president and the legislature on the topic. There was complete polarization in opinion on both sides, and from Bill’s point of view both sides of the political divide were making good arguments. Bill likened the situation to the war on drugs. To really change what was happening, the demand side had to be dealt with. If employers continued to hire illegal immigrants, then they would continue to come over the border in great numbers. Yes, we needed to secure our borders—he agreed with the argument on that—but human beings are very creative and if the attraction of a better life for their family is there and employers continue to hire, the illegals will find a way to get here.

He wasn’t going to solve the immigration problem on Thanksgiving morning; there were more important issues to be dealt with. He needed to get the charcoal fired up in the Green Egg and he needed to rinse the turkey after its overnight bath in the brine mixture and get the dry rub massaged into the bird. It was a beautiful crisp morning in Austin as he walked out onto his deck.

~

As is the custom every year, on Thanksgiving there was a full schedule of football. Bill was looking forward to putting his feet up later in the day with Tommy and drinking a few beers while enjoying the games. He had found Belhaven beer at World Market in Austin and bought a six-pack. Tommy would drink Corona and probably bring over a bottle of the Del Maguey Single Village Mezcal that he had developed a taste for. There would be no concern about Tommy driving home under the influence, which he never did anyway; Tommy had decided that he and Claire would spend the night. It would be a great day.

When Tommy and Claire arrived, the Bears/Detroit game was already underway and the house smelled of the smoke from the pecan wood combined with the scent of sweet potato roasting in the oven. Elaine had already set the table in readiness for the feast and was busy preparing the sticky toffee pudding that she planned to serve for dessert.

Bill pulled Tommy aside as Claire ran to Elaine to give Mimi a hug.

“I got an interesting wake-up call this morning. The corporate guy from SIXT car rental called me from Germany, and I have to get him the information we need in writing before he will make a search in their database to see if Raul Hernandez rented a BMW from them. As my immediate boss, you need to sign the document, Tommy, and I thought that while Mom sat with Claire after dinner today we might go into my office and get the document completed and emailed to SIXT.”

“We can do that, Dad, but we better get it done before we settle down with a few beers!” laughed Tommy.

~

The day turned out as planned. The turkey was fabulous. The fixings included—sweet potatoes, roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts and carrots—were delicious. It was a meal fit for a king. Sticky toffee pudding with ice cream followed, and after they had eaten their fill and the dirty dishes were cleared and loaded into the dishwasher, everyone collapsed on the couch.

While Elaine sat with Claire, showing her how to make little miniature candy canes using red and white beads and wire to hang on the Christmas tree, Tommy and Bill went off to the office to get the document prepared and sent to Wolfgang Meier at SIXT.

With mission accomplished and the document on its way, the Ross family enjoyed the remainder of the day.

While Claire slept, Tommy talked about his plans for Christmas. It was tough being a single parent balancing work demands and the needs of a four-year-old. Elaine helped out, of course, picking Claire up from daycare in the evening and feeding her dinner if Tommy was delayed at the office. Without the help from his mother it would have been impossible for Tommy to have a job with such long hours.

“I plan to order all of the Christmas presents for Claire online from Amazon,” said Tommy. “Can I have them delivered here? I can wrap them and get them hidden in our house for her to open on Christmas morning.”

“Of course you can,” said Elaine. “I can help you with the wrapping; you can just pick the Christmas paper you want and I can help you get it done.”

Elaine and Bill planned to be at Tommy’s house on Christmas Eve and to bring all of the wrapped presents. In the Ross family tradition, they planned to open one present each before Santa arrived. It was a good plan and everyone in the family needed to play their part. This year was to see a change in the process, however.

“Dad has probably told you by now, Mom, that I have been taking Claire to church. I decided to do that a few months ago as I needed to get out and meet new people, and I thought church would be a good place to start and that Claire might enjoy the experience. We are attending the Cedar Park Methodist Church that is just a few blocks from where we live. They are great people. I plan to take Claire to church on Christmas Eve and then be home and let her open one present before she goes to bed. I know it is a little change in the family Christmas routine.”

“I think this is great, Tommy. It will be good for you and for Claire. Dad and I will bring the presents over to your place while you’re at church, hide them and then wait for you and Claire to come back from church.”

“Thanks, Mom, that sounds like a great plan.”

Later that night as he lay in bed, Bill Ross, reflected that life couldn’t get much better, and sleep came fast, as did the Glenmorangie fuelled dreams.

He was there in the Iraqi desert riding in a dune buggy looking for scud missile sites. He had on his blue and white Kilmarnock FC soccer shirt. Mike Muguara and Raul Hernandez walked over to him and said, “Glad to have you on our team Bill.” He was part of the
Spirit Riders,
and they drove off into the desert as the sun sank over the horizon.

Marie Mason called Latisha Williams on Monday morning as agreed. Latisha suggested that they meet at Oil Can Harry’s, a bar on 4
th
Street in Austin, on Monday night after work. The bar is known by locals to be friendly to those with an alternative lifestyle, and Marie was a little concerned that Tommy might be less than comfortable in this setting; however, she agreed to the meeting location that Latisha suggested.

