Chapter 12

I left Jamie’s and was on my way to Eggy’s when Pat called.

“You need to call Alex Schimmel”

“Who the fuck is Alex Schimmel and why do I need to call him?”

“He represents Masilla Corp. that new client Roland referred to you on the marijuana license”

“OK but why do I need to call him now instead of tomorrow?”

“After he called I did a quick background on him and I found lots of important people that know him but absolutely nothing in the online resources we use.  The guy is a ghost”

“That is interesting but there must be something you can tell me about him before I call him”

“Well I checked with the angels and there are a couple of stories from years ago when he was a college student at UAlbany”

“College stories?”

“You’ll want to hear this one, the story goes he worked as a bartender at the Washington Tavern and according to some of the employees regularly had sex with college girls in the walk-in freezer”

“That’s your big piece of intel? Shit Danny still fucks girls in the walk-in freezer at WTs”

“First, Daniel would never do that he is a good catholic boy and second one of the coeds was Governor Mclowey’s daughter”

“Mclowey’s daughter? I’m surprised he hasn’t written a book about it”

“Actually I think he did, have you read “Fucked in the Freezer?”

“That wasn’t written by Mclowey it was a bestseller I think the author was Andy Como”

“Andy Como is Mclowey’s pen name for his serious fiction writing”

“Good to know, anything else on Schimmel?”

“He is now a crisis consultant in Washington D.C. no company affiliation, seems to work out of his Rolls Royce Corniche.  He doesn’t drive the Rolls he just parks it at his country club, Moreclose Country Club, so everyone can see that it’s his, then takes cabs and zip cars wherever he needs to go.  He’s worth over $20 million but does his own grocery shopping because he doesn’t trust his Spanish maid to buy the right laundry detergent or get him the cheap toilet paper he prefers.  He’s known to be up at all hours writing emails and leaving text messages to his friends and enemies a like.  In short he is a brilliant complicated man with childlike behavior.  You should get along fine with him”

‘I’ll call him after I meet with Karp”

“That’s the other thing Karp said to meet him in the parking lot something about Eggy’s isn’t open”

I pulled into Eggy’s about 5 minutes later and it was indeed closed but Karp’s government issued black SUV was idling in the lot.

I pulled up and lowered my window.

“Why is Eggy’s closed?”

“They had to close early to restock I guess a large group of secret service agents stopped in to do advance work for the vice president’s visit next month and when they left Eggy was completely out of plates and silverware”

“No shit, well anyway here’s the recording of the hose” and I handed him the microcassette.

“Did you listen to it?”

“I didn’t have to I was there remember”

“Except I know you Leathers, you left it in the cart to record Hibert while he was alone.  How many times do I have to tell you that results in the tape being inadmissible?”

“Why don’t you listen to it first Agent Karp and see if you don’t think it being inadmissible wasn’t worth the information you will get.  And don’t bullshit me I know you can edit it so only the conversations with me present ever get played in court.  No thanks necessary”

“Let’s talk about Stork for a second.  I want you to be careful, our investigation has shown that Stork was buying real estate out by the microdot factory using money Ravi provided to him and at the direction of Richard Siler”

“Why should I be careful?”

“Because it wasn’t Ravi’s money”

“No shit I’m sure it was state grant money”

“Nope that would be routine state corruption and I know you can handle that type of thing, the money came from Israeli gangsters specifically a guy named Lev with a Jewish last name I can’t pronounce.  He is a mean vicious guy with an affinity for pickles.”

“Thanks I’ll keep that in mind Andy”

As I pulled away I glanced in the rearview mirror and ssaw Karp loading a case of pickles into the back of the SUV, cheap bastard.

I dialed the number Pat had given me for Schimmel.

It went straight to voicemail and I left my name and number.

Within seconds my phone was ringing but the number calling me wasn’t the number I had just dialed it was listed as Consolidated Information Associates.

“Mr. Leatherbaum this is Alex Schimmel, I’d like to meet you as soon as possible”

“Certainly Mr. Schimmel what day would be convenient?”

“I’m landing at Albany airport in 15 minutes I’ll meet you there”

“Which terminal?”

“I’m not flying commercial you schmuck I’ll be in a Citation at the Millionaire FBO”

“I’ll be parked right outside in an Audi A8L”

“Nice car, I had one in collage”

Fuck this guy was arrogant.

“I heard you had some other nice rides in college, a couple in a walk-in freezer even”

Let him think about that.

“More than a couple I must have fucked all the angels in there at one time or another, even your assistant Pat, she was an absolute freak”

I didn’t know what to say I was dumbfounded.

“I’ll see you in 12 minutes Leathers we have a lot of work to do”

A lot of work?  This was supposed to be a simple $5000 a month client trying to get a medical marijuana license that they would never get.  What had I gotten myself into?

As Cadillac Curtis used to say if you couldn’t tell who the sucker was at the poker table in the first five hands it was you.

It was time for me to ante up and start playing some cards.