‘You ain’t got shit that I don’t know already. I know all about Lincoln. Believe me, I’ve lived here my whole life, I’ve spent more time in the Lincoln Museum than Lincoln’s top hat has. Go on, try me, try telling me something I don’t know.’
‘I’m sure we’ll find something along the way.’ Vanessa rolled her eyes.
‘Anyway I doubt we’ll need your history degree. This is a clear cut ransom case through and through. We need to find criminals, not historians.’
‘I wouldn’t be so sure.’ Vanessa stroked her chin. ‘The date they chose to do this shows this could be potentially more than random. Whoever did this knows their stuff.’
‘Why, what’s so special about today?’ Darnell lifted his wrist and looked over the date listed on his black leather Rolex watch. The date displayed was November seventh. He ran through his Rolodex of Lincoln trivia in his mind; born February twelfth, died April fifteenth. Nothing of substantial importance came to mind.
‘You mean you don’t know? I thought you knew everything about Lincoln.’ Vanessa looked her colleague up and down, placed a hand on her waist and leaned to her side, before strutting off towards an educational post at the back end of the headstone. The heels from her shoes dug into the ground, forcing her to tug herself out of the turf. Darnell hovered behind, sniggering at her inappropriate attire.
‘Come on then, share your wisdom.’ Darnell rolled his eyes and followed her. As he got to the signpost, she raised her hand over a paragraph which he’d never come across in all his years of visiting the grave.
‘Today is the 136th anniversary of the first attempt to steal Lincoln’s body. Back then they weren’t as successful as they were today. They hadn’t come readily prepared and two undercover police informers snitched on them. Whoever did this knew this date, so I would start there. I think somebody is trying to send us a message.’
‘I think you’re jumping to conclusions. It could just totally be a coincidence. Look at the time of year. There is a reason why it’s the perfect time to steal a body. The presidential election is taking place just as we speak, just as it would’ve been back then. The eyes of the world are on Obama and Romney fighting for the White House. It would be easy to break into anywhere while nobody is paying attention.’
‘You could be onto something there.’ Vanessa thought over Darnell’s argument. He perked up as she appeared to agree with him. ‘It could be politically motivated. Maybe a Republican is trying to prevent Obama from landing a second term in the White House?’
‘Lincoln was a Republican.’
‘I know that, you idiot, but Obama is the prime example of what Lincoln was rooting for. Equality for all. There could be someone in the works trying to get Obama to give up a seat, which he only has because Lincoln gave him the opportunity to. Even if it’s nothing to do with equality, failing to safeguard the body of one of the greatest presidents of all time would be humiliating for Obama. People would lose trust in him.’
‘Don’t be stupid.’ Darnell chuckled. ‘First things first, the people involved here are obviously smart. They have managed to shift a body through one of America’s most secure locations. This person knows what they are doing and knows they’ll need more than this to get the President out of his seat. You need a significant scandal to land something like that, like an affair or drug abuse, but even Bill and George survived that kind of behaviour. No, you’ll need to cook up something more than a political scandal to solve this, I’m afraid.’
‘Well it’s early days, at least I’m coming up with ideas. What have you got?’ Vanessa snapped. She was exhausted, having been flown into the city from DC earlier in the morning for a twilight brief, where she was offered the keys to a rented property to stay whilst on the case, before being rushed to her assignment.
‘I think it’s a ransom case through and through. These cases always are. I’ve been in this game for thirty years, believe me, it’s always money they’re after. We just have to wait for them to make first contact to negotiate a deal. In the meantime, we need to build a profile of the suspects, which is why I need a list of current and past employees. Now can you get those for me please?’
‘You know you could just ask me. I don’t need you to shout at me. This isn’t the army, Detective Jackson.’
‘You millennials with your wishy-washy discipline styles. Ooh I need to be inspired. In my day you did what you were told.’
‘By whom? My manager? Well that isn’t you, Detective Jackson. I’m reporting to Commander Hill just like you are. We’re peers on this case and don’t you forget it.’
She strutted down into the tomb and into a semi-circular room with a marble square headstone and an American flag behind it. Darnell followed behind, surprised and secretly impressed by his new colleague’s feistiness. Beside the headstone, a large hole gave the detectives an insight into how the body was stolen. Rubble was spread across the vestibule and detectives covered their mouths against the floating dust.
‘How did they manage to cause such a mess without being heard? There is marble and concrete down here, they must have used power-tools to break through the stone.’ Vanessa scratched her head, attempting to piece the plot together.
‘It must have been an inside job. I told you. We need to talk to those boys who were on duty last night as soon as possible. Get them down to the station. Christ, if anyone drilled down here last night, the corpses themselves would’ve woken up with all that drilling, and
