pickup device that might have been missed, making it appear the unit had malfunctioned. They felt they could do that with one bug, but it would have been suspicious to do so with all of them.
“Did you learn anything about the names I gave you?” Jake asked, satisfied he understood the monitoring situation. He had already been shown what the units looked like from the outside, the technician having shown a couple of them to him earlier in the day. They were discretely located, and only a hair appeared to extend beyond the stucco. One had to know exactly what to look for.
“Some,” Carlson replied. “I expect more information by tomorrow. Dennis Kennan is exactly what he implied. He is a small time actor who normally lives in New York. I’m certain when our agents do some checking we will discover he’s been away on a project for several months. I have his photograph here in front of me, and he does look somewhat similar to Henry Ray. It’s a wonder they were able to find such a close match. With a little judicious makeup to adjust hair coloring and the like, I can see how you were fooled.”
“The other one who pretended to be Ray for that single evening, is also an actor. This time out of Chicago. He doesn’t match as well, as only the fact he didn’t have to meet anyone who knew Ray would he be able to pass. Mr. Charles Watson also has a bit of a record. He’s been involved in a couple of B&E incidents, and also is believed to be involved in drug trafficking in Chicago.”
“That sort of fits,” Jake replied. “There is no way that Watson couldn’t have known that something bad had happened to Ray. He was in the restroom when Ray entered, and during the time before Nate and I came in as Watson left, Ray had to have been killed. Watson was clearly there when it happened. Whoever hired him for the temporary impersonation had to have informed him what was planned.”
“That might be something we can use against him to gather information later,” Carlson agreed.
“What about Jon Mallory?” Jake asked.
“Another low life,” Carlson replied. “He’s a local boy as you were told. He has ties to organized crime. He is into gambling and prostitution that we know of. Possibly other activities we haven’t learned about just yet. He works for the largest Mafia family operating out of San Francisco. They are smaller than the Asian gangsters these days, but they still are a significant presence there. Apparently there have been run-ins with both the Asian and Mexican gangs that Mallory has been involved in. He’s thought to have been involved in the disappearance of one of the gang leaders for a local Mexican gang, but nothing has been proven.”
“I don’t like where this appears to be headed,” Jake said.
“Me either,” Carlson said. “But if organized crime is involved, it would help explain the number of people that have been involved. They would have no problem pulling together the kind of resources you have encountered. It would also explain the reluctance of some of the participants to talk about their employer. That kind of reluctance is not easy for the average person to buy.”
Carlson sorted through some papers on her desk and placed something on the scanner so that it would appear on Jake’s second monitor.
“Here’s a picture of Jon Mallory from an arrest a year and a half ago. No beard then, but he’s the guy. Do you recognize him?”
Jake was transfixed by the picture on the monitor. Jake clearly recognized the face. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen it earlier. He had known the face was familiar under the beard, but hadn’t been able to strip away the concealing hair to make the connection.
“Fred Hickam,” Jake said softly.
“Who?” Carlson asked. “You’ve run into him somewhere else?”
Jake nodded. “He uses the name Fred Hickam when he works as a reporter at the San Francisco newspaper that Ray, or his imposter Kennan, works at starting next week. I’ve spoken with him a number of times when I started tracing Ray back. He’s almost certainly been either working with Kennan, or keeping a watch on him. Probably feeding him information along the way, possibly without Kennan realizing it was Hickam.”
“That might explain a little more about how Ray got tricked into the double date that resulted in his death,” Carlson suggested.
Jake agreed. Henry Ray probably had met Jon Mallory