“That’s because you don’t have any idea what God is really like.”
“…Which god, the one that inflicts horrific diseases on the world, destroys whole communities with catastrophic storms and earthquakes, the one who will drop a church roof on his groveling worshipers, just for grins, or the one who sends his faithful out to murder innocent people in his name?”
“Again, you have a distorted understanding of who God is.”
“All I know is that you weirdoes, who claim to serve some god, are a dangerous bunch of mentally deficient fanatics. As far as I’m concerned, there is no difference between you, the RAGs, or the proponents of Islam. The world won’t be a better place until all you religious people are rotting in the ground.”
I hadn’t expected a vitriolic response like that.
“Why are you so bitter?”
“Why are you so delusional?”
I didn’t reply.
We rode the rest of the way in silence.
Chapter 43.
That afternoon, Doug was very grim as he briefed Tony, Jack and me on the IDs of the men who had arrived on the scene at the burial site. He had already alerted his agents.
“The name Gary couldn’t remember is, Scott Hollister,” he said.
“…The same Scott Hollister who ran for the state Senate?” Tony asked.
Doug nodded.
“He has millions. He inherited a fortune from his father’s frozen foods business, and then he made another fortune in investment banking. He has that new industrial development right by the interstate, in Longview. Everything he touches turns to gold.”
“He owns a huge mansion right off highway 80, just east of Longview. His face is on billboards, but I didn’t recognize him this morning.” I said.
Doug shrugged, and added, “Tommy Turner is a ranking officer in the Smith County Sheriff’s office.”
“What? I know him.” Tony said, clearly stunned.
“The other guy, Brown, owns a trucking company in Rusk County. He’s the only one with a criminal record. Two DWIs and one assault charge.” Doug added.
We all considered the new information.
“You’re telling us, all three of those guys are members of the radical wing of the RAGs? They have nothing in common.” Tony said.
“Don’t forget to add Watkins to the mix.” I said.
Doug nodded.
“Racism and Christianity is what they have in common, and maybe they enjoyed punk rock when they were younger.” Doug replied.
“Sin is what they have in common. They’re expressing hate and rage, directing it against the government and people of color, but their problem is more…essential. The sin of hatred has nothing to do with Christianity. It stems from some personal hurt, or inability to recognize their individual fears, limitations and failures. They form a bond of racism. A psychologist might say racism was a form of projection” I said.
“Whatever! You say potatoes…” Doug started.
“No, John is right. Racial hatred is just an expression of a deeper more personal issue. Maybe even ignorance. It doesn’t really matter though. The point is we have to stop them.” Jack spoke up.
We all nodded in agreement.
“We have enough evidence against Watkins to arrest him on the murder charge, right now.” Tony pointed out.
“I think we need to wait on that.” I said.
“I thought you were the guy who wanted to see justice done for the dead Mexican.”
Doug said, clearly showing irritation.
“Justice, yes I do. I don’t want to see Gary implicated in the arrest of Watkins though. Watkins is just one spoke in a bigger wheel.”
Doug frowned.
“When I sweat Watkins, I can leave out any reference to information we got from Gary.”
“I’m not sure you can, or that he won’t figure it out. Besides, there are other people taking a pretty close look at Gary.”
“That’s a chance we’ll just have to take. We need to flip Watkins right now.” Doug said.
“We didn’t know a ranking officer in the Sheriff’s Department was a part of this. What happens when we arrest Watkins? We can’t put him in the Smith County jail.” Tony was thinking out loud.
“We arrest him, bring him here to the federal building, and put the screws to him. Once I flip him, he won’t be going to jail.” Doug stated.
I looked at Jack. He nodded back, imperceptibly.
“I think we’d better hold off on arresting him. You have Gary inside the same group Watkins is in. Gary doesn’t need to be flipped. If you snatch up Watkins, it will send up all kinds of red flags, which might jeopardize Gary’s position. We need Gary on the inside. He’s more valuable to us. Later, we can arrest Watkins, anytime we want to.” Jack suggested.
“My orders are to arrest Watkins and flip him. End of story.” Doug said.
“Those were your orders before Gary passed his initiation this morning.” I observed.
“I would remind you, as you are so fond of pointing out, you’re a civilian. I’m in charge of this investigation. So shut up.” Doug snapped.
I saw both Jack and Tony stiffen at that last part
Jack cleared his throat.
“John, would you mind stepping out. Those of us who have official capacities in this investigation need to have a few words in private” He met my eyes.
“Sure, I apologize if I’ve over stepped my…”
“Thanks, we’ll keep you in the loop.” Jack interrupted. He pointed toward the door.
I nodded, got up from my seat and left the three of them in the Federal building.
Tony called on my cell phone as I was driving to my office.
“The feds aren’t going to arrest Watkins right now.” He said.
“That’s a relief.”
“Yes, it is. Let me tell you what happened. After you left, Doug relaxed quite a bit and started talking about planning the arrest. Jack stopped him and asked him to call the Director of the FBI. The Director, John! It really confused Doug. Jack asked Doug if he would make the call, or would he prefer that Jack did it. Doug asked him why he should call the Director of the FBI. Jack just held up his cell phone and hit a speed dial button. He put the phone on speaker mode and set it on Doug’s desk. When the ringing stopped, Director Driscoll answered!”
