“Yes. Two weeks after John Vincent started serving his prison term, he died of a heart attack. I’ve been notifying the witnesses and others involved in the case of his death.”
“Uh…do you mind if I see your credentials again? You flashed them rather quickly and I’d like a better look.”
Certainly a reasonable request along with her valid questions, but one that only confirmed his assessment of the situation. Tara Ford was afraid of something and being very cautious. Perhaps it was that caution that had protected her from harm so far. Brad took his identification from his pocket and handed it to her. He watched as she studied the identification card, the badge, then glanced several times back and forth between his photograph and him.
He tried to make light of the situation. “I should look more like that picture in a few days when this gash on my chin and my cuts and scrapes finish healing. I was on courthouse duty last week and got into a little scuffle with a very large man who took exception to the judge’s ruling.”
She handed his identification back to him without responding to his comment.
“Good evening.” The waiter handed them menus. “It’s nice to see you again, Tara.”
“Thank you, George.”
“May I bring you something to drink?”
Brad noted that the waiter addressed the question to him, but gave an appreciative glance in Tara’s direction. An inner smile of approval confirmed his assessment of her being very resourceful. Not only had she chosen a restaurant she knew, she had chosen one where they knew her by name and would take more notice of the person she was with. But on the downside, if someone was stalking her they would also know this was a place she apparently frequented.
They placed their dinner order and as soon as the waiter left, Brad turned to the problem at hand.
“A week and a half ago, while doing follow-up on the Vincent case, I discovered that over the past six months four of the six witnesses who testified against John Vincent have met with strange accidental deaths.
“I found the coincidence of this having happened four times over just a few months to be too great to accept it so casually. After I started checking into these accidents they seemed to me to be more and more like connected crimes. Then four days ago the fifth witness met with a similar type of strange accidental death. The five deaths occurred in five different parts of the country under the jurisdiction of five different law enforcement agencies.”
He took a sip of his water, then continued. “On the surface there didn’t seem to be any connection between the victims. There wasn’t any reason for the local authorities in the individual cases to be suspicious of what appeared to be an unfortunate accident or think that it would have any connection with anything else. Each one seemed to be an isolated incident—just an unfortunate accident. What makes it particularly compelling is that two of those witnesses were in the Witness Security Program and had been given new identities and relocated. The fifth accident happened in Portland, Oregon, and was the only one thoroughly investigated beyond what appeared obvious.”
“The fifth one? What happened to make that the exception that it would be handled differently?”
“I have a friend on the Portland police force. He’s a homicide detective. I contacted him unofficially just two days after the death happened and asked him to go over everything very carefully, to not be too anxious to write it off as an accident. I heard back from him this afternoon. It was a carefully and expertly disguised murder.”
Tara’s eyes narrowed as she stared at him. “The way you describe this…I have a friend on the Portland police force…contacted him unofficially…makes it sound as if you’re doing this investigation on your own rather than it being an official position of the Marshals Service.”
Tara Ford was definitely a smart and perceptive woman. Brad drew in a deep breath and slowly expelled it while trying to determine how best to express himself. “I won’t lie to you. Yes, I’m doing this investigation on my own. I took the information I had to the head of the Seattle office after I discovered the fourth death and he said it was speculation on my part that the victims hadn’t died as the result of accidents and without anything more there wasn’t a case. It was a couple of days later that the fifth…accident occurred. I’ve kept that information to myself for the time being because I don’t have any evidence showing that this murder had any connection to the other deaths, even though it was another of the witnesses in the Vincent case who had been murdered.”
He paused for a moment before continuing. “From what I’ve observed about you the past few days, I think you’re the type of person who would rather have the information straight out rather than have half truths. So—”
“The past few days?” Her eyes widened in shock. “You haven’t been watching me for a few weeks rather than a few days?”
He saw the fear return to her eyes and the wariness that blanketed her features. “No, only a few days. It was only a little over a week that I started pulling information together about the first four deaths and formulated a theory about someone systematically killing off the witnesses from the John Vincent trial—a theory reinforced when the fifth death occurred.”
Tara stared down at the table. The anxiety twisted her insides into knots. If he was telling her the truth, then things were worse than she thought. But was he telling her the truth? What reason would he have to lie to her? She was no longer sure of anything or anyone. She didn’t know what else to do, but she had to do something. She couldn’t just sit here staring at her water glass. She decided to go along with what he told her, at least for the time being.
She recaptured his gaze. Again, as in the deli when he bumped her chair, his eyes held concern rather than hardness or danger. “For the past several weeks I’ve had the feeling that I was being watched. Nothing I could put my finger on, just a bothersome sensation. Then suddenly a few days ago there you were every time I went anywhere. At first I thought you worked in the same neighborhood where I do, then I wondered if you were the person who had been watching me.”
Brad glanced around, making sure their conversation was private. “Did you have any impressions about who it would have been?” He allowed a soft chuckle. “Other than me, of course.”
“No. I never really saw anyone. It was just an uncomfortable sensation…you know, like when someone is staring at you and you can feel their gaze on the back of your neck even though you don’t see who it is.”
They both stopped talking when the waiter approached with their food. As soon as he left, they resumed their discussion.
Apprehension filled her voice. “Do you…do you know who killed the other witnesses? Who would be watching me?”
“No, unfortunately I don’t have any idea. As I said, I just recently got involved with this case. My first thought was that the deaths had to do with Vincent’s organized-crime connections, since the first four witnesses who were killed had testified specifically about his criminal activities. The two who were in the Witness Security Program testified to his organized-crime connections, helping to convict John Vincent under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute. RICO has been used with great success in obtaining organized-crime convictions. But neither you nor the man in Portland were involved in that aspect of the testimony. Both of you testified to his company pension fund and income manipulations.”
Her words came out as a mere whisper. “And with
