(The Twist in the Plot)
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While he was working on a new case, Booth still hadn't given up on finding out who had murdered Christopher Pelant. He was honest enough to admit that he was glad that the hacktivist was dead, but whoever killed Pelant was a very dangerous man and he needed to be found.
"So, you're certain the killer is a man?" Caroline Julian had just come from a meeting with the Attorney General and her boss wanted an update on Pelant's case.
"Yeah, I'm sure." Booth flipped through a folder lying open on his desk. "I mean it's possible that a woman did it, but it's rare for a woman to be this violent. Sure, women commit murder, but stripping the skin from the victim . . . until we prove otherwise, I'm assuming a man did this."
Slowly nodding her head, Caroline felt that Booth was probably right. "What do we know so far?"
"They had a power failure at the Lincoln Memorial and the surrounding area at around three in the morning. There was no moon that night, so it was pretty dark. Anyone hanging around there would have left . . . the police were called just after sunrise by a hysterical jogger. He said he'd found a body at the Lincoln Memorial and when the police arrived, they found Pelant's body lying at the bottom of the steps. The jogger had thrown up near the body, but I can't really blame him. If you're not used to seeing something like that . . . it can be stomach turning."
"Yes, I imagine that's true." Caroline hadn't seen the body, just pictures and that had been bad enough. "Do we know why the area lost power?"
His index finger moving across a printout, Booth paused and looked up. "Someone damaged something at the substation that provides power to the area. It took the electric company about four hours to fix the damage. It was deliberate. Agent Harris is looking into the incident."
"So, someone turned off the lights so they could deliver Pelant's body in the dark. No power, so street lights and cameras weren't working." Caroline stared at the baseball sitting on Booth's desk. "How do you move a bloody body without leaving a trail of blood?"
"It wouldn't have been that hard." Booth closed the folder and leaned on it. "Wrap the body in heavy plastic, carry the body to where you want to dump it, unroll the body from the plastic, leave and take the plastic with you." It had been a remarkable job. Not one drop of blood had been found leading away from the body. "Whoever did this is a professional killer . . . my money is on someone at Serberus. There is no way Tom Molner would let anyone get away with killing one of his men . . . The problem is proving it."
This case wasn't going to be easy and Tom Molner had a lot of powerful friends. "I would think that this took more than one man to do this. Someone to take out the substation and two people to carry the body to the steps . . . Serberus hires mercenaries and I imagine that men like that would do anything if the price was right."
"This seems personal to me." Booth reached over and picked up his baseball. "Pelant killed an employee of Serberus and Molner could have ordered someone to take out Pelant, but the way Pelant was killed? . . . This was revenge."
"I think you're probably right, Cher'." Caroline was glad that Pelant had been stopped from killing anyone else, but now they had to find the sadist who had killed Pelant. "What are you going to do now?"
Placing the ball back on its holder, Booth leaned back against his chair. "Harris and some techs are over at the substation trying to find fingerprints or some other clue. Hodgins is still examining particulates from the crime scene and Cam and Bones are examining Pelant's body again. I'm trying to find out where Pelant was living before he died. I have people working on that. This isn't going to be solved today and probably not tomorrow."
"Alright." Caroline stood up. "I'll let the Attorney General know you're working on the case." As she walked towards the door, she saw Harris walking across the bullpen towards Booth's office. Looking back at her favorite agent, she smiled. "Maybe Harris has some news for us."
Once Agent Morris Harris was in the room, Caroline remained near the door and listened to Harris give Booth a report.
"Do you know how many sets of fingerprints I found at that substation?" Aggravated, Harris sat down. "It's going to take me days to eliminate workers prints from what we found. Even then there is no guarantee we'll find anything. Whoever damaged the substation was probably wearing gloves, I would if it had been me."
"Well, hopefully the couyon wasn't as smart as you are." Caroline glanced at her watch. "I have to be in court in thirty minutes . . . Keep me informed."
Once she was gone, Harris turned to face Booth. "Whoever took out the substation, knew what they were doing. They didn't destroy anything. They just damaged it enough to keep the power off for a few hours. The electrician I talked to said that whoever did it has to have had some electrician training. He said an amateur would have probably electrocuted himself doing what the saboteur did."
Booth knew that didn't eliminate Tom Molner's employees. "You get to be a jack of all trades when you're a Ranger or Navy Seal and Molner has a lot of them working for Serberus. It's time, we got a list of employees and see who was in the country when Pelant was killed."
"I'll try." Harris stood up. "Molner isn't going to just hand that list over to us."
"I know, but I think Caroline should be able to get us a warrant." Confident, Booth turned to face his PC and logged in. "She has a trial this afternoon, so I'll leave a message for her to call me when she can. One way or another, I'm going to get that list."
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Furious, the CEO of Serberus was pacing his office, trying to come up with a plan to deny Caroline Julian the list of employees she had asked for. "I can't believe this. I called Senator Monroe to stop this and he says he can't help. The Attorney General wants Pelant's killer found, especially since some crime scene photos were leaked by someone and they were printed in the paper. Those pictures should have never been printed in a newspaper. The editor needs to be fired."
Adam Church, head of operations at Seberus shook his head and tried not to join his boss in pacing the floor. It would just make him look foolish. "It was a mistake to use Jason. Xavier was Jason's best friend, they went to school together, they served together . . . I thought Jason would take care of the problem. I never dreamed he would go off the reservation like he did. My God, what he did to Pelant . . ."
Tom held up his hand. "Stop . . . Where is Jason now?"
"He's in Kazakhstan as of this morning." Adam rolled his shoulders. His shoulders and neck felt stiff and he knew it was because he was tense. "I had Jason's stuff taken out of his apartment and put in long term storage. No need to pay rent on a place he might not see for a few years. Jason had me send his car to his sister and give her the keys and the title. Her son just got his driver's license and Jason wanted to let him have his car."
Everything seemed to be settled. "Alright, give Ms. Julian the list she wants. Even if the FBI narrows the list down to Jason, it won't do them any good. Jason won't be back for a long time. Not after what he did . . . All he had to do was kill Pelant . . . it was a mistake using Jason."
"Hindsight it twenty-twenty." Adam knew it was useless to worry about what had been done. "Jason is out of the country. He's untouchable where he's at. There is no connection between us and what Jason did. He works for us, that's all. We're not responsible for his getting revenge for the death of his friend. He went off the reservation . . . I don't think the FBI can prove he did it though and I'm not going to help them do it. Jason is a loyal employee and he's too good at what he does."
"Maybe." Tom hadn't got at the top of his game by making mistakes. If Jason became a liability then that would be taken care of. For now, everything would return to normal. "Okay, send the list. I'm sure you have work to do and so do I."
Before he left the office, Adam ran his hands through his hair and rolled his shoulders again. He didn't want to present himself as a man filled with worries. Calm and in control. It was his job to be calm and he would be. Everything was fine as far as he was concerned. It had to be.
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