The Terrorist Next Door by Sheldon Siegel Read Free Book Online Page B

a deep breath and laid it out. Hassan Al-Shahid had been born in Saudi Arabia twenty-eight years earlier. His father had connections to the Royal Family, and he ran an international investment firm headquartered in Riyadh. Al-Shahid had earned a master’s at the London School of Economics. He’d entered the U.S. two years earlier on a student visa to work on a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies at the U. of C. His father had bought him an upscale condo on fashionable Hyde Park Boulevard, a stone’s throw from the lakefront. He had no history of violence or terrorist connections. His mother had died of cancer when he was four. His father had died of a heart attack a year earlier.
    “We did a work-up on the family business,” Gold said. “It owns millions of dollars of U.S. real estate and stock. They’re audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers and pay their taxes.”
    “Who’s been running the operation since the father died?”
    “Hassan’s older brother, Muneer. Another overachiever. Undergrad from MIT. MBA from Harvard. Lives in Riyadh. Married to an American. Two kids. No criminal record. I talked to him briefly after his brother was arrested. He referred me to his high-priced American lawyers. Muneer got into town on Thursday. He’s staying at Hassan’s condo in Hyde Park. We have people watching him. Fong is monitoring his phone and his computer.”
    “Any chance he’s setting off bombs?”
    “He’s smart enough to figure out how to rig a cell phone into a detonator, but he seems more interested in making money than making trouble. Besides, I just checked with our people. Muneer has been downtown all morning with his lawyer.”
    “The call to the detonator at the Art Institute and the first text were sent from downtown.”
    “He was still in Hyde Park when the bomb went off at the Art Institute.”
    “The call to Wrigley was initiated from the Southeast Side.”
    “By then, Muneer was downtown.”
    “The text that you received at Murphy’s came from downtown. So did the call to Millennium Park.”
    “True,” Gold acknowledged, “but it doesn’t mean that Muneer sent it. Maybe the bomber is moving around. Or there’s more than one. Or maybe Muneer paid somebody to do it.”
    Battle drummed the steering wheel. “Fong said he was investigating a donation by Hassan Al-Shahid to a mosque in Hyde Park.”
    “Al-Shahid spent his free time at the Gates of Peace Mosque at 53rd and Cottage Grove near the university. I talked to the imam, who was cooperative. He’s a young guy named Ibrahim Zibari. Born and raised near Detroit. Undergrad degree in electrical engineering from Michigan. He went into the army and spent two years building a telecommunications system in Baghdad. When he got back to the U.S., he got his masters in Islamic Studies at the U. of C. Now he’s working on his PhD.”
    “Terrorist connections?”
    “None. We have people watching the mosque. The imam has been there since five o’clock this morning. I interviewed all of its members after Al-Shahid was arrested. Nothing suspicious. They all said Al-Shahid was a quiet guy who kept to himself.”
    “Until he built a bomb factory in South Chicago.” Battle looked at Gold. “How did Al-Shahid go from being an academic to making bombs?”
    “According to Zibari, Al-Shahid was mugged twice in the past year, and the perps were never caught. Evidently, Al-Shahid thought our guys didn’t try very hard.”
    “Everybody knows the area around the U. of C. is a war zone. Most people don’t vent their frustrations with Chicago PD by making bombs.”
    “First he bought a gun—presumably for protection. Then he used it to kill Udell Jones.”
    Battle still wasn’t buying it. “How did he go from buying a gun to making bombs?”
    “A few months ago, he was detained at O’Hare on his way back from Saudi. TSA said it was an honest mistake, but Al-Shahid claimed it was the second coming of Abu Ghraib. The truth probably lies somewhere in between.