“Confessions” Serial, Tech Wars 27
Sally took her time revealing her news. She had a sip of a fine Californian Malbec wine before discussing her discovery to the expectant and definitely impatient men at her table.
“I searched a couple of the guest bedrooms and found nothing. However, in the third bedroom I found some men’s clothing and seemingly nothing else, until …” she smiled at the other two, “in a chest of drawers in the bottom drawer which held a several pairs of socks and a pile of jockey underpants, I was about to give up when my fingers encountered something small and hard wedged between some socks … I pulled it out and discovered it was a flash drive.”
Jauncey chuckled. “Well done, girl. I guess you found something on it?”
Sally nodded. “Eventually. When I got back here, I tried opening it but it was encrypted. I had no clues to go on. No one’s birth date or initials or anything.”
“I thought you were being slower than usual getting changed,” Andy commented.
“Yeah, well, there I was beating my brains out when I discovered something. The flash drive looked like any other, except that it had in tiny writing a series of numbers on one side and a couple of letters on the other. They seemed to be something the manufacturer had printed on the drive, but I’d never seen anything like it before on a flash drive. Most of them have brand names but not reference numbers. I always carry a small magnifying glass with me, so I looked closer and found that the numbers and letters had been cleverly etched into the plastic cover. If I hadn’t looked closer, I probably would have ignored them … but realizing that they had been put on the drive by hand, I put them into the password window on the screen.”
“And it opened up?”
“Yep. I can’t make up my mind whether it was a brilliant or a dumb way of making a note of the password. Whatever, I was in.” She smiled at the other two.
“And?” Andy prodded her.
She sighed. “Oh, I guess you want to know if Oscar’s a baddie or not?”
Jauncey dripped with sarcasm. “If you can find the time!”
Sally laughed. “I’m not gonna go into the technical details of what I’ve found but the bottom line; yeah, it’s a record of laundered money paid into his legit company as well as other companies I know nothing about. I’m pretty sure it’s enough to indict him.”
The two men instinctively raised their glasses towards her and chorused “Cheers!”
Jauncey was immediately serious. “We do have a problem, though.”
Sally nodded. “How do we make it known without having it thrown out because it was an illegal search?”
Andy shrugged. “Two options. We still meet with him tomorrow and try to trap him, now that we know how he’s done it … or we say nothing, play along with him and then uncover the data by other means, now that we know what to look for.”
The next couple of hours were spent exploring their options.
• • •
The following day, Andy, Jauncey and Sally arrived at Oscar’s home in a cab. A butler answered the door and ushered them into the drawing room. As they waited for Oscar to appear, they had a chance to inspect the luxurious room. They had been too busy to take in the wealth of antique furniture as well as a portrait of a beautiful woman plus some paintings of prize-winning cattle. Oscar was clearly not short of money.
The door opened. Oscar entered, accompanied by a strikingly beautiful woman in her forties whom Oscar introduced as his wife Gloria. She stepped forward and shook hands with the trio.
“Oscar tells me that you were responsible for breaking up the gang that had conned him into nearly doing a fraudulent property deal.”
Andy smiled. “Did he also tell you that he saved my life with a remarkable feat of knife throwing? I’m not sure who should be thanking who!”
Gloria shook her head. “He knows how I hate his hobby of making and throwing knives but I’m glad it was finally put to good use.”
Oscar shrugged. “My grandfather was a knife-thrower with Ringling Brothers’ circus. He taught me the basics as a kid. I have to say, though, that throwing at a person with intention to harm him was a tad outside my experience. I still get the shivers.”
“Goddam liar,” Sally thought as drinks were handed around. The conversation veered off to the subject of farming with Oscar admitting that he dabbled with it on his 600-acre spread. “Mostly cattle, but I also have a small herd of llamas. Beautiful creatures. The kids in the area love to come and see them.”
Gloria led them out onto the patio where an impressive feast of cold meats and salads was spread out on a table. There was a gorgeous view of the mountains. Sally found it hard to believe that this apparently sophisticated man was the head of a group that had caused endless suffering and hardships to dozens if not hundreds of people. She wondered just how much Gloria was involved with his nefarious side.
And Sally was also puzzled about finding the flash drive. It was a really careless move on Oscar’s part. He seemed to be far too organized to leave such an incriminating piece of evidence not securely locked away. It then occurred to her that she had found it in a guest room. Perhaps the guest had been entrusted with it and had thought that leaving it in a drawer of a secure and remote mansion was safe enough.
Over the delicious meal, Sally casually asked “D’you get many visitors here, Oscar?”
“Not too many. I do ask some of my business associates to spend a few days with us, if I have a complex deal to work out.”
“What is your business, Oscar, if I may ask?” Jauncey wanted to know.
“Mostly hedge funds.”
“Mostly … so you have other businesses as well?” Andy asked.
Oscar looked slightly uncomfortable. “Well, you know, I do hear of … opportunities from time to time. Like that ranch, if it had been real. I sometimes have surplus cash, so I guess I’ve spread out in a number of different directions.”
Jauncey looked thoughtful. “I also have a number of investments in a wide range of activities. Perhaps we should get together and exchange ideas.”
“Sure, why not?” Oscar did not sound overly enthusiastic.
“Where are your offices?”
“Our headquarters is in LA. It’s about an hour by chopper. I go in once or twice a week.”
“Great. If I may, I’ll give your secretary a call and make an appointment.”
Oscar frowned. “Forgive me but how come a businessman like you – and I assume you’re a successful one if you want to talk investments with me – is involved with tracking down criminals like the one at that ranch?”
Jauncey laughed and spread his hands wide.
“If you can indulge in the rather strange art of knife throwing, I can equally follow my fascination with solving crimes. It adds an element of excitement and sometimes danger to my life, as I’m sure throwing knives does for you!”
“Touché,” Oscar replied, then quickly changed the subject.
An ExoTech Ltd shareholder, Chris is currently authoring two of the four books to be published the day ExoBrain launches and has helped to create ExoBrain’s introductory video to the Confidential Technical Briefing. Chris has spent his working life in the film and television industry, starting with BBC Television in London, then ATV in Birmingham becoming, at the time, the youngest Studio Manager in Britain.
Later, in South Africa, he wrote and directed film and TV commercials, having four South African entries at the Cannes Advertising Festival. After a number of years of writing and directing or producing documentaries (eight international awards) and corporate videos, he concentrated on writing feature film screenplays (five screened) and television series (seven screened). He has a novel, ”Pursuit of Treachery,” with a literary agent and is currently obtaining finance for an action adventure feature film he has written and is co-producing. He is a published poet and has given many readings.