He had those very boxes sitting on the table next time now. Every item was accounted for in the manifest. No one had taken anything.
“So, where the hell is that package?” Denzel asked.
“What package?” Holden asked.
Denzel typed the timecode into the system and brought up the footage of Bristol getting the package, entering her office, and closing her door for most of the next hour. “From there, the thing just vanishes.”
“Lot of that going around with this lady,” Holden said.
Denzel blinked. “You’re right. And that can’t be a coincidence. You’re running Kate Bristol’s credit cards?”
“Yeah, I’ve already put in the request.”
“Get her rental history, too. All known addresses. Everything you can dig up on her.”
“That’s going to take a court order,” Holden said. “I’m pushing it with phone records and credit cards.”
“Name her as a suspect,” Denzel said.
“In what?”
“Ashton Mink’s murder.”
Holden barked a laugh. “You think the sister did it?”
“I won’t rule it out. Not yet. It’s like you said. Something isn’t right. Bristol dies in an accident and then her sister goes missing? All around the time Bristol gets her hands on this package? And the package itself—what happened to it?”
“Could it still be in that office?” Holden asked.
Denzel stood and started for the door. Holden followed.
They were using a room in the security suites, and Denzel stopped and rapped on Peters’ door before opening it and barging in.
“Agent Denzel, you have free reign to look into anything you want in the building, but could you please respect me enough to let me answer before you barge in?”
“I need access to Bristol’s old office,” Denzel said.
“It’s occupied now,” Peters replied, looking at him strangely. “What are you looking for?”
“Is it the same desk? Same book cases?”
“The same,” Peters answered.
“I want to inspect those.”
Peters nodded, picked up the phone from his desk, and punched in an extension. He talked to the person on the other end, informed them that Denzel would be coming by, and to give the Agent complete access.
Denzel left then, with Holden close behind. Peters joined them before they reached the elevator.
The three of them rode to the research level where Bristol and Patel had worked, and Peters led Denzel and Holden to Bristol’s old office. The current occupant stood aside and motioned for them to do whatever they needed to do.
Denzel started feeling along the edges of the book cases, tugging from time to time, removing books and binders to look behind them. He tapped the walls, looking for hidden compartments, but found nothing. He then started on the desk, opening drawers and feeling around within them, removing the effects of the current researcher to gain better access.
He felt the underside of the desk, and then the space beneath the file drawers. His hand brushed something sticky.
He dropped to his knees and peered under the desk, taking out his phone and using it as a flashlight.
There he saw remnants of tape, with a couple of pieces hanging loose, as if whatever had been taken from there had been taken in a hurry.
“It was here,” Denzel said. “The package. I’m betting it was the journal.”
“It was taped under the desk,” Holden said, nodding. “Ok. What good does that do for us? We still don’t know who took it, or when.”
“I’ve scrubbed all the footage. The only way anyone took it is if they closed the door and the blinds, which would block me from seeing. I’ve noted all those spots in the video files. I can get us down to a list of suspects. But I think I know who took it.”
“Who?”
“Lawny Bristol,” Denzel replied.
Holden shook his head. “Can you get around to some of this making sense?”
Denzel stood, brushing himself off. “I think she had the journal shipped here from London, keeping it secret from Patel and everyone else. She needed it here, for some reason. But when she got what she needed from it, she hid it until the time was right, and then took it with her.”
“One problem,” Peters said. “Everything gets searched, going in and out of this place.”
“And who does the searches?” Denzel asked.
“Whoever pulls gate duty,” Peters said. “Usually the …”
He stopped, his eyes wide, looking at Denzel.
“Usually who?” Holden asked.
“The new guy,” Peters said.
Denzel nodded. “Jared Partano.”
“That little creep,” Holden grumbled. He picked his phone out of his coat pocket and dialed his precinct, putting out a request to bring Partano in for questioning. “Good thing I had a unit on him,” Holden said. “Otherwise, I’m pretty sure this kid would be in the wind. Although he’s dropped in to see his brother a couple of times.”
“That’s what family does,” Peters said, shrugging. “When your brother’s hurt, you risk everything to see him. Nothing unusual about that.”
Denzel frowned. “No,” he said. “But there’s something unusual about someone coming to collect her sister’s things, and then disappearing. Unless she was abducted, where the heck did she go?”
“Working on that,” Holden said.
Denzel was about to reply, to say he was mostly thinking out loud, when his phone rang. It was his home office. “Agent Denzel,” he answered.
“Roland,” a voice said. “It’s me. Kotler.”
“Kotler?” Denzel replied. “You’re at my office?”
“It seemed to be the safest place,” Kotler said. “I have some information, and it couldn’t’ wait. I drove straight here.”
“Drove? How’d you get away? Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m fine. I was … well, let’s just say I was rescued by Gail McCarthy.”
“Gail McCarthy?” Denzel started.
“It’s a long story, and one I don’t think I fully understand yet, but just wait, Roland. I think I’ve figured something out. My captor—the person running all this from behind the scenes—well, I think it was Dr. Lawny Bristol.”
