Chapter 11:

Jack and Beth had sat down in his office, taking a chance to get through her part of the evidence, while he had sent Martin and another agent to check Danny's apartment for any other form of evidence, he had been able to gather for Elizabeth.

However the young woman was clinging to her backpack holding the files of her investigation like her life was depending on it. The situation was tense for she obviously still didn't trust him completely and she seemed to feel uncomfortable – although he had no idea if it was because she was alone with him or because she had to share her evidence with him. He couldn't put a finger on her motivation. But he tried to get some of the tension out of the situation, starting a conversation.

How long have you been working on this case?"

She thought about it for a moment, before she came up with a surprisingly exact answer to his question.

„2 years, six months and sixteen days."

He gave her a surprised look, but didn't say anything. She was obviously very dedicated, otherwise she wouldn't have counted on the amount of time, it had taken her to make some progress for all these families who were waiting for her back in Chile.

She finally decided to give in and try to relax – convincing herself that showing him the information wouldn't do any harm. This was their only thing to find anything useful on Danny's attackers right now and she knew that. She was willing to share it.

„That's all the information I was able to gather. Unfortunatelly most of it is pretty old."

She handed the thick file to him with extreme care and some hesitation – like she was afraid to give it away. He could understand that. From what she had just told him – this were two and a half years of her life, he was holding in hands, and a hell lot of responsibility - for she had herself assigned to serve justice in the name of more then twohundred people. They were all relying on her.

„That's pretty impressive."

„Not really – most of this has been gathered with the help of the families I represent."

She was modest and obviously she felt uncomfortable about his compliment. He could understand it however – he of all people, whose agent under his care was fighting for his life right now because she had asked for her help, was making her compliments. But her modesty and discomfort was completely out of place. She had done really good work, he had seen his own agents work sloppier on cases.

„You're dedicated, Elizabeth – extremely dedicated."

„If you would have spoken with the mothers of dead sons and the husbands of dead wifes, you wouldn't do your work in any other way... I have never seen so much grieve – and hatred. They have a good reason though and they have the right to get some justice – after more than twenty years of waiting and trying to forget."

She was most definitely right, but still he didn't lose the feeling that she simply didn't feel comfortable around him. He wouldn't push her any further. If she didn't want his compliments, he wouldn't bother her with them. They had better things to do anyway – they had to find some hint to Danny's attackers' residence.

„How did you get to know this group of people was here?"

„It was an anonymous hint, probably someone close to them, who had refound his conscience after more than twenty years. It took an amount of money to get this information however – maybe he wasn't that conscientious after all."

„But you have been able to track them down to a certain area – you know that they are in New York City."

„It took a lot of pressure, warnings, threats and even more money, but I was able to get that information, yes. But as soon as I was here I simply didn't get any further with my investigations... You know the rest of the story already."

He wouldn't start this part of the conversation over again. There was no need for her to blame herself. Instead of giving in to it, he took the file and had a closer look at it. His reaction – the look on his face – caused her to smile at him.

„I'm sorry – I didn't even think of it."

She was referring to the documents held in the file – and as she was a Chile native, there actually wasn't much of any surprise about it – they were mostly in Spanish. The file wouldn't be of much use for him then – he couldn't help her search through it, he wasn't capable of that language. And she most definitely didn't need to read through it again. He had that certain feeling she knew most of the file's content by heart.

„Maybe you could just tell me what you know about them?"

„There are four of them, but the most important ones are Cristobal Adamén and Francesco de Vierra. They were the ones leading the imprisonment camp in Chile. The other two are simply handy men, but they are clever enough to take another name whenever they get to a new place. Adamén and de Vierra however are too proud of themselves and their skills´, they never changed their names."

„What do you know about them?"

„Adamén is the head of the group. He was born 14th November 1942 in Cuzco, Ecuador. He's an academic, studied philosophy and history in Britian, at Oxford university. Afterwards he married a Chilean woman – she was the daughter of the secretary of defense during the dictatorship. He's known as a very polite man, he never got loud or insulting with any of his victims, but that doesn't make him less dangerous or cruel. He's not the type to inflict physical pain, but he's good with words – he manages to get to the very core of your emotion, frightening you to death only with words... He has a passion for ancient languages – latin, greek and so on. So we most probably find him near some good sorted library or university – he can't withstand the reading challenge."

He once again felt impressed and uncomfortable at the same time. She had obviously realized that, it was what had made her stop in the description of how he acted around his victims. The latest events were just too fresh and grave to not take this personal immediately. But all the information she had gathered beyond that - it was simply impressive.

She gave him an almost shy and somehow troubled look and it had probably something to do with the other man she had to inform him about. He wasn't sure if he wanted to find out. Hearing about Adamén hadn't been all too pleasant already.

„Francesco de Vierra however is a completely different matter. In my mind he's simply just sick, very very sick. He's at the age of 35 today, has only been 18 when he was assigned to the imprisonment camp. He's a working class guy, never finished school, but was in favor with the political party and got the assignement through important friends of his uncle, who had him under his wings. He's the one for the rough, the one who had a lot of fun in inflicting physical pain. He was chosing from a wide variety of different torture methods... I guess it's not that important.

He however has a certain animosity for pornography, I guess that comes with the mental illness or whatever else it is that caused him to torture more than two hundred people to death... He's most likely to be found in an area where prostitution is wide spreading - maybe he even killed someone around at that area. Might be worth looking into."

She had done it again – stopping in the middle of her explanation about how people had been tortured and killed by these two men. She was simply trying to spare him all the sickening information she had and he was grateful for that, but yet he couldn't help it, but ask more further.

„He's gay –isn't he? deVierra?"

The way she looked at him, clearly told him that she hadn't wanted him to ask that or answer it. She was extremly discomforted about the question, probably because she knew there was only one explanation for why he knew about it. But she answered his question, her voice barely surpressing the disgust.

„Yes he is, though he was never able to admit it to anyone close to him, especially not to his extremely conservative uncle. He probably would have had him killed for that. However he found his very own, sick way to deal with it."

„I'm aware of that."