Chapter 7

After giving the body and scene a thorough once over with Chenier, Whitaker declared she had what she needed, and he could take over the scene. When it came to this kind of thing, she was the expert, so Taylor didn’t question her. The body didn’t have a lot to tell them, in his opinion, since they knew whoever did it was the same person who’d done the others. He was confident that meant they’d leave the same lack of evidence on the body as they had on the other murders.

He was more interested in the evidence they did have, namely the lack of information on how the black marketeers had gotten into both the warehouse and the holding cell. The lack of evidence was evidence in of itself, since both had been very similar. He was confident that if they dug enough, they’d be able to close in on whoever had managed to compromise base security.

First, he had to inform the general about the murder of their prisoner. Taylor was surprised by how well Lane had taken the news. Taylor couldn’t blame him for being so resigned to investigations going off the rails. Considering the six failed investigations before theirs, it had probably become routine by this point for everyone involved.

That didn’t mean the general wasn’t furious that a man had died in custody on the base. Even after this investigation wrapped up, he understood that there’d be all kinds of red tape to deal with that. Lane was also a good man and took the death of any of his personnel seriously, but to his credit, he didn’t start making demands or sticking his fingers into the investigation like so many others Taylor had seen panic during a crisis.

It was all too common for mediocre leaders to take action because they wanted to be seen to be doing something rather than because it was the right thing to do, ultimately causing more problems down the line. Lane, thankfully, didn’t seem to be this type of commander. Although he didn’t start assigning blame, he voiced his dissatisfaction and made sure Taylor and Whitaker still had a direction to go with their investigation. That confirmed that he wished them luck and got out of their way.

Taylor couldn’t help but marvel at the poor decision-making the army always seemed to have. He’d seen several one stars who’d panicked and sent men into places unprepared, getting good soldiers killed, still serving in combat commands, while men like Lane, who seemed to have the right temperament for the job, got shuffled off to training posts in the middle of nowhere. He wasn’t surprised, since that was par for the course, but it still bugged him even though he’d been out for several years.

“He said to let him know if we need anything,” Taylor said, hanging up the phone.

Whitaker was scrolling through records, her face pushed into one hand, looking angry and frustrated.

“What we need is to go see the IT guys on base. If we were in Washington, I’d get someone from Quantico to explain what we’re looking at and make sense of it for us.”

“Can we trust someone on base to help us? We know the ring has someone in tech services, right? It’s the only way they’ve managed to pull this off. Without having a guess who that is, anyone we talk to could end up leading us on a wild goose chase or destroying the info as soon as we start asking questions. I’m not a fan of talking to them without knowing more.”

“I know what you mean, but what other choices do we have? We could get someone from outside to come examine their systems, but they’ll figure out what we’re looking for and start destroying evidence.”

“That is a problem. I’d hoped you’d know a guy.”

“Not really. When we need someone connected to intel, or who can tell us about explosives, I can dig up a guy; but someone to dig into computer systems? Not so much. Do you know who might have access to this kind of thing? Chenier.”

“I thought we’d already agreed that his office was hopelessly compromised, since every single investigation he’s run got compromised.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think he’s the problem. If we can convince him to play it close to the vest, though...”

“We can’t talk to him in his office.”

“I know. Invite him to dinner in town. Let’s get off base. We’ll pick someplace noisy enough to not be overheard, and explain what we need.”

The invitation was harder to manage than either Taylor or Whitaker imagined it would be. Chenier was instantly suspicious why they’d suddenly decided to ask him to go have dinner, and doubly so when they insisted that it be in town.

Like any investigator worth their salt, he started instantly probing, trying to find out what he was missing. Finally, Taylor had to come out and tell him it was important and he needed to stop asking questions. To his credit, Chenier picked up on it and agreed, showing up at their temporary offices a few minutes later.

The three of them drove into town in silence. Whitaker and Taylor were quiet because they didn’t trust the car they’d been assigned, and Chenier because he was taking the lead from the two of them.

Taylor headed to the opposite side of town from the base until he found a little bar damn near the edge of town. It was barely a step above a broken-down shack and didn’t look to have anything in the way of a military presence, which was exactly what Taylor had wanted.

Inside there was nothing but locals, who collectively eyed the three of them suspiciously. Even if they hadn’t worked out who Taylor and Whitaker were, it was hard to miss Chenier in his BDUs. The local’s response was exactly what Taylor wanted, since it was unlikely anyone here was connected with someone on base. Besides, the music was loud, which Taylor had also wanted.

Since this wasn’t the kind of place that had waitresses, the three of them headed to the bar and ordered beers before finding a table in the far corner of the small building to sit at. With the loud music and cautious-looking locals, this didn’t seem like the kind of place where being overheard would be a big issue, but Taylor still wanted a buffer.

“Okay, what’s this all about?” Chenier asked when they were finally seated.

