By the time they finished their difficult conversation, they were on the outskirts of Kalispell. The town was very much alive at that hour of the day and they drove slowly towards the FBI field office. The rest of the cars were following them, and together the FBI vehicles entered the parking lot across the street from the bank building. Asa was about the open the car door, when suddenly a large explosion ripped through the building. Everyone around them ducked for cover as the entire building went up in a ball of flames.
Asa watched the flames eating the building out of the car window. A number of people were lying on the ground, hurt by the explosion and Asa finally moved from her safe place. She ran from one person to another, she was glad that although they were hurt, no one was dead. She could hear sirens coming their way and saw other agents coming forward to help with the injured. Gibson was the first to approach the bank building, but there was no going inside.
“God,” Asa heard him say. “They're all dead.”
She realized then that the bomb had most likely killed everyone inside the bank building. Covered in smut and breathing with difficulty, Asa tugged him back, afraid that he might get hurt by the falling debris. By that time the firefighters and the first ambulance had arrived, they were carrying away the injured and trying to find a way to enter the building.
“Can you see if there is anyone still alive inside?” Gibson asked one of the firefighters.
“Sorry, Todd, but no one could have survived that hell,” the man answered, and together with one of his colleagues, started establishing the perimeter.
Asa stood behind the police line and watched the FBI building slowly disappear in the hungry flames. The firefighters had managed to enter the first floor and bring out three badly burned bodies of those who had been in the bank itself. Asa shivered at the sight of the dead bodies. Her only thought was that it could have been all of them in there. If they had arrived only a few minutes earlier, she, Gibson and everyone else would have also been dead.
“Agent Clark,” Gibson spoke from her left side. “Deputy Director Shepherd is nowhere to be found.” He gave her a few moments to process the news and then continued, “It is now up to us to find the people who did this.”
“Yes, you’re right, of course.” Asa nodded, fighting back tears. “Do you know if Ann was inside?”
“No idea. Sorry, I just—” Gibson shook his head, as if to clear it. “Look, we have to find a place where we can quickly set up our office. We need space where we can examine the debris and see what it can tell us.”
“Do you have something in mind?”
Asa never moved her eyes from the burning building. The firefighters had given up trying to stop the fire, instead, focusing on keeping the nearby buildings safe. She could tell that everything would be over soon. She was really afraid of what they were going to find. The big question in her mind was how many people had been inside the building at the time of the explosion. And who did this? Who planted a bomb inside a building full of innocent people?
“I was thinking about the building at the end of the street,” Gibson answered, after what seemed like ages. “The place is empty at the moment and it's big enough for us to work out of.”
Asa agreed silently and raised a hand to move the hair out of her eyes, only to realize that her hand was black and covered in blood.
Chapter 25
“Twenty-one people, among them, FBI Deputy Director Josie Shepherd, were killed in an explosion and ensuing fire in the bank building that also housed the FBI field office in Kalispell. According to experts, the bomb was planted inside the building. The explosion occurred in the early hours of the afternoon, taking everyone by surprise."
“Flames engulfed the exterior of the bank building within a matter of seconds, tearing through the building like paper.” The news reporter from one of the local channels was speaking in an urgent and soulful voice, reiterating the terrible news to the people.
Everyone passing by could see FBI agents and various specialists systematically digging through the rubble left after the fire. The news channels were showing the agents carrying away pieces of wood, half burned files, equipment and other things; moving them to the new makeshift office, set up in a nearby building. However, that was the extent of what they could see, because the security at the new office was very tight, and no one was allowed to come near it.
Almost twenty-four hours later, the situation was just as critical. The Deputy Director was among the dead and a dozen other federal agents were now confirmed to have been killed in the blast. The FBI agents working the scene were shell-shocked, but determined to find out who was responsible for this attack, and for the murders of Agents Holliday and Smith.
The first thing they did was secure and set up office space, then they started pouring over the debris right away, bringing everything inside for testing and analysis. More agents and analysts arrived from the nearby FBI offices. Clark and Gibson were grateful for the help. This was not the time to feel threatened by someone coming in to assist. Everyone was giving the best of themselves to solve the case.
By the end of the first day after the blast, it became obvious that the bomb used for the attack was of a homemade variety, built by amateurs. That only served to confirm the theory that there was a cartel related organization in the area.
Knowing it was the only solid lead they had, Agent Todd Gibson ordered material witness warrants of every member of the Kimble family and named them as material witnesses.
The agents sent by Gibson to serve the warrants returned with only two members of the family. Asa watched Gabriel and Joe Kimble climb out of the car. “Where are the rest of them?” she asked one of the arresting agents.
“These two were the only ones on the ranch,” the man explained. “It seems that no one has come in to the ranch since you left it yesterday.”
“Did they resist when they were brought in?” She asked the question that had been bothering her from the very beginning.
“No, the young man came willingly and encouraged the older one to do the same,” the agent explained.
