guarded room. That’s two deaths in one day connected to Lucas’s work on this case.”
“Why?” Kaczynski asked, looking at Casey Jeff’s body. “What the hell’s this guy got to do with the case?”
Lopez’s features hardened.
“Casey Jeffs was born as Casey Stone, the brother of Byron and the son of Bradley Stone, founder of a security company called MACE that’s run out of Maryland.”
“How the hell would you know that?” Kaczynksi asked.
“Blood,” Lopez said quickly. “Casey had a history of mental disorders. His blood was taken regularly during his treatment, and matches that of his father, Bradley Stone.”
“Why? How would this guy’s history link him in with all of this?”
“Tyrell had found links between MACE and the American Evangelical Alliance’s activities in Washington and Israel. That’s what he was questioning Senator Black about when the Capitol police busted him. Casey Stone had a history of violence and psychosis and was employed by the Evangelical Alliance at the hospital.”
Kaczynski stared at her silently for a long beat.
“That’s a weak link, Lopez. You’re starting to sound too much like Tyrell did.”
“Maybe that’s not such a bad thing,” Lopez said tartly. “We need to find out if Tyrell fired the gun that’s in his hand.”
“Ballistics could take days or even weeks to confirm.”
Lopez said nothing. Kaczynski stood for a moment longer and then glanced at Tyrell’s corpse. He exhaled softly.
“Guess we owe him this much.”
Lopez produced her notebook and tore off a page.
“This is the name of a guy who works for the DIA who I spoke to a half hour ago. He’s linked several homicides in Israel to ours in Washington with medical evidence from the autopsies. Tyrell was right. You need to speak to this guy as soon as you can and he’ll confirm what I’m telling you.”
Kaczynski took the number. “What the hell am I supposed to do then?”
Lopez kept her tone neutral, controlling her grief and setting herself a course upon which she could rely, one based on evidence.
“According to the DIA, this whole thing has something to do with fossils being shipped from Israel to DC tonight.”
“Fossils?” Kaczynski repeated in confusion.
“My first suggestion would be to go to the Interpol Bureau in the District and request a Red Notice for the extradition of one Damon Sheviz. The district attorney should back the move if it comes from the FBI, and it’ll let us intercept the MACE jet that’s on its way right now from Israel and find out what the hell’s on it. If it does connect Kelvin Patterson to events in Israel, then we have a real reason to apprehend him.”
“The Bureau can broadcast an international all points bulletin to law enforcement agencies in nearly two hundred countries and the Interpol general secretariat in Lyon, France,” Kaczynski agreed, “but we’ll need a national security letter as well, and only the agent in charge of the Bureau field office can issue one. Boarding that jet without it is a crime, and there’s no way Axel Cain’s going to go for it.”
Lopez nodded, well aware that to search private premises, documents, and bank accounts would need the contentious letter, designed specifically to override the need for judicial overview and accountability.
“Homicide is a crime too, Terry. Offer whatever you can to Axel Cain to get it.”
“What about Powell? He’ll have to clear this.”
Lopez, gambling that Kaczynski was just too damned straight to have climbed up Powell’s ass, took a chance.
“The only link between the events here in DC and what’s happened in Israel is Powell himself.”
Kaczynski thought for a moment, looked at Tyrell’s corpse, and then began shaking his head.
“No way, Lopez. Don’t even go there. It’s so insane even Tyrell would have walked away from it.”
“Would he?”
“Don’t be an ass, Lopez,” Kaczynski pleaded. “Let’s talk about it in the morning. You’re not thinking straight after what’s happened, and—”
Lopez turned and strode to the car, retrieving the file that Larry Pitt had handed her at the office. She stormed back across to Kaczynski, opening the file to the second page.
“Homicide trial, San Antonio, Texas, back in 1984. Perp’s name was Casey Jeffs, who we now know as Casey Stone.”
“So he’s a convicted felon too?” Kaczynski asked.
“No. Casey Jeffs was on the stand for the suspected homicide of a prostitute who’d apparently overdosed and who, it turned out, was Casey’s mother. Prosecution reckoned he’d planned her murder to look like a suicide, while the defense held that he wasn’t smart enough to premeditate the crime. But the defense was gettin’ screwed because