Free 6 - The Eye of the Virgin: Ike Schwartz Mystery 6 by Frederick Ramsay Page B

tell anyone. Put it in an envelope and seal it. After Karl gets here and tells us, we’ll open it. It’ll be like Karnack, and your answer was…tah dah.”
    Essie grabbed Sam’s elbow. “Did you know Ike, here, is engaged?”
    “Wow. To Dr. Harris?”
    “Shoot, Sam, who else has he been seeing lately? Of course it’s her. I’m calling Billy. If he’s still at the bakery, I’ll get him to buy us a big old sheet cake or something.”
    The door opened with a gust of wind and Karl Hedrick entered. “Cake? What’s the occasion?”
    Sam raced across the room and wrapped her arms around Karl’s neck. “Ike’s going to marry Dr. Harris.”
    Karl’s eyebrows shot up. “That so?”
    Ike wagged his hand vaguely at Karl. “Hey, Karl, how’s the FBI treating you?”
    “Fine, Ike. Congratulations. You the man. So you’re going to…that’s going to create some logistical problems for you, won’t it? I mean where will you live?”
    Ike shook his head and shrugged. “There’ll be time to figure that out later. Questions you might have on your list someday, as well, I’m thinking. Sam, is that envelope sealed? Okay, Karl, tell us who our murder victim is.”

Chapter Fourteen
    “Farouk Zaki.” Karl waited for a response. “What? No ‘I told you so?’ Sam, didn’t you find anything?”
    Sam’s face fell. “That can’t be right. Farouk…?”
    “Zaki, yes, that’s the guy’s name.”
    Ike opened the envelope, removed the slip of paper on which Sam had written a name and handed it to Sam. “Read it.”
    “Franco Sacci, like the movie guy only without the H. I don’t understand how that can be.” She turned to Karl, “You made that up. You knew what we would do and you made up another name. Whoever heard of a guy named Farouk? Except the Egyptian guy who…he’s from Egypt? ”
    “I didn’t make it up, and yes, he’s Egyptian, we think, and yes again, that’s the name of the guy we’re looking at. Before you ask, the name is a very common one in that part of the world. Check out the Internet, or is that too obvious? Of course, you will check it out,” Karl sighed and rolled his eyes. “Anyway, you picked off his alias. Now,” he spun around and addressed Ike, “this has got to stop. It is a serious offense to hack into the FBI computers. It’s not only difficult to do but it is a federal crime. Ike, Sam could be in big trouble if she were caught.”
    “I’m police, just like you,” Sam snapped, but looked worried nonetheless.
    “You’re local and subject to federal statutes like any other citizen. If I were to return to the Big House and tell them you had discovered the name of the person I was sent to discuss with you, they would have a task force down here before you could say, ‘there goes my pension.’ You’ve got to stop this, Ike. Sam could be—”
    “I hear you, Karl. Sam, stop it!”
    Sam smiled. “Yes, sir, Ike, sir.”
    “Okay, that’s that. Now tell us about Zaki or Sacci, or whoever he is.”
    Karl closed his eyes and shook his head. “I mean it, Ike. I know you’re connected and can probably wiggle out of something like this, but Sam isn’t and you need to consider that.”
    “Sam works for me, and as you know, or should remember, we are family. Nobody does anything here but everyone does it. You try to take down one of us, you take us all. Am I correct in assuming that your people up there in the rarified ether around the nation’s capitol are thinking they might have a security problem and have murmured in your ear to put us in our place?”
    “Something like that, if I understand what ether means.”
    “Here’s a bit of advice for you to take back with you, when you go. If the wonks in Quantico have a system that a rube police department out in the sticks like ours can penetrate, they have a bigger problem than trying to frighten the aforementioned rubes. Tell them they need to upgrade their software and tighten their security, not threaten police and any