The Second Mouse - Archer Mayor [77]
“I thought maybe JTTF might want to know,” French said, losing conviction.
The Joint Terrorism Task Force did admittedly handle a lot of wild-goose chases. They were made up of any number of participants, from fellow FBI agents to members of ATF, ICE, the state police, and anyone else deemed relevant.
In the silence that fell between them, Coven looked at French and eventually sighed, giving up. “Good thought, William. I’ll pass it along.”
As French left, Coven dropped the printout into his out-box, knowing full well that his young messenger was already mentally formulating the memo that would both cover his butt and put Coven’s in the hot seat. Not that the older man was worried. He knew all too well how items like this got lost in the system, follow-up memo or not.
Chapter 16
The VBI office in Brattleboro rarely contained all its occupants at once. Not only their assignments but their personalities dictated that they spend most of their time in the field.
It felt cramped and crowded to Joe, therefore, merely having everybody at their desks on the day he’d assembled them for a staff meeting.
“Okay,” he began, speaking over the exchanges and friendly insults that further filled the small room. “It took a long time to get here, but it’s pretty clear that Michelle Fisher is now officially a homicide.”
“Let’s hear it for the wheels of justice,” Kunkle said quietly.
“At least we caught it,” Spinney commented, forever striving for the upbeat.
“On the face of it,” Gunther continued, ignoring them, “it seems pretty straightforward. Man wants house back so he can sell it. He can’t do that because of a cranky tenant. He kills tenant.”
Kunkle merely laughed.
Joe nodded, smiling. “Right. Or maybe not. For one thing, given the mechanics employed, Newell Morgan, our suspect, is too fat.”
“Plus, he has an alibi,” Sam added.
“A suspiciously airtight one,” Willy threw in.
“Right again,” Joe agreed. “How many times have we met an otherwise total slob with such perfect recall, not to mention documentation, for the one recent event that’ll save his bacon? Not often.”
“Although not impossible,” Spinney said. “That trip was a big male-bonding moment. And according to what Willy and Sam got from the interviews, planned in advance.”
Willy rolled his eyes, but Joe conceded the point. “Granted. Although it seems the murder was planned as well. Still, we have to watch out for tunnel vision. Since we’re already thinking Morgan couldn’t have done this on his own, that means he either had help or is totally innocent.”
“God, I hope not,” Sam murmured, half to herself. “I’d love for him to go down for something.”
Joe used that as a cue. “Well, if we are going to focus on him initially, we should dig into two areas: the actual killing of Michelle Fisher, and what led up to it.”
“His wanting the house back?” Spinney asked.
“No,” Sammie corrected him, understanding what Joe was suggesting. “Why he wanted the house all of a sudden, after years of Archie and Michelle living in it. There’s the smell of revenge about it.”
“The fat bastard wanted a piece of his son’s honey,” Willy spelled out in predictable fashion.
“And we know that for sure?” Lester asked reasonably. “It could also be exactly what he’s claiming: His son died; the girlfriend became a nonpaying squatter with an attitude, leaving him no other option than to evict her. Could be he did need the money. Do we know anything about his finances?”
Sam laughed outright and Willy readied for a response when Joe cut him off. “Right now that’s as valid a position as any. We have to prove our case here, folks. We need to go into Michelle’s neighborhood and start interviewing people. Flash Newell’s photograph around, and his truck’s, and see if he was a regular visitor. I spoke with Michelle’s friend Linda and got nowhere there, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Michelle might not have