Ryan grabbed his coat and was set to leave when Harry O’Neill entered the room. The rest of the station was none the wiser to Harry, and still saw him as the District Commander and reported to him showing him full respect, only Ryan knew what he was. He also knew his full history with Eli Walker and knew that if anyone would go as far as to kidnap Christy then it would be him that Ryan would place his money on. If he tried taking that theory to Ellis he would more than likely never see the inside of the station building again.
Chapter IV
As the day quickly turned into night there was still no word of the Councilman’s daughter to say she had been found. There was also still no word on the location of Wayne Peterson either, all the police could do now was wait for a phone call from the abductor as stated in the note. Harry and Ryan had not yet spoken a word to each other throughout the course of the day, there was nothing to say, and all either one seemed to care about was finding Peterson, albeit for different reasons. Harry wanted the evidence, Ryan wanted the girl. The station was still brimming with police officers trying to do good work however Harry was leaving for the night, earlier than he usually would Ryan was quick to notice. Mostly the ones that remained were hoping the person would call about Christy and offer some demands, there was no such luck as the day waned. Eli Walker had taken to sleeping in Ellis’s office curled up on his two seated leather sofa. It was what little rest he had before a crowd of suits abruptly ended the small period of silence as they hurried up the stairs as well as commencing to spill out of the elevators.
“What the heck is going on out here?” Ellis asked, appearing out of a nearby office where he was resting. Most of the officers had been working too hard to bother with their appearance and most looked run down in comparison to the people that were approaching.
“Special Agent Jennifer Richards,” said one of the suits as she halted the procession of men and women behind her. She held out her badge and presented it to the Commissioner. Ellis using his already tired eyes gave the badge a fleeting glance before passing it hastily back to the agent.
“Washington’s orders Commissioner, we are here to oversee the investigation and lend any help where we can,” she told Ellis placing her badge back.
“You mean to take over,” he replied unwillingly as the FBI agent grinned,
“I trust we will have your full cooperation?” Richards asked with a smile knowing full well her authority proceeds and outranks Ellis’.
She signalled for her fellow members of the FBI team to commence with setting up, they quickly commandeered the conference room as well as one of the nearby holding rooms. They brought with them computers, large screens, files and boxes as well as around fifty people all wearing navy blue windbreakers with the three letters ‘FBI’ draped across the back. Agent Richards herself was a sure sight to behold, the definition of professionalism in her black double breasted suit and shined shoes. Her hair wasn’t long but it was trimmed so it didn’t dangle, her reputation preceded her. She was well known for creating profiles and catching criminals that no others could. With major cases solved in Oregon, Miami and Nevada she was already well on her way up the career ladder and couldn’t be any older than thirty-five. She was ruthless in her job, whether it was in meticulous planning or her rare ability amongst people to be able to throw all human emotion to one side to get the job done. Ryan knew one thing was for sure which was Wayne Peterson didn’t stand much of a chance at hiding from her.
“Great...The Feds are here to crash the party,” one detective whispered in Ryan’s ear. He acknowledged and realised that this could only be good for him, both in helping him find Wayne safely from Harry and perhaps expose all the secrets.
Ryan arrived bright and early at 7am for work the next day, everyone wanted to look useful and professional in front of the new FBI task force that were assembled in the conference room just a few metres away from the bullpen. As he walked into the open area where the desks and offices were located he was greeted by Ellis,
“I hope you’re ready for this,” he said, “Walker seems happy about it, for once he has said more than just a few words when he finally left this morning. He has been on the phone with the Governor most of the morning about the situation,”
“Ready for what?” Ryan replied as the two strolled through the station towards the conference room.
“To be trodden on by someone with a much higher rank than you,” replied Ellis assuring Ryan of what was going to happen now that someone else who cared more about her own career rather than the girl had taken charge.
“You do that to me all the time, I’m used to it,” he jokingly told Ellis, who let out a chuckle and a sly smile out the side of his mouth, the pair of veteran detectives entered the room where a briefing was about to take place momentarily. The briefing room was cold and cramped, only half of the room had any chairs. The other half was being occupied by row upon row of computers screens and server towers that all connected to a large glass screen at the front of the room almost like the chalkboard of a classroom. All the FBI agents were sitting while one or two detectives from the Washington Police Department could be spotted dotted around the room, most were forced to wait outside. This already gave Ryan an inclination as to how things were going to be under ‘new leadership’ and if anyone objected then they too would find themselves waiting on the outside looking in.
