Parks cleared his throat. “Okay, I’ll just lay it out for you. How’s that? I’m not much into covert shit.”
“Sounds yummy,” she said. “I’m all ears.”
“Joan, give it a rest,” said King. “Go ahead,” he told Parks.
“There’s been a task force formed among the FBI, Secret Service and the Marshals. Its purpose is to figure out what the hell is going on with the Bruno disappearance, the murder of Howard Jennings, Susan Whitehead, Loretta Baldwin and most recently Mildred Martin. From the deaths of Baldwin and Martin we know they were killed by the same person or persons.”
Michelle said, “Right, this is Logic 101. Baldwin goes with Ritter, and Martin goes with Bruno. Therefore, if Baldwin and the Martins’ deaths are connected somehow, Ritter and Bruno must be connected too.”
“Maybe,” said Parks warily. “I’m not running to any conclusions right now.”
King left for a minute. When he returned, he handed Parks a piece of paper. It was the copy of the message he’d found pinned to Susan Whitehead’s body. King glanced over at Joan, who flinched and then immediately rose and proceeded to read the note over Parks’s shoulder.
Parks finished and looked up. “I heard about this note from the fibbies. So what’s your take?”
“That maybe I’m at the center of all this somehow,” King said.
“Pushing a post and giving feet?” said Parks.
“Secret Service parlance,” said Michelle.
“It sounds like a revenge note to me,” concluded Parks.
“And it concerns the Ritter assassination,” said Joan.
“Ramsey hit his target. And Sean killed Ramsey,” said Parks. “So who’s left to take out revenge?” he added suspiciously.
“Keep in mind the gun in Loretta’s backyard,” said King. “Maybe there were two assassins there that day. I killed one of them, and the other one got away until Loretta started blackmailing him. If I’m reading the tea leaves right, the guy is on the scene now, and Loretta paid the ultimate price for her scheme. As did Mildred Martin when she messed up on the Bruno end of things.”
Parks shook his head. “So that guy’s coming after you? Why now? And why involve Bruno and the Martins? That’s going to a lot of trouble. Don’t take this the wrong way, but if this psycho wanted to pay you back, he could have killed you the other night when Michelle almost had her neck snapped.”
“I don’t think they wanted Sean to die that night,” said Joan. She looked at Michelle. “They clearly didn’t feel the same about you.”
One of Michelle’s hands went to her throat. “That’s comforting.”
“I’m not in the habit of making people comfortable,” said Joan. “It’s usually such a waste of time.”
Parks sat back in his chair. “Okay, let’s just suppose that Bruno and Ritter are somehow tied together. That accounts for the Martin murders and Loretta Baldwin too. Susan Whitehead’s murder might have just been a way for the killer to put an exclamation point on the note left with you, Sean. But how does Howard Jennings tie into all this?”
“He worked for me,” said King, putting aside for now his gut instinct that Parks’s agenda was broader than merely finding Jennings’s killer. “Maybe that’s enough. I think Susan Whitehead was killed merely because the killer spotted her with me, maybe on the morning I discovered Jennings’s body. He wanted to leave me that note, and decided to include a body with it as a sick way of making a point.”
“I’d buy that if Jennings were just one of your neighbors. But he was a WITSEC.”
King said, “Okay, how about this? Jennings goes into my office late that night for some reason, to catch up on some work, and he stumbles on this maniac going through my office. And he gets popped for his troubles.”
Parks rubbed his chin and looked unconvinced while Joan nodded thoughtfully.
“That’s plausible,” she said. “But let’s get back to the revenge angle. Revenge against Sean for what? Allowing Ritter to die?”
“Maybe our killer is some nut from Ritter’s political party,” said Michelle.
“Well, if so, he’s held a long grudge,” said King.
“Think, Sean, there must be someone,” urged Joan.
“I didn’t really know many of the Ritter people. Just Sidney Morse, Doug Denby—and maybe a couple of others.”
“Morse is institutionalized,” said Joan. “We saw that for ourselves. He catches tennis balls. He couldn’t mastermind something like this.”
“And besides,” said King, “if the person we’re after is the same guy who hid the gun in the supply closet and then was blackmailed by Loretta and then killed her, that person couldn’t be someone backing Ritter’s candidacy.”
“You mean he would have been killing his own golden goose?” said Parks.
“Right. That’s why we can rule out Sidney Morse even if he weren’t a vegetable, and Doug Denby too. They’d have no motive.”
Michelle suddenly looked excited. “What about Bob Scott, the detail leader?”
“But that doesn’t make any sense either,” said King. “Scott wouldn’t have had to hide his gun. No one would have searched him. And even if they did, it would have been strange finding him not armed.”
Michelle shook her head. “No, I meant his career, like yours, was ruined when Ritter died. That could be a motive for revenge. Does anybody even know where he is?”
“We can find out,” said Joan.
King scowled. “But that doesn’t explain the gun I found and why Loretta was killed. She was killed because she was blackmailing someone. And that someone couldn’t have been Bobby Scott because he’d have no reason to hide a gun.”
Parks said, “Okay, Scott looks to be a strikeout. But let’s go back to this Denby guy. Who was he?”
Joan said, “Clyde Ritter’s chief of staff.”
“Any idea where he is now?” asked Parks.
“No,” said Joan. She looked at King. “How about you?”
“I haven’t seen Denby since Ritter died. He pretty much dropped off the planet. It wasn’t like any of the major parties would be picking him up. I imagine he was pretty much a pariah after partnering with Ritter.”
“I know it seems highly unlikely given their respective ideologies, but could Denby and Arnold Ramsey have known each other?” wondered Michelle.
“Well, it’s something we should check out,” voiced Parks.
“Our suspect list is growing exponentially,” commented Joan. “And we’re not even sure if these multiple lines of investigation are even connected.”
King nodded. “There are a lot of possibilities. If we’re going to crack this thing, we have to work together. I think I can speak for the marshal and Michelle, but are you in?” he asked Joan.
She smiled demurely. “Of course. So long as everyone clearly understands that my participation is a paid engagement.”
46
They laid the wires out in precise lengths and then connected them to the explosives, all of which were located at load-bearing points. They worked slowly and methodically, for at this juncture there was no room for error.
“Wireless detonators are a lot easier to work with,” said “Officer Simmons” to the other man. “And we wouldn’t have to carry all this damn cable.”
The Buick Man stopped what he was doing and turned to look at him. They each wore battery-powered lights attached to plastic helmets, since the darkness here was complete. They could have been far underground where no light ever reached.
“And like cell phones versus hard line, they are unreliable, particularly as the signals would have to penetrate thousands of tons of concrete. Just do what you’re told.”