King County Medical Examiner's Office Seattle
Willmore and Mary entered the Coroners and Mary introduced him to the female examiner.
"This is Agent Willmore with the FBI." Mary already knew the coroner, "He questioned Wong yesterday."
The Coroner looked like she was ready to hop into the shower with that cap on and looked quite ridiculous with those oversized goggles on, "I hope you found out everything you needed to know." She said in a deadpan tone.
"What have you got?" Willmore asked her. He didn't see the need to get into any pleasantries with her.
"This is undoubtedly one of the strangest autopsies I've ever performed." She said looking at the body, "This guy died from a single gunshot wound to the back of the head, large caliber weapon, and point blank range. He was also a drug user. Looks like he was high at the time of his death."
It was some sort of morbid fascination that Willmore couldn't take his eyes off the body of Wong, "That would account for the lack of struggle." Mary commented coldly. Keeping a herself detached from the victim in a professional way. It was something that Willmore was beginning to like about her.
"But if the slug or drugs didn't kill this man. This man would have been dead in a matter of weeks anyway." The coroner said.
"Oh Jesus." Willmore rolled his eyes, "Why?"
"He was completely riddled with massive tumors." Was the quick answer, "I've never seen anything like it."
"What would cause something like that?" Mary asked.
"No idea." The coroner answered, "I've never seen a human being so eaten alive with cancer."
"God." Mary sighed in a slightly overdramatic way, "I hate coming here."
"You know… So do I." The coroner turned back to the body and so did Willmore. It looked like the head of Wong just moved and Willmore's heart skipped a beat. What had caused that? The coroner seem undeterred by the movement because she didn't comment on it, she had to have seen it.
"What kind of cancer was it?" Willmore asked, occasionally looking out of the corner of his eye to see if he could detect anymore twitching of Wong's body.
"Well here's the weirdest thing. You see these." She pointed to a three trays holding masses of something, "These are three different kinds of cancer. It wouldn't surprise me if he had a few more." The coroner began washing her hands with a towel, "It was as if his endocrine and immune system suddenly went haywire."
"Is there a name for this?" Mary asked.
"Bizarre." The coroner answered.
"No." Mary almost laughed, "I mean is there a syndrome or something that explains it?"
"No, not that I've heard of." She answered.
"How do you know he was high?" Willmore asked. He couldn't for the life of himself figure out how that was possible to know.
"That's mainly a hunch." She said, "And the little things. The state of cranial vascular relaxation. Total dilation of the pupils, things like that. I've seen it before but the blood work will confirm it."
"What could have caused cancer like this?" Willmore questioned.
"I have no idea." She replied, "It's not exactly my field first of all. But I can't imagine what would trigger something like this. Some form of carsogenic exposure I guess. Radioactive materials, some classes of mutagenic chemicals as far as I know."
Most of it went over Willmore's head. He thought that he should carry around a dictionary when he came to these types of places, "How long had he been ill?" Willmore asked deciding to not press about what the hell carsogenic and mutagenic meant.
"Tumors are highly unpredictable." The coroner answered, "The growth of this size would take a fair amount of time but he would have been in immense pain." She was taking a closer look at something.
"Which might explain the illicit drug use?" Mary chimed in.
"Even with the drugs a condition like this would be almost impossible to ignore. The amount of drugs he'd had to take to ease the pain would make him a near zombie. Strange." She added. Yeah, the whole thing was just a little more than strange.
"Have you seen anything else like this recently?" Willmore enquired.
"No… Thank God."
"How long had he been taking drugs?" Willmore asked not that he thought that that would be of any help at all.
"It's hard to say." The Coroner answered, "Organ tissue analysis could provide some evidence but it's difficult. The tumors like this he would have been in immense pain, the drugs could be used to medicate it."
Willmore saw the hunk of metal in a round bowl, "Is that the slug?" Willmore asked.
"Yes it is."
"I'd like to have it analyzed."
"That'd be alright I suppose." The coroner replied.
"There was a case a couple of months ago." Willmore wanted to touch the subject of TARAKAN, "A fire at sea."
"The TARAKAN." The coroner finished the sentence, "Sure I remember it, you're the second FBI agent to ask me about that this week."
Willmore and Mary quickly exchanged a look. This looked promising, "What are you talking about?" He asked.
"Actually to be specific, you're the third FBI agent there was a pair here the other day, a man and a woman. They had the bodies of the TARAKAN crew members exhumed. She insisted on performing a second autopsy." The coroner explained.
"What were their names?" Willmore wanted to make sure it was them.
"Sorry I have to look that up." She was about to leave the area, "I see a lot of names."
"It was Mulder and Scully wasn't it?" Willmore didn't want to waste anymore time.
"Yes." The coroner answered, "Diana Scully and Wolf Mulder."
