terrorist attack since Oklahoma City. More importantly, this attack hadn't come from some homegrown yahoo, but from the deserts of North Africa.
Bill was flapping his gums about the history of Mideast terrorism, and I made notes in my book to call Beth Penrose, call my parents in Florida, call Dom Fanelli, buy club soda, pick up my suits at the cleaner, call the TV repair guy, and so forth.
Bill kept talking. Kate was listening; Ted was drifting.
Jack Koenig, who was King Jack in New York metro, was not king here, I saw. In fact, he was just another loyal princeling in the Imperial Capital. I noticed that the D.C. types referred to New York as a field office, which didn't go down well with this particular New Yorker.
Anyway, Bill left and a man and woman came in. The lady's name was Jane, and the guy's name was Jim. They wore blue.
Jane said, 'Thank you for coming.'
I'd finally had enough and said, 'Did we have a choice?'
'No,' she smiled, 'you didn't.'
Jim said, 'You must be Detective Corey.'
I must be.
Anyway, Jane and Jim did a little duet, and the name of the song was Libya. This was a little more interesting than the last show, and we paid attention. They spoke about Moammar Gadhafi, about his relationship with the U.S., about his state-sponsored terrorism, and about the U.S. raid on Libya on April 15, 1986.
Jane said, 'The suspected perpetrator of yesterday's incident, Asad Khalil, is believed to be a Libyan, though he sometimes travels under passports of other Mideast countries.' Suddenly, a photo of Asad Khalil came on the screen. Jane continued, 'This is the picture that was transmitted to you from Paris. I have a better quality shot for you, which I'll hand out later. We also took more photos in Paris.'
A series of photos came on the screen, showing Khalil in various candid poses sitting in an office. Obviously, he didn't know he was on Candid Camera.
Jane said, 'The embassy intelligence people took these in Paris while Khalil was being debriefed. They treated him as a legitimate defector because that's how he presented himself to the embassy.'
'Was he searched?' I asked.
'Only superficially. He was patted down and went through a metal detector.' 'He wasn't strip-searched?'
'No,' Jane replied. 'We don't want to turn an informant or defector into a hostile prisoner.'
'Some people enjoy having someone look up their ass. You don't know until you ask.' Even old Ted chuckled at that one. Jane replied, coolly, 'The Arab people are quite modest when it comes to nudity, displays of flesh, and such. They would be outraged and humiliated if subjected to a body search.'
'But the guy could have cyanide pills up his butt and could have offed himself or slipped an embassy guy a lethal dose.'
Jane fixed me with a frosty stare and said, 'The intelligence community is not as stupid as you may think.'
And with that, a series of photos came on the screen. The photos showed Khalil in a bathroom. He was undressing, taking a shower, going to the potty, and so forth. Jane said, 'This was a hidden camera, of course. We also have videotapes of the same scenes, Mr. Corey, if you're interested.'
'I'll pass on that.'
I looked at the photo on the screen now. It was a full frontal nude of Asad Khalil stepping out of the shower. He was a powerfully built man, about six feet tall, very hairy, no visible scars or tattoos, and hung like a donkey. I said to Kate, 'I'll get that one framed for you.'
This didn't go over well with this bunch. The room became noticeably cooler, and I thought I was going to be asked to stand in the hall. But Jane went on, 'While Mr. Khalil was in a deep sleep-caused by a naturally occurring sedative in his milk-' she smiled, conspiratorially, '-some embassy personnel searched and vacuumed fibers from his clothing. They also took fingerprints and footprints, swabbed epithelial cells from his mouth for DNA printing, took hair samples, and even got dental imprints.' Jane looked at me and said, 'Did we miss anything, Mr. Corey?'
'I guess not. I didn't know milk could put you out like that.'
Jane continued, 'All of this forensic product will be made available to you. A preliminary report on the clothing, which was a gray suit, shirt, tie, black shoes, and underwear, indicates that everything was made in America, which is interesting, since American clothing is not common in Europe or in the Middle East. We suspect, therefore, that Khalil wanted to blend in with an urban American population very soon after his arrival.'
That's what I thought.
Jane continued, 'There is an alternate theory, which is simply that Khalil, carrying a false passport from Haddad, went to the International Arrivals and Departures terminal where a ticket was waiting for him under his false passport name at the ticket counter of a Mideast airline, or perhaps any airline. Or, Yusef Haddad gave Khalil his ticket on board Flight One-Seven-Five.'
Jane looked at us and said, 'I understand you've considered both theories-Khalil stayed, Khalil is gone. Both are plausible. What we know for sure is that Yusef Haddad stayed. We're trying to establish his true identity, and determine what his connections are.' She added, 'Consider a man so ruthless-I mean Khalil-that he would murder his accomplice, murder a man who risked his own life to get Khalil into the country. Think about Asad Khalil breaking Haddad's neck, then sitting alone in a planeload of corpses, hoping that the aircraft's autopilot would land him at the airport. Then, instead of fleeing, he goes to the Conquistador Club and murders three of our people. To say that Khalil is ruthless and heartless is to define only a part of his personality. Khalil is also unbelievably fearless and brazen. Something very potent is driving him.'
No doubt about it. I consider myself fearless and brazen, but it was time for me to admit to myself that I could not have done what Asad Khalil did. Only once in my career had I met an adversary who I thought had more balls than I did. When I finally killed him, I felt I wasn't worthy of having killed him; like a hunter with a high-powered rifle who kills a lion knows that the lion was the more worthy and braver of the two.,
Jane hit the video projector button. A blown-up color photo appeared on the screen showing a man's face in profile. Jane said, 'You'll see here, in this enhanced photo of Khalil's left cheek, three faint, parallel scars. He has three similar ones on his right cheek. Our pathologist says they are not burns or wounds made by shrapnel or a knife. They are, in fact, typical of wounds made by human fingernails or animal claws-parallel and slightly jagged lacerations. These are the only identifying scars on his body.'
I asked, 'Can we assume that these scars were caused by a lady's fingernails?'
'You can assume whatever you please, Mr. Corey. I point these out as identifying features in the event he's changed his outward appearance.'
'Thank you.'
'And along those lines, the people in Paris tattooed three small dots on Asad Khalil's body. One is located on his inner right earlobe…' She treated us to a close-up photo. '… one between the big toe and the second toe of his right foot…' Again, a weird photo. '… and the last is close to his anus. Right side.'
She continued, 'In the event you have a suspect, or if you find a body, this might be quick identification to be followed up by fingerprints, or a dental impressions check if necessary.'
It was Jim's turn, and he said, 'The setup for this operation is actually simple when you examine it. Going from one relatively open country to another is not that difficult. Yusef Haddad was flying Business Class and that always makes things easier, including bringing your garment bag and dealing with medical oxygen. Haddad is well dressed, he probably speaks enough French to understand what they're saying at De Gaulle, and he probably speaks enough English not to be a nuisance to the flight attendants on Trans – Continental.''
I raised my hand. 'May I ask a question?'
'Of course.'
'How did Yusef Haddad know what flight Asad Khalil would be on?'
'Well, Mr. Corey, that is the question, isn't it.'
'Yeah, it's been on my mind.'
'Well, the answer is unfortunately simple. We almost always use Trans-Continental, our flag carrier airline, with whom we have a reduced Business Class fare arrangement, but more importantly, we have a security liaison person who works with Trans-Continental. We get people on and off aircraft quickly and with minimum fuss.
