Chapter 10 - Legion
Lisbon was taking stock of the situation as she aimlessly shuffled the paperwork on her desk, a brush with death always made you reflective. Her relief at their narrow escape was tinged with guilt over the fact they had not prevented Wainright's headstrong plunge to disaster.
The reaction to Wainright's untimely demise made her reflect on her own position; she really should have done something about the threat to her team sooner. There was a moral prerogative to protect the team and she could be accused of dereliction of duty in not trying to nip this in the bud earlier. Had Jane wielded undue influence in this regard? If he had, she needed to seriously look at her actions and her affiliation to him to see if it was detrimental to her job. Were they all too wrapped up in his quest for vengeance to act rationally?
A tap on the door frame alerted her to the presence of the consultant, who was watching her warily.
"You're thinking too much Lisbon. Cut yourself some slack on this." Jane didn't hold out much hope of that.
"A man died today Jane, one of our own. It's not to be taken lightly."
"Spit it out Lisbon. Whatever is eating away at you just say it."
"I can't help feeling we should have done more to stop Wainright." She finally came out with what was bugging her.
Jane breathed out heavily, he guessed this would weigh heavily on her conscience. "Teresa, what could we do? You tell me what we could have done differently."
"We could have stopped him taking the keys." Lisbon surveyed his face to gauge his reaction to the implied criticism.
"You would have had me fight Wainright off? For one thing he had the element of surprise when he took the keys, but yes I could have grappled with him to try and get the keys back. It would have all been a bit ridiculous, but yes in an alternative universe I could have engaged with him. Is that really what you think I should have done?" Jane spoke softly, treading carefully, he didn't want Lisbon to think he was mocking her.
"No, of course not. Oh, I don't know Jane, I just feel we should have tried harder." She said despondently.
"Well for one thing, Wainright was right it was just a hunch, I didn't know for sure and you all thought I'd flipped."
"Yes we did, but you knew."Lisbon was starting to sound more accusing now.
"Surmised not knew." Jane insisted.
"Semantics Jane – you were as sure as you could be." She countered.
"He wouldn't listen, we warned him. He would have gotten you all killed, if he had his way. I couldn't let that happen." Jane realised that would not go down well, but it was how he felt.
Lisbon looked sharply at him, was that an admission he had cold bloodedly let Wainright walk to his death? "We could have tried harder."
A new voice piped up from behind Jane. "Boss, there was nothing anyone could do. Rigsby and I could hardly restrain him. Jane might have been wrong after all and where would that have left the team? We would have all have ended up on the scrap heap. It was Wainright's judgement call, his responsibility." Cho stated matter of factly, he wasn't going to lose any sleep about that.
Lisbon looked at Jane accusingly. "There you see, the whole team's drunk the Kool Aid now. This is my fault, the lack of discipline and my failure to follow through on all these events, we should have passed our concerns up the tree."
"It's not Jane's fault. Wainright would have gotten us all killed. Rigsby's son would never have known his father. Sorry Boss, you're taking this on yourself too much. It wasn't your fault either. Besides, who could we trust to report this to?" Cho was trying to be the voice of reason.
"You two have spent too much time together, you're both singing off the same hymn sheet now. I'm telling you things have got to change." She gave Cho an accusing glare for what she considered to be his traitorous defence of Jane.
Jane attempted to pacify her. "Lisbon you run the most efficient, uncorrupted unit in the CBI, why would you want to change anything? The fact that you are beating yourself up about this, examining your and our actions is precisely why you shouldn't change. No one is more capable of appraising whether they have fallen short of their own standards than you are.
"However Lisbon, I do agree with you on one thing, we need to take control of this investigation now. We need to find out more about Odenthal's brother – he's ex army, maybe he has some explosives expertise. We were lured out there with murderous intent, someone needs to be held account for that."
"I'll see what Van Pelt can find out about him," with that Cho left them.
"Just for the record Lisbon, what's the party Line on Wainright's death. Just so I don't put my foot in it."
Lisbon passed Shettrick's press release over to Jane.
"The rising star of the CBI Luther Wainright was killed in action today, brutally murdered in an explosion while he was investigating a threat against Senator Holmes. The vehicle he was driving had been booby trapped and the vehicle exploded with Wainright in it. Fortunately the rest of his team had not yet joined him and escaped injury. Naturally everyone is shocked and upset at the loss of their esteemed colleague, but Director Bertram and Senator Holmes have given their full support to the CBI to take whatever measures necessary to track down these heinous villains. The rule of law will be upheld and the perpetrators apprehended no matter what the cost."