“Okay, thank you,” Asa dismissed him and walked into the area designed for interrogation. Gabriel and Grandpa Joe were sitting on two chairs.
“Come on, Asa, it’s time to talk to them,” Gibson spoke from behind her and startled her a little.
“Yeah,” she agreed, took a deep breath and walked closer to the two arrested men.
Gibson and Asa sat down in front of Gabriel and Grandpa Joe, as the woman tried to catch Gabriel’s eyes. She expected him to look away, but the young man looked straight at her and even smiled a little.
“I am sorry for what happened here,” he said to her, looking sincere, and Asa believed him.
“Thank you,” she answered, but Gibson cleared his throat and took the lead.
“Mr. Kimble, I suppose you know why you are here?” He went right to the point.
“Yes,” Gabriel answered, without any anger in his voice. “You think that I and my family know who is responsible for what happened to the missing FBI agents.”
“And do you?” Gibson wasn’t going to let the other man manipulate him into sympathy.
“No,” Gabriel answered calmly again. “I know nothing about them. Or about the bombing if you want to ask me about that as well.”
“What about your brother?” Asa joined the interrogation. “Could he be involved?”
“No...” This time Gabriel sounded worried. “My brother is up in the mountains. He’s taking care of the cattle, like I already told you. He would never do something like that.”
Asa noticed that only in his last sentence had Gabriel said that his brother was incapable of killing someone. It looked as if he was trying to convince himself that his brother was away, so it would be physically impossible for him to be in two places at once. Clark could tell that Gibson had noticed it too, and was on it like a dog with a bone.
“Do you know if you
r brother has any problems with banks?” Asa asked. It was something she had found in the notes from Agents Holliday and Smith. The Kimble’s ranch was in foreclosure.
“Yes, my brother had some financial issues, but I cannot imagine him doing something like that,” Gabriel answered.
“Have you ever heard anything about a criminal drug organization in the area?” Gibson abruptly changed the subject. “We have reason to believe that there is one here, working with the Mexican cartels.”
“I don’t know, I really know nothing about this,” Gabriel said again. “If I did I would have told you already. You have to believe me, Asa.”
Chapter 26
The interrogation of Gabriel and Grandpa Joe continued for another long hour, but they either really didn’t know anything or they were very good liars. Asa wanted to believe that the man she had fallen in love with was innocent, but she was afraid that her feelings were going to make it difficult to objectively analyze the situation.
After the interview, Gibson took her aside, asking to talk to her.
“Listen to me, Asa,” Gibson said gravely. “We should put our differences aside and work together to solve the case.”
“Yes, I agree completely,” she nodded. “We really should work hard to solve this mess. What do we have now? Anything new?”
“Actually, we might have something very important. The analysis of the soil samples matches the dirt we recovered from the Kimble Ranch,” Gibson said, looking almost happy. “You know what that means, right? Combined with all the rest, we can say that Smith and Holliday were on the premises.”
“But we already know that they were there. Uncle Joe told us that. What do you mean by ‘all the rest’ anyway?” Asa asked, “Did we get a match back on the shell casings?”
“According to the autopsy report, the two field agents were killed around the time they visited the Kimble Ranch. The old man didn’t give us much, but we were able to determine that they were at the ranch about three weeks ago. At that same time, they were visiting all the farms and ranches in the area.”
“That sounds logical,” Asa agreed. “What else?”
“We matched the horseshoe print to several of the Kimble horses. I know that the same horseshoe make is found on many of the horses in the area, but it’s still a solid lead.”
“Yeah, you are right, but we still need a smoking gun.” Asa shook her head. “What about the weapons? Did they match the bullets found in the agents?”
“So far, no.” Gibson sounded really exasperated. “We retrieved three rifles, five pistols and who knows what else, but no ballistics match so far.”
Todd and Asa decided to go back to the analysts and ask to retake the tests, hoping for something new to come up. Gibson had been right, the horseshoes were a perfect match to the print found near the abandoned car, but there were also many others. The horses in the Kimble’s stable showed no other signs to having been near the killed agents, and that looked like another dead end.
The dirt samples were much better evidence, but they weren’t able to find blood or any other evidence of the murders having been committed there. Gibson had searched everywhere, but everything must have been cleaned up really well after they had disposed of the bodies. They had found no evidence on their bodies either, no matter how carefully they looked. The killers had been either very lucky or very experienced.
“If it's an organized group, it shouldn’t be a surprise that they know how to hide all traces of the crime,” Asa said. “I have seen this happen before. In many cases, the organization will have people for everything, specializing. I was hoping we were dealing with an amateur organization here, with little experience in really serious crimes.”
“I think they proved us wrong,” Gibson agreed. “How could they operate under our noses and have no one notice anything?”
“Smith and Holliday did notice,” Asa pointed sadly. “And they paid with their lives.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
“What now?”
The question hung between them like a stone and neither of them knew how to answer it. They had some leads and had found a lot of small details about the case, but they still had nothing connecting the leads together; nothing to build the criminal case on.
