Edge Of Apocalypse (2010) by Lahaye Tim

Author:Lahaye, Tim [Tim, Lahaye,]
Format: epub
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2011-01-14T19:13:07.468000+00:00

THIRTY-SIX

Agent John Gallagher was now looking at another dead man. Oh well. All in a day's work.

The FBI agent was in a dark, sardonic mood as he hunched over the corpse. The victim was still strapped to a chair in his inner office in the insurance company. The police had to get a locksmith to open the door, which had been locked from the outside.

"What's his name?"

One of the two Philadelphia police detectives on the scene flipped open his little day book where he had written it down.

"Roger French. Insurance broker. Commercial insurance."

"So, any thoughts on all this?"

"Remind me again," the detective said. "Why's the FBI interested in this?"

"I am investigating a federal crime."

"And what federal crime would that be?"

"One that is currently under investigation." Gallagher said with a half-smile. "Look, fellas, I caught the report on my laptop while I was out doing fieldwork on a case a couple states away. I had put a crime profiler submission out over interagency-net. Crimes within driving distance from upper state New York...crimes of a certain nature. Yours popped up. Here I am. Don't mean to be pushy, but you know we feds have superior jurisdiction. So, what's your theory?"

The detective wasn't pleased. But he knew for the time being he had to humor this federal intrusion.

"Maybe a drug deal gone bad," he suggested. When Gallagher tossed him a skeptical look, the detective added, "This part of town has developed some illegal drug traffic."

The FBI agent had to ask the obvious, "So, is our guy here, Mr. French, a known drug dealer or user? Or maybe a frequenter at coke or heroin parties?"

The detective looked over at his partner who shook his head no.

"Any hint of drugs found here in this office?"

"Just some Tylenol in his desk."

Gallagher had to restrain himself at that one. But he kept it professional.

"Any prior criminal record?"

Both detectives shook their heads.

"Any prior arrests? Outstanding warrants against Mr. French? Any judicial warrants of any kind out against him?"

The two detectives kept shaking their heads.

"Does your PD have anything bad to say about Mr. Roger French?" Gallagher said, now venturing into sarcasm. "Parking tickets...books not returned to the public library..."

The senior detective cleared his throat and finally said, "The deceased appears to be clean."

Gallagher finally had to let it out, and when he did in his tone there was a certain amount of tell me again why am I wasting my time with you guys?

"Yet you fellows are still sticking to the drug-dealing scenario?"

"Meaning what?" the detective retorted.

Gallagher was getting impatient. "Look at this crime scene. The victim was tied to a chair, and by my guess had been connected to that wall socket over there by electric leads..." Gallagher pointed at the tiny burn marks on each earlobe.

"So," a detective said, "he was..."

"Right, tortured," Gallagher cut in to save time. "Perfectly standard interrogation technique, of course, if you live in, say, Iran. But, gentlemen, this is Philadelphia..." Then as he surveyed the body he added, "I think he put up a fight.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.