The rest of the press release contained a précis of the meteoric rise of Wainright together with various fatuous but no doubt heartfelt statements from the Senator and Bertram who were clearly hijacking events for their own ends.
Jane just raised his eyebrows "No mention of what happened before then?"
"No we didn't actually call in the bomb squad before the explosion, so there is no need for anyone to know anything about that. It would serve no useful purpose."
"I'm glad you're safe Teresa, my only consolation is that I wouldn't have known anything about it had the worst happened. I couldn't live with losing you." The sincerity of his words were beyond question.
"Thank you Jane, we all owe you for today." She responded softly.
"Call your brothers tonight Teresa, don't let things slip too long. Life's too short." With that he left Lisbon to reflect on their tumultuous day.
In the immediate aftermath of the Wainright killing Bertram decided to be more hands on and dispense with the intermediate role, expecting the team leaders to answer directly to him and take on more of the management responsibilities. It also enabled Bertram to keep a close eye on the Wainright investigation, which was proving to be particularly unnerving for Lisbon - she just knew Jane wouldn't be able to resist a metaphorical tweak of Bertram's nose at some stage. Generally Bertram coped pretty well with Jane, after all he was a pragmatist, so long as he ended up on the winning side he would put up with Jane's peccadilloes to a degree.
Lisbon reached out for the glass of water on her desk and took some Tylenol from her bag; the effects of tension and her excessive caffeine intake had combined to give her a pounding headache. She closed her eyes and held her head in her hands as she waited for the painkillers to kick in. Her mental processes just weren't functioning, although she knew the wise course of action was to go home there was still a mountain of paperwork on her desk that needed attention.
"I can help with that." A familiar voice said from the doorway.
Lisbon looked up sharply, she had thought she was alone. "You certainly can help, at least half this paperwork is down to you."
"A bit of an exaggeration my dear Lisbon. Haven't you noticed I've been on my best behaviour with our Lord and Master in attendance?" Jane tried to sooth her.
"Really? So what was that comment you said to Bertram about the best managers being like oxygen, invisible?" Lisbon was getting annoyed again thinking about it.
Jane just chuckled."Yes, I thought he rather liked that one. I'm sure he'll use that line himself. Stop worrying Lisbon, believe me what I was thinking was a lot worse."
"Just don't Jane! I've got a splitting headache. I don't need any more aggravation."
Lisbon really did look a bit rough round the edges, Jane took pity on her. "Actually when I said I could help, I meant with your headache. If you will permit me, I can relieve the tension by massaging the pressure points on your skull and temples. I learned how to do it to relax my clients, they were often quite stressed when I met them."
"I bet they were when they got the bill." She quipped acerbically.
"True but that's in the past now. I don't charge these days. May I?" Jane really did want to help her wind down.
"It's worth a try - no monkey business though."
Jane smiled at her reticence and slowly began kneading her neck and temples until he could feel the tension start to dissipate. "How's that Lisbon - any better?"
"Uuum. Don't stop that's a lot better." She purred as his skilful hands eased away her tension."That's amazing where did you learn that?"
"Reflexology course - some clients liked the hands on stuff." Jane shrugged dismissively, personally he was sceptical but he had learned to talk the talk.
Lisbon snorted "I bet they did."
"I assure you it was nothing like that, if they were relaxed it just made them more amenable to suggestion." He grimaced, knowing how cynical that made him sound." Now let's go through these papers so we can get you out of here." Jane took the mountain of papers and quickly sorted them into piles. The non essential items formed the largest pile - more of Shettrick's outreach programmes and bureaucratic paper trails, Jane knew most of the team leaders just ignored them. The essential pile had been whittled down to a manageable size. "Here you are this won't take long to go through. I'll make you some tea while you do them."
When Lisbon had just about finished she posed a question that she had been mulling over all day. "Do you think we should mention the Odenthal business to Bertram, Jane?"
Jane thought carefully before giving a reasoned response. "I imagine he is probably aware of it, so on balance I think it's better to come clean rather than let him think we don't trust him."
"But we don't trust him, Jane."
"I know, but we don't want him to know we don't. I'll do it if you want Lisbon, besides it gives me a chance to do a read on him." Jane was glad to have an excuse to tackle Bertram.
