By dawn, after another deep dive on Venutti, deeper than the first one that Hana had done, the team finally had the missing link between Venutti and Gilman: they were brothers. That discovery started filling in the gaps and answering the mysteries both from the box of treasures that Jess had taken from the Gilman residence and from the conversation with Venutti the previous day.

Kateri knew too well that one could not pick the relatives they got allotted with, but she could not help but feel somewhat disgusted with Venutti. I understand the urge to protect your siblings, but this is just going too far. He knows what Gilman did. How can he keep protecting him? After what Gilman had done, if she had been in Venutti's position, she would have given him up in a heartbeat. No way I'm protecting a disgusting piece of meat like him.

Jess, Barnes, and Clinton left early to go confront Venutti and hopefully get some info out of him. Kateri was not needed, so she stayed behind with Hana and Kenny. The three went to a diner to get some breakfast and get a start on the day's work.

Kateri got a text an hour after her partner left, a few minutes after she had finished a plate of ham and eggs:

Venutti being taken in for questioning.
Pick you up on the way to the station?

Kateri texted back an affirmative, saying aloud, "Apparently, Venutti didn't try stonewalling them again, or Jess got him to break with that picture. They're taking him in for questioning. Clinton's going to pick me up."

"The boss can be quite persuasive," Kenny put in around a mouthful of toast, which earned him a swat on the arm from Hana.

"Yes, he can," Kateri agreed. "I'm going to the washroom. Get me some more coffee, would'ya?"

Ten minutes later, Kateri was perched on the edge of a retaining wall around a flower bed in front of the diner when her partner pulled up. She handed him a fresh cup of coffee as she climbed inside the car.

"Any particular reason I'm wanted? Or just for my presence in general?" Kateri asked once they were on their way toward the police station.

"Just in general," Clinton replied and then added dryly, "though you do have some experience with dysfunctional relations."

The inside of the police station was pleasantly cool, and the enclosed space of the cell/meeting room where Venutti had been placed was just big enough to not trigger Kateri's claustrophobia, at least not immediately, though Clinton whispered to her before they went in that it was fine for her to step out if she ever needed to. Venutti was as physically well-put together (dressed) as the previous day, but after two seconds of looking at him, Kateri could see the difference in his body language. Between whatever the others had said and the picture, he was broken's not quite the right word, but …

"I swear to God, I'm not trying to protect him. I know what he did to his family," was one of the first things out of Venutti's mouth after the questioning started.

Kateri, who had taken up a position holding up the back wall a couple feet away from Jess, raised an incredulous eyebrow. Then what exactly would you call what you were doing yesterday?

"Did he threaten you?" asked Barnes.

"No, but I didn't know what he was going to do," Venutti replied. As shaken up as he seemed, he still was not being overly helpful. Little brother of big brother, who's now turned nasty, but took care of him once upon a time, protected him.

"Then why did he contact you?" Clinton replied. Apparently, he and Barnes had had decided to tag team.

"He wants to know where our mother is." Venutti looked down, his voice softer, fingers rubbing together nervously.

Kateri grimaced. She already gotten a sense that Venutti was going to be trouble—he had all the signs of what she liked to call a little brother complex—but add in the mother … and things get twice as complicated.

"What's he want with your mother?" Clinton asked.

Nothin' good, I'd expect. Mother ran away, saved baby brother, but left big brother. Big brother suffers at hands of dad because of it. That wound festers for decades, and now Gilman wants payback. That's the most likely option.

"He didn't say," Venutti replied, "but I know he wants to hurt her."

"Because she left him behind, abandoned him to your father's tender care?" Kateri asked, pushing away from the wall.

"It wasn't her fault. Our father hurt her. That's why she ran away," Venutti tried to argue, to defend his mother.

"Without your brother?" Barnes inserted, her face somewhat incredulous.

"She couldn't take him. I was 5. He was 14." Chose not to take him. Plenty of ways to even get a 14-year old away. School, parks, libraries, etc. Pick a good excuse, and then beat it. "He was afraid to leave our old man. He stayed. And the worst part for Tommy was that she had to hide from our old man." Did she try calling the cops? A restraining order? Any other options before hightailing it? "She changed her name, her Social Security Number. She had to, though."

"Did she or you try to contact Tommy?" Clinton asked.

"When he turned 18," Venutti replied, "she called him. He blamed her for ruining the family." Why am I not surprised? Abused kid, mother abandons him to his fate. Those feelings fester for years and kablooey. "He spewed all this hate at her. She was afraid. She made me promise to keep trying, to reach out to him. I sent cards for his birthday. They always came back undelivered. There was nothing until two days ago when he showed up at my house. Our parents' divorce, it just broke him."

