Exceptional Merit (20 page)

Although Keegan worked for the Joint Terrorist Task Force, along side of the F.B.I., the F.B.I. agents had more information and resources at their disposal.  It wasn’t unusual for Keegan or one of his men to tap into these resources during an investigation.

“Sure, no problem.  What's the name?”

“Sean Murphy.  I'm looking for any connection with the Irish Republican Army.”

“The I.R.A.?  What's the N.Y.P.D. getting involved with them for?”

The thought seemed to have piqued Wolf’s interest.  Keegan was hoping Wolf didn't ask too many questions that he wouldn’t be able to answer.  He paused for a moment before he responded by lying to his friend.  “An intelligence report came across my desk that this guy may be in New York conning money from people for the I.R.A.”

Keegan felt a sense of relief that Wolf seemed to buy the story.  “Wow, that's something.  The Irish Republican Army
, here in America?  Well, I'll run the name through the computer and I'll give you a call back in a little bit.”

“Thanks Bob.  I appreciate it.”

Keegan hung up the receiver and wondered if Wolf bought his story.  He figured his friend would have no reason to doubt what he told him and felt slightly relieved.  Keegan sifted through the rest of the papers on his desk anxiously awaiting Wolf’s return phone call.  He skimmed over them without actually reading them.  His mind was preoccupied and wondered what he was going to find out about Sean Murphy.

Keegan looked at the clock in his office.  It had been less than fifteen minutes since he hung up the phone
, but to him, it seemed more like hours.  He was staring at the intelligence report when the phone finally rang.  Although he had been expecting the call, he was nevertheless, startled by the ringing.  He felt the butterflies return to his stomach.  He drew in a deep breath and lifted the receiver during the second ring.  “Joint Terrorist Task Force, Lieutenant Keegan speaking.”

“Jim, it's Bob.  I got that information you asked for.”

“Great.  Thanks.  What have you got?”

Wolf went on to explain, “Well, I have two Sean Murphys with ties to the I.R.A.”

Keegan became slightly excited.  He figured now maybe he would find out exactly who and what he was dealing with.  One of them
must
be
his
Murphy.  “The first guy is thirty seven years old and served a ten year sentence in Northern Ireland for a car bomb in Derry which the I.R.A. had claimed responsibility for.”

Keegan was disappointed.  “No.  Thirty seven is much too old for the subject I'm investigating.”

“How old is your guy, Jim?”

“I believe he's in his early twenties.”

“Okay, I think Sean Murphy number two may be your man then.”

Keegan hoped it was.  “What kind of background do you have on him?”

He spoke as calm as he could in an attempt to mask his enthusiasm.

Wolf read the description.  “The file says he's a male white.  Light brown hair and eyes
; five feet, ten inches tall, weighing one hundred seventy five pounds.”

“That sounds like it could be my man.”

Wolf could sense the excitement in Keegan’s voice.  “Not so fast,” cautioned Wolf.  “According to my file, this Sean Murphy is currently serving a five year prison sentence in the Maze prison for an attempted armed bank robbery.”

“Is there a way you could verify to make sure the information is accurate, Bob?  See if he’s still in.  Maybe he was paroled or something and the computers haven’t updated the case status yet.” 

Wolf assured his friend he would verify.  “They usually are pretty accurate Jim.  I can double check with INTERPOL and my connections in Northern Ireland if you'd like.”

“Would you mind Bob?  I'd like to be sure.  It would make this much easier if I knew who we were looking for,” Keegan explained.

“No problem Jim, I'll check it out.  But Jim, be careful, if this is the guy you're dealing with, he's real dangerous.  Don't underestimate him; he's a real bad guy.”