"OK but go careful," Lisbon's words were spoken more in hope than expectation.
Grace's research had revealed Karl Odenthal had left the army under a cloud of suspicion; he had been an explosives ordnance officer. Although no charges were brought against him, there was talk of discrepancies on the manifests and suspicions that army equipment was finding its way into criminal hands.
Both the Odenthals had been Junior Cadets and had gone through basic training, the elder more academic brother chose to pursue a career in law. Both obviously had flaws in their character and it was entirely possible that the elder brother's anger was being channelled through his younger sibling, it was imperative they located him. They checked with the prison service and sure enough there was a visit scheduled for Karl, which would give them an opportunity to apprehend him.
Rigsby was back in work now and it was decided that he and Cho could bring the younger Odenthal in, Cho would stand no messing if things got physical. With the plan in action Jane decided it was time to face Bertram.
Bertram was dividing his time between the Capitol buildings and the CBI, and had commandeered Wainright's office while he was at the CBI.
Jane waited until the end of the day when there would be fewer interruptions, a faint smile passed his lips as he walked unannounced into the office. "Ah Bertram, a word with you, if I may."
Bertram, who had not been noticeably doing anything in particular, affected a weary air. "I don't believe we have a meeting scheduled Patrick - is this absolutely necessary?"
Jane started tentatively. "Well I know you keep your ear to the ground, I just wondered what you had heard about the explosion investigation."
"Surely I'm supposed to be asking you that? I'm not involved in the operational side. Although I must say it was fortunate, for your team at any rate, that you guessed about the bomb." Bertram was good, he slipped that in effortlessly.
"Interesting that you know that, it kind of proves my point though. In that case you are probably aware of the ongoing incidents at the SCU, the team has been systematically targeted over the last few months." Bertram was a slippery customer and Jane was treading carefully.
"Well you do seem to have been rather accident prone Patrick, are you implying the incidents are linked?"
Jane paused as he studied Bertram, who was sipping his coffee."Yes. It's largely supposition but we suspect there is a link with the Odenthal trial."
"Interesting and why would you think that?" Bertram's urbane demeanour gave nothing away.
"It's all rather tenuous at this stage but we believe Odenthal's brother may be targeting witnesses in the hope of derailing the trial." Jane looked closely for any micro-expressions that might betray Bertram.
"I'm surprised Wainright didn't tell me about this." Bertram commented.
"We didn't tell him. We hadn't worked with him long enough to know if we could trust him." Jane was unexpectedly honest for once.
"Really Patrick that's not the way it works, he was your supervisor and had a right to know. Look, I know you have a different way of thinking about things and I'm OK with that so long as the cases get closed, it's why we employ you after all. But you can't pick and chose who you answer to. Anyhow why is it you telling me this not Lisbon?" Bertram turned the scrutiny back on Jane.
" I wanted to speak to you anyhow and offered to pass the information on. Besides I needed to find out what was common knowledge." Jane was on the defensive now.
"Really Patrick, this is all very irregular. You're not supposed to question me."Bertram was getting quite exasperated by this stage.
Jane looked seriously at him "We're just trying to establish what is known outside the unit, so we can gauge where the threat lies. I think you have your own sources, not surprising really. A man in your position needs to know what's going on to keep control."
It was all an elaborate double bluff as Jane and Bertram played each other, neither giving away more than they wanted to, unless it was to throw the other off balance.
Lisbon was in the observation room watching Cho attempt to grind down the younger Odenthal. She was aware that Jane had slipped in, but she was wrapped up in the interrogation. Finally she ventured. "It's uncanny the similarity in their voices, that same annoying whine. This is the man you heard isn't it?"
Jane nodded. "Yes, I'm not going to forget that voice. What has Cho found out?"
"Not much yet, Cho's trying to go over dates and locations at present. Will you want to go in at any stage?" She was half listening to the interrogation as they spoke.
"Later perhaps, don't want to make it easy for him."
They observed as Cho was persistently stonewalled by Karl Odenthal, his army training had prepared him for situations like this, he gave nothing away refusing to incriminate himself in any way. Cho tried every trick in his book to no real effect.
"Are you going to have a crack at him - we're getting nowhere." Lisbon thought it was time Cho had a break.
"Just pull Cho out for now - leave him for a couple of hours. I'll go in later." Jane hoped it might unsettle Karl if he was just left to his own devices.