"What did you tell Tommy about your mother?" Jess finally spoke.

"I told him the truth," Venutti seemed almost tired now after the previous rush of words, "She's dead from a brain tumor two months ago." That could be fortunate or really, really bad. "He didn't want to believe me."

"He thought you were protecting her?" Jess asked to confirm.

"Yeah." Venutti nodded. "I told him she's buried at Saint Veronica's outside Rochester with my step-father. You can go look."

"He'll go to the cemetery and see you're telling the truth," added Clinton.

And heaven help anyone who gets in his way! Kateri went a shade paler.

"There's no headstone for her. I haven't had a chance to get one. Haven't even had a chance to empty out her house."

Not good, not good. So not good.

Now Venutti was getting uneasy, visibly scared. "You have to understand: Tommy's going to come back at me. Okay. I know it."

"Any way of contacting him?" Barnes asked, her blank face on.

"No! He called me once," Venutti replied, "but there was an unknown caller ID." He buried his face in his hands.

Clinton straightened, glancing back at Jess and Kateri. "We can find that number."

"What are you going to do when you find him?" Venutti asked, sensing that the meeting was almost at an end.

"That's up to him," replied Jess, pushing away from the wall.

"You've got to promise me you're not going to hurt him," Venutti half-begged.

Having moved toward the door, Kateri rolled her eyes and grimaced, allowing herself those emotions as she was hidden from Venutti's sight by her partner's body. Little brother complex, again.

"Okay. Who he is, what he's done," Venutti continued, "… he wasn't always like that."

"What are you thinking, Kat?" Jess asked, once the four agents had left the station and were back at their cars. Clinton had stepped a little way away, though still within hearing, to update Hana and Kenny and get them started on tracking the number from Venutti's phone.

We all have our own talents in this line of work. I guess mine is organized crime and dysfunctional families.

"Well," Kateri drawled after a moment's thought—she was thinking a whole lot of things. The question was how to put them into words that still made sense to someone besides her. "I'm thinking that Venutti is big trouble in a lot of ways, and that the mother being dead could be helpful or a very big problem."

"Okay," Jess nodded, "Start with Venutti."

"Venutti has what I like to call a little-brother complex. I've seen it a lot before in the foster system and on the street. Big kid protects little kid from some sort of danger, whether that's an abusive parent, school bully, etc. The little kid feels indebted, even if the big kid does something bad much later. There's a disincentive to do something that could harm your protector. The instinct is somewhat understandable, but you have to know where to draw the line."

"I can see that," Barnes replied, nodding. "Venutti has already been trying to protect him. His words a few minutes ago, and just stonewalling us yesterday."

"What about the mother?" Jess prompted.

"His insistence about his mother had no other choice in what she did, no choice but to leave Gilman behind … I think Venutti's constructing a narrative around that time in his life to pacify his own feelings of guilt. He was five. How much can he really remember? And even with his mother feeling guilty, how much would she really have been likely to talk about the circumstances of the flight? Talk about her precious baby she had to leave behind, sure, but the flight itself, I doubt it."

Barnes made a face that was probably one of agreement.

I haven't talked this much in a very long time.

Kateri took a breath and continued, wishing for something besides cold coffee to drink, "Hearing all that, I'm not that surprised Gilman's got a complex. His sense of family, family life is skewed. His mother, probably one of his only sources of some sort of protection from dear old dad, abandoned him. His bitterness, hatred, sense of betrayal just festers and festers. He probably wanted to take that out on her, but now with her dead, that outlet is gone. That could mean he just finds another outlet, but I'm not so sure that Gilman will come after Venutti."

"Why?" Jess asked. "I'm not saying you're wrong."

"Gilman always tried to protect his little brother, and since he does have a screw loose, there might be a disconnect in his mind between the brother of then and the brother of now. I can see the disconnect with the picture from the house versus the cards. Does Gilman still see his brother as the little kid who needs protecting or as an accomplice in this huge family drama? How he sees Venutti now could determine what risk little brother is in."

And with that, Kateri finished and was happily silent, having said about as much in the last few minutes than she probably had since the case began. Or maybe not, but it sounds funny to say.

Gilman did go to the cemetery to check for his mother's grave, and as Kateri had feared, the whole thing went bad. The team got the news early in the afternoon that there was now a dead worker who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Kateri was standing staring at the damaged gravestone, fingers drumming on her chin, when her partner returned from talking to witnesses.

