by Ruth Kyser
CHAPTER 5
Special Agent Sam Morgan closed the door to the interrogation room behind him and turned to his colleague, Special Agent Jessica Thorne.
“What do you think?”
He and the members of his team were exactly that. A team. True, he was the boss, but he still respected their insight.
“I think she’s telling us everything she can remember, Sam. Although, I’m not so sure she was entirely forthright with you about what she knows about Calvin. But I don’t think she had anything to do with the explosion.”
He nodded in agreement and they both walked through a nearby door into a room adjacent to the interrogation room. In the connecting wall was a glass window on this side so they could see and hear everything that went on in the attached room. The young woman he had just questioned still sat where they had left her, staring down at the table and not moving a muscle. Sam’s heart went out to this young woman. She’d obviously had a terrible day yesterday and he had just made today equally as bad. But it was good to know that his first instincts as an investigator had been right. She was as much a victim as those that had died in the explosion the day before.
Samuel Clemens Morgan had been with the Federal Bureau of Investigation for over ten years. Ingrained into his psyche was the ability to read people. It was a part of his training and had rarely let him down. Along with that FBI education and years of experience were his inner instincts and beliefs. As a Christian, he counted on God for everything – even weeding out and finding evil and especially getting the bad guys. God had never failed him yet.
“I thought the same thing, Jess. Do you think they were romantically involved?”
Before she had time to answer his question, the outside hallway door burst open. Sam and Jess both turned as Bill Parker, the other agent in their team, rushed in.
“Sam, you need to see this.”
“What?” He and Jess both followed him from the room as Bill continued talking.
“Sarah Master’s house blew up this morning right after you and Jess picked her up. They’ve been showing it over and over again on one of the news stations.”
Sam pushed past him toward the main squad room. A TV was on and the two officers on duty were standing in front of it. They quickly moved out of the way to make room for Sam and the other two agents.
“This morning, the house of Sarah Masters exploded just moments after Miss Masters left the house with two FBI agents. The following fire was caught on film by our reporter and cameraman who were on the scene at the time of the explosion.
“Miss Masters was an employee of Brown and Associates, a Herbert law firm, where an explosion occurred yesterday which rocked the downtown area and killed nine employees - all except Ms. Masters. Herbert Police Chief Stanley Warner’s only comment is that both of these explosions are still under investigation. As far as we know, no charges have yet been filed against Miss Masters…”
The news report showed film of Sarah’s cute little house totally engulfed. The fire department hadn’t even arrived yet at the time the footage was filmed. It was obvious to Sam that when they did arrive, there wasn’t going to be anything left of the house to save.
Sam clenched his jaw and turned away from the television. His thoughts turned immediately to the young woman in the interrogation room. This whole incident had just become personal and he felt his adrenalin shoot up a notch.
He turned toward Bill. “Check out the scene. See if it was a job done by the same perp. I don’t believe it was either an accident or a coincidence. See if you find anything that links it to the Brown explosion.”
Bill nodded and left the room and Sam looked at Jess. He knew Bill would find any hint of a bomb. Bill Parker was part of the FBI’s SABT team – Special Agent Bomb Technician. Sam disliked what this latest development told them, but at least with this knowledge they knew the steps they would have to take. One of the first steps was to take Sarah Masters into protective custody. She was the only material witness to the murder of those people at Brown and Associates, and their only way to link it to the Cartel.
He ran his right hand through his hair again. “She’s a target, Jess. He knows she’s still alive and he knows she’s the only one who knows what he looks like. She’s also the only one that can place him on the scene moments before the explosion.” Sam ran the palm of his hand across his chin, feeling the stubble of a beginning of a beard. He hadn’t taken the time to shave this morning because they had wanted to get here before the Fire Marshall or anyone else disturbed the scene. His team was a part of the CIRG – Critical Incident Response Group – of the FBI, and had been working in the Cincinnati office when the call had come in from headquarters about the possible bombing. The Bureau had already been notified several days earlier by the local Police Department of the death threat to Adam Brown, so since they were the closest team to the area, he had quickly taken the assignment. It had already been a long morning for his team, and the day was just about to get longer.
“Jess, see if you can find a sketch artist to work with Sarah so we have something to run through our photo recognition databases. We need to get an ID on this guy ASAP. And find some pictures of vans for her to look at. If we can get a make and model of the vehicle, we can put out a BOLO. We need to find this guy.”
Jess pulled out her cell phone and started pushing numbers. Sam pulled out his own cell phone and hit a number on speed dial.
“Johnson, I need a safe house. What do we have available in the area?”
Agent Morgan returned to the interrogation room a little later. Earlier Agent Thorne had brought in a policewoman who had worked with Sarah to come up with a sketch of the guy she had seen in the office. When the sketch artist showed her the finished drawing, Sarah nodded her head, amazed how much it looked like the gas company repair man a/k/a bad guy.
“That’s him,” Sarah said. Chills ran up and down her back at the sight of the dark eyes staring out of the sketch.
She saw Sam nod at the young female officer who had done the drawing. “Good job, Kate. Please run that through all the photo databases we have as soon as possible and see if we can get an ID.”
