Kathryn Morris UK

Standing in Bob Garrison’s office, Kat folded her arms as she and Vera looked at Garrison, sitting at his desk.

“You’re not an easy man to get a hold of, Director Garrison.” She said. “I was starting to wonder if we were getting the brush-off.”

Garrison shrugged and held up his hands. “I’m a busy man. I’m sorry if I gave you the impression I didn’t care. I do.”

“But you never bothered to tell the cops when Jeff got killed that his little retirement into suburbia was all an act.”

Garrison nodded solemnly. “Because his operation wasn’t entirely authorized.”

Vera’s eyes narrowed. “Not authorized?”

Garrison sighed. “At the start of the year, we received some intel on a man who’d immigrated here from Afghanistan a couple of years before, named Omar Khalid, linking him to some possible terrorist groups. The man was an engineer with experience in demolition. I thought at the very least we should check him out. My superiors didn’t agree, neither did the FBI. This was before the first World Trade Center attack or the shooting here, and we weren’t as diligent as we could’ve been.” Garrison frowned. “The reason I’ve gotten as far as I have up the ladder is I trust my gut, and my gut said there was more to this guy than we thought.”

“So you sent Jeff out to Philly to spy on the guy.” Vera said.

“Yeah.” Garrison said.

“And Khalid’s little accident, was that part of the ‘operation’ too?” Kat asked.

“Absolutely not.” Garrison said. “If there was any holes in his story, I wanted him brought in alive.”

“Was Jeff clear on that?” Vera asked.

“I assumed he was, at first.” Garrison said. “I think it started to wear on him after a while, lying to his family like that. I wasn’t sure he was up to it anymore.”

“So that’s why you went to Philly?” Kat asked.

Garrison nodded.

“Two days before Jeff was killed?” She continued.

“I was in my hotel room the night Jeff was killed.” Garrison said calmly. “Check the phone records. Only reason I went there was I was concerned.”

“For Jeff or the operation?” Vera asked, skeptically.

“Both.” Garrison said, before shaking his head. “It didn’t matter though. By the time I got there, it was already over…”

***

 (“Try Not to Breathe”)

Garrison looked around the meeting point in the park until he spotted Jeff on a nearby bench.

“Khalid’s dead.” Jeff said calmly.

“Yeah, I heard.” Garrison said, confused. “Some kind of boating accident?”

“That’s what the reports say.” Jeff answered curtly.

Garrison frowned and sat down.

“So you still gonna get on me about using Steve?” Jeff asked.

“I don’t think I was wrong to do that.” Garrison answered. “That money ended up in somebody’s hands. I just don’t trust him.”

“Funny, I don’t remember you ever refusing help from someone you didn’t trust.”

“Informants are one thing. You gotta take your info were you can get it, but if someone’s supposed to be watching my back, I want to make damn sure I know who I’m dealing with.”

Jeff looked straight ahead. “You know something, Bob, I’m sick of wondering whether I can trust people or not.” He stood up. “I’m gonna go home, see if I still have a family to go home to.”

“We still gotta look through Khalid’s things, see if there’s anything there.”

“You can find someone else to do that.” Jeff started walking. “I’m done.”

“Jeff!” Garrison stood up and called out to him.

Jeff turned with a bitter look. “Hey, didn’t you hear? I’m retired.”

Garrison watched as Jeff walked off…

***

Garrison shrugged. “I wasn’t exactly in a position to make him come back.”

“You think he killed Khalid?” Vera asked.

“I don’t know. I think he just wanted the whole thing over with.” He looked at the detectives uneasily. “One way or another.”

“You said something about money ending up in somebody’s hands.” Kat asked. “What was that about?”

“Back in the eighties, one of our field teams raided a terrorist base in Egypt on the border of Libya. Weapons, drugs, money.” Garrison swallowed. “There were some… discrepancies when the money was counted. We couldn’t proving anything…”

“But you think someone took a little off the top.” Vera said.

“Steve Mitchum was the one in charge of that raid.” Garrison said. “That’s why I didn’t trust him. That’s why I still don’t trust him.”

Kat and Vera looked at each other.

“There’s something else. Ray Martin, the agent who got killed in Prague, I found out after he died that he’d been trying to looking into what happened to that missing money.”

