Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
By the time Jane went through all the paper documentation in the file Rick had given her, lunchtime had come and gone.
Leaning back in her chair, she studied the list she’d made, facts that turned into questions that turned into more questions.
Phillip Keiser killed six people who work in medicine. None of them killed his parents.
Phillip is related to August Kaminski, head of a small crime family that’s swimming under everyone’s notice.
Anton Kaminski killed Phillip’s parents.
Anton Kaminski was never charged with their deaths.
Adam and Lena Keiser’s bodies were found with organs missing.
No one was ever indicted for the crime of stealing their organs.
Ten people were arrested in the Harvester case—a similar crime of organ theft that tracked back to Las Vegas and ended in Seattle. Three went to prison and are still doing time there. The others either vanished or died soon after being charged.
None of the organ theft suspects were our victims. Two doctors, two nurses, two EMTs, and four hospital administrators.
Which meant Phillip had four more people to kill. Maybe.
She pulled up one of the thumb drives on her computer and studied the organ theft case. A name on the investigating report looked familiar. Jon Haversham. Hold on. Not the new ASAC at the Seattle office? It had to be a different guy.
“Jane, you got a minute?” Rapp called from his office. For once, his door remained open.
“Hold on a sec.” She googled the name Haversham, corrected it to Jon Haversham FBI, and stared in recognition. Then she quickly dialed the main Seattle office.
“Hello. This is Agent Jenn Sullivan.”
“Sullivan? It’s Jane. Hey, do you happen to know if our new Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Seattle office is the same Jon Haversham who worked in the Las Vegas office?” Where Sullivan and Williams had worked.
“One and the same.” Sullivan’s voice warmed. “He was a mentor for a lot of us in Vegas. And now he’s the ASAC at our cozy little HQ.” She lowered her voice. “And one of Matthew’s besties.”
Jon Haversham, one of the three Assistant Special Agents in Charge of the Seattle Field Office. Holy crap.
“Thanks. I need to talk to you later.”
“I need to talk to you too. We should meet up.”
Jane nodded to herself. “Let me know when and where.”
“Will do. I’ll text you.” Sullivan hung up.
Jane just sat there. Haversham had clout and was SSA Scott’s best buddy. He’d been around when the organ theft had been hushed up in Seattle. From all official accounts, the Keisers had passed away due to a car accident. Not because their bodies had been desecrated.
Phillip knew. She had only found out because she’d been digging. No one else seemed to care about a buried case. All the criminals in the Harvester ring had gone to prison or died.
Yet Anton Kaminski had gone free after the DUI that injured Phillip’s parents.
She could see how the cases were tied but couldn’t yet figure out what it meant.
“Cannon, my office,” Rapp shouted.
Lost in her thoughts, she jolted and hurried over to him, ignoring the way Diego smirked at her and Gina gave her a disdainful once-over.
“You called, Rapp?”
“Yeah. What’s new? I could see the smoke coming out of your ears from here. You found something.”
She nodded, filled him in on everything she’d learned, and out of breath, sat back to see what he made of it.
He had been writing notes as she explained, and now he studied his notepad. “This is bizarre.”
“Yep.”
“So Phillip Keiser is killing people as a message to the organ thieves? That means he’s got four more people to kill, likely employed in medical administration.”
“Maybe.”
Rapp gripped his hair in frustration and leaned back to stare at the ceiling.
“I have a question.”
Rapp continued to lean back but nodded at her. “Shoot.”
“How did we find out these cases are linked in the first place? No way Gambol just thought they connected. Did he run some kind of diagnostic program to figure that out? Is that something Diego did?”
“No.” Rapp stared at her. “This can’t leave this room.”
“Who am I going to tell?”
He snorted. “Right. And besides, Gina and Diego know.”
“Oh, so I’m the only one out of the loop.” She huffed. “Figures.”
“You’re a late addition. Gambol brought you on as a favor to someone.”
Uncle Chris. She hoped her cheeks didn’t turn as red as they felt. So now she was a charity case? She thought she’d been brought on for her expertise.
“But I’m glad he did,” Rapp continued. “You’ve helped us a ton on this investigation. We have a suspect and multiple leads we didn’t have before. But don’t let that go to your head.”
“Sure, sure. So what can’t leave this room?”
“Gambol was contacted by an anonymous source that told him to look at all six deaths as connected. Mind you, at the time, the EMTs hadn’t been murdered yet. We’d just found Nurse2.”
“Someone planned it.”
“Yeah. From what you said, it seems Phillip is on his own mission, but he’s doing someone else’s work.”
“Maybe. He could have been the one who called.”
“He could have.” Rapp nodded. “But this tie to organ theft, Las Vegas, and the Kaminskis means something.”
“I know. I’m just not sure what. I suspected the Mazzucas for a while, but it seems like they’re just related to Dan Simmons’ death.”
“Maybe.”
She groaned. “We have a lot of maybes. I don’t like it.”
“Me neither. Let me mull on this. We should get the others to look at it too.”
She agreed. “Something’s really been bothering me though.”
“Besides Gina?” he teased.
She ignored him, and his grin widened. “How did Phillip know my name? And that we dubbed him Code Blue? Only us four and Gambol know that, right?”
Rapp straightened in his seat but didn’t appear alarmed. “Not exactly. We’re keeping this low key, but plenty of LEOs have been questioned in regard to this investigation. And I think Diego said something around the police when we picked you up at the parking garage in Ballard.”
“Shoot. But wait, that was after Phillip had already mentioned it.”
“Then maybe Gina or Diego said it around someone else. I know I didn’t.” He frowned. “Gambol wants this investigation to be quiet, but it’s not classified. And honestly, I want more help on this, not less. We’re running out of time.” He muttered, “Something he and I have been arguing about lately.”
So Rapp and Gambol were butting heads. She wanted to know how the pair knew each other, but it wasn’t her place to ask.
“Running out of time?”
“I’ll look into this. Are you feeling okay?” He glanced at her cheek.
“Right as rain.” A stupid thing to say, because that made her think of her cousin, Raine, who she didn’t want to talk to anytime soon.
Rapp nodded. “Good. Keep doing what you’re doing. We’ll have a group meeting tomorrow to catch up. And Jane, be careful. The attempt on your life wasn’t related to this case, but it’s still a threat.”
“Trust me. I haven’t forgotten.” How could she with Hal and Joe constantly demanding she check in when not at work?
“Good. Let me know if you need anything.”
She nodded and left to grab a late lunch. All the while, her mind kept circling back to Phillip and his odd ties to organized crime, conspiracies, and cover-ups…like that hushed-up DUI and the Harvester case in Las Vegas, worked on by ASAC Jon Haversham.
What would Sullivan have to add to that? She couldn’t wait to find out.