Blood Web: Caitlin Diggs Series #1

by Gary Starta

  Caitlin recanted her recent dreams about McAllister. Carter asked her to paint a picture of the crime scene. She tried valiantly, but ended up stammering. Her lower lip quivered. Her eyes moistened. Carter sensed the grief was blocking her. He began to explain why she found him chanting over a dead body the day they met.

  Carter outlined a relaxation process he jokingly referred to as “DPR—Deep breathing, Progressive muscular relaxation, and Relaxation response.” Diggs understood what the first two techniques entailed, but was puzzled as to the third. Carter noted the technique, introduced by a Harvard medical doctor slows the heart rate, reduces oxygen consumption and deepens relaxation.

  He instructed her to sit on the floor with her legs crossed. She joked the experience felt very Zen. “I’m not a Buddhist obviously.”

  But Carter reminded her that Zen is not a religion. “It’s simply a way to confront life’s experiences.” The crime lab detective introduced her to Zazen, a sitting meditation. After relaxing her diaphragm muscles, Diggs’ breathing eased. It no longer interrupted the retelling of her visions.

  She described the Miami warehouse in great detail. “There were two men negotiating a gun deal with Geoffrey. They wore blue windbreakers. A symbol representing a software company was emblazoned on their jackets.”

  Carter’s eyes grew wide. He recognized the company. It was a Boston computer firm that the local feds had been trying to bring down for identity theft. But they had no luck obtaining a warrant. Carter and the feds were sure the firm had been stealing social security numbers using the very spy ware equipment they manufactured. Several large banking firms sent out apology notices to their customers, explaining their database had been compromised. Hundreds of bogus charges had been racked up before the victims’ credit cards could be cancelled. All the charges followed a pattern—the shipment of computer equipment to Afghanistan.

  Diggs explained that case history, as well as her dreams, offered no connection to Afghanistan. “Geoffrey’s field report revealed the men were from Kuwait and were negotiating an illegal weapons deal.”

  Carter responded confidently. “That had to be a ruse. Kuwait became a major non-NATO ally in 2004 meaning the United States could openly sell them arms if desired. An under–the–table weapons deal with Kuwait just isn’t plausible.”

  Caitlin fought to control her desire to breathe heavily. “Wouldn’t Director Hainsworth be privy to that fact? Why in the hell did he put Geoffrey’s life in danger?”

  “I’m afraid it all may have been a smokescreen to cover a possible conspiracy. Maybe the FBI director was in bed with these men. He could have allowed them to freely steal the identity of thousands of American in exchange for something.”

  “But what?” Diggs pondered.

  “Maybe he’s taking a piece of the pie. Maybe he’s negotiating with terrorists, giving them carte blanch to commit piracy in exchange for a peaceful coexistence on American soil.”

  “Those are all good and very disturbing theories. But I thought terrorists, Al Quada to be exact, despised the American way of life, i.e., Capitalism.”

  Stanford readied himself for response, hands folded together. Celeste had perched herself precariously on Stanford’s shoulder. He resembled some kind of monk, communing with nature.

  “Maybe you’re right, Caitlin. Maybe it does represent an attack on our way of life. Just like the World Trade Center. It represented, and still does represent, our financial way of life. They may have destroyed a symbol, but they will never be able to destroy an ideology. And in spite of their futile efforts, they still behave arrogantly.”

  Diggs mind pictured how one of the man spat at McAllister. “They took great care not to spill a drop of their blood onto Geoffrey, but in my dream, one of the men clearly spit at him. Our lab ran a DNA test. We can match it to one of these men, provided they ever return. Dudek suspects they’re safely hiding out somewhere overseas, maybe Afghanistan, like you say.”

  “If so, then maybe their arrogance will betray them yet. Maybe they will return here, especially if someone with the power of Hainsworth is protecting them.”

  Celeste suddenly jumped onto a nearby end table. On it, sat a picture of Carter and his colleague/girlfriend Jill. She meowed loudly, focusing her sight on the frame.

  “What are you trying to tell us, my friend?” Carter asked the pet.

