Books #2 INFLIGHT continues with the action oriented plot of dangerous and intriguing, multi-dimensional characters revolving around a family sharing a terrorist bloodline, including their agenda of personal vendetta.
Read here the Preview of CHAPTER THREE of the Thriller INFLIGHT
CHAPTER THREE
Greenwich Village, Manhattan
Investigating Eugene Lewek’s Homicide
Monday Morning - Earlier
As instructed by Jonathan Bradley, the junior FBI officer, Brian Smith, was revisiting the crime scene area at the Greenwich Village residence area of the murdered, retired CIA secret agent, Eugene Lewek.
The latter had been Jon’s friend and mentor. Bradley now suspected that his brutal beheading, carried out execution-style, was linked to the Islamic-Jihadist terror-cell, recently raided by the Mossad Kidon in an illegal operation on the American soil.
Brian had taken with him from the pool of FBI’s contract workers a middle-age metal fabricator and tools specialist, Peabody, who took apart the steel filing cabinet, panel-by-panel and drawer-by-drawer.
Meantime, Brian occupied himself in checking minutely each of the seven files found in the bottom drawer, which had been left behind by the unknown gang of assassins.
He was done with the fifth file when he was suddenly interrupted by Peabody’s elated cry, “what have we here…?”
Brian saw him unscrewing a secret panel in the last drawer, attached to the single vertical steel-sheet forming the back panel for all the drawers.
They hadn’t to wait long. Out toppled a manuscript along with additional pages of handwritten, scribbled notes and a few photographs from inside it.
Both of them had hand gloves on, but it was Brian who picked up the manuscript and the spilled contents from the bottom drawer. He immediately put them into the official brown Kraft envelope meant for storing evidence found at the crime scene.
The young FBI officer noted down the contents, and the place, date and time on the outside of the envelope. He and Peabody signed on it to authenticate as witnesses to the discovery of the evidence.
They continued with their relevant tasks, later spending time at other places in the house, including the garage where the killing had taken place. No trace of any further clues or evidence was found.
Eugene’s place had already been subjected to forensic examination by the NYPD Manhattan Crime Squad. However, the forensic reports, including latent fingerprints and the autopsy findings were yet to be made known.
When Brian and Peabody had finished with the house, they came outside and surveyed the landscape grounds. Eugene Lewek’s house was the last one in line with other houses, separated by a small row of tall shrubs and a solitary mid-size elm tree.
Standing under the elm-tree, Brian was able to get the full view of the garage and the front of the house. The tree foliage was thick with the branches spreading out. He had difficulty in seeing clearly through the varying patterns of the leaves and the branches.
“Peabody, will you bring the folding ladder, which we saw in the garage?”
Peabody nodded and left to fetch the aluminum ladder. He returned shortly, unfolding and setting it ladder against the trunk of the elm.
Brian, a slim, gym enthusiast, climbed up the rungs, his eyes searching, and finally reaching the top of the four-meters-length of the ladder. He had to climb through some tight space, brushing aside some of the low-hanging branches.
As he surveyed into the interior of the foliage, and changed his position on the ladder to look behind, his eye caught sight of an unnatural movement atop a branch. Then he saw the glint reflecting from a box-shape enclosure clamped into the branch of the elm tree. He immediately realized that it came from the exposed, moving eye-lens of a hidden camera.
The wayward twigs in front of the lens had been clipped to provide a clear view.
Brian had to climb farther up two branches to get within reach of the concealed, apparently battery-operated, surveillance camera. It was secured onto the branch and the exterior given a coat of green paint to camouflage its presence among the foliage.
He shouted at the contract worker standing down below, “Peabody, I am coming down. There’s a surveillance camera set up here that you will have to uninstall and bring down.”
A few moments later, he was back on his feet on the ground.
“Take your tool-kit with you. You will need it to undo the clamps. Keep your hand gloves on. We would not want to smudge the fingerprints, if any.”
“I will be careful, Sir. I will let down the camera to you, placed inside the canvas bag tied to the nylon rope, which I have in here,” Peabody said, tapping the tool kit.
“Switch off the battery power first; there’s a black button outside the camera enclosure.”
Peabody’s medium stature and slightly heavier built did not deter him from quickly going up the ladder, but he had some difficulty in reaching the particular branch, four feet above the top rung. He struggled awhile to secure a safe foothold on the two branches above him and finally was straddling the branch he sought.
Using liquid spray to loosen the clamps and screws, Peabody began to unscrew the enclosure from the sturdy limb of the elm tree. The rust-bitten screws in the last leg of the enclosure’s clamp resisted his attempts to loosen them, but he soon overcame that, perhaps the motion spurred by the intermittent flow of his expletives.
Five minutes later, Peabody had lowered down the canvas bag and himself come down.
Brian was happy with the turn of events. He had completed his mission successfully and knew that Jonathan Bradley and the investigation team, as a whole, would be elated with the results.
As Brian and Peabody left the premises of the late Eugene Lewek, a pair of eyes watched them through field-glasses from the far-off side of the street.
***
To be continued...
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