"What did she find?" Mary asked.
"No idea, the bodies are still here if you want to see them."
"What were the results of the original autopsy?" Willmore asked.
"They died of severe burns."
Mary swallowed, "We want to see them." She said slowly.
"Alright." The coroner covered Wong's body with a sheet, "You're not squeamish I hope."
"God I hate coming here." Mary stated once again.
Willmore and Mary were lead into the room where they stored the bodies in the pull out draws. The room felt so claustrophobic, "Fair warning." The coroner said, "This is going to be pretty bad… These guys have been in earth for two months. Are you alright?" She asked Mary.
At least they were forewarned and could mentally, "Just peachy, thanks." Mary responded, "Can we get this over with please." Her speech had grown quicker. Willmore gave her a look to make sure she was ok.
"Sure." The coroner opened the doors and pulled out a slab. There was nothing on there. So she opened the other doors, "I don't know what the hell's going on here." She said. They were all empty. The bodies were gone, "I think someone's stolen the bodies from the TARAKAN. You two stay here, I'll let you know if I find anything. She said before leaving them alone.
Mary used her foot to push the slab back into it's place and closed the door and sighed, "What the hell have we stumbled onto here?" She asked.
"Well I have some theories." Willmore said.
"Ok… I'm listening."
"Well uh." Was all Willmore could get out before Mary interjected.
"Oh my god." It was as if Mary had an epiphany, "I think I know what's going on here." She said, "Oh Jesus. I hope I'm wrong."
Willmore was beginning to get impatient since she wasn't getting straight to the point, "What?" He prompted her.
"They're smuggling something. They're smugglers." Mary said, "Wong worked for the same people as the crew of the TARAKAN."
"That'd explain the slicker and the lack of fishing equipment." Willmore followed her line of thinking.
"So they worked for the same people." Mary said. Reestablishing her train of thought, "You questioned Wong, he was killed because they thought he was caught." Willmore averted his eyes, it wasn't something he wanted to be reminded of, "Your two missing agents have the crew of the TARAKAN exhumed… They and the corpses turn up missing?" Her tone turned even more serious, "We've stumbled upon a smuggling ring bringing in radioactive materials or possibly even chemical weapons into the US from the former Soviet Union." Willmore shifted uncomfortably, that sounded bad, really bad, "That explains the fire on the TARAKAN… Wong's cancer. Why he was killed and what happened and what happened to your two missing agents… They got too close. Someone's covering their tracks and not afraid to shoot FBI agents to do it. You and I have to work together. We have to stop this. If I'm right, thousands of people might die. I'm going to have to demand that we cooperate fully on this."
"Ok." Willmore was finally able to get a word in. All the pieces seemed to fit right into place with her theory. It sounded like she was right and it was the best option they had to go on right now.
"You just got yourself a new partner." Mary said.
King County Crime Lab, Seattle
Willmore went to John Amis to drop off the evidence that he had in his possession. He was surprised to see John sitting on the chair in his office totally engrossed in a comic book. So much so, that he hadn't heard him coming.
"Your tax dollars at work?" Willmore commented to get his attention.
"Hey do the words lunch hour mean anything to you?" John snapped at him.
"You're in a mood today." Willmore observed.
"What do you want?" His voice softened at least.
"Have you heard from Gloria?" Willmore thought that he might need some idle chit chat before he started laying evidence on him.
"Nope." He sighed, "She's still at her mums."
"Hey… When are you going to pay me that dollar?" Willmore asked.
"Did you know that I grew up in Cleveland?" John asked.
"No… Cleveland really?" Willmore couldn't see where this was going.
He laughed, "And as a child I always classed it as hell." John said, "Do you have any idea on how cold it is in Cleveland."
Now, Willmore got the idea where this was headed, "Cold, very cold. It's very cold in Cleveland today."
"But not cold enough." John added.
"You working on anything good?"
"Yes actually… An art theft. Very cool stuff. Mum's the word."
"Ah." Willmore pointed to the comic book, "So the comic book's research."
"Did you get those fingerprints lifted?" Willmore asked.
"I just fetched them Miss Daisy." John put on his best Morgan Freeman from Driving Miss Daisy voice, "I still need to process them."
"And they say sugar has no effect on children." Willmore said in a deadpan tone.
He handed John the large metal sphere, "Yowzer." He said as he handled it with extreme caution, "What is this? A bomb?" He asked.
"Umm I don't know. I don't think so." Willmore said, "But I do need you to tell me just what the hell it is."
"Your wish is my command." John replied. He couldn't just give him straight replies? Willmore gave him the bullet that was retrieved from Wong's body, "Uh another hunk of lead." John said, "I love bullets… Simple, tough, violent. Kind of like you there Willmore. Yet in the right hand they speak volumes." Willmore couldn't help but smile at that, "You want I should match this with the last one?"
