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RESPECTED DEACON MURDERS PARISHIONER

By: Jason Smith

Mason Greggs, Deacon of Church on the Rock, is being held in the Clark County Detention Center pending murder charges. Greggs confessed to the murder of Frank Connell, 56, who was shot dead in his home yesterday. Sources inside the Las Vegas Police Department tell us that Mr. Greggs was under the belief that Frank Connell was abusing his 16 year old daughter. Police are also investigating Mr. Connell's daughter, the manager of a prominent Las Vegas Strip hotel, in connection with the murder and believe she and her husband may have been involved. According to the unnamed source, Mr. Connell's daughter visited with Mr.

Greggs shortly before the murder and her husband was seen outside the murder scene just moments before the suspect arrived.

Frank Connell was a life-long Las Vegas native and worked as a claims auditor for Desert Casualty & Life. He was divorced and had been an active member of the Church on the Rock for close to a year. People who knew the victim said he was a pleasant man who devoted many hours to the youth organizations of the church, taking a special interest in troubled teens. Funeral services are pending.

---

Danny tossed the newspaper in the trash as he stepped off the elevator into the security room. After making sure Mary was safely in her office he'd had to make his way through a sea of people, all of them concerned and well-meaning. He was thankful that they had so many people on their side, but at this point he just wanted to forget about the mess Frank Connell had created and concentrate on something else.

"Hey, Mitch. Keep an eye out for reporters. I don't want anyone bothering Mary today."

"You got it, Danny."

He could see Ed already waiting in this office and he quickly ran up the stairs to meet him, "Can you believe this crap?" Danny asked, nodding towards the newspaper Ed held in his hand.

"Technically, they didn't mention her name."

"They might as well have. It's not hard from the information in that article to figure out who she is. She's still known as Connell as far as the hotel is concerned. I know Jenny did this and I'm not going to let her get away with it."

"They're looking into the leak. If it was Jenny…," Ed started to say, but Danny interrupted him.

"It was, Ed. There's no doubt in my mind."

"Then she'll be dealt with. She's already made an ass out of herself to the higher ups by trying to push these bogus charges against Mary. I talked to the chief and the DA this morning and they're not planning on building a case against either one of you."

Danny had hoped as much. It still made him sick to think about what had happened to Mary and what had been happening to Jessica Greggs until yesterday. He was glad now that Ed had been there with him the day before. Mary was on the road to conquering her demons and Danny knew he could protect his family better if he was actually with them instead of rotting in a jail cell. Unfortunately, Mason Greggs had been faced with the reality of what was being done to his daughter and he'd reacted in the moment, bringing even further heartache to an already tragic situation.

"Greggs' attorney is going to argue temporary insanity," Ed interrupted his thoughts.

"Mary's already said she wants to testify," Danny told him. He wasn't thrilled about her having to relive what had been done to her, but if it was what she needed to do to heal then he would be right there beside her.

"She may not have to. The DA sounded like he was hoping to make a deal. The police are figuring out pretty quickly that Frank Connell was not the fine citizen the papers are making him out to be. They've already had two other women come forward saying that he abused them. Between Mary's statement and what they've learned from Jessica Greggs and the other women, they're perfectly willing to accept the insanity defense and plead him out on a lesser charge."

"Good, but I'm still worried about how this ordeal is going to affect her. She's kept this inside for so long, Ed. Going to Greggs was a big step, but now… for it to come out to everyone in such a public way."

"Mary's strong. She'll get through this, Danny."

"Yeah, if she could just concentrate on herself and not have to worry about the whole world knowing our business. God, Ed, we could barely get out of the house this morning. There were three news crews camped out in the culdesac."

"Mason Greggs is a well-respected member of the community and you know these papers are always hungry for something juicy. They've got beautiful girls, allegations of abuse, murder, betrayal. It's a big story right now."

"But it's not just a story, it's our life!" Danny was frustrated. It had been a nightmare trying to leave this morning. He was thankful that he still had Mike's truck because he'd actually had to drive across the lawn and over the curb to get out. What had bothered him the most was Mary–wringing her hands the whole ride in as she told him over and over again how sorry she was. He hated that she felt like any of this was her fault and he was determined to make sure that Jenny paid for pouring fuel on this already out of control fire.

"Look, Agent Davis called me last night. They're arraigning Myers and Paul Ford in New Jersey tomorrow on some of the Atlantic City charges. Why don't you head out there–take Mary with you and spend some time in New York–do some shopping, see a show. It might be the last chance the two of you get for a trip before the baby's born and it'll give this whole thing a chance to settle down."

"Bringing her face to face with the men who kidnapped and almost killed her isn't my idea of a nice getaway," Danny rolled his eyes.