  “I think she’s referencing the water. You’re standing in front of the ocean, right?”

  “Yes, we are. Maybe a current or future case will involve a body of water. You see, Celeste is born for law enforcement.”

  Celeste jumped from the stand and into Caitlin’s lap.

  “You’re so very cute,” she chortled.

  “Maybe you’d like to team up with Celeste someday,” Carter joked.

  “Yes. Maybe I would.”

  Stanford’s phone rang. He confirmed a meeting with Jill. They were going to the movies. Diggs smiled, pleased that Stanford had finally found companionship.

  Diggs took the call as her cue to leave. She would catch a cab to her car still parked at Faneuil Hall. As she rode the elevator down, her cell rang. Now it was her turn to play host.

  ***

  She had been told to sit tight, to wait in her Middletown hotel room for her older sister to arrive from Boston, but Tara was antsy from the five-hour plane ride. She needed to live a little. So after arranging her clothes in a closet, Tara stuffed the room’s key card into her jeans and headed to the hotel lounge.

  A younger man, maybe twenty, immediately caught her eye. His extreme short-cropped blond hair competed with beautiful ocean blue eyes. He scribbled a note to the bartender.

  He handed it to her. She nodded. Yes she would agree to have a drink with him. She most certainly would. After all, he was a babe. Maybe she was living on the wrong coastline all these years. She took a seat next to the man. He introduced himself as Charlie Jones.

  Chapter 36

  “I blame myself for going along with her plan.” Rivers must have repeated herself ten times. She was on the phone, filling in Ed Hoyt about how the big one got away. She knew her reservations about administering ketamine were well founded. But she still could not wrap her brain around the notion that the nation’s most wanted killer merely floated out of the Carlson residence like a balloon at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. “People just don’t disappear into thin air, Ed. I know ketamine can separate one’s conscious mind from their body, but don’t you think this is a bit much?”

  “Normally, I would agree. And I do emphasize normally, Deondra. But in light of all we’ve experienced so far, I’m inclined to agree with the masses on this one.” The pathologist was referring to the media blitz. It told America the Arrowhead Killer had been zapped out of existence. “Maybe you should feel like a hero,” Ed offered in a weak attempt to comfort his long distance girlfriend.

  “I appreciate that Ed, but it’s not that simple. He has found a way to use science to his advantage. Now, I must turn the tables on him.”

  “You sound pretty sure. So Schenker is going to resurrect himself, you say?”

  “Now that would be really extreme because I don’t think Diggs killed him. He’s alive and well, somewhere. You know I think he somehow cloaked himself. Maybe he did it using his altered body chemistry. The ketamine and the influence exerted by the crystal may have coalesced into some sort of biological disguise.” Rivers paused. Ed asked if she were still there. A few more seconds elapsed. Rivers shouted triumphantly.

  “That’s it Ed! I’ve got to separate the man from the crystal to stop him. Why didn’t I think of this before? I can’t talk now. I’ve got to get on this right away.” With that, she hung up.

  Ed Hoyt paused a few seconds to collect himself. He recalled how he used to spend his weekends. The most stress he ever felt was the time he failed to charter a boat for parasailing. Now he took stock of how much he had grown. No matter what danger he and Deondra might face, he never once thought about escaping it for a w
eekend. He now lived for his job, because his job involved Deondra. If the pathologist thought he was having a hard time understanding Lukas Schenker’s physiology, it still paled in comparison to his own biochemical evolution. What process had occurred in his own body to exact such a change in him?

  ***

  Romance was also in the air at a small Middletown hotel bar. At least that’s what Tara Diggs believed. Things were developing quite nicely, she thought to herself. Charlie Jones, the blond stud at the bar, invited her back to his place. It wasn’t the type of place Tara was used to being taken to. Jones told her it was an eight-room mansion. Normally, she was whisked away to a southern California bachelor pad. It was usually a one-room studio, decorated with a twenty-something–man’s touch–empty pizza boxes and an ever-growing beer bottle collection.

  Tara was so enraptured by this man and the thought of visiting his dream house that she failed to remember that Caitlin was en route from Boston to meet her. She also did not notice that her companion had left a note with the bartender upon their exit.

