Chain Reaction (5 page)

‘But she couldn’t possibly have all the state-of-the-art equipment she needs.’

‘Ah,’ Jake said, ‘that’s where Dr Ringo has been the most effective. She formed a private foundation to raise funds for just that purpose. If it doesn’t fit into the budget allowed by the city, she throws a fundraiser event or makes a few major donor calls.’

‘A private foundation? Is that legal?’

‘The city council is rather pleased with her ability to supplement her own budget without a constant plea for additional funding every budget cycle. They wish all the agencies operated like hers. Thanks to the foundation, although she doesn’t have everything the FBI has, she has more than enough to handle most jobs. She’s a bit short in the explosives analysis department but I’m sure she’ll prioritize correcting that deficiency right away. And I do believe that is the area where Lieutenant Pierce requested your assistance.’

‘Pierce has no authority over me.’

Jake dropped his head and swayed it slowly side to side. ‘Don’t repeat that outside of this room. It makes you sound like a spoiled child. Pierce is the lead on this investigation. In that context, she certainly does have authority over you.’

Connelly shook his head. ‘Can you see her putting that lab bitch in her place? I can’t and Ringo’s behavior just cannot be tolerated. Can you imagine what would happen if all the locals treated us that way?’

‘But they don’t. There is only one Dr Ringo. Be grateful for that and let this go.’

‘No can do, Lovett. This is a matter of principle.’

‘What principle? The maintenance of your macho integrity? Check your ego at the door, Connelly. Let’s just focus on solving this case and worry about all these peripheral issues later.’

‘I don’t think this is peripheral, Lovett.’

Jake sighed. ‘I’ll tell you what, Connelly. Lieutenant Pierce has gone over to the lab to talk to Dr Ringo. Let’s give her a little time to work this out.’

‘I don’t like this. I’ve already filed a complaint against that Ringo woman. I’ll file one against you, too, if I have to.’

‘Fine. You do that. But let’s make solving the case our priority. When that’s done, you can drag me off in handcuffs for all I care. I am promising not to resist arrest. Or to threaten you with water.’

Connelly pointed a finger in Jake’s face. ‘That is uncalled for.’

Jake shrugged. ‘Just go see Jan at the front. She’ll find a desk where you can work. See if you can develop some leads. I’ve gotta make a couple of phone calls and then I’ll brief you on the latest in the investigation.’

‘When?’

Jake tilted his head and stared at him. ‘As soon as I make my calls. And the sooner you get out of my office, the sooner I can get that done.’

Connelly turned and walked away. He paused at the doorway and said, ‘You haven’t heard the last of this, Lovett.’

‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,’ Jake said under his breath as Connelly stomped down the hall.

L
ucinda found two uniformed police officers outside of the doors to the forensic lab. ‘What are your orders?’ she asked.

‘We were told to stay here, make sure no one goes in or out and to remain at our post until we are relieved or receive new orders,’ said an officer wearing a badge that identified him as ‘Porter’.

‘Are you expecting a SWAT team?’

Both of the men shrugged. ‘Not at the moment,’ Porter said.

‘But that could change at any time,’ added the one labeled ‘Dunn’. ‘We’ve heard they are talking about the possibility.’

‘I’m going to try to communicate with Dr Ringo. If I can, I want to negotiate my way inside. If you’re going to have a problem with that, get approval to let me enter now.’

Porter and Dunn looked at each other and shrugged again. ‘Our orders came from our sergeant,’ Porter said.

‘And you’re a lieutenant,’ Dunn added.

‘We’re cool,’ they said together.

‘You certain? I don’t want to get stopped at a critical moment.’

Both men nodded. ‘No problem, Lieutenant,’ Porter said.

Lucinda pulled out her cell and called Audrey, who answered the phone, ‘Dr Ringo.’ Lucinda was grateful of that reminder. She’d have a far better chance of success if she addressed the head of the forensic lab with her formal name rather than her first name.

‘Dr Ringo. This is Lieutenant Pierce.’

‘I am certainly not going to surrender to you.’

‘I don’t want you to surrender, Dr Ringo. I want you to let me in. I’m on your side here.’

‘If I open the door, they’ll force their way in.’

‘Right now, Dr Ringo, is the best time to open the doors for me. The two officers here have acknowledged my authority and have agreed to follow my orders. You wait much longer and there might be a SWAT team here and God knows what kind of damage they will do.’

