by Lynn Story
“Ethan what a pleasant surprise.” Chief Corey extended his hand when his assistant let me into his office.
“Jim, thank you for seeing me on such short notice.” I shook his hand.
“Anytime at all. Come on in.”
His was a simple office with a few pictures adorning the plain walls. The chief had been on the Gates Point PD his entire career and he had moved up through the ranks and therefore had the respect of the people who served under him. He also knew everyone and where all the bodies were buried in this town. He was a valuable friend and a terrifying enemy. Not that he would do anything outside the law, but he knew the dirt on everyone and everyone in Gates Point had dirt.
“How can I help you today?”
“Well, this chatter we’ve all heard about and the thefts at the warehouse and over at Camp Allen.”
“Yeah, we have to stop this before it turns into a shit storm for all of us.” He took a seat behind his desk and I sat across from him in a leather guest chair.
“Exactly, I have to admit I’m not getting much of anywhere yet, which is disturbing. So, I am trying a different angle. Maybe it isn’t an outside terrorist but something closer to home?”
“Certainly possible, but what did you have in mind?”
“Well, I was thinking is there anything that might be a local gang retaliating on another or a big drug shipment coming in that you might have heard about on the local chatter that I haven’t heard?”
“Well that is definitely an angle we should be looking at so hang on and let me call Lt. Taylor and find out what he knows.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
The chief spoke briefly into the phone.
“He’ll be right in.”
“Okay, thanks.” I leaned back in the chair.
“I’m sorry to hear about you and Diane.
“Thanks, just one of those things.” I shrugged.
“Yeah, I know what you mean. You stay in touch?”
“Yeah, we do. She’s just down in Charlotte so I see Madelyn once in a while when I’m not working.”
The chief nodded. Divorce was a common thing in police work at every level. It was tough, dangerous, long hours and unpredictable schedules. It was hard on the families.
The door opened and Lt. Dale Taylor stepped inside. I had met him once before.
“Agent Craddock, good to see you again.”
“Yeah, you too.”
We shook hands and the lieutenant sat down.
“Ethan and I were just talking about the recent thefts. We were wondering if it could be drug and gang related. Ethan isn’t getting much traction on the international front of things.”
“It is possible, I mean there is always some rift or other going on. Why don’t I pull up some data and we can go over it maybe see if we can find a new pattern or something going on, we’ve missed.” Taylor offered.
“Okay, what can I do to help?” I asked.
“Maybe your database might be able to pull some information from other states and we can compare notes.”
“That sounds good, I can send one of my techs over if that helps?” I offered.
“That would be great.”
We all stood up and shook hands. “I really appreciate the help gentlemen.”
“Anytime.” The Chief said.
I drove back to the office and sent Greg our tech guru over to police headquarters to work with their drug and gang units.
I tried to do some more research on the case, but my mind was wandering today, and I kept picturing Kay. I wondered if she was in some sort of trouble or if something about her was connected to this case. Gates Point had a long tradition with alternative theories on one’s destiny. I think it started back in the seventeen or late eighteenth century. I wasn’t one to believe it one hundred percent and I wasn’t one to discount it out of hand either. Things happen for a reason and you should trust your gut, hunches, intuition or whatever you wanted to call it. Mine were usually right and there had to be a reason Kay had jumped to the forefront of my thoughts recently. Still, I need to get some work done.
“Boss, I think we might have our first real lead.” Jared’s head popped up from behind his monitor.
“What have you got?” We all walked over to look at his screen.
“I got a hit on facial recognition from one of the security cameras at Camp Allen.”
“Who is it?” I asked.
“A former Army sergeant turned private security named Joseph Branigan. You know one of those big firms that work over in the Middle East?”
“Yeah, which one?” I said feeling a little impatient.
“Russo Security.”
“Good work! I clapped Jared on the shoulder, “Logan, check with Russo Security and see what the status of his employment is with them.”
“I’m on it.” Logan returned to his desk.
I turned back to Jared. “What else you got?”
“He was dishonorably discharged for fighting. Apparently, he has quite a temper.”
“Wonder if he holds a grudge?” I mused.
“He might.” Jared agreed.
“Who filed charges against him for the fighting?” I asked.
Jared typed away. “Whoa, looks like he was charged with manslaughter and got off with a dishonorable, because the witnesses changed their testimony. They said Branigan didn’t start the fight and acted in self-defense when they previously stated he was drunk and started the fight inside the NCO club. The man he was fighting with died of head injuries sustained in the fight.”
“Okay, we are going to need more on Joseph Branigan, I’m going to call GPPD and let them know what we found.” I said reaching for the desk phone.
“On it, boss.” Jared got back to work.
“What can I do to help?” Stephanie called out.
“Look into his known associates while he was on active duty and the witnesses to the fight to see if maybe they can tell us more.” Jared instructed.
