They'll Call It Treason (3 page)

Ethan walked away from the body and placed his hand on Agent Benson’s back, urging him to move away from the recess. Jason filled the void, pulling out a camera.

“Do you know who spoke to the victim last?” Ethan asked Benson.

“Well we contacted the Speaker’s Office earlier, trying to see if they had any information. Seems the Republican Caucus held a meeting last night from roughly six thirty to eight thirty PM at the Cardinal Club, a couple blocks down the street. They said that he had been with Representative Glen Jacobson at the meeting before he left, at about the same time the cell phone records show he got a text from his wife. Their apartment is only another block down the road. His wife said he was on his way there to meet them.” Agent Benson motioned around the corner.

“According to Jacobson, he last saw Daniels at the Caucus dinner at around eight forty or so. Said Daniels just got up all of a sudden and barged out. Had him worried,” Benson explained.

“Where is Representative Jacobson now?” Ethan asked, hoping he was nearby still.

“Jacobson was here earlier, but I think he returned to the Legislative Building,” said Benson.

Ethan looked away, knowing he would have to run down several people now to gather information. “Okay then, are we aware of any enemies that the Representative may have had?”

“I personally have made a habit of not getting involved in politics. It’s a dirty little game if you ask me,” he explained nodding in the direction of the mangled corpse. It was obvious the remark was made in jest; an agent of the State Bureau of Investigation was obliged to be aware of the state’s political climate. “I don’t know too much about Daniels, honestly. I’ve got a team working on that angle already though.”

Agent Benson looked toward the body again, and continued, “However, I do know that he didn’t fit well with leadership, or with most of his own Party for that matter. From what I’ve been told he went against the grain often. Too libertarian for the rest of the hacks on Jones Street I’m told.”

Satisfied with the answer, Ethan turned toward the recess looking for Jason. “Hey Jason, you about done there?”

“Yeah, finishing up now,” said Jason as he walked out of the recess, putting his camera back in its case and slinging it around his neck.

Ethan returned his gaze to Agent Benson. He needed to know where to begin the rest of the investigation. “So where could I find the man who made the original 911 call? Hightower, I think it was?”

“Yeah, Lenny Hightower. He was at work just around the corner at The Big Easy last I saw him.” Agent Benson replied.

Ethan turned and glanced at Jason, letting him know he was ready to wrap things up here, then back to Agent Benson.

“Thanks for your help, Agent Benson. We’ll be looking for those videos and any other evidence that you find when we get back to Norfolk,” Ethan shook Agent Benson’s hand and gave him his card.

Jason followed suit, and they both turned to walk away.

“Oh, be sure to try the Po Boy if you get hungry. It’s killer.” Agent Benson yelled to them then shrunk back, realizing the poor choice of words.

“Thanks…” said Jason, smirking as they walked up the street.

April 17 at 3:55
p.m.
EST

Norfolk, Virginia – FBI Norfolk Field Office

“Jacobson did say that Daniels clashed with the party leadership a lot,” Jason said, looking over the notes on his tablet as Ethan guided the SUV down interstate ninety-five.

“True,” Ethan replied.

“Mainly on a few issues, drug laws, gun control, budgetary issues and tenth amendment issues.” Jason continued, “I’ve got a copy of one of his tenth amendment bills right here. Seems that the main gist of this one is to tell the feds to shove it when it comes to any federal gun regulations.”

“Sounds like my type of guy,” Ethan joked back. “What about his drug law reform advocacy? Anything specific yet on that?”

Jason swiped at the tablet, going through a few searches to see what he could find. Now on their way back to Norfolk, the two were working out the information they had about the killing to determine if any connection to their line of cases existed.

“Uh,” Jason began a few seconds later, “Looks like he had made several attempts during his tenure. This session he had introduced two bills, one to legalize the sale and use of marijuana, the other…” he stopped as he read through pieces of the law and an article about the bill, “the other was another state’s rights bill, you know, tell the feds to shove it again.”

“Wonder what he would have thought about us considering his case then?” Ethan joked.

“Don’t know, may have told us to shove it too,” Jason laughed.

“Well, he fits the profile then,” Ethan smirked.

In each of their cases the victim had been someone at odds with the status quo. Someone who bucked the trend and cried foul of certain federal moves. Representative Daniels definitely fit the bill. The only difference was that the previous victims had been nationally known or influential figures, not largely obscure state figures.

“So far, yes.” Jason agreed, “We need something more though. All the other victims were on the national stage, Daniels wasn’t.”

“But he was pushing anti-fed legislation,” Ethan reminded him. “How far did he get? What type of support was he pulling in?”

“I’ll have to dig deeper for that,” Jason responded.

“Ah, shit,” Ethan blurted.

“What?”

“Traffic,” Ethan explained, nodding forward at the brake lights glowing bright red and the unending line of cars up the road that were not moving.

“Oh,” Jason said with a sigh. “We might not make it back to the office by five after all.”

Ethan raised an eyebrow and huffed.
Should have flown back.

“So,” Ethan said, “What do we have so far? A representative murdered late in the night who was…”

“Hold up,” Jason interrupted him. “You might find this interesting. Just a month ago Daniels announced he was running for Congress.”

“Really? Did anyone think he had a chance?” Ethan asked, squinting as he finally had to bring the SUV to complete stop.

“It looks like the sitting representative was another Republican, Congressman Revels,” Jason explained.

“And Revels announced what, like three months ago, that she would not be running again after her term was up.” Ethan finished Jason’s thought.

“Exactly, and if I’m remembering Revels right, I’d have to say that she and Daniels have a bit in common.” Jason went on to explain, “She’s always a major advocate for getting the feds out of the state’s affairs and ending the drug war. Seems like a natural fit, and the district sent her to Congress what, four times?”

