Chapter three The Rift

By: InTransition64

Walt Bannerman sat behind his desk looking at the file before him. it wasn't easy to see the photos of his friend but it fascinated him that the body was tsken from the morgue only minutes after it had been left there the autopsy would have given them vital clues as to who had killed johnny Smith and why but lab tests on the blood said he had been tranqued right before he was killed. and that the same traquiliser had a powerful paralyic effect., similar to kurarri. This puzzled him. The killer and Johnny must have known one anothe. But walt Knew very few contract killers who would have gone through such a careful procedure. The body had been washed and was clean when it had been found. there wasn't a drop of blood in the cave, and the way Johnny had been placed there it wasn't at all like this person had thought that Johnny had been trash to be gotten rid of. This killer was respectful, caring in the way they handled their victim. He looked at the Photos and then looked up. Roscoe was at the door, "Riley is here. She's kind of tiffed but thankfully she's willing to play ball. She's still a cop. " The deputy said.

"Bring her in here will ya, Maybe she's what we need a fresh perspective." Walt said as he set one of the photos aside. The Dark Ranger entered the office. She was everything that the Sheriff had heard about tall lean, tan with a Feral Fire in her ice blue eyes that could go from warm and friendly to frighteningly dangerous in seconds. Right now it wasshowing curiosity andthat was just what he needed in this case.

Walt passed the file toward her. The young woman sat down. She looked at it calmly the annalytical mind of a Ranger setting to work. " This looks like whoever did it was aware of who they had been contracted to kill." She said. " Maybe The contractor had given special in structions." She said. "I've seen it happen where a contractor has a respect of their oponent, It was a very interesting case, thought I've got to question the taking of my uncle's remains." She said, Walt listened as she went over the file point by point. "These blood Stains in the cabin, look large enough, Hmmm There wasn't any blood in the cave at all? That's odd." She went over the case file photos. He was dressed Someone took the time to clean the body up and dress it, yet left the blood stains on the cabin floor?" Pat raised an eyebrow. "Then they stole the body before even preliminary work was done. Hmmm." The blood showed the presence of a powerful tranquiliser"
"Something's not exactly fitting here." She said. "There's no tracks leading to or from the cave where he was found. The press seemed to have known only seconds after your people here knew, and then there's the missing remains. "

Walt saw something in her eyes." Ever have the feeling you were being led?" She asked. He smiled. "What are you thinking?" He noticed Pat was up and looking around the office. "That we have an echo in here." Riley said as she found a bugging device in a trophy Walt had always had in his office, and had never noticed all that much. "Echo?" Walt realised What his younger counterpart had found. " Shall I track down that echo?" She asked.

Townshend looked up he hadn't realised that Bannerman had been quietly looking for the leak in his department since the Rachel Caldwell Murder. Riley however had found it! "Who?" he asked. Suddenly Frank Townshend found himself reassigned, to a very remote office. He and severeal others who were in Janus' and or Stillson's back pockets. Riley had them all dead to rights. The Dark Ranger had just proven her worth to the locals.

"So why'd you live here so long before you made yourself known?" Walt asked Pat thought a few minutes, then decided to tell the truth.
Pat sighed. "I'm not going to just wade into the pond before I know who the worst of the sharks are." She said calmly.

Walt actually had to agree with that. "Well I can't fault you there." He said. He looked at Pat's eyes there was a calm but he also saw something else. Acalm quiet though impatient quality to this former Ranger that made her a litlle less like either Johnny or her more legendary mentor. This was a more predatory mind.

Pat hadn't wanted to go to the cabin, but when Walt took her thereRiley resigned to the job at hand with a sigh."You could have just asked for a resume'." Pat told him.The sheriff smiled at her, as he opened the cabin door. "Don't be boring, I read too much as it is." He said. " Show me what you've got."

She began to look around and soon there were numerous little things she found that because of their size forensics missed them. The sheriff stood there watching this as Pat moved from the cabin to the cave again she was careful and thorough. Walt watched her work then finally Pat handed in her finds. "Can you do the paperwork too?" He asked. " Do I have to?" She asked. "Yeah!" He chimed. They returned to the station. Pat set to work. handing in her reports on the new items found at the scene. Her head tilted as she finished working on the last page. Walt found the work far more than passible. "What were her shooting range scores again?" He asked Roscoe, who opened a file on his desk. "No way!" Walt said as he looked at the file. "Oh yeah I called the DPS academy in Austin, They sent me this." He showed Bannerman a video tape of a target at the DPS shooting range. "That one has some talent to be sure"
Roscoe said smiling. "Her partner after the Los Colinas thing, was oneKim Sheridan."

Pat appeared at The door. "Here's the last of It." She said. Walt looked at Roscoe and smiled. "Good job today." He said. Pat nodded still grim faced. Pat was patiently working at something in her mind. Walt thought about something she had said but when the lab reports came back the next day and said that the hair found in the cave was synthetic. He went to the coroner's office.