“Agents,” one of the analysts called them over. “I have been examining the parts of the bomb we found recovered from the building and noticed that all of the components could be purchased in a hardware store. I’m thinking the bomb brought such destruction because it was placed under the fuel tank in the basement.”
“That is logical,” Gibson answered. “Maybe we could trace the ingredients and find out who bought them.”
“I’ll make a list for you,” the analyst said and the two agents walked away.
“Listen, Todd,” Asa said. “I want to try and talk to Gabriel again. This time, I want some time alone with him. I think I might be able to convince him to talk to me.”
“Asa, you can’t let personal feelings guide you on this,” Gibson said to her. “I’ve seen how you two look at each other. He might be totally innocent, but we still don’t know that for sure and you have a job to do.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. I know what I’m doing. Actually, I intend to use what we have to make him talk.”
“Make sure that this doesn’t backfire, Asa.” Gibson didn’t look very convinced that it was a wise decision.
“I will, don’t worry. You can trust me on this,” Asa repeated.
She arranged for Gabriel to be taken into the back of the building, where they were away from other people. She watched him move as instructed but couldn’t make herself go right away.
Asa’s mind was filled with images of their time together and how sweet and gentle Gabriel had been. In those times, she couldn’t have imagined that he might be bad. Now, even after everything that had happened, Asa felt the same. She still saw only the good in him and couldn’t imagine him killing so many innocent people.
Chapter 27
Asa approached the small room where Gabriel was waiting and subconsciously adjusted her hair. The man was sitting with his back towards her and Asa had to circle him in order to face him. Gabriel watched her sit in front of him, but didn’t speak. There was something tender in the way he watched her, and Asa felt the guilt that she was the one keeping him eat at her.
“Gabriel…” her voice trailed off.
“Asa, don’t torture yourself, just do your job. I don’t care. Seeing what those people are capable of, I understand why you acted the way you did. I had nothing to do with that bombing, but if you need to ask me more questions, just do it.”
“I do believe that you had nothing to do with it, Gabriel, but you may know something that you don’t even realize you know. There are documented cases of people who help solve crimes they believe they know nothing about,” Asa tried to explain.
“That sounds great. What can I do for you?” The man adjusted his position on the chair and looked at her expectantly.
“Where were you when the two agents came to the ranch?” Asa opened her notebook and asked the first question.
“Me, David and Jane were all together away at the high pasture when that happened,” Gabriel explained. “I cannot tell you the exact date, but we spent three entire weeks there. It was just before I met you in town. Actually, when I met you, we had just returned from the mountain.”
“Okay, but can you swear that David and Jane were always with you? I mean, weren’t there days or just hours, when they disappeared?”
“Entire days?” Gabriel repeated. “No, during the day we worked on separate pastures, but we usually met for dinner and always spent the night together in the same shelter.”
“How long does it take to drive up there?” Asa asked the next question.
“Around two hours,” Gabriel answered.
“Okay, two hours to get there, two hours to come back,” she counted. �
�In other words, David would have enough time to drive back to the ranch and then back up the mountain without you noticing?”
“I… yeah… maybe, but I cannot believe that my brother is capable of doing something like that,” Gabriel said somberly.
In another nearby room, Gibson was interrogating Grandpa Joe tirelessly. The old man was repeating that he knew nothing about the killings, but Gibson didn’t give up. The agent continued the interview for another hour, but it was obvious that Grandpa Joe wasn’t going to say anything different.
Both Kimble men had been interrogated tirelessly, pushed beyond their breaking point, and yet they got nothing. Asa felt defeated and Gibson wasn’t looking any better. It was loser of a situation with no possible positive outcome.
“Gabriel, for one last time, do you know something about the bombing?” Asa tried one last time.
“I don’t know anything,” Gabriel repeated. “But, if you want I can get you to the high pasture camp to find the rest of my family. You will see then that we have nothing to do with all this.”
“Okay, we’ll start first thing in the morning,” Asa confirmed and went out of the room to let Gibson know about the new plans.
“I’ll get Grandpa Joe to the nearby hotel and leave an agent to watch him, you deal with Gabriel,” Gibson said, as if that was the most natural thing in the world.
Asa watched him walk away and thought about what he had just said. You deal with Gabriel… you deal with Gabriel. Her mind continued to supply her with images from the previous several hours and all the ways she wasn’t able to deal with Gabriel.
Following Agent Gibson’s example, Asa Clark took Gabriel to the nearby hotel, which the FBI was using as headquarters at the moment. She put him into a secure room and went to make sure that the windows were locked and that he had no way to escape.
“I am not going to run, Asa,” the man spoke from the door and the young woman watched him closely and locked the door behind her as she left. She pushed away the feelings that threatened to well up, and walked away making her mind go over the case. The way she felt about Gabriel Kimble could not be allowed to surface. She reminded herself that he could still he implicated in the killings and felt unbelievably sad.
Family Ties Mystery Series Box Set Page 9