"Witnesses say Gilman got into an altercation with the custodian when he couldn't find his mother's grave, stole a pickaxe, and went kinetic on her husband's headstone," Clinton said.

"Of course," Jess replied, getting to his feet after having crouched down to look at the poor custodian who now had a pickaxe buried in his chest. Ugh, not a nice way to go. "The man he blames for taking his mommy away from him."

"Just imagine what he would have done to his mother," added Barnes, tone horrified.

"Considering Gilman's temper, I'd rather not," said Kateri. I had a bad feeling about this as soon as Venutti mentioned mentioning the grave.

"And might still want to do," Jess said contemplatively, moving around to get a better look at the headstone or rather what's left of it… "He has no proof that she's dead. I'm sure he wants to believe she's alive so he can punish her." Talk about mommy issues.

Jess was silent for a moment, just staring at the gravestone. Clinton, Barnes, and Kateri all exchanged looks. What are you plotting, boss?

"So," Jess finally concluded, "let's give him his wish."

Giving Gilman his wish meant driving right back to Buffalo, which was over an hour drive. The more and more driving they did, the less daylight there was to work with, but what was was, as Kateri liked to say.

The team had had nothing to charge Venutti for, so he had been released and was back at his office when they went looking for him mid-afternoon. By that time, Hana and Kenny had tracked down the blocked number off of his cellphone. Those two are scarily competent.

"I already told him that she's dead, and he doesn't even know where she lived," Venutti argued, pacing in front of the window behind his desk, when the plan to trick Gilman had been explained to him.

"You'll give him the address when you call him," countered Barnes, perched on the edge of his desk. "You'll say you lied about her being dead to protect her."

"I already told you I don't have a contact for him," Venutti countered right back.

"We got his number from the call he made to you," was Hana's rejoinder. She had found a place to set her laptop on a table-top half-covered with faucet fixtures and pipe thingies. "He's been turning his phone on and off so we're not able to track him." Venutti scoffed, so she quickly added, "But as soon as he turns it back on …"

Venutti was on edge, still pacing back and forth, back and forth in front of the same window, "Why would he believe me?"

"He's already half-way there," was Jess' answer. "He wants to believe it."

A sudden flash of movement in the corner of her eye made Kateri twitch slightly from where she was holding up a pillar next to Hana's makeshift desk. She turned slightly but then noticed it was only Kenny approaching to give Jess an earpiece and relaxed.

"I don't understand why he was so upset with my Mom." Maniac energy had dwindled, and sadness took its place. "I just wish," Venutti said, sinking into a seat at his desk, "I wish he just would have given her a chance while she was alive. She wasn't this awful person. I want to show you something."

Venutti turned to his computer and, after only a few clicks, brought up a video clip from a birthday party. From his speed in accessing it, Kateri surmised he probably watched it a lot for it to be that quickly accessible. Most things on her computer she had to go digging to find.

"Here. This is from last October. She just turned 72."

The team gathered around Venutti's desk. In the video, Mrs. Venutti was holding her son's hand, exclaiming about the beauties of the lit birthday cake on the table in front of her. Venutti told her to make a wish. To that the old lady replied how sorry she was about how things had turned out with Gilman, how he couldn't be there with them.

"She never really got over leaving Tommy behind," explained Venutti.

Kateri was torn between some measure of sympathy and her belief that the woman could have tried harder to rescue her elder son.

Beeping equipment kept Venutti from saying anything more.

"His phone's back on!" Exclaimed Hana.

Kenny handed the phone back to Venutti, who did not take it but just stared at for a long moment, until Jess prompted him. Then Venutti finally took the phone and called his brother, stepping away from the others for a semblance of privacy, even though with the earpieces the FBI agents could hear every word that was said on the call.

"Hey, Tommy."

"You lied to me, Mikey," replied Gilman, car noises in the background. "There's no grave."

"I'm sorry, Tommy. I didn't mean to lie. I just … you were so mad at Mom." Venutti was not a good liar, but he was warming up and getting into his spiel.

"Yeah, well, wouldn't you be? She left me behind. I was just a kid," Gilman's tone was angry. Though you, according to Venutti, chose to stay with your old man. "Now, where is she, Mikey?"

Venutti did not reply for a moment, struggling with his emotions, and Gilman yelled, impatiently, angrily, "Where is she, Mikey?"

Once the address had been given, Gilman continued, "All right, listen. I'm going to find it, but you stay away. You understand me?"

Interesting. Is Gilman trying to protect his brother? Kateri mused.

