Chapter 06
The fact that Joe Morrow had mentioned multiple fake IDs gave Velma a new focus on her dark web search and, before Shaggy forced her to go to bed at 1:00 AM, she had ferreted out two additional aliases that Scooby had purchased. With that information, Velma had looked for any files associated with both Johnson Aviation and those two names. She found nothing on the internet. But she also found nothing regarding any of Johnson Aviations' client files or ticket registers.
The following morning, they took their P-Car down to the airport and pulled up in front of a large building which was primarily a hanger on the side toward the apron and taxiway at the back and with some offices facing out toward the parking lot and street at the front. A small sign next to one of the three doors said 'Sealine Airways Entrance'.
Sealine Airways was a charter service and advertised multiple types of aircraft but did not seem to have the facilities available for as many types of planes as their internet presence indicated. The door opened into a lobby which had a video screen on the far wall tracking the daily flights of which there were five.
The room appeared to be a combination lobby, waiting room, and ticket counter. The A-Eye console was on the counter and it spoke as they approached, Mr. Rogers and Ms. Dinkley, welcome to Sealine Airways. Your appointment, Bill Pepper, will be with you shortly. Would you like some water while you wait?
"No, thank you." They both replied and stepped away from the A-Eye console to avoid it continuing to sense them and trigger it's 'small talk' mode.
After two minutes, a short, stout man with greying hair stepped out from a door behind the counter and extended his hand. He was wearing a short-sleeve shirt with a Sealine Airways logo on it and his arms were covered in a thick mat of grey hair, "I'm Bill Pepper, Vice President of Sealine Airways."
Shaggy shook the extended hand, "Mr. Pepper, I'm Shaggy Rogers and this is Velma Dinkley." Velma shook his hand, as well.
Rather than leading them into a conference room or office, Bill just sat down in a nearby chair. Shaggy was nonplussed for a moment, but the lobby was completely empty and no flights were scheduled until around noon. So, he and Velma sat as well.
Bill looked to Shaggy, "Shaggy, the message you left on the meeting request said that you were private investigators working on a missing persons case. You understand that many of our clients make us sign confidentiality agreements which may limit what I can do for you. But I'll help in any way that I can."
Shaggy cleared his throat, "Well, we aren't so much needing information about Sealine Airways as we are regarding a client of Johnson Aviation."
"Johnson Aviation? I haven't heard that name in a few years. I take it that this is a cold case."
"It's not recent. The client in question flew with Johnson Aviation about 35 years ago."
Bill's jaw dropped, "35 years ago! I'm not sure where we could start with that one. Honestly, Johnson Aviation was something of a shady operation. They didn't own any of their own aircraft and employed no flight or maintenance personnel. They were just a middle man for connecting clients that didn't want to answer questions with pilots that didn't ask them. We only bought them out because they had a 20-year lease with the airport for this building. It was a wreck when we moved in…"
Velma stepped in to check her facts, "When was that?"
He thought for a moment, "Six years ago. We had to overhaul the whole place. Cost a fortune. But we knew that going in and planned for it. Turned out real nice, though."
Shaggy nodded and smiled.
Bill continued, "Johnson didn't keep anything like decent records."
Velma considered that statement, "But, aren't all airline companies required by the Government to keep manifest information?"
"Yeah, but that's just for a year. And back then, the Government made everybody keep that stuff on paper. All that stuff went to the dump years ago."
Velma pressed, "But weren't there old paper files from Johnson when you took over the building?"
"Probably, but, like I said, we would've thrown all that stuff out when we cleaned up the place."
"But, that would have meant going through the files in detail to confirm that you weren't throwing away manifests less than a year old."
Bill's face reddened slightly under Velma's onslaught of logic, "Look, the bottom line is that I can't help you."
"Can't or won't?"
It was time for Shaggy to jump in, "Bill, thank you for your time. We really appreciate it."