“Oh my….”
“I know, right? Anyway, Director Driscoll said, “Is that you, Jack?” to which Jack replied it was and he was sitting in Special Agent Doug Booker’s office here in Tyler, Texas, with me in attendance. “How do you do, Lieutenant Escalante,” the Director said…”
“I don’t need to hear all that, Tony.”
“Oh, right. The upshot of it was, Director Driscoll told Doug he should follow the advice of Agent McCarthy, whom he held in high esteem! I thought Doug was going to puke.”
“Yeah, Jack has always had a certain flare for the dramatic.”
“J.W., who is he exactly, that he has the Director of the FBI on speed dial?”
“If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”
Tony chuckled.
“Then I don’t really want to know. I guess he’s some kind of high level spook.”
“He’s very high level, Tony.”
“I get the impression life as we’ve known it, is never going to be the same.”
“No, I’m afraid it won’t be the same, and it won’t be better, either. I suspect we are going to see changes that will cause great sorrow.”
“Well then, ‘the just shall live by faith’, right?”
“Till He returns or calls us home.”
Chapter 44.
The next day, I was watching one of the morning network news channels. I like to channel surf for stories that don’t include Hollywood scandals, weight loss or foolish political behavior. I was drawn to an announcement that the Vatican and Pope Gregory III were calling for the re-building of the temple in Jerusalem. The United Nations and Secretary General Hosan Mushareff, were in c
omplete support. They were all in agreement the temple could be re-built without encroaching on the sacred Al-Aqsa mosque commonly known as the Dome of the Rock.
“If the Holy of Holies is built to the same proportions as the Tabernacle in the wilderness, there will be plenty of room for the building and the inner court yard. The outer courtyard would be the entire world.” The Pope was saying.
I was startled to learn how much of the Arab world seemed to be open to the idea.
My phone rang and caller ID indicated it was Gary.
“Hey Gary, what’s up?”
“Morning, John. I just wanted to touch base.”
“How’s it going? Have you learned anything useful?”
“No nothing new, so far, John. I’m going to be overseeing a small building demolition job down in Bullard, starting today. I won’t see Watkins at all. He’s overseeing a bigger project outside of Chandler. Their building some apartments and he’ll be tied up with that for the rest of the month. You might want to pass that along.”
“OK. Is there anything I can do for you?”
“No. I just wanted to check in.”
I could tell he was feeling isolated.
“It sounds like you’ll be getting a break from some of the drama for at least a little while.” I observed.
“Yeah, I suppose so.”
“Don’t feel like you’re out there all alone. You can call me any time, day or night. If you just want to talk about football, we can do that.”
“Since you mentioned it, did you see the game Monday night?”
I chuckled.
“Yeah, I did. Do you remember when it was unusual for a game to have a combined score of more than forty points?”
“I know, right? Now it’s common to see sixty or seventy combined points in a game…”
We talked about football for a few minutes and ended the call.
The next morning, a little before ten o’clock, I was sitting at my desk when my cell phone rang.
“John, this is Doug Booker. Can you come down here to my office?”
“Sure Doug, when do you want me there?”
“Come now, John. There’s been an incident.”
“Is Gary alright?”
“We don’t know. Please come down here right now.”
I couldn’t get to the Federal building. There were police barricades for two square blocks around both that building and the courthouse, on the square. I had to park about a quarter of a mile away and walk back to a barricade. I introduced myself to a uniformed officer and told him that I had been summoned by the SAIC of the FBI office. The officer got on his radio and a supervisor showed up. I explained the situation to the supervisor, who got on his radio. He examined my ID. Eventually the supervisor got permission to let me through. He had been instructed to escort me.
“What’s going on?” I asked him, as we walked toward the Federal building.
“I’m not at liberty to say much. I can tell you what’s already being reported on the news though. Both the Sheriff and the DA of Gregg County have been shot, outside the courthouse, in Longview. The DA is dead. The Sheriff is in critical condition at Good Shepherd.”
As we approached the Federal building, the heat was stifling. I figured that the mercury was probably somewhere north of a hundred degrees. I had already sweated through my shirt. I also knew that, a cold front was forecast to blow in and drop the thermometer by thirty or forty degrees in a matter of hours. I could see storm clouds building to the northwest, a “blue norther” on the horizon.
I could also see police snipers on the surrounding rooftops.
At the entrance, we were met by an FBI agent wearing a black jacket with the gold letters F, B, I, emblazoned on it. He had a matching black ball cap with the same markings.
The police supervisor introduced me to the agent, who I now recognized from a previous meeting. On that occasion, he had been wearing cammo tactical gear, and carrying an assault rifle.
We left the supervisor on the stairs and went up into the building.
Ordinarily, you can’t get into the Federal building without passing through the metal detectors, and being greeted by uniformed officers. That was not the case today. There were heavily armed officers everywhere, but because members of the general public were not being permitted anywhere near the building, the metal detector was not in use.
