KING COUNTY CRIME LAB, SEATTLE
Willmore went directly to his friend's office. John Amis was busy working on something but immediately stopped when he noticed Willmore standing at the door.
"Mister Willmore." John said, "Good to see you. Been awhile."
"Hey John." Willmore greeted him, "How you been?"
"Bored, I hope you have something real exciting for me." John said. John was one of the few people that Willmore got into idle chit chat before engaging in anything work related.
"I'll do my best." Willmore replied.
"So what have you got?"
Willmore heard the sound of a fax going before he got into it, "You working on anything good?" He asked after the fax had stopped.
"No." John answered shifting foot positions, "I count on you FBI guys to keep my life interesting." He spoke with a smile.
"How's your wife?" Willmore asked.
"Ex you mean?" John corrected and Willmore nodded, "She's good. She's taking the kids to her moms for Easter. Yours?"
"My wife?" Willmore asked.
"No… Your ex kids." John responded flatly, "Yeah your wife."
Willmore shook his head as he thought about changing the subject, "Good I guess. We haven't really spoken in awhile." He had to think of something to change the mood of this conversation, "Hey… Don't you owe me a dollar?"
"From what? That basketball game?" John asked, "No way, that crooked partner of yours cheated."
"Cook?" Willmore asked, "He never cheated a day in his life." He'd never heard anything so ridiculous in his life.
"Don't hold your breath over that buck." John said, "The boys of the Crime lab are officially protesting." Willmore couldn't believer this performance all because of one lousy buck. He handed John the blood sample, "What is this? Blood?" John looked at it.
"Very good." Willmore said in a droll voice.
"You got a target to match it to?" John asked but received no response, "I can tell you the blood type but without a target for a DNA test there's not much I can do. What's the case?"
"A couple of missing FBI agents." Willmore said, "We think that the blood may belong to one of them."
"That's too bad." John replied, "I suggest that you have the DC crime labs analyze it, they could probably match it up with their Agent Database pretty quickly."
Willmore didn't tell him that Skinner was already going to do that.
"What have we here?" John held the tube of black powder to the light and looked at it closely, "Oh." His smile faded, "You're going to have do better than this. I can tell you right now what this is… It's industrial grade lead."
"Lead?" Willmore asked.
"Yeah."
"Why lead?" Willmore couldn't believe that, that was that it was.
"I don't know." John answered, "It's used for anything. From Wayne's Scuba Diving to lining X-ray vests. Pretty common stuff."
"Is there any reason why anyone would treat this stuff like contraband?" Willmore didn't think so. If it was so common, why go to all that trouble.
"No." John put on his best Sean Connery impression, "It's neither illegal nor sexy." John looked away for a moment. It was pretty funny, but the case he was working on was too serious, "There's no reason why people should want or need to smuggle it anywhere."
Willmore handed him the Morley cigarette butt, "No thanks. I'm trying to quit." John was smiling.
"That's very funny." Willmore had expected some sort of crack like this.
John smiled heavily, "Thank you." He accepted the praise, "One Morley cigarette butt. I'll give it the once over. Finally!" John squealed with delight as Willmore handed him the bullet, "Something that looks like evidence. I thought that you boys had gone dumpster diving or something." He looked closely at it, "Looks like a thirty-eight. Not in very good shape. Standard stuff I guess."
"Yeah, I dug it out of a hunk of wood." Willmore said. He knew that even though John Amis sounded like a regular nutcase he was damn good at what he did.
"You got it." John replied.
Willmore headed back to the Seattle Field office this was where he met back up with AD Skinner who was taking notes from the reports at the table.
"Why were we being followed?" He asked Skinner interrupting his work.
"I don't know." Skinner answered, "But whoever's involved in this case isn't afraid of the FBI." He thought for a moment, "There could be an underworld connection." Well it was possible.
"You think the blood belongs to one of your Agents?" Willmore asked. He had already come to that conclusion.
"I can't rule it out." Skinner's face was etched with concern. This was the first time that he had seen Skinner's face change from the hard exterior. Perhaps he really did care, "But I'll wait for the test results before I go jumping to any conclusion… I suggest you do the same Agent Willmore."
"Is there any connection with the declining fish stocks?" Willmore asked.
"I don't see any obvious connection." Skinner answered, "Poor fishing isn't a federal offense." Was Skinner trying to make a joke? Willmore didn't think that the AD knew how to make a joke.
"Do you think Mister Wong was involved?" Willmore asked.
"I don't know." Skinner answered, "Did you get the sense that he knew more than he was telling?" Willmore definitely got that sense and he also got the sense that for being an AD, Skinner was not very helpful.
"He was definitely hiding something." Willmore said, "What do you think that powdered lead is being used for?"
"I don't know, that has me stumped." Skinner said, "It could be a bi product of weapons manufacturing, I suggest you conduct a little research."
SAIC Shanks walked into the room, "AD Skinner. You have a call on line one."
"This is Skinner." Skinner picked up the phone. He wasn't happy with the person on the other hand, he was about to object but quickly silenced himself, "I understand." He said in a defeated tone.
"I have to go back to Washington immediately." Skinner said after he hung up the phone, "I'll take some of the blood back to DC for analysis. I want you to be in surveillance of that warehouse tonight." He turned to leave but stopped and looked deeply at Agent Willmore, "These two agents are very important to me." Skinner added before leaving.
Willmore went to sit down at his desk. As soon as he sat down, Cook stepped into his office, "Hey pal… How's it going out there?" He asked Willmore, "I'm sure you're sucking up to Skinner appropriately." Cook smirked.
Cook's smirked told Willmore not to take this banter too seriously, "Well I learnt how to suck up from you remember?" Willmore shot back with half a smile.
"Oh yeah… right." He replied flatly, "What's Skinner like?" Cook asked.
There was so much Willmore wanted to say to that comment, "He and Shanks… Should have babies." He said in his best semiserious tone.
"Mm." Cook smiled, "I'm sure he's talked about his missing people. But hey if you need anything you just ask." Willmore's eyes glanced over at the laptop sitting on the desk in a corner, "What's with the laptop?" Cook asked.
"It's Scully's. It's password protected." Willmore answered. He had no idea how to even begin to access the information stored inside.
"Do you want me to call Computer Crimes Division and see what they can do?" Cook offered to be errand boy. This was something he hadn't offered to do before.
"Sure." Willmore was glad to have some help.
"No problem. You got it." Cook said as he picked up the laptop leaving Willmore alone in his office once again.
DOCKSIDE WAREHOUSE, NIGHT TIME
Willmore watched a black car approach the warehouse. This was what he had been expecting and wondered why on Earth could they be coming back to this area for. Two men exited the car and entered the warehouse. He thought it was best to go the long way around to enter through the back door. As quietly as possible, Willmore picked open the padlock to the back entrance and walked through. The only way he could find his way around was to feel his way. He stopped as he heard a noise by the couple of men. He used his binoculars to get a closer look.
The men were prying open a section of the floor and lifting something that looked like the crates he had gotten the powdered lead out of. They lifted several crates before closing the area of the floor. They had put the small crates into a large metallic box and left the warehouse.
Willmore had a look in the whole after he was sure the two men had left and couldn't hear him. But there was nothing left. Whatever was stored there was all gone now. Was it more lead?
Willmore wasn't sure what time he had gotten home that night. But decided to get changed and set his alarm and get whatever sleep time had allowed him.