Kill the Heroes

by David Thurlo

  “How about breaking and entering?” Gordon suggested softly.

  Anna’s face turned red. “I still have the apartment key Nathan gave me. I guess it’s time I confess to withholding information. Nathan and I had a relationship for a while when I first began working at Back Up, and I spent some nights here. But that was many months ago, and after all this trouble surrounding his murder, I was afraid someone would find out. I don’t want to lose my job. You understand how Patricia might take this news.”

  “This is getting complicated,” Officer Roseberg said. “Let’s take this one step at a time, okay?”

  Charlie saw flashing lights in the street. “Here comes Detective Medina. Maybe she can help unravel what’s going on.”

  “Am I going to be arrested?” Anna whispered, looking from Charlie, to Gordon, and then to Officer Roseberg. The cop looked back toward the apartment, then just shrugged.

  * * *

  “So despite the presence of some charred paper copies of possible emails between the two of them, did you believe Anna’s story that she came here ahead of us just to destroy evidence of her affair with Nathan?” Gordon asked Nancy as they searched through Whitaker’s apartment.

  Charlie looked up from the kitchen cabinet he was looking through. “What he said.”

  “Not really, but it’s hard to read minds some days, Gordon,” Nancy replied, sorting through the scorched ledger and other papers piled on the dining table. “She’ll still have to pay a fine for setting the fire, and if Charlie had been a cop, she’d be up on other charges. My guess is that she was looking for the same thing you came for—the user name and password on Nathan’s cloud account. That suggests there’s something more than just love letters that she’d been wanting to get rid of today.”

  “Just how serious was their relationship, at least in her eyes? Could she have killed him out of jealousy, then planted those terrorist fliers just to cover her ass?” Charlie asked. “These days, any shooting like that gets a lot of attention.”

  “After all that time?” Gordon said, searching through the hall closet. “Jealously is all about emotion, and if she’d have wanted to kill him after the breakup, why wait for months?”

  “Ah, but recently Patricia and Nathan started seeing each other more seriously, and Patricia had kicked Steve to the curb and filed for divorce,” Charlie pointed out. “That meant Anna no longer had a shot at winning him back.”

  “It’s just that Anna didn’t come across as an obsessive woman, at least not today. Not a stalker or hysterical person,” Nancy said. “Even our interview was calm and controlled.”

  “I think it’s just an act. You suppose she would have confessed to being here if Charlie hadn’t gotten close enough to ID her?” Gordon asked. “She just got caught and is winging it, trying to stay cool. I think that love letter stuff is a pile of crap.”

  Charlie looked over to Nancy, and she nodded.

  “So we have to find that cloud username and password,” Gordon said.

  “Maybe Anna found them first and is keeping that from us. Or Nathan just had them memorized, or kept the password on him, like in his wallet?” Charlie asked.

  “Hopefully there’s a written record still out there,” Nancy said. “My understanding is that his personal effects, whatever he had on him, like wallet, watch, and any jewelry, were returned to whoever is handling his estate.”

  “Patricia?” Gordon asked.

  “Correct. I’ll call and ask to see everything he had in his pockets, and his jewelry, at the time of his death,” Nancy said.

  “Aren’t his clothes still stored as evidence? Isn’t that the way it’s handled?” Gordon asked.

  “Yes,” Nancy answered.

  “Including his belt and shoes?” Charlie asked.

  “You thinking of the old spy craft hollow heel trick?” Gordon asked, bringing out a labeled, sealed plastic bag from the closet. “And here they are, I think, along with his belt.”

  “Patricia must have brought them here once she was given a set of keys,” Nancy said. “Let’s take a look.”

  “Let’s handle them with gloves, okay?” Charlie suggested. “I remember seeing some in a drawer,” he added, going through a drawer and bringing out some blue latex throw-away cleaning gloves.

  “That chindi thing sticks with you, huh?” Gordon asked.

  “Ah, the Navajo evil spirit,” Nancy said. “Gina told me about that.”