Surprisingly the suspect had not requested legal representation, preferring to deal with it himself so there was no pressure on them to do anything. The techs went in to take DNA and hair samples from Karl, they would test for traces of explosives on him which would linger long after the event. Karl remained impassive throughout.
Eventually Jane decided to make his entrance, there was the briefest flicker on Karl's face but impressively he maintained his composure.
"We meet again." Jane began waiting for any response, he was in no hurry.
Jane idly began playing with a coin in his hand, it was a distraction technique. Karl could not help but notice it, although he maintained his stony facade. It would just make it harder for Karl to concentrate.
Jane started to talk almost conversationally, all the while threading the coin between his fingers. "It's strange how two brothers raised the same way can follow such different paths in their lives. One urbane and clever using his intelligence to further his career in the legal world, the other putting his guile and cunning to use in the armed forces, probably no less intelligent but without the patience to endure years of study and training. The army provided an outlet for his kind of intelligence offering rapid promotion up to a point but then he hit a barrier. The psychometric tests revealed characteristics that had been previously hidden, indicators of antisocial personality disorder with a reckless disregard for the safety of others and a propensity for deception for personal gain.
"Being thwarted in your ambitions, it was only natural you would look for sidelines to compensate for the road block in your career. Some dubious acquaintances soon put you in contact with people who could use your position in the armed forces to good effect, and before long you had established a significant alternative revenue stream. When people began to suspect what was going on you managed to transfer the blame onto a hapless subordinate, but the whiff of corruption hung around you and although nothing could be proven, you were strongly advised to take your leave of the army."
"Was money a substitute for the power and respect your brother enjoyed? Although as it has turned out you were not so different after all - Marc was just better at keeping that side of his personality hidden."
A slight smirk had appeared on Karl's face although he continued to look ahead. All of a sudden Jane dropped the coin and sent it spinning across the table, finally getting a reaction from Karl as his eyes involuntarily followed the spinning coin. When he finally raised his eyes, they were firmly caught in Jane's gaze.
"Hello Karl, nice to meet you at last." Jane pronounced with mock civility.
Karl held his gaze before finally speaking "I can't say the feeling is reciprocated."
"Well you would hardly have expected to meet me again after the last time." Jane taunted.
Karl pulled a face, knowing better than to answer that question.
"Tell me Karl, you don't seem the type to have particularly strong feelings for anyone, not even your brother. Why are you doing this? Does Marc really exert that much control over you?"
Karl laughed derisively."Marc - seriously? You think Marc's the mastermind?"
This was an unexpected turn of events."Well now you say it like that it does seem a bit improbable, but there is a connection with Marc isn't there? Whoever is orchestrating this needs Marc for something or Marc has some hold over them."
Lisbon and Cho were watching with interest from the observation room, wondering where this was all leading. Cho was pulled away to a call briefly while Lisbon continued to follow the conversation.
"I'm just a cog in the machinery and a dispensable one at that. You won't learn anything from me Mr Jane, whatever tricks you try."
There was a knock at the door and a guard appeared carrying a tray with tea and coffee. "Agent Cho asked me to bring these in."
Jane didn't recognise the guard in question but thought he saw a flicker of recognition of Karl's face.
Lisbon was a bit suspicious and as soon as Cho came back she checked. "Did you send some drinks in for Jane?"
Cho shook his head. "No, why would I do that?"
"Oh crap!" She stared banging on the window and Cho went running into the interrogation room. At the first sign of commotion Karl started to down his drink. Jane soon picked on what was going on and tried to take the drink off Karl but it was too late, he had already ingested enough of the deadly toxin which was already starting to take its effect.
Karl was slumped back in his chair but managed to whisper through a twisted smile. "We are legion, we are many."
They watched helplessly as he succumbed to the effects of the poison. The room was closed off waiting for forensics to arrive, fortunately none of them had touched anything so there was no danger to them.
"You OK Jane?" Lisbon was concerned at his distracted look.
Jane held up his hand in re-assurance "Fine. I'm just thinking. There's a lot to take in, this is much bigger than we thought. I'm going to lie down for a bit, I need to get my head round this."
Lisbon looked at Cho. "What was that we are legion crap?"
"There's another one where he came from." Cho sardonically replied.
"Jeez, when is this ever going to end?" Lisbon's head was pounding and there was no Jane to help this time.