The Cure

Chapter 13

     SPECIAL AGENT DEACON HAD DONE HIS very best over the past forty-eight hours, as he collected about as much information as he could about Dryden Pharmaceuticals. He also did what he could to investigate their connection to Dr. Xavier Carter, but there wasn't nearly enough for his team to work with. The moment Xavier Carter was officially elevated to the renowned top ten list of the FBI's most wanted, an avalanche of tips, along with people wanting to cash in on the reward, came crashing in their offices and that took up the bulk of their investigative time. It was one of the things Tony didn't like about his suspect being tossed into the ten. Sometimes it was a paranoid old lady that really believed she saw the person when it was just her mind playing tricks on her again for the fifth time that day. This resulted in a lot of their time being wasted on bad leads that never led anywhere. Tony didn't like it, but they had no choice. Every call had to be checked out because that one call they skipped could be the one that was legit and could have led to the capture of the fugitive in question. Messages were being left at their office hourly, and it took twice as long to call those back and it was just piling up too fast. It was going to get to the point where Tony was going to consider asking for more manpower, there was no way just the five of them would be able to hand all these leads. Carter was going to get away again because everyone was either out to get a buck or couldn't remember if the guy they saw at the supermarket was him or just their neighbor with a five day beard. Things seemed to be going completely downhill until Lisa walked up to him with a piece of paper that she was waving around like it was more special than the others. Tony looked up at her since he was willing to listen to anything to get away from the grueling work he was currently doing.

     "What do you have?" he called out to her.

     "This tip came to my bureau cell, not the hotline." Lisa said as she handed it over to him. "This guy used to be my CI when I was a detective in New York."

     "And he claims to have seen Carter?" Tony asked looking at the name.

     "Bingo," Lisa confirmed, "But the last time he saw him was four months ago."

     "How reliable is the CI?" Tony inquired.

     "Very," Lisa replied, "This guy was and still is my informant within organized crime. We have a bit of an understanding, and he said that Carter was working for one of his captains for six months up until four months ago when he was almost busted."

     Tony sat up in his chair. "What the hell was he doing for the mob?"

     "Playing doctor," Lisa answered, "Removing bullets, stitching up knife wounds and doing all that freaky stuff so that none of them would have to go a real hospital where wounds like that would have to be reported to the authorities."

     "Why the hell would play mob doctor?" Wilson asked, obviously listening in.

     "Money," Tony quickly responded, "And I'm sure the mob gave him a very cozy spot to hide out that was likely heavily protected. If he really is working on little science project like we suspect he is a mob hospital would be the perfect place to do that unmolested."

     "So, what do you think?" Lisa asked her boss, proud of what she had uncovered.

     "I think we're all going to New York, except for Wilson." Tony replied as he gave the note back to her. "Chances are if the mob took care of that place there could be leftovers from his experiments that could help us find out what he's up to. It would be easier to track him if we knew what he was doing."

     "What do I do in the meantime boss?" Wilson quickly asked.

     "Get ten probies in here to investigate these rest of these leads and return calls." Tony said, as he stood up and grabbed his coat. This was the first solid lead they had gotten since the case started and he was ready to get out there. Confidential informants don't stick their heads out and risk exposure for nothing. He had seen Carter and was in contact with the man for six months. If there were any clues to where he went or what he was doing, it was going to be over there.