  “We’re not supposed to discuss these things,” Charlie replied softly, handing each of them a pair of gloves. “I’ll check the belt, you guys each take a shoe.”

  Gordon handed the bag to Nancy, and she opened the plastic strip and handed Gordon a shoe, and Charlie the belt, which was stained with blood around the buckle.

  He turned the belt to check the inside. There was something scratched into the leather. “I may have something here,” he said, holding the belt up close. “Write this down, somebody,” he added. “Capital I, then lower case pa, number 2, lower case tfot, upper case US, lower case o, upper case A,” he added.

  “I get it,” Gordon said immediately. “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. Easy to remember, harder to decrypt.”

  “Sounds like a good password,” Charlie admitted. “But we still need a user name.”

  “Belt? Size forty-two?” Nancy said, looking at the stamped size in the belt leather.

  “Keep looking,” Gordon advised, examining the left shoe. “Nothing here.”

  “Not this one,” Nancy said. “Unless the shoe size or manufacturer is the answer.”

  “My guess is that it’s not any of these. It’s more likely a name, or a tie-in with the information he uploaded into the cloud,” Charlie suggested. “It could be something in his wallet, or wait, he had to pay for the cloud storage service, right?”

  “And probably by credit card. You’re right, Charlie. And once we—well, I—get a look at his bank and credit card records, that might help,” Nancy said. “If we can find the vendor, maybe we can discover his user name as well, even if it requires a warrant. The forensics people are working on his computer. I’ll have to ask them to list any purchases he made.”

  “Meanwhile, let’s see if there are any receipts here. We haven’t checked that accordion file yet.” Gordon pointed to the table. “Patricia gave us permission to go through his stuff, but we should probably call her about what happened this evening. She’s going to find out anyway.”

  * * *

  “Hello, people,” Patricia said, opening the apartment door, which had been propped open about a foot to help vent out any remaining smoke. “It doesn’t smell so bad. Thanks for saving Nathan’s stuff.”

  Nancy stood and offered her a chair at the dining table, which was almost clear now except for some bank statements in a shoe box. Gordon and Charlie were drinking Cokes they’d purchased from a machine in the apartment building’s recreation room.

  “I saw the charred trash can outside on the grass. How did the fire get started anyway? Either one of you guys smoke?” Patricia asked the men, who’d stood when she entered.

  “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to speak to you face-to-face, Patricia,” Nancy said.

  “Charlie and Gordon caught someone in here going through the folders kept in the desk, and she climbed out through the window after setting some letters on fire.”

  “Charlie ran after her while I put out the flames,” Gordon announced, “but she got away. As for the fire, there was some smoke, but only the metal wastebasket suffered any damage.”

  “You said she, not he. By any chance was it Anna Brown?” Patricia asked. “I saw her car when I drove up.”

  Nancy nodded. “She came back about fifteen minutes later and admitted going through his papers and setting the fire. She said she wanted to remove any embarrassing letters or items Nathan may have kept.”

  “So she admitted to the affair? Well, technically, the relationship, I guess,” Patricia said, shaking her head. “D
o you think she was really after any information that Nathan might have stored in the cloud?”

  “I do,” Charlie said.

  “We all do,” Nancy said. “But she had a key to this place, which I insisted she turn over. All I could do was have her arrested for trespassing and misdemeanor vandalism. An officer took her to the substation on Second Street. She probably won’t spend any time in jail.”

  “She even asked me to drive her car over there so she’d have a ride home,” Gordon said.

  “Anna apologized to me twice for causing so much trouble. She offered to replace the suit pants I tore chasing after her,” Charlie said.

  “Is she worried about losing her job, or does she have more secrets she doesn’t want us to know about?” Patricia asked.

  “Both?” Charlie suggested. “It’s hard to tell. She’s mixing cockiness with sincerity, at least in my opinion.”

  “So, people, should I fire Anna, or let her try to set things right again? Can she be trusted?” Patricia asked.

  “From a strictly business standpoint, she probably should be fired,” Gordon suggested. “But…”

  “If she’s no longer around, it’s harder to keep an eye on her,” Charlie pointed out.

