Point of Origin (4 page)

'Thanks for the lift,' I said to Special Agent Jim Mowery, who had helped Lucy fly this day.

'She did the driving.'

He popped open the baggage door.

'I'll tie her down if you guys want to go on,' he added to my niece.

'Seems like you're getting the hang of that thing,' I lightly teased Lucy as we walked away.

'I limp along the best I can,' she said. 'Here, let me get one of those bags.'

She relieved me of my aluminum case, which did not seem to weigh much in her firm hand. We walked together, dressed alike, although I did not wear gun or portable radio. Our steel-reinforced boots were so battered they were peeling and almost gray. Black mud sucked at our soles as we drew closer to the gray inflatable tent that would be our command post for the next few days. Parked next to it was the big white Pierce supertruck with Department of the Treasury seals and emergency lights, and ATF and EXPLOSIVES INVESTIGATION announced in vivid blue.

Lucy was a step ahead of me, her face shadowed by a dark blue cap. She had been transferred to Philadelphia, and would be moving from D. C. soon, and the thought made me feel old and used up. She was grown. She was as accomplished as I had been at her age, and I did not want her moving farther away. But I had not told her.

'This one's pretty bad.' She initiated the conversation. 'At least the basement is ground level, but there's only one door. So most of the water's in a pool down there. We got a truck on the way with pumps.'

'How deep?'

I thought of thousands of gallons of water from fire hoses and imagined a cold black soup thick with dangerous debris.

'Depends on where you're stepping. If I were you, I wouldn't have taken this call,' she said in a way that made me feel unwanted.

'Yes, you would have,' I said, hurt.

Lucy had made little effort to hide her feelings about working cases with me. She wasn't rude, but often acted as if she barely knew me when she was with her colleagues. I remembered earlier years when I would visit her at UVA and she did not want students to see us together. I knew she was not ashamed of me but perceived me as an overwhelming shadow that I had worked very hard not to cast over her life.

'Have you finished packing?' I asked her with an ease that was not true.

'Please don't remind me,' she said.

'But you still want to go.'

'Of course. It's a great opportunity.'

'Yes, it is, and I am so pleased for you,' I said. 'How's Janet? I know this must be hard . . .'

'It's not like we'll be in different hemispheres,' Lucy answered back.

I knew better, and so did she. Janet was an FBI agent. The two of them had been lovers since their early training days at Quantico. Now they worked for different federal law enforcement agencies and soon would live in separate cities. It was quite possible their careers would never permit their relationship again.

'Do you suppose we can carve out a minute to talk today?' I spoke again as we picked our way around puddles.

'Sure. When we finish up here, we'll have a beer, if we can find an open bar out here in the sticks,' she replied as the wind blew harder.

'I don't care how late it is,' I added.

'Here goes,' Lucy muttered with a sigh as we approached the tent. 'Hey gang,' she called out. 'Where's the party?'

'You're looking at it.'

'Doc, you making house calls these days?'

'Naw, she's babysitting Lucy.'

In addition to Marino and me, NRT on this call-out were nine men, two women, including team leader McGovern. All of us were dressed alike in the familiar dark blue fatigues, which were worn and patched and supple like our boots. Agents were restless and boisterous around the back of the open tailgate of the supertruck with its shiny aluminum interior divided into shelves and jump seats, and its outside compartments packed with reels of yellow crime-scene tape, and dustpans, picks, floodlights, whisk brooms, wrecking bars, and chop saws.

Our mobile headquarters was also equipped with computers, a photocopier and fax machine, and the hydraulic spreader, ram, hammer, and cutter used to deconstruct a scene or save a human life. In fact, I could not think of much the truck did not have except, perhaps, a chef, and more importantly, a toilet.

Some agents had begun decontaminating boots, rakes, and shovels in plastic tubs filled with soapy water. It was a never-ending effort, and in brisk weather, hands and feet never dried or thawed. Even exhaust pipes were swabbed for petroleum residues, and all power tools were run by electricity or hydraulic fluid instead of gasoline, preparing for that day in court when all would be questioned and judged.

McGovern was sitting on a table inside the tent, her boots unzipped, and a clipboard on her knee.

'All right,' she addressed her team. 'We've been through most of this already at the fire station, where you guys missed good coffee and donuts,' she added for the benefit of those of us who had just gotten here. 'But listen up again. What we know so far is the fire is believed to have started day before yesterday, on the evening of the seventh at twenty hundred hours.'

McGovern was about my age and based in the Philadelphia field office. I looked at her and saw Lucy's new mentor, and I felt a stiffening in my bones.

'At least that's the time the fire alarm went off in the house,' McGovern went on. 'When the fire department got here, the house was fully involved. Stables were burning. Trucks really couldn't get close enough to do anything but surround and drown. Or at least make an attempt at it. We're estimating about thirty thousand gallons of water in the basement. That's about six hours total to pump all of it out, assuming we're talking about four pumps going and don't have millions of clogs. And by the way, the power's off, and our local friendly fire department is going to set up lights inside.'

'What was the response time?' Marino asked her.

'Seventeen minutes,' she replied. 'They had to grab people off duty. Everything around here is volunteer.'

Someone groaned.

'Now don't be too hard on them. They used every tanker around to get enough water in, so that wasn't the problem,' McGovern chided her troops. 'This thing went up like paper, and it was too windy for foam, even though I don't think it would have helped.' She got up and moved to the supertruck. 'The deal is, this was a fast, hot fire. That much we know for a fact.'

She opened a red-paneled door and began handing out rakes and shovels.

'We got not a clue as to point of origin or cause,' she continued, 'but it's believed that the owner, Kenneth Sparkes, the newspaper tycoon, was inside the house and did not get out. Which is why we got the doc here.'

