Moment in Time Part 3
Chapter 67
Fidelis Ad Mortem
Part 5
Striding up and down the aisles of the classroom, Kate lectures the recruits. "The thing to remember about interviewing a suspect is you have to find out what works for you. You need to develop your own personal style. Now some people like good cop, bad cop. Others like bad cop, worse cop. But you're making a mistake if you stick to just one approach.
"Every suspect is different. Sometimes you won't figure out how to go at them until they start talking. You may only get one shot in Interrogation. That means if you screw it up, a killer may walk free. So, I want to try something. I need a volunteer."
The recruits all raise their hands.
Kate indicates a seat at a table. "Recruit Officer Lopez, come on down! Thank you for coming in," Kate continues as Lopez takes her seat.
"Anything I can do to help the NYPD," Lopez replies.
Kate takes a chair opposite her subject. "A crime was committed two nights ago, and your name came up. I was wondering if you could tell me where you were."
"Sure. I went to the fights over at Harry's Gym."
Kate nods. "Mm-hmm. Did you go by yourself?"
"No. Takada, Chambers, Decker, and I all went."
Kate pulls a duffel bag with the logo of Harry's Gym on it from beneath the table. She drops it in front of Lopez. "Did you have anything to drink?"
Lopez squirms slightly, staring at the bag. "Yeah, we had a few drinks."
"How many?" Kate presses.
"I don't remember." Lopez points at the duffel. "What's in the bag?"
Kate leans across the table. "Why do you want to know?"
Lopez shakes her head in confusion. "You put it there. It must mean something."
Kate wordlessly regards Lopez before waving dismissively. "Decker! Take Lopez's place."
The women switch off. "Was Lopez telling the truth? Were you out with her last night?" Kate prompts.
"Yeah," Decker responds.
"And were the four of you together all night watching the fights?" Decker looks back at Lopez and Takada. "Don't look at them. Look at me!" Kate commands.
Decker drums her fingers on the table. "No. Lopez and Takada left early. Chambers was still there when I left, which was before the last fight."
Kate opens the duffel. "Do you know what a PED is?"
"Yeah. It's a performance-enhancing drug."
Kate reaches into the bag while eying the other recruits. As Takada gazes on in confusion, sweat breaks out on Chambers' forehead. "Chambers, take Decker's place," Kate orders.
Chambers gets to his feet but suddenly sprints for the door. The fleeing recruit makes it to the hallway before Esposito steps into his path. "Where are you running to?"
Chambers turns, only to be cut off by Ryan, who slams him to the ground. "You don't want to miss the rest of the captain's lesson, do you? Turn over."
Esposito snaps handcuffs on Chambers' wrists.
Rick searches GDS databases of covert activities for mentions of Batemans, particularly Lowell Bateman. He doesn't find much. Apparently, there are curtains even the GDS can't peek behind. But a mention springs up from Russia and another in Chechnya. And then there's Paris. Most of the official cover story holds, but Bateman was spotted near the woods where the French police discovered the bodies of Volkov's dead henchmen. Hunt and Bateman must be one and the same.
Unfortunately, having a name doesn't get Rick any closer to contacting his father. He decides to go at his research from another angle. He was found in a dinghy in the Atlantic, not the Pacific. That means that his launch point was somewhere on or near the East Coast. Kate traced him to the phony encampment and phony Jenkins in Maine. Supposedly, he stole the dinghy from there as well. The CIA or some other agency must have an operation in the area. Rick starts a new search.
In the 12th Precinct's box, Kate half-smiles at Chambers. "Ready to earn some extra credit?"
Chambers slumps sullenly. "I want a lawyer."
"Well, you'd better get a good one," Kate advises. "Juries don't like cop killers."
"You think I popped Daniel Bardot?" Chambers questions.
Kate tosses an evidence bag with a blue index card in front of the suspect. "We found a stack of identical cards in your room."
"Lawyer," Chambers repeats.
"You sent that to Daniel Bardot because he found out that you were dealing drugs," Kate continues, ignoring his request.
"Lawyer," Chambers responds again.
Kate picks up the evidence bag. "Fine. You want in on a bet?"
"On what?" Chambers queries.
"On you. You're not cooperating, so I'm taking protective custody off the table," Kate warns. "And a bunch of us are wagering on how long you'll last once the other inmates find out you're a cop. I'm down for under 12 hours, and I'm feeling pretty lucky right now."
"Wait!" Chambers pleads. "Can we make a deal?"
Kate settles back in her chair. "That depends. Start talking."
"Look, the fights didn't let out until after Bardot was murdered. Witnesses can verify that I stayed through the last bout."
Kate quirks a skeptical eyebrow. "Really? Then why did you threaten him?"
"Bardot caught me with my stash the morning he was killed," Chambers confesses. "I slipped the card in his locker to prevent him from ratting me out. Daniel wasn't intimidated. He was never intimidated. But he offered me a deal – five grand for his silence. Apparently, he was desperate for cash. So I paid up, and he flagged a cab to the city."
"Why did he need the money so urgently?" Kate probes.
"Beats me."
"You'll have to do better than that," Kate advises.
"I don't know," Chambers insists. "But if anyone would, it would be Daniel's girlfriend."
"OK. Does this girlfriend have a name?"
Chambers smirks. "Decker, Recruit Officer Rachel Decker."
The enticing aroma of triple chocolate brownies greets Kate's nose as she enters the loft. She finds Rick with his laptop across his thighs and his feet up on the desk. "From the smug expression on your face, you must have found something," she assumes.
"I did. There's a whole network of CIA cells in Maine. It uses all that coastline to bring things in and out. And it's connected with the facility in Quebec where I found faux Jenkins. But it's compartmentalized, as Gray described. So the various groups don't know each other. And the teams have different functions. Guess what one of them is?"
"Brainwashing?"
"Got it in one. But the problem with the system is that the left hand doesn't always know what the right hand is doing. It's not unlike the setups in some of my Storm novels. And from what I've been able to put together so far, the initial mission to grab me before our almost wedding was launched out of one of those cells. However, some of the operatives got their wires crossed, which is why they ran me off the road instead of asking nicely. But I guess once they got things straightened out, I went along with the deal. Although I don't think they gave me much choice. Still, anyway, I believe that after my rescue from Cillizza in LA, I was ferried back to the East Coast to try to straighten me out. I'm pretty sure my father did that. But I'm still digging up gems of information. So, how was your day?"
"I found out that our vic was in desperate need of money and had a girlfriend."
"Intriguing. Have a brownie and give me all the gory details."