Incentive for Death, page 29
Handley turned to Woody Thomas and said, “Chief Whittaker and I went to the MPD academy at the same time in the late 1990s, so we’ve known each other for over twenty years. He’s as upright an individual as you’ll ever meet in law enforcement.”
Chief Whittaker nodded in acknowledgement of the compliment. Handley held an open palm to Whittaker to give him the floor. There it was again, the open hand gesture that I had apparently learned from Whittaker. Maybe they taught it at the Police Academy back in the good old days.
Whittaker took the cue. “I’ll summarize our situation and then let Mac and Oliver give you the details. Our case started one week ago today with the apparent murder of Weldon Van Damm, the managing partner of a medium-sized law firm in Northwest D.C. I put Mac and Oliver on the case when we got the call the next morning. Van Damm had been murdered on Monday evening, but his body was not discovered until the next morning when his secretary found him in his office. The medical examiner thinks he was injected with a chemical that quickly shuts down your breathing and can kill in a couple of minutes but dissipates quickly, leaving no traces. There were no witnesses and no obvious suspects.
“Mac and Oliver quickly eliminated some possible suspects but discovered that Van Damm had set up a corporation called Portland Life Solutions, which buys up life insurance policies. You’ve probably seen the television commercials for similar companies.
“In the course of the investigation, they also found that Van Damm was heavily invested in Portland’s funds used to raise the money to buy the life insurance policies. There were twelve of these funds.
“Each fund paid the investors half of the life insurance proceeds when the insured person died. Van Damm had 15 percent of all twelve funds. One of our key suspects, Vincent Morehead, owned 12 percent in Portland Funds Five and Six.
“Van Damm monitored the performance of these funds closely because he was so heavily invested. He noticed that Funds Five and Six had a sudden spike in collected life insurance proceeds over the past six months and talked to the head of Portland about it a couple of times. Van Damm sensed that something was wrong. Those two funds were collecting two or three times as much as the other ten funds.
“Van Damm was murdered shortly after the CEO of Portland had told Morehead that Van Damm was raising questions about the spike in death claims in Funds Five and Six. Remember, those were the only funds that Morehead was invested in.
“Mac and Oliver turned up a video of a white car exiting the office’s underground garage shortly after Van Damm’s murder. The video also yielded a profile shot of a blonde female driving the car. We tried facial recognition software but did not get a hit, but later got a tip to check the Virginia DMV and identified her as Marian Benedict. By using geolocation tracking on her cellphone, we have established that she apparently works at the CIA in the south building.”
At this point, I was amazed at Chief Whittaker’s recall from our briefings, as well as his omitting reference to our source on facial recognition. I thought Oliver probably had the same feeling.
Chief Whittaker continued, “The M.E. alerted Mac and Oliver to another death that appeared to also be an injection of that same chemical at a Nationals baseball game last Monday evening. Same day as Van Damm’s death. That guy’s name was …” He turned to Oliver, who said, “Eugene Rollins.”
“Yeah,” the Chief continued, “Rollins. We got several screen grabs from the ballpark’s closed-circuit system showing a guy who left the restroom where Rollins was apparently injected. Again, no hit on facial recognition. But the same tip led us to identify him through Virginia DMV. His name is Kurt Bardak. Using cellphone geolocation data, we have established that he works at the CIA also. In the same building as Marian Benedict.
“We found out that Rollins had sold his life insurance policy to Portland. We later found out it was either Fund Five or Six that bought the policy.
“Mac and Oliver then found out about a hit-and-run homicide near the National Cathedral on Tuesday morning, the day after the murders of Van Damm and Rollins. It was a jogger named …”
Oliver supplied, “Bonfiglio.”
The Chief nodded. “We later found out that Bonfiglio had also sold his life insurance policy to Portland. Mac and Oliver then subpoenaed Portland’s records on their death claims over the past six months. And Bonfiglio’s name was on the list for either Fund Five or Six, so they checked closer on the hit-and-run.