Greg Stillson looked at the news reports of the murder case that was being replayed for the fifteenth time on his TV. The Cherokee Reservation of Mountain Park, was rocked by the scandal. A tribal medicine man and two equestrians he was housing and their horses were dead! murdered, by an unknown party of business suited men who had chased a young Cherokee boy to that address over a letter the letter was burned in the fire they'd set to cover up their crimes. The letter was said to have come from Cleaves Mills Maine. The scene of another unexplained murder. " A female reporter had been saying. He looked at Janus. Who had come to the door of his office. The two men looked at each other for a moment. "Greg, There's a lot of reporters outside. Everyone from Maine, is on high alert."Janus began.

"What are the rest doing? Sneaking out through the tunnels?" He asked. Greg, looked at Janus. "I'm not running from anything." Stillson replied. "I've always faced the press good news or bad, No sense in doing anything else." The Congressman said. As he pulled on his jacket he went out the front door Janus, actually felt proud of him. The body guards, followed closely. Reporters talked to Stillson, pushing microphones in his face, as he walked out of the capital. Congressman Stillson, had to play it cool for now there's still time to deal with Janus. He was talking more with Jake Truax. The two men, had been in Stillson's office, they had been talking about something on the Internet. "What was that you said a couple of months before the Election?" Greg asked. "Who ever this guy is really working for it ain't us." He added as Truax got up to Leave. "Greg it's going to be alright, this was just a glitch it's been fixed." Jake tried to assure him. "Is it? With one of Cordell Walker's warriors in Maine, working for Sheriff Bannerman?" Greg asked. "That's no glitch that's a major virus. Riley from what I heard, is also related to that freak Johnny Smith."

Truax looked at him as if he were mad. "Pat Riley is no threat to us and most likely is content to handle what ever small stuff Bannerman wants her to handle for him. Even if she's hired the job won't be as high profile as it was in the DPS." Jake told him. "There's nothing to worry about if she becomes a problem we'll let Janus get rid of her."

Greg sighed as he looked out his office window. "She's the potential ally you need."The whisper in his mind said. "You need to get out of your current alliances if you want the position you seek." The voice in his head continued. Greg turned back to Jake Truax. "Yeah your right I was letting the stories I'd heard scare me, but what a book." The congressman replied as he returned to his desk.

Johnny was sitting under a tree reading a book as he usually did in the afternoons there wasn't all that much to do here. This island was small and quiet even more so than the cabin he had been in before. Never had he wanted to be some where else more than he did right now. There were several other cabins here but they were unnoccupied and Johnny wondered why even now in high summer that there weren't other people comming here. Then he remembered that Foster had told him that this island was privately owned. But why were there other cabins here if he was the only occupant? What exactly didSteven Foster have in mind? He began to try using his ability to find out who if anyone else had ever been here. He had learned that this island had been a summer camp in the fifties through the late nineties. Then Fosterbought it. The former owner had never questioned what the new owner intended for the place they were just glad to settle their parents estate.

He had only been there for about a month, since the day he'd passed out at the cabin He hadn't seen a newspaper or even a current tabloid.. He had heard nothing of what the rest of those he cared about had been told, or thought about his disappearence. There had been no newspapers brough out to the Island and Johnny was beginning to feel like he was a prisoner. He turned to look out at the sun setting across the water there were lights of private homes across the channel that seperated his current abode from the rest of his world, and he watched them with longing. There were so many things He could think of right now the things he often missed the sounds of children playing, the music from his neighbors houses. Here there was none of those things. He sat there watcting the lights as night began to fall. "Do they even miss me at all?" He asked himself. "Maybe this is a good thing." He looked out across the water. having no way to know what was going on bothered him. He soon was forced inside by the chill that began to settle into the night. He ate a light meal and went to sleep on the couch. In a control room Steve Foster watched his prize. He smiled atthe man who came in. "Did you find what I was hoping for?" He asked. the other man smiled back."I think the little filly I found will please you." The other replied. Fosterlooked at the file offered him. "She's in as much trouble with Greg Stillson as your stallion was." Mark White said as he led Foster to another room. Where a young woman was placed into a hospital bed. Foster liked what he saw, and told those in the room to begin testing for fertility and good health."Make sure she can carryto term." He said. his cellphone rang and the voice on the other end, told him that the package had arrived. "I'll be right there." He said. White looked at him. "How can they prove she'll carry to term?" He asked.

"They froze some of Smith's sperm." Foster said, "I suppose we'll just get her pregnant. In fact that same load will do her and the other two."

White blinked. "You took that much and he has no idea!" That made for an interesting surprise, to white.Foster smiled. "You'd never guess how little it takes to get a stud like Smith,to cooperate.