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We spent the next couple of days reading through the case files, but among all the fabricated lies, we couldn't find any suspicious things other than the two leads we were following and the absence of the gun in the crime scene, but it was not a lead we could follow as I was sure the police were bribed well enough to eliminate this evidence from the scene, or whoever came after I left and messed with the crime scene could have done it.
I was waiting to hear some good news from what Tony might have found out about these two guys. I didn't know how I could convince them to help me, but I was sure I'd find a way.
In a few days, Tony came back with news, but what he delivered was shocking enough to move us back in square one. Mustafa came back from that meeting with a face I could not explain as much as he could not decipher mine. Wrinkles formed valleys on our foreheads. We both didn't know what to say or do after what Tony found out about the guard and Sami.
"I can't believe it was an accident. I told you the guy was good. They must have pressured him too much to a point where they were not sure he would cooperate anymore, so they got rid of him." I was not ready to accept that we might have lost the only hope we had in this case. It all vanished with the stupid hunting accident that killed poor Omar less than a month after the death of Fawzi Rachidy.
"As cruel as the idea might sound, I can understand the fate of the poor guard. They must have needed him to testify in court, but I don't think he was going to stick to the story he first said to the police. That explains why we couldn't find his name in the court hearing transcript, but it's the other thing I don't understand. How could Sami be the current major partner in Rachidy's Software company? He was an insignificant IT guy and not a brilliant one according to what Pam and I remember."
"Tony told me he became a partner only two months after the accident. That mixes things up. If we still believe Rachidy Junior has anything to do with it, the key witness, in this case, was probably murdered and the other person who we could use must have been an accomplice. I think things are getting way over our heads. What are we going to do now?"
I was getting as much confused and frustrated about the case as Mustafa was. I didn't have an answer to his question, but it seemed to be the only question that mattered. What if all our suspicions were true? What are we going to do about it?
"Dump Tony now, we cannot get him involved in this any further. He knows too much. I should have listened to you."
"What do you want me to do with him, he's expecting a call from me in the next couple of days?"
"Why did you tell him you would call?"
"You heard him. He kept asking questions, and I didn't know what to tell him."
"It shouldn't be a problem. Don't call him. He's only a retired detective for hire."
"This is what worries me more."
"Don't worry about Tony. Let's think about what we should do now."
Mustafa must have resisted saying it to my face for so long, but he finally hit me with it, "Maybe there is nothing else we can do. Maybe, we should go back to plan B and leave before this shit gets real."
"When wasn't it real? I told you to go back to Germany if you don't want to get your hands dirty."
"Don't lose yourself again, but what else can we do? Maybe we should go to the company, hold a gun to both their heads and force them to confess."
"Maybe, we should."
"Are you...?"
"Crazy? Well, I am, but not that crazy. I think you have just figured out what we need to do."
"Enough of your bullshit."
"Not before you hear what I have in mind."
Mustafa didn't say a word when I told him what I had in mind. He waited for me to finish my proposition and I was waiting for him to tell me I was crazy again, but he didn't.
"I don't know if I can pull this off. What if I crack and blow the whole thing?"
"You won't. It's another business deal. You do it in my stead all the time, remember?"
"Yeah, but this is different. You're asking me to go do business with those guys. One of them we suspect he killed his father, and the other helped. How do you expect me to hold my nerves next to these guys?"
"I'm not asking you to do business with them. It's a potential business we are thinking about doing in Lebanon. Don't forget we are one of the biggest software companies in the world now. We have the upper hand."
"What will that get us? The guys will never confess, and we will not find some hidden evidence lying around in one of the company's computers."
"The problem is we don't know what we are looking for yet? We need to get close enough, maybe gain their trust. I don't know what this might lead us to, but we can always back away if we get nothing, or if things get dangerous."
"I would like to believe you, but I have heard a lot of this back-away shit from you since we got here. You were never going to wait for the lawyer to get back to us, were you? You have decided to take them head on."
"Do you really think the lawyer would work miracles? The lawyer might find a crack to slip through, but we have a real shot here. Let's try this and see where it might lead us.
I don't think Mustafa liked the idea one bit, but he was true to his word, and I suspect he might have given a similar word to Pam not to leave me alone, but he was right that we would sail into uncharted, dangerous waters in this, and I wasn't going to let him do this on his own. After all, I know I am a much better liar than he will ever be, but we needed support, and there was only one guy I could think of, the one guy who saw me as his idol and would do anything for me. I didn't know if I was still going to be his idol after that, but it was not only his loyalty I was counting on, Franz could hack systems like nobody I had ever met.