day, he was committed to the psych ward at Walter Reed, where he spent the next eight years being treated for schizophrenia. When he was being taken away, he warned Miss Delano of her mother’s death. The following day, Miss Delano went home to find her mother was killed in a car crash.”
“Have you determined whether there was a connection?” Kevin, an agent who looked more like a playboy than a retired Marine, asked.
“Nothing firm. You’ll soon learn that Montgomery’s involvement here is open to two different interpretations and we’re not entirely sure what to believe about him. So, as far as all things having to do with Charles Montgomery go, exercise an overabundance of caution. Now, back to what we do know. During all of this, keep in mind it was assumed Galloway was dead. It wasn’t until about two years ago that intel surfaced indicating he was alive.”
“And what was that intel?” Martin inquired.
“Unfortunately, we don’t know. The CIA handler who had contacted the company to hire us to investigate all of this has now disappeared.” Eli pressed another button on his laptop and a photo I had never seen before appeared. There was a distinguished-looking older man in all black staring at the camera, a forced smile on his face. “This is Benjamin Collins. We tried to find as much information about him as we could but, given he was working for the CIA, we were met with several dead ends. I couldn’t access any information about his family or whether he has any sort of connection to Galloway. We are unsure of whether his disappearance has anything to do with this case, but we are operating under the theory that it does.”
“So, what is your working theory then?” Martin asked.
“Well, this isn’t set in stone, but here’s what we think. Galloway is innocent. We think he was set up to take the fall for someone else, someone with power, either in the military or the government. This is why the investigation was stopped and a gag order was issued. At first, we thought we were getting too close to figuring it all out so Collins was abducted, perhaps by someone thinking they could squeeze him for information, but we don’t think that’s the case anymore. He’s CIA and is trained to withstand days upon days of the most brutal interrogation techniques there are. We think he may have some sort of connection to Galloway and that’s why he went missing, although we’ve been unable to find any link between them. Then there’s Montgomery, the loose cannon. We have no idea whether he is responsible for the deaths of which he’s accused or whether he’s being set up, too.”
“Now, the murders Montgomery’s accused of…,” Gretchen interrupted. “They seem random. Are they, or is that just the police not finding a connection?”
Eli nodded. “A little bit of both. Some were random, but some were connected, although the police could never find what that connection was, considering the file’s been sealed. Montgomery was the sole survivor of the attack on the embassy attributed to Galloway. The theory is that he conspired with a man named Justin Whitman, more or less a hired gun, to carry out his plan of revenge against all those who took his family from him. Many of the murders attributed to Whitman and Montgomery were of several men and women who it was thought helped Galloway in his attack on the embassy, although it was never proven. Montgomery had top-level security clearance during his time in Cryptology and used this access and training to eliminate those who killed his family. It is thought his next target is Galloway and he would use Mackenzie to get to him. He escaped Walter Reed a little over four months ago and broke into Mackenzie’s place, as did Whitman. Okay, that’s one theory.
“The other, as you can probably guess, is that Montgomery stuck his nose somewhere he shouldn’t have when he was working for Cryptology and paid with his freedom. Then, when it was discovered he had escaped Walter Reed, whoever is behind all of it wanted to find a way to silence him once more, preferably forever, and planted evidence to set him up for a ring of murders he had nothing to do with.”
“But isn’t it a bit suspicious that a number of people who helped to kill Mr. Montgomery’s family were then killed?” Martin asked.
“This is true, which is why it is important we not settle