Keegan hung up the phone with his friend as the words stuck in his head,
a real bad guy
.  He was used to dealing with bad guys, that didn’t worry him.  What made that guy more of a bad guy than the others, he had arrested over the years?  He thought about the situation and realized it didn't matter if this was the Sean Murphy his friend warned him about or a different Sean Murphy or someone just using the name.  No matter who he was, he was bound to be an extremely dangerous man.  Keegan once again picked up the report and stared at it, almost expecting some kind of answers to jump out at him.

He read the report’s brief contents over and over again.  He decided to call the Intelligence Division to see what they knew.  By the time Keegan hung up the phone, he learned the report had been initiated by INTERPOL.  The interrogation of a suspected I.R.A. soldier netted the information.  Although it was vague, they believed it to credible.  The snitch heard a rumor that a man who went by the name of “Gerry” would be the one to carry out the hit.

Of the numerous
Provos
, known to the Northern Irish Police, none had recently left Northern Ireland for the United States.  A similar check was conducted in the Republic of Ireland which also met with negative results.  The belief was, if the information was correct, the hit man must have traveled using an alias and false documentation.

Keegan realized that the I.R.A. wouldn't send any of their men who were anything less than ‘
real bad guys
’, to use Bob Wolf's words, to carry out such a major operation.  He knew he must be more careful now than ever.  For the first time, Keegan faced the fact that he had directly aided a terrorist.  A terrorist, who intends on committing a murder, right here on American soil.  In New York City, no less.  He weighed it in his mind and found irony that he would likely be in charge of preventing the attack.  Not only would this fall under his jurisdiction within the Joint Terrorist Task Force but he was also trained in dignitary protection.

He found himself in an impossible situation and sought a solution in his mind.  He could
either, ignore the facts of the matter and let the man he knew as Sean Murphy carry out the assassination, or he could do everything in his power to stop him.  The risk of possibly losing his job and even going to prison himself for his involvement was also a factor.  There would be no more hiding the skeletons in his closet.  His long term involvement with a known terrorist organization would certainly be brought to light.

The idea of being walked out in handcuffs in front of
Kate was a horrible thought.  She didn’t deserve that.  The press would hound her.  Her world would be turned upside down.  And his children…w
hat would they think of their father?
  He couldn’t bare thinking about that.   There must be a solution, he reasoned with himself.  He just had to figure out what it was.  He had never had his back up against a wall quite like this before.

If he arrested the assassin before he could carry out the attack, he could be sure Murphy would detail his involvement with not only the assassination plot but also his years of running guns to the I.R.A.  Everything would surely unravel.

On the other hand, if he let the man complete his mission and flee back to Ireland his job would be safe and he was in the perfect position to make sure the case was never solved.  His mind was racing in many different directions.  He determined the real decision was between the cause he for so long believed in or his loyalty to the job he loved, regardless of the consequences to himself.

It didn't take him long to come to his decision.  It was really the only decision a man like Keegan could possibly make.  He was ashamed of himself for even contemplating that he would allow an innocent man to be gunned down in cold blood.  He needed to contact Martin Devine and warn him.  His biggest problem now was how to stop the hit man without it costing him his job, his freedom, or his life.

Then the solution came to him.  He could talk the assassin into aborting the mission and going home.  He'd promise to squash the investigation so there was no chance of either of them getting into any trouble with the law.  If the parade went off without a hitch, that would be easy.  No crime would have been committed.  It would look as if someone made up a story to try and stay out of prison.  Nobody would think twice about it or have any need to further investigate the allegation.  He convinced himself this was the road to take. 
It’s a win, win situation.  Nobody has to die and nobody goes to prison
.  It wouldn’t be a hard sell, Keegan figured…as long as he could find the hit man before the parade.  He didn't even know his real name or where to find him but he felt confident he knew who did.

Keegan was filling out a Request for Leave of Absence Report, or a
U.F.28
, as cops referred to them, when the phone rang.  Keegan answered the phone.  It was a short conversation.  Bob Wolf had called back to confirm that Sean Murphy was still in a prison in Northern Ireland.  No surprise there.