  ***

  Eugene Campbell was in Lukas Schenker’s head again. Campbell was totally baffled. He was supposed to see the future. He was tapping into a vision quest. As far as Eugene knew, a quest took one forward. For that reason, he could not understand why he saw visions of Hiroshima, the Twin Towers, and Sand Creek. It led him to believe that maybe Schenker had departed his small blue planet after all.

  He was just about to terminate his psychic hacking for the day, when one more image flitted into his head. He saw a girl. She wore a mixed expression of fear and pain on her face. The area around her was dimly light. He could not make out where this scenario was taking place. As soon as he broke the connection, a terrible feeling grew in the pit of his stomach.

  About an hour earlier, Caitlin had called. She requested he keep an eye on her younger sister who had just checked into the hotel. He wondered if this girl in his dream was Tara Diggs. A sudden wave of guilt was followed by nausea. He cursed himself. He should have looked in on her as asked. But he wanted to know if Lukas Schenker had really left his world, because if the threat had passed, the agents could work on finding his father, Jake.

  Campbell scrambled to his feet. Again, the vision quest left his hair drenched with sweat. Black and silver strands covered much of his eyes and nose. Guests leisurely sauntering down the hall were taken aback by his appearance. Eugene didn’t care if he looked like last night’s garbage; he needed to locate Tara. She was in room 64, or supposed to be anyway.

  Campbell banged on the door until his knuckles rebelled. The number 64 haunted him. He knew what it signified: the year of the massacre. Eugene almost fell from dizziness. Apparently the sudden segue way from dream world to reality had left him lightheaded. Battling vertigo, he traversed one flight of stairs to the front desk. Once there, he wasn’t able to keep his balance a second longer. He grabbed the desk clerk’s counter top with both hands as his feet gave out beneath him. He asked the alarmed desk attendant if she had seen a girl fitting Tara’s description. It was a matter of life and death he told her. But the hotel employee paused a moment to wonder if the man speaking to her was the one who was going to die.

  “Sir, do you require medical attention?”

  “No, just please tell me if you saw the woman I described.”

  “I think so. Her hair was stunning. Come to think of it, I believe she just left with a young gentleman about ten minutes ago.”

  Eugene dug his cell from his jacket. He needed to deliver some very bad news.

  ***

  Ten minutes earlier, Ross Fisher sat in a corner seat at the bar. The young couple flirting with each other a few yards away had captured his attention. It took a few minutes for him to recognize the young man. “It’s him!” Fisher cried in silence. He had been working on his second scotch and soda, but he wasn’t so inebriated that he couldn’t recognize Lukas Schenker.

  Ross was the only one in the bar still keeping tabs on the Arrowhead Killer. The rest of America had bought his story–hook, line, and sinker. Schenker was yesterday’s news. Adding the fact that the crystal had disappeared as well only further served to drop the story from the headlines. Like a dead body mixed with concrete and thrown into a New Jersey swamp, most of America just wanted to forget.

  Fisher had seen Schenker hand deliver a note to the bartender just prior to Eugene Campbell’s mad dash to the front desk. Ross managed to swipe it from the bartender who was too busy flirting with a customer. It was a card contained within an envelope. The envelope was addressed to Special Agent Caitlin Diggs. Fisher’s hands shook with excitement. He had intercepted the kind of message criminals only wrote in the movies.

  It said:

  Dear Ms. Diggs,

  Wish you were here. I know you’ll be coming soon–you being such a good detective and all. Looks like a good opportunity to reunite with loved ones. But you better not bring any friends. This little get together is just for immediate family members.

  Hugs and Kisses,

  Shenk

  Fisher flipped the card over. On the front was a picture of a Newport mansion.

  He didn’t understand what the note was referencing. Who in Diggs’ family was he talking about? He didn’t have time to analyze. His mind felt like it was being ripped in two. One side of his brain feared another searing dose of pain from the little black box. It wanted to behave.

