Mosley accepted the album and studied the candid photo of Spanhaur and the impostor on the trimaran’s jump deck. A woman, dressed for sunning on the main deck, was handing the man his fins. He looked at the photo for several minutes before setting it on the coffee table and opening his briefcase.
‘Frau Spanhaur, are you certain that this is the man you dove with, the man who attacked you before disappearing?’
‘Ja,’ she replied, a little confused to be asked such a question, ‘this man is Michael Cole.’
Mosley then handed a photograph to the Spanhaurs. ‘Actually, this gentleman is Michael Cole.’
‘This is not the man I dove with.’ Spanhaur gasped.
‘No, it isn’t,’ Mosley agreed. ‘This Michael Cole was murdered at least twelve hours before your dive.’ Mosley explained this slowly, letting the Spanhaurs grasp what he was saying.
Spanhaur’s husband held her close for several minutes as a tangled flood of emotion welled up inside her. She was shocked, angry, relieved, happy, and confused all at the same time. Mosley turned away until she had time to compose herself.
‘Is there anything else, Herr Mosley?’ she asked daubing away at a few errant tears.
‘If you don’t mind, I would like to borrow your photo. It’s the first solid clue we have in this investigation.’
Spanhaur tore the print from her album and handed it to Mosley. ‘This man used me to hide his crimes. I hope you find him and bring him to justice for what he has done.’
Mosley placed the photograph in his file. ‘That’s why I’m here. Thank you both for your help.’
30
April 21
Mosley’s short trip to Germany had produced his best lead in the four months since Cole’s body had been pulled from the sea. Computer analysis of the man in Petra Spanhaur’s photograph quickly turned up a match, British business consultant Ian Parnell. Dominican Immigration verified that Parnell had arrived in Santo Domingo a few days prior to Cole’s death.
Mosley wasn’t back in his office thirty minutes when a security guard escorted Dan Harmon to his doorway.
‘Mr Harmon,’ Mosley said with a warm smile, ‘what brings you all the way out to Virginia?’
Harmon pulled out an enlarged copy of the Spanhaur photograph. ‘You have to warn me before sending over stuff like this. The Spanhaur photo has blown part of this case wide open.’
Mosley leaned back and propped his feet up on the desk. ‘How so?’
‘Fundamentals, Cal. I wired a copy of the photo to our Chicago office and had an agent run it past Cole‘s team at Moy Electronics.’
‘I hate to put a damper on your story, but we already ID’d the guy.’
‘I’m not talking about the guy-I got a name for the woman handing him the fins. Like I said, we ran the picture past the people at Moy, and they all had lunch with her, including Cole. She’s a freelance journalist named Alexandra Roe and we can definitely place her in the DR at the time of Cole’s murder.’
Mosley scrawled Roe’s name beneath a copy of the photo pinned to his wall. The large tackboard was covered with items related to this investigation. ‘Nice work, Dan. I’m impressed.’
‘But wait, there’s more.’ Harmon turned his head and motioned for someone to join them. A man of medium height and stocky build entered Mosley’s cramped office, taking the guest chair indicated by Harmon.
‘Cal, I would like to introduce Lou Gerty. Lou here is a kindred spirit in the investigative world, though his work lacks the luxury of our federal positions.’
‘This guy talks an awful lot.’ Gerty pointed a thumb in Harmon’s direction.
‘Yeah, well he’s FBI. What can I say?’ Mosley held out a hand to Gerty. ‘Pleased to meet you, Mr Gerty.’
Gerty quickly shook Mosley’s hand. ‘Call me Lou. Dan asked me to come down and tell you my story, so here I am. I’m a private investigator, mostly domestic stuff, custody, that kind of thing. A couple of years ago, I handled a case for a young lady who works for one of the congressmen up on the Hill. She had her suspicions about her husband and wanted them checked out.’
‘The husband in question is Michael Cole,’ Harmon added.
‘I was getting to that!’ Gerty turned his attention back to Mosley, a little perturbed at the interruption. ‘Yeah, the guy I was watching was Michael Cole. I’m sorry to say that his wife’s fears were justified. It’s bad enough when a guy’s cheating on his wife for kicks, but this guy Cole was leading some kind of double life.’
The term double life had a specific meaning for career intelligence officers, and Gerty’s offhand comment grabbed Mosley’s attention. ‘Could you elaborate on that, please?’
‘Certainly. Michael Cole was a practicing homosexual with wide and varied tastes. His liaisons were, to put it mildly, inventive.’ The look of disgust on Gerty’s face told Mosley that he didn’t approve of alternative lifestyles. ‘I photographed Cole in several encounters with different partners over the course of several weeks. All were male and some may have bordered on the age of consent. I performed my investigation for an attorney, who used my report to back a divorce suit against Cole. She crucified him. Afterward, she asked me to stash a copy of everything I’d dug up, just in case her client needed to protect herself in the future. I had my copy until last December.’
‘What happened last December?’ Mosley asked.
‘I was in my office on a Friday afternoon, just working on some paperwork, when I was visited by this woman who said she was FBI. She had proper ID and I had no reason to doubt her. She told me that Cole was a suspect in an espionage investigation. She knew I’d tailed Cole and that I had something on him strong enough to make him walk away from his divorce empty-handed. In the end, she walked out of my office with my entire file, including the negatives. I decided to let it go at that, figuring that Cole deserved whatever he got.’
‘That’s where I can pick up the story,’ Harmon announced. ‘Cole’s ex-wife didn’t tell us anything about the reason for their divorce, at first. Their settlement called for both parties to remain silent and she was honoring that agreement. Once she realized the seriousness of the situation surrounding her ex-husband’s death, she offered up Gerty’s investigation into Cole’s life. Unfortunately, by then almost everything Gerty had on Cole was already gone.’
Gerty sat back in his chair, smiling proudly. ‘Everything but my memory.’
Harmon threw a supportive arm around Gerty’s shoulder. ‘This guy has a near-photographic memory. When he described the woman in his office, I figured it was probably one of Cole’s friends helping him out. At least that’s what I thought until you found Petra Spanhaur. Lou, will you tell Cal what you told me this morning?’
Gerty pointed at the Spanhaur photo on Mosley’s wall. ‘That’s the woman who took my files.’
Mosley didn’t respond for a moment, digesting the new discoveries. Without saying a word, he stood up and walked over to the dry marker board on his office wall that bore a bubble diagram of the investigation. The bubbles held the names of people and activities surrounding the death of Michael Cole; dashed or full lines indicated respectively weak or strong connections in the investigation. Mosley picked up a bold red marker and drew a line connecting Michael Cole, Ian Parnell, and a new bubble with the name of Alex Roe.
31
April 28
Kelsey, Nolan, and Grin quickly made their way through the corridors of the MARC complex to Sean Kilkenny’s office. Nolan’s father had called them down to review the FBI’s findings regarding their hacker. From the tone of his voice, the MARC director was not happy with what he had heard.