He completed the U.F.28, which granted him the rest of the afternoon off.  He put his coat on and walked out of the office wondering if he would be able to find the hit man, whatever his real name was, in time.  He prayed he would be able to talk the man out o f the hit but then the words Bob Wolf had once said to him, echoed in his ears.  “
A professional terrorist
.”  A professional terrorist couldn't simply be talked out of an assignment, he guessed.  But he also knew he wouldn't know for sure unless he tried.  The plan made perfect sense to any reasonable person, which of course could be the plan’s flaw, in itself.

It was a huge city, one in which the man had no ties that Keegan was aware of, except for maybe one or two.  The only thing Keegan had on his side was a place to begin.  It was in the early afternoon, when Keegan entered McBride's.  There were about a half dozen men sitting at the bar and a couple of dozen patrons seated in the rear, eating their lunch.  He thought to himself, they had a pretty good lunch crowd.  He searched the dining area, looking for Nora O'Donnell.  He saw there were two waitresses waiting tables and neither one was Nora.  He saw Dan O'Brien standing behind the bar engaged in conversation with one of the few men seated at the bar.  He slipped into the dining area hoping that O'Brien hadn't seen him.

He waited for one of the waitresses to come over to him to seat him.  After a couple of minutes, he caught the
attention of a waitress.  She picked up a menu and walked over to him.  She was a brunette in her mid to late thirties with striking, greenish eyes.  She was slightly overweight but Keegan decided there was still something very attractive about her. “Will you be dining alone or are you waiting for someone?”

“Actually, I'm not here to eat,” Keegan explained.  “I'm looking for Nora.  Is she working today?”

“Not right now, she'll be in later.  Who should I tell her was looking for her?”

“She wouldn't know who I was by name if I told you.  We have a mutual friend I wanted to talk to her about.  Can you tell me what time she'll be in?”

The waitress looked down at her watch before answering Keegan's question.  “She usually comes in around two but I'm not sure if she's starting then today.  If you want to make sure you can ask the bartender.  He makes the schedule and knows what time what time everyone comes and goes around here.  His name is Dan.”  She began to walk towards the bar.  “Better yet, wait right here I'll go and ask him for you.  I have to pick up some drinks for my customers anyway.”

“No!  Wait.”  Keegan panicked.  The waitress apparently didn’t hear him and continued on her way to the bar and Dan O'Brien.  Keegan, who didn't want O'Brien to know he was there, walked as quickly and calmly as he could for the exit.

Once outside, Keegan ducked into a card store next door in case O'Brien went outside to look for the mystery man he would be told about.  He felt cornered and hoped O'Brien wouldn't think of poking his head inside the store.  The last thing Keegan wanted to do was to attract any unnecessary attention to himself inside the store, so he started to browse through the greeting cards.

He read over a dozen birthday cards until he decided to look for a card for Kate.  When they first began dating, he would often buy greeting cards for her for no other reason than to say he loved her.  He couldn’t even remember the last time he bought a card for her, without it being a special occasion, like her birthday or anniversary.  It would be a nice thing to do, he decided.  He would get her a card just to let her know how much she meant to him.

For about the next twenty minutes, Keegan divided his attention between watching the front door for O'Brien and picking out just the right card for Kate.  He selected a card that had a picture of a dozen long stem roses in a vase on the cover.  He opened the card and the words on the inside were simple but they spoke to him and how he felt about his wife.

I love you

You
mean the world to me

I sleep at night dreaming of you

And wake up in the morning to fall in love with you all over again

He felt good about himself for buying the card for Kate and knew she would appreciate it.  He walked to the counter, still keeping an eye on the front door and purchased the card.  Keegan peeked out of the card store.  There was still no sign of O'Brien, so he exited the store.  He turned in the opposite direction from McBride’s and quickly walked down the block.  He looked down at his watch and saw it was a quarter before one.  He decided to go to the bar almost directly across the street from McBride's.