Ambassador Number Five

Hakim turned his laptop to Blake and whispered in her ear. "I just found this in Trina's bank account." A picture of a cancelled check was on the screen. It was made out to Trina but the signature was unreadable. The amount was one thousand marks. It was deposited three days ago. They brought in janitors and kitchen workers next, but they provided no help, until a scullery worker came in. "What's your name?" Blake asked the short rotund man. His longish blond hair hung haphazardly around his pudgy red cheeks. "Heinrich Schmidt." "How long have you worked here?" He pursed his thick lips and thought it over. "It's been at least nine years." He was very calm. "Did you see any new delivery men in the kitchen last week?" He shrugged. "There are new men all the time. I mean, mostly we get the same guys, but those are transient jobs. Mostly younger kids." Blake showed him the drawing. "Ever see him?" His brow furrow and his eyes narrowed. "Yes, I believe so. I think that is Trina’s…was Trina’s…new boyfriend. He came in the other day with flowers for her." He seemed to pull his body in tight, shrinking away from his questioners. "I didn't think anything about it before." "Did he ask to see her?" "Yes…no…he wanted to surprise her with the flowers. He asked where her locker was." "Did you take him there?" Panic crept into his voice. "No. He said he knew the number and the combination. He just needed to know where the locker room was." "Do you remember how long he was in there?" "Not long. Less than five minutes." His eyes darted around, stopping on Abby, though he quickly looked away, guilt and sweat oozing from every pore on his face. He looked back at Abby. "I'm sorry. He seemed so harmless...I didn't suspect anything. And I felt really happy for Trina. They were beautiful flowers, and he seemed like a good guy for her." Blake took a deep breath. "It's okay. I understand. Was it the day of the poisoning and the shooting?" He paused and swallowed long and hard. "Yes. It was in the morning." "That explains everything," Blake said. "Yes it does," Jamison concurred. "I'll need to see you in my office right after we're done here," Abby said to Heinrich. "Yes, Ma'am." He stood, head hanging like a puppy who just got scolded for peeing on the rug. "Don't be too rough on him," Blake said after he was out of the room. "We are dealing with a very smart criminal here, a first class conman. If anything just set up a new protocol, or if it is already in place remind everyone of the importance of keeping strangers out." "And firing Heinrich will be a warning to everyone!" Blake shrugged and smiled at her. "You're the boss." After Abby left, Blake leaned back and looked at Jamison, waiting for him to say something. She wasn't sure where to start. Some things made sense now. But there were still some holes…huge holes. She finally asked, "So, where does this leave us?" "I'm sticking with the original theory," Jamison said. "I think this was a smoke screen. It's not even close to his MO, except for the poison.” He shook his head slowly. “Which might be what he wants us to think." He sighed. "If this is a red herring, the question becomes why? How did he know we had a theory that would be destroyed by killing a non-military ambassador?” He sighed. “If that’s what this is.” Blake asked Hakim, "Have you found anything that links this ambassador to the other three." "Just that they are all ambassadors. This guy wasn't in the armed forces, any branch. He went to a small college in Missouri, Washington University of St. Louis. He did two semesters overseas in Berlin and got a master's in social planning. He worked at a social policy think tank in Washington DC for ten years before being appointed ambassador here." Blake slapped the table. "Fuck! It makes no sense." Jamison rubbed the back of his neck. "When we were discussing the list of ambassadors who were pilots, wasn't there one who had some big event coming up?" Blake checked the notes on her laptop. "Khoury in Beirut has one in a week, and Carpenter in Slovenia has an event in two months.” She read some more of her notes. “Khoury was actually in the same squadron as two of the others, and Adomites flew a refueling plane in the same military action.” She thought it over. “Who would have this information?” “The government would.” Jamison said. “It didn’t take Hakim long to find it.” Blake nodded. “It helped that he has my access codes to the CIA files.” Jamison nodded. “Yeah, I that helps quite a BIT.” His pressed his lips tightly together then said to Hakim, “Could you have found all of this if you didn’t have access to Blake’s clearance?” “Maybe. It’s not too hard to hack into US government computers. But it would probably set off alarms before I got too deep.” “Hopefully,” Blake said, though she wasn’t so sure about the government security.