Bill didn't exactly say 'harumph' but it was in the tone of his voice, "You're welcome." There were no handshakes at the end of the conversation, and he left the room without looking back.
Shaggy and Velma didn't speak until they were back in the P-Car. Velma immediately spoke, "You noticed, right?"
"That he referred to Johnson Aviation as 'shady'? Yeah. And when somebody refers to somebody else as 'shady', then it's a better than even chance that there is shade on both sides of that street."
"Especially if they bought the shady company. Was it just for the property? Or did they also want the lists of shady clients and shady pilots?"
"But even if all of this is true, that doesn't mean that they kept the manifests."
"People who break the big laws tend to be sticklers about the little ones. Everybody learned from Al Capone."
Shaggy groaned, "It's been a long time since we broke into a building and electronic security is a lot different now."
"Not so much. And I've been keeping up. It'll be like old times."
"But old times were scary."
xXx
Barty Blake was exhausted. After his fruitless meeting with the Assistant District Attorney, he had forced a video meeting with the District Attorney which had been equally fruitless. Then he had moved into the city government, starting with another video call with the City Administrative Officer (another bureaucrat). This was followed by another waste-of-time meeting with a City Council Member, who was a politician but not high enough in the system to help. This was followed by a video meeting with the City Attorney who was an elected official but not a career politician. The City Attorney had run for the office for the connections it would provide and then he would return to private practice.
But all of that had led to the Mayor herself. A career politician with high aspirations. Barty refused a video call and demanded a face-to-face meeting. It took some heavy-handed demands and several calls to friends and acquaintances, but the meeting was scheduled for late afternoon.
As he slowly plodded his way into the Mayor's conference room, Barty was beginning to wonder if he had enough stamina to do what he had to do. But he put that aside. He was a Blake and would continue to be a Blake until he was six feet under. Blakes got the job done. But he didn't argue when Bert assisted him from the walker into the chair.
The Mayor was obviously annoyed at the forced meeting and showed her displeasure by making them wait for thirty minutes. Barty would give her that one. Let her believe that she had attained the upper hand. When she finally arrived with two assistants in tow, he even summoned the energy to stand and extend his hand.
She shook it peremptorily, "I apologize for being late. Mr. Blake, and I'm afraid that I only have a couple of minutes." She didn't sit down.
Enough of this crap, "Then, Madame Mayor, you will never be elected to any office within this city, state, or nation again."
The Mayor stared at Barty and her assistants stared at her.
Barty continued, "If you believe that I do not have the means to make this happen, then feel free to turn around and walk back out the door. If, however, you believe that I can make this happen and that I will, you may want to send your associates away and have a seat. I have something I wish to speak with you about."
The Mayor made a hand gesture and the two assistants left the room and closed the door behind them. Three lights went from green to red next to the door. The assistants apparently recognized a meeting for which no record was desired. The Mayor then sat, "Mr. Blake, I see that your reputation is well-deserved."
"I'm not going to waste your time just to prove a point, Madame Mayor. I'll get right down to what I am needing. There is a law firm in the city named Reynolds, Jenkins, and McNabb."
"I'm familiar with them."
"And this firm has information which I need. The information is old, outdated, and of no interest to anyone except me and my family."
"What is you interest in this information?"
"It is a humanitarian request. My daughter and her husband disappeared 35 years ago. This information might help us in determining their whereabouts."
"If you haven't heard from her in 35 years, you might prefer to not find out."
"By making that statement, you are telling me that you have never lost someone without a trace. I am happy for you. But as someone who has, let me tell you that anything is better than not knowing."
"I'm sorry for your loss."
"I hope you can see why I am willing to push some boundaries to get this information."
"But why not simply threaten them directly? Why give me that pleasure?"
"Because lawyers tend to see themselves as all-powerful and unassailable. I could bring them around but that would take time that I don't have. Politicians tend to have a more realistic world view."
"Meaning we can be threatened."