The situation in the workroom outside Doug’s office was organized chaos. There were FBI agents and others, shouting into telephones and radios. Some were focused on their computer monitors, and people were milling about engaged in who knows what. The agent escorting me knocked on Doug’s door and pushed it open.
“Come in John,” Doug said.
He was sitting on the edge of his desk facing Jack, who was standing.
Jack McCarthy was clearly there in his capacity as a ranking officer in the Department of Homeland Security. He nodded his greeting.
“What all has happened?” I asked, as I closed the door.
It’s a serious ‘Charlie Foxtrot’, John. We have a dead DA, in Longview. The Gregg County Sheriff was shot as well, and several pipe bombs were found at the courthouse in Longview.” Doug said.
“Was Gary involved?” I asked.
“We don’t know any details at this point, but we’re pretty damned sure the RAGs did this.” Doug said.
I looked at Jack.
“This is what we know so far,” he started. “This is a court hearing day in Gregg County and the courthouse was crowded. The Gregg County Sheriff and the District Attorney were standing on the lawn outside the Gregg County courthouse, when a silver SUV stopped in the street. Four armed gunmen got out and opened fire on them. Both men were cut down immediately. Fortunately, the Sheriff was wearing a vest. He was able to return fire, and at least one of the gunmen was hit. The four gunmen retreated to the SUV and escaped. Meanwhile, inside the courthouse when the gunfire started, a sheriff’s deputy had just found a backpack containing several pipe bombs. We don’t know why none of them were detonated.”
“Did the Sheriff or witnesses to the shooting get a good look at the gunmen or the car?”
“Obviously we’re working all of that right now, John,” Doug said. We are also examining video from all of the outdoor security cameras in the city of Longview.”
“The gunmen were wearing ski masks, John.” Jack added.
I considered several different aspects of the information that I had just been given.
“Do we know where Gary or Watkins is, right now?” I asked.
Jack and Doug shot each other a look.
“No, we’ve been busy with other things. That’s why we asked you to come down here. Don’t you know where Gary or Watkins is supposed to be working today?”
I nodded in response.
“Gary told me that he would be overseeing a work crew doing demolition of a building in Bullard, south of Tyler. That’s in Cherokee County. Watkins was supposed to be managing a bigger crew, building an apartment building outside Chandler. That’s in Henderson County. I don’t know if that’s where they are though.”
Doug hit a button on his desk phone.
“Green, get in here,” he snapped.
My phone rang. I saw that the call was from Christine, so I answered it.
“Hey, Christine,” I said, by way of greeting.
“John, have you seen the news?”
“No, I’m a little busy right now. I’m in the Federal building, downtown.”
“Oh, OK…. OH! So you know what’s happening…”
“A little bit, yeah. Listen, I need you to try to get Gary on the phone. He’s supposed to be on that job site down in Bullard. If you can’t get him on the phone, go down there and find him. Pretend to be his girlfriend or something. I need to talk to him right away. Have him call me.”
“Have you tried to call him?”
“No, I want him to call me. I’ll explain later.”
“Ok, I’m on it. Be careful,” she added before
she broke the connection.
A man came rushing into the room.
“Agent Green, we need to know if a man by the name of Kevin Watkins is presently working on an apartment building construction location outside the city of Chandler. I mean, is he there now, and has he been there all day? I need you to get me that answer, immediately. One other thing, listen now, do not, I repeat, DO NOT attract any attention while you are getting those answers. It is imperative that no one knows that the FBI is trying to locate that man. Got it?” Doug asked.
“Yes sir, I’ve got it. Kevin….?”
“Watkins. Now get out of here and get me my answers.”
Two more men walked into Doug’s office. I recognized one of them immediately. He wore a starched and creased white shirt; open at the neck, with no tie, over dark brown pants. He was also wearing a straw cowboy hat. There was a gold star pinned to the shirt. He was Charles Parker, the Sheriff of Smith County.
The other man was similarly dressed, but he wore creased khaki pants, a dark green tie, and his silver badge was smaller. It was just a small star inside a circle that bore a simple message; “Department of Public Safety” scrolled at the top, and “Texas Ranger”, at the bottom. There was a single word on the star; Captain.
Both men glanced at me.’
“Sheriff Parker, Captain O’Brian, this is John Wesley Tucker. He is assisting us in our investigation.” Doug said, by way of introduction.
“Yeah, I thought I recognized you. I saw you on a crime scene. That child abduction case, and there was all that TV coverage around the trial, last year.” The Sheriff said.
“Yes sir. I remember seeing you at that trailer in the woods, while every law enforcement officer in two counties was trying to figure out who had jurisdiction.”
He nodded, shaking my hand.
“You can call me Chuck,” he said, as he turned to address Doug.
“Agent Booker, we know that this building and the Smith County courthouse are clear. I intend to remove the barricades around the courthouse and the square. What’s the progress on the general threat assessment?”
“We are still attempting to gather data. We are analyzing and processing that data as rapidly as we acquire it.”
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