“And you think Steve killed this guy to cover it up?”  Vera asked.

Garrison shrugged. “It was all just speculation, though. I couldn’t prove any of it. Couldn’t do anything beyond getting him fired.”

“But if Jeff suspected something…” Kat said.

“Maybe Steve decided to cover his tracks.” Vera said.

***

Steve gave Lilly and Scotty a bored look as he sat at the interview table.

“Been lookin’ through your history, Steve.” Scotty said, holding a file. “Parts of it that aren’t blacked out anyway.”

“You traveled the world, places most people wouldn’t dare try to go.” Lilly said. “Probably not as glamorous as the movies make it.”

“It ain’t martinis and tuxedos.” Steve said. “What’s your point?”

“Everything you seen and done, puttin’ yourself on the line.” Scotty shrugged. “All for a crappy government salary?”

“I can see how someone might think they deserve a little something extra, everything they did for their country.” Lilly continued. “Maybe an opportunity presents itself.”

“Like that one in Egypt back in the eighties?”

Steve’s eyes narrowed with a hint of recognition.

“You’re taking money away from the badguys.” Scotty said. “What does it matter whose pocket it winds up in?”

“Just too bad some boy scout like Ray Martin doesn’t see it that way.” Lilly said.

“So you take him along on a field mission to Prague. Somethin’ goes wrong, and he ends up comin’ home in a bag.” Scotty said.

“A few years later the same thing happens to your old partner. Funny how that seems to happen to guys you work with.”

Steve leaned forward and glared at the detectives. “You two are so off-base, it’s pathetic.”

“Is that right?” Scotty asked.

Steve folded his arms. “Ray Martin died in Prague cause he was an friggin’ cowboy who couldn’t follow orders. I didn’t want anything to do with him. It was some higher-up’s bright idea to put him in the field, not mine. And as for the other thing, I didn’t lift a cent in that raid. For the record, I wasn’t the only agent there.”

“Who we talkin’ about, here?” Scotty asked.

“Honestly, I hoped I was wrong about him.” Steve shook his head. “But I know what I heard that day…”

***

(“Low”)

Crouching behind the shipping container, Steve looked around until he spotted Ethan walking towards the edge of the docks. Steve sprinted towards a closer container, then pressed his back to the container as he heard a ringing sounded and watched Ethan pull out his cell phone.

“Yeah, it’s me.” Ethan said nervously. “No, I haven’t said anything to anyone, I swear.”

Steve strained to listen as Ethan continued.

“Look, you don’t have to do this. I can talk to Jeff, maybe–” He paused for a moment as the person on the other end spoke. “What are you gonna do to him? He’s got a family, for God’s sake. You can’t just–” Ethan swallowed hard. “All right, all right. He’ll be at the park tomorrow night.” He wiped sweat from his brow as a pained look formed on his face. “I know, I know. He’ll be there, all right?”

Steve watched Ethan close the phone and walk off…

***

“You think Ethan was being blackmailed?” Lilly asked. “Someone was using him to get to Jeff?”

Steve nodded. “I don’t know who, but that’s what I heard.”

Scotty frowned. “And you think this might be useful to the cops back then? Or maybe warn Jeff his partner was leading him into a trap?”

Steve paused for a moment, then leaned back in his chair with a smirk. “That Omar guy was dead. Jeff was done with me and I was done with him.“

Lilly and Scotty exchanged disgusted looks before turning back to Steve. “You said Jeff gave you respect. Too bad it didn’t go both ways.”

Steve said nothing, but glared as the two detective stood up.

“You’re a real piece of work.” Scotty said, reaching for the door. “Sit tight, we’ll be back in a while.”

***

Halfway up the stairs at the Starlight Motel, Lilly turned to see Scotty staring intently at his phone.

“You’ve been checking that thing the whole way here.” Lilly said with a smile. “You expecting a call?”

“No.” Scotty quickly said. “Just seein’ if Vera and Miller are back yet.”

Lilly shrugged and headed up the stairs. Scotty chuckled quietly.

Lilly turned again. “What?”

Scotty smiled wistfully. “Just thinkin’ this is probably the last guy we’re gonna bring in together.”

Lilly’s smile faded and she turned forward again.

As they walked towards Ethan’s room, they noticed the door open a crack, with damage to the lock.