Chapter 19
Kotler, Denzel, and Holden were in Denzel’s office at the FBI. An agent had generously brought Kotler a change of clothes from his apartment, and he had cleaned up using the showers in the workout facility in the building. Kotler wasn’t given to paranoia, or playing to fear, but Gail McCarthy had just shown she could get to him practically any time. She was sending him a message, about his vulnerability. It made him stop and think, at least.
They had debriefed each other, filing in missing gaps in information from both sides. Denzel and Holden told Kotler everything they’d learned during his ‘absence.’ Kotler, in turn brought them up to speed on everything connected to his abduction, including the appearance of Gail McCarthy.
“So, what’s her game?” Denzel asked. “What were you able to learn from her?”
“Not much,” Kotler said, sipping a cup of coffee he held in both hands. “I think it was some kind of show of power. She wanted me to know she could get to me.”
“This is the same Gail McCarthy that is my primary suspect in Morgan Keller’s murder?” asked Holden. He had his notebook open, and was jotting down details as Kotler could give them.
Kotler nodded. The Keller murder was an open investigation, and it was at the scene of that murder that Kotler and Denzel had first met Holden. At the time, none of them suspected Gail McCarthy as having anything to do with it, but as the affair with Atlantis progressed—something Holden wasn’t aware of, just yet—it became clear that Gail was orchestrating things behind the scenes. She was responsible for at least two murders that Kotler knew about, as well as countless crimes of smuggling, gun running, and anything else she inherited from her mentor, Richard Van Burren. Who, as it turned out, was
one of her victims.
None of this could be proven, exactly. Gail was far too careful. But she remained the lead suspect. Holden wanted her. Kotler knew the feeling.
“What about the attaché case?” Denzel asked. “I have a team going over every inch of it, looking for prints or any other trace forensic material.”
“Tell them to be careful with the artifacts,” Kotler said.
“What are they?” Denzel asked.
Kotler shook his head. “I’m not sure yet. I mean, I know what they are literally—all but that brass plate. But I don’t know what they mean. Gail gave them to me hoping I would figure them out. She’s promised that if I do, we’ll find her.”
“Seems like justification enough to dig in on them,” Denzel said.
“Is any of this connected to the Mink murder?” Holden asked. “Is Gail McCarthy a suspect?”
“The security guard killed Mink,” Kotler said.
“Jack Harris,” Denzel said, nodding. “But what’s his connection to Gail McCarthy?”
Kotler shook his head. “None, that I know of. At least, none beyond the fact that she had Harris grab me in front of my own home, just so she could send me a message.”
Denzel was studying Kotler, and Kotler picked up on his partner’s micro expressions. “Don’t worry,” Kotler said, “I’m not losing it. I’m just playing a little closer to the shore now. If Gail wanted me killed, I’d be dead. She’s up to something else, but I don’t think it has anything at all to do with Ashton Mink’s murder, or the Devil’s Interval.”
“You said you think Dr. Lawny Bristol is alive,” Denzel said. “That she’s the one behind this?”
Kotler nodded. “I have no proof, but based on the conversations I had with the disembodied voice, I strongly suspect it’s her.”
“What brings you to that conclusion?” Holden asked.
“I picked up on certain phrases that made me suspect it was a woman, masking her voice. She used the term ‘privilege’ to describe me, and in context she wasn’t referring to my wealth. She asked if I had ever felt powerless, and then pointed out that I was exercising power just by trying to control the situation. Based on these statements, I determined that it might be a woman speaking, and that she was very intelligent. I didn’t decide that it was Dr. Bristol until she showed some familiarity with Dr. Patel. She referred to him as ‘Simon’ at one point.”
Holden scoffed. “None of that proves anything. You could have some bias in that.”
Kotler nodded. “That’s true. But I’m convinced.”
“I am too,” Denzel said.
“Why’s that?” Holden asked.
“The package in her office,” Denzel replied. “Her sister’s disappearance. In fact, a whole lot of questionable things that have been creeping into this investigation, ever since we learned about her death. I think she faked her death as part of a long game. And I suspect you are going to find that Kate Bristol isn’t even real.”
“Not real?” Holden asked. He blinked, then scowled. “Shit, that makes sense.”
“What makes sense?” Kotler asked.
“Everything I find about Kate Bristol goes back only about a year. The apartment lease, the credit cards, the phone, all of it. Before that, she’s a ghost. I haven’t done any deep background on her, but I bet I find nothing.”
“Because she’s just a cover for Lawny Bristol,” Kotler said.
Denzel let out a long breath. “Maybe. I’m inclined to agree with you, but without proof, we can’t really say for sure.” He shook his head. “This case gets more complicated every minute. Ok, let me see if we can pull together the narrative here.”
He stood up and went to a double-door cabinet on the wall, opening it to reveal a white board. He took a dry erase marker from the tray at the base of the board, and started jotting things down as he went.
“At the moment, we’re working from the theory that Lawny Bristol is alive. She was brought into the Newton chamber by Simon Patel, who introduced her to the research he was using for the Devil’s Interval project. She and Patel discovered a journal, leftover from the previous occupant, and Bristol stole it or snuck it away, then had it shipped back to her from London. Meanwhile, back in the US, she assists Patel in the research and development of the Devil’s Interval technology.”