Barty nodded, "Yes. And just to be clear, the pressure that I put on you to get this meeting is a tiny fraction of the power that I will array against you if you refuse to help me. Your campaign coffers will dry up and your opponents will have support beyond their wildest dreams. Your public service career will be over. Forever."
"I wouldn't still be listening to you if I did not think you were capable of that, Mr. Blake. What exactly do you want me to get from Reynolds, Jenkins, and McNabb?"
"I have asked for information regarding the nature of their business dealing with one of their clients 35 years ago. They are aware of the details of the request."
The Mayor steepled her fingers, "That information is privileged."
"It was some decades ago. That client has also been missing for many years. That hard line has greyed somewhat with time."
"I don't think it works that way."
"What you think really doesn't matter. I need you to put enough pressure on Reynolds, Jenkins, and McNabb that they see it as being in their best self-interest to find a way to make that line grey."
The Mayor now smiled, "Mr. Blake, I've seen the stick. What's the carrot?"
Barty returned the smile, "Madame Mayor, I choose not to discuss the carrot because such a thing might be considered bribery. Legally, it is much easier to threaten an elected official than to bribe one. And I wouldn't want to be accused of that."
The Mayor stood, "I, of course, can't promise anything but I will see what I can do. As you said, it is a humanitarian request."
Barty didn't stand because he didn't think he could without Bert's help. He was tired, so very tired. "Thank you. If your assistance helps me to find my daughter, I will be in your debt."
xXx
Velma and Shaggy had spent the afternoon shopping and then the early evening napping. They were now seated in the P-Car, wearing the grey clothing they had purchased and going through the plan.
Velma was going over the last two parts of the plan, "We're going to have to walk the last mile to avoid our car being tracked too close to the building. We also have to leave our A-Eyes here because the airline's A-Eye will identify us from them."
Both of these things were obvious to Shaggy, but Velma had a process and she would need to talk her way through it.
She checked the contents of the backpack and compared it against her mental checklist. Everything was there. "Are you sure that you can get to the transmitter?"
Shaggy shrugged, "I'm not as young as I used to be, but I should be able to. Are we ready to go?"
Velma nodded, "I suppose so."
They got out, pulled the collapsible ladder out of the truck and started walking down the road. The moon was new but there was a lot of ambient light from around the airport. They walked with as normal a gait as possible when they were carrying the heavy ladder between them. It collapsed down to four feet long but was heavy. The normal gait was important as that was less likely to catch someone's attention than skulking.
Their luck held and they were able to make it to the Sealine Airways building with no passing cars or people. They stopped and rested just of out of range of any potential security cameras on the exterior. Velma was wearing platform tennis shows which added 4 inches to her height in order to further confuse any forensic investigators. Shaggy couldn't make himself any shorter.
They pulled the cloth bags over their heads. The cloth was thin which allowed them to see and breathe through it – although neither well. Picking up the ladder, they made their way to the front corner where the eave was at its lowest and extended the ladder up until it reached about two feet over the edge of the roof. Shaggy took the backpack and climbed up while Velma held the bottom of the ladder.
Exiting off of the ladder and onto the steep, slippery, metal roof was more challenging than Shaggy remembered but he made it. Leaning forward until his hands touched the roof in front of him, he began to climb until he reached the apex on which sat the electronic transmitter for the building's security system. Most cities (including Vancouver) had passed regulations against hard-wired telecommunications lines due to maintenance issues and aesthetics of wires either strung along poles or run underground. All communications and data were now broadcast.
The transmitter was a plastic box about 6 inches square sticking up on a post. Shaggy carefully put down the backpack to avoid it starting to slide down the roof, opened it and pulled out a roll of aluminum foil. He then sat down next to it and listened. Velma was at the bottom of the ladder looking at a radio frequency meter and waiting for the transmitter to send out its 'All Clear' pulse. Once that was sent, they would have ten minutes before the security company expected the next pulse. Velma saw the pulse register on her meter and hit the ladder three times with a rock she had picked up.