“We need your help, but we need to keep it to just you. No one on your staff can know what you’re doing,” Whitaker said.

“You can trust my staff!” Chenier said, sounding offended.

“No, we can’t,” Taylor said. “You’ve had leaks in every investigation. This only happens if someone inside your house is compromised. You should be happy we don’t think it’s you.”

“I should, should I?” He asked, still sounding annoyed. “I take it that’s why we’re in this dive right now?”

“Yes. Whoever these people are, they’ve got their fingers into everything on the base. They shouldn’t have been able to get in and out of your brig like that, and we want to know how they did it.”

“So do I. What do you think we’re doing?”

“Chenier, if your team is compromised, how likely do you think it is that they’re going to find something? If there is someone dirty, they’re going to know where you’re looking and know what to cover up.”

“What do you expect me to do, run the investigation by myself?”

“Actually,” Taylor said. “That’s exactly what we’re expecting.”

“How the hell...?”

“We’re not talking about you running the whole thing by yourself,” Whitaker said, shooting Taylor a look. “What we need is someone who can look into the code used on the door locks at both the warehouse and the brig. Whoever got in left no trace either time, and we want to know how, and why. Clearly, they have someone in tech services who is opening doors for them. We’re hoping they’re leaving a trace behind them when they do it.”

“And how exactly do you expect me to find that out without letting this person in tech services know about it.”

“You’re a smart guy, Chenier,” Taylor said. “I’m sure you’ve got contacts or people somewhere off base who’ll know how to get that for you. Bring in whatever help you need, just make sure it’s not on base and no one on base knows they’re doing it.”

“You don’t ask for much, do you?”

“Only what’s needed. Now, while you’re...” Taylor started to say before his cell phone rang, interrupting him.

“This is Taylor.”

“Agent Taylor, this is Sheriff Martin. We’ve got another body I think you’re going to want to look at.”

Taylor left Chenier back at the base to find what he could about the hole in base security systems while he and Whitaker followed the Sheriff’s directions heading through town and out the other side, into the desert. They found the Sheriff and one of her deputies in a small dip two-hundred feet off the road, just hidden from view by the small rise that preceded the drop-off.

They’d had a long day and both Whitaker and Taylor were exhausted, but both of them knew they were at a precipice. They’d played their hand with the cash and lost their only lead from it, outside of the mysterious security loopholes. If they didn’t get another one, things were going to start getting very difficult very quickly.

“What do you have?” Taylor asked as they walked down the slope towards the body.

“One of yours,” she said, standing a few feet back from the body, which looked to still be how’d they’d found it.

Animals had been at the corpse and the face was a mess, but everything else was still pretty fresh and supported the Sheriff’s statement. The victim had on army BDUs and the one shoulder Taylor could see did suggest the uniform had come from the base, based on the arm patch. The body was on its side and he couldn’t see if the name tape was still in place, but unless the uniform was stolen and stuck on this poor guy, it was one of theirs, or at least the army’s. Taylor did note that, aside from the animals, there didn’t look like there’d been much damage to the body. He bet that, once the MPs finished processing the scene and rolled the body, they’d find the throat slashed just like the realtor.

Taylor opened his mouth to ask a question when his phone rang again, “What?”

“I think I found a guy that can look through the computer systems here, but we might not need to go that far. A corporal assigned to tech services was UA this morning. I sent the guys to check out his rack, and it doesn’t look slept in. Usually, that means he got lucky in town and lost track of time, but considering what we’re looking into...”

“Who is he?”

“Andy Deteau. He transferred to the unit about a year ago. No flags in the record, but he’s been here long enough.”

“Brown hair, fair complexion and on the short side, like five-five or five-six.”

“That was a frighteningly good guess.”

“Wasn’t a guess, I’m pretty sure I’m looking at his body. We’re going to have to wait for prints or maybe dental if his hands are in as bad shape as his face, but it’d be a wild coincidence if this were someone else.”

“So they knew you were looking into him after all?”

“Maybe, although after two miraculous entries so close together, the second one into the brig where a prisoner was murdered, they might have just figured that we’d get here eventually.”

“So call off my contact?”

“No. I still want someone to go over the base’s systems. Someone else might be involved and I want to know what other systems they might have gotten into. I don’t want any more people slipping in and out of areas without us knowing about it.”

“I’ll get him working on it.”

“Send Whitaker his file.”

Taylor hung up and looked at the Sheriff, “I think we’ve got an ID. Did you call the base to come pick up the body?”

“Yep, right after calling you. Sounds like this guy was part of whatever’s going on up there?”

“He was a person of interest in an unrelated investigation,” Whitaker said.

“That sure sounded like a ‘yes’ to me. While you two are down here, I have someone I’d like you to come see.”

“We really need to...” Whitaker started to say before being interrupted by Taylor.