Wolfgang Meier of SIXT sent an email to Bill, acknowledging receipt of the document and that it was satisfactory to allow him to instruct his team to carry out the search on the rental records. He hoped that he could have the results of the search emailed to Bill by end of the business day on Monday.

Germany is seven hours ahead of U.S. Central Time. On Monday morning, as if on cue, an email with a pdf attachment popped up on the screen of Bill’s laptop at precisely 10 a.m. Central. It was the end of the business day in Germany.

~

For a few seconds Bill just stared at the email.

“Please let this be the breakthrough we need,” he said to himself, and then he clicked on the pdf file attachment and it popped open on his screen. He read the first few sentences and his mouth fell open in total amazement. This was not just a breakthrough; this was a megalithic explosion. The information contained in the email could blow the case wide open!

Dear Bill,

My team has determined the following information from our database and I hope that it will be helpful to you in your investigations.

A Raul Hernandez did rent a BMW 3 Series from our location at George Bush International Airport at three-thirty pm on the afternoon of October 22nd 2013. It was a black vehicle with black interior and representatives of our franchise recovered it January 21st 2014, after an alert was received from the Travis County Police Department’s office that it had been abandoned in a parking lot at 6047 North Lamar Boulevard, Austin, Texas.

According to our records Raul Hernandez rented a BMW from this location three times in the previous twelve months, this being the third time, and that on the two previous occasions he had the vehicle for a three-week rental period. Also in the most recent rental, prior to the car being discovered abandoned, the odometer indicated that the car had been driven an average of 164 miles per day for a total of 3444 miles, somewhat excessive for our typical rentals.

We chose to ignore this excessive mileage in this case as the renter is employed by a corporate client and the average of all rentals over the four years that the SIXT company has supplied this client with cars is well within the average miles per day we contracted for.

The name of the corporate client is Geist Reiter GmbH, PO Box 1274, Ladenburger Strasse 17, 69116 Heidelberg, Germany. There are five registered employees who can rent vehicles under the contract:

Mike Muguara, President and CEO

Raul Hernandez

James Martinelli

Joe Nichol

Claudette Weiss

I trust that this is the information you need and as we discussed please sign and send back to my attention, formal acknowledgement of receipt.

If I can help further, I am at your service.

Sincerely,

Wolfgang F Meier

Senior Vice President North America Operations

SIXT Car Rental

“Tommy, Marie, we need to meet in the conference room right now!” Bill yelled across the room like someone who had just won the Texas Lottery.

~

Bill raced ahead of them, a copy of the pdf attachment in his hand. He threw open the conference room door and stood at the end of the table as Marie and Tommy sat down and stared up at him.

“Okay, Dad, tell us what you have!” said Tommy.

“Geist Reiter!”
said Bill Ross, hardly able to contain himself and shaking the copy of the pdf in his hand.

“Geist Reiter is German for
Spirit Rider
! Raul Hernandez rented the BMW from SIXT Car Rental and, not only that, Geist Reiter GmbH, the company that paid for the rental, employs him.

“And there’s more. SIXT has five approved drivers as part of their contract with Geist Reiter. One is an unknown woman by the name of Claudette Weiss, and then they list Joe Nichol, another member of the
Spirit Riders,
who, according to Martin Peters, is ‘busting heads in Boston’!

“We need to track down Joe Nichol and we need to get the information from Special Forces Command to help us do that. Tommy, can you speak with the chief, bring him up to speed on what we now know and have him brief Governor Shaw on the need for us to get this information as soon as possible?

“We also need to get over to Heidelberg and, of course, we need to get the chief to approve that. My guess is that if we can get access to the Geist Reiter offices or, even better, to Mike Muguara’s residence, wherever that is, we may find additional valuable information. We can now work on the hypothesis that Mike Muguara used the Raul Hernandez name to rent the car and he has been to the U.S. three times in the last year. Why? Also, Jimmy Martinelli is listed as an employee. Why?”

Tommy jumped in, “Okay, Dad. This is the breakthrough we have been looking for, but we need to slow down. The chief will have a tough time approving a trip to Germany, I know that for sure. So we need to step him through the evidence we now have and let him conclude for himself that a trip is necessary. You and I will work these lines of inquiry while Marie continues with her research into the funding behind the construction going on around Whispering Hollow. She and I are scheduled to meet with Latisha Williams tonight, and we need to keep her under control. I will go and brief the chief now. I will also ask that he follows up with the governor regarding the information we need from Special Forces Command. This is fabulous dad; I’ll get back ASAP after I speak with the chief.”

Tommy left to go off and speak with Bill Dunwoody.

~

“Wolfgang, Bill Ross here!”

“Good day, Bill, I trust that the information I sent was helpful,” said Wolfgang.

He knew full well that the probability was that the information was indeed helpful. He was asking the question in this way so that he might enjoy accolades from the recipient, and he was not disappointed.

“It was incredibly helpful, Wolfgang, please thank your team from me for their diligent efforts—most efficient!” said Bill, knowing that Wolfgang would be positively glowing at this endorsement.