  “But if she’s guilty of committing some of the crimes we’re already investigating, she’ll be in a good position to do even more damage,” Nancy said.

  “I say we keep her around, at least until we find out what Nathan was hiding. If she’s innocent, there shouldn’t be any more problems, at least coming from her,” Charlie said.

  “Keep your enemies closer?” Patricia asked.

  “Beginning with a much closer look at Anna. Where she’s been, where she goes, what weapons she owns, what her skill sets are. Can we do that?” Gordon asked, looking at Nancy.

  “I think we have to,” Nancy said. “If you decide to keep her on staff, Patricia, just be very careful. And clue Max in on the situation.”

  “If she does show up for work, I’m going to force her to switch over to the new system, where all wages paid to our vets come directly to the office via checks or bank transfers. That’ll keep her busy, and will be a test to see how badly she wants to stay with Back Up. I’ll make it a condition of her employment,” Patricia said.

  “And we’ll continue searching for the missing link needed to access that cloud,” Nancy reminded. “But let’s make sure not to discuss that around Anna.”

  Fifteen minutes later, Charlie looked around the apartment, then at his watch. “We done here now? Gordon and I still have to drop Anna’s car by the police substation, and it’s getting late. If we encounter her, we’ll play dumb regarding her job,” he added, looking at Patricia.

  She nodded. “And I’ll make sure she finds out the name of the vendor of that cloud storage site—as soon as I do. With that, Anna will know we’re getting closer every moment to, hopefully, discover what she’s been up to. That should put her on edge.”

  “Her apartment will be watched in the meantime,” Nancy said.

  “Let’s go, Gordon. We have to drop off Anna’s car,” Charlie said, standing. Leaving Patricia and Nancy to close up the apartment, Charlie and Gordon walked back to the parking area.

  “You up to something, Charlie? I caught that look in your eye when you suddenly went off Indian time,” Gordon joked, recalling the notion that Indians were less concerned with schedules and timetables in their daily activities.

  “Yeah. There’s something in the glove compartment of my rental that I thought I might want to give to Anna.”

  “Ah, Big Brother strikes again.”

  “Appropriate trivia, guy. Isn’t it amazing how your high school reading list can come back to haunt you at the strangest times? Let’s hurry and get that done before the ladies come out. Nancy might not approve,” Charlie said.

  * * *

  “Looks like Jake beat us to work this morning,” Charlie said as he stepped out of the rental car. He’d pulled in the parking slot beside FOB Pawn’s loading dock just after Gordon parked, and his pal had waited for him at the door.

  “As usual. We need to lighten the load for him and Ruth. They’ve really been holding down the fort these days. Is it okay to say ‘fort,’ Charlie?”

  “As long as you don’t mention cavalry, John Wayne, or old westerns in the same sentence, pal,” Charlie reminded. “We Navajos have long memories.”

  “How about if I’m referring to Fort Knox?”

  “Gold is okay, and speaking of gold, we’d better get to work before our meager supply runs out,” Charlie joked, standing back as Gordon entered the keypad code that unlocked the heavy steel door.

  They’d just stepped inside when Jake called out, “Guys, good news! The Feds think they’ve caught the terrorist!”

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Seriously?” Gordon replied, leading the way into the small office, where the small television was broadcasting a news bulletin.

  “Anyone we heard of?” Charlie asked, standing beside Jake and Gordon as they watched the screen.

  “No name given yet,” Jake responded. Without asking, he brewed three cups of coffee from their pod machine and handed Charlie and Gordon filled mugs.

  Some Fed Charlie didn’t recognize was busy thanking local law enforcement and other agencies, but Charlie noted SAC Tyler Jackson was standing beside the speaker.

  Their eyes were glued on the screen throughout the five-minute bulletin, then, when the programming switched back to one of the prerecorded national morning shows, they sat down together.

  “So is that the guy?” Jake asked Charlie.