Then things went sideways in an instant. Venutti's resolve broke, and he blurted out, "Tommy, listen to me. She's dead, okay? Don't go there. Don't go. It's a trap. Mom's dead, Tommy. Don't go." Kenny wrestled the phone away, but by then Gilman had ended the call.

"He's my brother," was Venutti's only defense for probably blowing the whole op. "He protected me from my father. He took the beatings that were meant for me. I can't do that to him. Do you understand? I'm sorry."

He also brutally murdered your own niece and nephew, Kateri wanted to fling back in his face but bit her tongue and kept silent. She understood the urge to protect a sibling who had protected you—I've had a few of those myself—but only so far.

"Gillman turned his phone off," said Hana. Her words sounded like a death knell to the hunt.

"He'll be in the wind. Nothing is holding him here anymore," added Barnes.

Jess was undaunted. "Except that he wants his mom to be alive." Turning away from Barnes, he said to Kenny, "We're taking that birthday video."

Back to the hotel it was, so Kenny could get to work on the birthday video and splicing out of it what he needed: Mrs. Venutti's voice and those fateful words, "Tommy, my Tommy. So sorry." Unfortunately, splicing/cutting/video editing was not fast work, even for Kenny, and time was not on the team's side.

"Gillman's turning his phone on and off every hour or so," said Hana, when they had been back in the hotel room at least an hour. Kateri hadn't bothered to look at her watch for a while. Watching the time and seeing daylight fade was only making her uneasy. "He's heading west."

"We need to be ready as soon as he pings a tower," Jess spoke, looking over Kenny's shoulder.

"You hear that, Scorcese?" Hana asked Kenny, voice light and full of teasing and good fun. "Cut faster."

Kenny rolled his eyes fondly and gave her a thumbs up, his attention still on his headphone and his laptop.

"We just got the CCTV footage from outside the cemetery," added Barnes.

Kateri got up from where she had been sitting on the floor out of the way, cleaning her Glock, and went over to look over her partner's shoulder. Gillman and his truck were clearly visible in the footage, but the angle was terrible, so there was no chance of capturing the license plate.

"I still can't believe Venutti boned us like that," Kenny said, glancing over for a second at the footage.

Kateri snorted, "I can. Blood is thicker, and his complex is stronger than his human decency."

"So is guilt," Jess added, stepping away from the table and pulling out his cellphone. "He got the good life, while the brother he loved got to be a punching bag for their dad." He made a quick call.

Who's he calling? Kateri wondered. If we're trying to get this done today, they'd better be close.

It took Kenny about another hour to finish, and when Gilman turned his phone back on a half-hour after that, the team was ready. He seemed genuinely shaken to hear his mother's voice, shaken but not angry, and Kateri wondered if the ruse would actually work.

The team had to be ready for Gilman whether he took the bait or not, so they got on the road, three to a car. Kenny was with Barnes and Jess, while Kateri, as always, was with Clinton with Hana tagging along. They had not been on the road that long, just barely long enough to get out of the city and into the woods, when …

Hana suddenly exclaimed, "He pinged a tower! He's heading east. He turned around."

Linked in by coms, Barnes noted, "He took the bait." Her voice was relieved.

Gilman had turned around, and he was heading for the address of his mother's old place that Venutti had given him. East Eden was half-an-hour south of Buffalo, but even making tracks, by the time the team had gathered SWAT support, the sun had already long set when they reached her place, a 30-acre plot with only one house. The circumstances were not ideal by a long shot for catching a ruthless murderer with no compunctions, but the team had faced worse.

The SWAT support—actually an HRT team, Kateri noted with pleasure—was already waiting for them. Jess went over to speak with them, while the others gathered their guns and the rest of their supplies. The weight of her AR in her hands was familiar as Clinton handed it to her and then pulled out his own sniper rifle. They checked over each other's gear quickly as was their habit, making sure their vests were positioned correctly and fully tightened.

Unsure where she would be on the field since Clinton was apparently on sniper support, Kateri said quietly, "Be safe."

Clinton smiled at her. "You, too, kid."

Jess slammed his car door shut, having just finished kitting up himself, and then looked around until he caught sight of Kateri and motioned for her to come over. He put his hands on her shoulders and intentionally lowered his voice.

"I want you to stay with Clinton," Jess said.

Kateri's face went slightly puzzled. She had assumed she would probably be on the house team. "He's on sniper support… Won't you need me with the others?"

Jess shook his head, and then the reason for his lowered voice became apparent. "I saw the house plans for the Venutti place. You don't want to be in there, especially in the dark."

"Bosssss…" From her tone, Kateri was grateful and embarrassed both. She hated being seen as the weak link of the team.