I was pumped, it finally felt like we might have a solid lead. At least we had something to focus on at the moment. I reached Greg, our resident technology whiz kid, so that he and the GPPD would look for local connections and see what Branigan was into these days. It didn’t seem likely he would steal weapons here if he wasn’t planning on using them here. Unless he was going to try and smuggle them out through the port.
I called over to the port authority and put them on alert as well. Jared emailed all the other local departments Branigan’s picture from his Army file and what we pulled off the surveillance camera. He looked scruffy now, so I had a feeling he wasn’t working for Russo Security anymore. From what I knew all the Russo employees were clean cut and very military in style and dress. Unless, they had something going undercover.
Logan hung up his phone.
“Branigan is no longer employed by Russo and they didn’t want to talk in detail over the phone. They’re sending someone out to talk with us.”
“All the way to Virginia?” I was surprised.
“Apparently, so.” Logan confirmed.
“That’s interesting.” I said trying to think of a reason why they would go to the trouble.
Stephanie and Jared looked up.
“Either they know he is into some heavy stuff or they are seriously paranoid.” Stephanie offered.
“Yeah, so why not talk on the phone if there isn’t anything to tell?” Jared added.
“You have a good point. Logan, did they say when they would be here?” I asked.
“Tomorrow.”
“I think it might be a good idea to let our friend the chief know as well. This might be worse than we thought.” I reached for the phone again.
Chapter Four
Ethan
It was a rainy Tuesday afternoon as I sat in Chief Corey’s Office with Mike Russo from Russo Security.
“We appreciate you coming all the way up here to talk to us, but I have to admit I’m a little curious as to why we couldn’t do this over a
secure phone or video chat.”
“I understand your confusion. I’m afraid the area of concern is at my end rather than at yours.”
“You think you have a leak in your organization?” I asked.
“It might be worse than a simple leak. I have suspended all our activities at the moment because I believe our files have been severely compromised. I think the only way that could happen is from the inside.” It was clear, Russo was trying to get ahead of the situation.
“And you think Joseph Branigan might be involved?”
“I think it is not out of the realm of possibility, especially since you called asking about him.” Russo postulated.
“Why don’t you start at the beginning Mr. Russo.” Jim sat down behind his desk and waited.
“As I’m sure you already know,” Russo began, “Branigan was dishonorably discharged from the Army for fighting.”
“Yes, I am aware, and it makes me wonder why you would hire a man with such a record.”
“Listen, I’ll admit not everyone I hire is a boy scout and sometimes you need someone who is willing to get their hands dirty to get a job done.” He paused and held up his hands. “I’m not talking about breaking the law and certainly not in the U.S. As you know the laws are somewhat different in a war zone and we are not held to the same standard as the U.S. military. We often can get things done the military cannot.”
Jim and I both nodded.
“I was aware of Branigan’s service record and I was also aware he had a lot of friends and contacts in a lot of places that might be helpful to our overall mission.”
“So, you were willing to overlook a few indiscretions in order to get to bigger fish?” I asked.
“Exactly.”
“Go on.” Jim encouraged.
I knew Jim understood Russo’s reasoning; it wasn’t an uncommon practice in law enforcement anywhere to offer some leniency to a small fish if it helped you take a bigger one off the streets.
“I fear I may have underestimated Branigan. He is full on pyscho. Whether that is by circumstance or if he has always been that way and no one bothered to make note of it, I’m not sure. And it doesn’t matter at this point.” Russo waived his hand dismissively.
“So, you think that Branigan has contacts still inside your organization willing to help him?” I asked.
“It’s the only explanation I can come up with. The problem is, I don’t know what they might have bugged or might be tracking so I haven’t been able to get very far with an internal investigation. I didn’t have enough to take to the police until now.”
“I see.” Jim leaned back in his chair and tented his fingers. A clear sign he was thinking deeply about something.
“Are you sure you have been bugged?” I asked thinking that his taking a meeting with the FBI and the GPPD he might be a target, if he wasn’t already. “Your phone, laptop? Maybe a button on your clothing?”
Russo looked down at his shirt.
“Do you have your clothes dry cleaned?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“You might want to buy some new clothes while you’re here and maybe a burner phone for the time being.” I advised.
“You may have a point.” Russo seemed to understand that he may have been compromised.
“If you like I can have our tech guys look at your laptop and phone to see if they have been tampered with in anyway.” I offered.
“Yes, thank you.”
He handed me his laptop and phone. I would drop them off with our Greg on my way out. “Do you have a place to stay yet?” I asked Russo.
“No, I came straight here.”
“Okay that’s good if they were tracking you, they wouldn’t have tracked you to a hotel yet. I would suggest leaving here, buying some new clothes and checking into a hotel, preferably one with security cameras.”
“I can put some plain clothes officers in place to help keep an eye on you Mr. Russo.” Jim offered.
“Thank you.” Russo nodded to Jim,” I have to admit I’m a little out of my element. I’m used to having my own team around me if needed. I don’t know who I can trust anymore.”
