26
“We should have involved the media much earlier,” Dupree said to his wife. They were having dinner at their home.
“If it wasn’t it for the call from Mr. Weissmuller and the visit from Mr. Mendez at the police station, we would still be digging in the dark. This has definitely turned the investigation around. Things are finally beginning to become clear.”
They had been able to recover the mobile phone of the deceased from the Delphi Clinic. Although the phone was severely damaged by the fire, Dupree was confident the forensics team would not have a problem checking the data on the memory card.
An hour later, Lieutenant Dupree parked his car in front of a bungalow. Quickly he checked for activity in and around the premises. Adams and Burnett along with an ambulance were already present. A woman in her late thirties opened the door.
“Come in Lieutenant, we’ve been expecting you,” the woman invited them in.
Going in front of them, she turned around and said, “The man you’re looking for is here.” She opened a door for Dupree. He faced an ill looking man. Scars which looked like burns covered his face and arms. The medics, who followed the Lieutenant, rolled a stretcher into the room. The man in the bed smiled weakly at them.
“Please be careful with him,” the woman pleaded. “He is as much a victim as the Senator.”
“You better tell us how we get to this place,” Dupree showed her the photograph they’d found in Detective Wolters‟ place.
“There is nothing there, the house is derelict.”
“We have reasons to believe a colleague of ours is being held there against her will. You don’t happen to know anything about this do you?” Dupree asked.
“Indeed I don’t, but I do know where the house is. I’ll take you there. Let me get my keys.”
“One moment Mrs. Phillips,” Dupree grabbed the woman by the arm. “You’re not going anywhere.” Pointing at Adams, Dupree continued, “He’ll be your chauffeur.”
*
“Do you think we’ll ever find Anthony?” May asked Anna.
They were sitting outside on the terrace of their hotel.
“Gee, I hope so, now the police are finally involved. It was a stupid thing of you not to do so from the beginning,” Anna replied.
“Yeah, but that was before we knew he was involved in a murder,” May reluctantly agreed.
“We don’t even know for sure if this is true, but never mind now. What’s done is done let’s hope we find him sooner rather than later. He must be frightened,” Peter Black said.
May took a sip from her drink and gazed around at the other customers.
“I’m confident it will only be a…,” rudely, Mr. Black’s mobile phone interrupted their conversation.
After the call he put the devise back into his pocket and said, “It’s good news, they have arrested your husband.”
*
Later in the afternoon, Victor Rogozihn was brought into an investigation room by Officer Adams to be questioned. The room was empty except for two grey plastic chairs and an old table. The walls were painted blue and green. Here and there, the paint had come off and an ochre color appeared.
“Take a seat, someone will be with you in a minute,” Adams sniffed as he moved his head in the direction of one of the chairs. Both his hands were resting on his belt, ready for action.
“Can you undo my hands, it’s very awkward to sit down with them tied behind my back,” Rogozihn pleaded. He was standing beside the table.
“You seemed to have experienced this before,” Adams remarked. “You will have to wait, won’t be long. Perhaps you can practice some yoga in the meantime.”
Slamming the door shut behind him he left Rogozihn with a puzzled expression on his face. Walking over to a mirror on the wall, he stuck his tongue out.
On the other side of the mirror, Dupree rolled up his sleeves. Turning his head towards a second man in the room he asked, “Is this the man you were with during the night of the murder of Senator Collins, Mr. Baker?”
Anthony nodded; his heart was pounding violently in his chest.
“He can’t see me here, can he?” He had come voluntarily after the police had forced entrance into his host’s residence.
Sitting on the bed with his suitcase open beside him they had hand cuffed him.
“No he can’t, you’re safe here,” Dupree confirmed.
This was about the weirdest case he ever encountered throughout his career. After one of his men traced the last number in the phone of the deceased woman, Dupree sent a few men to talk with the owner of the number. To their astonishment, they’d not only found a dead man in the living room, but also a very confused man in one of the bedrooms. Back at the station, Dupree subsequently checked Baker’s story by making a phone call to St. Joseph’s Psychiatric Hospital in Dublin. As odd as it sounded, he was sure Baker spoke the truth.
*
Shadows were falling when four police cars arrived at the house in the Mojave desert. Careful not to warn the occupants inside, they approached the building without using their sirens. Only their powerful blue lights on top of the cars flashed.
The moment Detective Garnham noticed them, he pulled his Magnum and pointed it at Sarah.
“Don’t make any sudden moves,” he warned.
“Give yourself up Cedric, don’t you see you’ve lost,” Sarah said.
They were interrupted by a voice, which came from a megaphone. “This is the LAPD, come out with your hands in the air.”
A few minutes went by, while Garnham stood in the middle of the dark room. .
“Please Cedric, do what they ask,” Sarah continued to plea.
“They will put me on death row, if they find out what I’ve done.”
“Ok, you made a mistake by keeping me captive, but they wouldn’t give you the death penalty for that,” Sarah said. She had to talk him around before he’d shoot her.
“They will if they find out I was behind the assassination of Senator. I’m proud of the outcome though, it couldn’t have been better. Because of my ingenuity, I saved the whole nation, and probably the rest of the world from this devil’s advocate.
I am prepared to die for this honorable cause. I used several people to do the job for me. First, I planted a few men in the Delphi clinic next I paid a scientist to steal a deadly virus. And last, but not least, I made a mentally ill Irish man believe he was hearing voices, Collins knew where I was and still he didn’t do anything. He looked me right in the eyes when they drove away in the jeep. He left me in Iraq to fend for myself.” Garnham explained.
“This is your last warning,” the voice from the megaphone interrupted them again. “Come out with your hands in the air or we will shoot.”
“You better take cover if I were you,” Garnham warned Sarah.
When Garnham broke a window using his elbow, Sarah rolled as fast as her tied up legs would allow her to the far side of the room.
Aiming at one of his fellow officers, Garnham took his time before he pulled the trigger. The shot hit the man between the eyes, the agent collapsed behind the open door of his car. The other agents who were also hiding behind their vehicle doors gazed baffled at each other. There was no doubt there was a sniper inside the house.
Quickly, Dupree summoned his men to switch off all the car lights. The shot might just have been a lucky one. The flashing lights of their cars had made them easy targets. Under the cover of darkness with only the moon for guidance, a few men moved swiftly towards the house. At the spot where the sniper’s shot had come from, one of them threw a smoke bomb through a broken window. While they waited for the result, several more shots fired from the house rang through the night. This time nobody got hurt. In response, the officers returned fire at the house. They still didn’t know how many people were present in the house. The entire time, Narette Phillips lay flat in the back of one of the patrol cars.
When everything was quiet inside the house for several minutes, Dupree ordered his men to cease fire. Still wary of any unexpected bullets, he cautiously approached the house. He knocked loud on the door and waited for an answer.
“It’s ok, he’s dead,” he recognized Detective Wolters voice.
Using their flashlights, several agents and the Lieutenant entered the in darkness covered house.