The Persian Helmet
Chapter 23: The Mills of Law Grind Slowly
Clare and Clench arrived shortly and Clench helped the sheriff put Ali in a cell, and they took care of the paperwork.
“This is the third time he’s been in Greenline,” Sheriff Matheson began.
“That’s just what I told him.”
“Every time he goes a little further.”
“He has no reason to come back,” Clare said. “The helmet isn’t here anymore. I took it to another bank, in another town. In fact out of state.”
“Does he know that?”
“I’ll be sure to tell him.”
“That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t come back after you, and try to force you to tell him or take him to the bank or something.”
“I could tell him I had it melted down for scrap. Of course, he might want the scrap,” she said.
“He might not believe you.”
“Sheriff, I think you ought to know about his mother’s visit to Clare,” Clench said. “You want to tell him, Clare?”
“Yesterday she told me her husband, Ali’s father, died in Iran in April on one of his business trips. But it wasn’t just a business trip. He was a suicide bomber. Ali went with him but he wasn’t part of the bombing, anyway not close enough to get hurt. So now he thinks his father is a hero. Mrs. Ebrahaim seems to be worried that Ali wants to do the same thing, here in Ohio, anyway in the States. But she doesn’t know anything for sure.”
“Good god. Do the Akron police know about this?”
“I don’t think so, not yet. When the father died, the papers didn’t report on how he died. His wife only found out because her in-laws told her, and of course Ali told her. That’s when she sent her daughter away. She was scared More scared, that is.”
“They need to know. I mean the Akron PD. Clench, you get on the phone to the Akron PD now and tell them.”
Clare was used to making decisions and taking action slowly, by comparison with the brisk arrest and the rapid moving of information to Akron. That’s why The Cellar wasn’t open yet, she reminded herself. Was she waiting for some outside signal to tell her to do it?
On the other hand, she suddenly had another new idea, to open another storefront specializing in old Sears appliances, but not so old that they’d be inefficient in a modern house. Except for wringer washers, which some people just loved. And all those blenders and toasters …
“What’s that?” she said, startled, hearing her name repeated.
“I said, do you want to call her mother before I do?” Clench asked. “The sheriff wanted me to do it instead of him since I already met her, and it would be better to do it before the Akron police call her out of the blue.”
Clare was starting to think her mind wandered to her business as an escape from the worrisome Ebrahims. On the other hand, all this was an escape from her work.
“Oh sure, I’ll call her.”
“And Clench,” Sheriff Matheson said, “I’m going to call the FBI and CIA too.”
“Both? Who has jurisdiction?”
“Who knows? FBI is within our borders, CIA outside, so maybe both of them. Anyway I’ll tell ‘em both and let ‘em fight it out.”
“I thought the Akron mosque was mainly black American Muslims,” Clare said.
“I think it was originally,” Clench replied. “But as more Muslims immigrated from other countries, it changed. But now that I think of it, maybe the Ebrahims didn’t go to that one. There’s another one called the Islamic Society of Akron and Kent, in Cuyahoga Falls, and it’s just as close to them and probably more upscale. I bet they went to that one.”
“We’ll ask him,” the sheriff said. “Meanwhile, Clench, you call the Akron PD. Clare, please call Mrs. Ebrahaim. I’ll call the FBI and CIA. And then we’ll have a chat with Ali.”
Since there weren’t other rooms for them to spread out for private conversation, other than the restrooms, Clench and Clare stepped outside on the sidewalk and walked to different corners of the building, while the sheriff made his calls from his desk.
Jennifer Ebrahim wasn’t so much upset at Ali’s arrest as she was relieved that he hadn’t done worse, and that he was locked up where he couldn’t do anything else for the time being.
“What I don’t understand, Jennifer, is why he came here again. Is there any way he could have known you were in Greenline yesterday?” Clare asked.
“Not unless he was checking the odometer on my car. But I doubt it had anything to do with me or my visit. I think he was just having another go at the helmet.”
“Probably. But it’s gone now. I took it away this morning. Far away. But listen, this time he’s going to get into trouble, first for assaulting me, and then — well, they’re going to contact the Akron police department and the FBI and the CIA to look into who he’s been talking to, here or abroad. I told them how your husband died, and that you were worried that Ali wanted to follow suit.”
“I guess you had to.”
“Maybe this will stop him from getting into worse trouble.”
“Well, it’s going to get worse before it gets better, because all this is going to make him more angry. And … I think bringing the FBI and CIA into it will make him feel more important, so that he’ll want to keep following the same course. Unfortunately they can’t keep him locked up for long when he hasn’t really done anything more than commit a minor assault. So, you know, we, or you, can’t just follow him around all the time and try to keep him straight.”
“I suppose he wants to call a lawyer? Does he want to talk to me?”
“I don’t know. The sheriff has just told us about what we have to do first, like make phone calls, but he hasn’t talked to Ali yet. I don’t know the exact procedure but he will have to read him his rights and let him call a lawyer if he wants to. Do you have a lawyer?”
“My husband had one for business. I doubt if he knows anything about criminal law. And I’m not going to ask anyone from the mosque.”
“I have a lawyer but I’m keeping her for myself. I might need her again. Well, he can always get a public defender.”
“I don’t know if I want to put up his bail, if it comes to that.”
“Tough love?”
“Yeah. I don’t even know about the love part right now.”
“Well, love doesn’t always look like what we expect. Listen, I’m going to go. I can call you later, if you like.”
“I’d appreciate it.”
Clare was suddenly exhausted, after her trip to Charleston and the scene with Ali. And the call to Jennifer Ebrahim. Every conversation she had with the woman seemed so very important yet inconclusive. Clare liked to come away from encounters like these — but she didn’t have any other encounters just like these — with solid information or with a plan, a task, a goal. Learning how Mohammed Ebrahim died was significant, but she couldn’t do anything about it.
She turned back toward the entrance door at the center of the building and faced Clench walking back from the other direction.
“Did you tell the Akron police everything?”
“Yes. I saw we can hold him here for the time being. It’s not their jurisdiction. But I also told them why the sheriff is contacting the FBI and CIA.”
“Well, that’s a stunner, isn’t it?”
“Sure is, for Greenline.”