“Yeah, I believe this is her fourth term.” Ethan agreed, seeing a small thread growing between the cases, “So maybe he doesn’t have national presence yet, but someone feared he would have one soon enough?”

“It’s a guess, that’s for sure.” Jason agreed. “We need more than that though.”

“You said Benson sent the security camera feeds already, right?” Ethan asked.

“Yeah, about a half an hour ago.” Jason smirked, “Seems he got right to it once we left.”

“Well,” Ethan said pointing forward, “we aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, so let’s take a look.”

“Good point,” Jason said as he navigated to his e-mail on the tablet. “Here we are.”

Leaning over, Ethan saw a video loading up on the screen. It was a dark black-and-white image with low clarity.

“Alright, Benson sent two feeds and was even nice enough to cut them down to five minute clips for us,” Jason jeered, “but he says he is having the full feeds sent to our office. I’m going to try this split screen, hopefully they won’t be too small to see.”

“Works for me. It’s not like we are going to get high definition from a CCTV feed anyway,” Ethan added.

“Yeah, let’s see what they did catch then,” Jason said and clicked the play buttons on both, letting them run almost in sync.

The video on the left of the screen looked up the street toward the recess where Representative Daniels’ had been found while the other looked down Fayetteville Street away from the murder scene in the direction Representative Jacobson said Daniels had come from the Cardinal Club.

At first the streets were empty. Then a car passed by and a few young kids with sagging pants walked down the opposite side of the street. Another set of cars and more pedestrians moved along the street in view of the cameras as the timer ticked down.

“There he is,” Jason said pointing to the right feed. On the screen was a man in a suit and tie jogging quickly toward the intersection. “That’s our body right there.”

Ethan nodded, continuing to watch. On the same feed Ethan watched as another figure, ostensibly a man, walked across the street.

“What about this guy behind Daniels?” Ethan asked aloud, not really expecting an answer, pointing at the screen.

In the camera feed they could see Daniels, something in his hand, probably his phone, running down Fayetteville. Trying to get to his son.

“If that’s our suspect, Ethan, he sure isn’t trying to hide himself,” Jason cocked his head to the side, wondering.

“I don’t know, I still can’t get a good view of his face with all the shadows,” Ethan stated referring to the trees casting their long shadows across the sidewalk in addition to the pixilated resolution of the feed. He squinted, trying to see some form of detail in the man’s face.

“Here we go,” Jason thought aloud as the representative suddenly stopped and turned to look at the approaching figure.

Unfortunately there was no audio, and their lips were not discernible in the low grade feed. A few quick words seemed to be exchanged and then Riley turned and continued his dash down the street while the man turned and walked the other direction.

“Hm…” Jason huffed. “Looks like…”

Suddenly a dark grey figure reached out from a shadow down the intersecting street and reeled Daniels backward and off his feet. Jason went quiet. Ethan moved closer to the screen.

In the video a dark figure grabbed hold of Daniels and tugged him backward, knocking him to the ground. For several moments they watched as Daniels took a beating. Ethan visualized the violent swings catching Daniels in the stomach through the shadows. The bruises on his body becoming more real in Ethan’s mind as he watched the continued beating.

In the moments that followed, only a faint outline of the two could be seen as the attacker drug Daniels into the recessed doorway. Then nothing, just a dark open doorway and an empty street spanned roughly two minutes of the video feed.

Jason sat back in his chair, offering a quick commentary, “So, like we thought, Daniels was attacked from behind and pulled into that crevice where he was beaten and murdered.”

“That much was easy enough to determine from the…”

Beep, beep!

Ethan and Jason jerked, looking back up to the road. The cars had moved forward about ten yards and the driver behind them was apparently not happy they were sitting still, flinging his hands up in the air and his mouth was moving quickly, probably calling Ethan and Jason every horrible thing imaginable.

“Nice,” Ethan commented as he moved the SUV forward almost two car lengths before he had to stop again. “Some people.”

“Ah look,” Jason said pointing back to the video feeds on his lap, tipping the tablet so Ethan could see again.

Finally the attacker emerged from the doorway and stopped, checking to make sure there was no one passing by to witness him leaving the scene of the crime. The shadowy figure then walked back down the street the direction he had come. His pace was casual as if nothing had happened. Even with the figure facing the camera the light was too dim to make out any details.

“Come on, you gotta give us something,” Ethan said to the computer. After four years they still could not positively identify any of the suspects. Like this one, they tended to strike in the shadows or at great distances. They needed something.

Then, like an answer to his words, a faint glow settled partially on the figure’s face, exposing his left ear, part of his lips and his neck just above the collar for a mere second. Prepared for the light, he turned his face away from the glow and pulled a hood over his head.

“Freeze that,” Ethan barked.

Jason tapped the screen and the image froze in place.

“Zoom in on him… Okay, closer. On his neck,” Ethan sounded like he was on to something.

Jason obeyed, zooming closer in on the suspect, until only the figure’s neck was visible in the feed. There seemed to be something foreign there, a blot.

“Can you clear that up any?” Ethan asked, hoping to see what the blot was.

“Maybe,” Jason said. He tapped a few buttons on the screen and the image gained a little clarity.

Jason pointed just above the man’s shirt collar at a tattoo. He smiled, glad to have some positive news, “Well look at that.”

Ethan saw it, the realization hitting him, “A triple dagger.”

It was the same tattoo, in the same location, they had glimpsed two years ago when an outspoken journalist for the Washington Post had been murdered in Massachusetts. So far none of their searches had turned up an exact match.

“Looks like we’ve got our connection,” Ethan said sitting back in his chair.