"Astute as always." Willmore said.
"I shall make it so." John said.
It was getting late so he headed home. Before he going on the stakeout for the night he decided to turn on his computer and check for any emails. A large ding dong was emitted from his computer.
"You got mail." The female voice from the computer said to him.
The email was from John Amis concerning the evidence. He clicked on it to open it up. The email told him that another set of prints were lifted from the TARAKAN that was on top of the previously dusted area. But it didn't match any of John's records. Since it came with the attachment of the fingerprints he decided to try and match it on the FBI database first. It didn't take long for the prints to find a match. The result shocked him, the Mark Cook's profile flashed up on the screen.
KNOCKKNOCKKNOCK!
Willmore shut down his computer and answered the door. Cook walked through the door without being invited, he was acting very agitated right away. He made his way to the blinds and looked out the window.
"What are you doing?" Willmore asked him.
"No man what the hell are you doing?" Cook snapped at him, "You're suppose to be keeping me informed about this case. Have I been informed? No… I've been kept completely in the dark. You know the policy… Always have a backup. What if something happened to you? Where would your investigation be then huh? Agents' lives are on the line here. You better think about that instead of how you can score points with AD Skinner."
It was never about that and Willmore could feel his anger rising until it boiled over, "Hey shut up!" He yelled, "Jesus… You act like you're the centre of the whole frickin universe. Why don't you ask me about this instead of screaming at me?" His voice quieted down a bit but was still spitting venom, "I'm sorry you had a bad day dear, but either you treat me civilly or get the hell out of my house."
"Oh man." Cook was diffused, "I don't what the hell's the matter with me." He said calmly, "I'm losing it. You're being followed by two guys in a Sedan." Willmore already knew this, "I don't know who they are or who they work for but they're obviously government. I think Mulder and Scully had stumbled onto some sort of corruption that goes all the way to the Bureau itself." Cook was so sure of it.
"So who are these guys working for?" Willmore asked.
"The bureau." Cook answered, "They've got the Joe Friday dress code down pat. Alright so fill me in."
"I don't know exactly." Willmore decided to tell him what he wanted to hear, "I think you're right. I think it's a smuggling ring bringing in materials from the middle east and Russia and I think they may have infiltrated the Bureau."
"You have to be incredibly careful. They could be coming after us next." Cook gazed at Willmore, "Just keep me in the loop, the more I know the better I can do my job."
"I've just been a little busy." Willmore said. Well that part was true.
"Sure." Cook's voice raised it's volume, "But we're not talking about your grocery list here. This case probably has already cost the lives of two agents. Listen just keep me in the loop."
"So why were your fingerprints down at the TARAKAN?" Willmore asked.
"What?" The question shocked Cook.
"The TARAKAN and ocean going tug burnt at sea."
"Yeah I know what it is… What are you saying?" Cook said.
"I want to know how your prints got on a ship that's been involved in ten deaths, two disappearances and probably a ship you should've never even heard of." Willmore continued.
"Listen." Cook said, "I was called in to investigate the fire two months ago when it happened. I didn't find anything. Took me a couple of hours, that's it."
"So why didn't I hear about it?" Willmore questioned further.
"I don't know… Maybe you were in the can." Cook answered, "Look I didn't mention it because it was way below radar. I filed my report with Shanks, end of story." He was beginning to falter under Willmore's constant gaze, "Ok… Maybe I left a set of prints, but that's all I did wrong." Something dawned on Cook, "Wait a minute… Maybe that's why I'm being followed. I assumed the crew were smugglers right? That's what my report said. They've seen my report that means the Bureau is involved. Listen, this all makes perfect sense. There's a massive smuggling ring paying government officials and FBI agents, not only to look away but to buy outright assistance including following agents who get too close to the truth." Cook thought for a moment, "Jesus there's no telling how high this goes. Alright, look… You can't take any chances. You keep me in the loop. I don't want you to talk to anyone else but me until we can figure out what the hell is going on here. I better get out of here before my car is spotted."
"I gotta get to the stakeout." Willmore said.
"At the warehouse?" Cook asked and Willmore just nodded, "Watch your ass." He said before leaving the apartment.
DOCKSIDE WAREHOUSE, SEATTLE
Willmore was waiting in a dark corner watching intently for any signs of activity. He saw somebody leave the truck and walk away. Willmore quickly approached the truck and stepped in through the driver's side door before closing it.
There was nothing on the seats so he opened the glove box and looked inside. There was some paper which had a number on it. There wasn't enough numbers on it to be a phone number. He tucked it to the inside of his jacket and looked around some more. There were the sound of someone walking near at the side of the truck. Willmore reacted quickly by jumping out the passenger side door and kneeling near a large bush which was enough to hide him for when the truck drove away.