“Scotty.” Lilly said, drawing her gun and pointing out the damage to her partner, who also drew his weapon.

“Ethan?” Lilly called out, pushing the door open. “It’s Detectives Rush and Valens.”

“Over here.” Ethan called out with a slightly slurred speech.

The detective walked in to see Ethan sitting at a small table. He was holding expensive looking, but nearly empty bottle of whiskey in one hand and glass in the other. His posture seemed uncomfortably straight as he sat.

Scotty looked back at the door, then at Ethan. “What’s going on here, Ethan?”

Ethan held up the bottle. “He gave some of the good stuff. That was nice of him. Didn’t have to do that.”

“What are you talking about?” Lilly asked.

Ethan shook his head. “We never should’ve gone after Khalid. He wasn’t who we thought he was. Then he wouldn’t have had to go on the run.”

“What do you mean ‘go on run?”” Scotty asked.

Ethan leaned forward and chuckled.  “He’s not so dead.” He whispered.

Scotty’s eyes narrowed. “You’re saying Khalid didn’t die in that accident?”

Ethan smiled and shook his head slowly.

Lilly leaned closer. “Ethan we know you were being blackmailed. We need to know by who.”

Ethan looked at the two detectives. “You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourselves into.”

“All right, you’re comin’ in with us.” Scotty said, reaching for Ethan’s arm.

Ethan immediately pulled back nervously. “You can’t move me from here.”

“Wanna bet?” Scotty said with a frown and reached for Ethan’s arm again.

Ethan’s face turned deadly serious. “I said you can’t move me.” He pointed downwards and it was only then that Lilly and Scotty first noticed the wires leading up and down the leg of the chair. Scotty looked at Lilly, then crouched down and looked underneath the chair to see a menacing collection of plastic, metal, wires, and a blinking red light.

“Lil.” Scotty said to her as he looked up.

“We gotta call Bomb Squad.” Lilly said, before turning back to Ethan. “Ethan, who did this?”

Ethan gave her a sad look and shook his head. “I can’t say. That was the deal. He leaves my family alone. Only time I did right by them.”

Scotty stood up and headed to the door with Lilly.

“All right, don’t move, Ethan.” Lilly said. “We’re gonna get help.”

“I just thought I could take a few bucks, support my family. What’s the harm?” Ethan poured some more whiskey in the glass and threw it back. “Should’ve been more like Jeff.” Ethan sighed and shifted in the chair. “This is my penance. I deserve it.”

Scotty’s eyes widened. “Ethan, do not get up from that chair!”

Ethan threw back the last bit of whiskey in the bottle, then put it and the glass on the table, and put both hands on the chair’s armrests.

“Tell his family I’m sorry, would you?”

He pushed down on the arm rests and started to lift himself up.

Lilly and Scotty immediately bolted from the room and threw themselves to the floor of the walkway. Behind them, a deafening blast hurled the door clear over the railing, followed by a huge cloud of dust. Lilly and Scotty covered their heads as debris rained down all around them.

***

(“Drive”)

In his mother’s living room, Jimmy picked the piece of granite up off the mantle, looked at it for a moment, then put it back, before looking at Sharon who was watching him from the hallway with an uneasy look on her face…

Sitting in the interview room with the door open, Steve watched as Stillman hung up the phone in his office and rush out towards Jeffries, who was looking through a file of papers from Jeff’s case box. Stillman said something to Jeffries and the two hurried out of the room…

In the car, Vera was jolted awake by the ringing phone. He picked it up and listened for a few moments, before some of the color drained from his face. He immediately turned to Kat and repeated what he’d just heard. Her jaw dropped slightly and she quickly turned the steering wheel around…

At her desk, Bonnie placed a hand over her open mouth as the person on the other end of the phone spoke. She turned around to see Garrison standing in the doorway giving her a wary look…

As Lilly and Scotty finally stood up, they could both make out flashing red and blue lights in the distance. Lilly slowly eased her way to the doorway, where she thought she could make out blood on some of the rubble. She knelt down as she spotted a half-buried sheet of paper on the ground. It was partially singed at the edges, but she could make out the writing as a personnel file, with a CIA insignia in the top right corner and Jeff’s picture in the left.  She looked into the wrecked motel room and sighed.

To Be Continued…