"I'd want you outside anyway," Jess cut her off gently. "30 acres in the dark. Gilman could be anywhere. Clint and his spotter will be focused on the house. I need you to watch their backs."

Mollified, Kateri nodded and stepped back, just in time for another female agent—Who on earth is she? Is she the one Jess called earlier?—to approach. Jess spoke with her for a second, and then it was time to go.

Most of the large HRT team that had been sent was responsible for clearing the property, while the rest of the HRT operators went with the team to deal with the house. Clint and his spotter took up their position almost straight in front of the main entrance but some distance back into the trees. Crossing herself quickly, Kateri settled into a position facing the opposite direction. Jess, Barnes, Kenny, Hana, and the other female agent were positioned around the house to one side or the other of Clinton and Kateri.

Waiting for the action she knew was almost certainly to come, Kateri always found to be hard. Patience she had aplenty, but raids were always dangerous, and she was always glad for them to be finished. She could hear bits and pieces of quiet updates across the comms, and she tried to build a picture in her mind of where her teammates were and what they were doing, even while her focus was on the woods. Gilman's goal would be the house, but he had to get from Point A to Point B first, and when the hunt was almost done was NOT the time to underestimate him.

Finally, someone caught sight of movement along the back of the house, and parts of the team started to move in.

Now it begins. One way or the other this'll be over soon.

A couple of minutes passed, and then suddenly the sounds of a physical struggle came across the comms, and Kateri's heart leapt into her throat.

A groan or cry of pain across the comms: Jess.

"Jess?" questioned Clinton, hoping for a response. There was none.

Kateri swore internally, forcing herself to focus on the woods, not on the comms. There had been no words, so they did not know what had really happened inside the house. It could be Gilman, but it could not be. It was dark. Could they really know the movement had been Gilman? Could be Venutti for all we know. He's certainly proved himself to be trouble.

Still no response, and more agents were converging on the house. Please be all right, boss!

Kateri began to pray silently, her fingers twitching to reach for the cross under her shirt.

Je vous salue, Marie,[1]
pleine de grâce:
le Seigneur est avec vous;
vous êtes bénie entre toutes les femmes,
et Jésus, le fruit de vos entrailles, est béni.
Sainte Marie, Mère de Dieu,
priez pour nous, pauvres pécheurs,
maintenant et à l'heure de notre mort.

There were more sounds of a struggle across the comms.

A voice shouting that sounded like Venutti.

And then Gilman's voice came clearly across the comms, too. "Get away," it sounded like he was saying.

Jess was possibly hurt, who knew how bad. Venutti was down there, and Gillman.

Does he have any backup? Kateri feared not.

Finally, more voices came over the comm: Jess negotiating or trying to with Gillman. Then a stressed, shouted order for "Everyone, hold positions."

A few seconds of tense silence, and then Jess' voice again, "Come on, Tommy. Look at you. Your brother, he doesn't want you to get hurt."

The first position Clinton had taken up had no sight-line into the basement. Once everyone realized that Jess had somehow ended up in the basement, Clinton had moved positions to one of the only, if not the only, tiny window that gave any kind of coverage.

Still it wasn't enough. Not yet, at least.

"I've got no shot on the target. Hear me, brother?" Clinton said quietly over the comms.

Even when in the line of fire, Jess knew how to move a target into prime position for Clinton. That was one problem that could be fixed, as long as Jess didn't get shot first.

With Gilman inside, everything focused on the house, and Kateri finally allowed another small sliver of her attention to turn away from the woods, though she kept scanning periodically and kept her ears peeled for any noises that her comm did not block out.

Jess's voice came again. More negotiating, and then a sign for Clinton: "… It's as clear to me as the bottles on that shelf."

"Got it," Kateri's partner said, knowing Jess would hear.

A few moments later, Jess spoke another sign, which he was fitting seamlessly into his negotiating, "Don't sell yourself short."

"He wants the shorty," Clinton told Barnes, who usually carried it. The shotgun, Kateri's mind filled in.

A few more seconds, and the time came for action.

"Sending it now."

Only years of training came Kateri from physical jumping when Clinton let loose a burst on the glass bottles in the basement, which Jess had indicated, though she did flinch. The noise was loud. Very loud.

A few more seconds. The sound of a shotgun blast, and then someone crying out.

A few more seconds.

"Fugitive down. We need a medic in here." Jess's voice.

Kateri finally allowed herself to relax.

It's over. Time to pack up, and go home.

Jess might be hurt from the whatever altercation he had been in, but she could tell from his voice that it was not that bad.

We're all in one piece.