Wellspring (Paskagankee, Book 3) (27 page)

Mike
shook his head wearily and said, “I told you we wouldn’t discuss the
confrontation without you and we haven’t. But I’m about out of patience with
you two. Why don’t you keep your snide remarks to yourselves and sit your asses
down so we can talk this thing out.”

Ferriss
and Cooper sat heavily, and Mike knew he had to take charge of the meeting
immediately or it could get out of hand in a heartbeat. He looked at Sharon and
said, “Who saw the suspect first?”

She
nodded in the general direction of the agents, refusing to look directly at
either of them. “They did,” she said. “I spotted them moving up behind him as I
drove toward the Ridge Runner. Then I lost sight of them behind the building as
I parked my cruiser. By the time I got out and walked to the corner of the
building, this guy” – another nod in Cooper’s direction – “had
forced the suspect to his knees and was about to put a bullet in his head.”

Both
Ferriss and Cooper immediately interrupted, their voices unintelligible as they
attempted to talk over each other.

“AGENT
FERRISS,” Mike said loudly. The men stopped talking and he took advantage of
the pause, ignoring Sharon’s inflammatory charge for the time being and directing
a question to the senior agent. “What in the world made you decide to stake out
the Ridge Runner construction site?”

The two
agents glanced at each other in unspoken communication. Neither answered.

“Another
one of those investigatory issues you can’t discuss?” he said drily.

“You
guessed it,” Ferriss answered, hostility evident in his voice.

Mike
sat for a moment. “So, for reasons unknown to me and that you’re unwilling to
share, you knew the suspect in two murders would show up at the Ridge Runner,
and yet you refused to share that information with me or my officers.”

A smile
flitted across Ferriss’s face and disappeared. “I think it’s an exaggeration to
say we ‘knew’ the suspect would show up. Let’s just say we were playing a
hunch.”

“A
hunch,” Mike repeated dubiously. “So, the suspect appeared out of the woods
behind the Ridge Runner, I assume…”

“That’s
right.”

“And
then you moved to apprehend him.”

“That’s
pretty much the size of it.”

“Where was
the stakeout location?”

“Down
the road a ways, in our rented car.”

“Down
the road a ways,” Mike repeated. “How were you able to get from ‘down the road
a ways’ to the edge of the construction pit without the suspect seeing you?”

Ferriss
grinned wolfishly. “We’re just that good.”

Mike
ignored the comment and said thoughtfully, “His attention was directed at the
bottom of that hole in the ground, wasn’t it?”

“He did
seem mighty distracted.”

“What
was he looking at down there, I wonder?”

“I…”

“I
know, you can’t say.”

Ferriss
looked at Mike innocently. “Sorry.”

“I’ll
bet,” Mike answered, thinking about the big, heavy circular gold disk currently
under lock and key in the evidence room, and how the two agents’ interest in it
had seemed much more than casual. That disk had been retrieved from the bottom
of the pit.

He made
a mental note to examine the disk more closely as soon as he could, and then
refocused his attention on Agent Ferriss. “You boys showed up in Paskagankee
about five minutes after that underground room was dug up a few days ago. In
nearly twenty years working law enforcement, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the
FBI move so fast on anything so seemingly innocuous as an unexpected hole in
the ground.”

“So?
What’s your point?” Ferriss asked.

“My
point,” Mike said, “is that I don’t think you were interested in the secret underground
room at all. I think you rushed all the way up here on a moment’s notice
because you knew the discovery of that room would bring our suspect sniffing
around, didn’t you?”

Ferriss
returned Mike’s thoughtful gaze with a wary look. Even Agent Cooper, who had
been the epitome of impatience and anger during the entire conference, seemed
taken aback. Instead of fury, his face reflected surprise and perhaps even a
hint of concern. It was Cooper’s that convinced Mike he was on the right track.

He
continued, still connecting the dots. “And if that’s the case, this unknown
suspect we have sitting in a holding cell downstairs, the man without a single
identifying document in his wallet – hell, without even a wallet at all
– isn’t unidentified after all. You know who he is, don’t you?”

Ferriss
and Cooper shared an alarmed glance. The look was involuntary and gone in an
instant, replaced with the men’s carefully cultivated hostility, but Mike had
seen it as clearly as if they were wearing flashing neon signs on their
foreheads. He immediately pressed the issue. “Come on, guys, who is he? This is
information critical to a murder investigation. Give it up, or you won’t have
to call your SAC in Portland. I’ll do it, and I’ll let him know his agents are actively
obstructing my investigation.”

He
reached for the phone on his desk and let his hand hover over it. “Your choice.
What’s it going to be?”

The two
agents shared another glance and Ferriss spoke to his partner softly. “What
difference does it make now? It can’t hurt anything.”

Cooper
glared back before answering reluctantly, “Fine. Go ahead.”

Ferriss
turned back to Mike. “We know him as Jackson Healy,” he said simply. “That’s
all I can divulge right now, without compromising our own investigation.”

The
statement was made with a tone of implacable finality, and Mike knew he had
gotten all of the information he was going to out of the two very strange FBI
agents.

For now.

It was
time to get to the heart of the matter. “What do you have to say about Officer
Dupont’s statement that your partner was about to put a bullet into Mr. Jackson
Healy’s head when she arrived on the scene?”

Cooper’s
eyes flashed and he opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, Mike said,
“My question’s directed at Agent Ferriss. I’d like him to answer it, if you
don’t mind.”

The
purple vein in Cooper’s forehead started throbbing again and he looked as
though he very much
did
mind. In
fact, he appeared ready to come across the desk at Mike, which was exactly what
Mike wanted. His goal was to push the obviously unstable agent as far as he
could with the intention of shaking more information loose. It was becoming
crystal clear that the key to unraveling the mystery of the two murders would
lie in uncovering exactly why these men were here in Paskagankee.

