Chapter 22: Rapid Developments

Nancy stared at her timeline for some time before picking up the phone again and dialing Phillip LaSalle's office number.  On the fifth ring, and mechanical voice came on the line, "Phillipe LaSalle is not available to take your call.  Please leave your name, number, and a brief message after the tone."

Nancy obliged, "Hello, Phillipe, this is Nancy Murdock.  I had a couple things I was hoping you could help me with.  Please give me a call back when you get a chance." She left her home and office numbers before ringing off.

She flipped open Tristan Caswell's personnel file, and dialed the phone again.  Tristan Caswell answered on the first ring, "Caswell, Interagency Cooperation, how can I help you?" his voice was pleasant.

"Hello, Mr. Caswell," Nancy began, "My name is Nancy Murdock, I work for Adams Investigations in Langley . . ."

"Of course, Ms. Murdock," he said like he was renewing an old acquaintance, "I remember, you were involved in the bust that brought down Grant Kennedy a few months back.  Brilliant piece of work, if I do say so myself."

Nancy sighed, it hadn't felt brilliant at the time, actually, overall she'd felt pretty stupid to get herself in the predicament she had.  But that was past, Caswell was obviously very good at the glad handing, and that was definitely what she took it as, "Yes, that was me," she admitted, "I was wondering if you could help me out."

"If I can I'd be happy to," he said cheerfully, "What is it you need?"

"Well, I'm looking into something for Sam Germaine, and I understand that you used to work for him in Denver . . ."

"Of course I know Sam," he said warmly, if not genuinely, "I worked with him in Denver for a couple years, he's a great guy.  Is he still living out in California somewhere?"

Nancy nodded, "Yes, he lives in LA, actually."

"Well, tell Sam that I said 'hi'.  We didn't leave on the best of terms before, but he was always a straight shooter.  It's really too bad about what happened," Caswell sounded truly sorry.

"Actually, that's what I wanted to talk to you about," Nancy said, "You were there when the Rocky Flats incident occurred, right?"

"Yes, in fact, I was working in the same group, Sam was a great colleague," she smiled to herself, Caswell seemed loathe to admit that he'd worked for Sam Germaine.  She heard him snap his fingers, "You know, I saw him in DC just last year.  Spoke with him briefly. He said he had a lead on that incident - man he really took that hard, not that I can blame him . . . anyways, I really didn't have time to talk to him, told him to take it up with Internal Affairs. I don't know if he got anywhere with them . . ."

"I understand that Sam was forced into early retirement by the Agency as a result of that incident.  He'd still like to clear his name . . ."

"I can't blame him there, what happened to him seemed wrong.  Unfortunately, IA, um, Internal Affairs," he offered helpfully, "isn't usually willing to reopen closed cases, even though they didn't really satisfactorily resolve the incident. Umm, excuse me for a moment, please," Nancy heard some noise in the background, and waited patiently for Caswell to continue.

When Caswell came back on the line, he sounded distracted, "Well, Ms. Murdock, I'm afraid that some gentlemen just arrived for an impromptu meeting, so I must say goodbye.  If you have any further questions, please feel free to call me back at some other time."

"Certainly, Mr. Caswell. Thank you very much for your time."

Nancy didn't even hang up the phone, she immediately dialed Jean Turner's phone number. Jean picked up on the third ring, "Hello?"

"Hello, Ms. Turner," Nancy said, "This is Nancy Murdock.  We spoke a few days ago about your father, Sam Germaine?"

"Yes, of course," Jean said, her manner friendly, "I've been thinking about giving you a call . . ."

Nancy sat forward in her chair, "Really, why is that?"

"Well, you remember those two men you asked me about, LaSalle and . . ."

"LaSalle and Caswell," Nancy supplied.

"Yes LaSalle and Caswell. Goodness, it's a good thing I wrote them down!" Jean said self-deprecatingly, "Well I knew the names were vaguely familiar, and I asked my brother about them when I told him about your call.  He didn't recognize Caswell, but he remembered hearing Dad talk about a LaSalle that worked for him in Denver."

Nancy waited expectantly for her to continue, "Anyways, it's not much, but Bill said that it was odd that you asked, because when he went to Dad's safe deposit box, there were a whole bunch of coded files.  He couldn't really make hide nor hair out of Dad's weird security code," Jean continued with a chuckle, "But he felt pretty certain the files were related to the man you asked about."

"Jean, I want you to do me a favor," Nancy's tone was urgent; "I want you to make sure that those files you found get to Detective Jenkins. Can you do that for me?"

"Sure, I don't see a problem with that," Jean said matter-of-factly, "They don't mean a whole lot to us, and if they have something to do with Dad's murder, we certainly would want to make sure it's investigated properly."

"A couple more questions," Nancy continued, "When was it your Dad went on his last mission, and did he mention where he was going?"

"Actually, Bill and I talked about that, too," Jean said, "Dad didn't really tell either of us what he was doing.  He went in late fall, just before the holiday, must have been October or November of last year. He was real mysterious about the whole trip, told us if things went well, we'd have something to celebrate when he returned.  I guess whatever he had up his sleeve, it didn't work out. Does that help?"

"Yes, I think it does," Nancy said, as the pieces of the puzzle started falling into place.