  The point was mute, Jonas Schumacher had probably already read his thoughts and figured out the meeting place Fisher had been thinking of—the Carlson house. It was the only place Diggs would have any familiarity with. Fisher envisioned the major heading for his car, revving up the Hummer like the true macho man he was. But another side of Fisher’s brain told him it was not too late. It demanded he do the right thing. The fact he had to carry a little black box around with him should be reminder enough his conscience nagged. These men have duped you. They will use the crystal to dupe others.

  Fisher reacted to the scotch. It conjured up pictures of Diggs. She lay across a bed, wearing nothing but a green teddy. Visions of sex and the effects of booze won out. He could withstand one more blast of pain for Caitlin. He rushed for his vehicle hoping he still might have enough time to head off Major Jonas Schumacher.

  ***

  Diggs listened intently. Eugene Campbell’s voice was the most important thing she could hear right now. It provided a connection to her younger sister. She drove recklessly. She dashed around the cars in front of her, pointing her rental car in a southerly direction on Interstate Route 195. She passed on the right. She passed on the left. All the while she listened to Eugene’s voice on speakerphone. In between his words, she heard his guilt. But what she needed right now was just the facts.

  “Have you interviewed the hotel staff?” she asked.

  Eugene recanted his conversation with the front desk clerk. He was sure she was gone. He had seen it in his vision. “Do you want me to call the Middletown PD?”

  “God no. Please promise you won’t. If Schenker’s taken her as a hostage, local police will only get her killed. Can you check if Agent Rivers is in her room?”

  “I just did. There’s no answer.”

  Caitlin disconnected and began punching her thumb against her cell’s faceplate.

  She tried Rivers three times. Each time she received the same message: “No Service.”

  Caitlin didn’t need to interview the hotel staff. She knew just where Schenker was taking Tara. She eyed the clock. She eyed her speedometer. She pushed her car’s accelerator to the max. She estimated she was still half an hour away from what promised to be the next bloody crime scene.

  ***

  He had unlocked all the doors by simply accessing the correct combination of numbers to the keypad that controlled the entrance door to the Carlson house. He accessed his blood web to do this. To his relief, Tara did not question why he would leave the back door to a multimillion dollar home unlocked. She simply stepped toward the beauti
ful dwelling, wide-eyed.

  Tara started to behave a lot more rationally upon stepping through a rear entrance to the Purgatory Road mansion. She just had to ask. How could a young man afford all this?

  Lukas Schenker stammered, searching his brain for a logical answer. The crystal gave it to him. “I inherited it from my parents. They died in a car crash.” The crystal decided a partially honest answer would keep Schenker’s heart rate normal. He didn’t need to spook Tara with a panicked reaction. They had only crossed over the threshold. He still needed time to subdue his guest and to make sure Caitlin Diggs would have no other choice but to take his bait.

  Lukas thought it was pretty fitting. Caitlin had baited him. Now he was baiting her. He called upon his biological Internet, the blood web, to access all pertinent information. It told him she was FBI. She was the one preventing him from completing his mission. She was an Anaheim native, a veteran of the bureau, still reeling over the loss of her partner. Schenker railed to himself. “Of all people, she should understand the necessity of revenge!”

  The blood web had been tuned into Caitlin’s cell phone conversation all the while Schenker was busy committing home invasion. It was all recorded very vividly. Caitlin began yelling at her sister who announced she was aboard a plane headed for T.F. Green Airport. In a hasty effort to disconnect an earlier conversation on the plane, Diggs told Tara she was headed to Rhode Island.

  Caitlin cursed herself afterwards. She had been so careful not to divulge their destination. She even distrusted Rivers to keep it secret. As soon as the words “Rhode Island” left Caitlin’s mouth, the agent knew there would be consequences. The call on the plane was odd. She only heard from Tara when she needed a loan. But there was no business scheme, no mention of money at all.

  As Diggs visited with Stanford Carter, she realized her parents had set up this visit. In their never-ending quest to discourage her involvement with the FBI, they had sent Tara to protect her, or at the very least persuade her to quit her job. Caitlin realized their intentions were out of love, but they had now put both their daughters in grave danger.