On hearing the three taps, Shaggy started wrapping the aluminum foil around and around the transmitter and then bunched it up at the top and bottom. He then pulled out a copper canister (an expensive copper canister) that they had bought at a kitchen supply store and placed it over the aluminum-wrapped transmitter. He them pulled out another roll of aluminum foil, wadded up into the open bottom of the copper can, and then wrapped the whole thing thoroughly. Once done, he forced himself to work his way slowly down the roof and remain careful. He made it to the ladder and found it even harder to get from the roof to the ladder than getting onto the roof had been. He finally got a foot solidly onto a ladder rung and was able to make his way back down. It took him one minute. Nine minutes to go.
Velma led him to the side door which had a small red light glowing next to it. It was an emergency exit door which were alarmed but usually locked by a mechanical lock rather than having electronic access control. She pulled out a flashlight and pointed it directly at the lock. Shaggy pulled out his lockpick set and dropped to a knee to get to work. It was a mid-range lock which meant it could take him up to fifteen minutes to work it open. He focused his mind, put the lock in tension, and began to work the mechanism. At the two-minute mark, he had to stop, flex, his hand, and force himself to take a breath. He had been holding his breath. At the four-minute mark, he felt something give, and then the lock came open. Five minutes to go.
Velma ran through the door toward the front lobby where she had seen the security control console. Shaggy ran around to the ladder and headed back up to the roof. He took his place next to the transmitter while Velma worked on the security console. Inside the building, the siren was filling her ears and giving her a headache but she forced herself to think about the process. She laid her electronics box onto the input pad on the console. Her electronics box was basically an A-Eye with no personally identifying information onto which Velma had loaded all of the software she needed as a private detective. Even though she had not worked as a private detective in many years, she kept the box up-to-date as sort of a hobby. The box immediately began working to sync with the console. That took 30 seconds and then it began working through the various potential passcodes resetting the system back to zero attempts after every nine. Depending on the passcode, this could also take much longer than the four minutes they had left.
But it didn't. After three minutes, the siren turned off and the system returned to free access mode. Velma sprinted from the lobby outside to the ladder, had trouble finding the rock on the ground, found it, and hit the ladder three times. She then pulled out her radio frequency meter and slumped to the ground, gasping for air. She also was not as young as she used to be.
On hearing the three hits on the ladder, Shaggy started ripping the aluminum foil from the transmitter and it took him thirty more seconds to get it and the copper canister off. He allowed himself three deep breaths and then started making his way down to the ground.
Velma fought between holding her breath and continuing the gasping breaths as she stared at the radio meter, willing it to show her a pulse which would indicate that they had made it in time. Fifteen seconds passed (which seemed like forever – thank you Albert Einstein) before the pulse registered. They were in and clear. Which meant they could sit on the ground at the bottom of the ladder and wait for their heart rates to settle down.
After a couple of minutes, Velma tugged at Shaggy's shirt, "It's time to get back to it."
Shaggy stood up a little too quickly and a wave of dizziness passed over him. He held onto the ladder until it passed. Trying to pass it off, he looked up, "We better go ahead and pull the ladder down.
Velma wasn't fooled but there was no reason to dent his ego, "Right. Let's get that done, hide it somewhere and then go inside and see what we can find."
The building was mainly a large hanger with a lean-to structure housing the offices and storage along the front face. This structure was a simple corridor lined with doors on either side. The corridor lights had been left on which was helpful as they walked down reading the names on the doors. They focused on the doors on the right, first, since those backed onto the hanger and did not have any windows. With luck, what they needed would be on that side which would minimize the chances of anyone seeing them from the street.
The doors nearest the lobby were the names of departments like 'Ticketing', 'Sales and Marketing', "Procurement', and 'Human Resources'. The fifth door down was marked 'Supplies'. The door was open and they stepped in and turned on the lights. It was a small room with shelves on one side full of the sundry items required to run an office. It was not what they were looking for.