“Okay people listen up,” shouted Richards, she appeared from behind the glass screen resembling a magician ready to take centre stage. “Two days ago, Christy Walker disappeared from her own home sometime in the early evening. No sign of a struggle at the scene and we believe the entry point was through the front door and out again. The neighbours heard nothing and didn’t see anything when asked. So far we have no leads except for one, earlier this morning at around 4am a phone call was made by the abductor to Mr. Walker,” all the while she held her smart tablet in one hand and used the other to navigate it. The glass screen was being used as a computer screen much to Ryan’s amazement. He was never one for technology being of a different generation entirely but he couldn’t help be amazed at how she was pressing what looked like buttons on the smaller screen and the information would appear on the larger screen for all to see. Richards then pressed another button and a recording was played for the room to hear,
“Dear Mr. Walker, we have spoken before and we shall again,” Ryan immediately leaned forward and began to pay attention, the caller had used a voice scrambler to help hide his identity, “You stole my life away, you took what mattered most, my freedom. Now I have taken that which matters most to you,” the tape then ended, the briefing room fell silent.
“There you have it, we need to find this Wayne Peterson, he’s our only lead right now and he needs to be questioned,” said Richards as she disappeared back behind the screen and through the other doorway to the conference room.
“Agent Richards!” one of the younger female agents shouted as she jogged from across the room having just hung up the telephone. She held a slip of paper in her hand with a location written on it and handed it to Jennifer, “Elderly man just called it in, a man matching Peterson’s exact description seen coming in and out of an abandoned house over the road from his. Located on Monroe Street North East,” the agent added as she caught her breath, meanwhile Ryan panicked. He took a deep breath and prayed for Peterson to be long gone and not stupid enough to stay there.
“Good work Sampson, let’s roll out in three cars,” replied the lead agent as she donned her signature FBI windbreaker and headed for the exit. It was impressive how quickly they were able to mobilize and within two minutes they were on their way complete with a surveillance van in tow at the rear of the convoy.
* * *
Around ten minutes later, after having weaved through most of the morning drive traffic across downtown Washington, they arrived at the top of Monroe Street. The surveillance van was disguised as a regular repair vehicle and could easily hide in plain sight. The rest of the convoy h
owever, was not so lucky being all black with reflective windows. One car positioned itself under Richards’ orders in the rear alleyway and waited hidden in case anyone tried to make an exit out of the back. While the other two remaining cars were at either ends of the street, out of sight from the suspect’s location. The house was visible to them but only the hidden surveillance van was close enough for a good view of the property. Ellis and Mathers were grabbed as they were leaving and invited along, more to watch and observe rather than help out as they both sat patiently in the back seats with Richards the car North of the street.
“We have a car in the driveway...Running the plates now,” said a distorted and static filled voice over the headset. Ryan reached forward and grabbed two of the remaining headsets from the panel behind the gearshift and put one on while passing the other to Ellis.
“Confirmed, we have a match; car is registered to a Wayne Peterson. No activity coming from inside the house though,” the voice in the surveillance van then added.
“All teams ready, move in on my go,” Richards told the other cars as she played quarterback and commando from the front seat of the FBI vehicle. “Go!” she shouted down the headset as she gestured for the driver of her car to move in. A team of highly trained agents flanked the rear entrance and kicked in the wooden fencing while another team assaulted the front porch way. If Peterson was still inside he surely had nowhere to run to. The team to the front stacked in a column on the door and waited. They were holding for the slightly larger man in bulletproof gear from nearly head to toe to bring up a small two handed metal battering ram to help quickly breach the door. The man leaned back and with an almighty swing used the blunt instrument to nearly fetch the rickety doorway off of its hinges completely. The agents rushed in shouting and pointing guns as the agents at the rear simply kicked the door in and stormed the house.
“Clear!” one of them shouted, “Clear!” shouted another from an upstairs room; it was obvious no one was home as they began to holster their weapons and cleared out. As agent Richards entered followed by the two detectives she was surprised to find the place trashed, not much was there in the first place but what was, was now left scattered throughout the various rooms in a disorderly manor.
Chapter V
Carefully stepping over the few piles of rubbish that covered the floor, agent Richards began to examine the property. Ryan breathed yet another sigh of relief on Wayne’s behalf, this time due to him not being there to get arrested. This meant he still had time to procure more evidence than just an illegally obtained recording to bring down Walker and O’Neill. As Richards and Ellis ventured into the main room of the downstairs floor they both paused, stunned by what they had found across the walls. A mural of newspaper clippings that contained information about Eli Walker and even many hand taken surveillance photographs from when Wayne was following Walker around the city for most of the day.
“Oh, this is our guy,” Richards told herself, Ellis looked over and nodded. Ellis then noticed the answering machine, still left untouched from when Harry ransacked the place a couple of days earlier. The new message light was still flashing and read that Wayne had one new message. Ellis pressed the button,
“Wayne it’s me detective Ryan we met last week etcetera...Look! You need to get out of there, he knows about Walker and he’s coming for you, just get out of there and hide somewhere you know is safe with the package. Contact me in a few days to let me know you’re safe.”
Ryan who was in the other room heard his voice and slowly walked into the main room. Ellis looked up from the answering machine and directly at Ryan who sheepishly held his gaze toward the ground. Agent Richards didn’t utter a word either; she slowly reached for her sidearm also knowing Ryan was armed. She also reached for her cuffs and Ryan held out his hands, he knew what had to be done on their part and wasn’t going to resist. He also wasn’t going to give up any information about the fact that Harry was a murderer and Eli was corrupt.