“It’s best in these situations to let someone from the outside handle things.” I reassured him.
Jim called for two plain clothes officers to shadow Russo as soon as he left his office and to stick with him, discreetly. I headed back to my office with a promise from Greg to let me know the minute he found anything on either the phone or the laptop.
“How’d the meeting go?” Jared asked as soon as I walked back into the office.
“Promising. This may be bigger than we thought. IT is going over Russo’s phone and laptop for anything that we can trace back to Branigan. And he gave me a list of employees known to be close to Branigan when he worked for Russo Security so that might give us a few more leads.” I split the list between Stephanie, Jared and Logan.
◆◆◆
It had been a long day. My head was pounding as I walked to my car music drifting on the night air caught my attention. It sounded like Charlie Pickens and reminded me of Kay. I wandered down the street in the direction of the music. I hoped I would find her sitting at a table alone listening to the music and waiting for me. I stepped inside a small night club, but it wasn’t Charlie playing. I looked around and didn’t see any signs of Kay. I thought my mind was just playing tricks on me I shook my head stepped back out onto the sidewalk.
An old blind woman sitting on a bench just outside the door reached out and grabbed my hand. “The one you seek is not here; she looks for you as well.” She released my hand went back to swaying to the music. I stared down at my hand and walked back out into the street. The words haunted me all the way home. It had been a long time since I had encountered a seer. I remembered my grandmother talking about and old woman that lived back in the woods, that would see the future and tell fortunes.
Images of Kay filled my thoughts as I laid in bed. What it would be like to be with her again? Now that I was divorced, we could have a real relationship. I imagined her in various stages of undress. At some point I drifted off to sleep, I woke with a start and sweating. I sat up and listened. Had there been a noise? I thought about the Branigan case and wondered if what had woken me was related? Not hearing anything I laid back down panting. I had been dreaming of Kay but instead of her beautiful smile and the way I imagined she would look with her hair down I dreamt she was hurt and alone somewhere dark. She needed help and was calling my name; I had no idea where she was or how to get to her.
The clock read three in the morning. I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight. The old woman’s words came back to my mind. Had they been prophetic? Had they incited the dream? There wasn’t much point in staring at the ceiling. I dressed, went downstairs, made coffee and went to the office.
I picked up the list of associates and suspects off Jared’s desk and started working them. I typed the name Joey Price, into the system and the screen lit up. Joseph Branigan scared back at me; I had more information than I could have hoped for. Joey Price, a.k.a Joseph Branigan, was into a lot of bad shit. I double checked Branigan/Price’s personal history it seemed Price was his mother’s maiden name. Bingo! I also had a more recent picture to go along with the new name and I began sending it out to every law enforcement agency in Virginia. Price was a member of the Southern Gentleman’s Club which was nothing more than a home-grown terrorist group. They professed to be patriotic, yet they burned churches, temples and mosques. They were anti-government and anti-establishment. They pretty much didn’t like anyone that didn’t belong to their little club.
At six am Jared came into the office. “Hey boss, you’re here early.”
“Yeah, I found our boy, too.” I said smiling at him.
“No way!” Jared exclaimed.
“He is using his mother’s name, Price, these days. I pulled up the picture on the screen. I’ve sent it out to all the LEO’s.”
“Why didn’t I think of that?” he chided
himself.
“You would have eventually.” I smiled enjoying the moment.
“Maybe, but it might have been too late.” Jared shook his head.
“Well, we still don’t know what he is up to and when. But now we can at least draw some better lines between him and known associates and maybe get a better handle on this thing.” I tried to reassure him. There was certainly plenty of work to be done on this case yet.
Jared sat down and got to work. About half an hour later Logan and Stephanie joined us. By noon, we had a much better picture of Joey Price’s network.
Greg’s face appeared on my computer. “Hey boss, you there?”
“Yeah, I’m here Greg what have you got?”
“A lot! So, you were right about Russo’s phone. Someone had a remote tracker on it so it could not only track his movements through the GPS, and it was capturing keystrokes.”
“So, all of Russo Security files are exposed?” I needed to know.
“Yes, not just company files but his personal files too.” Greg elaborated.
“Okay, well we know Mike Russo is a target. But, is he the only target?”
“I’ll keep digging.” Greg said.
“Greg, do you know what hotel Mike Russo check into last night?”
“No.”
“Okay, I’ll call the chief.” I hung up and then dialed Jim’s number.
“Corey, here.”
“Jim, it’s Ethan. Look we got a good line on Branigan using the name Price. And Russo is definitely a target. What hotel did he check into last night?” I asked.
“Damn! He is staying at the Renaissance. I’ll call the two officers watching him and tell them to stay close.” He answered.
“Thanks Jim, I’m on my way over there. We can put him in a safe house.” I said, thinking that would be a better situation.
“Alright, then.” Jim clicked off.
“Logan you’re with me.” I turned to Jared and Stephanie, “keep connecting the dots.”