Agent Ferriss
seemed to understand Mike’s reasoning, though. Before Cooper could react, he put
a hand out in front of his partner in a calming gesture, never taking his eyes
off Mike’s. To Mike’s surprise, the volatile agent clamped his mouth shut in
what seemed to take an act of extreme willpower.

After a
moment of dead silence, Ferriss said simply, “That’s not how it happened.”

“My
officer is lying, then?”

The used-car-salesman
smile returned and then disappeared. “’Lying’ is such a harsh word,” he said.
“Let’s just say she didn’t see what she thought she saw, and leave it at that.”

Sharon
snorted. “I didn’t see the suspect forced to his knees at the edge of the pit,
with Agent Sharpshooter, there, pressing his gun to the side of the man’s head?”

Cooper’s
face flushed redder and the vein in his forehead throbbed away, once again
giving Mike the impression the man was moments away from suffering a stroke.
Ferriss, however, continued unperturbed. “This person is suspected in two
brutal murders, one of a fellow peace officer. Surely you don’t think we should
have approached him with any less than the full measure of caution?”

“You
weren’t approaching him with caution,” Sharon retorted. “Neither one of you was
reaching for cuffs or reading the prisoner his rights. Another three seconds
and he would have been executed.”

“As I
said,” Ferriss continued, directing his attention and his comments at Mike.
“Your officer is simply mistaken in what she saw. We were, in fact, just about
to cuff the prisoner. Her mistake is understandable, though. As so often happens
with women, she probably let her nerves get the best of her.”

Now
Sharon’s face flushed red, and she balled her hands into fists in her lap. Before
she could interrupt, Mike said, “So that’s your story, then. You two, for
reasons unknown, staked out the construction site, took advantage of the
suspect’s mysterious interest in the site to sneak up on him from behind, then
disarmed him at gunpoint and were seconds away from placing him under arrest
and putting him in handcuffs when Officer Dupont came around the corner and saw
him on his knees, execution style.”

“I
can’t think of a better one, can you?”

Mike
shook his head. “How long have you two been in law enforcement?”

Ferriss
smiled, and even Cooper seemed to lighten up a little. “Longer than you could
possibly imagine” Ferriss said glibly.

“What’s
that supposed to mean?”

Ferriss
shrugged. “Nothing. Forget it. Let’s just say we’ve been involved long enough
to know how things are done.”

“Well,”
Mike said, stretching. “Apparently we’re left with a jurisdictional conflict.
The man we have in custody is the prime suspect in two local murders, as you’ve
already noted. Since you won’t reveal what crimes you’re investigating him for,
I’m still going to assume our interest in him trumps yours. Feel free to have
your SAC contact me if any of my assumptions are off the mark, but until
further notice, that suspect is staying right here under lock and key in
Paskagankee. You’re not taking him anywhere.”

Mike sat
back, prepared to weather a storm of protest, but none came. To his surprise,
Special Agent Alton Ferriss said quietly, “That’s not a problem, Chief. We’re
not going to bother the head of the Portland office with something we can
handle perfectly well ourselves. And there’s no need for us to remove the
suspect from your custody at all, as long as you’re willing to be a little
flexible.”

Mike
rubbed his eyes and yawned. He was still exhausted from his whirlwind return to
the Paskagankee Police Department and even though he had slept well last night,
that short amount of rest hadn’t been enough for him to completely shake the
effects of the previous thirty-six hour workday. So he felt tired and slow, but
was immediately suspicious of any offer of cooperation served up by these two,
who had done nothing but obstruct since their arrival in town. “Flexible, how?”

“I
assume you’re intention is to interrogate the suspect as soon as possible?”

“Of
course. I plan to do so as soon as we’re finished here.”

“Perfect.
Then simply allow us to sit in on the interrogation and ask a few questions ourselves.
We have no problem meshing our investigation with yours. Once we get the answers
we’re looking for, I promise you we’ll go away and won’t bother you again.”

Mike
looked between Ferriss and Cooper, suspicious of their motives but unable to
think of any reason to deny their request. Finally he shrugged. “Okay, I don’t
think that will be a problem.”

Sharon
shot to her feet. “Did you not hear anything I said? You can’t let these two anywhere
near that man. You certainly can’t allow them to take part in the
interrogation!” Now her face was flushed in anger while the two FBI men sat quietly.

“That’s
enough,” Mike said sharply. “Sit down!”

He
waited until she had grudgingly slumped back into her seat and then told
Ferriss and Cooper, “If you don’t mind waiting outside for a moment, I’d like a
word with my officer in private. As soon as we’re done here, I’ll have Mr.
Healy taken to the interrogation room and you can join me there.”

“Of
course,” Ferriss said, a look of smug satisfaction on his face. Cooper still
looked pissed off. Mike was beginning to assume it was his default expression.
The FBI agents stood and exited the office, pulling the door closed behind
them.

“For
the record,” Mike said, keeping his voice level, “I didn’t miss anything you
said about those two, but we can’t shut out another law enforcement agency –
especially the FBI – just because you don’t like the way they handled themselves
during an arrest.”

“I’m
telling you, this isn’t about how they ‘handled themselves during an arrest.’
They were about to execute him.”

“Would
you stake your career on that? Because that kind of explosive accusation, made
without a shred of evidence, would be enough to end your career right where you
are. You
might
be able to keep your
job, but all you’ll ever be is a patrol officer in Paskagankee, Maine. The FBI
has the kind of political influence and pull – within state governments
and even inside small town administrations, if they want to exercise it –
to ensure you never move up or out of your current position. I’ve seen it
happen before, and I don’t want to see it happen to you. You’re too good a cop
for that.”