Chapter 7

After the morning briefing, Sarah gave me the next of kin information for Forest. He came out of school directly into the service and had advanced rapidly. His personnel file did not show any dependents or any living parents. Sarah decided to investigate, as there was a sizeable life insurance policy that went to an heir.

Forest's original employment application did not list a next of kin. This was a part of the application that was marked as "must be completed." No place to go but backward. Sarah called the small college in Illinois that he attended and was advised that they had never had a student by the name of Forest Harding. Sarah pulled up all of the colleges and universities in Illinois and e-mailed their offices with "reply required promptly" notation from the U.S. Marshal's office.

While she waited for some replies, Sarah called the high school listed on the application. Again, no person by that name had ever attended that high school. She called the tech and asked him to do a print scan on Forest before we released him to the undertakers.

She did what she should have as second in command, she called John. John said that she must be reading something wrong or asking the wrong people. She challenged him to challenge their personnel department to not only come up with a relative, but to come up with a background.

Around four, Sarah showed me the responses from the colleges and universities. Our tech knocked on the doorframe to get my attention and I waved him in. He handed me Forest's print card that he had taken from the body, then showed me the print card that was on file with the service.

Ray Charles could see that they were two different people. Next he showed me a search result of the prints he took off the body.

Donald J. Maguire, born in Dublin, Ireland, 1969. It showed his education and a long list of confrontations with the law. There were arrests and minimal time served up through 1997, and nothing after that.

Forest's application was dated March 1998.

I had the tech contact the Ireland law enforcement people to see if we could get a picture. Then something hit me.

"Why would his prints be on file for you to find in a U.S. search?"

The tech had no idea. I called personnel in D.C. and asked for their senior investigator. I remember that after I was deputized, they found out how many hairs I had on my arms, much less who was my next of kin.

The first words out of the guys mouth was, "How're ya doin, ' Wild Bill?"

After a long pause from me he said, "I was one of the guys that was down in Tampa when half the underworld was trying to make you gone. Since Sarah had already deputized you as a full deputy, I was in charge of finding out how many little girls you accosted in kindergarten. I remember your file well. You were damn near a pacifist in high school, but rode around on a motorcycle terrorizing people. Then you joined the Marines around the time when your folks were killed, and the rest is, as they say, history. You did surprise me when I found your University of Maryland degree. You should have listed that on your resume as a degree instead of having subscribed to a correspondence school. That's not easy to do when you spend as much time in training and combat as you did."

There was a pause then, "Anyway, Chuck, what can I do for you."

I gave him a synopsis of what we had discovered so far, thinking he would enjoy getting to know how an Irish gangster became a station chief.

His entire vocabulary became, "Holy shit, no shit, oh shit," etc. until he made the summary, "Someone's going to be in "deep shit."

Ken Harris gave me his promise. "I will personally find out what's up with this. Make sure we talk tomorrow afternoon, and every afternoon until we have answers."

"Oh, by the way, I'm running another peek at your file for the boss and the review committee. I think they're trying to decide whether to make you permanent station chief down there. You don't even have a year's service, so you might not get this kind of promotion this fast. But don't feel bad, you're already way above the curve by being a Sergeant and this is the second time you've been an acting field Lieutenant."

I said, "I don't know whether I'm the right guy for this job yet, anyway. I'll keep the place running until they find the right guy to bring in. And that brings me to my last point of curiosity, I'd like to see the file on his, ah, Forest's investigation and board decision to become station chief down here. Am I allowed to see that?"

"You bet, you're a station chief, I'll have it scanned and on your desk in an hour."

"Thanks Ken; I'll buy next time you're in town."

"You shouldn't be saying that, considering you have a bunch of vacancies down there. I've received six calls already today from older marshals wanting to transfer. Everyone wants to live in the warm weather. Anyway, I may be down soon. I'll hold you to it, just order me a Guinness."

I was working on the next week's schedules when Sarah brought a stack of papers and put them on my desk. She said, "When you read this, you're going to shit. There are reports of incidents and various captures throughout this file that never happened. I remember names very well, especially escapees. I didn't recognize any of the captures, so I began pulling each of his captures and each of his incidents. None ever occurred."

