Chapter 17


It was really hard to make out what this new guy was thinking. Cal found himself inflamed as he stood there and watched Tasha Kingsley, from behind a two way mirror, give a statement to a couple of cops and a court reporter. Jake Barton, on the other hand, showed no visible emotion at all. He just watched, obviously hanging on every word but, never even so much as flinched, no matter what the woman said.

Cal thought it was interesting how Kingsley had her lawyer present. Wasn't she supposed to be the victim here? What did a victim need with an attorney? It was just one more straw on his back and he was afraid the next one might break it. When one of the cops held up a picture of Norman Scoggins, Tasha quickly nodded in the affirmative and said in no uncertain terms, "that's him officer."

No one in the interview room seemed to notice when people behind the mirror talked. It was obviously sound proofed well enough so Cal spoke up to the little gathering around him, "that's ridiculous. You can't just show her one picture. That's leading the witness or," Cal thought about it and capped his own statement with, "something."

Hal Summers quite contrary to what Cal expected, did not blow up. He simply looked Calvin's way and smiled as he replied, "she saw what she saw Brandt. Can't change that."

Cal huffed and then nudged Jake as he said, "you're not going to let them get away with this are you?"

"Shut up and listen," was the only thing Jake had to say to that. He was not mean about it. In fact, for Calvin, the guy almost sounded a little too cool. Cal was now starting to rethink his earlier admiration of this former Green Beret.

When the interview finally ended, Kingsley and her lawyer both smiled and thanked the officers before leaving. The light then came on in the observation room and it was American spook, Gary Moss, who spoke up first, "I think due to the current situation we might should put off you presenting your credentials for at least a week, Major."

"Do what you want to do Moss," Jake told him. "I already got dinner plans for tonight. I'm not changing them."

Another cop knocked on the door and when he got permission to enter he came in, whispered something to Summers, and then left promptly. Everyone looked to the chief of police who waved it off as, "another bomb threat. We've been getting them all day, ever since Norm torched ole Roy Boy this morning."

"How many," Jake asked the man.

Summers just shrugged and said, "I don't know, maybe six or seven. They're nothing to worry about. No more bombs have gone off."

Jake held his cool, "well I hope that doesn't mean you're not going to check them out."

"Hey look here Mister Treaty Guy," Summers obviously took offense. He was a burly fellow and Jake figured the man was probably used to getting his way by bowing up like a gorilla. Jake just silently, and coldly, let the guy vent, "we don't need you experts from Earth coming here and telling us how to run our colony, ok? We were doing just fine before all you people showed up."

"Yeah I can see that," Jake replied flatly.

There was no tone of any kind in Jake's voice, let alone an insulting one. Hal Summers chose to take one anyway, "for your information Mister Deputy. We had a couple of grocery stores, another Foo King, and an empty school that all got threats. The only one that turned out to be close to real was a couple of kids setting off a stink bomb which, was really a waste of time seeing as how they were out of school today anyway."

Jake acted as if he were listening to a serious report. With his even voice he asked, "and this last one?"

"Another wild goose chase," Summers replied, "it was some doctors building way over on the other side of the island. Who would want to blow up a doctors building?"

The same cop, that had delivered the first message, stuck his head in the door again. This time the kid looked excited and had obviously not waited for permission. He was also talking in a high squeak instead of a whisper, "Chief! We're getting multiple reports of gun fire at that doctor's office!"

"Wait a minute," Cal said with no small amount of alarm. He looked directly at the young officer and asked, "is this Doctor Herbert Cashton's office?"

Summers was completely taken by surprise and was just a tad bit confused by the question. He asked Brandt, "the plastic surgeon that does all those celebrities? What's he got to do with anything?"

Jake grabbed his man by the sleeve and led him out the door as he told the head cop, "you got your suspect Chief. Unless I miss my guess you'll have your hands full with that for the time being."

Summers laughed and, thankfully, the guy took the bait. He laughed at the Deputy Marshall and boasted, "oh we'll catch Scoggins. Just you wait and see. I always was a better cop than him."

Before closing the door to the room, Jake looked back at the guy and said, "yeah I can see that." Then, after a second of thinking on the matter, Jake turned completely and said, "I'll bet you a hundred dollars you can't catch him before night fall."

Summers eyes narrowed and he said, "you're on."

They reached the back door of the station and stopped there. It was relatively private so Jake told his red faced subordinate, "ok get it off your chest."

Cal fired up, "how could you do that! You're making a bet about the life of a friend of mine. Do you really think they're going to bring him in? If Hyrum Kingsley thinks he killed Roy then…"

Jake cut in, "then he won't do anything else that they wouldn't already do. At least this way, Summers is going to want to get him back here before they put a hole in his head. It also keeps the city police busy and off of our backs."

That did nothing to relieve Cal's anger but, he was having a hard time finding any logical fault with Jake's argument. Cal almost hit the wall with his fist but, Jake told him, "save it Agent. We're going to need it before this day is over with. I just got a feeling about that."

"It's not easy," Cal replied. His face was still red but his voice became a bit more tempered when he said, "how could you just, just, callously take all of that."

"Really?" Jake asked. "And how is it you went and told everybody in that room the name of our best lead. What those bozo's in there think about your buddy isn't going to change no matter what we say, So let them have their fun and let's us concentrate on something a little more important, all right agent?"

Jake held up a slip of paper that had the address of the doctor's office on it, "I took this from that kid at the door when we walked by. I got a feeling this is where we'll find all our lost sheep but…"

Cal took the paper and read the address. Then he saw the name of the guy who called it in, "I hope they didn't take this name seriously, Seymour Butts?"

"Is that Cashton's office," was all Jake cared about at the moment.

"I'll have to look at my notebook in the car but," Cal nodded a little, "yeah it looks like the right address."

Jake snatched the note back and then said in a stern and commanding voice, "good. This isn't all we're going to have to do though. I need you to call back to the station. I got another detail for your crew."