McGovern looked straight at me with piercing eyes that did not miss much.

'What makes us think he was home at the time?' I asked.

'For one thing, he seems to be MIA. And a Mercedes burned up in the back. We haven't run the tags yet but assume it's probably his,' a fire investigator answered. 'And the farrier who shoes his horses was just here two days before the fire, on Thursday, the fifth, and Sparkes was home then and the farrier didn't say that he indicated he was headed out somewhere.'

'Who took care of his horses when he was out of town?' I asked.

'We don't know,' McGovern said.

'I'd like the farrier's name and number,' I said.

'No problem. Kurt?' she said to one of her investigators.

'Sure. I got it.' He flipped pages in a spiral notebook, his young hands big and rough from years of work.

McGovern grabbed bright blue helmets out of another compartment and began tossing them around as she reminded individuals of their assignments.

'Lucy, Robby, Frank, Jennifer, you're in the hole with me. Bill, you're general assignment, and Mick's going to help him, since this is Bill's first NRT.'

'Lucky you.'

'Ohhh, a virgin.'

'Give me a break, man,' said the agent named Bill. 'It's my wife's fortieth birthday. She'll never speak to me again.'

'Rusty's in charge of the truck,' McGovern resumed. 'Marino and the doc are here as needed.'

'Had Sparkes been receiving any threats?' Marino asked, because it was his job to think murder.

'You know about as much as we do at this point,' the fire investigator named Robby said.

'What's this about this alleged witness?' I asked.

'We got that through a telephone call,' he explained. 'A male, he wouldn't leave his name, and it was an out-of-the-area call, so we got no idea. Got no idea if it's legit.'

'But he said he heard the horses as they were dying,' I persisted.

'Yeah. Screaming like humans.'

'Did he explain how he might have been close enough to have heard that?' I was getting upset again.

'Said he saw the fire from the distance and drove in for a closer look. Says he watched for maybe fifteen minutes and then got the hell out of Dodge when he heard the fire trucks.'

'Now I didn't know that and it bothers me,' Marino said ominously. 'What he's saying is consistent with the response time. And we know how much these squirrels like to hang around and watch their fires burn. Got any idea about race?'

'I didn't talk to him more than thirty seconds,' Robby answered. 'But he had no discernible accent. Was soft-spoken and very calm.'

There was silence for a pause as everyone processed their disappointment in not knowing who this witness was, or if he had been genuine. McGovern went on with her roster of who was doing what this day.

'Johnny Kostylo, our beloved ASAC in Philly, will be working the media and local bigwigs, like the mayor of Warrenton, who's already been calling because he doesn't want his town to look bad.'

She glanced up from her clipboard, scanning our faces.

'One of our auditors is on his way,' she went on. 'And Pepper will be showing up shortly to help us out.'

Several agents whistled their appreciation of Pepper the arson dog.

'And thankfully, Pepper doesn't hit on alcohol.' McGovern put her own helmet on. 'Because there's about a thousand gallons of bourbon out here.'

'We know anything more about that?' Marino asked. 'We know if Sparkes might have been making or selling the stuff? I mean, that's a hell of a lot of hooch for one guy.'

'Apparently Sparkes was a collector of the finer things in life,' McGovern spoke of Sparkes as if he were certainly dead. 'Bourbon, cigars, automatic firearms, expensive horses. We don't know how legal he was, which is one of the reasons why youze guys are here instead of the Feebs.'

'Hate to tell you, but the Feebs are already sniffing around. Wanting to know what they can do to help.'

'Aren't they sweet.'

'Maybe they can show us what to do.'

'Where are they?' McGovern asked.

'In a white Suburban about a mile down the road. Three of 'em hanging out in their FBI flak jackets. They're already talking to the media.'

'Shit. Wherever there are cameras.'

There were groans and derisive laughter directed at the Feebs, which was what ATF rudely called the FBI. It was no secret that the two federal agencies were not fond of each other, and that the FBI routinely appropriated credit when it was not always due.

'Speaking of pains in the ass,' another agent spoke up, 'the Budget Motel doesn't take AmEx, boss. We're going through the heels of our boots, and we're supposed to use our own credit cards?'

'Plus, room service quits at seven.'

'It stinks anyway.'

'Any chance we can move?'

'I'll take care of it,' McGovern promised.

'That's why we love you so much.'

A bright red fire engine rumbled up the unpaved road, churning dust and small rocks, as help arrived to begin draining water from the scene. Two firefighters in turnout gear and high rubber boots climbed down and briefly conferred with McGovern before uncoiling one-and-three-quarter-inch hoses attached to filters. These they draped over their shoulders and dragged inside the mansion's stone shell and dropped them into the water in four different locations. They returned to the truck and set heavy portable Prosser pumps on the ground and plugged extension cords into the generator. Soon the noise of engines got very loud, and hoses swelled as dirty water gushed through them and over grass.

I gathered heavy canvas fire gloves and a turn-out coat and adjusted the size of my helmet. Then I began cleaning my faithful Red Wing boots, sloshing them through tubs of sudsy cold tap water that seeped through old leather tongues and soaked the laces. I had not thought to wear silk underwear beneath my BDUs because it was June. That had been a mistake. Winds were now strong and from the north, and every drop of moisture seemed to lower my body temperature another degree. I hated being cold. I hated not trusting my hands, because they were either stiff or heavily gloved. McGovern headed toward me as I blew on my fingertips and fastened my heavy turn-out coat up to my chin.

'It's going to be a long day,' she said with a shiver. 'What happened to summer?'

'Teun, I'm missing my vacation for you. You are destroying my personal life.' I gave her a hard time.