Chapter 10: What's Next?
Nancy walked into the office, and greeted Stephanie, who was at the front desk. They had recently converted her to full time, deciding they needed someone in the front office all day, with Nancy spending more of her work day at home.
"Is Riley here?" Nancy asked.
Steph shook her head, "He had a case meeting with Pete this afternoon, and I haven't seen him since," she said, "I wasn't expecting to see you today."
"I had a couple hours to kill after my ultrasound, so I thought I'd come check in."
"How did the ultrasound go?" Stephanie sounded concerned.
Nancy smiled reflectively, "Good. We found out we're having twins."
Stephanie's eyes widened, "Cool - I've never known anyone who had twins before."
Nancy chuckled, "Me neither!"
She went into her office and checked the clock, it was only 2:30, which meant that it was lunch time in Denver. She was itching to call Wolstein but it would probably be better to wait until after 3:00. She listened to her messages, returned some phone calls, then started through the requests in her in box.
At 3:30, she pulled the folded sheet of paper out of her pocket, and flattened it on her desk. She picked up the phone and dialed the number that Casey had given her that morning. The phone was picked up promptly on the other end, "Wolstein, what can ya do for me?"
Nancy paused for a moment, before replying, "Probably not much, but I'm hoping you might be able to help me."
The laugh on the other end of the line was hearty and honest, "Fair enough," he said, "who is this, and what can I do for you?"
"My name is Nancy Murdock, Casey Case recommended that I talk to you," she said.
"How is old Casey? Still got that money-pit of a wife?"
Nancy smiled, "Casey and Fiona split about a year ago, apparently - but I think he might still think of her as a money pit."
"Casey never was too smart where women were concerned," Wolstein said.
"Casey said you might be able to help me with an inquiry I'm following. It involves a man named Tristan Caswell - do you know him?"
"Yea, I know Caswell," Wolstein said, "What do you want to know about him?"
"I'm trying to pin down a few things in his career, I know he worked in the Denver field office before he was promoted to headquarters," Nancy said leadingly.
"Yea, he was here for maybe two years," Wolstein said, "I don't really recall anything outstanding about the guy. He was pretty useless in the field. General consensus when he was promoted was that headquarters could have him."
"There was an operation that went awry while he was there," Nancy said, "It involved an international security leak at Rocky Flats, was Caswell involved in that op?"
Wolstein seemed to consider the question for a minute, "I recall the op - it had to do with our international monitoring group. They had intercepted several communiqués between one of the brains at Rocky Flats, and someone in the Chinese government. Somehow, the pattern of communication wasn't identified as something requiring additional scrutiny - until it was too late. Some very sensitive material ended up being compromised."
Nancy nodded, "That's the one - was Caswell involved in any way?"
"I don't believe so," Wolstein said, "though he was working in that group at the time. There was a huge internal investigation of course. But Caswell was never implicated in anything."
On a whim, Nancy asked, "How about Phillipe LaSalle?"
Wolstein snorted, "LaSalle is one smooth operator. Yea, he was working in the same group, in fact I think he and Caswell started here in Denver together, they'd both transferred from the LA office about the same time. I wouldn't trust LaSalle as far as I could throw him personally - he talks way too pretty to be on the up and up."
"Was LaSalle implicated in the screw up?"
"Sorry, again, no. Truth is IA was never able to find out who the responsible individual was. The Agency brass retired a couple managers in the group and said the problem was solved," he laughed bitterly, "One good reason not to become a manager in this place - you're way too likely to end up playing scape goat."
Nancy sighed, this wasn't getting her anywhere, not that she really knew where she wanted to get. Wolstein broke into her thoughts, "Not helping much, am I?"
"I'm not sure, to be quite honest," Nancy said quietly, "Is there anyone from that group that might be able to give me more insight into what happened, and what involvement Caswell or LaSalle might have had?"
"Maybe," Nancy could hear Wolstein opening and shutting drawers and finally he came back on line, "I thought I might have a number for him, Sam Germaine - he was one of the managers that got the sack after the Rocky Flats incident. He was living in LA, last I knew," he gave her a phone number, "He might be able to shed more light on this than I can. Germaine was a good man, he got a really bum wrap."
Nancy thanked Wolstein, and rang off. She looked at the notes she'd taken during her conversation with Wolstein, didn't seem very helpful. But then, she wasn't too sure what she was looking for. She did find it interesting that LaSalle seemed to have been in Denver at the same time as Caswell, and in the same group. She made a mental note to go back to her time line, and add LaSalle's career to it. It couldn't hurt.
She tried the number in LA, but there was no answer. She hung up, she'd have to try later. She decided to finish up the work in her in box.
Murdock drove into Hannibal's drive a little before 3. Maggie wasn't home, having gone to help get Amy settled in at home. Hannibal led him into the living room, and they sat down, "So, how did the ultrasound go?" Hannibal asked, "Everything OK?"
Murdock couldn't stop smiling, "Yea, we found out why Nancy's been measuring ahead of her due date . . ."
"So when is the baby coming?" Hannibal asked, assuming the due date had been revised.
"Oh, as far as we know, the babies are still coming around Christmas time," Murdock said casually.
Hannibal looked confused, "The babies are still coming around Christmas . . ." he realized what he'd said, and grinned, "Twins, huh?"
Murdock laughed, "Yea, can you believe it?" he still was having trouble with the concept himself, "Apparently Stockwell and Nan's Mom were fraternal twins, and they aren't uncommon in the Stockwell family."
Hannibal raised an eyebrow at the mention of the General, "Speaking of Stockwell - he wants to meet with you and me tonight, when he gets back from LA."
Murdock's smile disappeared, "Did he say what he wants?"
Hannibal looked at him appraisingly, "He said that we need to discuss your duties with Stockwell Enterprises."
Murdock rolled his eyes, "I don't have any duties with Stockwell Enterprises - I quit."
"Well, the General said he's not accepting your resignation. He's willing to negotiate, but he said resignation was not an option."
Murdock closed his eyes and leaned his head back on the couch. He knew it had been wishful thinking that walking away would be easy "When is he going to be back?"
"He said he had to move his meeting back to late morning, so he won't be back in Langley until early evening. Probably around 7 or 8."
Murdock sighed, "I'm sorry about this, Hannibal," he said regretfully, "I really didn't think the whole thing through when I did it. I just wanted to get home to Nan. The General gave me an out of sorts and I took advantage of it. I should have known it wouldn't be that easy. Nothing with him ever is."
Hannibal chuckled, "No doubt you keep the General on his toes," Hannibal said, "truth is I think Stockwell's intentions will surprise you. He may not show it, but he respects you. He just doesn't understand what motivates you. It's a little beyond him. Besides, we're gonna need you when it comes time to train the new teams. I don't think that quitting outright is really an option, either from the General's standpoint, or mine."
Murdock nodded, "I'll do whatever you need, Colonel," he said earnestly, "You know that. I just can't go back to globe-hopping. It's tearing me and Nancy apart. It's just like we talked about before, my priority has to be at home," a smile returned to his face, "especially now."