Page 41 of Protecting Silver
“Just one moment,” Amos said as he put the phone down, then quickly rose to go shut his office door. He only closed it when he wasn’t in the office, or on an important call. All his deputies knew not to disturb if the door was closed. He picked up the phone again, and apologized. “Sorry, but I needed to close my office door. What can I help you with, Agent Babcock?”
“I’m working on a case here, and realized that my case may have something in common with your case.”
“First, you don’t have to hesitate with me, it sounds like you’re fishing for information. If you really are the FBI, then you wouldn’t hesitate. What case are you working on, and how can I help?”
“Okay, yes, I am hesitating. I don’t want to be right, but I fear I am. Did you have a woman by the name of Silver Roundtree brutally attacked several weeks ago?”
“We did, but she’s healed since. Is this about the man she accused as her attacker?” Amos dug in his file drawer and pulled out Silver’s statements. “I’ll admit I haven’t really done anything with the information Silver gave me. One, because if it’s true, then I’d be opening a whole shit-can of worms. Two, a friend of mine said he gave the information to someone he hired, a sort of private eye, and he was looking into the matter. Frankly, I don’t normally do this, but I know this man and trust him.”
“Okay, may I ask what information Silver gave you?”
“May I first ask why Silver’s name came up in your investigation?”
“Fair enough. A local woman here in Chicago was badly beaten, and before the doctor could examine her, when they said they were calling the police, she went ballistic and had to be sedated. Before she passed out, she said the person who beat her was a local cop. She was in a coma for several weeks, and the damage to her face was extensive. Like she had to have reconstructive surgery on her eye socket, as well as her cheekbone. Since waking and being discharged from the hospital, we’ve put her in a safe house. She only left the hospital last week. The man who beat her was her boyfriend, and a man by the name of Eddie Freedman.”
“Shit, it’s the same man that Silver told Patch about. She even gave us his personal cell phone number and his badge number.”
“Is this it?” Tamara read off the information she had, and shook her head when the numbers matched. “That’s what I feared. In the course of my investigation, including Silver and my victim, there are five other woman who have been brutally attacked by Mr. Freedman. All of them have given me statements, but to be thorough, I need to talk with Ms. Roundtree.”
“Were all of the women from the Chicago area?”
“At one point. They lived with the suspect, and it’s acting like he hunted them down, beat them, and the consensus right now is that it was his way of having the last word. I’d like to come to you to interview Ms. Roundtree. However, I need to get the clearance from my boss. I’ll be the one doing the interview. I don’t want to push this case off on someone from our Helena office. I don’t think they could give it the importance that I feel this needs.”
“If you give me a date and general time you’ll be arriving, I can make sure Silver’s around. Do you want me to mention to her that you’ll be coming?”
“How do you think she’ll react? And it wouldn’t be just me, my partner, Agent Jackie Mann would be with me also.” After several moments of silence, and a heavy exhale into the phone, Tamara said, “I’ll let you play it by ear whether you want to contact Ms. Roundtree or not. I can’t give you a date and time right now, but once I talk to my supervisor and advise him of my goal, I’ll call you back with a rough estimate of when I’ll be there.”
“Okay, that sounds like a plan. Let me know when you’ll be here, and I can take you to where Silver will be, either at her office, her home, or maybe even at a friend’s house.”
“Thanks, Sheriff Bronson. I’ll let you know as soon as I can.” They hung up, and Tamara immediately grabbed the file she’d been working on, and looked over at her partner sitting at her desk.
“I’m going to talk to Atwater about possibly traveling to talk to Roundtree about her attack from Freedman. You want to come?”
“To talk to Roundtree? Absolutely. To talk to Atwater, not particularly. I’d like to continue working on this other case.”
“Okay,” Tamara said, then with the file in her hand, she left her desk, and headed to the elevator. It took no time to go up several flights of stairs. As soon as she entered Atwater’s office, she stopped at the reception desk. “Hi, Samantha, I don’t have an appointment, but is Atwater available?”
“Let me buzz him,” Samantha said as she picked up her phone. Seconds later she replaced it, then looked at Tamara. “Go on in, he has about fifteen minutes before his next appointment.”
“Thanks, Samantha,” Tamara said as she strode away. She knocked on the door, opened it, and hurried in. “Sorry to interrupt you, Director, but I’d like to update you on the Freedman case.”
“Refresh my memory again?” Daniel Atwater frowned at his agent as he leaned back in his chair, tossed his pen on the files on his desk, then studied Tamara.
“Eddie Freedman, local cop from here in Chicago. Beat his girlfriend and put her in the hospital. Ms. Green was released from the hospital last week. We’ve set her up in a safe house, until we can close this case on Freedman.”
“Right, right, sorry about that. First, how is Ms. Green?”
“Recovering nicely. She’s pissed at being in the safe house.” Tamara held up her hand when Atwater went to say something. “Not at us, at Freedman. She wants her life back, and knows without a shadow of a doubt, she’ll get it if Freedman is off the streets. That’s one of the reasons why I’m here now. Jackie and I have interviewed almost all the victims of Freedman. I’m here now asking your permission for Jackie and me to head out to Elk Junction to interview the last woman Freedman attacked.”
“Why? When you could call someone in the Helena office to have them drive out to interview her?”
“Because, I don’t want to push my case off on someone else. I know what I’m looking for, and I know what these other women have gone through. It’s not really fair to involve another agent when they don’t know the work Jackie and I have put into this case already.” Tamara drew in a deep breath to continue, but Atwater held up his hand to stop her.
“Point taken. I’ll allow you and Agent Mann to go to Elk Junction, to interview your last victim. However, please finish up the case Jackie is working on now. I received an e-mail from her about an hour ago that it’s almost wrapped up. Once that’s done, then come to me and I’ll send you to Elk Junction.”
“Thank you, Director,” Tamara stood, held her hand out, and after they shook, she quickly exited the office. Back down at her desk, she looked at Jackie with a grin. “We’ve got the go head, but we have to finish this other case first. What do you have?” Tamara went over to Jackie’s desk, sat on the chair beside it, and listened as Jackie laid it all out. They anticipated it should be done within days, but no longer than two weeks now that the both of them were working on it.
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