“I can explain,” uttered Ryan as Ellis pushed past him and left the abandoned house. Richards then escorted him out of the front door wearing the cuffs much to the confusion and surprise of the other agents and officers at the scene.
“Grab the answering machine from inside and bag it,” said Richards to one of her fellow agents as Ryan was placed in the back of the car like a common criminal.
* * *
As the convoy returned to the station house, they were unfortunately for Ryan greeted by wave after wave of press and reporters, who had realised the story had taken a turn now that the FBI were involved. Subsequently the first few pictures they managed to snap of the agent in charge were of her escorting Ryan Mathers inside the station for questioning wearing a pair of handcuffs that had neglected to be covered over by a spare jacket or coat. It was as if they wanted him to feel humiliated and exposed, perhaps to help soften him up for the endless line of questioning that was about to be thrown his way from inside an interrogation room. The usually raucous noise that could be heard inside faded away when he entered as many if not all of his colleagues sat and stood there staring at the man as he was paraded through the bullpen on the way to the interrogation. Many judging and scornful eyes watched him intently nearly burning holes in suit jacket, but Ryan didn’t look up to see any of this. He kept quiet and kept his head down, he wasn’t guilty but his current actions spoke of a guilty man not an innocent one. Ryan was placed in interrogation room one, he was then sat down by one of the agents who helped move him and the handcuffs were then removed.
“Would you like anything to drink, water or a coffee perhaps?” Richards asked him, she closed the door and sat down. Jennifer placed the answering machine that had been bagged as evidence down on the table. Ellis watched from the other side of the reflective glass intently as one of his own was about to be drilled by an FBI agent. At this point however, nearly all had heard the tape and immediately thought him a conspirator.
“Turn the heat up ten degrees,” he told one of the other agents in the viewing room, who immediately followed his instruction.
The room was kept slightly darker than normal and wasn’t well lit. In fact, it was so small that you could almost reach out and touch any of the four walls from a standing position if you were located in the middle of the room. An old wooden table that had many drinks stains was nailed to the floor and a row of five pegs to hang a coat on were situated behind Ryan. The only light provided came from when either someone opened the door to the rest of the world or from the occasionally flickering light that dangled precariously above both his and her heads. Agent Richards was a master manipulator and had rarely failed to uncover the truth during an interrogation; however Ryan was also a master. A master at creating a brick wall to hide his emotions behind, he had been doing it nearly all of his life, he never knew it would come in handy. Although he had nothing to hide about abducting Christy Walker, even just sitting in that room was making him feel like had something to hide from the FBI.
“So how do you know Wayne Peterson?” Richards asked the detective as her first question,
“I met him first many years ago,” Ryan had nothing to hide, “During an attempted conviction of a Jane Doe, but I couldn’t make it stick, he wasn’t the guy,”
“Why the sudden interest in him now then? Of all the times you could have contacted him, it had to be just before he becomes the main suspect in the kidnapping of a child of an esteemed city official.”
Ryan laughed,
“Is something funny?” Asked Richards,
Ryan shook his head and stopped laughing. She played the tape for him one last time,
“Wayne it’s me detective Ryan we met last week etcetera...Look! You need to get out of there, he knows about Walker and he’s coming for you, just get out of there and hide somewhere you know is safe with the package. Contact me in a few days to let me know you’re safe.”
“What’s the package?”
“I had him take a few photographs for me, I suspected my ol
d partner and current boss Harry O’Neill of being dirty. It looks bad I know but that is the truth,” Ryan had just told a white lie in the middle of an interrogation.
In the other room Ellis quickly rushed in and asked to speak with agent Richards privately. He had remembered when Ryan came to him all those months ago on the golf course asking about Harry and about his past. Ellis decided to put two and two together luckily for Ryan and explained all that to agent Richards. She didn’t buy it at first, but they realised they had no hard evidence anyway, and the recording could just be circumstantial or a simple case of Ryan being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Get up,” said Ellis as the duo re-entered the interrogation room, “You’re free to go, I believe this is all a misunderstanding, and that you were in fact investigating one of your fellow officers which you will have to answer for, but not today. Although understand this, you are no longer allowed to be part of this investigation, if you interfere in any way I will have you brought up on charges. You can leave your badge on the table...Don’t come back here until you get a phone call allowing you to come back here,” Ellis told Ryan as he informed him of his punishment. Ryan may as well have been fired on the spot, although no doubt Ellis would soon arrange several damning review hearings that would conclude such an act should be done. However, Ryan was now free to track down Peterson, more evidence as well as Harry O’Neill who hadn’t been seen or heard from in nearly a day. This was almost a blessing in disguise as he no longer had to tag along as a third wheel while the FBI tried to track down an innocent man.
The Sins of a District Page 17