“The investigating patrolman had a witness who saw a Caucasian blonde woman driving a white electric car seconds after the impact and tracked down convenience store videos that showed the white car and driver. It was the same woman from the Van Damm scene: Marian Benedict.”
Whittaker had his audience in rapt attention. He could tell the story well. He said, “I’ve been talking enough. I’ll let Mac take it from there.” Chief Handley and Thomas turned to me.
I cleared my throat. “What we couldn’t figure out was a motive for Benedict and Bardak to commit the three murders, although there was a common thread with the Portland Funds. So, our financial analyst got us the names of the investors in all of the Portland Funds from SEC filings. Particularly on Funds Five and Six.
“In addition to institutional investors, there were three individual investors in Funds Five and Six: Van Damm had 15 percent, Vincent Morehead had 12 percent, and Parker Winston had 10 percent. Winston is the CEO of Portland. Van Damm and Winston were in all twelve funds. Morehead was only in Funds Five and Six. Morehead was the person with a large financial motive, so we focused on him.
“Our financial analyst had a confidential informant who got us bank account numbers for Benedict, Bardak, and Morehead. A day later, we received an anonymous envelope with the last six months of bank statements for those accounts.
“By this time, Oliver and I had been digging on the other deaths coming out of Funds Five and Six. Some we eliminated as natural causes. Then we made a list of deaths that were suspicious or where the M.E. couldn’t determine the cause. We gave that list to our financial analyst along with the bank statements and asked her to see if there was a pattern tying Morehead to Benedict and Bardak.”
Oliver distributed copies of Simone Reese’s chart to everyone. “As you can see,” he said, “it appears that Morehead paid Benedict and Bardak $5,000 up front and another $10,000 after each murder. Altogether, it looks like these three have committed eight murders over the past six months. Three in the last week.”
Oliver added, “We also have geolocation data on Benedict’s and Bardak’s cellphones. That shows Benedict at Van Damm’s office last Monday evening and at the scene of the Bonfiglio hit-and-run on Tuesday morning. The geolocation data on Bardak’s phone shows he was at the Nationals game last Monday evening and left just after Rollins went down.”
I resumed the narrative. “We feel that we have sufficient cause to arrest all three of them. In fact, we’re having a court-ordered arrest warrant issued this afternoon for Benedict. We’re hoping to grab her after work today and also impound her car, which we’re certain was used in the hit-and-run death of Bonfiglio.
“That’s the first place where we’ll need assistance from the Fairfax County Police Department. Benedict lives in a high-rise condo just west of Arlington, but inside the Fairfax County limits. We are hopeful that we can flip her on Morehead to strengthen our case on him.”
CHAPTER SEVENTY
I TOOK A BREATH and continued. “The second place we could use help is with three people we think are in danger of being murdered. We subpoenaed the names of the still-living people who sold their life insurance policies to Funds Five and Six. There are three with large policies. Two live in Fairfax County, and one is in Northwest D.C. Other than our paranoia, we don’t know for sure that Morehead and his helpers will be going after them, but certainly don’t want someone else murdered on the eve of arresting these three.
“The two in Fairfax County are Joshua Levine, who lives in Vienna and works in McLean, and Mildred Bronson, who lives in Fairfax and works at the law school at George Mason University in Arlington.” Oliver passed them the information sheets on Levine and Bronson. “As you can see,” I said, “they are insured for $1,000,000 and $500,000, respectively.
“The third one is Bradley Ford, who lives in Northwest D.C. and works for a lobbying firm on Connecticut Avenue. He also sold Portland a $1,000,000 policy.” Oliver distributed the fact sheet on Ford.
Chief Handley asked, “Have you notified these three about the danger?”
“We have debated that very question,” Chief Whittaker said. “We figured they would go berserk and feel we are using them as bait. We also figured they would scream at Portland, and we already have Portland’s CEO all over us about potentially ruining his business with bad press if anything leaks out.”
