prevail, and we
As Stark let a moment pass, Morrow glanced around the table at the scattering of notepads, cell phones, coffee cups and morning papers. Every newspaper—the
“Now,” Stark said, “before I turn it over to Special Agent Frank Morrow, I want to emphasize that any unauthorized release of information on this case will not be tolerated. Leaks will be deemed an obstruction of justice. Is that clear?” Her eyes scanned the faces in the room. “A reminder, we’ve called a news conference for 11:00 a.m. Okay, Frank, over to you.”
Morrow ran through key aspects of the investigation so far, then gave a brief background on the victims and the timeline of events as he flipped through the pages of the summary.
“You’ll see here that during the heist, the restaurant’s cook, who was out back, ran into the lot to a rig operated by a driver from Tennessee and urged him to call 911. The trucker got off a cell-phone photo of our suspects fleeing, but the quality is extremely poor. A retired parole officer at the gas pumps took a photo from another angle when he heard gunfire, but it’s out of focus. And two Yale students got clear footage, but from a great distance. We’re looking at it all, trying to enhance the images, but they’re not very helpful.”
Morrow hit on other key elements, most of which posed a challenge. The FBI’s Evidence Response Team was still processing the scene.
ERT’s work there so far confirmed that the service center’s security cameras had been disabled and that no cartridge casings had been recovered; it appeared the suspects had collected them.
“All the kill shots were head shots. Preliminary information gleaned from the scene by ERT and the Rockland County medical examiner indicates the rounds used were 9 mm. One of the witnesses, a gun-store owner, suggested the suspects used Beretta M9s. So far we have no latents, no DNA. We expect to get an update from Ramapo this morning.”
“These guys are smart, very smart,” someone said.
Morrow nodded and continued. The Critical Incident Response Group, CIRG, had dispatched a team from the Behavioral Analysis Unit out of Quantico to conduct an on-site examination.
“Van, want to jump in here?” Morrow said.
The voice of Van Brogan, a BAU supervisory agent, crackled loud through the speaker.
“As you all know, our aim is to characterize the fugitive suspects to aid our pursuit and ultimately to provide interview strategies once we make an arrest.”
“Glenda Stark here, Van. What can you tell us at this stage?”
“Obviously this attack was very organized, almost commando, militaristic in its execution. This kind of discipline is indicative of a number of possibilities—a group on a mission, possibly domestic terrorists, entwining an ideological motive with a financial one. The detached manner of the homicides, particularly once it was established by the suspect that the fourth victim was a federal agent, suggests ideological motivation typical of a crusade, or mission.”
The briefing evolved into a short brainstorming session.
“Says here the loss was 6.3 million dollars— Was it an inside job? Did the suspects have help?” a New York detective asked.
“We’re going through the background of every employee and ex-employee at American Centurion and the service center.”
“Including the guards?”
“Everybody.”
“I’d check with military records and polygraph, everybody,” an FBI agent advised. “Get warrants for all phone records.”
“What about confidential informants?” a Manhattan agent asked.
“Yes, we’re asking everyone to press their C.I.’s. We understand American Centurion will put up a reward, and the bureau is also looking into a reward for information,” Morrow said.
“Was Agent Dutton shot going for his weapon?” a New York detective asked.
“That’s consistent with our information,” Morrow said.
“What was he doing there?” the detective asked.
“According to his wife, he was restoring a 1930 Ford and went to Newburgh for a part. We found a headlight set in his trunk and receipt in his wallet.”
As the briefing wound down, teams were assigned aspects of the investigation: canvassing, background checks on employees and reinterviewing witnesses. As they ended things, one agent asked Morrow a final question.
“What about the news report that says we have a key witness to Agent Dutton’s homicide?”
“Everyone who was there is a key witness to the crime,” Morrow said.
Not long after the briefing, after everyone had departed for their assignments, Morrow had a moment alone at his desk. He used it to stare at Lisa Palmer’s driver’s license photo. She was closer to Dutton’s killer than anyone else at that scene.
After the upcoming news conference he would go back to her. She was his thread to the killers. There was one more thing he would try to help her remember.
Morrow’s cell phone rang.
“Frank, this is Gortman with ERT at Ramapo.”
The supervisor agent sounded jacked on caffeine, breathless amid the excessive background noise at his end.
“What’s up, Jim?”
“We’ve got something here—hold on. Can you hold on a bit?” Gortman turned to talk to someone before coming back to Morrow. “Okay, we’re getting it ready to go for you to use at the news conference.”
“Wait, Jim, what is it?”
“I thought Lanning told you, anyway, we’ve got something you’ll want everyone to see. We got it from this place across the roadway…”
The grainy images, lasting some ten seconds, were captured by an old security camera at a fabric warehouse called the Colossal Cloth Collection. The building stood about one hundred and fifty yards from the service center. Its rusted exterior mountings for the camera had loosened, leaving it susceptible to wind gusts. The distance and aging equipment resulted in jittery footage.
But for the FBI, this was a key piece of evidence.
“We believe these are our subjects,” Special Agent Barry Miller told the reporters gathered for the press conference at Federal Plaza. The FBI showed the images on large monitors at the front of the room. Networks were broadcasting live. “We’ll have copies for you and enhanced still frames of each vehicle. We’ll run it three more times before we continue.”
Jack Gannon was among the reporters, photographers and TV crews crammed into the room. Every news outlet in Greater New York had someone there. Angelo Dixon was at the back, lining up shots. Amid the unyielding glare of camera lights, Gannon studied the security video. Taking notes, he never lost sight of the human toll.