They continued to the next door which was marked 'Accounting'. This door was locked with a mechanical lock. Shaggy dropped to a knee and pulled out his lockpick set again. He was still feeling his oats after getting through the exterior door in under four minutes. His cockiness cost him as his hand slipped on the tension bar multiple times and it ended up taking him nearly fifteen minutes to get it open.
While he was working on that, Velma worked her way down the hallway until she found a room marked, "Storage" which had a relatively-sophisticated electronic lock. She brought out her electronics box again and held it against the lock's cardreader/keypad.
Shaggy finally got the Accounting Office door open and stepped inside. Like most such offices, they had gone paperless ages before and there were no file cabinets. He went through the six desks (which had very easy locks to pick) and confirmed that there were no paper files either. Another bust.
He left that office and made his way down to Velma and got to her just as the lock clicked and she was able to open the door. They peered in and turned on the lights. The room was something of a mess with various marketing items sprawled around but, at the back of the large room, they saw file cabinets. Lots of file cabinets.
Someone had taped a description of what was stored in each cabinet to the top. This didn't help Velma, since she couldn't see the top. But Shaggy was able to read to her what each one contained. When he read the third cabinet, he cried out, "Eureka!"
"What is it?"
"The next four file cabinets all say 'Johnson Aviation'."
Each separate drawer had its own identification label. Shaggy started from the right and Velma started from the left. The drawers in three of the four cabinets were labeled "Manifests" with a range of years. And those dates went back over 40 years. They opened the drawer and found them organized by year and month.
Shaggy thumbed through the files, "Didn't Bill Pepper say that they had thrown out all of these manifests?"
"Yes. And he also said that Johnson Aviation didn't keep good records. These are meticulous."
"Which means that I don't think that we have to worry about Bill Pepper calling the police."
"Right, shadiness is confirmed."
Shaggy tried not to think about dust mites as he pulled out the month when Scooby had left Vancouver and handed half of the manifests to Velma. Velma gave him the last two aliases that Scooby Doo had bought on the Dark Web and they began their search.
After just a few minutes, it was Velma's turn, "I got something."
Shaggy looked over and followed where Velma's finger was pointing at the old paper, "That's one of his aliases."
"Yes, and he flew from here to Hilo Airport in Hawaii. His boarding weight was 180 pounds and his luggage weighed 47 pounds. He was the only passenger and they arrived in Hawaii after 2:00 AM."
"He was trying to enter Hawaii without being seen."
"Which means that he would have needed someone waiting to pick him up."
Shaggy furrowed his brow, "But where would Scoob have gotten the money to afford a solo charter flight to Hawaii?"
"He was the only one of us that always had a steady paycheck. The Government started paying him while we still had the network contract. Then he got his part of the royalties from the shows. His book sold better than any of ours and he got more advertising gigs than the rest of us put together. And he didn't really spend very much. He always paid his part of the rent or mortgage but you two never lived in fancy places. The only major expense he ever had was food. Did he ever talk to you about how much money he had saved?"
"No. But, I never asked him. Like you said, he always paid his half of the rent, utilities, and food."
"And he always paid his portion of the old production company costs. But then, while you were paying to keep the restaurants afloat, and I was trying to keep the bookstore open, and Fred and Daphne spent money like it was going out of style, Scooby was socking it away."
"So, the Scoob was loaded and I never knew it."
"No reason to. It was his business."
"I guess you're right and it's not important now. What's important is for us to get out of here without leaving a trace and be on our way to Hawaii."
It took about twenty minutes to go through the offices and make sure that everything was back the way they had found it. They then walked around and gathered up the pieces of aluminum foil that had dropped from the roof. Finally, they picked up the ladder, which felt much heavier now after a long night and walked the mile back to the P-Car. They stopped four times to rest.
