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“You mean the lunatics know?”
“Commissioner, there have been no details,” Detective Britton said. “Just nonspecific talk.”
“They must know something,” Kellogg said. “Which means they know more than I do and a hell of a lot more than the mayor does.” He paused and then went on: “Were you able to come up with a connection between Britton’s mosque and the people who cleaned airplanes at Lease-Aire? ”
“No, sir,” Sergeant Betty Schneider said. “We haven’t been able to find a direct connection. None of the names connected. So what they’re working on now is relatives and known associates.”
“Most of the people at the mosque, Commissioner,” Britton explained, “have rap sheets for drugs and/or theft. Which would keep them from getting airport work permits. But if they wanted to snoop around this airplane company . . .”
“Lease-Aire,” Castillo furnished.
“. . . they could send a brother or sister, or the guy next door, who is clean and could get an airport work permit . . .”
Commissioner Kellogg held up his hand to cut him off.
“I get it,” he said. “And checking that out takes time, right?”
“Yes, sir,” Betty and Britton said, almost together.
“We don’t have any time,” Kel
logg said. He looked at Britton. “If you went back to the mosque, what do you think you could find out?”
“Not much, sir. I can’t ask too many questions.”
“Who at the mosque would know?”
“The mullahs.”
“And if we hauled them in, what would we learn?”
“Not much. They know all about the Fifth Amendment; they claim it if we ask if it’s raining.”
“How many mullahs?”
“There’s one head man,” Britton said. “Abdul Khatami, formerly Clyde Matthews, and then . . .”
“Has this guy got a sheet?” Commissioner Kellogg interrupted.
Britton answered first with his hands, mimicking the unrolling of a long scroll.
“Before he converted, Clyde was a very bad boy,” Britton said. “He was in and out of the slam from the time he was fifteen. A lot of drugs, but some heavy stuff, too, armed robbery, attempted murder, etcetera. He was doing five-to-ten in the federal slam—for cashing Social Security checks he ‘found’—when he converted. So far as I know, he’s been clean since; he sends the faithful out to raise money for the cause.”
“How many more mullahs would be likely to know something about the Liberty Bell?”
“Three, maybe four—no more than four.”
“You have their names and where we can find them?”
“Yes, sir. But . . .”
“Send Highway to pick them all up, one at a time. Lots of sirens, lots of noise. I want it known that we’ve picked them up. Keep them moving between districts, no more than an hour in each district. Dutch, you work out the details.”
“What are we charging them with?” Chief Inspector Kramer asked.
Commissioner Kellogg ignored the question.
“Your people will interrogate them, Dutch. With Britton and Major Miller watching through a one-way glass. Northeast Detectives is probably as good a place as any to do that.”