Sarah pulled a folder from the stack and pointed to it. "His app shows 1998, but there is an incident that says he was involved in a gang shooting in '96. Another strange incident says that he was key to an arrest in 2000 when he was in San Diego, but the arrest was in Chicago. That would be a big deal, but he shows a capture on the same date in San Diego."

After looking at the folder I told Sarah, "I called Ken up in personnel and he's going to work on it. Put together everything you have discovered so far on a spreadsheet, and e-mail it to him with a copy to John. Add a note to John that we began the investigation in order to assign Forest's life insurance proceeds."

This was either a case of someone's fair-haired boy or it was planned deceit, with help inside the service to facilitate it. This was becoming Bureau or Secret Service business, but I was going to let John handle it.

I made sure we had everything covered for tomorrow and while I was thinking about it, I called Sarg to see how he was doing.

"I have a couple of lines on the pair but they're being cagey. I have all of the police departments in their path reporting any robberies, car thefts, and any other strange incidents. At this moment, they are around Mobile, in a cream colored Mercury four door, wearing some wash and wear business casual clothes. The bad news is that they have acquired a couple of handguns, an SKS, and a couple of shotguns with a bunch of ammo. We need to upgrade the pair to armed and extremely dangerous, blanketing every department there is. I'd like to put out a notice at truck stops so we have some extra eyes looking for these two. And I think I'm going to have to have a side kick on this one. There are just too many leads to follow up on."

Thanks, Sarg, "I'll work on some help. Good work so far. Be careful though, and if you get them cornered, wait for help."

I called Sarah and we went over duty schedules and who could possibly be available for side kick duty for John. Damn, Bobby was the only one, and this was not going to be an easy one, or one where you get a chance to decide anything. I looked at Sarah and asked, "Bobby's good, she's calm under pressure and she's had some good experience, but can she handle the stress of doing side kick stuff for a pro like Sarg?"

Sarah sat back in her chair, "How did she do on your little undercover romp? How did she act, how did she respond to some of your shenanigans? I'm sure you broke every rule she's ever read."

"Now, Sarah, that's pretty presumptuous of you to say."

"Shit, I'd love to know the truth, and I'd bet your man is as happy as a pig in shit in some small town with a place to live, clothes, a car, a job, a new "real" name, and that he's current on his taxes. You know the rules and you know how and where to bend them. I'm sure she's learned a lot."

"Hope they don't have to bend any rules for a capture, I just hope she doesn't choke like Jan did at the airport."

"Don't hold it against her for not dropping Forest. The Tampa cop was in her line of fire and Forest got her pretty good with his elbow. She was coming back up on him when Sarg shot him. Then she froze. She saw real blood, a real person that she knew down, with cause. That would screw anyone up. I'll bet next time she just drops someone that gives her shit and then beats up on the board that will bitch at her."

"You're probably right about Jan, and I know you're right about Bobby. I wish Dave was back from his prisoner transport. He could learn a ton from Sarg. Then again, so can Bobby. Sarah, this is tough, it's hard to give the babe you're thinking about marrying a lemon of a job. This is not just a lemon; it might have a lot of thorns too."

"You'll make the right decision, Chuck, I know you will. Think about it for a while tonight then get her together with Sarg so they can start the day together."

"Sure, Sarah, sure I'll take all the time I need to think about it." I laughed and penciled Bobby in as Sarg's sidekick.

I called home to catch her before she told the duty guys to take off. I gave her the news that she would get to work with Sarg on his capture.

"Side kick you mean, right?"

"Yeah, something like that. There's too much for him to cover by himself, Dave isn't back from his transport yet, and won't be for another thirty or so hours."

Bobby sighed and said, "He probably would get a lot of benefit out of working with Sarg but hey, I'll get to put in to use all the shit I've been learning for the last several years. Actually, Honey, thank you. This is a big deal. I can just see you sweating over me having to go on a job with someone else that may get hairy. Not to worry, you've been training me to be very proficient in hand to hand and with weapons. Give me Sarg's number so I can make arrangements with him."

