“That’s all right, just leave them here and we can look them over later.” Garret looked over at McMahon and stuck out his hand, expecting McMahon to personally deliver the documents. McMahon glanced at him and then handed all three briefs to Mike Nance,
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who was sitting next to him on the couch. Nance kept one and passed the other two on to the President. The President kept one and gave Garret the last copy. Garret snatched it from his boss’s hand and placed it in his folder. Without looking at either Roach or
McMahon, Garret asked, “What else do you have for us?”
Director Roach nodded to McMahon, and McMahon handed Nance three more briefs.
Roach noted, “We have three witnesses that saw the man who we think killed Senator
Downs in the park. If you turn to the third page, you’ll find a sketch of the perpetrator. As you can see, it’s pretty generic. None of the witnesses got a straight shot of the man, and he was wearing a baseball hat.”
“What are you planning to do with this sketch?” the President asked.
“Well, in light of Dr. Kennedy’s theory, I would like to start checking the personnel files of our Special Forces.” The usually stoic Nance sat forward and cleared his throat. “I
think that, for now, Dr. Kennedy’s theory should be kept very quiet. It is completely unsubstantiated, and the press would have a field day if they found out the FBI suspected
United States military personnel. Besides, there are some national security issues involved with rifling through top secret personnel files.”
“You’re not actually taking her theory seriously, are you?” Garret asked. “At this stage of the investigation, we are taking every lead seriously. I also understand the possible ramifications of Dr. Kennedy’s theory being leaked to the press.” Roach looked over at Nance. “And I also do not expect the military to hand over top secret files. I was thinking more along the lines of having them pull photos of retired Special Forces personnel only. We would promise them that Special Agent McMahon and the three witnesses would be the only ones to see them.”
Nance’s look of discomfort lessened but did not vanish. “They wouldn’t have to provide us with anything other than photographs. The witnesses wouldn’t even need to know where the photos came from.”
“We might be able to arrange something along those lines, but I don’t think the brass will like it,” Nance responded. “Hold on a minute,” interrupted Garret. “Before we go running off on wild-goose chases, I think we should have a little more evidence than a theory from some little bookworm.” McMahon stared at Garret and would not look away.
He’d promised Roach that he would keep his cool and his mouth shut during the meeting. McMahon kept thinking to himself, how does a guy like this get to be the chief of staff for the President of the United States? Roach cleared his throat and took center stage. “Well, since you’ve broached the subject of leads, could you tell me what information you have that would lead you to believe the letter is a piece of disinformation?”
Before the President could answer, Nance spoke. “Right now, we are not at liberty to discuss that information.
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The lead is still being investigated.” Instead of responding, Roach stared at the
President and thought to himself, What are these guys up to? Nance continued, “The information will be passed on to you as soon as it can be verified. The people who are looking into this want to be very careful that they don’t compromise any assets by moving too quickly.” Roach thought to himself, You bet your ass you’ll pass it onto me, or you’ll find a subpoena sitting on your desk. The director shifted his gaze away from the
President and back to Nance. “Who is investigating it?”
“I can’t say anything just yet. It’s a strange situation that I really can’t go into.” Roach looked over at McMahon and they both thought the same thing. You can tell the entire nation on TV, but you can’t discuss it with the director of the FBI. Garret sensed they weren’t buying Nance’s excuse, so he jumped into the fray.
“Director Roach, you seem as if you doubt us. Don’t you think the fact that these men were murdered on the eve of the passage of the President’s budget is more than just a mere coincidence?” “I think the timing of the murders is directly related to the President’s budget,” answered Roach, the concession catching Garret off- balance.
“So you do think there’s a good chance this letter is meant to mislead us?” Garret asked. “I think anything is possible at this point.
Agent McMahon is investigating several leads that involve the timing of the murders.”
Garret leaned forward and looked at McMahon. “What type of leads are you pursuing?”
“I am not at liberty to discuss them at this point. We are still in the early stages of running them down.” Garret sat back and quietly cursed himself for being suckered into the trap. “Special Agent McMahon, I understand that whatever leads you have may not be very solid right now, but I would still like to hear them,” the President said as he watched McMahon look to Roach. “Come now, gentlemen.
Whatever is said in this office will stay in this office,” the President continued.
McMahon almost laughed out loud but suppressed the desire. “Mr. President, if you’d please pardon my candor, you appeared on national television last night and told the entire country you had reason to believe that the letter is a piece of disinformation. Now, I can only assume that for you to say something like that, you must have some pretty solid facts regarding the authenticity of that letter, .facts that you are not willing to pass on to us, the people who are in charge of investigating these murders.
For now, we have agreed to respect your decision to not share that information. I
would hope that you would also understand our position and give us some time to run
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these leads down before we pass our information on to you.” Everyone was silent while the two sides thought
