Trail of Destruction

Chapter 55

Chapter 55

The next morning, Christine flew back to Dallas. She had spent the rest of the previous day interviewing a few more of Amy's friends in Chicago. Other than Tina, the victim had not kept up with anyone else other than through the occasional email. No one else the agent talked to knew Amy was dating someone. Since that was a dead end, Christine had kept the pregnancy to herself.

When she got to her office, Christine assembled her team in one of the conference rooms. She had organized them into groups following up on different leads. Her senior investigator, in charge of the group assigned to the gun rights fanatics, was the first to give her a progress report. "We're running down every lead we have, but it's pretty dry out there. Either no one knew what this guy was up to, or no one's talking."

"It's unusual that nobody has stepped forward to take credit," Christine said. "Usually these types of groups like the notoriety associated with an incident like this."

"Not this time. There's some chatter on their web sites. But it's just the usual stuff - support for what happened, but nothing indicating who's behind the crime."

"Maybe they're embarrassed that they missed Newcomb," Christine said. "That they killed an innocent woman by mistake."

"Maybe. I don't know. But we'll keep digging."

Christine turned to another agent who was working as a liaison with the Chicago field office, handling threats to Newcomb stemming from his responsibilities as Illinois governor. "Have you had any better luck?"

The agent shook his head. "Not yet. But we've got a ton of material to go through. I wouldn't say Newcomb was any more of a target than most governors, but there are still plenty of people with a grudge against the guy. You already know about the gun rights supporters who were opposed to the new laws he pushed there. Plus, there were incidents with some local transportation and construction companies, some of which may have ties to the mob."

"Like what?" Christine asked.

"There were contracts in place for highway work that were very lucrative. When Newcomb got into office, he didn't like the price the state was paying. He managed to find some loopholes to get out of the contracts and hire new companies for a lower fee. That pissed off some people."

"Sounds promising, except for the fact that it's kind of ancient history."

"Well, some of these folks carry grudges for a long time. Maybe they were just waiting for the right time and place. Planning a hit far away from Illinois takes them off the radar screen."

"It's certainly a lead worth pursuing," Christine said.

"Yeah, and like I said, we've just barely skimmed the surface. There are a lot more leads to follow up on there."

"Is the Chicago field office cooperating?" Christine asked.

"They've been great. They're happy to have some extra eyes on their cases."

"Okay, keep searching then." Christine turned to the next agent, who was working with the authorities in Wisconsin, where the previous assassination attempt had taken place.

The agent cleared his voice before speaking. "We've interviewed the perp. He's in jail awaiting trial. As you would expect, he was delighted that someone else took a shot at Newcomb. He told us that he hopes the third time is the charm. Other than that, he hasn't given us much. We have his computer from the initial search warrant, and we're still following up with his known associates, but so far, we haven't found anything concrete."

The last agent to speak was in charge of all the miscellaneous leads. "We've found plenty of crackpots with various political agendas, but no red flags yet. Unfortunately, we may be dealing with some whack job who has no prior history or political affiliation. Let's not forget the Reagan attempt. All John Hinckley wanted was to get Jodie Foster to notice him. With someone like that, there's no logical way to track him down if he doesn't come forward."

"It's certainly a lot easier when they get caught in the act," Christine said. "Like Hinckley and the shooter in Wisconsin. With our unsub on the loose, he could be anywhere, and unfortunately, he may turn up again."

"I bet the Secret Service is having fits."

Christine nodded. "From what I've heard, they're not letting Newcomb go to the bathroom without sixteen agents surrounding him."

"If that's the case, maybe we'll get lucky and this guy will try again and get caught this time."

"I think I'd prefer that we catch him before he makes another attempt," Christine said, dryly.

"Well, sure, I didn't really mean I wanted someone taking another shot at Newcomb," the agent said, blushing.

Christine laughed. "Don't worry about it. I won't put you on our watch list for making a death threat against the candidate." She looked around the room. "So does anyone else have anything more they'd like to share?"

A few agents jumped in with ideas, and they all spent the next half hour hashing out additional strategies. When they were finished, Christine made sure everyone had their marching orders before she dismissed them. After the team had cleared out of the conference room, Christine headed to her office. She had a stack of messages and non-urgent emails that had piled up while she was traveling, and she spent the next couple hours sorting through them.

It wasn't until her stomach started growling that she realized it was well past her usual lunchtime break. She pulled her purse out of her drawer and stood up. She was halfway out of her office before she turned back. One more thing, she thought, as she sat back down at her desk.

Picking up the phone, she called a technician at the FBI lab who was assigned to her investigation. She asked whether he had received the DNA that the medical examiner had taken from Amy's fetus. When he confirmed he had it, Christine asked him to run it through their data bases.

"How long will that take?" she asked.

"I should have the results in a few days. As you know, this case is top priority. We're processing everything we get immediately."

"Great. Call me when you have them. I'd like to know who that baby's father is."