As soon as I recited the number, she was off the phone, excited about being on her own without me being a papa bear. She doesn't know it yet, but I'd bet Sarg is going to be worse.

Sarah and I wrapped up the day but stopped long enough to nag Ken in D.C. I had him on speaker mode so Sarah could hear the conversation.

"Anything yet, Guy? I know it's early, but I'd bet you have a half dozen decent snoops moving."

"You lose, I have over a dozen working on it and we're pulling everything we can from Interpol. I got Sarah's spreadsheet and it's been helpful. My folks are working on everything in his file. I have a pair of troops on their way to San Diego to see what they can find. The Chicago office was ecstatic to work him, as they all hated the man. They said he had his nose in every case, constantly sent them in the wrong direction, and if they worked on something outside of his direction, he'd put them on report. They wanted to know who they could send a card of thanks to."

I answer that by saying, "I don't think that would make our guy feel any better. Even if he was a rat, he was still a living breathing person. Do keep me posted as I'm really getting curious. I've developed a couple of theories but I'm going to have to dig on them from some odd ends. I'll let you know if I find anything. If we could find out exactly how he got into the States, that would be a start. And if we could find out who picked him, made him a viable entity, and why they picked the marshal service to push him up from within. Seems like he'd have done more good in the Bureau or the IRS. Anyway, let's keep sharing and perhaps we'll have some surprises. Oh yeah, would you check on escapes and captures in the San Diego and Chicago areas. I'd also like some fingerprint checks on some of the captures in both places. Something is fishy."

"Easily done from my end, I'll post an order to the jail facilities after we pull the captures while he was there."

"Ah, Ken, just for fun, do it from when he got there through now. He could have left a helper along the way. It might be good to begin some security checks on the marshals out there."

"Ah no, man that would make us even bigger idiots. I'll develop a team that starts on it tonight and works twenty-four seven on it. Christ, I hope you're wrong, but there's a good chance you're not. Talk at you tomorrow."

Sarah sighed as I turned the phone off, "You shouldn't be in the office, you're a true investigator. Those are good thought processes and definitely some things D.C. needs to be checking on. We could have fake guys everywhere. He's only put on three people since he's been here. They are all a little slow going through their training. I'll pull their apps and confirm them tomorrow. Oh, thanks for the girl to help out. She's good. If she remains as good as she's shown so far, I'll keep her. How did you find her in the budget?"

"I didn't, Sarah, you're the assistant station chief with a ton of duties you're not doing, and doing a ton of stuff that's purely clerical. We've had the assistant position open since before Howard left. I'm just going to use you as the assistant station chief you are. I need to take you to the range in the morning to set you up with some training, then we need to review what areas you will assume responsibility for."

"You're serious, aren't you?"

"You're damned right I'm serious. My ex-admin babe gave me this manual that told me all about how to run a show. Well, it's time for 'Lights, Camera, Action' around here."

"Son of a bitch, you are serious. I am going to be a real assistant chief and not just an admin flunky."

"Yep, just make sure who we keep is a good mix for you and me, and all our people."

"Shit, I'm going to re-run her background. She's almost too good to be true right now. Shit, if she gets the key admin position, she'll get a hell of a raise."

"On rank below eleven, you can't raise them more than one grade per six months, except during their initial ninety days. During that time you can move them two levels if you can write something flowery enough with facts to justify it."

"You've read all that stuff, huh? Now, I won't be able to get away with anything."

"Only more so, Sarah, only more so. Enjoy your new position. I'll enjoy having you at my back. I'll watch yours as well."

She gave me a hug before going out the door. It took me fifteen minutes to clean my desk, grab the stupid manual again and head for home. I intentionally didn't check out a car and asked Hank what needed testing. "How about something else hot that I can abuse? I'm having a blast testing cars."

"I heard about you doin' a four wheel skid around Dale Mabry on Fletcher and splitting a couple of cars as you were powering out of it. Don't you think you should leave that for the track?"

"Yeah, I guess, but being locked up all day makes me want to let it out a little."

"Bring your Mustang in and let me check it out. I hear you're going to give up the Cleveland to get the original 302."