“But if one of them gets killed and they weren’t notified that you were concerned,” Chief Handley said, “it will blow up really big-time.”
“We came to the same conclusion. A no-win situation,” Whittaker said.
“Amen,” agreed Handley.
“If we get Benedict off the street this afternoon,” I said, “that helps narrow the risk. We might need to monitor Bardak. He seems to be the one who has probably committed six of the murders. He may be Morehead’s main ‘go-to’ guy. But there’s another wrinkle.”
“What?” asked Woody Thomas.
“As Chief Whittaker mentioned, we are pretty sure that both Benedict and Bardak work at the CIA. Probably Morehead also.” Oliver passed them the information sheets on all three of them. “If we’re right, they all probably have sophisticated training in surveillance detection. We certainly can’t try to put a tail on them coming out of the New Headquarters Building at the CIA.”
“Jeez,” Chief Handley said. “Don’t you have enough to pick up Bardak as well? Take him off the table also? That would seem to lower the risk to the three people who are potentially in danger.”
“Leon,” Chief Whittaker said, “I’m coming to the same conclusion. He’s also more of a flight risk than Benedict, I would think, because he is so heavily involved. I think we need a warrant on Bardak as well.”
“If they all work together at the Agency,” I asked, “won’t Morehead quickly get wind of something going down? He’s the biggest flight risk of all. We know he has $1,500,000 in numbered offshore accounts.”
Woody Thomas looked surprised. “How were you able to find that out?”
“Through a very trusted confidential informant,” I said.
“Wow,” Thomas replied.
Chief Whittaker said, “It seems clear that we need to scoop them all up at once. Obviously, the CIA isn’t going to let us on their campus to arrest three people. We’ll have to catch them after they’re off campus.”
“Agreed,” Chief Handley added. He picked up a phone and asked Britney Taylor to come in. Handley waved her to a chair. “Ms. Taylor, we are going to need two arrest warrants for murder this afternoon.”
Whittaker interrupted. “Chief Handley, let me make a suggestion. My assistant can get these additional warrants in no time. Let’s have Ms. Taylor do the same here in Fairfax as a backstop in case there’s a glitch at my end. Regardless of how and where we pick them up, we want them to end up in MPD’s holding cells, rather than the jail here in Fairfax or even in D.C.’s jail for now. Let me get my assistant on the line and let Ms. Taylor listen in also so that we don’t have to repeat the details. Let’s get those warrants going, and then we can discuss the logistics of the arrests.”
“Good plan,” Chief Handley said and pushed the speakerphone over to Chief Whittaker, who dialed Beverly Gray’s direct line.
When she answered, Whittaker said, “Corporal Gray, we’re going to need two more emergency arrest warrants for murder naming Vincent Morehead and Kurt Bardak.” He told her that Britney Taylor was Chief Handley’s administrative assistant and that she would be seeking duplicate arrest warrants in Fairfax in case there was a complication. Gray and Taylor exchanged contact information, including cell numbers, then gathered the same information from everyone else present. Whittaker asked both women to email the warrants to everyone as soon as possible.
Beverly Gray concluded the call by telling Whittaker that an email copy of the arrest warrant for Marian Benedict had been delivered to Chief Handley’s office within the last five minutes. It had also been sent by text and email to Whittaker, Burke, and Shaw. The Chief said he would forward it to his Fairfax counterparts. Oliver said, “Chief, I just sent it to them both plus Ms. Taylor.”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE
CHIEF HANDLEY SAID, “Let’s move on to logistics. I guess we have to assume that all three of them are currently at work at the CIA. It’s not realistic to assume we can spot them coming out of the south entrance after work.”
Woody Thomas suggested, “We have cellphone numbers for them. Why not use Stingray to track them? The urgency would justify the use.”