Audrey Ringo did not respond on the phone. Instead, she waved a blue lab towel out of an open doorway.

‘It’s all clear, Dr Ringo, but please hurry.’

A red head stuck out into the hall and Audrey scanned the entrance to her lab. ‘Is anyone hiding around the corner?’

‘No, Dr Ringo. It’s just the three of us.’

‘Tell those officers to put their hands in the air.’

‘I can’t do that, Dr Ringo. You’re going to have to trust me.’

‘Ha! That’s a good one.’

‘Aw, c’mon, Dr Ringo. This has nothing to do with our past conflicts. This has to do with forensic chain of evidence and local jurisdiction. You know my stand on that. Let me come in and help you fend off the Feds.’

‘OK. I’m coming out. If I get shot, I will never forgive you.’

Lucinda threw up her hands. ‘I swear, Audrey, if anyone pulls a gun, I’ll step into the line of fire.’

‘Audrey! At this life-and-death moment, you minimize my authority?’

Lucinda cringed. She knew that had been a mistake the moment the name buzzed across her lips. ‘No, Dr Ringo. I am sorry. Please open the doors. I hear the elevator on the move. Who knows who might be coming?’

With darting eyes and furtive moves, Audrey made her way to the door, unlocked it, grabbed Lucinda by the elbow, jerked her in, slammed the door, flipped the dead bolt and raced back to her office.

Lucinda mouthed, ‘Thank you,’ to the officers outside and followed Audrey down the hall.

As Lucinda stepped into the other woman’s office, Audrey said, ‘Speak your piece.’

What a drama queen. Audrey’s normal every-hair-in-its-place appearance had suffered serious damage. Stray red hairs sprang out of a collapsing up-do. The bright blue jacket of her suit was wrinkled and had a coffee stain on one lapel. Audrey appeared genuinely fearful but still defiant. ‘Dr Ringo, as things are escalating now, this situation is not destined to turn out well.’

‘You think I don’t know that? You had me risk my life to tell me the obvious?’

‘Dr Ringo, your life is not in danger. Your liberty may be. You could be arrested but no one is going to kill you.’

‘Oh, I’m sure you believe that but I’m talking the ATF here. They even have firearms in their name so what makes you think they won’t use them?’

Lucinda sighed. ‘OK, I won’t argue that point with you. I’ll just say this: we need to find a way to extricate you and the lab from this current conflict before things get out of hand.’

‘I will not turn any evidence in this lab over to that odious man.’

‘Why can’t you give him some of the remainder of the samples? Enough to keep him happy but still leave you with enough material for confirmatory testing?’

‘Because he will not be satisfied with that. He wants to bring me down. He wants to discredit this lab. I will not allow that.’

‘He wouldn’t be so adamant now if you hadn’t threatened him, Dr Ringo.’

‘Oh, poor baby, threatened by a beaker of water! Does he think he is made of sugar crystals?’

‘Don’t be disingenuous, Doctor. You told him it was acid.’

Audrey’s mouth spread into a malevolent grin. ‘You should have seen him back-pedal. I didn’t think that nasty fat man could move so fast.’

‘Right now, this is not funny, Dr Ringo. Maybe we’ll be able to laugh about this later but right now—’

‘Do you realize what that man is threatening? Do you realize how hard I’ve worked to get all the necessary equipment, personnel and an outside network of specialists in specific fields of forensics?’

‘Yes, Dr Ringo, but—’

‘The final results out of this lab are impeccable. They’ve never been effectively challenged in a court of law under my tenure. That is certainly not something the FBI lab can say.’

‘I know this, Dr Ringo.’

‘And that ATF hooligan called it a backwater facility. He accused me of compromising the investigation and prosecution of this case with sloppy testing. Me! He accused
me
.’

‘Listen. I don’t particularly care for Connelly, either, but I have to work with him.’

‘You should refuse.’

‘If I do, I’ll be off the case.’

‘Refuse to release your files. Refuse to release my reports. I certainly won’t turn them over to that man.’

‘You can’t withhold evidence, Audrey.’

Audrey’s lips formed a thin line and she stared at Lucinda as if the lieutenant had just defaced a priceless piece of art.

Oh jeez, there I go again.
‘Sorry, Dr Ringo. That was an unintentional slip.’