  “I wish I could say that he’s the one who shot Whitaker, but he’s not the person who killed Colby. This guy is an Iraqi, dark-haired and husky, and doesn’t fit the person I chased into the bosque,” Charlie pointed out.

  “Well, we’d already taken on the theory that there were at least two people involved,” Gordon said. “And if he’s the person who blew up Steven Azok and planted the Whitaker murder weapon for us to find, then he gave up that rifle, which explains the need for another long weapon.”

  “This guy has apparently been on the Fed radar for a while. Nailing him trying to buy an M-15 clone out of an undercover officer’s trunk was good work,” Gordon added. “And he did have a pistol in his car. Maybe he was the guy watching Dawud’s house, the guy in the gray van who shot at you on Rio Grande.”

  Charlie shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “I wonder what they’ll find on his laptop,” Jake said.

  Charlie’s phone rang and he brought it out of his pocket. “It’s Nancy on her APD phone.”

  “Put it on speaker,” Gordon whispered.

  “Charlie, you hear the news?” Nancy said.

  “Just now. Can I put you on speaker for Gordon and Jake?”

  “Go ahead. This affects us all.”

  “Done. Now, do you really think they’ve arrested Whitaker’s killer?” he asked.

  “I’m withholding my opinion until there’s more concrete evidence. The suspect was set up. He’d been told by an undercover officer that he could make a private purchase of a semi-auto assault rifle and a hundred rounds of ammunition from a guy in a parking lot. That’s still perfectly legal, even for people on the No-Fly List. The Feds had profiled the man as a potential radical. He has a history of arrests for DWI, abusing his girlfriend, shoplifting, and recently lost his low-paying job. There are a lot of losers who turn to terrorism these days.”

  “Besides fitting the profile, what actual evidence do they have?” Charlie asked.

  “Turns out the man is a former Iraqi soldier who’s been the subject of harassment, which cost him his construction gig. Former coworkers say he threatened to kill them in their sleep if they didn’t leave him alone. The man has given no alibi for the night Captain Whitaker was shot. Oh, and he resisted arrest during the sting and tried to grab Agent Jackson’s weapon.”

  “That explains the broken arm,” Charlie commented. “But how about connect
ions to radical groups?”

  “Can’t say, don’t know. The Feds apparently have his computer, and scuttlebutt is that he’s been in contact with online sites being monitored by the authorities. Until there’s more, the Feds aren’t releasing anything else. We’ve been told to stay alert in case there’s a third perp out there.”

  “So they’re also convinced that Steven Azok was involved in the attacks?” Gordon suggested.

  “Yes,” Nancy said. “And DuPree and I have been assigned to search for possible links between Azok and the Iraqi suspect.”

  “What about the rifle Azok had in the pickup?” Charlie asked. “It was damaged in the blast, right?”

  “But easily repaired without jeopardizing the forensics. Techs were able to fire a round for comparison,” Nancy explained.

  “Was it a match for the slug recovered from Whitaker’s body?” Gordon asked.

  “Yes, and also with the ejection marks on the recovered brass at the park. What we need to know now is how Azok ended up with the murder weapon. Based upon the images from the neighbor across the street from Patricia’s apartment, we can confirm that Azok couldn’t have been that shooter.”

  “Hence the Iraqi being the sniper suspect,” Charlie said. “But there are a lot of unanswered questions. I still believe that somehow the Back Up staff or one of their clients are involved. Maybe both, especially Todd Colby.”

  “Yeah, and you guys opened the door to that angle and have gained Patricia Azok’s confidence. I’ve got some help checking out Anna Brown’s background, but I can use an extra set of eyes. Will you guys keep investigating in that direction as well, keeping Anna in the dark if at all possible? Low-key, of course,” Nancy said.

  “Low-key? Us?” Gordon said.

  “Sometimes I forget who I’m talking to, Gordon,” Nancy said.

  “I’ll keep him in line, girl,” Charlie replied, rolling his eyes.

  “Whatever. Meanwhile everyone remain vigilant. It’s possible the Feds have grabbed the wrong man—not that he didn’t have the potential to strike out in the future.”