“Would it be possible to get some additional information regarding the rental history for the employees of Geist Reiter?” asked Bill.

“Of course, Bill, it was Horst Fleischer who did the research and he happens to be in the conference room next to my office here with some other colleagues. Let me ask him to join us and to bring his laptop.”

Wolfgang went off to get Horst.

“Bill, I have my colleague Horst Fleischer with me here in my room, please ask what you need and we will do our best to answer.”

“Good to meet you, Horst and thank you for your help in this investigation. What I need is a list of the rental activity for the five employees of Geist Reiter over the past twelve months.”

“I can pull that up here from our database, Herr Ross, and I can give you some information verbally and then send you an excerpt report. Would that be satisfactory?”

“Perfect!”

“Yes, I have it here, Herr Ross.”

“Claudette Weiss - She has a car rented from SIXT on a monthly recurring rental here in Germany. She is obligated to bring it in each month and exchange for a new vehicle so we can control the mileage. She only rents in Germany.

“Mike Muguara - He rents only in Germany. His preferred automobile is the BMW, but he does exchange for less-expensive vehicles when he travels to certain eastern European countries where BMW models are frequently stolen.

“Joe Nichol - Very little rental activity, nothing in Germany, one rental in the U.S. in the past twelve months.

“Raul Hernandez - No rentals in Germany, all rentals in the U.S. You have the list of his rentals that I provided in my previous report.

“James Martinelli - No rentals in Germany. Many rentals in the last twelve months in the U.S. I list here sixteen rentals.

“As I said, Herr Ross, I can send you the report extract in the next hour. Is there anything else I can help with at this time? The colleagues are waiting for me in my previous meeting,” said Horst, concerned that his colleagues would now be agitated at the unplanned delay in their meeting.

“This again is incredibly helpful, Horst. Just two additional questions, if I may, and then you must get back to your previous meeting. The Raul Hernandez rentals, were they all from the Houston location? And the James Martinelli rentals, were they all from the same location, and if so where?”

“Yes, Raul Hernandez rented BMW 3 Series and only from the George Bush International Airport. James Martinelli always rented Cadillac SUVs. He had six rentals from Logan Airport in Boston, four from Chicago O’Hare Airport, two from Los Angeles Airport LAX, two from San Francisco Airport and two from New York JFK. All of the rentals were short duration and not flagged in our system as excessive, with one exception. There was a rental from our Boston Logan Airport location on October 18
th
2013, returned October 26
th
with a total of 4010 miles driven.”

“That’s super, Horst, this is all I need. Please do send me the report and, again, thanks for your help.”

Horst Fleischer returned to his meeting.

“Please acknowledge receipt of the report, Bill, by signing it and sending a copy back to us,” said Wolfgang Meier, ensuring that proper standard governance procedure was followed.

“Will do, Wolfgang, and many thanks,” said Bill as he hung up the phone.

~

We have two dead men driving rental cars all over the USA
, thought Bill as he sat at his desk digesting all that he had learned in the past few hours.

“What is going on here?” he mumbled. He remembered what Horst had said about the Jimmy Martinelli rentals; almost half were from Logan Airport in Boston.
Joe Nichol is busting heads in Boston. I wonder if that’s all he’s doing,
thought Bill.

~

Tommy arrived back from his meeting with the chief, interrupting Bill and his thoughts.

“It’s a no-go on Heidelberg, Dad. The chief is very impressed with our progress, but he doesn’t have budget for a jaunt to Deutschland. I told him about Julian Hernandez’s offer to fund any budget shortfall and he said that if we could get Julian to pick up the tab for the trip then it was okay by him. We would need to understand the protocol for working with German law enforcement, but let’s take one step at a time and get the green light from Julian Hernandez first.

“I’ll go check with Marie and see where she is on the research on the investment behind the Whispering Hollow construction program. I think she was reaching out to Julian for help on that so she could ask him about funding the trip.”

~

Marie was busy at her desktop computer, making notes furiously as she went.

“This is a real can of worms!” said Marie, looking up as Tommy walked up to her desk. “I don’t know where I would have been without the help of Julian and Yolanda. They are both in the financial business sector and Julian is an expert in corporate investment, but even he is struggling with the complexities of this investment consortium.”

“We have the meeting with Latisha Williams tonight, “said Tommy. Let’s see what she can bring to the table. We can compare notes and see what she discovered when she did the editorial piece on the marina some months back. We don’t need to tell her about everything we have, but tell her just enough to wet her appetite and see what she knows and, more importantly, what she could go find out for us. All of this construction and development must have gotten approvals through the various planning authorities. I’m sure that they must have been salivating about the revenue potential. There must be records on all of this at the local and regional level. This is a huge project and some politicians must be taking the credit for making all of this happen. Let’s look under all of the rocks.

“I need you to call Julian Hernandez and ask if he was serious about funding budget shortfall. The chief doesn’t have budget to fund a trip to Germany for Bill, so let’s see if Julian will help.”

Marie agreed that she would make the call.