"Mary doesn't have to go to the arraignment, smartass. Set her up in the spa for the morning while you go. Davis just thought one of us might want to be there."

"I'll talk to her."

"Well, do it quickly because Mikey's already booked you on the 3:00 o'clock flight," Ed said with a smile as he headed out of the office.

"Do I get to make any of my own decisions anymore?" Danny called after him.

"Did you ever?"

---

They had just reached their cruising altitude when Danny decided they needed to discuss names for the baby. Pulling the book out of her bag he'd started calling them out, thoroughly amused at Mary's curt responses.

"What about Alice?"

"Waitress."

"Amber?"

"Stripper."

"Angelina?"

"Homewrecker."

"Annie?"

"Danny and Annie?" she asked, scrunching her face up in annoyance. "Besides, they'll call her little orphan Annie–especially if she ends up with red hair."

"Agnes?"

"Let's move out of the A's."

Mary had not been thrilled about the trip to New York at first, but Danny had made such an effort to convince her that she couldn't say no. He was so cute when he was trying to get her excited about something. It wasn't that she didn't want to go, it was just that she felt like they were running away from their problems, but Danny had convinced her that the time away would be good for them and it had the added benefit of getting them away from the media frenzy while their fifteen minutes ran its course.

"Okay, little miss party pooper, why don't you tell me what kind of name you were leaning towards?"

"I don't know, Danny. Something traditional--elegant, but not too stuffy. Maybe something that can be shortened with a nickname."

"But nothing too cutesy, right?"

"Define cutesy," Mary asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Bethany, Brianna, Britney…"

"Well so much for the B's," she laughed.

"You really have no idea what you want? I thought all girls had their baby names picked out."

"I'm sure I had names I liked at some point–probably scrawled on one of my notebooks...maybe even the same notebook I practiced signing my name Mrs. Mary McCoy over and over again," Danny smirked at her admission, but let her continue. "…but that was a long time ago and it's such a big decision. We're responsible for picking out a name that she's going to have for the rest of her life, Danny. I just don't want to mess it up."

"Well, maybe it will just come to us, sweetie. Maybe we'll hear a name and we'll just know."

"Yeah, maybe." Mary couldn't figure out why this was suddenly bothering her so much. "We can still keep looking though. Why don't you skip to the C's."

"Celine, Ciara, Christina …," Danny recited and Mary couldn't help but chuckle..both at the names and her concern. Danny was right, the perfect name would come along and until then Mary refused to let herself worry about it.

"Charmaine, Chastity, Chiquita..."

This was going to be a long flight.

---

"Agent O'Dell. How's it going?"

"Danny," they two men exchanged handshakes. "I wasn't expecting to see you here. And call me Rob. I think we've moved beyond the formalities."

"It was a last minute decision. Have either one of them given you anymore information?"

"No--only that we'll never find Chester, he's a master of disguises, he'll turn up when we least expect it…blah, blah blah. By the way, I've been meaning to tell you. Good catch on the bug in my phone. I never would have suspected. You know, the only time I ever let that thing out of my sight is when it's charging in my office. I can't figure out how anyone could have gotten to it."

"Yeah, me neither. What kind of measures are you taking to isolate your leak?"

"We're re-vetting every employee from the Director to the janitor–so far we haven't come across any red flags. Plus, the agents involved in this case are routinely having their offices and phones checked for bugs."

"Will you keep me up to date?" It sounded like they were working every angle and Danny couldn't think of anything else they could be doing.

"Yeah sure. You know, we really appreciate everything you guys are doing on your end. I know Davis can be a hardass sometimes, but he really does want to put this case to bed. He recognizes that you and Ed can pursue avenues that we could only dream of."

"Yeah, the private sector does have its advantages," Danny smirked.

Both men looked up as they noticed Eric Myers being led into the room–his hands and feet bound by shackles. Danny looked at him hard, trying to get him to make eye contact so he could fix him with an intimidating glare, but Myers' gaze flitted around the room, finally resting on a figure seated in the back, his eyes growing wide in obvious surprise. Danny turned to follow his line of sight, noticing the young man who had caught his attention, but as soon as Myers saw that Danny was paying attention he quickly turned back to face the judge.

As the proceedings began, Danny leaned close and whispered to Agent O'Dell,
"Hey, do you know who that guy is?" Agent O'Dell looked over his shoulder to the man Danny had indicated.

"That's Ryan Burns. He's one of our interns. His father is a big wig at the State Department. Why?"

"Myers seemed to recognize him."

"You don't think he could have been one of their future targets?"

"I'm not sure," Danny looked between the two men again, his mind working to make a connection. "Did anything show up in his vetting file?"

"No."

"Dig a little deeper. Something seems really off."

"I'll look into it. Where are you staying?"

"We're at the W. We'll be there until Monday."