I continued musing, "The car deserves to be back to original. I've got a couple of books that I'm using to confirm everything to original. I'll probably sell it once it's back in perfect shape. I'm not a guy to have something that special. I need a street rod that I can have fun with and leave it at that."

Hank tossed me some keys and said, "Try the Caddie CTX. I had to put in a competition clutch the way everyone was driving it. Don't go nuts as the suspension won't stand for too much horsing around."

I drove the CTX decently. I let it out a little and only skidded a little to see what it felt like. The car was too fancy for me. A car this nice should have auto and a hair dryer. Amazing how you feel about motors and metal.

Bobby was sitting at the desk, reading and sending e-mails. She was already knee deep in Sarg's case. She looked up and smiled, saying, "This is fun tonight, but by tomorrow the fun's going to be out of it. What's this about you starting a national investigation in HR?"

"Some questions have come up, so D.C. is working on most of it and my new Assistant Station Chief is helping me work on this end."

"Did you tell Sarah that?"

"Oh course, and I thanked her for being so diligent about hiring her replacement. I've already moved the shit that had stacked up in the office next to mine out of there. Someone told me it was supposed to be the chief's private conference room. I have a table in my office. Tomorrow, Sarah will be in her new office with a door between our offices so we can converse as we should."

"You know the guys are not going to let them bring anyone else in. I've already heard they want you to lead them. They know you're fair and you give jobs to those that can handle them. Sarg even said he wondered whether you might send me, as he thought I could use the experience after working Safe for so long."

"Well, we're going to have to take some of the Safe responsibility or they'll take the house away from us. I don't think I could afford a house like this."

"As full Station Chief you could, even one nicer than this one. Don't worry though; no one will want to take the Safe job on a permanent basis like we do. You'll just get a bonus for doing it in addition to everything else. As a matter of fact, you get to go get some guests that are being shaken down at the warehouse as we speak."

Bobby added, "I'll finish up this, and start some supper for you and the duty guys. The guests are supposed to be sensitive, so take care."

I pulled up the guest files and read them before calling the warehouse. "Are you still working on the guests?"

"Right, Chief, we just started."

"Ah, do you have a female on duty?"

"Jan's working tonight."

"Have her read the new directive and I expect both guests to have been bathed, head washed, and all and I mean all the hair combed on both guests. Make sure you get the underarm hair on the guy. These are duplicates of the last two that screwed us up. When I take them, they will be either very clean or I'll just drop them off at the morgue."

"You're not messing around are you? But then after that last shit, I don't blame you. I'll dig out the directives and have the guests read them too. See you soon."

We were going to house these people for over a week. This was highly unusual so we had to be extremely careful with these guys. At least the Bureau was taking responsibility to make sure the guests were clean before we brought them home. I opened the box we had received while we were gone. It had an ultra-sensitive probe for signatures of any kind, plus it was sensitive enough to pick up any kind of transmitter, no matter how weak.

I gave Bobby the CTX keys and told her to exchange it with Hank tomorrow or to just sign it out. She was going to need a comfortable ride and that car was just that.

I would drive the Mustang in the morning so Hank could play with it. Right now, I was backing out in the armored Suburban and going for our guests.

When I pulled into the secure garage area, I could hear the female guest screaming about the indignation she was being put through. I wonder how many bugs they've found so far.

The man was doing as he was asked. When the tech acted like he was done, I told him to bring the towel over. I had the guy raise his arms and as I reached with the comb he pulled his arm down.

I said, "You have a choice of me shaving your armpits and pubic area or we comb it. If there is further problem then we will not consider your relocation."

He frowned and I began combing his underarms. Well son of a gun, two from one side and one from the other. The one was definitely a bug so we dropped it into a lead-lined box. I had him lean over the towel and combed his mustache very thoroughly dropping another device onto the towel. Next, I did the guys bushy eyebrows where we combed out one each.

"You're just full of these bugs. You're going to have to watch who you sleep with." He was really indignant that we combed his pubic hair but we did get a relay transmitter, a bug, and a GPS device that were added to our lead box.

I had him stand on the table and began going over him with my new toy. He was generating two signatures, and a GPS signal.