Page 27 of Protecting Silver
“Yes, it should be here any minute.” As they walked out to the hallway, a delivery man was approaching the elevators. “Is that order for Mann?”
“It is,” the man frowned at them, then grinned when Jackie held out a ten and her badge. “Thank you, that’s for me, and here’s your tip.” The man gave them a mock salute, then turned on his heel and left. The elevator arrived and the women stepped on it, and rode it to the top of the building.
“May I help you?” the receptionist asked.
“Yes, we’re agents Babcock and Mann, we have a one o’clock with SSA Atwater.”
The woman leaned in, looked over both her shoulders, and whispered, “Did you get his sandwich?”
“We did.”
“Good, because that’s all he’s been talking about all day.” The receptionist laughed, then picked up the phone and spoke into it, while holding up a finger to indicate them to wait. As soon as she hung up, she nodded. “You may go back, it’s the double doors at the end of the hallway.”
“Do we knock?”
“Yes.”
Tamara and Jackie went down the hall, and knocked. When they heard someone call for them to come in, they entered, and were almost attacked by their boss as he took the bag from Jackie’s hand.
“Sorry, but I’m starving. I worked late last night, fell asleep at my desk with no dinner, then didn’t have any breakfast. If you’re okay with it, we’ll eat over here.” He took the bag over to the seating area and began unloading the bag.
“I hope you don’t mind,” Jackie spoke up then. “But I ordered you two different sandwiches. They’re both roast beef, but…” she shrugged and held her hands out.
“Not a problem, what I don’t eat now I can take home for dinner. Now, please sit down and join me.” It took about ten minutes to get everything settled and after taking a huge bite of his sandwich, he looked at them and nodded. “Go ahead and hit me with what you got, I see you’re not going to eat until you do. Do you mind if I eat while you talk?”
“Not at all,” Tamara said and began to stand, but was waved down by Atwater. “Let’s keep this informal for now. At least until I’m done eating. Oh, and if you tell anyone what a pig I am with this sandwich, I will deny all charges against me.” He grinned as he took another huge bite.
Tamara laughed, then wiped her hands on her slacks to get the clammy feeling to go away. She took a deep breath, then began, “About ten weeks ago, a doctor over at Chicago General called in a domestic situation. I was given the call from the main switchboard, because it was my turn. Agent Mann and I went to investigate, while Agent Mann was looking for a parking space, I went inside to start the investigation.” She drew in another deep breath and let it out slowly. “I was met by a Dr. Green, and she told me that the woman was brought in by a friend, however, the friend didn’t stick around to ask any questions. I’ve viewed the video, and this person got the victim out of the car, took her into the ER, then put her in a wheelchair, pushed her to the nurses’ station, then left.”
“Go on,” Atwater said as he continued to eat, but more slowly this time. “Why weren’t the locals called?”
“Because, the victim said that the person who did this was a local.”
“Fuck me,” Atwater said between gritted teeth, and downed half of his bottle of water. He wiped his hands and face, then pushed his meal to the side. “What happened next?”
“I was unable to see the victim at that time, because after they examined her, she was rushed to the OR to repair a shattered cheekbone and eye socket. She also experienced a miscarriage, and had several broken ribs.” Tamara rifled through the file, and showed Atwater photos of shoe impressions left on Anita’s body. “I received permission to go through the vic’s clothing, and found this.” Tamara flipped open the file she’d brought with her, and passed the clear plastic bag over.
“What happened next? Did you go to this address?”
“We did, and this is what we found.” This time she turned the file around and slowly pushed it toward her boss. She and Jackie remained silent as SSA Atwater went through all the pictures they had taken with their phones the day they had found all the blood in the hallway. The next set of pictures was of the same area, but it had been cleaned up.
“What are these?”
“The same area three days later, and see the bloody carpet from the first photos?”
“Yes?”
“As we speak, that’s sitting down in our crime lab. If you want to fire me for what I’m about to say, I totally understand, but Jackie and I did not have permission to enter that apartment on that day.”
“Do you have it now?” Atwater demanded, and took the piece of paper Jackie handed him. It was a signed permission slip allowing Tamara, Jackie, and anyone from the FBI access to the apartment of Anita Green.”
“The victim’s name is Green, as well as the doctor’s?”
“No relation, we asked them both. Just the circumstance of having a common last name.”
“Okay, so what do you need from me?”
“I left it with Dr. Green to contact me when Anita woke. Dr. Green went one step further and said she would tell anyone who inquired about Anita being there to contact me. When Jackie and I were leaving the apartment, a man entered, and Jackie was able to discreetly snap a photo of him with her phone.” Jackie handed over the picture she’d taken, and the one they’d gotten off the Chicago PD website.”
