Gary Ponzo - A Touch of Deceit

Marie was told by the hospital’s attorneys not to engage the man in conversation. He had filed a lawsuit against one of their doctors for negligence and was using discreet interviews with hospital personnel to incriminate the young internist. He’d already pilfered information from a couple of unsuspecting nurses while pretending to be waiting for a family member in the emergency room. He was a farmer from the south somewhere and his good-old-boy accent lured them into believing he was harmless.

“Marie,” the man said urgently.

Without looking up, Marie said, “I’m not talking to you, Charlie. You already got me in too much trouble.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to use you like that, it’s just that-”

“Go away, Charlie. I’m not listening to you.”

“You don’t understand, one of your doctors is in real trouble.”

Marie tapped away at her keyboard.

“It’s not what you think,” he explained.

Marie stopped and pointed at the man. “I’m telling you for the last time, if you have a complaint, take it up with the administrator. I’m not supposed to talk to you.”

“I don’t have any complaint. I’m talking about one of your employees being in trouble. Don’t you care about him?”

“Who?”

“The doctor-that’s who I’m talking about.”

“Which doctor?”

“I don’t know his name exactly.”

“Then how do you know he’s in trouble?”

“Because,” he said, pointing toward the parking lot, “I just saw him jump out of one of your windows.”

At 35,000 feet the 747 ate up the sky in large chunks. Nick could hear the urgency in the four engines as clouds whipped passed by the windows.

“How fast you think we’re going?” Nick asked Matt, who was scrolling through a Globe, Arizona phone directory on his laptop.

“Huh?”

“How fast do you think we’re going?” Nick repeated.

“Uh, six hundred miles an hour,” Matt said, pointing at the screen with his finger.

“Hmm,” Nick said, already forgetting the question. He was also on a laptop navigating through the FBI’s private website. He’d just receive a new level of security clearance and was now viewing information that had previously been unavailable to him. The most intriguing was the data pertaining to Kemel Kharrazi’s renegade childhood. As he read the gruesome details of Kharrazi’s upbringing, he actually found himself feeling sympathy for the man.

“I’ve got the Gila County Recorders office,” Matt said, scribbling down a phone number on a legal pad.

“Good. Get a listing of all houses bought in the Payson area over, say, the past twelve months. Have them fax it to the Sheriff’s Office in Payson.”

Matt pressed buttons on his cell phone and Nick could hear him getting right down to business. The seats in the 747 resembled a steakhouse restaurant; there were crescent-shaped leather booths surrounding a round freshly-polished mahogany table. The booths and the tables were all fastened to the floor. In the center of the table was the emblem of the Secretary of Defense-a bald eagle with its wings spread, proudly exposing red, white and blue stripes on it’s chest.

Sitting at a similar setting behind them were agents Ed Tolliver, Carl Rutherford, Mel Downing and Dave Tanner. All four agents began the flight shuffling through files and writing notes. Now, they each seemed to be staring at the ceiling of the jet, until you noticed that their eyes were shut. They looked as if they had been the victims of chemical warfare instead of a simple deterioration of their sleep schedule over the past week. Behind them, sipping on a bottle of Diet Coke by himself, sat Silk. He was reading Forbes magazine with his feet propped up on the table.

Silk looked up and gave Nick a mock salute. Nick shook his head and smiled. He could use an army of Silks right about now.

Nick’s phone rang and saw that it was Johns Hopkins Hospital. He pushed a button. “Julie?”

“No, it’s me.”

“Tommy?”

“Yeah, listen there’s been something happening here.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about a visitor that came by to see your beautiful bride.”

“Who?” Nick asked, not liking the sound of Tommy’s voice.

“One of those fucking towel-heads stopped by dressed like a doctor. He wasn’t here to bring flowers, if you know what I mean.”

Nick squeezed the phone. “What happened? Is she okay?”

“Relax, Julie’s unharmed. Fortunately old Tommy boy was here to put the kabosh on the whole thing.”

“Tommy,” Nick said trying to control himself. “Let me speak with her.”

“She’s been sleeping. She slept through the whole thing. You want I should wake her up?”

Nick sighed. “No, let her sleep. Just have her call me when she’s up.”

“You got it, boss.”

“What happened to the perp?”

“Perp?”

“The piece of crap who tried to kill my wife. Where is he now?”

There was a pause, then, “Well, uh, you see, the guy-he’s in the parking lot right now.”

“What’s he doing there? Is he being arrested?”

“Actually, he’s resting. As a matter of fact, he’s going to be resting for a really long time.”

Nick understood the term. “Tommy, by any chance did he stumble upon an open window?”

Tommy laughed. “Yeah, well, I told the guy to take a flying leap, and you know how these foreigners are, they take everything so literally.”

Nick squeezed his eyes shut. His next call would be to Walt to add protection for Julie. There wasn’t enough protection in the world for her.

“Nick?” Tommy said, “you still there?”

“I’m here. Are you in trouble with the police?”

“I just witnessed a KSF soldier attempt to murder an FBI agent’s wife. He tried to escape out the window and lost his footing on the windowsill. They’re bound to hand me a medal before they handcuff me.”

“Who was it-do you know?”

“Nihad Tan-something.”

“Nihad Tansu?”

“Yeah, that’s it. Anyway, I got a hold of this guy’s cell phone,” Tommy said, conspiratorially.

“You have his cell phone? How?”

“It must have fallen out of his pocket when he ran to the window.”

“Tommy, that’s important evidence. You have to give that to the police, or the FBI right away.”

“Yeah, yeah, anyway, I pushed a couple of buttons and discover only one phone number locked into the redial mode.”

“You called it?”

“No. I figured I’d give you the pleasure. Want the number?”

Nick hesitated, but he wasn’t sure why. “Yes.”

Nick scribbled the number on his notepad. “Thanks, Tommy. . for everything.”

“No problem. I’ll be here from now on. No one’s gonna touch her. Just do me a favor and get this bastard, will ya.”

“Count on it.”

Nick hung up and saw Matt point to the phone number Tommy had just given him.

“Who’s number?”

“Don’t know. I’m going to find out in a minute. Tommy caught Tansu trying to dust Julie in the hospital. He grabbed Tansu’s cell phone and found this phone number in his call log.”

“All this is because you busted Rashid? Kharrazi is still pissed over that?”

Nick shrugged. He called Walt Jackson and secured enough protection for Julie to rival that of a sitting president.

Matt hung up his cell phone at the same time. “I’ve got the house sales being faxed over to Gila County Sheriff’s office in Payson.”

“Good,” Nick said, staring at his cell phone.

“What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking it’s time to find out whose number this is.”

“Shouldn’t you call Stevie and get a trace going first?”