Whorl
Page 45
Ringo stared at him. “And ‘fifteen thousand days’?”
Osterman shrugged. “It’s somewhere around there.” He looked at the Detroit detective. “So, what do you think? Do you think he’ll be back? Try it again?”
Ringo shook his head. “I don’t know. I’d hate to guess, but it sure seemed like something in there flipped his switch to Off.”
“Hmmf.” The Sheriff had noticed the same thing, the DHS agent had gone from night to day almost instantly. He looked to his second. “Sam, I want round-the-clock protection on this kid while he’s here. Three up here, and one in the parking lot to call anybody out. Long guns. Fifteen minute check-ins. And I don’t care who shows up, with what paperwork, even if they’re accompanied by the Governor, that boy goes nowhere. Understood?”
“You got it.”
“For how long?” Ringo asked him.
The Sheriff looked back at the open door of the kid’s room, then down the hallway where his men were waiting for further instructions. “I guess we’ll see,” he answered. He thought of the digital recording Detective George had brought him. There were right ways and wrong ways of doing certain things, but sometimes you just had to make shit up as you went. Improvise, adapt, and overcome, as his brethren in the Marine Corps liked to say. He looked back at Sam. “Call Mindy Tonaka at Fox. Tell her I’ve got an exclusive for her.”
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The details in this book concerning Supervisory Special Agent Dr. Frederick Whitehurst’s ultimately contentious relationship with the FBI Lab, and its procedures, are accurate. Also accurate are all the details I have mentioned concerning the mis-identification and arrest of Brandon Mayfield by the FBI for the 2004 Madrid train bombings, because his fingerprints were a “100 percent positive match” with the suspect’s. Exactly how much money the FBI was forced to pay Mayfield because of this error on their part has not been made public, but guesses put it upwards of $2 million.
In fact, all the technical information in this novel concerning how fingerprints are categorized, examined, and compared by law enforcement agencies (including the FBI), to the extent that I have described them in this book, is accurate. There is human input at nearly every stage of the process, and errors can and often do occur whenever you get people involved in anything. Many true “scientists” don’t think much of fingerprinting as a science.
I would like to thank many people who helped me with this book, especially FBI Special Agent “Bart”. He valiantly attempted to correct the errors I made, and any inaccuracies in this book concerning the FBI are solely on my shoulders, not his. Anyone familiar with the FBI Lab at Quantico or its in-house procedures might note that I have taken a few liberties, as is my right as the author of a fiction novel. That said, Special Agent Bart would like me to point out that as far as he knows, no two people have ever been known to have identical fingerprints, and the FBI does not make a habit of assassinating its own employees.
Darcy Leutzinger, John Rock, Greg Williams, and Bill Koenig were better Warren police officers than I ever was, and the time I spent working with them made this a better book. I’d also like to thank Ric Gallaway for the best one-liner about divorce I’ve ever heard, which I stole for this book.
If you ever decide driving an armored car around Detroit for little more than minimum wage would be a good career move, you could not have a better partner watching your back than Darrin Anselm.
Taran Butler is everything he is in this book and much, much more.
My depiction of Detroit may get a few area residents angry with me. I’ve spent almost my entire life living in the suburbs around Detroit, and nearly twenty years working in and around the city as a private investigator, among other jobs. Vacant overgrown land, burned-out buildings, corrupt mayors, packs of wild dogs roaming the streets….every ugly detail of the city that has made it into this novel I have seen with my own eyes. Including the racial polarization. Detroit was once a great city, and one day it may be again, but right now it is in serious trouble. Pretending otherwise does not do the city or anyone in it any good.
Mark Messens, Jeff Dickison, and Jason Murray, three of the best PIs I’ve ever worked with, helped fill in some local color. The incident in the book with Marsh and the young man with the screwdriver actually happened to a PI we know, but the most interesting stories we have about the job we can never tell.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Tarr is the author of several novels, and co-authored Dillard Johnson’s Iraq War memoir, CARNIVORE. A regular contributor to many outdoor enthusiast magazines, he also appears on the Guns & Ammo television show. Tarr lives in Michigan with his fiancée, two sons, and a dog named Fish.