As he turned to look back at her, Sarah felt his greenish gray eyes studying her again. What was he thinking? Did he really think she had anything to do with this awful thing? What kind of person did something like this anyway? She didn’t even want to know.
The realization swept over her again that her co-workers and friends were really gone. What had happened was overwhelming. She really didn’t want to think about it anymore. But she had to. These FBI agents were making her relive it all, over and over again.
Sarah just wanted to go home and crawl into her bed and forget any of it ever happened. When were they going to let her go home – or were they? Surely they didn’t believe she had anything to do with any of this, did they? Maybe she was going to be arrested and end up in jail. Then who would she call for help?
“When can I go home, Agent Morgan? I’ve told you everything I can remember.”
He glanced up at her from the paperwork in his hands, just looking at her for a time before answering her. “First we’ll see if we can get a match from that sketch. From that, maybe we’ll know a little better what we’re dealing with – who this guy is and who he works for.”
She watched as he pushed several photos of white vans across the table toward her. “I also want you to look at some photos of vans for me. See if any of these look like the one you saw in the parking lot yesterday.”
Sarah picked up the photos and looked through them slowly, setting several aside that didn’t match the one she had seen. She finally settled on one that appeared to be the nearest to what she could remember. The caption under the photo showed it was a Ford E250 van, a 2003 model. It might not be the right year of the one she saw, but it was close.
“This one looks like it, I think.”
He looked at the photo Sara
h had picked out of the stack and rewarded her with a tilting upwards of his lips.
“Good job. This will be a lot of help.” Agent Morgan stood up and headed toward the door.
“Why don’t you take a break and relax for a bit, Sarah. I’ll be back in a little while. We’ll get an all-points bulletin out on this vehicle, and hopefully, somebody will have spotted it.”
Sarah nodded as she watched the door close behind him.
Relax, right. He had to be kidding.
Sam glanced down at his watch as he headed back toward the interrogation room. It was twelve thirty in the afternoon. Sarah Masters had been sitting in that room for over three hours and he hadn’t heard one word of complaint out of her. Other than a trip to the restroom, she’d stayed right there. Jess had rounded up a sketch artist and Sarah had painstakingly described the man to the artist again and again until they had come up with a resemblance Sarah was happy with. She’d helped Sam identify the type of van the guy had been driving. So far, she was one of the most cooperative witnesses he had ever dealt with.
They were making a little progress toward finding out who was behind this. And she was being a real trooper, but he didn’t know how much longer she was going to feel that way. When he shared the latest news with her, she might not be able to keep up the brave front anymore. Sooner or later he was going to have to tell her she couldn’t go home to her little house because it no longer existed. Eventually he was going to have to explain to her that she was going into protective custody because this guy was now trying to kill her.
Sam took a deep breath. He needed to keep his perspective on this case. His first instinct when Sarah Masters had realized she was the only one who knew what the bomber looked like and would be his next target, was to go over to her and wrap his arms around her in a hug. It had been instinctive and immediate and had rocked him to the core. He was a professional – a federal agent. What in the world had he been thinking?
He took a moment to steady his thoughts as he walked down the hall toward the room where Sarah Masters sat waiting. Right now he needed to focus on going through the evidence they had collected so they could catch this guy. He was hopeful the lab would be able to get a match for one of the prints they’d found on the front door handle of Brown and Associates. The large front glass windows and glass door had been blown out in the explosion and fire, but fortunately the steel door frame and the handle had remained intact. If they could get a decent print that matched a face, then they would know positively who and what they were dealing with. The lab would run the prints through the FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), as well as the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS). Hopefully they would be able to find a match -quickly. The sooner they knew what and who they were after, the better they would know what their next move should be.
Sam stopped with his hand on the door to the interrogation room and sent a short prayer heavenward. Lord, please comfort this young woman. She’s been through so much. And give me the wisdom I need to protect her from this evil.
He carried the sandwiches and coffee he’d purchased at the nearby diner with him into the interrogation room. Pulling out the chair next to Sarah’s, he placed the sacks of food on the table in front of her and sat down. The food wasn’t anything fancy, but they both needed to eat as his growling stomach had recently reminded him.
“I brought us some lunch, Sarah. I’m sure you’re hungry. I know I am.” He smiled at her, trying to make her feel more comfortable around him. He realized being questioned by an FBI agent could be a little intimidating.
When he had first met her at her house that morning, he had instantly felt she wasn’t involved and hadn’t wanted to scare her. Then when he had started questioning her, he hadn’t been sure. He had initially been suspicious because she was the only one not killed in the explosion. That, plus her hiding her relationship with Calvin, had left him thinking of her as a possible suspect. But it hadn’t taken him long before he had come to the conclusion that she hadn’t had anything to do with it and been very fortunate that she also wasn’t killed in the explosion.
“Sarah, I want you to know that I really appreciate your help on all this. I know it’s been tough.”
She glanced at him as she slowly took the paper wrapping off her sandwich. “Whatever I can do to help catch the monster that did this…”
Neither one spoke for a moment as they each took bites of their sandwiches. Sam finished chewing a bite, and decided to ask her the question that had been bugging him.
“So Sarah, tell me about you and Matt Calvin.”