CHAPTER 6
The disclaimer continues.
It was late when Megan finally approached his desk back at the bull pen. She handed him two sealed plastic folders. Inside one was the now opened envelope and the other held a letter. Both showed signs of forensic testing.
"Any prints?" Don queried hopefully as he looked over the documents noting the same handwriting and colour ink as the other note.
"No." Megan shook her head. "Common envelope and notepaper you can buy anywhere, no watermarks or anything special. Same with the pen it's mass produced and available everywhere."
"So we got nothing."
"I wouldn't say that." Megan told him. "Handwriting and language analysis gives us a little. But read the message."
'AGENT EPPES. I TOLD YOU THAT THIS WOULD COST US. I HAVE HAD TO KILL MY OWN MEN TO ENSURE THAT YOU ARE SAFE, AS MY EMPLOYER WISHED. THE FOURTH MAN IS OUR INFORMANT. HE MADE THE MISTAKE OF PROVIDING US WITH INSUFFICIENT INFORMATION, WE DID NOT KNOW WHO YOU WERE UNTIL TOO LATE. HE HAS PAID FOR THAT. THE MATTER IS FINISHED. DO NOT CONTINUE THE INVESTIGATION – TELFORD.'
Don sat back. It still didn't really make any sense to him. He was too much of a liability to Telford and the mysterious employer. Why would they go to such efforts to protect him, killing their own people? "What else have you got?"
Megan sat down. "Just a little. The language indicates that this Telford is very confident in his abilities. He has no doubt about what he is doing and is intensely loyal to his employer. He is well educated and extremely intelligent. The handwriting is a bit harder, being in full block capitals. Normally that would be considered shouting but in this case I think it is more to disguise his handwriting."
"Wait a minute. If he wanted to disguise his handwriting he could have printed this off a computer. There's more to it than that."
"Yes there is. I think that he is sending you a personal message. His employer has respect for you, so does he. But he's pretty clear in his demand that you leave this alone. By explaining himself this way he is threatening that he could do to you what he did to his men if you continue."
"I know. But we've got to find them." Don insisted. "Telford is too good at this. They have to have done this before. He may have killed his men but he will recruit more. I think you are right about them being vigilantes. We have to stop them."
"Hey Megan, you were right." Colby said as he came back in from spending the last couple of hours in the file room.
"Yeah?" Megan turned. "Hows that?"
"There have been two other attacks with a similar MO in the last three years in LA." Colby put two files on the desk in front of Don. "In the first one they shot an informant who was to receive a payout for information. They killed the agent meeting with him. The second one was almost a carbon copy of yesterday, a criminal was rolling over on his boss for a deal. They killed him and the agent guarding him."
"Agents, not cops?" Don asked. "Both of them?"
"Yeah, both FBI. I couldn't see anything similar in the LAPD files."
Don didn't need to speak to Charlie to work out the odds of him having survived yesterday in one piece. "We need to find out what the difference was between me and those two agents."
"Already working on it. I'm having their full files brought up from storage." Colby said. He looked around, "Where's David?"
"Right here." Sinclair said coming out of a nearby office. He laid another folder on the desk in front of Don. "ID on the fourth victim, we're waiting for fingerprint results for the other three that you identified. His name is Benjamin Stern. He worked for the DA's office as a clerk. I don't know how you do it Don. You were right on the money. Agent Miles has come up with evidence that Stern received three large payments over the last three years, the last one went into his bank yesterday."
"What sort of payments, cash or transfer?" Don asked hoping for transfer.
"No luck on that. Stern made cash deposits each time. Yesterday he deposited ten thousand dollars cash at 4:45pm, just before the bank closed."
"Let me guess, he got paid around March three years ago and November last year." Colby stated.
"March 16th and November 1st."
"The last two attacks were on March 18th and November 2nd." Colby tapped his two folders.
"So this Stern is definitely their informant."
"You know, it's interesting that they are blaming what happened yesterday on Stern because he, how did they put it?" Megan checked the note, "By 'providing us with insufficient information'. They didn't have to act, they could have waited or made some more of their own inquiries. Previously they have waited a day or two, this was the first time they acted immediately. Why?"
"Have we got anything on what the deal was to be for Hendrik?" Don asked her.
"They dropped it off before, hang on." Megan went to her desk and pulled out a folder. She flipped it open and read off the sheet. "He was going to be taken to the airport and flown out to Miami yesterday afternoon. This means that they must have had no choice, if they wanted him that badly they had to act without checking everything first."
"The possibility of Hendrik getting off must have really upset them."
Megan flipped through more of the file. "I can understand why." She handed over Hendrik history of convictions along with a list of suspected offences.
Don looked down the list. An impressive list for a criminal who was only mid-level in Soren's organisation murder, assaults, torture, car theft and extortion, both proven and suspected. Don looked at the dates, many of the offences had been committed in Chicago before Hendrik had moved to LA to start over a few years ago. Now he understood Telford's comment about Hendrik moving on and starting over again. Hendrik had done it before and was rapidly working his way up in Soren's organisation, he would have been able to move on and start over in Miami. He looked at Megan. "The DA was going to make a deal with him, after all this?"
"They wanted Soren. Hendrik could give him to them." She shrugged. They all knew that the DA would make deals with the worst criminals at times in the hopes of catching someone bigger. The deals didn't always work and sometimes both the informant and the target got away with a lot more than murder.