She stood in his office and looked at his desk with only the Bureau-issued laptop resting on it. A small meeting table in the center of the room. A dry-erase board on an easel at the back. And lastly, file cabinets that held case files. Recent ones only. Cases older than two years were sent into archive.
Everything was in position for the next Noah Quinn, whoever that might be. For now, though, Kate went inside this office for one reason; to remind herself that someday it would be hers. No matter what had happened and how Quinn had forced her to question herself, she knew she was better. Fisher had made it clear last night as they drove to the restaurant that it was protocol to fill the position. She understood that and wondered who it might be sitting in that chair. Would that person be able to look beyond her storied past and look only at her record? More importantly, would she be able to learn something from this unknown person?
To think of Fisher’s current prospects, it was too difficult to answer that question. Mitch Palmero seemed like a decent guy. Jonathan Surrey was a little more of an enigma. She hadn’t spent much time with him at the Denver office, but he was apparently impressed with her work.
Kate could ponder the question all day, but there were leads to run on to find her Mercy Killer. She turned to leave and noticed Walsh approach. “Hey, Levi.”
“Morning. Were you just in Quinn’s office?” he asked.
“I was. Just taking stock. Listen, I wanted to get into this National Registry system with you if you have a minute. I’d like to trace Theodore Bishop back to medical school and start pulling some records. I have a feeling, if this is our guy, he’ll have a few stains on his history to answer for.”
“Agreed. I finally got a call back from the Baltimore EMS supervisor, Ray Zimmerman.”
“Oh yeah? What did he have to say?” Kate asked.
“Not enough. Walk with me.” Walsh continued into the hall and toward his office. “He said Bishop was let go because of budget cuts.”
“Budget cuts?” Kate followed him inside.
“Yes, ma’am.” Walsh sat down and gestured for Kate to do the same. “I asked him if he had any concerns about Bishop, considering he was named in the wrongful death suit.”
“And what did he have to say about that?” she pressed on.
“Get this. He said he hadn’t read the entire suit and hadn’t realized Bishop had been named in it.”
“If that doesn’t sound suspicious…” Kate added.
“Tell me about it. I think the guy’s trying to cover his ass. He must suspect Bishop had a hand in the wrongful death and didn’t want to look like he was admitting to anything. He said if I needed any more information on Bishop that it was best to contact the city’s lawyer about the case.”
“So we aren’t getting any cooperation from him?” Kate asked.
“Not an ounce.” Walsh pulled up to the edge of the desk. “But we have the National Registry, and your idea of getting in there and finding some history on Bishop—that’s what we need to be doing. Not only will the registry tell us where he’s working now, assuming he is, but we’ll be able to access previous employment records.”
“I’d like to pull med school records too,” Kate said.
“Good. Then it looks like we’ll have our hands full today. I’ll look at employment, you can find his medical school files.”
“You got it.” Kate began to leave.
“Oh, hey, have you heard from Scarborough?” Walsh asked.
“We talked briefly last night. It was late and he was pretty tired. He said he’d contact me after getting with the Riverside field agent and their prospective witness.”
“Good. Maybe I’ll touch base with Palmero and see how he’s coming along on his end.”
“What do you think about him, by the way?” Kate asked.
Walsh shrugged. “I don’t know him that well. Why?”
“Fisher mentioned he’d like to include him as a prospective candidate for Quinn’s post,” she replied.
“Really? I didn’t know he had the appropriate background.”
“Neither did I.” She started ahead. “I’ll catch up with you later.”
From the confines of her office, Kate pressed on in the search for anything related to Theodore Bishop. Her biggest fear in doing this was that he wasn’t the guy. She’d weaved the thinnest of threads between the Baltimore EMS wrongful death suit to the Oakview murders and the Riverside murders. All of which had nothing more in common than occurring around the same time frame. Until they got their witnesses in front of sketch artists, there was zero connection of Theodore Bishop to either of those events outside of the lawsuit. Now Kate was trying to pin multiple deaths by poisoning and various other methods to a guy who might’ve just been piss poor at his job and someone died as a result.
Nick and Eva had flown over a thousand miles away to run down a lead. Agent Palmero returned to Houston to talk to a doctor who thought he remembered a guy with the victim.
It was all circumstantial and it had all been Kate’s idea. The worst part was that Nick had backed her up. When he did that, Fisher agreed because he didn’t want to appear biased against the former boss.
It was up to Kate now to find something against Theodore Bishop that would make the connection tangible. With help from the medical licensing department, she’d discovered Bishop was first licensed in Providence.
“Hello, yes, I’m FBI Special Agent Kate Reid. I’m conducting a background check on a Dr. Theodore Bishop.”
“How can I help with that, Agent Reid?” The man on the line asked.
“I understand he attended medical school there in Providence. It would be very helpful if I could speak to the school directly as it relates to Dr. Bishop.”
“Let me see here.” Typing could be heard through
