Chapter 9

Chapter 9

On Friday morning, Eames decided that it was time to take some investigative action. She had to be careful, especially since she didn't want to undo her efforts at the firing range. She made sure that one of her forms that morning was a request for the physical evidence on an old case. Which one to pick? Definitely not Tagman. Wally Stevens was simply too much paper. She decided to go with Dorian Cavanaugh. As long as she specified that she didn't want the box, she could handle a few carbon monoxide canisters.

When Barrett left, Eames gave him 15 minutes. Then she headed down to Property. She walked down the last hallway quietly. She could hear Barrett's voice.

"These guys pay ten cents on the dollar. That's what I'm getting, so that's what you're getting." She allowed her footsteps to grow louder as she approached the Property Desk

The sergeant popped his head out from behind a set of shelves as Eames walked up to the window, form in hand.

"Ah, what can I do for you, Detective, um, Eames, is it?

"Just need to look over evidence for an old case. An appeal might be coming up."

Barrett didn't show himself, which meant that he minded whether she knew he was there, which meant that she needed to watch her step, not revealing that she knew anything about his visits here. As she carried her cardboard box of Carlotta Francis costumes, she resolved to not even look in Barrett's direction for the rest of the day.

When Eames arrived at Goren's that night, she carried shish kebab and falafel to a fairly somber Goren. He wouldn't eat until he had explained what Roman had told him to Eames. He had felt guilty about not updating her immediately. When she told him of the events of the day, he couldn't contain his anger. .

"Eames, you can't go skulking around this guy without back-up like that!"

"I can't?" said Eames with an edge to her voice. "I must have missed the memo about your promotion to Captain." Goren realized his mistake.

"I'm sorry, Eames. I – I'm just made at myself for not calling you immediately when I heard from Roman." Eames paused.

"Well, clearly, we now have a second case, and we'll need to watch our step if he has friends in high places." The both paused a minute, simultaneously thinking about what had happened to their former captain.

"I just, I don't know that you should be doing more surveillance." He paused, waiting for her wrath.

"Believe it or not, I'm actually going to agree with you here. I think if I conveniently show up in any more places where he happens to be, he's going to make me. I'm going to go back as far as I can into his early career. If I can find out who he's got his hooks into, we might be able to tackle this from the opposite direction. " Goren nodded. "Speaking of our first case, how's that going?" Goren recounted what he'd learned, and he read some of the diary entries to her. "Bobby, I can tell by the tone in your voice that you're onto something." He nodded.

"Those classes. I think he's talking about Operation Paper Clip, or some people called it Operation Barbarossa. It was, uh, a program that brought German scientists to the US to work on things like rocketry. The idea was to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Soviets, and to hasten the development of the nuclear program here."

"Let me guess. The US government didn't ask too many questions about what their beliefs were or what the scientists were doing during the war."

"There were some real bad apples, and some people whose actions were questionable."

"But how does teaching those classes fit into his life all those years later? And how about Josef Gruenwald?"

"I think it might have something to do with the industries he was researching for his firm's investments. They were plastics and jet fuel. There were a lot of companies. But Gruenwald? I still haven't figured that out. But then -"

"What?"

"I'm not sure she's really involved, but we have to at least consider the widow. If she expected the firm to be worth much more, her motive is…enhanced"

"A debutante packing heat. No you're right. We have to consider it." Alex looked over at Bobby's desk. He had begun taping sheets to his white board, but it looked as if he still had a lot to go through. "What say I come over tomorrow, and we get these documents organized?" Goren smiled gratefully.

The next day, Eames arrived with a cork board and some cantaloupe. They spent the morning tacking documents up, recording information from them, and placing like with like. Goren was grateful that Eames was there to do some of the legwork. He wasn't sure his leg was up to the repeated getting up and sitting down that he usually did when organizing a casefile. When their pizza arrived, Eames finished first and she sat down idly at Bobby's desk. Her gaze fell on the archival box that held Walcott's documents.

"Bobby, we haven't been through these, have we?" Goren silently cursed.

"No, I was so caught up in the diary…"

Eames opened the box and began poking around. She started making piles.

"His high school and college diplomas. A certificate from the Rotary Club for attendance for the year 1960. Several birthday cards. There are a few letters. This one is 1959. It's from his grandmother. There are some carbons," she paused. "They are carbons of things he sent. A couple of them look like requests for those reports you have, you know, the ones from the companies. Wait, Bobby –" Eames held aloft a thin piece of paper covered with blue scrawl. "This one is handwritten, and it's addressed to Josef Gruenwald! It says 'My Dear Sir, I am writing to inquire about the Letter to the Editor you wrote that was printed in the Jewish Daily Forward on February 21, 1962. I am very concerned about the phenomenon you discussed, and I would like to meet with you at your earliest convenience. My phone number is 685-3478. Yours Very Sincerely, R. Walcott.' Bobby this is the link!"

Goren was thrilled to have a break in the case, shocked at himself for not having gone through that pile of papers, and suddenly aware that Eames was terribly cute when she had discovered a solid lead. He shook himself.

"The Forward is the newspaper where I found his obituary." He looked at his watch. "I think the NYU Archives are open until 5," he said hopefully.

"I'll bring my car around. You are allowed to walk from the door of your building to the door of my car and then from the door of my car to the door of the library. There will be no detours to look at something 'neat'."

"Yes, Ma'am."

Traffic was with them and they arrived at the library in plenty of time. Eames dropped Goren at the door and then went off in search of parking, expecting a long quest. Evelyn took charge immediately, a graduate student minion was dispatched, and by the time Eames had circled the block for the tenth time, Goren had emerged with a printout of the Letter to the Editor. As he got into the car he said,

"It's about Operation Paper Clip, I mean, not in so many words, no one back then knew its name. He writes 'I am shocked and dismayed that the government has given contracts to companies that are employing war criminals. I recognized one of the scientists at a large Manhattan company from the Mittelbau Dora Labor Camp, where I was interned during the war. This man was abusive to prisoners, and regularly gave guards reports on certain prisoners that caused them to be shot. I later find that the company has been given a contract to supply airplane fuel to the federal government. This is an outrage!' "

"I can't imagine, " said Eames, "I've seen people get away with murder, but Gruenwald must have felt that his new country was letting him down the way the old country had."