made a phone call, asked her questions, and set her phone down. Five minutes later it rang. She answered, listened, thanked the woman on the other end, and headed back out.
Score one for the legendary FBI admin staff.
Chapter 31
WALLIS AND LAREDO were sitting at the same table as Pine and Blum had been. Tanner and Ridley had left.
Blum came in, spotted the pair, and hurried across, taking a seat next to Wallis.
“Carol,” said Wallis. “I hear Agent Pine didn’t stick around.”
“She had some other things to attend to. But she sent me back to stay in the loop.”
Laredo shot her a curious look at this remark but didn’t comment.
“Well, that’s good to hear. As I was telling Agent Laredo and already told your boss, we’ve run into a brick wall with Hanna Rebane. Nothing after she left her apartment building that day. No phone activity. No credit card purchases or debit card withdrawals. No one saw her or anyone with her. It’s like she fell off the face of the earth.”
“Well, she landed in Andersonville, Georgia,” pointed out Blum.
“Did you dust the apartment for prints?” asked Laredo.
“Yes. We’ve done elimination prints and there are none unaccounted for. The only set of male prints was from Clemmons’s current boyfriend. He was in Miami at all relevant times.”
“What about the second victim? Anything on him yet?”
“Yes. We did luck out there. Prints just came back with a hit. He’s Layne Gillespie. Thirty-two years old. Last known address was Savannah.”
“What do we know about him?” asked Laredo.
“He was in the Army for a few years. Left with a general discharge.”
“Not an honorable discharge, but not a DD, either,” mused Laredo, referring to a dishonorable discharge.
“And not a bad conduct discharge, either,” said Blum. “But was it a general discharge under honorable conditions or not?”
They both looked at her quizzically.
“My oldest son is an MP in the Army,” she explained. “So I know the lingo. A general discharge under honorable conditions means the person performed satisfactorily but didn’t reach the conduct level expected of a military member. By contrast, a general discharge not under honorable conditions means the person failed to achieve a satisfactory level of performance. It has to be listed in his exit papers. Which was Gillespie?”
“General discharge but not under honorable conditions,” said Wallis, looking at his notes.
“And the reasons?” asked Blum.
“The only thing it said was that he failed to achieve the conduct levels expected of him, like you said.” He paused. “But part of his military record was redacted. At least the part I got was.”
Blum and Laredo exchanged a glance. “I wonder why?” said Laredo.
Wallis shrugged. “I made inquiries and got nowhere. After he left the Army Gillespie bounced around, did various jobs, nothing stuck for long.”
“What was he doing in Savannah?” asked Laredo.
“Not sure. Need to run that down. It’s only a little over a three-hour drive from here. Planned to go over there tomorrow.”
“Anything he was involved in that might have gotten him killed here?” asked Laredo.
“Not that we know so far. The post is tomorrow. Agent Pine wanted to be in attendance when they cut Gillespie up.” He glanced at Blum. “Does that still hold? Just because I officially called in the Bureau doesn’t mean I don’t welcome her continued participation.” He shot Laredo a look. “If you’re okay with that?”
To this Laredo merely gave a curt nod that Blum took neither as an overwhelmingly supportive response nor as a totally dismissive one.
Blum volunteered, “I think she still wants to be involved.”
“Good, well, that’s it for now.” Wallis rose. “I need to be getting home. I think my wife is close to forgetting my name and what I look like.”
He nodded to each of them and left.
Blum immediately focused her full attention on Laredo.
“You want to talk about it, Agent Laredo?”
He fiddled with the paper from his straw as he looked at her from under hooded eyes. “I’m not sure what ‘it’ is, Ms. Blum.”
She sat back. “How long have you been with the FBI?”
“Sixteen years. Pretty much right out of college.”
“Good for you. I’ve been at the Bureau for nearly four decades.”
His eyes widened slightly at this. “In admin, you mean?”
She sighed. “I hoped for a more informed response than that from you.”
“What exactly does that mean?” he said, his tone hostile.
“In my time at the Bureau I think I’ve personally trained nearly four hundred agents.”
Laredo started to smile until her look told him she was being absolutely serious.
She continued. “There are about eleven