‘Really, Lieutenant, you need to exercise better control of your tongue.’

The child in Lucinda wanted to scream, ‘Audrey, Audrey, Audrey!’ as she ran circles around the woman but her more mature side prevailed. ‘Dr Ringo, I don’t want to argue with you. I agree that Connelly had no right to come in here and demand you turn over the evidence. He was out of line. You, however, have made the situation worse with your threat.’

‘What was I supposed to do? He was bigger than me and he wore a gun and wasn’t shy about flashing his shoulder holster at me. What was I supposed to say? “Yes sir, Mr ATF man, ransack my lab to your heart’s desire. We’re so ignorant and backward here we want you to take this awesome responsibility off of our hands.”’

‘No, Dr Ringo, I wouldn’t expect that. I have no problem with anything you’ve done to protect the sanctity of your lab – well, maybe that acid threat thing but I have to admit it stirred up a pretty funny image in my mind. Nonetheless, right now, we need to sit down, set aside our outrage at the actions of the ATF bully and find a way to extricate you from this mess without damaging the lab or your professional reputation.’

‘That man has the manpower and firepower to cause damage to the lab but my reputation is sterling – he’ll get nowhere on that front. But, for the sake of the lab, I am willing to try. Let’s go to the break room. I desperately need a cup of mint tea.’

J
ake was fuming as he walked through the Justice Center on the way to the forensic lab with Agent Connelly. The explosion at the high school created a volatile situation – hysterical parents, a ravenous media and a lot of pressure from above. And instead of focusing like a laser on developing leads and searching for answers, he was caught up in a political power play – an inter-agency war game that damaged the progress of the investigation. He wasn’t sure what irritated him more – the belligerence of the ATF agent or the stubbornness of the city forensic lab head.

When the two men reached the outer doors to Dr Ringo’s kingdom, Connelly exploded. ‘Two uniformed officers. That’s it?’

‘No one wanted to escalate this situation any further, Connelly.’

‘This is ridiculous. I’m calling for more manpower.’

‘Connelly,’ Jake said, injecting as much calm into his voice as he could muster. ‘Your call for a SWAT team has been rejected by the police chief, the ATF and the FBI. Get over it.’

Connelly ignored him. He shouted into his cell phone. ‘I want every available agent in the state to proceed here stat.’ He disconnected the call and glared at Jake.

Jake stared back at Connelly, pulled out his cell and called his office. ‘Send all available agents in the office down to the city forensics lab right away. I do not expect that there will need to be a show of force unless the ATF gets out of hand.’

‘Sir, do you want to leave the last part of your request off the record?’

‘No. I wanted it stated very clearly that the purpose of this deployment is to serve as a check on the ATF and to minimize any problems they might create.’

‘You are out of line, Lovett,’ Connelly snapped.

Jake turned away from him without responding. He went to the far wall and remained facing it as he called Lucinda. ‘I’m out here with Connelly. He’s called for reinforcements. I’ve got agents on the way to stop him from doing anything stupid. But the sooner you can offer a solution to this stalemate, the better.’

‘We’ll be out in no more than half an hour, Jake.’

‘See if you can cut that time a bit.’

‘I’ll do my best.’

In his peripheral vision, Jake noticed that Connelly had inched closer to him while he talked. It was obvious that the ATF agent was trying to eavesdrop on his conversation. ‘Listen, I’ve got to go. Just get out here as soon as you can.’ He disconnected and spun to face the other man. ‘Can I help you, Agent?’

‘Yes, you could – by getting the hell out of here and letting me handle this situation as I see fit.’

‘The FBI and local law enforcement have – or should I say
had
– an excellent relationship of mutual inter-agency cooperation before you tried to steamroller them. I hope we will be able to repair the damage done and solve this case without further interference from you.’

‘Interference? This is my turf, Lovett, and these puffed-up locals are in
my
way. Homeland Security will hear about your obstruction when this is all over.’

Jake leaned with his back against the wall, crossed one turquoise Chuck over the other in feigned nonchalance. Inside, he was boiling but he looked away from Connelly, riveting his gaze on the lab doors, hoping for any sign of Lucinda and Audrey.

Connelly made a rude noise, pointed at Jake’s shoes and shook his head. Then he positioned himself against the opposite wall. They remained in their respective positions without talking until they heard the elevator doors open. Jake and Connelly straightened up and turned toward the sound.