Chapter 44: Nanny Cams

Tuesday July 15, 2008

Jay landed the Bell copter at the tribe’s airfield. He did not have to wait long for me, I carried the laundry as requested, and the two Nanny Cams in a sack. Jay had the Bell because he would be up and down a few times, and it used less gas and needed less downtime. Rigo had the day off.

He flew me straight to the prison where Franco was waiting. For his military service, Franco had spent a few years in the Panama police force devoted to the canal. While not strictly military, the Patron accepted the service, we needed to keep an eye on traffic. As a police officer Franco was an expert and fingerprints.

After three years in service, Franco got wind of a problem relating to one of the Patron’s ships, it was likely that a competitor had told the cops about some smuggling. Franco created a diversion drawing the police squad away from the ship so it got through the locks with just a routine inspection. Unfortunately, Franco was implicated in the distraction. He led the police away, laid a false trail making it seem like he boarded a ship leaving Colon. In fact he escaped to Lake Gatun where one of our float planes picked him up a few days later. But with his cover blown, had had to come home without his “retirement package” from the service. Someday he would return for what he thought he was owed. Still, he saved the ship, had the knowledge and was our best at fingerprints.

Most members of the tribe, especially older folks, did not know about fingerprints. The 3 council women and Grisha learned. First Franco got a set of fingerprints from each of them. They considered it magic. Then I brought out the two nanny cams.

Franco recognized them. Both were activated by sound and motion, had a 9-volt battery and a pair of expensive high capacity USB thumb drives for recording both picture and sound. “These are specialized Chinese devices, not sold in the US because they record audio, which is a problem under state laws. My guess is that these were made for Cuban intelligence services, they are designed to look like commercial units. The problem is that the battery has a life of about 2 weeks, then it and the USBs have to be changed.”

The women watched as Franco opened them up. I read their faces, it told me who planted them, but I decided to let the evidence come out.

Franco continued. “The great thing is that the batteries and drives are great for prints.” He dusted, lifted, and then we had a clear winner. To the 4 old ladies it was like magic, but they all saw the prints were unmistakable.

Grisha had brought the 3 council women in a few months ago. One used her name to get the drug used on the Chief, one used a dead relative’s name to get the second drug, and the third council women, Mizr, had her prints all over the evidence. She was taken out for questioning. Grisha did not know about the nanny cams. The other women knew the items were planted, but not how they worked.

Mizr had not had a chance to pass off the used USB drives and the dead batteries, during the 3 month period, so she buried them. I administered some unpleasantness to her, but she soon told us where they were buried. Jay took off to get them. Franco stayed behind with a com unit in case Mizr made a mistake in telling us where the stash was. As it happened, she was mistaken - twice - so there was some more painful discussion before she gave all the correct answers. Jay flew back with the evidence and also dropped off some laundry that Mer and Pur were waiting for.