Handley looked at Chief Whittaker. “George, I know you guys also have Stingray. We’ve gotten some heat from the ACLU about tracking people with it, so we have adopted a policy to only use Stingray in emergencies. I think this qualifies.”
“We have had the same experience,” Whittaker said, “and have a similar policy on use of Stingray.”
All five of the men at the table knew the ability of Stingray to locate specific cellphones. Stingray was originally developed by the U.S. government and the Harris Corporation to use in the wars against drugs and terrorism, but subsequently had been made available to federal law enforcement agencies and select police departments. The software and its capabilities were subject to an ironclad nondisclosure agreement. In short, the actual use of Stingray could not be disclosed, including to courts, even if that means the dropping of cases rather than disclosing its use.
Stingray is basically a cell tower simulator with a boosted signal. Cellphones automatically connect to the strongest cell tower signal. The cellphone user has no idea that Stingray has taken over the link to their phone and calls go through as usual. But Stingray can pinpoint the physical location of the cellphone so precisely that it can identify its exact placement to within six feet.
Woody Thomas said, “You know we can’t use any location information we get in a trial, to the extent it would require us to disclose that we obtained that data through Stingray. Given the complication of tracking these three people as they come out of CIA’s campus, I think the use is clearly justified, especially since we have three people whose lives are at risk.”
“Agreed,” Oliver said. “Let’s plug in the cell numbers for Benedict and Bardak, as well as the two cellphones that Morehead uses. Can we get real-time data sent to all of our cells showing the location of all four of their phones?”
“I’m pretty sure we can,” Thomas said. “Maybe even more people, but that widens the disclosure, which is a risk that we can’t run.”
“George, if you’re agreed,” Leon Handley said, “let’s get this in place immediately. It’s already past three. Some of them could be leaving the Agency before long.”
“I agree,” Whittaker said. “Can your technical people put it in place?”
Thomas picked up his cell and made a call. “Steve, can you come up to Chief Handley’s office immediately? We’re going to need to use Stingray. Bring your laptop.” He hung up.
Within three minutes we were introduced to Steve Summerford, who was the technology guru for the Fairfax Police. He was fortyish with a black beard.
He was quickly brought up to speed on the numbers we needed to locate and the five of us who were to receive the geolocation data in real time. It was amazing to watch Summerford fly through the process. You would have thought he did this every day.
In less than fifteen minutes from the time he had entered Handley’s office, all five of us—six, if you counted Summerford—had maps on our screens showing the numbers one through four. All four numbers were thankfully still located at the New Headquarters Building at Langley. I didn’t know about the others, but I breathed a sigh of relief.
Summerford told us that he had assigned number one to Benedict’s phone and the number two to Bardak’s phone. “I assigned three and four to Morehead’s two phones,” he said. “I didn’t figure it mattered which one was which.”
Chief Handley turned to Woody Thomas. “Let’s get some unmarked cars to the residences of these three people. They won’t need to be right on top of their homes, as we’ll be able to warn them when our suspects are coming.”
Thomas stepped out of the room to make the arrangements. He came back into Handley’s office about five minutes later. “We’ve got two unmarkeds headed to each of the residences. One car at each location will have plainclothes detectives and the other will have uniformed officers. Everyone has been warned that these people may be dangerous, although we hope to catch them off guard.”
I suggested to Chief Whittaker that we dispatch detectives to Benedict’s residence to take her into immediate custody after the Fairfax Police made the arrest and drive her back to the holding cells at MPD headquarters.
He agreed and told me to call Detectives Rae Davis and Jerry Faircloth and tell them to get over there posthaste—his actual word, which I had also heard Corporal Gray use. I called Rae on her cellphone. “Rae, Mac Burke here. I’m with Chief Whittaker and Oliver at the office of Chief Leon Handley at the Fairfax County Police Department. We’re getting ready to move in on arrests on the case you helped us with. Chief Whittaker told me to have you get over to the residence of Marian Benedict just west of Arlington in Fairfax County.” I gave her the address.