Kotler interrupted. “I think we can assume she influenced the development of the technology,” he said.
“What do you mean, ‘influenced?’” Holden asked.
“I think that Patel’s line of development was likely on track to do exactly what AMSL wanted it to do. It would aid the hearing impaired, allowing them to hear without surgically implanting cochlear devices. But Bristol …” he glanced at Denzel, “or possibly someone else, found something in those journals, and saw an opportunity.”
“That makes sense,” Denzel said, jotting DI Opportunity – Bristol? on the board, and continued. “For the moment, let’s assume it was Bristol. She uses AMSL to fund and develop the technology. Maybe she’s lined up a buyer for it. There would be no shortage of interested parties. So, she keeps everything moving at AMSL, where there are resources she wouldn’t have access to otherwise.”
“And when the technology is close to completion, she makes arrangements to fake her own death?” Holden asked. “Why?”
“Cover?” Kotler offered. “If she’s dead, no one will suspect her, if this technology emerges on the black market.”
“Now we’re up to Jack Harris and the Partano brothers,” Denzel said. “How did they become involved?”
“That part’s murky,” Kotler said. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that all three of them work in security. Harris is a natural, considering his past issues at the company, and his demotion. He has a technical background, so it’s conceivable he came up with a way to access the system from the outside. He set things up so that Ashton Mink would do some of the dirty work, smuggling the memory card out of the building.”
“The Partano brothers are more of a mystery,” Holden said. “I dug into these guys. They’re American heroes. Both have seen combat, and have exemplary records. Nothing about these guys suggests they’d be in on something like this.”
Kotler sat up. “Were they special forces?” he asked.
“Both of them,” Holden nodded.
Kotler looked at Denzel, who cursed. “Gail McCarthy,” the agent said, nearly spitting the words.
“What am I missing?” Holden asked.
Kotler replied, “Gail inherited a network of smugglers comprised primarily of ex-Special Forces. Richard Van Burren and Edward McCarthy had been recruiting these guys for decades, and their network is probably still in place. These guys have turned mercenary. The money they get from smuggling far outpaces anything they’d get elsewhere, and it lets them use their special skills.” Kotler shook his head. “The guys that Bristol has working for her—I should have put it together sooner. Other than Harris, these guys were powerhouses. This explains how Gail became involved in all of this.”
“Ok,” Denzel said, returning to the white board. “So, Bristol starts reaching out, looking for a way to move the Devil’s Interval tech, and somehow stumbles on to Gail McCarthy’s network. Bristol hires some of McCarthy’s mercenaries, and probably engages McCarthy to help find a buyer.”
“Gail finds out that you and I are involved,” Kotler said, “And decides to leverage the situation to get to me.”
Denzel nodded. “But what about those pages? The ones she traded for you? Where’d she get those?”
Kotler thought about this, and shook his head. “There’s no way to know that.”
Denzel huffed. “Well, with her connections, she may have known all about the Newton chamber. Somebody had been using it for years, right up until the 80s. Maybe Van Burren discovered it, and was keeping it as part of his network. She would have learned about it then.”
“Doesn’t add up,” Kotler said. “If she knew about the chamber, why did she only have pages from
the journal? Why wouldn’t she have had the whole thing? There are some valuable artifacts and scientific instruments in that chamber, but nothing on the level of the antiquities Gail typically deals with. I think those journal pages must have been part of a different lot. Whoever had been using that chamber must have torn them out, probably after realizing what kind of horror that information represented. But whoever it was must have had a respect for history and science, and couldn’t bear to destroy them altogether.”
“This is all conjecture,” Holden said. “We can’t prove any of it, and I don’t know that any of it is really relevant to this case.”
“Maybe not. But it’s a useful narrative,” Kotler explained. “It’s a framework that helps us make sense of some of the confusing parts of this case, so we can move past them to the more relevant data.”
Holden thought about this, and nodded. “Ok. Not exactly how I do things, but I can see the point of it. So now what?”
Denzel turned back to the board. “I think Ashton Mink’s murder wasn’t part of the plan,” he said. “That’s what set off the events that have led to us discovering all of this. I think Harris went a little rogue, and screwed everything up.”
“That does seem to fit his M-O,” Holden said. “Peters told us the guy is a hot head.”
“So, Mink’s murder was revenge,” Kotler said. “Maybe Harris resented Mink’s fame or wealth. Maybe he blamed Mink for his demotion. It really doesn’t matter, in the end.” He looked at the whiteboard, following the timeline from left to right. “The rest is actually unrelated. Not directly related, anyway. Bristol has the information she needs to rebuild the Devil’s Interval technology. That’s where we are now.”
“If it really is Bristol,” Denzel said. “And we’re here with no leads, either way. We have no way to know where she is.”
“Actually,” Holden said, flipping through his notebook, “maybe we do have a way. Her ‘sister’ may have canceled her mobile phone, but I have records of all the calls she made from the time it was activated to the time it was shut down. And none of them were made from Chicago.”
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